With styles ranging from R&B to classical, Nia’s soulful and eclectic music is a great fit for commercials, television and film. Her gospel singing background in church contributed to her love for music at a young age, having written her first song at the age of five. Nia has a Bachelor of Music degree in theory and composition and a Master of Music degree in composition. She is a composer of opera, instrumental music, and writes for artists and herself.
We’re thrilled to be performing the Canadian premiere of her new work “Chrysalis Extended” as part of our Swan Lake performance on February 26th.
Take time to watch her video talk about this incredible new work!
Infinitely charming and seemingly unable to age, Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme is the closest he ever came to writing a full solo work (concerto) for cello and orchestra. Inspired by the elegance and grace of Mozart, the Variations show how brilliant Tchaikovsky could be when he turned his pen to the classical style…but rococo? Not so much!
Jonathan Craig Penner
Rococo was a period of art between the Baroque era and the Classical era. Rococo style is elegant and refreshing – Tchaikovsky wrote his own theme, it wasn’t Rococo after all!
The piece is made up of a brand new theme and eight variations. Tchaikovsky wrote an original theme in a style that meant Rococo to him; the orchestra creates the mood, the horn hands it off to the cello, and they all share the elegant theme repeated four times, allowing the cello to lead us into the variations…
The variations each show us something unique:
Var 1 – Tempo della Theme (same speed as the theme) is full of triplets, lively and graceful!
Var 2 – Tempo della Theme is a dialogue between orchestra and soloist and the statement of the theme has had its rhythms manipulated to make it feel much more lively and brazen, refusing to resolve.
Var 3 – Andante (at a walking speed) is sad. It’s melancholy restatement of the theme is the only time the composer gives us the the music in a minor key.
Var 4 – Allegro vivo (fast, full of life!) warms us up taking us from the previous D minor to sunny sensuous return A major. This is one of the most difficult passages in the piece for the soloist as its filled with constant fast note runs. It’s blazingly fast and ends with a graceful use of a rocket theme (the music literally goes up like a rocket!)
Var 5 – Andante grazioso (walking gracefully) is where Tchaikovsky moves the beat around on us. He’s mixing up where we feel the downbeat and gives us a stunning trill from the cello!
Var 6 – Andante takes that cello trill and hands the main theme off to the flute. When the soloist finally “falls” from the trill to a low E, the orchestra takes over with the joyous theme again. The soloist is given a cadenza (solo virtuosic phrase) that leads us into C major, something that feels so distant and foreign but comfortable all at once.
Var 7 – Andante sostenuto feel contemplative in the warmth of C major as it slowly winds its way toward E major – its Tchaikovsky giving us a hint that we’re heading home before long! There’s a meditative hopefulness here that seems to ask and answer a question, and E major gives us a perfect way to prepare for the return of the home key in…
Var 8 – e Coda: Allegro moderato con anima (Moderately fast with movement) has the cello gracefully bringing us home to A Major. It’s one big crescendo that leaps from fortissimo to piano only to be joined by the orchestra again. Joyful, full of light, buoyant, full of running scales to get us into the Coda that finally gives us the full drama that Tchaikovsky is so known for. This elegant journey comes to a glorious end…one that Mozart would have been proud of!
The SSO is thrilled to have Regina-born cellist Jonathan Craig Penner making his SSO debut with the Variations on a Rococo Theme as part of our Swan Lake concert February 26th.
Some works of art become bigger than life. Swan Lake started its life as Tchaikovsky’s first attempt at a ballet…and initially it was a flop.
Premiering in March 1877, Swan Lake came at a pivotal moment in Pyotr Illych Tchaikovsky’ career. The composer had two symphonies under him, and was writing his landmark piano concerto at the same time, but still hadn’t gained considerable fame. It was a stressful time in his life, entering into a loveless marriage and waiting for his music to take off. Fashioning a love story for the ages out of folk tales from Russian and German lore to tell the story of princess Odette who winds up turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer’s curse. Receiving its premiere at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow with one of the day’s leading choreographers there was much hope for this new work…but the ballet wasn’t a hit. At least, not yet.
Tchaikovsky lived in the Russia of the “Mighty Five” – a group of composers’ whose works were simultaneously creating the Russian national voice of music – but for his ballet he looked to inspiration from composers he admired for their stage dance works. He’d found genius and muse in the works of French compoers Adolphe Adam (Giselle) and Leo Delibes (Sylvia) and found there to be an elegance, charm, and and “wealth of melody, rhythm, and harmony”.
Commissioned to compose Swan Lake, Tchaikovsky drew on previous compositions for his new ballet; some of his cousins even noted he’d previously penned a short ballet called “The Lake of the Swans”. He used the technique of leitmotif for the Swan Theme – the music would allow the audience to associate certain themes, characters, or moods, with a melodic idea. In total the ballet took only a year to write from beginning to end and while many see this as his excitement for the music itself, some historians note that he was anxious to finish Swan Lake so that he could get going on composing Eugene Onegin.
