The arts possess the sublime power to inspire, engage, and transform. Just as a solitary note holds the ability to captivate, a single voice, gesture, or melody possesses the ineffable power to carry us away.
We invite you to embark upon a new journey with us this season at The Noorda Center—home
to inspiring events and an exciting hub for the arts in Utah County. Our mission is
to produce and present artistic excellence, which would not be possible without the
generous support of our donors and sponsors. We thank them and express our deep gratitude
to all patrons, supporters, and friends of
The Noorda Center.
Thank you for journeying with us this season to experience the profound and transformative power of the arts!
Courtney R. Davis, J.D., M.A.
Dean, School of the Arts
Dr. Cheung Chau, Cello
Utah Premiere
I. “Lisbon” (Sailor’s Song)
II. "Horkstow Grange” (The Miser and his Man—a local Tragedy)
III. "Rufford Park Poachers” (Poaching Song)
IV. "The Brisk Young Sailor” (who returned to wed his True Love)
V. "Lord Melbourne” (War Song)
VI. "The Lost Lady Found” (Dance Song)
“In a Station of the Metro” by Ezra Pound
The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.
I have been fascinated by miniatures ever since I was a boy. The first souvenir I can ever remember purchasing was a tiny, palm sized painting of the San Francisco Bay from a street artist in Ghirardelli Square—it still sits on a shelf in my childhood home. The birds are just tiny u’s and v’s, but if you look carefully, you can see the care the artist took in his tiny brush to shade and shape them naturally.
Wildflowers, too, have always been a special point of fascination to me. There seems to be a universe of color and shape in something that can just be the size of my fingernail. I remember one particular hike through the Sandia mountains outside of Albuquerque, when I turned a corner and stumbled into a meadow ablaze with tiny flowers. I can still feel the breath leaving my lungs—dizzy as my focus vacillated between individual petals and the entire meadow.
Psychologist Dacher Keltner recently published his groundbreaking book Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life. I’m usually averse to a book that looks so much like it might shelve in the Self-Help section, but this book isn’t really that. He reveals scientific studies that confirm something I think we’ve all known for a long time—the experience of awe is important for all of us. I’m struck particularly by his observation that if we’re observant, we can find awe frequently. Yes, we can find it in the mountains, in the picture of the Tiny Blue Dot, in the wonder of Mahler’s Second Symphony. But we can also find it in a ladybug, the taste of bread, a heartfelt folk song.
Tonight’s concert is a study in miniatures and contrasts. All three composers, Biedenbender, Gulda, and Grainger, have remarked on their pursuit of awe in perhaps unexpected places: a regular morning near the Huron river, the twelve-bar blues, the meadows outside Lincolnshire. This music is also incredibly demanding of our students in a short amount of time. In less than five minutes, they have to emulsify temporal layers drawn from South Indian Carnatic music (“Daybreak Crossing”), in a single movement they have to characterize both polka and heavy metal (the finale of the cello concerto), and in two-and-a-half minutes they have to paint both the soft grandeur of the folksinger George Gouldthorpe while also telling a story of dreadful violence (“Horkstow Grange” from Lincolnshire Posy). We hope you enjoy our posies of wildflowers as much as we have in preparing them for you.
-C.R.
Daybreak Crossing
Daybreak Crossing was commissioned by the Washtenaw Community Concert Band for their
35th anniversary. I lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan in Washtenaw County for seven years,
and I wanted to capture some of the spirit of that wonderful place in this piece.
When I think about Washtenaw County, there are many images and experiences that come
to mind: warm summer evenings spent in Depot Town along the railroad tracks sharing
a meal with family and friends, quiet autumn walks in the Arboretum, and incredible,
exciting concerts in Hill Auditorium, just to name a few. All of these places find
a small role in the sound-world of this piece, but one place in particular remains
firmly and fondly my favorite: the beautiful Huron River at Argo Park in Ann Arbor.
