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ABOUT AMERIGO.
VIOLIN + PIANO | COMMISSIONED BY Brendon Elliott AND THE VIOLINISTS
OF THE 50 STATE SONATA PROJECT
Prologue | Kalaheo
Fantasia | Tiburon
Soliloquy | Ronan
Lullaby | Monona
Dance | Derry
Epilogue | Nightmute
Dedicated to the life and work of John Kendall and commissioned by one violinist in each state in the US in 2015 as part of the 50 State Sonata Project, this sonata seeks to represent our country, paying special attention to each of its time zones while also bringing a fiercely-loved and possibly somewhat worn form into the 21st century. Amerigo contains six movements, the prologue and the epilogue representing in miniature our dear non-contiguous states while the larger movements in between cast shadows on the aura and energy of the Pacific, Mountain, Central, and Eastern Time Zones. Each movement’s name is borrowed from a city within its timezone. Though chosen for the beauty of the city’s name, a little wikipedia research into the histories of the cities I chose most certainly lent me a salient point of view to the eventual tone and form of the material. My deep thanks to everyone who have helped shape this piece; we’ve done something big and beautiful here: helping the world feel a little smaller and making some music along the way.
-Stephanie Ann Boyd
Brendon Elliott, Violin
Virginia native and third-year Violin Fellow at the New World Symphony, Brendon Elliott received his bachelor’s degree from The Curtis Institute of Music, studying with Pamela Frank and the late Joseph Silverstein. He completed his master’s degree at The Juilliard School under Sylvia Rosenberg and Ronald Copes. He began playing under his mother’s tutelage at the age of three and made his solo debut when he was 10, performing a concerto with the Hampton University Orchestra. Since then, he has soloed with several professional and community orchestras.
Mr. Elliott is a two-time alumnus of NPR's From the Top, a nationally syndicated radio broadcast featuring America’s talented young musicians. He toured with the Virginia Symphony performing the Hailstork Violin Concerto, performing alongside the legendary Natalie Cole and also guest soloed with the Symphony for five special Young Peoples Concerts, “Songs for a Dreamer” MLK Memorial Concert and a 9/11 Memorial Concert. His performance of William Grant Still's Mother and Child was broadcast on WMRA radio. As a three-time concerto competition winner, he was invited as a guest soloist with the Richmond Symphony on its masterworks series.
Mr. Elliott also performed Joachim’s cadenza for Mozart’s Violin Concerto No.5 during a special concert with the New York Philharmonic. He has performed with orchestras such as the Sphinx Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra St. Luke’s and Chineke! Orchestra. The Charleston Post and Courier described his solo performance with the Colours of Music Virtuosi as “playing with grace and poise, displaying a fine technique and sweet tone.”
Thomas Steigerwald, piano
Prize-winning pianist and native Texan Thomas Steigerwald is a second-year Piano Fellow at the New World Symphony, and a medal winner in the Wideman, New York, Dallas Chamber Symphony and San Jose international piano competitions. A 2013 Music Teacher’s National Association Young Artist national prizewinner, Mr. Steigerwald has pursued a multifaceted career of solo performance, chamber music and orchestral and accompanimental piano. He made his orchestral debut at age 18, performing Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the San Antonio Symphony. As a semi-finalist in the 2013 Citta di Cantu competition, he performed Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Mihail Jora Philharmonic. The Eastman School of Music selected him as representative on the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage in Washington D.C., where he performed Balakirev’s Islamey in 2014.
An avid chamber musician, Mr. Steigerwald performed Martin’s Piano Quintet in the Round Top Festival’s 2016 Chamber Honors Recital. In 2015 he performed Franck’s Piano Quintet at the George Eastman House and in the Eastman School’s Chamber Honors Recital. As violist Brett Deubner’s collaborator, Mr. Steigerwald performed 18 concerts in a 2017 tour of China and will perform in Australia in 2019. He has also performed with other artists including Ransom Wilson, Maxim Kozlov, the Delphi Trio, Christiano Rodrigues, Anton Rist and Gretchen Pusch.
