b'PROGRAM NOTESJULIA PERRYA Short Piece for Large OrchestraCOMPOSER: Born March 25, 1924, Lexington, KY;died April 29, 1975, Akron, OHWORK COMPOSED: 1952, rev. 1955, 1965WORLD PREMIERE: 1952, in Turin, ItalyINSTRUMENTATION: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns,2 trumpets, 2 trombones, timpani, bass drum, suspended cymbal,snare drum, xylophone, celesta, piano, harp, and stringsESTIMATED DURATION: 6 minutesA merican composer Julia Perry was the first Black woman to have her music performed by the New York Philharmonic. However, as happened with other composers of color and female composers in past decades, Perrys music dropped out of sight after her untimely death. As part of the current racial reckoning taking place in cultural and artistic organizations worldwide, Perry and her music have been rediscovered by musicians and audiences alike, and her artful, accomplished works are regaining their place in the orchestral canon. The daughter of a doctor and amateur pianist, Perry took both piano and violin lessons as a child growing up in Akron, OH. She later earned both a bachelors and a masters degree in music from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ, and continued her musical studies at The Juilliard School and Tanglewood. In the 1950s, Perry was awarded two Guggenheim Fellowships, which she used to study composition in Italy with Luigi Dallapiccola and with Nadia Boulanger in Paris.While working with Dallapiccola in 1952, Perrys A Short Piece for Large Orchestra was performed for the first time in Torino, Italy. She reorchestrated it in 1955 and again in 1965, giving it a new title Study for Orchestra. The music opens with dramatic flair and three contrasting motifs; an agitated ascending scale for trumpet, followed by a taut theme in the strings, woodwinds, and horn, which leads to strong syncopated punches for lower brasses. Each motif repeats twice, generating material for the rest of the work. A pensive interlude for flute and strings leads to a reprise of the opening music, which Perry then subjects to a series of variations featuring xylophone and brasses, with contrasting tempos, timbres, and moods.16 Santa Rosa Symphony(707) 546-8742'