Curtis on Tour: James Vaughen and Ann Newton Vaughen
James Vaughen, trumpet
Ann Newton Vaughen, piano
April 28, 2021
Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts
David Schwan, host
Program:
Florence Price – Night (2′)
Pablo Sarasate; arr. Dokshitser – Zigeunerweisen (6′)
George Enescu – Legende (6′)
Johannes Brahms; arr. Vaughen -Intermezzo in A major, Op. 118, No. 2 (5′)
Reinhold Glière – Concerto for Coloratura Soprano, Op. 82 (13′)
I. Andante
II. Allegro
Erroll Garner; arr. Vaughen – Misty (5′)
James Vaughen attends the Curtis Institute of Music and is a student of David Bilger. James has soloed with the East Central Illinois Youth Orchestra, the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra, and the University of Illinois Sinfonia da Camera. James’s performances with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra and the National Youth Orchestra have taken him on two concert tours of China and tours of Northern Europe and Latin America, as well as performances in Carnegie Hall and Chicago Symphony Center. In 2018 James was chosen to attend the Pacific Music Festival in Japan, performing in Tokyo, Hiroshima, and throughout Sapporo. Prior to his studies at Curtis, James spent a year working as an AmeriCorps Intern for Spring Initiative, a nonprofit transformative after-school program in the Mississippi Delta. James was selected as a semifinalist in the 2019 Young Concert Artist International auditions and the 2020 Concert Artists Guild Competition and was the winner of the 2020 Roger Voisin Memorial Trumpet Competition. Most recently, James won the Next Generation Trumpet Competition and the Ictus International Trumpet Competition.
Ann Newton Vaughen, pianist, holds degrees in piano performance from the University of Michigan (BM) and the Juilliard School of Music (MM). She received two years of additional training in London, England, where she taught and studied under the direction of artist-teacher Maria Curcio. Ann has given concerts and master classes throughout the U.S. and Canada, both as a soloist and as a chamber musician. From 1986-90 she taught on the piano faculty at Vanderbilt University, and from 1986-93 concertized with the Ramsay Duo, a classical saxophone/piano duo under the management of Columbia Artists Management, Inc. Ann has served on the piano faculty at The Community Music School in Buffalo, NY and St. Catherine’s School in Richmond, VA. Ann and her family currently reside in Champaign, IL, where she maintains a small private piano studio, teaching, accompanying, and performing chamber music. Ann especially enjoys collaborating with her son James in trumpet-piano performances!
Florence Price (1887-1953)
Night (1946)
Florence Price was an American composer, pianist, organist, and teacher, and was the first African-American woman to have an orchestral piece performed by a major American orchestra. In her lifetime she composed more than 300 pieces, most of which remain unpublished. She is best known for her vocal works which meld European classical themes with African-American spirituals. Night’s lyrics are from Louise C. Wallace’s poem:
Night comes, a Madonna clad in scented blue.
Rose red her mouth and deep her eyes,
She lights her stars, and turns to where,
Beneath her silver lamp the moon,
Upon a coach of shadow lies
A dreamy child,
The wearied day.
Pablo Sarasate (1844-1908);
arr. Dokshitser
Zigeunerweisen (1878)
Pablo Sarasate was a Spanish violinist and composer who achieved great fame for his virtuosic performances. Sarasate’s Zigeunerweisen is translated as Gypsy Airs, but is in fact full of Hungarian folk music and borrows themes from Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 13. Zigeunerweisen has remained a staple of the virtuoso repertory for violin and was arranged for trumpet by the legendary trumpet soloist Timofei Dokshitser.
George Enescu (1881-1955)
Legende (1906)
George Enescu was a Romanian violinist, teacher, conductor, and composer. Enescu was a popular and influential enough figure to be on one of the bills of Romanian currency. In Legende, Enescu takes the listener on a journey beginning with a soaring melody and lyrical, intimate opening, followed by a much faster, more intense technical middle development section. Enescu brings the main theme back in a sorrowful ending, but changes the color by adding a mute to the trumpet.
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897);
arr. Vaughen
Intermezzo in A major,
Op. 118, No. 2 (1893)
Johannes Brahms was a German composer, conductor, and pianist who needs little introduction. His Intermezzo, originally written for solo piano, is seeping in nostalgia and longing. While it briefly ventures into a dark development, by the end it settles into a state of peace and tranquility.
Reinhold Glière (1875-1956)
Concerto for Coloratura Soprano, Op. 82 (1943)
Reinhold Glière was a late Romantic period Russian composer known for his expressive melodies and lush harmonies. His Concerto for Coloratura Soprano was written in 1943 to critical acclaim and received a first order Stalin Prize in 1946. Glière’s Concerto is an unusual work for voice in that it contains no words or vocal instructions for the singer. This concerto is commonly performed by trumpet players today. The first movement features Glière’s long lyrical lines trading off between the trumpet and piano, and the second movement is a lighthearted and humorous dance full of virtuosic runs that leads to a climactic finish.
Erroll Garner (1921-1977);
arr. Vaughen
Misty (1954)
Erroll Garner was an American composer and jazz pianist who was known for his swing playing and vibrant performances. Garner produced over 200 works on over 40 labels in his lifetime including one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time, Concert by the Sea (1958). Misty has become a jazz standard and was popularized by many vocal arrangements with lyrics by Johnny Burke.
Don’t miss David Griffin and Mio Nakamura
next week on the
Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts!
Wednesday May 5, 12:15pm