At the premiere, audiences and critics felt the score was noise and “too Wagnerian, too symphonic”. To be sure, it was the most symphonic ballet written to date, elevating the orchestral music from the pit to being music worthy of sitting centre stage. But there was a curiousity around the characters of Odette and Odile that started to draw attention from dancers and patrons alike. The ballet continued to be performed and, in the years that followed the composers’ 1893 death, Swan Lake staked its claim as one of the monumental works of romantic ballet and indeed romantic music!
Swan Lake is now one of the most frequently performed ballets, and has earned the honour of being refered to as a “beloved classic”.
You can see the SSO perform the music of Swan Lake February 26th – live at TCU Place or live online at ConcertStream.tv
Our January 15th concert, New Beginnings, will be online only. There will no longer be an in-person audience.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, our goal has been to keep our musicians working and making music. This means that we have taken every precaution to keep the musicians, the staff, and our audiences safe. We have, and continue to be as cautious as possible when it comes to our work. Our individual member’s health impacts the longevity of our organization.
With the Omicron variant becoming predominant in Saskatoon, we acknowledge that what’s safest for the musicians next week is to move ahead without an in-person audience. Thankfully our streaming platform ConcertStream.tv allows us to bring the concert directly to you. We’re putting together plans to make the stream a unique digital experience and we hope you enjoy watching New Beginnings from home.
They are a time for beautiful festive music, twinkling lights, memorable moments, and wonderful times with our families. We sent two new members of the SSO family out for an unforgettable afternoon filled with power tools and holiday cheer.
*No musicians were harmed in the making of this video
Composer Thomas Schudel was born on September 8, 1937, in Defiance, Ohio. A composer, bassoonist and teacher, he completed his BSc in Music Education and Master’s in Theory and Composition at Ohio State University and received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Michigan in 1971.
He joined the faculty at the University of Saskatchewan Regina Campus in 1964 and became Head of the Music Department in 1975, a post he held until 1978. Counterpoint, analysis, and woodwinds were among the classes he taught during his tenure.
Schudel held the position of principal bassoon with the Regina Symphony Orchestra from 1964 -1967 and then again from 1968 to 1970.
In 1972, Schudel’s Symphony No. 1 garnered first prize in the City of Trieste International Competition for Orchestral Compositions. His works have been performed across Canada and internationally; many are published in Canada and the USA. Thanks to commissions from provincial groups such as the Saskatchewan Music Festival Association (SMFA), his music has been showcased throughout the province. The SMFA included his works in their 2004-05 syllabus, thus reaching children in many communities. Other works have been commissioned by the Saskatchewan Music Educators Association and the Saskatchewan Choral Federation, as well as by the Canada Council and the CBC.
During our concert A Winter’s Journey our wind quintet performs Schudel’s A Winter Suite.
Our concert opens with spoken-word artist Carol Greyeyes reading a work written by poet Ted Kooser.
Ted Kooser was the Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry for the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. He is also Presidential Professor Emeritus at The University of Nebraska, where he taught the writing of poetry. For most of his career, he was a life insurance salesman and would spend about an hour and a half writing poetry before work. By the time he retired from his insurance career, he had published 7 books of poetry. Kooser received the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his book Delights & Shadows.
The work being read at our concert is called December 21, Clear and five degrees. It is from a collection of postcards written by Kooser to Jim Harrison. The entire collection is entitled Winter Morning Walks and there are 100 postcards in total. In the late 1990s, Kooser developed cancer and gave up both his insurance job and writing. When he began to write again, it was to send daily poems on postcards he sent in correspondence with his friend and fellow writer Jim Harrison. In poems both playful and serious, Kooser avoids talking directly about his illness. Rather, he refers to disease and the possibility of dying in metaphors focusing on the countryside around his Nebraska home, where he took long walks for inspiration.
Kooser’s walks have also inspired others. Grammy award-winning composer, Maria Schneider, used Kooser’s poetry to create a song cycle called Winter Morning Walks. It was written for and performed by the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Dawn Upshaw, Jay Anderson (bass), Frank Kimbrough (piano) & Scott Robinson (alto clarinet & bass clarinet).
You can hear a sample on this clip from PBS where the interview Dawn Upshaw and Maria Scneider about the creation of the beautiful song cycle.
Love listening to Jan in recital and wish you could hear more? Lucky for all of us Jan has quite the discography available for purchase.
For his eighth and latest Deutsche Grammophon album, Canadian pianist extraordinaire Jan Lisiecki has chosen to return to the music of Frédéric Chopin. Following on from Works for Piano & Orchestra (2017) and Chopin: Études (2013), Chopin: Complete Nocturnes features profoundly personal interpretations of some of the most beautiful and best-loved pieces ever written for solo piano.
Lisiecki is perhaps most celebrated for his masterfully sensitive and refined interpretative approach. His newest release – recorded last October at Berlin’s historic Meistersaal – not only captures the spirit of Chopin’s pianism, but also represents the time and circumstances in which it was made, as the pianist himself explains: “I’m the first to question why we should record something that has been recorded many times before. But music only lives through performance and is different every time we hear it, even when it’s a recording. I think there was something for me to say with this album. It reflects on the last year and my thoughts on that as well as on the escape and understanding that music gives us.”
