PRESENTS

21

SEPTEMBER

2024

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3:00PM

Pre-Concert TALK

2:30PM


Akropolis




Concert Program


Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) arr Raaf Hekkema –

"Toccata" from Le Tombeau de Couperin (1917)

Derrick Skye (b. 1982) – A Soulful Nexus (2023)


Willem Jeths (b. 1959) – Maktub (2013)


INTERMISSION


Stephanie Ann Boyd (b. 1990) – Lake of Muses (2024)


Jeff Scott (b. 1967) – Homage to Paradise Valley (2019)


Celebrating their 16th season, the Akropolis Reed Quintet is ​renowned for their adventurous spirit and innovative ​performances of new works. Hailed as “sonically daring” by ​BBC Music Magazine, Akropolis has consistently appeared ​on the Classical Billboard Charts, with their latest album, ​Are We Dreaming the Same Dream?, reaching #2 in April ​2024. Since their founding in 2009, the ensemble has ​commissioned over 150 works and performed 120 concerts ​annually across the globe. Beyond the stage, Akropolis ​engages deeply with their Detroit community, running the ​Together We Sound festival and mentoring young ​composers through residencies in local schools.



Program Notes


"Toccata" from Le Tombeau de Couperin

Maurice Ravel lost many close friends in World War I, which for a few ​short years was known as the War to End All Wars. During his own ​service in the War, he composed six short piano pieces in memory of ​friends who had passed away during the war (hence the title, Tombeau, ​French for "tomb"), and in 1919 orchestrated four of them. Formally, he ​invoked the classical French dance suite (hence the remainder of the title, ​de Couperin). The suite is among his most-loved compositions, and has ​been arranged for many combinations of instruments. However, the final ​movement performed here, Toccata, is almost never performed in any ​other form but its original for piano, arranged for reed quintet to ​capitalize on the unique ability of each instrument to articulate rapidly, ​perform long phrases, and create colorful textures.


A Soulful Nexus

From the composer: "A Soulful Nexus is a transcultural classical work that ​blends elements of Persian classical music with ornamental vocal ​techniques found in solo Balkan vocal melodies and the groove-based ​polyrhythms characteristic of electronic dance music. From Persian ​classical music, the piece uses an E koron, which to the Western trained ​ear may sound like a flat microtonal pitch. However, in Persian classical ​music, a koron is considered its own note, not a microtone between ​notes. Sonically, this demonstrates how something initially perceived as ​an imperfection, over time and with change in perspective, can be seen as ​an aspect of perfection.

Central to A Soulful Nexus is the use of the melodic framework Gushé ​Shekaste from Persian classical music, which includes the E koron. ​Shekaste translated means "broken," due to the relationship between the ​main tetrachord and auxiliary notes of this melodic framework. ​Throughout the piece, Morakab-Navazie is used to move between Gushé ​Shekaste and Darâmad Dastgâh-e Mahur and Dastgâh-e Râstpanjgâh. ​The fourth movement in particular is inspired by Afro-Persian music ​from Southern Iran. From Balkan music, the piece uses mordents and ​fragmented motivic phrasing often used by solo vocalists in Bulgarian ​women's choir music. From electronic dance music, A Soulful Nexus uses ​cyclical, groove-based polyrhythms to accompany instrumental solos. ​The title A Soulful Nexus serves as an invitation for listeners and ​performers to trace the intricate pathways of these musical idioms ​interwoven throughout the composition."

A Soulful Nexus has been made possible by the Chamber Music America ​Classical Commissioning Program, with generous funding provided by ​The Mellon Foundation.


Maktub

The word "maktub" appears throughout the international best-selling ​book, The Alchemist, by Brazilian Author Paulo Coelho, and is the ​inspiration for Dutch composer's Willem Jeths' reed quintet composition. ​"Maktub" is first used in The Alchemist by a crystal merchant, who, when ​giving advice to the book's main character, Santiago, introduces to ​Santiago the idea of his "personal legend," or Maktub. Maktub means, "it is ​written," and becomes the subject of Santiago's journey throughout the ​book to discover his personal legend. Maktub is the concert's most ​meditative composition. Rather than specific images, Jeths paints a ​landscape in one, through-composed movement that allows the listener ​to fill in their own images and ideas, considering the meaning of "Maktub" ​and their own personal legend. The Alchemist asks the timeless and basic ​question, "are we in control of the events in our lives, or are they written ​by fate?" In the novel, Santiago encounters circumstances which make it ​plain to him that the universe is conspiring so that he can achieve his ​personal legend, but he also makes key choices along the way.


Lake of Muses

Akropolis commissioned Stephanie Ann Boyd to compose Lake of Muses ​as part of their annual Together We Sound festival in Detroit, and the ​piece is made possible with support from the National Endowment for ​the Arts. Inspired by Michigan's 5 great lakes, the composer says, "These ​movements touch on the bits I found most fascinating about these bodies ​of water, from Lake Superior's cold depths being so clear due to a lack of ​organic material in the water/being oligotrophic, aka nutrient poor; to all ​the beauty Lake Michigan has been the canvas and the for in my life so ​far; to Lake Huron's thousands and thousands of islands and its ​underwater petrified forest; to Lake Erie's rust belt communities and ​fruit belt orchards and vineyard before it crashes through Niagara Falls ​into Lake Ontario, whose human-created harmful algal blooms can be ​seen from space.


