Celebration of Black Music Month

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Clarinet Quintet Op.10 
I. Allegro energico
II. Larghetto affettuoso
III. Scherzo
IV. Finale

About the Program

Samuel Coleridge - Taylor was an English composer who lived from 1875 until 1912. His mother was an English woman, and his father was a descendant of African American slaves who resettled in Sierra Leone after the Revolutionary War. They never married, and Samuel grew up with his mother’s musical family. His relatives took notice of his musical talent from a young age and sent him to study at the Royal College of Music when he was only 15. Already an accomplished violinist, he began to study composition. Within a few years he was appointed professor of music to the Crystal Palace School of Music and became the conductor at the Croydon Conservatory. By the time Samuel was 21 his composition career was flourishing. Several of his works were premiered, including Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast, the first of a three part cantata based on Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha. Hiawatha would become his most popular composition during his lifetime.

In 1904 President Roosevelt invited Coleridge-Taylor to tour the United States and present performances of his music. Coleridge-Taylor’s popularity grew, and he frequently returned to the United States in the early 1900’s. According to anecdotal accounts from 1910, the white orchestral musicians that performed his music in New York gave Coleridge-Taylor the nickname “the African Mahler”. His life was cut short by a deadly bout of pneumonia at the age of 37. There is speculation that anxiety from financial troubles also contributed to the cause of his early death. Although Coleridge-Taylor’s music was widely performed and supported by many, he struggled to earn a livable income. He sold the rights to Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast early in his career, and although the piece sold hundreds of thousands of copies, Coleridge-Taylor never received any royalties.

Coleridge-Taylor was influenced by the composers Brahms and Dvorak. Dvorak considered African American spiritual melodies to be the foundation of American music. Dvorak was so moved by the spirituals that he set out to write one of his own. Dvorak’s spiritual became the theme of the second movement, Largo, from his New World Symphony. Dvorak was an advocate for African American musicians and their music and an inspiration for black composers.

Brahms completed his clarinet quintet, his final chamber work, in 1891. Soon after its premiere, Coleridge-Taylor accepted a challenge initiated by his composition teacher to compose his own version of a clarinet quintet. Although Brahms’ grand musical gestures had an obvious effect on Coleridge-Taylor’s clarinet quintet, the more obvious influence was Dvorak’s use of folk melodies. Throughout Coleridge-Taylor’s quintet the use of folk-ish sounding melodies creates rustic, lively characters and soaring hymn-like musical themes.

-Ann Fink

CONCERT ARTISTS

Scott Andrews/Clarinet
​Praised as “elegant” in the Boston Globe and “extraordinary” by the New York Times, Scott Andrews has been critically acclaimed in solo and chamber music performances across the country. A sought-after collaborative musician, Andrews has performed with many of today’s leading artists, and as an avid proponent of new music, he has performed with organizations such as Composers in Red Sneakers, the Auros Group for New Music, and Boston Musica Viva. He has toured and performed with such ensembles as the Ying String Quartet, the Calyx Piano Trio, and the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, among many others. Andrews has been Principal Clarinet of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra since 2005. Before joining the SLSO, Andrews had been a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for 11 years. He has also performed in the U.S. with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and with the Saito Kinen Orchestra and the Mito Chamber Orchestra in Japan.Andrews has lectured and given classes throughout the United States as well as in Europe and Japan. He was for many years the Woodwind Department Chair at Boston Conservatory and a faculty member of the Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, Massachusetts. June 2013 marked his third season as co-Director of the Missouri Chamber Music Festival, an annual collaborative festival in Webster Groves, Missouri, which he founded with his wife, pianist Nina Ferrigno. He joined the faculty of the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan, in July 2013.
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Originally from Virginia, Scott Andrews studied piano and violin before discovering the clarinet, studying with Edward Knakal of Virginia Beach. He attended the Virginia Governor’s School for the Arts and also studied at the Interlochen Music Center in Michigan. He graduated with distinction from the New England Conservatory of Music, where he was a clarinet student of Harold Wright.

