2016-2017 Program Book

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PROGRAM BOOK ORDER Welcome from the President of the Board............................................... 4 ASO Board of Trustees................................................................................5 History of the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra..................................... 14-15 Sponsors of the ASO 2016-2017 Season................................................... 16 ASO Corporate Sponsorship...................................................................... 17 Concert 1: BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 3 (October 1, 2016)....... 19 Opus Society................................................................................................. 27 Adopt a Chair Sponsorship........................................................................ 28 Spotlight Society...........................................................................................29 Biography: Claudia Chudacoff, Concertmaster...................................... 30 Biography: Allison Bailey, Assistant Concertmaster............................... 30 Mary Graham Lasley Scholarship............................................................. 33 ASO Sympatico............................................................................................ 34-35 Concert 2: VIVALDI: Four Seasons (November 5-6, 2016)............ 37 Interview: Missy Mazzoli, Composer....................................................... 45 Biography: Elizabeth Pitcairn, violin........................................................ 47 Concert 3: MOZART: Symphony No. 41 (February 11-12, 2017)....51 Concert 4: HAYDN: Lord Nelson Mass (April 1-2, 2017) ................ 59 ASO Concert Venues.................................................................................. 66 Concerto Foundation.................................................................................. 67 Concert 5: DVOŘÁK: Symphony No. 9 (May 20, 2017)...................69 Symphony Orchestra League of Alexandria (SOLA)............................. 78-79 2015-2016 ASO Supporters........................................................................ 82-88 Concert programming and guest artists are subject to change.

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Congratulations to The Alexandria Symphony Orchestra on its 73rd Spectacular Season

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Welcome from the Board of Trustees

Ronal E. Butler, President

The Alexandria Symphony Orchestra proudly welcomes you to our 2016 – 2017 concert season. This season ASO will present five guest conductors who will be leading a suite of the classics chosen as favorites by our audience and ASO musicians. As you may be aware, we are undergoing a formal search for a new Music Director. While that search is underway, we wanted to ensure that this season presents the high quality music that you have come to expect from us. You will certainly enjoy these classics that will each be led by a different maestro.

I’d like to thank our supporters, patrons, fellow board members as well as our musicians for participating in yet another great music season. Whether you are a long-time fan, or this is one of your first concerts, we welcome you and we’re sure you’ll enjoy the concert. We are approaching our 75th anniversary and we are beginning to plan for an exciting season of celebration. To help us in our planning, we would certainly appreciate receiving any feedback from you regarding this special musical season.

President ASO Board of Trustees 4

2016-2017 Alexandria Symphony Orchestra

Board of Trustees

Ronal E. Butler, President Carl D. Behnke, Co-Vice President Miriam F. Browning, Co-Vice President Anne B. Rector, Treasurer Becky B. Siegel, Secretary Suzanne S. Brock Linda Bunce Nancy Davenport B. Ellis Duncan Lisa Flippo Carolyn Fuller Amy Furr Carla Crawford Mollie Danforth Alex Deringer

Deborah Hall Florence King Don Manthey Arthur Peabody Betty Quirk Anne Reed

Advisory Board

Margaret Jones O’ Grady Elizabeth Siegel

Trustees Emeritus

Dr. Joseph V. Braddock Mr. Waller T. Dudley Capt. W. Ward Lasley (USN Ret.)

H. Arthur Sauer Phyllis Sintay Sharon Walker Melynda Wilcox Judy Williams Nancy Ziegler

Edward Stark Jeanne Warner Susan Winn Mrs. Richard Reid Mr. James B. Singerling Donnan C. Wintermute

Concerto Foundation Board of Trustees Charles Ballou Miriam Browning

Mary Ann Best Millard Frank J. Quirk Betty Quirk

Thomas Sargeant Forrest Williams

ASO Administration

Jessica Wisser, Executive Director Ryan Jordan, General Manager Melinda Kernc, Marketing and Development Director Emily Smith, Education Program Manager Susan Kelly, Personnel Manager Craig Teer, Stage Manager

Alexandria Symphony Orchestra 2121 Eisenhower Avenue, Suite 608 • Alexandria, VA 22314 www.alexsym.org • (703) 548-0885

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History of the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra The Alexandria Symphony Orchestra was formed in 1943 under the leadership and vision of Miss Neale Landen, a music teacher at George Washington High School. Initially an amateur group of about 40 musicians, the ASO sought to perform mostly impromptu concerts at a variety of venues around the city.

The Symphony was officially incorporated on August 6, 1954 with an annual budget of around $1200.

Dr. Wendell Margrave, Director of the Washington Musical Institute, took over the baton in 1948 and led the group until the mid 1960’s.

In 1966, as demand for a more formal programming schedule arose, the orchestra hired George Washington University professor Dr. George Steiner as Music Director.

Under Steiner’s influence, the ASO introduced its first subscription series along with its Lollipop Children’s series of educational concerts, performing at Albohm Auditorium on the campus of T.C. Williams.

During the 1980’s, in response to the growing need for volunteers, the Symphony Orchestra League of Alexandria (SOLA) was founded along with the Mary Graham Lasley Scholarship Competition for college-level musicians. Following the retirement of Dr. Steiner, the ASO held an extensive national search for a new music director. Chosen 14 for the position was award-win-

George Steiner, former ASO Conductor

ning Oberlin Conservatory of Music Valedictorian Kim Allen Kluge.

Under Kluge’s direction during the 1990’s, the ASO became a professional orchestra. It rapidly developed a reputation for artistic excellence and innovative programming through its highly successful concerts throughout the region. In partnership with the City of Alexandria, the ASO significantly expanded its programs and concerts in the schools and began performing in the annual Alexandria Birthday Celebration outdoor concerts.

In 2001, the ASO gave the inaugural concert at the Rachel M. Schlesinger Center, which became its new home.

In the Schlesinger era, the ASO emerged as a leader of the Wash-

Symphony’s commitment to nurturing young talent and creativity.

Musicians warming up at Schlesinger Center

ington DC inter-arts movement, forging artistic partnerships with many of the region’s leading cultural institutions including the Smithsonian Institution, the National Gallery of Art, the Washington Ballet and the Shakespeare Theatre.

During the Schlesinger era, the ASO has performed with many of the world’s leading musicians including Midori, Peter Serkin, Nadja Solerno-Sonnenberg, Richard Stoltzman, Garrick Ohlsson, Yefim Bronfman, Lynn Harrell, Sarah Chang, and Branford Marsalis. The ASO is comprised of the finest professional freelance musicians in the Washington DC area, and regularly receives rave reviews from the Washington Post and other regional newspapers.

The ASO continues to make education a centerpiece of its mission.

In 2003, the ASO introduced the Children’s Arts Festival featuring inter-arts activities, workshops and performances for young children.

SOLA sponsors the Mary Graham Lasley Scholarship Competition, now in its 41st year, underscoring the

ASO Sympatico, the ASO’s El Sistema based music education program was founded in 2012.

Serving 110 students before and after-school at John Adams Elementary School in Alexandria, ASO Sympatico is a growing partnership between the ASO and the Alexandria City Public Schools.

ASO Sympatico offers free beforeand after-school music education programming for K-5 students.

Following the end of Maestro Kluge’s tenure in 2016, the ASO has entered a search process for its next Maestro. With 170 applicants from around the world, the ASO is excited to enter its next chapter and to celebrate its 75th Anniversary in 2018-2019.

WE ARE PROUD TO SUPPORT THE ALEXANDRIA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA’S UPCOMING 2016 – 2017 SEASON

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Sponsors

OF THE 2016-2017 ASO SEASON With gratitude, we acknowledge the following foundations, corporations, and individuals for their sponsorship of our 2016-2017 season:

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The Paul M. Angell Foundation The Theodore H. Barth Foundation D’Addario Foundation The Charles Delmar Foundation Mary and Daniel Loughran Foundation, Inc. New Target, Inc. Rotary Club of Alexandria Simpson Properties, LLC The Virginia Florist Wells Fargo Foundation

CORPORATE PARTNERSHIP

with the ASO

Corporate partnership sustains our programs and outreach, strengthens our local community and, in return, offers benefits to our corporate partners. Corporate giving can extend to any of programs offered to individual donors as well as provide unique group and marketing opportunities.

Examples of ASO Corporate Partnership • Advertise in our souvenir program book, distributed all season at both venues • Host a “Night at the Symphony” with group tickets and a reception • Present a guest artist • Sponsor ASO Sympatico

• Sponsor an event from a fundraiser to a main-series concert to the Alexandria Birthday Celebration • Adopt a chair of a specific instrument (three-year commitment) • Join our Spotlight Society with a gift $250 or more

CORPORATE PACKAGES CAN BE INDIVIDUALLY TAILORED TO MAXIMIZE YOUR BENEFITS AND MARKETING EXPOSURE.

Contact the ASO at (703) 548-0885 to create your package or to learn more about corporate partnership opportunities.

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Jeanne Warner

Congratulations to the

Alexandria Symphony Orchestra on its 73rd

spectacular season!

(703) 980-9106 18

BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 3 “Eroica” October 1, 2016 at 8:00 PM

Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center

James E. Ross, guest conductor PROGRAM SIBELIUS

Symphony No. 3 in C major, op. 52 I. Allegro moderato II. Andantino con moto, quasi allegretto III. Moderato – Allegro ma non tanto INTERMISSION

BEETHOVEN

Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, op. 55 I. II. III. IV.

Allegro con brio Marcia funebre: Adagio assai Scherzo: Allegro vivace Finale: Allegro molto

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Program 1 • October 1, 2016

Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) Symphony No. 3 in C Major, op. 52 Jean Sibelius is often recognized as the greatest Finnish composer, and he is credited with being highly influential in developing a national musical identity for Finland during its struggle to establish independence from Russia. Born December 8, 1865, Sibelius was raised in a house with his grandmother, mother and sisters following the death of his father in 1868.

His main male influence was his uncle, Pehr Ferdinand Sibelius, whose interest in music passed down to his nephew. Uncle Pehr gave Jean his first violin at age 10 and encouraged his early interests in composition as well.

As early as 1904, Sibelius noted that work had begun on his Third Symphony. Symphony No. 3 sits between the early symphonies of Sibelius, both of which have a romantic intensity, and his later more complex and stark symphonies. In comparison to the symphonic compositions of the early twentieth century - Mahler’s Eighth Symphony and its extravagance was wildly popular at the time - the Third Symphony was restrained and definitively classical. Mahler and Sibelius met and worked together in 1907 and noted their different philosophies on symphonic composition, with Sibelius saying “the essence of symphony [was] severity of style and the profound logic that created an inner connection among all the motifs,” and Mahler proclaiming, “No, a symphony must be like the world. It must embrace everything.”

When pondering this next symphonic composition, Sibelius noted in a letter to a friend: “Since Beethoven’s time all so-called symphonies, with the exception of those by Brahms, have been symphonic poems. In some cases the composers have given us a program or have at least suggested what they had in mind; in other cases it is evident that they were concerned with describing or illustrating something, be it a landscape or a series of pictures. That does not correspond to my symphonic ideal. My symphonies are music—conceived and worked out as musical expression, without any literary basis. I am not a literary musician: For me, music begins where words leave off. A symphony 20

Program 1 • October 1, 2016

should be music first and last. . . . I am particularly pleased to see it explicitly stressed that my [symphonies] are founded on classical symphonic form, and also that wholly misleading speculations about descriptions of nature and about folklore are being gotten rid of.”

In comparison to Beethoven, Sibelius is noted as a similar composer who can take neutral material and create interesting, dramatic, energetic works. The works of Sibelius are often compared to the compositions of Haydn – there is no imagery and no dramatic story. Instead, the concertgoer simply listens and is pulled in by the rhythms, harmonies, contrasts, conflicts and resolutions.

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, op. 55 Although there are no surviving records of Ludwig van Beethoven’s birth, baptism records at the Parish of St. Regius in Bonn indicate that he was born December 16, 1770. Ludwig von Beethoven was one of three children of Maria Keverich and Johann van Beethoven, his first music instructor. His musical talents were evident from a young age, and as a result, his musical training was rigorous. Legend says that his first piano instructor, Tobias Friedrich Pfeiffer, was an insomniac and repeatedly ripped young Beethoven out of bed to conduct middle-ofthe-night lessons. Aware of the success of Leopold Mozart in marketing his own child prodigy Wolfgang, Johann pushed Ludwig to perform early and frequently, going so far as to market him as six rather than the accurate age of seven at his first public performance.

The middle period of Beethoven’s compositions (1803-1814) introduced the “heroic” themes that are central to Symphony No. 3.

Beethoven noted in a letter to a colleague, “I am not satisfied with the work I have done so far. From now on I intend to take a new way.”

During this period, Beethoven composed larger works, including his Third Symphony in E flat, also known as “Eroica.” At the time of its premiere in Vienna, it was the longest symphonic work known – twice as long as the popular symphonies of Haydn and Mozart. It was received tepidly on the evening of April 7, 1805; for some patrons, the

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Program 1 • October 1, 2016

length was too much; others did not like its structure; some, however, thought it was a masterpiece.

