PRESENTS
SOUND WAVES
Sunset Center, Carmel 2018-19  Max Bragado-Darman Music Director
DEAR FRIENDS, Living on this majestic Central Coast of California means that the sea speaks to us every day through the sounds, the smells, the flora and fauna and the visual beauty in general reflected in the work of the many visual artists who live in the area. Artists of all genres have been inspired by the secrets of the Sea, its depth, fluidity, volatile character and mystery from the beginning of time. The Monterey Symphony, for the 2018/19 Season, will help to reveal how the Sea speaks to us through music. Each program has at least one work inspired by the Sea. To introduce this theme, the first program begins with a new work commissioned by the orchestra, establishing a tradition after the wonderful success of John Wineglass’ Big Sur: The Night Sun several years ago. The Glen Deven Ranch, a perfect place for solitude and inspiration, hosted the young and talented composer, Alex Berko, while he worked on his new composition. The other five programs have works with themes about pirates, ports of call, creatures of the deep, ocean voyages and sea myths. The heart of the season is the third program’s La Mer by Claude Debussy, the epitome of descriptive orchestral music. But perhaps the most intriguing and tantalizing program includes The Water Concerto for water percussion and orchestra by Tan Dun and Alan Hovhaness’ And God Created Great Whales that will unveil the tantalizing secrets of these creatures’ underwater communication. To add to the variety of this season, we will have flute, violin, percussion and piano soloists, and along the way, we will perform Schubert’s Ninth, “The Great”, Tchaikovsky’s Fourth, “Fate” and Beethoven’s Fifth… no label required! As always,
Max Bragado-Darman
2018-19 AT-A-GLANCE 10/7/18
Friends' Welcome Party 10/17/18
Discussion with Alex Berko and John Wineglass 10/18/18
Preview Luncheon Glen Deven Ranch, Big Sur
ALEX BERKO
10/20/18
Red Carpet Opening Night Party
GLEN DEVEN RANCH
10/20/18–10/21/18
CONCERT I: Berko & Schubert 10/21/18
Supper Club, SUR Restaurant 10/22/18
Youth Concerts, Carmel 11/17/18–11/18/18
CONCERT II: Berlioz, Nielsen, & Tchaikovsky 2/16/19–2/17/19
CONCERT III: Britten, Ibert, Sibelius, & Debussy 3/16/19 - 3/17/19
CONCERT IV: Tan Dun, Hovhaness, & Shostakovich
OPENING NIGHT
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FREE YOUTH CONCERTS
4/13/19–4/14/19
CONCERT V: Mendelssohn, Bruch, & Schumann 4/15/19
Youth Concerts, Carmel 5/3/19
Gala by the Bay Monterey Bay Aquarium. See pg. 19 5/18/19–5/19/19
CONCERT VI: Wagner, Chopin, & Beethoven 5/20/19
Youth Concerts, Sherwood Hall
Join us one hour prior to every performance for a pre-concert lecture." MARCOS MADRIGAL
Luncheon and Supper Club dates on page 18
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Concert I October 20–21, 2018
ALEX BERKO
photo: Haley Woodrow
Alex Berko Among Waves (Big Sur Commission) Franz Schubert Symphony No. 9, D. 944 (“The Great”) Max Bragado-Darman, conductor
The Monterey Symphony will open the 73rd season— Sound Waves—with Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 9, “The Great;” and a new work from composer Alex Berko, commissioned in collaboration with the Big Sur Land Trust, entitled Among Waves. Berko, an exceptional student at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, spent a week in residence at the Glen Deven Ranch in Big Sur, drawing inspiration from the deep beauty of the landscape for inclusion in his new orchestral work. Glen Deven Ranch played a role in the first commission with the Big Sur Land Trust, resulting in Big Sur, the Night Sun by esteemed composer John Wineglass. FASCINATED BY THE ART OF STORY TELLING, composer/pianist Alex Berko often writes music that combines cinematic elements with a uniquely and widely influenced harmonic palette, containing a strong emotional narrative. Berko (b. 1995) is an American composer, pianist, and arranger from Cleveland, Ohio whose music has been performed in Asia, Canada, and throughout the United States. He has received performances by Cape Symphony Orchestra, Del Sol String Quartet, The Crossing Choir, and NOTUS Contemporary Vocal Ensemble, among many others, and has received recognition from ASCAP/SCI, the American Choral Directors Association, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and more. Berko currently attends Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, pursuing a BM in composition with an outside concentration in piano and entrepreneurship. Primary teachers include David Dzubay, Claude Baker, Keith Fitch, Aaron Travers, Don Freund (composition) and Jean-Louis Haguenauer, Edmund Battersby, and Sandra Shapiro (piano). Berko is a member of ASCAP. 7
Concert II November 17–18, 2018 Hector Berlioz Overture, Le corsair, Op. 21 Carl Nielsen Flute Concerto, FS 119 Carol Wincenc, flute Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4, Op. 36 Max Bragado-Darman, conductor
Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4, Op. 36—often referred to as the “Fate” symphony because of the dark undertones—headlines the second concert of the season. Written in the shadow of Beethoven’s masterful Symphony No. 5, Tchaikovsky echoes the great master’s melancholy in this hallmark orchestral work. Carol Wincenc, professor of flute at Juilliard, joins the orchestra for Carl Nielsen’s Flute Concerto, composed in 1926 for the legendary flautist M. Holger-Gilbert Jespersen. This concert will also feature members of the Youth Music Monterey County Honors Orchestra playing side-by-side on Hector Berlioz’s Overture, Le corsair, Op. 21, which, like the Tchaikovsky symphony, was also composed during a period of great despair.
