Presented by the GSU Symphony Orchestra
with conductor Dr. Tamara Dworetz and graduate guest conductors Garrett Clay, Jackson Allred, & Stephanie Morera
Friday
February 28, 2025
7:00 P.M.
KOPLEFF RECITAL HALL
Peer Gynt Suite No.1, Op.46 (1875)
EDVARD GRIEG | 1843-1907
I. Morning Mood
IV. In the Hall of the Mountain King
Featuring the GSU Campus Orchestra
Garrett Clay, graduate conductor
Peer Gynt is the incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's 1867 play by the same title. It premiered along with the play on 24 February 1876 in Christiania (now Oslo). Grieg later created two suites from his Peer Gynt music. Some of the music from these suites are found frequently in pop culture.
Edvard Grieg (1843–1907) was one of the definitive leaders of Scandinavian music. He is widely considered one of the leading Romantic era composers, and his music is part of the standard classical repertoire worldwide. His use of Norwegian folk music in his own compositions brought the music of Norway to fame.
Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67 (1804-1808)
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN | 1770-1827
Jackson Allred, guest conductor
The Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67, also known as the Fate Symphony is one of the best-known compositions in classical music and one of the most frequently played symphonies, and it is widely considered one of the cornerstones of western music. First performed in Vienna's Theater an der Wien in 1808, the work achieved its prodigious reputation soon afterward. E. T. A. Hoffmann described the symphony as "one of the most important works of the time."
This symphony was written during Beethoven's "heroic" period (1802-1812), famously characterized by the realization that he was going deaf. Beethoven's Fifth, wrote Hoffmann, "sets in motion terror, fear, horror, pain, and awakens the infinite yearning that is the essence of romanticism."
As is typical of symphonies during the Classical period, Beethoven's Fifth Symphony has four movements. It begins with a distinctive four-note "short-short-short-long" motif, often characterized as "fate knocking at the door", the Schicksals-Motiv.
presenting Brumby Competition Winner...
Emily Gunby, oboe
Oboe Concerto, Op.45 (1927)
EUGENE AYNSLEY GOOSSENS | 1893-1962
I. Allegro con brio
Tamara Dworetz, conductor
Emily Gunby
oboe
Emily Gunby is a versatile oboe/English hornist and accomplished music educator from Marietta, Georgia. She is currently pursuing a Master of Music with a double concentration in music education and oboe performance and a post-master’s Artist Certificate in oboe performance at Georgia State University (GSU) under the tutelage of Dr. Lara Dahl. Emily earned her Bachelor of Music Education from Kennesaw State University (KSU), where she studied oboe with Elizabeth Koch Tiscione (Principal Oboe - Atlanta Symphony Orchestra), Barbara Cook, and Shelly Myers. As a student performer, Emily has consistently held principal oboe positions in esteemed ensembles, including the GSU Symphony Orchestra, GSU Symphonic Wind Ensemble, and KSU Wind Ensemble. Her passion for performance has also led her to collaborate as a professional guest with ensembles in the metro-Atlanta area, such as Chamber Music Atlanta, Georgia Philharmonic, Georgia Ballet, Atlanta International Symphony Orchestra, Masterworks Chorale, GSU Repertory Singers, and Atlanta Musicians Orchestra. Emily is currently a full-time member of Tara Winds, one of the most prestigious and decorated community wind ensembles of the Southeast. She is a recent winner of the 2024-25 GSU Brumby Concerto Competition and will perform the Goossens Oboe Concerto in One Movement with the GSU Symphony Orchestra in February. She has performed on the French Riviera, twice at the Georgia Music Educators Association Conference in Athens, GA, and will be performing at Carnegie Hall in New York City this coming May. Emily is also an oboist and founding member of Camerata Música de Atlanta, a new professional chamber group that performs at metro-Atlanta venues in the spring.