On many quiet, summer mornings, I found myself on or along the Huron, either in a
kayak or on a running trail, taking in the serene, glassy surface of the water as
the sun slowly rose. As a new day began, I remember feeling an overwhelming sense
of adventure and resolve at the thought of all that the new day held. This image—this
feeling—served as the inspiration for Daybreak Crossing—that of excitement, energy,
nervousness, determination, and hope as the brilliant light from the rising sun slowly
filled the sky and danced on the surface of the water in that beautiful place I called
home.
-Program Note by the Composer
Konzert für Violoncello und Blasorchester
Composed in 1989, the charming and popular Concerto for Cello and Wind Orchestra exemplifies Gulda’s blurring of boundaries between musical genres. Scored for a modified
eighteenth-century Harmoniemusik wind ensemble with the addition of a jazz rhythm
section of guitar, bass, and drum set, the work alternates seamlessly between what
Gulda described as “jazz, a minuet, rock, a smidgen of polka, a march, and a cadenza
with two spots where the star cellist must improvise.” The Ouverture launches the
concerto with a smooth rock feel, which then alternates with lyrical sections that
sound like they could have been written by Mozart. The second-movement, Idylle, opens with a beautiful hymn-like chorale, first in the brass choir and then in cello,
before a lilting Ländler breaks the repose.
The third movement is a six-minute cadenza for unaccompanied solo cello that calls
for extended techniques and improvisation and segues directly into the Menuett. Cast in ABA form, the outer sections sound predictably like a Renaissance dance
-- complete with tambourine -- but the middle section surprises with a beautiful tune
that evokes Appalachian folk music. The Finale—part march and part polka—recalls classical and rock genres from earlier in the concerto
before drawing to a thrilling close, complete with a screaming high note from the
lead trumpet.
-Program Note by Travis J. Cross for the UCLA Wind Ensemble concert program, 10 March
2015
Lincolnshire Posy
Lincolnshire Posy, as a whole work, was conceived and scored by me direct for wind band early in 1937.
Five, out of the six, movements of which it is made up existed in no other finished
form, though most of these movements (as is the case with almost all my compositions
and settings, for whatever medium) were indebted, more or less, to unfinished sketches
for a variety of mediums covering many years (in this case, the sketches date from
1905 to 1937). These indebtednesses are stated in the score.
This bunch of "musical wildflowers" (hence the title) is based on folksongs collected
in Lincolnshire, England (one notated by Miss Lucy E. Broadwood; the other five noted
by me, mainly in the years 1905-1906, and with the help of the phonograph), and the
work is dedicated to the old folksingers who sang so sweetly to me. Indeed, each number
is intended to be a kind of musical portrait of the singer who sang its underlying
melody—a musical portrait of the singer's personality no less than of his habits of
song—his regular or irregular wonts of rhythm, his preference for gaunt or ornately
arabesqued delivery, his contrasts of legato and staccato, his tendency towards breadth
or delicacy of tone.
- Program Note by the Composer
Dr. Christopher Ramos
Conductor
Flute Cami Bartholomew clarinet Mattie Chiara bass clarinet Lane Strabel
Emily Adams* english horn Luca de la Florin Bassoon Andrew Apgood* saxophone trumpet Arye Arteaga |
Horn Steven Dulger* Trombone euphonium Abdallah Elhaddi*
TUBA
Jay Henrie Alex Jensen*
STRING BASS piano GUITAR |
|
* denotes section principal |
Cheung Chau is Director of Orchestral studies at Utah Valley University and Music Director of the Utah Valley Youth Symphony in Orem, Utah. He is Music Director of Sinfonietta Polonia in Poznań, Poland, and served as the Resident Conductor of the Changsha Symphony in Hunan, China, for his UVU sabbatical leave for 2021 – 2022. He served as Music Director of the Bloomington Symphony in Minnesota, the Central Pennsylvania Symphony and the Manchester Symphony in Connecticut, as principal guest conductor of the Lublin Philharmonic Orchestra in Lublin, Poland, and held director of orchestra positions at the Haverford College and the University of Connecticut.
