≈ 90 minutes · No intermission
Last updated: October 26, 2021
Repertoire
Primal Message
Describing her piece Primal Message, originally written for string quintet in 2018, Nokuthula Ngwenyama says it’s “based on the idea of communicating the things we learn to communicate with each other: our intelligence, our emotions, our goodness.” The creative journey of the work was sparked by her reading Steven Johnson’s 2017 article, “Greetings E.T. (Please Don’t Murder Us)”, in The New York Times Magazine, and her reflecting on the Arecibo message, the interstellar radio message about Earth and humanity sent to globular star cluster M13 in 1974. As she told Matthew Neil Andrews in an interview for Oregon ArtsWatch from September 2018,
“Primal Message was good for exploring us, and how we communicate. …Primal essence—both the intelligent and emotional, all of it. How do you get in touch with that? And how do you communicate that? And have it be a message of beauty, and compelling enough for another life form to be like, “whoa, that’s kind of cool that someone tried to put that math in there and do this and make it a song.”
Tonight, you’ll hear the orchestral version of Primal Message, which was premiered in November 2020 by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Xian Zhang. As a compositional framework, Ngwenyama uses the prime number sequence 2-3-5-7, which shapes the rhythmic patterns as well as melodic and harmonic structures of the piece. A warm, yearning melody, based on the pentatonic scale, is the work’s heart. Presented in wave-like sections, with quieter, delicately textured moments surging into more intense, impassioned outpourings with denser counterpoint, the melody has, as Ngwenyama notes, “a certain sort of ecstasy…all the hopes, dreams, and passions of humanity.”
Program notes by Dr. Hannah Chan-Hartley
Piano Concerto in One Movement
Andantino – Adagio cantabile – Allegretto
Florence B. Price’s Piano Concerto in One Movement, completed in 1934, was the composer’s second major orchestral work, following the success of her first Symphony in E minor. She was the soloist for the work’s premiere, which took place on June 24, 1934, at the commencement exercises of Chicago Musical College, where she was a graduate student. Accompanied by the college’s orchestra, her performance was positively reviewed, and the concerto was subsequently played elsewhere to critical acclaim.
Gender and racial barriers ultimately restricted the reach of Price’s music, and following her death in 1953, her works, including her Piano Concerto, were largely forgotten. In 1993, American musicologist Rae Linda Brown examined the two extant manuscripts to the concerto (one for solo piano and orchestra reduction, and one for two pianos), and located manuscript orchestral parts in the private collection of Eugenia Anderson, a Chicago piano teacher. The score has since been reconstructed, and in recent years, the Piano Concerto has emerged on concert programs again, championed by pianists such as Michelle Cann.
Price’s Piano Concerto fuses Euro-American art music elements—here, the “romantic piano” idiom of the 19th century—with melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic aspects from the music of her African American heritage. The piece unfolds in three distinct sections. The opening Andantino, in D minor, unfolds to reveal a spiritual-like theme. It is initially introduced as fragments—first, as short motives in the trumpet, then, in a free passage for solo piano—followed by further development by the orchestra. Only after another piano cadenza is the theme unveiled in full by the orchestra, accompanied by grand arpeggios in the piano. There’s a brief section with a fanfare-like theme in the trumpets; then, an extended developmental episode, in which piano and orchestra are more closely intertwined, awash in impressionistic harmonies, with ample virtuosic passages for the soloist.
The Concerto shifts into D major for the gorgeous song that is the Adagio cantabile. As Brown has noted, it’s in the call-and-response form commonly used in African American folk music. Each time the call (or verse) is introduced by the oboe, it’s subtly altered, in keeping with the improvisatory nature of the part. This alternates with the solo piano’s lyrical response, frequently tinged with chromatic harmonies, and lushly accompanied by strings. The final section is based on the syncopated rhythms of the “pattin’ juba”, a popular antebellum folk dance. Piano and orchestra alternately take on the catchy syncopated melody, subjecting it to a whirlwind tour through different keys and harmonies as well as complex rhythmic treatment, thus bringing the Concerto to a high-spirited close.
