Hello to all:
This coming Saturday we will present our two Intermezzo Concerts online at 9;30 and 11. The concerts will feature solos from each group ad a wonderful play with musical accompaniment written by Lauren Bernofsky, Read her bio and “about the music” below. See you soon. Mimi
Lauren Bernofsky has written over a hundred works, including solo, chamber, and choral music, as well as larger-scale works for orchestra, film, musical, opera, and ballet. She holds a bachelor’s degree in violin and composition from The Hartt School, a master’s degree in composition from the New England Conservatory and a doctorate in composition from Boston University. She is former faculty of the Peabody Institute.
Her music has been performed across the United States as well as in England, Wales, Canada, Korea, Germany, Norway, Iceland, Spain, Portugal, Korea, Singapore, Brazil, The Netherlands, Thailand, Brunei, New Zealand, and Australia.
She currently serves as Music Director of the Musical Arts Youth Organization (MAYO) Symphony in Bloomington, IN, and she guest conducts at regional strings festivals.
About the music:
One fine day at the Midwest Clinic in Chicago, an orchestra director from New Jersey recognized the name on my badge and came up to introduce himself, telling me that his group had just performed my House of Untold Horrors. He suggested I write a sequel piece for winter concerts. I loved the idea, and I woke up (too) early the next morning in my hotel room, with ideas swirling through my head. Most of this piece was written during my four-hour drive home to Indiana. I have dedicated the piece to the person who inspired it, Daniel Schultz.
A number of years after writing First Snow, I decided to conduct it with my own youth orchestra. My music program has not only an orchestra but also violin classes at a nearby after school program. I like to invite the beginner violinists to play along with the orchestra – they find it exciting, and I’m pleased that they can be part of an impressive-sounding “musical whole,” even when they haven’t been playing for long. Hence I added the optional 4th Violin part, which can be played by rank beginners who need not even read music.
This piece calls for a number of unusual sound effects and techniques, but they are all easily playable by beginners. And, frankly, who DOESN’T want to throw a paper ball in the middle of a concert?
This verson of the piece is intended for use on Zoom. All the notes appear in all the parts, but each sound effect, as well as the theme, is intended to be played by just one player, as assigned by the teacher.