TuneUp!Welcome to the Young People’s Concerts®!

enjamin Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra showcases the orchestra brilliantly – each section and each instrument gets its moment in the spotlight. But this great work also provides a point of entry to the music of Henry Purcell, who 250 years earlier provided the theme for Britten’s variations. How does a composer take ideas from the past and make them into something new? Or receive music from across the world, and make a new message to send back? Is music really one great dialogue among composers, musicians and listeners? Get set for some musical travels — in time and around the world — as we meet the orchestra and composers from the 17th to the 21st century!

You can take Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous painting, the Mona Lisa, and build your own work of art around it – just as Benjamin Britten used Henry Purcell’s musical theme as the centerpiece of his Young People’s Guide to the Orchestra.

HAVE A CREATIVE DIALOGUE WITH LEONARDO DA VINCI!

HAVE A CREATIVE DIALOGUE WITH YOUR CONCERT COMPANION! You can create a great story together! Here’s how:

Do you hear how your two different voices come together to create something neither one of you could have made on your own?

B

F E B R U A R Y 1 , 2 0 1 4

T H E P R O G R A M

J O S H UA W E I LE R S T E I N conductorT H E O D O R E W I P R U D hostTO M D U L AC K scriptwriter and directorH E AT H E R L I P S O N B E LL actor/dancerK Y LE I K U M A actorO LI V E R N E U B AU E R actor

B E NJ A M I N B R I T T E N Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes Sunday Morning Storm V E RY YO U N G C O M P O S E R S Music for Fukushima

K A R I N U TAG AWA WaveJ U L I A A R A N C I O UnityY U K I I WA M OTO Flowers of Four SeasonsAU S T I N C E LE S T I N City LifeH I R OA K I I WA M OTO Happy Life J A K E O ’ B R I E N Traffic Lights

B E NJ A M I N B R I T T E N The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra

1. Make up a juicy, descriptive sentence – one that sets a scene, starts an adventure, or describes someone or something in detail.

3. Your turn again; time to start pumping up the drama.

5. Here’s the climax! It’s all up to you. Go for it!

2. Now it’s your Concert Companion’s (CC) turn. Ask your CC to add a sentence that builds up the plot.

4. Back to your CC; things should be getting really exciting!

6. Finally – the resolution. Make sure your CC wraps things up!

The Mona Lisa was painted more than 500 years ago.

People continue to wonder what made her smile that way.

What do you think?

Help the Mona Lisa time travel to 2014 by drawing

a modern-day scene around her that might

make her smile.

C R E AT I V E D I A LO G U E – A C R O S S T I M E A N D S PA C E !

A dialogue is an exchange of ideas, like when you’re talking or texting or sending postcards. A creative dialogue doesn’t have to use words; it can also happen when you experience art that’s inspiring, and respond to it by creating something new.

F O U R S E A I N T E R LU D E S F R O M

P E T E R G R I M E S

Benjamin Britten grew up in a small English coastal town. “For most of my life,“ he once

wrote, “I have lived closely in touch with the sea… My life as a child was colored by the fierce storms that sometimes drove ships on our coast

and ate away whole stretches of neighboring cliffs.” For his opera Peter Grimes, Britten wrote Four Sea

Interludes, to be played during scene changes. “Sunday Morning” evokes villagers heading to

church on a beautiful day, the sunlight glittering on the water, while “Storm” illustrates the terrible trouble Peter Grimes faces as he

gazes out over the turbulent waters heading his way.

H E N R Y P U R C E L L

( 1 6 5 9 – 1 6 9 5 )

Henry Purcell is one of the most important English composers of all time; probably no other composer came close until Britten came along. Purcell was a

pioneer, establishing a decidedly English style of music. He was especially well known

for his songs; as one writer described him back then, he had, “a peculiar Genius to express the energy of English Words.”

The theme for Britten’s Young Person’s Guide is a dance tune

that Purcell wrote for a play called Abdelazer.

