GPYO Spring 2024 Concert
Spring 2024 Concert
April 13th, 2024
Doran Azari, GPYO Director
With Guest Artist
Sarah Whitnah
GPO Co-Concertmaster
Jakiana Suite Arthur Bosmans
Prelude
Aria
Bouree
Spring Breezes (Folk Song from Taiwan) Richard Meyer
Maureen Donelson, harp
Spring from the Four Seasons Antonio Vivaldi
Mvts 1 and 3
Sarah Whitnah, violin
Doran Azari retired from teaching orchestra in Greeley Evans School District 6 in 2020 after more than 30 years of service in just about every secondary school in Greeley. He was primarily the director of orchestras at Greeley Central High School where the program increased in size during his tenure and received superior ratings for excellence for over three decades. In 2000 the GCHS Symphony Orchestra was showcased at the Colorado Music Educator's Convention as one of the finest orchestras in the state. Mr. Azari also traveled and toured extensively with the orchestra having performed in Los Angeles, New York City, and in Europe five times including performances in Dublin's St. Patrick's Cathedral, Paris, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Vatican City and the Czech Republic-where the orchestra was the first American orchestra to perform following the fall of the Berlin Wall. Mr. Azari also taught violin with the Union Colony Children's Music Academy and with the University of Northern Colorado String Project where he was recognized as an outstanding music educator.
Starting his music career as a violist, Mr. Azari has performed professionally for over 30 years with many orchestras throughout the region including the Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra, the Fort Collins Symphony Orchestra, the Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra and the Greeley Chamber Orchestra where he performed as a soloist and was given the honor to conduct the orchestra as well. Mr. Azari has performed many times as a pit musician in various operas and musicals including his first professional performance with the musical South Pacific almost 50 years ago. He has also conducted pit orchestras for You're a Good Man Charlie Brown, Little Shop of Horrors, Oliver, South Pacific and 1776. In addition to Doran Azari's performance and teaching activities, he was the festival manager of the Breckenridge Music Institute and Festival "Bach, Beethoven and Breckenridge" for two years. He also served for 10 years in the Colorado Army National Guard-first as a member of A team 536 of the 5th Battalion Special Forces (Green Berets), and then as a US Army officer and company commander with the 140th Signal Battalion and finally as an officer with the Selective Service Administration. Mr. Azari serves on many volunteer boards including the Union Colony Civic Center Advisory Board, the UCCC Backstage Stars, the Greeley Chamber Orchestra, the Greeley Arts Legacy, and he is a member of the Historic Preservation Commission for Greeley. He lives in Greeley with his wife Kathy who plays oboe in the Greeley Chamber Orchestra and who herself has had a long and distinguished music career both as a performer and educator.
Sarah Whitnah grew up in Fairbanks, AK, and before you ask, she would like to confirm that “no, Alaskans do not live in igloos. But they do eat more ice cream per capita than any other US state!” After high school she traveled to the Lower 48 (as Alaskans like to call the contiguous 48 states) to study violin performance at St. Olaf College in the land of lakes and Lutheran choirs (Minnesota). While there, she learned the importance of music as a service to others, and believes that music can heal and bring people together unlike any other experience. After obtaining her bachelor's degree, she decided that Minnesota wasn’t necessarily warmer than Alaska, and made her way down to Denver, CO to pursue her masters in violin performance at the University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music. While there she studied with Linda Wang, and had many amazing opportunities some of which included playing in masterclasses for the Kronos Quartet and Leila Josefowicz. In 2010 she placed first in the Lamont School of Music’s concerto competition, performing the Sibelius Violin Concert. Ultimately, She decided the weather in Colorado was much better than either Alaska, or Minnesota, and has lived in Denver for about 16 years now.
Whitnah currently performs all over the state of Colorado as a freelance violinist and soloist. She has performed as a soloist many times with Denver’s Kantorei choir, and is featured on their latest album of Jake Runestad’s works (Sing, Wearing the Sky). She is the principal violinist with The Playground Ensemble, Colorado’s premiere New Music chamber ensemble in residence at Metro State University; Principal Violinist in the Red Rock String Quartet; Arranger and Core Member of Sphere Ensemble; Co-Concertmaster of The Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra, Principal Second Violin in the Fort Collins Symphony; Assistant Principal Second Violin in The Boulder Chamber Orchestra; and section violinist in the Colorado Springs Philharmonic. She has performed with many notable artists including Glee’s Daren Criss, Kygo, KALEO, rock cellist Tina Guo, and Manheim Steamroller.
Believing it’s never too late to learn an instrument, Whitnah enjoys teaching violin to all ages and skill levels, and maintains an active private violin studio from her home.