Program notes by Dr. Hannah Chan-Hartley
Symphony No. 39 in E-flat Major, K. 543
I. Adagio – Allegro
II. Andante con moto
III. Menuetto: Allegretto – Trio – Menuetto
IV. Finale: Allegro
Mozart composed his Symphony No. 39 in the summer of 1788, during which he also completed the “great” G minor Symphony (No. 40), and the “Jupiter” Symphony (No. 41). There is little to no record of their first performances, but it’s likely that they appeared in concerts in Vienna in the autumn of that year. (Mozart was a pragmatic composer and was unlikely to have written symphonies, which was then a genre of increasing prestige, without the prospect of earning money or recognition.) Perhaps the lack of performance information was connected to the circumstances of the time, that is, of Austria being at war with Turkey; with many aristocratic families having left Vienna as a result, there were limited resources and opportunities to put on large orchestral concerts.
Symphony No. 39 has elegant grandeur, lively dialogue, and dramatic brilliance—qualities that late 18th and early 19th century music critics and theorists revered in Mozart’s orchestral writing. Its “sound world” is characterized by a certain warmth and mellowness, owing to the presence of clarinets. (Mozart had long loved the sound and expressive qualities of the instrument, and perhaps to further focus attention on their tone colour, he does not include oboes in this symphony.) A slow introduction opens the first movement in a majestic manner; for a moment, it takes a darker turn and later, ends mysteriously, but then the main theme of the movement proper appears, all sunny and relaxed grace in the violins. A vigorous orchestral episode follows, transitioning into a gentle second theme, led by the clarinets. As the movement progresses, it’s the energetic element that is developed and prevails in the end.
The Andante second movement features an elegant theme of dotted rhythms, initially presented by the strings. Its presentation, varied upon subsequent returns, alternates with two contrasting episodes of stormy, turbulent character—the second of these more intense than the first, starting at a higher register in the violins and extended through a stirring progression of harmonies. Throughout, there are striking timbral juxtapositions of strings and woodwinds as well as conversational exchanges between them.
The ensuing Minuet is a robust and stately dance, while in the Trio, one clarinet takes centre stage with a charming melody, while the other burbles underneath. Built on a single lively theme, the final Allegro is full of drive and wit. Strings and woodwinds engage in a dramatic dialogue of equals that shapes the structure of the movement. There are plenty of surprises as well—abrupt stops, sudden changes in key and dynamics, even a mysterious chorale featuring clarinets and bassoon—that wrap up this exquisite symphony with flair and excitement.
Artists
Canada’s National Arts Centre (NAC) Orchestra is praised for the passion and clarity of its performances, its visionary learning and engagement programs, and its unwavering support of Canadian creativity. The NAC Orchestra is based in Ottawa, Canada’s national capital, and has grown into one of the country’s most acclaimed and dynamic ensembles since its founding in 1969. Under the leadership of Music Director Alexander Shelley, the NAC Orchestra reflects the fabric and values of Canada, engaging communities from coast to coast to coast through inclusive programming, compelling storytelling, and innovative partnerships.
Since taking the helm in 2015, Shelley has shaped the Orchestra’s artistic vision, building on the legacy of his predecessor, Pinchas Zukerman, who led the ensemble for 16 seasons. Shelley’s influence extends beyond the NAC. He serves as Principal Associate Conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the UK and Artistic and Music Director of Artis—Naples and the Naples Philharmonic in the United States. In addition to his other conducting roles, the Pacific Symphony in Los Angeles’s Orange County announced Shelley’s appointment as its next Artistic and Music Director. The initial five-year term begins in the 2026-2027 season, with Shelley serving as Music Director-Designate from September 2025. Principal Guest Conductor John Storgårds and Principal Youth Conductor Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser complement Shelley’s leadership. In 2024, the Orchestra marked a new chapter with the appointment of Henry Kennedy as its first-ever Resident Conductor.
