Spring is in the air, the light of awareness is dawning, change is within reach, growth is on the horizon, and pride lends a bounce to one’s step. Please join Maestro Wes Kenney and the Fort Collins Symphony for an evening of American composers and themes. This streamed virtual concert features two of Aaron Copland’s compositions —the enduring American anthem, Appalachian Spring, and a coming-of-age story, The Tender Land—and composer Adolphus Hailstork’s jazz/blues/Black gospel-inspired Church Street Serenade. Pre-recorded at the Fort Collins Lincoln Center, this concert is available to stream at your leisure over the weekend of April 30-May 2.

The America Awakens concert is dedicated to the memory of Leabelle R. Schwartz

The FCS is deeply grateful to the following concert donorsThe Lincoln Center Support Guild . Roberta Mielke . Dr. Peter Springberg

Season Concert SponsorsCity of Fort Collins Fort Fund . Colorado Creative Industries . National Endowment for the Arts

Dr. Ed Siegel . Dr. Peter Springberg

AN ON-DEMAND PERFORMANCE

APRIL 30-MAY 2 . 2021

Aaron Copland Adolphus Hailstork

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Aaron Copland Appalachian Spring: Ballet for Martha (1900-1990) Complete Chamber Orchestra Version

Adolphus Hailstork Church Street Serenade (b. 1941)

Aaron Copland, Arr. Murry Sidlin The Tender Land Suite 1. Introduction

2. Laurie’s Aria 3. Love Duet 4. Stomp Your Foot

5. Daybreak Will Come 6. Hire a Stranger 7. Promise of Living Laurie: Amy Maples, soprano Ma: Patricia Goble, mezzo-soprano Martin: John Carlo Pierce, tenor Pa: Wes Kenney, bass

The America Awakens Concert is Dedicated in Memory of Leabelle R. Schwartz

Donors: Kara Holstrom & Warren Diggles . Wes & Leslie Kenney . Mary & Paul Kopco . Roberta MielkeSharyn & Larry Salmen . Stephanie Stern & Daniel Curran . Kathleen Warnecke

On-Demand Streaming ConcertApril 30 - May 2 . 2021

Recorded at the Fort Collins Lincoln Center

WES KENNEY, CONDUCTOR

PROGRAMRepertoire

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Signature Concert Sponsors

THE LINCOLN CENTER SUPPORT GUILD . ROBERTA MIELKE . DR. PETER SPRINGBERG

2021 Season Sponsors

With Special Thanks to Our Performance Hall Partner: The Fort Collins Lincoln Center

Dr. Ed Siegel

Dr. Peter Springberg

2021 On-Demand Streaming Concerts

With gratitude to our generous sponsors who help keep your Fort Collins Symphony playing - Thank you!

The Sounds of ChangeThe Sounds of Change

2021 Season Sponsors

America Awakens Signature Concert Sponsors 2021 Season . Media Sponsors

2021 Season Business Sponsors

Destinationby Design

Justin HolcombPiano Tuning

bell-law.com dellenbachsubaru.com dbdtravel.com fortcollinsnursery.com garyhixondesigns.com valpak.com garyhixondesigns.com jaholcombe3@yahoo.com

With Special Thanks to Our Performance Hall Partner: The Fort Collins Lincoln Center

Dr. Ed Siegel

Dr. Peter Springberg

MUSICIANRoster

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First Violin Nina Fronjian, Concertmaster Mary Gindulis, Assistant Concertmaster Mary Evans, Principal Bennett Stucky

Second Violin Christine Menter, Principal Sarah Whitnah, Assistant Principal Evan De Long Jean Denney

Viola Ethan Hecht, Principal Kyla Witt, Assistant Principal Erin Napier Margaret Miller

Cello Becky Kutz Osterberg, Principal Joseph Howe, Assistant Principal Beth Wells Yi-Ching Lee

