Albany Pro Musica performs The Gypsy and the Mask

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Sten Yngvar Isachsen
Albany, NY – Lusty gypsy songs, Spanish gypsy ballads …pieces featuring the poetry of the Harlem Renaissance … African-American poetry … settings of Walt Whitman’s Civil War poetry… It’s all in “The Gypsy and the Mask”, Albany Pro Musica’s March program conducted by Artistic Director David Griggs-Janower in three venues: Sunday, March 6 at 3 p.m. St. James Church, Hudson Avenue, Chatham Saturday, March 12 at 8 p.m. St. Madeleine-Sophie Church, 3500 Carman Road, Guilderland Sunday, March 13 at 3 p.m. St. Vincent De Paul Church, 900 Madison Avenue, Albany For this performance, Albany Pro Musica is accompanied by Starr Norman on piano and Sten Isachsen on guitar. Guitarist Sten Yngvar Isachsen performs extensively as a solo artist, giving concerts in such venues as the Adirondack Center for the Arts at Blue Mountain Lake, Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, Ithaca College, Eastman School of Music, Hyde Museum, College of St. Rose and the University at Albany. Isachsen holds a Bachelor and Master of Music degree in Guitar Performance from Ithaca College and has studied guitar with Frederick Hand, Ed Flower and Joel Brown. He has participated in master classes with Manuel Barrueco, Sergio and Odair Assad, and Benjamin Verdery. Isachsen is a founding member of the Finger Lakes Guitar Quartet, which has commissioned works from Anthony Holland. Isachsen teaches at Schenectady County Community College, the College of St. Rose and the University at Albany. Pianist Starr Norman has performed throughout upstate New York as soloist and accompanist. She has accompanied many schools, church, amateur, and professional choirs and recitalists, including Albany Symphony Orchestra, Capital District Youth Chorale, Saratoga-Potsdam Choral Institute, music theater productions, academic and community recitals, annual festivals and competitions. Starr attended Houghton College, where she studied with Nolan Huizenga. She earned her Bachelor of Music in music education and Master of Music in piano performance from the State University of New York College at Potsdam, studying with Marion Carter and Frank Iogha. Starr has taught elementary through high school music in the Fayetteville-Manlius, West Genesee, Solvay, Baldwinsville, Niskayuna, Schenectady, Carthage and Watertown districts. Starr and her family recently returned to the Albany area following fourteen years in central New York. While previously living and working in Schenectady, she and her husband, David, were charter members of APM. They live with their three children, Kathryn, Julie, and Thomas, and a large dog, in Delmar, where Dave is music supervisor in the Bethlehem Central School District. “It’s very satisfying to be able to bring a program like this to classical choral music lovers,” said David Griggs-Janower. “Part of our mission as a chorus is to perform works that reflect diverse traditions to Capital Region audiences and this program certainly fits the bill.” The program begins with four poems from the song cycle The Mask by William Bolcom, in which he describes the African-American experience of hiding one’ s true identity behind a mask. Bolcom draws on traditional musical elements, such as ragtime and repeating bass figures to convey this theme of identity. The first two poems are from the 1920s, the period in African-American literature and art and culture known as the Harlem Renaissance. The third and fourth poems date from 1990. Next on the program is Romancero Gitano by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, a composer who was part of the wave of European composers who immigrated to southern California in the late 1930s to escape Fascist persecution. Inspired by the poetry of Federico Garcia Lorca--Spain’s greatest 20th century poet and dramatist--Castelnuovo-Tedesco composed Romancero Gitano in 1951 based on Lorca’s famous work of the same name. Lorca used the gypsies as an archetype for all peoples persecuted during the murderous Francisco Franco regime. Tragically, his political views led to his murder at the start of the Spanish Civil War in 1936. A Procession Winding Around Me by Jeffrey Van is written on poems by Walt Whitman. The idea for the piece was sparked by a visit the composer made to Gettysburg in the summer of 1989. The first selection, “By the Bivouac’s Fitful Flame” paints a picture of the military encampment and the thoughts and longings of soldiers for the past, for loved ones, for home. The second selection, “Reconciliation,” suggests that even during the worst of war’s carnage, humanity will prevail. The last piece, Zigeunerlieder or Gypsy Songs by Johannes Brahms, was composed in 1887. Numerous Romantic composers, including Schumann, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, Liszt and Brahms, were fascinated with gypsy literature and the notion of living and loving free of the shackles of conventional society. As the Industrial Revolution and bourgeois society grew across Europe, so did the Romantics’ yearning for what they saw as the freer life of the gypsy. Tickets ($20 adults, $18 seniors (62+) and $10 students (under 24) are available at the door or by calling 518-438-6548. More information is available online at www.albanypromusica.org or by calling 518-438-6548. Albany Pro Musica is an auditioned chorus of men and women from seven counties in the Capital Region and surrounding areas. Dedicated to the enhancement of the cultural life in upstate New York and their own musical growth, the choral group, under the leadership of founding conductor David Griggs-Janower, presents professional quality performances of an a cappella and accompanied choral repertoire drawn from diverse traditions and styles ranging from the great masterworks to contemporary and less familiar compositions.
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Friends of Great Barrington Libraries Holiday Book Sale

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — The Friends of Great Barrington Libraries invite the community to shop their annual Holiday Good-as-New Book Sale, happening now through the end of the year at the Mason Library, 231 Main Street. 
 
With hundreds of curated gently used books to choose from—fiction, nonfiction, children's favorites, gift-quality selections, cookbooks, and more—it's the perfect local stop for holiday gifting.
 
This year's sale is an addition to the Southern Berkshire Chamber of Commerce's Holiday Stroll on this Saturday, Dec. 13, 3–8 PM. Visitors can swing by the Mason Library for early parking, browse the sale until 3:00 PM, then meet Pete the Cat on the front lawn before heading downtown for the Stroll's shopping, music, and festive eats.
 
Can't make the Holiday Stroll? The book sale is open during regular Mason Library hours throughout December.
 
Proceeds support free library programming and events for all ages.
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