Suite Antique

 
for string orchestra
 

"elegant and beautiful. a pleasure to hear."

                    Noah Creshevsky, composer, recording artist

                    Director, Brooklyn Center for Computer Music (retired)


"I love the journeys your music takes me on.”

Scott Cooper, playwright, actor


"Ahh...so uplifting Linda...and, well...just lovely!"

                    Karen Nichols, actor, stage director, teacher


     Suite Antique

          for string orchestra

  1.     1. Nouveau   

  2.     2. Rétro

  3.     3. Memoré

  4.     4. Valse Calliope

  5.     5. Fin de siècle

You can listen and follow the score to Suite Antique on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTWJtHsCsTE


Memoré

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUhUnb_4B_0


Valse Calliope

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7jkiH4_5UU


Individual movements, especially Memoré and Valse Calliope,

are available and can be performed as standalone pieces.

Interested conductors can obtain more information

and/or a perusal score by contacting the composer.

       

Program Notes


  
Linda Robbins Coleman has always loved the expressive versatility of string instruments. Following the success of her first work for string orchestra, Hibernia Suite (composed and premiered in 1997, and performed by the ICCSO in 2006), Coleman was eager to write more music for this genre. She began composing her second suite in 1998, but other work, looming deadlines, and eventually full-time caregiving interrupted her progress. Even so, “that string orchestra piece” was always in the back of her mind demanding to be written. Little did she know that it would take almost fifteen years, combined with an invitation from Carey Bostian for this suite to be completed and premiered!


   Suite Antique is a result of looking back while moving forward. The five movements celebrate life, love,
family, the arts, and musical styles popular in the early twentieth century. Nouveau announces a new era filled with innovations in society, culture, and science.  Skyscrapers and airplanes reached for the sky, electric lights illuminated the night, and art became Nouveau. Rétro fondly looks back at time where both style and entertainment were exuberant and fanciful, yet much more modest and formal than today. The first two movements are dedicated to the composer’s husband. Memoré was written with a heart filled with love and memories, touched with a bit of sadness. It is dedicated to the composer’s late mother. Valse Calliope was inspired by an historical calliope her father restored many years ago and is in remembrance of his musical influence on her life. Fin de siècle is a jubilant echo of the grandeur of the old American West, larger-than-life western figures, and a time of hope and promise, all in memory of her beloved grandparents who homesteaded in South Dakota early in the twentieth century.


    Written with the ICCSO in mind, this world premiere performance is dedicated to Carey Bostian and Miera Kim with deep appreciation and admiration for twenty years of collaboration and friendship.








Iowa City Press CitiZen - A Gannett Company


Celebrate Mother's Day with music


May 4, 2013 2:15 PM   |  



Let’s face it: Mother’s Day is the most universal holiday because everybody has a mother.

Celebrate this Mother’s Day by attending the Iowa City Community String Orchestra’s spring concert. The classical music tradition isn’t as long as the tradition of motherhood, but they have many things in common. To sustain either, one must care for one’s offspring so they may continue the tradition.

When planning our spring concert, I was aware that it would fall on Mother’s Day. Each piece on the program is significant because of a very special woman. Each represents our long tradition, and each is a gift to future generations.

The first work on the program is Grieg’s famous “Holberg Suite.” Often programmed by high school orchestras, this well-known work is a challenge both because of its greatness and its familiarity.

What I didn’t realize was how intimidated I would feel about conducting this work with one of my role models, Candace Wiebener, sitting on the first desk of violins. Candace taught the work to hundreds of students during her tenure as City High’s Orchestra Director. In rehearsals, I found myself thinking, “What would Candy do? How did she teach this?” I realize now that my respect for Candy as a teacher makes me want to please her, like a mother, and make her proud of both me and the many ICCSO members who were once her students.

The second work on the program is the new baby. Linda Robbins Coleman, a founding member of the Iowa Composer’s Forum, began working on “Suite Antique” in 1998.

The process was interrupted by her care giving for her elderly mother and it wasn’t until I asked her last year for a new piece that she got back to it and finished a remarkable five movement work that she says “looks back as it moves forward.”

Each movement is dedicated to someone special to her, but the heart of the piece, “Memoré,” is dedicated to her mother. It took Linda 15 years to complete this work, and now she will finally hear it in performance. The orchestra has worked very hard to bring this baby into the world.

The final work is the fourth violin concerto of Mozart. In 2005, the ICCSO started a cycle of all five Mozart concertos with the new UI faculty violinist, Katie Wolfe. This long-term project has been a wonderful experience for all of us, and each performance has been stronger and more mature. This performance will be no exception because of Katie’s beautiful playing and our collective experience. It is my hope that this project has enriched our community. Motherhood is a long-term commitment.

My own mother, who died two years ago, taught me something very important about being a parent, teacher and artist. She said, “Love what you do, and do what you do with your whole heart.” I can’t think of three people who embody this more than Candy, Linda and Katie or an orchestra that does this better than the ICCSO.

Come to the Englert at 3 p.m. May 12. If you are a kid, bring your mother, and if you are a mother, bring your kid. As always, admission is free.

Carey Bostian has been conductor of the ICCSO since 1998.



Iowa City Community String Orchestra

presents its

33RD SEASON

Sunday, May 12, 2013
3 pm at

The Englert Civic Theatre

Program

Holberg Suite Op.40 - Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)
I. Prelude
II. Sarabande
III. Gavotte and Musette
IV. Air

Suite Antique for String Orchestra - Linda Robbins Coleman  - World Premiere!
1. Nouveau
2. Rétro
3. Memoré
4. Valse Calliope
5. Fin de Siecle

Intermission

Concerto in D Major for Violin and Orchestra No.4 - W. A. Mozart (1756-1791)
Allegro
Andante cantibile
Rondeau: Andante grazioso: Allegro ma non troppo
            Katherine Wolfe, violin