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Pilgrim Chamber Players was founded in 1996, and began its journey as a woodwind quintet. Very quickly the group expanded its programming to include strings, keyboard and voice. Pilgrim's programs now offer an exciting blend of new music and old favorites, designed to engage the listener in the joy of music making. Pilgrim Chamber Players' talented ensemble of professional musicians are resident artists of the Highland Park (Illinois) Community House and perform throughout the Chicago area.
Composer - Donald Draganski
Pilgrim Chamber Players is pleased to present this collection of compositions by its resident composer, Donald Draganski. As one of the founding members, Draganski's role evolved from principal bassoon player to that of composer-in-residence. (Although many symphony orchestras and opera companies sponsor composers, we believe that Pilgrim is unique, among chamber groups, in having its own resident composer.)
Draganski's corpus of compositions includes works in all forms, with special emphasis on chamber music. Most recently his flute quartet, The Winds of Change, was a winner in the National Flute Association's “Newly Published Music Competition of 2001.” He has also written works commissioned by the Foundation for Baroque Music in Saratoga, New York, and was a prize winner in the International Aleinor Competition with his harpsichord suite, Fra Amici.
His works have been performed at the Aspen Music Festival, under the auspices of the International Society of Contemporary Music, and over Armed Forces Radio in Europe. His Overture with Fanfares was written to celebrate the Evanston Symphony Orchestra's jubilee year, and The Geometry of Music was commissioned by the North Shore Choral Society on the occasion of its 50th anniversary.
Earning his Bachelor of Music degree from DePaul University, Draganski studied bassoon under the late Wilbur Simpson and composition with the late Alexander Tcherepnin. After receiving his Master's of Library Science, he was the music librarian at Roosevelt University, a position he held for 25 years until his retirement in 1998.
Born in Chicago, Draganski makes his home in Evanston with his wife, Antje. Together, they have three grown children - none of whom are musicians, but all of whom are great listeners.
Program Notes by Donald Draganski
Trio from Rio was written as part of Pilgrim's 1999 “South of the Border” program. When first asked by my colleagues to compose a piece with Brazilian flavor, I momentarily demurred. Upon further reflection, I immersed myself in music with Brazilian flavor and then created this original work in three movements, based on the style of traditional Brazilian dances and songs with the exception of two brief fragments of folk tunes in the middle movement (Vamo abri terrer and Viva a fe).
Back in 1985, by popular demand, I put together Klezmer Music as part of the repertoire for my woodwind quintet whose unique venue was continuous care communities. The first movement is based on a medley of Midzhits Hassidim tunes, while the middle movement is entirely original, cast in the form of a Rumanian doina. Butcher's Dance, the final movement, is a Bulgarian hora featuring the clarinet; a Hasidic melody from Ukraine enters contrapuntally toward the end.
During the height of troubles in former Yugoslavia, the pianist Ludmila Lazar participated in a benefit concert in Edinburgh, Scotland, to raise funds for the victims of rape in the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Civil War. At her request, I wrote Variations on a Bosnian Kolo for her performance. Although the composition was written in response to a particular event, the message it embodies is conveyed in its subtitle: “Dedicated to all the innocent victims of War - everywhere.”
As founder and director of the Foundation for Baroque Music in Saratoga, New York, harpsichordist Robert Conant asked me to write a chamber piece for their annual festival in the summer of '88. Entitled Turnings of the Ayre, this set of free variations is based on a Galliard by Peter Philips (c.1560-1628), which I discovered in the first volume of the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book. The title comes from the poem Orchestra, or A Poeme of Dauncing by John Davies (1589-1626) and the stanza reads:
For when you breathe, the ayre in order moves.
Now in, now out, in time and measure trew;
And when you speake, so well she dauncing loves,
That doubling oft, and oft redoubling new,
With thousand formes she doth her self endew
For all the words that from our lips repaire
Are nought but tricks and turnings of the ayre.
The Six Songs on Mother Goose Rhymes was originally composed in 1969 for voice and piano for Yolanda Marcoulescou, the late Rumanian soprano who, with her husband, had just arrived in the United States as a political refugee. In 1975, at Mme. Marcoulescou's amiable insistence, I rewrote and scored the accompaniment for woodwind quintet. The entire cycle was dedicated to her in December, 1992, upon her death.