Beethoven’s interest in heroic characters drew him to the charismatic Napoleon Bonaparte. Bonaparte’s espoused anti-monarchy and democratic ideals appealed strongly to Beethoven, so much so that he dedicated his Third Symphony to the inspirational leader and gave it an original name of “Buonaparte.” Shortly thereafter, Napoleon named himself Emperor of France, shattering Beethoven’s belief in his “heroic” nature. Ferdinand Ries, Beethoven’s student and secretary, shared the story of Beethoven’s anger, saying: “In writing this symphony, Beethoven had been thinking of Buonaparte, but Buonaparte while he was First Consul. At that time Beethoven had the highest esteem for him, and compared him to the greatest consuls of Ancient Rome. Not only I, but many of Beethoven’s closer friends, saw this symphony on his table, beautifully copied in manuscript, with the word ‘Buonaparte’ inscribed at the very top of the title-page and ‘Ludwig van Beethoven’ at the very bottom ...

I was the first to tell him the news that Buonaparte had declared himself Emperor, whereupon he broke into a rage and exclaimed, “So he is no more than a common mortal! Now, too, he will tread under foot all the rights of Man, indulge only his ambition; now he will think himself superior to all men, become a tyrant!” Beethoven went to the table, seized the top of the title-page, tore it in half and threw it on the floor. The page had to be recopied, and it was only now that the symphony received the title Sinfonia eroica.”

When the score for Beethoven’s Third Symphony was published in 1806, it was published under the Italian title, “Sinfonia Eroica… composta per festeggiare il sovvenire di un grande Uomo” or “Heroic Symphony… composed to celebrate the memory of a great man.”

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Program 1 • October 1, 2016

James E. Ross, guest conductor James Ross is a musician of international repute. His musical activities cover three fields: conducting, horn playing and teaching. Born in Boston, he grew up studying the horn and earned his Bachelor’s degree from Harvard University in 1981. His first conducting experience came as an undergraduate when he was chosen by his peers to lead the Bach Society Orchestra.

Upon graduation, he began his conducting studies with Kurt Masur in Leipzig while simultaneously serving as Solo-Horn of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, becoming the first American member in the orchestra’s 250-year history.

Presently, he is the Director of Orchestral Activity at the University of Maryland, Artistic Director of the National Orchestral Institute (NOI), and newly-named Associate Director of the Conducting Program at the Juilliard School.

After two summers of study at the Tanglewood Music Center (198485) Ross was offered the position of interim Assistant conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He collaborated with William Christie as the Assistant Conductor of the Paris-based Les Arts Florissants and served four years a Music Director of the Yale Symphony Orchestra. He has guest conducted the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Utah Symphony, and the National Symphony Orchestra in various side-by-side performances, among others. He has worked with many youth orchestras, including the Curtis Institute Orchestra of Philadelphia, the National Youth Orchestra of Spain and the Kansas All-State Orchestra. In the field of opera, he has conducted productions in France and England. His principal conducting teachers were Kurt Masur, Otto-Werner Mueller, Seiji Ozawa, and Leonard Bernstein.

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Program 1 • October 1, 2016

As a horn soloist, he has performed with the Boston Symphony, the Boston Pops, the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, the Leipzig Radio Orchestra and the Leipzig Gewandhaus. He was awarded Third Prize in the Munich International Horn Competition in 1978, the first American and one of the youngest competitors ever to do so. His performances and recordings as principal horn of the Gewandhaus, including the Strauss’ Four Last Songs with Jessye Norman, helped him gain international recognition as an artist.

As a teacher, Ross served on the faculties of Yale University, the Curtis Institute of Music, Haverford and Bryn Mawr colleges, and as a guest artist at the Toho School of Music in Tokyo, Japan. He is a founding director of the Music Masters Course in Kazusa, an international chamber music festival dedicated to the concept of artistic cross-cultural exchange which takes place yearly in Chiba, Japan. In his decadelong work as Artistic Advisor to the Escuela de Practica Orquestal of the Orquesta Sinfonica of Galicia and conductor at the International Festival of Lucena, he played a vital role in the education of the present generation of active Spanish musicians.

The choice of doing Beethoven’s Third and Sibelius’ Third Symphonies on the same program evolved through our search for pieces that could be right for a celebratory season opener that would both “talk to each other” and contrast with each other in interesting ways. I chose the Sibelius Third, a less-often performed symphony, which has a huge joyous energy to it. More than any prior work, the Eroica seems to discover its own power and destiny over its course and give a sense that the notes are in the act of becoming. This became the goal of Sibelius’ compositional voice over the course of his life as well. Neither of these symphonies starts knowing exactly where it will end up, discovering incredible paths and roadblocks and breakthroughs all along the way. I’ve always thought 24

Program 1 • October 1, 2016

that Beethoven and Sibelius sound right on a program together, both oddball composers (in a way) who believe in following the internal life of the notes (and themes) themselves wherever they lead them.

I don’t listen to recordings often, I have to admit, as I like hearing the pieces in my head and reading them off the page. But I have been influenced very positively by Osmo Vanska’s recordings of all Sibelius’ symphonies with his Lahti Symphony Orchestra and the newer recordings with the Minnesota Orchestra. In Beethoven, frankly you can’t go very far wrong with any recording owing to the absolute strength of the piece itself. I would say that the period instrument conductors (Bruggen, Harnoncourt, John Eliot Gardner) seem to have done this score a great service in cutting away the weight of received emotional baggage of the generation before. Performances of the Eroica have generally gotten faster and less pompous over the years, but who knows what we may have lost along the way—or even how many of these performances went on to fulfill exactly the tempo and promise Beethoven intended.

On the Eroica: This piece constitutes one of the most searing leaps forward in the history of music. It captures everything that is inherently strange or interruptive in the language of his predecessors, especially Haydn, and unleashes his material to follow its own destiny. Heroic in its proportions, its outsized hopes, its laying new paths into the future, the piece still blazes with an intensity of newness.

On the Sibelius: This is the only truly happy Sibelius Symphony. It has a joyous life-force in the outer movements that is thrown into sharp relief by the mysterious rocking and wandering in A-flat minor in the middle movement. Even though Sibelius was not a church-goer himself, the chorales in this piece call forth visions of a kind of village religion with trees and lakes as gods.

-James E. Ross

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THE COMBINED FEDERAL CAMPAIGN The Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) is a 55-year Federal workplace giving tradition that has raised more than $8 billion for charitable organizations. The funds raised each fall through this campaign help neighbors in need around the corner, across the nation and throughout the world.

The Combined Federal Campaign of the National Capital Area (CFCNCA) is the local campaign for Federal employees in the Washington metro area, and is the largest of the CFCs. Through the contributions of civilian and military Federal employees, the campaign raised more than $46 million in 2015 for participating local, national and international charities. This fall, the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra will participate in the campaign for the first time!

During the campaign, Federal employees can choose from a list of more than 20,000 vetted charities to support by payroll deduction, credit/ debit card, check or cash. Federal workers, retirees and government contractors are eligible to donate to the CFC. The CFC makes it easy to Show Some Love to the causes you care about. Whether you are passionate about disaster relief, veteran services, animal rights or cancer research—or the performing arts—the CFC has a charity for that cause.

The benefits of giving through the CFC include: 1. You can give to multiple charities at once through a program that is federally regulated and fully audited.

2. Payroll deduction allows you to give a little each month, adding up to a significant gift at the end of the year.

3. Charities love the CFC because it keeps fundraising costs low, and the funds are unrestricted.

4. The campaign has a collective impact, allowing you to join with your co-workers to support those in need locally, nationally and globally.

To give to the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra through the 2016 CFC, visit www.cfcnca.org. Our organization code is 81225.

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You are invited to join a new supporting group of busy young professionals whose efforts will benefit the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra (ASO). The ASO has created The Opus Society to serve as a pipeline for people our age to become involved in the symphony at a lower level of engagement, and build loyalty in future years for the health of the ASO. Opus Society is a new group designed to provide a platform for low-key engagement with the purpose of building awareness and growing participation within the ASO. To become a member, we ask for a $100 annual donation to the ASO. In return you will receive recognition in the spring concert program and on the ASO website, discounted concert ticket opportunities, invitations to concert receptions and networking opportunities with likeminded Alexandrians.

Your contribution will help support vital ASO activities and the future of this fantastic orchestra!

Sincerely, Alison Christmas and Katherine Murphy Founding Members, Opus Society For more information or to join Opus Society, visit www.alexsym.org/support/opus-society

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ADOPT A CHAIR SPONSORSHIP ASO proudly recognizes our current Adopt a Chair sponsors: (as of printing)

• • • • • • • • • • •

Concertmaster: Sponsored by Loti and Stewart Dunn Violin, third chair: Sponsored by Deborah A. Hall Viola, third chair: Sponsored by Richard and Sandra Toye Principal Cello: Sponsored by Teresa Guzman and Antonio Cafoncelli Cello, third chair: Sponsored by Margaret Hodges Principal Flute: Sponsored by Benjamin and Emily Tsai Principal Clarinet: Sponsored by Ann D. Corson Assistant Principal Clarinet: Sponsored in Honor of Akiko Lloyd Principal Horn: Sponsored by Gerry and Diana Dreo Assistant Principal Trumpet: Harriett G. McCune Principal Trombone: Sponsored by Bob and Erin Vincent

In July, we entered the second year of the Adopt a Chair program, underwriting 11 musician chairs, including Concertmaster, five Principals, two Assistant Principals, and three section players. These continuing commitments will help to sustain the ASO’s artistic integrity during our Music Director search as we transition to new artistic leadership for our 75th Anniversary.

“Adopt a Chair” is a signature giving program designed to provide full funding for each musician’s salary and long-term sustainable funding for our orchestra. ASO is a community supported orchestra, requiring the ongoing support of people willing to invest in the future of live music performance. As a part of the Washington metropolitan region, ASO concert-goers demand and expect the highest quality music offered by world-class musicians. Through this program, contributors endorse and ensure that quality through multi-year sponsorship.

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Sponsors have an opportunity to choose a specific instrument, receive special program recognition, and invitation to special events where they can meet and get to know the musician holding the chair they have sponsored. This program provides an opportunity to know more about the orchestra from the inside out and to draw a closer connection between the players and the audience.

A few words from a sponsored musician: “Until my chair was endowed and I met my sponsors, I didn’t have much interaction with our listeners. I am so fortunate and grateful mine was one of the first sponsored. In getting to know them, I have a better appreciation for the passion and dedication they and others like them have for this orchestra. It mirrors my own passion and dedication for my instrument.”

And from a sponsor: “We are happy to sponsor a chair. Not only does she play my favorite instrument, but also because it takes a lifetime of dedication and practice to achieve that level of greatness. We are merely showing our appreciation.”

New chair sponsorships are accepted at any time during the season.

To “Adopt a Chair” and for more information, call 703-548-0885 or visit www.alexsym.org.

SPOTLIGHT SOCIETY Artistic sponsorship and crowd funding doesn’t seem like a likely combination, but the ASO is blending the two into a new program in 2016-2017. Given the increase in artistic expenses, particularly for premium guest artists, and the simultaneous growing interest from ASO supporters in sponsoring artists, the program seemed like a natural evolution.

Based on successful “group sponsorship” of past ASO guest artists, the Spotlight Society allows ASO fans to support their favorite artist, or the artists of the season, with gifts that fits their budget. Individuals can designate a gift starting at $100 and will be recognized with the program or artist they choose to support, along with others who have given to the program. Corporate gifts can also be designated starting at $250.

The program does not exclude traditional guest artist sponsors who want exclusive acknowledgement of their support of a particular artist.

Rather, it expands the options for donors, including supporters who might not be able to give at the level of exclusive sponsorship.

To give to your favorite artist and join the Spotlight Society, call 703-548-0885 or visit www.alexsym.org.

(Please indicate “Spotlight Society” in the personal note section when giving online.)

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Claudia Chudacoff, Concertmaster In addition to serving as concertmaster of the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra, the National Gallery of Art Orchestra, and the United States Marine Band White House Chamber Orchestra, violinist Claudia Chudacoff appears frequently as a soloist and chamber musician in the Washington and Baltimore areas. A member of both the Sunrise Quartet and the National Gallery of Art String Quartet, she has also performed with the Contemporary Music Forum and National Musical Arts as well as in the Embassy Series and at the United States Holocaust National Museum. She is featured on a CD of chamber music by Erich Korngold released by Albany Records, and has been heard a number of times on American Public Media’s Performance Today.

Allison Bailey, Assistant Concertmaster Allison Bailey began violin studies at the age of four, developed a love for orchestral playing, and became the youngest member of the Prince William Symphony Orchestra at age ten. Ms. Bailey attended Peabody Conservatory of Music, the University of Oregon, and the Manhattan School of Music, earning a Bachelor’s degree, Graduate Performance Diploma, and two Master’s degrees. Violin teachers include Erick Friedman, Aaron Rosand, Herbert Greenberg, and Glenn Dicterow.

In addition to serving as Concertmaster of the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra this year, Ms. Bailey serves as Concertmaster of the Manassas Ballet Theatre Orchestra, Associate Concertmaster of the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra, maintains a private violin studio, and is an active freelance musician in the Washington area. In recent years Ms. Bailey has been a featured soloist with the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra and the Fairfax Choral Society. She he has also served on the faculty of the Virginia Governor’s School for the Arts and as guest conductor and adjudicator throughout the state.

Ms. Bailey is currently in her fifteenth year as orchestra director at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, where she has also served as Summer School Principal for five years.

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A Tradition of Service CELEBRATING 125 YEARS IN ALEXANDRIA

Fuel Oil n Boilers n Furnaces Air Conditioning n Heat Pumps Water Heaters n Gas, Oil, & AC Service 1200 DUKE STREET, ALEXANDRIA, VA 703-549-5700

www.tjfannonandsons.com In memory of Susan Dau Fannon, a proud supporter of the Symphony.