Bass Forest Greenough, Principal Colton Kelley, Assistant Principal

Flute Norman Menzales, Principal

Clarinet Kellan Toohey, Principal

Bassoon Tom Bittinger, Principal

Piano Joshua Sawicki

Assistant Conductor Jeremy Cuebas

Librarian Ethan Hecht

Personnel Manager Jean Denney

Production Manager Kevin Wolfgang

THE LINCOLN CENTER SUPPORT GUILD

ROBERTA MIELKE . DR. PETER SPRINGBERG

Soprano Amy Maples is a Tennessee native who currently resides in Golden, CO. Performing with such companies as the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, Alabama Symphony Orchestra, Brevard Symphony Orchestra, Bangor Symphony, Orchestra Kentucky, Ohio Light Opera, and Piedmont Opera, Ms. Maples has made her mark as both a concert soloist and an opera performer. She has been a featured artist with Opera Theatre of the Rockies, Opera Colorado, Opera Fort Collins, the Colorado Springs Philharmonic, and the Colorado Chamber Orchestra.

Amy MaplesLaurie - The Tender Land

Specialty roles include: Cunegonde (Candide), Adina (L’Elisir d’Amore), Gilda (Rigoletto), Linda (Linda di Chamounix), the title role in (Lakmé), Lucy (The Telephone), Thérèse (Les Mamelles de Tiresias), Mabel (The Pirates of Penzance), Dorinda (Orlando), Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Tuptim (The King and I), Cosette (Les Miserables), and Christine (The Phantom of the Opera). Maples received a MM in Voice Performance from Florida State University and a BM in Voice Performance from Lee University. Z

American tenor Dr. John Carlo Pierce enjoys an international reputation for beautiful sound and incisive acting. He has held contracted positions with the opera theaters in cities of Cologne and Mainz, Germany. He appeared as a guest at the Spoleto Festival in Italy, the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, the Aargau Festival in Switzerland, and in opera houses across Germany. Dr. Pierce’s repertoire features leading roles in operas by Mozart, Rossini, and Donizetti, and stretches from the Baroque to new works. He has appeared on

John Carlo PierceMartin - The Tender Land

European television and radio, and can be heard on the EMI recording of Zemlinsky’s Der Traumgörge, conducted by James Conlon. His solo recording, Songs of Wintter Watts, was recently released on Centaur Records. Pierce holds a Master of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Connecticut. He is currently Associate Professor of Voice at Colorado State University, where he teaches lyric diction, opera history, and applied voice. Z

CONCERTSoloists

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The America Awakens concert is dedicated in memory of Leabelle ‘Lea’ R. Schwartz who passed away on January 13, 2021. Lea grew up on a farm in northeastern Kansas where she learned the value of hard work and an appreciation for living in harmony with the land. She was an excellent student, a stalwart protector of her three younger siblings, and a devoted daughter who was as equally adept at helping her mother can vegetables and helping her father herd cattle on horseback. Lea was passionate about classical music. Throughout her life she performed in choruses, played piano, and picked up the cello after her high school orchestra leader recruited her for her excellent musical ear, strong hands (farm work), and tall stature. After earning the first of two master’s degrees, she accepted a job to teach at CSU. There she met and later married Will

Schwartz, professor of music and founder/conductor of the Fort Collins Symphony Orchestra. In 1963, Lea founded the Women’s Symphony Guild, now known as the Friends of the Symphony. The Schwartz’s partnership and work to create and support classical music in Fort Collins set the stage for what is today a top-notch regional orchestra and thriving cultural arts community. In addition to her work with the Guild, Lea taught at Foothills Gateway and co-founded the Women’s Resource

Center. After earning her MBA, she worked in marketing communications for NCR, AT&T and Symbios Logic. She later opened her own public relations firm, Point Public Relations, and continued working until the age of 80, capping a long and successful career. A devotion to those she loved, hard work, and making a positive impact were hallmarks of Lea’s life. Z

