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On a dark evening in February, I spent an hour and a half leading a clinic with professor Jennifer Cowell and the Casper College Chamber Orchestra through zoom of a piece that’s about to celebrate its 10th birthday: Beyond the Gate for string orchestra. Our clinic was so enjoyable and passed by so quickly that Jennifer and I both wrote each other immediately afterward: “where did the time go?!” I’m grateful to these students for their hard and marvelous work and to Jennifer for leading and inspiring such a marvelous group of young musicians.
-Steph
PROGRAM.
Beyond the Gate, Op. 07 — Stephanie Ann Boyd
And other works performed by the Casper College Chamber Singers, and Wind Ensemble.
Live from Wheeler Concert Hall.
Program Note.
beyond the gate| string orchestra, Op. 7
commissioned by the jvl music in summer festival
This piece was commissioned by the JVL Music in Summer Festival of 2011. The music and the poem came to me at the same time, inspired by nature walks that I took with children I was teaching in my Fresh Air and Fairies summer art day camps (my summer job during college). Every morning we would begin the day by walking down the stone steps from my house that led to an old metal gate. As soon as we walked through the gate, we were able to bear witness to the beauty of the nature beyond. Many magical moments, courtesy of emerald-winged dragonflies landing on the children's hands, black raspberry bushes in full bloom, and willow trees that made the perfect art-camp fairy bower, ensued. After the first Stanza, each stanza corresponds to a movement of the piece.
Beyond the gate
the open land speaks in greens
beckoning to the firefly grove
where sapphire shimmers on gossamer wings
dance in lightness, stand stoic in shadows
The mirror pond is calm and still
no etchings mar its surface-glass
Yet there is movement beneath the depths,
beyond the gate, a murmuring
above the mirror, nothing can be seen,
not the ripples, carried almost to the circle-surface
only to fall deep, float back down
the mirror pond shines,
calm and still
The hosta garden is alive
jump the bugs and humming bees
swarm the broad-leafed hubs
and spring from emerald plant to plant
frantically flinging their crunchy bodies
in all their speed they can't live long...
And the fountains, aqua blue
flow up in a solid, powerful stroke
and arc, hanging just barely in the air
their fluid bodies beginning to sparkle,
then the waters, rushing earthwards
splash down upon their rock-basins
diving down to rejoin the depths
jennifer cowell, conductor
Jennifer Cowell serves as the Program Director of the Music Department at Casper College. She also conducts the Chamber Orchestra and teaches applied violin and class piano. A native of Casper and graduate of Kelly Walsh High School, Jennifer earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Violin Performance from DePaul University in Chicago as well as a Master of Music degree in Violin Performance and Pedagogy from the University of Oregon before returning to Casper in 2001. She is a registered Suzuki instructor and maintains a small, private Suzuki studio in Casper. Ms. Cowell-DePaolo currently works for the Casper Children’s Chorale, serving as the accompanist for Bel Canto, a young training choir.
STEPHANIE ANN BOYD, COMPOSER
Michigan-born, Manhattan-based American composer Stephanie Ann Boyd (b. 1990) writes melodic music about women’s memoirs and the natural world for symphonic and chamber ensembles. Her work has been performed in nearly all 50 states and has been commissioned by musicians and organizations in 37 countries. Boyd’s five ballets include works choreographed by New York City Ballet principal dancers Lauren Lovette, Ashley Bouder, NYCB soloist Peter Walker, and XAOC Contemporary Ballet’s Eryn Renee Young. Eero, a ballet commissioned by Access Contemporary Music and Open House New York, was written for the grand opening of the TWA Hotel at JFK Airport. Her music has been praised as “attractive lyricism” (Gramophone), “[with] ethereal dissonances” (Boston Globe), “[music that] didn’t let itself be eclipsed” (Texas Classical Review), “arrestingly poetic” (BMOP), and “wide ranging, imaginative” (Portland Press Herald).
Boyd’s music has been commissioned and performed by concertmasters of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Singapore Symphony, the New York City Ballet Orchestra, the Des Moines Symphony, the Faroe Islands Symphony, the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra, the Fort Smith Symphony, the Arkansas Philharmonic Orchestra, and principal players in the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. Her music has been commissioned and/or played by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the New England Conservatory Philharmonic, the Cape Cod Chamber Orchestra, the New York Jazzharmonic, the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, the Roosevelt University Orchestra, the Eureka Ensemble, the JVL Festival Orchestra, the Texas State University Symphony, the Cremona International Academy Orchestra, the UW La Crosse Symphony, the Detroit Civic Orchestra, and the El Paso Youth Symphony. Her work has been presented by the Thalia and her Sisters concert series, the Moirae Ensemble, and Sandcastle New Music in New York City; Æpex Contemporary Music in Michigan; Juventas New Music, Collage New Music, and the New Gallery Concert Series in Boston; Cincinnati Soundbox, and others. Stephanie has worked with conductors such as Andrew Litton, Lina Gonzales, Earl Lee, Nathan Aspinall, Cliff Colnot, Gill Rose, Julian Benichou, Kristo Kondakci, and Kevin Fitzgerald.
The 2020/2021 season includes commissions from the Wyoming Symphony, Astral Artists with cellist Tommy Mesa, violinist Megan Healy, pianists Lara Downes, Lise de la Salle, Marta Aznavoorian, Lucille Chung, Susie Maddocks, Adrienne Park, Diane Kaztenburg Braun and Music Street, Sarah Bob and the New Gallery Concert Series, Holly Roadfeldt, Marianne Parker, Eunbi Kim, the Kurganov-Finehouse Duo, and others. This season also includes performances by the Lincoln Trio, Juventas New Music, Jennifer Reason, Lisa Pegher, Shouthouse, Ayanna Witter-Johnson, including concerts at the Kaufman Center, the Boston New Music Festival, the Festival of New American Music, Pianoforte in Chicago, live on Chicago’s WFMT radio station, and elsewhere.
Stephanie holds degrees from Roosevelt University and New England Conservatory, and she was one of the last violin students of renowned pedagogue John Kendall.