The album, which was released on 13 August 2021, is available on CD and to download and stream. Listen to Chopin: Complete Nocturnesin the new high-quality spatial listening experience of Dolby Atmos on Apple Music.
Chopin’s enchanting Nocturnes and the notoriously difficult Études make up the program of Jan Lisiecki‘s recital, which he titles Poems of the Night. Embodying the spirit of Chopin’s pianism, he offers lucid, profoundly personal interpretations of some of the most beautiful and best-loved pieces ever written for solo piano.
Frédéric Chopin: Poems of the Night written by Jan Lisiecki
“Hats off, gentlemen! A genius!” Robert Schumann wrote about his contemporary Frédéric Chopin, and it is indisputable that Chopin was, indeed, a genius. Not only did he compose music that has remained current and captivating to us today, he also created his very own language. So recognizable is his style that it will immediately make one say “this is Chopin!” upon hearing just a short fragment.
Tonight’s pieces, intertwined by way of a key-progression, recall a collection of poems in a book: Each one in a different style, telling a personal, particular story which every listener will interpret differently.
They are a space for introspection and reflection, simultaneously embodying what I cherish most in Chopin’s music: the beautiful melodies, the innovation, and – perhaps most of all – the characteristic simplicity and refined elegance which go so effortlessly hand in hand here.
The mystical Nocturnes hail from the night, a realm of emotion and infinite possibilities. While this particular musical form dates back to the Irish composer John Field, Chopin mastered it to a degree that his name has become inseparably tied to the Nocturne. These pieces were among my first introduction to his music at a young age, and have kept me constant company in the years since.
The precise Études literally translate to “Studies” in French and are considered by some to be among the most technically difficult repertoire. In my eyes, technique ranks secondary to their sheer beauty, and pure musicality: every single note is an essential part of a whole. All has meaning, value, line; not a passage is merely ornamental or auxiliary.
Chopin and the piano are one, and his innate bond with the instrument shows in his use of the full range of its tonal possibilities. Some of the spectacular and famous melodies he is so well-known for form part of this programme, but the less familiar ones just as much demonstrate his outstanding writing.
Please refrain from applause in between individual pieces.
This post was created for our 2021 Holiday Pops. The recipe is so good, we couldn’t help but share it again!
Christmas is all about the music…but its really all about the baking!
Our Holiday Pops concert this year is special – its the first time we’ll have the full orchestra for our annual festive show in two years…so it feels like we’ve got everyone home for the holidays. It’s going to be a night filled with festive joy.
Last year we decided we would invite ourselves into the kitchen’s of our Principal Bassoonist and Director of Administration for some cookies and toffee, and this year we wanted to try something traditional. Margaret Wilson, the SSO’s Principal Clarinetist, had a family tradition of making pfeffernusse for Christmas and it seemed perfectly fitting for a Holiday Pops that feels like a family homecoming.
Margaret is no stranger to our annual Holiday Pops as she’s been our Principal Clarinetist for 45 seasons! To hear how excited she is for these new arrangements by Maria Fuller means that the concert is a festive treat.
Pfeffernusse is a traditional German cookie that is just the right blend of savory and a touch of sweet. They date all the way back to 1753 and have been part of Yuletide celebrations in Germany since 1850!
There’s even wonderful stories about the composer Felix Mendelssohn traveling a good distance just to get Pfeffernusse, writing: “I can’t conduct the Düsseldorf Music Festival because I have to rest and move to Soden, I’m going to Offenbach with Ms. Bernus to buy Pfeffernüsse.”
l. Beat eggs and sugar with electric mixer in large bowl until thick and lemon coloured. Stir in almonds, candied peel and grated lemon peel
2. Sift together approximately ll112 cups cups of flour with the cinnamon, ginger, pepper and cloves. Stir into egg mixture and keep adding more flour until dough almost cleans side of bowl.
3. Knead on lightly floured surface, adding as much flour as needed until smooth – about 1 minute.
4. Divide dough in half: shape each half into log 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Refrigerate wrapped in plastic wrap at least one hour.
5. Cut logs into 3/4 inch thick slices: round edges slightly. Place slices on greased or parchment lined baking sheets. Let stand at room temperature overnight.
6. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Turn cookies over. Bake until centres are firm to the touch and tops are golden – approximately 20 minutes.
7. Transfer to wire racks. Brush cookies generously with rum or brandy; sprinkle generously with powdered sugar. Cool completely. Texture and flavour improve if allowed to age in airtight container 1 to 2 weeks.
Margaret’s secret tip: Although the original recipe calls for the spices to be sifted into the 3 cups of flour, I have never been able to work in that much flour. That is why I put the spices into less flour to start and then work in as much flour as need – usually about 2 1/4 – 2 l/2 cups.
For his eighth and latest Deutsche Grammophon album, Canadian pianist extraordinaire Jan Lisiecki has chosen to return to the music of Frédéric Chopin. Following on from Works for Piano & Orchestra (2017) and Chopin: Études (2013), Chopin: Complete Nocturnes features profoundly personal interpretations of some of the most beautiful and best-loved pieces ever written for solo piano.
