1. Fairy Tales + Simple Gifts
An Inaugural Concert presented by the Harvard Summer Chamber Orchestra
Featuring Works by Mozart, Sibelius, & Copland
The Harvard Summer Chamber Orchestra
Elias Miller, cofounder & conductor
Nicolas Sterner, cofounder & assistant conductor
Andrew Heath, cofounder
Sunday, 7 August, 2016 @3:00pm in John Knowles Paine Hall
Harvard University – Cambridge, Massachusetts.

2. Downbeat: An Orchestral Inception
Elias Miller, Nicolas Sterner, and Andrew Heath began laying the
foundations for a new orchestral ensemble based in Cambridge, MA in May
of 2016. In the spirit of musical collaboration and entrepreneurship, our
vision was to bring together students, amateurs, and young professionals,
many of whom lack performance opportunities during the summer, to put
on a professional-level concert, and also to present our music to a large
community for free.
Planning to build and organize this group from scratch, we started
laying the framework for a new orchestra by reaching out to musicians. After
numerous emails to teachers, orchestras, and individuals, Facebook posts,
and various scheduling difficulties, the orchestra began to take shape. By the
time we completed our orchestra’s roster, we had contacted upwards of 300
hundred musicians still in Boston during the summer!
Finding rehearsal space proved to be a challenge as well - we have been
fortunate to find rehearsal space both on Harvard’s campus and in the
immediate surrounding area. We are immensely grateful to our friends at the
Friends Meeting at Cambridge and at St. Paul’s Parish for providing us with
space at a reduced price and for free.
Needless to say, it has been extremely ambitious for us to create and
organize an ensemble of this size and caliber at such low cost. Our orchestra
is made up of supremely talented musicians who have all agreed to volunteer
their time and abilities for free. We have still incurred many costs during this
process. Fortunately, our successful GoFundMe campaign raised a total of
$1250 of our $1500 goal, all through small donations.
We are proud to present to you, our audience, this concert as a
culmination of our efforts, process, and music-making. As we look towards
creating a future for our orchestra by planning future concerts, perhaps
during the year as well as the summer, and possibly by monetizing the
organization, we would like to count on your support. We will have a table in
the back of the hall during intermission and after the concert that will collect
donations should you be interested in furthering our cause.
~ Many Thanks, Sincerely, the HSCO Cofounders

3. The Harvard Summer Chamber Orchestra
Violin I Violin II
Kristen Monnik Fariba Hunold
Tommy Peeples Ari Umans
Jiaxin Li Ryan McGillicudy
Ha-Eun Ryu Avery Normandin
Qiumei Chen Emily Schulman
Hallie Smith Cello
Viola Nicolas Sterner
Brendan Klippel Shaheen Lavie-Rouse
Bryan Tyler Chris Healy
Stephen Jue Kent Bara
Erika Bara Sarah Cook
Bass Adrian Zemor
Michael Flinn Horn
Flute Casey Golomski
Yeji Oh Andrew Chael
Brian Rappaport Marco Catipovic
Eunice Lee Seann Avery
Clarinet Trumpet
Rose Whitcomb Jingyuan Wang
Yi-Ting Hsieh Emily Languedoc
Oboe Trombone
Peter Lewnard Roger Hecht
Jeongwook Yi Marek Subernat
Bassoon Levi Schmidt
Joycelyn Eby Percussion
Dana Zaresky Chris Faesi
Piano Chris Hazel
Chan Kang Timpani
Harp Justin Cavitt
Allana Iwanicki

4. ~ Program ~
W.A. Mozart
Overture from the singspiel Die Zauberflöte, K. 620 (1791)
J. Sibelius
Suite from the play King Christian II, Op. 27 (1898):
I. Nocturne, a love scene
II. Elegie, that which is condemned – liebestod
III. Musette, Dyvecke's dance
IV. Serenade, nachtmusik – judgment of the court
V. Ballade, the rage of the king – the tyranny of power
– Intermission –
A. Copland
Suite from the Ballet Appalachian Spring, (1945):
i. Very slowly, Introduction of the characters in a suffused light
ii. Fast, A sentiment both elated and religious
iii. Duo for the Bride and her Intended – tenderness and passion
iv. Quite fast. The Revivalistand his flock – the country folk
v. Still faster. Solo dance of the Bride – presentiment of motherhood.
Extremes of joy and fear and wonder
vi. Very slowly (as at first). Reminiscence and nostalgia
vii. Calm and flowing. “Simple Gifts” of daily activity for the Bride and her
Farmer husband
viii. Moderate – Coda. The Bride takes her place among her neighbors, “quiet
and strong in their new house”

