PIONEER VALLEY SYMPHONY AND CHORUS
November 29, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Constance Clarke, Executive Director
(413) 773-3664
cclarke@pvso.org
PIONEER VALLEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA AND CHORUS
Family Holiday Pops Concert
Saturday, December 15 in Greenfield, Massachusetts
Note this holiday concert's special start time of 7:00 PM
Paul Phillips, Music Director Đ Lisa Jablow, Choral Director
Concert Highlights
On Saturday, December 15, 2007 - the Pioneer Valley Symphony Orchestra and Chorus presents its annual holiday pops concert, at Greenfield High School Auditorium:
á The program presents festive music for the season that children and all young at heart will enjoy.
á Toys in The Fantastic Toyshop dance to life in a debut performance by members of Ballet Renvers.
á Other toys emerge to delight the audience in Leopold Mozart's Toy Symphony.
á PVS Chorus and Brass Choir perform the beautiful Christmas Cantata by Daniel Pinkham.
á Santa Claus has requested There's Christmas in the Air.
á Other season favorites include A Christmas Festival and Sleigh Ride, The Little Drummer Boy, and Many Moods of Christmas, Suite Four.
á Community partner is Big Brothers Big Sisters of Franklin County -- Stop by their exhibit at in the lobby at the concert and consider becoming a "Big" for a special "Little."
á Holiday refreshments will be on sale in the lobby before concert and during intermission.
Box office opens at 6:00 PM Seats are unreserved. Advance tickets are $20 for general admission, $16 for seniors, $12 for students, and $6 for children; available online at www.pvso.org; World Eye Bookshop in Greenfield; Broadside Books in Northampton; BoswellŐs Books in Shelburne Falls; or by calling the PVS office (413-773-3664). Tickets at the door are $22 for general admission, $18 for seniors, $12 for students, and $6 for children. Advance tickets are recommended for this popular concert.
Concert is sponsored in part by:
Greenfield Co-operative Bank, Ford-Hyundai of Greenfield, AAA of Pioneer Valley, 98.3fm WHAI, Massachusetts Cultural Council, and contributors to the PVS&C Annual Fund.
Full Text of Press Release for Publication:
Zeke Hecker begins his program notes for the upcoming popular annual Pioneer Valley Symphony & Chorus Holiday Pops Concert with "Christmas celebrates the miraculous birth of a child (for birth itself is miraculous) and anticipates not just a new year, but a new era. Hanukkah, the festival of lights, commemorates yet another miracle. ItŐs a time for gifts, hope, and wondrous stories: a time for children."
For the 2007 PVS &C Holiday Pops concert, Santa Claus is indeed coming to town, with two bags of toys, one in The Fantastic Toyshop (La Boutique Fantasque) set to Rossini's music and later arranged by Respighi that was first performed in London in 1919 by DiaghilevŐs Russian Ballet company, with story and choreography by Leonid Massine (ballet master in the movie The Red Shoes). The complete ballet has an overture and nine dances. Paul Phillips has selected the overture and four dances (Tarantella, Mazurka, Valse Lente, and Galop). Debuting with the PVS Orchestra are young dancers from the local Ballet Renvers school directed Karen Shulda. Her choreography has the ten dancers dressed as dolls in the toyshop come to life after the proprietor leaves for the night. The PVS&C is pleased to welcome native Karen Shulda back to the Franklin County after she and her award-winning ballet school Renversr Repertory Ballet were uprooted from New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina. The mission of this emerging non-profit company of talented student dancers in Shelburne Falls is to provide excellence in ballet training with opportunities to perform for the public.
Some other delightful toys found their way into Leopold MozartŐs playful Toy Symphony (more properly known as Cassation in G for Orchestra and Toys). A "cassation" is similar to "divertimento" or "serenade." A toy trumpet, drum, triangle, rattle, and three birdcalls (nightingale, quail and cuckoo) join the orchestra to make a lovely racket that will have the children in the audience spellbound.
Now imagine that very same drum played centuries later by the little drummer boy in the Carol of the Drum, one of the season's most popular songs. Composed by Katherine K. Davis during World War II and purportedly based on a Czech melody, it came to wide attention through recordings in the 1950s, including a version by the Trapp Family Singers.
Two other composers in this PVS Holiday Pops concert are Bostonians. Leroy Anderson, whose Sleigh Ride is another holiday standard, was for decades house arranger for the Boston Pops, and his many original compositions have become popular classics. His medley, A Christmas Festival, opens the program to evoke the evening's mood. Word has it (but don't tell the children) that Santa Claus will arrive in the hall in time for one of his favorites, There's Christmas in the Air, arranged by Carl Strommen.
The other Bostonian, contemporary Daniel Pinkham, has had a distinguished career as teacher, organist, and composer. His early Christmas Cantata (subtitled Sinfonia Sacra), enjoyed for its qualities of clarity, simplicity, and accessibility is frequently performed. In Italian Renaissance fashion, there are three Ňchoirs,Ó one vocal and two brass. Pinkham wrote the Christmas Cantata for the New England Conservatory Chorus and its conductor Lorna Cooke de Varon, who gave the premiere performance fifty years ago.
The enchanting evening closes with suite four of The Many Moods of Christmas arranged by Robert Shaw, acknowledged dean of American choral conductors, and Robert Russell Bennett, who occupies a similarly exalted position on Broadway (notably for his work on the Rodgers and Hammerstein shows). The PVS&C has performed the first three suites from this series in previous holiday seasons. As a set, they weave together both familiar and lesser-known Christmas songs in imaginative, often unexpected ways.
More information on the PVS&C December 15 concert can be found at our website, www.pvs.org
Please also contact:
Paul Phillips Tel: 401-338-1383 Email: Paul_Phillips@brown.edu
Lisa Jablow Tel: 802-380-0621 Email: Lisa.Jablow@jsc.vsc.edu
Zeke Hecker Tel: 802-257-1028 Email: zekehecker@mac.com
Constance Clarke Tel: 413-773-3664 Email: cclarke@pvso.org
For information on Ballet Renvers contact:
Karen Shulda Tel: 413-625-6442