STEINMETZ: ON MY WAY (2010) world premiere Keene Chamber Orchestra Eric Stumacher, Conductor Keene (NH) All City Elementary Choir May 8, 2011 The Colonial Theatre, Keene, NH/USA Text by Eloise Greenfield Commissioned by Sonad Project, Keene Elementary Choirs and Keene Chamber Orchestra THE MISSION OF THE KEENE CHAMBER ORCHESTRA, founded by Eric Stumacher in 1990, is to provide rehearsals, performances, and recordings of orchestra repertoire at the highest artistic, expressive, and technical standard. KCO personnel combines Monadnock Region of New Hampshire and Greater New England resources ranging from professional musicians to skilled, talented, and enthusiastic student musicians of all ages. There is no age or background restriction. Our focuses are: love of music, craft, enthusiasm, constancy of commitment and effort, the highest possible artistic and technical excellence, and a desire to share the joy of orchestra music and the community it inspires. The Orchestra will always strive to create an atmosphere of accessibility, warmth, challenge and encouragement for its participants, audience, and community, at the same time that it vigorously pursues artistic and technical excellence. Its musical approach ascribes to the values of chamber music, with special emphasis on specific listening, texture, blends of sound, phrasing, and expressive character. The Orchestra is also strongly committed to instrumental instruction, music appreciation, scholarship, community development, and outreach chamber music and solo concerts. We invite all who love vividly inspiring and expressive live orchestra music, and the powerful community energy it inspires, to join us in our pursuits. ERIC STUMACHER, music director and conductor of the Keene Chamber Orchestra and founder and director of the Sonad Peace Project, sonadproject.org, has conducted concerts and performed concerti, solo recitals, and chamber music concerts worldwide to critical acclaim for over forty years. For thirty-five years, Eric served as founder, pianist, and executive and artistic director of the Apple Hill Chamber Players, Apple Hill, and the Apple Hill Playing for Peace Project, before resigning in October 2007 to establish the Sonad Peace Project. Eric is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and The Juilliard School. He resides in Nelson, NH with his wife Kathy, violist and administrator, and they have three amazing children and five astonishing grandchildren. JOHN STEINMETZ, bassoonist, composer, and writer from Los Angeles, has participated in the Monadnock region's musical life for almost three decades. A frequent guest teacher and performer at Apple Hill summer sessions, where student and faculty groups often play his compositions, he has also toured with Apple Hill and with the Sonad Project. Two of his compositions have been premiered by the Keene Chamber Orchestra, a third was commissioned for the Apple Hill Chamber Players, and now On My Way has its premiere by the KCO and Keene Elementary Choirs. John's compositions have been released on CDs from Albany, Helicon, Mark Masters, and Crystal. His articles about music, education, and technology have appeared in journals, magazines, and books, and his pamphlet for new listeners, "How to Enjoy a Live Concert," is published by Naxos and also available online. John and his wife, violist Kazi Pitelka, live in Altadena, California. Both of their children have spent many happy summer days playing chamber music in New Hampshire. For more information, music excerpts, and articles, please visit johnsteinmetz.org. MELANIE EVERARD, coordinator of the Steinmetz “On My Way” commission, is a music teacher specializing in Kodaly Philosophy at Franklin School in Keene. She is a graduate of Keene State College and the Kodaly Musical Training Institute, and studies piano with Eric Stumacher and harp with Mary Graham. She lives in Marlborough, NH with her husband Jim and their foster daughter Rebecca. SPECIAL THANKS TO KEENE ELEMENTARY MUSIC TEACHERS Ellen Jahos (Jonathan Daniels), Peter Siegel (Symonds), Danielle Heeran (Fuller), Kathy Harvey (Wheelock), and Melanie Everard (Franklin). PROGRAM NOTES Steinmetz “On My Way” (2010) – world premiere Program Note by the Composer Every culture has ways for its young people to find or choose a life path. In the US adults often ask children, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” This is a question about career, but it is also about interest, passion, love—about what makes the child feel most alive. In some cultures people believe that every person selects a life purpose before birth and then forgets it, so elders must help children rediscover their purpose. Whatever options are available and however people understand the process, individuals and communities share in choosing roles for everybody. In On My Way three groups of singers portray different aspects of choosing a life path. The children’s choir sings with curiosity