UCR Orchestra to perform music inspired by American optimism, Welsh folk, and an operatic classic

Join the UCR Orchestra, conducted by Ruth Charloff, on January 31 at 8 p.m. and February 1 at 3 p.m. in the University Theatre. Tickets are available now.

The concert opens with "Outdoor Overture" by Aaron Copland. Originally commissioned by Alexander Richter, conductor of the High School of Music and Art in New York City (famous as the setting of the 1980 film "Fame"), the piece was part of a campaign to foster the writing of American music for American youth. The high school first performed the piece on December 16, 1938. Even though composed for high school students, the music is quite challenging, Charloff said. "You feel that these New York high school students were certainly not beginners, they were pre-professional."

While it may seem ironic that a piece commissioned for an urban school would be titled "outdoor," Copland wrote in the Program Notes for Band, "The title stems from the style of spacious chordal writing, implying that very high and very low sonorities are present throughout." However, the music does inspire the feelings of walking through open landscapes, exploration, and the optimism of the nation in the final stages of recovering from the Great Depression.

Copland will be followed by Ralph Vaughan Williams' "Rhosymedre." Vaughan Williams, like many composers of his generation, looked to the folk music and hymns of the British Isles and this composition is based on the hymn tune "Rhosymedre" written by the 19th-century Welsh Anglican priest John David Edwards and named after his village in Wrexham.

"It has the overarching hymn-tune moving slowly overhead, with lots of lyrical counterpoint underneath and around it. It's beautiful," Charloff said. Concert goers will also be treated to watching student conductor and trumpet soloist Chris Shimoon, a senior in materials science and engineering, lead the orchestra.

The third work will be Mozart's "Piano Concerto in C minor K. 491," a "passionate and stormy piece in a minor key, with a very special role for the woodwinds," Charloff said. Mozart brought into this concerto the rich woodwind sound of a popular ensemble of his day called the harmonie. There are moments when the strings cut out entirely and the woodwinds take over in dialogue with the piano soloist." The featured soloist is pianist and UCR faculty piano instructor Todd Mollenberg.

Next on the program is a selection from two orchestral suites drawn from Georges Bizet's "Carmen." The orchestral suite, in this context, is an instrumental selection performed in a concert setting from a larger work such as an opera, ballet, film score, or musical. In a time when there were no 'original cast albums' for fans to replay, it was like a souvenir of the opera or a teaser to entice new audiences.

"An orchestral suite has all the best, most recognizable tunes, made available for a wider audience," Charloff explained. Audiences can expect to hear Carmen's defiant "Habanera" reimagined as a trumpet solo, capturing the spirit of a character who famously rebelled against the social norms of her time.

The final piece is the exuberant "Huapango," based on three folk dances, composed in 1941 Mexican composer José Pablo Moncayo García. "This piece is filled with melodies and rhythms from Veracruz. It's an extroverted, tuneful, and exciting piece," Charloff said.