Innova 636

 

Society for New Music.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pinocchio’s Adventures in Funland , 1999 by Michael Gandolfi

b. 1956 (based on the Carlo Collodi original) Words by Dana Bonstrom

I. Introduction                             II. Geppetto’s Workshop  

III. Pinocchio’s Escape                 IV. The History of Pinocchio V. The Blue Fairy                   VI. Pinocchio & Candleflame VII. The Funland Coach                VIII. The Trip to Funland

IX. Funland                                X. Donkeyland    XI. The Coachman’s Return     XII. The Circus

XIII. Pinocchio’s Lament              XIV. A Watery Adventure XV. Pinocchio’s Return

 

Laura Campbell, flute              James Krehbiel, violin

John Friedrichs, clarinet/bass    George Macero, cello

Steven Heyman, piano             Rich Ziemba, percussion

Neva Pilgrim, narrator               Yoichi Udagawa, conductor

 

Beauty & the Beast, 1979

by R. Murray Schafer b. 1933

An opera for voice with masks & string quartet

(after a story by Madame Leprince de Beaumont)

 

Vladimir Pritsker & Michael Bosetti, violin

Kit Dodd, viola            George Macero, cello

Neva Pilgrim, soprano

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Michael Gandolfi was born in Melrose, MA, where his earliest musical involvement was in rock and jazz improv

beginning at age 8. A self-taught guitarist, his formal study began in his early teens and earned him a BM and MM from the New England Conservatory, as well as fellowships for study at Yale-Norfolk, the Composers Conference and Tanglewood. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including grants from the Koussevitzky and Guggenheim Foundations and multiple grants from the NEA, Am. Academy & Institute of Arts & Letters, and ASCAP. The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Speculum Musicae, Tanglewood, Riverside Symphony, Sonor, SF Cont. Music Players, Parnassus and L.A. Chamber Players have all commissioned him. His music has been recorded on DGG and CRI.

Pinocchio’s Adventures in Funland is a retelling, for chamber ensemble and narrator, of a few of the many adventures of Carlo Collodi’s manic marionette. The work evolved out of a shorter piece for solo flute and piano, Geppetto’s Workshop, that Gandolfi had composed earlier. Adventures in Funland consists of 15 short scenes that are designed to entertain and educate young audiences by introducing them to the riches of concert music. Dana Bonstrom’s vivid text adaptation is musically illuminated by rich ensemble textures and leitmotifs that enhance and accent this classic story. It was commissioned by the Elaine Kaufman Cultural Center for its Musicmakers Telling Tales series, and had its premiere at Merkin Hall in NYC in April 1999.

Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio: The Adventures of a Marionette begins when Geppetto, an old Italian, carves a puppet out of a piece of wood, repeating, as all artists do on a minute scale, the creation of the world. But Pinocchio causes only trouble for his creator, despite the good influences of the Blue Fairy. In fact, he behaved so much like an ass that he turns into a donkey, after which his character improves somewhat. By the time he is swallowed by a Dogfish, he is really quite good. Inside the Fish he discovers his father, old Geppetto, and rescues him.

Pinocchio is one of the masterpieces of fantasy, and open to many levels of interpretation. The living puppet becomes a real boy when he himself learns to love. The Blue Fairy, an idealized mother and guide, inspires the unregenerate puppet, who is constantly misbehaving and breaking promises, through the healing power of love. Pinocchio progresses from wood to living wood to human. He is a humorous presentation of well-intentioned waywardness and misbehavior – a set of contradictions with which children of all ages eagerly identify.

R. Murray Schafer, composer, educator, and writer on music, studied piano, harpsichord and theory at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, and composition at the Univ. of Toronto. He was expelled for insubordination and in 1956 went to Vienna to study medieval German. He traveled, met Ezra Pound, and edited his writings on music. Until 1961 he also worked as a journalist and BBC interviewer. He returned to Canada in 1962 and founded the Ten Centuries Concerts. As a resident in music at Simon Fraser University, Schafer founded the Studio for Sonic Research and Electronic Music in 1965.

In 1970 he founded the world Soundscape Project, which led to his revolutionary 1977 book, The Tuning of the World. His work is rooted in the major trends of the 1960s, such as 12-note serialism, indeterminancy and the use of mixed media. However, his use of any particular technique has always been free and individual. He often utilizes extra-musical material, e.g. philosophy and literature of different times and peoples, symbolism, modern psychology and communication theory, and texts in dead languages to emphasize phonetic rather than semantic content. For the last 20 years he has lived on a farm outside Toronto, devoting all his time to composing and writing books about music. His music theater works and five string quartets are evidence of his interest in performance situations in which the environment plays an integral role. His view of music is global, embracing concerns with education and noise pollution, and includes The New Soundscape and The Book of Noise. Active in music education, his music for children stresses creativity and receptivity rather than theory and skill.

