May 13, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Portland, Ore. … Principal players of the Portland Youth Philharmonic will sit first chair in a side-by-side performance with the Oregon Symphony for the annual Evelyn Nagel Donor Appreciation Concert (ENDAC) on Friday, May 27, 2005 at 7:30 p.m. at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.
ENDAC is named for Evelyn Nagel, a beloved and longtime Symphony fundraiser who passed away in 1992. It is presented free of charge annually for Symphony donors at the $125 level and above.
The concert also will feature the presentation of the 2005 Patty Vemer Music Education Appreciation Award, given annually for excellence in music education, to Brian Seed of Summit High School in Bend. Music Director Carlos Kalmar will announce the award from stage and present Seed with a certificate and a check for $1,000. In addition, a pre-concert reception for more than 200 music educators at the Heathman Hotel will feature guest speaker city of Portland Commissioner Sam Adams.
More than a hundred string players from both orchestras will open the concert with Vaughan Williams’ “Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis,” conducted by PYP Music Director and Symphony Assistant Conductor Mei-Ann Chen. This lyrical work, one of Vaughan Williams’ best-known pieces, is based on a hymn by Renaissance composer Thomas Tallis, which Vaughan Williams discovered while he was revising and editing the English hymnal.
Kalmar and the Symphony continue with Ravel’s “Mother Goose Suite,” which Ravel wrote for and to be performed by children. The suite showcases Ravel’s unmatched ability as an orchestrator and features some of Mother Goose’s most enduring tales, including “Sleeping Beauty,” “Tom Thumb” and “Beauty and the Beast.”
After intermission, PYP players will join the Symphony to perform Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major. Prokofiev composed this symphony during WWII and it was first performed on the same day as a major Soviet army victory. Its energy and character perfectly capture the mood of the Russian people and it is widely regarded as one of Prokofiev’s finest works.
Seed, the band director at Summit High School, is credited with opening up new worlds for his students through a unique partnership with the Matsudo Municipal High School Band in Matsudo, Japan. This partnership began while Seed was the band director at Molalla High School and Molalla Grade School. Seed grew the band from a mere 12 students to a full-fledged program and formed Molalla’s first marching band in 20 years.
In 1994 Seed began a series of correspondences exploring a possible partnership between Molalla, Oregon and Matsudo, Japan. After a year and a half of preparations, students from Matsudo traveled to Oregon to perform the first of many joint concerts with Oregon band students. The following year the Molalla High School band made their first trip to Japan, which solidified a relationship between the two schools. Though Seed left Molalla in 2001 to teach in the newly opened Summit High School in his hometown of Bend, the partnership between Matsudo and students in Oregon continues today.
“This program lacks any resemblance to competition,” Seed explains. “We have become so familiar with teams from various countries coming together in competitions, such as the Olympics, World Cup, and, yes, even war, that the concept of bringing groups together from other countries to work together has become completely foreign.”
“Brian is always interested in going the extra mile to put together programs that his students will grow and benefit from,” says Sally Russenberger of the Cascade Festival of Music. “He understands the importance of integrating work in the classroom with musicians and people in the community… and around the world,” she says.
The two other finalists for the 2005 Vemer award are Shawn Stone, an orchestra specialist with the North Clackamas School District, and Thomas Isaacson, choral director for Baker Middle School and Baker High School.
The presentation of the Vemer award has become an annual spring Symphony tradition. “We schedule the event at this time of year to say thank you and to show our support to the educators,” says Michael Kosmala, Vice President of Education and Community Engagement. “Given everything that’s going on regarding budget cuts and uncertain futures for arts programs in the schools, we want to give educators an evening to relax and enjoy quality music amongst friends and colleagues from around the state.”
The Patty Vemer Music Educator of the Year award was established eight years ago in the name of Vemer, who served as the Symphony's Education Director for more than 13 years before she passed away in 1997. The honor is awarded to individuals who made significant contributions to the field of music education, their community and have served as a source of inspiration to their students. Past honorees include Elizabeth Crockett, a music educator from the Willamette Valley; James Howell, a music specialist from La Grande and former president of the Oregon Music Educator’s Association; Scot Wavra, music teacher at West Linn Elementary School; David Anderson, music teacher at Sunnyside and Sunrise Middle Schools; Glenn Ludtke, Roosevelt High School music educator and Sisters M. John Therese Miller and M. Juliana Monti of Valley Catholic Schools.
