**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.
u u u u u u u u u u
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.
u u u u u u u u u u
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
u u u u u u u u u u
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.
u u u u u u u u u u
Sid Simon: MPRO’s Oldest Member
Sid 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
u u u u u u u u u u
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.
u u u u u u u u u u
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.
.
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
>