Missouri Classical Music News and Notes

Chen Yi, a professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, was influenced by Chinese traditional music, as well as by composers ranging from Bach and Brahms to Bartok, Stravinsky and Lutoslawski. Her tangy, East-West fusions will be illustrated by "Chinese Ancient Dances" (on tonight's program) and "Night Thoughts" (commissioned for SummerFest with support from the New York-based Meet the Composer project and scheduled for performances tomorrow and Sunday).

"If composers would share more of their thoughts and feelings with audiences, it would be helpful," says Chen Yi, slated for "Pre-Concert Talks" today and tomorrow at Sherwood. "I have to express myself through my music. This is the way for me to have my voice heard.

"My music is like a bridge to connect people from different cultures, a way to improve understanding."

To commemorate the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition, revered composer Philip Glass was commissioned to create a piano concerto. The premiere of the work is to be performed at the Lied Center for Performing Arts at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln on Saturday, September 18th. Performing this new work will be pianist Paul Barnes of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the Omaha Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Victor Yampolsky, and Native American flutist R. Carlos Nakai.

This world premiere will be followed by a series of concerts of this exciting new work including September 24th and 25th at Orpheum Theater in Omaha, Nebraska, November 12th - 14th at Benaroya Hall in Seattle, Washington with Northwest Chamber Orchestra conducted by Ralf Gothoni. An November 28th at Sanders Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts with Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston conducted by Kevin Rhodes.

Piano Concerto No. 2 (After Lewis and Clark) was co-commissioned by the Nebraska Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commission, the Lied Center for Performing Arts, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts.

Ever since its invention over three centuries ago, the stringed keyboard instrument—the piano and its variants—has continued to inconvenience musicians and vex technicians with the complexity of its tuning procedure. Think about it for a moment. Other musicians tune their own instruments. A child’s first lesson on guitar invariably begins with instruction on how to tune it. A trumpet player can tune his instrument any time he desires in a matter of seconds by pulling on a tube, a clarinetist by adjusting the neck of his mouthpiece. For a pianist it involves scheduling a technician to come to his home twice a year or more and tune his piano, at present a tedious process. . . .

When the musician wants to tune his piano, he simply depresses the piano’s damper pedal and presses the “tune” button. Instantly all of the strings of the piano will begin to audibly sustain at once. During this sustaining, the control circuit polls the pickups, and each string’s frequency is determined. This value is compared with the “correct” one in the memory, and the current to the string is adjusted accordingly until all of the strings are in tune. These new current levels are now memorized and are maintained until the next tuning. The entire process takes less than twenty seconds.

Hans Vonk, former music director of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, died on Sunday, August 29 at his home in Amsterdam at age 63. The cause of death was a a rare neurological disorder similar in its effects to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease.
Vonk's physical disabilities forced him to step down from his post here in the spring of 2002.

A strong conductor who preferred to do his speaking through his music, Maestro Vonk was particularly noted for his exceptional interpretations of the symphonies of Anton Bruckner and Gustav Mahler.