2. Program
Khovantchina
Overture
Danse Macabre
Night on the
Bald Mountain
Modest Mussorgsky
Camille Saint-Saens
Modest Mussorgsky
~Intermission~
Conte Fantastique
(The Mask of the Red Death)
Featuring Isabelle Frouvelle,
Harp Solo
The Raven
Andre Caplet
Joseph Holbrooke
Conte Fantastique Graphics:
Jack Park
The Raven Graphics:
Jim Burns
3. First Violin
Matthew Wang, Concertmaster*
Rachael Stambaugh, Concertmas-
ter*
Kate Hansen
Shouzhuo Sun
Nicole Cook
Alexandra Cramer
Evangeline Hsieh
Jacob Alter
Borah Kim
Jerry O’Dwyer
Brendan Boylan
Second Violin
Ryan Harriss*
Emma Tainter
Tiara Johnson
Alexis Payne
Lauren Wengrovitz
Rayna Yu
Fabiana Arrazola
Casey Charbonneau
Maxwell Cloe
Conor Scanlon
Mary Haas (C.M.)
Viola
Madeleine Yi*
Evan Dienstman
Rachael Greenman
Shelby Ferebee
Megan Kitts
Hannah Winckler-Olick
Noelle Varney
Emily Hinshaw
Iria Gomez Garcia
Charlie Whittaker (C.M.)
Orchestra Librarian
Hannah Stevenson
Cello
Darcey Pittman*
Sarah Lettau
Luke Schwenke
Aijan McHale
Robert Collie
Will Park
Jordan Noble
Diane Whitaker (C.M.)
Carl Andersen (C.M.)
Bass
Hannah Stevenson*
James Burns
Andrew Torma
Flute
Allison Greenday
Jill Mao
Ruth Ann Beaver
Yutong Zhan
Oboe
Karl Spiker (G.S.)
Emily Chrisman
Abby Jackson
Clarinet
Arjun Malhotra
Rebecca Quinn
Ronghong Dai
Samantha Kim
Bassoon
James Bowers
Johnny Willing
Ayush Joshi
Katherine Bowles
Stage Managers
Austin Chun
French Horn
John Mitchell
Emily Pratt
Ailish Bova
Ellen Polachek
Shihao Du
Kathy Urbonya (C.M.)
Trumpet
Charles Balaan
Joseph Handy
Chad Amos
Trombone
Mike Kikta
Sarah Grave Frary
Michael Manella
Tuba
Ryan Richardson
Timpani
Madeline Brass
Percussion
Lydia Brown
Max Sacher
Will Hubbert
Megan Rouch
Harp
Hope Wright
* denotes Principal
(G.S.) denotes Graduate
Student
(C.M.) denotes Community
Member
Emily Chrisman, ‘17, President
Evan Dienstman, ‘17, VP of Fundraising
Shelby Ferebee, ‘17, Treasurer
James Burns, ‘18, Secretary
Hannah Stevenson, ‘18, Publicity Director
William Park, ‘17, VP of Development
Fabiana Arrazola, ‘18, Historian
Ryan Harriss/Megan Kitts, ‘17, Social Chairs
Hope Wright, ‘18, Tour Director
Nicole Cook, ‘18, Tour Director
Under the direction of David Grandis
4. About the Soloist
Isabelle Frouvelle
Harpist Isabelle Frouvelle received her Higher Diplo-
ma in Concertiste the École Normale from Musique de
Paris in 1994.
Since then she has appeared as soloist with the Orches-
tre Colonne, Orchestre du Capitole, and the Opéra en
Plein Air. She also participates on recordings for audio-vi-
sual work including soundtrack, sound illustrations, and
advertisements. She has been accompanied by the artists
Laurent Voulzy and Johnny Hallyday.
Mrs. Frouvelle has been a part of various chamber
music groups, including the interpretation of Debussy
Danses, the Introduction and Allegro by Ravel, Hispanic
music programs, and more recently with the Trio LIUC,
on the Celtic harp. Mrs. Fouvelle has been invited to give
master classes in both the United States and Mexico.
Mrs. Frouvelle has presented concerts in Sainte-Cha-
pelle, the Basilica of Sacré Coeur, the Louvre Museum,
and the Château de Versailles, among many others for
leading political and cultural figures the world.
Isabelle Frouvelle currently lives in Washington DC
to develop new projects. She shares her time between
France and the United States.
