JON NAKAMATSU PIANO
Now in his third decade of touring worldwide, American pianist Jon Nakamatsu continues to draw critical and public acclaim for his intensity, elegance, and electrifying solo, concerto, and chamber music performances. Catapulted to international attention in 1997 as the Gold Medalist of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition—the only American to achieve this distinction since 1981—Mr. Nakamatsu subsequently developed a multi-faceted career that encompasses recording, education, arts administration, and public speaking in addition to his vast concert schedule.
In the 2022-23 season Jon Nakamatsu will perform extensively in the U.S. both with orchestra and in recital, with the Schumann Quartet (Schumann Piano Quintet), Stanford Woodwind Quintet, Jon Manasse, and Jennifer Frautschi. Mr. Nakamatsu’s orchestral engagements include those with the Wichita Falls Symphony, Santa Rosa Symphony, Lansing Symphony, Williamsburg Symphony, and others. His solo recitals include performances in San Francisco, San Jose, and Ashland, and other U.S. cities.
Mr. Nakamatsu has been guest soloist with over 150 orchestras worldwide,
18 Annapolis Symphony Orchestra 2022-23 GUEST ARTIST
including those of Baltimore, Berlin, Boston, Cincinnati, Dallas, Detroit, Florence, Los Angeles, Milan, San Francisco, Seattle, Tokyo, and Vancouver. He has worked with such esteemed conductors as Marin Alsop, Sergiu Comissiona, James Conlon, Philippe Entremont, Hans Graf, Marek Janowski, Raymond Leppard, Gerard Schwarz, Stanisław Skrowaczewski, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Osmo Vänskä.
As a recitalist, Mr. Nakamatsu has appeared in New York City’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, Washington DC’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Musée d’Orsay and the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, and in major centers such as Boston, Chicago, Houston, London, Milan, Munich, Prague, Singapore, Warsaw, and Zurich. In Beijing he has been heard at the Theater of the Forbidden City, the Great Hall of the People, China Conservatory, and the National Centre for the Performing Arts. His numerous summer engagements included appearances at the Aspen, Tanglewood, Ravinia, Caramoor, Vail, Wolftrap, Colorado, Brevard, Britt, Colorado College, Evian, Interlochen, Klavierfestival Ruhr, Santa Fe, and Sun Valley festivals.
With clarinetist Jon Manasse, Mr. Nakamatsu tours as a member of the Manasse/Nakamatsu Duo. A frequent chamber musician, Mr. Nakamatsu has collaborated repeatedly with
ensembles such as the Emerson, Escher, Jupiter, Miró, Modigliani, Prazak, St. Lawrence, Tokyo, and Ying string quartets, the Imani Winds, and the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet with whom he made multiple tours beginning in 2000.
A former high school teacher of German with no formal conservatory training, Mr. Nakamatsu studied privately with Marina Derryberry and Karl Ulrich Schnabel. Mr. Nakamatsu holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from Stanford University in German Studies and secondary education. He lives in the Bay Area with his wife Kathy and young son Gavin.
Annapolis Symphony Orchestra 2022-23 19
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PROGRAM NOTES
amidst isolation, to celebrate life and the sacrifice of heroes."
A native of Louisville, Kentucky, composer and flutist Valerie Coleman is a graduate of the Mannes School of Music and Boston University. She is currently on the faculty of the Mannes School teaching flute. In 1996, while still a student, she became one of the founding members of the Imani Wind Quintet.
Seven O'Clock Shout
Valerie Coleman, b. 1970
Valerie Coleman composed Seven O'Clock Shout in 2020 on commission from the Philadelphia Orchestra. Written in honor of the frontline workers in the Covid-19 pandemic, it received a virtual premiere which emphasized the human isolation caused by the pandemic.
