Remember your good concert etiquette

2. Remember your good concert etiquette • Be polite • Keep your feet on the floor • Enjoy the performance in silence • Hold your applause until the conductor puts her hands down • Walk, don’t run, everywhere you go • Remember that you are representing your school and you want to be on your best behavior

3. Laura Jackson • Laura Jackson just began her fourth season as Music Director of the Reno Philharmonic and is looking forward to continue making music with the orchestra’s musicians and the many amazing guest artists who will be performing with the Reno Phil in the 12-13 season. • Laura comes to Reno after completing three-years as Assistant Conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra under Robert Spano, while maintaining an active guest-conducting career with ensembles throughout the world. • Laura studied conducting at the University of Michigan and attended the Tanglewood Music Center in 2003 as the Seiji Ozawa Conducting Fellow. She enjoys performing both traditional and contemporary repertoire.

4. The Reno Philharmonic • The Reno Philharmonic Orchestra has an average of 75 musicians who perform. The musicians play different music at each concert. To do that, the musicians must learn a lot of music. Musicians spend a great deal of time practicing alone and together in rehearsals. • In addition to the Young People’s Concerts at the Pioneer Center, the orchestra performs many other concerts during the year. It performs six “Classix” classical concerts, many outdoor concerts during the summer, and educational concerts. Altogether, the full orchestra performs over 25 times a year. • The Reno Philharmonic also has three orchestras for student musicians: the Youth Strings Symphonia, Youth Concert Orchestra, and Youth Symphony Orchestra. • The Reno Philharmonic just began its 44th season

5. Ruth Lenz- Concertmaster • Ruth Lenz is concertmaster of the Reno Philharmonic, Nevada Opera, and Reno Chamber Orchestra. She has performed on many stages throughout the western United States, and shared the stage with many famous musicians. • Ruth has her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University of Nevada, Reno studying with Phillip Ruder, and her Doctorate from the University of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana. In addition to performing, Dr. Lenz has a passion for teaching and maintains a large studio of violin students. • Ruth is the last musician to walk on stage. Notice that when she comes out on her own the orchestra quiets, then begins to tune. • Went to Peavine Elementary School, Clayton Middle School, & McQueen High School • Started violin and piano at age 2. She began her violin studies with her mother. • Loves horses and dogs • Likes hiking, painting pictures, riding horses, reading and practicing violin • Favorite composers: Mozart, Brahms, Mahler, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, and of course, Beethoven and Bach • Likes all genres of music, “as long as it makes me think or affects my mood in some way” • Tries to practice at least an hour every day, more if she needs to learn difficult music in a short time frame. • What did she want to be when she grew up? A veterinarian or illustrator (draws pictures). • Has about 20 private violin students

6. What will you hear at the YPC? • The Overture to La Gazza Ladra (The Thieving Magpie) by Gioachino Rossini • Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev • Raiders March from Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark by John Williams

7. Giaochino Rossini Do you procrastinate on your homework? That is, do you wait until the very last minute to get your work done? Rossini was the same way. It is said that in this particular piece, they had to lock him in a room before the first performance so he would write the overture! He threw the music out of the window a page at a time and another person who helps with the music would put it together in one big score. May 31, 1817 was the first performance of this opera. At the time, it was common to have an opera like this be performed and then the composer would continue to tweak and change the composition for future performances. Much like an author would write a book with a first draft; however when an author writes a book there is an editor that reads and re-reads the books before the public gets to see it. When the editor and author think it is good enough, it goes to print in the final version. Operas were much more flexible, could be performed for the public and could be changed over time. Now, when an author makes changes to a book after it has been published and wants it to be re-published and he or she has the book re-printed and it is called a second edition. Rossini

