Spring 2025 Recital: Homage to Fire
Hello everyone! Welcome to Newton Presbyterian Church and thank you for coming to my recital! The piece you just heard is Ivan Jevtic’s Quasi una Passacaglia. As you may have heard it is rather harmonically adventurous. Quasi una Passacaglia, or Like a Passacaglia, refers to a baroque dance form, often in ¾ time and characterized by a repeated bass pattern. However, because of the density of the writing and flexibility of meter, we might argue that Passacaglia is meant to invoke an alternate meaning, which is a type of quilt pattern. Something you might not hear without the score is that the organ part requires a LOT of footwork, more than I’ll probably ever do with a trumpet! Bravo Kevin! My organist here is Kevin Lyczak! Kevin is the Director of Sacred Music at St. Adelaide Parish in Peabody MA. He has composed for organ and choir, and he’s also a student at Boston University. He has studied composition, organ, and choral conducting at BU.
Ivan Jevtic is a contemporary, Serbian-born, French composer. He was born in 1947 and was raised in Belgrade, Serbia, where he also earned honors and post-graduate degrees from the Academy of Music there. Over his career Jevtic has studied composition with Stanojlo Rajičić in Belgrade, Olivier Messiaen at Paris Conservatory, and Alfred Uhl in Vienna. He briefly taught composition at the Federal University of Pelotas in Brazil in the 90s, and in 2003 Jevtic was elected a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Fine Arts in Belgrade.
The next piece on the program is Zdenek Lukas’s concerto for trumpet and orchestra, but you might notice I haven’t hired an orchestra in here! My pianist Eric Guan and I will be performing a piano reduction of the original orchestration. Eric earned his Master’s at New England Conservatory, and is currently a DMA Student at BU. He plays both classical AND jazz piano, as you will hear at the end of the program. Lukas’s concerto is a rhythmically challenging and orchestrationally deft piece of music. It combines creative leaps in voicing with solo lines that range from folk-melodies to virtuosic runs. Over preparing this piece we’ve noted that parts of the concerto, especially the triumphant finale, bear similarities to Richard Wagner’s opera Lohengrin.
Zdenek Lukas was a prolific Czech composer, whose works number over 330, and span both the 20th century and contemporary eras. He was born in 1928 in Prague, and after graduating from the Theater Institute he worked as an elementary school teacher for 5 years. From 1953 to 1964 he worked for the Czechoslovak Radio Studio in Pilsen as an editor and literary manager. Lukas founded the Česká píseň, a mixed choir, and he raised the artistic standards of the ensemble immeasurably over its first 20 years. Lukas had virtually no formal education on composition. He first began to compose in high school during classes on music theory, and when he worked with the choir he arranged folk tunes before gradually starting to write original works. His writing went through several stages, but retained its deep folk influence and energetic motion. Lukas’s heirloom was the traditional musicianship of a teacher’s family, and he said of growing up ‘We made music all the time at home’. So, now that I’m down here on my C trumpet, here is Zdenek Lukas’s trumpet concerto!
Whew! That was intense, wasn’t it? The last piece on this half of the program is David Sampson’s Tenebrae for trumpet and organ. Sampson was born in 1951 in Charlottesville Virginia, and studied at the Curtis Institute, Hunter College, the Manhattan School of Music, and the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau, France. He studied composition with Karel Husa, Henri Dutilleux, and John Corigliano. He studied trumpet with Gerard Schwarz, Gilbert Johnson, Robert Nagel, and Raymond Mase. David Sampson also has a close relationship with the American Brass Quintet, which has resulted in the performance of many of his chamber brass works.
Tenebrae, which is Latin for ‘darkness’ is a religious service in Western Christianity held during the 3 days before Easter. Historically it is characterized by the gradual extinguishing of candles and a ‘strepitus’ or loud noise happening in the total darkness near the end of the service. Throughout the service a series of psalms are read, grouped as matins and lauds. Solemn hymns or chants are also sung during the service. The content of both the readings and the music meditates on the suffering of Jesus, approaching the end of Holy Week. At the end of the service, when only one candle remains lit, it is either placed behind the altar or in a candle lantern. What little light remains symbolizes the hope for resurrection. At this point the strepitus is made in the rear of the space, either by swiftly closing a hymnal, striking a pew, or stomping. The noise of the strepitus symbolizes Jesus’ death and the earthquake that followed. Finally the last candle is extinguished, and all rise and depart in silence. This piece of music is meant to capture the solemnity of the Tenebrae service.
