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The concert will last approximately one hour and 40 minutes, including a 20 minute interval.

SERGEI PROKOFIEVCINDERELLA – SUITE NO.1

AMILCARE PONCHIELLI LA GIOCONDA: DANCE OF THE HOURS

INTERVAL

MANUEL DE FALLA THE THREE CORNERED HAT – SUITE NO.1

LÉO DELIBES COPPÉLIA – SUITE NO.1

PR

OG

RA

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CINDERELLA – SUITE NO 1

SE

RG

EI

PR

OK

OFI

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(18

91–

195

3)

Cinderella begins with the wicked step-sisters heading for the ball, while Cinderella remains at home. A group of fairies appear to transform her meagre outfit and household objects, with the warning that all will return to normal at midnight.

At the ball, Cinderella radiates kindness and beauty; on first sight, the Prince falls madly in love. The pair dance until the clock begins to strike twelve and Cinderella rushes away, leaving only her slipper which the Prince, giving chase, discovers.

He sets out to find his beloved, searching far and wide until he finally reaches Cinderella’s house. Her step-mother attempts to keep the pair apart, but the Prince spies his beloved. As in all fairytale endings, a wonderful wedding ensues.

Sergei Prokofiev was born in 1891 in Sontsovka. Inspired by his mother’s piano playing, he wrote his first piano composition at the age of five.

Prokofiev studied at the St Petersburg Conservatory, initially making his name as an iconoclastic composer-pianist. His greatest interest was opera and he composed several works in that genre, including The Gambler and The Fiery Angel. His one operatic success during his lifetime was The Love for Three Oranges, composed for the Chicago Opera and performed in Europe and Russia.

After the Revolution, Prokofiev left Russia and resided in the United States, Germany and Paris, working as a composer, pianist and conductor. The Great Depression in the early 1930s limited stagings of Prokofiev’s ballets and operas in America and western Europe; he eventually returned to his homeland in 1936.

Prokofiev died suddenly in 1953 and subsequent years saw his popularity grow rapidly around the world. In 1957, he was posthumously awarded the Soviet Union’s highest honour, the Lenin Prize, for his Symphony No. 7.

AM

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E P

ON

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IELL

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83

4–1

88

6)

Dance of the Hours is a short ballet and the Act 3 finale of the opera La Gioconda, composed by Amilcare Ponchielli. Through solo and ensemble dances, it depicts the hours of the day as the character Alvise, who heads the Inquisition, receives guests in an elegant ballroom adjoining the death chamber. The music and choreography represent dawn, day, twilight and night to symbolise the eternal struggle between the forces of light and darkness.

Born in Paderno Fasolaro, Amilcare Ponchielli won a scholarship at the age of nine to study music at the Milan Conservatory. He wrote his first symphony by age ten.

His early career, however, was disappointing. Maneuvered out of a professorship at the Milan Conservatory that he’d won in a competition, he took minor jobs in small cities and composed several operas, none of which were successful at the time. The success of the revised version of I promessi sposi in 1872 was a turning point, bringing Ponchielli a contract with the music publisher G. Ricordi & Co. and the musical establishment at the Conservatory and La Scala. The role of Lina in the revised version was sung by Teresina Brambilla, whom he married in 1874.

Ponchielli started working on I Mori di Valenza in 1876, a piece he never completed. In 1881, he was appointed maestro di cappella of the Bergamo Cathedral and became a professor of composition at the Milan Conservatory, where his students included Puccini, Mascagni and Emilio Pizzi. Ponchielli died of pneumonia in Milan in 1886.

LA GIOCONDA: DANCE OF THE HOURS

THE THREE CORNERED HAT – SUITE NO 1

MA

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A (

1876

–19

46

)

THE

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The Three Cornered Hat opens with an honest miller – happily married to a good wife – falsely arrested by the local governor (in a three-cornered hat), so the governor can pursue the miller’s wife. The miller escapes and, finding the governor in bed with his wife, plots revenge. He swaps clothes with his persecutor and visits the governor’s wife. The governor, now in the miller’s clothes, is re-arrested. A crowd gathers, the miller is reunited with his wife, and the governor mocked.

Manuel de Falla began his musical life taking piano lessons from his mother and composition with Felipe Pedrell in Madrid. In 1905, de Falla won two prizes: one for piano playing, the other for a national opera, La vida breve.

