Mozart and More
Program
Winners of Ars Antigua/Midwest Young Artists Early Music Competition sponsored by Walgreens
Concerto in G Major QV5 : 174 Johann Joachim Quantz (1697-1773)
Allegro assai
Richard Day, flute
Brandenburg Concert # 6 BWV 1051 J.S. Bach (1685-1750)
Allegro
Madeline Sharp and Gerry Wawrzynek, violas
Concerto in F Major Giuseppe Sammartini (1693-1750)
Allegro assai
Laura Osterlund, recorder
Aria “Alles mit Gott und nichts ohn’ ihn” BWV 1127
For soprano 2 violins, viola and continuo J.S Bach (1685-1750)
Ellen Hargis, soprano
Eine kleine Nachtmusik K525 W. A. Mozart (1756-1791)
Allegro
Romance (andante)
Menuetto (allegretto and trio)
Rondo (allegro)
Program Notes
In today’s concert, we not only honor the 250th anniversary of W. A Mozart’s birth with a period instrument performance of Eine kleine Nahtmusik, but also we will also perform the Chicago premiere of the newly discovered aria “Alles mit Gott und nichts ohn’ ihn” by J. S. Bach and present four outstanding young winners of the Ars Antigua-Midwest Young Artists Early Music Competition sponsored by the Walgreens Corporation.
The four winners of the Ars Antigua-Midwest Young Artists Early Music Competition sponsored by Walgreen’s represents this year’s top talent from a field of over 160 pre-college contestants from throughout the United States and several foreign countries.
Richard Day has been homeschooled for eight years and will enter Glenbrook South High School next fall. He studies flute with Emily Abraham in Evanston, Illinois and has won or placed in numerous flute competitions. Richard is a leader in his Boy Scout troop, an avid reader, and enjoys playing strategy games. He also participates in the Midwest Young Artists Concert Orchestra and an MYA chamber group.
Madeline Sharp, 16, a junior at New Trier High School, started playing violin at age 5 and viola at age 9. She is in two orchestras at NTHS, and is involved in the orchestra and chamber music programs at Midwest Young Artists. She has traveled with MYA the past two summers, performing in Switzerland, Spain and Portugal. In addition to her award in the Early Music Category of the Walgreens Concerto Competition for her performance of the Brandenburg Concerto No. 6, she has received awards for her performances of the second movement of the Walton Viola Concerto from the Walgreens Concerto Competition and the New Trier High School Concerto Competition.
Gerry Wawrzynek, 18, began playing viola at age 13 and currently studies with Christine Due. He is principal violist of the MYA Symphony Orchestra and also participates in MYA?s chamber music program. He has participated in the IMEA All-State Honors Orchestra the past two years and sat assistant principal in 2006. As a member of the Avante String Quartet from MYA, he was a quarter-finalist in the 2005 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. Gerry was also the 2nd place winner of the 2005 Chicago Viola Society Solo Competition, and has performed in masterclasses given by Donald McInnes and John Graham. He plans on pursuing a professional music career.
Laura Osterlund is 16 years old and a junior at Oak Park River Forest High School. She has been studying the recorder since the age of ten, and is currently studying with Clea Galhano. Laura performs extensively throughout the Chicago area as a soloist and in ensemble and is an active participant in the movement to promote Early Music in Chicago and the Midwest. She is a member of the St. Cecilia Consort, Oak Park Recorder Society, Masqued Phoenix Consort, Musicke’s Merrie Companions (at the Bristol Renaissance Faire), and the Northwestern University Early Music Ensemble. She has also performed in concert with the Home Street Recorder Ensemble, the Oak Park River Forest Children’s Choir, Concordia University Chamber Orchestra, and Bach Week Festival Orchestra. This is Laura’s second year of winning the Early Music category of the Senior Open Division of the Walgreens National Concerto Competition.
Midwest Young Artitsts (MYA) is the largest and most comprehensive youth ensemble music program in the Midwest. Founded in 1993 with one orchestra, MYA has grown into full curriculum music school with five youth orchestras, 3 big bands, two choruses, and dozens of jazz combos and chamber music ensembles. In 2000, MYA moved into its own building in the Town of Fort Sheridan, an up-to-date facility with large rehearsal halls, classrooms, a recording studio, and music library. For more information about MYA call 847.926.9898 or visit mya.org.
In May of last year, and for the first time since the 1930s, a genuine Bach vocal work has been newly discovered. The work, found at the Anna Amalia Library in Weimar, was composed in October 1713 for the birthday of Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Saxe-Weimar. The score is in Bach’s own hand and the Aria is a setting of a strophic aria with ritornello, for solo soprano, strings and basso continuo. The opening words of the aria “Alles mit Gott und nichts ohn’ ihn” mean “Everything
with God and nothing without him”, the Duke’s motto. The text is from a twelve stanza poem by a theologian named Johann Anton Mylius, who at the time was superintendent of the Buttstadt, a small town about fifteen miles north of Wiemar. For today’s performance, Ellen Hargis has chosen to sing stanzas 1 , 10 and 12. The discovery was made by Michael Maul, as part of an on-going research project to conduct a systematic survey of all central German,
comnunal and state archival collections, a project initiated and supervised by Prof. Dr. Christoph Wolff, Chairman of the Board of the Bach-Archiv, Leipzig.
The Serenade for strings in G major, better known as Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, is one of Mozart’s most familiar compositions. Mozart wrote it in 1787, about the same time that he was working on “Don Giovanni”. No documentation as to who commissioned it, or what inspired Mozart to write the piece has yet been found. Eine Kleine Nachtmusik was composed for a chamber ensemble of two violins, viola, and cello with optional double bass. According to Mozart correspondence this serenade once consisted of five movements, though only four have come down to us today.
Musicians
Richard Day, flute
Madeline Sharp and Jerry Wawrzynek, violas
Laura Osterlund, recorder
Ellen Hargis, soprano
David Schrader, harpsichord
Jerry Fuller, violone
Mirabel, a period instrument string quartet
Allison Edberg and Martha Perry, violins
William Bauer, viola
Debra Lonergan, violoncello