WILLIAM GRANT STILL (part 1 of 5)

Posted on October 12, 2018

William Grant Still (with instrument case) with his friends at Wilberforce University, 1915. Photo from the holdings of the University of Arkansas Libraries’ Special Collections.

William Grant Still (1895-1978) is known as “The Dean of African-American Composers”, for good reason.  The standard sites and survey history books cite the same litany of impressive firsts:

—the first African-American to conduct a major American symphony orchestra,—the... Read More ›

PROGRAM NOTES: George Butterworth’s A Shropshire Lad

Posted on April 11, 2018

PYP will perform A Shropshire Lad on Sunday, May 6, 2018 in the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Program notes written by Huw Edwards, Guest Conductor and PYP Music Director from 1995 to 2002.

Having attended the Royal College of Music in London as an organ scholar—where he assisted Cecil Sharp and Ralph Vaughan Williams with their research into English folk music—Butterworth returned to... Read More ›

PROGRAM NOTES: Gerald Finzi’s Clarinet Concerto

Posted on April 10, 2018

PYP will perform Clarinet Concerto with Musical Director David Hattner as soloist on Sunday, May 6, 2018 in the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Program notes written by Huw Edwards, Guest Conductor and PYP Music Director from 1995 to 2002.

The music of English composer Gerald Finzi music embraces a rich variety of moods, from elegiac lyricism, spiritual reflection, a neo-Baroque purity,... Read More ›

PROGRAM NOTES: Modest Mussorgsky’s PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION

Posted on April 9, 2018

PYP will perform Pictures at an Exhibition on Sunday, May 6, 2018 in the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Program notes written by Carolyn Talarr, PYP’s Community Programs Coordinator.

Modest Mussorgsky: a son of a serf-owning ancient noble family who paradoxically championed a populist nationalism even after losing the family fortune when the serfs were freed; a man who began as a soldier... Read More ›

TCHAIKOVSKY’S 4TH PROGRAM NOTES: PIOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY’s SYMPHONY NO. 4

Posted on February 7, 2018

PYP will perform Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky‘s Symphony No. 4 on Saturday, March 3, 2018 in the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.

Sometimes the times and the man just make each other; the Fourth Symphony is the spectacular product of a multitude of forces acting on Tchaikovsky in 1877-1878.  Together they led him to draw the more Germanic, architectural symphony form into new... Read More ›

TCHAIKOVSKY’S 4TH PROGRAM NOTES: LEV ZHURBIN’S ‘CURRENT’

Posted on February 6, 2018

PYP will perform Lev Zhurbin‘s Current on Saturday, March 3, 2018 in the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.

Current was inspired by the landscape of currents, and by taking a look at the orchestra as a group of individuals coming together to interpret a piece not as a singular unit but in a more personalized way. The score consists of musical ideas... Read More ›