The Composers

Peter Tchaikovsky  (1840 – 1893)
Peter Tchaikovsky was born in Votkinsk in Imperial Russia and at age of 10 moved to St. Petersburg.  His father was a mining engineer and his mother was of French ancestry.  Tchaikovsky was one of the first students of the St Petersburg Conservatory and later became one of its teachers.  The Nutcracker was composed in 1891 and first performed in the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre of St. Petersburg.

George Frederic Handel (1685 – 1759)
Born the same year as Bach and Scarlatti, Handel’s lived and composed in several countries including Germany, Italy, France, before finally settling in England.  The Faithful Shepherd was the second opera written after Handel moved to England.  This suite was arranged and orchestrated by Sir Thomas Beecham (1879-1961) in the manner of a Baroque Suite mixing dance and non-dance movements.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 – 1791)
One of the positions that Mozart held while living in Vienna was writing music for special occasions for Emperor Joseph II of Austria.  Mozart’s comment was that the pay was "too much for what I do, too little for what I could do."  The Sleigh Ride is one of number of german dances composed for balls held in the imperial palace.  Note the delicate use of the trumpet.

Engelbert Humperdinck (1854 – 1921)
Born in Siegburg Germany, this composer is known now chiefly for his opera Hänsel and Gretel.  This work began as four songs that he wrote for a puppet show that his nieces were putting on at home.  Among his teachers is Wagner whose influence can be heard in the delicate use of a large orchestra.

Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844 – 1908)
Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov was a Russian composer.  Perhaps the only composer who was a navy officer, he was still able to devote considerable time to the development of uniquely Russian music.  Ultimately he became a professor at the St. Petersburg Conservatory.  Rimsky-Korsakov took orchestration extremely seriously learning to play many of the instruments himself and writing the best known book on the topic.

Leroy Anderson (1908 – 1975)
Born in Cambridge Massachusetts to Swedish parents, his clever musical arrangements for the Harvard band brought him to the attention of Arthur Fiedler of the Boston Pops. This piece, conceived during a heat wave, immediately became one of his most popular works.

Lennie Niehaus (1929)
Lennie Niehaus is an American jazz musician and composer whose music, if not his name, will be familiar to nearly everyone.  He played in Stan Kenton’s big band for many years and since then has been a composer and arranger of film music, frequently for Clint Eastwood.  The 2008 movie Changeling is a recent example of his work. 

About the Conductor

Sharon Northe was born in San Antonio, Texas, raised in Wenatchee, Washington, and graduated magna cum laude from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon, with a Bachelor of Science in Music and a Masters of Arts in Music Education. She retired in 1997 from the Parkrose School District after 30 years as a band director. As a flutist, she has performed in Spain, Germany, and Austria with the American Flute Orchestra and in Denver, Columbus, Washington D.C., and Atlanta with the Colorado Flute Orchestra. She plays in a flute trio, Trio Vivo, with two other HSO members, Morgan Brown, and Nancy Vink.

Sharon teaches flute privately. She is a respected judge at solo and ensemble contests. This is Sharon’s eighth year as the conductor of the Hillsboro Symphony Orchestra.

About the Sugar Plum Fairy

Rita Pang is fifteen years old and has danced since the age of five.  She has previously studied at the Portland Community Ballet where she met ballet teachers Cynthia Tosh and Maria Moreno Ferrin.   Rita is currently taking classes from Ms. Tosh and Mrs. Ferrin at the Northwest Conservatory of Dance, located in Hillsboro, where Mrs.  Ferrin serves as artistic director.  She is one of the studio’s most talented and promising young dancers.