Resilience Through Serenity

FROM THE MUSIC DIRECTOR

Dear Friends,

We are so excited to be able to welcome you
to the PVS’ 2022-2023 season, as we refocus
on our love for music! Having now carefully
returned to in-person performances, we are
grateful to channel more of our energies
into making music and sharing it with our
community and gather together as we have
always done—even when the orchestra was
founded in the midst of the second world
war back in 1939.

Thank you for being such encouraging
partners and allies as we navigated the
often murky passages of the pandemic. Your
reassuring support gave us the ability to
press forward in the many innovations on which the orchestra has embarked since
2020!

As in 1939, the world is again clouded with shades of war in Europe. Fittingly, we
begin with Sibelius’ Finlandia, with words that counter the ugly nationalism that led
to stohemvainrtyucoosnicfliacntsdinenthtreanpcaisntg. InmMuseictaomf oBrrpuchho’ssisfirostf Pvieoalicnec, othnicsemrtuos.icThisefoclolonwceerdt
by
closes with Hindemith’s seminal Symphonic Metamorphosis. Written in 1943, when
Hindemith was a new refugee from Germany living in New Haven, CT, it serves as a
symbol of hope and transformation for the many who have been displaced and now
live among us in our community.

ItnribNeosvienmthbeewr, aRkeesiolifetnhceeTTrahirloouf gTehaSrse.rWeneithyarveecothuenrtasrteheoptrpiuomrtpuhniotyf American Indian
to hear the work
of one of the 19th century’s most notable female composers, Emilie Mayer, in her
fourth symphony, juxtaposed against the wistful elegance of Elgar’s Serenade. That
same month, the oPfVBSlaCchkocrousmipnvoisteesrsyaocurotossCcheeneturrtiehse. Weary Traveller, celebrating
the choral music

For the holiday season, we are excited to premiere a fabulous new Christmas
Extravaganza by Puerto Rican composer Ivan Rodriguez, paired with singalongs
and familiar festive pops. Join us as we recreate—and create anew—our holiday
traditions.

In the spring, we join the Springfield Symphony, UConn Storrs, and UMass Amherst
in a mini-festival of tshyemmphuosincyoafnUdkrtahieniraengcioonmalpposreemr Tiehroemoaf sa dneewHaerdtimtioannno.fWdee
will present his first
Hartmann’s Piano Concerto. These masterworks sit at the crossroads of Ukraine,
Russia, and the U.S.—of lost worlds and new homes. Also in the spring, the PVS
Chorus hosts a summit of regional choruses for a joyous celebration of singing.

Lastly, we draw on the most popular Classical opera of modern times, Hiawatha’s
Feast, together with Mozart’s ggroeragteMouasssmiunsiCc aMndinoorppinoratusntiitrireinsgfoarncdoemvmocuantiitvye-
finale to a season filled with
making.

As we revitalize our shared love for music, may we all experience peace, renewal,
and comfort in community.

Tianhui Ng

2022 / 2023 FOR THE LOVE OF MUSIC 3

Music in a
Chamber Setting

Trinity United
Methodist Church

1st & 3rd Tuesdays
361 Sumner Avenue

Springfield
(413) 896-1266
www.tuesdaymmc.org

4 PIONEER VALLEY SYMPHONY 84th SEASON

Broadcast to New England Public Media is proud to be
Podcast— your home for news, culture, and entertainment.
and Everything We provide local perspective and all the shows
in Between. you know and love from PBS and NPR—
on every screen and every speaker.

nepm.org Watch Meets Listen

2022 / 2023 FOR THE LOVE OF MUSIC 5

2022-23 Season Shows

October The Taming

An BdOLiDe. INMTIMuATEs. NikOW. ON VALLEY March Intimate Apparel
FREE RADIO June The Cake

Hosted by Lucy & Lary
WeEdwnignthaegbionslgdd,Viaanltlyeimysaatr8eti,s-pt9sroaafnemdssaioundaiel nthceeastienrthe conversations of our time
WXOJ-LP 103.3 FM
Silverthornetheater.org

NOW STREAMING AT
VALLEYFREERADIO.ORG

6 PIONEER VALLEY SYMPHONY 84th SEASON

2022 / 2023 FOR THE LOVE OF MUSIC 7

TIANHUI NG

Music Director

Tianhui Ng has emerged as one of
the leading advocates for new music,
with a rare understanding of the
voice and Romantic expression. He
has conducted more than 60 world
premieres, including numerous
operas and multimedia works. His
unique gifts for communication
and intercultural work have borne
fruit in several unusual firsts,
including the first operas in Yoruba
and Chickasaw, alongside award-winning programming, drawing
on his deep knowledge of canonic repertoire in dialogue with the
issues of our time.

