University of Florida Performing Arts

Presents

Janette Fishell, organist

in concert &

silent films accompanied by Dwight Thomas, organist

Tuesday, July 17, 2012, 7:30 p.m.

University Auditorium

A solo organ recital inspired by the art of cinema

Janette Fishell, recitalist

Fright Night (1985 and 2011)From Faust for organ Petr Eben

Prolog in Heaven Beggar with the Barrel OrganGretchenStudentenlieder

From Nedelni Hudba (Sunday Music)Moto Ostinato

An American in Paris (1951)From Pièces de fantaisie Louis Vierne

Cathédrales, Opus 55, No. 3 Impromptu, Opus 54, No. 2 Clair de lune, Op. 53. No. 5 Carillon de Westminster, Op. 54 No. 6

New York Stories (1989)Five Dances for Organ Calvin Hampton

I. The Primitives II. At the Ballet III. Those Americans IV. An Exalted RitualV. Everyone Dance

Janette Fishell concertizes under the auspices of Karen McFarlane Artists, Inc.

(1929-2007)

(1870-1937)

(1938-1984)

INTERMISSION

Silent films accompanied by Dwight Thomas, organ

Films: Double Whoopee (1929) and Angora Love (1929)

Both silent films are directed by Lewis R. Foster and star Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Organ pieces to be performed by Thomas between films will be announced from the stage.

Program NotesThe concept: Like many Baby Boomers I grew up with a passion for the written, sung and filmed word. I associate the benchmark moments of my life by the books I was currently reading, records on my turntable at the time and movies I lined up to watch with my friends at the Princess Theater. Such associations have probably contributed to my love of constructing recital programs that are narrative in nature. While I’ve played my share of “Baroque to Today” recitals, there is something so enjoyable about projecting a story through notes by the choice and juxtaposition of just the right pieces for the instrument one is playing. When I discovered that tonight’s recital would be followed by a silent film with organ accompaniment, I thought, “Why not play a recital that is the first of a double feature?” The result is three blocks of dramatic and colorful music, each of which suggests something of the color and drama associated with a film. I hope you enjoy this “prequel” and only apologize for not including popcorn.The music: Throughout the long and distinguished career of Czech composer Petr Eben, the organ maintained a position of honor. In his own words, the instrument “… was always pure joy … the dearest instrument to me, full of festivity.” A self-proclaimed romantic, Eben never failed to place his prodigious compositional technique at the service of the music. In discussing his artistic aesthetic he once said, “I strongly felt music to be a message to the listener and a composition was, for me, always more than a problem to solve in a musical way.” Those who know his music recognize that the frequent message is that good will triumph over evil, despite the follies of humankind.The battle between good and evil is at the heart of the Faustian legend. Eben’s Faust for organ is an adaptation of the composer’s stage music which was commissioned by the Burgtheater in Vienna. His most programmatic work, it calls upon the full resources of the organ and performer to dramatically portray Faust’s temptation, downfall and ultimate redemption. Prolog in Heaven begins with a bet between God and Mephistopheles that begins the competition to win Faust’s soul. Heaven is evoked through bright plenum registrations, use of the upper registers and the Introit for Palm Sunday (“All Glory, Laud and Honor”). As Mephistopheles enters the organ descends to the lowest register with dark colors; The Great Corrupter “corrupts” the sacred theme. But God is given the last word in a section of suspended beauty in which the chant sings out unrestrained. The final pages feature a chordal section that, in its upward surging, symbolizes the movement toward Heaven.The brief and somewhat foreboding song of the Beggar with the Barrel Organ leads to the cycle’s most expressive movement, Gretchen, in which the composer depicts the wretched cries of the deserted maid,

“My peace is gone, my heart is sore, never will I find peace again.When he is not with me it is like the grave, the whole world I loathe.”

