inTUNE

A Message from Nutrien

In the spirit of the season, your friends and neighbours at Nutrien are delighted to share the gift of performance with you this evening.

As a supporter of the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra, we appreciate the efforts of the diverse group of artists and organizers who helped make this special evening possible. It is a testament to what can be created by people who share a vision and commitment to a common goal.

While our growing company has an expanding reach, our purpose is to grow our world from the ground up – and that starts here at home.

Nutrien looks for opportunities to build our community and to celebrate the many gifts that come from being a part of it. Through music, art and recreation, we strive to bring people together in a shared desire to make Saskatoon a better place to work and live for all of us. We, too, believe in creating special moments with diverse groups across our community.

It is our sincere wish that you enjoy tonight’s performance and that we have helped get your holiday season started on the right note.

 

Leroy Anderson’s Music is Christmas

Not many people do their best thinking during a heat wave. Then again, most people are not Leroy Anderson. The original idea for the light-hearted orchestral romp known as “Sleigh Ride” was born in the mind of the American composer during a heat wave in July of 1946.

Finished in February 1948, the instrumental piece would not receive its classic lyrics until 1950 (when lyricist Mitchell Parish added in the bits about riding in a sleigh and other fun wintertime activities). The orchestral version was first recorded in 1949 by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra. It quickly became one of the orchestra’s signature songs, and the 45 rpm version was originally issued on red vinyl in celebration of the Christmas season. So catchy was the main melody that other composers of the era tried to pass it off as their own. The main melody of “Sleigh Ride” was used without credit to Anderson in the 1949 western “Streets of Laredo”, scored by Victor Young. Sleigh Ride lyricist Mitchell Parish worked with Young around this time, which might explain how the latter got his not-so-bright idea to “sample” Anderson’s work. That very same year, The Andrews Sisters created the first ever recording of Parish’s vocal version, and the popularity of Sleigh Ride sped off like… well, like a Sleigh Ride!

Although the piece is often associated with Christmas, appearing on more Christmas compilation albums than one can even count, its lyrics leave out any mention of a holiday. Perhaps this is what lends a universal appeal to Sleigh Ride. The song is noted for the characteristic sounds of a horse clip-clopping its way down a country road, and the sound of a whip is featured in most versions to give the illusion of the horse being spurred into motion. The percussionist shines in this piece, for it is they who oversee the creation of these sounds on temple blocks and a slapstick, respectively. Toward the end of the piece, a trumpet imitates the sound of a horse whinnying. 

Sleigh Ride was written in seven-part rondo form, with the first rondo episode utilizing an unusual modulation to the third (and then the second) note of the scale. This is not easy to sing, and therefore many recorded versions of Sleigh Ride err on the side of caution by changing the harmonies or omitting this first rondo altogether. This decision was made for the 1963 cover made by the American girl group the Ronettes. This Phil Spector-produced recording is easily the most popular version outside the traditional pop standard genre, charting yearly until it became the group’s second-highest chart hit in the US (after “Be My Baby”). This version of Sleigh Ride features the beloved “Ring-a-ling-a-ling, ding-dong-ding” background vocals, and makes use of the clip-clop and whinny of a horse at both its beginning and end. That’s two adorable/scary horse sounds for the price of one Sleigh Ride.

But Leroy Anderson was no one-hit holiday wonder. Composing “A Christmas Festival” in 1950 during his time as an arranger with the Boston Pops Orchestra, Anderson originally conceived of the wintertime smash-hit when Arthur Fiedler (the conductor-in-chief of the BPO) requested a favor of him. Fiedler needed a piece of music that would cover two sides of a 45 or 78rpm ‘single’ for the holiday season. Anderson did not disappoint. He created an orchestral medley of well-loved Christmas songs and carols into a compelling concert overture. The main theme of Christmas Festival relies on the tunes of ‘Joy to the World’, ‘O, Come all ye faithful’ and ‘Jingle Bells’, but other favorites (such as ‘Deck the Halls’, ‘Good King Wenceslas’, ‘God Rest you Merry Gentlemen’, ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’, ‘The First Noel’ and ‘Silent Night’) are also utilized to great effect. Relying on subtlety to pull off such an ambitious combination of Christmas music, the arrangement of Christmas Festival boasts exceptional  orchestration that provides each instrument with a moment to shine. 

