American Stars Christmas Song List

Below is the list of songs planned for tomorrow's show.

Act I

1. Opening Medley
a. Christmas Song
b. Sleigh Ride
c. Winter Wonderland
d. Let it Snow
e. Simply Having A Wonderful Christmas time

2. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas – Alexis and David

3. I’ll Be Home For Christmas - Michael

4. Santa Baby – Alexis

5. Last Christmas – Gina and Michael

6. This Christmas – David

7. All I want for Christmas is You – Gina

8. Twelve Days Of Christmas - All

9. My Grownup Christmas List – Gina

10. My Christmas Wish – Alexis

11. What Christmas Means To Me – Michael

12. Mary Did You Know/Oh Holy Night – David

13. Christmas Rock Medley – All


Act II

1. I Never Loved A Man – Alexis

2. Papa Was A Rolling Stone– David

3. Hurt – Gina

4. You Are – Michael

5. Mr. Santa – All

6. Little Drummer Boy – David and Michael

7. Breath Of Heaven – Alexis and Gina

"American Stars Christmas" Trivia Contest Rules and Questions

A Quick recap of the rules for the contest are posted below. Here are the questions for Week One, Week Two, and Week Three of the contest:

Week Three - (No Right Answer) What's your favorite Christmas story?

Week Two - "American Stars Christmas" will feature former "American Idol" contestants, including Season Eight's Michael Sarver. What city was Sarver originally from?

Week One - Which president and his family were fans of the Broadway production of "Camelot"?

The Steps to Enter:

1. Become a fan of the Ford Center on Facebook
2. Look for trivia questions to be posted on our Facebook wall on Monday of each week (Nov. 10, Nov. 16, Nov. 23)
3. Send in an e-mail to the Ford Center at passport@olemiss.edu with the trivia question’s answer*
4. Label the subject of the e-mail, “American Stars Contest”
5. We’ll e-mail the winner of the contest on Dec. 1.

*Each person can enter the contest a maximum of three times (one entry per question per week). The answer to the trivia question must be correct in order to validate entry. Answers can be found in the articles posted on the Ford Center’s blog.

Thanks for your support of the Ford Center through Facebook, Twitter, and our blog. Best of luck in this contest!

"American Stars Christmas" - The Background behind the Music

Want to know more about the former "American Idol" contestants participating in this year's show? Check out the links below for full background information on their beginnings and how well they did in the competition.

Gina Glocksen – http://www.americanidol.com/archive/contestants/season6/gina_glocksen/

David Hernandez - http://www.americanidol.com/archive/contestants/season7/david_hernandez/

Alexis Grace - http://www.americanidol.com/contestants/season_8/alexis_grace/

Michael Sarver - http://www.americanidol.com/contestants/season_8/michael_sarver/

A Quick recap of the rules for the contest are posted below. Here are the questions for Week One and Week Two of the contest:

Week Two - "American Stars Christmas" will feature former "American Idol" contestants, including Season Eight's Michael Sarver. What city was Sarver originally from?

Week One - Which president and his family were fans of the Broadway production of "Camelot"?

The Steps to Enter:

1. Become a fan of the Ford Center on Facebook
2. Look for trivia questions to be posted on our Facebook wall on Monday of each week (Nov. 10, Nov. 16, Nov. 23)
3. Send in an e-mail to the Ford Center at passport@olemiss.edu with the trivia question’s answer*
4. Label the subject of the e-mail, “American Stars Contest”
5. We’ll e-mail the winner of the contest on Dec. 1.

*Each person can enter the contest a maximum of three times (one entry per question per week). The answer to the trivia question must be correct in order to validate entry. Answers can be found in the articles posted on the Ford Center’s blog.

Thanks for your support of the Ford Center through Facebook, Twitter, and our blog. Best of luck in this contest!

American Stars Christmas Links

Below are links to information about Gina Glocksen, Alexis Grace, Michael Sarver and David Hernandez.

http://www.rocktheglock.com/

http://www.michaelsarver.net/

www.myspace.com/davidhernandezonline

www.myspace.com/alexisgraceonline

"American Stars Christmas" Trivia Contest Rules and Questions

A Quick recap of the rules for the contest are posted below. Here are the questions for Week One and Week Two of the contest:

Week Two - "American Stars Christmas" will feature former "American Idol" contestants, including Season Eight's Michael Sarver. What city was Sarver originally from?

