Orchestra of St. Luke's to Open 40th Season with Three Octets, Beg. 10/19

To celebrate its 40th anniversary this season, Orchestra of St. Luke's (OSL) turned to works that have been favorites among its musicians and audiences as the starting point for its Chamber Music Series programs. For the season-opening concerts in late October at The Morgan Library & Museum and Brooklyn Museum, the genesis of the program was the Schubert Octet, a work beloved and frequently performed by St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble throughout its history.

"The octet configuration is a fantastic vehicle for this ensemble; it is actually a 'little orchestra,'" says bassist and longtime St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble member John Feeney. "It displays the uniqueness of our musical language-the way we communicate, phrase, and interpret each work."

With this in mind-and with an eye toward the future-OSL commissioned Roberto Sierra to compose a work of the same instrumentation, Octeto en cuatro tiempos. The octet instrumentation will be heard in yet another way in a new arrangement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 2 by Andy Stein. The concert program is titled Through the Looking Glass, with each composer either reimagining or looking to older works for inspiration.

"Always one of my favorite works, I started to hear the great slow movement [of Beethoven's Symphony No. 2] as an octet, and so I decided to follow it further," explains Stein. "Subsequent revisions morphed the piece from a 'symphonic reduction' into more of a chamber work, as each instrument gained a more equal role." John Feeney and violinist Krista Bennion Feeney worked closely with Andy Stein as he refined his arrangement, offering input on voicing, articulation, and other details. "Beethoven's Second Symphony is optimistic and full of life," says Krista. "Reworked as a chamber piece, it becomes nimbler." Indeed, the Symphony No. 2 is vigorous and energetic despite the fact that Beethoven wrote it in the midst of despair that he was beginning to lose his hearing. The monumental coda exudes a sense of persistence and tremendous verve.

In 1824, Schubert was commissioned to write an octet modeled on a different Beethoven work, his Septet-at the time, his most popular instrumental piece. Schubert obliged, using the same instrumentation (with the addition of a second violin), layout of movements, and tonal relationships between movements. With its instrumentation resembling a small orchestra, Schubert recognized his Octet as part of the path leading to his Symphony No. 9, the "Great." He wrote in 1824, "I have tried my hand at several instrumental works ... two Quartets ... an Octet, and I want to write another Quartet; in fact, that is how I want to work my way toward composing a grand symphony."

OSL commissioned American composer Roberto Sierra to write a new piece that would work in dialogue with the Schubert Octet. Sierra says that his Octeto en cuatro tiempos, gives a "nod to Schubert," specifically with an octave in unison at the end of the second movement as a reference to Schubert's opening gesture, and in his use of rhythm-repeating short rhythmic figures over various melodies or pitch sequences. Both rhythmically and melodically, Sierra also draws on his Puerto Rican heritage. "Many transformations of the basic salsa clave can be heard, as well as melodic contours that allude to Puerto Rican music," he explains.

Roberto Sierra will give a talk on his composition at 6:45 PM on Wednesday, October 22, preceding the first performance at The Morgan Library & Museum.

The 2014/2015 Chamber Music Series will continue with a commission featuring the flute by Gabriela Lena Frank in February, and a commission by Brooklyn-based DJ and sound artist Maria Chavez in May.

The world premieres this season are commissioned by Orchestra of St. Luke's and funded by Linda and Stuart Nelson in honor of their friend Charles Hamlen.

BROOKLYN MUSEUM

Sunday, October 19, 2014

2:00 PM

THE MORGAN LIBRARY & MUSEUM

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

7:30 PM (pre-concert talk at 6:45 PM)

Friday, October 24, 2014

7:30 PM

St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble:
Through the Looking Glass

PROGRAM
BEETHOVEN / arr. STEIN Octet on Symphony No. 2 (World Premiere)
ROBERTO SIERRA Octeto en cuatro tiempos (World Premiere)
SCHUBERT Octet in F Major, D. 803

PERFORMERS
Krista Bennion Feeney, violin
Naoko Tanaka, violin
Conrad Harris, violin
Maureen Gallagher, viola
Myron Lutzke, cello
John Feeney, bass
Liam Burke, clarinet
R.J. Kelley, French horn
Adrian Morejon, bassoon
Marc Goldberg, bassoon

For tickets (Brooklyn Museum, $10 - $38; The Morgan Library & Museum, $10 - $48), call 212.594.6100 or visit OSLmusic.org.

