Folk and popular music blend seamlessly with the classics in the appealing and festive music of Sid Robinovitch. Given his background and tastes, marrying these styles is a perfectly natural thing to do.

“I have a feel for popular music, and I have a feel for classical,” the affable Manitoban says. “The common ground is their beauty, spontaneity, sincerity and directness. It really doesn’t matter where these qualities come from, and I don’t differentiate.”

Robinovitch’s mother was a singer, and he grew up listening to the popular music of the day: Bill Haley and the Comets, the Crewcuts, Elvis Presley and the rest. “I took piano lessons, but I didn’t really listen to much classical music,” he says. “Then in my late teens I got tired of pop music. I started listening to recordings of composers such as Prokofiev and Shostakovich. I used to improvise at the piano, just banging around. When I heard this sort of discordant music coming from legitimate composers, I was amazed. These 20th-century figures, and others such as Bartók, Copland, Stravinsky, Britten and Ives were the most important classical influences on me.”

SUITE FOR KLEZMER BAND AND ORCHESTRA
Robinovitch knew Winnipeg-born violinist Victor Schultz through Schultz’s inclusion of a piece of his on a CD called Jeté. The disc was nominated for two Juno awards, including one for Robinovitch’s composition. When the members of Finjan, the Winnipeg klezmer band in which Schultz plays, approached Robinovitch about composing a piece that would bring them together with an orchestra, he thought it was “a very unusual concept, a real challenge,” he says. Although he had written several pieces on Jewish themes, Robinovitch knew very little about klezmer music. “Victor gave me a couple of tapes to listen to. I soaked up the idiom as best I could and composed original material, based on my interpretation and impressions of klezmer style. The band members told me I had free rein to do whatever I wanted. There was some going back-and-forth on details, but it was basically up to me. For example, I decided it would be in a suite form. I took the titles from the classics, and gave them a klezmer twist.” He was determined that the orchestra would play an integral role, not just back up the band. “I’ve heard folk-oriented music with symphony where the orchestra isn’t doing a heck of a lot,” he says. “In the Klezmer Suite, I used it as it would be in an ordinary concerto. There are passages, for example in the third movement, where the orchestra takes off on its own and does things that only it could do.” The premiere took place in 1990, with Finjan and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Bramwell Tovey conducting. Aside from a few short “fills,” it’s fully written out, so others can play it. Different klezmer bands have performed it in Los Angeles, and Finjan has played it with orchestras in Toronto, Louisville, Calgary, Kitchener and Windsor. The brief, bouncy first movement, Burlesque, has the feel of an overture. “It starts off in a kind of Mozartean, neoclassical style, and then the band picks up the rhythm in klezmer style,” says the composer. “That sets the tone for the whole suite, this back-and-forth movement between classical or neoclassical motifs and klezmer material. “The second movement, Arioso, is lyrical and melancholic, even schmalzy. It’s something to tug at the heartstrings. A lot of people have told me that it has a kind of cinematic quality, conjuring up images of immigrants coming to North America on boats, – the Ellis Island sort of thing.” “The third movement, Galicienne, is kind of a heavy, clumsy peasant dance. It gets very raucous and boisterous. The orchestra goes off on a tangent before the music gets back on track.” The title refers to Galicia, a province in eastern Europe, and takes its name from other types of dances you might find in a classical suite, such as the Sicilienne. Even though the tango is a South American dance, the bittersweet example that makes up the fourth movement fits in, since Robinovitch gave it a klezmer quality, too. “The tango rhythm has a lot of potential,” he says. “I’ve written several different works in this style, including quite a different one in the Concerto for Saxophone Quartet and Orchestra. There’s a brief hint of the carol ‘Angels We Have Heard on High’ in this section. I really didn’t plan this out, it just kind of made its way in.” The carnival-like finale, Tzigane, is the most straight-ahead and folk-oriented movement. “I wanted something with flair and panache to finish. Toward the end there’s a cadenza for the klezmer band, where they go way out and do their own thing.”