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CAROL WINCENC
HAILED "QUEEN OF THE FLUTE" by NY Magazine, Carol Wincenc won the Naumburg Solo Flute Competition and received the National Flute Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the National Society of Arts and Letters’ Gold Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Music, and Manhattan School of Music’s Distinguished Alumni Award. She recently recorded an all-Yuko Uebayashi album with the Escher String Quartet, and performed at Carnegie’s Weill Hall with pianist Bryan Wagorn of the Metropolitan Opera. She has appeared with the Chicago, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Detroit, and London symphonies, the BBC, Warsaw, and Buffalo philharmonics, and the Los Angeles, Stuttgart, and Saint Paul Chamber orchestras. A Grammy nominee, she received a Recording of Special Merit award with András Schiff and was Gramophone magazine's "Pick of the Month" with the Buffalo Philharmonic. A member of the New York Woodwind Quintet and Les Amies Trio, Ms. Wincenc teaches at Juilliard and Stony Brook University and is renowned for her educational series, Carol Wincenc 21st Century Flute.
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Concert III February 16–17, 2019 Benjamin Britten Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes, Op. 33a Jacques Ibert Escales (Ports of call) Jean Sibelius The Oceanides, Op. 73 Claude Debussy La Mer Max Bragado-Darman, conductor
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SOUND WAVES COMES ALIVE in the third concert of the season with four works all dedicated to the sea. Claude Debussy, the father of Impressionism in music, composed La Mer in the mold of a symphony, but eschewed the traditional title for one more authentic to the sound of the music. French composer Jacques Ibert, the director of French opera in Rome, wrote Escales—a suite for orchestra that perfectly resembles postcards from three Mediterranean ports—after finding his obsession with the sea. This concert features “Four Sea Interludes” from Peter Grimes, Op. 33a, by Benjamin Britten, England’s finest modern opera composer: composed in 1945, Grimes launched his career in the new post-war era. The gorgeous tone-poem The Oceanides, Op. 73, by Jean Sibelius was inspired by the sea-nymphs referenced in Greek mythology: haunting and tempting.
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Concert IV March 16–17, 2019 Tan Dun Water Concerto Christopher S. Lamb, Percussion Alan Hovhaness And God Created Great Whales, Op. 229, No. 1 Dmitri Shostakovich Symphony No. 9, Op. 70 Jung-Ho Pak, guest conductor
Jung-Ho Pak guest conducts the fourth concert of the season with works by Tan Dun, Shostakovich, and Alan Hovhaness. Revolutionary experimental composer Tan Dun transposes the sounds of water—at play and at work—into the textures of his music, most literally in Water Concerto for water percussion and orchestra. The symphonic poem And God Created Great Whales by Alan Hovhaness—commissioned in 1970 by the New York Philharmonic—features prerecorded humpback whale vocalizations, and was credited with early efforts to save whales from extinction. To celebrate the Soviet victory over Germany, Dmitri Shostakovich was commissioned to write Symphony No. 9, which Leonard Bernstein described as a series of musical jokes (including purposeful mistakes), completing a boisterous, organic, and exciting concert program.
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DESCRIBED AS A CONDUCTOR WHO “RADIATES ENTHUSIASM” (New York Times) and “a real grabber” (Los Angeles Times), Jung-Ho Pak has been Artistic Director and Conductor of the Cape Symphony since 2007, and was Director of Orchestras and Music Director of the World Youth Symphony Orchestra at Interlochen from 2003-2013. Mr. Pak spent six seasons as Artistic Director and Conductor of Orchestra Nova and is Music Director Emeritus of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra. As Music Director of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra (1997-2002), Mr. Pak led the orchestra from bankruptcy to success. He has been Principal Conductor of the Disney Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra and has served as Music Director with USC Symphony, San Francisco Conservatory of Music Orchestra, Debut Orchestra, International Chamber Orchestra, NEXT Chamber Orchestra, Colburn Chamber Orchestra, and Diablo Ballet. Mr. Pak is a frequent speaker on television and radio including TED Talks and NPR, as well as a clinician and conductor at national music festivals.
JUNG-HO PAK
HAILED AS A DYNAMIC AND VERSATILE PERFORMER, Christopher S. Lamb joined New York Philharmonic in 1985 as Principal Percussion and made his solo debut in the World Premiere of Joseph Schwantner’s Percussion Concerto. In 2011 he won a Grammy for Best Classical Instrumental Soloist for his recording of this work with the Nashville Symphony. Mr. Lamb also gave the World Premiere of two more works commissioned for him by the New York Philharmonic: Tan Dun’s Concerto for Water Percussion; and Susan Botti’s Echo Tempo for Soprano, Percussion, and Orchestra. A faculty member of the Manhattan School of Music since 1989, Christopher Lamb has taught on almost every continent. In 1999 he received a Fulbright Scholars Award to lecture and conduct research in Australia where he developed a model for the art of teaching percussion. In 2010, he joined the faculty of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland as an international fellow.
