2003-2004 Shows and Study Guides

Use these study guides in your classroom, along with the links to the archived program at WNYC.

• June 16th - The Music of Rob Kapilow
  Download the Rob Kapilow Study Guide
  Listen to this Program at WNYC
  
  
• April 22nd - Transient Glory 2004
  Download the Benjamin Lees Study Guide
  Download the Tod Machover Study Guide
  Listen to this program at WNYC
  
  
• January 28th - The Music of Jim Papoulis
  Download the Study Guide
  Listen to this program at WNYC.
  
  
• October 29th, 2003 - Brundibar with Tony Kushner
  Download the Study Guide
  Listen to this program at WNYC.
  

June 16th, 2004, 2:00PM - The Music of Rob Kapilow

Francisco Núñez
and Rob Kapilow

On Wednesday, June 16, in a very special live Soundcheck program on 93.9 FM at 2 p.m., the WNYC Young People’s Radio Chorus will sing excerpts from a new choral/orchestral work composed by Rob Kapilow commemorating the bicentennial of the Lewis & Clark expedition. With a libretto by Darrell Kipp of the Blackfeet Tribe of Montana – which includes words and phrases from native American languages - the work revisits the historic journey in a novel way: through the eyes of the tribes visited by Lewis & Clark.

The June Radio Chorus
with Rob Kapilow

Rob Kapilow will join guest host Julie Burstein and Francisco Núñez, artistic director of the WNYC Young People’s Radio Chorus, to discuss this unusual collaboration between a Native American and a composer of European heritage. Through visits to the Blackfeet reservation in Montana and discussions with Native American tribal members throughout the country, Kapilow is telling the Lewis & Clark expedition story from a new, multi-cultural perspective in an attempt to “cross the divide” that separates mainstream America from Native America. The work, which was co-commissioned by the Carlsen Center (on behalf of the Kansas City Symphony), the Saint Louis Symphony, and the Louisiana Philharmonic, will receive its world premiere this fall.

Rob Kapilow, probably most well known for his acclaimed “What Makes It Great?” NPR segments and full-length concert evenings and series throughout North America, is also a conductor and composer of wide renown with a genius for making classical music understandable to a general audience.

Download the Study Guide here

 

April 22nd, 2004, 2:00PM - Transient Glory 2004

For the last 4 years, the Transient Glory concert series has been pioneering new works by many of the world's eminent composers. Past concerts have included new works by Dominick Argento, Geoffry Burgon, David Del Tredici, Michael Nyman, Kevin James, Stephen Mackey, Nils Vigeland, Elena Kats-Chernin and Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum. The radio program on April 22nd at 2:00 PM will focus on the Transient Glory 2004 concert (April 25th) and will feature selections from newly commisioned works by Richard Rodney Bennett, Judith Weir, Bright Sheng, Benjamin Lees and Tod Machover.

Benjamin Lees - The Nervous Family

Excerpt from the Study Guide...

The April Radio Chorus
with Benjamin Lees,
Tod Machover,
Charles McCracken
and John Schaefer

Composer Benjamin Lees just completed The Nervous Family, his first choral work for young people. One of the first tasks for the composer was to choose a text that he could set to music. In his hunt for great words, Lees came upon the 19th century English poet Edward Lear. Lear was famous for his wit, humor, limericks, and nonsense rhymes. Lees decided immediately that the absurdity of the poet’s ideas would be well suited to young peoples’ voices. Mr. Lees said that when he had written the last note of the piece he had a feeling of total exhilaration. “In my mind’s eye,” he said, “I already saw and heard the young choristers giggling with delight at their task.”

The composer chose to work with Lear’s poem, The Nervous Family. Here’s a sample from the poem. Read it and listen to how the words sound. Why does the poet repeat certain words and phrases? Do you think the rhyming lines make the poem funny or serious? Why?