Richard Meyer received his B.A. degree from California State University, Los Angeles and has taught middle school instrumental music for over 16 years. He currently conducts the Pasadena Youth Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Meyer has had many works published for band and orchestra including "Celebration", which won the National School Orchestra Association composition contest and "Geometric Dances", which won the Texas Orchestra Directors composition contest. In 1994, he received the Outstanding Music Educator Award from the Pasadena Area Youth Music Council, and has received the Pasadena Arts Council Gold Crown Award for Performing Arts.
Arthur (Arturo) Bosmans, a native of Brussels, was a self-taught musician. However, this did not prevent him from becoming a violinist in the Symphonic Orchestra of Mons at age twelve as well as playing the piano, the clarinet and the trumpet. In his lifetime, he gained the conductor position of several orchestras, including the Philharmonic Orchestra of Antwerp, Orquestra Sinfonica Brasileira, and the Orquestra Simfonica Estadual in Brazil. He became a member of the ‘Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs’ in Paris and earned in 1933 the composition award ‘César Franck’ in Liège with his rhapsody La Rue (The Street). Additionally, Bosmans was an educator of composition and instrumentation. In 1955, he was appointed as the state advisor for music in Brazil.
The impressive oeuvre composed by Bosmans ranges across a wide gamut: from songs to choral works and from chamber music to film music. His orchestral works are typical of a late romantic style. His many voyages around the world exerted an influence on his works, too: either by exuding a general atmosphere, or by the use of folk tunes. While initially his works betray influences from Debussy, Ravel and Gershwin, gradually he moved into an idiom that he himself dubbed “cosmopolitan”. As a pianist he used the piano not only as a solo instrument, but also as a special timbre in the orchestra. Arthur Bosmans died in 1991, leaving behind a great amount of musical materials that merit further study and performance. Several of his works were published, and the collection is taken care of by his widow Walkyria, whose collection also holds recordings. Bosmans earned the first prize with gold medal for classical music awarded by the ‘Académie Internationale de Lutèce’ in Paris on the occasion of the 7th Great International Competition in 1975.
The Jakiana Suite was published in 1960 by Henri Elkon of Philadelphia, PA
Antonio Vivaldi was an Italian composer and violinist who left a decisive mark on the form of the concerto and the style of late Baroque instrumental music. In 1703, Antonio was ordained as a priest, but chronic ailment hindered his ability to celebrate mass. His primary music teacher was his father. Antonio became an excellent violinist, and in 1703 he was appointed violin master at the Ospedale della Pietà. Vivaldi had dealings with the Pietà for most of his career: as violin master, director of instrumental music, and paid external supplier of compositions.
Vivaldi was a prolific composer. He wrote both sacred and secular vocal works, including many operas. Nearly 500 instrumental concerti by Vivaldi survive. Of these, approximately 230 are written for solo violin. Vivaldi perfected the form of what would become the classical three-movement concerto. Indeed, he helped establish the fast-slow-fast plan of the concerto’s three movements. Perhaps more importantly, Vivaldi was the first to employ regularly in his concerti the ritornello form, in which recurrent restatements of a refrain alternate with more episodic passages featuring a solo instrument. Vivaldi’s bold juxtapositions of the refrains (ritornelli) and the solo passages opened new possibilities for virtuosic display by solo instrumentalists. The fast movements in his concerti are notable for their rhythmic drive and the boldness of their themes, while the slow movements often present the character of arias written for the solo instrument.
The Four Seasons, a group of four violin concerti, each give a musical expression to a season of the year. Unusually for the time, Vivaldi published the concerti with accompanying poems (possibly written by Vivaldi himself) that elucidated what it was about those seasons that his music was intended to evoke. It provides one of the earliest and most-detailed examples of what was later called program music—music with a narrative element.
Spring (Concerto No. 1 in E Major)
I. Allegro
Festive Spring has arrived,
The birds salute it with their happy song.
And the brooks, caressed by little Zephyrs,
Flow with a sweet murmur.
The sky is covered with a black mantle,
And thunder, and lightning, announce a storm.
When they are silent, the birds
Return to sing their lovely song.
III. Danza pastorale. Allegro
To the festive sound of pastoral bagpipes,
Dance nymphs and shepherds,
At Spring's brilliant appearance.
First Violin
Erin Chastain, Concert Master
Mychaela Boeye
Liberty Gomer
Olivia Kilpatrick
2nd Violin
Reyah Donohoue, Principal
Natalie Morehead
Casey Burns-Meza
Viola
Sabine Mundt, Principal
Loryn Bustos
Sofia Vasquez
Cello
Erick Gonzalez Rivera, Principal
Grey Deal
Bass
Calvin Long, Principal
Mikayla Kerbs
Harp
Maureen Donelson
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