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Simply Sage Events

by Nicole C. Duncan

Event Planning, Design & Coordination

www.simplysageevents.com Phone: 703.772.1448 Email: ncduncan26@gmail.com

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Mary Graham Lasley Scholarship Competition In its 41st year, the Mary Graham Lasley Scholarship Competition, sponsored by the Symphony Orchestra League of Alexandria and supported by the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra, encourages collegelevel musicians to pursue classical music careers.

In the 1980s, the late Mary Graham Lasley was a major figure in the musical world of Metropolitan Washington, DC, and was active on the boards of the Washington Opera Guild, the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra, and the Alexandria Symphony Guild, predecessor of SOLA. Her friends and family established a trust in tribute to her many contributions.

The 2017 competition will take place March 26, 2017, on the Alexandria campus of the Northern Virginia Community College. An awards ceremony and reception will follow the competition.

Visit www.alexsym.org/education/lasley-scholarship for more information.

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ASO Sympatico ASO Sympatico was born out of a commitment to education, the youth of Alexandria, and social justice. In 2012, members of the ASO staff and board began thinking about the best way for the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra to give back to its community. After learning about the growth of El Sistema-inspired programs around the United States, the ASO began looking for local models that it could learn from. The ASO connected with Daniel Trahey, Artistic Director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s OrchKids program.

The ASO decided to test drive the concept in the Alexandria City Public Schools. Two week-long workshops that engaged music faculty and students at John Adams Elementary School were planned.

In December 2013, the ASO held a bucket band workshop led by percussionists Brian Prechtl and Pete Tashjian. In March 2014, musicians from the London-based Creative Connections project led John Adams Elementary School students in a workshop, culminating in a performance on stage with the ASO during its March 2014 concert.

Simultaneously, and independent of the ASO, music educators at John Adams were building the school’s musical capacity. A strong foundation was already in place as a result of Wes McCune’s more than twenty year tenure with the Orff Ensemble, which had long been a staple at John Adams. Adding to this rich history, music teachers Emily Smith and Lindsey Serrao established their own ensembles in 2013 – the Singing Eagles and Strings at Sunrise, respectively.

With the 2013-2014 year behind them, the teachers at John Adams and the ASO looked ahead to creating a firm partnership. In October 2014, two more ensembles, Keetman and JABBA (Bucket Band), were added to Sympatico as the program’s mission was embraced by the John Adams community and developed into a sense of forward-moving momentum.

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In Spring 2016, Emily Smith took on the additional role of Program Manager. In the 2016-2017 school year, the program welcomes instructors Kyle Tillman (Orff) and Alexandria Luke (Strings at

Sunrise) The program expanded to serve 120 students this school year.

Enrollment is open to any John Adams Elementary student, free of cost.

More information, including concert listings, is available on our website at www.asosympatico.com and on facebook @asosympatico.

“When I talk to students in Sympatico about their experiences with our program, it is clear to me that we are not limiting our instruction to the performing arts. Our students frequently tell us how Sympatico has given them confidence, how it teaches them how to make friends and be leaders, and how it inspires them to be creative in their lives outside of Sympatico.

This program’s footprint extends far beyond the edge of any stage. Our students are carrying what they learn, from our teachers and from their peers, out into the world and sharing it with others. This is what they believe the performing arts are all about.” -Emily Smith, Education Program Manager

For more information, contact Emily Smith, Education Program Manager at asosympatico@gmail.com

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1943 2018

75 Years Help the ASO celebrate its Diamond Anniversary Ann during the 2018-2019 Season!

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VIVALDI

Four Seasons November 5, 2016 (8 PM)

November 6, 2016 (3 PM)

Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center

George Washington Masonic Memorial

Kathleen Kelly, guest conductor Elizabeth Pitcairn, violin* PROGRAM WAGNER

Siegfried Idyll

MAZZOLI

Violent, Violent Sea INTERMISSION

VIVALDI

Four Seasons* Concerto No. 1 in E major, Op. 8, La primavera (Spring) I. Allegro II. Largo e pianissimo sempre III. Allegro pastorale Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 8, L’ estate (Summer) I. Allegro non molto II. Adagio III. Presto Concerto No. 3 in F major, Op. 8, L’ autunno (Autumn) I. Allegro II. Adagio molto III. Presto Concerto No. 4 in F minor, Op. 8, L’ inverno (Winter) I. Allegro non molto II. Largo III. Allegro

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Richard Wagner (1813-1883) Siegfried Idyll

Richard Wagner, a composer known for his grand operas, wrote very few small chamber works throughout his career.

One of those pieces, a symphonic poem he named Siegfried Idyll, was never intended for public performance.

experience of that morning:

Written as a gift to his second wife Cosima, Siegfried Idyll premiered at the Wagner’s Tribschen estate on Christmas morning in 1870. Wagner conducted the private performance just after sunrise; Cosima wrote in her diary about the

“As I awoke, my ear caught a sound, which swelled fuller and fuller; no longer could I imagine myself to be dreaming: music was sounding, and such music!”

Siegfried Idyll is often described as one of Wagner’s most personal works, as the title references his and Cosmia’s only son who was born shortly before the piece was written. Originally titled Tribschen-Idyll, with FidiBirdsong and Orange Sunrise, the piece evokes imagery of the grand morning sunrises and sunsets at Tribschen as well as the flurry of bird songs that would be constantly present around the couple’s property.

Wagner used material from other uncompleted works for the basis of the Siegfried Idyll, but also borrowed notable segments from other works, including the melody sung by Brünnhilde in act 3 of his opera Siegfried as well as the notable German lullaby “Schlaf, Kindlein, schla.” (Many concluded the programmatic elements of the bowered material signal a broad gesture of his love for Cosima as opposed to specific programmatic details).

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The piece was originally scored for 13 players; Wagner then later expanded the instrumentation to 35 players and sold the rights to B. Schott publishing in 1878.

Missy Mazzoli (b. 1980) Violent, Violent Sea

Missy Mazzoli grew up in Lansdale, Pennsylvania and developed her love of music from “listening to the radio constantly” in which she developed significant connection to classical music. She received her undergraduate degree from Boston University with graduate studies at Yale University and the Royal Conservatory of the Hague. She studied composition with David Lang, Louis Andriessen, Martin Bresnick, Aaron Jay Kernis and John Harbison and later taught at Yale University and was Executive Director of the MATA Festival, an organization dedicated to promoting the work of young composers, from 2007 to 2010.

In 2007 she formed the ensemble Victoire (a mix of strings, keyboards, clarinets, and electronics), a group dedicated to performing her own compositions. The group has released two full length CD’s, Cathedral City (2010) and Vespers for a New Dark Age (2015), featuring Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche.

Violent, Violent Sea was commissioned by the Barlow Endowment and the League of Composers Chamber Orchestra and premiered by the ensemble, conducted by Louis Karchin. The work is dedicated to the composer’s mother Sheila Mazzoli, who “loves the sea more than anyone.”

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“This work began with more of an emotional impression than a precise musical idea. My early notes for the piece look something like this: LOUD BUT SLOW. LIGHT BUT DARK. VIBRAPHONE. HOW TO DO THIS? To my relief I eventually did figure out ‘how to do this.’ The work evolved significantly from these early sketches but my idea of creating a loud, dense work with conflicting light and dark sides remained intact.

The result is a ten-minute piece with a deceptively sparkling exterior and dark, slow-moving chords at its core. These chords grind against each other, dissolve into glissandos and crescendo into surprising dissonances under the glistening patina of vibraphone and marimba.”

— Missy Mazzoli

Antonio Vivaldi (1678 –1741) Four Seasons Antonio Vivaldi was born in Venice in 1678 to a musical and religious family.

His father was once a barber, but quit to become a professional violinist who taught his son from any early age.

Although Antonio was stricken with several health issues throughout his life (breathing issues restricted him from playing wind instruments), he excelled at the violin, receiving great acclaim for technical proficiency especially when it came to performing unaccompanied.

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At fifteen, Antonio then began training for the priesthood at the behest of his mother and was later ordained at the age of 25 in 1703. Although he remained a priest for the rest of his life, Vivaldi’s musical interests and

Program 2 • November 5 and 6, 2016

responsibilities kept him from many traditional functions of the order.

Not long after being ordained, Vivaldi was hired at Pio Ospedale della Pietà (Devout Hospital of Mercy) as a master violin teacher. He would compose many pieces for the students of the school, most often of a liturgical nature for small and large ensembles.

Vivaldi soon developed a strong interest in composing solo instrumental music; his first published pieces were a set of 12 sonatas for strings and continuo. He gradually expanded to larger forms as his L’estro armonico (Op. 3), a collection of string concerti which gained him notoriety around the composition world.

Four Seasons is set of four violin concerti based on the calendar of seasons. The piece was composed during his appointment as Maestro di Cappella of the court of Prince Philip of Hesse-Darmstadt, governor of Mantua. Each concerto included an original sonnet composed by Vivaldi, a unique inclusion for that time, and what many consider as an early example of program music.

Originally published in a collection of 12 works as Il cimento dell’armonia e dell’inventione (Op. 8), Four Seasons has become one of the most performed pieces in the violin repertoire, and one of the first examples of composers exploring the imagery of each season.

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Kathleen Kelly, guest conductor Kathleen Kelly’s 2016-17 season includes debuts with Opera Columbus and the Alexandria Symphony, song recitals with tenor Stanford Olsen, master classes at the University of Toronto, performances of A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the University of Michigan, and her first audience of more than 100,000 people as guest conductor of the UM Marching Band. The first woman and first American named as Director of Musical Studies at the Vienna State Opera, Kathleen joined the faculty of the University of Michigan in 2015 as that school’s first Coach/Conductor of Opera.

At the Vienna State opera from 2010-2013, Kathleen oversaw the daily musical life of more the fifty ensemble singers in more than fifty operas.

Since her return to the US, Kathleen has led performances of Le nozze di Figaro at Wolf Trap, the premiere of Emmerich Kálmán’s Arizona Lady at Arizona Opera, and Francesca Zambello’s critically acclaimed Ariadne on Naxos at the Glimmerglass Festival. She also conducted the West Coast premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon’s A Coffin in Egypt, starring Frederica von Stade.

Kathleen has performed internationally as a recital pianist: at Weill Hall, the Kennedy Center, Vienna’s Musikverein and in the Mahlersaal of the Vienna State Opera, Manhattan’s Neue Galerie, on the Schwabacher Series in San Francisco and at the Tucson Desert Song Festival.

She has curated art song series for the Houston Grand Opera and the Vienna State Opera, and currently is co-artistic director of the SongFusion series in New York.

Kathleen has taught master classes all over the country, including at Arizona Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, the Castleton Festival, and Rutgers University. Kathleen is a regular guest coach for Washington National Opera’s Domingo-Cafritz program, and works regularly with young artist programs nationally, notably at the Los Angeles Opera, the Chi42

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cago Lyric Opera, Michigan Opera Theater, and the Houston Grand Opera. While on faculty at the University of Texas at Austin, she was the principal coach of the Butler Opera Center. Kathleen has worked with the Glimmerglass Festival’s Young American Artist Program, the Cooperative Training Program at Westminster Choir College, the Seattle Opera, Opera Australia, and theand the Moscow Conservatory.

Kathleen Kelly was trained in the Merola Program at the San Francisco Opera, after which she joined the house music staff as pianist, rehearsal conductor, and prompter. She was an assistant to James Levine at the Metropolitan Opera from 1997-2006, specializing in the works of Wagner, Strauss, and Berg. From 2003-2008 Kathleen was the Music Director of the Berkshire Opera and the Music Director of the Houston Grand Opera from 2006-2010.

“I want people to find something out about themselves through my music, something that was inaccessible before...I really think of my motives, my melodies, my harmonies, as being these things that are very much alive.”

- Missy Mazzoli Human beings go out into the natural world for a variety of reasons. We seek peace; we find inspiration; we are invigorated. In different ways, we turn to the creation around us for some understanding of, or connection to, things that are difficult to express.The beauties of that world surpass our tributes to them: what poem about a sunset is finer than a sunset?

And yet, the poem inspired by that sunset may reach someplace in us normally hard to touch with words, or even thoughts.

In Missy Mazzoli’s Violent, Violent Sea, you’ll hear “programmatic” elements—music that evokes sea-like images, like swelling waves, or light glinting on water. But the music isn’t pictorial. Music is a living thing.

Sound is moving air, after all. Like wind, it reaches us, sometimes gently, sometimes with great force. Mazzoli’s music does all of this, shining one moment, soothing the next, deep and dark, then swirling and unpredictable. It’s like the sea, and like the places in our hearts and minds that are

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reached by the sights and sounds of the sea.

Richard Wagner had the natural world on his mind as well when he composed the Siegfried Idyll for his wife Cosima in 1870. The original title was “Tribschen-Idyll, with Fidi-Birdsong and Orange Sunrise.” Tribschen was the Wagner’s villa on Lake Lucerne, and Fidi was the family nickname for the Wagner’s son, Siegfried. The Idyll is replete with intimate references that center on the circumstances of Siegfried’s birth, notably the birdsong and sunrise of the title. There was another Siegfried being born at the same time, as Wagner finished the third opera in his great Ring tetralogy. In that Siegfried, there is also famous birdsong, and an aria in praise of the sunrise, as well as a beautiful reference to clear, still water, set to music from the Idyll. Two lovers meet in the opera, two lovers are living in a villa, and somehow the sun, sea, and birds are telling us their stories.

