Maestros of the Classroom
Maestros of the Classroom
April 29, 2022
In-person or livestreamed to your home: 7:30pm
Tickets
Adults: $30
Seniors: $25
Students: $12
Children (12 and under): $5
Livestream Access
$15 per household
Includes access day of concert, and access to livestream video from 5/2/2022-5/16/2022
Experience music from educator-composers of all eras! Feel the glory of the American landscape in Dvořák’s Cello Concerto (featuring our concert competition winner Ethan Blake), written while he was the director of the National Conservatory in New York. Loop through the solar system in professor Missy Mazzoli’s “Sinfonia for Orbiting Spheres.” Be serenaded by lecturer Eric Ewazen’s “Ballade for Clarinet, Harp, and Strings,” and hear the mythical story of Prometheus in piano teacher Beethoven’s “Creatures of Prometheus Overature.” This is a class you don’t want to be late for!
At the Arapahoe Philharmonic, we deeply value the impact our music educators have on our community and the future of music. To show our appreciation, we began the annual Arapahoe Philharmonic Music Educator of the Year Award. The award recognizes exemplary public school instrumental music teachers who work in Arapahoe or Douglas County. The winner will be announced at this concert! To learn more about the award or to nominate a teacher, click here.
More About “Maestros of the Classroom”
A concert celebrating the joy and art of teaching, and the profound impact our teachers, both known and unknown have throughout our lives. This is an exploration and interplay of great composers who are or have also been involved in the educational system.
Dvořák’s Cello Concerto is perhaps the most awe-inspiring and majestic solo concerto ever written, and happens to be my favorite as well! Antonín Dvořák would not have come to American in the 1890s had it not been for the arts provocateur and entrepreneur Jeanette Thurber. Thanks to her ingenuity and boldness, and Dvorak’s willingness, the Czech composer came to the New World to help build a new American school of music, leaving us with an astoundingly brilliant Cello Concerto, along with other great music. We are excited to welcome our soloist and winner of the Arapahoe Phil’s Concerto Competition, Ethan Blake.
As an avid soloist, chamber, and orchestral musician, Ethan has performed a wide variety of repertoire and has participated in numerous music festivals around the world, including the Brevard and Innsbrook Music Festivals, as well as the Accademia Musicale Chigiana (Siena, Italy). As a chamber musician, Ethan has worked with many notable ensembles, including the Takács, Calidore, Borromeo, and Beijing String Quartets.
Ethan started playing the cello in the 3rd grade and holds a passion for arts education and outreach, as he performs sectionals in various elementary and middle schools throughout Colorado and holds private lessons for students of all backgrounds. Ethan is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Music at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he studies with David Requiro.
Eric Ewazen is one of the most sought after composers, arrangers, and choral educators of the world. His Ballade for Harp and Clarinet will feature two of the amazing artists/teachers or maestros of the Arapahoe Philharmonic, Hillary Schefter and Jason Olney. Adding himself to the class, Beethoven’s Overture to the Creatures of Prometheus will bring extra fire to the evening. As Beethoven was an avid student of the greats who came before him, he also taught piano to (and fell in love with) many powerful aristocratic women.
Beethoven’s relationship with Haydn is one for the history books. Due to the former’s fiery, passionate, innovative, and extreme personality and musical attributes, it was difficult to maintain relationships with mentors. Nonetheless Beethoven assumed many traits from Papa Haydn, most importantly the use of musical humor. The setting of Creatures of Prometheus, the god who steals fire to deliver it to humans in the form of an education on the arts and sciences, was an early endeavor for Beethoven. This period saw the composer assimilate the classical masters who came before him to create a new era of musical Romanticism.