Resurgam
Sunday, September 27, 2026 | 2:30 PM
Tuesday, September 29, 2026 | 7:00 PM
Merrill Auditorium
Table of Contents
Program
Program At A Glance
Program Notes
Guest Artist Bios
Hear the Program
Program
Eckart Preu, Music Director
ChoralArt Masterworks
PSO Children’s Chorus
Sarah Bailey, soprano
Andrea Graichen, mezzo soprano
Kyle Hayes, tenor
Robert Stoddard, bass
Scarborough High School Chamber Singers
Greely High School Honor Choirs
George Gershwin orch. Don Rose Strike Up The Band Overture
1898-1937
John Knowles Paine Overture to Shakespeare’s “As You Like It”, op.28
1839-1906
Aaron Copland Appalachian Spring Suite
1900-1990
Supply Belcher “An Anthem of Praise”
1751-1836
Travis M. Ramsey FIRE!
b. 1979
Program at a Glance
Welcome to the opening concerts of the Portland Symphony’s 102nd season, and our celebration of the USA’s 250th anniversary. All five composers whose music you’ll hear were born in the northeastern US, and there’s music of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. All the composers are men, two of them Jewish, one of them gay (Copland). Three have strong Maine connections. Heard at one concert, their music tells much of the story of musical America.
Proceeding chronologically, we start with Supply Belcher, whose name, by the way, is pronounced Sùpplee. Belcher was born in Stoughton, MA in 1751 and died in Farmington, ME in 1836. Though active as a musician throughout his life, he also held many jobs, running a tavern, serving in municipal government and representing his district in the Massachusetts legislature.
John Knowles Paine was born in a house on Oxford St. in Portland in 1839, grew up there, and then studied for three years in Germany, achieving renown as a superb organist and gifted composer. Settling in Boston, he eventually became the first-ever professor of music at Harvard.His students went on to chair newly minted music departments at other universities, and his ideas, solidified during his years in Germany, molded American music education for decades. He composed steadily and was beloved and highly regarded during his lifetime.
George Gershwin (b. 1898) and Aaron Copland (b. 1900) travelled divergent paths from their boyhood Brooklyn Jewish neighborhoods on their way to achieving fame as American composers. Gershwin’s immense gifts as a jazz musician manifested early, in a string of Broadway hits laced with melodies still popular today. Copland matured slowly, studying with famed pedagogue Nadia Boulanger in Paris. Gershwin also asked to study with Boulanger, but she turned him away, fearing that she would dilute his innate talent. Copland experimented with a stringent musical style that he eventually abandoned in favor of the accessible voice we recognize today. Gershwin stayed true to his jazz roots and finished his brief life writing a string of crossover orchestral masterpieces. Neither man’s music could ever be confused with the others. Both developed voices that that still sound thoroughly American. Both remain extremely popular with orchestras and listeners worldwide.
Travis Ramsey was born in 1979 and now lives and works in New Hampshire, having earned degrees from the University of Southern Maine and Boston University. He is busy teaching, composing, and living life in rural New England with his wife, children, cats, and chickens. FIRE! was first performed by ChoralArt with a chamber orchestra led by Robert Russell, in March 2025. These PSO performances are the premiere of the composer’s revised version for full orchestra.
– Martin Webster
Program Notes
George Gershwin
Overture to Strike Up the Band
George Gershwin was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1898 and died in Hollywood in 1937. He composed the musical Strike Up the Band in 1927, with a book by George S. Kaufman and lyrics by Ira Gershwin. This opened in Philadelphia the same year, but closed after only two weeks. A greatly revised version was made in 1929, and this had a successful Broadway run. In the early 1970s arranger Don Rose scored the Overture for concert performance. The score calls for 3 flutes, 2 piccolos, 3 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, piano, celeste, and strings.
*****
George S. Kaufman once famously quipped: “Satire is what closes on Saturday night.” He might well have been speaking of his own work on Strike Up the Band, which closed its own pre-Broadway run after only two weeks.