T H E M E AN D VAR IAT IONS

A theme is a tune, something memorable that sticks in your mind.

The composer states the theme, and then changes it in all different

ways – expanding and contracting it, making it slower or faster, louder or softer, or coloring it with different

harmonies or rhythms – all to create variations.

F UG U E

A fugue is a playful musical dialogue. It starts with a single instrument

playing a melody. One by one, other instruments respond by

entering at different times playing the same melody, and all chase each other

to the finish line.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

JOSHUA WEILERSTEIN became a New York Philharmonic Assistant Conductor in May 2011 after completing his graduate studies in conducting and violin at the New England Conservatory. He has conducted numerous internationally acclaimed orchestras in the United States and abroad. During the 2013–14 season, Mr. Weilerstein makes his U.S. debut with the symphony

orchestras of Baltimore, Fort Worth, and New Mexico. In Europe, he will debut with orchestras in France, Switzerland,

England, Norway, Belgium, France and Austria. Mr. Weilerstein has been awarded the Robert J. Harth Conductor Prize and the Aspen Conducting Prize. In 2007, the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela (SBYO) engaged Mr. Weilerstein as a violin soloist, and in January 2010 he made his guest conducting debut with the SBYO.

THEODORE WIPRUD, Vice President, Education, The Sue B. Mercy Chair, has overseen the New York Philharmonic’s

wide range of in-school programs, educational concerts, adult programs, and online offerings since 2004. He hosts both the School Day Concerts and the Philharmonic’s Young People’s Concerts. Previous to his tenure at the New York Philharmonic, Mr. Wiprud created educational and community-based programs at the Brooklyn

Philharmonic, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and the American Composers Orchestra and worked as a teaching artist and

resident composer in a number of New York City schools. An active composer, Mr. Wiprud holds degrees from Harvard and Boston universities and studied at Cambridge University as a visiting scholar.

Performer, choreographer, and educator HEATHER LIPSON BELL works nationally and abroad on stage and screen, in both the

classroom and the community. She holds a bachelor of fine arts from the Boston Conservatory. She has appeared with the New York and Los Angeles philharmonic orchestras; Los Angeles, Dallas, Palm Beach, and Boston Lyric opera companies; Boston and South Dakota symphony orchestras; Pasadena Symphony and Pops; the Hollywood Bowl; and City Ballet of Los Angeles, among other

ensembles. Currently she is co-artistic director of Teatro Filarmonico, founder and creative director of Performing Arts

For All, and assistant director and co-choreographer with the Los Angeles Opera Education Department.

TOM DULACK has been the writer and director of the Young People’s Concerts since 2005. An award-winning playwright, he

is the author of the hit plays Breaking Legs, Incommunicado, and Friends Like These. He also wrote the novel The Stigmata of Dr. Constantine and a theater memoir, In Love With Shakespeare. Author of the libretto for a new one-act opera based on Robert Browning’s poem “My Last Duchess” which premiered in April 2012, he is currently at work on a symphonic drama about Vivaldi.

He is Professor of English at the University of Connecticut, where he teaches Shakespeare and theater-related

literature courses.

12-year-old KYLE IKUMA is very excited to be on stage with the New York Philharmonic. He lives in New Jersey with his parents,

both professional musicians, and his sister Sachi. He is a 7th grader at Norwood Public School where his favorite subjects are math and science. He studies piano with Kazuko Hayami and also plays alto saxophone in his school jazz band. In his spare time, Kyle enjoys folding complex origami, riding his unicycle, and juggling up to five balls. He loves listening to the New York

Philharmonic and recently was happy to hear “The Planets” by Gustav Holst, one of his favorite pieces.

