NOVEMBER 2013
 

 


**COMING SOON FROM MPRO**

 

MPRO Holiday Concert—December 7, 2013

 

On Saturday, December 7, the Mid-Peninsula Recorder Orchestra will present a concert at Grace Lutheran Church, 3149 Waverley Street in Palo Alto at 2:00 P.M.  The program will feature an antiphonal canzona by Giovanni Gabrieli, a setting of The Song of Songs by the late medieval composer John Hothby, two recorder pieces by Henry Cowell, an Adagio by Albinoni with Nicholas Vigil, oboe soloist, three 16th-century Scottish songs and the Concerto Op. 6, No. 2 by Corelli.  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 see the orchestra’s web page at http://mpro-online.org/ or call Frederic Palmer at 650-591-3648.

 

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Workshop with Paul Leenhouts—January 25, 2014

 

The Mid-Peninsula Recorder Orchestra, an affiliate of the San Francisco Early Music Society, will present a workshop directed by Paul Leenhouts entitled, Dutch Masters, Six Centuries of Music from The Netherlands and Early Flanders.  Paul Leenhouts has earned international recognition as a founding member of the Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet and is considered one of the world’s leading performers, conductors, workshop directors and composers for the recorder. The workshop will take place at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, 330 Ravenswood Ave., Menlo Park, 9:30 P.M. to 4:30 P.M. Music will include works by Dufay, Sweelinck and arrangements by Paul Leenhouts.  The workshop is open to recorder players from the intermediate to advanced level.  Workshop fees are as follows:  MPRO, SFEMS and ARS members, $50.00; non- members, $55.00.  Please plan on bringing a music stand and a lunch. Snacks and beverages will be provided.  Advanced registration is encouraged as space is limited.  For further information or to register for the workshop please visit the MPRO website at <http://mpro-online.org/> or contact Leslie Pont at 650-941-3065.  The site is wheelchair accessible.

 

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CONDUCTOR’S CORNER

Dear members of the Mid-Peninsula Recorder Orchestra,

 

          Listed below is the music for the orchestra’s next three meetings. Please note that the meeting on Friday, December 6, is the dress rehearsal for the orchestra’s holiday concert and will take place at Grace Lutheran Church, 3149 Waverley Street in Palo Alto at 7:30 P.M.  The holiday concert will take place at Grace Lutheran Church on Saturday, December 7, at 2:00 P.M.  All those planning on taking part in this performance are expected to attend the dress rehearsal on December 6.  As in the past, small ensembles are encouraged to appear in this concert.  Those groups that intend to perform at the holiday concert are asked to send me the following information by November 22:  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. 

 

Regarding the upcoming meetings, Irene Beardsley will be attending those on November 6 and 13.  Since this will be the final opportunity before the dress rehearsal to play the selections scheduled for that evening with all instruments present, I encourage all MPRO members to attend these meetings. Please note that there will be sectional seating for the Gabrieli Canzon Septimi Toni, with those in Coro Primo sitting on the right as they face the conductor and those in Coro Secundo on the left.  Please observe this seating arrangement when you choose your place at the beginning of the meetings on November 6 and 13. Please note as well that great bass and contrabass recorders as well as dulcien will be needed at all three meetings, sopranino recorder and krummhorns on November 6 and December 6 and bass viola da gamba on November 13 and December 6.

 

 

November 6

Gabrieli:  Canzon Septimi Toni

Hotby:  Quae est ista

Anonymous:  O lusty May, Wo worth the tyme,

How shuld my febill body fure

Cowell:  Birthday Piece, Jig

 

November 13

Cowell:  Birthday Piece, Jig

Gabrieli:  Canzon Septimi Toni

Albinoni:  Adagio Op. 9, No. 8

Corelli:  Concerto Op. 6, No. 2

 

 

Friday, December 6

Dress rehearsal for the MPRO holiday concert

Grace Lutheran Church, 7:30 P.M.

 

Deck the Hall; The First Noel; Jingle Bells

Gabrieli:  Canzon Septimi Toni

Hotby:  Quae est ista

Albinoni:  Adagio Op. 9, No. 8

Anonymous:  O lusty May, Wo worth the tyme,

How shuld my febill body fure

Corelli:  Concerto Op. 6, No. 2

Cowell:  Birthday Piece, Jig

 

Sincerely, Fred Palmer

 

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Three Reasons to Attend the Paul Leenhouts Workshop

by Bill Lazar, MPRO member

 

Many of our members come to most or all of the MPRO workshops.  For those of you who don't, here are some comments about Paul's workshop leadership skills that might convince you to attend.


"As a workshop leader, Paul is known for his gentle approach to coaxing the best out of players, making them work hard while loving every minute of it." As one player at his recent workshop for the Milwaukee Area Recorder Society commented about Paul’s teaching: “You will learn more than you ever knew you needed to know about playing the recorder.”


Paul has for 20 years run the Longy Baroque Summer Workshop in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

On a personal note, although I've never had a workshop with Paul, I know him to be very generous.  His Amsterdam Stardust Quartet played a luscious Palestrina Lamentations on one of their CDs that I just loved. I went to the Stanford music library and spent hours trying to find it.  I finally gave up and wrote to Paul.  He said the original was a quintet that he had arranged for their quartet, and he generously sent me his arrangement.

If you've never attended a workshop, this is a good one to start with.  Don't miss a chance to be taught by one of the very best and to spend a full day immersed in playing beautiful music with friends.

