The subsequent Quad Metropolis Symphony Orchestra “Up Shut” chamber music live performance this Saturday is particular for a lot of causes.
First, the 7:30 pm. program on Jan. 28 with QCSO concertmaster Naha Greenholtz and principal percussionist Aaron Williams is on the historic Butterworth Heart, the attractive 1892 mansion lived in by Katherine Deere Butterworth (John Deere’s granddaughter) and her husband William (Deere & Co.’s president from 1907 to 1928).
Regardless of being open to neighborhood makes use of for years, Butterworth Heart (1105 eighth St., Moline) has by no means hosted a QCSO chamber live performance. Its elegant library (that includes a shocking 18th-century Italian ceiling fresco) is right for chamber music, has usually hosted “Nineteenth-Century Christmas” musical packages and partnered with Quad Metropolis Arts to host chosen Visiting Artist Sequence packages.
“The board and employees of the William Butterworth Basis are thrilled to have the Quad Metropolis Symphony Orchestra at Butterworth Heart as our inaugural rental occasion,” mentioned Susan Anderson, director of neighborhood relations for the William Butterworth Basis (which owns the historic properties Butterworth Heart and neighboring Deere-Wiman Home).
“Up Shut with Naha and Aaron represents the very sort of alternative we envisioned for increasing our providers to the humanities and tradition neighborhood of the Quad Cities,” she mentioned. New in 2023, nonprofit and neighborhood organizations, via paid leases, are ready to make use of Butterworth Heart & Deere-Wiman Home for ticketed and gala occasions.
“5 years in improvement, our up to date public use coverage displays present wants of at present’s nonprofit neighborhood permitting for expanded use,” Anderson mentioned.
This Saturday, Greenholtz and Williams will play a really diversified program of each solo and duo works by Chen Yi, Wynton Marsalis, Sergei Prokofiev, Astor Piazzolla, and extra (all items written from the mid Twentieth-century on. The live performance of eight items features a world premiere of the QCSO-commissioned work Mosaics for Violin and Marimba by William Campbell, a music professor at Davenport’s St. Ambrose College.
Rebranding the sequence
After COVID closures, the QCSO’s Greenholtz (a unprecedented violinist who’s been concertmaster right here since 2012) overhauled the chamber sequence, of which she is inventive director. It was renamed from Signature Sequence to “Up Shut,” infusing it with new venues (like final September at Davenport’s Redstone Room with visitor guitarist Mak Grgic) and extra exploratory collaborations.
“It’s up near being with the performers, with the music, having a extra intimate type of feeling throughout the neighborhood and musically talking,” Greenholtz mentioned Monday. “With that complete type of pandemic shift, we thought it was time for a contemporary search for the sequence.”
She selected the Butterworth Heart for its first chamber sequence after getting impressed by taking a tour there final 12 months.
“I’ve heard about it on and off via the years. the historical past of it; I imply the constructing is beautiful and the library the place they’ve loads of recitals is wealthy and vibrant and it’s architecturally — with the gold painted ceiling, the reds and the blues, it’s so vibrant.”
Greenholtz undoubtedly wished a diversified live performance program, and she or he additionally was influenced by the area to incorporate percussion. “There’s one thing concerning the acoustics that actually, I assumed, marimba, snare drum and violin can be a pleasant mixture in there.”
Concerto by a jazz nice
One thrilling piece Saturday is from an enormous 2016 violin concerto by the prolific jazz trumpeter and composer Wynton Marsalis, however simply its cadenza.
“The primary piece I programmed was this Wynton Marsalis cadenza from his violin concerto,” Greenholtz mentioned. “Clearly, Marsalis is one one of the best jazz musicians ever. In order that’s completely built-in in and infused into this classical work.”
The cadenza was written with drum set. “I actually wished to only introduce this sort of scrumptious a part of this large work, in a small kind within the area,” Greenholtz mentioned.
She and QCSO conductor Mark Russell Smith are large proponents of recent music (together with commissions), so the Up Shut sequence affords an excellent probability to program unfamiliar, extra modern works.
