music at emory concert series - Arts at Emory

m us ic at emory
concer t se ries
201 5 – 2 0 1 6 s e a s o n
paul bhasin, conductor
Thursday, october 22, 2015, 8:00 p.m.
Emerson Concert Hall
Schwartz Center for Performing Arts
P r ogr am
Feierlicher Einzug der Ritter Richard Strauss
des Johanniter-Ordens, TrV224 (1909)
(1864–1949)
(Solemn Entry of the Knights of the Order of St. John)
Emory Wind Ensemble Brass
Jonathan Easter, organ
Procesión du Rocio (1913)
Joaquín Turina
(1882–1949)
trans. A. Reed
Colonial Song (1918)Percy Grainger
(1882–1961)
Ed. M. Rogers
“The Alcotts” from Piano Sonata No. 2 (1915)Charles Ives
(1874–1954)
trans. J. Elkus
Sleep (2003)Eric Whitacre
(b. 1970)
Jack Tar (1903)
John Philip Sousa
(1854–1932)
Ed. D. Hunsberger
Mannin Veen (1933)Haydn Wood
(1882–1959)
Jonathan Easter, organ
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P r o g r a m Not e s
With festive processions, solemn investitures, and nostalgic reflections, this
evening’s Emory Wind Ensemble program celebrates composers’ efforts to
musically articulate our longing for and love of home. Each work on our program
establishes an authentic sense of place through poetry, folklore, national pride,
or even bittersweet memory. The poetry that inspired Whitacre’s Sleep takes
us to the quiet moments before we rest for the night. Turina’s Procesión gives
us both Spanish gypsy dances and local religious festivals. Mannin Veen is a
musical love letter to Wood’s own Isle of Man, and Grainger’s Colonial Song puts
us in the middle of a tone-dream in which home is longed for from afar. This
bittersweetness is captured even in the Greek roots of the word nostalgia: pain
(algia) for home (nostos). Above all, however, it is the optimism and vigor that we
associate with homecomings that give this program life.
—Paul Bhasin, Emory University
Richard Strauss was already a well-known conductor and
composer when he composed Feierlicher Einzug der Ritter
des Johanniterordens (Solemn Entrance of the Knights of the
Order of Saint John), in 1909. He was expected to contribute
pieces for civic celebrations of his music in Berlin, and as a
result, he composed a handful of works set primarily for
brass. Strauss’s powerful, majestic Feierlicher Einzug is scored
for timpani and brass ensemble. The opening motive is a
distant call underscored by a timpani roll. This phrase is
repeated and followed by a chorale-like melody in the trumpets. This alternating
pattern of chorale phrases separated by the introductory call is repeated through
the rest of the piece. The Feierlicher Einzug was composed for the investiture
ceremonies of the Order of St. John. This Western Christian military order was
founded in Jerusalem in 1023 to care for poor, sick, or injured pilgrims to the Holy
Land. After the Christian conquest of Jerusalem in 1099, the organization, also
called the Knights Hospitaller, developed a charter and was thenceforth charged
with the care and defense of the Holy Land. Following the Islamic conquest, the
Order of St. John moved to Rhodes, and then to Malta, where it has a significant
presence today. Allied orders dedicated to humanitarian and religious causes can
be found across Europe. The version heard here today incorporates an organ
obligato part composed by Max Reger, also in 1909.
—Notes by Colette Simonot
During the early part of the twentieth century, nationalism
was a popular trend among many composers. Notable
Spanish composers who were drawn to this trend were
Manuel de Falla, Isaac Albéniz, Enrique Granados, and
Joaquín Turina. In La Procession du Rocío, Turina portrays a
festival and procession that takes place in the Triana
neighborhood of Seville and honors the Blessed Virgin. In the
program notes to the orchestral score, Turina described the
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festival where “the people dance the soleare and seguidilla. In the midst of the
dancing a drunkard sets off firecrackers, adding to the confusion. At the sound of
flute and drums which announce the Procession, all dancing ceases.”
