CONCERT PROGRAM SYSC 2 2022
SYS CONCERT No. 35
INTRODUCTION
Dr Brian Chatpo Koo
Founding Conductor, Artistic & Executive Director
Sydney Contemporary Orchestra
Welcome to our Christmas Concert 2022.
This concert is divided into two parts. In the first part, the young musicians of the Sydney Hills Junior Orchestra will perform some pieces specially written for the young string groups. These budding young musicians will be growing from this simple music step by step moving up through our training.
In the second part, the Sydney Hills Youth Orchestra will perform a famous piece of Max Bruch – Kol Nidrie Adagio for cello and orchestra performed by Roger Goch, a very talented young cellist. The small group will also play Mozart’s Divertimento No 28. a very challenging piece of music that push these young musicians up to a high stander.
Sincere thanks to our management team without whom nothing could have been done.
I would like to thank the Hills Shire Council and Baulkham Hills High School for their great support.
Dr Brian Chatpo Koo
Artistic Director
Sydney Contemporary Orchestra
Y O U T H S Y M P H O N Y
ABOUT THE SCO YOUTH SYMPHONY
The training arm of the Sydney Contemporary Orchestra Inc. (SCO), the SCO Youth Symphony (SYS) is our Youth Program for young music lovers, music students, young musicians, and young music teachers in Sydney, Australia.
It consists of two training orchestras – the Sydney Hills Junior Orchestra and the Sydney Hills Junior Orchestra. Led by its Founding Conductor, Artistic & Executive Director, Dr. Brian Chatpo Koo, the SYS offers young music lovers the opportunity to play and enjoy classical orchestral music of all kinds, not only performing but also learning to understand how those masterpieces were constructed, and expanding their orchestral music education training and orchestral music performance experience. The orchestra also broadens their potential music career by building up their orchestral music repertoires, as well as imparting to them the value of communication, teamwork, and discipline.
After training, they can join our Western Sydney Symphony Orchestra playing alongside professional musicians to get more professional experience. Furthermore, they can join the Sydney Contemporary Orchestra to earn income as professional musicians.
Since 2021 we have hosted 35 concerts and trained more than 200 young musicians. Some of them now pursuing their tertiary music studies and some of them are working as professional musicians.
Young music lovers who play orchestral instruments are welcome to join us.
Contact our managers for more information:
Email: management@sys.org.au
ABOUT THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Dr Brian Chatpo Koo is a Sydney-based musician.
Founding Conductor and Artistic & Executive Director Dr. Brian Chatpo Koo is a Sydney-based musician. Having studied music at the University of Hong Kong and the University of Sydney, Brian was the first person in Australia to receive a Ph.D. degree in music composition.
Supported by the Hong Kong University Grant, Brian also studied music at the International Summer Course for New Music in Darmstadt, Germany, and obtained his Licentiate and Fellowship Diplomas from the Trinity College of Music in London.
As a composer, his compositions have been performed all around the world.
As a conductor, Dr. Koo has conducted many symphony orchestras around the world for his compositions’ premieres.
He founded the Sydney Contemporary Orchestra in 2013. Together with about 100 of Sydney’s finest professional musicians and a volunteer management team, Brian is dedicated to creating a platform where more new orchestral works can be performed, heard, recorded, published, and become a part of our music culture, as he believes music development history is written by composers’ creativities. To encourage and reach the pinnacle of this creativity and art, we must through devotion, perseverance, determination, and most importantly constant performance.
Brian also founded the SCO Youth Symphony, a training arm of the Sydney Contemporary Orchestra, in order to provide professional orchestral training to young musicians, as he believes with classical music training and carefully selected programs covering a variety of cultural perspectives, young musicians can be equipped to broaden their vision and to enhance their understanding of culture, civilization and human society.
ABOUT THE SOLOIST
Roger Gock
Soloist – Cello
Roger Gock, is a year 7 student from Marist College at Eastwood. He is a young leader cellist of the Sydney Hills Youth Orchestra and has participated in various concerts over the years, accumulating experience in orchestral performance and musical talent.
Roger is a very musically gifted young musician, he started to play the cello when he was 5. He is interested in playing the Cello, Double Bass and Piano as well. Roger has completed his AMEB Cello Certificate of performance exam (CMus) this year.
Roger will be performing a solo in our CHRISTMAS CONCERT 2022. The piece “Bruch’s Kol Nidrei” is a beautiful piece of romance music and “Kol Nidrei” means “All Vows”, composed for the Cello and Orchestra written by Max Bruch.