We finish the evening with one of the earliest and most beloved musical evocations of nature, Antonio Vivaldi’s Le quattro stagioni. These concerti were published alongside four sonnets containing imagery appropriate to each season. No one knows which came first, music or words, but Vivaldi wrote bits of the poems into his musical score, careful to let us know whether he meant to evoke such things as sleeping drunkards, a barking dog, or the lightning flashes of a storm. We hear each of these things almost as a soundtrack for each poetic idea (and we enjoy greatly the recognition of familiarity). But again, it’s not that simple. Somehow, “Spring” lifts us up, “Summer” feels volatile, “Autumn” more generous, and “Winter” less forgiving, in ways that surpass the narrative nature of the poems. Think of the lilting dance that opens “Spring.” Is that not a motive that is, as Missy Mazzoli says, “very much alive?”

-Kathleen Kelly

BE ON STAGE ... without the jitters Adopt a Chair today! Call (703) 548-0885 44

Program 2 • November 5 and 6, 2016

Interview with Missy Mazzoli, composer Q. Can you tell me about the commission of the work, how you conceived of the idea and its premiere?

A. It was a commission from the Orchestra of the League of Composers, and was premiered by them at Miller Theatre at Columbia University in New York City in 2011, with Louis Karchin conducting.

Q. What was your inspiration for using marimba and vibraphone?

A. I wanted to write an unusual beginning to the piece, with a percussive texture.

Q. Does the piece have any personal significance?

A. It is dedicated to my mother, who loves the ocean and the beach. My first orchestral work was dedicated to my father.

Q. What’s the greatest obstacle you’ve faced in writing and promoting your work? Have you faced any additional obstacles as a woman composer?

A. I feel that women are often given opportunities based on their past accomplishments, while men are given opportunities based on their potential. As a result, men are more often given the opportunity to create risky, large scale works like operas, orchestral works and concertos. I’m very lucky in that I’m starting to get operatic and orchestral commissions, but the number of women in that part of the field is very small.

Q. Do you have a unified mission or idea that weaves throughout your compositions?

A. I’m interested in the drama of the human experience and in work that tells a story. Even in my instrumental work, many of my melodies and harmonies function as characters in a drama, acting in collaboration or in opposition to each other. I’m also interested in using simple musical

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materials in unexpected ways, in creating a dialogue between what is expected and what is surprising.

Q. What inspired you to pursue composition as your life’s work?

A. I always knew I would pursue a creative field, and composition allows for endless creativity. It’s also a field that allows me to pursue many diverse influences—I’m able to research visual art, theater, poetry, history and psychology as part of my work. I also get to travel a great deal and collaborate constantly with artists of other disciplines.

Q. What composers have most influenced you?

A. I’m really influenced by John Luther Adams, David Lang, and Anna Thorvalsdottir right now.

Q. How does performing enhance your composing and vice versa?

A. I’m not truly happy unless I have a performing outlet in my life— there’s a sort of release that happens when you perform that I don’t completely feel when I write. I also feel a much more direct connection to the audience when I’m performing my own work and can stand in front of them as a performer.

We’re saving a spot for you in our 2017-2018 PROGRAM BOOK!

Ads start at $400 Call (703) 548-0885 or visit our website at http://www.alexsym.org/support/advertise/ for more information.

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Program 2 • November 5 and 6, 2016

Elizabeth Pitcairn, violin American violin virtuoso Elizabeth Pitcairn is passionate about youth and education. She is in her fifth year as President and Artistic Director of the Luzerne Music Center which provides training for gifted young musicians ages 9-18 in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York.

Ms. Picairn performs with one of the world’s most legendary instruments, the “Red Mendelssohn” Stradivarius violin of 1720, said to have inspired the Academy Award–winning film The Red Violin. Named the Red Stradivarius violin while in the possession of Joseph Joachim, it was a gift from her grandfather in 1990 at Christie’s Auction in London.

Born in 1973 in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, to a closely-knit musical family (her mother is a Juilliard-trained cellist), Pitcairn began playing the violin at age three and made her debut with orchestra at 14. Her path led her to Los Angeles to study with preeminent violin professor Robert Lipsett at the University of Southern California. Her former teachers include Julian Meyer, Sylvia Ahramjian, Jascha Brodsky, Robert Lipsett and Shmuel Ashkenasi. She was a member of the distinguished faculty of both USC and the Colburn School for 10 years, taught at the Encore School for Strings, and is an alumna of the Marlboro Music Festival, the National Repertory Orchestra, Luzerne Music Center, Temple University’s Center for Gifted Young Musicians, the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra, the Meadowmount School, Point CounterPoint, the Encore School for Strings, the YMF Debut Orchestra and the American Youth Symphony.

She served as concertmaster of the New West Symphony for 11 years. She has appeared in recital for the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and at the Aspen Music Festival. Pitcairn believes strongly in philanthropy

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and is a frequent performer for charitable events such as the American Cancer Society, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, the Helping Hands and Hearts Foundation and the Nakashima Foundation for Peace.

A champion of new music, Pitcairn commissioned Sweden’s renowned composer Tommie Haglund to compose the violin concerto tone poem Hymnen an die Nacht (Hymns to the Night), receiving a Swedish Grammi nomination. Other commissions include a sonata for violin and piano

by Russian composer David Finko and The Blue Vishuddha (2014) by Sara Carina Graef.

Pitcairn has appeared as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Academy of Music and at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall with the New York String Orchestra. She has performed at Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Kimmel Center, Saratoga Performing Arts Center, and the Fisher Center at Bard College. She has given performances of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra of China and with conductor Wagner Politschuk in São Paulo, Brazil. Pitcairn has performed the Barber Concerto with the Vaasa City Symphony and the Jönkopping Symphony of Sweden. She gave a nationally televised broadcast of the Bruch Violin Concerto with the Classic FM Radio Symphony Orchestra of Bulgaria conducted by Maxim Eshkenazy. She has also concertized in Italy, France, Germany, the British Isles, Hungary, Brazil, Canada, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, 48

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and the French West Indies.

She has appeared with the Fort Collins Symphony, the Allentown Symphony, the Bucks County Symphony, Ridgewood Symphony, Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra, the Marin Symphony and the USC and Richardson Symphonies. She has performed the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the San Luis Obispo Symphony and the Beethoven Violin Concerto with the Livermore Symphony. In 2010, on the 20th anniversary of the auction of the Red Mendelssohn Stradivarius, she gave a commemorative recital in Cremona, Italy with pianist Igor Longato.

In the winter of 2016, she will appear in recital at the Cayman Arts Festival with pianist Glen Inanga and with the Arkansas Philharmonic and the North Mississippi Symphonies. She will also perform the Brahms Violin Concerto with the Richardson Symphony, and will release a recording of the Brahms and Mendelssohn Violin Concerti in the fall of 2016.

She toured northern Italy with the TOCCATA-Tahoe Orchestra performing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and in 2017, she will tour Vienna, Salzburg and Prague, as well as Romania and Serbia. Also in 2017, she will perform The Red Violin Chaconne with Maestro Jung-Ho Pak and the Cape Symphony and record the Sibelius Violin Concerto which will be released together with the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto.

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MOZART

Symphony No. 41 “Jupiter” February 11, 2017 at 8:00 PM Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center

February 12, 2017 at 3:00 PM George Washington Masonic Memorial

Michael Rossi, guest conductor PROGRAM MOZART

Overture from The Magic Flute

MOZART

Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor I. Allegro II. Romanze III. Allegro assai INTERMISSION

MOZART

Symphony No. 41 in C major, “Jupiter” I. II. III. IV.

Allegro vivace Andante cantabile Menuetto: Allegretto Molto allegro 51

Program 3 • February 11 and 12, 2017

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1863-1945)

Born in Salzburg, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) was composing minuets before the age of 6 and performing in royal courts soon afterwards. As a child prodigy, Mozart spent over half of his childhood on the road travelling to perform in courts and public venues. When he was just sixteen, the archbishop in Salzburg employed him as assistant concertmaster, where Mozart further developed his compositional abilities.

After pursuing several short and unsuccessful positions in his early twenties, Mozart decided to work in Vienna as a freelance composer, teacher, and performer. In 1781, Mozart fell in love with Constanze Weber, daughter of composer Fridolin Weber. Through written correspondence, Mozart’s father let it be known that he strongly disapproved of the marriage, but the two were married in 1782.

In the years to follow, Mozart turned his attention to producing concerts starring himself as a soloist, which were wildly successful in Vienna.

His concertos were known for their bright texture, vivid orchestration, and dense counterpoint. Influenced by composers of the Baroque era, Mozart successfully combined the styles of Viennese Classicism and German Romanticism for a sound that could be best described as coherent drama.

In 1785, Mozart composed his most famous opera, The Marriage of Figaro.

Known as a comedic opera rather than a serious one, it was immediately successful when premiered and continued to gather positive reviews whenever it was performed. Since Mozart had fallen into some financial struggle due to his lavish lifestyle with Constanze, the popularity of this opera was certainly welcome. Mozart picked up a part-time position as a chamber composer, but still struggled with finances as aristocratic enthusiasm for the arts began to decline.

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Throughout his life, Mozart developed and perfected many musical genres, including operas, sonatas, symphonies, concertos, string

Program 3 • February 11 and 12, 2017

quartets, serenades and masses. By the time of his death, Mozart had already catalogued most of his pieces and was an acclaimed composer, teacher, and performer. His compositions require a high amount of technical and vocal expertise and served to not only inspire many other future composers, but also had a lasting effect on the musical fabric of the time.

Overture from The Magic Flute One of Mozart’s most renowned operas, The Magic Flute premiered in September of 1791 to a delighted audience in Vienna, and is currently the fourth most frequently performed opera in the world. For this comic opera, Mozart divided it into two acts and collaborated with librettist Emanual Schikaneder, who also performed one of the main roles. The opera’s overall plot was based on popular fairy tale sentiment of the time and is centered on the rescue of Princess Pamina, who is captured by the high priest Sarastro. Her mother, the Queen of the Night, appoints Prince Tamino to set off on the journey to rescue her, accompanied by his companion Papageno. However, after meeting the high priest, the prince begins to believe in his ideals. Together and in love, the prince and princess seek to overthrow the Queen of the Night and go through many trials, succeeding in the end. Schikaneder performed the role of Papageno, and Mozart’s sister-in-law Josepha Holder stepped up to the plate as the Queen of the Night.

Since Mozart had faced much financial difficulty in the late 1780s, the warm reception of this opera was better than he could have asked for. Mozart quickly penned ecstatic letters reflecting his delight of the successful premiere to his wife Constanze, who was travelling in Baden.

Among other things, he wrote “I have this moment returned from the opera, which was as full as ever.” The 100th performance of The Magic Flute was only a year after Mozart’s death.

Mozart wrote this overture only a few days before the opera’s premiere; the orchestration is composed of timpani, bassoons, horns, trombones, strings, oboes, trumpets, and clarinets. It is clear, bright and energetic, giving one the feeling of anticipation for the opera’s opening scenes and “paving the way” for royalty to enter the stage. Even though it only has a single primary theme, it is treated fugally and in sequence, leaping

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Program 3 • February 11 and 12, 2017

between different orchestral divisions to create a full but musically interesting stand-alone piece. The Magic Flute as a whole remains one of the most frequently performed operas ever written, if not certainly one of the best as well, and is acclaimed for its integration of music and text.

Piano Concerto No. 20 Coming on the heels of one of Mozart’s most successful and prolific times, this particular concerto was penned by Mozart in the beginning of 1785 in just three weeks. It is one of only two composed in a minor key, and is characterized overall by drama, passionate outbursts, and intense chromaticism. Instantly a hit with audiences when premiered on February 11th, 1785, it continues today to be one of Mozart’s most popular piano concertos because of its furious intensity and required focus on the soloist. When he first performed it in Vienna, it was instantly popular with audiences.

Although Mozart did not write cadenzas for the concerto, Beethoven added some powerful cadenzas that give shivers to the listener with their intense drama. In the third movement, Mozart broke tradition by concluding the work with a sunny 75-measure section in D major, which was not only unprecedented among composers of the day, but musically jumped into the ending with little to no key change preparation.

The first movement of the concerto opens with a furious theme which presents itself in sonata form as a struggle between the soloist and orchestra. However, the struggle does not resolve, but continues to re-emerge throughout the other two movements. The lyrical second movement is markedly slower, but still contains some of the furious storm established by the first movement. It is also written in a rondo form, which together with the first movement inspires the form of extended sonata-rondo for the third movement. The third movement opens with an intense D-minor ascending arpeggio in the piano, using a technique called the “Mannheim Steamroller,” with a dialogue between soloist and orchestra reminiscent of the first movement. Overall, this concerto leaves the listener in awe with its riveting speed, intense drama and perfectly-timed, stormy dialogue.

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Program 3 • February 11 and 12, 2017

Symphony No. 41 “Jupiter” in C major Nicknamed “Jupiter” in 1821 for the ancient Greek god, this grand, rich symphony was both the last and the longest one that Mozart composed.

It rose to fame quickly as a symphony that contains exuberant counterpoint, good humor and energetic fanfare. Mozart completed it in August 1788 immediately after two other symphonies and several sonatas, though it is unclear whether it was performed within Mozart’s lifetime. The form of the symphony follows a traditional four-movement form; some scholars claim that the fourth movement serves as a “grand finale” to the other two symphonies Mozart penned just previously.