In 1907, he moved to Paris where he met Claude Debussy, Paul Dukas and Maurice Ravel (whose orchestration influenced his own) and published his first piano pieces and songs. In 1914, de Falla returned to Madrid and wrote music for a ballet, El amor brujo, and then El corregidor y la molinera. He was persuaded to rescore this work for a ballet by Léonide Massine called El sombrero de tres picos (The Three-Cornered Hat). These works established Falla as the leading Spanish composer of the time. He retired to Granada and composed very little in later life.

Ignite Dance Co. is a steadily growing dance studio based in Padstow, focusing on creating talented dancers who share a passion and love for performance.

Grade 1Mina DousdebesEmelya KececiLucy LloydCaitlin RidgwellEstelle Nader

Grade 2Ava GemmellImogen MeilakIsabella Ware

Grade 3Natalia CostaAmelia HastilowSienna MerloTahlia LioudakisBianca NaderAlicia StortenbekerAudrey Veleski

COPPÉLIA – SUITE NO 1

LÉO

DE

LIB

ES (

183

6–1

89

1)

Coppélia is a comic ballet to the music of Léo Delibes. Set in three acts, it begins with the villagers preparing for Harvest Festival. The evening’s celebrations are interrupted by Dr Coppélius, whose mysterious “daughter” (a mechanical doll) causes a quarrel between Swanilda and her fiancé Franz. The villagers, concluding their celebrations, disperse to await the Festival the following day.

Meanwhile, Swanilda and her friends search the strange home of Coppélius, seeking the girl they saw earlier on the balcony. Coppélius returns and chases them away, but fails to spot Swanilda, hidden out of sight. Franz arrives and Coppélius attempts to take his spirit to place in the body of his “daughter.” Fooled by Swanilda, Coppélius believes the doll has come to life. The lovers are reunited and Coppélius left broken-hearted. On the day of the Harvest Festival, the couples are married and celebrated by the villagers.

Clément Philibert Léo Delibes was born in Saint-Germain- du-Val, into a musical family: his mother was a talented amateur musician and his grandfather an opera singer.

Delibes studied composition at the Paris Conservatoire and held positions as a rehearsal accompanist, chorus master and organist at the Théâtre Lyrique, Paris Opéra and Saint- Pierre-de-Chaillot, among others. He was brought to public attention through a collaboration with Ludwig Minkus, producing music for the ballet La Source, which encouraged Delibes to place greater attention on composing for ballet. The divertissement Le Jardin Animé followed in 1867 and a revival of the Mazilier/Adam ballet Le Corsaire, before he gained notoriety with the success of Coppélia.

Never in the best of health, Delibes died shortly before his 55th birthday.

SADAHARU MURAMATSU

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Dr. Sadaharu Muramatsu (Sada) is the music director of Strathfield Symphony Orchestra, guest conductor of Penrith Symphony Orchestra, lecturer of conducting at Excelsia College (formerly Wesley Institute), conductor of Suzuki Cello Ensemble and music director of Sydney Sakura Choir.

Sada has conducted the Penrith Symphony Orchestra, Rockdale Opera Company, Sydney Camerata and many others. He has also been choirmaster of Willoughby Symphony Choir and Eastern Sydney Chamber Choir. Recently, he also conducted the Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra and Central Aichi Symphony Orchestra in Japan, where he has concerts planned for 2019.

Sada completed a Masters of Music in Conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, UK. He was granted a fellowship to study conducting at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music under the Japanese Government Overseas Study Program. Sada resides in Australia under a Distinguished Talent visa granted for his achievements as a conductor.

His accomplishments include an Honorary Doctorate in Music from Anglia Ruskin University (Cambridge, 2011); second prize in the Vienna Summa Cum Laude International Youth Music Festival (2011); finalist and awarded Special Prize of the Jury at the Emmerich Kalman International Conductor’s Competition (Budapest, 2007); semi-finalist in the 2nd Bella Bartok International Opera-Conducting Competition (Romania, 2007); Mortimer Furber Prize for Conducting (Manchester, 2005); and First prize - ISIS Conducting Competition (Cambridge, 2001).

Sada studied conducting under Imre Pallo, Kurt Masur, Sir Mark Elder CBE, Hirofumi Misawa and Kazuki Sawa.