Kaufman had supplied a nutty story for the show, part screwball comedy and part biting satire on American politics, big business, militarism, foreign relations, and more. The plot revolved around a businessman trying to persuade the government to go to war with Switzerland over cheese tariffs. Critics loved it, but the Philadelphia audiences didn’t.
Before its Broadway opening a couple of years later, Gershwin revised most of the music and Morrie Ryskind was brought in to rewrite the book. The satire was softened, relegating the war to a dream sequence, and the diplomatic incident was changed to be over chocolate rather than cheese. The Gershwin brothers added a dozen new songs, and the disaster had been transformed into a moderately successful hit. The Overture is pure Gershwin: perky, upbeat, and oh-so American.
– Mark Rohr
John Knowles Paine
Overture to Shakespeare’s “As You Like It”, Opus 28
Paine was born January 9, 1839 in Portland, ME and died April 25, 1906 in Cambridge, MA. This work lasts approximately ten minutes in performance. It is scored for 2 flutes and piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 Trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, and strings (first and second violins, violas, cellos, and basses.
*****
Nineteenth century Americans were accustomed to regard classical music, fine art, ballet, and theater (among other things) with a mixture of awe and suspicion. These areas of human endeavor were fine for people who weren’t like us, probably from another (European) country, but they were just a bit much to be part of a normal person’s life. They made good hobbies but could never be thought of as respectable professions. On the other hand, when someone among them showed exceptional promise, they made mighty efforts to encourage them.
Case in point: John Knowles Paine, born in a house on Oxford Street here in Portland in 1839. His family was involved in the musical life of the little city, leading civic bands, teaching, singing in church. His father owned a music store which was destroyed by the great fire of 1866. These people noticed John’s particular aptitude and arranged for him to study with Hermann Kotzschmar, whose recent arrival from Germany bestowed mystique and expertise and placed him automatically at the apex of Portland musical life. When Paine’s talent surpassed Kotzschmar’s teaching abilities, people in Portland arranged a series of benefit concerts so that he could travel to Germany, where he studied for 3 years, becoming a fine organist and skilled composer.
He returned to the US in 1861 with his own European mystique and found work first as organist/choirmaster at the socially prominent West Church in Boston, and then at Harvard College, which was to be Paine’s primary employer until his death in 1906. Harvard, founded by Puritans in 1636, still had no music department when Paine arrived. He and his wife eventually convinced a highly resistant faculty and president that music merited inclusion in the school’s curriculum, and in 1875 Paine became the first fulltime academic professor of music at any US university. He taught happily, influencing future generations of composers, and his courses served as models for other newly established departments of music, usually led by his former students.
He composed three symphonies, an opera, chamber music, choral music and works for orchestra such as the overture on today’s program. Critics declared him the only American capable of writing major symphonic works to equal the Europeans, but his music vanished from concert programs in the early twentieth century. It took bicentennial celebrations in 1976 to spark exploration of some of the US’s musical past, and concertgoers then were happy to hear music by not only Paine, but a host of other forgotten Americans, including the superbly gifted Amy Beach.
Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” features witty wordplay, family squabbles, youthful love and improbable disguises. Courtiers and nobles who weary of conventional life flee to the Forest of Arden where they can be and say what they wish, and the play ends, somewhat hastily, with several sets of lovers uniting happily and returning to the real world.
Paine’s overture matches the play’s spirit nicely. After a few moments of foreboding, a love theme for the female lead Rosamond emerges. This theme is transformed into high-spirited music for the nobles sporting in the forest. The interchange between this music and Duke Frederick’s blockier theme provides the material for the overture, which ends, like the play, in a flurry of unexpected activity. Throughout, Paine’s writing is witty and adept. He had learned well in Germany and combined his technical skill with a quirky imagination to produce music whose freshness and sincerity could only be from the USA.
