LAST.THURSDAY@NOON.Series

 

TRINITY CATHEDRAL

27th & Capitol  Sacramento

Thursday, April 24 1997   12:05-12:50 p.m.

  UCD Wind Quintet

Tod Brody, flute

Deborah Shidler, oboe

Deborah Pittman, clarinet

Pete Nowlen, horn

David Granger, bassoon

 

These concerts are made possible, in part, by U. S. recording companies through the Music Performance Trust Fund as arranged by Local 12, American Federation of Musicians.

About the artists..

Tod Brody performed with the Chicago Civic Orchestra, the training orchestra of the Chicago Symphony, before attending San Francisco State University.  He was principal flute of the San Francisco Concert Orchestra, played piccolo for the Sacramento Symphony from 1979 until its demise in 1996, and is a member of the Sacramento Chamber Orchestra.  Mr. Brody performs frequently with the San Francisco Opera and Ballet, is a member of the summer festival, Music from Bear Valley, and recently performed with the contemporary ensemble, Earplay, in San Francisco.  Mr. Brody is a member of the Empyrean Ensemble and performed Ibert's Flute Concerto with the UCD Symphony in April, 1995.

Deborah Shidler received her Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and her Master of Music degree from Yale University.  She is presently principal oboist of the Berkeley Symphony and a member of the Pacific Symphony Orchestra in Orange County.  Ms. Shidler is on the faculty of San Jose State University as well as the University of California, Davis.  She has performed with many of the Bay Area orchestras including the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, the San Jose Symphony Orchestra, and the Oakland Symphony.

Deborah Pittman holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Arts in performance from Brooklyn College and has done doctoral studies at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City.  She was second and bass clarinetist with the Sacramento Symphony from 1981 to 1990.  Other orchestral positions include the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the State Symphony of Mexico, the Orchestra of New York, the Dance Theatre of Harlem Orchestra, and the pit orchestras of several Broadway musicals.  Ms. Pittman is currently Associate Professor of Clarinet at CSUS and has been teaching at UC-Davis since 1985.

A 1984 Pi Kappa Lambda graduate of Northwestern University, Pete Nowlen joined the Sacramento Symphony in 1987, the UC-Davis faculty in 1988, and the CSUS faculty in 1990.  Since 1990, he has performed periodically as principal horn of the International Orchestra of Italy and has recorded with that orchestra for the Alfa Records label.  Mr. Nowlen is co-principal horn of the Sacramento Chamber Orchestra.  He performs regularly with CSUS and UC-Davis chamber ensembles, the Sacramento Brass Quintet and recently performed with the San Francisco's Earplay.

David Granger received his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from the Manhattan School of Music.  From 1973 to 1977, he was a member of the National Orchestral Association, a training orchestra for young professionals that regularly performed in Carnegie Hall.  In 1981, Mr. Granger became principal bassoonist of the Sacramento Symphony.  He began teaching at the University of California, Davis, in 1982 and became coordinator of its student chamber music program in 1985.  Mr. Granger currently performs in orchestras in the Bay area and is a co-founder Circle Concerts.

 

About the music...

Joan Tower's Island Prelude, written in 1988, was commissioned by three wind quintets, Quintessence, the Dakota Wind Quintet and the Dorian Wind Quintet, under an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.  It features the oboe and is dedicated to the Dorian Wind Quintet's oboist, Gerard Reuter.  The composer writes, "The 'Island' is remote, lush, tropical, with stretches of white beach interspersed with thick green jungle.  Above is a large, powerful, and brightly colored bird which soars and glides, spirals up and dives with folded wings as it dominates but lives in complete harmony with its island home."

Richard Burdick, a prolific writer of music and proprietor of Perigeum music publishing, has had over sixty of his compositions premired since 1975.  A horn player, Mr. Burdick performed with Sacramento Symphony from 1990 until its end in 1996, has served as principal horn with the Napa Symphony, the North Bay Opera, and the Oakland Municipal Band, and has performed with Lamplighters Orchestra, the Utah Symphony, the Marin Symphony, the Sacramento Chamber Orchestra, and the Classical Philharmonic Orchestra.  Currently he is principle horn for the Chico Symphony and participates in the Music from Bear Valley and Music in the Mountains summer festivals.  An arranger for the Sacramento Symphony and the Concord Pavilion Pops Orchestra, he has received grants from Meet The Composer and the City of Davis, and was the winner of the 1983 Kensington Symphony Composition Contest with his Six Medieval Fragments for Orchestra, Opus 14.  He has worked as manager of Trinity Chamber Concerts since 1984, for which he has produced over 300 concerts.

Musical wit and compositional sophistication typify Jean Franaix's musical style.  The Wind Quintet No. 1, written in 1948, is no exemption and is perhaps one of the best examples of 20th century French literature for winds.  Here we find the composer playing with traditional forms.  Traditional expressiveness is replaced by a playful handling of themes expressed with a sense of irony that distances the composer from the seriousness of his post-War, avant-garde contemporaries.  The first movement and the following Presto are simply musical romps.  The more expressive and cantabile Trio should be regarded less as expression of emotion than as expressive gestures accompanied by a wink.  Only in the theme and the slow variations of the third movement does Franaix allow something truer than just melancholy to appear.  The final march's every step is with tongue-in-cheek.

 

 

Upcoming Circle Concerts performances:

Saturday, May 24, 8 p.m.  Music for string quartet and two horns by Burdick, Beethoven, and Mozart's Musical Joke.  The Unitarian Church of Davis, 27074 Patwin Road.  Call 661-2442 for more information.

Thursday, May 29  12:05-12:50 p.m.  Marie Park, oboe; Scott Anderson, clarinet; David Granger, bassoon; performing opera arias by Mozart, Franaix's witty Trio, and Villa-Lobos's masterpiece based on Brazilian rhythms.  Trinity Cathedral, 27th & Capitol.  Call 447-3542 for more information.

Thursday, June 26  12:05-12:50 p.m.  John Leggett, trumpet; Richard Burdick, horn; and Doug Thorley, trombone; performing sacred and popular music from the Italian Renaissance.  Trinity Cathedral, 27th & Capitol.  Call 447-3542 for more information.

Board of Directors Richard Burdick, President and Manager David Granger, Sacramento Coordinator Zheyla H. Henriksen Elsa Iglesias Rebecca Tucker, Secretary   Circle Concerts  gratefully acknowledges the following individuals, corporations, and foundations :   Donor ($1-$24) Java City Michael Neumann

Friend ($25-$49) Mel & Judith Ciphers Didier Jaen Donald Meehan Betty Rivers J. H. Wills     Member ($50-$124) Richard Burdick David Granger Jeff Greer Z. H. Henriksen Daniel B. Hrdy, MD Jeanette Leifson Marilyn Silva Rebecca Tucker

Patron ($125-$249)   Concert Co-Sponsor ($250-$499) CalFarm Insurance Co. Del Webb Sun City Roseville   Concert Sponsor ($500-$999)   Series Sponsor ($1000+) City of Davis State Farm Insurance Co.   Donors are recognized for a period of one year from the date their gifts are received.  Circle Concerts depends your contribution. All contributions are tax deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law

 

 

bout Circle Concerts...

 

Circle Concerts' mission is to present outstanding artists in concerts that circle around Northern California, with a special emphasis towards those communities that currently have few or no such concerts.  Circle Concerts provides its audience the opportunity to hear the finest in classical music and music from diverse heritage performed by the former members of the Sacramento Symphony and other outstanding Northern California musicians.

 

Circle Concerts is currently presenting a series of noon concerts at the Trinity Cathedral, 27th and Capitol in Sacramento, on the last Thursday of each month.  These concerts are free and open to the public, but this wonderful new series cannot continue without your support.  Please support great music in your community by making a donation today.  Thank you and looking forward to seeing you at our next concert.

 

Manager, Circle Concerts

                                                                                                                                                   

 

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