Another intense one! That was Henri Tomasi’s Gregorian Variations or Variations on a Gregorian Chant. Tomasi’s original title for this piece in French also indicates that the Chant he refers to is the Salve Regina. [Sal-vay Re-jee-na]. This name literally means ‘Hail Queen’ in Latin, but is usually extended as ‘Hail the Holy Queen’. Salve Regina is a Marian Hymn, meaning it focuses on Mary the Mother, and it is one of four Marian Antiphons sung in different seasons of the Liturgical Calendar of the Catholic Church. It is traditionally sung at Compline or Night Prayer, the last canonical prayer hour of the day, in the time from Saturday before Trinity Sunday until the Friday before the first Sunday of Advent. Without getting too deep in the history here, this period spans from early summer, starting between late May and late June, to early Winter. The chant was composed in the middle ages, originally in Latin, and is typically ascribed to the 11th century German monk Hermann of Reichenau, but many musicologists also regard it as anonymous. The chant is usually sung in Latin, though translations exist and are often used as spoken prayers.
Henri Tomasi was a French composer and conductor. He was born in Marseilles in 1901, and he began studying piano and music theory at just 5 years of age. His entry to the Paris Conservatory was delayed by World War I, but that didn’t prevent him from studying and performing. He would play piano around Marseilles at upscale hotels, restaurants, and movie houses to earn money. At this time his gift for composition also developed as he excelled at improvisation at the keyboard. Tomasi eventually began his studies at the Paris Conservatory in 1921, and his teachers included Gaubert, Vincent d’Indy, George Caussade, and Paul Vidal. During the 1930s Tomasi was a founding member of a contemporary music cohort called Triton, which included Prokofiev, Milhaud, Honegger, Poulenc. He spent equal time composing and conducting until he was drafted into the French Army in 1939, and assigned to be the marching-band conductor at the Villefranche sur Mer fort. Tomasi was discharged in 1940 and resumed conducting radio-orchestra in Paris. Tomasi was quite attracted to musical theatre music, and most enjoyed writing for wind instruments. In 1946 he assumed the role of conductor for the Opera of Monte Carlo, and became very sought after as a guest conductor in Europe.
Tomasi’s music is fundamentally lyrical. Scalar and chromatic lines predominate, supported by triadic and polychordal harmony. His writing is very colorful and draws significantly on his contemporaries, and on the sounds of the places he visited in life, including Corsica, Provence, Cambodia, Laos, the Sahara, and Tahiti.
This next piece is called Prometheus, by John Stevens. It was originally written for solo trumpet and an 8-part Tuba/Euphonium ensemble! Now that instrumentation indicates that this version is also a piano reduction, as 8-voice tutti sections can be quite difficult, or impossible, on piano! The piece was commissioned by the tubist Roger Bobo, and premiered at the University of Wisconsin – Madison with Professor of Trumpet John Aley and the UW-Madison Tuba/Euph ensemble. This is the first sequel to Stevens’ earlier work based on Greek mythology, the Liberation of Sisyphus for solo Tuba and Tuba/Euph ensemble, and it loosely depicts the story of Prometheus.
Prometheus, whose name likely means something like ‘forethought’, is a god of fire in the ancient Greek pantheon. He is best known for defying the Olympian gods by stealing fire from them and gifting it to Humanity in the form of technology, knowledge, and more generally civilization. In some versions of the myth Prometheus is also credited with creating humanity from clay. He was known for his intelligence, for championing humanity, and was generally held as the author of the arts and sciences. Prometheus is also sometimes presented as the father of Deucalion, the hero of the Greek Flood Myth. Prometheus was condemned to eternal torment by Zeus, king of the Olympian gods. He was bound to a rock, and an eagle, an emblem of Zeus, was sent to eat his liver. In ancient Greece it was thought that the liver was the seat of human emotions. Prometheus’ liver would then grow back overnight, and the cycle would repeat. In a later myth, notably from the poet Hesiod, the hero Heracles or Hercules frees Prometheus
In the western classical tradition Prometheus became a figure that represented human striving, particularly for scientific knowledge, and the risks of overreach or unintended consequences. In the Romantic era he embodied the lone genius whose desire to improve human life could also lead to tragedy, see the subtitle for Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein – The Modern Prometheus.