CAMPTOWN, CONCERTO FOR BANJO & ORCHESTRA
Camptown came about through Daniel Koulack, who as a member of Finjan had played the Klezmer Suite. He approached Robinovitch and said, “What about a piece for banjo and orchestra?” “I guess I was getting a reputation for bringing together unusual instruments with orchestra,” the composer recalls. “I agreed to his request. We talked to Glenn Buhr, the WSO’s composer-in-residence, and he was interested.” The first performance took place at the 1996 Winnipeg New Music Festival, with Bramwell Tovey conducting. In the programme notes, Camptown was described as “an attempt to salvage a good old-fashioned banjo tune from the ravages of postmodern ‘doo-da-ism’.” Robinovitch worked much more closely with the soloist than he had during the composition of the Klezmer Suite. He left a lot of the details up to Koulack. “There is an improvised element, because that’s the way banjo players work,” Robinovitch says. “This means that each performance is slightly different. Daniel has a short cadenza near the end, and that’s all his. He uses three different banjos throughout the piece, switching from one to the other.” The composer wanted to use the banjo idiomatically, but he also wanted to do some other things. “The challenge was to make the banjo fit into the orchestral texture,” he says. “There are some contemporary elements in the score, which I used to update the music a bit to the current era.” He had always liked Camptown Races, Stephen Foster’s familiar 1850 tune. It may even have been in his mind as a possible subject prior to Koulack’s commission, and not necessarily for a piece involving the banjo. It uses the pentatonic scale that’s common to Oriental music. “In fact,” Robinovitch says, “the violin plays a passage, in duet with the banjo, that sounds vaguely Chinese.” In terms of form, Camptown is not so much a theme and variations as a fantasy on Foster’s tune. It opens with a nostalgic, pastoral section that Robinovitch calls ‘Kentucky Sunrise’. Flute and clarinet play an extended, somewhat disguised version of the theme, before the tempo picks up and the main body of the piece begins.

CONCERTO FOR SAXOPHONE QUARTET AND ORCHESTRA
Robinovitch plays in a “New Age” band called Terra Nova, which includes a saxophone. He had already written saxophone pieces too, so he was familiar with the instrument’s character and capabilities, when he got a call from Shane Nestruck of the quartet Saxology Canada. Nestruck was interviewing prospective composers regarding a Saxophone Quartet Concerto, which had been commissioned for the group by the Saskatoon Symphony. After a few discussions with Robinovitch, they decided to go with him. The premiere took place in Saskatoon in 1998, with Earl Stafford conducting. Saxology Canada played it again with conductor Michael Hall and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra at the 2000 Winnipeg New Music Festival. “When I first got together with Shane and Sasha Boychouk from the band, I asked what kind of piece they had in mind,” says Robinovitch. “Sasha said, ‘Something that covers the periods in the saxophone’s history.’ I wasn’t sure I could do that specifically, but I said I would try to take it into account. In some ways, it came out in the concerto. The first movement has a classical, European feel, reflecting the saxophone’s origin in France during the 1840s; the second has more of a North American jazz flavour; and the third is sort of in the ‘new music’ area.” As with the Klezmer Suite, Robinovitch sought to make the orchestra a full partner, not just a background element. He featured the four soloists equally and used the different saxes for different effects. The baritone, for example, produces some very low, gruff sounds; the alto and tenor are very lyrical and the soprano, almost bird-like. The sultry second movement tango takes us to a smoky nightclub in a neighbourhood of questionable repute. “It gets pretty scary,” Robinovitch comments. “At one point there are different layers in the orchestra, with each one moving independently. “The finale, with its almost motor-like sax quartet sound, is based more on energy and rhythm than on any thematic material. There’s a semi-improvised section. It’s the most modern part of the score, and I wanted something frenzied and ‘over the edge.’ There’s a steady beat going on in the orchestra, with lots of low brass and percussion. The saxes make a lot of wailing sounds, building up to a crescendo. The middle section of the movement, where the strings play ad. lib., gets a little abstract, dreamy and fairly discordant, even a little Schoenbergian. The opening material returns, leading to a highenergy conclusion.”

