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Island String Players provide gifts and prizes for young string players at every concert

You, our audience, are necessary for us all to make and have music. Consider joining us more intimately in our shared music community. Attend dress rehearsals, get the newsletter and reduced subscription rates. Join our Island String Players Society today, for $15 annu-ally, and join the organization which has been encouraging music for 15 years. Name:__________________________________________ Address:________________________________________ Email address:___________________________________ Telephone:______________________________________ Island String Players membership_____$75 players______$15 non-players Season Tickets:_______$60 nonmembers_______$50 members If you prefer, consider donating to one of our programs (see the side-bars). Amount____________ Preferred program_____________ All cheques made out to Island String Players. Thank you!

The Island String Players Society, PO Box 32080, 3651 Shelbourne St., Victoria V8P 5S2. 250 595 2094

www.victoriachamberorchestra.org

Consider contributing to the Louis Sherman Endowment Fund. You will receive a tax receipt and your one time donation will be rec-ognized every year in the competition programme. You may remain anonymous if you wish. Categories: Friend $10-49 Bronze $50-99 Silver $100-249 Gold $250-499 Platinum $500+

The Louis Sherman Concerto Competition for Young String Players was established in 2000 with the generosity of Louis’ daughter, Claudia Chance, and the Victoria Chamber Orchestra. This honours the memory of an outstanding musician. Born in Toronto, 1907, the eldest of five brothers, Louis died October 1999. Louis was very active in the Victoria music scene, and is remembered most for his kindness and gen-erosity toward his fellow musicians, particularly talented young string players and emerging artists. As a benefactor, he helped to establish the Victoria Chamber Orchestra, and many of this evening’s performers remember him fondly as a friend. This season’s concert will be Friday March 12th 2010, and will include the winning young player’s performance.

Friday, November 20, 2009, 8:00 pm

The Victoria Chamber Orchestra

A PRESENTATION OF THE ISLAND STRING PLAYERS SOCIETY

HANDEL CELEBRATION

Prima Choir Wade Noble, Director

Yariv Aloni, Music Director

First Metropolitan United Church, 932 Balmoral at Quadra

Gabriele Münter 20C

Nancy Washeim Soprano Jeremy Notheisz Tenor

St. Elizabeth’s Church, 10030 Third St. Sidney

Saturday, November 21, 2009, 8:00 pm

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Island String Players presents The Victoria Chamber Orchestra

St. Cecilia’s feast day is celebrated on November 22. She perished in Sicily under Emperor Marcus Aurelius circa 176. She arranged to have her home preserved as a church before she was arrested and was smothered by steam. She survived this and was stabbed 3 times, but would not die until she received the sacrament . Cecilia survived another three days, opened her eyes, gazed at her family and friends, and died. Those at her cell knew that she was a saint. This was an inauspicious start to the veneration of her as Music, particularly as music associated with the Pythagorean principles of harmonia mundi. She provided a cool virginal aspect, methodical and mathematical, as a contrast to the voluptuousness of the practice of music. This contrast was fascinating to English culture, and her saint day was celebrated here more than anywhere else in Europe. As early as Chaucer in The Seconde Nonne's Tale, there were interpretations of her name: lily of heaven; the way for the blind; contemplation of heaven and the active life; as if lacking in blindness; a heaven for people to gaze upon. Her iconography is rich. Virginal, young, strong, with slanting light illuminating translucent skin, helped by children because her focus is so intense, she became an ideal of the young woman in music which has been celebrated, none more powerfully than the highly skilled orchestra of virgins Vivaldi, the Red Priest, had in the Ospitale. The voluptuousness of music is still celebrated by the Society of Gentlemen, Lov-ers of Musick, usually members of the Jurade de Saint-Émilion, whose connec-tions with the City of London go back 800 years to King John. An evening of sub-lime music with good food and wine to follow has been maintained by groups who spend almost as much time choosing the menus and selecting the wines as they do in preparing the musical programme. Three centuries ago, the Society of Gentlemen used to promise "a splendid enter-tainment . . . by the best voices and hands in Town". Dryden's version is heard tonight: But bright Cecilia raised the wonder higher; When to her Organ vocal breath was given, An Angel heard and straight appear'd - Mistaking Earth for Heaven! One of the lasts acts of George I before his death in 1727 was to sign "An Act for the naturalizing of George Frideric Handel and others." Handel's first commission was to write the music for the next coronation. The four anthems he composed for the coronation of George II on 11 October 1727 have remained very popular. Created for a church setting they are magnificent enough to have been sniffed at by minimalist aesthetes for centuries.