The work is divided into two movements, which are performed without pause. The
first movement Triana en Fête (Festival of Triana) depicts the spirited neighborhood
of Triana and is marked by a shift between duple and triple meters. The second
movement, La Procession, portrays the slow journey through the town of Triana.
Turina uses the flute and percussion to lead the procession through town followed
by several repetitions of a religious theme. After three repetitions of the flute melody,
the piece returns to material from the first movement before ending with a reflective
passage (but not before a brief quotation of the Spanish National Anthem).
—Notes by David Robinson
An avid collector of folk music (as were Bartók and Lomax), an
innovator of irregular rhythm and meter (as were Stravinsky
and Varèse), and an imaginative inventor of musical instruments
and experimental musical machines (as were Cage and Moog),
Percy Grainger truly was a pioneer in classical music equal to
the most acclaimed of our most innovative twentieth-century
musicians. Grainger wrote (in his customary strapping, blueeyed English rhetoric) of Colonial Song:
I have wished to express feelings aroused by my thoughts of the
scenery and people of my native land (Australia), and also to voice a
certain kind of emotion that seems to me not untypical of native-born
Colonials in general.
Perhaps it is not unnatural that people living more or less lonelily
in vast virgin countries and struggling against natural and climatic
hardships (rather than against the more actively and dramatically
exciting counter wills of the fellow men, as in more thickly populated
lands) should run largely to that patiently yearning, inactive
sentimental wistfulness that we find so touchingly expressed in much
American art; for instance in Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, and in
Stephen C. Foster’s adorable songs My Old Kentucky Home, Old Folks
at Home, and others.
I have also noticed curious, almost Italian-like musical tendencies
in brass band performances and ways of singing in Australia (such as
a preference for richness and intensity of tone and soulful breadth
of phrasing over more subtly and sensitively varied delicacies of
expressions), which are also reflected here.
Colonial Song was intended by the composer to be the first composition in a
series of works labeled, Sentimentals. Ultimately Grainger abandoned the idea of
such a series, but clearly Colonial Song remained intimately dear; the dedication
inscribed on the score in the composer’s hand reads, “This military band dish-up as
Loving Yule-Gift to Mumsie, Yule, 1918.”
—Notes by Lawrence Stoffel
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In his 1920 Essays Before a Sonata, Charles Ives describes the
third movement of his Concord Sonata, titled, “The Alcotts”
for solo piano: “Concord village, itself, reminds one of that
common virtue lying at the height and root of all the Concord
divinities. As one walks down the broad-arched street, passing
the white house of Emerson—ascetic guard of a former
prophetic beauty—he comes presently beneath the old elms
overspreading the Alcott (as in Louisa May) house. It seems to
stand as a kind of homely but beautiful witness of Concord’s
common virtue—it seems to bear a consciousness that its past is living, that the
“mosses of the Old Manse” and the hickories of Walden are not far away. Here is
the home of the “Marches”—all pervaded with the trials and happiness of the
family and telling, in a simple way, the story of “the richness of not having.”
Within the house, on every side, lie remembrances of what imagination can do
for the better amusement of fortunate children who have to do for themselves—
much-needed lessons in these days of automatic, ready-made, easy entertainment,
which deaden rather than stimulate the creative faculty. And there sits the little
old spinet-piano Sophia Thoreau gave to the Alcott children, on which Beth
played the old Scotch airs, and played at the Fifth Symphony.”
Initially a choral setting of the Robert Frost poem Stopping by
Woods on a Snowy Evening, Sleep (version for winds) has
become an abidingly popular work in the wind repertoire.
Composer Eric Whitacre writes that “Sleep began its life in
2000 as an a cappella choral piece, with a magnificent original
poem by Charles Anthony Silvestri. The chorale-like nature
and warm harmonies seemed to call out for the simple and
plaintive sound of winds, and I thought that it might make a
gorgeous addition to the wind symphony repertoire.”
The evening hangs beneath the moon,
A silver thread on darkened dune.
With closing eyes and resting head
I know that sleep is coming soon.
Upon my pillow, safe in bed,
A thousand pictures fill my head.
I cannot sleep, my mind’s a-flight;
And yet my limbs seem made of lead.