As guest conductor, Chau conducted the Moscow Symphony in Russia, the Nordhausen Philharmonic
in Germany, the Filharmonica Marchigiana in Italy, the Gavle Symphony in Sweden, the
Vassa Symphony in Finland, the Williamsport Symphony, the Charlottesville Symphony,
the Ballet West Orchestra, the Utah Valley Symphony, and the Utah Chamber Orchestra
in the United States, the Białystok Philharmonic, the Kielce Philharmonic, the Lublin
Philharmonic, the Sudecka Philharmonic, and the Olsztyn Philharmonic in Poland.
In China, he led the China National Symphony, the Tianjin Philharmonic, the Wuhan
Philharmonic, and the Xiamen Philharmonic. He was named permanent guest conductor
of the Inner Mongolia Orchestra in 2007. Invited by Edo de Waart, Chau served as assistant
conductor to the Hong Kong Philharmonic, conducting the orchestra in projects including
the 2007 live world broadcast opening ceremony of the 10th anniversary celebration
of Hong Kong’s Handover, with Chinese President Hu Jintao in attendance.
As ballet conductor Chau conducted productions of Giselle and Nutcracker with the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet and the Ballet West at the Harrisburg Whitaker
Center and the Capitol Theatre in Salt Lake City. He is a regular guest conductor
at the Grand Opera and Ballet Theater in Poznań, Poland, where he conducted the world
premiere of Alice in Wonderland in 2014. Chau also led the world premiere performance of Snow Queen in March of 2016 at the Grand Theater in Poznań. Since then, Chau led Alice in Wonderland and Snow Queen regularly in Poznań and at the prestigious Opera Nova in Bydgoszcz, Poland. In 2017,
the world premiere recording of Snow Queen with leading Polish label Acte Prealable was awarded a Global Music Awards Silver Medal.
An American Prize winner in Conducting and a conducting fellow at the American Academy
of Conducing in Aspen, Chau conducted concerts in venues including at the Rundfunk
Berlin Brandenburg, Beijing Concert Hall, Abravanel Hall in Salt Lake City, and the
Adam Mickiewicz University Concert Hall in Poznań, Poland.
Chau received the first double doctorate from the New England Conservatory in wind
ensemble conducting and cello performance. He studied orchestral conducting with Jorma
Panula at the Royal Conservatory of Sweden. Chau is a National Arts Associate in conducting
with Sigma Alpha Iota in the USA.
Christopher Ramosis currently serving as Director of Bands at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. He conducts the UVU Wind Symphony and directs instrumental studies within the music education area. Prior to his work in post-secondary education at The Hartt School and UVU, Chris served as a middle school and high school band director at Dalat International School in Penang, Malaysia.
He is also an active scholar working at the intersection of musicology, wind band studies, and music education with his latest publications forthcoming in the Music Educators Journal and the Utah Music Educators Journal. He holds degrees from The Hartt School where he studied with Glen Adsit and Edward Cumming, the University of New Mexico where he studied with Eric Rombach-Kendall, and from East Texas A&M University (formerly Texas A&M University-Commerce) where he studied with Phillip Clements, Luis Sanchez, and Mike Morrow.
An avid supporter of new music, he has been part of numerous commissioning projects and has recorded with the Naxos, Summit, and Parma record labels. He is a second-place winner in The American Prize for conducting and in 2025-2027 holds the Harry Begian Conductor Scholar Award at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. He is an active member in the College Band Directors National Association, Utah Music Educators Association, Utah Bandmasters Association, National Band Association, American Musicological Society, and National Association for Music Education, and is an honorary member of the Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia National Music Fraternity.
Department Chair
JEFFREY O'FLYNN
Associate Chair
MELISSA HEATH
Administrative Assistant
CHRIS GINES
Choirs
REED CRIDDLE
CHERILYN WORTHEN
Orchestra/Cello
CHEUNG CHAU
Violin
DONNA FAIRBANKS
Clarinet
JEFFREY O’FLYNN
Trumpet/Music Theory
RYAN NIELSEN
Percussion
SHANE JONES
Piano
HILARY DEMSKE
Jazz/Commercial
DAVID BAKER
Voice
MELISSA HEATH
ISAAC HURTADO
Commercial Music
CHARLIE HAN
TODD SORENSEN
Theory
BRYCE RYTTING
Musicology
ROSS HAGEN
Director of Bands
CHRIS RAMOS