The SSO dedicates this weekend’s performance of the Faure Requiem in memory of one of the organization’s greatest champions.

The passing of long-time patron Ruth Horlick was felt throughout the organization – Ruth was the first president of the SSO Volunteers organization, a tireless supporter of Saskatoon’s music community, and a figure at symphony concerts over the course of 6 decades.

Ruth grew up in the heart of the Canadian Thousand Islands on the St. Lawrence River and the experiences and friendships acquired there shaped her life. Ruth earned a BA in French, English and Politics from Queen’s University in 1941.

She worked briefly in Ottawa prior to attending McGill University to obtain her nursing degree, which she received in 1947. In 1952 she married Lou Horlick, and together they moved to Saskatoon where he had accepted a position with the University of Saskatchewan. Initially intended by them to be a temporary posting, Saskatoon soon became home and both Ruth and Lou Horlick became active members of the community.

In 1957, she became the first President of the Saskatoon Symphony Volunteers, created to raise funds and other support for the Saskatoon Symphony. Throughout her life in Saskatoon, Ruth supported the art, drama and music communities in Saskatoon.

In the early 1960s Ruth was instrumental in the establishment of the Association for Children with Learning Disabilities. Ruth pursued her interest in assisting individuals with psychiatric problems. Ruth also served as a board member of the Meewasin Foundation. Always modest about her contributions in aid of others, Ruth was recognized for her many volunteer efforts: 1988 Canada Volunteer Award; 1989 YWCA Woman of Distinction Award; 1990 Correctional Service of Canada Volunteer Award; 1992 Canada Confederation Medal; and in 2000, the Saskatchewan Order of Merit.

Ruth will be missed by the musicians and music lovers alike in the city. In the spring of 214, Ruth recounted a story of she and her husband hosting composer Benjamin Britten and renowned singer Peter Pears at their Saskatoon home for dinner – Ruth spoke with such fondness of the evening, and noted her love of his music after that night.

The music community is eternally grateful for her passion and leadership.

Jose Evangelista is a Spanish born Canadian composer with a unique and interesting voice.

This weekend the SSO string players get to dig in to a unique piece of music by this incredible composer – a first for Saskatoon audiences who have yet to hear Evangelista’s work.

Here’s what he had to say about his piece:

This piece consists of 15 folk melodies from Spain. They include worksongs, lullabies, entertainment songs, religious songs, etc. They come from a variety of regions and most of them are probably fairly old. These arrangements are not harmonizations. The melodies are presented as such, or at most repeated, without formal developments or modulations. There is a systematic use of ornamentation and heterophony which nearly gives the impression of real polyphony, but with no counterpoint or chords. My purpose is to emphasize the validity of Spanish folk music in its pure linear dimensions, that is, as melody. As a matter of fact, many folk tunes are monodic originally, without harmonic accompaniment and they often exhibit modal features difficult to reconcile with the harmonic tonal language. This piece was commissioned by the CBC.

Jose Evangelista

The Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra announces a matching campaign in partnership with the Frank and Ellen Remai Foundation.

The Share in the Future Campaign is searching for 2000 donors of $100 each to be part of something very special – aside from the gift to the campaign, each donor will be welcomed to a free donors-only concert on November 21^st to celebrate the orchestra’s 85^th anniversary.

Each gift to the campaign, up to $200,000, is matched thanks to the generosity of the Frank and Ellen Remai Foundation.

The Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra is experiencing one of the strongest seasons of its 84 years. As the largest arts employer in the city, and the city’s oldest arts organization, the SSO has experienced a tremendously effective turnaround over the course of last twelve months. The organization has made radical advances to how it operates, and on March 4^th will announce its 16^th music director.

In the present season the SSO has had a 20% increase in subscription sales and a 25% increase in single ticket sales – to date every single concert event has generated a surplus directly linked to the increased ticket sales.

The Share in the Future campaign will allow the organization to focus on continuing the year’s successes – retiring the organization’s deficit, expanding its educational programming, and facilitating long term planning over the next three seasons for a significant pay raise for its musicians.

The 85^th anniversary gala concert event will take place at TCU Place on November 21^st, 2015. There will be no tickets to the concert – the only way to get in to the concert is to be a donor to the Share in the Future campaign.

“We wanted a chance to say thank you in the most meaningful way to our donors – there are so many successes that need to be celebrated for the SSO right now,” said board chair Bryn Richards.

“In a way, this campaign identifies our stakeholders,” said SSO executive director Mark Turner. “Create a concert full of people who support music in Saskatoon – we get to throw a special concert for our 85^th anniversary celebration, and giving a free concert for donors is something that only the SSO can do. There is a very special surprise guest that is going to make the night extremely memorable.”

“We are so grateful to the support of the Frank and Ellen Remai Foundation – Ms Remai’s dedication to the arts sets this city apart in western Canada for our recent arts achievements. We should be so proud of where our orchestra is going.”

Click here to make a gift to Share in the Future

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Many composers have been inspired by customs, melodies, and national or ethnic characteristics of countries other than their own. Outstanding examples include Tchaikovsky’s Capriccio Italien, Bruch’s Kol Nidrei, Dvorák’s “New World Symphony,” Elgar’s Alassio, Mendelssohn’s “Italian” Symphony, and the work heard here. Inspiration in this special compositional category comes to composers in many ways, such as personal travel, attending performances by visiting foreign artists, or research and study.