Beauty and the Beast, an opera for solo voice, masks and string quartet, was written in 1979 to a libretto by the composer and intended for incorporation into Patria 3, which consists of a large number of short works. Patria 3 was created for presentation in an open-air environment as a kind of carnival or fair, with the audience free to move among the attractions. Madame Leprince de Beaumont’s story is considered a children’s fairy tale, but like many fairy tales, it has a deep psychological significance as well. The young virgin Beauty is content to live under the protection of her father, until his fortune fails and it becomes necessary for her to leave. Her encounter with Beast both attracts and repels her, and she flees back to her father. But her subconscious, i.e. the figures in her dreams, force her to realize that she cannot remain at home but must return to confront Beast and give herself to him. In so doing, she tames his brutish masculinity and Beast is transformed into a charming Prince, and the two lovers to embark on their life together as young adults. Another work in Patria 3, Requiems for the Party-Girl, was recorded by Neva Pilgrim and released on CRI.

 

 

Performer Bios

LAURA CAMPBELL, flute/piccolo, teaches at Colgate University and Wells College. She has performed with several orchestras in the midwest and east, most recently with the Ithaca Opera, Utica Symphony and Catskill Symphony. A strong proponent of contemporary music, she has appeared as a soloist with the Composers' Forum in NYC, the Southeast Composers' Forum in Radford, Virginia, the Society for New Music, and has also performed at the "June in Buffalo New Music Festival." Her recordings include Margaret Fairlie-Kennedy's "Windrider / Final Ascent" on the SCI CD Evocation and Morning Light.

JOHN FRIEDRICHS, clarinet/bass, has held the position of bass clarinet/assistant first chair clarinet with the Syracuse Symphony since 1984. In 1992 he was a featured soloist in Copland’s Clarinet Concerto. He graduated from Eastman with a BM and a Performer’s Certificate. While at Eastman he studied with Stanley Hasty. Friedrichs performs with the Society for New Music, the Buffalo and Rochester Philharmonic Orchestras and Glimmerglass Opera.

STEVEN HEYMAN, piano, holds BM and MM degrees from Juilliard, where he studied on scholarship with Adele Marcus. He was a student of Hans Graf at Vienna’s Hochschule für Musik, and studied and coached with Irwin Freundlich, Samuel Sanders, Leonard Rose, Claus Adam and Szymon Goldberg. He has won a number of national competitions, as well as prizes in Vienna’s Beethoven competition, the Gina Bachauer Competition, and Missouri’s Southern International Competition. He was invited to participate in the Palm Beach International where he was the highest-ranking American. He has performed throughout the US and Europe, including appearances with the Milwaukee, Syracuse, Northeast Louisiana, and Shreveport Symphonies, and appeared at such chamber festivals as Salzburg, Deer Valley (Utah), Chenango and Skaneateles. He is on the faculty at Syracuse University and artist-in-residence at Colgate. Heyman has performed with the Society for New Music since he returned to Syracuse, and has recorded for Opus One and Leonarda.

JAMES KREHBIEL, violin, is a graduate of the Interlochen Arts Academy and Eastman, where he earned a Performer’s Certificate and won the concerto competition. Major teachers have included Rosemary Malocsay, Zvi Zeitlin, Dorothy DeLay and Erica Sato. He has appeared in recitals in the US, Italy and Germany, and as soloist with the Eastman Philharmonic, Syracuse Camerata, Syracuse Friends of Chamber Music, and Skaneateles Festival. Mr. Krehbiel has also performed with the Spoleto, Sienna and Aspen Festivals, as well as with the Music Academy of the West Festival. He performed with the Syracuse Symphony, has performed and recorded with the Society for New Music, has served on the faculty at Interlochen, Colgate, Hamilton College, and currently teaches at Syracuse University.

MICHAEL BOSETTI, violin, studied at the Univ. of Michigan and New England Conservatory, where he received a diploma in performance. His principal teachers were Jamie Laredo, Louis Krasner and Mihail Stolarevsky. Before joining the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, Bosetti performed as assistant concertmaster with orchestras in West Virginia and Nova Scotia, and as first violinist with the Nova String Quartet. In addition to performing regularly with the Society for New Music, he is a member of the acclaimed Clinton Quartet.