Week One - Which president and his family were fans of the Broadway production of "Camelot"?

The Steps to Enter:

1. Become a fan of the Ford Center on Facebook
2. Look for trivia questions to be posted on our Facebook wall on Monday of each week (Nov. 10, Nov. 16, Nov. 23)
3. Send in an e-mail to the Ford Center at passport@olemiss.edu with the trivia question’s answer*
4. Label the subject of the e-mail, “American Stars Contest”
5. We’ll e-mail the winner of the contest on Dec. 1.

*Each person can enter the contest a maximum of three times (one entry per question per week). The answer to the trivia question must be correct in order to validate entry. Answers can be found in the articles posted on the Ford Center’s blog.

Thanks for your support of the Ford Center through Facebook, Twitter, and our blog. Best of luck in this contest!

Program Information for IRIS Orchestra

THE IRIS ORCHESTRA
2009-2010 Season

November 15, 2009
3p.m.

Michael Stern, Conductor
Jeremy Denk, Piano


DAUGHERTY Tell My Fortune

Palm
Crystal
Card


SCHUMANN Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54

Allegro affettuoso
Intermezzo: Andantino grazioso —
Allegro vivace


— INTERMISSION —


MENDELSSOHN Symphony No. 4 in A major, Op. 90, “Italian”

Allegro vivace
Andante con moto
Con moto moderato
Saltarello: Presto


Notes on the Program by DR. RICHARD E. RODDA

Tell My Fortune
MICHAEL DAUGHERTY (BORN IN 1954)
Composed in 2004.
Premiered on April 3, 2004 in Columbus, Ohio, conducted by Timothy Russell.

Michael Daugherty, born in 1954 into the family of a dance-band drummer in Cedar Rapids, Iowa (his four younger brothers are all also professional musicians), has been Professor of Composition at the University of Michigan since 1991; he taught at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music during the preceding five years. While pursuing his undergraduate degree at North Texas State University from 1972 to 1976, Daugherty played jazz piano in the school’s lab bands and was encouraged by James Sellars to study composition. Daugherty received his master’s degree in composition from the Manhattan School of Music in 1978, and spent the following year on a Fulbright Fellowship studying and composing computer music at IRCAM (Pierre Boulez’s Institute for Research and Coordination of Acoustics and Music in Paris). From 1980 to 1982, he continued his professional training at the Yale School of Music with Earle Brown, Jacob Druckman, Bernard Rands and Roger Reynolds while collaborating with jazz arranger Gil Evans in New York; he received his doctorate from Yale in 1984. Daugherty was a Composition Fellow at Tanglewood in 1980; during the summer of 1990, he returned there as Guest Composer. György Ligeti invited Daugherty to study with him in Hamburg, Germany from 1982 to 1984, during which time Daugherty developed his distinctive compositional language, which fuses elements of jazz, rock, popular and contemporary music with the techniques of traditional classical idioms in a manner that Musical America described as “eclecticism at its best.”

Michael Daugherty composes for traditional acoustical instruments, collaborates with improvisational artists in music and dance, and performs his electronic pieces using MIDI, synthesizers and sampling machines. Many of his compositions take their inspiration from folklore, fables and historical, social or entertainment figures, as their titles attest: Sing Sing: J. Edgar Hoover (for the Kronos Quartet and tape), Desi for Symphonic Wind and Conga Soloist (a Latin big-band tribute to Ricky Ricardo from I Love Lucy), Dead Elvis (for Boston Musica Viva), Metropolis Symphony (inspired by the Superman comics) and Elvis Everywhere (for the Kronos Quartet and three Elvis impersonators). His recent projects, which embody an increasingly wide range of references, include Brooklyn Bridge for Solo Clarinet and Symphony Band (2005, University of Michigan Band, premiered at Carnegie Hall), two works inspired by the paintings of Georgia O’Keeffe — Ghost Ranch (2006, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra) and Ladder to the Moon (2006, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center) — Bay of Pigs (2006, premiered by guitarist Manuel Barrueco and the Cuarteto Latinoamericano in Patras, Greece), and the piano concerto Deus ex Machina (2007, inspired by “the world of trains,” for pianist Terrence Wilson and the Charlotte Symphony).

