ondine
Opus. 09
Instrumentation: Symphony Orchestra (2.2.2.2. / 4.2.2. / strings)
Duration: 11 Minutes
Written For: Nathan Aspinall and the New England Conservatory Philharmonic
perusal score
PROGRAM NOTE.
In grad school, a friend of mine told me I was “like Ondine”. Not having a clue what that meant, I looked her up, and there she was in Gaelic literature as a nature spirit who was born a fairy and then decided to delve into the sea and become a water spirit. She’s the original Little Mermaid.
But the folk tales aren’t from her perspective, and as they tell of her beauty and siren-ness, they also accuse her of putting sailors under a spell to follow her into the sea to fairly unhappy endings. So I’ve retold this non-Disney version of the story from her perspective:
I felt that Ondine's tale is a sad one, but not one of some vengeful feminine spirit, so I made friends with her, decided to interpret her story as one of solitude, despair and confusion, but ultimately self-redemption. In this piece, you'll hear a prologue and epilogue of waves and sea-sounds. Ondine sings and witnesses yet another death in Part I. Her decision to forgive herself for whatever part of this she caused and dance anyway is depicted in Part II.
conductor biography.
Nathan Aspinall is currently the Assistant Conductor of the Nashville Symphony. Formerly, he was Associate Conductor of the Jacksonville Symphony, for whom he conducted performances of Handel’s Messiah, Prokofiev’s Cinderella and a tour of South Florida with pianist Bezhod Abduraimov. The program included Shostakovic’s Symphony no. 5 and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto no. 3 and received rave reviews across the state. Kevin Wilt of the Palm Beach Daily News said of the performance “In recent years the Kravis Center has heard performances by the Chicago Symphony, the Royal Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra and more. This one was just as polished as any of those.”
During the 2018/19 season, Aspinall led Jacksonville Symphony in two masterworks subscription programs and a tour with organist Cameron Carpenter to the Kravis Center. He was selected as one of two conducting fellows at the Tanglewood Music Festival during the summer of 2019.
Formerly, Aspinall held the position of Young Conductor with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in Australia, where he assisted Chief Conductor Johannes Fritzsch and visiting guest conductors, and where he conducted concerts for the orchestra’s education series. He studied French horn and conducting at the University of Queensland and upon graduation was awarded the Hugh Brandon Prize. In 2012, he attended the Aspen Music Festival, studying with Robert Spano and Hugh Wolff; he was awarded the Robert J. Harth Conducting Prize, inviting him to return to Aspen the following year.
Aspinall has guest-conducted the Atlanta, Sydney, Adelaide, Queensland and Tasmanian symphony orchestras, as well as the Queensland Conservatorium Chamber Orchestra. He has acted as Assistant Conductor for Opera Queensland. Festival appearances and masterclasses have included the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, Oregon Bach Festival and the Tanglewood Music Center Conducting Seminar. He studied Orchestral Conducting with Hugh Wolff at New England Conservatory in Boston.