Since his appointment as Music Director of White Snake Projects
in 2020, Tian has led the world premieres of Death By Life by
Leila Adu Gilmore, Jacinthe Greywoode, David Sanford, Jonathan
Bailey Holland, and Mary D. Watkins, A Survivor’s Odyssey by Mary
Prescott, Elena Ruehr’s Cosmic Cowboy, and Jorge Sosa’s Alice in
the Pandemic, identified by the Library of Congress as one of the
most significant works of American art in the pandemic.

In 2022, Tian’s first album with the Lviv National Philharmonic of
Ukraine on Nimbus Alliance has been lauded internationally as a
major contribution to a previously unknown legacy of symphonic
music in Ukraine and Russia. Hailed by the Boston Globe as
“unforgettable,” Tian will celebrate his appointment as Music
Director of the New England Philharmonic with his trademark
programming in the 2022-2023 season. Tian’s debuts and new
collaborations this season include appearances with GBH Music
in Boston, National Public Radio, New England Public Media,
Borromeo Quartet, Pro Arte Musical, and the Springfield Symphony.

8 PIONEER VALLEY SYMPHONY 84th SEASON

Tian has conducted orchestras around the world, including the
Savaria Symphony Orchestra (Hungary), Moravian Philharmonic
Orchestra (Czech Republic), Dartington Festival Orchestra (UK),
Orchestra of the Royal Opera of Wallonie (Belgium), and the Oregon
Bach Festival Orchestra (USA). A versatile musician, he is equally at
home in the realm of choral music, and has conducted ensembles
like the Stuttgart Chamber Choir (Germany), Carnegie Hall Festival
Chorus (USA), Oregon Bach Festival Chorus (USA), Yale Schola
Cantorum (USA), and the Young Person’s Chorus of New York
(USA). Tian has collaborated with internationally renowned artists
such as Dashon Burton, Tyler Duncan, Marcus Eiche, Jamie-Rose
Guarrine, Ayano Kataoka, Ilya Polataev, Gary Steigerwalt, Astrid
Schween, Sara Davis Buechner, Hanna Elisabeth Müller, Nicholas
Phan, James Taylor, Gilles Vonsattel, and Soyoung Yoon.

Tian holds a B.M. in Music from the University of Birmingham, UK,
with a focus on conducting and composition, and he earned an
M.M. in Conducting from the Yale School of Music. His conducting
teachers and mentors have included Helmuth Rilling, Masaaki
Suzuki, Paolo Arrivabeni, John Carewe, Peter Eötvös, Kurt Masur,
and Michel Tabachnik.

Tian is the Music Director of the Pioneer Valley Symphony, New
England Philharmonic, the Victory Players, and White Snake
Projects.

Stay in touch with Tian via Instagram @ngtianhui

2022 / 2023 FOR THE LOVE OF MUSIC 9

CURTISS, CAREY, GATES & GOODRIDGE, LLP

________________________________
377 MAIN STREET, SUITE 3, GREENFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS 01302

TEL. (413) 774 – 4331

Litigation in State and Federal Courts,
Estate Planning, Probate, Real Estate, Corporate, and Employment Law

STAMELL

STRINGED INSTRUMENTS

Violin • Viola • Cello • Bass

Makers • Dealers • Appraisers • Restorers

18 Kellogg Ave
Amherst, MA 01002

www.stamellstring.com

10 P I O N E E R VA L L E Y SY M P H O N Y 8 4th S E ASO N

Mary Rezny Fit
Function

Style

Custom handcrafted steel
framesets designed and
engineered to your needs by
a master craftsman and
fellow cyclist.

RUSA 1681
La Société Charly Miller 2007

www.alexmeade.com 859.351.8443 Shelburne Falls, MA

2022 / 2023 FOR THE LOVE OF MUSIC 11

ALLEGRA MARTIN

Chorus Director
Dr. Allegra Martin serves as the
Interim Director of Music at First
Unitarian Worcester, the Music
Director of Convivium Musicum, and
conducting teacher at Berklee School
of Music. Previous positions have
included Director of College Choirs
and Interim Orchestra Director at the
College of the Holy Cross, Director of
Music at First Parish Cohasset, Artistic
Director of the Cantilena Women’s
Chorale, and Chorus Director at

Lasell College. Allegra holds degrees from Williams College and
Westminster Choir College, and a doctorate from the University of
Illinois. At the University of Illinois, she founded and conducted the
University Mixed Chorus. Her research specialty is the choral music
of Margaret Bonds. She has presented on Margaret Bonds and on
the topic of diversity and inclusion in the choral canon at ACDA
Northeastern, NCCO, and the Oxford Conducting Institute.
Allegra is also an active professional singer, and was one of the
founders of Anthology, a women’s vocal quartet that performed in
the greater Boston area for six years and commissioned 22 works of
new music in that time. She currently sings with the Schola Cantorum
of Boston and in the past has sung with such ensembles as Cappella
Clausura and the Video Game Orchestra. While at the University
of Illinois, she performed Julia Wolfe’s award-winning Anthracite
Fields with Bang on a Can and Vivaldi’s Juditha Triumphans with the
Venice Baroque Orchestra. While at Westminster, she sang with the
New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra, as well as in
opera productions at the U.S. Spoleto Festival.

12 P I O N E E R VA L L E Y SY M P H O N Y 8 4th S E ASO N

NELL WIENER

YOUTH ORCHESTRA DIRECTOR

Nell Wiener is an educator, musician,
and arranger based in southwestern
New Hampshire. She brings 15 years
of experience teaching instrumental
and choral music across elementary,
middle, and high school levels,
working with students from their
very beginning moments all the
way through their development into
confident, capable musicians. She
enjoys weaving elements of history
and music theory into her teaching, inviting students to broaden
their contextual understanding and engage more deeply with the
music. Young musicians appreciate the upbeat and collaborative
environment of her ensembles, along with the engaging musical
programming she brings. Playing in orchestras has been a constant
presence in Nell’s life since childhood; she’s been a proud member
of the viola section in many youth and community ensembles over
the years, and with the Pioneer Valley Symphony Youth Orchestra
she is honored to work with the next generation of musicians within
one of the oldest community orchestra organizations in the country!

Nell holds a BA in Music from Wellesley College, where she studied
music theory with Martin Brody and conducting with Lisa Graham.
She worked for many years at Monadnock Waldorf School in
Keene, NH, teaching music as well as serving in faculty leadership.
Currently she teaches music at Gathering Waters Charter School
in Keene and maintains a private studio teaching violin and viola.

2022 / 2023 FOR THE LOVE OF MUSIC 13

14 P I O N E E R VA L L E Y SY M P H O N Y 8 4th S E ASO N

FROM THE PRESIDENT

Dear Friends,
This November is an exciting month
for the Pioneer Valley Symphony, with
three concerts from musicians ages
8 to 88+! Wonderful concerts from
the PVS Chorus and the PVS Youth
Orchestra brought record audiences,
this afternoon the PVS Orchestra
welcome you to an intimate concert
with international prize-winning flutist
Dr. Cobus du Toit under the baton of
Music Director Tianhui Ng.
As you listen to the beautiful music, consider the behind-the-scenes
effort required to make this music today. Driving a bit too fast to make
it to rehearsal on time, missing dinner with loved ones, buying endless
pencils, and, of course, subjecting all those in earshot to the early stages
of learning new music. This season is called “For the Love of Music”;
making beautiful music together is truly a labor of love for all involved,
whether you’re supporting a musician or are a musician yourself. And at
the end of the day, we wouldn’t have it any other way. Thank you to
everyone who sacrificed something to be here this afternoon to bring joy
to ourselves and to each other. Onstage, we feel the love. If you’re not on
stage, we hope you feel it beaming back at you.
We celebrate the music today thanks to the service and volunteerism of
the PVS community; the dedication and hard work of our wonderful staff;
the trust of our collaborators and business sponsors; and, most vitally, the
encouragement and financial gifts we receive from you. We need your
continued help. Giving Tuesday—the annual national day of giving—is on
Tuesday, November 29th. This year, we are reflecting on what the Pioneer
Valley Symphony means to us. Whether it is providing an opportunity
to make friends, learn more about music, refine our technique, or work
towards a shared goal, the PVS has has a significant impact on our lives.
The PVS has been a critical part of our community for 84 years, enriching
the vibrant cultural life of our region and making exceptional music
accessible to all generations. What does the PVS mean to you?
Keep an eye on our website, social media channels, and your inbox for
all the ways to participate in Giving Tuesday. Making a difference is quick,
easy, and every donation counts. On behalf of the PVS Board of Directors,
thank you for your support, and enjoy the music.
Kara Peterman

2 Pioneer Valley Symphony 84th Season

COBUS DU TOIT

FLUTE, TRAIL OF TEARS

As an international soloist, South
African native Dr. Cobus du Toit
has concertized in Russia, Taiwan,
Japan, Germany, Australia, Norway,
and France. Pretoria News declared:
“du Toit makes you believe the
impossible. With du Toit in flight,
one is never aware of technique
alone. He is driven by purely musical
inspiration.” Concerto appearances
include performances with the
KwaZulu Natal Philharmonic;
Taurida International Symphony Orchestra in St. Petersburg, Russia;
Boulder Philharmonic; Johannesburg Festival Orchestra; and
Boulder Chamber Orchestra. Cobus has also been the principal
flute for the Boulder Chamber Orchestra since 2010.

