Save the date: This Sunday, August 15th, UUCC will host two special guest musicians, who will play during our outdoor service and also will play pre-service music beginning at 10:30 on the lawn. Our guests will be April Sun, piano and Ann Yu, violin. Check out the August edition of The Hawk for more information about Ann and April and this special musical treat!
Music Notes – Sunday, August 15th:
This Sunday’s musicians are April Sun, Ann Yu, UUCC Music Director Mike Carney, and UUCC Pianist Karin Tooley
Don’t forget that there will be pre-service music this Sunday, August 15th beginning at 10:30 – come to church early this week for a special musical treat!
About our guest musicians:
Boston-based pianist April Sun enjoys a multi-faceted musical life as a performer, educator, and arts organizer, who values curiosity, sincerity, and fun in her work/play. As an avid collaborator, she frequently performs with small ensembles such as the Meadowlark Piano Trio, Phoenix and the Cape Cod Chamber Orchestra and has spent summers at Toronto Summer Music Festival, Caroga Lake Music Festival, Garth Newel Music Festival, and the Orford Center for the Arts.
April is committed to helping diverse communities forge meaningful relationships with music, which she considers a social good. As a cultural organizer, she co-directs Music for Food, a nonprofit that uses music to generate funds for food pantries. April also works with Asian Musical Voices of America to build community among self-identified AAPI musicians. From 2016-2018, April was an Artist-in-Residence at Judson Park where she played monthly concerts for seniors as part of an internationally recognized intergenerational living initiative.
April teaches piano and chamber music at the Brookline Music School and serves as a collaborative pianist at New England Conservatory and Boston University. She holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts in collaborative piano from the Cleveland Institute of Music, which also granted her an M.M. in piano performance, a certificate in pedagogy, and the Bennett Levine Chamber Music Award. She completed her B.A. in music, with minors in English and Art History, at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Her many wonderful mentors have included Daniel Shapiro, Anita Pontremoli, Paul Barnes, Kim Kashkashian, Peter Salaff, Hyeyung Yoon, Francesca Brittan, and Susan McClary.
April was born and raised in Bozeman, MT and lived in GA, SD, NE, and OH before moving to MA, where she is surrounded by people and other animals she adores. Away from the piano, she fills time with stories, bikes, strong beverages, and hikes.
Praised for her “full-bodied, rich and warm tone” (Cleveland.com), twenty-four-year-old violinist Ann Yu has captivated audiences with her beautiful sound, sensitive musicality, and engaging performances, drawing inspiration from her faith and her surroundings. Ann is the 1st prize winner of the 26th Annual Darius Milhaud Competition and has soloed with the CIM Orchestra twice, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the National Repertory Orchestra, among others.
An avid chamber musician, Ann has collaborated with Janine Jansen, Franklin Cohen, Mate Szucs, and Peter Slowik, attended top programs such as the Thy Festival in Denmark, Kneisel Hall, Perlman Music Program Workshop, and the New York String Orchestra Seminar, and studied with members of the Cleveland, Cavani, Juilliard, Mendelssohn, Emerson, and Orion Quartets, among other great masters. She is currently faculty at the Credo Chamber Music Festival, which she attended as a student for four summers.
Ann’s biggest passion lies in creatively using music to serve the community. She has received grants from the Cuyahoga Arts Council, the Ohio Arts Council, and the Center for Performance and Civic Practice to create unique, community-centered, storytelling projects. Currently Ms. Yu is partnered with the Foluké Cultural Arts Center in Cleveland’s Central neighborhood to create non-verbal, inter-disciplinary vignettes of the Anansi folktale.
Ann Yu is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music, receiving her master’s and bachelor’s degree in violin performance studying with Jaime Laredo, Jan Sloman, and William Preucil. She maintains a private studio of violin and viola students, some of whom are members of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and alums of the Credo Chamber Music Festival. When not engrossed in musical activities, Ann enjoys a variety of rotating hobbies which currently include hiking the metroparks and national park, krav maga, and falling asleep to a good book.
