Issue III• March 2003

Orchestra Office:
(860) 612-4371

Web site:
www.thevirtuosi.org

E-mail:
thevirtuosi@aol.com

Bushnell Box office:
(860) 987-5900

New Britain Community Music School
(860) 246-2588

Upcoming Concert
Young Connecticut Composers Featured

This will be a very special presentation by the Connecticut Virtuosi. The concert will feature two world premieres of works written recently for the Orchestra by two outstanding Connecticut Composers of a younger generation: Katherine Jarzebowski’s “Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra” and Michael Gatonska’s “Adventure of the Kingfisher”.

Program will also include “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” by Mozart, Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” Johann Christian Bach’s Symphony Number 4, Opus 3 in B flat major.

Inside this issue:

• Young Connecticut Composers Featured

• Note 
  From the Director

• Portraits:
  Katherine Jarzebowski

• Portraits:
  Michael Gatonska

• “Paderewski” 
  Competition info
  
  

Dear Friends:

In this issue of Mirages we present to you two young composers from Connecticut, and their aspirations and opinions. It is very important that we support them it their artistic effort. The world would be a very gray place if we did not have artists who want to create, express, and think in the abstract.

I invite you to our concert on March 14th. It will be a combination of old and new music. You feel very comfortable with works which you know very well, and we will challenge you with first performances of works written …three weeks ago.

In this age of uncertainty the younger generation of intellectuals bring us hope for the future of this classical art. On 14th of March you will have the opportunity to judge by yourself the future of the Classical Art.

Join us for this remarkable performance.

Adrian Mackiewicz

Mission Statement:

The mission of Connecticut Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra is to preserve and perpetuate the great traditions of chamber music through the expansion of its public performance season, its education series, and by showcasing the excellence of young artists and regional talent.

Special attention is paid to the musical heritage of Eastern Europe with the emphases on music from Poland Russia and other Slavic countries.

In conjunction with local boards of education, its Children’s Concert series seeks to cultivate the understanding of classical music as well as the appreciation of its heritage amongst predominately inner-city Elementary School age children.

...the world in which I revolve, is a mix of Polish influences, gain-ed at home, during contact with my parents' émigré friends and during my visits to Poland as well as all the American influences which surround me daily. 

Katherine Jarzebowski is from Southington, CT. She studied music composition with Tibor Pusztai, and is currently studying with Marc Antonio Consoli at New York University. She was awarded in the 2000 Hartford Symphony Young Composers Competition, has participated in the Center for Creative Youth Program at Wesleyan University, and is currently working on the music for her own film project.

M. S. What was your inspiration to begin composing?

K. J. I began composing my first year in high school. My grandfather passed away, and watching my father suffer afterward, I wanted to do something for him. Before that, I had always fiddled with my own melodies, but it never amounted to anything substantial. For some reason, however, I just felt that that particular piano piece came very naturally, almost in one sitting.

M.S. Who was your biggest influence?

K. J. Probably my grandparents. They were both musicians – my grandmother was a violinist and my grandfather played the piano, violin, and even composed. They both wished me to become musically involved, and when I was in sixth grade, they bought me my first keyboard. When I began composing, my grandmother was incredibly proud and is very involved with my writing today. I’m always most excited to hear her reaction to my pieces.

M.S. Where do you continue your studies?

K. J. Right now, I’m studying music composition at New York University.

M.S. How do you like NY?

K. J. It was a bit difficult to get used to the rush of it all, although I’m sure that’s everyone’s answer to that question. Now, I feel more comfortable in the New York setting and  appreciate all the city has to offer. There’s so much to do here, but I also find that the busy atmosphere makes this a difficult area in which to compose – for me, anyway.

M.S. How much inspiration do you take from Polish culture?

K. J. It is difficult to determine to what degree Polish culture inspires my composition. I feel that the world in which I revolve, is a mix of Polish influences, gained at home, during contact with my parents' émigré friends and during my visits to Poland as well as all the American influences which surround me daily.  I believe this has proven helpful in my understanding and emotional involvement in certain events. This aspect has certainly helped me in taking up the subject of Holocaust, which is the theme of one of my compositions. 

M.S. What are your next projects?

K. J. I’m very interested in writing for voice. What I would really like to write is an operetta, but I feel that’s, perhaps, a bit too ambitious.