Despite numerous contributions to the American orchestral standard genre, Leroy Anderson will be remembered for his prolific contribution to the musical soundtrack of the holiday season. The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) have repeatedly lauded “Sleigh Ride”, as it consistently ranks as one of the top 10 most-performed songs written by an ASCAP member. ASCAP named “Sleigh Ride” the most popular piece of Christmas music in the U.S. in 2009–2012, based on performance data from over 2,500 radio stations. And, while Johnny Mathis’s has become the most popular vocal version, Leroy Anderson’s recording remains the most popular instrumental version. As Steve Metcalf put it, “‘Sleigh Ride’ … has been performed and recorded by a wider array of musical artists than any other piece in the history of Western music.” For giving us all a song to feel merry and bright about in these dark and chilly days, we salute you Leroy… and that strange trumpet-horse you rode in on. 

 

Experiencing the Music Together & Safely

We have an incredible track record here at the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra. There has not been a single Covid-19 related incident at the SSO since the start of the pandemic. We are also one of the only orchestras who were able to perform all of our planned concerts in the last year. (Minus the one canceled due to a snowstorm!) That is no accident. It is thanks to careful planning and precautions agreed to by all of our people that we have been able to continue our artistry and livelihood safely.

Now that we have an audience in the room it’s more important to us than ever that we keep our events covid free. Since Opening Night we’ve required that everyone, and we mean everyone, interacting with your orchestra is fully vaccinated. All our musicians, guest artists, staff, and volunteers have proven their vaccination status. Before your ticket is scanned there is a wonderful volunteer checking your vaccine status. Everyone in the room is wearing masks and we’ve encouraged you to spread out in our concert spaces to your comfort level.

As much as possible we have eliminated intermissions from our concerts to minimize mingling so most shows run just over an hour. All of our venues have great air circulation and we improve that on stage with fans as several studies have shown increased air circulation is important to stop the potential spread of the virus. These are just some of the steps we take every time we are gathered in a performance space to create a safe and Covid-19 free environment.

Not every concert is able to be live-streamed this season for various reasons, but we are planning to have our audience present for every single performance. Having you in the room with us is a magical experience. The energy improves performances and there’s nothing quite like the thunderous applause we’ve been fortunate to receive after our first few events. It really is quite something to be in the room as the music happens.

Keeping you safe, keeping all of us safe, is the only way we can continue. We mainly rely on ticket sales and donations to keep this organization going and in return, we offer innovative and moving performances, meaningful connections, and countless unforgettable moments.

We laugh, we cry, we experience the music together. Most of all we continue to keep everyone safe so we can make it to 100 years of the SSO, and many years beyond that, all the while enjoying the incredible performances along the way.

[Uncertain] Four Seasons

by Damon Gameau, January 2021

When audiences first heard Vivaldi’s Four Seasons in the early 18th century, it was a sensation. It gave audiences something they’d never experienced before. It communicated more than music. It painted a scene. It told a story. It was an attempted translation of the language of nature.

But the natural world that Vivaldi drew his inspiration from was about to dramatically change. The Industrial Revolution was still 150 years away but already enclosures were taking place across Europe. Forests, rivers and rich pastures were being fenced off and privatized, orchards and crops that allowed subsistence lifestyles were being torched to force people into labour, and colonisation in all its forms was plundering distant lands to build the new decadence at home.

Europe was also in the midst of a scientific revolution. And amongst the exciting discoveries, a new ontology was being ushered in and solidified. Humans were increasingly seeing themselves as separate and superior to nature and nature itself was being stripped of any remaining soul or sentience that the animist cultures had long espoused. This view suited both the Church and the emerging capitalists at the time.. because without meaning or value, nature was a lot easier to commodify.

“We must hound nature and put her in constraints” said Francis Bacon, the ‘father of modern science’. “We must enter and penetrate her every hole and corner.” Bacon’s aim was to transform nature from nurturing mother to what he called ‘a common harlot’.

As we know too well, this mindset was soon to arrive on our own shores decimating a 60,000 year ontology of custodianship and reverence for the land.

Vivaldi was creatively spoilt with the abundance of nature that surrounded him. Since his writing our pursuit of endless growth and expansion has destroyed half the planet’s rainforests, 68% of all animal life and has seen a 40% increase of carbon and a 150% increase of methane in our atmosphere, rising our global temperature by 1.3 degrees.

But Vivaldi’s work contains a stunning lesson for our predicaments today. He articulates the HUMAN experience of the four seasons. The farmer who shakes his fists at the heavens as a wild storm ravishes his crops.

In recent decades, the reality of our ecological threats has been approached largely through a rational, scientific lens. An endless barrage of graphs, data and lifeless statistics have been used as frontline soldiers in the climate wars. But our species has evolved to tell stories, to be stirred into action by music, by art and by the liminal. Our scientists desperately need the help of artists because art disseminate the complexity, the lingo, the jargon and translates it into a language of the soul. A language that is disappearing as quickly as our forests and precious animals.