John Stevens is an American composer and arranger, a tubist, and brass pedagogue. He was born in Buffalo NY in 1951, and he holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music and Yale University. For many years Stevens was a freelance performer in New York City. From 1981 to 1985 he was faculty at the University of Miami FL School of music, and from 1985 to 2014 he was faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music. Stevens retired from teaching in 2014 but continues to perform and write, with his portfolio numbering over 65 works, and mostly for brass.
Alright, that’s the LAST intense one! The final piece on the program is Thabo, subtitled ‘to Michael Carvin’ by Claudio Roditi. This is the final track from Claudio’s album Two of Swords. The words ‘Two of Swords’ may be familiar to some of you because it is a card in a standard Tarot deck. The two of Swords typically indicates someone is at a point of indecision, unsure of which choice they should make. Each one may seem equally good or bad, and the person is stumped about which will lead to the best outcome.
The namesake of the subtitle, Michael Carvin, is an American Jazz drummer who hit his stride in the 70s, much like Claudio. Carvin was a prodigious drummer, beginning to learn with his father at the age of 6, and his father was already one of the top drummers in Houston TX. In 1973 Carvin joined Freddie Hubbard’s band and moved to New York City, where he would earn a reputation as one of the most formidable jazz drummers on the jazz scene.
Claudio Roditi was a Brazilian Jazz trumpeter. In 1966 he was a finalist at the International Jazz Competition held in Vienna Austria, where he also met one of his idols, Art Farmer. They quickly became friends and Farmer encouraged Roditi to pursue a career in jazz. Roditi came to America in 1970 to study at the Berklee School of Music here in Boston. In 1976 he moved to New York City, where he played with Herbie Mann and Charlie Rouse. In the 80s he worked with Paquito D'Rivera, and he was a member of Dizzy Gillespie’s United Nations Orchestra.
Claudio played most of his music on rotary trumpets, because that was the kind of horn he grew up with in Brazil. This had a strong influence on his improvisational style, as the relative speed of rotary action lends itself to especially nimble and fast playing. I chose to play a tune by Claudio because I had the good fortune to meet Claudio and hear him play in concert in 2016. His presence was unassuming, kind, and enthusiastic on and off the stage, and when I still thought I was going to write a dissertation, I started collecting his transcribed solos. The tune Thabo itself moves harmonically a bit like giant steps, though its leaps are a bit more conservative. For the first three solo choruses I will play a transcription of Claudio’s improvisation, and the rest will be my and Erics original improvisation. Thanks for coming and please enjoy Thabo!
Ivan Jevtic is a contemporary, Serbian-born, French composer. He was born in 1947 and was raised in Belgrade, Serbia, where he also earned honors and post-graduate degrees from the Academy of Music there. Over his career Jevtic has studied composition with Stanojlo Rajičić in Belgrade, Olivier Messiaen at Paris Conservatory, and Alfred Uhl in Vienna. He briefly taught composition at the Federal University of Pelotas in Brazil in the 90s, and in 2003 Jevtic was elected a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Fine Arts in Belgrade.
The next piece on the program is Zdenek Lukas’s concerto for trumpet and orchestra, but you might notice I haven’t hired an orchestra in here! My pianist Eric Guan and I will be performing a piano reduction of the original orchestration. Eric earned his Master’s at New England Conservatory, and is currently a DMA Student at BU. He plays both classical AND jazz piano, as you will hear at the end of the program. Lukas’s concerto is a rhythmically challenging and orchestrationally deft piece of music. It combines creative leaps in voicing with solo lines that range from folk-melodies to virtuosic runs. Over preparing this piece we’ve noted that parts of the concerto, especially the triumphant finale, bear similarities to Richard Wagner’s opera Lohengrin.
Zdenek Lukas was a prolific Czech composer, whose works number over 330, and span both the 20th century and contemporary eras. He was born in 1928 in Prague, and after graduating from the Theater Institute he worked as an elementary school teacher for 5 years. From 1953 to 1964 he worked for the Czechoslovak Radio Studio in Pilsen as an editor and literary manager. Lukas founded the Česká píseň, a mixed choir, and he raised the artistic standards of the ensemble immeasurably over its first 20 years. Lukas had virtually no formal education on composition. He first began to compose in high school during classes on music theory, and when he worked with the choir he arranged folk tunes before gradually starting to write original works. His writing went through several stages, but retained its deep folk influence and energetic motion. Lukas’s heirloom was the traditional musicianship of a teacher’s family, and he said of growing up ‘We made music all the time at home’. So, now that I’m down here on my C trumpet, here is Zdenek Lukas’s trumpet concerto!