 

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Sid Simon: MPRO’s Oldest Member

 

 

IMG_1765_2Sid Simon was born on March 20, 1917, in Detroit, MI.  This makes him 96 years old, the oldest member of MPRO!   In 1919 Sid’s  family  moved to Los Angles.  At age 13, someone gave him a tennis racket, and this became his favorite sport.  He became good enough to compete in various  city and high school tournaments.  In one doubles match he and his partner defeated Bobby Riggs and his partner.

 

After graduation from High School in 1936, Sid attended Los Angeles City College where he  majored in chemistry and played on the college tennis team.  Two years later he transferred to U.C. Berkeley, getting an degree in Chemistry.   In 1941, Sid got a job as a chemist at the Mare Island Navy Base.

 

In 1943 Sid married Naomi Sparrow, a piano teacher who became a member of the Stanford Music Department.  The couple moved to Santa Clara.

 

Then, in 1954, a life-changing event occurred when Sid was involved in an automobile accident. Sid’s left leg and hip suffered multiple factures,  leading to several surgeries and two years on crutches. It was during this period that Sid decided to take up the recorder to help pass the time.  He obtained an alto recorder and an instruction book, and taught himself to play.

 

Sid joined MPRO shortly after it was founded in 1962, and he hasn’t missed a year since! A highlight among his many memories of MPRO is the time when MPRO participated in a production of Noye's Fludde  (Noah's Flood) by Benjamin Britten.  Sid also plays regularly with small groups.

 

Sid retired in 1978.  He keeps busy playing the recorder and exercising at the YMCA (water aerobics).  He played tennis regularly until, at age 86, when a rotator cuff problem ended his tennis career.

 

Sid has 2 children, 3 grandchildren and one new great-grandson.  Naomi passed away in 1998.

 

“I practice the recorder almost every day,” Sid says.  “It’s a big help in keeping me from forgetting the fingering!”

 

-interview and article courtesy of Richard Davies, MPRO member

 

 

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Stuart Elliott: Jack of All Trades

Meet your fellow MPRO member

 

After many years living in Ohio and Southern California, my wife, Lyn, and I have returned to Palo Alto to share a home with our daughter’s family.  Lyn and I first met folk dancing as grad students at Stanford.  By joining MPRO, I am continuing a long association with early music instruments.

 

When Lyn and I were married in Germany 60 years ago, among the things we bought and brought home were two alto recorders (Blockflὃten).  They were carefully put away until several years later when our kids were given plastic soprano recorders in school.  I remembered that we had bought recorders in Germany, but when we got them out, we found out that they were worthless as musical instruments – better used as kindling.  I learned about Art Stilwell and his Recorder Shop and bought an alto and a tenor from him.  He also told me about workshops at Idyllwild in the mountains east of L.A., and I also met Shirley Marcus, Gloria Ramsey, and Shirley Robbins, all of whom taught me a lot about recorder playing.

 

For many years I attended the week-long early-music workshops (Canto Antiguo), directed first by Shirley Robbins and later by Tom Axworthy.  It was at those workshops that I was first introduced to other Renaissance instruments – krummhorn, racket, sackbut, and viol.  As a physics professor at Occidental College in L.A., I was a founding member of their Collegium Musicum. At first we played only recorders.  The college Music Department soon acquired some krummhorns and a set of viols, and I borrowed the tenor viol for many years. Over the years I purchased instruments to add to my collection, so that now I own SATB recorders; treble, tenor, and bass viols; tenor sackbut; bass krummhorn; and bass racket.

 

While living in Southern California, I was a member of the Southern California and Orange County Recorder Societies and played viol, recorder, and sackbut with the Los Angeles Renaissance Band and bass recorder with the Los Angeles Recorder Orchestra and was a board member for Viols West, the So. Cal. Chapter of the Viola da Gamba Society of America (VdGSA).  I am now a board member of the Pacifica (Bay Area) Chapter of VdGSA.

 

Another of my extracurricular activities at Oxy that continued after my retirement in 1992 was as a member of the Occidental College Folk and Historical Dance Troupe, and I am still an avid folk dancer.  I have also had a long-standing interest in foreign languages: French, German, Russian (as editor of the English translation of a Soviet physics journal), and Chinese, which I have studied off-and-on for over 60 years and now attend a weekly class.

 

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MPRO Members Perform in “Cell Talk: 1410”

 

MPRO members Lois Ario and Anne-Marie Wiggers played incidental  music on October 6 and 13 during  scene-changes of the American premiere of the UK award-winning drama “Cell Talk: 1410.”  The play by Dana Bagshaw of Santa Cruz is set in Medieval England and is based on the writings of the historical Dame Julian of Norwich and her disciple Margery Kempe. The drama was played on the outdoor campus of St. Jude Episcopal Church in Cupertino and St. Francis Episcopal Church in Willow Glen.  The addition of medieval chants and period music, played alternately on Alto, Soprano, Tenor and Bass, added an authentic atmosphere to this unconventional drama.

 

 

 

 

 

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The Board: President: Dana Wagner; Treasurer: Leslie Pont; Recording Secretary: Helen Shamble; Membership: Chris Flake; Publicity: TBD; Graphics: Mary Ashley; Newsletter Editor: Mary Ann Field; Workshop Coordinator: Laura Gonsalves, Stuart Elliott; Hospitality: Judith Unsicker; Music Sales: Laura Gonsalves; Historian: vacant; Webmaster: Dan Chernikoff; Facilities Mgr: Grace Butler; Consort Coordinator: vacant; Historian: vacant; Music Director: Fred Palmer. MPRO website: < http://www.mpro-online.org >             

 

 

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