The first movement Allegro vivace opens with confident, bright themes containing quick triplets and interlacing trumpet fanfare, alternating with smooth string passages. Throughout the movement, Mozart showcases tonic/dominant key relationships as well as openly comical passages through chromatically descending bass lines. The second movement Andante cantabile follows the traditional symphonic model by its form as a sarabande, a French dance, in F major. In the third movement, more counterpoint begins to form as melodies overlap, including a four-note theme that also runs its way through the fourth movement and several of Mozart’s other compositions.

During the triumphant fourth movement Molto allegro, Mozart showcased his astounding artistry and technical mastery by intersecting five different themes in a stunning fugue, one of which is the four-note theme from the third movement. Sir George Grove wrote, “It is for the finale that Mozart has reserved all the resources of his science, and all the power, which no one seems to have possessed to the same degree with himself, of concealing that science, and making it the vehicle for music as pleasing as it is learned. Nowhere has he achieved more.”

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Program 3 • February 11 and 12, 2017

Michael Rossi, guest conductor Michael Rossi is recognized as a rising star in the next generation of conductors. He recently made debuts with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra Sinfonia de Xalapa as well as the opening season concerts and First Annual PepsiCo National Young Artist Competition with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra. He made his international debut conducting Plácido Domingo and the Chinese National Opera Orchestra in Beijing in a live television broadcast for the opening of the Reignwood Theatre.

Recent highlights included a return to the Philadelphia Orchestra to conduct Handel’s Messiah and Water Music, as well as the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, and the Signature Symphony.

As a cover conductor for the Philadelphia Orchestra he has had the pleasure of assisting world-renowned conductors including Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Stéphane Denève, Manfred Honeck, Itzhak Perlman, Emmanuel Krivine, and Vladimir Jurowski.

As an opera conductor he made his Washington National Opera main stage debut conducting Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro and was then engaged to conduct a production of WNO’s Hansel & Gretel in 2012 which he again conducted in the 2015-2016 Season. He led the WNO Orchestra for the first National Endowment of the Arts Opera Honors (broadcast live on NPR) and the orchestra’s Strathmore Hall debut concert. In 2011, he made his Carnegie Hall debut conducting the premiere of Marcos Galvany’s opera Oh My Son and recorded the album, released in late 2014.

Michael is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Miami Summer Music Festival, which in just two years has become a major international summer music festival. In 2015, he conducted Mahler’s Symphony No. 5, Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Mozart’s Don Giovanni and conducted La Bohème in 2016.

Michael graduated from the Washington National Opera’s Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program, having been selected for the program by worldrenowned tenor Plácido Domingo. Michael was awarded a fellowship to the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen in 2009 and 2010 where he studied

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Program 3 • February 11 and 12, 2017

with David Zinman, Robert Spano, Hugh Wolff and Larry Rachleff. He was selected by Kurt Masur to participate in the Kurt Masur Conducting Seminar at the Manhattan School of Music in both 2010 and 2012. Mr. Rossi is following the path of many conductors who began their careers first as instrumentalists.

At the age of 22, he won the position of Second Trumpet in the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, the youngest instrumentalist to ever win a position in the orchestra.

In my lifetime, little has captured my imagination the way the music of Mozart has. In particular, The Magic Flute Overture has resonated with me as both a conductor and an orchestral musician, having been fortunate to perform it in both capacities. Immediately, the opening three “Masonic” chords catch our attention and tease us, foreshadowing a funfilled night of laughs, imagination and some of the most beautiful music ever written. The joyous Allegro theme in the 2nd violins is not only one of the most well-known melodies, but one of the most exciting passages in the Classical repertoire to both perform and listen to. The playfulness of this overture gives the audience a sense that something special is coming their way, something that has been drawing audiences back for more than two centuries. I am so excited to start this evening off in the same way, allowing Mozart’s music to take us on the same journey.

When I was 7 years old, I, like many of us, saw the famous movie Amadeus and fell in love with the music of Mozart. The piece that struck me the most was the 2nd movement of the Piano Concerto in D Minor which is played during the final scene and credits. I recall how badly I wanted to be able to play it; so six years later as a young pianist, this was the first piece of music I purchased myself. While learning it, the concerto became a major part of my development through my teenage years, enhancing both my skills as a pianist and my passion for music in general. Years later, the D Minor Concerto would become the first piano concerto that I would conduct in public.

- Michael Rossi 57

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HAYDN

Lord Nelson Mass

BERNSTEIN

Chichester Psalms April 1, 2017 at 8:00 PM

April 2, 2017 at 3:00 PM

Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center

George Washington Masonic Memorial

Scott Tucker, guest conductor Choral Arts Society of Washington PROGRAM BRAHMS

Variations on a Theme by Joseph Haydn

BERNSTEIN

Chichester Psalms I. Introduction; Psalm 108, vs. 2 II. Psalm 100 III. Psalm 23 IV. Psalm 131 V. Psalm 133, vs. 1

INTERMISSION

BRAHMS

Nänie

HAYDN

Mass in D Minor, Lord Nelson Mass I. Kyrie II. Gloria III. Credo IV. Sanctus V. Benedictus VI. Agnus Dei

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Program 4 • April 1 and 2, 2017

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Variations on a Theme by Joseph Haydn and Nänie Johannes Brahms, although not an official member of the Viennese School, followed in the footsteps of his Austro-German predecessors adapting Classical forms for the Romantic sensibilities of his time. Variations on a Theme by Haydn (1873) was based upon a theme that Haydn likely borrowed himself, the main theme known as “St. Anthony’s Chorale” with eight variations and a finale. Like his recently completed Requiem, which catapulted his career, the original arrangement was written first for two pianos before he expanded the work into a full orchestral version. The work precedes his first symphony and coincides with his post as Artistic Director of the Society of Friends of the Music in Vienna, which founded and operated the Vienna concert hall, concert choir, conservatory and archives.

Brahms composed Nänie nearly ten years later in 1881 in memory of his close friend Anselm Feuerbach. From a derivative of the Latin for “dirge” or “funeral song,” the elegy laments the inevitably of death, using imagery from Greek mythology. The text is setting of a poem by revered

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Auch das Schöne muß sterben! Das Menschen und Götter bezwinget, Nicht die eherne Brust rührt es dem stygischen Zeus.

Einmal nur erweichte die Liebe den Schattenbeherrscher, Und an der Schwelle noch, streng, rief er zurück sein Geschenk.

Even the beautiful must perish! That which overcomes gods and men Moves not the armored heart of the Stygian Zeus.

Only once did love come to soften the Lord of the Shadows, And just at the threshold he sternly took back his gift.

Nicht stillt Aphrodite dem schönen Knaben die Wunde, Die in den zierlichen Leib grausam der Eber geritzt.

Nicht errettet den göttlichen Held die unsterbliche Mutter,

Neither can Aphrodite heal the wounds of the beautiful youth That the boar had savagely torn in his delicate body.

Nor can the deathless mother rescue the divine hero

Wann er am skäischen Tor fallend sein Schicksal erfüllt.

When, at the Scaean gate now falling, he fulfills his fate.

Program 4 • April 1 and 2, 2017

Aber sie steigt aus dem Meer mit allen Töchtern des Nereus, Und die Klage hebt an um den verherrlichten Sohn.

Siehe! Da weinen die Götter, es weinen die Göttinnen alle, Daß das Schöne vergeht, daß das Vollkommene stirbt.

Auch ein Klaglied zu sein im Mund der Geliebten ist herrlich; Denn das Gemeine geht klanglos zum Orkus hinab.

But she ascends from the sea with all the daughters of Nereus, And she raises a plaint here for her glorious son.

Behold! The gods weep, all the goddesses weep, That the beautiful perishes, that the most perfect passes away.

But a lament on the lips of loved ones is glorious, For the ignoble goes down to Orcus in silence.

Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) Chichester Psalms Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) rose to fame as one of the most influential and successful musical forces of the twentieth century as a composer, conductor and pianist. He drew on elements from his Jewish heritage, Gershwin, Mahler, Stravinsky, VillaLobos and Copland, defining his compositions as truly American with his multi-cultural influences. Bernstein wrote Chichester Psalms at the height of his composing and conducting career while he was Conductor of the New York Philharmonic, the first American to achieve that position. As a conductor, he was a notable and authoritative interpreter of Mahler, Copland, Brahms, Shostakovich and his own works.

Commissioned for the 1965 Southern Cathedrals Festival at Chichester Cathedral in England, Bernstein composed the Chichester Psalms for the Cathedral’s organist and premiered it himself two weeks prior to the festival with the New York Philharmonic as conductor. The Southern Cathedrals Festival alternates between three cathedrals each year, founded in 1904 with various lapses until 1960. The tradition has continued every year since with commissioned new works premiering almost every year since 2000.

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Bernstein composed the piece with various accompaniments, for soloists, choir and orchestra and a boy soprano or countertenor. He explicitly stated in his description of the piece that the boy’s part must never be sung by a woman, his voice meant to evoke the voice of David himself, the presumed author of the selected psalms in the piece.

Bernstein further ensured the religious authenticity by setting the text in the original Hebrew. He utilizes the interval of a 7th frequently between vocal parts, numerologically symbolizing perfection in the JudeoChristian tradition; the first movement is also written in an irregular 7/4 meter.

The introduction and movement one are based upon Psalms 100 and 108, introducing a leitmotif in the first measure in the soprano and alto parts which recur later in the work. The light, joyous tone of the entire work is established in the opening sections. The second movement begins with Psalm 23 carried by David and the sopranos, interrupted by the tenors and basses with agitated verses from Psalm 2, and concluding with verses from Psalm 23 from the sopranos and a serene final solo with David. The third movement, set to text from Psalm 131, starts with a stormy recapitulation from the introduction in the orchestral part resolving to a pastoral, gentle chorale flowing into the finale with no break. Previous themes return in the finale emphasizing the message of the singular verse from Psalm 133: “Behold how good, and how pleasant it is, for brethren to dwell together in unity.” Bernstein drives home the central message of the piece, distilling the moving harmonies into a unison note on the last syllable of text.

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) Lord Nelson Mass

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Franz Joseph Haydn is the bridge in the First Viennese School of Classical Music between Mozart and Beethoven; all three composers together are considered the defining forces within the era. Haydn became friends with Mozart in 1781, and all subsequent compositions show mutual influence from that time forward. Beethoven studied composition with Haydn briefly and despite their tumultuous relation-

Program 4 • April 1 and 2, 2017

ship, Haydn passed on his mastery of Classical forms which Beethoven expanded and enlarged.

Haydn served as the Music Director for the Esterházy family in Hungary for more than three decades. This affiliation contributed to his prolific composition, expansion of forms and freedom of expression. Living in this Versailles-like seclusion, his work flourished, of which he said, “There was no one near to confuse me, so I was forced to become original.”

In this prestigious position, his fame spread to Austria, Germany, Italy, France and England where he began to receive commissions for his work.

The Mass in D Minor, Missa in Angustiis (a mass for troubled times) was composed during Haydn’s late prolific liturgical period (1792-1802), which includes his last six masses and The Creation, all considered masterworks. The nickname of the Mass comes from the tensions in Europe over Napoleon’s advancing armies, reaching Africa at the time of its composition in 1798. After a crushing defeat against Napoleon that same year led by Admiral Lord Nelson, the mass became associated with this victory, taking Lord Nelson Mass as its common name as Europe breathed a collective sigh of relief. The Mass is influenced by the expansive compositional style of his London Symphonies, giving the orchestra, chorus and soloists equal roles.

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Program 4 • April 1 and 2, 2017

Scott Tucker, guest conductor Under Scott Tucker’s artistic leadership, the acclaimed symphonic Choral Arts Chorus has expanded to over 190 singers, and in 2014 he launched the Choral Arts Chamber Singers, a small vocal ensemble. He maintains Choral Arts’ strong connection to the National Symphony Orchestra as well as continuing Choral Arts reputation as a sought-after choral ensemble, receiving invitations from a wide-range of guest contracts with such world-class artists and ensembles as the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Andrea Bocelli.

Tucker’s first Choral Arts assignment was preparing the Choral Arts Chorus for Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis performed with the NSO under the direction of Christoph Eschenbach. He has since prepared the chorus for such conductors as Emil de Cou, John Mauceri and Rossen Milanov to perform NSO’s performances of Orff ’s Carmina Burana, Handel’s Messiah, Hindemith’s When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d, NSO Pops concerts of music by Danny Elfman, as well as Rachmaninoff ’s The Bells for Vassily Sinaisky.

Deeply committed to supporting new music, Tucker has programmed one world premiere, one east coast premiere, one revival of a work Choral Arts commissioned, and 16 company premieres. Prior to his tenure with Choral Arts, Tucker commissioned and premiered more than 30 works from composers such as Ernani Aguiar, Bernard Rands, Steven Stucky, Augusta Read Thomas, Carol Barnett, David Conte, Libby Larsen and Chen Yi. In addition to Choral Arts activities, Tucker is regularly invited to teach, speak and conduct with a variety of local, national, and international organizations. In 2015, he conducted a festival of singers from Virginia, Delaware and Maryland for American Choral Directors Association Festival (ACDA), and in 2016 conducted the finale of Classical Movements Serenade Festival.