The Orchestra has a rich history of partnerships with renowned artists such as James Ehnes, Angela Hewitt, Renée Fleming, Hilary Hahn, Jeremy Dutcher, Jan Lisiecki, Ray Chen, and Yeol Eum Son, underscoring its reputation as a destination for world-class talent. As one of the most accessible, inclusive and collaborative orchestras in the world, the NAC Orchestra uses music as a universal language to communicate the deepest of human emotions and connect people through shared experiences.
A hallmark of the NAC Orchestra is its national and international tours. The Orchestra has performed concerts in every Canadian province and territory and earned frequent invitations to perform abroad. These tours spotlight Canadian composers and artists, bringing their voices to stages across North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, and Asia.
Xian Zhang is currently in her sixth season as Music Director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. Since taking up this position, she has commissioned works from such composers as Thomas Adès, Daniel Bernard Roumain, Qigang Chen, Christopher Rouse, Vivian Li, Gary Morgan, Christian McBride, and Paquito D’Rivera. She is responsible for introducing an annual Lunar New Year Celebration concert to the orchestra and will remain at the helm of the orchestra through and beyond their 100th anniversary in 2022.
The acclaim she has been receiving for her work in New Jersey has resulted in a strong North American career, with upcoming engagements which include returns to San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia, Detroit New World, Minnesota, Montreal, NAC Ottawa, and Toronto Symphony orchestras. Lauded by Steven Smith in The New York Times as a “virtual-concert jet-setter”, she has been championing works by Nokuthula Ngwenyama, Tyshawn Sorey, and William Grant Still.
Xian Zhang holds the positions of Principal Guest Conductor of Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Conductor Emeritus of Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, following a hugely successful period from 2009–2016 as Music Director. She has previously served as Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC National Orchestra & Chorus of Wales and was the first female conductor to hold a titled role with a BBC orchestra. In 2002, she won first prize in the Maazel-Vilar Conductor's Competition. She was appointed New York Philharmonic’s Assistant Conductor in 2002, subsequently becoming their Associate Conductor and the first holder of the Arturo Toscanini Chair.
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Michelle Cann, piano
Pianist Michelle Cann made her orchestral debut at age 14 and has since performed as a soloist with numerous ensembles including The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Florida Orchestra, North Carolina Symphony, and New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.
A champion of the music of Florence Price, Ms. Cann performed the New York City premiere of the composer’s Concerto in One Movement with The Dream Unfinished Orchestra in July 2016 and the Philadelphia premiere with The Philadelphia Orchestra in February 2021, which the Philadelphia Inquirer called “exquisite.” She has also performed Price’s works for solo piano and chamber ensemble for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Music Society of Detroit, and the New World Symphony, among other presenters.
Ms. Cann regularly appears in solo and chamber recitals throughout the U.S., China, and South Korea. Notable venues include the National Centre for the Performing Arts (Beijing), John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Washington, D.C.), Walt Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles), and the Barbican (London).
Ms. Cann has appeared as cohost and collaborative pianist with NPR’s From The Top and has been featured on WRTI-FM and WHYY-TV in Philadelphia. Her summer festival appearances have included the Taos Chamber Music Festival, Yellow Barn, Perlman Music Program, Music Academy of the West, Geneva Music Festival, and Pianofest in the Hamptons, where she serves as artist in residence.
An award winner at top international competitions, in 2019 she served as the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s MAC Music Innovator in recognition of her role as an African-American classical musician who embodies artistry, innovation, and a commitment to education and community engagement.
Ms. Cann studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Curtis Institute of Music, where she holds the inaugural Eleanor Sokoloff Chair in Piano Studies.
Michelle Cann appears by arrangement with the Curtis Institute of Music.
Nokuthula Ngwenyama
(Born in 1976)
“Mother of Peace and “Lion” in Zulu, Nokuthula Ngwenyama garners great attention for her performances as orchestral soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. Gramophone magazine proclaims her as “providing solidly shaped music of bold mesmerizing character.” As a composer, Uptown magazine featured her “A Poet of Sound”.
Ms. Ngwenyama gained international prominence winning the Primrose International Viola Competition at 16. A recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, she has performed with orchestras and as recitalist the world over.
