Two award-winning soloists, a 75-piece orchestra, and a crowd-pleasing program are all on tap for Thursday night’s UCLA Philharmonia Orchestra concert at Schoenberg Hall.
Professor Neal Stulberg, director of orchestral studies at UCLA since 2005, has conducted countless professional orchestras all over the world. However, according to Stulberg, there’s something uniquely rewarding about performing with the UCLA Philharmonia, and its solosits.
“There’s always something … special about our orchestra backing up one of their own as a soloist. Everyone’s pulling for everyone else, and the energy level gets even more intense.”
The soloists won their spots in the performance through the annual Atwater Kent Concerto Competition, for which undergraduate and graduate music students prepare full concertos and audition for an outside panel of judges. This year’s winners are fourth-year pianist Stephanie Ou and third-year trumpeter Jack Kent. Stulberg said that it’s unusual for both winners to be undergraduates.
Kent took up trumpet in fourth grade and says he chose to come to UCLA because he wanted to study with Professor Jens Lindemann, a world-renowned soloist on trumpet. During his junior year of high school in Northern California, Kent came down to UCLA for a private lesson with Lindemann. The experience was so compelling that a year later, he turned down a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music in Boston and opted to come to UCLA instead.
At the performance, Kent will perform Czech classical composer Johann Neruda’s Concerto in E flat for Trumpet and Strings with the UCLA Philharmonia, of which he is also a regular member.
“It’s sort of a seventh grade concerto, it’s not incredibly difficult,” said Kent, adding that he chose it for its beautiful second movement.
The Neruda concerto is an enduring classic, but Kent said the cadenzas in each of the three movements are what makes each performance unique. During a cadenza, the orchestra stops and the soloist gets to play “whatever he wants,” said Kent, opening the floor for him to shine. He hopes to show his technical dexterity while being true to the tone of the piece.
Pianist Stephanie Ou, who started playing when she was four, is the other featured soloist Thursday night. She transferred to UCLA in 2007 and has been working with Professor Walter Ponce, another world-renowned faculty member, for the past two years. Ou said Ponce has taught her to really imagine what she wants her music to sound like before she sits down to play.
“(She is) a powerful and refined pianist,” Stulberg said. “She brings a real sweep and unity to her performance.”
On Thursday she will play Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 (Emperor), one of the most popular and well-known works for piano and orchestra. Written during a time of war and social conflict in Europe, the piece oscillates between bold militaristic sections and more delicately beautiful parts.
Ou has wanted to play the piece since she was little and has been practicing it for a year and a half.
In addition to accompanying Ou and Kent, the orchestra will perform Richard Strauss’ “Don Juan” and Paul Hindemith’s “Symphonic Metamorphoses on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber.” Stulberg chose these challenging pieces to showcase the group’s talent. “These are both works that flex an orchestra’s muscles and really show how powerful and kaleidoscopic a virtuoso ensemble can sound,” he said.
“Don Juan” was a real breakout hit for Strauss, who was just 24 years old when he composed the masterpiece. Based on a poem about a popular fictional figure, it brought the story to life in a new way. “In (Strauss’) version, Don is never brutal but is rather a passionate and elegant lover who eventually falls victim to his own ardent idealism. … There is no more exciting work for orchestra.” Stulberg said.
German composer Hindemith wrote “Symphonic Metamorphoses” in 1943, shortly after moving to the U.S.
“(It sounds) unmistakably, even brashly American,” Stulberg said.
The piece’s four heavily textured movements demand both technical skill and expert style. Philharmonia member and orchestra manager Penelope Turgeon, a second-year master’s student in flute, said Stulberg has been giving short lectures before rehearsal. During these talks, he explains what each movement is about so the orchestra can execute the nuances of the piece more effectively.
For the UCLA Philharmonia, this will be the last concert of the year under Professor Stulberg’s baton. For Turgeon, who is graduating in June, this may be her last performance with him.
“It is very inspiring, not only as a manager, but as a musician and as a human being,” she said.
“This concert will really be special for many of us in the ensemble and music department. The energy will be very high.”