5. About the Conductor
David Grandis
Conductor David Grandis recently obtained a Doctor of Musical A
rts degree at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. There, he served
as the assistant of Professor James Smith with the Symphony Orchestra,
Chamber Orchestra and Opera. He also recently served as Assistant
Conductor of the Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra and Capital City
Symphony Orchestra in Washington, DC. Previous positions have in-
cluded Cover Conductor at the National Philharmonic, Assistant Con-
ductor at the Baltimore Opera Company, and at the Chesapeake Youth
Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Grandis’ guest conducting opportunities have
included the Bordeaux National Symphony Orchestra, Nice Philharmon-
ic Orchestra, Lyon National Opera, Sofia New Symphony Orchestra and
Minsk Philharmonic Orchestra.
Before coming to the United States in 2004 for post-graduate study
with Gustav Meier at the Peabody Conservatory, Mr. Grandis held posi-
tions in his native France, leading the University Orchestra in Grenoble
and his own chamber orchestra in Nice. Further studies were completed
in several national conservatories in France. He began his conducting
apprenticeship with Klaus Weise and earned a B.M. in Musicology in
France.
David Grandis received a graduate performance diploma from
Peabody Conservatory and during that time served as Assistant Conduc-
tor of the Peabody Symphony Orchestra and the Peabody Opera. He
earned a master’s degree in orchestral conducting from the University of
Illinois under Donald Schleicher.
Among the conductors with whom he has participated in master
classes are Marin Alsop, Gustav Meier, Rossen Milanov, Misha Kats,
John Farrer, Daniel Lewis and Donald Thulean.
Mr. Grandis has an equal interest in both symphonic and lyric
literature. He has studied voice for several years and performed a few
roles in productions such as Pagliacci (Silvio), Werther (Albert), Pélléas
et Mélisande (Pélléas), Faust (Valentin), and Die Zauberflöte (Papageno).
Albert Lance invited him to conduct productions of Gounod’s Faust
and Puccini’s Il Tabarro in France. Mr. Grandis was recently Assistant
Conductor at the Lyon National Opera in June 2010 for Humperdinck’s
Hansel and Gretel and in December 2010 for Massenet’s Werther.
6. Program
The Uncanny
All the pieces we perform tonight incorporate elements of the uncanny. Ernst Jentsch’s
1906 essay “On the Psychology of the Uncanny” defines the uncanny as a state of intel-
lectual uncertainty or insecurity. A “lack of orientation” experienced by someone who is
“not quite at home or at ease in the situation concerned.” The visual uncanny includes
darkness, masks and disguises, noisy environments, and confusion as to whether things are
animate or inanimate. Sigmeund Frued added to the list of the Uncanny as involuntary
repitition, something familiar that should have remained hidden or that was repressed
but has come out into the open, or an effect when the bondary between fantasy and
reality become blurred. The uncanny is also applied to sounds. Some of the sounds in the
compositions sound like everday noises, but are altered in a strange way. This technique
creates an atmosphere of suspense and fear, perfect for Halloween!
Danse Macabre
In Saint-Saëns’ evocative setting, the solo violin represents the devil who is playing his
fiddle for the dance. The dance begins at the stroke of midnight (perhaps Halloween) in
a graveyard. Listen for the 12 strokes of the distant bell quietly tolling in the harp right
at the beginning. The skeletal dancers are represented by the xylophone’s brittle, bony
sounds as they mimic back to the violin a response to his theme. Soon the skeletons arise
from their graves and begin dancing to the devil’s unearthly tune. The skeletal dancers are
represented by the xylophone’s brittle, bony sounds as they mimic back to the violin a re-
sponse to his theme. (By the way, this xylophone lick is taken and parodied by Saint-Saëns
in his brilliant and musically hilarious “Carnival of the Animals” to represent fossils). The
knowledgeable and keen-eared listener may be able to hear the “dies irae” chant (a melody
from the traditional requiem about the “Day of Wrath” that has often been used in musical
personifications of “Death”) lightheartedly played in the woodwinds and harp about two
and a half minutes into the piece in a major key. They are having fun dancing!
The devil does his work and the frenetic and frenzied dancing goes faster and faster until
it stops abruptly and we hear a rooster crow (listen for the oboe). The night is almost over;
dawn is arriving and all scurry back into the depths away from the coming light of the sun
while the devil mournfully finishes his tune and slinks away.
- David Bowden
Khovantchina Overture
In June 1872 St. Petersburg was celebrating the bicentennial of its founder’s birth that
month with speeches, pageants, and processions. In the midst of the festivities, Mus-
sorgsky wrote to his friend, the critic Vladimir Stasov, on June 28: “I am pregnant with
something and I am giving birth.” The something was the composer’s vast historical op-
era Khovanshchina, whose title translates roughly as “The Khovansky Plot” oand whose
inspiration places it squarely among a group of musical works to emerge during this
period exemplifying the importance of the past in nationalist music. The drama hinges on
the tension between Peter the Great and three entrenched groups who stood between him
and absolute power. Peter ultimately crushes them all. Mussorgsky thought the subject
ideal for depicting the tension between progress and inertia in Russian history and for
looking at the cost of such progress.