Recent highlights include the premieres of her works Rising for solo multitrack violin and pedals, and Primal Message for viola quintet, performed with the Dover Quartet. Her first viola concerto, commissioned by Christopher Biggs and Irene Marquez Biggs and recorded with the Janáček Philharmonic, is to be released on Peace Mama Productions (PMP) in fall 2021.
Her work Finding the Dream, commissioned by John Clements and written in response to the murder of George Floyd and Martin Luther King’s iconic I Have a Dream speech, received its world premiere with the Phoenix Boys Choir through joint digital emission with ASU/Kerr Cultural Center and the Colburn School. Primal Message for percussion, harp, and strings, an homage to the Arecibo message, received an orchestral world premiere with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra on their digital DSO series. Bella Hristova premiered her work Miasma for solo violin—largely based on Covid-19 proteins—on the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis Laureate Series in March 2021.
Born in Los Angeles, California of Zimbabwean-Japanese parentage, Nokuthula Ngwenyama (No-koo-TOO-lah En-gwen-YAH-mah) is the first composer in residence of the Phoenix Chamber Music Society and plays on an Antonius and Hieronymus Amati viola from 1597, on permanent loan from the Biggs Collection.
thulamusic.com
Florence B. Price (1887–1953)
Florence Price was an American composer, pianist, organist, and teacher. She created over 300 works, including for orchestra, various combinations of chamber ensemble, choir, voice and piano, organ, and solo piano. Her compositions often blend Euro-American art music forms with elements from her African American heritage, such as melodies that reference those of spirituals.
During her life, Price was the first African American woman to earn major recognition as a symphonic composer. However, despite her successes, she struggled to have her works widely performed, and openly acknowledged that her being a woman and a person of colour were barriers. Much of her catalogue was neglected after her death, but in recent years, new research about her life and work and the revival of her compositions in performance have begun to more fully illuminate her contributions to American music.
Price (née Smith) was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, on April 9, 1887, during a period when white supremacy was being restored in the South. Her mother was her first music teacher, who carefully nurtured her talent. Price went on to study composition at Boston’s New England Conservatory, one of the few institutions that admitted African Americans at the time. After earning diplomas in organ and piano, she returned to the South to teach and compose. In 1928, to escape growing racial oppression in Little Rock, Price and her family moved to Chicago. There, she flourished creatively; she won prizes and publication contracts for her piano pieces, penned popular songs for radio commercials, and arranged spirituals for performance. In 1931, she began writing symphonies. Her Symphony in E Minor won the Wanamaker Prize in 1932, which led to its performance by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Frederick Stock—the first work by a Black woman composer to be performed by a major American orchestra.
The success of her E Minor symphony cemented Price’s reputation and her orchestral works were subsequently performed by ensembles such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra, and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Celebrated singers such as Marion Anderson and Leontyne Price interpreted her songs, and her organ and piano pieces, which she also taught, were regularly performed. Price remained active as a composer and teacher until her death in Chicago on June 9, 1953.
By Dr. Hannah Chan-Hartley
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
(1756–1791)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was an Austrian composer. He wrote prolifically in nearly all the musical genres of his day, including operas, concertos, symphonies (and other types of instrumental pieces), string quartets and other works for chamber ensembles of various instrumental combinations, sacred and secular vocal music, dance music, and solo keyboard pieces. Many of his most significant works continue to be frequently performed in today’s opera houses and concert halls. Beautiful melodies, elegant formal structures, and rich textures and harmonies combined with a rhetorical manner highly influenced by Italian opera are hallmarks of his mature style.