PROGRAM
Sydney Hills Junior Orchestra
Music for String Orchestra
Sydney Hills Youth Orchestra
Max Bruch
Kol Nidrei
Adagio for Cello
with Orchestra and Harp
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Divertimento No.15
I Allegro
II Thema mit Variationoen
III Menuetto
IV Andante, Allegro molto
Conductor
Dr Brian Chatpo Koo
Soloist (Cello)
Roger Gock
Concertmaster
Rachael Gock
(Sydney Hills Youth Orchestra)
Concertmaster
Phoebe Ge
(Sydney Hills Junior Orchestra)
Max Bruch
Kol Nidrei
Adagio for Cello
with Orchestra and Harp
Max Bruch was born in Cologne, where he had his early musical training, and went on to a career as a teacher, conductor, and composer. From 1891 he was principally occupied in Berlin as a professor of composition at the Berlin Academy. Known in his lifetime as a composer of choral works, he is now remembered chiefly for a handful of orchestral compositions.
The Kol Nidre melody was as exotic a tune as a German Protestant was likely to come across, and Bruch got it more or less the same way Prokofiev got his “Hebrew themes”: it was handed to him by a member of a choir that he directed. He composed this work for cello and orchestra in 1881, the year he went to England to take up the post of director of the Liverpool Philharmonic.
Kol Nidre (“all vows”) is a haunting and rather mysterious Aramaic prayer sung toward the beginning of the Yom Kippur Eve service
(and indeed, is such a prominent part of this most important day in the Jewish calendar that Yom Kippur Eve is often called simply “Kol Nidre”). The prayer is a disavowal, in advance, of any vows to God that may be made in the coming year. Many scholars believe that it became a prominent part of the service during the middle ages, prospectively nullifying oaths of conversion when Jews were often forced to choose between death and conversion to Christianity; others believe its prominence results simply from the captivating nature of its long, wandering melody. Bruch’s Kol Nidrei (Bruch spelled it thus in German; the “correct” spelling is in the Hebrew alphabet) uses the first few phrases of the traditional song. Like Prokofiev’s overture, it does not attempt to maintain a “Jewish” atmosphere for long, heading quickly into the Schumannesque sonic world of mid-20th century Germany, particularly when it moves into major keys.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Divertimento No.15
The Divertimento No. 15 in B-flat major, K. 287, is a divertimento by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He composed in 1777 for the name day of Countess Maria Antonia Lodron. It is also known as the Lodronische Nachtmusik Nr. 2.
The work consists of six movements:
Allegro (in B-flat major and in sonata form)
Tema con variazioni (Andante) (theme and 6 variations, where the theme and all the variations are in F major)
Menuetto – Trio (in B-flat major and in ternary form, trio in G minor)
Adagio (in E-flat major and in sonata form)
Menuetto – Trio (in B-flat major and in ternary form, trio in E-flat major)
Andante – Allegro molto (in B-flat major, beginning with an introductory instrumental recitative, and in sonata rondo form).
Tonight we will only play four movements:
I Allegro
II Thema mit Variationoen
III Menuetto
IV Andante, Allegro molto
YOUNG MUSICIANS
VIOLIN
Rachael Gock*
Emma Kan
Sunyoung Yang
Isobel Caffyn
Caleigh Chow
Lucy Na
Ariel Kan
Phoebe Ge**
Hannah Zhou
Aventine Nguyen
Charis Song
Harvey Li
Aimee Lin
Zahra Wichramage
Howard Sun
Madison Lam
William Li
Hayden Liu
Merry Tang
Lucas Sun
Araliya Wickramage
CELLO
Roger Gock
Catherine Meng
Valery Lam
Catelyn Li
Hayden North
William Caffyn
Lavina Yam
Ashleigh Wong
Victoria Pan
Caroline Zhou
CLARINET
Ashton Hsiau
MANAGEMENT COMMITTEES
SYDNEY CONTEMPORARY ORCHESTRA
MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE
- Artistic Director – Dr Brian Chatpo Koo
- Vice President – Julia Farquharson
- Secretary – Rajishwar Datt
- Treasurer – David Thomas Gock
- Rawah Dorranian
- Rosanne North
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE - Executive Director – Dr Brian Chatpo Koo
- Office Manager – Raj Datt
- Finance Manager – David Thomas Gock
- Publicity Manager – Rawah Dorranian
- Concert Manager – Rita Lee
- Orchestra Manager – Bryton Johnson