Mr. Steigerwald has attended the Aspen Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, Round Top Festival Institute, Dakota Sky International Piano Festival and Schlern International Music Festival. The conductors with whom he has performed include Gustavo Dudamel, Brad Lubman, Emmanuel Villaume, Perry So, Thomas Adès and Gerard Schwarz. Mr. Steigerwald graduated with his bachelor’s degree in piano performance from Dr. Douglas Humpherys’ studio at the Eastman School of Music in 2015. In 2018 he graduated from Professor Matti Raekallio’s studio at The Juilliard School with his master’s degree.
STEPHANIE ANN BOYD, COMPOSER
Michigan-born, Manhattan-based American composer Stephanie Ann Boyd (b. 1990) writes melodic music about women’s memoirs and the natural world for symphonic and chamber ensembles. Her work has been performed in nearly all 50 states and has been commissioned by musicians and organizations in 37 countries. Boyd’s five ballets include works choreographed by New York City Ballet principal dancers Lauren Lovette, Ashley Bouder, NYCB soloist Peter Walker, and XAOC Contemporary Ballet’s Eryn Renee Young. Eero, a ballet commissioned by Access Contemporary Music and Open House New York, was written for the grand opening of the TWA Hotel at JFK Airport. Her music has been praised as “attractive lyricism” (Gramophone), “[with] ethereal dissonances” (Boston Globe), “[music that] didn’t let itself be eclipsed” (Texas Classical Review), “arrestingly poetic” (BMOP), and “wide ranging, imaginative” (Portland Press Herald).
Boyd’s music has been commissioned and performed by concertmasters of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Singapore Symphony, the New York City Ballet Orchestra, the Des Moines Symphony, the Faroe Islands Symphony, the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra, the Fort Smith Symphony, the Arkansas Philharmonic Orchestra, and principal players in the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. Her music has been commissioned and/or played by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the New England Conservatory Philharmonic, the Cape Cod Chamber Orchestra, the New York Jazzharmonic, the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, the Roosevelt University Orchestra, the Eureka Ensemble, the JVL Festival Orchestra, the Texas State University Symphony, the Cremona International Academy Orchestra, the UW La Crosse Symphony, the Detroit Civic Orchestra, and the El Paso Youth Symphony. Her work has been presented by the Thalia and her Sisters concert series, the Moirae Ensemble, and Sandcastle New Music in New York City; Æpex Contemporary Music in Michigan; Juventas New Music, Collage New Music, and the New Gallery Concert Series in Boston; Cincinnati Soundbox, and others. Stephanie has worked with conductors such as Andrew Litton, Lina Gonzales, Earl Lee, Nathan Aspinall, Cliff Colnot, Gill Rose, Julian Benichou, Kristo Kondakci, and Kevin Fitzgerald.
The 2020/2021 season includes commissions from the Wyoming Symphony, Astral Artists with cellist Tommy Mesa, violinist Megan Healy, pianists Lara Downes, Lise de la Salle, Marta Aznavoorian, Lucille Chung, Susie Maddocks, Adrienne Park, Diane Kaztenburg Braun and Music Street, Sarah Bob and the New Gallery Concert Series, Holly Roadfeldt, Marianne Parker, Eunbi Kim, the Kurganov-Finehouse Duo, and others. This season also includes performances by the Lincoln Trio, Juventas New Music, Jennifer Reason, Lisa Pegher, Shouthouse, Ayanna Witter-Johnson, including concerts at the Kaufman Center, the Boston New Music Festival, the Festival of New American Music, Pianoforte in Chicago, live on Chicago’s WFMT radio station, and elsewhere.
Stephanie holds degrees from Roosevelt University and New England Conservatory, and she was one of the last violin students of renowned pedagogue John Kendall.