Guest Conductors
Angel Velez is one of today's most sought after conductors for film and television and guest conducting for pops concerts around the world having given world premiere concert performances for hits such as Captain Marvel, Green Book, Tom and Jerry in New York, The Book of Boba Fett and many more. In addition to his work in the studios of Los Angeles and as conductor of the Hollywood Studio Chamber Orchestra, he has served as music director for the Los Angeles Live Score Film Festival, American Society of Cinematographers Awards, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and Miss World 2022, one of the largest televised events in the world.
He has produced concerts such as Silent Films LIVE, Star Wars: Past and Present and HBO's film For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story LIVE IN CONCERT starring trumpet legend Arturo Sandoval. He has recorded for the Varese Sarabande and Sudwestrundfunk labels and continues to work in the entertainment industry on shows such as Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars: Rebels, Family Guy, Jane the Virgin, The Mandalorian and many others, including the recently released MGM superhero film Samaritan starring Sylvester Stallone.
Chamber Pieces
Five Elements for Wind Octet by Yunfei Li
I. Metal
II. Wood
III. Water
IV. Fire
V. Earth
Oboe 1 - Stephanie Marquez
Oboe 2 - Raine Schiessel
Clarinet 1 - Gabby Vivona
Clarinet 2 - Rebekah Campbell
Bassoon 1 - Travis Munoz
Bassoon 2 - Nickolas Garcia
French Horn 1 - JC Eclar
French Horn 2 - Marcela Perez
Dating back to over 5,000 years ago, the I Ching tells readers the stories of nature’s patterns through time. If we take a moment to observe the connections between Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, and Wood, we can begin to understand the importance of those Five Elements. Within the Five Elements theory, one thing is clear: these five fundamental materials shape the universal framework of our world. Even more importantly, the Five Elements are in a constant state of motion and counterbalance. Earth captures Water, who extinguishes Fire; Fire moulds and manipulates Metal, who cuts through Wood. Naturally, Wood plants roots in Earth, and the cycle continues. These cycles can take many shapes: Wood can feed Fire, while Fire prepares the Earth. Earth cultivates Metal, and Metal holds Water which nourishes Wood. At times, when one or more elements grows stronger than the other, the cycle is tripped and the balance is lost. What does one do to regain it? On the face of this Earth, climate change and pollution has increased the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as wildfires and floods. As someone who is both concerned about climate change, and well-versed in the Five Elements theory, I can feel the tension and instability between humans and nature. This deeply inspired me as a composer: by way of pitch sets, pentatonic scales, the circle of fifths, and juxtaposed rhythms, Five Elements tells the story of humanity’s continuous balancing act.
Appalachian Spring Suite by Aaron Copland
Suite for 13 Instruments
Flute - Melissa Blanco
Clarinet - Michael Morales
Bassoon - Travis Muñoz
Piano - Bienn-Mhor Stewart
Violin 1 - Jeremy Ward
Violin 1 - Cassandra Nevarez
Violin 2 - Celine Ong
Violin 2 - Allister Mendez
Viola - Andrea Martinez
Viola - Deshun Burt
Cello - Francisco Rangel
Cello - TBD
Double Bass - Elijah Shmeli
Appalachian Spring was composed in 1943-1044 as a ballet for Miss Martha Graham on a commission from the Elisabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation. It was first performed by Miss Graham and her company at the Coolidge Festival in the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., on October 30th, 1944.
The action of the ballet concerns “a pioneer celebration in spring around a newly-built farmhouse in the Pennsylvania hills in the early part of the last century. The bride-to-be and the young farmer-husband enact the emotions, joyful and apprehensive, their new domestic partnership invites. An older neighbor suggests now and then the rocky confidence of experience. A revivalist and his followers remind the new householders of the strange and terrible aspects of human fate. At the end the couple are left quiet and strong in their new house.”
In 1945 Appalachian Spring received the Pulitzer Prize for music as well as the award of the Music Critics Circle of New York for the outstanding theatrical work of the season 1944-1945.
The Soldier’s Tale by Igor Stravinsky
Violin -Brian Cheng
Double Bass - Jeremy Wright
Clarinet - Oren Dror
Bassoon - Aaron Colon
Trumpet - Cyrus Alva
Trombone - Maddie Berchtold
Percussion - Viraj Sanawala
Igor Stravinsky knew what it was like to have plans scuttled by a pandemic. In 1918, as Europe was emerging from World War I, Stravinsky hatched an idea to create a small-scale, touring theatrical piece about a soldier’s encounters with the devil. Stravinsky chose two instruments from each instrumental family, trying to achieve the widest tonal range possible: violin and double bass, clarinet and bassoon; trumpet and trombone; he also added a percussionist responsible for a number of different instruments. At its first performance on September 28, 1918, Histoire was a great success, but Stravinsky’s hopes for financial success from a tour were quickly dashed. The flu epidemic of 1918 hit Switzerland at this point, affecting several of the performers, and the tour had to be abandoned.
The rhythmic Soldier’s March opens Histoire and introduces the soldier on his way home on leave; it will recur at several points during the tale. In the first scene, the devil appears as an old man with a butterfly net. He accosts a young soldier returning home on leave and offers to buy his fiddle (the violin symbolizes the soldier’s soul) in exchange for a magic book. The Soldier’s Violin is the music the soldier plays when, while resting by a brook, he pulls an old violin from his pack, tunes it up, and plays a propulsive interlude. When the soldier reaches his village, he realizes that he has been deceived: Three years have passed, his fiancée is married to someone else and has two children, and none of his friends can even see him. Disguised as a cattle merchant, the devil appears and shows the young man how the book can make him rich.
The devil next appears as a clothes merchant to the soldier, who has become very successful financially but is unhappy. Seeing that the clothes merchant has his old violin, the soldier seizes it and tries to play, but finds that it will now make no sound; in despair, he hurls it offstage. Now comes the famous Royal March, with its swirling trumpet quintuplets. In this scene, the king’s daughter lies ill, and the king has promised her hand to anyone who can cure her. Encouraged by the devil (now disguised as a violin virtuoso) to try to cure her, the soldier plays cards with the devil, gets him drunk, and gets back his violin. The soldier approaches the sick princess and plays the violin for her. She rises and dances three different dances, two of them influenced by jazz―Tango, Waltz, and Ragtime―and then embraces the soldier. The devil appears, this time as a devil with a pointed tail, and the soldier uses his violin to triumph over him. The Devil’s Song, with its promise of ultimate triumph, is framed by two Chorales, somewhat in the manner of Lutheran chorales of Northern Germany.
In the last scene the devil achieves his final triumph. Several years have passed, and the soldier and princess go to visit his home. Once they pass the frontier, the devil, dressed in brilliant scarlet, appears and gets control of the violin. Defeated, the soldier slowly follows him. L’Histoire du Soldat began with a march, and now it concludes with another, the Triumphal March of the Devil. Brilliant and animated, this music grows leaner as it proceeds―the other instruments drop out, leaving only the percussion to bring the music to its eerie close. Many have compared this effect to stripping away the extraneous to leave only the music’s skeleton―a fitting conclusion to this tale of demonic triumph.
-Program notes from the Santa Fe Symphony