5. Notes, in brief –
Mozart:
Before Beethoven, there was, indeed, Mozart. While the history of
music often tells Beethoven’s story as the first independent and liberated
artist-hero, all heroes arise from paths cleared by others before them.
Singular and immediately popular, Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte combined the
whit, lunacy, and fantasy of his librettist Emmanuel Schikaneder’s tale of
exotic Egyptian rescue, cult followings, power struggles, love, and
mystery.
Veering away from the standard operatic form, Zauberflöte is nearly a
farce, sung and spoken in German as feathered, flute-wielding hunters,
high priests, demonic queens, and their cronies scurry the stage
accompanied by music erratically predisposed, contrasting, even trippy.
Die Zauberflöte embodies the pinnacle, or perhaps the end of
Enlightenment-era philosophy, as the new era of the common people
dawned on the horizon. The characters facing quasi-masonic trials, more
existential than explicitly cult-like, confront figures of authority, reason,
and power who become caricatures of themselves.
The overture to the singspiel grabs hold of musical allegory, in the
trinity-key of e-flat major; solemn and weighted under oath and
responsibility, the music lets itself go as the allegro gives was to a manic
expression of sequence, repetition, and farce. As the famous triadic
chords insist the music back into solemn penitence, the tonal material
struggles through an obsession for freedom during the development,
breaking free as the major section succumbs to its own internal energy,
its frenetic state to conclude the overture.
Sibelius:
Sibelius’ Suite from King Christian II derives from another fairytale, but
one set in historical reality. King Christian II ruled Denmark, Norway,
and Sweden at the beginning of the 16th
century.

6. Incidental music to the play by the same name, written by Sibelius’ friend
Adolf Paul, both recount the story of King Christian II who fell in love
with Dyveke Sigbritsdatter, a commoner.
The first three movements recollect the inevitable of a forbidden
romance, ending in Dyveke’s untimely death at the hands of a poison-
wielding rival of the king.
The Nocturne begins as a harmonic stillness, the falling line of the
oboe yearning for tenderness. The first movement then transpires as a
suave variation of cycling tonal colors all-the-while restraining exultant
passion until the climax, concluding more as a recommencement rather
than an ending. The Elegie is a pinnacle point in the work. With an
undercurrent of emotional intensity, a series of question-begging pushes
and pulls between the pleading upper strings and the consolatory lower
strings, providing few answers. The movement ends as a final burst of
expression, wrought with courageous acceptance of a love which cannot
be.
The Musette is Dyveke’s dance, a simple and pleasant tune, one that
became tremendously popular as a folk song in Finland. The Serenade is
a scene at the court ball, the drones of medieval pipes evoked by the
horns. The strings enter with agitation, provoking a quarrel that busts
into a fight. Crisis-averted, the ball recommences despite the gossip of
traitorous nobility in the presence of a king.
Cracks of thunder and lightning erupt from the timpani then strings as
the Ballade opens, as the orchestra is flung into passages of spurious rage.
Forced to purge his enemies, King Christian II’s wrath is unleashed in
this movement, depicting the 1520 massacre of the Swedish nobility in
Stockholm that brought about the king’s suffix: the tyrant.
Copland:
Commissioned, choreographed, and danced by Martha Graham,
Copland’s Appalachian Spring reformulates the biblical story of Adam and
Eve as a frontier adventure, one that emphasized America’s triumphant
resilience post-World War II as “a shining city on a hill.”

7. Synthesizing elements from Mexican-American Western style, courtesy
of Carlos Chavez, as well as American spirituals, Copland’s masterpiece
balances the rough-and-tumble of American-individualism with the
nuance, luxe, and pastel colors emblematic of Nadia Boulanger and the
French school.
The beginning of the ballet suite opens with a gentle outline of a major
tonic chord, a motif passed around by the strings.
As if in stasis, the opening transpires in a musical framework seemingly
from Exodus, though a more subtle interpretation of that the same idea
of inception Beethoven understood as the frenetic, big-bang-like opening
to his Ninth Symphony. However, the innocence quickly subsides as the
frontier-folk are beckoned to begin their work with the giddy-up-and-go
energy evoked by the violins. Spurious, the energy quickly presses
forward into a chorale of primary colors, hues stricken over uncharted
territories filled with exceptional promise.
The passionate duet between the frontiersman and his intended then
takes place between the strings and oboe, dissonances and consonances
oscillating as if hands conjoining. Lead by the evangelist, the settlers are
ushered along through country dances that bound them over the hills and
meadows of Appalachia. Finally, as the country dances spin into a flurry
of rhythm, intensity subsides as the hills break way to majestic and vast
plains, in an eloquent unison by the orchestra. Short-lived, the repose
dissolves into maximum anxiety as the violas begin an unstoppable
motor; the extremes of frontier life, pregnancy, anticipation.
Grinding to another halt, nostalgic colors from the opening are
murmured by the strings. An acceptance of the tumult of frontier living
transcends over the orchestra, inviting the Shaker Hymn “Simple Gifts.”
Passing through several variations, the hymn evolves into a solemn
prayer for posterity, of motherhood, of fatherhood, of “they-built-it-
better” sentimentality. And thus, as it began, so it ends; peering at
infinity, the suite concludes with the frontier closing in not on itself, but
on the wonder of the world and stars.
~ Nicolas Sterner, August, 2016