Fourteen-year-old OLIVER NEUBAUER has been playing the violin for the past 11 years. In 2012, he made his conducting debut

at Bravo! Vail Music Festival as well as appearing as soloist with the National Repertory Orchestra. Oliver has performed at Music@Menlo, the Brooklyn Chamber Music Society, Mostly Music Series, OK Mozart Festival, Chamber Music Northwest, Music from Angel Fire, and Art in Avila in Curaçao. He was a junior member of the Jeunes Virtuoses

de New York in Valmorel, France from 2009-2011. Last May, Oliver made his Lincoln Center debut at the CMSLC’s

Young Ensembles Concert. Oliver is a member of the Mannes Pre-College Philharmonic, the Dalton High School Orchestra, and the New York Youth Symphony Chamber Music Program. Oliver has won numerous math and chess tournaments, and has appeared in theater productions including Fiddler on the Roof, Romeo and Juliet, The Music Man, Bye Bye Birdie, and Seussical! Oliver is a Musical Ambassador for the Doublestop Foundation.

OUR VERY YOUNG COMPOSERS

B E NJAM I N B R IT TE N ( 1 9 1 3 – 1 9 7 6 )

Benjamin Britten was from Great Britain — England more specifically. He was born on the

feast day of St. Cecilia, the patron saint of music, and his mother hoped he would become the “Fourth

B” — after Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms. She had the right idea. Britten started composing when he was

only 5 years old; by the time he was 14 he’d already written about 100 pieces! He lived through much of the

20th century, becoming one of the best loved and most respected English composers of all time. Britten wanted

everyone to be able to understand and enjoy his music, including kids. He wrote music that was beautiful, dramatic,

thoughtful, emotional — and always interesting enough to make you sit up, listen, and think.

So you can imagine how happy Britten must have been when in 1946 – the year after his smash hit opera Peter Grimes made him an international star — he was asked to write the music for a movie that would introduce kids to the orchestra.

The result was The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, which became one of his most popular works.

Britten decided that the best way to get inside the orchestra was for each section to take a turn playing the same theme — singing the same song in their own distinct voices — and then for each instrument to play around with the

theme to create its own variation. Theme and variations — an age-old musical form. But what theme should he use? Rather than write his own, he chose to honor his country’s musical heritage by borrowing a theme

written more than 250 years before by a “father” of English music, a composer named Henry Purcell. Woodwinds, brass, strings and percussion all have their time to shine. And then Britten tops it all off with

a fugue, where all the instruments come back together in a mighty, multi-voiced finale.

Though of course they never really met, Britten thought of Purcell as a sort of musical friend; he used Purcell’s music a lot for inspiration and raw material. He wanted

to show that you can take someone else’s idea — a beautiful melody from 250 years ago — and reimagine it, making it sound

fresh and new for contemporary ears.

THE VERY YOUNG COMPOSERS FUKUSHIMA PROJECT The NY Philharmonic’s Very Young Composers program gives public school students – many with no musical background – the opportunity to compose, and to hear their music performed by Philharmonic musicians. Last fall, some Very Young Composersin New York City had the amazing opportunity to engage in a musical dialogue with kids in Fukushima, Japan, and to write pieces for the whole orchestra. The Japanese composers wrote pieces about their lives and dreams and sent these “musical postcards” to the New York kids, who “wrote back” with their own pieces. You’ll hear three of those musical exchanges today.

W H AT H A P P E N E D I N F U K U S H I M A , JA PA N ?

On March 11, 2011, the Great East

Japan Earthquake – the most powerful earthquake ever to hit Japan – touched

off a huge tsunami, deluging nuclear power plants and releasing radiation in Fukushima. More than 300,000 people were evacuated; today, almost three years later, life is still far

from back to normal. And yet – children are going to school, and some are composing music filled with hope

and happiness.

Julia Arancio (Age 12, M.S. 54

Booker T. Washington Middle School): Unity

Austin Celestin (Age 11, M.S. 234

The Center School): City Life

Jake O’Brien (Age 13, M.S. 167

Robert F. Wagner Middle School): Traffic Lights

Karin Utagawa (age 13, Junior High School at Fukushima

University): Wave

Yuki Iwamoto (age 10, Junior High School

at Fukushima University): Flowers of Four Seasons

Hiroaki Iwamoto (age 15, Junior High School

at Fukushima University): Happy Life

Unity was written in response to Wave. Julia tried out many variations on Karin’s theme until it slowly evolved into her own piece. As Julia says, “The message I wanted to send Karin was that, even though we live in such different places and we never met, I felt like I was connected to her through her piece.”