Apart from the American icons Marsalis and Campbell, the worldwide live performance options:
- Chen Yi’s “Reminiscence” for Solo Violin
- Keith Aleo’s “Allo stile della Samba”
- Eckhard Kopetzki’s “Momtong makki” from Live performance Suite for Snare Drum
- Sergei Prokofiev’s Sonata for Solo Violin in D Main, Op. 115
- Gordon Stout’s “Wooden that Sings” for Solo Marimba
- Astor Piazzolla’s “Histoire du Tango, Nightclub 1960”
“I believe increasingly more, we’re in a position to invite the viewers is to get pleasure from these combos,” Greenholtz mentioned. “We attempt to pair the extra conversant in the newer sounds and after we get into these inspiring areas, I believe all of it comes collectively.”
As an Asian-American herself (born in Kyoto, Japan), the violinist mentioned it’s particularly significant to play a chunk from the completed feminine Asian composer Chen Yi, the prolific 69-year-old from China. Her “Reminiscence” was written in 2011 and she or he teaches on the College of Missouri-Kansas Metropolis.
Placing music collectively in mosaic
Campbell — who’s been commissioned by the total QCSO for brand spanking new items — wrote a brand new work for a Signature Sequence live performance in 2013 at Augustana School’s Wallenberg Corridor.
Greenholtz initially requested him over a 12 months in the past for a brand new piece about six minutes lengthy.
“What occurred is I acquired three completely different concepts that got here via and so they simply wouldn’t go away me alone,” Campbell mentioned Tuesday of the “Mosaics” for violin and marimba, which is 16 minutes lengthy and 5 sections.
A mosaic is a chunk of visible artwork made up of many smaller items and the “complete is larger than the person elements after which all of it creates this large factor,” Campbell mentioned. “Every of the 5 actions truly is made up of various musical themes and patterns, rhythms, and textures, however they’re all associated to one another in a manner.”
“Folks will hear that it’s music that’s based mostly in patterns. And it’s extra concerning the interaction between the devices,” he mentioned. The composer loves the distinctive pairing of the 2 devices.
“It’s such a tremendous mixture. The violin as an instrument is among the closest to the human voice,” Campbell mentioned. “And the way in which that Naha performs, it’s so lovely but in addition, she has this vitality and an depth that that grabs me after I hear her.
“It’s like, oh I’ve to concentrate in an excellent manner, you recognize I need to. After which Aaron is this glorious percussionist, this grasp percussionist and the marimba has this good, clearly very woody type of sound, however the sound on the marimba, it will probably blossom out not like anything.”
In comparison with writing for orchestra, Campbell mentioned he enjoys the immediacy and intimacy of chamber music.
“The opposite factor that’s attention-grabbing for me about chamber music is how deftly musicians are in a position to make adjustments throughout the music, as a result of there’s just one or two of them, or 4 of them,” he mentioned. “It’s like a speedboat somewhat than a cruise ship.”
“That’s loads of enjoyable. And once you write loads of element into the music, rhythmic and in any other case, it’s good to have these particular person musicians to have the ability to current it actually cleanly.”
Problem of chamber music
One other factor chamber music can do is problem us in methods orchestral music doesn’t, Campbell mentioned.
“You’re in a smaller venue, up shut and private with these people who find themselves making music so shut and I do love the intimate nature of chamber music,” he mentioned. “I’ve been lucky to go to loads of chamber music and even host concert events of chamber music.”
“I really like listening to the mixture of sounds that happens when one combines completely different voices, devices, or registers of various devices,” Campbell mentioned. “This live performance will give the viewers a giant alternative to listen to two sorts of devices that a few of them haven’t heard fairly often, particularly collectively — a solo violin and percussionist. There aren’t that many concert events like that on the chamber music sequence.”
Put up-concert reception
A last manner this Up Shut will probably be particular is a post-concert reception that features heavy hors d’oeuvres from Bayside Bistro, with a money bar. Tickets are $50 per individual, obtainable HERE, and there’s a stay stream and digital entry choice obtainable for $25 per family.
The digital live performance will probably be stay streamed on Jan. 28, 2023, at 7:30 p.m., obtainable for viewing following the stay stream via Feb. 28, 2023. Please wait till midday the next day for video processing earlier than trying to entry the recorded live performance.
Future QCSO chamber concert events will probably be held at Davenport’s Raccoon Motel and the Figge Artwork Museum. The string quartet ATLYS (that includes QCSO violinist Sabrina Tabby) will carry out Feb. 11, 2023 at 7:30 p.m. at Raccoon Motel, and Feb. 12, 2023 at 4:45 p.m. at Nice Valley Excessive College., Bettendorf.
For extra info, go to the QCSO web site.