CHRISTOPHER S. LAMB
Concert V April 13 –14, 2019 Felix Mendelssohn Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, Op. 27 Max Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 26 Elmar Oliveira, violin Robert Schumann Symphony No. 4, Op. 120 Max Bragado-Darman, conductor
ELMAR OLIVEIRA
Three Romantic German composers are featured on the fifth concert of the season, opening with Mendelssohn’s concert overture Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, Op. 27, inspired by Beethoven’s work of the same name; along with fellow Jewish composer Max Bruch’s popular Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 26, featuring solo artist Elmar Oliveira returning to play with the Monterey Symphony. Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 4, Op. 120, originally his unpublished second symphony, underwent massive revisions in 1851—five years before his death—proving his mastery over orchestration and increased expression in the final edition of this emotional Romantic symphony. ELMAR OLIVEIRA remains the first and only American violinist to win the Gold Medal at Moscow’s distinguished Tchaikovsky International Competition. Most recently, he founded the Elmar Oliveira International Violin Competition (EOIVC), to support the career development of young violinists. Oliveira has performed with many internationally-acclaimed ensembles, including the Boston and Chicago Symphonies; the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras; the London and New York Philharmonics; as well as the Leipzig Gewandhaus, among many others. Additionally, he has performed extensive recital tours of North and South America, Australia, New Zealand and the Far East. Oliveira received Grammy nominations for his recordings of both the Barber Concerto and the Bloch and Benjamin Lees Violin Concertos. He has premiered works by contemporary composers including Morton Gould, Aaron Jay Kernis, and Joan Tower, who dedicated her Violin Concerto to him. Oliveira is a devoted teacher and promoter of young artists, and also keenly supports the art of contemporary violin and bow making. He is a Distinguished Artist in Residence at the Lynn University Conservatory of Music in Boca Raton, Florida.
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Concert VI May 18–19, 2019 Richard Wagner Overture from The Flying Dutchman Frédéric Chopin Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 21 Marcos Madrigal, piano Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 5, Op. 67 Max Bragado-Darman, conductor
The sixth and final concert of the season will conclude in grand fashion with music by Wagner, Chopin, and Beethoven! Richard Wagner composed many brilliant overtures throughout his many German operas, including the overture from The Flying Dutchman, featured as the opening work in the season finale. Chopin’s stunning Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 21, follows, with magnificent Cuban pianist Marcos Madrigal performing the popular work, composed before Chopin completed his formal education at age 20. The season ends with one of the greatest compositions for the concert hall of all time: Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, Op, 67. A favorite among experienced and new audiences, musicians and conductors, the fifth endeavor in the symphony genre struck a chord for Beethoven, as he discovered his true forte—it is the “Stairway to Heaven” of Classical Music!
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MARCOS MADRIGAL
BORN IN HAVANA, CUBA Marcos Madrigal graduated with honors from the The University of Arts of Cuba in 2007. He attended Master Classes at the Conservatory of Southern Switzerland in Lugano and at the International Piano Academy Lake Como. He has performed in many of the most renowned concert halls of the world, such as the Teatro Colรณn of Buenos Aires, the Auditorium Parco della Musica of Rome, the Queen Elizabeth Hall of London, the National Concert Hall of Dublin, the Auditorium Manuel de Falla of Granada, the Bucharest Opera House, the Volkstheater of Vienna, the Teatro Rossini of Pesaro, the Qintai Grand Theater in China and Finney Hall in Oberlin. Madrigal has recorded live concerts and has participated in several programs for many Radio and TV channels all over the world, such as the BBC, Vatican Radio and the Italian Rai Radio 3.
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PLEASE JOIN US for a unique luncheon to be held at the stunning 860-acre Glen Deven Ranch in Big Sur on October 18, 2018. The views from this pristine land provided inspiration to composer Alex Berko for his latest work, Among Waves, commissioned in partnership with The Big Sur Land Trust. ADDITIONAL LUNCHEONS: 2018 November 15 2019 February 14 March 14 April 11 May 16
ENJOY THE BEST of harmony for your ears, and flavor for your palate with the Symphony Season Opening Supper Club after the concert on Sunday October 21, 2018. Event includes a delicious three-course dinner complete with hand-selected wines. ADDITIONAL SUPPER CLUBS: 2018 November 18 2019 February 17 March 17 April 14
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PRESENTS
May 3, 2019 • 6–10pm Monterey Bay Aquarium
JOIN THE MONTEREY SYMPHONY in a celebration of the Open Ocean at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Friday, May 3, 2019. Enjoy a strolling dinner, delicious wines and private access to the Aquarium’s Open Ocean exhibit. Silent and live auctions, musical moments, and ocean-themed surprises await. All proceeds benefit the Monterey Symphony.
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