What you can expect to hear is a Four Seasons written for a new ecological possibility. It’s a collaboration between musicians, computer developers and climate scientists, to take the themes and ideas from Vivaldi’s original score, and recompose them as if he’d written them in the year 2050.

In this new variation, our now warmer air holds more moisture increasing the intensity of our storms, our degraded lands and denuded forests have stolen the dwellings of our cohabitors and rising seas have altered the lifestyles and festivities of all communities.

The Uncertain Four Seasons project has rescored Vivaldi’s work for every city in the world. Every variation is different. Each one jarringly altered from the harmony of Vivaldi’s original. Orchestras everywhere are being encouraged to perform their version in the lead up to the next pivotal meeting of nations to discuss climate change in November of this year.

But as you listen, know that all is not lost. Let the music help you to ponder or mourn what has gone but also allow it to free up the space required to join the billions of people who are not accepting our current trajectory and are actively pursuing the restoration of so many of our interconnected systems.

These are the humans who are rewilding landscapes, returning microbial life to the soils, deacidifying our oceans, re-introducing native species and embracing indigenous wisdom.

Climate Change and all of our ecological dilemmas are not scientific problems, they are human problems. It’s easy to forget that we humans are a keystone species and keystone species are capable of regenerating and defining entire ecosystems. If you listen carefully, there is a new song emerging. A new concerto is being written by a growing community that believes we can once again inhabit a world that Vivaldi so beautifully articulated 300 years ago.

But we all have a note to play.

Composer Beth Denisch

Beth Denisch’s music has been performed at Moscow’s Concert Studio of Radio “Kultura,” in Russia, at Jordan Hall in Boston, and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York, across the U.S., and in Canada, China, Ecuador, Finland, Greece, Japan, and Scotland. Her music receives radio play and tracks are available online; CDs from Albany, Juxtab, Odyssey, and Interval record labels. Scores are published/distributed by Juxtab Music, ClearNote Publications, and TrevCo Music.

“…fierce rhythmic patterns,”  Bernard Holland, New York Times

“… brimmed with personality and drive …” Anthony Tommasini, The Boston Globe

“… wonderfully evocative … simply splendid,”  David Cleary, New Music Connoisseur

Originally from Baltimore, MD, Beth Denisch earned her Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees in Composition from Boston University and Bachelor of Music degree from North Texas State University.

Denisch’s orchestral pieces include Fire Mountain Intermezzo, which was premiered in Moscow, Russia by Chamber Orchestra Kremlin, Misha Rachlevsky, Music Director.  FMI was selected as a finalist in the orchestra’s International Blitz-Competition for Composers Homage to Mozart. The orchestra has performed it multiple times, including at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall.  Another piece, Golden Fanfare, Julius Williams, conductor, was recorded with the Dvorak Symphony Orchestra in Prague (Albany Records, The New American Romanticism).

Chamber commissions include Women: the Power and the Journey for the Equinox Chamber Players with multiple performances in St. Louis and Boston. The CD Jordan and the Dog Woman (Juxtab Records) includes this and other chamber works by Denisch.

Choral commissions include “The Tree House,” commissioned by The Concord Women’s Chorus, Jane Ring Frank, conductor. The chorus selected poems by the Scottish poet Kathleen Jamie who writes about nature and Denisch set these poems for chorus, oboe, cello, and piano. The world premiere is this May by the Concord Women’s Chorus in the US and they will tour the piece with multiple performances in Scotland this summer.

Denisch frequently draws inspiration from nature and art works in other mediums. Her instrumental suite Jordan and the Dog Woman is based on the Jeanette Winterson novel Sexing the Cherry; and the Forth Project, for solo piano, was inspired by the paintings of Mark Forth.  The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and Philadelphia Classical Symphony awarded Denisch for The Singing Tree, inspired by Maxfield Parrish’s painting Princess Parizade Bringing Home the Singing Tree as part of PAFA’s Parrish retrospective and was followed by a commission from PCS for Goblins Night Out! for orchestra and narrator.

Additional awards and grants include ASCAP, Meet The Composer, American Composers Forum, Composers Guild, and the American Music Center.  Other commissions include the Handel & Haydn Society for Sorrow & Tenderness for period orchestra and chorus, the PianOVo Trio (Weimar, Germany) for Suite for Israel, the Boston Composers String Quartet for Phantasmagoria, and the Cambridge Madrigal Singers for Constantly Risking Absurdity.

