Chicago Philharmonic 2021-2022

10 THE CHICAGO PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY | 2021-2022 SEASON Chicago Philharmonic 2021 2022 SEASON "So rather than trying to mimic his style, I chose to go a level deeper, and drew inspiration from the fact that Beethoven was likely the rst composer that would have considered himself to be a Great Artist expressing himself through his music. Before him, it would have been bizarre to assume that just because you hear sad music, the composer who made it was also sad. is was a new concept from Beethoven. Now when we listen to his music, we o en think of a hero on a journey. Glory doesn't follow a speci c story with a beginning, middle, and end, but is very introspective. As you listen, I invite you to close your eyes and experience the sounds as they occur, assigning your own meaning to them. As I wrote the piece, I also wrote this short poem to guide me: Did you know I was broken when you met me? en why ain’t you listen? We could wish things di erent, but wishful thinking ain’t how we livin. Some stories are tragedies, it’s an ancient tradition. is was written. Possessed with the audacity to want more than we’re gettin. My days take minutes, my life’s an instant. I’m everything but a victim. If I gotta be the bad guy, I wanna be the villain. ey’re gonna have to go to God if they want forgiveness. I don’t have it in me, pardon my image, Don’t hate the sinner for sinnin. GLORY can only be taken, it could never be given. " Marcus Norris AARON COPLAND (1900-1990) Appalachian Spring (1944) NJIOMA GREVIOUS SERGEY GUTOROV Aaron Copland, born in Brooklyn in 1900 to a family of Russian Jewish immigrants, has been hailed as an icon who captured the American character in classical music. Copland produced some of his most enduring works during the 1930s, including Fanfare for the Common Man , Billy the Kid , and Lincoln Portrait . During this time, he met choreographer Martha Graham at a concert that featured his Piano Variations. She told the composer she wanted to dance to it; Copland told her that was “impossible.” Proving him wrong, she created the dance Dithyramb. Copland was awestruck and eager to collaborate with her. In the summer of 1943, Copland was commissioned by Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge to write a ballet for Graham for 13 instruments. Although Copland originally called the piece Ballet for Martha, Graham suggested the title Appalachian Spring , inspired by lines from “ e Dance” by poet Hart Crane: O Appalachian Spring! I gained the ledge; Steep, inaccessible smile that eastward bends And northward reaches in that violet wedge Of Adirondacks! Copland re-worked the chamber piece into a more popular Suite for full orchestra in 1945, but the chamber version maintains a beautiful intimacy and brightness. In a 1974 rehearsal with the Columbia Chamber Orchestra, Copland instructed that the opening have “a so , warm sound without any sense of e ort”. And so Appalachian Spring imaginatively evokes the great simplicity and dignity of the American spirit. Violinist Njioma Grevious of Washington, DC, is an avid chamber, studio, and orchestral musician, studying with Ronald Copes at Juilliard. She won a Keston-Max Fellowship to study and perform with the London Symphony Orchestra in 2022. In 2018, she won First Prizes for Performance and Interpretation in the Prix Ravel chamber music competition in France. In 2019, along with her colleagues in the Abeo Quartet, she won the Silver Medal in the Fischo International Chamber Music Competition, and appeared on WQXR Midday Masterpieces and WETA Classical Radio as well as in performances at Alice Tully Hall, e Kennedy Center, and in Montreal and Oslo. Njioma is a Jupiter Symphony chamber player and a member of the Montclair Orchestra. She has been invited to participate in numerous summer festivals including the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, Montreal International String Quartet Academy, Meadowmount, Fontainebleau Schools, and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. For many years Njioma was a scholarship recipient of Boston’s Project STEP string training program for youth. She fondly remembers the special privilege of performing in a quartet for President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama at a White House State Dinner. roughout her life Njioma has regularly shared her love of music as a frequent performer in nursing homes and assisted living residences. She continues her outreach as a Juilliard Gluck fellow, performing in a variety of hospital settings for veterans and others su ering physically and mentally. Njioma also loves teaching composition and collaboration to elementary and middle school students, most from underserved and underrepresented communities, through the Opportunity Music Project in NYC. Sergey Gutorov began studying the clarinet at the age 9 with his father in Kursk, Russia. Sergey Gutorov is currently a Principal clarinet with the Chicago Philharmonic, Sarasota Opera, and Des Moines Metro Opera. He is the Assistant Principal/E at clarinet at the South Bend Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Gutorov frequently performs with the Chicago Lyric Opera and Fort Wayne Philharmonic orchestra as well. At age 14, Gutorov was accepted into the Moscow State Wind College and graduated with diplomas in both clarinet and conducting. He also received a diploma from the State Classical Academy Maimonid and in Orchestral Studies from Roosevelt University in Chicago. From 2008-2010, Sergey was a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. During this time he was a featured soloist in Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Prior to attending Roosevelt University he held the positions of Assistant Principal Clarinet in both the Ministry of Defense Orchestra of the Russian Federation and e Moscow Symphony Orchestra. His principal teachers include Sergey Gutorov Sr., Vladimir Sokolov, Evgeny Petrov, Ivan Butirsky and John Bruce