And Solomon reigned over all kingdoms from the river unto the land of the Philistines, and unto the border of Egypt: they brought presents, and served Solomon all the days of his life. (I Kings:4:21). Then the Queen of Sheba came to visit. Thank God for wisdom.

ODE FOR ST. CECILIA’S DAY

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Island String Players provides orchestral support for young choirs like PRIMA choir

1833 Cook St, Victoria, BC V8T 3P5 250-389-1988

Larsen Music has a full string workshop in our retail store. We offer sales of high-quality string instruments, all prepared by our qualified string department staff. In addition, we offer instruments for rent, and have an extensive repair shop. We service all makes and models of violins, violas, cellos and double basses, from student to professional, and offer bow re-hairs using the finest quality bow hair. Our String Shop staff ensures that you, our customers, have the best quality string instruments available on Vancouver Island.

University of Victoria PRIMA Choir would like to recognize: UVic School of Music for their sponsorship. Bruce and Connie More for their ongoing support. Consider our next concert: PRIMA’s traditional “Many Talents of PRIMA” Christmas show at the David Lam Auditorium (MacLaurin A144) on Sunday December 13th, 2pm. Admission by food donation (proceeds to Open Door). Remember the powerful “Messiah for the Homeless”, with the new composition by Leila Lustig: Persons of no fixed abode, with Victoria Chamber Orchestra, Novem-ber 20, 2004!!

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Island String Players provides an annual grant to the Greater Victoria Music Festival

The Victoria Chamber Orchestra Violins: 1 Yasuko Eastman, Chloe McConchie, Lauren Klein, Allyn Chard, Miriam Sonstenes, Don Kissinger 2 Sue Innes, Cathy Reader, Fiona Millard, Leah Nor-grove Viols: Janet Sankey, Jon O’Riordan, Catheryn Kennedy, Mary Clarke Cellos: Mary Smith, Janis Kerr, Ellen Himmer, Trevor McHattie, Zachary Taylor Bass: Richard Backus Oboes: Colin Mailer, Sheila Longton Bassoon: George Kereluk Flute: Alison Crone Trumpets: Michelle Footz, Alana Johnson, Vanessa Toews Timpani: Kevin Grady

The University of Victoria PRIMA Choir Soprano: Mika Banerd, Emma Blake, Rachael Carlson, Amanda Chan, Riva

Chen, Nikki Chorney, Mel Daviel, Michelle Galpin, Victoria Garry, Dan-ielle Hampton, Kathleen Mickie, Calena Olsen, Gail Pierangeli, Alexis Ramsdale, Emily Rathbone, Heather Russell, Lauren Soubolsky, Karolien Swaak, Stephanie Van Pelt, Stella Wenstob

Alto: Kim Barnes, Deirdre Cassidy, Romaine Gehring, Julie Harden, Missy

Haynes, Jennifer Head, Alice Koning, Evelina Leppanen, Rosemary MacKenzie, Jodie MacMillan, Marie Malone, Laura Marshall, Kathy Paterson, Emily Reinbolt, Carolyn Taylor, Sarah Wahl, Jenni Wood-cock, Elizabeth Woolnough, Brydie Todd

Tenor: Greg Cook, Patrick Hsieh, James LaPlante, Barry Martin, David Monk-

man, Jeremy Nothiesz, Conor Rooney Bass: Robert Addison, Alex Bjornson, Thomas Callow, Devan Coward, Curran

Dobbs, Peter Joosten, Lowell Keenan, Rick Knoles, Dylan Powell, Graeme Scott

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Island String Players presents Raven Baroque and the Raven Quartet

The University of Victoria PRIMA Choir is an 80-voice, auditioned SATB choir made up primarily of UVic students & alumni, although we do wel-come talented high-school students and members of the community as well. PRIMA fills an important cultural niche by providing an opportunity for young adults to experience high-quality choral music. Singers in PRIMA have also enjoyed a long-standing touring tradition, having already performed in California, Mexico, Austria, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Roma-nia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Korea, Hong Kong, Thailand and Cambodia… yes, we sing in Canada too, and with the Victoria Chamber Orchestra yearly! This year we are working towards a springtime trip to Alaska! For the past 15 years we were conducted by School of Music Professor Bruce More, but on his retirement we are pleased to welcome back long-time PRIMA alumnus Wade Noble as our new conductor.

