June 2, 2012: Maud Powell & Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Centennial Violin Concert Preview

Witness and participate in the making of a documentary film by The Longfellow Chorus and Maine documentary filmmaker Richard Kane. Violinist Lydia Forbes and The Longfellow Chorus Orchestra will bring to life a lost piece by African-English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor on Saturday, June 2, 2012 at UNE's Ludcke Auditorium, 719 Stevens Avenue, Portland. Audience members will witness a forgotten musical work come to life during first rehearsal in a "theater in the round" environment, as well as take part in the making of a documentary. Soloist, conductor, members of the orchestra and audience will comment on film about the process of rehearsing an unknown musical gem. Or is it a gem? Why did the composer leave the manuscript with his American patron? Why has the music rested largely ignored in archives for the past 100 years? We welcome you to come and share your thoughts and reactions.

Maud Powell (1867-1920) played the premiere of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Violin Concerto in G Minor on June 4, 1912, at what is today the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. At the concert, Powell also premiered a short Coleridge-Taylor work for violin and orchestra based on the African-American spiritual Keep me from sinking down. Longfellow Chorus artistic director Charles Kaufmann has reconstructed the work from manuscript orchestra parts at Yale University's Irving S. Gilmore Music Library and a manuscript full score from Royal College of Music archives. As part of The Longfellow Chorus Coleridge-Taylor Documentary Project, Maine violinist Lydia Forbes and The Longfellow Chorus Orchestra will recreate the June 4, 1912 premiere on June 4, 2012 in a non-public filmed performance in the Music Shed at Norfolk, CT -- the very stage where the first performance of Keep me from sinking down took place. This performance will be previewed on Saturday, June 2, 2012 at UNE's Ludcke Auditorium, 719 Stevens Avenue, Portland.

Image, left: American violinist Maud Powell (1867-1920)

Image, right: English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) in 1904. Image courtesy Boston Public Library

Image, below: Maine violinist Lydia Forbes

TICKET PURCHASE: Open Rehearsal and Documentary Filming Session, 1 PM-4, June 2, 2012, Ludcke Auditorium, 719 Stevens Avenue, Portland, Maine, The Longfellow Chorus Orchestra, with Lydia Forbes, violin soloist

$10.00. Purchase tickets at the door or via PayPal below. Call 207-232-8920 for more information.






Mission Statement of The Longfellow Chorus, Inc.:

The Corporation shall organize and maintain a chorus to perform and record vocal and choral settings of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poetry, written from 1840 to the present, shall inspire and commission new vocal and choral settings of Longfellow's poetry, and shall perform choral music of the Romantic and immediate post-Romantic eras, ca. 1825–1920.

Materials on this website are protected, copyright 2007–2012, The Longfellow Chorus, Inc., Portland, Maine, USA

Contact The Longfellow Chorus:

e-mail: The Longfellow Chorus

The Longfellow Chorus
c/o Charles Kaufmann
P. O. Box 5133
Portland, Maine 04101

Back to The Longfellow Chorus