Coleman writes: "Seven O'Clock Shout is an anthem inspired by the tireless frontline workers during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the heartwarming ritual of evening serenades that brings people together
Piano Concerto No.5 in E-flat major, Op.73, “Emperor”
Ludwig van Beethoven, 1770-1827
In his greatest works, Ludwig van Beethoven was both an innovator and an individualist who attempted to put his personal stamp on everything from harmony and musical structure to advances in piano
20 Annapolis Symphony Orchestra 2022-23
construction. While retaining the three-movement form of the concerto, he expanded the internal structure of the individual movements, especially in the Fourth and Fifth Piano Concertos. The dramatic use of the piano in the opening phrases of these concertos was tried only once before – by Mozart in his Piano Concerto in E-flat major, K. 271 – and did not occur again in any major piano concerto until the B-flat major Concerto of Brahms. The thunderous opening of the Fifth Concerto was without precedent, as was Beethoven's refusal to allow the performer to improvise a cadenza.
Beethoven composed the Concerto in Vienna during the summer of 1809, under conditions hardly conducive to creativity. Following a day of heavy bombardment, Vienna surrendered to the French army under Napoleon, and those citizens who could afford to flee did so, including Beethoven's patron and friend the Archduke Rudolph. Prices and taxes skyrocketed, food was scarce, parks were closed to the public and Beethoven remained in the city, alone and lonely. In spite of the hardships during those trying months, he managed to compose some of his greatest works: The Piano Sonata Op. 81a (“Les adieux”), the Quartet in E-flat, Op. 74 (the “Harp”) and the “Emperor”
Concerto (the title bestowed on it by one of the publishers, without Beethoven's approval.)
The Concerto was premiered in Leipzig in 1811 to an enthusiastic reception. It was the only one of Beethoven's piano concertos without the composer himself at the keyboard, since by that time his hearing had deteriorated too far for him to perform in public, especially with an orchestra. Two months later, however, the first performance in Vienna was a total failure, primarily because the Concerto was on the program of a Charity Society performance featuring three living tableaux on Biblical subjects – hardly a suitable milieu.
The Concerto opens with a powerful orchestral chord, followed by a sweeping cadenza-like flourish by the piano solo. Only after two more orchestral chords interrupted by the piano outbursts, does the orchestra introduce the principal theme. The movement is stormy and driving with some of the same
Annapolis Symphony Orchestra 2022-23 21
harmonic ambiguity as in the first movement of the Fourth Concerto. At the point where traditionally, one would have expected a cadenza, the pianist’s score bore Beethoven’s directive: “Do not play a cadenza!” The music that follows, however, has all the characteristics of a cadenza as if the composer wanted to be sure that his ideas, not the performer’s, would prevail.
The hymn-like lyrical second movement opens with the muted violins introducing the theme, followed by a pianissimo aria by the piano. There follow two variations, the first by the piano, the second by the orchestra. Then follows one of Beethoven’s most mysterious musical moments, the hushed transition leading without pause into the exuberant Rondo. Beethoven builds up immense tension by subtle changes in key and tempo with hints of the rondo refrain to come, until the Finale bursts out in its jubilant mood.
Overture to Los Esclavos Felices
Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga , 1806-1826
In the roster of prematurelylost musicians, Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga must occupy a dubious place of honor, dying of tuberculosis 10 days short of his 20th birthday. He left behind few surviving works, including three string quartets, the Symphony in D, and the overture and a few fragments of an opera, Los Esclavos Felices (The Happy Slaves), composed and staged at age 14 in Bilbao.
Arriaga, a Basque, was born in the northern Spanish city of Bilbao to a well-to-do family who encouraged his musical talent. He wrote his first composition at age 11 and with the aid of Luigi Cherubini was
22 Annapolis Symphony Orchestra 2022-23
PROGRAM NOTES continued
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accepted to the Paris Conservatory in 1821. By 1824 he was a teaching fellow in harmony and counterpoint, assisting his own teacher. It was in the same year that he published his three quartets.
After his death, Arriaga was frequently referred to as “The Spanish Mozart.” But in the 1950s he became a symbol of Basque nationalism and was often referred to as “The Basque Mozart.” From the meager evidence we have, it appears that Arriaga was well on his way to branching out from 18th-century classicism. Had he lived, he most likely would have embraced the
tenets of Romanticism, and we would be regarding his Symphony as “transitional” or by some other term that would have cast it in the shadow of later, greater creations.
The Overture has a Rossini flavor, opening with a pastoral scene, building up to a crescendo leading to the coda. But in his stay in Paris, Arriaga learned something from the surprises in the symphonies of Haydn, popular in Paris at the time. As the coda comes to an end and you expect the closing cadence, there is a short pause and the coda grows a 10-bar mini-coda to the close.