VLADIMIR PRITSKER, violin, immigrated to the U.S. from his hometown of Kharkov, Russia in 1989 and became a member of the Syracuse Symphony that same year. While in Russia, Pritsker studied with Prof. Adolf Leschinsky at the Kharkov Institute, and served as associate concertmaster of the Kharkov State Opera Orchestra and first violinist with the Kharkov Philharmonic. Since coming to the U.S. he has performed with the Skaneateles Festival, Glimmerglass Opera, Society for New Music, Lake Placid Festival, and soloed with the Syracuse Symphony. He is a member of the highly regarded Clinton Quartet and has recorded with the Society for New Music.

KIT DODD, viola, earned his BM at the Univ. of Oregon & his MM at Wichita State. His principal teachers were G. Roy Mann & Jeffrey K. Irvine. Dodd performed as assistant principal violist with the Eugene & Wichita Symphonies. He has been featured as soloist with the Syracuse Symphony, Skaneateles Festival & Syracuse Camerata. Dodd is a member of the Clinton Quartet, which has produced several recordings, and a member of the Onondaga Community College string faculty.

GEORGE MACERO, cello, attended Queens College and New York University, where he studied cello with Nathan Stutch, Assistant Principal Cellist of the New York Philharmonic. Macero performed the Beethoven Triple concerto as the winner of the Queens’ concerto competition in NYC. He has been a member of the Syracuse Symphony since 1977, and has soloed with them. A regular with the Society for New Music for 25 years, he is also a founding member of the Clinton Quartet.

NEVA PILGRIM, soprano, holds degrees from Hamline and Yale, and studied at the Vienna Academy on fellowship. In addition to numerous awards and grants, she has performed throughout the U.S., Europe, Canada and Japan with such companies as the Vienna Volksoper, Salzburg New Music Festival, Tri-Cities Opera, Padua Festival, at London’s Wigmore Hall, at Alice Tully, Merkin and Carnegie Halls in NYC, in Osaka, Tokyo, Montreal, Paris, Portland, Berkeley, Seattle, Los Angeles, Chicago, Cleveland, Washington DC, and countless others. She has soloed with the Chicago, Syracuse and Binghamton Symphonies, the New York, Brooklyn & Northeastern Philharmonics and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, to name a few, working with such conductors as Boulez, Foss, Keene, Berio, Shapey, Leinsdorf, Stock, Custer, Meier, Wernick and Schuller, and performed at Marlboro, Monadnock, Tanglewood, Chautauqua and Saratoga Baroque Festivals. She has over 20 recordings, is a founding member of the Soc. for New Music, and artist-in-residence at Colgate.

YOICHI UDAGAWA, conductor, is Music Director and Conductor of the Cape Ann Symphony, Melrose Symphony, and the Quincy Symphony. He also serves on the faculty of the Boston Conservatory where he teaches graduate conducting. Frequently invited to guest conduct, Udagawa has worked with many different orchestras including the Nobeoka Philharmonic, the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston, Indian Hill Symphony, Garden State Philharmonic, Newton Symphony Orchestra, Boston Conservatory Orchestra, Brown University Orchestra, Austin Civic Orchestra, and the Mid-Texas Symphony. He has also served as cover conductor for Keith Lockhart and John Williams at the Boston Pops. The son of a nuclear physicist father and singer/artist mother, Mr. Udagawa was born in Tokyo in 1964. His family immigrated to the U.S. soon after. He began playing the violin at age 4 and made his conducting debut at the age of 15. After receiving a music degree from the Univ. of Texas-Austin, he continued his studies in conducting with Gunther Schuller, Seiji Ozawa, Morihiro Okabe, and Henry Charles Smith.

RICHARD ZIEMBA studied music at Onondaga Community College and Syracuse University. He conducted the OCC Percussion Ensemble during performances of 2 of his own compositions, and is one of the founders of the OCC Indoor Drumline, currently serving as the arranger and instructor. He is also active as a marching percussion arranger, teacher and consultant, has worked with the Patriots Drum & Bugle Corps from Rochester, Les Etoiles Drum & Bugle Corps from Montreal, and locally with the Baldwinsville, Oswego and Mexico Marching Band programs. Currently the percussion arranger and instructor for the Liverpool Marching Band, he has performed with the Society for New Music, OCMEA Wind Ensemble, and as soloist with the OCC Ragtime Band.

 

James Abbott: Recording engineer, editor