Prior to his engagement with Choral Arts, Tucker was the P.E. Browning Director of Choral Music at Cornell University, where he directed the Men’s Glee Club and the Women’s Chorus, in addition to overseeing the Cornell Chorale, Chamber Singers, and Sage Chapel Choir. During his 17-year leadership, the Cornell choirs toured nationally and internationally, including an appearance at the American Choral Director’s Association National Conference and a tour to Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, China. The Cornell choirs collaborated with acclaimed artists and were featured on NPR’s “A Prairie Home Companion.”

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Program 4 • April 1 and 2, 2017

The Lord Nelson Mass is arguably the most beloved of Haydn’s six late masses, each of which was written at the height of Haydn’s prowess. This setting is the only one in a minor key (although most of it is actually in D major). The orchestration, which uses no woodwinds, is sparse but effective. Some striking features of this setting include the energetic melismatic writing for the solo soprano (especially in the Kyrie), the dramatic bass solo opening of the Qui Tolis, and the opening of the Credo, which dispatches a large portion of the text in record time, with the lower voices following the upper voices in imitation a fifth lower. The upbeat treatment of the final Dona Nobis Pacem is typical of Haydn’s late masses, but it might seem strikingly chipper to those used to more meditative settings of this text.

Variations on a Theme by Haydn are based on a theme found in a divertimento for winds originally attributed to Haydn, but later thought to be written by Haydn’s pupil, Ignaz Pleyel. Though looked down upon by followers of Wagner and Liszt, no one could deny the high level of craftsmanship that Brahms displayed in this work, and it, along with the Requiem, began his international reputation, which was later cemented with his Symphonies and Piano Concertos.

Composers of the nineteenth century are not as well known for their choral music as those who preceded them. Brahms is one exception, who was steeped in the music of his musical forebearers and had no reservation of writing music for singing societies. His Nänie (op. 82) was written in 1881 after the death of his friend, the artist Anselm Feuerbach and stands alongside his Schicksalslied and Alto Rhapsody as a brilliant example of small scale choral-orchestral repertoire.

Leonard Bernstein was commissioned to write the Chichester Psalms for the Southern Cathedral Festival at the Chichester Cathedral in 1965. It features four-part Chorus, orchestra, four soloists, and a countertenor or boy soloist. Its introduction, three movements and finale are all based on psalms, and instead of setting them in English or Latin—which would have been the norm for the time and place—Bernstein chose to set them in the original Hebrew. The music is a mix of original material and music cut from previous pieces, most notably the Lamah rag’shu goyim (Why do the Nations Rage?) which was cut from the original sketches of West Side Story.

- Scott Tucker

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ASO Concert Venues

Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center • Complimentary concert parking is provided by the ASO in the Beauregard Street garage, located across East Campus Lane from the Schlesinger Center. We highly encourage all our patrons to park in this location, as parking is restricted on campus.

• Our Will Call pickup and On-Site Box Office sales begin 1.5 hours prior to the start of each performance the lobby of the Schlesinger Center.

• Restrooms and drinking fountains are available to the right of the lobby on the first floor, and to the right of the Seminar Room on the second floor.

• An elevator is available for your convenience and can be located around the corner from the restrooms.

• Concessions are sold in the lobby during intermission – choose from a variety of wines, sodas, snacks and bottled water.

George Washington Masonic Memorial • Complimentary concert parking is provided by the ASO in the north parking lot with an entrance directly to the concert hall.

• All patrons should enter the Memorial on the parking lot side of the building, where the handicap ramp can be found as well. This entrance is the closest one to the concert hall and can be accessed without stairs.

• Our Will Call pickup and On-Site Box Office sales begin one and a half hours prior to the start of each performance.

• An elevator is available for your convenience. Please note that the elevator runs slowly, and we encourage you to arrive early if you intend to use it.

• Concessions are sold in the lobby during intermission – choose from a variety of wines, sodas, snacks, and bottled water.

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Concerto Foundation

Ensuring the long-term stability of the ASO The Alexandria Symphony Concerto Foundation was established in 2005 to create an endowment fund providing long-term financial support to the ASO. The Foundation’s goal is to build a significant capital fund, with the income from that fund providing annual income to the Symphony. The Foundation is a “supporting organization” under section 509(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, and gifts made to the Foundation are tax deductible as charitable donations. As of the end of the first quarter of 2014, the fund had approximately $400,000 in assets.

The following individuals contributed gifts of $5,000 or more to meet the $100,000 Challenge sponsored by Frank and Betty Quirk, which was completed in May 2007: Anonymous

Ruth Kotler

C. Maxine Baustian

Eva and Frank Manning

Suzanne S. Brock

Mary Ann and David Millard

Miriam and David Browning

Reae and Thomas Sargeant

Penny and Tim Bryan

Molly and Jim Singerling

Linda and Elliott Bunce

Ann and Roy Snyder

Agnes and Jack Dover

Symphony Orchestra League of Alexandria (SOLA)

Gerhard and Diana Dreo Loti and Stewart Dunn Julie and Edward Dyson Anne and Caswell Hobbs

Judy and Forrest Williams Stuart and Robert Wineland Susan and Allan Winn

A donation or bequest to the Alexandria Symphony Concerto Foundation will go toward insuring long-term support of the ASO. Gifts can be a specific dollar amount, a specific piece of property, a percentage of an estate, or all or part of the residue of an estate. You can also name the Foundation as a contingent beneficiary if someone named in your will is no longer living.

For more information on the Concerto Foundation or making a bequest, please contact the Alexandria Symphony at 703-548-0885.

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DVOŘÁK

Symphony No. 9 “The New World” May 20, 2017 at 8:00 PM Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center

Emil de Cou, guest conductor PROGRAM BARBER

Violin Concerto, op. 14

I. Allegro II. Andante III. Presto in moto perpetuo

INTERMISSION

DVOŘÁK

Symphony No. 9 in E minor I. II. III. IV.

Adagio – Allegro molto Largo Scherzo: Molto vivace – Poco sostenuto Allegro con fuoco

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Program 5 • May 20, 2017

Samuel Barber (1910-1981)

Violin Concerto, op. 14 Samuel Osborne Barber is regarded as one of the most influential American composers. His family had deep roots in America, traceable back to the Revolutionary War. Music was also deeply rooted in the family’s heritage, boasting a notable composer and accomplished opera singer in the lineage. Barber showed talent from an early age, studying piano and composing his first piece at age seven. At nine, in a precocious letter to his mother, he revealed that music would be his chosen profession.

When he began work on his only Violin Concerto (Op. 14), Barber already had a number of compositions under his belt, many highlyacclaimed, premiering several works with major orchestras. His works had been commissioned, performed by noted artists such as Horowitz and Poulenc, and at age 25, he received the coveted American Prix de Rome and the Pulitzer scholarship allowing him to study aboard.

In 1939, the soap magnate Samuel Fels approached Barber to commission a violin concerto to showcase the talents of his adopted son, Iso Briselli.

(Barber affectionately nicknamed the piece “Concerto da Sapone,” or Soap Concerto.) Briselli was born and trained on Odessa; his teacher Carl Flesch brought him to America when he was offered to head the new Curtis Institute. Fels offered Barber $1,000 with $500 in advance and $500 upon completion, hoping to premiere the work with Briselli as soloist. Barber consulted the violinist during composition; Briselli expressed satisfaction with the first two movements, but utter disdain upon his encounter with the final movement.

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Conflicting stories circulate concerning the reason for the movement’s rejection to this day. One scenario, told by Barber to his biographer, indicates Briselli found the swift, virtuosic passages too difficult and didn’t want to embarrass himself during performance. Another account, given by Briselli after Barber’s death, asserts Briselli thought the third movement was “too lightweight” compared to the rest of the concerto.

Whether he referred to the shorter length or lack of difficulty is not clear, but he suggested Barber revise the movement with a longer development or alternate form. The third theory by music historians, citing Briselli’s

Program 5 • May 20, 2017

consummate ability and the movement’s obvious virtuosity, is that Briselli found the chromaticism jarring and foreign compared to his more conservative previously performed repertoire. Musically, it was not to his taste, and rather than offend Barber, he degraded his own ability as an excuse.

Whatever the actual reason for its rejection, Briselli called it unplayable, and Barber refused to revise it. Hoping to receive his commission nonetheless, he assembled a musical jury with Fels to prove the merit of the piece. Upon hearing the brilliant performance, the listeners ruled the commission was due, and the agreement for performance by Briselli would dissolve. This left Barber with the task of finding a new soloist and opportunity to premiere the work.

Barber heard rumors that Albert Spalding was seeking a new American concerto. Spalding accepted the offer whole-heartedly, premiering the concerto in January 1943 with the San Francisco Symphony and conductor Pierre Monteux. Barber won broad acclaim for the piece as it entered into standard classical repertoire.

Its emphatic reception was due to Barber’s gift for lyricism, himself a vocally gifted composer and singer. Full of grace and melancholy, typical of Barber, the first two movements weave glorious melody through both the violin solo and later, with the oboe. The finale, admittedly jarring in comparison, sails lightning-fast with but a few measures of rest for the violinist. This furious clip combined with an unexpected modulation into an unrelated key, keeps the audience on the edge of its seat until the last measure.

Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)

Symphony No. 9 in E minor “The New World” Antonín Leopold Dvořák, born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, is best known for his championing the folk music of his native Bohemia and his most recognized work, Symphony No. 9 in E Minor. Showing promise as a performer on violin, piano and organ from a young age, his parents sent him to Zlonice to study German. Zlonice had both a strong German culture and good reputation for musical excellence; it is here where Dvořák met his first influential teacher, Anton Liehmann,

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who introduced him to the music of Mozart and Haydn. German music would shape Dvořák’s early period, attested by his winning the Austrian State Prize for Composition for submissions in 1874, 1876 and 1877.

In the 1877 competition, Johannes Brahms and the esteemed music critic Eduard Hanslick served as judges, taking a fervent interest in Dvořák’s music. Brahms and Hanslick offered to promote his work outside of his Czech homeland, recommending him to a publisher. In these first publications, his pieces celebrating Czech heritage (Moravian Duets and Slavonic Dances) gained immediate success, through performances in France, England and the United States.

Dvořák soon received commissions for new work, attaining notoriety for incorporating Czech folk rhythms, melodies and forms into his symphonic compositions.

In 1892, Jeanette Thurber approached Dvořák to take the position of Director at her school, the National Conservatory of Music in New York.

Lured by the large salary and chance to teach music as well as study American music, he accepted the offer enthusiastically in a letter to her: “I am convinced that the future music of this country must be founded on what are called Negro melodies. These can be the foundation of a serious and original school of composition, to be developed in the United States. These beautiful and varied themes are the product of the soil. They are the folk songs of America and your composers must turn to them.”

Dvořák took this mission to heart with his teaching and personal study of American music. Many of the students at the conservatory were African-American, and Dvořák exchanged musical ideas with them during his tenure. One particular student, Henry Burleigh, sang AfricanAmerican spirituals for Dr. Dvořák at his home on many occasions; 72

Program 5 • May 20, 2017

Dvořák’s favorite was reportedly “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” which a keen listener will detect a nuance of this melody in the first movement’s principal theme in the Ninth Symphony.

Composed in 1893 while he was director at the school, Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 truly embodies America’s great melting pot and is considered a “multi-national” work, a term coined by Leonard Bernstein in a 1956 lecture. The subtitle “From the New World” was the suggestion of Mrs. Thurber, upon hearing excerpts of the piece during its composition.

The African-American influence is summarized in an article by Henry Krehbiel published in the New York Herald the day before the piece’s premiere (bearing a striking resemblance to previous articles written by Dvořák): “As a matter of fact, that which is most characteristic, most beautiful and most vital in our folksong has come from the negro slaves of the South…Being musical and living a life that had in it romantic elements of pleasure as well as suffering, they gave expression to those elements in songs which reflect their original nature as modified by their American environment.”

The African-American elements can be strongest felt rhythmically and melodically. The syncopation of a short accented note followed by a longer note is found throughout spirituals (and also found in Scottish folk tunes, thereby termed the “Scottish snap”). Melodies from these songs are often built upon the pentatonic scale, omitting the fourth and seventh scale degrees; the Ninth Symphony relies heavily on this tonality.

In the second movement Dvořák loosely based his inspiration on Longfellow’s epic poem, The Song of Hiawatha. The English horn theme is lonely in character, evoking thoughts of wide open spaces in the American frontier. Krehbiel also points out that the pentatonic scale is common in Native American music, particularly in that of the Omaha Indians.

The cyclical nature of the world itself, by recalling earlier themes in subsequent movements, creates a unifying feeling to the work, a nod again to America’s melting pot. “Attention has already been called to the 73

Program 5 • May 20, 2017

fact that Dr. Dvořák has been successful in imbuing his symphony with a spirit of unity,” says Krehbiel. “This is largely due to the skill which he has in preserving a relationship, sometimes external and formal, sometimes spiritual, between his melodies.”

The triumphant character of the second movement, exemplified with the crescendo by gradually adding instruments to the theme, has been both compared to the vastness of the American landscape as well as the idealism of the American spirit. One can see the symbolism of the open prairies awakening as well as immigrants overcoming adversity in this theme. Not surprisingly, the final touches of the symphony were composed while Dvořák vacationed in Iowa, visiting other Czech immigrants who settled there.

One patriotic emphasis comes late in the piece with the development of the theme in the final movement. When restated in an abbreviated form and introduced by the violas, it paraphrases “Yankee Doodle Dandy.”