If there are noises in the night,
A frightening shadow, flickering light,
Then I surrender unto sleep,
Where clouds of dream give second sight,
What dreams may come, both dark and deep,
Of flying wings and soaring leap
As I surrender unto sleep,
As I surrender unto sleep.
©2001 by Charles Anthony Silvestri
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John Philip Sousa hoped that the march Jack Tar would
become as important to Navy men as his Stars and Stripes
Forever had become to Army men. The march had its première
in London’s Royal Albert Hall with the king and queen present
and was performed at that time by the joint forces of the
Coldstream Guards, Scots Guards, Irish Guards, Himenoa
Band of NZ, Sousa’s Band, and the Queen’s Hall Orchestra. It
is also another of Sousa’s marches based on themes from one
of his operettas . . . in this case the first two strains came from
his show Chris and the Wonderful Lamp.
—Notes by Keith Brion
Mannin Veen—Dear Isle of Man (in Gaelic) was one of Haydn
Wood’s two works written originally for band. The tone poem
is based on four Manx (of the Isle of Man) folk tunes. The first,
The Good Old Way, is an old and typical air written mostly in
the Dorian mode. The second tune, which introduces the lively
section of the work, is a reel, The Manx Fiddler. The third tune,
Sweet Water in the Common, relates to the old practice of
summoning a jury of twenty-four men, comprising three men
from each parish in the district where the dispute took place,
to decide questions connected with watercourses and boundaries. The fourth and
last tune is an old hymn, The Harvest of the Sea, sung by the fishermen as a song
of thanksgiving after their safe return from the fishing grounds.
—Notes by Norman Smith
A bo u t t h e Wort s ma n me m ori al Organ
Werner Wortsman 47C was raised in Germany with a love for classical music
and opera, and at age thirteen came to the United States to escape Nazi rule.
He served in United States Army intelligence in World War II before majoring in
journalism at Emory. Living most of his adult life near campus, Wortsman (1925–
2009) owned a radio station, wrote two books, and participated in Emory alumni
events. The value he placed on education, music, and the arts inspired his bequest
to the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts at Emory. The organ, which serves as
the visual focal point in the Schwartz Center’s Emerson Concert Hall, was named
for him in 2011, in recognition of his generous estate gift to the arts at Emory.
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T h e Emo ry Wind En s emble
The Emory Wind Ensemble (EWE) is recognized nationally and internationally as
an outstanding organization, dedicated to performing wind band and chamber
literature of the highest caliber, while nurturing individual artistic excellence
within an ensemble setting. Membership is determined by audition each fall,
with occasional vacancies occuring in the spring semester.
Concert programming comprises a wide variety of styles, forms, and genres from
several centuries of compositional practice, designed to provide a comprehensive
exposure to the masterpieces for winds and percussion from the Renaissance period
through the modern era.
The EWE performs two concerts each semester, regularly participates in world
premieres of new music, tours the United States and abroad, and is a national
leader in the commissioning of new music, including works by Warren Benson,
Bruce Broughton, Jennifer Higdon, Libby Larsen, John Mackey, Jonathan Newman,
Joseph Schwantner, and many others. The EWE’s recent collaborations include
performances with the Emory University Chorus; the Emory Dance Company;
Emory’s Mary Emerson Professor of Piano William Ransom; Chris Martin, principal
trumpet of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Stuart Stephenson, principal trumpet
of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra; Joe Alessi, principal trombone of the New
York Philharmonic; Adam Frey, international euphonium solo artist; and Grammy
Award–winning solo clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, among many others.
The EWE has performed concert tours of Munich, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Lucerne,
Graz, Prague, Vienna, and Greece. Additionally, the EWE has performed at the
Georgia Music Educators Association (GMEA) State Convention in Savannah,
Georgia; the Southern Division College Band Directors National Association
Conference (CBDNA); and for various events on the Emory campus, including
the inauguration of James Wagner as president of Emory University. The EWE is
recorded on the NAXOS music label.