From 1999 to 2003, Daugherty was Composer-in-Residence with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra; his additional residencies include those with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra (2001-2002), Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music (2001-2004, 2006-2008), Westshore Symphony Orchestra (2005-2006), Eugene Symphony (2006), Henry Mancini Institute (2006) and Angel Fire Chamber Music Festival (2006). He has fulfilled commissions for many distinguished artists and organizations, and received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, BMI, Tanglewood, ASCAP, ISCM, Meet the Composer, the Rockefeller and Guggenheim foundations, the New Jersey and Ohio arts councils, and the Lancaster and Delaware symphonies. In 1989, two of his compositions, SNAP! and Blue Like an Orange, received awards from the prestigious Friedheim Competition at Kennedy Center.

The composer writes that Tell My Fortune, commissioned for the 25th anniversary of the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus, Ohio, and premiered by that ensemble under the direction of Timothy Russell on April 3, 2004, “is a concerto for orchestra inspired by three methods of fortune-telling: reading palms, gazing into crystal balls, and reading tarot cards. The first movement, entitled Palm, visits the dark world of Gypsies who attempt to tell fortunes by reading the lines, marks and patterns on the hand. Mysterious violin, double bass, bassoon and trumpet melodies are framed by chimes, sleighbells, water gong and bowed vibraphone. Chant-like fanfares sound in three different tempos: past, present and future. Crystal, the second movement, is a haunting duet for flute and alto flute featuring extended flute techniques such as fluttering and bending of notes. The strings provide rhythmic counterpoint while two percussionists play tuned crystal glasses and glass windchimes. After a dramatic cello solo, the third movement (Card) unfolds like a deck of tarot cards, shuffled and spread across the table. The movement ends in an exciting swirl of eastern intrigue and relentless tambourine rhythms.”

Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54
ROBERT SCHUMANN (1810-1856)
Composed in 1841 and 1845.
Premiered on December 4, 1845 in Dresden, conducted by Ferdinand Hiller with Clara Schumann, the composer’s wife, as soloist.

Schumann’s Piano Concerto occupied a special place in his loving relationship with his wife, Clara. In 1837, three years before their marriage, Schumann wrote to her of a plan for a concerted work for piano and orchestra that would be “a compromise between a symphony, a concerto and a huge sonata.” It was a bold vision for Schumann who had, with one discarded exception, written nothing for orchestra. In 1841, the second year of their marriage, he returned to his original conception, and produced a Fantasia in one movement for piano with orchestral accompaniment. That memorable year also saw the composition of his Symphony No. 1 and the first version of the Fourth Symphony, a burst of activity that had been encouraged by Clara, who wanted her husband to realize his potential in forms larger than the solo piano works and songs to which he had previously devoted himself. Schumann had really drawn up his own blueprint for the piano and orchestra work in a prophetic article he wrote in 1839 for the journal he edited, the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (“New Music Journal”): “We must await the genius who will show us, in a newer and more brilliant way, how orchestra and piano may be combined; how the soloist, dominant at the keyboard, may unfold the wealth of his instrument and his art, while the orchestra, no longer a mere spectator, may interweave its manifold facets into the scene.” The Fantasia seemed to satisfy the desires of both husband and wife. Clara ran through the work at a rehearsal of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra on August 13, 1841, and Robert thought highly enough of the piece to try to have it published. His attempts to secure a publisher for the new score met with one rejection after another, however, and, with great disappointment, he laid the piece aside.

