Albany Symphony AMERICAN CLASSICS...8.559826 8 Albany Symphony The Albany Symphony fulfills its mission by performing, commissioning, and recording the work of established and emerging

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Albany Symphony

The Albany Symphony fulfills its mission by performing,commissioning, and recording the work of establishedand emerging American composers. Founded in 1930,the Symphony is privileged to serve a diverse regionalaudience covering more than seven counties of NewYork and parts of three states. Our annual programmingincludes a nine concert Classics Series withperformances throughout New York’s Capital Region,each featuring a recent or world premiere composition bya living composer; the annual American Music Festival,our capstone multi-day celebration of new music,including a performance by the new music ensembleDogs of Desire; a Family Series with costumed castwhich inspire new generations of symphony patrons; andholiday and pops concerts, in collaboration with area

youth performing arts groups. Our flagship education programs, Adopt-a-School and Meet the Maestro, bringmusicians into classrooms for interactive music education, and Literacy-through-Songwriting, our in-school composerresidency program, works with students on songwriting, storytelling, improvisation, teamwork, and self-expression.

David Alan Miller

GRAMMY®-winning conductor David Alan Miller has established a reputation asone of the leading American conductors of his generation. Music Director of theAlbany Symphony since 1992, Mr. Miller has proven himself a creative andcompelling orchestra builder. Through exploration of unusual repertoire, educationalprogramming, community outreach and recording initiatives, he has reaffirmed theAlbany Symphony’s reputation as the nation’s leading champion of Americansymphonic music and one of its most innovative orchestras. A native of LosAngeles, Mr. Miller holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California,Berkeley and a master’s degree in orchestral conducting from The Juilliard School.From 1988 until 1992, he was Associate Conductor of the Los AngelesPhilharmonic. From 1982 to 1988, he was Music Director of the New York YouthSymphony, earning considerable acclaim for his work with that ensemble.

Photo: Gary Gold

AMERICAN CLASSICS

GeorgeTSONTAKISAnasaTrue ColorsUnforgettable

David Krakauer, Clarinet

Eric Berlin, Trumpet

Luosha Fang and Eunice Kim, Violins

Albany Symphony

David Alan Miller

559826 bk Tsontakis.qxp_559826 bk Tsontakis 26/05/2017 10:44 Page 8

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Luosha Fang

Violinist Luosha Fang made her concert debut at the age of eight in Mozart’s ViolinConcerto No. 3, and has performed widely as soloist and chamber musician inleading venues throughout the United States. Fang was recently featured as soloistwith the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra in Sibelius’ Violin Concerto, and with theLouisville Orchestra in ‘Autumn’ from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. A winner of Astral’s2013 National Auditions, she has been a regular guest artist with the Saint PaulChamber Orchestra. She also premiered Chinese composer Shen Yiwen’s violinconcerto Mulan with the American Symphony Orchestra under Leon Botstein.Recently, she appeared in recital at Bard College and presented a concert of soloviolin works by Jeffrey Mumford at Spectrum NYC. The winner of a 2015 S&RFoundation Washington Award, Fang was also awarded the Silver Medal at theprestigious 2010 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, as the first violinistof the Chimeng Quartet, of whom she is also a founding member. The quartet hasalso performed Takuma Itoh’s Concerto for String Quartet with the AlbanySymphony Orchestra under David Alan Miller.

Eunice Kim

A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, violinist Eunice Kim made her solo debut atthe age of seven with the Korean Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra. A winner ofAstral Artists’ 2012 National Auditions, Kim is the recipient of awards and honorsfrom the California International Violin Competition, the Korea Times StringCompetition, and the Youth Excellence Scholarship for the Arts. She alsorepresented the Curtis Institute of Music and the San Francisco Conservatory ofMusic in the Millennium Stage Series Conservatory Project at the Kennedy Center.She has appeared at many political events, most recently performing for the HenryA. Kissinger Prize ceremony in Dresden, as well as performing for the UnitedNations and Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at Bohemian National Hall, Cleveland.She has participated in prestigious summer festivals such as Ravinia’s SteansInstitute of Music, Marlboro School of Music, and Music from Angel Fire. This year,she was a guest artist for the Seongnam Music Festival and Manhattan ChamberMusic Festival.