WWW.SADAHARU.NET

OUR PLAYERS

Violin 1Paul Pokorny*#

Dorothy Sercombe^

Garth AndrewsMadeleina Hanrahan-TanCamille Hanrahan-Tan Michel KharratYe Ri LeeAlex MountainChantal Nguyen Melissa OngRichard Willgoss

Violin 2Philip Hazel*

Cliffton ChanRosslyn IrvineLaura JarimbaHelen JonesJeffrey Lee Simonil MehtaRohini MulfordAimee PalfreemanAlana Pretty

ViolaDanielle Norton*

Andrew HeikeLaura JamiesonVossco NguyenHarriet O’DonnellPatricia Santoso

CelloAlicea Gedz*

Kiera BirdAnna BrayVanessa ChalkerKagan DokumcuCraig GilesAn Wen Tao LoNazli Sendurgut

Double BassVince Angeloni Carol Jeon

HarpVerna Lee-BrownRachel Hamilton

PianoKyungoak Kim

PiccoloDennis DorwickRebecca Brown

FluteLyndon Swasbrook*

Rebecca Brown

Oboe Adele Haythornthwaite *

Josh Ning Peter Vickery

Cor AnglaisJosh Ning

ClarinetRegina Lucena-Tam *

Stephen DaviesJason Kok (Bass)

BassoonJohn Fletcher*

Alex Thorburn

ContrabassoonJustin Couch

French HornNeil O’Donnell*

Victoria Beyer Kevin JonesHenry Yao

TrumpetZac SaricDavid YoungJanette Vardy

TromboneLindsay Smartt*

David Kimpton

TubaCharlse Mann

Timpani/PercussionSteve Machamer*

Stephen Clifford

* Principal** Acting Principal# Concertmaster^ Deputy Concertmaster

OUR 2018 SEASON WOULDN’T BE POSSIBLE WITHOUT...

OUR LIFE MEMBERSChristine Edwards

Bellissario Hernandez

Marie Hodsdon

Geoff Widmer

Shirrley Mahableshwarwalla

Vincent Leonard

Margaret Shirley

Chris Elenor

Laura Jamieson

Bruce Lane

AND THANKS TO...Stage ManagerNeil O’Donnell

Program NotesHarriet O’Donnell

Rehearsal CateringDanielle Norton

Concert Catering Richard Sercombe

Art Direction/Design Zoë Barber

OUR COMMITTEEPresidentCraig Giles

Vice President Harriet O’Donnell

TreasurerAndrew Heike

SecretaryVacant

MemberLaura Jamieson

Music DirectorSadaharu Muramatsu

ConcertmasterPaul Pokorny

LibrarianAlicea Gedz

Orchestra ManagerNeil O’Donnell

AB

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T TH

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SO

PAUL POKORNYOur Concertmaster Paul Pokorny has also appeared as soloist for the Strathfield Symphony. He has played in many of the orchestras in Sydney including the Ku-ring-gai Philharmonic Orchestra (as Concertmaster) and also regularly plays with The Metropolitan Orchestra, Balmain Sinfonia and the Bourbaki Ensemble.

Paul also leads the Stathfield String Quartet, performing at many Strathfield Council functions, as well as weddings and other events. Paul often plays for musical and opera societies, and enjoys singing and playing piano. CO

NCER

TMAS

TER

Strathfield Symphony Orchestra first performed under the baton of Richard Gill in

1969 and are excitedly planning our upcoming golden jubilee in 2019. Lead by our Music

Director, Sadaharu Muramatsu, our 50th year will be a season of exciting programs and

very special guests.

Strathfield Symphony is a not-for-profit, community orchestra run by its members. We

benefit from the ongoing support of Strathfield Council, which has provided rehearsal and concert venues throughout our long history.

Strathfield Symphony is dedicated to giving local audiences access to exciting and

challenging classical programs, and providing opportunities for local players to perform under

the direction of our inspiring Music Director, Sadaharu Muramatsu.

Strathfield Symphony Orchestra appreciates the support of

SATURDAY 7 APRIL, 7PM SUNDAY 8 APRIL, 2.30PM

SERGEI PROKOFIEVCINDERELLA – SUITE NO.1

AMILCARE PONCHIELLI LA GIOCONDA: DANCE OF THE HOURS

MANUEL DE FALLA THE THREE CORNERED HAT – SUITE NO.1

LÉO DELIBES COPPÉLIA – SUITE NO.1

STRATHFIELDSYMPHONY.ORG.AU