Pa u l Bh a s in, C ondu ctor
Paul Bhasin joined the faculty of Emory as director of wind
studies in 2015 where he directs the EWE and teaches
conducting. Praised for his “crisp, clear” conducting and
“highly expressive” interpretations, Bhasin has led a variety of
university and professional ensembles throughout North
America and abroad including 2015 performances at the
Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, and throughout the
People’s Republic of China. Ensembles under his direction
have collaborated with soloists from the San Francisco
Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Virginia Symphony, and the United States Marine
Band. Bhasin has recently appeared with the Interlochen Arts Academy Concert
Band, Virginia Symphony Orchestra Brass and Percussion, American Youth
Philharmonic, and with the Washington Symphonic Brass (DC). He has served as
assistant conductor of the Williamsburg Symphony and music director of the
Williamsburg Youth Orchestras. He has presented clinics and research at the
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Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic (with the United States Marine Band), the
College Band Director’s National Association Southern Division Conference, and
the Music Teachers National Association Conference.
Bhasin’s articles have been published in the Instrumentalist and the International
Trumpet Guild Journal, and his arrangements are published by Balquhidder Music
and have been commissioned and performed in the United States and abroad by
the United States Marine Band, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, the United States Air
Force Brass in Blue, Grand Tetons Festival Orchestra, La Unió Musical l’Horta de Sant
Marcel·lí (Valencia, Spain), and the Washington Symphonic Brass (D.C.). In 2015,
Bhasin composed, conducted, and recorded the score to 9:23 Films’s motion picture,
Hogtown (Berlin and Calgary Film Festivals).
As a trumpeter, he has performed with the Virginia Symphony and Opera,
Columbus Symphony, New World Symphony, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and
at the music festivals of Aspen, Tanglewood, and Ravinia. A committed trumpet
teacher, his students have attended prestigious conservatories and music schools
and have won first prize at major competitions including the 2014 National Trumpet
Competition. He has been featured as a trumpet soloist on National Public Radio,
Detroit PBS-TV, the International Computer Music Conference, at the Chautauqua
Music Festival, and at the International Dvořák Festival (Prague, CZ). Bhasin has
recorded for the Centaur record label.
Bhasin’s previously held positions at the College of William & Mary, University
of Wisconsin–Green Bay, and Triton College (Chicago). He received his musical
education from the University of Wisconsin–Madison (DMA, conducting),
Northwestern University (MM, trumpet), and the University of Michigan (BM,
trumpet), and he performed as a member of the University of Michigan Symphony
Band under H. Robert Reynolds, and the Northwestern University Symphonic
Wind Ensemble under Mallory Thompson. His primary teachers were Scott Teeple
(conducting), Charles Geyer (trumpet), and Charles Daval (trumpet). He is a member
of the College Band Directors National Association, Georgia Music Educators
Association, and the League of American Orchestras.
J o nat h a n Ea s t e r , Organ
Jonathan Easter is a recent graduate of Emory, completing a
master’s degree in music in organ performance. In addition to
studying with Timothy Albrecht, University Organist, Easter
has spent time working throughout the Emory music
community accompanying and singing with the Mastersingers
and playing organ for Concert Choir and the EWE. Easter is
currently studying conducting at Emory under Eric Nelson and
is serving as the accompanist of the Atlanta Master Chorale.
Easter is also the organist at Roswell Presbyterian Church.
Easter is a graduate of Shorter College with a double major in organ performance
and church music where he studied with Peter Dewitt, Helen Ramsaur, and
Martha Shaw. During his time in Rome, Georgia, Easter also served as the organist
at North Broad Baptist Church.
