New piece from Zwolle

[MMDavis]

This afternoon the Providence Mandolin Orchestra had the great pleasure of reading through, for the first time, a brand new piece written for us by Emiel Stopler of Zwolle, the Netherlands. "The City Awakens" is a lovely, semi-minimalist piece which describes in sound the feeling of a city at early dawn as things begin to start humming. It is a really fun piece to play and I think will be a huge audience-pleaser as well.
(I just had a thought - this could be a GREAT piece to schedule on the same program as Victor K.'s "Hues of Dusk" which describes a city at the end of the day)
Emiel is a fine guitarist and actually I believe he studied at one point with our friend Alex Timmermann. My wife Beverly and I had been playing his guitar duets when we found out that he was from Zwolle and last summer encountered him when the PMO was visiting there.
Emiel is greatly to be congratulated on creating such a fine addition to the repertoire for plucked strings. And this only his first! We hope that there will be many more!

[Alex Timmerman]

Hello Mark,

This is wonderful news. Congrats to Emiel, you and the Providence Mandolin Orchestra. You are so enthousiastic about this new composition (nice title: "The City Awakens" by the way!) that I will most certainly contact Emiel and ask for the score and parts (and wait of course with performing it till after the PMO has premiered it). When is the 1st performance planned?


Cheers,

Alex

[MMDavis]

The PMO is planning to premiere Emiel's piece on December 5th for the Arts in the Village Series (Rehoboth, MA, 7:30 PM).
Our program will be titled "A Day in the Life of the City" and will include another (possible) world premiere - "Ilawarra Dances" by the Australian composer John Peterson.
Here is my first draft of the program for those who might be interested:

A Day in the Life of the City
Dawn
The City Awakens Emiel Stopler
World premiere performance

Morning
Grooves No. 1 Owen Hartford
Ilawarra Dances John Peterson
Premiere performance
Lament for Kosovo Betty Beath
Garoto A. C. Jobim, arr. R. Margo

………………………………..intermission…………………………………….

Afternoon
Grooves No. 2 O. Hartford
I Am the Walrus Lennon/McCartney, arr. R. Margo
A Day in the Life Lennon/McCartney, arr. R. Margo

Evening
Hues of Dusk Victor Kioulaphides
Stone Flower A. C. Jobim
Dreamtime Annette Kruisbrink