Friday, January 2, 2009 @ 11 a.m. & 7:30 p.m.

TRIO

Rebecca Holbrook-Loar, soprano
Denise Wright, piano
Lauren Franklin, cello

Friday Musicale concerts are presented for the benefit of the Jacksonville community and are free.

Friday Musicale Auditorium
645 Oak St
Jacksonville, FL 32204
MAP

Friday, December 26 @ 7:30 p.m.

Friday Musicale Scholarship Concert

Recipients of the Friday Musicale Music Majors Scholarship:
Seth Bowser, Piano, Jacksonville University Senior
Micah Clark, Cello, Wheaton College Junior
John Henry Kruer, Violin, Eastman School Sophomore
John Urban, Piano, Moody Bible Institute Freshman
Rebecca Boone, Soprano, Hillsong Intern’l Leadership College, Australia, Freshman

Recipents of the Music Performance award:
Keith Griffis, Horn, Florida State University Freshman
Kathryn Polk, Soprano, Stetson University Freshman.

Friday Musicale Auditorium
645 Oak St
Jacksonville, FL 32204
MAP

Sunday, December 14, 2008 @ 3:30pm

Beaches Fine Arts Series: Romeros Quartet

Concert Venue
St. Paul’s by the Sea Episcopal Church
1150 5th Street North
Jacksonville Beach, FL 32250

MapQuest link

Directions
The concert venue and the offices are located on the campus of St. Paul’s by the Sea Episcopal Church in Jacksonville Beach.

From the South, take A1A (aka Third Street) North to 12 blocks NORTH of Beach Blvd. Turn LEFT onto 12th Avenue North (there is a Tire Kingdom on the corner). Church and office are 1 block ahead on the LEFT. From the North, take Atlantic Blvd. to Third Street. Turn RIGHT. Proceed through Neptune Beach into Jacksonville Beach (1.7 miles). Turn RIGHT at the Tire Kingdom onto 12th Avenue North. Church and office are 1 block ahead on the LEFT.

Tuesday, 12/09@7:30pm : FCCJ Symphonic Band

Center stage at the FCCJ Wilson Center
South Campus
11901 Beach Blvd.
Jacksonville, FL 32246

INFO: (904) 646-2222

12/8/08 @ 6:15 pm : Polish Music for Violin & Piano

Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra violinist Piotr Szewczyk and award-winning pianist Christine Clark join forces for an evening of chamber music by composers from Mr. Szewczyk's Polish homeland.

CLICK for larger view

Piotr Szewczyk

Polish-born violinist and composer Piotr Szewczyk (b. 1977) attended the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, studying composition with Darrel Handel, Joel Hoffman, Henry Gwiazda, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon and Michael Fiday, and violin with Kurt Sassmannshaus, Piotr Milewski and Dorothy DeLay. While earning both Bachelor and Master of Music degrees as well as his Artist Diploma, Piotr served as concertmaster of several of the College-Conservatory's orchestras. Mr. Szewczyk recently completed a fellowship at the New World Symphony in Miami Beach where he served as rotating concertmaster under Artistic Director Michael Tilson Thomas, and in September 2007 Piotr joined the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra. The winner of the 2006 New World Symphony Concerto competition, Mr. Szewczyk has appeared as soloist with numerous ensembles, including the Lima Symphony, New World Symphony, World Youth Symphony Orchestra, Queen City Virtuosi, and the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble. Piotr also has given solo and chamber recitals in the United States, Poland, Germany and Austria, often performing compositions written especially for him by composers from around the world. Mr. Szewczyk’s own compositions have been performed by numerous orchestral and chamber ensembles and he has won a number of international composition contests. His music has been performed on NPR and at the American Symphony Orchestra League Conference by ALIAS Ensemble in Nashville. Mr. Szewczyk’s string quintet The Rebel was performed live on the CBS Early Show by the Sybarite Chamber Players, and is being prepared for publication. Most recently he won the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra’s 2008 Fresh Ink composition competition, earning a commission to write a new piece for their 2009/10 season. More about Mr. Szewczyk at verynewmusic.com

