Young People’s Concert: Alumni Reunion

GRANTS, NM—If you have been attending the Young People’s Concerts broadcast every Friday at the Cibola Arts Council, you would already have seen one of the three alumni presented in this week’s performance, Cellist, Stephen Kates. All three American performers, Kates, Soprano, Veronica Tyler, and pianist, André Watts made their debuts on a Young People’s Concert performance.

The original Alumni Reunion performance was April 19, 1967, and conducted by Leonard Bernstein, as they all have been. Stephen Kates auditioned for Young People’s Concert when he was only 20, after his father, David Kates, who plays the viola with the Philharmonic Orchestra, requested the opportunity for his son. Kates amazed the judges and was invited to first perform with the December 23, 1963 performance. He played a rhapsody by Bartok, but he also had the cello solo in the William Tell Overture, which we all remember because the audience, full of young hopefuls, was bouncing in their seats to the lively overture.

Each of these alumni has ventured into the world’s musical culture and performed successfully, building their careers. Kates’ major success, to date, was in Moscow at the Tchaikovsky International Competition in 1962, where he represented his country amidst 45 other cellists, bringing home the 2nd place silver medal. Following that victory, the young musician, at 23, was invited to play a command performance at the White House.

Kates, now 24, was invited to the reunion and chose to play Rococo Variations by Tchaikovsky the same piece that he played to win the Moscow competition the year before.

Bernstein explained to the audience what a Rococo composition means.

“It's a word that refers both to music and to architecture and in both cases carries with it the meaning of 18th century elegance and ornamental charm,” said the maestro.

To expand on Bernstein’s explanation, Rococo, in the 18th century, was also known as Late Baroque and was an exceptionally ornamental and dramatic style of architecture, art and decoration combining asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colors, sculpted molding.

Kates busy career included playing as a soloist with many noted orchestras: the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He also played at the Spoleto, Aspen, Sitka and other festivals. His recordings include records for RCA, Arabesque, Bainbridge among other labels. In addition to his own performances, Kates taught future musicians at the Peabody Conservatory of Music.

Sadly, Kates passed away in 2003 of lymphoma, at age 59. His wife started a scholarship fund for young musicians in his memory.

The second marvelously talented alumni to perform and amaze the audience was soprano Veronica Tyler. Tyler first performed with the Philharmonic in 1963 after also performing, and winning, at the same Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow as Kates, and also invited to perform at the same White House command performance.

Bernstein introduced Tyler by enlightening the audience and explaining that, “the main business of the cello is to sing, which is in fact the main business of any instrument. So, we might say that the human voice is the basic model for all other instruments.” Hmm, food for

thought.

Bernstein was originally impressed, to say the least, by “her wonderful breath control, her sense of phrasing, and her ability to sustain a melody through a long smooth curve.”

Bernstein complimented the variety of Tyler’s voice and gave attention to her ability to not only “sing the shy tender melodies of Mimi in La Bohème” but also “the rich throb and the blazing high notes of the American negro voice in the role of Serena in Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess.”

“Most operatic voices are pegged to one kind of sound and therefore to one kind of operatic character,” he explained.

Tyler thrilled the audience first with Mimi's famous aria 'Mi chiamano Mimi' which means 'My name is Mimi' from the first act of Puccini's opera, La Bohème, and then, from Porgy and Bess, the aria 'My man's gone now'.

Before performing with the New York Philharmonic and conductor Leonard Bernstein in his “Young People’s Concerts” program, she earned her music degrees at Peabody Conservatory of Music and studied at The Juilliard School. Tyler’s career took off and she was an accomplished operatic soprano, producer, director, and writer and performed internationally in opera, oratorio performances, symphony.

Veronica Tyler passed away on March 21, 2020 after a brief illness.

The third, and last, alumni to play his visiting performance was the wonderful pianist Andre’ Watts who first performed with the NYC Philharmonic in January or 1963 when he was only 16 and played the Liszt Piano Concerto in E-flat.

Watts was 20 for his alumni performance and this time he played the first movement of Brahms Second Piano Concerto in B-flat Major.

Watching his performance one was impressed by the emotional drama his expressed through the keys and his ability to connect with the composition.

Watts professional career began when he was only 16 and Bernstein expressed his confidence that the young artist would make wise choice when being inundated with offers to perform before he had even finished his training.

Later, when pianist Glenn Gould became ill, Bernstein called on Watts to perform a concert in his place. After that performance Watts career took off, internationally.

Watts studied pianist Leon Fleisher at the Pebody Institute in Baltimore and earned his Bachelor of Music degree.

Some highlight of Watts’ career, to name a few are: He appeared at New York City's Lewisohn Stadium with conductor Seiji Ozawa; the New York Philharmonic, performing Camille Saint-Saens’ Concerto No. 2 in G minor; he performed the Liszt concerto at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles; performed with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. performing the Saint-Saëns concerto; He made his European debut in a London performance with the London Symphony Orchestra in June 1966.

His performing career included concerts, recitals, recordings, and in 2004, Watts joined the faculty at Indiana University, where he held the Jack I. and Dora B. Hamlin Endowed Chair in Music.

Andre’ Watts passed away, at his home, from prostate cancer, July 12, 2023, at age 77.

For a schedule of Young People’s Concerts to be aired, contact the Cibola Arts Council. (505) 287-7311.