Discovery Ensemble Presents Conflict & Resolution:

CAMBRIDGE, MA, September 23, 2010

Courtney Lewis, Conductor and Music Director of Discovery Ensemble is pleased to present Conflict & Resolution, Discovery EnsembleÕs first public concert for the 2010 - 2011 season. The concert, which will feature Martinů Double Concerto for Two String Orchestras, Piano and Timpani, Schoenberg First Chamber Symphony and Beethoven Symphony No. 3, ÒEroicaÓ will take place at Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy Street, near Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts on Sunday, October 17, 2010 at 3:00 PM.

Reserved-seat tickets priced at $35.00, $28.00 and $20.00 are on sale now on line at http://www.DiscoveryEnsemble.com or by calling: 617-496-2222. Tickets are also available at the Harvard Box Office Booth, located at 1350 Massachusetts Avenue in the Holyoke Center Arcade. Harvard Box Office summer hours are Wednesday through Saturday 12:00 noon to 6:00 pm. Regular box office hours [beginning September 7] are Tuesday through Sunday from 12:00 noon to 6:00 P.M. The box office is closed on Mondays and some holidays. Tickets for students and seniors with identification will be available at a discount of $10.00 in all price ranges. Season passes at $100.00, $80.00 and $60.00 for all three concerts will be available at http://www.DiscoveryEnsemble.com in the near future. Sanders Theatre is wheelchair accessible.

About the October 17 Program:

A revolutionary, at times mutinous streak runs through this program! Bohuslav Martinu's Double Concerto is one of that under-appreciated composerÕs masterpieces. It was written on the eve of the Second World War, and its atmosphere of tense apprehensiveness is a perfect, harrowing corollary to the mood of Europe in 1938.

Born on December 8, 1890, Martinu was a prolific Bohemian Czech composer, who wrote six symphonies, 15 operas, 14 ballet scores and a large body of orchestral, chamber, vocal and instrumental works. He became a violinist in the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, and taught music in his home town. In 1923 Martinu left Czechoslovakia for Paris, and deliberately withdrew from the Romantic style in which he had been trained. In the 1930s he experimented with expressionism and constructivism, and became an admirer of current European technical developments, exemplified by his orchestral works Half-time and La Bagarre. He also adopted jazz idioms, for instance in his Kuchyriske revue ("Kitchen Revue"). Of the post-war avant-garde styles, neo-classicism influenced him the most. He continued to use Czech and Moravian folk melodies throughout his oeuvre, usually nursery rhymesÑfor instance in Otvirani stud‡nek ("The Opening of the Wells").

The First Chamber Symphony of Arnold Schoenberg marks the high point and end of the first period of his creativity. ItÕs still a tonal work Ð perfectly approachable, with many features that hark back to Brahms Ð but in other respects it hovers on the cusp of modernity, threatening to spill out of its own mold into uncharted territory at every turn.

Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian and later American composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School. Schoenberg's approach, both in terms of harmony and development, is among the major landmarks of 20th century musical thought; at least three generations of composers in the European and American traditions have consciously extended his thinking or, in some cases, passionately reacted against it. During the rise of the Nazi party in Austria, his music was labeled, alongside jazz, as degenerate art.

And to conclude the October 17 program is BeethovenÕs Eroica, Symphony No. 3 in E flat major (Op.55) the iconic masterpiece of revolution, in which Beethoven broke out of the classical framework and created a new kind of symphony altogether.

A landmark musical work, Eroica marks the full arrival in Beethoven's symphonic output of his characteristic middle-period Òheroic style,Ó a style heralded in the earlier theatre work Creatures of Prometheus and also apparent in his opera Fidelio. The symphony is widely regarded as a mature expression of the classical style of the late eighteenth century that also exhibits defining features of the romantic style that would hold sway in the nineteenth century.

The symphony is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets in B flat, 2 bassoons, 3 horns in E flat, 2 trumpets in E flat and C, timpani in E flat and B flat and strings.

Beethoven had originally conceived of dedicating the symphony to Napoleon Bonaparte. The biographer Maynard Solomon relates that Beethoven admired the ideals of the French Revolution, and Napoleon as their embodiment. In the autumn the composer began to have second thoughts about that dedication. It would have deprived him of a fee that he would receive if he instead dedicated the symphony to Prince Franz Joseph Maximillian Lobkowitz. Nevertheless, he still gave the work the title of Bonaparte.

When Napoleon proclaimed himself Emperor of the French in May 1804, Beethoven became disgusted and went to the table where the completed score lay. He took hold of the title-page and scratched the name Bonaparte out so violently with a knife that he created a hole in the paper. He later changed the title to Sinfonia eroica, composta per festeggiare il sovvenire d'un grand'uomo (Òheroic symphony, composed to celebrate the memory of a great manÓ).

Courtney Lewis, the amazing 26-year-old, Belfast-born conductor and founding Music Director of Discovery Ensemble, combines exacting standards with true vision and interpretative depth, as well as an infectious joy in the sheer act of making music. On more than one occasion he has been compared, by those whose musical memories go back to the early 1960s, to the young Carlos Kleiber. Lewis has molded Discovery Ensemble into a finely tuned, nuanced and virtuosic orchestra capable of switching from Bach to Beethoven to Stravinsky with complete stylistic assurance and a standard of playing that rivals the great European chamber orchestras. In May 2009, Osmo VŠnskŠ appointed him Assistant Conductor and recently elevated him to Associate Conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra, so Lewis now divides his time between Minneapolis and Boston. He also works regularly with the Ulster Orchestra in Belfast.

About Discovery Ensemble

Discovery Ensemble is an exuberant chamber orchestra founded in 2008 and made up of 40 exceptional professional musicians in their twenties. In its concerts, Discovery Ensemble presents an eclectic cross section of masterworks Ð some familiar, some unfamiliar Ð in performances that are impassioned, searching and at the highest level of technical accomplishment.

Unseen by the general pubic is the other side of Discovery EnsembleÕs work -- an extensive program of workshops in Boston public schools and childrenÕs concerts, all of which especially target areas that are underserved by existing musical institutions. The target area for these workshops for the past two years has been the community of Dorchester, Massachusetts where Discovery Ensemble has given interactive workshops in many area schools Ð bringing the music of Ligeti, Copland and Stravinsky into the childrenÕs intimate and familiar surroundings. These programs have had an astonishing impact! In conjunction with each series of school workshops there are also concerts for children in the historic Strand Theatre in the Uphams Corner section of Dorchester. Over one thousand school children attend each of these morning concerts, where they experience great music played with great passion, and explained to them in a particularly dynamic and child-friendly manner. A six minute video about the outreach work of Discovery Ensemble can be seen on the Discovery Ensemble website: http://www.discoveryensemble.com.

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