Annapolis Symphony Orchestra 2022-23 23
1906-1975
Dmitri Shostakovich came from a music-loving family. Upon starting piano at age nine, he immediately displayed a level of innate talent, including perfect pitch, advanced sight-reading, and, most important, a nearly “photographic” musical memory. At 13 he entered the Leningrad Conservatory, unsure whether he wanted to become a pianist or a composer. However, conditions were so dire in the struggling new Soviet regime that the slight, nearsighted prodigy suffered from anemia and malnutrition, despite special food rations for talented students.
Shostakovich’s outstanding composition teacher Maximilian Steinberg encouraged him and contributed to his meteoric rise to fame. It
was for the graduation project for Steinberg’s composition class in December 1925 that Shostakovich composed his First Symphony. He had been working on it for a year and a half, but his efforts were continually interrupted when the death of his father and economic necessity forced him to earn money by accompanying silent films on the piano. Although the Symphony was technically a student work, it flew in the face of both the Russian academic tradition and the style established by the last generation of Russian masters, the “Mighty Five.”
The premiere in May 1926 by the Leningrad Philharmonic created a sensation; the scherzo had to be encored. Conductor Bruno Walter shortly thereafter conducted the work in Berlin, and two years later Leopold Stokowski programmed it with the Philadelphia Orchestra.
With its combination of musical irony and intense pathos, the First Symphony foreshadows many of the composer’s subsequent works. Shostakovich himself called the music of the first two movements
“Symphonie-grotesque,” poking fun at academic tradition. Later in his career, the “grotesque” elements would come to represent the repressive forces of Soviet politics, particularly the figure of Joseph Stalin. Even if his “hidden” musical symbolism was not recognized,
24 Annapolis Symphony Orchestra 2022-23
Symphony No.1 in F minor, Op.10 Dmitri Shostakovich
his musical acerbity and dissonant harmony periodically got him into trouble with the Soviet authorities. With the third movement, Lento, however, the mood turns somber, and in the last movement – threatening and tragic.
The question remains as to what it was about Shostakovich’s world at age 19 that contributed to the creation of such a personally prescient piece. Spurious reports of the ten-year-old Dmitri witnessing the brutal slaying of a child by a policeman at a workers’ demonstration made their way into the composer’s “official” biography. Yet, even if such a single incident cannot be verified, the boy certainly was witness – if even indirectly – to the human carnage of the early years of the Revolution, where lists of “Enemies of the People” who had been executed were plastered on billboards throughout Petrograd (later Leningrad). The melancholy oboe theme and trumpet fanfare in the third movement and, in the fourth, the mournful introduction with its snare drum “gunshots,” the solo violin and woodwind laments, the trumpet calls, and the funereal timpani tattoo bear musical witness to a life of menace and deprivation.
On the other hand, the composer, who later in life described in detail his extra-musical symbolism and coded language, never spoke of any political significance for his First
Symphony. Perhaps the dismal finale merely reflected the young composer’s state of mind at the moment. He wrote in a letter:
“I am in a terrible mood. I cannot find a room in Moscow. I cannot find work...The horrid town of Moscow doesn’t want to nurture me in its cradle. Its teeming masses make a terrible impression on me... but nevertheless, I want to go there with all my soul. So there. Sometimes I just want to shout. To cry out in terror. Doubts and problems, all this darkness suffocate me. From sheer misery, I’ve started to compose the Finale of the Symphony – it’s turning out pretty gloomy…”
Whatever the extra-musical meaning embedded in the Symphony, it is clear that even at this early stage, Shostakovich’s musical language of despair was already well formed.
Program notes by:
Joseph & Elizabeth Kahn
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www.wordprosmusic.com
Annapolis Symphony Orchestra 2022-23 25
Ensuring a Legacy of Musical Excellence for Future Generations
It is with our deepest gratitude that we acknowledge the following Legacy Circle Members for their commitment to the future of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra and its place in our community.
