"Remembering George Walker" by Da Capo Chamber Players at Merkin Hall, Kaufman Music Center, February 12, 2020 at 8 pm

George Walker (1922-2018)

Gregory Walker, the composer's son, forwards the program of a concert of George Walker's works on February 12, 2020:

Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center
Wednesday, February 12, 2020 at 8 pm

Da Capo Chamber Players
Patricia Spencer, flute/piccolo; Marianne Gythfeldt, clarinet/bass clarinet
Curtis Macomber, violin; Chris Gross, cello

Guest Artists: Robert Mack, tenor; Christopher Oldfather, piano; Thomas Feng, piano William Anderson, guitar/mandolin; Oren Fader, guitar; Robert Ingliss, oboe/English horn
Michael Lipsey, percussion; Marcus Parris, conductor

Remembering George Walker

GEORGE WALKER Music for 3 (1970/1991)
(1922-2018) MR. MACOMBER, MR. GROSS, MR. OLDFATHER

GEORGE WALKER Five Fancies (1975)
Introduction and Five Variations
MS. GYTHFELDT, MR. OLDFATHER, MR. FENG

GEORGE WALKER Modus (1998)
In Four Movements
MS. SPENCER, MR. INGLISS, MR. MACOMBER,
MR. GROSS, MR. ANDERSON, MR. FADER
Written for the Cygnus Ensemble


Intermission

GEORGE WALKER Tangents (1999; arr. 2020) World Premiere
arr. David Sanford MS. SPENCER, MS. GYTHFELDT, MR. MACOMBER,
MR. GROSS, MR. OLDFATHER
World Premiere of transcription for the Da Capo Chamber Players

WENDELL LOGAN Runagate, Runagate (1989)
(1940-2010) MR. MACK, MS. SPENCER, MS. GYTHFELDT, MR. MACOMBER,

MR. GROSS, MR. OLDFATHER, MR. LIPSEY, MR. PARRIS

About the Da Capo Chamber Players

Da Capo is honored to be collaborating with the Cygnus Ensemble for the performance of George Walker’s Modus, written for that ensemble.

Winners of the 1973 Naumburg Award, the internationally acclaimed Da Capo Chamber Players has worked closely with countless distinguished composers, representing an enormous spectrum of compositional styles. Da Capo’s virtuoso artists bring years of creative insight, involvement and artistic leadership to performances of today’s repertoire, including well over 150 works written especially for the group, from composers such as Joan Tower, John Harbison, Shulamit Ran, Valerie Coleman, Philip Glass, George Perle, Shirish Korde, Tania León, and Milton Babbitt, among many others.

In tour concerts and mini-residencies across the country, Da Capo works with young composers everywhere, giving them opportunities to try out things with highly experienced virtuoso performers as well as recordings (often award-winning!) of their works. The ensemble has been in residence at Bard College for over three decades, and since 2006 has been Ensemble in Residence with the Composition Program of the Bard College Conservatory of Music. In May 2012, the Naumburg Foundation invited Da Capo to premiere works by their first ever composition winners. National Public Radio named Da Capo’s CD, Chamber Music of Chinary Ung on Bridge Records, as one of the 5 Best Contemporary Classical CDs of the year in 2010.

In May 2016, a 45th Anniversary Program offered several themes tied to Da Capo’s identity: “rhythmnation,” long-standing collaborations with gifted composers, honoring black history. The Da Capo Chamber Players’ history includes a number of exemplary programs highlighting superb works by minority composers, including African-American, Latino, and Asian. Further, these works are routinely included in Da Capo’s “normal” programming (which we of course think is “supra-normal”).

The concerts of the Da Capo Chamber Players are made possible in part with public funds from:

New York State Council on the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts

They are also made possible with private funds from:

Aaron Copland Fund For Music

Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University

Amphion Foundation

Hulbert Charitable Trust

The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation

The Zethus Fund

and generous individuals

GEORGE WALKER Tangents (1999; arr. 2020) World Premiere

arr. David Sanford MS. SPENCER, MS. GYTHFELDT, MR. MACOMBER,

MR. GROSS, MR. OLDFATHER

World Premiere of transcription for the Da Capo Chamber Players

WENDELL LOGAN Runagate, Runagate (1989)

(1940-2010) MR. MACK, MS. SPENCER, MS. GYTHFELDT, MR. MACOMBER,

MR. GROSS, MR. OLDFATHER, MR. LIPSEY, MR. PARRIS

Next concert in this series at Merkin Hall

Juxtapositions

Featuring works by Elliott Carter, Mario Davidovsky, Robert Martin and

younger composers Amy Williams, Lei Liang, and others.

June 3, 2020 at 8 PM

The program Remembering George Walker has received special support from the Composers Guild of New Jersey and the Roger Shapiro Fund for New Music.