ITHACA COLLEGE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Dr. Ho-Yin Kwok, conductor
President La Jerne Terry Cornish, narrator
Noor Rouhana, violin
Noemi Bender, clarinet
Nicole Galicia, marimba
There are any numbers of great composers who have been able to produce overtures that entertain, lift the spirits, and bring musical “sizzle” to a symphony concert. But almost none excel those of Gioachino Rossini in sparkle, wit, and vivacity. Their droll wit, sly contrasts of mood, and careening drive to the end are simply inimitable. From their conception for Italian opera audiences primarily in the first decade of the nineteenth century, to their familiar use as springboards for movie and television high jinks today, they simply endure.
Rossini was the most important composer of nineteenth-century Italian opera before Giuseppe Verdi. And while he is historically significant for his innovations in serious Italian opera, clearly his opere buffe, or comic operas, are his lasting contributions for opera fans everywhere. These are works of his early maturity, roughly before 1820, before he began to focus upon a more serious style. American audiences are most familiar with The Italian Girl in Algiers (1813) and The Barber of Seville (1816), but there are other masterpieces, as well. After wide European success in the 1820s, Rossini wangled a lifetime annuity from the French government about the time of the composition of his crowning achievement, William Tell (1829)—a French grand opera—and promptly retired at the age of thirty-seven. For the next forty-odd years he enjoyed the largess of the French government, and composed very little, certainly no major operas. It’s not that he was lazy, although a famous anecdote relates that while composing in bed (which he usually did) he dropped an unfinished aria on the floor, and rather than go to the trouble of getting up to retrieve it, he simply composed another one! In his defense, we should recognize how much work that he had accomplished early: 34 operas by the time that he was 31.
William Tell is, of course, the story of the legendary archer who shot the apple from off his son’s head. But, that is incidental. Rather, his legend is all about honest Swiss yeomanry throwing off the yoke of tyranny, striking a blow for freedom, and ending oppressive foreign domination—arrogant Austrians, in this case. It’s a perfect yarn for the demands of French grand opera, and the impressive staging resources of the Paris Opera. There are virtuoso horn fanfares for the gathering of the Cantons; a precarious lake crossing during a storm; choruses of defiant soldiers; and, of course, the dramatic apple shot. Rossini’s score for all of this is a masterpiece. Berlioz—no mean conjurer of ripping musical theatrics—lavished praise on Rossini’s masterpiece. Rossini’s orchestration is ground breaking, his sense of drama, sure, and his skill at building to a tremendous climax, peerless. The overture is simply a reflection of a fantastic opera; if you like the former, try the latter, too.
- Program Note written by William E. Runyan
Tchaikovsky composed his Violin Concerto during a stay in Switzerland in 1878. Inspired by the presence of the young violinist Josef Kotek in his circle there, the composer completed the entire concerto in less than a month. During the work’s composition, Kotek and Tchaikovsky collaborated closely, but almost as soon as the ink on the manuscript had dried, Kotek began to cool toward the work. This, added to Tchaikovsky’s need for a famous name on the work’s title page to guarantee performances in Western Europe and America, meant that the dedication was offered to the Hungarian violinist Leopold Auer. Auer declined it, declaring the work too long and the solo part unplayable, something Tchaikovsky had heard before and a reminder that the composer’s music wasn’t always considered comfortable for listeners and performers.
Russian-born violinist Adolf Brodsky eventually mastered the concerto’s technical challenges well enough to premiere it in Vienna, where it was not well received. The critic Eduard Hanslick, whose staunch support of Brahms helped—perhaps a bit unfairly—to brand Brahms as a conservative, heaped abuse on the work’s innovative layout and Tchaikovsky’s composition of the solo part in his review of the first performance.
“For a while, it moves along well enough, musical and not lacking in spirit, but soon the roughness gets the upper hand and remains in charge until the end of the first movement. It is no longer a question of whether the violin is being played, but of being yanked about and torn to tatters. Whether it is at all possible to extract a pure sound out of these hair-raising acrobatics I do not know, but I do know that in making the attempt Mr. Brodsky tortured his audience no less than he did himself.” Hanslick would further elaborate, claiming the concerto “stank to the ear.”
Tchaikovsky’s concerto appears unconventional when placed alongside stalwarts of the genre by other composers (not least the Brahms concerto, which premiered two years before Tchaikovsky’s and no doubt was fresh in Hanslick’s mind). The first movement combines lyricism with nobility, as the violin spins out the movement’s two themes over an ever-shifting accompaniment.
