Biegel Performs Emerson & Anderson: June 25 & 26, 2011

Biegel Performs Emerson & Anderson

June 25, 2011 I 6:00 PM I First Baptist Church, Merritt Island
June 26, 2011 I 3:00 PM I Community Church of Vero Beach

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Jeffrey Biegel, pianist
Kenneth Fuchs, composer
Keith Emerson, composer

Kenneth Fuchs I United Artists
Keith Emerson I Concerto No. 1 for Piano and Orchestra
Leroy Anderson I Promenade
Leroy Anderson I Clarinet Candy
Leroy Anderson I Serenata
Leroy Anderson I Concerto in C for Piano and Orchestra

World-renowned pianist, Jeffrey Biegel and award-winning composer, Kenneth Fuchs join conductor Aaron Collins and the Space Coast Symphony Orchestra in a concert that will thrill Central Florida residents. The concert opens with Fuchs’ joyous and ecstatic United Artists, a work written for the London Symphony Orchestra. Biegel, whose electrifying technique and mesmerizing touch have received critical acclaim and praise worldwide, will be performing Keith Emerson’s Piano Concerto No. 1 as well as Leroy Anderson’s recently resurrected Piano Concerto in C. A number of Leroy Anderson’s works will round out the concert, including Promenade, Clarinet Candy, Serenata, and several special surprises.

PROGRAM NOTES

Kenneth Fuchs

United Artists

In September 2003, I had the extraordinary experience of having three of my orchestral works recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra. I was dazzled by the orchestra’s ability to collectively read at sight and simultaneously record the most virtuosic musical passages, without prior acquaintance to the music. In anticipation of our second recording project together, in November 2006, I composed United Artists as a tribute to this remarkable group of musicians. It is a bright and energetic score, celebrating the artistic power of a world-class orchestra. The principle musical element of the composition is a four-note motive – the intervals of a descending perfect fourth, an ascending major sixth, and an ascending minor second – stated forcefully at the outset by the entire orchestra. This motive is extended and taken up in various melodic and harmonic combinations by the players and provides the basis for musical development and transformation throughout the remainder of the composition. United Artists was composed from December 2005 through June 2006 in Mansfield Center, Connecticut. – Kenneth Fuchs

Kenneth Fuchs has composed music for orchestra, band, chorus, and various chamber ensembles. With Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lanford Wilson, he created three chamber musicals, The Great Nebula in Orion, A Betrothal, and Brontosaurus, originally presented by Circle Repertory Company in New York City. His music has been performed in the United States, Europe, China, and Japan.

The Adrian Symphony Orchestra in Michigan appointed Fuchs as composer in residence for the 2009 and 2010 seasons. Under music director John Thomas Dodson, the orchestra performed world premieres of five works. The works included Divinum Mysterium, a concerto composed for Paul Silverthorne, principal violist of the London Symphony Orchestra.

In 2008, the United States Air Force Academy Band (Colorado Springs) commissioned the band version of Fuchs’s United Artists. Following performances throughout the United States, the band recorded the work for its disc Windscapes, released in December 2009. Hal Leonard Corporation published the work at the same time. The work has been played by high school and college bands throughout the United States and in China.

Marin Alsop selected Fuchs as one of ten composers in residence for the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in August 2007. Alsop conducted the world premiere of the original orchestral version of United Artists, following which critic Jason Victor Serinus wrote in the American Record Guide, “The work's dramatic, resounding chords and gloriously ringing flourishes constitute a modern fanfare of sorts.”

The London Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of JoAnn Falletta, has recorded two discs of Fuchs’s music. The first, released by Naxos Records in August 2005, was nominated for two Grammy Awards. The second disc, which features music for horn, was released by Naxos in January 2008. Musicweb International stated in February 2008, “Fuchs’s distinctive voice is evident from the outset, and his flair for orchestral colours and sheer lyricism shine through.”

The highly successful disc Kenneth Fuchs: String Quartets 2, 3, 4 performed by the American String Quartet was released by Albany Records in 2001. American Record Guide stated quite simply, “String quartet recordings don’t get much better than this.”
Fuchs’s music is published by Edward B. Marks Music Company, Hal Leonard Corporation, Theodore Presser Company, and Yelton Rhodes Music and has been recorded by Albany, Cala, and Naxos Records.

