HOMETOWN HEROES
WHEN: Sunday, May 6, at 3 PM
WHERE: JCC of West Orange, 760 Northfield Ave., in West Orange.
TICKETS: $15 apiece for adults and $10 apiece for students and senior citizens.
Tickets may be purchased through the symphony's website, www.hanoverwinds.org.
Included among the selections will be the world première of a new piece, titled Music for a Carousel, by HWS member John Centenaro of Cedar Knolls. (Above L-R: Hanover Wind Symphony clarinetists (from left) Joe Elliott of Summit, John Centenaro of Cedar Knolls, Carlyn Smith of Morristown, and Dimitry Chernavsky of Livingston)
"This concert is a great celebration of the art the Hanover Wind Symphony brings to our community, and the support our community brings to the Hanover Wind Symphony," says Matthew Paterno, conductor of the Hanover Wind Symphony.
Music for a Carousel was inspired by childhood memories of the old mechanical barrel organs that used to be an integral part of the experience of riding carousels in places like Palisades Amusement Park, Coney Island, and the National Mall in Washington, DC. In this work, the composer has imagined that each group of instruments in the orchestra represents a carousel animal, gliding up and down and whirling around in relative motion to the other animals on the carousel, while children laugh and sing and reach out for gold rings. The music reflects this in the undulating shape of the melodic lines and in the manner in which the counterpoint among these lines is shaped.
There is also an attempt to evoke the actual sounds of the barrel organ with some slightly usual scoring, in particular, the trio obbligato of E-flat clarinet, piccolo, and bells over the muted cornet's statement of the main melody. The woodwinds invoke the squeal of the reed organ, while the bells provide the "gold rings" for which the children reach at every turn. The piece will bring back happy childhood memories of riding an antique carousel on a sunny Sunday afternoon at a favorite amusement park.
As a composer, Centenaro has three comic operas to his credit as well numerous other vocal works, concerti, chamber pieces, and three major works for concert band. His musical style could best be described as "eclectic retro" in that he makes no attempt to write "modern music," but rather enjoys writing in the styles of his favorite eras of the musical past, producing comic evocations and parodistic re-creations of the music of Mozart, Rossini, Verdi, Sullivan, Offenbach, Sousa and the Ragtime and Tin Pan Alley composers of the early 20th century.
Stanley Chernavsky of Livingston will be the piano soloist at the concert, performing Grieg's Piano Concerto in A Minor. He has been cited as a "Hometown Hero."
Chernavsky, 16 years old and a sophomore at Livingston High School, began studying the piano at age 6. In his brief career, he has won awards in several competitions, including the Piano Teachers Society of America Spring Festival, the International Young Musicians Competition, and the American Protégé 2010 International Competition of Romantic Music. As the winner of the 2011 Young Artists' Concerto Competition, Chernavsky made his orchestral debut with the Livingston Symphony Orchestra.
In 2008, he was accepted to the prestigious Juilliard School Pre-College Division. He has performed in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, and at the Juilliard School.
For more than 25 years, the Hanover Wind Symphony has played to enthusiastic audiences in and around greater Morris County. The symphony thrives on sharing the enjoyment of music with live audiences, and helps mentor the next generation of wind musicians. The Hanover Wind Symphony serves the community by playing marches, toe-tappers, and standards while also presenting pieces written by current active composers, some of whom are members of the ensemble. The group provides a platform to showcase world-class artists, among them Joseph Alessi and Philip Smith of the New York Philharmonic; Patrick Sheridan, one of the world’s most famous tuba players; Steven Meade, world-renowned euphonium soloist and recording artist; and Dr. Paul Cohen, the world’s premier classical alto saxophone player.
The Hanover Wind Symphony received a 2011 Local Arts Grant from the Arts Council of the Morris Area.