– Martin Webster
Aaron Copland
Appalachian Spring, Suite from the ballet
Aaron Copland was born in Brooklyn in 1900 and died in Peekskill, New York in 1990. He composed his ballet Appalachian Spring on a commission from the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation in 1943-1944 and it was first performed at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. in 1944. Copland’s music for the ballet won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 1945 as well as the Music Critics Circle of New York Award. The original score was for a tiny orchestra of thirteen players; in 1945 Copland arranged most of the ballet’s music into a suite for larger orchestra. The score of this version calls for 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, timpani, percussion, harp, piano, and strings.
*****
In 1942 Mrs. Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge invited Martha Graham to create three new ballets for the Coolidge Foundation’s annual Fall Festival. Three composers were engaged to write new ballet scores for the event: Paul Hindemith, Darius Milhaud, and Aaron Copland. Copland’s contribution would go on to become his most popular and oft-performed work: Appalachian Spring.
The scenario of the ballet as printed in the score describes “a pioneer celebration in spring around a newly-built farmhouse in the Pennsylvania hills in the early part of the last century. The bride-to-be and the young farmer-husband enact the emotions, joyful and apprehensive, their new domestic partnership invites. An older neighbor suggests now and then the rocky confidence of experience. A revivalist and his followers remind the new householders of the strange and terrible aspects of human fate. At the end the couple are left quiet and strong in their new house.”
Copland’s note for the premiere of the Suite describes the sections of the work:
- Very slowly. Introduction of the characters, one by one, in suffused light.
- Fast. Sudden burst of unison strings in A-major arpeggios starts the action. A sentiment both exalted and religious gives the keynote to this scene.
- Moderate. Duo for the Bride and her Intended—scene of tenderness and passion.
- Quite fast. The revivalist and his flock. Folksy feelings—suggestions of square dances and country fiddlers.
- Still faster. Solo dance of the Bride—presentiment of motherhood. Extremes of joy and fear and wonder.
- Very slowly (as at first). Transition scenes reminiscent of the introduction.
- Calm and flowing. Scenes of daily activity for the Bride and her Farmer-husband. There are five variations on a Shaker theme. The theme, sung by a solo clarinet, was taken from a collection of Shaker melodies compiled by Edward D. Andrews, and published later under the title The Gift to be Simple. The melody I borrowed and used almost literally is called “Simple Gifts.”
- Moderate. Coda. The Bride takes her place among her neighbors. At the end the couple are left “quiet and strong in their new house.” Muted strings intone a hushed, prayer-like passage. We hear a last echo of the principal theme sung by a flute and solo violin.
Long before he composed Appalachian Spring Copland began to heed the advice given by that incomparably beautiful Shaker tune “Simple Gifts;” in fact its sentiments seem to sum up this period of his career. As a young man Copland composed brash, dissonant, jazz-tinged works that pleased the critics yet left audiences unmoved. So he performed a musical about-face: “I felt that it was worth it to see if I couldn’t say what I had to say in the simplest terms possible.” This change of attitude yielded a rich lode of accessible and instantly popular works such as El Salon Mexico, Rodeo, and Lincoln Portrait—all culminating in Appalachian Spring.
As the song goes:
’Tis the gift to be simple
’Tis the gift to be free
’Tis the gift to come down
Where we ought to be
And when we find ourselves
In the place just right
’Twill be in the valley
Of love and delight.
Just so.
– Mark Rohr
Supply Belcher
“An Anthem of Praise”
Supply Belcher’s “Anthem of Praise” is a setting for unaccompanied four-part chorus of Psalm 100 from the Bible. It is part of a long New England tradition of simple, direct, easily sung music for Christian worship.
*****
Belcher, whose first name is pronounced Sùpplee, with the accent on the first syllable, was born in Stoughton, MA on March 3, 1751. Stoughton was the site of a school at which William Billings, a much more famous singing-master and composer, taught, but there is no evidence that Belcher ever attended that school or sang with Billings. As a young man, Belcher served in the army during the American Revolution, promoted eventually to the rank of Captain. After the war, he opened a tavern in Stoughton, later moving to first Augusta and then Farmington, ME, where he settled by 1785 and remained until his death in 1836. He and his wife had 10 children and remained married for over 60 years.