8. La gazza ladra (The Thieving Magpie) There is a mother and a father. Their son, Giannetto, returns from a war. Ninetta loves Giannetto, but others adore her as well. The mother thinks Ninetta stole a silver spoon* from them. *Silver spoons were worth a lot of money back then. Ninetta’s dad stops by and he was also in the war. Ninetta’s dad had talked back to his captain during the war. In other words, he didn’t listen to his captain and was sassy, that is not a good thing when you are in the military. So, her dad was supposed to be arrested for this but he decided to go on the run instead of going to jail. He told Ninetta to sell two of their family spoons so he could have money for his travels as he escaped. Ninetta goes to sell the two spoons. A magpie swoops down and steals the spoon from Giannetto’s mother*. *The mother of the son who thought Ninetta stole their spoon. The mayor of the town has a warrant to arrest Ninetta’s dad. She lies to protect her father saying that he wasn’t there, and eventually the mayor finds out that Ninetta lied. The mayor puts her in jail and she is condemned to death for lying to the mayor and for hiding her father who was running from the law. She told one of the guards to sell her cross necklace to help her father run to freedom. After the guard does so, the magpie swoops down and steals the gold coin he got in exchange for the necklace. Giannetto sees the magpie do this and runs up to the bell tower where the bird went. He found his mother’s spoon up there and the gold coin. His girlfriend, Ninetta, is about to be shot to death. The crowd hears Giannetto yell from the bell tower that she didn’t do it and her life is spared. This overture is known for the snare drum.

9. He was born on Leap Day—February 29, 1792 in Pesaro, in Northern Italy Died November 13, 1868—76 years old in Paris, France Wrote 39 operas Called “The Italian Mozart” Was the most famous opera composer ever until he retired in 1829. At the age of six he was playing the triangle in his father’s musical group. His father played horn and inspected slaughter houses. His mom was a singer and the daughter of a baker. Wrote his first opera around 13-14 years old, but that opera was not performed until he was 20 and there were already 5 other operas that had been performed that he had composed. He knew how to speak just a little German because he loved Mozart’s music so much. His instruments: triangle, harpsichord, horn, cello, singer (only performed once as a singer though) Fun Facts about Rossini

10. More Fun Facts about Rossini Later in 1822, a 30-year old Rossini succeeded in meeting Ludwig van Beethoven, who was then 51 years old, deaf, cranky and not very healthy. Beethoven often wrote his thoughts down so he could “talk” to others. He wrote down the following, “Ah, Rossini. So you’re the composer of The Barber of Seville. I congratulate you. It will be played as long as Italian opera exists. Never try to write anything else but opera buffa; any other style would do violence to your nature.” If he was alive today he would be 220 years old, HOWEVER, if he celebrated only his actual birthday (February 29), he would be 54 this year.

11. Vocabulary • Overture • Music composed as an introduction to an opera • Opera Buffa • Opera that was funny instead of serious • La gazza ladra is considered a semiseria (kind of funny kind of serious)

12. Sergei Prokofiev Prokofiev was born in 1891 in a small village in Ukraine, Russia. He was an only child and his family was fairly well-off (today, we would call them “middle class”.) He began studying the piano at age 4 and wrote his first piano piece at age 5. His mother took him to many opera performances as a young boy, and he wrote his first opera at age 9. At 13 he entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory, studying composition and piano performance. He began to make a name for himself as a composer, but also had a reputation as a musical rebel. In 1910, his father died, but his mother continued to support him. In 1914, as a graduation present from his mother, he traveled to Paris and London where he heard many influential modern works and met many influential modern composers. In 1918, he left Russia to visit America. He performed piano recitals in New York, Chicago, and other major US cities, but his new compositions were not so well received. He traveled back to Europe in 1922. Two years later he married a Spanish singer, and they spent most of their time in Paris, making some concerts tours to Russia, and composing many new works. At one time, he was in a car crash which injured his hands. This forced him to stop performing for a while and enjoy other composers' works. In time, his hands healed, and he made several piano performance tours, including to the US, all the while writing more music. He wrote many kinds of pieces, including symphonies, ballets, operas, and many piano pieces. In 1936 he and his wife returned permanently to Russia, now called the Soviet Union. With the communist government, he was not as free to compose whatever he wanted, and he hated the restrictions. It was in this first year that he was asked to compose “Peter and the Wolf”; he composed several other works for children at this time, as well. During WWII, his wife and two sons stayed in Moscow, while he was evacuated to a safer location. In later years, Prokofiev suffered from high blood pressure, and his health became worse and worse for the last 8 years of his life, including a fall which caused a concussion that affected his ability to compose as much. He died at the age of 61 from a cerebral hemorrhage (bleeding into the brain) on the same day the death of Stalin (the Soviet dictator at the time) was announced. As a result, his death was hardly noticed, but his orchestral music is now played more frequently in the US than almost any other performer, and his other works are still performed in concert halls all over the world. Prokofiev