In 1844, Robert had a difficult bout with the recurring emotional disorder that plagued him throughout his life. After his recovery, he felt a new invigoration, and resumed composition with restless enthusiasm. In May 1845, the Fantasia came down from the shelf with Schumann’s determination to breathe new life into it. He retained the original Fantasia movement, and added to it an Intermezzo and Finale to create the three-movement Piano Concerto, which was to become one of the most popular of all such works in the entire keyboard repertory. The public’s initial reaction to the new Concerto, however, was cool. The composition did not have any of the flamboyant virtuosity that was then routinely expected from a soloist (Liszt dubbed it “a concerto without piano”), and the originality of its formal conception put audiences off. Clara, undeterred, was convinced of the work’s value, and she was determined to have it heard. The style of the Concerto even helped her to find a new direction for her own concertizing, since she thereafter left behind the vapid virtuoso showpiece, and concentrated instead on the more substantive music of Bach, Beethoven and her husband. As Victor Basch wrote, she felt that this change in attitude and repertory “reconciled the discrepancy between her aspiration as an artist and her duties as a wife.” Clara’s perseverance had its reward — she lived to see not only this magnificent Concerto but all of her husband’s music become accepted and loved throughout the world.

Schumann’s Piano Concerto is memorable not only for the beauty of its melodies and the felicity of its harmony, but also for the careful integration of its structure. Were the manner in which the work was composed unknown, there would be no way to tell that several years separate the creation of the first from the second and third movements. The Concerto’s sense of unity arises principally from the transformations of the opening theme heard throughout the work. This opening motive, a lovely melody presented by the woodwinds after the fiery prefatory chords of the piano, pervades the first movement, serving not only as its second theme but also appearing in many variants of tone color, harmony and texture in the development section. Even the coda, placed after a stirring cadenza, uses a double-time marching version of the main theme.

The second movement, the “very essence of tender romance” according to Eugene Burck, is a three-part form with a soaring melody for cellos in its middle section. The movement’s initial motive, a gentle dialogue between piano and strings, is another derivative of the first movement’s opening theme.

The principal theme of the sonata-form finale is yet another rendering of the Concerto’s initial melody, this one a heroic manifestation in energetic triple meter; the second theme employs extensive rhythmic syncopations. After a striding central section, the recapitulation begins in the dominant key (a technique borrowed from Schubert) so that the movement finally settles into the expected tonic major key only with the syncopated second theme. The soloist is granted another rousing cadenza before the conclusion of this most satisfying work.

Symphony No. 4 in A major, Op. 90, “Italian”
FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847)
Composed 1831-1833; revised 1834-1837.
Premiered on May 13, 1833 in London, conducted by the composer.

Felix Mendelssohn never learned how to take it easy. As a boy, he was awakened at 5:00 every morning to begin a full day of private tutelage, exercise, social instruction and family activities — the busy regimen he learned as a child shaped the rest of his brief life. Inactivity was anathema. Two months of bed rest occasioned by a leg injury in London in 1829 were more painful for the confinement they necessitated than for the medical condition. Throughout his days, Mendelssohn preferred travel to quiet life at home: he trooped across Europe, from Vienna to Wales, from Hamburg to Naples, and was welcomed and admired at every stop. Some of his journeys inspired music — the first of his ten trips to Great Britain, for example, which included a walking tour of Scotland (during which he enjoyed “a half-hour of inconsequential conversation” with Sir Walter Scott), gave rise to the “Scottish” Symphony and the Hebrides Overture.

When he was 21, Mendelssohn embarked on an extensive grand tour of the Continent. He met Chopin and Liszt in Paris, painted the breathtaking vistas of Switzerland, and marveled at the artistic riches (and grumbled about the inhospitable treatment by the coachmen and innkeepers) of Italy. “The land where the lemon trees blossom,” as his friend Goethe described sunny Italy, stirred him so deeply that he began a musical work there in 1831 based on his impressions of Rome, Naples and the other cities he visited. The composition of this “Italian” Symphony, as he always called it, caused him much difficulty, however, and he had trouble bringing all of the movements to completion. “For the slow movement I have not yet found anything exactly right, and I think I must put it off for Naples,” he wrote from Rome to his sister Fanny. The spur to finish the work came in the form of a commission for a symphony from the Philharmonic Society of London that caused Mendelssohn to gather up his sketches and complete the task.

