Magic Flute Overture
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
(1756-1791)
Arranged for flute orchestra by Nancy Nourse
Mexico Magico
Rubin Flores
(born 1969)
Bancroft’s Castle
Jonathan Cohen
(born 1954)
Castle
Lemminkäinen’s Return
Jean Sibelius
(1865-1957)
Arranged for flute orchestra by Paige Dashner Long
Serenade, Opus 22
Derek Bourgeoise
(1941-2017)
Arranged for flute orchestra by Martin Melicharek
Eventide Soliloquy
Paige Dashner Long
(born 1955)
In loving memory of my son, Sean Callan MacDonald
For the Beauty of the Earth
John Rutter
(born 1945)
Arranged for flute orchestra by Matt Johnston
Selkies
Kari Cruver Medina
(born 1968)
Festive Overture
Dmitri Shostakovich
(1906-1975)
Arranged for flute orchestra by Shaul Ben-Meir
Fantomas
Eugene Magalif
(born 1957)
The Metropolitan Flute Orchestra, in summer residence at Groton Hill Music Center, is comprised of select conservatory/university, community adult and professional flutists. From classical and sacred literature to jazz, folk songs and show tunes, the ensemble has been delighting audiences since 1998. Past performances include concerts presented at New England Conservatory, appearances at the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Open House, the BSO’s Symphony Café, Boston’s Faneuil Hall and Boston’s French Library. The Metropolitan Flute Orchestra commissioned the award winning composition “The Academie of Dance” by Catherine McMichael. The select ensemble of the Metropolitan Flute Orchestra was selected and performed during National Flute Association Conventions in 2000 (Columbus, OH), 2006 (Pittsburgh, PA), 2009 (New York City, NY), 2011 (Charlotte, NC) and 2015 (Washington DC.) as well as presented concert tours in France in 2001, Ireland in 2008, Germany, Austria and Slovakia in 2012, Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic in 2014, England and Scotland in 2016, Iceland in 2018, Belgium and Luxembourg in 2022 and Switzerland in 2024 . While in New York City in 2009, the ensemble, one of four ensembles selected from across the US, performed live with Sir James Galway in Times Square for a brief FOX TV News broadcast. Next, this August, the Metropolitan Flute Orchestra will present a concert during the National Flute Association Convention in Atlanta, GA.
Director, The Metropolitan Flute Orchestra
Paige Dashner Long is an internationally recognized flutist, flute choir director, contrabass flutist and award winning composer. Currently Ms Long, an Altus Flutes Performing Artist, directs the Metropolitan Flute Orchestra, in summer residence at Groton Hill Music Center, the Daytona State College Flute Choir and the Florida Flute Orchestra. As an active guest flute clinician and ensemble director, she has led workshops and directed flute ensembles for music schools in France, Germany and Mexico, as well as for universities and flute associations throughout America. She is Vice President of the International Low Flutes Society, performs with the International Flute Orchestra, serves on the Flute Clubs Committee of the National Flute Association (NFA), and is a former Chairperson of the Low Flutes Committee of the NFA, former Coordinator NFA’s Flute Choir Composition Competition, and past President of the Greater Boston Flute Association. Many of her original compositions and arrangements have won awards for newly published music.
As an active performer, Paige currently plays flute and harpsichord with the Daytona Solisti Chamber Orchestra and with the Chamber Players of Palm Coast, which she also directs. As an active teacher, she is part of the music faculty at Daytona State College in Daytona Beach, FL. As an international ensemble performer, Paige has presented concerts in Japan, France, Germany, Austria, Iceland, Italy, England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Malta, Greece, Belgium, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Czech Republic, Russia, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Portugal, Chile and Mexico.
As a low flute specialist and advocate, she has written several articles for Flute Talk Magazine as well as for flute association newsletters throughout the country. She has been interviewed and filmed by both local and national news organizations, including CNN’s Great Big Story. For more information please visit www.contraflute.com
Mozart’s well known Magic Flute Overture, from his comic opera Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), is set in a mystical land between the sun and the moon. There is a Queen of the Night villain, her daughter Pamina, and a prince named Tamino who rescues Pamina with a magic flute. Tamino has a companion, a bird-catcher named Papageno with magic bells, who loves Papagena. After facing trials and tribulations deviously planned by the Queen of the Night, Tamino and Pamina, as well as Papageno and Papagena find true happiness and triumph over the ordeals they have faced. Similar to our Broadway musicals, The Magic Flute was an innovative opera that incorporated both singing and spoken dialogue. As with operas from this era, Die Zauberflöte opens with an instrumental overture.