Christine Clark

A native of Jacksonville, Florida, Christine Armington Clark began piano studies with James Crosland, and continued her professional training at Oberlin Conservatory. She received a Master's degree in piano performance from the University of Illinois and studied with Leon Fleisher in the Peabody Conservatory Artist Diploma Program upon the recommendation of legendary concert pianist Lorin Hollander. Ms. Clark was national finalist in the Collegiate Artist Competition sponsored by the Music Teachers National Association, and attended the Aspen Music Festival on a piano performance and accompanying scholarship. She competed in the Maryland International Piano Competition, and won the Boca Raton Piano Competition. A versatile musician, Christine played keyboard with Trap Door, a local rock group, and toured Europe under the aegis of Proclaim! International. She taught piano at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey, and her numerous chamber music performances include an appearance at the Goethe Institute in San Francisco. Well known along the First Coast, Ms. Clark has appeared with the Jacksonville Starlight Symphonette and the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, and frequently appears in solo and chamber recitals. President of Friday Musicale and a board member of numerous arts organizations, Christine A. Clark is also an attorney, and while working as a law clerk in Washington, D.C., she gave perhaps her most unusual recital, performing in the United States Supreme Court at the request of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

PROGRAM SELECTIONS

Henryk Wieniawski - Obertas
Krzysztof Penderecki - Sonata for Violin and Piano No.1
Henryk Wieniawski - Legende
Henryk Gorecki - Variazioni
Karol Szymanowski - Song of Roxanne
Grazyna Bacewicz - Oberek No. 1
Piotr Szewczyk - Two Movements
Henryk Wieniawski - Polonaise Brillante in D-Major

PROGRAM NOTES

by Ed Lein

Henryk Wieniawski (1835-1880) : Obertas, op. 19, no.1 (1860) ; Legende, op. 17 (1859) ; Polonaise Billante in D-Major, op. 4 (1852)

As a violinist the prodigious talent of Henryk Wieniawski was recognized early on by his pianist mother, and she managed to get her son admitted into the Paris Conservatoire when he was a mere lad of eight, despite his being underage and not even French. From age 15 until his death from heart failure at 45, Wieniawski maintained a rigorous concert schedule that included a two-year tour of North America (1872-74), and his influence as a teacher is still evident particularly among violinists from Russia, where he taught from 1860 to 1872. Wieniawski's two dozen published compositions include pieces that are reckoned among the cornerstones of the violinist's repertoire, requiring the highest level of technical proficiency and often featuring virtuoso effects that heighten the passionate melodic expression. His works demonstrate a continuing interest in cultivating a national music based on characteristically Polish forms, including mazurkas, as in Obertas (from Two Mazurkas, op. 19), and polonaises, as in the early Polonaise brillante, op. 4. Wieniawski apparently wrote his works to perform himself, but his Legende, op. 17, has a more personal significance: it was through its composition that Wieniawski was finally able to convince the parents of Isabel Hampton that he was worthy enough to marry their daughter.

Krzysztof Penderecki (b.1933) : Sonata for Violin and Piano No.1 (1952)

In 1960, the performance of Krzysztof Penderecki's Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima catapulted the relatively unknown music professor to the forefront of avant-garde composers, realizing, in a work charged with microtonal clusters, extreme registers and a wealth of other novel performance techniques, a musical experience that for many captured the horror and pathos of atomic devastation. Since then Penderecki has become one of history's most awarded composers, winning not only numerous composition prizes and commissions, but also receiving honorary degrees and memberships from prestigious universities and conservatories around the globe, and national orders from Germany, Monaco, Austria and Spain in addition to his native Poland. Beginning in the mid-1970s his compositional language matured to include tonal, even Romantic, harmonic and melodic elements. Although this direction was often decried by shortsighted critics as dulling his youthful cutting edge, Penderecki ignored them and continued on his own path, and thus perhaps even foreshadowed current trends among much younger composers. Although his Sonata no. 1 is a student work reminiscent of Bartók, the precocious teenager nonetheless created a work of surprising maturity, expertly drawing on his training as both violinist and pianist.

Henryk Gorecki (b.1933) : Variazioni, op. 4 (1956)

Much like his better-known contemporary Penderecki, Henryk Gorecki first achieved fame in the late 1950s and early 1960s as a darling of the European avant-garde spearheaded by Pierre Boulez, only to abandon their intellectual asceticism, and instead strive during the 1970s toward a more personal idiom that often seems to embrace deep sorrow as a catharsis for healing. Upon his abandonment of post-Webern serialism in favor of a simpler and more direct style, Gorecki was dismissed by critics as suddenly unimportant. But Gorecki went on to surprise even himself when the 1992 release of his then 15-year-old Symphony no. 3, op. 36 ("Symphony of Sorrowful Songs") sold over a million copies world-wide, an unmatched success for a modern symphony. His mature style, sometimes described as "sacred minimalism," is infused with religious mysticism and characterized by modal harmonies derived from early Polish church music melded with repetitive melodies and rhythms. In contrast, Gorecki's youthful Variations, op. 4, has been described as combining "the fluid lyricism of Szymanowksi, the rhythmic fervor of Bartók and the textural severity of Webern," but with his own voice "already recognizable, especially in the way small melodic or harmonic motifs suddenly explode with the energy of a split atom [Mark Swed, LA Times, 10.3.1997]."

Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937) : Song of Roxanne (1926)

Karol Szymanowski, sometimes called the father of modern Polish music, is the most important Polish composer of the early 20th Century. He perhaps is best-known in this country for his solo piano music and his Stabat Mater for chorus and orchestra, although now his four symphonies, two violin concertos, chamber music, vocal music, and stage works are becoming better known as new recordings become available. Szymanowski's early works show the decided influences of Chopin, Wagner, Scriabin, Reger and Richard Strauss, but as he traveled extensively through Europe and Mediterranean Africa, the influences from the different cultures he encountered, along with exposure to works by Debussy and Ravel, as well as to Stravinsky's early ballets, began to color his work. After losing his family estate in Timoshovka (now in the Ukraine) following the Bolshevik Revolution (1917), Szymanowski settled in Warsaw in late 1919 and became an increasingly important figure in that city’s musical life. In 1926 he was appointed director of the Warsaw Conservatory, and as he became enthralled with Polish folk music his later works grew more nationalistic, celebrating his Polish heritage. Suffering from tuberculosis, Szymanowski retired to a sanitorium in Switzerland in 1935, and died there in 1937. A splendid example of the exoticism of Szymanowski's "middle period," the Song of Roxanne is an extract from his 1926 opera King Roger, arranged for violin and piano by violin virtuoso Paul Kochanski (1887-1934), an intimate friend of the composer who frequently offered Szymanowski advice and guidance in writing for the violin.

Grażyna Bacewicz (1909-1969) : Oberek No. 1 (1949)

Grażyna Bacewicz joins Maria Szymanowska (1789-1831) as the only Polish women yet to achieve international recognition as composers. At age seven, Bacewicz began her career as a violin prodigy, and from 1928-1932 she studied violin, piano and composition at the Warsaw Conservatory and philosophy at Warsaw University. She then received encouragement from Szymanowski, plus a stipend from the famous pianist and Polish Prime Minister Ignacy Paderewski, to study in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, a teacher whose numerous illustrious students ranged from Aaron Copland and Elliott Carter to Burt Bacharach and Quincy Jones. During the 1930s Bacewicz was the principal violinist for the Polish Radio Orchestra, with whom she was able to perform several of her own compositions. Forced underground during World War II, Bacewicz continued composing and performing for secret concerts in Warsaw, and after the war she joined the faculty of the State Conservatory of Music in Łódź. Between 1956-1966, inspired by a number of important composition awards and commissions, and especially after sustaining serious injuries in a car crash, she concentrated exclusively on composing. Not surprisingly, many of Bacewicz's works feature the violin, including seven violin concertos, five violin and piano sonatas, and 2 sonatas for unaccompanied violin. Her Oberek no. 1 (1949), which adapts a traditional Polish dance that is often described as a very lively mazurka, was hastily written as an encore piece for a concert she would perform the following evening!

Piotr Szewczyk (b.1977) : Two Movements (1998)

Written during his sophomore year of college, Piotr Szewczyk's Two Movements was his first composition for violin and piano, and even though it is an early work, it, like the early works of Penderecki and Gorecki on this program, already demonstrates elements of the composer's later style. When commenting on the piece the composer observed, "It has a youthful eagerness, energy, virtuosity and sincerity. The First Movement starts with a slow introduction and gradually progresses through different tempos and moods to finally dissolve. The Second Movement is a crazy, fast, twisted rondo, full of energy, surprising twists and turns--never letting go to the very end.”

Saturday & Sunday, 12/6 & 12/7

Saturday

@ 8am-4pm Friday Musicale: Young Pianists Competition
ALL CONCERTS PERFORMED IN THE FRIDAY MUSICALE AUDITORIUM
AND ARE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.
645 Oak Street
Jacksonville, FL 32204
904.355-7584

@1:30 & 2:30pm Music@Main: Victorian Carolers of Jacksonville
Listen to the a cappella harmonies of the Victorian Carolers of Jacksonville performing holiday standards. This special performance will be presented amid the Festival of Trees on the 2nd floor atrium of the Main Library, and is offered in conjunction with the Downtaon Tour of Historic Churches.
303 North Laura Street/630-2665

@7:30pm JU: JU Orchestra Holiday Concert
Terry Concert Hall
The JU Orchestra rings in the holidays with seasonal selections of classical music and lighter fare.

