Update Title: 283FDEBE-55E0-4AA6-B92C-045EAC03D7DF

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This work, Expressions, began as an idea by Music Director of the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, Neal Gittleman, to create an artistic work that puts to music the poetry of Sierra Leone, a winner of the Ohio Governor's Award for the Arts. Working closely together, Steven Winteregg and Sierra Leone used Miriam Rosenthal, an early administrator of the Dayton Philharmonic and namesake of the Miriam Rosenthal Foundation for the Arts that commissioned the work, as a unifying idea, discovering eight words often used to describe her: Tenacious, Graceful, Radiant, Humorous, Inspiring, Worn, Jubilant, and Dynamic. Each word a movement, they are performed in a continuous manner without break, and reflect how Miriam Rosenthal worked but also parts of every human being’s life experiences. The outer movements are for orchestra alone and can serve separately as a wonderful opening work on a program. Neal Gittleman said of the work that it is "a great new addition to the orchestral and choral repertoire" and that "there is nothing like this piece."

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Most artistic endeavors start with a single thought. In the case of “Expressions,” it began with an idea that Neal Gittleman, Music Director of the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, had to create an artistic work by putting music to the poetry of Sierra Leone, a winner of the Ohio Governor's Award for the Arts. The poet and the composer were introduced to one another by Neal, and as the poet and composer planned, they realized that the piece needed a controlling idea to provide unity and to hold the composition together. Since the piece was commissioned by the Miriam Rosenthal Foundation for the Arts, it was a natural first step to look to Miriam Rosenthal as the unifying idea. Besides being an early administrator of the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, Miriam was a force of nature when it came to planning and raising money for many of the non-profits in the Miami Valley, and consequently, she seemed to be a worthy subject. In researching Miriam Rosenthal, eight words emerged that were often used to describe her: Tenacious, Graceful, Radiant, Humorous, Inspiring, Worn, Jubilant, and Dynamic. The challenge for the poet and the composer was how to turn these eight expressions, with their various meanings and moods, into a multi-movement musical piece. The entire eight-movement work is performed in a continuous manner without break. 1.Tenacious is performed by the orchestra alone with a passacaglia that has a repeated and unrelenting bass line. 2. Graceful, with its subtitle “A Song for Miriam,” is the only direct reference to Miriam Rosenthal in the entire piece. It features a solo for soprano with orchestral accompaniment as well as a part for poet. 3. Radiant is composed for poet and orchestra. 4. Humorous is written for chorus and orchestra while 5.Inspiring features the poet again with the orchestra. 6. Worn reflects the end of Miriam’s life and her battle with cancer, and it is written for Soprano, Poet, Choir, and Orchestra. This movement moves without break into the next section, 7. Jubilant. The final movement, 8. Dynamic, is written for orchestra alone and provides a positive and triumphal ending to Miriam’s life and to the piece. The entire composition was created with the poet and the composer closely interacting with one another. The piece, with its many moods and styles, ends up being a work that could have only resulted from this unique collaboration. Their joint effort ended up being the perfect reflection of how Miriam Rosenthal worked and collaborated in the Dayton, Ohio area. However, these expressions ultimately reflect every human being’s experiences in life.

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