In addition to performing, Emily is passionate about music education and its role in cultivating the next generation of musicians. She regularly serves as the conductor of the double reed ensemble at Georgia State University’s Double Reed Day and has received masterclass instruction from many fabulous oboe teachers including Claire Chenette, Dr. Courtney Miller, Dr. Laura Medisky, Jaren Atherholt, and Dr. Alyssa Morris. Her roles as a Teaching Assistant for Music Theory I and as a Writing Across the Curriculum Fellow at GSU allowed her to guide and support undergraduate students. Additionally, Emily acts as a Music Education Department Research Assistant, supervising student teachers, assisting in curriculum development, researching, and building courses. Her co-authored article with Kate Alward, “Preventing Burnout in the Next Generation of Teachers”, was published in the Fall 2024 issue of Georgia Music News magazine. Emily’s freelance career as an oboe instructor helps her to share her educational expertise with aspiring musicians, providing private lessons, oboe reeds, sectionals, and masterclasses to many students and schools around Georgia. She is an active member of the National Association for Music Educators, International Double Reed Society, Atlanta Federation of Musicians, and Tau Beta Sigma Alumni Association.
Apart from playing oboe and teaching, Emily enjoys reading, learning new crafting skills, playing video games and Dungeons and Dragons with her friends, bird watching, gardening, traveling, and hanging out with her two Siamese cats, Finn and Casper. She is currently based out of the Alpharetta/Johns Creek area with her fiancé, Jared Cook.
presenting Brumby Competition Winner...
Isabella Chaney, mezzo-soprano
Una voce poco fa
GIOACHINO ROSSINI | 1792-1868
from Il Barbiere di siviglia (1775)
Tamara Dworetz, conductor
Isabella Chaney
mezzo
Isabella Chaney, a mezzo-soprano from Augusta, Georgia, is currently a senior at Georgia State University, studying under Grammy-winning tenor Richard Clement. She most recently portrayed the title role in Carmen at Georgia State University, describing it as one of the most challenging and rewarding roles of her career.
Notable past performances include Tisbe in La Cenerentola with FIO Italia in Urbania, Italy, and Nancy in Albert Herring at the Harrower Summer Opera. She has also performed as La Ciesca in Gianni Schicchi, L'infermiera in Suor Angelica, Mrs. Soames in Our Town, and Dido in Dido and Aeneas. In addition, her award-winning portrayal of Nettie Fowler in Carousel earned her the Shuler Award for Best Leading Actress.
She has performed as a chorister with the Atlanta Opera in productions such as La Bohème, The Magic Flute, and Macbeth, and has performed choral works in Istanbul, Turkey, for the World Choral Symposium. Outside of music, she enjoys horseback riding and cherishing time with her incredibly supportive family, friends, and colleagues.
Capriccio espagnol, Op. 34 (1887)
NIKOLAI RIMSKY-KORSAKOV | 1844-1908
Stephanie Morera, guest conductor
Capriccio Espagnol has five movements, divided into two parts: movements I through III and movements IV and V.
- Alborada is a festive and exciting dance, typically from traditional Asturian music to celebrate the rising of the sun.
- Variazioni, begins with a melody in the horn section. Variations of this melody are then repeated by other instruments and sections of the orchestra.
- Alborada, presents the same Asturian dance as the first movement. The two movements are nearly identical, in fact, except that this movement has a different instrumentation and key.
- Scena e canto gitano ("Scene and Gypsy song") opens with five cadenzas played over rolls on various percussion instruments. It is then followed by a dance in triple time leading attacca into the final movement.
- Fandango asturiano, is also an energetic dance from the Asturias region of northern Spain. The piece ends with an even more rousing statement of the Alborada theme.
Capriccio Espagnol is one of the most vibrant and exhilarating orchestral works in the 19th-century Russian repertoire. This piece reflects Korsakov's fascination with Spanish folk music. It is also a perfect example of the "exoticism" movement in 19th-century music, where composers sought to evoke foreign cultures through music to capture atmosphere of distant places. Rimsky-Korsakov drew inspiration for Capriccio Espagnol from Spain, although he never actually traveled there. He was enchanted by the Spanish style of music. The work represents a fusion of his own Russian compositional style with the rhythm, melody, and spirit of Spanish folk music (or what he imagined that music to be).
Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov was a Russian composer, a member of the group of composers known as The Five. He was a master of orchestration. His best-known orchestral compositions—Capriccio Espagnol, the Russian Easter Festival Overture, and the symphonic suite Scheherazade—are staples of the classical music repertoire, along with suites and excerpts from some of his fifteen operas.
ensembles
conductors
Dr. Tamara Dworetz
Tamara comes to Georgia State University with an impressive background working with professional, collegiate and youth orchestras. Professionally, she has conducted the Paris Mozart Orchestra, Boston Pops, Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Amarillo Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, Mankato Symphony. She was recently appointed the new Artistic Director & Conductor of the Georgia Philharmonic. Dworetz has also worked with world-class orchestras and conductors in Europe as Assistant Conductor – Orchestre de Paris with Klaus Mäkelä, Gürzenich Orchestre Cologne with François-Xavier Roth and the BBC Concert Orchestra with her late mentor, Bramwell Tovey. As an opera conductor, she has led the Dallas Opera Orchestra and served as Assistant Conductor for Indianapolis, Atlanta and Butler Center Operas.
Dr. Dworetz’s musical beginnings took place in the Atlanta public school system. After graduating from North Springs HS in Fulton County, Dr. Dworetz was Assistant Band Director at Alpharetta High School before serving as Director of Orchestras at Lakeside High School in Atlanta where she increased enrollment by 50% over 3 years. In addition to her public school teaching, she has guest-conducted the TMEA (Texas) All-State Philharmonic Orchestra, All-Northwest Honors Orchestra (students from 6 states), and will lead the 2024 Colorado All-State Symphony Orchestra and Georgia 11-12 All-State String Orchestra. She has also worked extensively with the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra, Austin Youth Orchestra and Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra. Last summer she served as an Assistant Conductor with the Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra 2 (NYO2) which performed at Carnegie Hall and their first-ever tour (Dominican Republic); this summer she will return as a Resident Conductor, helping prepare both the NYO and NYO2 orchestras, and traveling with Marin Alsop and NYO on their South American tour. At the National Conference of the American String Teachers Association (ASTA) she will serve as guest conductor for the National Teachers’ Orchestra in their partnership with the New Canon Project.
Dr. Dworetz was recently selected as 1 of 14 candidates from a worldwide pool in the 2022 La Maestra Conducting Competition and Academy for Women Conductors in Paris, France. She was the only US-born conductor selected for the competition and earned a spot as one of 6 semi-finalists. ‘Maestra’, a documentary directed by Maggie Contreras, features 5 conductors from the competition, including Tamara, and was premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and highlighted on CBS National News as well as international film festivals.
Prior to her appointment at Georgia State, Dr. Dworetz served as the Music Director of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (NY) Orchestra and Concert Choir. She has led guest conducting residencies at the University of Texas at Austin, Boston University, SUNY Fredonia School of Music & Longy Conservatory at Bard College.
Dr. Dworetz holds degrees from Indiana University, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Georgia and Boston University.
Garrett Clay
Graduate Orchestral Conducting Student
Garrett Adam Clay is an incoming graduate student pursuing a Master’s Degree in Orchestral Conducting. From 2022 to 2024, Garrett was the orchestra and chorus director at Peachtree Middle School in DeKalb County, Georgia. He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education from Kennesaw State University in 2022. While at KSU, Garrett enjoyed performing as a cellist in the KSU Symphony as well as the Cooke Scholarship String Quartet. In 2020, he was awarded first prize in the university’s Symposium of Student Scholars, for which he conducted research on Shostakovich’s string quartets. Garrett is currently an active section player of the Georgia Philharmonic, which he joined in 2021, as well as a freelance cellist in the metro-Atlanta area.
Jackson Allred
Graduate Orchestral Conducting Student
Jackson Allred is an Atlanta-based conductor dedicated to fostering connection and community through music. His work emphasizes uniting musicians, audiences, and institutions through shared purpose and meaningful collaboration, bridging tradition and innovation to create transformative musical experiences.