Whew! That was intense, wasn’t it? The last piece on this half of the program is David Sampson’s Tenebrae for trumpet and organ. Sampson was born in 1951 in Charlottesville Virginia, and studied at the Curtis Institute, Hunter College, the Manhattan School of Music, and the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau, France. He studied composition with Karel Husa, Henri Dutilleux, and John Corigliano. He studied trumpet with Gerard Schwarz, Gilbert Johnson, Robert Nagel, and Raymond Mase. David Sampson also has a close relationship with the American Brass Quintet, which has resulted in the performance of many of his chamber brass works.
Tenebrae, which is Latin for ‘darkness’ is a religious service in Western Christianity held during the 3 days before Easter. Historically it is characterized by the gradual extinguishing of candles and a ‘strepitus’ or loud noise happening in the total darkness near the end of the service. Throughout the service a series of psalms are read, grouped as matins and lauds. Solemn hymns or chants are also sung during the service. The content of both the readings and the music meditates on the suffering of Jesus, approaching the end of Holy Week. At the end of the service, when only one candle remains lit, it is either placed behind the altar or in a candle lantern. What little light remains symbolizes the hope for resurrection. At this point the strepitus is made in the rear of the space, either by swiftly closing a hymnal, striking a pew, or stomping. The noise of the strepitus symbolizes Jesus’ death and the earthquake that followed. Finally the last candle is extinguished, and all rise and depart in silence. This piece of music is meant to capture the solemnity of the Tenebrae service.
Another intense one! That was Henri Tomasi’s Gregorian Variations or Variations on a Gregorian Chant. Tomasi’s original title for this piece in French also indicates that the Chant he refers to is the Salve Regina. [Sal-vay Re-jee-na]. This name literally means ‘Hail Queen’ in Latin, but is usually extended as ‘Hail the Holy Queen’. Salve Regina is a Marian Hymn, meaning it focuses on Mary the Mother, and it is one of four Marian Antiphons sung in different seasons of the Liturgical Calendar of the Catholic Church. It is traditionally sung at Compline or Night Prayer, the last canonical prayer hour of the day, in the time from Saturday before Trinity Sunday until the Friday before the first Sunday of Advent. Without getting too deep in the history here, this period spans from early summer, starting between late May and late June, to early Winter. The chant was composed in the middle ages, originally in Latin, and is typically ascribed to the 11th century German monk Hermann of Reichenau, but many musicologists also regard it as anonymous. The chant is usually sung in Latin, though translations exist and are often used as spoken prayers.
Henri Tomasi was a French composer and conductor. He was born in Marseilles in 1901, and he began studying piano and music theory at just 5 years of age. His entry to the Paris Conservatory was delayed by World War I, but that didn’t prevent him from studying and performing. He would play piano around Marseilles at upscale hotels, restaurants, and movie houses to earn money. At this time his gift for composition also developed as he excelled at improvisation at the keyboard. Tomasi eventually began his studies at the Paris Conservatory in 1921, and his teachers included Gaubert, Vincent d’Indy, George Caussade, and Paul Vidal. During the 1930s Tomasi was a founding member of a contemporary music cohort called Triton, which included Prokofiev, Milhaud, Honegger, Poulenc. He spent equal time composing and conducting until he was drafted into the French Army in 1939, and assigned to be the marching-band conductor at the Villefranche sur Mer fort. Tomasi was discharged in 1940 and resumed conducting radio-orchestra in Paris. Tomasi was quite attracted to musical theatre music, and most enjoyed writing for wind instruments. In 1946 he assumed the role of conductor for the Opera of Monte Carlo, and became very sought after as a guest conductor in Europe.
Tomasi’s music is fundamentally lyrical. Scalar and chromatic lines predominate, supported by triadic and polychordal harmony. His writing is very colorful and draws significantly on his contemporaries, and on the sounds of the places he visited in life, including Corsica, Provence, Cambodia, Laos, the Sahara, and Tahiti.