The piece premiered on December 16, 1893 at Carnegie Hall.

Commissioned by the New York Philharmonic for its regular season and performed under the baton of Anton Seidl, the audience applauded thunderously after every movement. The piece was met with similar acclaim as it premiered with orchestras all over the world after its publication.

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Program 5 • May 20, 2017

Emil de Cou, guest conductor Emil de Cou appears regularly as guest conductor with orchestras across the United States. After serving as Associate Conductor with the National Symphony Orchestra for eight years, he was appointed as Music Director of the Pacific Northwest Ballet.

Mr. de Cou was an active participant in a wide range of National Symphony Orchestra performances and events since his debut at Wolf Trap in 2000. He formally joined the National Symphony conducting staff in 2002, and in addition to being Associate Conductor in the summers, he serves as the conductor of the NSO at Wolf Trap Festival. He has led the Labor Day Weekend Capitol Concerts on the West Lawn since 2002.

Mr. de Cou made his Carnegie Hall debut as guest conductor for the New York Pops, and also appeared at the gala tribute to Beverly Sills at Lincoln Center. His innovative concerts at the Wolf Trap Pavilion have included the first screenings of The Wizard of Oz with the score performed with live orchestra, the first ever live Twitter program notes (Beethoven Pastoral Symphony) and live in-time pod cast for a concert called “Fantastic Planet.” In 2008 he conducted the first performance of Rodgers & Hammerstein at the Movies.

As part of his work as musical consultant for NASA he has conducted several successful collaborations: in 2009, “Salute to Apollo, the Kennedy Legacy” at the Kennedy Center in honor of the 40th anniversary of the moon landing. The sold-out, multi media performance included film excerpts, narration by Buzz Aldrin, and performances with Denyce Graves, Shaka Khan, and the US Army Chorus. He also conducted a multi media concert to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the launching of the Hubble Space Telescope.

In 1985 de Cou was hired by Mikhail Baryshnikov to be the conductor 75

Program 5 • May 20, 2017

of the American Ballet Theatre afterward joining the staff of the San Francisco Ballet where he ended his tenure there as music director in 1998. He has also worked with the New York City Ballet, National Ballet of Canada and Suzanne Farrell Ballet.

Emil de Cou was born in Los Angeles and studied with Daniel Lewis at the University of Southern California. He was the subject of a documentary on National Public Radio and was chosen from 200 candidates to study in Leonard Bernstein’s master class at the Hollywood Bowl. He makes his home in San Francisco.

American music, like American painting, literature, or even American food, often inspires the question; “that does it mean to be an American?”

We find some of the answers on tonight’s program of music made in America.

When the very enlightened socialite and philanthropist Jeanette Thurber invited Antonín Dvořák to leave his beloved Bohemia and come help found a national school of music in New York she (and he) had little thought of the history changing force they were about to put into play.

American music, like the country itself, was still experiencing an identity crisis culturally. While the well-heeled in New England imported statuary and entire buildings to add to their “cottages” in Newport, Mrs. Thurber was importing a monument of a different sort. The first thing Dvořák noticed was the great, untapped musical richness that was everywhere he traveled. While our homegrown composers were looking to Wagner and Liszt for inspiration, Dvořák relished in the music of the recently freed men and women of the South and reveled in the Western fiddling and native chanting he heard at Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.

Everywhere it seemed he heard uniquely American sounds, except in the concert hall.

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Inspired by his assistant Harry Burleigh (the grandson of slaves) singing spirituals and field songs, Dvořák presented the first ever concert of

Program 5 • May 20, 2017

all African-American composers, some of his best students, at Carnegie Hall conducted by Dvořák himself. It created a sensation, but not quite the one that he had expected. The pushback of the musical elite of New England was fast and furious. Undeterred, Dvořák pressed ahead promoting African-American music as the future of American music. (His prophecy would not come to fruition until the 1920s with the advent of jazz and later with our first great symphonist William Grant Still and his Afro-American Symphony.) Dvořák’s Symphony “From the New World” remains not just a musical summation of his three year stay in the United States, but a love letter to that still infant nation trying to find its way–the title of which could just as easily have been: “To the New World.”

It often takes an outsider to point out the most obvious observation.

This symphony becomes a musical mirror that Dvořák lifts for us to see the unending original sounds he treasured during his stay with us.

The mournful spirituals from the Deep South, evocative native drumming from the native West, and even the forest funeral of Minnehaha all make up this eloquent and tender poem of America. Two years before Dvořák’s visit, Peter Tchaikovsky was invited to open “Mr. Carnegie’s Music Hall.” Years after Dvořák’s visit you could see the influence in countless American composers, among them Gershwin and Copland.

This musically enriched America helped nurture a composer of rare gifts, our “American Tchaikovsky,” Samuel Barber. An unending gift for almost painfully beautiful melody, touching sense of harmony and painterly detail to orchestration all resonate from that night at Mr. Carnegie’s Music Hall to the Academy of Music in Philadelphia that housed the premiere of Barber’s violin concerto. Barber was very much the golden boy of classical music. He was famous before he left school and was never out of fashion throughout his long career. With Dvořák we survey the endless expanse of the central plains and West, and with Barber the modern elegance and sweep of the eastern cities of the 1930s—ideal musical bookends in this never-ending experiment in democracy. What union could be more perfect?

-Emil de Cou

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Symphony Orchestra League of Alexandria The Symphony Orchestra League of Alexandria (SOLA) is comprised of a dedicated group of volunteers who serve as a major source of financial support for the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra (ASO). The members of SOLA are integral to the success of the ASO by hosting a number of fundraising events throughout the year. Highlights of the upcoming season include our annual peanut sales; SOLA Uncorked VII, a fabulous wine, cheese and chocolate tasting which will take place on October 26, 2016; and the 30th Annual Symphony Ball and Auction to be held on March 18, 2017 at the Westin Hotel in Alexandria.

If you are not a member of SOLA, we would like to invite you to join us.

In addition to our fundraising events, we host a number of enjoyable social activities throughout the year, including general meetings and the annual spring luncheon at Belle Haven Country Club. On March 26, 2017, SOLA and the ASO will co-sponsor the 41st annual Mary Graham Lasley Scholarship Competition for college level music students. This is held at the Northern Virginia Community College (Alexandria Campus).

If you would like more information about joining SOLA, please contact our membership chair, Susan Yonts-Shepard at 703-823-4020 or stop by our SOLA table at one of the concerts. We welcome new members who wish to contribute toward the ongoing achievements of the ASO! Sharon Walker SOLA President alayne2@mac.com (703) 799-8220 78

Symphony Orchestra League of Alexandria (SOLA) 2016-2017 Membership

Sue and David Aland Kate Armstrong Barbara Bankert Leef Smith and Paul Barnes Mason and Clark Bavin Susan and Carl Behnke Shirley and Charles Bisselle Bertha and Joe Braddock Suzanne Brock Rosann and Michael Brodie Miriam and Ben Browning Marcia and Jim Buchanan Hilda Burcher Martha Lloyd and Ronal Butler Jan Campbell Jane Hughes Carlson Susan Knighton and Dave Cavanaugh Teddye and Bill Clayton Harlene and Bill Clayton Donna Cramer Betty Cranwell Kate and John Crawley Meaghan Curry and Anthony Jamberdino Carola Czernik Mollie Danforth Rebecca Davies Pat and George Day Sandra and Nicholas Fleischman Amrita Frederick Muriel Freeman Yolande Frommer Rosa Fullerton

Amy and Bill Furr Patricia Gill Barbara Glover Sue and Marty Goodhart Lynn and Charles Gorton Gila Harris Marjorie Harris Janet Hawkins and David Wormser Ann and Michael Hobbs Margaret Hodges Jenny Indelicato Erwin Jacobs Jon Jaeger and Ann Corson Barb Jonas Shine Kang Ann Kavaljian Jacque and Ed Knight Adron Krekeler and Becky Mahood Ruth Kupperschlag Patricia Laane Ward Lasley Kit Leider Mary Frances Lewis Doris Lindsey Isin Ludlow Nan Lukmire Marie Malone Eva Manning Ann and James McCrery Harriett McCune Cassie and Shawn McLaughlin Susan Montague Genevieve Moorhouse and Joshua Compton Michele and Richard Moorhouse

Suzanne and James Morrison Melinda Mount Diane Murphy June and Brunce Nagler Margaret and Bill O’Grady Kate Patterson Carla Pinto Annmarie Pittman Tanya and Jack Pitzer Fran and Gant Redmon Carol Reese Helen Reid Jane and Connie Ring Lori and Rusty Ring Nancy Rowe Jo-Ann and Robert Royer Anna Russi Ilona Savage Patti Schmid Claire and Ted Schwab Janet Shipko Phyllis Sintay Ann and Roy Snyder Ann and Glenn Spitler Emma-Jo and Bob Staton Sue Sticha Jennifer Van Goethem Joan Vogel Sharon and Ken Walker Trudie Williams Eleanor Wilson Cecily and Stephen Winchell Stuart Wineland Margaret Wohler Ruth Wong Margherita Woods Susan Younts-Shepard

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AUGUST 25, 2016

yees found Two for mer emplo cit y funds guilty of stealing

Alexandria’s only Vol. 12, No. 34

Name-c hanged for recommende is Jef ferson Dav Highway ....

independent hometown

newspaper

Asante Monique Jacksonin 2017, ed to be sentenc receives Ada Ferrufino jail in No. 35 Vol. 12, three months

BY CHRIS TEALE

ia Fire Alexandria’s only independent hometow A former Alexandr will be n newspaper Department employeeafter beMay sentenced next SEPTEMBER 1, last Thursday 2016 .... ing found guilty of laundering in circuit court funds. $186,000 in city Asante, Monique Jackson charge to a Asante 39, pleaded guilty ng during Monique Jackson Ferrufino of money launderi Ada gift Judge of before the theft a brief hearing vices reported at 2525 after her review of their from an office Nolan Dawkins defendant, a cards gift review reached a The s and Ave. Council transpa defense attorney with city criminal record Mount Vernon nt donated to the the crime. The its legislative report sheds rency a plea agreeme of the facts of cards had been Child meetings on 15 recommensome light for Alexand ria’s also makes a occasions in that prosecut ors. on executive of the PSI on the Fund for chilperiod, seven sessions to the court Under the terms to provide activities receiving

BY CHRIS TEALE under former Mayor rs said dation of sentence.

Bill Euille and families agreement, prosecutoDawkins length and type and eight For the first time, will be dren that residents Silberbe after Mayor Allison Jackson Asante they would ask city services. tion can have a better Asante to rg was sworn May 11, 2017, idea of what A criminal investiga Desentence Jackson sentenced on in last January. Each takes place at of the plea two years in ria Police executive sescity council’s a maximum of per the terms by the Alexand to pension Ferrufino closed was entered into linked executive sessions prison. The maximum g is agreement. with a as well ton and city em- partment af- unanimo launderin ter a new report us vote, and Another former on Au- the theft of gift cards, theft alty for money tion of South Washing of the a was published ordered while balks fate unsolved judge the staff can be given detailing recent was sentenced 40 years. The as a previously City advisory group rate Prince streets; Davis Highproceedings. instructions tion be ployee years in prison 2014. Ferrufino in closed sessions The report, pre-sentence investigately by gust 18 to five in December name of Jefferson at changes to Confede on susnamed names staff prepared by months councilcity streets street immedia from by ors, official city clerk Jackie undertaken with all but three way; whether statue, other decisions and votes count of resigned r 10, 2015, and based generals probation office. on one felony Confederate city Old

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18

STIL and RS Boat Club is receive $5 million E nYEA about THES commu- towards to go nity. It’sALL construction of an incredib a new and treasured part ly historic clubhouse. of our Sixty-six percent As part of redevelo city.” of the 400 pment ODBC along the city’s members who new clubhou waterfront and se an effort lots over a three-da cast balwill be located to expand pedestri at 0 Prince y period faan vored the swap. access to the St., the former Potomac River, A second offer, location of which would have the city and the the Beachco mber building club were inlet the club trade its waterfro volved in decades and a block south of litigation nt parking lot for $2.5 million rent home at the of its cur- that began in the 1970s. Things foot of King and nearby parking spaces, came to a head Street. Constru ction is expectin 2013, when garnered 24 the city threaten ed seizure of minion Boat

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2015-2016 ASO Supporters

Includes contributions made to the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra and the Symphony Orchestra League of Alexandria from July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016.

Foundations, Government, and Corporate Supporters ACT Community Foundation

MacRae Family Foundation

a la Lucia

The Mary and Daniel Loughran Foundation, Inc.

Alexandria Commission for the Arts

McEnearney Associates, Inc.

Alexandria Times

National Endowment for the Arts

Boeing Gift Matching Program

Networking & Engineering Technologies, Inc.

Carluccio’s Charles Delmar Foundation

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Claire Schwab Interior Design, Inc.

Overwood Wood-fired American Kitchen

Clark Construction

Paul M. Angell Family Foundation

Coldwell Banker Brokerage Cares Foundation

Redmon, Peyton, & Braswell, L.L.P.

