Orchestra concert to feature student soloists

Two talented Skidmore student musicians will perform as soloists Saturday, March 5, with the Skidmore College Orchestra in a program celebrating the music of Maurice Ravel at the college's Arthur Zankel Music Center. 

Flutist Katherine Murphy, this year's winner of the Skidmore's annual student concerto competition, will be soloist in George Hue's Fantaisie for Flute and Orchestra, written in 1913, the only non-Ravel work on the program. The Fantaisie was written for Paul Taffanel, a legendary professor of the Paris Conservatory.

Violinist, Hanna Tonegawa,  who won the concerto competition two years ago and was the official runner-up in this last competition, will also solo with the orchestra, playing Ravel's "Tzigane" (Gypsy), written in 1924.

Conducted by music director Anthony Holland, the concert will begin at 8 p.m. in Helen Filene Ladd Hall. Admission is free and open to the public. 

A freshman Filene Music Scholar at Skidmore, Katie Murphy is an active member of the college orchestra and chamber music ensembles. She began studying flute in the fourth grade as part of the Hudson (Mass.) Public School band program. During high school she was principal flute in the Hudson High School Band and Wind Ensemble and represented her school in numerous district and all-state ensembles. While enrolled in the New England Conservatory Preparatory Program, Murphy played in the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra Program and attended the Oberlin Flute Institute and the Julius Baker Master Classes.

At Skidmore Murphy studies flute with Jan Vinci, senior artist-in-residence. 

Also a Filene Music Scholar, senior Hanna Tonegawa is from Chestnut Hill, Mass. She studies violin with Artist-in-Residence Michael Emery.

Four high school students are chosen through a competition each year as winners of Filene Scholarships: four-year awards totaling $40,000 in tuition at Skidmore.

The March 5 program will also include Ravel's "Pavane for a Dead Princess," and music from the "Mother Goose" ballet. "For a Dead Princess" was written for piano in 1899, when the Impressionist movement was well under way in France. The work became very popular, and the composer orchestrated it in 1910. Ravel claimed the princess was simply in his imagination, although he dedicated the piece to a princess who was his patroness.

Similarly, Ravel wrote "Mother Goose" as a piano duet in 1910, orchestrating it later, and then developing that music with additional movements as a ballet that was first performed in 1912. The original movements of "Mother Goose" included "Pavane of Sleeping Beauty," "Little Tom Thumb/Hop 'o My Thumb," "Little Ugly Girl, Empress of the Pagodas," "Beauty and the Beast," and "The Fairy Garden."

Holland said he chose the works of Ravel for this program not only for the marvelous quality of his music, but in particular because he is considered one of the greatest orchestrators ever. "It's a great learning opportunity for all our students to hear Ravel'ssuperbly crafted music performed by a live symphony orchestra, and for students to hear their own colleagues playing that great music makes it all the more meaningful," the conductor said.

"The students are thoroughly enjoying learning the very unusual playing techniques Ravel stipulates, such as special mutes for the horns and many unusual string harmonics you seldom see in the orchestral literature. Ravel's masterful use of orchestral colors is unsurpassed!" Holland added.