About St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble - St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble consists of 21 virtuoso artists who make up the artistic core of Orchestra of St. Luke's (OSL), one of America's foremost and most versatile orchestras. Celebrating its 40th anniversary this season, the ensemble was established at The Church of St. Luke in the Fields in New York's Greenwich Village in 1974 and grew into a full orchestra at Caramoor Music Festival in 1979, while remaining equally committed to a diverse chamber music repertoire.

OSL collaborates with the world's greatest artists and performs approximately 70 concerts each year-including its Carnegie Hall Orchestra Series, Chamber Music Series at The Morgan Library & Museum and Brooklyn Museum, and summer residency at Caramoor Music Festival. OSL has commissioned more than 50 new works, including four this season; has given more than 170 world, U.S., and New York City premieres; and appears on more than 100 recordings, including four Grammy Award winners and seven releases on its own label, St. Luke's Collection. Pablo Heras-Casado, named 2014 Conductor of the Year by Musical America, is OSL's principal conductor.

OSL owns and operates The DiMenna Center for Classical Music in Midtown Manhattan, where it shares a building with the Baryshnikov Arts Center. The DiMenna Center is New York City's premier venue for rehearsal, recording, and learning, having quickly gained a reputation for its superb acoustics, state-of-the-art facilities, and affordability. Since opening in 2011, The DiMenna Center has welcomed more than 50,000 visitors, including more than 300 ensembles and artists such as Renée Fleming, Susan Graham, Itzhak Perlman, Emanuel Ax, Joshua Bell, Valery Gergiev, James Levine, James Taylor, and Sting. OSL hosts hundreds of neighbors, families, and school children at its home each year for free community events.

Through its Community & Education programs, OSL has introduced audiences across New York City to live classical music. OSL brings free chamber concerts to the five boroughs; offers free, interactive events at The DiMenna Center; provides chamber music coaching for adults; and engages 10,000 public school students each year through its Free School Concerts. In 2013, OSL launched Youth Orchestra of St. Luke's (YOSL), an intensive in- and after-school instrumental coaching program emphasizing musical excellence and social development, in partnership with Police Athletic League (PAL) and public schools in the Clinton / Hudson Yards neighborhood.

About Roberto Sierra - For more than three decades, the works of American composer Roberto Sierra have been part of the repertoire of many of the leading orchestras, ensembles, and festivals in the United States and Europe. At the inaugural concert of the 2002 Proms in London, his Fandangos was performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and broadcast throughout the United Kingdom and Europe.

In 2003, Mr. Sierra was awarded the Academy Award in Music by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The award states: "Roberto Sierra writes brilliant music, mixing fresh and personal melodic lines with sparkling harmonies and striking rhythms." His Sinfonía No. 1, a work commissioned by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, won the 2004 Kenneth Davenport Competition for Orchestral Works. In 2007, the Serge and Olga Koussevitzky International Recording Award (KIRA) was presented to Albany Records for the recording of his Sinfonía No. 3, "La Salsa." Mr. Sierra has served as composer-in-residence with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and New Mexico Symphony Orchestra. In 2010, he was elected to the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His 2009 recording of Missa Latina on Naxos was nominated for a Grammy Award under Best Contemporary Composition.

Roberto Sierra was born in 1953 in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico, and studied composition both in Puerto Rico and Europe, where one of his teachers was György Ligeti at the Hochschule für Musik in Hamburg, Germany.

About Andy Stein - As a composer and arranger, Andy Stein has written an opera with librettist Garrison Keillor, a duo for Jaime Laredo and Sharon Robinson, and a novelty for two violins and orchestra for Joshua Bell and Pamela Frank. He has arranged for Sir Paul McCartney, composed scores for film and television, and created numerous pops arrangements performed by orchestras in the United States and Europe.

Mr. Stein's treatment of Schubert's quartet "Death and the Maiden," reworked for full (period) orchestra in the style of Schubert, has been performed by world-class ensembles on both sides of the Atlantic and recorded by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra with JoAnn Falletta for Naxos. It is also used in the new ballet Cacti, created for the Netherlands Dance Theatre and performed recently by the National Ballet of Sao Paulo and Boston Ballet. Upon hearing this work, André Watts commissioned Stein's Fantaisie Concertante for piano and orchestra after Schubert's beloved Fantaisie for piano four-hands, and went on to perform it with major orchestras across the country.

Mr. Stein is probably best known for his weekly participation in the live radio broadcasts of A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor (and the Robert Altman film of the same name). Throughout his 22 years on the show, he was often featured on violin or saxophone, in styles ranging from classical to country, jazz, and rock. He performed with James Taylor, Meryl Streep, Sheryl Crow, Wynton Marsalis, Yo-Yo Ma, Bonnie Raitt, Michael Feinstein, and Victor Borg.