Past Programs
Weather Music:
The program is made up of pieces which all have something to do with weather, including several works by Debussy (including “The Snow is Dancing” and “What the West Wind has seen”), Beethoven's “Tempest” Sonata, and Chopin's “Raindrop” Prelude and “Winter Wind” Etude, among others. The program includes selections from pieces made in an on-going collaboration with artist Nathalie Miebach, who uses weather data she collects to create sculptures, and more recently, music scores. These "weather data" pieces were the inspiration for building the rest of this weather-related program. You can see photos of Nathalie's remarkable sculptures and parts of some of the scores she has made, as well as hear clips of Elaine's performances of them, on Nathalie's website.
Dance-inspired program:
The program includes works by Debussy, Bach, Chopin, Ives and Ginastera. The group of pieces was chosen because of an interest in connecting more strongly to the rhythmic core of music. Each phase of concert music history has had dances which were popular with composers - indeed, many composers over the hundreds of years of western concert music history found their greatest success writing dance music. Composers have also found great inspiration in the traditional dance music of their cultures, resulting in a rich cultural variety of dance inspired concert music. It was therefore possible to select a historically varied program centered around a dance theme, with pieces ranging in date of composition between 1733 and 1946. The composers represent many countries of origin, as well - French, German, Polish, American, and Argentinian. The hope is that this program, while appealing to each person's inherent internal toe-tapping sense of rhythm, will also help to expand listeners' understanding of the broad range of approaches to music within the concert hall tradition.