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E m o ry Wind En s e m ble
FLUTE and PICCOLO
Jessica LeePortland, OregonUndecided
Claire MahonNorcross, GeorgiaMusic and International Studies
Laura SunBeijing, ChinaUndecided
Olivia StamCumberland Foreside, MaineMusic
Ananya ZacariahHouston, TexasInternational Business
OBOE
Rachel CorbittCumming, GeorgiaBiology
Ria BrownHouston, TexasMusic and Biology
BASSOON
Rachel BrennerColumbia, MissouriMusic
Haley Matthews
Jasper, GeorgiaBiology and Music
Mehvish KahnLakewood, New YorkEconomics and Music
CLARINET
Robert DicksLithonia, GeorgiaUndecided
Justin Kim
Johns Creek, GeorgiaBiology
Laken SmothersBowie, MarylandEngineering
Tyler LehmbergAustin, TexasMathematics and
Biomedical Engineering
Sarah TranMarietta, GeorgiaUndecided
Rocky LiuPlano, TexasBiology and Economics
BASS CLARINET
Josh PynnDuluth, GeorgiaMusic and Economics
SAXOPHONE
Jae Hoon Cho (baritone) Johns Creek, GeorgiaBiology and Music
Kiran Sundar (alto)Bridgewater, New JerseyBusiness and Music
Ryan Sutherland (tenor)St. Petersburg, FloridaBiology and Music
Kristin Newman (alto)Cockeysville, MarylandNeuroscience and Behavioral Biology
and Music
TRUMPET
Alec WoodardBurlington, IowaNeuroscience and Computer Science
Derrick MontgomeryAtlanta, GeorgiaMM, Florida State University
Joshua CooperMarietta, Georgia
Evann BrantleyLilburn, Georgia
Madison ArgoAlexander City, Alabama
Whitewater High School (GA),
assistant director of bands
HORN
Kevin SullivanMarietta, GeorgiaBiology and Music
Alex LutzAtlanta, GeorgiaComputer Science and Music
Alyssa KimCentreville, VirginiaEconomics
Stephen FowlerMcDonough, GeorgiaPolitical Science
Christina RogersAtlanta, GeorgiaPhD candidate, Anthropology
TROMBONE
Anna BingAtlanta, GeorgiaMusic and Latin American
and Caribbean Studies
Parker EllisonMonroe, GeorgiaMusic and Psychology
Grant SingerMilton, GeorgiaMusic and Biology
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E m o ry Wind En s e m ble
EUPHONIUM
Rohin AggarwalMacon, GeorgiaChemistry and Music
TUBA
Evan BrockAtlanta, GeorgiaMusic
Varoon PazhyanurEagan, MinnesotaUndecided
STRING BASS
Samuel Budnyk
Fort Walton Beach, FloridaComparative Literature and Music
KEYBOARD
Mariko MorimotoOsaka, JapanChemistry and Music
HARP
Mary PorterEden, UtahUndecided
PERCUSSION
Lia Benes
Willowbrook, IllinoisApplied Mathematics and Spanish
Daniel Majarwithz
Jacksonville, FloridaNeuroscience and Behavioral Biology
and Psychology
Chris PrughSwarthmore, PennsylvaniaBiology
Bailey Morton
Winter Park, FloridaUndecided
LIBRARIAN
Ryan Sutherland
e m o ry W i nd and P e r cu s si on Faculty
Flute: Carl David Hall*, James Zellers†
Oboe: Emily Brebach*
Bassoon: Shelly Unger*
Clarinet: Laura Ardan*
Saxophone: Gary Paulo
Trumpet: Kay Fairchild
Horn: Amy Trotz**
Trombone: Marc Boehm, Ed Nicholson†
Euphonium: Adam Frey
Tuba: Michael Moore*
Percussion: Scott Pollard, Mark Yancich*
Harp: Elisabeth Remy
*Atlanta Symphony Orchestra **Atlanta Ballet Orchestra
department of music administration
Deborah Slover, chair
Kristin Wendland, director of undergraduate studies
Richard Prior, director of performance studies
Lynn Bertrand, director of graduate studies
Martha Shockey, senior secretary
Kathy Summers, academic department administrator
Aimee McCarron, administrative assistant
Derrick Montgomery, academic services coordinator
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Atlanta Opera Orchestra
†
Upc oming Mu s ic Ev ents
Go to music.emory.edu to view the complete list of upcoming music events.
For more information contact the Arts at Emory Box Office at 404.727.5050,
or visit arts.emory.edu.
Ticket prices are listed in the following order: Full price/Discount category
member price/Emory student price (unless otherwise noted as the price for all
students). Visit arts.emory.edu to see if you qualify for a discount.