For the Naxos recording label, professional recordings include
three albums of the complete flute oeuvre by Jacques Castérède.
An advocate for new music, other creative projects include
#WeBringFlowers, a set of five socially conscious commissions
that deal with societal violence in a non-political manner. His
compositional and creative work has been featured in the
Massachusetts Museum of Modern Art and Oslo, Norway at the
ITAC6 conference.

Cobus received his M.M. and D.M.A. from the University of
Colorado at Boulder and a Bachelor of Music from the University
of Pretoria. His principal teachers include John Hinch and Christina
Jennings. Cobus serves as the Associate Professor of Flute at the
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and is a Wm. S. Haynes
performing artist.

Cobus’s appearance with the Pioneer Valley Symphony is sponsored
by Lathrop Communities.

NOVEMBER 20, 2022 RESILIENCE THROUGH SERENITY 3

THE PIONEERVALLEYSYMPHONYPRESENTS OUR 84TH SEASON

FOR THE
LOVE
OF MUSIC

MUSIC DIRECTOR TIANHUI NG
CHORUS DIRECTOR ALLEGRA MARTIN

METAMORPHOSIS OFPEACE
OCTOBER 8 | GREENFIELD

SIBELIUS, HINDEMITH + BRUCH | SAMUELVARGAS, VIOLIN
WITH THE PVS CHORUS

LETUS CHEERTHEWEARYTRAVELLER

NOVEMBER 5 | GREENFIELD
A CONCERT BYTHE PVS CHORUS

RESILIENCETHROUGH SERENITY
NOVEMBER 20 | AMHERST

ELGAR, DAUGHERTY + MAYER | COBUS DU TOIT, FLUTE

HOLIDAY POPS
DECEMBER 17 | GREENFIELD

WITH THE PVS CHORUS AND YOUTH ORCHESTRA

SPRING CHORALFESTIVAL
MARCH 4 | HADLEY

A CONCERT BYTHE PVS CHORUS

REDISCOVERINGAUKRAINIAN MASTER
MARCH 18 | AMHERST

THOMAS DE HARTMANN | ELAN SICROFF, PIANO

VISIT PVSOC.ORG/TICKETS MASS IN C MINOR
OR CALL 413-773-3664 MAY12 | GREENFIELD

WITH THE PVS CHORUS

JASMINE ROCHELLE GOODSPEED

TEXT AND PERFORMANCE, INTRODUCTORY PIECE

Jasmine Rochelle Goodspeed (She/
They) (Nipmuc) is a Massachusetts-
based actor, singer/songwriter,
playwright and director. Prior to
the pandemic she produced free
Shakespeare in the Park at Look
Park for five years under the name
“Billy Shakes Free Shakespeare”.
Goodspeed graduated from
the University of Massachusetts,
Amherst, with degrees in Theatre,
English, and a certificate from the
Five Colleges in Native Studies. Most notably, Jasmine has written,
produced, and acted in a musical about her tribe, the Nipmuc
people of Massachusetts. This musical was titled 1675, and told
the story of King Philip’s War and the Tragedy of Deer Island. This
musical was performed at UMass Amherst to full houses in 2018
with plans to continue the show moving forward. She has also aided
in the creation of the Native Youth Empowerment Foundation in
Massachusetts and the establishment of the Ohketeau Cultural
Center. During the pandemic, Jasmine has been engaging in
writing new musicals, plays, and continues to direct and perform
when the opportunity arises.

ARCADIA PLAYERS 2022-23

Celebrating 33 Years

Handel’s Messiah
with Illuminati Vocal Arts Ensemble and soloists

Andrew Arceci, conductor
Saturday, December 17, 2022 at 7pm
Abbey Chapel, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley

Arcadia Viols with Andrew Arceci
Sunday, February 19, 2023 at 3pm
Wesley United Methodist Church, Hadley

Johann eile’s St. Matthew Passion
Sunday, April 2, 2023, 4pm
Bombyx Center, Florence

Arcadia Players

Artistic Director, Andrew Arceci www.arcadiaplayers.org

NOVEMBER 20, 2022 RESILIENCE THROUGH SERENITY 5

NOTES ON THE PROGRAM

E. Elgar (1857–1934): Serenade for Strings (1892)

1. Allegro piacevole (agreeable)
2. Larghetto
3. Allegretto

The son of a provincial organist and piano tuner, Edward Elgar was a
late bloomer as a composer—in part because his family could not afford

to pay for instruction in music theory and in part because his humble

origins and Catholic faith made his acceptance into the higher society

that cultivated British “classical” music difficult. Although he married a

woman of a higher social class who tried to establish connections for

him, Elgar’s initial attempt to make a name for himself as a composer by

moving to London in 1890 was unsuccessful, and in 1891 he returned to

Worcestershire where he could earn a living conducting and teaching the

violin. Among the ensembles he conducted was the Worcester Ladies’

Orchestral Class, which premiered his Serenade for Strings in a private
reading in 1892. Although rejected by

London publishers, the German firm

Breitkopf & Härtel published the work

in 1893, which led to the professional

premiere of the Serenade in Antwerp

in 1896. Only at the age of 42, with
the success of Enigma Variations in

1899, did Elgar break out of obscurity

and, virtually overnight, achieve the

Elgar at a tea party (1879) high reputation that would lead to his
knighthood in 1904.