Like any musician in the early years of the US, Belcher did not make his living from music, but worked at various times as town clerk, tax assessor and schoolmaster in Farmington. He also served two terms as the representative from Farmington to the Massachusetts legislature when Maine was still a territory of that state. A local newspaper dubbed him “The Handel of Maine” after a public performance of one of his choral pieces, and there is no doubt that he greatly enriched the life of Farmington with his music. A volume of his works, “The Harmony of Maine” was self-published in 1794 and can be found online.
– Martin Webster
Travis M. Ramsey
FIRE!
Ramsey was born in 1979 and now lives in New Hampshire. This work was first performed by ChoralArt and a chamber orchestra, led by Robert Russell, on March 22-23, 2025 at Woodford’s Church in Portland. These current PSO performances are the premiere of the composer’s revision of the work for full orchestra. The work lasts approximately thirty minutes in performance. It is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, strings (first and second violin, violas, cellos, basses), Choir and 4 vocal soloists.
*****
Travis M. Ramsey was born in 1979. He studied at the University of Southern Maine and at Boston University, and now lives in New Hampshire, where he teaches and composes.
The composer writes:
It wasn’t until I began researching this composition that I learned that many of Portland’s churches were built in the years immediately following the devastating fire of July 4, 1866, when the majority of them were destroyed. FIRE! tells the story of that night and of the people of Portland and their resolve in the face of adversity. The work’s narrative thread comes from two texts: the personal notes of Portland author John Neal, and Abner Harmon’s vivid depiction Great Conflagration in Portland, July 4, 1866. Longfellow and Emerson, two poets with Maine roots, and the 18th Century Loyalist Mather Byles provide the remaining text.
The first movement begins with Portland’s 1866 Independence Day celebration. The scene is set: a jaunty march, a parade, and a joyous hymn on a patriotic text by Emerson. A solitary voice (that of William Wilberforce Ruby) sounds the alarm, but the revelers drown him out. A church bell tolls, sounding 8 rings to pass the alarm throughout the city, “Fire! District Eight!” We hear as the refrain Mather Byles The Conflagration – an old text with apocalyptic undertones, but what else could have been flashing before their eyes? Firemen chase the fire throughout the city; fire captains shout their orders. Before long the reservoirs run dry and City Hall succumbs to the flames. The pace grows frenetic: we hear of Neal’s “beleaguered city, carried by storm” with its “heavy explosions” and “blasts of trumpets.”
In the second movement the choir, unaccompanied, gives our first view of the city on the next day. Portland is an eerie and desolate landscape with solitary chimneys standing in a sea of rubble. We hear from Harmon again, and also from a letter Longfellow wrote to a friend: “I have been in Portland since the fire. Desolation, desolation, desolation… it reminds me of Pompeii.” The movement ends as a wordless lament.
In the third movement, the reality of the crisis settles in. (After the terror, what will we eat? Where will we sleep? What will we wear?) And then letters begin pouring in. A quartet of soloists read their pledges: a woman from Vermont is sending leftover money from a soldier’s aid foundation; the U.S. Quartermaster General is sending war surplus – clothes and blankets, tea kettles and spoons; a boy of twelve is sending coins collected from his classmates; and little Olive Perry is sending the dollar she earned shoveling snow last winter. The chorus joins, echoing the names of those who extended the hand of charity.
The final movement is a celebration of the people who rose from the ashes to rebuild the city. First the choir sings Longfellow’s The Light of Stars. They bring us from a place of despair to an appeal to the heavens and finally to acceptance and solidarity: “…and thou shall know ere long/know how sublime a thing it is to suffer and be strong.” Longfellow’s The Ladder of St. Augustine follows, a powerful depiction of Portland’s progress and determination in rebuilding its skyline. The choir then sings the motto Resurgam and a closing fugue while the church bells toll once again – but this time in triumph.