13. Peter and the Wolf This piece was written in 1936 by the Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev. It was commissioned by the Central Children's Theatre in Moscow. They wanted a new musical symphony for children. Prokofiev completed the basic piece in just 4 days, taking another few days to complete the orchestrations. The first performance was not very well attended, but it has since become one of the most popular children's pieces of all time. The piece takes about 25 minutes to tell a story through music and narration (both written by Prokofiev). Each character in the story is represented by a particular instrument:

14. Wolf = French horns Bird = Flute Duck = Oboe Hunters = timpani for gunshots woodwind theme, Cat = Clarinet Grandfather = Bassoon Peter = Strings

15. Peter and the Wolf Of course, the original was written in Russian, but it has been recorded in many other languages, the first English version coming out in 1939. Disney created an animated version in 1946, which can now be seen on YouTube. The music has been used in many movies and shows featuring many different performers, from “A Christmas Story” to Sesame Street, to comic takeoffs by Weird Al Yancovic and The Simpsons. About 40 different recordings have been made using various narrators, from Leonard Bernstein to Melissa Joan Hart.

16. Vocabulary • Commissioned • Given an assignment to write a specific piece of music, usually for a specific event, with a deadline and for an agreed-upon amount of money. • Orchestration • Arranging the music for the specific instruments of the orchestra. • Narration • The spoken part which tells the story.

17. John Williams John Williams was born February 8, 1932 in Long Island, New York. He moved to Los Angeles with his family in 1948 and graduated from North Hollywood High School in 1950. He went to UCLA and studied composition. He served in the Air Force where he conducted and arranged music for the Air Force Band. His service in the Air Force ended in 1955 then he moved to New York City and studied piano at the Julliard School. He worked as a jazz pianist during this time. After Julliard, John Williams returned to Los Angeles where he worked as an orchestrator at film studios. As a studio pianist he performed film scores and recorded with Henry Mancini on many films. He was often listed in the credits as “Johnny Williams” for several TV shows in the 1960s including the pilot episode of Gilligan’s Island, Lost in Space, and the Land of the Giants to name a few. Mr. Williams received his first nomination for an Academy Award in 1967. He has composed the music for nearly eighty films and has received 45 Academy Award nominations. He has won 5 Oscars, 7 British Academy Awards, 21 Grammies and 4 Golden Globes. John Williams has composed some of the most famous movie themes ever written. We can hear his two note motif and immediately think of the shark from Jaws. We all know that the Dark Side’s, Darth Vader, is near when the well-known march is played. There are many other recognizable themes from HarryPotter, Close Encounters, ET, Jurassic Park, and Raiders of the Lost Ark. I’m sure you have heard many others. John Williams

18. Raiders MarchFrom Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark The main character in Raiders of the Lost Ark is a rough and tough professor and archeologist, Indiana Jones, who is in search of a very mysterious, religious artifact – the Ark of the Covenant. The movie is a story of good versus evil with a little bit of romance thrown in and is set in the late 1930s. The four very distinct musical themes of the movie represent Dr. Jones, the villainous Nazis, Marion (the woman Indy cares about), and the Ark. John Williams is a master of making his music work with the film. It can be heard and the listener can feel emotions and remember specific characters and scenes immediately. Ark of the Covenant

19. Vocabulary • Orchestrator • one who composes or arranges music for performance by an orchestra • Motif • A short rhythmic or melodic passage that is repeated or evoked in various parts of a composition

20. The Reno Philharmonic Yong People’s Concerts are brought to you by: • The City of Reno Arts and Culture Commission • Charles Stout Foundation • EL Cord Foundation • IGT • The Nell J. Redfield Fdn. • Orvis Fdn. • Bobbie Talso • MSC Industries Direct Company • Terry Lee Wells Fdn. • US Bancorp • Wells Fargo Foundation • Intuit • RGJ Foundatin • Wilbur D. May Foundation YPC Study Guide Advisory Committee: Amy Heald- Reno Philharmonic Education Director Carol House- Sarah Winnemucca Elementary Bridget James- Huffaker Elementary Stephanie Urmston- Greenbrae Elementary Debbie Vaughn- Brown Elementary