LYS Spring Concert 2025

Violin
Madison Burke
Evelyn Chen
Emmy Christopher
Rosie Hahn
Yaikah Jow
Nina Mancusi
Siddharth Rajasekharan
Isabelle Rico
Pranav Sankar
Mia Vinod

Viola
James Anderson
Maeve Dermody
Naomie Hernandez
Wren Judy
Vivian Meier

Cello
Marlowe Campbell
Ava Locker
Martin McNeill
William Quinlan
Keira Stephens

Bass
Lily Edwards-Nipp
Tristan Jones
Elise Wowk

Flute
Lyra Klinger
Rachel Littmann

Clarinet
Sofia Eidhammer
Aubrey Zoch

Alto Sax
Damian Fuentez

Trumpet
Bodhi Chittick
Eva Fuhr
Travis Plaster
Lilian Simon

French Horn
Kelvin Atteberry

Baritone
Liam Diehm
Denver Lindsay

Trombone
Simon Guile
Silas Harrison

Tuba
Henry Brooks

Percussion
Helen Gifford
Evan Hingst
Zoe Schreurs

Dark and sultry, The Blue Orchid is a work based on the wonderfully torrid Latin American ballroom dance. With its rich melodic flow and warm harmonies, it ends as mysteriously as it begins. It's not a traditional tango in the strict sense, but rather a work that captures the essence of the dance – its rhythmic drive and its dramatic interplay through a contemporary lens.

Inspired by a painting the composer once saw of an old man with a small child holding a red balloon, this descriptive piece is both evocative and moving. The music depicts the balloon floating in air. The two people and the background were done in white on white. The only color in the painting was the red balloon, held by the child music seems to capture a sweet yet melancholic feelings. 

This musical odyssey explores the familiar sea chantey Drunken Sailor. This arrangement of tune is explored through a theme and variations. The main theme is passed throughout different sections of the ensemble but changes with each iteration. The woodwinds also create a feeling of rolling waves while the low brass convey a sense of power and strength. 

Flute
Angela Tran

Clarinet
Oliver Sitja Sichel

Violin I
Vincent Stone
Adam Wegner
Amin Benmellah
Lucas Menza
Max Wu
Evan Green

Violin I
Josephine Pelster
Emily Payne
Bella Gabbard
Bode Beaver
Ethan Liu
Michael Vassilyev

Viola
Finn Wootton
Micah Marshall
James Nichols
Michelle Smith

Cello
Arthur Woodworth
Isaac Pelster
Ryan Larson
Sara Delker
Iris Lee

Bass
Drew Moore
Andrew Delker

I. Allegro Moderato - Soloist: Andrew Delker

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Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf (2 November 1739 – 24 October 1799) was an Austrian composer and violinist. He was a friend of both Haydn and Mozart.

Ditters' early work laid the groundwork for his later compositions. His symphonic and chamber compositions greatly emphasize sensuous Italo-Austrian melody instead of motivic development, which is often entirely lacking in his works. After some early Italian opere buffe, he turned to writing German Singspiele instead, with Der Apotheker und der Doktor (1786, generally known today as Doktor und Apotheker) in particular being a tremendous success in his lifetime, playing in houses all over Europe and recorded almost two centuries later. Among his 120-or-so symphonies are twelve programmatic ones based on Ovid's Metamorphoses, although only six have survived (and have also been recorded). He also wrote oratorios, cantatas and concertos (among which are two for double bass and one for viola), string quartets and other chamber music, piano pieces and other miscellaneous works. His memoirs, Lebenbeschreibung ("Description of [My] Life"), were published in Leipzig in 1801. Some of his compositions, including the double bass concerto, were published in Leipzig by the Friedrich Hofmeister Musikverlag.

I. Allegro - Soloist: Finn Wootton

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Franz Anton Hoffmeister was born in Rottenburg am Neckar, Further Austria, on 12 May 1754. At the age of fourteen, he went to Vienna to study law. Following his studies, however, he decided on a career in music and by the 1780s he had become one of the city’s most popular composers, with an extensive and varied catalogue of works to his credit.

Hoffmeister’s reputation today rests mainly on his activities as a music publisher. By 1785 he had established one of Vienna’s first music publishing businesses, second only to Artaria & Co, which had ventured into the field five years earlier.

Hoffmeister published his own works as well as those of many important composers of the time, including Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Clementi, Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf and Johann Baptist Wanhal. These famous composers were also among Hoffmeister's personal friends: Mozart dedicated his String Quartet in D to him and Beethoven addressed him in a letter as my "most beloved brother".

IV        Allegro – Thunder, Storm
V         Allegretto - Shepherd's song. Cheerful and thankful feelings after the storm

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Also known as the Pastoral Symphony it was completed in 1808 and was first performed alongside his fifth symphony in the Theater an der Wien on 22 December 1808 in a four-hour concert.

The fourth movement is the part where Beethoven calls for the largest instrumentation in the entire piece. It depicts a violent thunderstorm with painstaking realism, building from distant thunder (quiet tremolos on cellos and basses) and a few drops of rain (eighth-note passages on the violins) to a great climax with loud thunder (timpani), lightning (piccolo), high winds (swirling arpeggio-like passages on the strings), and heavy downpours of rain (16-note tremolo passages on the strings). With the addition of the trombones later in the movement, Beethoven makes an even more tremendous effect. The storm eventually passes, with an occasional peal of thunder still heard in the distance. An ascending scale passage on the solo flute represents a rainbow. There is a seamless transition into the final movement.

The finale movement is in sonata rondo form, in an Intro-[A-B-A]-C-[A-B-A]-Coda structure. Like many finales, this movement emphasizes a symmetrical eight-bar theme, in this case representing the shepherds' song of thanksgiving.

The final A section starts quietly and gradually builds to an ecstatic culmination for the full orchestra (minus piccolo and timpani) with the first violins playing very rapid triplet tremolo on a high F. There follows a fervent coda suggestive of prayer, marked by Beethoven pianissimo, sotto voce; most conductors slow the tempo for this passage. After a brief period of afterglow, the work ends with two emphatic F-major chords.

This original fiddle-tune style work for full orchestra evokes a similar spirit to that of the music composed by Aaron Copland. The music begins in just the clarinets but soon takes over the entire orchestra. Feel free to dance along!