- Program Note written by John Mangum
This was the first work of mine after I completed my doctorate in composition at Rice University and the first major work I composed since a car accident in 1994 that ended my professional clarinet performing career. The success of this work gave me confidence to keep composing and solidified my journey on a path of composing honest music for myself.
The inspiration came to me after going through an identity crisis or search of who and what I want to be composing after all of my university/conservatory training. I had an adjunct position to teach a music appreciation class at Florida Southern College and I was lecturing about Dvořák and his New World Symphony. I was speaking about how Dvořák was working with American students and inspiring them to incorporate their folk music and influences in their music like so many nationalistic composers had and were doing. Then the voice inside my head asked, “Why don’t you do this, Scott? What is my folk music?” Giving myself permission to go down this path was invigorating and scary. After a lot of soul-searching I decided to embrace the idea of combining my classical/contemporary compositional training with my American folk traditions which were quite eclectic; classical, rock, hard rock, country, disco, grunge and more. My neighbor at the time was building a house and the builders were playing Alice in Chains and Nirvana most of the day. I decided to take out my clarinet and compose a few grunge-inspired riffs and improvise over them on my clarinet. X Concerto is a great place to start with exploring all of my music and I have been thrilled that this work (with three versions, including piano, wind ensemble and string orchestra) has helped many clarinetists win concerto competitions and give inspiring performances.
- Program Note from an interview of the composer
Marimba Concerto (1997) emerged from my close collaboration with marimbist Makoto Nakura, for whom I also composed several solo and chamber works in the Nineties while still a graduate student at the Eastman School of Music. In recent years, rising star Ji Su Jung has championed the concerto and eagerly expressed an interest in recording it. Commissioned by Nakura and the Vermont Symphony Orchestra for a tour around the orchestra’s home state, the concerto’s opening melody was probably inspired by my hearing a pianist warming up on the stage of the Eastman Theater as I passed through it on the way to a class. The harmonic progression he played – a series of chords whose bass line descended by step while the upper notes outlined simple triads – struck me as poignant in its simplicity. I have always felt close to the key of E flat, due to its rich qualities and probably also to the many works of Mozart written in this key, in particular two of his piano concertos that served, in many ways, as a model for this concerto. The first movement spins forth from this melody as the marimba embellishes it virtuosically. The third movement, an athletic moto perpetuo for the marimbist, gradually recalls the elements of the first movement’s melody, culminating in a reprise of this melody within the context of this final movement’s more dance-like nature.
- Program Note written by the composer
Benjamin Britten began work on what would become The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra in 1946 as a score for a documentary film, Instruments of the Orchestra, and it was presented in that medium that year in London. Soon symphony orchestras appropriated it for the concert hall, often adding spoken commentary. The composition is so artfully crafted that it has taken a firm place in the purely instrumental repertoire and is frequently performed without narration.
The theme that serves as the basis of a series of brilliant and imaginative variations is a stirring dance tune from Abdelazar by Henry Purcell (1659–1695). It is first stated by the full orchestra and then is circulated among the woodwinds, brass, strings, and percussion before returning to the full orchestra again. Having exposed the theme in the four sections of the orchestra, Britten goes on to put it through remarkably contrasting musical guises, all spotlighting in turn each member of the first three orchestral sections—woodwinds: piccolo, flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons; strings: violins, violas, cellos, basses, and harp; and brass: horns, trumpets, trombones, tuba. The percussion section gets a dazzling cadenza.
After introducing the orchestra members individually, Britten reassembles them for a fugue, with each instrument entering in the order of the variations. Finally, Purcell’s D-minor tune makes a heroic return, and the composition ends in a blaze of D-major grandeur.