Composer Rubin Flores has created musical images of his native country in Mexico Magico. Listeners are transported to this gorgeous country through this energetic music and hear musical images of beautiful Mexican dancing and countryside. Flores grew up immersed in a deeply musical environment under the influence of the Xalapa Symphony Orchestra. He has created many transcriptions and arrangements for symphony orchestra, symphonic band, chamber ensembles, big band and now flute orchestra. *
MET contrabass flutist Jonathan Cohen was commissioned to compose Bancroft’s Castle by Dr Eileen Yarrison in celebration of the 40 years of the Nashua Flute Choir/New England Flute Orchestra/Flute Orchestra of Groton Hill and her 25 years as its conductor. (Eileen is also a part of the MET contrabass flute section.)
The ruins of Bancroft’s Castle rest atop Gibbet Hill right here in Groton, Massachusetts. When he began construction in 1906, General William Bancroft had great plans, but his castle never got farther than a tower and a bungalow when his money ran out. This piece imagines what fantasies General Bancroft might have entertained as he dreamt of his castle: the splendor, the majesty, the battles, the glory, the lost.**
Lemminkäinen’s Return is the fourth “legend” or movement that Sibelius composed, based on some of the poems from the Kalevala, the national saga of Finland. These poems tell the tales of Finnish folklore or ancient Finnish mythology. The Lemminkäinen Suite is a technically difficult, large scale symphonic work comprised of four movements. Each movement stands on it’s own and all four movements are rarely performed at one time. Lemminkäinen’s Return is a musical and technical challenge to perform, as one would expect of music representing an epic Finnish saga.
Lemminkäinen was a young powerful hero, triumphantly returning home on horseback, after many adventures. Sibelius quotes from the Kelevala poem: “Then the lively Lemminkäinen, started on his homeward journey, saw the lands and saw the beaches. Here the islands, there the channels, saw the ancient landing-stages, saw the former dwelling places.”
Serenade, Opus 22 was composed in 1965 for the occasion of the composer’s wedding. It was written as the recessional for the congregation leaving the ceremony. Derek Bourgeois wrote this serenade for his own wedding, being played by the organist, as the guests left the ceremony. The composed noted, “not wishing to allow them the luxury of proceeding in an orderly 2/4 meter, the composer wrote the work in 11/8, and in case anyone felt too comfortable, he changed the meter to 13/8 in the middle”. The work originally written for pipe organ was adapted for wind ensemble by the composer in 1980. It has since become a mainstay of the symphonic band literature. The adaptation of this work for large flute ensemble was
completed shortly after the death of the composer in 2017.***
Eventide Soliloquy, by Paige Dashner Long, is an original composition that features each instrument of the flute family in a musical soliloquy. The piece showcases the beautiful colors of a flute orchestra as well as each different type of flute, in a variety of musical styles. The work is a winning composition of the 2012 National Flute Association’s Newly Published Music Competition.
The inspiration and dedication of this piece is in loving memory of Sean Callan MacDonald, the composer’s son, who died unexpectedly August, 2010. Eventide Soliloquy is Sean’s life in song. Life begins during a swirling snowstorm as the alto flutes play a beautiful melody using the musical letters of Sean’s name. (E- A) Next, you will hear a very happy, bright theme, as you imagine an energetic child, Sean, skipping along enjoying life. As this allegro theme, gently slows, the contrabass/bass flute plays a mournful melody, describing the sadness of a young teenager being diagnosed with a difficult disease, type 1 diabetes. Eight bars later, the piccolo enters the dialogue of the contrabass/bass soliloquy with a beautiful obbligato melody on top of the contrabass. These are tears of a mother, crying for her son. But, we get on with life and make the most of the precious time we have together. Next enters a jazzy blues section where you can see Sean smile and picture him improvising on his trombone. As the jazz slows, listeners hear another beautiful melodic soliloquy, played by the concert flute and inspired by one of Sean’s favorite Mussorgsky themes from “Night on Bald Mountain”. The orchestral bell you hear at the end of both the Mussorgsky and Eventide Soliloquy represent church bells that scatter darkness as day breaks. Eventide Soliloquy ends with a very calm and gentle melody, as Sean was such a gentle spirit, but also such a bright light to those around him.