Her song is cleverly divided between three keyboards, producing an effect that imitates sobbing as she spins. This gives way to a second theme surrounded by sixteenth notes that suggest the movement of her spinning wheel. As the wheel stops the opening theme returns, now fragmented and disjunct, a mirror of Gretchen’s psychological state. Studentenlieder evokes a picture of a merry company of students imbibing at Auerbach’s Tavern. Fanciful registrations, clusters leaping from manual to manual and glissandi suggest the unsteady movements of the drunken students as they sing the Student Song and the Song of the Rats.Fright Night is certainly evident in Eben’s most famous work, Moto Ostinato, a work inspired by the story of Christ’s encounter with the possessed man who answers, “My name is legion, for we are many.” Mark 5:9. The hypnotic opening theme heard from the opening measures grows

increasingly powerful until it engulfs the entire texture by its force. The stereophonic effects of the final page are achieved by rapid manual changes. Louis Vierne entered the organ class of Maitre César Franck only months before the elder composer’s death. Consequently, most of his tuition was under the direction of Charles-Marie Widor, who, with formidable tenacity, began a revolution in the instruction of organists at the Paris Conservatoire, demanding excellence not only in improvisation but in technique. Vierne was Widor’s assistant at St. Sulpice until the time when he accepted the exalted position of Organiste Titulaire of the Cathedral of Notre Dame, Paris. Renowned for his improvisatory skills, Vierne was also a prolific composer, leaving four suites of Pièces de Fantaisie, six organ symphonies and other works that have formed a central core of repertoire for generations of organists throughout the world. Many of the Fantasy Pieces were composed for Vierne’s concert tours played, in part, to raise funds for the upkeep and restoration of the ailing Cavaillé-Coll organ at Notre Dame. Those played in this recital could be heard as a sonic stroll through Vierne’s personal patch of Paris: we walk past the soaring arches and massive flying buttresses of Notre Dame (Cathedrales), where we catch a glimpse of the impish antics of the guardian gargoyles sitting atop that great building (Impromptu) and soak in the moonbeams during our midnight stroll past the Seine (Clair de lune). We end with Vierne’s Gallic tribute to Big Ben’s familiar Westminster Chime, a work dedicated to the famous organ builder Henry Willis. It was so popular the first time Vierne played it at Notre Dame that the clergy uncharacteristically waited for the organist to descend from the Tribune at the close of the service in order to pay their compliments.The sights and sounds of New York City seem to have inspired the Five Dances by innovative American organist/composer Calvin Hampton, whose music continues to delight long after his untimely death. It is possible to hear these delightful dances as an aural “walking tour” of the Big Apple, beginning with an electrifying performance of Rite of Spring (Mvt. I), moving to the New York City Ballet (Mvt. II), to a Broadway musical (Mvt. III), past a great church (Mvt. IV) and finally to a circus in Madison Square Garden, complete with dancing bears and tightrope walkers (Mvt. V). Throughout, it is apparent that the composer understood how to successfully leash the organ’s ability to project both musical line and rhythmic incisiveness.

— Notes ©Janette Fishell

About Janette FishellJanette Fishell holds degrees in organ performance from Indiana University and Northwestern University; her teachers included Wilma Jensen, Wolfgang Rübsam, Richard Enright, Anita Werling, Robert Byrd and Clyde Holloway with further coaching on Baroque and German Romantic repertoire by Ludger Lohmann. Named Young Organist of the Year by Keyboard Arts, Inc. while still an undergraduate, Dr. Fishell is a recitalist and teacher of international standing. She has performed in many of the world’s greatest concert venues including Suntory Hall, Tokyo; King’s College, Cambridge; Berlin’s Schauspielhaus; the Liszt Academy, Budapest; the Prague Spring Festival; and has been a featured recitalist and lecturer at five national conventions and five regional conventions of the American Guild of Organists. Her solo recitals for the 2006 national convention of the AGO in Chicago were critically acclaimed as “flawless” and a convention highlight. The author of numerous articles and a book on service playing published by Abingdon Press, she is widely recognized as a leading authority on the organ music of Czech composer Petr Eben.Her numerous compact disc recordings include performances of the music of Marcel Dupré, Petr Eben and J.S. Bach as well as duet literature performed with her husband, British organist