- Program Note written by Orrin Howard
Piccolo
Mad Andrus, principal, Lancaster, NY
Flute
Laura Alvaro, principal, Syracuse, NY
Mad Andrus, Lancaster, NY
Emily DuPuis, Cheshire, MA
Oboe
Olivia Hawthorne¹²⁴, Fulton, NY
Ashton Meade, Johnson City, TN
Brady Santin³, Hooksett, NH
English Horn
Reid Canham, principal, Fairport, NY
Clarinet
Grace Gonoud³⁴, Mahopac, NY
Amanda Haussmann¹²,
Center Valley, PA
Bassoon
Kaitlyn Beasley-Zeitler²⁴, Leander, TX
Griffin Harrell¹, Stafford, VA
Abbie Harrison³, Northborough, MA
Contrabassoon
Griffin Harrell, principal, Stafford, VA
Horn
Eliza Ferrara³⁴, West Windsor, NJ
Sarah Griffin, Clinton Corners, NY
Nathaniel Kisslinger, Blawnox, PA
Simon Stainbrook¹², Bremerton, WA
1 Principal for Rossini
2 Principal for Tchaikovsky
3 Principal for Puts
4 Principal for Britten
Trumpet
Katie May Gang, Middletown, NY
Yvonne Tucker, principal,
White Plains, NY
Tenor Trombone
Gavin Anderson, principal,
Rochester, NY
Miguel Lopez, Brentwood, NY
Bass Trombone
David Miller, principal, Williamsport, PA
Tuba
David Castro, principal,
White Plains, NY
Timpani
Max Kniola⁴, Pittsburgh, PA
Gage Redinger¹, Greensburg, PA
John Santucci², Watchung, NJ
Percussion
Ash Black, Cary, NC
Will Green, Riverhead, NY
Max Kniola, Pittsburgh, PA
Gage Redinger, principal,
Greensburg, PA
John Santucci, Watchung, NJ
Peter Stenberg, Fredericksburg, TX
Piano
Thomas Oakes, principal,
Chadds Ford, PA
Harp
Elizabeth Mayo, principal
Violin I
Marie Nemeth, concertmaster,
Blue Hill, ME
Kian Broderick, assistant
concertmaster, Ridgefield, CT
Val Connor, Bellingham, WA
Kaitlyn Murray, Darien, CT
Cristian Rodriguez, Monroe, CT
Noor Rouhana, Fairport, NY
Andrew Neal, Crown Point, IN
Marison McDowell,
St. Augustine, FL
Maxwell Lines, South Windsor, CT
Rachel Berger, Danbury, CT
Lily Lemery-Allen, Rome, NY
Max Detzer, Milwaukee, WI
Violin II
Mackenzie VanVoorhis, principal,
Poughkeepsie, NY
Maya Connolly, assistant principal,
Eastchester, NY
Lily Milkis, Cortlandt Manor, NY
Naveen Tomlinson,
Cortlandt Manor, NY
Dustin Rood, Mansfield, CT
Marvin Juarez Espinoza,
Poughkeepsie, NY
Katalena Hume, Norway, ME
Isabelle Apostolakos,
Cold Spring Harbor, NY
Paige Wilkins, Dallastown, PA
Kathleen Robinson, Waterbury, CT
Rayna Button, Norway, ME
Viola
Lydia Dustin, principal, Bowdoin, ME
Breanna Annonio, assistiant principal,
Mastic Beach, NY
Zoe Galgoczy, Brooktondale, NY
Elijah Shenk, South Hadley, MA
Sasha Narea, Brooklyn, NY
Kendra Seidel, Uniontown, OH
Zoe Link, Warwick, NY
Agena Malziu, Johnson City, NY
Leo Maring, College Park, MD
Cello
Ariel Alejandro, principal, Bronx, NY
Natalie Bryan, assistant principal,
Guilford, CT
Eli Jort, Brooklyn, NY
Gerdrose Jean Louise, Pittsfield, MA
Tom Bowstead, Hudson Falls, NY
Jonah Harley, Bethlehem, PA
Elijah Shin, Melville, NY
Heather Cruz, Pittsfield, MA
Lilly D'Ancicco, Madison, CT
Molly Davey, Plattsburg, NY
Bass
Jacob Eisentraut, principal,
Middletown, NY
Alexa Markowitz, assistant principal,
East Meadow, NY
Sophia Gates, Poughkeepsie, NY
Garrett Jorgensen, Georgetown, TX
Jack Bradway, Pittsfield, MA
Described by Classical Voice of North Carolina (CVNC) as an “impressive conductor…outstanding in his attention to detail and his command of the big picture”, Hong Kong-born conductor Ho-Yin Kwok is a three-time winner of The American Prize, 2021, winner of 2017-2018 Vincent C. LaGuardia, Jr. Conducting Competition and 2021 International Conductors Workshop and Competition. Kwok is the Director of Orchestras at Ithaca College, New York. Concurrently, he also serves as Music Director of Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra in Duluth, Minnesota and Artistic Director and Conductor of the Mississippi Valley Orchestra in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota.
Having established a nationwide professional reputation, he served as Assistant Conductor of the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra and was invited to be cover conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and Kansas City Symphony. Kwok was previously Assistant Conductor of Collegium Musicum Hong Kong and has performed in esteemed venues such as New York’s Carnegie Hall and Musikverein in Vienna. His recent guest conducting engagements include the New World Symphony (FL), the Syracuse Orchestra (NY), Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra (MN), Arapahoe Philharmonic (CO), Cayuga Chamber Orchestra (NY), Gwinnett Symphony Chamber Orchestra (GA), and Eastern Festival Orchestra (NC).
