aaus-list @ ukrainianstudies.org -- [aaus-list] Music of Kyiv and New York

[Diana Howansky <dhh2@columbia.edu>]

NEW YORK: Sunday, 22 January, 3 p.m.
Ukrainian Institute of America
2 East 79th Street
New York, NY 10021

The “Music at the Institute” music series sponsored by the Ukrainian 
Institute of America will present a concert of works as part of its 
“Anthology of Ukrainian and American Chamber Music.” The program, 
entitled “Two Cities, One Spirit – Music of Kyiv and New York,” will be 
performed by the Musiciens sans frontières ensemble under the direction 
of George Stelluto, one of the most promising young conductors of his 
generation.

The program consists of the World Premiere (String Version) of Huang 
Ruo’s “Leaving Sao” (2006), written for the Ukrainian Institute of 
America and Musiciens sans frontières; the American premiere of Symphony 
No. 3 (1978) by one of Ukraine’s leading composers, Ivan Karabyts; 
“Rounds” (1944) by David Diamond; and Symphony No. 5 (1943) by William 
Schuman.

Tickets: $30, UIA members and Senior Citizens -- $25, Students -- $20

A reception will follow the concert.

For additional information and reservations, please call (212) 288-8660 
or visit www.ukrainianinstitute.org

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

Still in his 20s, Chinese composer HUANG RUO is already known to the 
music worlds of two continents as a promising young composer and 
scholar. His music has been performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra 
under Wolfgang Sawallisch, the American Composers Orchestra under Dennis 
Russell Davies, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Chicago Pro Musica, the 
Nieuw Ensemble of Amsterdam, and the Queens Symphony with Cho-Liang Lin, 
to name but a few. In 2003, Huang Ruo was featured on the composer’s 
portrait concert at Columbia University’s Miller Theater, where all his 
four chamber concertos were premiered as a cycle by the International 
Contemporary Ensemble. New York Times critic Allan Kozinn named this 
concert number two of the “Top Ten Classical Moments of 2003.” Hailed by 
the Wall Street Journal as “strikingly assured, marked by a descriptive 
grandeur and gravity,” Huang Ruo has also been honored with multiple 
ASCAP Young Composer Awards. The orchestral lyric “Leaving Sao”(“Sao” is 
Chinese for “sorrow” or “sadness”) was first written in 2004. The string 
version of this work, written for the Ukrainian Institute of America and 
the Musiciens sans frontières ensemble, will receive its world premiere 
at this concert.

Ukrainian composer IVAN KARABYTS (1945-2002) is the author of a large 
body of symphonic, chamber, vocal, and stage works. Contemporary in 
spirit and expression, his music reflects his endeavor to convey the 
universality of experience, both past and present, be it that of Ukraine 
and her people or of humanity at large. Following in the tradition of 
Mahler, Shostakovich, and Lyatoshynsky, Karabyts makes use of vivid 
images that often take him beyond harmonious form. His symphonic works 
have won critical acclaim for such qualities as grandeur of scale, 
conceptual vividness, and brilliant command of the orchestra and its 
coloristic potential. The works of Ivan Karabyts are frequently 
performed throughout the countries of the former Soviet Union, and many 
of his compositions have been heard by audiences in Germany, Finland, 
Italy, Argentina, England, and the United States.

In his Symphony No. 3, written in a single movement for strings, 
Karabyts uses the various colors of the string orchestra with emphasis 
on deep expressivity and research of harmonic and voice intensity rather 
than virtuosity and brilliance. One of the composer’s most important 
works, which has been regularly performed by chamber orchestras in 
Ukraine and Europe, it will receive its first American performance at 
this concert.

DAVID DIAMOND (1913-2005), one of the leading American composers of the 
20th century, was once described by Leonard Bernstein as “a vital branch 
in the stream of American music.” His many works include 11 symphonies, 
ten string quartets, art songs, choral music, solo pieces for piano and 
string instruments, sonatas, and more. Diamond At a time when electronic 
and aleatoric music swept up so many composers, Diamond continued to 
pursue, refine, and expand his own chromatic and contrapuntal techniques 
fully within 20th century harmonic and stylistic contexts, rejecting the 
notion of chance elements in his work. In an interview with the Seattle 
Times shortly before his death, he said, “I have always thought music 
had to have strong melodic contours, good rhythmic variety and 
counterpoint, or it would make no dent on people…”

Diamond wrote “Rounds for String Orchestra,” perhaps his most popular 
work and the winner of the New York Music Critics Award in 1944, on 
commission from Dimitri Mitropolous and the Minneapolis Symphony, who 
asked the composer for “a happy work,” according to Bob Massey’s program 
notes for a recent performance of the piece at the Kennedy Center. The 
result was pronounced by New York Times critic Olin Downes to be 
“admirably fashioned, joyous and vernal… there is laughter in the music. 
And no waste notes!” And reviewer Robert Cummings, describes it as “a 
short, mostly energetic work for strings, which effervesces with such 
infectious optimism, you’re totally enamored of its charm before the 
manic four-minute-plus first movement is even half-over. The following 
Adagio is absolutely lovely, and the finale is a vivacious romp that 
leaves you breathless but exhilarated.”