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Anasa for clarinet and orchestra (2011)

Anasa was commissioned by the Albany Symphony withfunds provided by the Music Alive composer residencyprogram of Meet the Composer and the League ofAmerican Orchestras. Anasa is ancient Greek for ‘breath’ but also infers akind of rest or pause. There is also a ‘breath of life’ senseto the meaning of the word and at the start of the work Ienvision our soloist passing such a life-giving breath toothers around him as they receive it. The work is in three movements with subdivisions.Doyna is a slow, melismatic introduction, in the Klezmertradition of beginning a fast and rhythmic song with a verymodal and languid melody. It is followed attacca by Pistoli– a quick, dancelike and obsessively repetitive songinspired by Cretan lyra and lauto (traditional Cretaninstruments similar to a viola da gamba and lute). Thepistoli (pistol shots) interrupt the dancing the way realcelebratory pistol shots (aimed in the air, thankfully!)continue to enhance the excitement at Cretan weddings. The middle movement, Soliloquy, is music more ‘myown’, in the sense that the ideas are abstract and free,but wholly connected to the essences of both styles.Klezmer ideas are implied in tandem with Greek, butmanifest only in snippets, too fleeting to identify with anyparticular musical vernacular. The movement is mostlysomber or even eerie. In it, as in all passages, I heardand anticipated the unique stylings of the great DavidKrakauer and imagined his personal sound as Icomposed it. I have implored my decades-long friend toadd his special interpretive touches in his performance.The centerpiece of the movement is a scurrying cadenzawhere the soloist’s ruminations are mimicked in closecanon by flutes, trumpets and hi-hat until the return of themovement’s opening music. In the last movement, Bir-Zirk! I thought to ‘giveDavid what he wants’. ‘Zirk’ means ‘circus’ in Yiddish andI know that David has admonished me not to think of

Klezmer as circus or flippant music. Nor do I think I do –but in this case the outrageousness of the frenzybecomes a tool – a vehicle of excitement and exuberanceto underscore the entire whole, the ultimate seriousnessof both life and breath.

True Colors for trumpet and orchestra (2012)

Like Anasa, True Colors was commissioned by theAlbany Symphony with funds provided by the Music Alivecomposer residency program. The work is in two parts, the first acting as a shortprologue to the substantial second movement. In Echoingthe orchestra and, particularly, the orchestral brassechoes and sustains what might be heard as familiartrumpet ‘fanfare’ motifs of primary harmonic colors. Thetreatment engulfs the motifs in harmonic layering, closecanon and long residual sustaining of the brief harmoniccells created by the figurations as the texture gatherscoloristic density. Interspersed are two passages of amore ethereal chain of rising notes, creating morepiquant, pastel harmonies as they evolve. The movementends in a pyramiding crescendo, which is cut off by thesolo trumpet – beginning with a new three-notedescending figure which will play a part in the main,subsequent movement. Magic Act is jazz-tinged throughout, beginning with alazy, falling 3–2 suspension figure as an introductory‘logo’. The muted solo trumpet outburst that follows – asurging, upward arpeggio – announces the opening ofthe ‘main event’. The musical terrain begins with a kind offree rhapsodic ballad then onto a rolling jazz harmonicprogression, where the head capital izes on theaforementioned three note descending figure. The codaof the movement follows after the chordal dynamic climaxof the progression. It is a broad, deliberate B–A–C–Hfiguration (beginning on the D sharp from the previous Bmajor) which leads to the optimistic and somewhatmajestic ‘feel-good (and truly American) ending’. A brief

George Tsontakis (b. 1951)Anasa • True Colors • Unforgettable


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Eric Berlin

Eric Berlin is Principal Trumpet of the Albany Symphonyand Boston Philharmonic Orchestras, Associate PrincipalTrumpet of the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, amember of the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and theworld-renowned Empire Brass Quintet. In addition to histitled positions, he has performed with the BostonSymphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic and LosAngeles Philharmonic. As a soloist, he has appearedmost notably with Albany Symphony Orchestra, BostonModern Orchestra Project, Hartford SymphonyOrchestra, Helsinki University Orchestra, and the USCoast Guard Band. A champion of contemporary music,he has commissioned, premiered and recordednumerous new works for trumpet and can be heard assoloist on MSR Classics, Naxos and Albany Records.Stephen Paulus’ Concerto for Two Trumpets on his latestrelease of commissioned works with the UMass WindEnsemble received a GRAMMY® nomination for BestContemporary Classical Composition. As an educator,Mr. Berlin is Artist-Teacher of Trumpet at the University ofMassachusetts, has given masterclasses worldwide andis known for his column Eric Berlin’s Workshop in theinternational brass magazine Brass Herald. He is alifetime member and a Director of the InternationalTrumpet Guild. Eric Berlin is a Yamaha Performing Artist.