An avid music educator, Kwok previously served as the Director of the Duluth Superior Youth Symphony, and in the faculty of Eastern Kentucky University and University of Minnesota Duluth. His recent educational guest conducting engagements include multiple All-state and All-county Orchestras, Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies, Central Kentucky Youth Orchestras, University of Wisconsin-Madison Summer Music Clinic, and Foster Music Camp. He was invited as adjudicator for concerto competitions such as those of Minnesota Orchestra Young People's Symphony Concert Association, University of Minnesota, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, Cornell University and Binghamton University.
Kwok is a first prize winner of The American Prize in opera conducting. He had served as Music Director of the Opera Theatre at University of Minnesota Twin-Cities. He enjoys conducting operas of a wide range of periods and styles, from Mozart's Idomeneo to Puccini's La Bohéme, Britten's Albert Herring, and Menotti’s The Consul. He was the instigating artistic force behind the formation of opera orchestra at Eastern Kentucky University and has collaborated professionally with Arbeit Opera Theatre and Lyric Opera of the North. In the 2021-22 season, Kwok gave one of the first performances of Laura Kaminsky’s new opera, Hometown to the World.
Known for his passion in diversifying the orchestral concert repertoire, Kwok has been involved in multiple initiatives and special projects. With the Mississippi Valley Orchestra, he created the annual Foreground Composers Series, a year-round celebration and in-depth research on an underrepresented composer. This ongoing project has led to numerous US premieres of works by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Ruth Gipps, Ina Boyle, and Bao Yuankai, along with many other neglected composers. Kwok is also a panel member of …And we were heard, a national initiative to promote contemporary music and composers of underrepresented backgrounds.
Kwok is the co-director of Contemporary Chamber Ensemble at Ithaca College and conducted the Center for New Music at the University of Iowa.
Kwok studied conducting at the University of Minnesota Twin-Cities and the University of Iowa. His principal teachers are Mark Russell Smith and William LaRue Jones. His other important mentors are Gerard Schwarz, Kevin Noe, Cristian Măcelaru, Giancarlo Guerrero, the Ensō String Quartet, Brentano Quartet, Joel Krosnick, David Shifrin, Kathy Saltzman Romey, and Grant Cooper. He is a Marquis Who’s Who biographical listee.
Dr. La Jerne Terry Cornish is the 10th president of Ithaca College, a position she assumed in March 2022. She joined the College in 2018 as provost and senior vice president for academic affairs. Prior to joining Ithaca, Dr. Cornish was associate provost for undergraduate studies at Goucher College in Baltimore, Md., from 2014 to 2018.
As provost and then president at Ithaca, Cornish led the College through the COVID-19 pandemic and a strategic plan, “Ithaca Forever,” that included an academic prioritization plan to align academic programs with student interest and need, and to align the size of the faculty with the size of the student body.
Today, Cornish is laying the groundwork for a new strategic plan that will build upon Ithaca’s commitments to promoting hands-on learning from day one as part of its academic programs; to providing a welcoming and supportive campus environment for all; and to engaging in community partnerships that improve the quality of life in its home city and surrounding areas. In broad consultation with the College's constituencies, Cornish will look to refine resource stewardship and allocation, as well as pursue opportunities to diversify revenue.
During her time as Ithaca’s president, Cornish has launched programs that improved student retention and graduation rates; she created a Center for Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging to help build understanding and fuel creativity among students, faculty, and staff from all backgrounds; and she expanded career service programs into a Center for Career Exploration and Development that begins working with students during their first year on campus.
She also is recognized as a leader in higher education nationally and regionally. Dr. Cornish serves on the boards of the Council of Independent Colleges, a national organization that works to support college and university leadership, advance institutional excellence and enhance public understanding of independent higher education’s contributions to society, and the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities, which advocates for private institutions in New York State. She also is a member of the Cayuga Health board of directors and a member of the Council on Competitiveness.
Cornish holds a doctorate in language, literacy, and culture from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; a master’s degree in education with a concentration in urban and diverse learners from Goucher College; and a bachelor’s degree in English, also from Goucher.
Her research interests include new teacher induction, culturally responsive teaching, and campus responses to issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
She has been a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, the first intercollegiate historically African American sorority, since 1984.
In addition to her work in the public and private education sectors, she served as a commissioned lay pastor at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Baltimore, where her ministerial focus had been congregational nurture and care.