8. About the Cofounders:
Elias Miller, cofounder &conductor~
Elias Miller is a rising super-senior at Harvard University where he
concentrates in music. A distinguished cellist, pianist, and conductor, he
has attended prestigious festivalsincluding the Aspen Music Festival and
the Bowdoin International Music Festival and performed in a wide range
of concerts, recitals, and master classes. Most recently, Miller served as
the assistant conductor, vocal coach, and choral master for
Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, conducted a concert of arias from
Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte with the Harvard College Opera Orchestra on
Harvard’s “Arts First” festival, and conducted Gilbert and
Sullivan’s Ruddigore.
Miller attended Tufts University where he pursued a history major and
The New England Conservatory of Music where he majored in cello
performance before transferring to Harvard. He is currently engaged in
work on his senior honors thesis: “Fugue and Fugato in the Music of
Berlioz: A Study of the Evolution of Counterpoint through His Fugal
Technique and its 19th-Century Reception.” Miller studies conducting
with Federico Cortese, conductor of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra,
and with David Alan Miller, conductor of the Albany Symphony
Orchestra. He looks forward to conducting Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice with
Harvard College Opera in the Fall and an opera by C.P.E. Bach with the
Harvard Early Music Society in the Spring.

9. Nicolas Sterner, cofounder& assistant conductor ~
A native of Santa Barbara, California and recent graduate from
Wheaton College in Norton, MA, Nicolas Sterner is an entrepreneur,
cellist, conductor, and collaborative musician. A cellistin the
internationally acclaimed Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, Sterner
played with the ensemble in many venues, notably Symphony Hall
Boston, Sanders’ Theatre at Harvard University, Carnegie Hall, and the
Concertgebouw, Amsterdam.
Receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Music alongside a minor in
International Relations, he is a dedicated musician, scholar, and
passionate supporter of sustainable music-making as an artistic and
entrepreneurial imperative for the future of classical music. Nicolas
resides in the Boston area where he will be pursuing a career in arts
administration as he makes plans to attend graduate school for cello
performance and/or conducting.
AndrewHeath, cofounder~
A Boston-area native trumpeter, conductor, and entrepreneur, Andrew
Heath enjoys successes in classical and contemporary pursuits alike.
Recently a semi-finalist for the Nation Trumpet Competition and the
New World Symphony Orchestra, Heath was the founding director of
the Pittsburgh Performance Innovation Ensemble (PPIE). With PPIE,
he focused on experimental concert settings with video and architectural
installations, interpreting repertoire from young composers exclusively.
PPIE's performance under an Emmanuelle Moureaux installation was
featured on Composer's Circle.
Heath is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University in trumpet, French,
and conducting, and is currently a Master of Music candidate at the New
England Conservatory. In recent entrepreneurial pursuits, Heath is
thrilled to begin the first phase of the HSCO project, and was the winner
of "Top Arts Venture" with team InstantStudio at The Savvy Musician in
Action.

10. **A Special Thanks**
To those that provided logistical assistance and rehearsal spaces:
Friends Meeting House at Cambridge
Father Frank Kelley, Nancy Nicolaou, and St. Paul's Parish
Christina Bianco and Harvard College Opera
Jean Moncrieff, Director of Events
John Knowles Paine Concert Hall
Harvard University
Avery Normandin, for designing a sleek poster
To those who donated to our successful GoFundMe Campaign:
Jerry Miller and Bonnie Friedman
Anonymous
Harvey and Leatrice Sokoloff
Stephanie Lee
John Enrico Douglas
Anonymous
Elma Weil Ettman
Jeongwook Yi
Qinyue Yu
Ryan Lee
Sarah Ettman-Sterner
Yiran Xu
Niles Sterner
Eric Corcoran
Selah Kwak
Joshua and Lucy Hahn
Christina Bianco
Shri Dayanandan
Anonymous
Anonymous
Tania Valrani