CONCERT Dedication

What is it about Copland’s music that evokes such feelings of nationalism and nostalgia? Some would point to the composer’s use of open intervals of fourths and fifths, which emblematize the wide-open spaces of the American West. Others note his incorporation of folk-tunes and hymns, sometimes only in fragments, which add a familiarity for listeners. There is also a certain indefinable quality about his music that is—simply Copland. Aaron Copland (1900–1990) was born to Lithuanian-Jewish immigrant parents in Brooklyn, where he grew up. Yet his music is so associated with rustic Americana that he has been deemed the “Dean of American Music.” His most popular works seize upon themes and scenes reinforcing this portrayal and include titles such as Rodeo, Billy the Kid, Lincoln Portrait, Fanfare for the Common Man, and of course, Appalachian Spring. All of these compositions, and indeed, the majority of Copland’s most well-known works, were composed in the 1940s when World War II brought together much of the country. Perhaps then, Copland’s unique style has ingrained itself into our nation’s memory as music linked to American themes, resulting in a collective perception of his music as uniquely American. Regardless, in 1944, the year Appalachian Spring premiered, Copland was the darling of the

Aaron CoplandAppalachian Spring: Ballet for Martha

Date of Composition: 1944 Duration: 25 minutes

U.S. art music community.

Several years earlier, Martha Graham, renowned dancer and choreographer, had approached Copland with a commission for a new, modern ballet. Separated geographically, the two collaborated through written correspondence to create Appalachian Spring. Copland responded with a work for thirteen instrumentalists, a group small enough to fit into the performing space at the Library of Congress where the work was premiered. Later the composer would re-orchestrate the piece for

full orchestra, but there is something about this first chamber-like instrumentation that is especially evocative of the ballet’s narrative. The story simply tells of a revivalist preacher and a young couple whose wedding in the then-Pennsylvania-wilds heralds a promising future. Graham and legendary dancer Merce Cunningham performed lead roles. The production, in terms of both dance and music, claimed a new American vision for modern ballet. Glistening string lines and lilting winds highlight the score, which features a middle section of variations on the Quaker hymn, “Simple Gifts.” The future was bright not only for the newlyweds in the ballet: Copland received a Pulitzer Prize for Music for his composition the following year. Z

PROGRAMNotes

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Aaron Copland and Adolphus Hailstork (b. 1941) have several things in common: both were born and raised in New York—Copland in the city and Hailstork upstate, both showed musical talent from an early age, both studied at the Conservatoire Américan at Fontainebleau in France and with the great pedagogue Nadia Boulanger (though some forty years apart), and many of their most popular compositions draw on American musical themes. Yet their life journeys and professional paths were quite different. Hailstork grew up surrounded by music in Albany, NY. He sang in the choir at the local Episcopal cathedral, played in his school’s orchestra, and became a proficient organist. After receiving his first degree in music theory from Howard

University, Hailstork studied composition at the Manhattan School of Music. Afterward, when nearing the end of two years serving in the U.S. Armed Forces, Hailstork was unsure of what his future should be. Following the assassination of Martin Luther King, he noted that the great Civil Rights leader was referred to as Dr. King, which inspired the young composer to pursue his own doctoral degree in composition at Michigan State University. He then went into academia, teaching at several universities. Just recently he retired from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA. Dr. Hailstork has received commissions from some of the most prestigious professional orchestras, opera

companies, and academic institutions in the United States, and

Adolphus HailstorkChurch Street Serenade

Date of Composition: 2005 Duration: 7 minutes

By Dr. K. Dawn Grapes

Fort Collins Symphony Program Notes© 2021 K. Dawn Grapes

his compositions, which number in the hundreds, are relevant and timely. The U.S. Marine Band performed Fanfare on Amazing Grace for the January 2021 inauguration ceremonies of President Joseph R. Biden, and one of his newest pieces, A Knee on the Neck for soloists, choir, and orchestra, is a tribute to George Floyd.