Centering Music – Excerpt from C Major Fantasy for violin and piano – F. Schubert
Franz Schubert (1797-1828) was an Austrian composer who wrote in both Classical and Romantic styles during his lifetime. Schubert composed symphonies, operas, piano and chamber music and over 600 lieder (art songs for solo voice and piano) during his brief career. Schubert composed his Fantasy in C Major late in 1827, and it would be the last of several works he wrote for violin and piano. The work was premiered in Vienna in January of 1828 by the celebrated duo of violinist Josef Slavik and pianist Carl Maria von Bocklet.
Opening Hymn: #1051 We Are… – Y. Barnwell
#1051 in Singing the Journey, “We Are…” was composed by Ysaye Barnwell (b. 1946) for Sweet Honey in the Rock. “We Are…” was originally the last song in a suite that began with the lyric, “Lawd, it’s midnight. A dark and fear filled midnight. Lawd, it’s a midnight without stars.” Dr. Barnwell wanted to create a complete circle of experience, and so she wrote “for each child that’s born, a morning star rises…” This phrase is meant to establish hope, and it defines the uniqueness of each one of us. No matter what our race, culture or ethnicity, each one of us has been called into being and are the sum total of all who came before. In the composer’s words, “Each and every one of us stands atop a lineage that has had at its core, mothers and fathers and teachers and dreamers and shamans and healers and builders and warriors and thinkers and, and, and…so in spite of our uniqueness, we come from and share every experience that human kind has ever had. In this way, we are one. (from uua.org)
Sung Meditation: #1011 Return Again – Carlebach
Written by Rabbi Shalome Carlebach (1925-1994, also known as Reb Shlomo), “Return Again” (#1011 in our Singing the Journey hymnbook) comes from a musical village that Carlebach founded in Israel. The Hebrew word “tshuva,” often translated as “repentance” during Yom Kippur, literally means “return.” This has a deeply spiritual sense of coming back to the source of our being to re-establish right relationship with yourself and others. (from uua.org)
Offertory: Andante un Poco Adagio (II) from Viola Sonata No. 1 in F minor – J. Brahms
German composer Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) was one of the most important figures of the Romantic Period in Europe. Brahms wrote both instrumental and vocal music in a wide variety of forms. Brahms had a particular love for chamber music, and composed dozens of sonatas, trios, quartets and other works for various combinations of piano, strings, and wind instruments. Brahms wrote his Viola Sonata No. 1 in F Minor (op. 120) during the summer of 1894. He originally wrote two sonatas that summer for clarinet and piano, but reworked both for viola and piano to feature the warmth and richness of the string instrument. Brahms later adapted the same sonatas for violin and piano as well.
Special Music: Andante Moltofrom Romance for Violin and Piano – C. Schumann
Clara Schumann (1819-1896) was a German musician and composer, considered by many to be among the most important European Romantic era composers. Her large body of work includes piano concertos, chamber works, and choral pieces. She was closely connected with two other celebrated composers of the time, as she was married to Robert Schumann (1810-1856) and maintained a close lifelong friendship with Johannes Brahms (1833-1897). Clara Schumann composed her Three Romances for Violin and Piano in 1853, dedicating them to legendary Hungarian violinist Joseph Joachim (1831-1907), with whom Schumann premiered her Romances and performed them during a highly successful tour of Europe.
Closing Hymn: #6 Just as Long as I Have Breath
#6 in our Singing the Living Tradition hymnal, “Just as Long as I Have Breath” is a song based on Johann Ebeling’s (1637-1676) traditional hymn tune “Nicht So Traurig”, with words by UU songwriter and activist Alicia S. Carpenter (b. 1930). Carpenter has authored no fewer than 10 of the songs in our ‘big’ hymnal, including “Here We Have Gathered” (#360), We Celebrate the Web of Life” (#175), and “With Heart and Mind” (#300).
Postlude: Allegretto grazioso (III) from Viola Sonata No. 1 in F minor – J. Brahms
See notes above (offertory) for information about this piece.
-Mike Carney, UUCC Music Director
Share this post: