Primavera

Festival of Contemporary Arts and Digital Media

April 20–24, 2009, UCSB

In the Spirit of Henry B.

April 20 — The Unanswered Question

Henry Brant, one of Charles Ives’ greatest disciples, would likely rejoice at the first appearance of Dr. Richard Rintoul and the UCSB Symphony in this annual festival. Their program, The Unanswered Question, looks to the Ives repertory staple for its aesthetic cues, but ventures far beyond — into the realm of improvisation with the UCSB Jazz and Percussion Ensembles, directed by Jon Nathan, as well as to the “instant,” on-the-spot, onstage composing that Henry himself loved. The winners from UCSB’s first-ever Orchestral Composition Competition will receive public premieres on this precedent-setting night: Justin Aftab’s Hypothesis, Katherine Saxon’s A Game, and Justin Bell’s Trebia: Transitus Hannibalis.

Richard Rintoul

Richard Rintoul (DMA in Conducting, UCLA; MM in Orchestral Conducting, USC; BFA in Viola Performance, Cal Arts) conducts the orchestra and teaches conducting at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is also the founding conductor of the Orchestra da Camera at the Colburn School of Performing Arts (Los Angeles) since 1987. Dr. Rintoul founded and for nine seasons conducted the Colburn Chamber Orchestra, with which he toured England & California, did national radio & television broadcasts (winning an Emmy in 1994) and recorded a well-reviewed CD, currently in international release. He spent a decade as the Director of Orchestral Activities and Director of Strings at California State University, Long Beach. There he founded the Studio Orchestra and taught advanced and graduate level conducting as well as directing the string chamber music program. He helped build the Pasadena Young Musician’s Orchestra, the Glendale Youth Orchestra and the Crossroads School Music Department (Santa Monica) into strong organizations. As a choir director, Dr. Rintoul served three southland churches for nineteen years. He was conductor of the Idyllwild Arts Summer Youth Symphony (Idyllwild, California) for eighteen seasons and for two summers he conducted the Interlochen Philharmonic at the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan. He currently conducts the Irvine Classical Players Orchestra, which will tour France in the summer of 2008.

His educational guest conducting includes work with student Honor Orchestras and High School Ensembles in a dozen states. Professionally, Dr. Rintoul has conducted the San Diego Symphony, the Thousand Oaks Philharmonic, the Downey Symphony, the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, the Inland Empire Orchestra, and recording sessions for episodes of Star Trek “Enterprise” and the “Medal of Honor” video game series among a variety of projects. He has conducted several major operas and opera galas at CSULB. Additionally he conducted several Gilbert and Sullivan operas with Pasadena based Opera a la Carte, as well as the world premiere and subsequent performances of “Monticello” for radio station KCRW and a stint as chorus master for the Long Beach Opera. Dr. Rintoul has also been filmed conducting much of the standard orchestral repertoire for IVASI Systems’ “Video Conductor” DVD training materials. Having played viola professionally on hundreds of film, television and videogame soundtracks, he remains active in the recording industry regularly playing on “Lost.”

Jon Nathan

Jon Nathan, director of the UCSB Jazz and Percussion Ensembles, has been a figure in the Santa Barbara musical scene since his arrival here nearly ten years ago. He holds a B.M. in Jazz Studies from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and an M.M. in Percussion Performance from Cal State University at Northridge. During his time there, he was introduced to William Kraft, and was asked to continue studies with Professor Kraft at UCSB, where he completed his Doctor of Musical Arts degree. Currently, Dr. Nathan is principal timpanist with the Santa Barbara Grand Opera Association as well as Director of Jazz Ensembles and Lecturer in Percussion and Percussion Ensemble at UCSB. He has also served as Principal Percussionist with the Santa Barbara Civic Light Opera, and continues to perform regularly with the Santa Barbara Symphony, as well as for other regional orchestras including Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra and Santa Monica Symphony. Dr. Nathan was also the original drummer in the Animal Liberation Orchestra and in various jazz groups in Santa Barbara, including the Nate Birkey Quintet. He has served as Jazz Ensemble Director and Percussion Instructor at Moorpark College, has taught Techniques of Percussion at Westmont College, and was the Applied Music Percussion Instructor at Santa Barbara City College. He has also served on the faculty of the Jazz in July Improvisation Workshop, held on the campus of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, with such jazz luminaries as Yusef Lateef, Dr. Billy Taylor, Sheila Jordan and the Turtle Island String Quartet.