Mark Rohr was the Portland Symphony Orchestra’s Bass Trombonist from the mid-1980’s and program annotator from 1991 until his passing in 2019. We are privileged to continue publishing his program notes at his bequest.
Guest Artist Bios
Eckart Preu, Music Direcor
ChoralArt Masterworks
ChoralArt Masterworks has long been a cornerstone of Maine’s symphonic choral tradition through its enduring collaboration with the Portland Symphony Orchestra, with which it typically performs one to two times each season. Its repertoire spans the breadth of the canon, from monumental masterworks such as Verdi’s Requiem, Vaughan Williams’ Dona nobis pacem, and Haydn’s The Creation to more adventurous and rarely performed works, including Bernstein’s Kaddish Symphony and Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass.
The chorus has also welcomed distinguished collaborators, most notably performing Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem in 1991 under the baton of renowned guest conductor Robert Shaw. Beyond its work with the symphony, ChoralArt Masterworks has partnered with other leading arts organizations, including Friends of the Kotzschmar Organ, expanding its artistic reach through unique and collaborative performances. Continuing its commitment to contemporary music, ChoralArt Masterworks also presented the New England premiere of Robert S. Cohen’s Alzheimer’s Stories in 2015, a compelling work for chorus, soloists, and instrumental ensemble.
PSO Children’s Chorus
The PSO Children’s Chorus, composed of treble voices, gives young singers ages 9-16 the opportunity to enhance and showcase their choral and vocal skills as they perform in professional musical settings. Whether it be in longstanding traditions such as The Magic of Christmas, select Classical/POPS!/Discovery concerts throughout the year, or performances in the greater community, the PSO Children’s Chorus has various opportunities to join alongside professional orchestral musicians, professional choirs, internationally renowned vocal soloists, and work under the baton of PSO conductor and Music Director, Eckart Preu, as they perform at the historic Merrill Auditorium in Portland, Maine, with the full Portland Symphony Orchestra.
Sarah Bailey, soprano
Sarah Bailey is a well-known classical soprano in southern Maine. She has sung with: Maine Music Society (Beethoven: “Mass in C,” Mozart: “Requiem,” “Solemn Vespers KV 321”), White Mountain Bach Festival (multiple Bach cantatas), Midcoast Symphony Orchestra (Handel: “Messiah”), and many solo appearances with ChoralART, including soloist on tour in Europe (Schubert: “Mass in G”). Ms. Bailey has also had the honor of premiering three pieces as soprano soloist: Nancy Gunn: “Driving in Maine,” William Pardus: “Four Songs of the Coast,” Travis Ramsey: “FIRE!”
In addition to singing, Ms. Bailey is a choral conductor and has served as a public school music educator for more than two decades. She is currently the director of choirs at Greely High School in Cumberland, Chorus Master for Portland Ballet, and Children’s Chorus Master for Opera Maine. She has also served as guest conductor with local organizations and at regional choral festivals.
Ms. Bailey holds a BM in Music Education from Houghton College and a MM in Choral Conducting from the University of Southern Maine. She lives in North Yarmouth with her husband Stuart.
