Performance

Winter 2024

Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra

featuring Jessica Pavone and Roth Visiting Scholar Tomeka Reid

February 17 - 18, 2024

This event occurred as part of the 23/24 Hop Ensemble season. This is an archived view.

The ensemble performs Mendelssohn's 3rd Symphony, "Scottish", inspired by the composer's journey across the scenic and rugged landscapes of Scotland as a young man.

23/24 Hop Ensemble

Filippo Ciabatti, director

The program also features the jazz-inspired orchestral music of Jessica Pavone, When the World Changes Around You, and the cello concerto, Essay No. 1, of Roth Visiting Scholar Tomeka Reid, with the composer as soloist.

Scheduling Note: This performance will take place only on Saturday, February 17 at 8 pm.

Photos: Ben DeFlorio

The Hop Presents

Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra
Filippo Ciabatti, conductor
with
Tomeka Reid, cello

Saturday, February 17, 8 pm
Rollins Chapel • Dartmouth College • 2024

Funded in part by the Roesch Family Fund in support of Instrumental Ensembles and by gifts from Friends of the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra.
We thank Mrs. Selma Bornstein for her generous donation of the Petrof Concert Grand Piano, given in loving memory of her husband Dr. Murray Bornstein and used for tonight’s concert.

Program

Approximate duration: 90 minutes with no intermission

When the World Changes Around You Jessica Pavone (1976–)

Essay No. 1 Tomeka Reid (1977–)
Tomeka Reid, cello

Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 56 “Scottish” Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847)
Introduction and Allegro agitato—Scherzo assai vivace—
Adagio cantabile—Allegro guerriero and Finale maestoso

Program Notes

essica Pavone (1976–)
When the World Changes Around You (2015)
I have always been fascinated by perpetual motion in nature: the waves of the ocean, the earth’s orbit, the beating of the heart—particularly by its inexhaustibility and consistency despite external change. Change, in itself, is in a constant state of perpetual motion, and throughout the duration of one’s life, much of the change we experience is beyond our control. When the World Changes Around You mirrors this fascination through the use of ostinato. The orchestra’s ‘heartbeat’—or ostinato—remains constant throughout the piece regardless of changes in time and feel. Adjustments have been made to the notation of the ostinato, enabling this effect. By the end of the piece, the sections prove interchangeable as they overlap.

© Jessica Pavone

Tomeka Reid (1977–)
Essay No. 1 (2017)
Commissioned by the Chicago Composer’s Orchestra in 2017, Essay No. 1 is work for solo cello and ensemble. Most of the compositions I write display my love of stringed instruments and rhythm so the setting I created takes advantage of these sonic and rhythmic spaces with a few wind and brass instruments sprinkled into the mix. As I work mostly as an improvisor, I wanted to find ways not only for myself to improvise within the piece but to also give the orchestra and the conductor the ability to create music in real time provided a graphic score. There are three main sections of the piece. Essay starts out with a lyrical and majestic statement from the cello and an orchestral tutti that eventually leads to a cadenza from the cello and then the orchestral improvisation fun happens! The last section has a bluesy feel, a nod to the great city of Chicago, where the cellist has an opportunity to improvise over the orchestra, before returning to the main theme from the opening.

© Tomeka Reid

Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847)
Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 56 “Scottish” (1842)
Mendelssohn was a prodigy, born into a distinguished family of Jewish bankers and philosophers. He and his sister Fanny—also a talented composer, conductor and pianist—were raised in a warm, intellectual, highly supportive artistic family. They matured early, and a stream of musical compositions flowed from them both. Mendelssohn was clearly one of the most important German composers of his time and infused the expressiveness of early romantic music with the clarity and intellectuality of Mozart and Haydn’s classicism. This exquisite balance found expression in a wide variety of musical genres; Mendelssohn was as at home writing Protestant oratorios such as Elijah and St. Paul as he was composing chamber music and symphonies. He created a significant body of work in his relatively short life, including major works for orchestra that constitute an important part of today’s repertoire. These works (from his maturity) include six concert overtures, six concertos and five symphonies.