Photo: Bob Malone

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postscript ends the work, with a refrain of the movement’sopening 3–2 suspension figure, melting into a soft, all-brass chord. The title has a double, if not triple, entendre. First, thereare the true colors of the harmonic motifs – primary colorswhich will blend to make secondary and tertiary musicalcolors, just as red, yellow and blue blend to form all thepossible colors. This is the way I have always thought ofmusic – in terms of melody, harmony and texture.Complexities are created by blending primary harmoniccolors – so there is no historical prejudice for any possibleuse of color at any time. There is, therefore, no atonality butall are a mixing of ‘innocent’ colors. This work shows myown true colors as a composer, and quite unabashedly. Additionally, there are the true, affirming colors of thetrumpet and its cohorts in the brass family, whichconnects to a story I was told by our soloist, Eric Berlin.Through a timely experience, Eric may have discoveredhis own true colors after he insisted that his parents buy atrumpet that was offered at an auction house. In myopening three note motif and at other times during thepiece, I sought to capture the magic of such a moment ofepiphany: young man meets his true instrument.

Unforgettable for two violins and orchestra (2009 rev. 2013)

Unforgettable was commissioned by George Soros forthe dynamic violin sister duo team of Jennifer and AngelaChun and premiered by them in Aspen, with PeterOundjian conducting. I later revised the work for the 2013

Albany Symphony performances, adding some music tothe finale as well as adjusting some of the soli writing. The first movement begins with a violin duet whichmight seem to be an isolated phrase of nostalgic longing,left suspended and unfulfilled, with bell-like bass tonescreating a ‘dot, dot, dot’ effect. There fol lows aphantasmagorically changing musical landscape indeed,which ranges in mood from serenity to almost frighteningand propulsive gestures, then to simple and soothinglymantra-like phrases of Eastern meditative repetitionsover deep pedal tones. The second is a playful leapfrogging between the twoviolins, somewhat ‘competitive’. The quirky start meldsinto a lyrical flow – a gentle waltzing together, still trading,but with a new musical gesture. The movement builds toa bit of a ruckus before returning to the same gentlytraded gestures, in reconciliation. The work’s finale begins with a buoyant, Baroque-ishbass line inspired by, but very different from, Bach’sfamous double concerto. The atmosphere evolves into amore contemporary and softly undulating melodic jazz-like ballad, accompanied by, mostly, muted brass. Therefollows a two-tiered climax before the work descends,ironically, to the initial nostalgic (and now, somewhatspiritual informed) ‘logo’ that began the work. My choice of title is more imbued with irony than anyother musical references, not unlike my chamberorchestra work, Clair de Lune. I sought to give the iconictitles a reborn meaning, i.e. my own.

George Tsontakis


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David Krakauer

Internationally acclaimed clarinetist David Krakauerredefines the notion of a concert artist. Known for hismastery of myriad styles, he occupies the unique positionof being one of the world’s leading exponents of EasternEuropean Jewish klezmer music, and at the same time isa major voice in Classical music. He has appeared withthe Tokyo, Kronos, and Emerson quartets, plus as soloistwith the Dresden, Seattle, and Detroit symphonyorchestras, among many others. With his band AncestralGroove, he has redefined the klezmer genre with majorappearances at Carnegie Hall and internationally. Hisdiscography contains some of the most importantklezmer recordings of the past decade, notably OsvaldoGolijov’s The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind withthe Kronos Quartet on Nonesuch. Consistently defyingcategorization, Krakauer has enjoyed major ongoingartistic collaborations with a tremendously diverse groupof performers and composers including Dawn Upshaw,Itzhak Perlman, John Zorn, Fred Wesley, Music fromMarlboro, Abraham Inc, the Klezmatics, John Cage,Danny Elfman, and Socalled.

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George Tsontakis

George Tsontakis has been the recipient of two of therichest prizes awarded in Classical music: theInternational Grawemeyer Award in 2005 for his SecondViolin Concerto, and the 2007 Ives Living Prize from theAmerican Academy. He studied with Roger Sessions atThe Juilliard School and in Rome with Franco Donatoni.Born in Astoria, NY into Cretan heritage, he has becomean important figure in the music of Greece and his musicis increasingly performed abroad with severalperformances in Europe every season. Most of his musichas been recorded by Hyperion, Koch, Innova andNaxos, including fourteen orchestral works, leading to twoGRAMMY® nominations for Best Classical Composition.He served as Composer-in-Residence with the AspenMusic Festival for 40 years where he was foundingdirector of the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble; with theOxford Philomusica in England, with the AlbanySymphony for six years, and with the Chamber MusicSociety of Lincoln Center for the 2009-10 season, amongothers. He is Distinguished Composer-in-Residence atthe Bard College Conservatory. His most recentpremieres include chamber works for Maverick Concerts,London’s Mobius Ensemble and large scale pieces forthe Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Albany Symphonyand the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. He lives in NewYork’s Catskill Mountains.

Photo: Dion Ogust

Photo: GMD Three


Albany Symphony AMERICAN CLASSICS...8.559826 8 Albany Symphony The Albany Symphony fulfills its mission by performing, commissioning, and recording the work of established and emerging

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