Austin composed City Life as a response to Flowers of Four Seasons to tell victims of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake about New York City. Austin writes, “City Life is a reflection of what life is like in New York City. It is also about a tourist’s perspective of New York City.”

Traffic Lights is Jake O’Brien’s response to Happy Life. Jake explains, “It was inspired by life in New York City: the sounds, smells, sights, and energy of my home. Think about where in the city you are as the piece progresses.”

All of the Japanese students study with Prof. Takehito Shimazu of Fukushima University, and are grateful that their New York Very Young Composer partners have orchestrated their pieces at their request.

H O W W E L L D O Y O U K N O W T H E O R C H E S T R A ?

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What’s coming up at the Young People’s Concerts?

PO INTS OF ENTRYThis season, each Young People’s Concert focuses on a single great score,

through which we will explore facets of music and the orchestra itself.

Saturday, April 12, 2014, 2:00pm

J O H A N N E S B R A H M SPiano Concerto No. 1

fter learning about and hearing the different instruments of the orchestra in Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, can you guess which instruments are being described below?

I’m a member of the Woodwind family. I’m the smallest instrument in the orchestra. I have the highest voice of the Woodwinds.

WHO AM I? ____________________

I’m a member of the String family. I have a foundation and rhythmic role in the orchestra. I have the deepest voice of the Strings.

WHO AM I? ____________________

I’m a member of the Percussion family. I’m also known as the kettledrums. My drum heads are made out of calf skin and can change pitch.

WHO AM I? ____________________

I’m a member of the Brass family.I’m the only brass instrument in the orchestra without valves.I can make a distinctive sliding sound.

WHO AM I? ____________________• Brass • Strings • Woodwinds • Percussion

Answers: 1. piccolo; 2. double bass; 3. timpani; 4. trombone

TIMPANIPERCUSSION

FRENCHHORNS

TRUMPETS

TUBA

HARP

VIOLAS

SECOND VIOLINS

CONDUCTOR

FIRST VIOLINS

CELLOS

BASSES

CLARINETS

FLUTES

OBOES

PICCOLO

BASSOONS

TROMBONES

MetLife Foundation is the Lead Corporate Underwriter for the New York Philharmonic’s Education Programs.Additional support is provided by The Theodore H. Barth Foundation. Tune Up! Is made possible by an endowment in the name of Lillian Butler Davey.Very Young Composers is sponsored, in part, by The ASCAP Foundation Irving Caesar Fund. Additional support provided by the Ethel K. & Sanford L. Solender Memorial Music Fund of UJA-Federation. The New York Philharmonic gratefully acknowledges the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation and the League of American Orchestras for their generous support of this program.

W A N T TO L E A R N M O R E ?t’s Benjamin Britten’s 100th birthday! Want to learn more about Britten and how people all over the world are celebrating? Check out britten100.org.

Want to compose your own music, dig deeper into the orchestra or make your own instruments? You’ll find all that and more on Kidzone! at nyphilkids.org.

Interested in meeting other Very Young Composers and hearing some of their work? You can find them at nyphil.org/vyc; click on Student Work.

Liked the music you heard and want to hear more? Here are a few ideas for further listening:

• More music by Benjamin Britten, like his Simple Symphony, Op. 4, based on material he composed as a young teen; or Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, where each variation describes a characteristic of Bridge’s personality; or the rest of the Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes

• Enigma Variations by Edward Elgar, another English composer, whose variations describe the characters of different people, rather than instruments of the orchestra

• Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten, composed by his friend Arvo Pärt upon Britten’s death in 1976 — a somber but gorgeous piece