The title Serenade and the first movement’s designation piacevole
(agreeable) suggest a gentleness that permeates the work. The first
movement in the lilting meter of 6/8 begins with a rhythmic tattoo in
the violas that unifies both the first movement, in which it is an almost
constant presence, and the entire piece by returning towards the end
of the third movement to bring things full circle. The second movement
provides the emotional heart of the Serenade through an expressive
melody featuring large upward leaps and a rich contrapuntal texture.
While modest in length, the Serenade pleased Elgar more than anything
else he had written at the time. His judgment proved sound, as it is his
earliest work to have become a standard part of the orchestral repertoire.

6 Pioneer Valley Symphony 84th Season

M. Daugherty (b. 1954): Trail of Tears Concerto for Flute and Chamber
Orchestra (2010)

1. where the wind blew free… (Trail of Tears)
2. incantation
3. sun dance

A native of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Grammy Award-winning composer
Michael Daugherty comes from a musical family. Exposed primarily to
jazz, rock, musical theater, and popular music in his early years, Daugherty
decided to pursue a life dedicated to composing concert music after
hearing a performance of Samuel Barber’s Piano Concerto with the Dallas
Symphony while a student at North Texas State University in the early 1970s.
Following his undergraduate studies in Texas, Daugherty studied at the
Manhattan School of Music with the renowned high-modernist composer
Charles Wuorinen, spent time in Europe on a Fulbright Fellowship, and
returned to the United States to obtain a doctorate in composition from
Yale and attend Tanglewood. After a period of experimentation with
the high-modernist style and serialist techniques that dominated much
of the European and American new-music scenes in the 1960s, ‘70s,
and ‘80s, Daugherty, influenced by composer György Ligeti, forged his
own distinctive style that combined the techniques of high modernism
with the American vernacular styles of his youth. The result has been an
ever-expanding body of chamber and orchestral works that sit on what
many consider the sweet spot between complexity and accessibility. As
professor of composition at the University of Michigan since 1991, he has
been a major force in American music for over three decades.

Daugherty wrote his flute concerto, Trail of Tears, for the flutist Amy
Porter, his colleague at the University of Michigan. Since her premiere of
the work with the Omaha Symphony on 26 March 2010, it has become one
of the few works for flute and orchestra written since the Flute Concerto
of Jacques Ibert (1933) to enter the standard repertoire. Despite its heavy
demands on the soloist—including extended techniques such as wind
effects, bending of pitches, and extraordinary feats of double tonguing—
the concerto has been taken up by great flutists across the world for its
satisfying combination of emotional depth and virtuosic display.

Daugherty scores the work for chamber orchestra with percussion, harp,
strings, and brass (double horns, trumpets, and trombones), which provide
plenty of power for climaxes. The omission of woodwinds from the
orchestra allows the solo flute to shine through and above the orchestral
textures without competition from instruments of similar sonority. A
feature of the work that may owe a debt to Carl Nielsen’s Flute Concerto

NOVEMBER 20, 2022 RESILIENCE THROUGH SERENITY 7

(1926) are cadenzas for the soloist that sometimes include commentary
and background effects from the orchestra.

The composer has written the following program note for the work:

One of the tragedies of human history is the forced removal of peoples
from their homeland for political, economic, racial, religious, or cultural
reasons. In America, [President Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act
of 1830 encouraged by law] the forced removal of all Native Americans
living east of the Mississippi River... In 1838, 15,000 Cherokee men,
women, and children were forcibly taken from their homes by the
U.S. Army and placed in stockades and camps in Tennessee. From
November 1838 to March 1839, the Cherokee, with scant clothing
and many without shoes, were forced to make an 800-mile march for
relocation in Oklahoma during the bitter cold of winter. Suffering from
exposure, disease, and starvation, nearly 4,000 Cherokee died during
the five-month march known as the “Trail of Tears.”*

My flute concerto is a musical journey into how the human spirit
discovers ways to deal with upheaval, adversity and adapting to a
new environment. The first two movements of the concerto are played
without pause. The first movement reflects on meaningful memories of
things past, inspired by a quotation from the Native American leader
Geronimo (1829–1909): “I was born on the prairies where the wind
blew free and there was nothing to break the light of the sun.” The end
of the first movement becomes a death march, marked “Trail of Tears,”
and concludes with a turbulent instrumental coda. The reflective
second movement, entitled “incantation,” meditates on the passing
of loved ones and the hope for a better life in the world beyond. The
third and final movement, “sun dance,” evokes the most spectacular
and important religious dance ceremony of the Plains Indians of 19th-
century North America. Banned on Indian reservations for a century
by the U.S. government, the dance is practiced again today. I have
composed my own fiery musical dance to suggest how reconnecting
with rituals of the past might create a path to a new and brighter future.