Anonymous (3)
Melvin and *Judith Bender
Bud and *Bee Billups
Elana Rhodes Byrd
James W. Cheevers
Ronald E Council
Patrick M Green
Anna E. Greenberg
*Nancie Kennedy
Dr. Michael Kurtz
Dr. Mary C. McKiel
John P. McKim
Anne S. Potter
Stephen Sotack
Susan Rosenfeld
Daniel and Mary Walton
...leave your legacy
To discuss including the Symphony in your Estate Plans, please contact Lauren Silberman at LSilberman@annapolissymphony.org
Annapolis Symphony Orchestra Inc. Tax I.D. 23-7001357
*Deceased
26 Annapolis
2022 - 2023 LEGACY CIRCLE
Symphony Orchestra 2022-23
Make your mark...
In memory of John Auer
James W. Cheevers
In memory of Catherine Reistrup
James W. Cheevers
In memory of Thea Lindauer
James W. Cheevers
In memory of Ralph Bluntschli
Elizabeth Gordon-Bluntschli
In memory of Peggy Ertlmeier
Bob Sherer
In honor of Jim Cheevers
Don and Keren Dement
In honor of Anna E. Greenberg
Don and Keren Dement
In memory of John B. Moore
Don and Keren Dement
In memory of Julie Hall
Monica Kaiser
In memory of Michael Kurtz
Pat Zeno and Frank Parent
Generous friends of Howard and Thea Pinskey established a scholarship fund in their memory dedicated to providing financial assistance to students in the Annapolis Symphony Academy. The Annapolis Symphony will also add funds given in memory of Howard and Thea Pinskey to this scholarship fund in their memory.
Annapolis Symphony Orchestra 2022-23 27 MEMORIAL
AND HONORARY GIFTS
MUSICIAN SPONSORS
Sponsoring or endowing a chair is a transformative way to show your support for the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra. It is a special opportunity to make a personal connection with an individual musician and deepen your connection with the symphony.
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR & CONDUCTOR
José-Luis Novo
The Philip Richebourg Chair
VIOLIN 1
Netanel Draiblate, Concertmaster
Sponsored by Jillinda Kidwell
Nicholas Currie, Associate Concertmaster
Sponsored by Laird Lott & Linda Gooden
Abby Armbruster
Sponsored by Mimi Jones
Susan Benac
Sponsored by Herb and Sallie Abeles
Heather Haughn
Sponsored by William and Constance Scott
Rachel Stockton
Sponsored by Tara Balfe Clifford
Hanbing Jia
Sponsored by Capt. Mark & Michelle Hellstern
VIOLIN II
Christian Tremblay, Principal
Sponsored by Peter and Sara Evans
Kristin Bakkegard, Associate Principal
Sponsored by Stephen Sotack
Karin Kelleher
Sponsored by Prudence Clendenning
VIOLA
Sarah Hart, Principal
Sponsored by Charles & Julie Grudzinskas
Derek Smith, Acting Principal
Sponsored by Ginger & Al From
Susan Taylor Dapkunas
Sponsored by Amy & Joe Rubino
CELLO
Todd Thiel, Principal
The Philip Richebourg Chair
Nicole Boguslaw
Sponsored by Thomas DeKornfeld
Daniel Shomper
Sponsored by Michael Kurtz
BASS
Peter Cohn
Sponsored by Anne Potter
FLUTE
Kimberly Valerio, Principal
Sponsored by Mary McKiel
Genevieve Eichman
Sponsored by Russ Stevenson
OBOE
Fatma Daglar, Principal
Sponsored by Collot Guerard
Rick Basehore
Sponsored by William and Renata Davis
CLARINET
Robert DiLutis, Principal
Sponsored by Shelley Row
FRENCH HORN
Steven Barzal
Sponsored by Florence Calvert
TRUMPET
Christopher Sala, Principal
The Philip Richebourg Chair
TROMBONE
David Perkel, Principal
Sponsored by Eleanor and David Huggins
David Sciannella
Sponsored by Robert & Kathleen Arias
Jay Heltzer, Bass Trombone
Sponsored by Peter Bungay & Joy Chambers
TIMPANI
Curt Armbruster, Principal
Sponsored by Fred Stielow & Susan Rosenfeld
We’re so grateful to our generous sponsors. If you are interested in sponsoring a musician, we still have spaces available. Please view our website, which explains more about our Musician Sponsorship Program and has a full list of musicians available to sponsor. If you have questions, please email info@annapolissymphony.org to learn more.
