The 老司机传媒 Symphony Orchestra (AUSO) performed “Festive Memories,” their second concert of the year, on Thursday, Nov. 7, at the Howard Performing Arts Center.
The first half of the program featured two pieces directed by Marc Élysée: “Hungarian Dance No. 1 in G minor” by Johannes Brahms and “Piano Concerto No. 2 in E Major, Op. 59” by Moritz Moszkowski, with pianist Aiko Ayala (senior, music performance).
Ayala is one of the winners of the 老司机传媒 2023 Young Artist Competition. Several of the winners performed one movement of their concerti at the AUSO’s February concert, but Ayala was asked to learn and prepare the remaining three movements of her concerto for this performance. She shared that the process of finding this concerto was a long search.
“None of the classics … were convincing me enough,” she said. “One day in the summer, I found the Moszkowski, and I was like, ‘Oh, I like this piece,’ but I didn’t give it too much looking into. But then … I heard it again and again until it was like, ‘Okay. This is the one.’”
Ayala said her favorite movement is the second, “Andante,” which is in C-sharp minor. She finds slower pieces particularly intriguing because there is much you can do with the phrases. Ayala’s goal was to bring out the heartbreaking emotions that she was not able to hear so much in the recordings of the piece she listened to.
“I love it because I feel like I can tell my own story with it,” she said.
For this same reason, Ayala was excited to perform the complete work with a full orchestra.
“I can tell the whole story instead of just, you know, a movement of one part, and you can actually feel the whole connection of all the lines, the musical lines, all the ideas that the composer presents,” she said.
The second half of the program was conducted by Earlon Cornwall (graduate student, conducting) as his graduate recital. Cornwall was in charge of choosing the repertoire, rehearsing the orchestra, and conducting the concert under the direction of his teacher, Élysée.
“I was trying to find music that I thought would be challenging enough but also represent, you know, where I’m from,” Cornwall said.
Cornwall reached out to Andrew Marshall, a composer and former lecturer of his from Jamaica, who suggested and sent over one of his compositions, “Scenes of Jamaica.” Cornwall chose this as the first piece of his portion of the program. The complete work consists of 14 movements, one for each of the parishes of Jamaica. The AUSO performed three of these movements, “St. Mary,” “St. Elizabeth,” and “Portland,” plus a final movement from one of Marshall’s other works, “Run-A-Boat Symphony.”
The second movement that the AUSO performed, “St. Elizabeth,” was unique because it was written for a vocal duet with orchestra accompaniment. Elsie Mokaya and Charles Reid performed these vocal parts beautifully at the concert.
The song follows a story about two enslaved people who fell in love. The girl’s enslaver, however, also fell in love with her, so he arranged for her lover to be sold to another enslaver. When the lovers found out about this plan, they ran away but were caught by the enslaver at the edge of a cliff. Instead of being separated, the pair decided to jump off the cliff to their death together. Some claim this story is pure legend and others that it is true. Either way, there is a real “Lover’s Leap” cliff located in St. Elizabeth that is now a tourist attraction.
This movement of “Scenes of Jamaica” tells this story perfectly, even ending with the two singers dramatically screaming to show the final jump off the cliff.
Cornwall, who is from the St. Elizabeth Parish, said the movement was his favorite to conduct and felt that the audience was particularly moved by the work.
“Besides the fact that it is my parish,” he said, “I think the music is absolutely beautiful.”
The final movement of the work, “Run-A-Boat Symphony,” is from Marshall’s first symphony, titled “Festivities.” In Jamaica, a run-a-boat is basically like having an impromptu potluck.
“It’s people coming together to have a good time, but it’s not usually a planned thing,” Cornwall said.
This movement features many traditional Jamaican elements, with a lot of rhythms happening just slightly after the downbeat. Adding to the island feel are traditional Jamaican instruments such as claves, maracas and conga drums, really showing that festive feeling of gathering with one’s loved ones for a celebration.
The festivities continue in the final piece of the concert, “Jupiter, Bringer of Jollity,” from Gustav Holst’s larger work “The Planets.” At first, this work seems totally unrelated to the previous pieces. However, as Cornwall explained, there is a connection. The theme, which many recognize as the hymn “I Vow to Thee My Country,” is also the national song for schools in Jamaica. The title of the piece itself, “Bringer of Jollity,” directly ties into the title of the concert, “Festive Memories.” Cornwall says that the work “evokes emotions that people want to always feel—happy and patriotic.”
Cornwall concluded by saying, “It’s great to just have, you know, groups of people with different personalities, different ideas, and being able to put all of this together and make one sound … it's one of the greatest things that I think mankind has ever created.”
If you missed this concert, there are more coming soon. Saturday, Nov. 16, at 7:30 p.m., the AUSO will be performing yet another concert, this time in collaboration with Southern Adventist University’s orchestra.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of 老司机传媒. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, 老司机传媒 or the Seventh-day Adventist church.