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When Naomi Woo contacted me to ask about modifying Summer Walker Dances to fit her ensembles’ instrumentation and giving a series of talks to the students, I was touched and inspired. Over the course of this spring, I was able to take time to re-craft Summer Walker Dances to fit the student’s needs and meet and speak with the students via zoom about the music, composing, and the importance of putting one’s heritage into one’s artistic work. This collaboration was great fun and ended up being a profound experience in connecting through music and storytelling, even at great physical distances.
-Steph
PROGRAM.
Summer Walker Dances, Op. 22 — Stephanie Ann Boyd
Program Note.
summer walker dances| string orchestra, Op. 22
commissioned by The Orchestras of La Grange
School District 105 in La Grange, IL
In Scotland, the land of my ancestors, there was a group of people poetically called the Summer Walkers. For hundreds of years, these Highland Travellers have been closely tied to their native Highlands, passing from village to village as they helped with seasonal crops and other jobs as skilled craftsman. I imagine that they roamed across the bonny hills of Scotland with the summer wind whipping around them as they played folk tunes on their fiddles, their flutes, their drums. In writing this piece for the orchestras of District 105, I wanted to create a piece that would speak of the blissful summer weather that is around the corner for the students, the teachers, and even us composers – but I also wanted it to be an anthem of sorts, giving a signal of hope and strength to music programs in the US – showing how truly important music education is for all involved.
WINNIPEG YOUTH ORCHESTRAS
Founded in 1923, the Winnipeg Youth Orchestras are the oldest Youth Orchestra in Canada. The aim of our founding fathers was to provide young and aspiring musicians from across Manitoba with the opportunity to play music in an orchestral setting. Due to changes in school programming over the years, we are now the only musical organization to offer this opportunity to musicians of school age in the province of Manitoba and so we play a vital role in supporting youth musicians.
More here
sistema winnipeg
Sistema Winnipeg is a daily, intensive, program that uses music as a tool for social change. The program delivers musical training every day after school, at no cost to participating families. Sistema Winnipeg is a partnership between the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra (WSO), Seven Oaks School Division (SOSD) and Winnipeg School Division (WSD). In 2019-20 Sistema Winnipeg engaged 120 children in grades 2-10 at two school locations, Elwick School (SOSD) and King Edward School (WSD). Programming includes general music, instrumental sectionals, full orchestra and choir rehearsals, and other activities for violin, viola, cello, bass, flute, and trumpet.
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keith dyrda, conductor
Born and raised in Winnipeg, MB, Keith Dyrda is a celebrated trombonist and music educator who has performed in numerous countries around the world, spanning North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australasia. He is a member of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.
Keith’s musical education began on the violin at age 5 when he became an avid student of the celebrated Suzuki Method, which served as the catalyst and foundation for the many years of studies that followed. Keith’s performance career began when, at age 21, he replaced founding member Gene Watts as the trombonist of Canadian Brass. He has since performed with Chicago’s Symphony Orchestra, Lyric Opera, Music of the Baroque, and Philharmonic Orchestra. With the Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal, Keith has appeared both in the low brass section and as a soloist, having been named grand prizewinner of the OSM’s 2008 Standard Life Competition. He also appeared as a soloist with the World Peace Orchestra for Korea in Seoul, KR having been nationally televised there in 2013. Keith also spent 5 years as a member of the All-Star Brass, a quintet that performed and recorded extensively at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.
Keith was nominated for a Juno Award in Classical Album of the Year: Solo or Chamber Ensemble for his contribution to Canadian Brass’ 2012 album “Brahms on Brass”. He was also the first prizewinner of the International Trombone Festival’s 2009 Robert Marsteller Competition (Denmark) and the 2009 Alessi Seminar Solo Competition (New Mexico). Keith holds a Bachelor of Music degree from McGill University’s Schulich School of Music and Master of Music degree from Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music.
Keith is Vincent Bach performing artist and has conducted the Youth Strings since 2019.
andrea bell, conductor
Born in Winnipeg, Andrea Bell holds Bachelor Degrees in Music and Education from the University of Manitoba and a Masters Degree in Cello Performance from the University of British Columbia. Andrea is the founding member and cellist of the Rembrandt String Quartet. A passionate music educator, Ms. Bell is the Director of the String Orchestra Program at Westgate Mennonite Collegiate. She maintains a large and vibrant private cello studio and is the Director of the “Mini-Rosie” program at the Rosamunde Summer Music Academy. Andrea has taught cello, conducted youth and adult amateur orchestras and adjudicated music festivals across Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and in Australia. Andrea is the Conductor of the Winnipeg Mennonite Community Orchestra and has conducted the Youth Concert Orchestra since 1997.
naomi woo, conductor
Naomi Woo is a prominent young Canadian conductor, recognized by CBC (30 Under 30) and Flare Magazine (How I Made It) as a rising star on the Canadian classical music scene, and notable for her work as a socially-engaged artist and educator. As RBC Assistant Conductor of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Naomi programmes and conducts educational concerts and is a leader in community engagement. Naomi is also the first Music Director of Sistema Winnipeg, a music programme for social change in the city’s North End. A commitment to using music to imaginatively transform the world runs through all of her work, including her recently-completed PhD thesis, The Practicality of the Impossible.
As an opera conductor and music director, Naomi is remarkable for her collaborative approach and natural command for storytelling and language. She has conducted more than a dozen operas with students and young professionals in US and the UK, and collaboratively created new, genre-bending operatic works with Sasha Amaya and Catherine Kontz (A Certain Sense of Order, Tête à Tête Opera Festival 2017), Sophie Seita (Beethoven Was a Lesbian, Tête à Tête Opera Festival 2020), and Alex Ho/Julia Cheng (dramaturg for UNTOLD, Snape Maltings 2019). In 2018, she was one of only 12 conductors accepted onto the first training course for women conductors at the National Opera Studio, hosted by the Royal Philharmonic Society and the Royal Opera House.
Her passion for new work and artistic creation has also led to trainings and residencies at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse, the International Ensemble Modern Academy at Klangspuren Schwaz, Nida Art Colony (Vilnius Academy of the Arts), the Cortona Sessions for New Music, and more. As a pianist, she has been a prizewinner at the Eckhardt-Grammatté Competition for Canadian and Contemporary Music and winner of the Hélène Roberge Prize for Canadian Music. She is an artist with Tangram, an ensemble devoted to celebrating the vitality of Chinese cultures, and creating new music by transnational Chinese creators.
In addition to her current position, she has conducted ensembles including the International Ensemble Modern Academy Orchestra, Cambridge New Music Ensemble, and the Yale Symphony Orchestra. As an assistant, she has worked with conductors including Jac Van Steen, Sir Mark Elder, Matias Bamert, Jessica Cottis, and Jane Glover.
Naomi holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge, where she was a Gates Cambridge Scholar. She has also studied mathematics, philosophy, and music at Yale College, the Yale School of Music, and Université de Montréal. Her formative training before university took place at the Vancouver Academy of Music. She acknowledges generous support over the years from the Manitoba Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, Help Musicians UK, and the BC Arts Council.
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.