Denisch is Professor at Berklee College of Music and has taught at Boston University, Northeastern University, and the University of Massachusetts.  She is a member of the International Alliance of Women in Music; an ASCAP composer and publisher member; and was the founding director of the American Composers Forum New England.

Read more about Beth Denisch on Wikipedia

bethdenisch.com

Composer Jessie Montgomery

Jessie Montgomery is an acclaimed composer, violinist, and educator. She is the recipient of the Leonard Bernstein Award from the ASCAP Foundation, and her works are performed frequently around the world by leading musicians and ensembles. Her music interweaves classical music with elements of vernacular music, improvisation, language, and social justice, placing her squarely as one of the most relevant interpreters of 21st-century American sound and experience. Her profoundly felt works have been described as “turbulent, wildly colorful and exploding with life” (The Washington Post).

Jessie was born and raised in Manhattan’s Lower East Side in the 1980s during a time when the neighborhood was at a major turning point in its history. Artists gravitated to the hotbed of artistic experimentation and community development. Her parents – her father a musician, her mother a theater artist and storyteller – were engaged in the activities of the neighborhood and regularly brought Jessie to rallies, performances, and parties where neighbors, activists, and artists gathered to celebrate and support the movements of the time. It is from this unique experience that Jessie has created a life that merges composing, performance, education, and advocacy.

Since 1999, Jessie has been affiliated with The Sphinx Organization, which supports young African-American and Latinx string players. She currently serves as composer-in-residence for the Sphinx Virtuosi, the Organization’s flagship professional touring ensemble. She was a two-time laureate of the annual Sphinx Competition and was awarded a generous MPower grant to assist in the development of her debut album, Strum: Music for Strings (Azica Records). She has received additional grants and awards from the ASCAP Foundation, Chamber Music America, American Composers Orchestra, the Joyce Foundation, and the Sorel Organization.

Her growing body of work includes solo, chamber, vocal, and orchestral works. Some recent highlights include Five Slave Songs (2018) commissioned for soprano Julia Bullock by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Records from a Vanishing City (2016) for the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Caught by the Wind (2016) for the Albany Symphony and the American Music Festival, and Banner (2014) – written to mark the

200th anniversary of The Star-Spangled Banner – for The Sphinx Organization and the Joyce Foundation.

In the 2019-20 season, new commissioned works will be premiered by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the National Choral Society, and ASCAP Foundation. Jessie is also teaming up with composer-violinist Jannina Norpoth to reimagine Scott Joplin’s opera Treemonisha; it is being produced by Volcano Theatre and co-commissioned by Washington Performing Arts, Stanford University, Southbank Centre (London), National Arts Centre (Ottawa), and the Banff Centre for the Arts. Additionally, the Philharmonia Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, and San Francisco Symphony will all perform Montgomery’s works this season.

The New York Philharmonic has selected Jessie as one of the featured composers for their Project 19, which marks the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, granting equal voting rights in the United States to women. Other forthcoming works include a nonet inspired by the Great Migration, told from the perspective of Montgomery’s great-grandfather William McCauley and to be performed by Imani Winds and the Catalyst Quartet; a cello concerto for Thomas Mesa jointly commissioned by Carnegie Hall, New World Symphony, and The Sphinx Organization; and a new orchestral work for the National Symphony.

Jessie began her violin studies, at the Third Street Music School Settlement, one of the oldest community organizations in the country. A founding member of PUBLIQuartet and currently a member of the Catalyst Quartet, she continues to maintain an active performance career as a violinist appearing regularly with her own ensembles, as well as with the Silkroad Ensemble and Sphinx Virtuosi.

Jessie’s teachers and mentors include Sally Thomas, Ann Setzer, Alice Kanack, Joan Tower, Derek Bermel, Mark Suozzo, Ira Newborn, and Laura Kaminsky. She holds degrees from the Juilliard School and New York University and is currently a Graduate Fellow in Music Composition at Princeton University.

https://www.jessiemontgomery.com/

Dr. Ingrid Pickering

Dr. Ingrid Pickering is introducing our concert, The [Uncertain] Four Seasons. She is a professor at the University of Saskatchewan and Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Molecular Environmental Science.

Dr. Pickering’s area of research includes the use and development of synchrotron light techniques to investigate the roles of metals and other elements in living systems, cross-disciplinary research that encompasses both environmental and biomedical interests. Her work includes synchrotron studies of metals and other elements of concern to determine chemical speciation and microscopic distribution; including both environmental studies and vertebrate and human toxicology. So who better to help us understand how climate change will affect our environment but also our personal health.

