The University Symphony Orchestra performs works by George Walker, Aaron Copland, and Samuel Barber, then is joined by the combined UW Choirs for a performance of Te Deum, op.103, by Antonín Dvořák.
Masks are required in all indoor spaces on the UW campus. Patrons must show proof of vaccination or recent negative provider-administered COVID-19 PCR test for entry to live events at Meany Hall. Individuals unable to be fully vaccinated, including children under age five and people with a medical or religious exemption, must have proof of a negative provider-administered COVID-19 PCR test (taken within 72 hours of the performance). UW staff will check for proof of vaccination and negative COVID PCR tests at the doors as a condition of entry. Proof of negative test result must come from a test provider, a laboratory or a health care provider. Home or self-administered tests will not be accepted. Details of these policies and procedures are at: https://artsevents.washington.edu/covid-protocols
UW Symphony Orchestra
With combined UW choirs
Daren Weissfisch & David Alexander Rahbee, conductors
Friday March 11th, 2022 7:30 pm Katharyn Alvord Gerlich Theater
Program
Lyric for Strings ……………………………...……George Walker (1922-2018)
(In celebration of the composer’s 100th birthday)
Appalachian Spring, suite from the ballet……….Aaron Copland (1900-1990)
- Intermission -
Essay No. 1, Op. 12…………………………...…..Samuel Barber (1910-1981)
(Daren Weissfisch, conductor)
Te Deum, Op. 103 ….…………………….….. Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)
I. Te deum laudamus: Allegro moderato maestoso
II. Tu Rex gloriae: Lento maestoso
III. Aeterna fac cum Sanctis: Vivace
IV. Dignare Domine: Lento
Eun Ju Vivianna Oh, soprano
Limuel Forgey, baritone
University of Washington Chamber Singers, Geoffrey Boers, conductor
University of Washington Chorale, Giselle Wyers, conductor
Program Notes
by Megan Rideout Redeker
George Walker: Lyric for Strings
George Walker enjoyed a brilliant career as a pianist, composer, and professor. He was admitted
to Oberlin Conservatory at the age of 14, and was at that time the youngest student who had ever
been admitted to the conservatory. He completed his masters degree at the Curtis Institute of
Music, earned a doctorate from Eastman, and studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. Walker
completed his Lyric for Strings while he was still a graduate student at the Curtis Institute. The
work is the second movement of his String Quartet No. 1 with an expanded orchestration.
Originally titled Lament, it was premiered by the student orchestra at the Curtis Institute in 1946.
Walker dedicated the work to his grandmother, Malvina King, who was born into slavery.
Aaron Copland, Appalachian Spring
In 1945, Aaron Copland was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music for his orchestral suite
Appalachian Spring. The suite was originally a ballet, written for thirteen instruments. Copland
expanded the instrumentation to include a full orchestra when he arranged the music as an
orchestral suite. The ballet tells the story of a newly married pioneer couple in the 19th century
who have just built a farmhouse in Pennsylvania together. It was originally written in 8 parts, the
seventh of which contains the melody of the Shaker song Simple Gifts. Dancer and
choreographer Martha Graham and pianist Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge commissioned the work,
asking for a ballet “with an American theme.” Not knowing exactly what Graham intended for
the dancers, Copland originally called the work Ballet for Martha. Graham suggested naming it
Appalachian Spring, after a line in a poem called The Dance by Hart Crane:
O Appalachian Spring! I gained the ledge;
Steep, inaccessible smile that eastward bends
And northward reaches in that violet wedge
Of Adirondacks!
The poem refers to a stream, not the season of Spring; Copland was reportedly quite amused by
the amount of praise he received for his depiction of springtime in the Appalachians.
Samuel Barber: First Essay for Orchestra, op. 12
Samuel Barber composed his first work at the age of seven, became a church organist at the age
of twelve, and began studying at the Curtis Institute of Music at the age of fourteen. He enjoyed
a brief career as a baritone and wrote many choral and vocal works, but he also wrote a great
deal for orchestra. His First Essay for Orchestra was completed in 1938 and premiered by
Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra that same year. Toscanini rarely performed
works by contemporary or American composers, so his premiere of Barber’s music was a
significant moment in the composer’s career. Barber pioneered the essay as a musical form.