@7:30pm Thrasher-Horne Center (Orange Park): Clay County Christmas
With the Orange Park Chorale

Sunday

@3:00 to 4:30pm : Seawalk Pavilion, Jacksonville Beach
Holiday Concert - It's a Wonderful Time of the Year
Get into the holiday spirit at the Beach. The Navy Band Southeast presents an afternoon of free holiday music.

@3pm Messiah Sing
Jacksonville Masterworks Chorale
Island View Baptist Church
900 Park Ave, Orange Park

@5pm Riverside Presbyterian: Festival of Christmas Music
849 Park Street
Jacksonville, FL 32204
Phone: 904-355-4585

@7:30pm Christ the Redeemer: First Coast Wind Ensemble
Christ the Redeemer Church
190 South Roscoe Blvd.,
Ponte Vedra Beach, FL

12/05 Holiday Concerts

Friday, 12/05@ 11am : Friday Musicale

Morning Concert
Christmas Music
Friday Musicale Choral Ensemble
ALL CONCERTS PERFORMED IN THE FRIDAY MUSICALE AUDITORIUM
AND ARE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.
645 Oak Street
Jacksonville, FL 32204
904.355-7584

Friday, 12/05@8:00pm : FCCJ Wilson Center

FCCJ Choral Concert
FREE
11901 Beach Blvd
Jacksonville, FL 32246

12/03@6:30pm Music @ Main: Yuletide Swing w/St. Johns River City Band

Sunday, November 30

@ 10:45am UUCJ: Bach & Handel arias (Kim Beasley, soprano)

Unitarian Universalist Church of Jacksonville
7405 Arlington Expressway
Jacksonville, FL 32211
We are located on the Arlington Expressway North Side Service Road a short distance East of the Arlington Road intersection.

@5pm St. Johns Cathedral: Advent Procession of Carols

St. John's Cathedral
256 East Church Street
Jacksonville, FL 32202
St. John's Cathedral is located at Duval & Market Streets with Church Street bordering the church on the North side.

@7pm Church of Our Savior: Advent on the Riverbank

Tuesday, November 25 @7:30pm UNF Robinson Theater : Percussion Plus

Percussion PLUS

Charlotte Mabrey, conductor
Special Guest: Ney Rosauro, percussion

Concert features Brazilian percussionist and composer Ney
Rosauro, who will join the UNF Percussion Ensemble in performance
of his compositions for a very special evening of great music and performances.

Friday, 11/21 @ 11am & 7:30 pm Friday Musicale: Riverside Guitar Quartet

Friday, 11/21 & Saturday, 11/22 @ 7:30 pm: Orange Park Chorale

Sunday, 11/23@6 pm Good Shepherd: An Evening of Brass Masterworks

Chamber Music Society of Good Shepherd

Henson Markham, Artistic Director
presents

An Evening of Brass Masterworks

UNF Brass Ensemble, Randy Tinnin, conductor
Navy Band Southeast Brass Ensemble, MUC Vinney Burrell, conductor
Greg Spiess, organ

32 piece combined brass ensemble, Good Shepherd's resounding acoustics and mighty Skinner organ in works by Arnold, Bellini, Bizet, Dukas, Elgar, Gabrieli, Haydn, Mozart, Siefert, others

Free and open to the public

Church of the Good Shepherd
1100 Stockton Street at Park, Riverside
Jacksonville, FL 32204 * 904-387-5691
The Rev. Douglas G. Hodsdon, Rector
www.goodshepherd23.org/MusicCMS.html

Monday, 11/24 @7:30 pm UNF: Cummer Family Foundation Chamber Music Series

You are invited to the third concert of the CFF Chamber music series in the current 08/09 season. A great way to welcome this Thanksgiving with music. Based on the pinnacles of western romantic chamber music of the 19th century, this concert will feature one of the most admired chamber music masterpieces of Western music - Franz Schubert's Octet in F major as well as Dvorak's wonderful Terzetto
-- Dr. Guy Yehuda, Artistic Director

Performers include:
Ruxandra Simionescu-Marquardt, Christopher Chappell - Violins
Jorge A Peña -Viola
Betsy Federman -Cello
John Wieland -Double Bass
Guy Yehuda - Clarinet
Carin Miller -Bassoon
Aaron Brask -Horn