Colin Andrews. Pas de Dieu: Music Sublime and Spirited, a recording of French Romantic repertoire and the world premiere of Frank Ferko’s Livre d’Orgue, was released by Loft Recordings in July, 2006, the premiere recording on C. B. Fisk opus 126. She has been featured in live radio broadcasts worldwide, including live recital broadcasts for the BBC from St. Marylebone Church, London, NHK, Tokyo and Czech Radio. A frequent adjudicator, she has been tutor and artist three times at the Oundle International School for Young Organists and was a judge for the recorded round of the 2000 National Competition for Young Artists sponsored by the American Guild of Organists. She served as chair of the NYACOP committee from 2004 to 2006.Dr. Fishell is a professor of organ and chair of the Organ Department at the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University, where she teaches applied organ and courses in the sacred music curriculum. From 1989 to 2008 she headed the organ performance and sacred music degree programs at East Carolina University and was director of music/principal organist at Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church, Greenville, N.C. where she oversaw a full schedule of choral services and led the choir on two successful English Cathedral Choral Residencies and the recording of a critically acclaimed compact disc.Her students have distinguished themselves in academia and the performance stage, including first-place honors in the AGO Competition for Young Organists, the MTNA National Collegiate Organ Competition and at the Oundle International Summer School for Young Organists. Her former students successfully serve in churches and on university faculties throughout the U.S. and Asia.Dr. Fishell’s commitment to the creation and sustenance of excellence and creativity in organ performance and sacred music has led to a variety of projects: she founded the East Carolina Religious Arts Festival, and was pivotal in the design and fundraising for the C. B. Fisk opus 126 pipe organ that functions both as the organ for St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Greenville, N.C., and the major teaching and performance instrument for East Carolina University School of Music. She has received numerous commissions for choral compositions and hymn tunes, some of which are featured on Love Bade Me Welcome: Music from St. Paul’s, and is a regular contributor to professional journals, a participant on panels and an active lecturer and adjudicator.Most recent and upcoming engagements include venues across the U.S. and multiple concert tours of Asia and Europe, including recitals at the Beijing National Center of the Performing Arts, Shanghai Oriental Arts Center, Sydney Town Hall, Lilia Hall and Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris. In the U.S., she performs under the management of Karen McFarlane Artists, Inc.In late September 2005 Fishell was diagnosed with stage III ovarian cancer and had surgery within days. She credits Dr. Diane Semer, Greenville, N.C., with saving her life. The first good news she received was that the tumor had not spread beyond the surface of her ovaries and that it was deemed a low potential malignancy. Fishell underwent chemotherapy through the early spring of 2006 – grueling treatments that she tolerated quite well nonetheless, though they left her with some joint pain and, of course, no hair. Since her surgery, Fishell’s CA-125 has not exceeded eight and all of her checkups have been clear. She is now seeing her new physician, Dr. Frederick Stehman of IU Health, only once a year. Throughout it all, she credits her mother for giving her a

hopeful disposition; her faith in God for setting earthly priorities; her professional life which got her out of bed to teach, practice and perform almost immediately; and her family and friends for their constant love and support, most especially her husband Colin and sister Julie.

About Dwight ThomasDwight Thomas graduated with a B.M. from Butler University, Indianapolis, studying piano with Dorothy Munger and piano pedagogy with Steve Roberson, and an M.M. from Indiana University, Bloomington, studying organ and church music with Marilyn Keiser and Robert Rayfield. Before moving to Florida in 1999, he served at several Indianapolis ecclesiastical institutions, and as an organ faculty member/resident organist at both Christian Theological Seminary and Butler University.In addition to being a classically trained organist, Thomas is also an established theater organist, and was named Theater Organist of the Year by the American Theater Organ Society in 2006. He was also staff organist playing the famous Wurlitzer organ at the Roaring 20’s restaurant in Ellenton, Fla. until its closure in 2010.As a concert organist, he has played recitals on major classical and theater organ installations in the U.S. and Great Britain, including York Minster and Westminster Abbey. He has been involved with several recording projects, with his recording The All-American Music of Irving Berlin, being selected as one of the top 10 recordings of 1990 by TIME Magazine.Thomas also joined the illustrious company of Robert Schumann, Leon Fleisher and others; all keyboard musicians who have been afflicted with “focal dystonia,” a neurological condition for which there is no cure. Thomas’ dystonia is focused on the right hand, where the fingers involuntarily curl under and form a fist while playing. Focal dystonia has ended the careers of many musicians, and while Thomas considers himself one of the lucky ones, with symptoms that have vastly improved, it is still a condition that influences his playing and life.Thomas is currently director of music ministries and organist at the Cathedral Church of St. Peter in St. Petersburg, Fla. In addition, he teaches organ at State College of Florida in Bradenton and is the artistic director for Una Voce, The Florida Men’s Chorale.