Homage to Paradise Valley

Homage to Paradise Valley was commissioned by and composed for ​Akropolis in 2019, with support from the Chamber Music America ​Classical Commissioning Program, with generous funding from The ​Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Paradise Valley, a now-displaced ​neighborhood of Detroit, Michigan, became of interest to Jeff Scott after ​he and Akropolis visited the Charles H. Wright Museum of African ​American History in Detroit, while Jeff's quintet, Imani Winds, was ​passing through Detroit on tour. Homage to Paradise Valley utilizes Jeff's ​diverse musical background as a jazz and studio musician in New York ​City.

"The Valley, the Bottom, and Hastings Street," is a poem by Detroit ​author Marsha Music, commissioned by Akropolis in 2020 to accompany ​Jeff Scott's composition. Marsha grew up in the Black Bottom ​neighborhood. Her father, Joe Von Battle, was a record producer for ​Aretha Franklin and others. He owned Joe's Records, one of hundreds of ​music and arts-related cultural centers on Hastings Street.

Comprised of 4 movements, Jeff Scott provides these notes about each ​movement:

"1. Black Bottom was a predominantly black neighborhood in Detroit, ​Michigan. The term has sometimes been used to apply to the entire ​neighborhood including Paradise Valley, which reached from the Detroit ​River north to Grand Boulevard. In the early 20th century, African-​American residents became concentrated here during the first wave of ​the Great Migration to northern industrial cities. Informal segregation ​operated in the city to keep them in this area of older, less expensive ​housing. The name of the neighborhood is often erroneously believed to ​be a reference to the AfricanAmerican community that developed in the ​20th century, but it was named during the colonial era by the early ​French settlers because of its dark, fertile topsoil (known as river ​bottomlands). Black Bottom/Paradise Valley became known for its African ​American residents' significant contributions to American music, ​including Blues, Big Band, and Jazz, from the 1930s to '50s. Black Bottom's ​substandard housing was eventually cleared and redeveloped for various ​urban renewal projects, driving the residents out. By the 1960s the ​neighborhood ceased to exist.

2. Hastings Street ran north-south through Black Bottom and had been a ​center of Eastern European Jewish settlement before World War I, but by ​the 1950s, migration transformed the strip into one of Detroit's major ​African-American communities of black-owned businesses, social ​institutions, and nightclubs. Music was the focal point of Hastings Street, ​with world-famous jazz and blues artists visiting almost daily.

3. From the Bantu language of Swahili, "Roho, Pumzika kwa Amani" ​(Spirits, Rest Peacefully) is a lullaby. My humble offering to the many ​souls who came before me, and preserved through the middle passage, ​decades of slavery, disenfranchising laws, and inequality. I am who I am ​because of those who stood before me. May their spirits rest peacefully.

4. Orchestra Hall, where the Detroit Symphony Orchestra now performs, ​closed in 1939, but reopened in 1941 as the Paradise Theater. For 10 years ​it would then offer the best of AfricanAmerican musicians from around ​the country. Duke Ellington opened Christmas week with his big band, ​admission was 50 cents, and patrons could stay all day. There were 3 ​shows every day and 4 on weekends. "B" movies were shown between ​acts. During the glory days of jazz the Paradise Theater saw Ella ​Fitzgerald, Billy Eckstine, Billie Holiday, and many more. "Paradise ​Theater Jump" is dedicated to the famed theater and harkens to the up-​tempo style of "jump blues," usually played by small groups and featuring ​saxophone or brass instruments."


One can learn more about this part of Detroit's history by visiting the ​Detroit Historical Society website at detroithistorical.org.

Special Thank You!


As we celebrate ORCMA’s 80th season, we want to express our deepest ​gratitude for our generous donors and Sponsors for this season. These ​contributions have made this milestone season possible, bringing world-​class music and enriching experiences to our community. We are ​incredibly fortunate to have such dedicated partners by our side.

Thank you for being an essential part of this journey with us.

2024/2025 Season Donors & Sponsors

Grand Ambassador


Jim Rome

Ambassadors


Herb & Carolyn Krause

Syd & Becky Ball

Bill Schwenterly


Grand Benefactors

Gene Spejewski

Don Batchelor

Charles and Marlene ​Darling

Dan & Eva Robbins

Jean Bangham

Lois McKeever

Mary Lou Daugherty

Pat Postma



Richard War & Susan Sharp

Mar​ion Burger



Benefactors

Mary Ellen Klots

Marty Adler-Jasny

Connie and Frank Larimer

Ellen Andrews

Joan Ellen Zucker

Margaret Dory


Patrons

Marese and Thomas Nephew

Miriam Griffin

Catherine Whitten

Irene Sullivan

Melvyn Halbert

Ron & Linda Battle

Tom Rosseel




Sponsors

Craig & Pamela Kallio

Franz and Carol Plasil

Art Dworkin

Blynn and Ruth Prince

Carole Yust

James Michael Knox

James Michel

Martha Ann Odell

Nancy Hardin

Philip & Doris Sklad

Contributors

Richard Baylor Jr

Ann Mostoller

Miriam Wankerl

Sylvia Milanez

Tim Bigelow

Friends

Ann Johnson

Cynthia Wyse

Betsy Spooner


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Upcoming

September

Concerts & Events:

Sing & Swing






Oak Ridge Chorus

Saturday, September 28, 2024

4:00 PM

Bissell Park Band Shell

Performing jazz, swing, Broadway, ​and an original composition by local ​musician Wendel Werner, the Oak ​Ridge Chorus, Swing Time Big Band, ​and special guests from Oak Ridge ​High School will have you

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Monday, September 30, 2024 @ 5:00 PM


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Sunday, October 20, 2024

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