Nancy Washeim a Master of Music from McGill University, has specialized in early music vocal performance. She has sung solo performances with the McGill Baroque Orchestra, the McGill Symphony Orchestra, Le Choeur Clas-sique de l’Outaouais, the London (England) Bach Festival, the Regina Sym-phony Orchestra and the Victoria Chamber Orchestra. As a winner of Mont-real’s Musique Française, she traveled to the abbey of Royaumont, France, to study and perform Italian music of the Middle Ages. She sang a Christmas concert aired by Radio Canada, which included Bach’s Cantata 51Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen. Recent performances include Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with the Victoria Chamber Orchestra, the Canadian premier of Karl Jenkins’ Req-uiem, as well as Handel’s Samson with the Victoria Philharmonic Choir, Vivaldi’s Gloria and Pergolesi’s Magnificat with the Sidney Orchestra and Via Choralis, Bach’s Cantata 4 Gott faehret auf mit Jauch-zen and Cantata 43 Christ Lag in Todesbanden with the Sooke Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass and Mozart’s Exultate Jubi-late with the Malaspina Choir and the Vancouver Island Symphony. She gave a recent recital of the music of Henry Purcell with harpsichordist Colin Tilney. Upcoming performances include Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Bach’s Cantata 209 Non sa che sia dolore as well as a concert for voice and Renaissance & Baroque guitar with Charles Wolzien.

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Island String Players presents the Louis Sherman Concerto Competition for young string soloists

Yariv Aloni, director of the Victoria Chamber Orchestra since 1995, is also the founder and music director of the Galiano Ensemble of Victoria and an associ-ate music director for the Greater Victoria Youth Orchestra. Acclaimed by critics for his sensitivity and virtuosity, he performs in major concert halls around the world. He received his early training in Israel, where he studied viola with David Chen at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem and subsequently with the late Daniel Benyamini, principal violist of the Israel Philharmonic. His chamber music studies took him to the United States, where he studied with Michael Tree of the Guarneri String Quartet at the University of Maryland. A former member of the Aviv & the Penderecki Quartets, he can be heard on CDs issued by the United, Marquise, Tritonus and CBC labels, and has recorded for the CBC, the BBC, National Public Radio, Radio-France and the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation. Mr.

Aloni studied conducting with the Hungarian conductor János Sándor, and he participated in conducting workshops with Gustav Mayer and Helmuth Rilling. As a conductor he has received praise for his impassioned, inspiring and "magnificently right" interpretations of major orchestral and choral repertoire. Reviewers also describe him as "a musician of considerable insight and impeccable taste."

Wade Noble director of the PRIMA Choir, has lived in Victoria since 1987 and holds a Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from the University of Victo-ria. Wade is sought after as a conductor, instructor, clinician and baritone soloist throughout Vancouver Is-land, and is well-known for being able to bring out high levels of musicianship from people of widely varying skills and backgrounds. Wade also conducts Malaspina Choir, an 80-voice community choir based at Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo, and travels to Sooke several times weekly to conduct Ekoos Vocal Ensemble and the Sooke Philharmonic Chorus. He has brought his singing excel-lence to Messiah as soloist with the Victoria Chamber Orchestra.

Jeremy Notheisz is a Fourth Year Performing Arts Major at the University of Victoria. As a student of Benjamin Butterfield he is following his dreams of becom-ing a professional opera singer. He has studied at the Summer Vocal Academy

under the direction of the Nancy Argenta and Ingrid Attrot. He is a powerful singer with the UVic Chamber Singers and Prima Choir, with whom he re-cently traveled to South East Asia includ-ing Korea, Cambodia, Thailand, and China. He has sung Messiah with the Victoria Chamber Orchestra. He is developing strongly as a tenor, avidly acquiring new works to strengthen his ambitions as solo tenor.

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Island String Players provides an annual grant to UVic Music for the support of young musicians

PROGRAMME

George Frederick Handel

Coronation Anthem I: Zadok the Priest Andante-allegro

Solomon Overture

Maestoso-allegro Allegretto

Entrance of the Queen of Sheba Allegro

Coronation Anthem II: The King Shall Rejoice Allegro

INTERMISSION

Ode for Saint Cecilia’s Day

Overture Larghetto-allegro Minuetto I 1. Recitativo tenore 2. Tenore solo Larghetto-allegro 3. Coro Allegro 4. Soprano aria Adagio-andante 5. Tenore aria con Coro 6. La Marche 7. Soprano aria Andante 8. Tenore aria Allegro 9. Soprano aria Larghetto 10. Soprano aria Alla hornpipe 11. Recitativo 12. Coro Grave-allegro