Dear MPRO Members,
Since this is the last newsletter for this season I am going to take this opportunity to go out swinging, so to speak. Everybody, these days, are reluctant to take any additional responsibilities because of the amount of time needed to do our personal "chores" in the broadest sense of that word. You guessed right, I am indeed talking about sharing some of your skills and time assisting MPRO with some of the jobs that are needed to keep this organization viable and moving ahead.
Those of you who have been a member of MPRO for years are familiar with the history of Angela Owens assuming the position of President and Musical Director from 1967 to 1987, a period of 20 yrs. She retired in 1987 and turned the Presidency to Mary Ashley and Musical Director position to Fred Palmer.
Mary did not continue to remain President, but she has continued to deal with PAUSD to secure our rental space at the various schools we have used for rehearsals and practicing, etc. (According to our By-Laws, they have been the responsibility of the President.) In the future she will be receiving some help from our Board when needed.
Fred Palmer, as Music Director, not only has been assisting Mary Ashley with scheduling our rehearsal days, he, with assistance from Laura Gonsalves, prepares our music. Fred also has been arranging our Workshops and Concerts. In the fall of 2003 a new Workshop Committee was created by the Board. This committee is coordinated by George Greenwood and is now responsible managing the Workshops. The entire MPRO Board essentially serves as members of that committee.
You might ask "what does the President do for all that money"? The President calls 3-4 meetings of the Board to review and approve plans made by The Workshop Committee and Music Director for the workshops and concerts that we sponsor. We review the budget and other business of the organization. The President prepares and chairs the meetings. The President is also encouraged to write an article for the newsletter. The subject, length and frequency of these articles are strictly the choice of the President. I am not able with this message to tell all of the things that are done by the Board, but I hope that it is clear to you that it is a great deal more than is done by the President.
I have enjoyed my position as President of MPRO, and while the job does carry a title that seems over bearing, that is not the case. I, like the president before me (Stevie White), stayed on an additional (third) year because we know that the MPRO needs our help, and that is so little to give for what we receive. I will be available to help the new president as needed.
Think not what MPRO has done and will continue to do for you, but rather what you can do for MPRO. Thanks for listening.
CONDUCTOR'S CORNER
Dear members of the Mid-Peninsula Recorder Orchestra,
Listed below is information regarding the final two rehearsals and concert that will conclude MPRO’s 2005-2006 season. Krummhorns, great bass and contrabass recorders will be needed for the rehearsals on May 17 and May 31 as well as the concert on June 4. Please note that May 31 is the dress rehearsal for MPRO’s spring concert on June 4. As in the past, small ensembles are encouraged to appear in the spring concert. Those groups that intend to perform on June 4 are asked to give me the following information by May 17: the title(s) of the music to be performed, the name(s) of the composer(s), the name of the ensemble (if any) and the names of the ensemble's members.
| Wednesday, May 17 | MPRO Rehearsal JLS Middle School, 8:00 P.M. Tentalora Brahms: Dein Herzlein mild Brahms: Der Falke Gabrieli: Chiar’ Angioletta |
| Wednesday, May 31 | Joint rehearsal with Gabrieli West Grace Lutheran Church, 3149 Waverley Street, Palo Alto, 7:30 P.M. Schmelzer: Sonata a otto Gabrieli: Chiar’ Angioletta Machaut: Donnez, signeurs Sha, Shtil Sher Rumshinsky: A Bis’l Libe, un a Bisele Glik Shostakovitch: Fugue No. 1 Tentalora Brahms: Dein Herzlein mild Brahms: Der Falke |
| Sunday, June 4 | MPRO Spring Concert Grace Lutheran Church, 3149 Waverley Street, Palo Alto, 3:00 P.M. Schmelzer: Sonata a otto Machaut: Donnez, signeurs Sha, Shtil Sher Rumshinsky: A Bis’l Libe, un a Bisele Glik Shostakovitch: Fugue No. 1 Tentalora Brahms: Dein Herzlein mild Brahms: Der Falke Gabrieli: Chiar’ Angioletta |
The spring concert that will conclude the orchestra’s current season promises to be an exciting musical event that will bring two fine Bay Area musical organizations together, and I encourage you to invite your family and friends to attend. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Joyce Johnson-Hamilton and the other members of Gabrieli West for joining MPRO for this concert as well as the members of MPRO for all of the hard work they have put in to this performance. Once again, I would like to express my thanks to the orchestra's officers for their invaluable expertise in seeing to the necessary tasks which make MPRO's programs possible and for organizing two highly successful workshops this season. Special thanks go to MPRO’s president, Tony Jackson, for his fine leadership and efforts to update the orchestra’s by-laws. I wish all MPRO members the very best this summer and look forward to seeing all of you again in September at our first meeting of 2006-2007 season.
The annual Marin Headlands Workshop for Recorders and Viols will be held May 19-21. Sponsored by the East Bay Recorder Society at Pt. Bonita YMCA. Sixteen playing sessions with world-class conductors Annette Bauer, Letitia Berlin, Tom Bickley, Frances Blaker, Louise Carslake, Frances Feldon, Shira Kammen, Judith Linsenberg, Fred Palmer, and others. Entire weekend or partial attendance. For information contact Susan Richardson at 510-526-7861, or susanrichardson@yahoo.com.
No one knows for certain when the recorder originated. Guillaume de Machaut (1300 - 1377) writes about a variety of "flutes", some of which might have been recorders.
The oldest known recorder was found in the moat of a fortified house in Dordrecht in Holland. The house was known to have been occupied between 1335 and 1418 when it was abandoned following an assault.
Part of an instrument which was probably a recorder was recovered from a well in Wurtzburg in Germany and has a suggested fourteenth century date. It is likely, therefore, that the recorder emerged sometime during the second half of the fourteenth century.
(From http://www.pteratunes.org.uk/Music/Recorder/History.html)
On Sunday, June 4, the Mid-Peninsula Recorder Orchestra will present Sounds of Spring, a concert at Grace Lutheran Church, 3149 Waverley Street in Palo Alto at 3:00 P.M. The program will feature works by Gabrieli, Brahms, Machaut, Shostakovitch and Schmelzer. Joining the Mid-Peninsula Recorder Orchestra will be the ensemble, Gabrieli West, directed by Joyce Johnson-Hamilton. Admission is free, and the location of this concert is wheelchair accessible.
The Mid-Peninsula Recorder Orchestra is an affiliate of the San Francisco Early Music Society. For further information please call Frederic Palmer at 650-591-3648 or visit the MPRO website at www.sfems.org/mpro.