The new Symphony was met with immediate acclaim at its premiere on May 13, 1833 in London, and was one of the series of British successes that helped enshrine Mendelssohn in the English pantheon of 19th-century musical genius as Queen Victoria’s favorite composer. Mendelssohn, however, was not completely satisfied with the original version of the Symphony, and he refused to allow its publication. He tinkered with it again several years later, paying special attention to the finale, but never felt the work to be perfected. It was only after his death that the score was published and became widely available. Despite Mendelssohn’s misgivings, the “Italian” Symphony has become one of the most enduring and popular pieces in the orchestral repertory, declared to be virtually perfect by the demanding British critic and scholar Sir Donald Tovey; it was a special favorite of that cantankerous curmudgeon and one-time music critic, George Bernard Shaw.
Mendelssohn cast his “Italian” Symphony in the traditional four movements. The opening movement is a sparkling sonata-allegro with an elaborately contrapuntal development section. The Andante, in the style of a slow march, may have been inspired by a religious procession that Mendelssohn saw in the streets of Naples, but it also evokes the chorale prelude sung by the Two Armed Men in Mozart’s The Magic Flute. The third movement, the gentlest of dances, is in the form of a minuet/scherzo whose central trio utilizes the burnished sonorities of bassoons and horns. The finale turns, surprisingly, to a tempestuous minor key for an exuberant and mercurial dance modeled on the whirling saltarello that Mendelssohn heard in Rome.
©2009 Dr. Richard E. Rodda

"Camelot," "Cabaret" bring classic musical presence to Ford Center

Over 40 years after it broke the advance sales record on Broadway, “Camelot” continues to draw in the crowds as a traveling production, with its most recent audience being at the Gertrude C. Ford Center for the Performing Arts.

Moonglow Productions brought the latest production of the fabled show to life. The show was the newest of a long line of revivals on stage since “Camelot’s” first opening night in 1960.

The plot for the love story has remained almost unchanged since its original production – “Camelot” is fueled by a love triangle of King Arthur, his Queen Guenevere and the young Lancelot. What has changed is the presentation of historical dramas in theater because of the production. The attention to the costumes, props and settings of each performance influenced a new generation of theater producers and technicians to strengthen their craft.

In pop culture, “Camelot” is perhaps most influential because of its association with a non-theatrical entity. The original cast recording was claimed to have been a favorite of President John F. Kennedy and his family.

Running for 873 performances on Broadway, “Camelot” became one of the most popular shows in theater history. At the 1961 Tony Awards, the musical would seize five statues for costume and scenic designs, the conductor and the lead actor and actress in the original production.

This was not the only adaptation of the tale to receive high praise. In 1967, a film version starring Richard Harris and Vanessa Redgrave came to the silver screen. Then end results were almost as great as the musical on stage: it won three Academy Awards, including Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design and Best Musical Score.

Few musicals could follow such a respected work as “Camelot,” but “Cabaret,” coming to the Ford Center on Saturday, Feb. 13 at 8 p.m. is certainly one of the few. The Broadway hit has seen no less than six revivals since its original debut in 1966.

The setting for “Cabaret” has been deemed by many theater critics to be one of darker ones in Broadway history. Sally Bowles, a middle-class lass from Chelsea, London, is working as a singer at Berlin’s Kit-Kat Club and trying her best to live the thrillingly decadent life which the city is supposed to offer. Into her orbit comes Cliff Bradshaw, a young American writer, and Sally soon moves in to join him in his room in the boarding house run by Fraulein Schneider. Their fellow lodgers include the cheerful whore, Fraulein Kost, and the gentle, graying fruiterer Herr Schultz. As the clouds gather, Sally, now pregnant by Cliff, is still determined to show the world what a good time she is having; she will not or cannot hear the noises of Nazism around her. But, the others can.

During its original run and throughout all of its countless revivals, “Cabaret” has remained one of the biggest hits theater has ever produced. It seized the top honor of Best Musical at the 1966 Tony Awards and was also awarded Best Score by the institution. A revival of the famed production won the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical in 1998.

Perhaps even better known than the musical is the 1972 film version. Starring Liza Minnelli, “Cabaret” went on to become one of the most influential films of all time. Winner of eight Academy Awards, the film was named in 2007 as one of the 100 greatest American films of all time by the American Film Institute.

The Ford Series is one that seeks to include the best in theater both historically and in current times. Both “Camelot” and “Cabaret” fit this model by their acclaimed pasts and their ability to still entertain audiences worldwide.