Scottish Composer Paul Tierney to be Guest Composer
at Dana New Music Festival XXVII
The Dana School of Music will be celebrating its 27th New Music Festival from Thursday, April 28 to Wednesday, May 4. Guest composer will be Paul Tierney from Aberdeen, Scotland.
Paul Tierney
Paul Tierney has a Ph.D. in Music Composition from the University of Aberdeen where he studied with Paul Mealor, a recent New Music Society guest. At present Tierney teaches at Aberdeen College and also at the University of Aberdeen. Tierney is active both as a baritone and a conductor. He has appeared as soloist in works such as Haydn's The Creation, Bach's St. Matthew Passion, Handel's Messiah, Orff's Carmina Burana, and many more. He has served as conductor of the Learig and Inverurie Orchestras, and of the University of Aberdeen New Music Group.
Tierney's work Ca' the Yowes to the Knowes, a setting of the Robert Burns poem written especially for the Festival, will be premiered at the 8 p.m. Gala Concert, Monday, May 2, at St. Columba Cathedral by Dana Faculty soprano Corinne Morini and the Festival Chamber Orchestra. Other Tierney works on the program will be The Wasteland for piano solo performed by Dana pianist, Jerry Rezanka; Pity for violin and piano performed by Dana alumna Natalie Sahyoun and Dana faculty Jack Ciarniello; and a work for solo trumpet performed by Dana senior David Gardner.
Dana School of Music
The Festival Chamber Orchestra directed by Dana faculty Robert Rollin will also premiere Rollin's In Memoriam Walter Mony for violin soloist and string orchestra with violinist and Dana alumnus Ethan Howard. This work was written for Ethan Howard in memory of South African violinist/violist Walter Mony. Mony had great renown in South Africa both as an exceptional performer and as a charismatic teacher. He presented the South African premieres of the Bartok, Walton, and Stravinsky concertos, and also championed concertos by South African composers. His former students hold many principal positions in the orchestras of Europe, Australia, North America, and Africa. He was a frequent guest at Dana as a lecturer, violin/viola soloist, and master class teacher, and recorded four benefit CD's for the New Music Society. The orchestra will also play Bartok's Dances of Transylvania, and Alan Hovhaness' Armenian Rhapsody No. 3.
The Monday night program also features the Dana Composers Ensemble premiering Dana senior Carol Ann Smolka's The Rosary Prayer for voice, flute, violin, clarinet, and trombone. Sophomore Samantha Hogan's Vocalise for soprano and piano will be premiered by the composer with Robert Rollin at piano. The Dana Trombone Ensemble will open the concert with Rollin's Two Klezmer Songs.
The second part of Monday's program features the Dana Chorale and Dana Symphonic Choir with Hae-Jong Lee, director and the St. Columba Cathedral Choir with Dan Laginya, director. Two of these groups are premiering commissioned anthems by Dana's Robert Rollin. The Cathedral Choir will perform his The Statutes of the Lord and the Chorale will present And It Shall Come to Pass in the Last Days. Both anthems use texts from the Biblical Psalms of David. The Chorale will also present a work by a South Korean composer.
Much of the second half will be devoted to the English composer John Rutter's Requiem, which will feature Corinne Morini as soprano soloist.
New Music Society
The 11:00 a.m. April 29 Convocation in Bliss Recital Hall will feature works by Guest Composer Paul Tierney and New Music Guild, Inc. Richard Zacharias who will hear the premiere of his new string quartet and a duet for alto flute and English horn performed by Dana graduate and current students. Zacharias's works will also appear on the May 4 noon hour Butler concert along with works by Dana students Samantha Hogan, Carol Ann Smolka, and Brandon Loewit. A recital of works by Paul Tierney and Dana Composers will be presented at Sts. Peter and Paul Church in downtown Youngstown, 3 p.m. on Sunday, May 1.
Student Composer Seminar
Guest composer Paul Tierney will present three lectures during his residency. He will discuss his compositions at the Dana Composition Seminar 3 p.m. Thursday, April 28 in Room 3150; “Twentieth Century Scottish Music,” 1 p.m. Friday, April 29 in Room 3137; and “Music Education in Scotland” Thursday evening.
Hear the Music
The Youngstown community is invited and encouraged to attend the Festival events. All events are free of charge.
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