SID ROBINOVITCH
A native of Manitoba, Sid Robinovitch received his Doctorate in Communications from the University of Illinois and taught social sciences at York University in Toronto. Since 1977 he has devoted himself to musical composition, studying at Indiana University and at the Royal Conservatory in Toronto. He presently lives in Winnipeg, Canada where he works as a composer and teacher. Having written for a wide variety of musical media, Robinovitch has received commissions from performers such as the Elmer Iseler Singers, the Canadian Piano Trio and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. His works have been frequently broadcast on CBC Radio, including original pieces based on folk-tales from around the world and arrangements of Judeo-Spanish folk songs. His choral music includes the Talmud Suite (CBC MVCD 1058) for unaccompanied chorus, and Shireem, a cantata for chorus, soloists and orchestra, based on medieval Hebrew poetry. In 1989, his Sons of Jacob for violin and piano was nominated for a Juno award as best classical composition, and in 1991 his Adieu Babylon was the commissioned work at the Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition. While many of Robinovitch’s works are rooted in traditional or folk material, they often have a distinctly contemporary flavour as well. His Suite for Klezmer Band and Orchestra, for example, combines the spirit of East European folk melody with modern symphonic technique, while Dreaming Lolita is a dramatic retelling in poetic form of the famous Nabokov novel. In his setting of the psalms from the Bible, Psalms of Experience, the choral textures are infused with elements of Balinese music and rhythmic chanting. In addition to his concert works, Robinovitch has written music for film, radio and television, where he is probably best known for his theme for CBC-TV’s satirical comedy series, ‘The Newsroom’.

FINJAN
Originating as far back as the Middle Ages, the music of the klezmer tradition is enjoying a wider appreciation today than at any time during its history. Finjan, one of the leading lights in the klezmer revival, has played a key role in the music’s contemporary dissemination. Whether interpreting Yiddish theatre standards, playing a traditional fraylech (“happy Dance”), or creating new klezmer-influenced melodies, they remain in the forefront of the movement, recognized for their fresh, original style and their energetic and entertaining performances. Now celebrating its 19th year as an active band, Finjan has toured throughout North America and in Europe, making hundreds of appearances in concert halls, on television and radio, in film, and at all the major folk and jazz festivals. They have recorded four albums: where were you before prohibition? (1985), From Ship to Shore (1988), Crossing Selkirk Avenue (1993), nominated for a 2001 Juno Award and, Dancing on Water (2000), which was also nominated for a 2001 Juno Award. Among the group’s many career highlights are their two-week engagement at Expo ’86 in Vancouver, an appearance on National Public Radio’s A Prairie Home Companion and a concert on The Lonesome Pine Special, headlining San Francisco’s Klezmermania. The band is made up of Victor Schultz (violin, mandolin), Daniel Koulack (guitar, mandolin, banjo), Myron Schultz (clarinet, saxophone, percussion), Shayla Fink (accordion, vocals), Kinzey Posen (bass, vocals) and Sasha Boychouk (clarinet, saxophone, sopilka). SAXOLOGY CANADA - Formed in 1996, this Winnipeg based group has performed across Canada as well as touring Washington and Oregon, and France. The four members of Saxology Canada are Sasha Boychouk, soprano and alto; Roger Mantie, alto; Chuck McClelland, tenor; and Shane Nestruck, baritone. Individually, their performance backgrounds include such diverse credits as member of the Leningrad Symphony Orchestra and lead alto with the Moscow Saxophone Quintet (Sasha Boychouk), founder/leader of the Montréal Saxophone Quartet and youngest member of the official EXPO 67 Band (Shane Nestruck), member of Ron Paley Big Band and touring member of Global Village (Chuck McClelland), and Brandon Jazz Festival Coordinator and Director of Jazz Ensembles for Brandon University (Roger Mantie).

