Saturday, April 29, 2017 - 7:00pm

300 Scorpion Ct, Satellite Beach, FL 32937


ADAMS, J. Chamber Symphony
COPLAND Clarinet Concerto
COPLAND Appalachian Spring
GINASTERA Harp Concerto

Jennifer Royals, clarinet
Haley Rhodeside, harp

A roster of Space Coast Symphony Orchestra stars headline this concert of American classics. Principal clarinetist, Jennifer Royals will perform Brooklyn-born Aaron Copland’s famous Clarinet Concerto.  Harpist, Haley Rhodeside will dazzle on Ginastera’s fiery Harp Concerto.    Most harp music showcases the instrument’s lyricism; with this concerto, Ginastera expanded the harp’s palette of colors and subverted conventional expectations of what the instrument should sound like.  These effects, coupled with Argentinean-accented dance rhythms, combine to create a wholly new, unique, and exciting soundscape for the harp, one that demands the utmost in precision and virtuosity.  Ginastera exploits every facet of the harp’s qualities: ethereal grace, harsh, percussive accents, strong rhythmic passages, and diaphanous “out-of-time” atmospherics that astonish and ravish the ear.   What do the Road Runner cartoon and Arnold Schoenberg have in common?  The answer is John Adams’s Chamber Symphony.  While Adams was studying the score to Schoenberg’s Chamber Symphony, his son was watching cartoons in an adjacent room. Frenetic cartoon music mixed with Schoenberg’s in Adams’s head and an idea was hatched.   The Chamber Symphony is a tour de force work.     The program closes with Copland’s beautiful Appalachian Spring, the Pulitzer Prize-winning depiction of the American idyll, which also popularized the Shaker folk song “Simple Gifts.”

Artist Information


Harpist Haley Rhodeside joined the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra in the spring of 2016 as Principal Harp. She recently completed her Master of Music degree at the Yale School of Music, studying with Dr. June Han. Ms. Rhodeside’s playing has won numerous accolades: She was a winner of the Miami Summer Music Festival’s concerto competition, a first prize winner of the Young Artists Harp Competition, and a finalist in the American Harp Society national competition, among other awards. She also was awarded the prestigious Performer's Certificate from Indiana University, where she completed her undergraduate studies as a student of Susann McDonald.

In addition to performing with the Annapolis Symphony, Ms. Rhodeside can be heard with many orchestras and other ensembles throughout the country.  She has also been a regular guest performer at Disney's Grand Floridian resort since 2009. Past summers have been spent at the Miami Summer Music Festival and at the Atlantic Music Festival as a Resident Artist. Ms. Rhodeside is an avid performer of new music as well, having appeared often with the New York-based ensemble Cantata Profana, New Music New Haven, and Indiana University’s New Music Ensemble, among others.

Sharing the gift of music is extremely important to Ms. Rhodeside. Her work with HarpSTART, the USA International Harp Competition’s outreach program, brought the music of the harp to Bloomington schools and other community venues. She also volunteers with MusicMDs, a group devoted to sharing music with hospital patients.

Ms. Rhodeside began playing the harp at the age of six, after politely refusing her parents’ offer to provide her with piano lessons and informing them of her instrument of choice. Most of her formative years of harp education were spent in the studio of Jan Jennings. However, it is not her only passion: outside of degrees in music,

Ms. Rhodeside also holds a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics. She studied math concurrently with music at Indiana University, following an honors track and graduating with high distinction. While she did not choose to continue her formal education in the subject, she is fascinated by the deep and beautiful connections between math and music, which she is still continuing to discover.

Jennifer Royals, a native of Vero Beach and principal clarinetist for the Space Coast Symphony Orchestra, has been playing the clarinet for over 25 years. She holds a Bachelor of Music Education degree and a Master of Arts degree in Clarinet Performance from the University of Central Florida. While an undergraduate student, she was chosen for advanced clarinet studies in France. Ms. Royals has studied privately with Ivan Wansley, Keith Koons, and Nora Lee Garcia. Additionally, she has taken master classes from Stanley Drucker, Robert Spring, Michele Gingras, Alessandro Carbonare, and Charles Neidich.

Ms. Royals has played with various orchestras and ensembles including Treasure Coast Wind Ensemble, the Vero Beach Chamber Orchestra, the Sunshine Clarinet Quartet, Treasure Coast Opera, Central Florida Lyric Opera, Bulgaria's Teatro Lirico D’Europa, Orlando Light Opera, Lakeside Chamber Players, Brevard Symphony Orchestra, Haifa Symphony, Space Coast Pops Orchestra, and the Licorice Sticks Clarinet Orchestra. As a founding member of the Space Coast Symphony, she has been featured in several chamber concerts as well as four solo performances with the orchestra.

Jennifer is a member of the International Clarinet Association and has performed at the 2010 Clarinet Fest in Austin, Texas, the 2013 Clarinet Fest in Assisi, Italy (where she premiered new pieces for clarinet quartet), the 2014 Clarinet Fest in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and will be performing at the 2017 Clarinet Fest in Orlando.

In addition to her active concert schedule, Royals is a sought after clinician who provides private clarinet instruction to middle and high school players in Indian River County. Her students routinely earn top seats in the Florida All-State Bands and Treasure Coast Four-County Honor Bands, as well as superior ratings at solo and ensemble festivals. Ms. Royals is also the music director at Master’s Academy in Vero Beach, where her two children attend school. She teaches general music to pre-Kindergarten through fourth grade students, band for grades 5-9, and directs the school’s popular Fife and Drum Corps.