February 10, 2003
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Portland, Ore. … Guest Conductor Murry Sidlin will ask several “unanswerable” questions regarding the iconoclastic and uniquely American composer Charles Ives in the Oregon Symphony’s final Nerve Endings concert of the 2002-2003 season: “Beware the Ives of March and Beware the Marches of Ives” on Friday, March 7, at 7:30 p.m. at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. The Nerve Endings series is sponsored by the BridgePort Brewing Company.
The concert will open with a romp of dissonance as Sidlin sets two Sousa marches against each other on stage, recreating an important moment from Charles Ives childhood. The composer’s father, a bandmaster whose libertarian and experimental ideas about music influenced Ives immensely, wanted to hear what it would sound like to play two marches at once and in opposite directions.
The first half also will feature Ives’ transcendental work, “The Unanswered Question,” and his songs for baritone and piano. The concert will conclude with a full performance of Ives’ Second Symphony.
“Charles Ives as an American composer stands on a pedestal of uniqueness of spirit and musical language,” said Sidlin. “He is always reminiscing, thinking back to childhood, boyhood, young adulthood, whatever era he thinks best represents, in any given composition, the better old days. In this concert, the songs are a kaleidoscope of poetic recollections and dreams, full of marches, hymns, reels, country tunes and pop tunes of the day,” Sidlin said. Sidlin served as the Symphony’s Resident Conductor for eight seasons, resigning in August of 2002 to become dean of the School of Music at Catholic University in Washington D.C.
“Beware the Ives of March and Beware the Marches of Ives” will be performed Friday, March 7, at 7:30 p.m. at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in the Portland Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets range from $10 to $51 and may be purchased at the Oregon Symphony Ticket Office (923 SW Washington) Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., or charged by phone at (503)228-1353 or (800)228-7343. Tickets may also be purchased at all Ticketmaster outlets, by phone (790-ARTS), through Ticketmaster Online, or via the Symphony’s Web site at www.orsymphony.org.
Murry Sidlin completed his eighth and final season as Resident Conductor
of the Oregon Symphony at
the close of the 2001/2002 season. During his tenure, he founded and directed
the Oregon Symphony
Conducting Apprenticeship Program at Pacific University, holding the James
DePreist Chair in Music. For eight years he conducted the Classical Hits
series at the San Diego Symphony and served for several seasons as Principal
Conductor of San Diego’s summer season. He has been Artistic Director
of the Cascade Festival of Music in Bend for six seasons. On August 1,
he became Dean of the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music at the Catholic
University of America in Washington, D.C.
In 1997 Sidlin arranged and conducted the premiere of a suite from Aaron Copland’s opera “The Tender Land” for chamber ensemble, designed as a companion work to Copland’s original chamber version of “Appalachian Spring.” A compact disc containing both works was released on the KOCH International label in 1998, featuring the Third Angle New Music Ensemble with Sidlin as conductor. Sidlin’s chamber arrangement of the complete opera “The Tender Land,” also featuring Third Angle, was released by KOCH in November of 1999 to launch the national year-long celebration toward Copland’s 100th birthday. Israel National Radio selected the recording to be broadcast nationally on the date of Copland’s 100th birthday, Nov. 14, 2000. Sidlin marked the birthday in Portland with a 10-day Copland Festival, including classical subscription and chamber concerts with the Oregon Symphony illuminating Copland’s life and work.
The summer of 2002 marked Sidlin’s 24th at the Aspen Music Festival, where he is Resident Artist/Teacher and Associate Director of Conducting Studies in addition to serving as Chair of the Faculty. He and Aspen Music Festival Music Director David Zinman have just completed the second summer of the American Academy of Conducting, a new school within the Aspen Festival for which they serve as the two resident teachers.
Murry Sidlin began his career as Assistant Conductor of the Baltimore Symphony under Sergiu Comissiona and was appointed by Antal Dorati as Resident Conductor of the National Symphony for four seasons. He served as Music Director of the New Haven Symphony for 12 seasons, and for eight of those seasons was also Music Director of the Long Beach Symphony in California.