Her wife, Deborah Ptak, is the principal of Lehman Alternative Community School in the Ithaca City School District. Together, they have three children: Wayne Cornish Jr., a graduate of Goucher College; Em Ptak-Pressman, a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College; and Joshua Ptak-Pressman, a graduate of Fordham University.
A native of Rochester, NY, violinist Noor Rouhana has been surrounded by numerous musical opportunities. She has played various concerts with the Rochester Philharmonic Youth Orchestra in the Eastman School of Music’s esteemed Kodak Hall, winning the concertmaster position from 2021-2023. With the group, Rouhana has performed alongside the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra multiple times for their side-by-side concert. She has toured with the group to Washington D.C. ’s Kennedy Center, also performing at community living centers in the area. Through the Eastman Community Music School, Rouhana was granted full scholarship with the Honors Chamber Ensemble, playing in both a string quartet as well as a piano trio, with coaches including Elinor Freer and Janet Ying. Rouhana received runner up for the Ruth and Sidney Salzman String Award in 2022 and 2023 for the Rochester Philharmonic League’s Youth Concerto Competition. In addition to her classical studies, Rouhana frequently performs with the Delmonico String Quartet at various venues around Rochester, including weddings, funerals and stage shows. She has also performed with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra as a background violinist.
Rouhana attended the Bowdoin International Music Festival in the summer of 2022, playing in a piano quintet coached by Ahrim Kim and performing solo works under the tutelage of Renee Jolles. She currently studies with Christina Bouey at the Ithaca College Whalen School of Music, where she received the Keilocker Scholarship–awarded to outstanding string instrumentalists–as well as the Ithaca College Scholarship. Rouhana won the concertmaster position of the symphony orchestra as a freshman, also subbing for the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, performing concerts in Ithaca College’s Ford Hall. She was very grateful to win the 2024 Concerto Competition with the first movement of the Brahms Violin Concerto, as well the 2025 Competition with the first movement of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto.
Noemi Bender’s goal is to connect with others through performance. She has served as the principal clarinetist of the Ithaca College Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Ithaca College Wind Ensemble for several years. She discovered a passion for new music through performances with the Ithaca College Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, leading to her giving the world premiere of Ethan Pinckert’s Thought Pattern for Two Clarinets in A dedicated to her in April 2023 at Ithaca College.
In June 2025, Noemi will be attending the Madeline Island Chamber Music Festival in addition to participating in the inaugural season of the Massachusetts Modern Music Retreat. Previously, Noemi has attended the Mostly Modern Festival, Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music, as well as the Akropolis Chamber Music Institute, learning and recording alongside the Grammy-award winning Akropolis Reed Quintet. She has appeared on recordings of chamber music and wind ensemble works by Dana Wilson, Ethan Pinckert, Patrick O’Malley, and Dianna Link.
Beyond Ithaca College, Noemi has performed with orchestral ensembles at Cornell University and Binghamton University. She will also be featured on the Music at St. Luke Concert Series at St. Luke Lutheran Church in Ithaca, NY where she will perform Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time.
As one of the winners of the Ithaca College Concerto Competition, Noemi is grateful and excited for the opportunity to share Scott McAllister’s X Concerto at the Ithaca College Symphony Orchestra's 2025 season finale.
Noemi currently studies under Dr. Richard Faria at Ithaca College where she will be graduating in May 2025 with a Bachelor of Music in Performance. In Fall 2025, Noemi will be pursuing a Master of Music in Performance degree at Michigan State University, where she will study with Dr. Guy Yehuda.
Nicole Galicia is a junior from Woodbridge, New Jersey, studying for her Bachelor's Degree in Music Education. She is currently studying percussion with Dr. Mike Truesdell and Professor Conrad Alexander.
Nicole has been involved in many chamber and large ensembles within the Whalen School of Music, including the IC Percussion Ensemble and IC Concert Band. She is active with the IC Steel Band, both performing and premiering her arrangements with the group. She is also featured on the IC Chamber Winds recording of Dana Wilson's The Avatar. Nicole currently serves as the Percussion Section Leader for the Wind Ensemble, as well as the President-Elect for the IC Percussive Arts Society.
She has collaborated and premiered several pieces with her colleagues across Ithaca College, notably works by Dr. Josh Oxford and Ethan Pinckert. Outside of Ithaca College, she can be seen engaging with the marching arts, having served as a front ensemble tech at a local NJ high school. In November 2023, she received a Career Advancement Grant from Stagetime to help her pursue drum corps. In the summer of 2024, she performed with the Spartans Drum and Bugle Corps as the xylophone and glockenspiel player. Nicole plans to attend the Sō Percussion Summer Institute at Princeton University in July 2025.