Student Recital: End-of-Year Finale!
The final performance of the school year begins with Francis Poulenc’s elegant Sonata and a poignant arrangement of “Amazing Grace” for small brass ensemble. Harpist Subin Lee premieres the winning composition of the Lyra Society Costello Competition, Menagerie of Endangered Creatures: Blue, Vanishing by Luke Blackburn. Inspired by Blackburn’s research of the Miami Blue, an endangered butterfly native to Florida, each movement of Blue, Vanishing is meant to paint a certain period in the existence of these endangered butterflies: their past, their present, and their hopeful future. The recital concludes with the showstopping “Rondeau brillant” by Franz Schubert.
Program (subject to change)
| FRANCIS POULENC | Sonata |
| TRADITIONAL | “Amazing Grace,” arr. Bill Holcombe and Bill Holcombe, Jr. |
| Alan Tolbert, trumpet | |
| Martina Smith, horn | |
| David Schonberger, trombone | |
| LUKE BLACKBURN (2021 Winner, Costello Competition for Composition) | Menagerie of Endangered Creatures: Blue, Vanishing (world premiere) |
| Subin Lee, harp | |
| FRANZ SCHUBERT | Rondo in B minor, D. 895 (“Rondeau brillant”) |
| Jinyoung Yoon, violin | |
| Youngsung Park, piano |
About the World Premiere
Luke Blackburn (Brandeis University) is the winner of the Costello Competition for Composition 2020–21.
The Lyra Society, established in 2004, was created to introduce the harp to underserved students in the Philadelphia community, expand the harp repertoire by commissioning gifted composers, and empower young people through music.
The Lyra Society’s Annual Marilyn Costello Competition for Composition serves to encourage young composers to write effective solo and chamber works for the harp. Open to U.S. and Canadian students, the competition honors the legacy of Marilyn Costello, former harp teacher at Curtis Institute of Music and Principal Harpist of the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1946 to 1992. Since 2014, the Lyra Society has awarded more than $8,000 in prize money through the Costello Competition to young composers, commissioned ten new works for the harp in a solo or chamber setting, and published four works through Fatrock Ink Publishers.