Ovarian Cancer (Teal Ribbon)Ovarian cancer develops in a woman’s ovaries when cells begin to grow uncontrollably. The uncontrollable growth develops tumors; some tumors can be benign (non-cancerous). When they are cancerous, this results in ovarian cancer.

Risk FactorsStudies have shown that pregnancy and taking birth control pills both lower the risk for ovarian cancer. As both reduce the number of times an egg is released from the ovary, there may be a link between the release of eggs and the chances of developing ovarian cancer.Risk factors for developing ovarian cancer include: • Age–Womenwhoarepost-menopausalareatahigherrisk. • Obesity–Overweightwomenhaveahigherriskofovariancancer. • Fertilitydrugs–Theuseoffertilitydrugs,particularlyifnopregnancyresults,mayincreasea

woman’s risk for developing ovarian cancer. • Familyhistory–Havingamother,sisterordaughterwithovariancancerincreasesawoman’s

chance of developing ovarian cancer. A family history of breast cancer can also increase a woman’s risk.

SymptomsSymptoms for ovarian cancer can vary from woman to woman, but general symptoms include pain or pressure in the abdomen, legs, back or pelvis; a swollen or bloated abdomen; nausea, indigestion, gas, constipation or diarrhea; and feeling tired all the time.

TreatmentThe treatment for ovarian cancer depends on the patient and the stage of the cancer. Local therapies, including surgery and radiation, can be used to remove or destroy the cancerous areas in the ovaries. Chemotherapy can be administered to the patient, either intravenously through the abdomen or through the veins, or orally.

PreventionBecause ovarian cancer symptoms do not develop until the cancer is advanced, the most important preventative step is regular physical exams. Women who are overweight should consider adopting a healthier lifestyle to decrease their chance of developing ovarian cancer.

For More InformationFor more information about ovarian cancer, visit the following resources on the web: • AmericanCancerSociety—www.cancer.org • OvarianCancerResearchFund—www.ocrf.org • ShandsHealthCare—www.shands.org/hospitals/UF/service/cancer/gynecologicalcancer.asp

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Performing Arts

www.performingarts.ufl .edu

The Capitol StepsMonday, November 5, 7:30 p.m.

Benise – En Fuego!Wednesday, November 7, 7:30 p.m.

West Side StoryTuesday, November 27, 7:30 p.m.Wednesday, November 28, 7:30 p.m.

MOMIX – BotanicaThursday, January 24, 7:30 p.m.

Vienna Boys ChoirWednesday, February 13, 7:30 p.m.

Hooray for HollywoodFriday, February 15, 7:30 p.m.

Alvin Ailey American Dance TheaterRobert Battle, Artistic DirectorMasazumi Chaya, Associate Artistic DirectorTuesday, February 19, 7:30 p.m.

HAIRMonday, April 8, 7:30 p.m.

VOCA PEOPLEThursday, April 11, 7:30 p.m.

Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour: 55th AnniversaryFriday, April 12, 7:30 p.m.

highlights

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2012-13 Seasonhighlights

2012-13 Seasonhighlights

Tickets go on sale Friday, July 13 at noon!

For a full list of events visit

All listed events will be at the Phillips Center.

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