Concerto Foundation Connection Newspapers

Simpson Commercial Real Estate Properties

Donnan Chancellor Wintermute, Coldwell Banker

SOLA (Symphony Orchestra League of Alexandria)

Freddie Mac Foundation Matching Program

The Theodore H. Barth Foundation

The Gallagher Family Trust Global Printing, Inc. Goodwin House, Inc. Jeanne Warner, Sotheby’s International Realty

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Rotary Club of Alexandria

Torpedo Factory Art Center Unalane Foundation Simply Sage Event Planning Virginia Commission for the Arts The Virginia Florist

The KBR Foundation

Wells Fargo Advisors

Lois Herr Family Fund

Wells Fargo Foundation

Conductor’s Baton Circle (over $20,000)

Suzanne S. Brock Mr. & Mrs. Elliott Bunce

Conductor Circle ($10,000-$19,999)

Ronal Butler & Martha Lloyd Mr. & Mrs. Stewart Dunn CAPT Fred S. Dunning, Jr., USN (Ret.) Harriett McCune Platinum Circle ($5,000-$9,999)

Miriam & David Browning Mr. & Mrs. Charles Holden Ann D. Corson & B. Jon Jaeger Dr. & Mrs. William P. O’Grady Anne B. Rector & Tim Allen Mr. & Mrs. Jerry Siegel Edward & Christine Corcoran-Stark Mrs. Robert Wineland Golden Circle ($2,500-$4,999)

Anonymous (1) Carl & Susan Behnke Dr. & Mrs. Joseph V. Braddock Amoret Bell Bunn Diana & Gerry Dreo Mr. & Mrs. Jack Fannon Carolyn Fuller Teresa Guzman & Antonio Cafoncelli Deborah A. Hall Mr. & Mrs. Stephen Hayes

Margaret Hodges Mr. & Mrs. Edward Knight Anne & Steve Reed Mr. & Mrs. Carlyle C. Ring H. Arthur Sauer Lucy Thomson & Arthur E. Peabody Benjamin & Emily Tsai Bob & Erin Vincent Ken & Sharon Walker The Hon. & Mrs. John Warner

Patrons Circle ($1,000-$2,499)

Steven Ackert Philip Barbour Barbara Becker & Dan Neufeld Tom Bradley & Judith Starr Mollie Danforth & Steve Colangelo Dr. & Mrs. John B. Davies

B. Ellis Duncan Yvonne E. DuVall Mr. & Mrs. Craig Dyson Joan & Charles Filson Lisa & Brian Flippo Mr. & Mrs. Caswell O. Hobbs

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Patrons Circle ($1,000-$2,499) John & Diane Hynes Mr. Philip John Richard & Justine Kingham Adron Krekeler & Rebecca Mahood Eva Manning Donald & Fay Manthey Robert Latane Montague III Mr. & Mrs. Frank Quirk Mr. & Mrs. Gant Redmon Scott & Anna Russi Eugene Steuerle & Marguerite Schefler Richard & Sandra Toye Mr. & Mrs. David Wilcox Mr. & Mrs. Forrest Williams Donnan C. Wintermute Meredith & Jay Wright

Donors ($500-$999)

Amy & Larry Alberson Dr. Leonard Bachman Mr. & Mrs. Hugh Campbell Gincy & Nick Carosi Mr. & Mrs. William E. Clayton Christine & Joe Condo Betty Cranwell Thomas & Carla Crawford Pamela De Candio Ms. Julia Duncan Mr. & Mrs. Edward Dyson Stevie & Gardner Gillespie Marion & Patricia Goodyear Freeman Jones & Anne Beverly Richard Jones & Christine Cheevers Maureen & Joseph Kammerer Margaret Kenna Janet E. King Stanley & Gail Krejci Mr. & Mrs. David Lacey Laura & Thomas Lawler Chris & Maura Lindsay Mary Carol Mason Craig Miller & Lisa Brock Alan & Laura Paez Gregory & Nancy Saunders Ilona Savage Phyllis Sintay Currie Smith & Bruce Batten

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Donors ($500-$999)

Mark Standiford Ms. Maureen Sullivan Mrs. James W. Vaughan, Jr. John & Bridget Weaver Mr. & Mrs. Stephen Winchell Margherite Woods

Sustainers ($100-$499)

Anonymous (1) Carolyn & David Abshire Carol & Steve Ackerman Jeff & Kirsten Adams Alice Ahlerich Ingrid Allen Mary Lee Anderson Patrick & Kim Anderson Dennis & Ruthie Apelt Marlyn Aycock Charles & Suzanne Ballou Walter & Roberta Barbee Barbara Beckwith Robin Bectel Robert & Judy Bilicki Frank & Victoria Bires Shirley & Charles Bisselle Mikel A. Braaten Marina Brabham Ken Brown Virginia Bunce Thompson Mrs. Hilda Burcher Marvin & Libby Burge Reba Burns Jeffrey Burr Raymond & Quincy Butler Mike & Bernadette Cala Lee Carosi-Dunn Evalyn Carter Gavin & Rachel Carter Tara & Jerry Casagrand William & Tracy Castle Ashley & Sam Chamberlain Dr. Walter Choi John & Alison Christmas James & Alice Close Karen Coda Michael & Denise Constandy Dean Cottrill

Sustainers ($100-$499)

Nicholas & Victoria Coward Donna J. Cramer Anne Ashley Croker Robert & Teri Culbertson Madelyn Curry David & Janice Curtin Nancy Davenport Nancy & William Deiss Stanley & Thelma Deutsch Paul & Joanne Domson Daniel & Mary Taylor DosĂŠ Robert & Ashli Douglas Robert & Helen Fall Stephen Fiske & Mary Dedre-Fiske Jeanne Jacob & Gerry Frank Mr. & Mrs. Grady Frank Kristin Frykman William & Amy Furr Stephanie Garrison Bijoy George Robert Gilfillan Andrew & Eleanor Glass Charles & Lynn Gorton Ted Gustin Aiken Hackett Maria & Tim Halloran Mr. & Mrs. James Hauhart Ross Heasley Joann Herr Shannon & Glenn Hickok Kenneth & Winifred Hill Laing & Enid Hinson Fay L. Hobbs Carter Frederick Hoffman Joseph M Hoffman Mr. & Mrs. Timothy Holland John & Lynn Hooff Morris & Holly Hoven Williams & Julie Howard Raymond & Irene Husson Lindalyn Hutter Bryan & Jennifer Jacobs Michael & Kelly Jeffers Richard & Melissa Keiser Sheila & Bayard Kennett II Alan Kernc & Karen Smith-Kernc Melinda C. Kernc

Sustainers ($100-$499)

Florence King Ann & Mark Kington Rosemary & Ed Kley John & Lee Klousia Ruth Kupperschlag Diane Lacy Parker & Kelly Lange Robert Larke Donna Lefeve Don & Lauren Lefeve Karen Leider Cynthia Long George & Isin Ludlow Pless & Mary Lunger George & Jane Lukes Nan & Greg Lukmire Elizabeth & Frederick Luzietti Jessi Macleod Mr. & Mrs. John M. Maloney Jason & Marina Manarin Ms. Marion Mangus Christopher Manthey Elizabeth & Bill Marino Stuart & Kaye Matthews Regina & Michael McCormick James & Ann McCrery William & Joan McCulla James & Jean McGuinness Rita & Dennis Meyer Harris Miller Mr. & Mrs. Bowman H. Miller Susan T. Montague McCord & Kerry Moody Patrick & Marjorie Mulloy Christopher & Katherine Murphy Christena Nielsen Kate Patterson Linda & Chuck O’Connor Ivanna & Alberto Omeechevarria Robert & Susan Orttung Laura Peebles & Ellen Fingerman Greg & Diane Beyer-Perett Jane Perkinson Rachel Pickering Andy & Lacey Poliakoff Julian & Maria Pollard Allison Priebe

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Sustainers ($100-$499)

Friends ($1-$99)

Herbert & Barbara Quarmby Mary Ann Rehnke Richard & Helan Reid Shelley Richman William & Frances Rice Katherine Edwards & John Ronveaux Bob & Jo-Ann Royer Thomas & Vivian Sargeant Sherry Schiller Alta & Peter Schmidt Elizabeth S. Schnepps Claire & Theodore Schwab Beau & Carrie Schuyler Jennifer Maloney & Peter Seka Robert & Barbara Seraphin Edwin & Jen Sheridan Jeff & Melissa Sigler Alex & Ivy Sinaiko Jan Smith Peter & Susan Burson Snyder Diana Spencer Stephanie & Lawrence Stack Gregory Stieber Allen & Jean Stuhl Emerson & Alison Teer Jan & Jay Test Peter & Helen Toepffer Dr. Mark Tromblay Larry & Nancy Wallace William W. Watts Cara & Bob Weiman Marianne Weitz Tuckie & Donald Westfall Richard & Suzanne Willett Mr. Rance Willis Suan & Allan Winn Evan & Jessica Wisser Walter & Gail Woolwine Lillian & Dan York Zalewsky Family Kay & Terry Zerwick Nancy Ziegler Marty & Cynthia Zimmerman

Anonymous (2) Ms. Mary Alexander Paul & Ana Anderson Katherine Babbitt Broadus Bailey, Jr. Mr. George Ball Henry Bankester Kenneth & Janet Barnett Margaret & Gary Batko Robert Batt & Diane Crawford-Batt Rosemary Beales Mary Anne Beatty Aimee Blankenship Deborah Bodlander Stephanie Bridgewater Jill Bronkhorst Zita & Herb Brooks Karma Brown Ms. Anne Burke Ysabel Burns McAleer Elizabeth M.Wadium & Stephen L. Capelli Susan & David Cavanaugh Marion Ciaccio Dave & Jane Clarke Gwendolyn Cohen William Colosimo Cheryl Anne & David Colton Marcia Crumbaugh Judith Curtis Michael Curtis Susan & Bob Cuvala Teressa M. D’Aloia Paula Danko Eugene Davidson Tom Davies Mr. Joe Davis Ms. DeKany Ms. Sue Dikeman Randolph & Suzanne Dingwell Richard & Ubis Downs Amelia Dyer Kristin Eagan Marguerite Eastwood Mr. Robert Feezor Joan Ferrell

Friends ($1-$99)

Friends ($1-$99)

Ms. Cathy Fick Jeffrey Finkle Barbara Fisher David Florek Mr. Frank Fraser Ms. Pamela Frugoli Ronald & Jeanne Garant Jose Garcia Lucia & Christopher Garrett Jeffrey Gathers Barbara Glover Candace Goldblatt Leslie Golden Ms. Susan Amber Gordon Rita Grazda Francis & Daniel Green Ms. Janet Gregor Lawrence Hall Nancy Hall Berens Mrs. Marjorie A. Harris Jane Harter Vanessa Havener Carla Hays Jones Geoffrey Henderson Mr. & Mrs. Michael Hobbs Eva Holtzman Fred and Patricia Hueber Patrick & Sally Hunnicutt Khaliun Jamsranjav Jennifer Jellings Scott & Marietta Jemison Elizabeth Jerke Elizabeth & Brett Johnson Nannette Jolicoeur Jacqueline Jones Marge Jordan William & Linda Jordan Mr. & Mrs. Juszczyk Susan Kelly Suzanne King Ms. Suzanne King Cecile Kohrs Kristen Krieger Ms. Andrea Kyser Mr. Trae Lamond Ruby Len

Mr. Glenn Lewis Doris Lindsey Stephanie McNear & Gregory Luce Patricia Macgowan Mr. Thomas Magruder Wilson Malcolm Gail Manza Ms. Maureen Markham Todd Matson Beth & Mark Mazzanti Anita & Robert McSwain Robert & Vivian Miller Kevin Metz Diane Santer & Bret Moore Ms. Lynne Moss Joseph Muniz Mr. & Mrs. Gregory Murphy Steven Needle Mildred Neely S.J. Olson Janet Osborn Nancy Appleby & Andrew Palmieri Ms. Nora Partlow Julie Patterson Jason Paul Roberta Phillips Marcia Pickering Joy Pochatila Olga Popova Mark Pospesel Edward Rea Elizabeth Reno Ms. Penelope Roberts Arthur Rosenfeld Laura Rodin Brian Russell Dr. & Mrs. Richard Ryan John Scales Deborah C. Schneider Paul Schurke & Melanie Carson James & Jo Ann Seeley David Shaw Caroline & Geoffrey Short Joan & Irwin Singer Dee Sinzinger Spencer Smith & Alice Curtin Smith

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Friends ($1-$99) Peggy Smith Ms. Christine Sphar Glenn & Ann Spitler Ann Steck Matthew J. Stensrud Sue J. Stewart Richard Szabo George Terwilliger Zachary Terwilliger Ms. Nina Tisara Ms. Nicole Tousley The Hon. & Mrs. Fred Upton Mr. & Mrs. Bob Van Tine Cecily Walsh Mr. Ryan Walsh Patricia Washington Ms. Sandra Welch Dorothy Wheeler Kristen White Mr. John White Ali & Charlie Whitley Michael & Priscilla Wiener Bonnie Williams Ms. Cynthia E. Wilson John T. & Pat Wilson Nicole Wishart Dr. & Mrs. Brett Wohler Nancy & Greg Woodford

Gifts were given in Memory or in Honor of the following, as of June 30, 2016: In Honor of ASO Sympatico In Honor of Carl & Susan Behnke In Honor of Miriam & Ben Browning In Memory of T. Sills Bunn In Memory of Elaine Dunning In Honor of Ryan Jordan & Mindy Kernc In Honor of Emily Smith In Honor of Melynda Wilcox In Memory of Mr. & Mrs. Wolf

If your donation listing is incorrect, please contact the ASO at (703) 548-0885.

Please patronize businesses that support the ASO! 88

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