Andrea Graichen, mezzo soprano
Andrea Graichen is a frequent soloist in the Greater Portland area, performing a wide variety of alto and mezzo-soprano repertoire. She sang the mezzo-soprano solo in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in the gala opening concerts of the Portland Symphony Orchestra’s (PSO) 100th anniversary season. She also sang the role of Mother Jeanne in the PSO’s presentation of Poulenc’s opera Dialogues of the Carmelites. Ms. Graichen appeared as the alto soloist with Portland’s ChoralArt in a 2025 concert featuring Mozart’s Credomesse and the world premiere of the organization’s innovative commission on an historic event in Portland’s history, FIRE! At Blue Hill Bach, she has sung in Handel’s Israel in Egypt Festival Finale concert and in a vocal quintet for Blue Hill’s “Birthday Concert for Johann Sebastian Bach” featuring Jesu, meine Freude BWV 227 and Felix Mendelssohn’s setting of Jesu, meine Freude. Solo repertoire includes Mozart’s Parto! Ma tu ben mio (La Clemenza di Tito), Schubert’s Der Hirt auf dem Felsen, Robert S. Cohen’s Alzheimer’s Stories, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, Poulenc’s Gloria, Stravinsky’s Mass, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Britten’s Ceremony of Carols, Bach’s Mass in B minor BWV 232, Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Coronation Mass, Regina Coeli, and Requiem, Raminsh’s Magnificat, plus many smaller works, among them Strozzi’s Lagrime Mie, Ballio’s The Old Bridge at Florence, Monteverdi’s Lamento d’Ariana, and Caldara’s Pompe inutili aria from Maddalena ai piedi di Cristo. Ms. Graichen was a member of the ChoralArt Camerata, Singers, and Masterworks Chorus from 1998 to 2022. She was also a longtime member of the St. Mary Schola early music ensemble. She studied voice with mezzo-soprano Kathleen Grammer. She earned a B.S. in Nutrition from the University of Texas.
Kyle Hayes, tenor
Kyle Hayes is a newcomer to southern Maine’s Classical Music scene. He has been a performer with ChoralArt’s Masterworks and Singers ensembles since 2022, and performed FIRE’s premiere performance. He is honored to be reprising the Tenor solo. He has performed Mozart’s Requiem with Oratorio Chorale, and ChoralArt’s Christmas at the Cathedral and Mozart’s Mass in C Major. He regularly performs with the OperaMaine chorus and covered the role of Toby in Sweeney Todd in 2025. Previously, he studied Music Education at Montclair State University, and previously served MSAD6 & Sanford School Departments as a music teacher. This will be his debut with the Portland Symphony Orchestra as a soloist.
Robert Stoddard, bass
Robert Stoddard, bass-baritone, joins the PSO onstage again, having most recently sung the role of Pilate in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. A resident of Portland, Mr. Stoddard has performed with Zenith Ensemble, Dirigo Ensemble, Portland Bach Experience, ChoralArt and Masterworks Chorale, both as soloist and chorister. He tours internationally with Mastersingers USA, winner of the men’s choral division in the 2000 Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod. Previously in New York City, he performed and recorded with the Robert DeCormier Singers, the New York Choral Society, and Sine Nomine Singers. Mr. Stoddard studied voice with Rodney Gisick at Amherst College and with Gerold Sienna at Yale School of Music. Mr. Stoddard is also a composer, with works published in The Sacred Harp, 2025 Edition andThe Shenandoah Harmony. He is chairman of the New England Sacred Harp Convention and past president of both ChoralArt and the Friends of the Kotzschmar Organ.
Scarborough High School Chamber Singers
The Chamber Singers are the most advanced vocal ensemble of Scarborough High School. This auditioned choir performs a wide variety of literature, ranging from Renaissance motets to contemporary commissions. The group performs both locally and internationally, with a tour of England and France scheduled for June of 2028. The ensemble also regularly partners with other artists and organizations, most recently with composer Jennifer Lucy Cook, ChoralArt, and Maine State Ballet. The Scarborough High School Chamber Singers are under the direction of Jeff Mosher.
Greely High School Honor Choirs
The Greely High School Honor Choirs combine two ensembles: Madrigal Singers and Treble Chorus. Both are auditioned ensembles who perform a variety of repertoire at school concerts and community events throughout the year. Recent appearances include: Christmas with Kennerly, Spencer and the Walrus, Julia Gagnon, the concert series at OceanView in Falmouth, and annual appearances at the Sea Dogs. The Greely High School Honor Choirs are under the direction of Sarah Bailey.
Hear the Concert
As of September 25th, there is no recording of FIRE! available to the public.