This next piece is called Prometheus, by John Stevens. It was originally written for solo trumpet and an 8-part Tuba/Euphonium ensemble! Now that instrumentation indicates that this version is also a piano reduction, as 8-voice tutti sections can be quite difficult, or impossible, on piano! The piece was commissioned by the tubist Roger Bobo, and premiered at the University of Wisconsin – Madison with Professor of Trumpet John Aley and the UW-Madison Tuba/Euph ensemble. This is the first sequel to Stevens’ earlier work based on Greek mythology, the Liberation of Sisyphus for solo Tuba and Tuba/Euph ensemble, and it loosely depicts the story of Prometheus.
Prometheus, whose name likely means something like ‘forethought’, is a god of fire in the ancient Greek pantheon. He is best known for defying the Olympian gods by stealing fire from them and gifting it to Humanity in the form of technology, knowledge, and more generally civilization. In some versions of the myth Prometheus is also credited with creating humanity from clay. He was known for his intelligence, for championing humanity, and was generally held as the author of the arts and sciences. Prometheus is also sometimes presented as the father of Deucalion, the hero of the Greek Flood Myth. Prometheus was condemned to eternal torment by Zeus, king of the Olympian gods. He was bound to a rock, and an eagle, an emblem of Zeus, was sent to eat his liver. In ancient Greece it was thought that the liver was the seat of human emotions. Prometheus’ liver would then grow back overnight, and the cycle would repeat. In a later myth, notably from the poet Hesiod, the hero Heracles or Hercules frees Prometheus
In the western classical tradition Prometheus became a figure that represented human striving, particularly for scientific knowledge, and the risks of overreach or unintended consequences. In the Romantic era he embodied the lone genius whose desire to improve human life could also lead to tragedy, see the subtitle for Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein – The Modern Prometheus.
John Stevens is an American composer and arranger, a tubist, and brass pedagogue. He was born in Buffalo NY in 1951, and he holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music and Yale University. For many years Stevens was a freelance performer in New York City. From 1981 to 1985 he was faculty at the University of Miami FL School of music, and from 1985 to 2014 he was faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music. Stevens retired from teaching in 2014 but continues to perform and write, with his portfolio numbering over 65 works, and mostly for brass.
Alright, that’s the LAST intense one! The final piece on the program is Thabo, subtitled ‘to Michael Carvin’ by Claudio Roditi. This is the final track from Claudio’s album Two of Swords. The words ‘Two of Swords’ may be familiar to some of you because it is a card in a standard Tarot deck. The two of Swords typically indicates someone is at a point of indecision, unsure of which choice they should make. Each one may seem equally good or bad, and the person is stumped about which will lead to the best outcome.
The namesake of the subtitle, Michael Carvin, is an American Jazz drummer who hit his stride in the 70s, much like Claudio. Carvin was a prodigious drummer, beginning to learn with his father at the age of 6, and his father was already one of the top drummers in Houston TX. In 1973 Carvin joined Freddie Hubbard’s band and moved to New York City, where he would earn a reputation as one of the most formidable jazz drummers on the jazz scene.
Claudio Roditi was a Brazilian Jazz trumpeter. In 1966 he was a finalist at the International Jazz Competition held in Vienna Austria, where he also met one of his idols, Art Farmer. They quickly became friends and Farmer encouraged Roditi to pursue a career in jazz. Roditi came to America in 1970 to study at the Berklee School of Music here in Boston. In 1976 he moved to New York City, where he played with Herbie Mann and Charlie Rouse. In the 80s he worked with Paquito D'Rivera, and he was a member of Dizzy Gillespie’s United Nations Orchestra.
Claudio played most of his music on rotary trumpets, because that was the kind of horn he grew up with in Brazil. This had a strong influence on his improvisational style, as the relative speed of rotary action lends itself to especially nimble and fast playing. I chose to play a tune by Claudio because I had the good fortune to meet Claudio and hear him play in concert in 2016. His presence was unassuming, kind, and enthusiastic on and off the stage, and when I still thought I was going to write a dissertation, I started collecting his transcribed solos. The tune Thabo itself moves harmonically a bit like giant steps, though its leaps are a bit more conservative. For the first three solo choruses I will play a transcription of Claudio’s improvisation, and the rest will be my and Erics original improvisation. Thanks for coming and please enjoy Thabo!