Whistle, Daughter, Whistle is cast in the form of a dialogue between an insistent mother and her petulant daughter.
Dance, Little Baby was written as a lullaby for my firstborn, Thomas. The melody bears a strong resemblance to Marie's lullaby in Alban Berg's Wozzeck, a work I deeply admire. (The “chorale” alluded to is actually a piece of coral used in baby rattles; naturally I couldn't resist using it as an excuse to introduce a brief quote from Bach's chorale Das neugeborne Kindlein.
Peter Peter, Pumpkin Eater employs a highly enigmatic verse subject to any number of contradictory interpretations. The concluding line, “And then he loved her very well,” suggested the musical apotheosis that ends the song.
Counting is a verse of my own devising, similar to many of the counting chants I remember from childhood. (I make no apology for the half-rhyme, “Twelve-Hell.”) The uncompromising predestination implied in the rhyme seemed in need of some softening. So, as the song comes to an end, I have tried to turn aside the grim inevitability of the verse by suggesting a universal redemption.
Hot Cross Buns was originally a London street cry. The buns were traditionally eaten at the Good Friday breakfast meal.
Tom the Piper's Son is the longest and most elaborate of the songs. Tom is undoubtedly a distant relative of the Pied Piper of Hameln fame, for they both share the power to influence those around them by pipe playing. There are double-entendres imbedded in the text, and I've highlighted one of the more obvious with a quote from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.
The Performers
Carol Honigberg, piano, is the artistic director of Pilgrim Chamber Players. She performs throughout the U.S. and Europe, and has many recordings to her credit on the Albany label with her son, Steven Honigberg, cellist. They include the series Darkness and Light, music from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, and the complete Beethoven Sonatas and Variations for cello and piano. Ms. Honigberg is currently assistant professor of music at Roosevelt University in Chicago.
Julie Schmidt, oboe, is a founder of Pilgrim Chamber Players and was its first artistic director. A student of Ray Still, she performs regularly with the Kenosha Symphony Orchestra. She currently teaches oboe at New Trier High School, Loyola Academy and at the Lake Forest Symphony Music School.
Lisa Argiris, clarinet, is also a founder of Pilgrim Chamber Players. She performs with the Lake Forest Symphony and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, and has appeared as soloist on WFMT and CRIS radio. As the owner, she operates International Musical Suppliers, selling band and orchestra instruments and accessories.
Anita Miller Rieder, flute, is a core member of Pilgrim Chamber Players. Principal flute with the Lake Forest Symphony and Ars Antigua of Chicago, she is also flute instructor at Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois, and past president of the Chicago Flute Club.
Michael Buckwalter, horn, has performed with the Nashville Symphony, the RAI Torino Symphony in Italy, the Lake Forest Symphony and the Chicago Chamber Orchestra. He is a founding member of Ars Viva! and the Revolution Ensemble.
Robert Barris, bassoon, is currently professor of bassoon at Northwestern University, as well as co-chairman of the music performance studies department. A former member of the Dallas and Detroit Symphonies, he has recorded widely on the Vox, Vanguard, London, Decca and Pro Arte labels. He is also a frequent performer with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Julie Koidin, flute, has appeared with the Chicago Chamber Orchestra and the Metropolitan Arts Orchestra. She is founder of The Mirandas, an ensemble specializing in music of Brazil.
Brenda Kublank, horn, is a freelance performer in the Chicago area and makes her home in Waukegan, Illinois.
Joy Fleming, bassoon, is a member of the Northbrook Symphony Orchestra, the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra and Festival Chamber Music, as well as freelancing with many other area orchestras. She is co-founder of “Perform with Confidence” workshops, a training method for musicians to achieve their full technical and musical potential.
Debra DeNoon, soprano, appears regularly on both the opera and concert stage. She has performed with the Lyric Opera of Chicago in the productions of Puccini's Turandot and Suor Angelica. She also appeared with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in concert performances of R. Strauss' Electra and Schoenberg's Moses und Aron. Most recently, she appeared as soloist in the Verdi Requiem with the Evanston Symphony Orchestra.
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