Dr. Pickering is also helping foster the next generation of scientists in her role as the program director of the  NSERC CREATE to INSPIRE program — INSPIRE is short for Interdisciplinary Network for the Synchrotron: Promoting Innovation, Research, and Enrichment. Not only is she training students on how to work with Canada’s only synchrotron at USask’s Canadian Light Source, but Dr. Pickering is also teaching essential interpersonal and professional skills to thrive in a fast-paced, high-tech, team environment.

While we know that our hometown is home to Canada’s Synchrotron what happens inside is often a mystery. Dr. Pickering gave us all a sneak peek of the inner workings of the Synchrotron when she chatted with the Saskatchewanderer back in 2014.

All things Eekwol

We knew we wanted to give the Four Seasons poetry the same [Uncertain] update that the music received, and we knew that we were not the ones to do so. This poetry needed a storyteller, an activist, someone who would take the message where it needed to go and deliver it in a fashion that would make audiences stop and truly listen to the words and their meaning.

Enter Eekwol. Eekwol (Lindsay Knight) is an award-winning hip hop artist in Saskatoon, Treaty Six Territory, originally from Muskoday First Nation. Eekwol has been making music for many years. Her 5th full-length album titled “Good Kill” was released in 2017, and the single “Pitiful feat. 2oolman” made it to the #1 spot on the National Aboriginal Music Countdown and charted in Sirius Radio and numerous college and community stations and streaming site playlists. For 2019, she successfully received a Canada Council grant and completed a concept project with fellow lyricist, T-Rhyme titled “For Women By Women.”

Eekwol uses her music and words to spread messages of resistance, revolution and keeping the language, land and culture alive for the next generations. Through her original sound she displays her activist roots by living and creating as a supporter of both hip hop and Indigenous culture and rights. She is currently working towards her PhD Degree at University of Saskatchewan, which she has taken along with her many years of dedication to hip hop and created something unique and astounding to give back to the community.
Along with motherhood, music, and academic work, Eekwol frequently works with young people across the country as a mentor and helper. She achieves this through performances, workshops, speaking events, conferences and programs.
Earlier this year Eekwol was chosen as the inaugural Indigenous Storyteller-in-Residence at the University of Saskatchewan. She spent six weeks presenting and talking about her work, held virtual “coffee shops” and shared stories with others that are to be incorporated into a final project.
We can’t wait to hear what she has to tell us next.

Our Part to Play

We all have a part to play when it comes to the future of climate change. As individuals, we can make changes around our homes and workplaces. Changes like, washing our laundry in cold water and hanging to dry, walking instead of driving, and replacing our appliances to be energy efficient.

The Saskatchewan Environmental has a great list of things you can do to make a difference.

Here are some examples they give:

Add insulation to roof, walls, and basement

The more insulation a building has, the less heat it loses in the winter, and the less heat it gains in the summer.  Insulation reduces both your heating bill in the winter and your air conditioning bill in the summer.  Plus, a well-insulated building is more comfortable.

Switch light bulbs from incandescent to LED

Incandescent lighting is very inefficient, plus LED lighting lasts much longer, so you don’t have to replace bulbs nearly as often.

LED lights use approximately 1/6 the energy of incandescent lights and last 15-40 times as long as incandescent. Lighting accounts for nearly 20% of home electricity use. If an incandescent light is on only 3 hours/day, you can save $9/year for each bulb you upgrade to LED.

Switch off electrical devices when not in use (i.e. computers, printers, monitors, TVs, etc.)

Home electronics account for 14% of home electricity use.  On average, that means $14 of your monthly electricity bill ($170 per year) is for home electronics.  If you want to get control of your electricity bill, start by turning off televisions, computers, video games etc. when you are not using them.

Select native plants for landscaping

Native plants can provide a beautiful variety of colors and textures that bloom at various times of the year.  And, once established, the plants should not need mowing, fertilizing or watering.

Check out the Native Plant Society of Saskatchewan website for more information on how to plant a native garden.

 

While there are steps that we can take as individuals, there’s also a lot we can do collectively. Groups like the Saskatchewan Environmental society advocate for policy changes that will help reduce greenhouse gas emitions, lowering the use of fossil fuels and replacing them with renewable energy, among other efforts.

The [Uncetain] Four Seasons was written as a call for world leaders to sign the Leaders Pledge for Nature and commit to reversing biodiversity loss by 2030.

Who is doing the work in your community? How can you help out? Do a search! Find out how you can support local groups that are making waves about climate change.