Friday, October 23, noon, Grieg and Ravel Sonatas, Emory Chamber Music
Society of Atlanta (ECMSA) Cooke Noontime Series, Carlos Museum, free
Saturday, October 24, 8:00 p.m., Emory University Symphony Orchestra,
Emerson Concert Hall, Schwartz Center, free
Sunday, October 25, 7:00 p.m., Emory Concerto and Aria Competition,
Emerson Concert Hall, Schwartz Center, free
Friday, October 30, 8:00 p.m., An Evening with Bassists Christian McBride and
Edgar Meyer, Candler Concert Series, Emerson Concert Hall, Schwartz Center,
$50/$40/$5
Friday, November 6, 8:00 p.m., The Danielle K. Rabel Memorial Concert, Vega
in Vienna, Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta (ECMSA) Emerson Series,
Emerson Concert Hall, Schwartz Center, free
Saturday, November 7, 3:30 p.m., Matthew Sorrels, student voice recital,
Performing Arts Studio, free
Saturday, November 7, 8:00 p.m., David Finckel, cello, Wu Han, piano, and
Philip Setzer, violin, Candler Concert Series, Emerson Concert Hall, Schwartz
Center, $50/$40/$5
Sunday, November 8, 5:00 p.m., Zoë Pollock, student honors voice recital,
Emerson Concert Hall, Schwartz Center, free
Friday, November 13, noon, Emory’s Young Artists, Emory Chamber Society of
Atlanta (ECMSA) Cooke Noontime Series, Carlos Museum, free
Sunday, November 15, 4:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m., Emory Chamber Ensembles,
Emerson Concert Hall, Schwartz Center, free
Wednesday, November 18, 8:00 p.m., Emory Youth Symphony Orchestra,
Emerson Concert Hall, Schwartz Center, free
Saturday, November 21, 8:00 p.m., Emory University Symphony Orchestra,
Emerson Concert Hall, Schwartz Center, free
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Sunday, November 22, 4:00 p.m., Emory Mastersingers, Emerson Concert
Hall, Schwartz Center, free
Tuesday, December 1, 8:00 p.m., Emory Jazz Ensembles, Emerson Concert
Hall, Schwartz Center, free
Friday, December 4, 8:00 p.m., and Saturday, December 5, 4:00 p.m.
and 8:00 p.m., A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, Glenn Auditorium,
$20/$15/$5
Sunday, December 6, 4:00 p.m., Emory Wind Ensemble, Emerson Concert
Hall, Schwartz Center, free
Friday, December 11, noon, Ransom Notes, Emory Chamber Music Society of
Atlanta (ECMSA) Cooke Noontime Series, Carlos Museum, free
Saturday, December 12, 8:00 p.m. and Sunday, December 13, 4:00 p.m.,
Christmas with Atlanta Master Chorale, Emerson Concert Hall, Schwartz
Center, $30/$25/$10 all students
Sunday, December 13, 4:00 p.m., Santa’s Favorite Chamber Music, Emory
Chamber Music Society of Atlanta (ECMSA) Family Series, Carlos Museum,
free
Arts at Emory Box Office/Audience Information
404.727.5050 • arts.emory.edu
IN CONSIDERATION Please turn off all pagers and phones.
PHOTOGRAPHS AND RECORDINGS Not permitted without advance permission.
COUGH DROPS In lobby, courtesy of Margery and Robert McKay.
USHERS Members of Music at Emory Volunteers and Alphi Phi Omega, a national service and social
fraternity. Call 404.727.6640 for ushering opportunities.
event and program information Available online at arts.emory.edu.
Back cover photographer credits: Top (left to right): Barenaked Voices, Emory Photo/Video;
Emory Concert Choir: courtesy of Emory Concert Choir; Vega String Quartet, Dorn Brothers.
Bottom (left to right): Gary Motley, Bill Head; Christopher O’Riley, Wendy Lynch; audience view from
stage, courtesy of Emory Concert Choir; Emory University Symphony Orchestra, Tony Benner.
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