Trained as a classical trombonist, music educator and jazz musician, Sean had a great sense of humor and a sparkling wit, with an amazing repertoire of original silly songs. He inspired hundreds of young musicians through his creative teaching approaches and lively performances. This piece celebrates Sean’s life, just as his presence here with us has touched our hearts.
The lyrics of John Rutter’s exquisite choral work For the Beauty of the Earth are based on a poem by Folliot Sandford Pierpoint. Rutter used Pierpoint’s endearing poem and expanded the lyrics to include images of nature, celestial skies, human love, God’s good graces, perfect gifts and heavenly references.
For the beauty of the earth,
For the beauty of the skies,
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies;
Lord of all, to thee we raise
This our joyful hymn of praise.
Folliot Sandford Pierpoint (1835-1917)
With uplifting melodies and flowing harmonies, this stunning music envelopes listeners with gratitude for the beauty around us.
Selkies, by Kari Cruver Medina, are shape-shifting women who come from the sea. Featured in Celtic mythology, they are woven into mysterious stories of longing and hearbreak that involve feeling torn between land and sea.
In traditional Celtic tales, a woman is found stranded on the beach with no memory of her past. Welcomed into the surrounding community, she falls in love, marries, and often even has children. But the woman is restless, disquieted, and never quite at home in this domestic world. Drawn to the sea, her longing leads her time and again to the shore. Often her identity, i.e. “skin” (a sealskin) is kept hidden away – a symbol of captivity. At some point she is reunited with her skin and with a flash of insight comes to herself. She is a Selkie, a seal-woman, born of the sea. With this realization she is liberated and returns to her home beneath the waters.
We begin with a moody scene. A woman walks alone along the seashore, cradling a strange bundle to her chest. The waves speak to her, their undulating patterns calling out from the watery depths. The listener senses she is torn. There is turmoil as she is enveloped in the kinetic motion of the ocean weaving in and around her. But a call to freedom, represented by a joyous folk motif, awakens her understanding. She responds with delight. Tossing the bundle up and around her, we recognize a sealskin. It ripples in the wind and then effortlessly wraps and joins her body as she joyously slips down into the waves, with a flip of her tail, disappears beneath shimmering waters. ****
The story behind Festive Overture, by Dmitri Shostakovich, is one of those amazing tales which unveils this composer’s astonishing creative skills and musical genius. Lev Lebedinsky, a friend of Shostakovich, shared this remarkable history. In the fall of 1954, Lev was relaxing with Dmitri in the composer’s apartment. They were visited by a conductor from the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra. Due to a mysterious political situation and bureaucratic blunder, the orchestra did not have a new composition to celebrate the 37th anniversary of the October Bolshevik Revolution. So, just a few days before the performance, in a panic, the conductor went to Shostakovich’s apartment and asked him if he would write something for this occasion. Immediately, Dmitri asked Lev to sit alongside him, as this remarkable composer began to write. When Shostakovich finished a single page of the score, he would pass it to his friend Lev, a music copyist, to write out the orchestral parts. This magnificent piece was finished in just three days! Another fascinating twist to this story is that, due to the political situation under the Stalin regime, in 1948 the Soviet bureaucrats ordered the destruction of all of Shostakovich’s recordings and his scores were to be recycled to save paper. As a result, Shostakovich stopped writing music for public performance until the death of Stalin in 1953.
The Festive Overture begins with a majestic fanfare, soon to be replaced by the main theme, played at lightning speed. Next, comes a soaring and majestic secondary theme that continues throughout the different sections of the orchestra. A variation of the beginning fanfare concludes this piece, with a flurry of brilliance and splendor.
Today’s encore, Eugene Magalif’s Fantomas, is based on a theme and sequence of chords which the composer and his friends sometimes played in childhood. This funny and mysterious theme was easy to play on piano, four hands. At that time, the French movie Fantomas was on the cinema screens and we called this music by the name of a clever criminal – the main character of the movie. It should be noted that this composition is not related to any of the music from this French movie.
Award winning American composer Eugene Magalif (born 1957 in Vitebsk, Belarus) is the author of music in many different genres. His compositions have been performed and recorded by famous soloists and orchestra in more than 60 countries and are featured on TV and radio in Europe and the United States. *****
Program notes written by Paige Dashner Long
*Excerpt written by Rubin Flores
**Excerpt written by Jonathan Cohen
***Excerpt written by Martin Melicharek
**** Excerpt written by Kari Cruver Medina
***** Excerpt written by Eugene Magalif