*PVS Editor’s Note: Between 1830 and 1840, approximately 100,000
indigenous people were forced by the U.S. government to leave their
ancestral lands in what is now the southeastern U.S. and undertake a
5,000-mile journey to territory in what is now the state of Oklahoma. The
term “Trail of Tears” refers to the shared routes and experiences, and is
sometimes used—as by Dougherty—to specifically invoke the largest and
most mortal displacement of the Cherokee people between 1837 and
1839.
8 Pioneer Valley Symphony 84th Season

E. Mayer (1812–1883): Symphony No. 4 in B Minor (c. 1850)

1. Allegro appassionato
2. Adagio
3. Allegro
4. Presto

The social conventions of middle- to upper-class European life in the late
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries dictated that women be musically
educated, primarily through piano lessons. Men of these social classes
might also be musically educated, but that education was often more
cursory and often took a backseat to sports such as hunting and fencing.
Thus, music-making in the domestic sphere was dominated by women
musicians often much more accomplished than the men in their social
circles—violin, flute, and ‘cello being the favored instruments for men.
This circumstance led to a host of chamber music works ranging from
Mozart’s violin sonatas to Mendelssohn’s and Brahms’s piano trios
in which the piano parts are strikingly more difficult than those of the
strings. In contrast, the world of professional music-making at this time
turned the hierarchies of domestic music-making on their head. In the
professional sphere, with the exception of the opera and oratorio stages,
women rarely appeared in public as such display carried connotations for
women that made them ineligible for socially advantageous marriages.
(Mozart’s sister toured Europe as a keyboard virtuoso as a child, but her
parents forced her to give up performing in public when she reached
marriageable age.)

The proliferation of women musicians

led a number of them to try their hand

at composition, but domestic duties and

societal prejudice made the publication

and public performance of music by

women a rarity. Emilie Mayer is among
the few women in nineteenth-century

Germany to make a name for herself

as a composer. In addition to Mayer’s

prodigious talent and hard work, it was

the great tragedy in her life which allowed Emilie Mayer

her to overcome these common obstacles

for women: her mother died when Mayer was a baby, and her father

committed suicide when she was twenty-eight. Thus, the unmarried

Mayer did not have to answer to family pressures for decorum and,

having received a small fortune from her father’s estate, she obtained the

financial independence to further her musical education and promote her

music.

NOVEMBER 20, 2022 RESILIENCE THROUGH SERENITY 9

10 Pioneer Valley Symphony 84th Season

Upon receiving her inheritance, Mayer moved to Stettin (now Szczecin,
Poland) to study with Carl Loewe, a composer and singer whose fame
during his lifetime rivaled that of Schubert. Loewe not only taught Mayer,
he also supported her ambition to make a life in music and claimed that
“such a God-given talent as hers had not been bestowed upon any other
person” he knew. After completing a number of orchestral and chamber
works while studying with Loewe, Mayer moved to Berlin to study with the
illustrious pedagogue A.B. Marx, thereby gaining not only the benefit of
his instruction, but also his support for her career.

The conductor Karl Liebig (1808–1872), among Mayer’s champions in
Berlin, gave the premiere performance of her Symphony No. 4 in B
minor on 16 March 1851 to great success. Perhaps because of this, Mayer
funded the publication of a piano four-hand version of the score, a format
that allowed symphonies to be played in domestic settings and served as
the main way most people familiarized themselves with orchestral works.
Although her B-minor symphony was performed a number of times
during her lifetime, the full score and parts were lost after her death. The
version of the work we hear this evening is an orchestration of the piano
four-hands score made by the German conductor Stefan Malzew in 2012.
Tonight’s performance by the PVS marks only the third performance of
the work in the United States, and the first in the Northeast region.

The first movement, Allegro appassionato, opens with emphatic chords
answered by agitated trills and filled out with triplet arpeggios. These
triplets remain an almost constant presence throughout the movement—
ascending and descending arpeggios in triplets (in the flute, clarinet, and
violins) bring the music away from the opening declarations and repeated
triplets accompany the long-breathed second theme in the violins and
flute (repeated in the violas and bassoon). An unusual aspect of the first
movement is that Mayer focuses on both the second, lyrical theme and the
agitated trills of the first theme in the middle section, or “development”
(more commonly, composers following sonata form choose to focus only
on the first theme in this section).

The second movement, Adagio, begins with a beautiful theme in the
strings that could be called hymn-like if it were not for the rests that give it
a halting quality rarely found in vocal music. As the movement progresses,
elements from the first movement reappear: first the repeated triplet
figures return in the woodwinds as the brass proclaim a noble three-note
descending motive, then the agitated trills from the first movement make
an appearance—first as embellishments to cadences, then with more
intensity as part of the texture of the noisy climax of the movement. The
movement ends with a repeat of the opening music, made more intimate
by the addition of solos for the principal strings, flute, and clarinet. Mayer

NOVEMBER 20, 2022 RESILIENCE THROUGH SERENITY 11

emphasizes the religious connotations of the main theme by ending the
movement with a gentle rise to heaven in the solo violin and flute.
The third movement, Allegro, fits the form of the scherzo-trio-scherzo
traditional for nineteenth-century symphonies. Unlike most of her
predecessors and contemporaries, however, Mayer inserts two “trio”
sections between the ever changing music of the scherzo proper. The
first trio features the woodwinds over pastoral, bagpipe-like drones in the
lower strings. The second trio re-orchestrates with the melody in the horns.
Because the movement is in a fast triple meter with the feel of three notes
to a beat and features trills embellishing most of the cadences, the music
of this movement continues to recall the motives of the first movement.
The finale, Presto, opens with upward arpeggios that contain a Mozartian
lightness. Mayer frequently interrupts the flow with fermatas (pauses) that
lend the music a sense of a teasing question waiting to be answered. Full
of melodic invention, the movement ends with Mayer pulling out all the
stops in the home key of B minor, which brings the symphony to a rousing
conclusion.

© 2022 David E. Schneider. All rights reserved.
David E. Schneider is the Georges Lurcy Professor of Music History and
Theory at Amherst College.

Proud to be the “Official Chocolatier”
psum for the Pioneer Valley Symphony

Handmade Chocolates and Specialty Candies

500 Greenfield Road (Route 5 & 10), Deerfield, Massachusetts
413-772-0443 RichardsonsCandy.com

12 Pioneer Valley Symphony 84th Season

NOVEMBER 20, 2022 RESILIENCE THROUGH SERENITY 13

THE Pioneer valley symphony presenTS

RESILIENCE THROUGH SERENITY

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2022 4PM

Bowker Auditorium, Stockbridge Hall
Amherst, Massachusetts

Tianhui Ng, Conductor
Pre-concert talk by Dr. David Schneider

Serenade for Strings, Op. 20 Edward Elgar (1857-1934)
I. Allegro piacevole

II. Larghetto

III. Allegretto

Introductory Piece Jasmine Rochelle Goodspeed

Trail of Tears for Flute and Chamber Orchestra Michael Daugherty

I. where the wind blew free (b. 1954)

II. incantation

III. sun dance Dr. Cobus du Toit, Flute

Guest Artist Sponsor: Lathrop Communities

INTERMISSION

Symphony No. 4 in B Minor Emilie Mayer (1812-1883)
Northeast U.S. Regional Premiere

I. Allegro appassionato

II. Adagio

III. Allegro

IV. Presto

Pioneer Valley Symphony Orchestra

Tianhui Ng, Music Director

Anthony Ferreira, Assistant Conductor

This Concert Is Sponsored In Part By:

14 Pioneer Valley Symphony 84th Season

PIONEER VALLEY ORCHESTRA

SYMPHONY

VIOLIN I VIOLONCELLO BASSOON

Diana Peelle, assistant Philip Helzer, Alex Meade, principal
concertmaster principal Roger F. Clapp

Zoe Nordquist Jennifer Allen HORN
John Wcislo Daniel Brandon
Elaine T. Holdsworth Ari Jewell Erin Lylis, principal
Ronald Weiss Su Auerbach Jean Jeffries
Mark Mason Nancy Pond Rebecca Kraus-
Mari Gottdiener Alisa Beaver
Myra Ross Robin Luberoff Hardie
Reiko Sono Susan Young
Nancy Rich TRUMPET
VIOLIN II
BASS Karen Atherton,
Cecilia R. Berger, co-principal
principal Patricia Cahn,
principal Melissa Griffin,
Nancy Ramsey co-principal
Maureen Carney Lynn Lovell
Marilyn Richards David Glassberg TROMBONE
Barbara Wald Freed Sue Keller
Laurie Israel Lauren C. Ostberg Ben Smar, principal
Meredith Roll Quitno Jeff Knox Scott Pemrick
Carol Baker Joseph Sabol
FLUTE
VIOLA TIMPANI
Bonnie Mast, principal
Mandi Jo Hanneke, Nancy Shinn Daniel Albert,
principal Beckie Markarian principal

