Edendale Library Up Close Concerts
(All Edendale concerts information before 2021 is archived at http://edendaleupclose.blogspot.com )
Artist website: http://calicowinds.com/
PROGRAM:
Calico Winds
Eileen Holt, Flute
Marissa Honda, Oboe (guest artist)
Kathryn Nevin, Clarinet
Theresa Treuenfels, Bassoon
Rachel Berry, Horn
Gwyneth Walker (b.1947)
"Nearer My God To Thee" from Braintree Quintet (1988)
Ihor Shamo (1925-1982)/arr. M. Zakopets
Moldavian Dance (1956)
David Baker (1931-2016)
Woodwind Quintet from The Black Frontier (1971)
William Grant Still (1895-1978)/arr. A. Lesnick
Miniatures (1948)
I Ride an Old Paint USA
Adolorido Mexico
Jesus is a Rock in the Weary Land USA
Yaravi Peru
A Frog Went a-Courtin' USA
Folk Suite No. 4 (1963)
El Monigote Venezuela
Anda Buscando de Rosa en Rosa Mexico
Tayêras Brazil
Valerie Coleman (b. 1970)
Umoja The First Day of Kwanzaa (2001)
ENSEMBLE BIO:
With style and grace, Calico Winds is taking wind music to the forefront of the chamber music world by artfully reinventing the conventional wind quintet.
They chose the name “Calico” to reflect the many colors and textures offered by the instruments of their ensemble. The group blends top-notch playing, great music and an appealing atmosphere, their repertoire incorporating a wide variety of classical music. “They cross all the style lines and get away with it.” (Los Angeles Times).
Calico Winds have delighted audiences across the country, touring to more than half the fifty states, including numerous cities throughout their home state of California. They are currently ensemble-in-residence at Glendale Noon Concerts. Said of their program, “The artists played in perfect balance with each other, each contributing lovely tone quality and flawless intonation. An unusually fine and beautiful program…played with rock-solid competence and interpretive flair. It was a fantastic evening of music.” (The Times Herald, Olean, NY)
In 2009 Calico Winds were concerto soloists with Frank Fetta conducting the Culver City Symphony, premiering Sinfonia Concertante for wind quintet and orchestra, a work they commissioned from Los Angeles composer Damian Montano. The ensemble performed at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall both as part of the “Classical Connections” Young Performers Career Advancement program sponsored by the Association of Performing Arts Presenters and in recital with pianist Vivian Liu in a performance of Ludwig Thuille’s Romantic Sextet.
In 1998 Calico Winds released their first CD, All in One [Bach, Nielsen, E. Carter, L. Schifrin, Zappa] to critical acclaim. Their second CD, released on Albany Records (2004), Vintage America: A Musical Meritage, features a diverse collection of original and arranged works reflecting the music and life of early Americans. In this recording “Calico Winds bring refreshing lightness to music that is too often bellowed…the quintet’s suave phrasing, lively articulation and rhythmic buoyancy are a delight throughout.” (Gramophone)
Calico Winds has held residencies at La Sierra University, the Idyllwild Arts Academy and with the Claremont Youth Symphony Music Retreat in California as well as at the Birch Creek Music Festival in Door County, Wisconsin. They have been the featured ensemble for the Coleman Chamber Music Association’s Meet the Musicians concerts. As winners of the 1998 National Flute Association (NFA) Chamber Music Competition the ensemble was featured in recital at the NFA convention in Phoenix, Arizona. They have received a grant from the City of Pasadena for The Weekend Muse Inter-Generational Concerts, a series they self-produced in Los Angeles and Pasadena.
The members of Calico Winds think of themselves as a team whose sum is greater than its parts. Despite their resisting the publishing of individual bios, presenters and audience members continue to be interested in each person on stage. To satisfy this curiosity, they have developed “Calico Stats” (vital statistics of each member) which you can view on their website calicowinds.com.
PROGRAM NOTES:
"Nearer My God To Thee" from Braintree Quintet (1988) Gwyneth Walker (b.1947)
The Braintree Quintet is a contemporary presentation of traditional hymns found in the hymnals of the Community First Baptist Church of Braintree, Vermont. This piece was written when American composer Gwyneth Walker lived on a dairy farm in that very city. Her music is widely performed throughout the country, and is beloved by performers and audiences alike for its energy, beauty, reverence, drama, and humor. Walker is a graduate of Brown University and the Hartt School of Music, taught at Oberlin Conservatory and how having retired from teaching, lives in her childhood hometown of New Canaan, Connecticut.
Moldavian Dance (1956) Ihor Shamo (1925-1982)/arr. M. Zakopets
Ihor N. Shamo was born in Kyiv, Ukraine, and graduated from Kyiv Conservatoire. He took part in the “Great Patriotic War” and was awarded several medals. Shamo has composed for all types of vocal and instrumental music, and some is strongly influenced by Ukrainian traditional and folk elements. His contributios to the cultural life of the Ukraine has led to his recognition as a People’s Artist and and an Honorable Arts Worker of Ukraine. This quintet was arranged from a dance episode of his symphonic poem Moldavian Rhapsody.
Woodwind Quintet from The Black Frontier (1971) David Baker (1931-2016)
was an American jazz composer, conductor, and musician from Indianapolis, as well as a professor of jazz studies at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Baker is best known as an educator and founder of the jazz studies program. he became one of the co-musical directors of the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra in 1991. He composed music, mostly on commission, and wrote hundreds of scholarly works related to music. This work incorporates folk and western tunes with modern classical treatment, is somewhat whimsical and surprising, and features a musical palindrome, where the notes of its conclusion are in the exact opposite order of the way the piece began.
Miniatures (1948) William Grant Still (1895-1978)/arr. A. Lesnick
I Ride an Old Paint USA
Adolorido Mexico
Jesus is a Rock in the Weary Land USA
Yaravi Peru
A Frog Went a-Courtin' USA
Folk Suite No. 4 (1963)
El Monigote Venezuela
Anda Buscando de Rosa en Rosa Mexico
Tayêras Brazil
William Grant Still was the first African American composer to conduct a major symphony orchestra, have a symphonic work performed by a major orchestra, and have an opera performed by a major opera company. He was a successful commercial arranger for theater and radio, W.C. Handy, and Paul Whiteman. He studied at Oberlin Conservatory and New England Conservatory, his most notable teachers being Edgar Varese and George Chadwick. Together Miniatures and Folk Suite No. 4 offer an anthology of regional America folk music. Each movement not only presents an authentic folk tune, but also vividly reflects the cultural and geographical setting of the music.
Umoja The First Day of Kwanzaa (2001) Valerie Coleman (b. 1970)
Valerie Coleman is an African American composer and flutist, and founding member of the wind quintet Imani Winds. She is a native of Louisville, Kentucky, and earned a double B.A. in theory/composition and flute performance from Boston University. She then graduated with a Masters Degree in flute performance from Mannes College of Music. Her piece Umoja in 2002 was listed as one of the "Top 101 Great American Works" by Chamber Music America. It has been vastly expanded, developed and reworked, into an orchestral composition which was premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra in 2019 entitled Umoja, Anthem for Unity. Coleman’s work is engaging and colorful, showing her intimate understanding of the instruments of the wind quintet. It’s tone and cross rhythms drawing from African music.
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