Church Street Serenade for string orchestra was composed to celebrate the re-opening of the Attucks Theatre, located on Church Street in Norfolk. One of the oldest thoroughfares in the city, Church Street was the main commercial artery for Norfolk’s Black community. The locale provided shopping, professional services, and entertainment in the segregated city throughout the first half of the twentieth century. Anchoring the strip was the Attucks Theatre. Designed by Black architect Harvey N. Johnson in 1919, the art deco building served not only as a concert venue, but also as a movie theater, with independent office spaces attached. Over

the years, audiences enjoyed headliners such as Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Bessie Smith, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, and Nat King Cole. It is no wonder then that Dr. Hailstork imbued Church Street Serenade with a jazzy, bluesy style. In 1953, the iconic institution closed. In 1982, as the area surrounding the venue was being razed for new development, the Attucks Theatre was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The City of Norfolk and the non-profit Crispus Attucks Cultural Center joined forces to renovate the historic building. In 2004, the doors re-opened once again to new audiences and performers who celebrate both the history of the “Apollo of the South” and the promise of new musical legends in the making. Z

Aaron Copland, arr. Murry SidlinThe Tender Land Suite

Date of Composition: 1954/1996 Duration: 21 minutes

America of the 1950s was a very different place than that of the 1940s. Gone were the New Deal politics of Franklin Roosevelt and the shared patriotism of the World War II years. Instead, the United States grappled with its new role as a world superpower grounded in a mighty military-industrial complex. The Soviet Union, which stood as an ally in the fight against Nazi oppression, was now enemy number one, and communism became the maligned philosophy against which America must protect in a Cold War that would last for decades to come. Even Aaron Copland’s music was changing. His Piano Quartet (1950), Orchestral Variations (1957) and Piano Fantasy (1957) are works demonstrating the composer’s experiments with serial and abstract musical techniques. Some scholars have argued this shift was the composer’s way of distancing himself from his association with folk-like themes and audience accessibility, which in elite circles was associated with the goals of communist Socialist Realism.

Yet Copland never really stopped composing in his Americana style. In 1952, he received a commission from the NBC Television Opera Workshop. Inspired by stories of Southern sharecroppers and photographs of rural Americans in their everyday settings, he conceived an opera that gazes upon one 1930s midwestern farm family and the two strangers who change their lives. During the course of the story, daughter Laurie falls in love with one of the outsiders on her graduation night. Together they dream of eloping. But in the end, the strangers go on their way, and Laurie leaves the farm, looking for a different life all on her own. Copland’s music is intimate, almost fragile in places, and in some ways the production feels more like a theatrical drama with singing than a historical opera. NBC cancelled the production. No explanation was given, but it may have had to do with the perception of Copland’s politics. Since 1949, the composer had been included on intelligence lists of persons with communist connections or sympathies. In 1953, while composing The Tender Land, he was called before the Senate subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations to explain his past political associations and to defend his loyalty to the United States. That same year, a planned performance of Lincoln Portrait at the inauguration

of Dwight D. Eisenhower was cancelled. Copland, even though he had solidly gained a reputation as the undisputed leader of American art music, surely was taken aback. In this light, it seems as if Copland and his librettist Erik Johns (Copland’s one-time partner who wrote under the name Horace Everett) purposefully use The Tender Land’s simple story and graceful musical lines to highlight a distance between the ugliness of Washington politics and the potential quiet beauty, introspection, and struggle of everyday Americans going about their lives.

When The Tender Land finally received its premiere by the New York City Opera in 1954, the production was not a critical success. The built-in intimacy, intended for television cameras that would beam the show directly into America’s living rooms, did not translate well onto a vast stage, nor did it conform to the expectations of what an opera should be. While Appalachian Spring had ushered in a new kind of American ballet, it seems that New York audiences were not yet ready for a new kind of American opera. Some attendees, however, were profoundly affected. Several female composers in the audience connected with the character of Laurie and her effort to reject a pre-determined path. Further, some scholars have noted a connection to those in the gay community, citing the need to leave home in order to find one’s own true self. Copland revised the opera in 1955 and later arranged an orchestral suite of music from the show, but it was not until the 1980s and 1990s that the opera gained a new understanding and popularity on stage, suggesting that perhaps it was simply ahead of its time. In 1996, Murry Sidlin arranged the suite for soprano, tenor, and the same thirteen instruments that Copland used in his original Appalachian Spring, bringing an intimacy to the orchestration that matches the aesthetic of the opera and providing a nod back to Copland’s compositional heyday. Z