Roy Rudolph OBOE PERCUSSION
Robert McGuigan
Pamela Skinner Aaron Lakota, Andrew Armstrong
Jeff Ramsey principal Madeline Dethloff
Peter J. Haas Abigail Haines
Gregory Campbell HARP
Sonya R. Lawson CLARINET
Sorana Scarlat
Kara Peterman,
principal

Kathryn Scott

NOVEMBER 20, 2022 RESILIENCE THROUGH SERENITY 15

TEXT

INTRODUCTORY PIECE, JASMINE ROCHELLE GOODSPEED

Kenupeam(welcome),
Alooaian(when I say thus)
Kuhketash (listen)
Our history spans back thousands of years.
It spans forward thousands more.
Never forget that the land that you are on.
Land of the Pocumtuck, nonotuck, mohecan, Nipmuc, visited by our
relations of the Wompanoag and Massachusett to the east, and Abenaki
and Passamaquoddy to the north and more expanding peoples in either
direction in a stream of trade and peace and ceremony.
Was land that was ripped from our hands with cruelty and deceit.
And yet.
The narrative you learn as a child on this land, at this very time of the year,
is that when the pilgrims landed we met them with with grace, gave them
all they could need, and then faded away. It is not so.
Did our ancestors meet those sick and dying, fresh from the sea, with
grace and pity? Yes.
Did we fade?
No.
Before they had arrived a fever had swept through so violent that we
could not stop it with all our medicines. Like a wildfire, out of control it
stole our loved ones.
And yet we remain.
Time goes on, and peace is tender. It is fragile. Particularly when that
peace rests on deceitful tongues of people who twist and lie and steal
and use fear to their advantage.
It is what they knew. How they had learned to survive. That alone must
be pitied.
Aquene.
Peace.
But only a vision of it.
Because you tell us to forsake our gods, believe in yours who protects you
and have thus far kept you safe. You take land that no one should own,
but should instead be protected and you abuse it.
Greed blinds as your priests brag to your church and we are placed in
towns of your creation away from our homes and our traditional ways to
praise your god.
Massasoits son. Metacomet. You call him King Philip to jeer at him. You
kill his elder brother with poison at a meeting intended for peace. His
wife, the sachem, leader of the Poccaset people, Weetamoo grows angry.
Our people, already simmering, bubble over.

16 Pioneer Valley Symphony 84th Season

War.
1675.
In just one year, we burn your towns, we push you back, and yet you win
with the help of your forked tongues.
My ancestors die on an island imprisoned by the general court of
Massachusetts, or they fall in battle.
And yet we remain.
Nunokoh sequnittuonk (I am what they left behind)
Nuppoman tam (I live)
Years fade on. Assimilation. Erasure.
My mothers grandfather is taken from his family. The last one taken in a
long line of children. He is placed with a white family. They do not treat
him well, but he does survive.
But Something breaks in this process.
It is what was intended, after all.
For years, there is fear where there should be pride. Hiding where there
should be teaching. Assimilation works it’s greedy ways, and strips from
us all that it can.
And yet we remain.

My story is not unique.

We bear this weight every day.

We hold stories of forced removal. We hold stories of genocide.

It can be easy to forget that all of this is not only 400 years ago. It is still
happening today.

Today, when a woman goes missing.

Today, when pipelines are built.

Today, when the courts vote to remove a bill that stopped our children
from being taken from us.

Today, when Native mascots dehumanize us but are held onto.

As Native people we walk a line between the trials of our ancestors, and
the path to justice.

How do you walk? What actions will you take, now that you know perhaps
more than you once did?

© 2022 Jasmine Rochelle Goodspeed. All rights reserved.

NOVEMBER 20, 2022 RESILIENCE THROUGH SERENITY 17

ILLUMINATI

vocal arts ensemble
Arianne Abela, Interim Director

In IllAot TTehmat pToimree

7:30 PM October 15, 2022, Our Lady of the Valley Easthampton

J.S. Bach, ‘Komm, Jesu, komm,’ BWV 229 • ‘Jesu, meine Freude,’ BWV 227
Monteverdi, Missa ‘In illo tempore’ • Victoria, Missa ‘O quam gloriosum’

Mercy TthheeSFcoyutnhteaainnd

Herbert Howells Requiem and music by
Gjello, Holst, Thompson, Whittacre and Tavener

Lang, ‘the little match girl passion’
Schütz, ‘Musikalische Exequien’

tickets, season tickets with preferred seating, and details: illuminatiensemble.org

18 Pioneer Valley Symphony 84th Season