When asked about it, he often referred listeners to the literary definition of an essay found in the
dictionary.
Antonin Dvořák: Te Deum, op. 103
In October of 1891, Dvořák accepted a position as the director of the National Conservatory of
Music in New York. His arrival the following year would coincide with the 400th anniversary of
Columbus Day. Jeanette Thurber, the founder of the Conservatory, commissioned a piece from
Dvořák to be performed at the celebration, and promised to send him a text to set. The text never
came, so Dvořák chose the hymn Te Deum Laudamus which he thought would be joyful enough
for such an occasion. Dvořák was a devout Catholic, and at this point in his career had already
composed several sacred works. Te Deum was ultimately not premiered at the Columbus Day
celebrations, but was premiered shortly after, on October 21st, 1892.
University of Washington Symphony Orchestra
David Alexander Rahbee, Music Director and Conductor
Rylan Virnig and Daren Weissfisch, Assistant Conductors
Flute
Drew Burky, Materials Science & Engineering
Katelyn Campbell, Biochemistry, Applied Music (Orchestral Instruments)
Megan Hutchison, Music (Woodwinds)
Cassie Lear, DMA Woodwinds
Piccolo
Katelyn Campbell, Biochemistry, Applied Music (Orchestral Instruments)
Oboe
Kieran Matz, Music (Ethnomusicology)
Kamil Tarnawczyk, Music
English horn
Kamil Tarnawczyk, Music
Clarinet
Megan Rideout Redeker, Music Performance
Khang Zhie Phoong, Computer Science
Bassoon
Pascal Lovre, Chemistry
Parker Chu, Biochemistry, Music minor
Horn
Anna Perry, Music (Brass)
Nicholas Hidy, Music (Brass)
Levi Sy, Biochemistry, Russian
Thomas Dylan, Bioengineering
Trumpet
Carter Archuleta , Physics, Astronomy
Greg Smith, Music (Brass)
Jennifer Stump, Pre Sciences
Joe Yang , Geology, Trumpet
Trombone
Neal Muppidi, Physics, Music
Sean Grimm, Statistics
Clayton Thomas, Electrical Engineering
Tuba
Nikolas Wooden, Neuroscience
Timpani
Sophie Schmidt, Percussion Performance
Percussion
Cyrus Grahan, History
Jonathan Rodriguez, Percussion Performance
Scott Farkas, Percussion Performance
Harp
Kelly Hou, Informatics, Music Performance
Piano
Chiao-Yu Wu, Piano Performance
Violins
Christine Chu, Communication, Violin Performance
Constance Aguocha, Violin Performance
Dalma Ashby, Violin Performance
Sejon Ashby, Biochemistry
Ido Avnon, Computer Science, Education
Kelly Chiang, Psychology, Marketing
Hannah Chou, Violin Performance
Kellen Cribbs, Music Education, History
Teela Damian, Music
Suad Maya Dirar, Biology
Raymond Doerr, Materials Science and Engineering
Rylan Ferron-Jones, Engineering Undeclared
Rei Funakoshi Anderson, Pre Major (Arts & Sciences)
Nicholas Gjording, Biology (Molecular Cellular & Developmental)