His musical style reflects, to a large degree, his upbringing and his personality—it speaks of discipline, balance and an overall cheerful, largely untroubled mien. While his compositions reflect solicitude for clear, balanced musical structures and an obvious avoidance of excess of romantic emotion and empty virtuosity, there is nevertheless a sentimental and emotive quality to them. And this is certainly true of his symphonies. The numbering of them is hopelessly confusing; suffice it to say that Symphony No. 3 was the last composed of the five. Like some others of Mendelssohn’s works, to a degree, it is a reflection of his travels, in this case to Scotland in 1829. He visited the ruins of Holyrood Castle, where he conceived the opening of the Scottish symphony, later going on to visit Sir Walter Scott, the Highlands and the Hebrides Islands. The symphony—not finished until 1842—is generally a somewhat darker composition than most of the composer’s works. It is innovative in the sense that Mendelssohn called for the connection of all four movements in performance—a characteristic that later composers adopted to create the single-movement tone poem.

The first movement is prefaced by a slow introduction, followed by the faster movement, proper. The basic motive heard in the introduction will be encountered not only in the ensuing fast section but also throughout the symphony—quite progressive for a composer of that time. The expected dance-like movement (usually heard as a third movement, but here is a second) opens with the tune in the clarinet, in a distinct Scottish folk style. Mendelssohn continues his innovations by couching this movement in two counts, rather than the usual three counts, to a bar. It’s almost more than a dance in its rather wild and careening scramble. The following adagio movement has moments—including a section that sounds a bit like a funeral march—that may remind some of the solemnity of the composers’ oratorios. The last movement is really in two large sections—the first is rather tumultuous and anxious, and includes some rather dissonant counterpoint (remember Mendelssohn’s key rôle in the revival of J. S. Bach’s works). A rather mysterious, murky, chromatic passage in the woodwinds dissolves all that and leads us to the last part. It’s a majestic one that includes a sonorous hymn and triumphant fanfare-like passages. The darker moments that had thitherto set much of the mood of this last symphony are resolved in exultation.

About the Artists

Praised for his “sensitive and nuanced” musicianship and for delivering performances “with admirable sweep and tension,” Filippo Ciabatti is a dynamic and versatile conductor who enjoys a multifaceted career. A native of Florence, Italy, Mr. Ciabatti has appeared as a guest conductor with numerous orchestras in Europe and the Americas. He regularly serves as cover conductor for the Portland Symphony Orchestra (Maine) and will make his guest conducting debut for them in 2024. This year, he will also make his guest conducting debut with the Macon-Mercer Symphony Orchestra and the San Angelo Symphony (Texas).

Mr. Ciabatti has collaborated with artists including Philadelphia Orchestra concertmaster David Kim, baritone Nathan Gunn, cellist Gabriel Cabezas, pianist Sally Pinkas, flutist Luciano Tristaino and mandolinist Carlo Aonzo. An advocate for contemporary music and collaborations between musical genres, he premiered a secular oratorio composed by renowned jazz composer Taylor Ho Bynum, and commissioned a cello concerto
by composer Noah Luna that was aired on NPR’s From the Top.

In October 2023 he began serving as Assistant Conductor of Boston Baroque. He is the founding Artistic Director of Upper Valley Baroque. Also at ease on the opera stage, Mr. Ciabatti has recently been named Music Director of the Opera Company of Middlebury and has also conducted many full operatic productions while serving as guest conductor at Opera North (New Hampshire) and Lyric Theatre at Illinois.

Mr. Ciabatti is the Director of Orchestral and Choral Programs at the Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth College. Since the beginning of his tenure, he has been invested in working on innovative and cross-disciplinary projects that provide exceptional opportunities for both students and audiences.

As a collaborative pianist and vocal coach, Mr. Ciabatti has been on the faculty of Camerata de’ Bardi in New York City, and Scuola Italia per Giovani Cantanti Lirici in Sant’Angelo in Vado (Italy). He is currently on faculty at the summer opera program Opera Viva! in Verona (Italy). Mr. Ciabatti holds advanced degrees in piano, choral conducting and orchestral conducting from Italy and the United States. He is the winner of the 2021 American Prize in Conducting (college/university division). In 2018, he served as a Conducting Fellow at the Aurora Music Festival (Sweden), under the direction of Jukka-Pekka Saraste.

