Thornton Symphony hosts fall debut
USC’s Bovard Auditorium welcomed music lovers for a lovely student performance.
By SENWIN PAREJA
A rumbling could be felt in the audience. Then, the sound of chatter came to a halt as concert attendees held their breath in anticipation for the first notes of the opening piece the USC Thornton Symphony had in store Friday evening.
Music lovers from all over the USC community gathered Sept. 8 to witness the opening concert of the fall semester by the symphony in Bovard Auditorium.
The venue was filled with friends and family of orchestra members who were eager to watch their loved ones perform. Seated in the audience as well were USC students supporting their friends and peers.
“I play violin, so I’ve been in a few orchestras myself,” said Ameli Llumiquinga Lapham, a freshman majoring in contemporary Latino and Latin American studies. “I just really look forward to seeing how the other musicians perform.”
The orchestra was led by resident conductor Sharon Lavery, who took great care to choose a repertoire for the performance that represented the beginning of a new era at Thornton School of Music, especially with the concert’s opening piece, “Fanfare for Flora,” written by former Thornton associate dean Douglas Lowry.
“[“Fanfare for Flora”] was written for Flora Thornton who, because of her generosity, is the reason why we have the Thornton School of Music name,” Lavery said. “The piece reflects her great spirit and energy.”
Lavery also chose the piece to celebrate the Thornton School of Music’s new Dean, Jason King, who was in attendance and publicly recognized Friday evening.
The concert itself began on a grand note, with the initial blare of the trumpets at the beginning of the piece to signify celebration.
The piece brought forth a magnificently vibrant energy into the halls of the auditorium. Having purposeful moments of slowness, the orchestra interpreted the music with a distinct elegance that made one imagine being in attendance at a celebratory parade.
Following “Fanfare for Flora,” Lavery welcomed Thornton professor of practice and composer Veronika Krausas to the stage to introduce the next piece, “Caryatids,” composed by Krausas herself.
“Our long-standing faculty member Veronika Krausas is turning 60 this year, which is an important event for her,” Lavery said. “I had heard great things about this piece from some of my colleagues who are in the L.A. [Philharmonic], and I know how important it is for our students to work on and experience new contemporary music.”
Originally premiering in 2021, Krausas was commissioned by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra to compose “Caryatids” for the 10th Annual Elaine Lebenbom Memorial Award for Female Composers.
“I was trying to base [“Caryatids”] on something in Detroit,” Krausas said. “There is a building there called Book Tower, which has these caryatids that are these women sculptures upholding the roof.”
The piece is structured in eight sections like the architecture of a building, with four sections representing the corners and another four sections interspersed representing the walls.
“The four corners are the structural chordal parts,” Krausas said. “The four walls are the dance movements, because the maidens would dance. They’re my reinterpretation of what a Baroque dance might be.”
Student musicians worked alongside resident conductor Sharon Lavery to put on a memorable show. (Emma Silverstein / Daily Trojan)
Listening to “Caryatids” for the first time, audience members could distinctly recognize the ending of one section and the beginning of the next. The “corner” sections brought hard-hitting, thunderous notes that would mark a structural change in the piece. Then, the “wall” sections were more playful, and explored the light-hearted essence of Baroque-inspired sounds.
Perfecting the new piece for the Friday performance, however, was a difficult yet satisfying journey for the USC Thornton Symphony.
“The first rehearsal was quite rough,” Lavery said. “This is common with new works because the students had never heard it before. So, they were definitely up for the challenge.”
Krausas was especially thrilled to have her original piece featured in Friday’s performance.
“You could have two actors saying the same thing, and it’s almost identical, but it’s not that one is better or worse,” Krausas said. “I love that excitement of hearing my piece done by someone else and having its own little bit of character difference.”
Without intermission, the USC Thornton Symphony concluded the evening with all four movements of “Symphony #5 in E minor, Opus 64” by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, one of Lavery’s “favorite symphonies in all of the entire classical music repertoire.”
Each movement of the piece brought its own specific emotion that the audience could recognize and feel as they listened to it.
For Lavery, the connection the students have with Tchaikovsky’s music is just as important as the connection the students have with each other.
“It’s a piece that is important for the students to experience and learn,” Lavery said. “Tchaikovsky is difficult in an emotional way in pacing [and] in style. It’s getting the ensemble to work together … using their ears, let alone not focusing on my baton.”
The orchestra had only been in rehearsals for two weeks in preparation for the Friday performance, but had made an astounding amount of progress in that short amount of time.
“It’s nothing short of amazing,” Lavery said. “These students inspire me. I know it’s supposed to be the other way around but not when they can do the kind of work that they’ve done over the past two weeks. Extraordinary. Excellent.”
The evening came to a close as the entire auditorium gave the performers a standing ovation for a job well done following the finale.
“The whole concert offers a wide range of emotions,” Lavery said. “[It’s] our job as musicians to create reactions, feelings and emotions, good or bad, but to create those reactions by performing the works of great composers.”