Jackson won first prize in the Undergraduate Wind and Percussion Conducting Competition at Georgia State University and later participated in the National Orchestral Institute. He was also personally invited to audit the Aspen Music Festival and Aspen Conducting Academy, where he gained valuable insights into orchestral leadership and musicianship.
Currently concluding a Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting at Georgia State University studying with Dr. Tamara Dworetz, Jackson works with the Georgia Philharmonic and the Georgia State University Symphony Orchestra. He has also served as Interim Manager for the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra, where he continues to contribute as an assistant conductor, helping to shape and inspire the next generation of musicians.
Jackson’s visionary leadership extends beyond the podium. He established a partnership between Georgia State University and the Georgia Aquarium, creating annual, paid performance opportunities for student musicians while enriching the Aquarium’s programming for thousands of visitors.
In 2025, Jackson is spearheading Harmony of Freedom, a commemorative project marking the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. Partnering with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Ebenezer Baptist Church, WABE Atlanta, and the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, the project features a performance of Margaret Bonds’ Montgomery Variations alongside interviews with prominent leaders such as Senator Raphael Warnock. This initiative celebrates Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy while showcasing the power of music to unite communities and honor history.
Jackson’s approach to conducting is rooted in the belief that orchestras are more than ensembles—they are communities that thrive on listening, collaboration, and shared risk-taking. He is committed to creating opportunities for meaningful engagement between musicians and audiences, fostering connections that transcend the concert hall.
Beyond his work in music, Jackson is a skilled Maintenance Diver at the Georgia Aquarium, where he collaborates with his team on underwater challenges, including caring for marine life and maintenance of habitats. This unique experience has informed his leadership style, emphasizing non-verbal communication, the need for balance, and love of the natural world. In his free time, Jackson enjoys hiking, horseback riding, and caring for his two dogs. He is deeply grateful to his wife, family, and friends, whose unwavering support inspires his ongoing mission to unite people and communities through the transformative power of music.
Stephanie Morera
Graduate Orchestral Conducting Student
Stephanie is a Costa Rican conductor who is currently studying in the USA. She is the Georgia Philharmonic’s inaugural conducting fellow and will serve as the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s Assistant Conductor in several family concerts this season. She attends Georgia State University where she serves as Assistant Conductor for the GSU Symphony Orchestra and works with the Metropolitan Youth Symphony Orchestra of Atlanta. Stephanie has already had a versatile career. She was the first Costa Rican woman to conduct an opera in Costa Rica. From 2022 – 2023, she conducted seven concerts with the Orquesta de Costa Rica, featuring genres such as pop, rock, blues, jazz, soundtracks, and video game music. She is especially passionate about programming Latin symphonic music. She conducted the premiere of “Oratorio Participativo por la Autonomía Universitaria” by the world-renowned composer Mario Alfagüel. She also conducted the University of Costa Rica’s Campus Orchestra “Humanidades” premiering works by celebrated Costa Rican composers, Rocío Sans and Willam Porras.
A passionate music educator, she has been invited to guest conduct high school orchestras and productions of the University of Costa Rica Symphonic Orchestra and opera program. Comfortable on stage in many capacities, Stephanie served as Conductor and actress in a Family Concert. She also works with the Metropolitan Youth Symphony Orchestra of Atlanta, and the GSU Campus Orchestra. Stephanie is a well-versed musician who grew up performing the violin. When she was 20, she performed at the internationally-acclaimed Nezahualcoyotl Music Hall in Mexico and the Rubén Darío National Theatre in Nicaragua. Stephanie has two Bachelor’s degrees for which she earned merit scholarships – she earned a Bachelor in Music Education from the National University of Costa Rica and a Bachelor of Music in Conducting from the University of Costa Rica. During her undergraduate years, she gained versatile experiences conducting choirs, orchestras, symphonic bands, and guitar orchestras.