28 Annapolis Symphony Orchestra 2022-23
2022-2023
DONORS
Individual Support
Gifts in the current fiscal year, as of January 15, 2023, to support the Orchestra’s 5-Year Strategic Vision to “play more music in more places for more people”.
The Annapolis Symphony Orchestra is sustained through the continuous support of hundreds of generous patrons. The leadership of those listed on these pages (with gifts of at least $100) shows an extraordinary depth of support for the Orchestra’s music making, education programs, and community initiatives.
GIFTS OF $1 MILLION
AND MORE
Marguerite Pelissier & Bill Seale
Joyce Pratt & Jeff Harris +
The Philip Richebourg
Circle
GIFTS OF $500,000 TO $999,000
Elizabeth Richebourg Rea
GIFTS OF $250,000 TO $499,999
Michael Kurtz +
Laird Lott & Linda Gooden
GIFTS OF $150,000 TO $249,999
Kathleen & Robert Arias +
Jillinda Kidwell +
GIFTS OF $50,000 TO $149,000
Jane Campbell-Chambliss & Peter Chambliss +
Shelley Row +
Stephen A. Sotack +
GIFTS OF $25,000 TO $49,999
Tara Balfe Clifford +
Al & Ginger From +
Julie & Charles Grudzinkas
Dr. Mary C. McKiel+
Martha & John Schwieters
Barbara Simerl
Patricia & David Mattingley+
Peter & Sarah Evans+
+ Multiyear Pledges
GIFTS OF $10,000 TO $24,999
Paula Abernethy
Peter Bungay & Joy Chambers +
Florence M. Calvert +
James W. Cheevers
Jesse Cunitz & Faith Goldstein
Cunitz
Deborah Howe +
David & Eleanor Huggins
Mimi Jones +
Katherine Lantz
Diane Steed
Ann & Robert Whitcomb +
GIFTS OF $5,000 TO $9,999
Herb & Sally Abeles
Susan Byrom & Robert Thomas
Mr. & Mrs. Arthur Edwards Jr.
Collot Guerard
David & Tove Irving
Fred Stielow & Susan Rosenfeld
GIFTS OF $2,500 TO $4,999
Prudence Clendenning
Ken Code
Marguerite & Enser Cole
Dorothy D’Amato
William & Renata Davis
Thomas DeKornfeld
Anna E. Greenberg
Capt. Mark & Michelle
Hellstern
Pierre & Danalee Henkart
Jan & David Hoffberger
Karl & Marge Hoke
Ms. Lori Kesner
Anne S. Potter
Steve Root & Nancy Greene
Amy & Joe Rubino
William & Constance Scott +
Doug & Karen Smith +
Russ Stevenson
Judith Templeton
GIFTS OF $1,000 TO $2,499
Anonymous
Bill & Lisa Abercrombie
Martha Blaxall & Joe Dickey
Hugh Camitta & Louise Snyder
Diana Campe
Joseph & Patricia Casey
Jane Danowitz
Mark Davis & Ann Tran
The Dealy Foundation, Inc.
Don & Keren Dement
Angela Eggleston-Howard
Renee Ehler & George Bentley
Dr. Richard & Carole Falk
Bob & Diane Heaney
Richard & Lisa Hillman
The Johansen Family
Barbara Lazar
Janet Little
Elizabeth Mainiero
Pat Mager & Lee Mueller
David McGill
Rob & Patti Muir
Laura Murray
Cheryl & Jim Painter
Beth Penn
Kathryn Porter
Pamela Roeming
Richard & Martha Schoenfeld
Bob Sherer
Dr. Rodney Tomlinson & Ms. Sari Kiraly
Mrs. Tamara &
Dr. Stephan Tymkiw
George & Charlotte West
Multiyear pledges support the Orchestra’s 5 Year Strategic Vision while helping to ensure a sustained level of funding. We salute those extraordinary donors who have signed pledge commitments of three years or more. These donors are recognized with this symbol next to their name: +
Annapolis Symphony Orchestra 2022-23 29
SUPPORTERS OF THE ASO
2022-2023 DONORS
Major Funding provided by William Seale and Marguerite Pelissier and Jeff Harris and Joyce Pratt