As an instrumentalist and composer, developing original compositions for solo viola has been integral to Jessica Pavone’s practice. She explores music’s tactile and sensory experience as a vibration-based medium and incorporates time-based principles to shape the works. Inspired by processes that center on intuition and instinct, her music channels all these ideas by focusing on how music feels when played and heard and exploring how sonic vibrations affect the body, weaving her experiences as an instrumentalist into works that transcend time. While her primary training was in classical music at the Hartt School of Music (BM Music Ed ’98) and Brooklyn College (MM Music Composition ’07), Pavone has dedicated her career to exploring alternative avenues for creative musical expression and “has made a career of redefining the possibilities for her instrument” (Steve Smith, National Sawdust Log). Since studying with Leroy Jenkins from ’00–’05 and incorporating improvisation in her viola playing, Pavone has performed original music by William Parker, Henry Threadgill, Matana Roberts, Wadada Leo Smith, Aaron Siegel, Tyondai Braxton, Glenn Branca, Matthew Welch, Samantha Boshnack, Elliot Sharp and Taylor Ho Bynum. From ’05 to ’12, she toured regularly with Anthony Braxton’s Sextet and 12+1tet and has appeared on his discography from that time. She has premiered new music at prominent NYC venues and has released four collaborative duo recordings with guitarist Mary Halvorson (2019 MacArthur Fellow). In 2011, Pavone was featured in NPR’s The Mix: 100 Composers Under 40. The New York Times wrote that her music is “distinct and beguiling… its core is steely, and its execution clear,” and in Wire Magazine, Julian Cowley noted that Pavone “[is] not like other composers—she is uniquely herself, and from that stems the improbable strength of her music.”

Cellist and composer Tomeka Reid has emerged as one of the most original, versatile and curious musicians in Chicago’s bustling jazz and improvised music community. A 2022 MacArthur and Herb Alpert awardee, 2021 USA Fellow, 2019 Foundation of the Arts and 2016 3Arts recipient, Reid received her doctorate in music from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 2017. From 2019–2021 Tomeka Reid received a teaching appointment at Mills College as the Darius Milhaud chair in composition.

Marcia Cassidy is a long-time member of the faculty of Dartmouth College. She came to Dartmouth in 1987 as a member of the Franciscan String Quartet. The quartet concertized extensively in the United States, Europe, Canada and Japan to critical acclaim and was honored with many awards, including first prize in the 1986 Banff International String Quartet Competition. Ms. Cassidy currently teaches violin and viola students and directs and coaches in the chamber music program. As the assistant to the Dartmouth Symphony, Ms. Cassidy participates in and advises all aspects of running the orchestra and enjoys playing alongside her students. In addition to her Dartmouth commitments, Ms. Cassidy is an active orchestral and chamber musician, playing with groups such as the Vermont Symphony, Opera North, Juno Orchestra and period performance chamber ensembles, Musicians of the Old Post Road and Upper Valley Baroque.

Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra

Filippo Ciabatti, conductor

Marcia Cassidy, assistant conductor

Leslie Sonder, librarian

Elizabeth Lee ’24, Jason Pak ’24, Annie Mills ’26, Ava Rosenbaum ’26, managers

Violin I
*Annie Mills ’26
Hinano Kawaiaea ’27
Helena Seo ’25
Mina Lavcheva
Kathy Andrew
Elena Oh ’27
Connor Zhang ’27
Ira Morris
Amy Sims
Ryan Shannon

Violin II
Sophia Chang Stauffer ’22, G
JJ Kim ’27
Zoe Hu ’25
Marcia Cassidy F
Ben Lively
Greg Diehl
Melanie Dexter
Tudor Dornescu

Viola
Jason Pak ’24
Mac Waters G
Hunter Kui UG-TH
Carrol Lee
Katrina Smith
Ethan Wu UG-TH
Leslie Sonder F
Ana Ruesink

Cello
William An ’27
Ava Rosenbaum ’26
Duncan Mahony ’27
Tyler Grubelich ’26
Elizabeth Lee ’24
Tucker McSpadden ’27
Ethan Hodess ’25
Samuel Walter

Double Bass
Paul Horak TH ’94
Nicholas Browne F
Evan Runyon

Flute
Laura del Sol Jiménez
Elsa Coulam ’27

Oboe
Michelle Farah (+ English horn)
Nathaniel Chen ’25

Clarinet
Nicholas Brown
Catherine Liao ’25

Bassoon
Janet Polk F
Stephanie Busby

Horn
Josh Michal
Adam Schommer
Patrick Kennelly F
Joy Worland

Trumpet
Mark Emery
Liz Jewell

Tuba
Chase Harvey ’24

Timpani
Nicola Cannizzaro

Percussion
Rosina Cannizzaro
Abigail Pak ’26

Piano
Daniel Liu ’26

2023/24 Season

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Located adjacent to the northeast corner of the Dartmouth Green.

Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra

The ensemble performs Mendelssohn's 3rd Symphony, "Scottish", inspired by the composer's journey across the scenic and rugged landscapes of Scotland as a young man.

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