Mozart was born on January 27, 1756, in Salzburg. His father Leopold, a violinist and composer, recognized early on that his son had musical talent and devoted himself to his (and Wolfgang’s sister Nannerl’s) education in music and other subjects. Over the next decade, Leopold took them both on extensive tours across Europe, during which the young Mozart gave performances (including of his own music) on the harpsichord and violin in the homes of the nobility and at public concerts. After three years as “honorary” Konzertmeister at the Salzburg court, Mozart moved into paid employment status in 1772. In this position, he initially fulfilled his duties of providing music for the church and court eagerly; however, over time, his enthusiasm for the latter waned due the restrictions his employer, the Archbishop Hieronymus Colloredo, had placed on the performance of instrumental music. Undeterred, he continued to compose instrumental and secular vocal music for private patrons. In 1777, Mozart petitioned Colloredo for release from employment but was instead dismissed by the archbishop, though he returned in 1779 as court organist, when he was unable to secure a permanent position elsewhere.
In June 1781, while in Vienna at Colloredo’s request, Mozart got his wish to be formally released from the archbishop’s service. He began to pursue a freelance career in the city as a teacher, keyboard performer, and composer. In August 1782, he married Constanze Weber; they went on to have six children, though four died in infancy. The period between 1784 and 1788 became the most productive and fruitful years of his life, during which he conducted performances; was in demand as a keyboard player for public and private concerts; created some of his most notable works (among them, 12 piano concertos, six string quartets dedicated to Haydn, the operas Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni, and what would be his final three symphonies); and his music was widely published and performed. Despite this success, Mozart was later troubled by financial woes, due, in part, to the cost of maintaining his social status in Viennese society. In the last years of his life, he completed works such as the Clarinet Quintet, and the operas Die Zauberflöte and La clemenza di Tito. Mozart was working on a Requiem under secret commission by Count Walsegg-Stuppach, which he left incomplete when he succumbed to his final illness on December 5, 1791, in Vienna.
By Dr. Hannah Chan-Hartley
NAC Orchestra
FIRST VIOLINS
Yosuke Kawasaki (concertmaster)
Jessica Linnebach (associate concertmaster)
Noémi Racine Gaudreault (assistant concertmaster)
Elaine Klimasko**
Marjolaine Lambert
Jeremy Mastrangelo
Manuela Milani
Leah Roseman
Erica Miller*
Martine Dubé*
Marc Djokic*
SECOND VIOLINS
Mintje van Lier (principal)
Winston Webber (assistant principal)
Mark Friedman
Carissa Klopoushak
Frédéric Moisan
Edvard Skerjanc**
Karoly Sziladi
Emily Westell**
Andréa Armijo-Fortin*
Renée London*
Sara Mastrangelo*
Heather Schnarr*
VIOLAS
Jethro Marks (principal)
David Marks (associate principal)
David Goldblatt (assistant principal)
Paul Casey
Ren Martin-Doike**
David Thies-Thompson
Sonya Probst*
CELLOS
Rachel Mercer (principal)
Julia MacLaine (assistant principal)
Timothy McCoy
Marc-André Riberdy
Leah Wyber
Desiree Abbey*
DOUBLE BASSES
Etienne Lepine-Lafrance (guest principal)*
Hilda Cowie (acting assistant principal)
Marjolaine Fournier
Vincent Gendron
FLUTES
Joanna G'froerer (principal)
Stephanie Morin**
OBOES
Charles Hamann (principal)
Anna Petersen**
CLARINETS
Kimball Sykes (principal)
Sean Rice
BASSOONS
Christopher Millard (principal)
Vincent Parizeau
HORNS
Lawrence Vine (principal)
Julie Fauteux (associate principal)
Elizabeth Simpson
Louis-Pierre Bergeron**
TRUMPETS
Karen Donnelly (principal)
Steven van Gulik
TROMBONES
Donald Renshaw (principal)
Colin Traquair
BASS TROMBONE
Douglas Burden**
TUBA
Chris Lee (principal)**
TIMPANI
Feza Zweifel (principal)
PERCUSSION
Jonathan Wade
Dan Morphy*
Timothy Francom*
HARP
Angela Schwarzkopf*
KEYBOARD
Olga Gross*
PRINCIPAL LIBRARIAN
Nancy Elbeck
ASSISTANT LIBRARIAN
Corey Rempel
PERSONNEL MANAGER
Meiko Lydall
*Additional musicians
**On leave
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees