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Stars of the Future
Aaron
Kurz, piano The Grand Prize Winners of the Vernell Gregg Competition
(L to R) Aaron Kurz, Dong-Yeon Kim, Russell Houston
Friday, February 19, 2010 at 7:30 p.m.
At Lakeland Baptist Church, Lewisville (Directions) 397 South Stemmons, Lewisville TX 75067
Adults $25, Seniors (60+) $20, Students $10 Families $60 no matter how large the family. Special UNT student and faculty rate: $5
Sullivan: Overture to "Pirates of Penzance" Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Major, First Movement Aaron Kurz Dvorak: Cello Concerto in B Minor, First Movement Russell Houston Liszt: Piano Concerto No 1 in E-Flat Major Dong-Yeon Kim Conductor: Adron Ming
This year's Judges from UNT's College of Music: Dr. John Scott, Dr. George Papich, Dr. Heejung Kang
Co-sponsored by the Liberty Mutual Group
More information on Kurz | Houston | Kim Pirates | Prokofiev Piano | Dvorak Cello | Liszt Piano
He will also be playing the concerto with the GDYO, and the Plano Symphony Orchestra in March 2010. Russell is also a member of the GDYO, and really enjoys playing in the orchestra. This summer, Russell intends to attend the Montecito Summer Music Festival in Santa Barbara, California with his teacher, Ko Iwasaki.
Aaron Kurz
He is currently working with the Cliburn Foundation as a guest pianist with its Musical Awakenings Program. He travels to various school districts in the DFW area and plays for the students. The Program helps introduce classical music to 2nd through 4th graders via an interactive format.
Aaron has been a prizewinner in many county, regional, and international
competitions. He has been the first-place winner of both the MTNA and
TMTA Texas State Competitions for Junior Piano. He was named a
prizewinner of the Virginia Waring International Piano Competition, the
Bradshaw and Buono International Piano Competition, and the Viardo
International Piano Competition. Aaron played at Carnegie Hall after
being named first-place winner of the Bradshaw and Buono Competition in
New York, and at Salle Cortot in Paris, France, as a result of his
Viardo Piano Competition performance. He also played live on FOX TV's
Good Day morning show.
Dong has competed successfully in numerous competitions and has been named as a prizewinner in many of them, including the first young artist competition at NPITYA, Dallas Symphonic, Dallas Solo, TMTA, CCYAC, and Vernell Gregg among others. He is looking forward to compete in Lynn Harrell Competition also, wishing to perform with the Dallas Symphony. His first concerto appearance was at the TCYA Concerto Evening with Plano Symphony Orchestra, performing Beethoven’s 5th concerto, the Emperor.
He has had master classes with several renowned pianists such as Petronel Malan, Philip Edward Fisher, Spencer Myer, and Beatrice Long among others. For summer studies, he has participated in TCYA and Summer at Eastman, 2009.
Dong also enjoys playing the flute in GDYO Philharmonic, and on Feb.7th, he will play the Bizet’s L'arlesienne as the principal flautist under the baton of conductor James Frank.
He is currently studying with Dr.Christina Long, whom he admires very dearly, and he wishes to study with her until he leaves for college.
Vernell Gregg Young Artists' Competition The Grand Prize Winners of the Lewisville Lake Symphony Vernell Gregg Young Artists' Competition perform as guest artists at the Young Stars concert and share $1,200 Letitia Goodman, Young Artist Scholarship.
The Competition has gained a wide reputation that attracts entries from across the U.S. and winners from several states.
The Competition involves a two-step process. In the first round, contestants are asked to submit a performance audiotape or CD. These are evaluated and a portion of the contestants were invited to participate in the second round where they perform live before a panel of distinguished judges. The judges, in addition to a Grand Prize Winner, choose place winners in junior and senior categories.
The $1,200 Letitia
Goodman Memorial Scholarship Award is provided by Bill and Pat Leggett
The Competition is
supported by Texas-New Mexico Power Company Last year's Vernell Gregg Winners Laura Liu, violin (left) and Annie Zhu, piano pictured with Board Member Bill Leggett and Maestro Adron Ming
Program notes by Dr. John Green
Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900)
From 1871 to 1896 two Englishmen, librettist William Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan, collaborated in the writing and production of 13 operettas. Some of the most popular and best-known of these include The Pirates of Penzance, The Mikado and HMS Pinafore. These sparkling and witty comic operettas, with their lilting melodies, gained wide acceptance and popularity in the latter part of the 19th Century and the first half of the 20th Century.
Since World War II, however, they have largely been replaced in the repertoire of musical stage productions by Broadway musicals such as Oklahoma, South Pacific and Fiddler on the Roof. The performance this evening of this delightful overture is a welcome return to an important chapter in the history of comic opera.
Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major
Allegro maestoso Quasi adagio Allegretto vivace Allegro marziale animato
Franz Liszt was born in Raiding, Hungary in 1811. He became one of the leaders of the Romantic movement in music. In his compositions he developed new methods, both imaginative and technical which left their mark upon his forward-looking contemporaries and anticipated some 20th Century ideas and procedures.
Liszt was 19 years of age when he jotted down the main theme of this concerto - the theme that opens and closes this remarkable display piece. Not until twenty years later did he get around to composing the entire work, and then he revised the score twice. As the greatest piano virtuoso of his time Liszt used his sensational technique and captivating concert personality for personal effect. Liszt was the soloist for the first performance on February 17, 1855, in the hall of the palace of the Duke of Weimar.
Liszt risked (and received) some criticism for abandoning the conventional fast-slow-fast concerto format. Except for a momentary pause after the opening movement the concerto unfolds without interruption, and actually there are no movements as such but four unrelated sections.
Allegro maestoso. In the opening the strings state a decisive melody which will become the principal theme of the entire work. The pianist engages in several extended cadenzas before this section closes with a short coda.
Quasi adagio. This nocturne-like slow movement begins with muted strings. The dreamlike tranquility of this almost operatic melody is taken up by the solo piano with elaborate ornamentation. Bold passages for the solo instrument culminate in a long piano trill which leads without pause to the scherzo movement that follows.
Allegretto vivace. The delicate triangle rhythm - a daring novelty for that time - pervades the scherzo movement and once earned the work the derisive nickname of “The Triangle Concerto”. At the end of the scherzo a piano cadenza takes up the opening theme of the concerto in a transition passage leading without pause to the finale.
Allegro marziale animato. The finale recapitulates much of the earlier material, but with livelier rhythms. The melody of the slow movement is transformed into a gallant, march-like theme. It is developed with increasing brilliance until the motto theme of the Concerto returns to conclude the work in a headlong, driving presto.
Concerto in b minor for Cello and Orchestra, Opus 104
Allegro
This work, like the “New World Symphony”, was composed during Dvorak’s stay in the United States when he was teaching at the National Conservatory of Music in New York. In fact, those three years (1892-1895) were particularly prolific for the Bohemian composer and many of his best-known works date from this period.
The impetus for this cello concerto came in large measure from Dvorak’s encounter with an American musician who was one of his faculty colleagues at the Conservatory, Victor Herbert. Dvorak had always felt the cello was an ungrateful instrument for a concerto until he attended the premiere of Herbert’s Second Concerto for cello in 1894. He was impressed so strongly that he decided to compose a cello concerto of his own. Herbert’s imaginative use of the orchestra apparently encouraged Dvorak to write for a much larger orchestra than he had used in his piano and violin concertos. Leo Stern was the soloist in the first performance which Dvorak himself conducted in London on March 19, 1896.
Allegro. A fiery orchestral introduction opens with the Concerto’s principal theme, and then drops to a quiet cadence to allow for the dramatic entrance of the soloist. The second theme, a nostalgic melody, is introduced by a single French Horn against a background of soft string tones. The recapitulation of the basic themes is reversed in sequence so the yearning melody comes first, and then the opening theme returns to conclude the movement in a brilliant grandioso.
Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) Andante; Allegro
The composer completed the Third Piano Concerto in 1921 at the age of thirty, with the premiere performance occurring in December with Prokofiev performing as the soloist with the Chicago Symphony. The reception of the work was indifferent. Europe, particularly Paris and London, was somewhat more appreciative.
In 1923 the first performance in Moscow proved to be a success. The Russians discovered in the music a “clear representation of the national style.” And the Russian critics did not (yet!) reject Prokofiev’s marked indulgence in aesthetics identified as “art for art’s sake.” The Concerto is brilliantly written for both the piano solo and the accompanying orchestra. In this work there is an inherent nostalgic lyricism, and rhythmic invention that is interesting without being complex. Prokofiev was a masterful pianist. His playing offered a bold rhythm and a percussive character in his firm touch on the keyboard, which occasionally yielded to the almost unsuspected tenderness in legato passages.
Andante; Allegro. The first movement opens quietly with a short interlude. The theme is announced by an unaccompanied clarinet and is continued for a few bars by the violins. Soon the tempo changes to Allegro where a passage in the strings leads to the statement of the principal subject by the piano. A passage in chords for the piano alone leads to the more expressive second subject, heard in the oboe with a pizzicato accompaniment.
The piano develops the subject at some length. At the climax of this section, the tempo reverts to Andante as the orchestra plays the first theme fortissimo. The piano joins in as the theme is broadened. As the Allegro is resumed the chief theme and the second subject are developed with increased brilliance, and the movement ends with an exciting crescendo.
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Russell Houston was born in Dallas, Texas in July of 1994 to two
musician parents, Ronald, a violinist and violist, and Inmi, a pianist.
As a first grader, Russell wanted to play the violin to be like his
father, but quit after five years to switch to the cello. Since then he
has played the cello for five years and enjoys it very much.
Franz Liszt
(1811-1886)
Anton Dvorak (1841-1904)