We’re all nervous, very very nervous,
And we’re all nervous at our house in town,
There’s myself, and my Aunt, and my Sister, and my Mother,
And if left in the dark we’re all quite frightened at each other!
Our Dog runs away if there’s a stranger in the house,
And our great Tabby Cat is quite frightened at a mouse,
For she’s so nervous, very very nervous,
And we’re all nervous at our house in Town.

My poor shaking Aunt can’t work at her needle,
And my shaking hand spills half my cup of tea
When wine at her dinner my timid Sister’s taking
She drops it on the table, so much her hand is shaking
And my poor old shaky Mother,
when to take her snuff she tries to pop it in her nose,
O! She pops it in her eyes.
For she’s so nervous, very very nervous,
And we’re all nervous at our house in Town...

Download the full study guide here.

Tod Machover - I Dreamt a Dream!

Excerpt from the Study Guide...

Tod Machover is an American composer well known for breaking traditional artistic and cultural boundaries and offering innovative syntheses of acoustic and electronic sound. In many ways the collaboration between technology and music grew out of his childhood. While growing up, Machover was influenced by his mother, who was a pianist, and his father, who was a specialist in computer graphics. Although he was trained at a young age in classical music, it was in high school that he began to compose and perform rock music. Later, as his music developed, Machover began integrating his own composed music with designed electronic sounds.

I Dreamt A Dream! is for treble youth chorus and electronics. For this work, the composer chose to set words from The Angel by the British poet and painter William Blake, who lived in London from 1757 to 1827. Blake was an artist primarily concerned with the idea that people should value the imagination more than being rational or materialistic. You may have studied the Enlightenment, a European movement based on the idea using reason, science and philosophy as a way of understanding the world. During most of Blake’s life his work was misunderstood, and it wasn’t until years later that his illustrations, paintings, poetry, and prose gained great importance. Blake published The Angel in 1793 in a book of illustrated poems called Songs of Experience.

Download the Full Study Guide Here.

January 28th, 2004 - The Music of JIM PAPOULIS

Jim Papoulis composes and orchestrates music for film, commercials, dance, classical ensembles, songs, live shows, and children’s choral ensembles. Papoulis’ distinctive musical style consistently explores the connection between technology and musical traditions from around the globe. Trained in classical and jazz styles, he combines these musical genres with gospel, world beat, R & B, contemporary, children’s voices, and spoken word to create a unique hybrid sound. Papoulis is a featured composer for Music Publisher Boosey & Hawkes for his work for children’s choirs (GIVE US HOPE, CAN YOU HEAR, A LIGHT INSIDE, WHEN I CLOSE MY EYES, OYE, etc…)

He enthusiastically participates with the Foundation for Small Voices Songwriting Workshops, creating original songs with children from diverse backgrounds, schools, and choirs worldwide. http://www.soundsofabetterworld.org

He holds graduate degrees in music composition and performance from the University Of Miami School Of Music and the University of Pennsylvania. Currently, Papoulis is completing Shadows featuring the Tokyo String Quartet, the third Vital Records release of Papoulis music.

Read the composer's full biography (PDF format)

SOUNDS OF A BETTER WORLD began as a creative journey, exploring through music how we can encourage a better future for our children. As the enormity of the tragedy that occurred on September 11, 2001 in our city and country settles in, I have been, as a parent and an artist, challenged to again reassess where my priorities lie. I have discovered that SOUNDS has taken myself and my family on a journey that is beyond music; the hours I have spent with fellow musicians, collaborators, children, choir directors, parents, film makers, editors, engineers, teachers, hoteliers, and professionals from many fields, has surprised me with the complex subtleties of being human.

In the wake of 9/11 was a pause on a philanthropic concert tour of SOUNDS throughout Asia. In the months directly following, I found strength in the music that I had composed with and for children in preparation for concerts worldwide. The song CAN YOU HEAR was the first song on the choral album of its name to receive immediate positive response from collaborator Francisco J. Núñez.

My collaboration with him has become a professional relationship of collegial support, like-mindedness, and belief in the power of choral music to resonate with a certain truth and beauty that can open many hearts.

Read the composer's full notes (PDF format)

Download the Study Guide (PDF format)