Angie Smart/Violin
​Angie Smart has been a First Violinist with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra since 1998. Originally from England, she began violin lessons at the age of six, and at thirteen won a scholarship to attend Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester. She arrived in the U.S. in 1990 to continue her studies in music, completing her master’s degree at Rice University in Houston. Smart has performed extensively in Europe and the U.S. and has appeared as a soloist with the SLSO several times, alongside conductors including Hans Vonk and Gemma New. These engagements have included Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, Beethoven’s Romance No. 2, and Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy, to name a few. An active chamber musician, Smart has performed works by composers including Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and John Adams, as part of the SLSO: Live at the Pulitzer series. She also performs frequently with the Missouri Chamber Music Festival and the Chamber Music Society of St. Louis. Her television appearances have included master classes with Yehudi Menuhin and as the subject of a documentary profiling young musicians. Among other master classes, she has played for Midori and Zakhar Bron.

Smart competed in the 10th International Tchaikovsky Competition and the Yehudi Menuhin Competition. She has also been a prizewinner in many other competitions, including the British Violin Recital Prize, Elizabeth Harper Vaughan Concerto Competition, and the William C. Byrd Young Artists Competition. An active teacher, Smart maintains a large private studio with students ranging from 10 to 18 years old, many of whom play in the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra. Her son, Theo Bockhorst, is currently the Co-Concertmaster of the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra and plans to attend conservatory in the Fall of 2020.

Eva Kozma/Violin
A native of Romania, Eva Kozma began her tenure as the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s Assistant Principal Second Violin in September 2004. Studying violin in Romania and at McGill University, Kozma has performed with the Targu Mures Philharmonic and the Societe Philharmonique de Montreal. Additionally, she received a Fellowship to the Tanglewood Music Center and performed with the New World Symphony in Miami prior to her appointment with the SLSO.
With the SLSO, she considers participating in community and education programs one the most valuable roles. She enthusiastically participates in SLSO appearances at St. Louis-area schools, hospital, and other community spaces. As a soloist, she performed Ravel’s Tzigane under David Robertson in 2015 and Hubay’s Hejre Kati at the 2018 New Year’s Eve concert.
An enthusiastic chamber musician, Kozma regularly performs with small ensembles around the St. Louis region. She is a member of the Chamber Music Society of St. Louis and has performed at the Missouri Chamber Music Festival and the Gesher Music Festival. She also enjoys performing at Westminster Presbyterian Church and teaching children in her neighborhood.
She lives in Olivette with her husband, a talented sculptor, and her three children, all of whom also play string instruments. She enjoys spending time with her family, staying active with outdoor activities including hiking, biking, and camping, and traveling to her native Romania.

Chris Tantillo/Viola
Chris Tantillo, a native of Long Island, New York, began playing the violin at the age of seven. He switched to viola while attending the Interlochen Arts Academy, where he completed his high school degree. Tantillo received both his Bachelor's of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music in 2002, where he studied with Stanley Konopka, and his Master’s of Music degree while studying with Robert Vernon, Principal Viola of the Cleveland Orchestra. Tantillo has previously performed with the San Diego Symphony and the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida.

Alvin McCall/Cello
A member of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra since 1994, cellist Alvin McCall was previously Principal Cello with such ensembles as the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Prism Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonia Virtuosi, Jupiter Symphony, and the Naumberg Orchestra. McCall also served as Assistant Principal Cello with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra (of which he is still a member), the New York Chamber Symphony, St. Luke’s Chamber Orchestra, and Caramoor Festival Orchestra. Besides these appointments, he was also a member of the New Jersey Symphony and the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra.
An accomplished recitalist and chamber musician as well, McCall is the founding member of the McCall-Deats Duo. The Duo has recorded both the Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich sonatas. He has also performed chamber music with fellow SLSO members at the Sheldon, Piper Palm House, Summerfest, Innsbrook, and other local venues. As a soloist, he has appeared with the University City Symphony, Virginia Philharmonic, Moscow Academic Symphony Orchestra, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and the SLSO.