Kara Johnson, Pre Major (Arts & Sciences)
Allison Kam, Pre Sciences, Linguistics
Meiqi Liang, Pre Public Health
Audrey Lin, Computer Science
Lucy Maki-Fern, Biology (Molecular, Cellular, & Developmental)
Paige Michal, Music Education
Hannah Peña-Ruiz, Music (Strings)
Bianca Ponnekanti, Physics, Astronomy
Sean Sasaki, Music
Victoria Sepulveda, Art (Painting & Drawing)
Selina Siow, Music (Strings)
Olivia Wang, Computer Science, Music
Ethan Wu, Biochemistry
Renee Zhang, Alumni: Biology (Molecular, Cellular, & Developmental), Violin Performance
Viola
Elena Allen, Applied Music (String Instruments), Biochemistry
Eugene Chin, Applied Music (String Instruments)
Nathan Hatch, Robotics
Angielena Luong, Pre Sciences
Brian Pham, Biochemistry
Mari Morikawa, Biology (Physiology)
Meghna Shankar, Computer Science, Physics
Kareena Sikka, Biology (Molecular, Cellular, & Developmental)
Katie Tschida, Music
Randy Zhang, Computer Science
Violoncello
Bashir Abdel-Fattah, Mathemetics
Ryan Friesz, Pre Sciences
Savannah Helming, Cello Performance
Breanna Humphrey, Pre Sciences
Sarah Johnson, Music
Youngbin (Young) Kim, Cello Performance
Gene Liu, Engineering
Bennett Olsen, Geography: Data Science
John Rice, Computer Engineering
Russell Sam, Pre Sciences
Amanda Song, Business Administration
Ignacio (Nacho) Tejeda, Mathematics
Bass
Alejandra (Ale) Heringer, English
Eddie Nikishina, Music
Ethan Park, Pre Sciences
Gracious Wyatt Draher, Envir Science & Terrestrial Resource Mgt
University of Washington Chamber Singers
Soprano
Kaelyn Barnes
Kate Connors
Karen Dunstan
Virginia Elizondo
Caitlin Hennessy
Mallory McCollum
Shalini Pullarkat
Sarah Santos
Jessica Turner
Alto
Cee Adamson
Sydney Belden
Lily Campbell
Anjali Chudasama
Heather Halverson
Anna Messenger
Grace Selmann
Emily Vaughan
Tiffany Walker
Leah Wyman
Tenor
Oliver Callahan
Tyler Todd Kimmel
Timothy Little
Marshell Lombard
Alexander Nguyen
Tri Nguyen
John O'Kane
Mark Petty
Zach Rude
Isaac Tian
Bass
Justin Birchell
Frank Goess
Mikey Prince
Jonathan Rizzardi
Dario Rojas
Zack Shafer
Alec Walter
Daren Weissfisch
Trey Wheeler
University of Washington Chorale
SOPRANO
Fern Bettinger
Emily Cameron
Mavis Chan
Sarah Clark
Meagan Hodgins
Whi Jung
Claire Killian
Emma Koslosky
Anna Kucinski
Meena Kuduva
Ellen Kwon
Joely Loucks
Anna Messenger
Julia Nipert
Rosemary Norheim
Chloe O’Keefe
Sophia Parker
Clara Propst
Meliza Redulla
Caitlin Sarwono
Jessica Turner
Felicia Tzeng
Natalia Valvano
Melody Zhu
ALTO
Meher Chand
Sofiia Fedzorah
Christine Han
Anmol Kaur
Ella L’Heuruex
Naomi-Hal Hoffman
Hannah Limb
Sophie Ma
Julia Park
Sophie Root
Jaminfaye Reduque
Silvana Segura
Maya Shah
Nelly Sunstrum
Emily Vaughan
Aliyah Wachob
Akhila Narayanan
Ruby Whelan
TENOR
Eyad Alsilimy
Scott Fisher Jr.