WILLIAM SCHUMAN (1910-1992), a native New Yorker, wrote a plethora of 
works in virtually every musical genre, each mirroring his strong 
personality in their sharply defined sense of structure, line, and 
dynamism. He incorporated American jazz and folk traditions into works 
that ranged from a harmonically conservative early style to later 
excursions into dissonance and polytonality. Schumann was also a vital 
force in American musical life as an administrator. In the course of his 
career he served as director of publications for G. Schirmer, Inc., 
president of the Juilliard School, the first president of Lincoln 
Center, and held numerous positions with a host of other organizations. 
It was under his aegis as Juilliard’s president that the world-renowned 
Juilliard Quartet was formed. He guided the growth of Lincoln Center, 
establishing both the Chamber Music Society and the Film Society of 
Lincoln Center. His numerous awards, honors, and prizes include the 
first Pulitzer Prize in music in 1943 for his cantata “A Free Song” and 
the National Medal of Arts in 1987. In presenting Schuman with the 
MacDowell Colony Medal in 1971, Aaron Copland said: “…In Schuman’s 
pieces you have the feeling that only an American could have written 
them… You hear it in his orchestration, which is full of snap and 
brilliance. You hear it in the kind of American optimism which is at the 
basis of his music.”

American conductor GEORGE STELLUTO is quickly becoming known for his 
engaging, energetic performances and insightful interpretations of music 
from the Baroque to the present day. His recent success has identified 
him as one of the most promising young conductors of his generation. 
2005 marks his sixth year as Music Director of the Las Vegas Music 
Festival, his third as Artistic Advisor to the Chernihiv Winter Festival 
in Ukraine, and his first as Music Director of Musiciens sans 
frontieres. Additionally, he is currently Music Director of the 
University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) Symphony Orchestra and the UNLV 
Opera Theater. In 2004, he became the first conductor ever invited to 
join The Juilliard School’s prestigious Artist Diploma Program – 
studying with and serving as assistant to James DePreist and often 
working with the school’s orchestras, ensembles, and the Vocal Arts 
Department.

George Stelluto’s 2005-2006 conducting engagements include appearances 
at The Juilliard School and Symphony Space in New York, in France’s 
Loire Valley, and with the Las Vegas Music Festival and UNLV Symphony 
Orchestra. Last season, George Stelluto made debut appearances with the 
International Contemporary Ensemble and the Kyiv Chamber Orchestra. 
Recent past engagements include appearances with the Ukrainian National 
Orchestra, the Transylvania State Philharmonic (Romania), Kyiv 
Philharmonic, the Wieniawski String Orchestra of Poland, the Hartford 
Symphony Orchestra, and the Nevada Symphony Orchestra, as well as tour 
appearances in London, Cambridge, Edinburgh, and Glasgow. In 2000, he 
made his international debut at the Kyiv International Music Festival 
with an acclaimed performance of Samuel Barber's Second Essay – a first 
for Kyiv audiences. Since then he has returned regularly, receiving 
enthusiastic responses for the Ukrainian premieres of works by William 
Schuman (Symphony No. 5), Samuel Barber (First Essay), Virko Baley 
(Adam’s Apple), and Eric Ewazen (Chamber Symphony). He has premiered the 
works of numerous other composers, including Huang Ruo, Kati Agocs, 
Fisher Tull, Carolyn Yarnell, Elena Roussanova, and Derek Bourgeois. 
George Stelluto has collaborated with such noted artists as Hilary Hahn, 
Edgar Meyer, Samuel Ramey, Frank Huang, Brinton Smith, and Jane Dutton 
among others. His performances, interviews, and recordings have been 
broadcast on radio and television throughout the United States and 
Eastern Europe. His festival credits include the Aspen Music Festival, 
Peter Britt Festival, and The Quartet Program.

-- 
Diana Howansky
Staff Associate
Ukrainian Studies Program
Columbia University
Room 1209, MC3345
420 W. 118th Street
New York, NY  10027
(212) 854-4697
ukrainianstudies@columbia.edu
http://www.sipa.columbia.edu/ukrainianstudies/