M.S. What are your dreams?

K. J. Eventually, I would like to write music for films. I’ve always had an ardent love for movies, and of course music is an important and integral part of cinema.  That would truly be my professional dream come true.

M.S. Thank you very much for the inside, and good luck with your career.

Michael Gatonska lives in East Hartford, CT. Studied at Manhattanville College, the Manhattan School of Music, and the Academy of Music in Krakow, Poland. He studied composition with K. Penderecki, Z. Bujarski, M. Stachowski, and Elias Tanenbaum. Awards received for his compositions have included two ASCAP Young Composer Awards, Chicago Symphony First Hearing Award, Minnesota Orchestra Reading/Composer Institute Award, the Dimitri Mitropoulis International Composition Competition. He has recently been commissioned by SONYC (String Orchestra New York City), and the CT Commission on the Arts to compose music for the electric cellist Jeffrey Krieger.

M. S. How did you begin composing:

M. G. I began composing during the course of my undergraduate studies. So many hours of studying music theory began to have a one-dimensional aspect for me, so I began writing some small compositions. They were the typical and immature expressions of the music undergrad; small cannonic fragments that should be played when all of a sudden five hundred cats be thrown into the audience through the emergency exits. The usual student learned music institution stuff combined with the aleatoric element. Although I am more serious now about composing and what I want my music to be, the self imposed quietude, the constant challenges, and the continual discovery process that is what I believe so important to composing, have at least kept me off the streets.

M. S. What was your first significant work:

M. G. Definitely "The Painted Bird" for symphony orchestra. The work received my first award in composition, and I also felt that aesthetically I was more comfortable writing music for large ensembles. Since that time, most of my output has been for large symphonic forces.

M. S. What is your main inspiration:

M. G. I think that what inspires me most concerning composition is the moment when I have finished writing a piece. At that moment of completion I have ascended a personal step, while at the same time it is a marked continuation in my personal explorative voyage of self. Composition is my vehicle through which to learn, be actively perceptive, and transcend.

M. S. What methods or school do you follow:

M. G. Basically, aside from the inherited compositional techniques, I like to infuse into my musical structures American hymns, folk music, Latin rhythms, musical quotes, whatever "outside" elements it takes in order for me to get a musical idea across. We say, "Music shall fill the air." We never say "Music shall fill a particular segment of the air."

M. S. What was your Polish experience:

M. G. In Krakow, Poland, I studied with K. Penderecki, M. Stachowski, and Z. Bujarski. I learned my orchestration from Penderecki, but basically everything else I learned from Bujarski. He and I lived in the same building, so sometimes we had lessons that lasted throughout the night, and we became very close friends. Once, during an important moment for me, I told him that something was missing in my music. Everything I had done was in imitation of the Polish school, so why wasn't it right in feeling and expression? Why did it lack any substance? He told me to look at the music of Charles Ives. Of the many things I discovered in Poland musically, one was Zbigniew Bujarski, and the other was Charles Ives.

M. S. What are the differences between the Polish and American music scenes:

M. G. The Polish composers have their own deep musical traditions, and influences both psychological and sociological. The inherent musical and dramatic pathos, expression, experimentation, and vigor are some of the things that make their music decidedly Polish. The same, however, should be said for the American composers too. If there was one general difference between the two schools, I would say that it is the generic factor of rhythm. To me, the pacing, drive, and activity-tempi are different in their perceptible qualities.

M. S. What are your future plans:

M. G. I am currently finishing a composition for the String Orchestra of New York City (SONYC), that will be premiered in May as part of the Music at the Anthology Music Festival in New York. After that, I will be writing a composition for the electric cellist Jeffrey Krieger.

M. S. Thank you for the interview.

I like to infuse into my musical structures American hymns, folk music, Latin rhythms, musical quotes, whatever "outside" elements it takes in order for me to get a musical idea across.

Paderewski" Piano Competition
18-20 April, 2003

Additional prizes will be announced
(deadline for applications is March 31, 2003)
Application available at:
http://www.thevirtuosi.org/application.htm

Repertoire:
1) 15-20 minutes recital including etude by Fryderyk Chopin,
2) Full concerto for piano and chamber orchestra

Please send the documentation to:
Competition Coordinator
Connecticut Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra
27 Grove Hill St., New Britain, CT 06052