News Release
Family Concert November 18
11/06/2007
The Walla Walla Symphony
Announces Family Concert on November 18
Walla Walla, WA - (November 6, 2007) The Walla Walla Symphony’s annual Family Concert with Instrument Petting Zoo will be presented on Sunday, November 18 at 3:00 p.m. at Cordiner Hall in Walla Walla. The Instrument Petting Zoo begins at 2:00 p.m. Maestro Yaacov Bergman conducts the symphony performing The Three-Legged Monster by Tzvi Avni with narrator Kevin Loomer, as well as a world premier performance of Gwyneth Walker’s Voices in Song with the Rogers Adventist School Singing Scholars directed by Terry Koch. Tickets are general admission with adults $10, youth under 18 $5, and families $25 (includes 2 adults and 2 youth). Tickets are available online at www.wwsymphony.org, by calling 509-529-8020, at the Symphony office at 26 E. Main Suite 201, or at the door.
The Three-Legged Monster is a delightful musical legend taking children and adults alike on an exciting tour among the instruments of the orchestra. The twin violins, Violi and Violo, hear a thrilling story about a three-legged monster with a wing in the shape of a triangle, which flies over the forest at night casting an enormous shadow and producing strange noises. One morning they sneak out of the house and start an adventurous search for the monster. The story was written by Hanna Yaddor-Avni, the music by Tzvi Avni. A slide presentation of illustrations by Lucy Elkivity will be shown during the concert.
Voices in Song, composer Gwyneth Walker’s new composition in celebration of the Walla Walla Symphony’s centennial year, is a set of American hymns and spirituals, updated and expanded for symphony orchestra and youth chorus. The four songs in the set are “Shall We Gather at the River,” “Let Us Break Bread Together,” “Standin’ in the Need of Prayer,” and “Twelve Gates to the City.”
Tzvi Avni, one of Israel's foremost composers, was born in Germany in 1927 and came to Israel as a child. He studied music at the Israel Music Academy in Tel Aviv with Mordecai Seter and received his diploma in music theory and composition. Between 1962 and 1964 he furthered his studies in the USA on a scholarship at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center with Vladimir Ussachevsky and in Tanglewood with Aaron Copland and Lukas Foss. Since 1971 he has been teaching at the Jerusalem Rubin Academy of Music where he holds the position of professor and heads the electronic music studio.
His works include orchestral pieces, chamber music for various combinations, two string quartets and a wind quintet, vocal works, choral music and several electronic pieces. He has also composed music for ballet, theater, art films and radio plays.
Avni is the recipient of numerous awards, including the ACUM Prize for his life achievement (1986) and the Kuestermeyer Prize of the Germany-Israel Friendship Association (1990). Many of his works have been published and recorded and his music is frequently performed in Israel and abroad. Avni has also been active in Israel's public musical life. He was chairman of the Israel Composers' League, the World Music Days of the ISCM (1980 in Israel), the Music Commitee of the National Council for Culture and Art (1983-1987) and of the Jury of the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition (1989 and 1992).
Dr. Gwyneth Walker is a graduate of Brown University and the Hartt School of Music. She holds B.A., M.M. and D.M.A. Degrees in Music Composition. A former faculty member of the Oberlin College Conservatory, she resigned from academic employment in 1982 in order to pursue a career as a full-time composer. She now lives on a dairy farm in Braintree, Vermont and is the recipient of the Year 2000 "Lifetime Achievement Award" from the Vermont Arts Council.
Walker's catalog includes over 160 commissioned works for orchestra, band, chorus and chamber ensembles.
During the 2005-6 season, Gwyneth Walker traveled across the United States working with a variety of musicians as they premiered and recorded her works. The areas of focus were choral, chamber and orchestral music. The locations were as diverse as Saginaw, MI and Chapel Hill, NC, St. Johnsbury, VT and Durango, CO. Performers ranged from professional soloists to high school players and singers. A highlight of the season was a week spent in Walla Walla, WA working with the choirs at Whitman College as they rehearsed and recorded a CD of the choral music of Gwyneth Walker. “An Hour to Dance” will be released in 2007.
In addition to the composing of new works, there has also been a special project of creating orchestral accompaniments for a number of choral and vocal works in the Walker catalog. Thus, the Songs for Women’s Voices, I Thank You God, I Will Be Earth and the song cycle, No Ordinary Woman!, have all been orchestrated. Two performances of this repertoire were given at Carnegie Hall during the 2005-6 season.
The Walla Walla Symphony, the oldest continuously operating symphony west of the Mississippi, has been under the artistic leadership of Music Director and Conductor Yaacov Bergman since 1987, and has performed in Cordiner Hall on the Whitman College campus since 1967. The Symphony is recognized for its adventurous programming, school programs, and tradition of performing original compositions. From October through June, the Walla Walla Symphony plays or sponsors concerts in a schedule that includes a mix of symphony concerts, special concerts and a Discovery series exploring music traditions from around the world. For more information, visit the Symphony’s website at www.wwsymphony.org or call the symphony office at 509-529-8020.
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