Kenneth Fuchs serves as Professor of Composition at the University of Connecticut. He received his bachelor of music degree in composition from the University of Miami (cum laude) and his master of music and doctor of musical arts degrees from the Juilliard School in New York City. His teachers include Milton Babbitt, David Del Tredici, David Diamond, Vincent Persichetti, Alfred Reed, and Stanley Wolfe. The University of Miami Frost School of Music named Fuchs Distinguished Alumnus for the Year 2000. Phi Mu Alpha, the national music fraternity, named Fuchs a Signature Sinfonian in 2009. The designation “recognizes alumni members who have achieved a high standard of accomplishment in their field or profession, thereby bringing honor to Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity.”

Keith Emerson
Born November 2, 1944 Todmorden, Lancashire, England

Concerto No. 1 for Piano and Orchestra

Emerson wrote and performed this work in 1977. After that the work was performed little if at all until Daniel Dorff, composer and director for publications at Theodore Presser, introduced it to Jeremy Biegel. Several years later, in 2008, Mr. Biegle introduced the work to the world when he performed it with the Champaign Urbana Symphony Orchestra in Illinois. Mr. Emerson was present and introduced his Concerto to the audience.

Emerson has been one of the most important figures to emerge from the thriving UK rock scene of the 1960's and 70's. He is known as one of the most prominent leaders in the progressive rock movement, fusing rock 'n' roll with a myriad of musical styles, such as classical, jazz and world music. A modern wizard of electronic and acoustic keyboards, most notably the organ and synthesizer, he has set a standard by which others multiply. With both "The Nice" and "Emerson, Lake & Palmer," Emerson has written and recorded some of rock's most adventurous music and brought it to the masses with unmatched virtuosity and skillful showmanship.

Throughout the years, Emerson has consistently won the Overall Best Keyboardist award in the annual Keyboard Magazine Readers' Poll, since the magazine debuted in 1975 and holds a seat of honor on their advisory board. He was recently honored at The Smithsonian Institution, along with Dr. Robert Moog, for his pioneering work in electronic music. Emerson released the new album, “Keith Emerson Band Featuring Marc Bonilla”, with regular collaborator Marc Bonilla and producer Keith Wechsler in mid 2008 worldwide, and toured Eastern Europe, Baltic, and Japan following the release. In March 2010, Emerson received a prestigious Frankfurt Music Prize from the city of Frankfurt.

Leroy Anderson
Born June 29, 1908, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Died May 18, 1975, Woodbury, Connecticut

Promenade

Anderson wrote Promenade in 1945. At that time he was in the Army and stationed at the Pentagon serving as Chief of the Scandinavian Desk of Military Intelligence. Promenade contrasts a brisk walking theme, first heard on solo trumpet, with a flowing middle theme carried by the strings.

Clarinet Candy

Clarinet Candy is a brilliant showpiece for four clarinets in the spirit of Anderson’s Bugler's Holiday. Anderson wrote this rollicking gem in 1962. Its lighthearted style is timeless and typical Anderson.

Serenata

Anderson wrote Serenata in 1947. Accompanied by a Latin American rhythm, the work opens with the theme in a minor key and then changes to a bright mood in a major key. The work’s repetitive rhythms and beautiful melody are interrupted by an attention-getting strategically placed pause. This work has entered the jazz repertoire both as a vocal feature and as an instrumental feature.

Concerto in C for Piano and Orchestra

Anderson wrote his Piano Concerto in C in 1953 but withdrew it, feeling that it wasn’t up to his expectations. He continued working on it for several years before abandoning it. In 1988, the same year that Anderson was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Anderson family decided to publish the work. Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra released the first recording of this work.

Leroy Anderson was an American composer, arranger and conductor. His first musical training was by his mother who was an organist. His first attempt at composition was a string quartet which he wrote at the age of twelve. He studied piano at the New England Conservatory of Music and composition at Harvard with Walter Piston and Walter Raymond Spalding. After graduating from Harvard, he served on the faculty of Radcliffe College and directed the Harvard University Band, for which he made many transcriptions and arrangements. In 1935, he became the permanent orchestrator for the Boston Pops Orchestra under Arthur Fiedler.

As a composer, he specialized in light music for the standard orchestra, work which brought him renown in art- and popular-music circles. His works achieve their appeal through infectious melodies, popular dance rhythms, and novel orchestral effects that often relate to the titles (for example, The Syncopated Clock and The Typewriter). He was particularly successful in creating descriptive program notes. He was fluent in eleven languages, especially those of Scandinavia.