Cam Gardner
Carson Kyle
Karsten Lomax
Adrian Nguyen
Alex Nguyen
Tri Nguyen
Ollie Hernandez
John O’Kane
Zach Shafer
Ryan Singh
Ethan Walker
BASS
Lewis Back
Jason Barringer
Elisha Bourassa
Matthew Chao
Charlie Dawson
Matt Hansen
Andrew Hoch
Jacob Knight
Jonah Ladish-Orlich
Sidharth Lakshmanan
Christian Rolfson
Cian Scheer
Alec Walter
Trey Wheeler
Director Bio
David Alexander Rahbee is currently Senior Artist in Residence at the University of Washington School of Music in Seattle, where he is Director of Orchestral Activities and Chair of Orchestral Conducting. He is Music Director and Conductor of the University of Washington Symphony Orchestra and founder of the UW Campus Philharmonia Orchestras. He is a recipient of the American-Austrian Foundation's 2003 Herbert von Karajan Fellowship for Young Conductors, the 2005 International Richard-Wagner-Verband Stipend, a fellowship the Acanthes Centre in Paris (2007), and is first prize winner in conducting from The American Prize national non-profit competitions in the performing arts for 2020. His work at UW has earned national recognition. In 2021 he was praised by The American Prize as “Consistently one of the most courageous and comprehensive [orchestral] programmers working in higher education in the U.S. today…”
Dr. Rahbee has appeared in concert with orchestras such as the Seattle Symphony, RTE National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Kammerphilharmonie Berlin-Brandenburg, Guernsey Symphony Orchestra, Chattanooga Symphony, National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia, Orchestre de la Francophonie, Orchesterakademie der Bochumer Symphoniker, the Dresden Hochschule orchestra, Grand Harmonie, the Boston New Music Initiative, Seattle Modern Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Loja (Ecuador), Savaria Symphony Orchestra (Hungary), Cool Opera of Norway (members of the Stavanger Symphony), Schönbrunner Schloss Orchester (Vienna), the Whatcom Symphony Orchestra, the Kennett Symphony, and the Divertimento Ensemble of Milan. His collaborations with the Seattle Symphony include assistant conductor for the performance and recording of Ives’ Fourth Symphony, and as guest conductor for their Native Lands project and the North American premiere of Páll Ragnar Pallson's Quake with faculty cellist Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir. He has collaborated with several prominent soloists such as Sarah Chang, Jon Kimura Parker, Yekwon Sunwoo, Glenn Dicterow and Jonathan Biss. He has been a guest rehearsal conductor for numerous young orchestras, such as the New England Conservatory Symphony Orchestra, The Symphony Orchestra of the Hall-Musco Conservatory of Music at Chapman University, and the Vienna University of Technology orchestra. He has served on faculty of the Pierre Monteux School as Conducting Associate, has been resident conductor of the Atlantic Music Festival and guest conductor at the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival.
Dr. Rahbee was an assistant at the Vienna State opera from 2002-2010. As part of his fellowship and residency at the 2003 Salzburg Festival, Dr. Rahbee was assistant conductor of the International Attergau Institute Orchestra, where he worked with members of the Vienna Philharmonic. He has been selected to actively participate in masterclasses with prominent conductors such as Kurt Masur, Sir Colin Davis, Jorma Panula, Zdeněk Mácal, Peter Eötvös, Zoltán Peskó and Helmut Rilling, and counts Nikolaus Harnoncourt to be among his most influential mentors. From 1997-2001, David Rahbee was founder and conductor of the Fidelio Chamber Orchestra in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Dr. Rahbeeʼs principal conducting teachers were Charles Bruck and Michael Jinbo at the Pierre Monteux School. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree in violin and composition from Indiana University, a Master of Music degree from the New England Conservatory in orchestral conducting, and a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Montreal in orchestral conducting. He has also participated in post-graduate conducting classes at the Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, Vienna. His brass arrangements are published by Warwick Music, and his articles on the music of Mahler have appeared in journals of the International Gustav Mahler Gesellschaft, among others.
In addition to being awarded first prize in conducting from The American Prize for 2020, he was awarded 2nd place in 2019. He has also placed among winners for five consecutive years for The American Prize Vytautas Marijosius Memorial Award for Orchestral Programming, recognizing his programming with the UW Symphony and its affiliated ensembles for every season since he joined the faculty. The UWSO has also been a finalist in the category of orchestral performance in 2018, 2019 and 2020.
Dr. Rahbee is co-editor of Daniels’ Orchestral Music (6thedition) and Daniels’ Orchestral Music Online (DOMO), the gold standard among conductors, orchestral administrators, orchestra librarians as well as other music professionals and students researching for orchestral programming.
Geoffrey Boers is Director of Choral Activities at the University of Washington in Seattle, a program widely recognized as forward thinking, unique, and of great distinction. Under his direction, the graduate choral program has developed a singular mission: to nurture the whole student as conductor-teacher-servant-leader-scholar. This vision has led the program to become one of the most vibrant and innovative in the country, attracting students from around the world interested in exploring the future of our art. Through his teaching he is exploring the evolution of conducting gesture and rehearsal pedagogy and their connection with the emerging neuroscience of mirror neurons, empathy, perception, learning, and personal transformation. His exploration has led to new thoughts about conducting and teaching with regard to breath, movement, artistry, personal awareness, and cultural development. Recently, his work has led to the mentoring of local choral cohorts of teachers and conductors who are interested in building professional communities of ongoing mentorship and musical development. He has developed such mentorship programs across the United States and Canada. In addition to these thoughts about mentorship he is actively working with other leaders in ACDA and NAfME to develop a more unified and useful system for development of musicianship, assessment, adjudication, and repertoire grading.