DANIEL KOULACK
The New York City born Koulack has been a resident of Winnipeg since 1968. His musical training began at the age of seven on the violin. At eleven, Daniel took up the banjo and mastered it in an incredibly short time, making his professional debut at the Winnipeg Folk Festival one year later. Since then Daniel has become accomplished on several other instruments, including guitar, double bass, dulcimer, mandolin and bouzouki. Daniel has been musical director and company musician for the popular Winnipeg based group, Mimeworks, and is a member of the internationally acclaimed klezmer band Finjan.

BRAMWELL TOVEY
British born Bramwell Tovey conducts a huge range of works across the whole of the musical spectrum. His strong commitment to new music was demonstrated during his time as music director of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra (in Canada) where he founded a New Music Festival and was its Artistic Director for 10 years. During that time the Festival premiered more than 250 new works by a broad range of Canadian and international composers. In the opera house he has conducted operas by Puccini, Strauss, Mozart, Menotti, Poulenc, Britten and most recently Stravinsky, when he conducted The Rake’s Progress with the Edmonton Opera. Future plans include the premiere of a new opera on a joint commission from the Banff Centre and the Calgary Opera for 2003. In recent seasons, Bramwell Tovey has conducted orchestras across Canada and in the United Kingdom, as well as others including the Belgian National Orchestra, the Israel Sinfonietta, the Leipzig Radio Orchestra and the Ravinia Festival Orchestra. His Australian debut with the Adelaide Symphony resulted in invitations to further concerts there with several orchestras. In October of 2000, Tovey made his New York Philharmonic debut. In addition to conducting, Bramwell has a range of interests including composition where most recently his new Cello Concerto was premiered at the New Music Festival in Winnipeg in January 2001. He has also composed for brass band and enjoyed great success with his Requiem premiered by the Hannaford Street Silver Band in Toronto in 2000. Mr. Tovey is an accomplished jazz pianist and has enjoyed performing and recording in that idiom over the years. Bramwell Tovey was appointed music director of the Vancouver Symphony in September, 2000.

WINNIPEG SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Formed in 1948, the WSO has firmly established itself among the ranks of Canada’s finest orchestras. Performing a season of more than 75 concerts, the WSO offers a wide variety of programming, including masterworks from the classical and romantic periods, contemporary works, pops music, and concerts for young people and families. Now under the leadership of its new music director, Russian-born conductor Andrey Boreyko, the Orchestra is poised to enter into a new phase of artistic growth. The WSO has attracted international attention for its New Music Festival, first presented in January 1992. Developed by Bramwell Tovey, artistic director of the Orchestra from 1989 to 2001, along with Glenn Buhr, the WSO’s first composerin-residence, the festival was a daring and unprecedented commitment by a Canadian orchestra to support the music of its time. Since its inception, the festival has been a salutary success, drawing international participation, earning critical acclaim, and enjoying an ever-growing audience. A taste of music from the first two festivals was captured on the WSO compact disc, Collage. The WSO made its début in the digital medium earlier with Akasha – Bramwell Tovey Conducts the Music of Glenn Buhr. It has since released A Gilbert and Sullivan Gala (CBC SMCD 5139), Contemporary Piano Concerti with pianists André Laplante, Shirley Sawatzky and Judith Kehler Siebert and The Lark Ascending (CBC SMCD 5176), a collection of orchestral music from the British Isles, with WSO Concertmaster Gwen Hoebig as soloist in the title track. The WSO recently celebrated its long and fruitful partnership with Glenn Buhr by recording another CD of his works, entitled winter poems (CBC SMCD 5184), which received a Juno nomination in 2000 as well as a “Prairie Music Award” for best classical composition. In addition to its own season, the orchestra performs with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and Manitoba Opera. WSO musicians form the core of the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, and symphony musicians are active in Winnipeg in a variety of performing and teaching activities.