In the summer of 1887, Rimsky-Korsakov was visiting not Spain but Switzerland. Borodin had died in February and had left his opera Knyaz Igor (Prince Igor) uncompleted, and Rimsky-Korsakov undertook its completion. Rimsky-Korsakov had collected material that he originally planned to incorporate into a virtuoso violin fantasy on Spanish themes, but the final form of the work that emerged was that of a five-movement orchestral suite in which the movements are played without pause. The composer himself explained that the changes of timbres, the happy choice of melodic designs and figuration patterns that are precisely suited to each kind of instrument, the short virtuoso cadenzas for solo instruments, the rhythm of the percussion instruments, and so on, constitute in this piece the very essence of the composition. Although it is true that the work derives much of its effect from brilliant orchestration, the composer insisted that the piece is a “brilliant composition for orchestra,” not a “brilliantly-orchestrated composition.”

In the first movement in A major, an alborada (morning song), the full orchestra introduces the two principal themes. Violin arpeggios lead to the second movement, “Variations,” which is in the unrelated key of F major. The French horn announces the theme, and five short variations follow. A flute solo leads to a recall of the opening alborada, now transposed to B-flat major with different orchestration. The fourth movement, “Scene and Gypsy Song,” begins with a roll on the side drum. Five cadenzas are heard, followed by a harp glissando. The gypsy song, a seductive cantilena in the violins, grows in drama and intensity, and builds to a whirling climax. A rhythmic theme for trombones begins the final movement, Fandango Asturiano. Woodwinds present a second theme, and the music becomes extremely lively. The work concludes with a recall of the alborada theme.

© Ted Wilks

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Blind from the age of three as a result of diphtheria, Joaquín Rodrigo studied composition in Valencia before moving to Paris in 1927 to study with Paul Dukas. While there, he met both his fellow countryman Manuel de Falla and the Turkish pianist Victoria Kamhi, who would become Señora Rodrigo. Joaquín and Victoria honeymooned in Spain but eventually returned to Paris, where during the bitterly cold winter of 1938-1939, with war looming, Victoria learned she was pregnant. Seven months into the pregnancy Victoria miscarried and was hospitalized for several days. During this time a family friend who was staying at their apartment observed that Joaquín spent entire nights sitting at the piano, playing a melody so sad that it gave her chills. Evoking the saeta, a song performed by women from their balconies during religious processions through the streets of Seville, this tune would form the basis for the slow movement of Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez.

Returning home to find an empty cradle still sitting in her apartment, Victoria was forced to sell her beloved piano to pay her medical bills. Not long afterward, Rodrigo received a letter from de Falla, offering him a teaching position in Madrid. Victoria and Joaquín quickly packed their entire belongings—including the completed manuscript for the Concierto de Aranjuez—into a pair of suitcases and left immediately. Two days after they crossed the border into Spain, World War II broke out.

Their fortunes improved in Madrid, where by November 1940 they celebrated the arrival of their first child and the successful premiere of the Concierto de Aranjuez, which before long would become not only Rodrigo’s best-known work but also the most famous guitar concerto ever written. Surrounding the central Adagio are two genteel courtly dances, the first in a characteristically Spanish meter that blurs the distinction between 6/8 and 3/4. Rodrigo wrote that the work takes its name “the famous royal residence on the banks of the Tajo, not far from Madrid and the Andalusian highway, and in its notes one may fancy seeing the ghost of Goya, held in thrall by melancholy—in its themes there lingers the fragrance of magnolias, the singing of birds, and the gushing of fountains.”

On March 15th the SSO takes to the ice with the Hockey Sweater – the classic children’s book, a staple of Canadian families, is now a new symphony show by Canadian composer Abigail Richardson.

Abigail was born in Oxford, England, and moved to Canada as a child.  Ironically, she was diagnosed incurably deaf at 5. Upon moving to Calgary, however, her hearing was fully intact within months.  Her music has been commissioned and performed by major orchestras, presenters, music festivals and broadcasters including the Festival Présences of Paris.

Abigail won first at the prestigious UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers and had broadcasts in 35 countries.  She won the Karen Kieser Prize (CBC) and the Dora Mavor Moore Award for “Best New Opera”. Abigail has been Affiliate Composer with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and now programs performances for their New Creations Festival.  She wrote the wildly successful music for the classic Canadian story, “The Hockey Sweater” by Roch Carrier.  It was the country’s first triple co-commission, by the TSO, National Arts Centre Orchestra, and the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra.   Within three seasons her piece has been performed by nearly every professional orchestra across the country, and has been experienced by more than sixty thousand audience members, often with Abigail hosting from the stage.

She recently finished a WWI memorial piece, “Song of the Poets”, with choir and orchestra for NACO’s UK tour.  The work was co-commissioned by NACO, The World Remembers, CPO, and TBSO with many partner performances in Canada and Europe.  Current projects include a complete family concert commissioned by the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra based around Dennis Lee’s “Alligator Pie”.

Abigail is currently Composer in Residence with the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, serves as Artistic Director of the HPO’s What Next Festival, hosts community events, and teaches composition for U. of T.