Geoffrey maintains an active conducting, teaching, workshop and clinic schedule; his recent engagements have included conducting concerts in Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, Meyerson Concert Hall in Dallas, New York’s Alice Tully and Avery Fischer Hall at Lincoln Center, the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, and Benaroya Hall in Seattle. In addition he has served as artist-in-residence in Toronto, Ontario, Mainz, Germany, as well as Seoul, Korea with the world-renown choir the Incheon City Chorale.
In addition to his position at the UW, Boers sings professionally and is the conductor of the Tacoma Symphony Chorus where he conducts both the choir and symphony players in a four-concert season.
Since his tenure at the University of Washington, the choral program has become a leader in promoting the performance, study and exchange of Baltic music in the United States. The choir has toured to the Baltic countries in 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2013. Geoffrey Boers was awarded a prestigious Royalty Research Grant in 2004 to create a Baltic Choral Library in collaboration with the UW Library as well as State and academic libraries in the Baltic. This collection of scores, manuscripts, vocal music, and writings is the first of its kind in the United States. This collection has promoted yearly exchanges with choirs and conductors from the Baltic area who travel each year to Seattle. Further, it has led to numerous UW choral students winning awards and scholarships to travel, study, and work in the Baltic countries.
Giselle Wyers (she/her/hers) is the Donald E. Petersen Endowed Professor of Choral Music at the University of Washington, where she conducts the award-winning University Chorale and teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in choral conducting and music education. She serves as the newly appointed School of Music's designated Diversity Liaison. University Chorale’s latest CD, Resonant Streams (on the MSR Music Recordings label) was featured in a 2018 Gramophone magazine article. Wyers is the newly appointed director of Concord Chamber Choir, an adult community chorus within the Columbia Choirs community. Her professional project choir Solaris Vocal Ensemble, specializes in the performance of contemporary American choral literature. Their premiere album Floodsongs, on the Albany Music label, won the American Prize Ernst Bacon Memorial Award for the Performance of American Music in 2017-18.
As a guest conductor, Wyers has led high school honor choirs and all-state choruses in New York (Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center), Kansas, Wisconsin, Georgia, Missouri, Louisiana, Connecticut, Nebraska, Texas, Washington, Alaska, Idaho, and Vancouver, Canada. She has conducted semi-professional ensembles across the United States and in Germany, the Netherlands, Estonia, and Sweden. Wyers was in demand for Zoom lectures during the pandemic with Res Diversa Chamber Choir (Chile), Western Washington University (a three-week group composition project), University of Iowa, Northern Illinois University, Montana State University, and with the Mastersingers of Milwaukee (Wisconsin), as well as conducting Nevada All-State online.
Wyers is a leading national figure in the application of Laban movement theory for conductors. She has served as guest lecturer in conducting at Sweden’s Örebro Universitet, European Festival of Church Music (Germany), Latvian Academy of Music, Eastman School of Music, Ithaca College, Westminster Choir College, University of Iowa, Hobart and William Smith Colleges and Portland State University.
Wyers’ choral works are published by Santa Barbara Music Publishing Company as part of the "Giselle Wyers Choral Series," and have been performed across the United States, South America, Canada, Australia, Cuba, and numerous European cities. She will conduct her 30-minute choral cycle entitled And All Shall Be Well, in Carnegie Hall May of 2022 with a consortium of NW-based choruses. In 2021-22, she will serve as composer-in-residence for the Greater Seattle Choral Consortium's annual festivities celebrating the return of in-person singing (her appearance is sponsored by Consortio). Wyers is also committed to mentoring scholar-writers in the field, and serves on the editorial board of ACDA’s Choral Journal.