- John Mangum
7. Notes
Night on Bald Mountain
Modest Mussorgsky tried many times to write the music that we know today as Night
on Bald Mountain, and he never got it into satisfactory form. He first had the idea for
this music in 1860 at age 21. In 1867 Mussorgsky told Rimsky-Korsakov that he had com-
pleted what he called a “tone-picture” for orchestra, now titled St. John’s Night on the
Bare Mountain. In the years after his death, the composer’s friends tried to get his chaotic
manuscripts into performing order, and in 1886 Rimsky-Korsakov turned to the St. John’s
Eve music, which now existed in a number of versions. Instead of simply going back to
Mussorgsky’s purely orchestral version of 1867, Rimsky felt free to draw upon the music
in all of its subsequent incarnations.
Mussorgsky took as his starting point the old Russian legend of a witches’ sabbath on
St. John’s Night (June 23-24) on Mount Triglav near Kiev. That legend tells of midnight
revels led by the god Chernobog (sometimes depicted as a black goat), festivities that
come to an end with the break of day. Mussorgsky himself left a summary of the events
depicted in his music: “Subterranean din of supernatural voices. Appearance of Spirits
of Darkness, followed by that of the god Chernobog. Glorification of the Black God, The
Black Mass. Witches’ Sabbath, interrupted at its height by the sounds of the far-off bell of
the little church in a village. It disperses the Spirits of Darkness. Daybreak.”
- Eric Bromberger
Conte Fantastique
Conte Fantastique, composed in 1908, is inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s tale, “The Mask
of the Red Death.” Caplet includes the following preface in the score:
Loitering around the prey she covets, Death, horrible and fatal specter, haunts the
land…In an atmosphere heavy with anguish and terror, it is the brusque and hideous
apparition of the Mask of the Red Death, whose diabolical grin signals the raging,
merciless joy of bringing everything to annihilation. To defy the plague, a young Prince
and his friends joyously feast in a fortified abbey, its entrances and exits carefully shut up.
There, the Prince treats his guests to a masked ball of the strangest magnificence, and his
fantastic taste provides for the entertainment: what a voluptuous scene, this masquerade!
Meanwhile, each time the strange, deep voice of a very old clock sounds the hours, the
momentum of the dancers seems paralyzed. Its ringing echo having barely dissipated, a
light, uneasy hilarity continues to circulate among the guests. The party resumes, but with
less spirit, as though perturbed by the memory of those calls of time; nevertheless, little
by little, the music reanimates. Couples twirl about feverishly, when, upon a harsh gesture
from the Prince, the music stops. In the shadow of the clock, where midnight resonates
weightily, stands, immobile, a figure enveloped in a shroud. A mortal terror seizes the
guests. It is the Red Death, come like a thief in the night! And all the guests fall, convuls-
ing, one after the other, in the rooms of the debauchery, flooded with a bloody dew.
Caplet uses the harp to provide the tolls of the eerie clock toward the end of the com-
position, ringing eleven o’clock, and then midnight, announcing the arrival of the Red
Death. -Peter Asimov
The Raven
Joseph Holbrooke’s composition inspired by the Edgar Allen Poe Poem, “The Raven.”
Holbrooke cites lines in the poem that correspond to the score. Holbrooke utilizes the
musical uncanny in bringing Poes words into a concert hall. Holbrooke uses the muted
double bass solo at the opening, the staccato divisi violas and celli representtive of tap-
ping, and the brass chorale repetitions, all accompanied by eerie trills and tremelos in the
upper strings, to create a feeling of the uncanny.
- Michael Allis
8. Kae Brown Memorial
Symphony Orchestra
Endowment
Those wishing to donate should send checks
payable to The College of William & Mary at:
The College of William and Mary
Office of University Development
P.O. Box 1693
Williamsburg, VA 23187-8779
Please indicate that your contribution is for the
Kae Brown Memorial Symphony Endowment.
Thank you for your support!
In order to raise money, the Orchestra will
be raffling off a fully paid trip for two to
Paris either during Veteran’s Day Weekend
2017 or MLK Weekend 2018.
For every $1 you donate,
you will receive 1 raffle ticket.
Check the WMSO Facebook page in late
April 2017 to see when the winner will be
announced
Questions? email us at:
wmsofrancetour@gmail.com
The WMSO
is going
to France
And so can you!
