Prelude Magazine Fall 2022

Official Program of the Calgary Philharmonic | Music Director Rune Bergmann | Fall 2022 | Volume 47 No. 1

Borak Forte Program supports first commission of choral work composed for the Chorus Tom McCaslin on the role of the tuba within the Orchestra David Sussman on the magic of creating music with the Orchestra

MUSIC + MURALS Pink Flamingo and the Calgary Phil collaborate in a fusion of artistic cultures

Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra 205 8 Ave SE Calgary, AB T2G 0K9 Box Office: 403.571.0849 calgaryphil.com Simon MacLeod | Managing Editor

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Message from the President + CEO

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Orchestra

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Chorus

Janet Bwititi

| Editorial Advisor

Omar Jeha

| Art Director

Don Anderson Andrew Balfour Laura Hawley Tom McCaslin Stephania Romaniuk Aurora Sol David Sussman | Contributors

feature

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Borak Forte Program: Amplifying the Presence of the Calgary Philharmonic Chorus

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Beethoven’s Ode to Joy

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Karen Gomyo: Violin Virtuoso

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Tribute to The Beatles: Classical Mystery Tour

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on the cover

Allison Dunne Laura Hawley Olivia Johnson Jason Stasiuk shot by HarderLee Studios featured in the cover story on page 28

Venue Partner

For advertising inquires, please email Simon MacLeod at smacleod@calgaryphil.com Prelude is published three times a year by the Calgary Philharmonic Society. Copyright 2022

by Calgary Philharmonic Society. No part of this publication may be reproduced without express written consent of the publisher.

Q+A with Principal Tuba Tom McCaslin

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I Rise

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Disney in Concert: Frozen

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cover story

Bringing Music to Murals and Concert to Community

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Rhapsody in Blue Eyes: Sinatra + Beyond

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Tom McCaslin performs John Williams

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Mahler’s Fifth Symphony

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Tynomi Banks: Queen of the Orchestra

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Stravinsky’s Firebird

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Firebird for the Family

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Supporters

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Orchestral Manoeuvres

We acknowledge that we come together and create music on land known by the Blackfoot name Moh'kinsstis, which we also call Calgary. This land is on the traditional territories of the Blackfoot Confederacy (Siksika, Piikani, and Kanai First Nations), the Îyâxe Nakoda (Chiniki, Bearspaw, and Wesley First Nations), and the Tsuut'ina First Nations, as well as the Métis Nation of Alberta, Region 3. We honour this land and all those who share it in a spirit of peace, friendship, and respect.

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Hello everyone, Welcome back, and for our first full season since the pandemic began! It's brilliant to be together again in person. We really appreciate your continued support — whether by attending concerts in person and events online, making donations, and telling your friends what you love about your Calgary Phil. This is your Orchestra, and we are glad to have you back to celebrate music and community.

This Season is filled with Light and Hope, and nearly 40 different programs of enthralling concerts. There are blockbuster movies, performances for families, open rehearsals, educational programs, and special presentations. 2023 marks the 60th anniversary of the Calgary Philharmonic Chorus, and we will celebrate this landmark throughout the season.

This Fall features a spectacular line-up, beginning with Ode to Joy — Beethoven’s pivotal Symphony No. 9. Then Karen Gomyo performs Samy Moussa’s Juno Award-winning Violin Concerto, a bold collaboration with Pink Flamingo on I Rise, Disney’s Frozen on the big screen, Principal Tuba Tom McCaslin plays John Williams, Mahler’s astonishing Symphony No. 5, drag superstar Tynomi Banks, Stravinsky’s colourful Firebird, and lots more. It’s a smorgasbord of superb concerts demonstrating the Calgary Phil really is orchestral music for EVERYONE. Do come and say hi to us in the lobby when attending concerts — and please tell your friends and bring them along. Together let’s get the performing arts back to full health again!

Marc Stevens President + CEO

Administration

Board of Directors

Siân Alcorn

Courtney Ilie

Megan Beaudoin

Omar Jeha

| Sales Assistant | Digital Marketing Specialist

Alysha Bulmer

| Manager, Education + Outreach

Janet Bwititi

| Director, Marketing + Sales

Scott Carey

| Grant Writer

Felicia Chow

| Office Administrator

Viviana D’Ambrosio

| Senior Development Officer

Manisha Dangol

| Development Officer

Andrea Davison

Director, | Interim Artistic + Education

Marian Dyck

| Box Office Support

Dennis Envoldsen

| Visual Content Specialist

| Associate Director, Sales | Graphic Designer

| Secretary

David Daly

| Vice President

Maria Lamas CPA, CGA, PCP

Rebecca Finley-Schidlowsky

Joel Douglas

Corinne Grigoriu

Samuel Hayes

|

Director, Finance + Administration

Dagny MacGregor | Sales Manager

Simon MacLeod

| Communications Manager

Adam Masson

Operations | Concert Coordinator

Tayla Mapatac

| Front of House Coordinator

Megan Robertson to the | Assistant President + CEO

Barbara Soles

| Senior Development Officer

Karen Halford-Edwards

Marc Stevens

Joanne Harada

Michael Thomson

| Artistic Planning Advisor

Fern Cyr

Courtney Burton

Niki Dunne

| Events Coordinator

Jason Stasiuk

| Intermediate Accountant

Monica Cheng

Lisa Korolyk

Rob Grewcock | Music Librarian

Glenn Bontje

Calgary Philharmonic Foundation Trustees

| Manager, Artistic Operations | President + CEO | Director, Orchestra Operations

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| Governance Committee Chair

Samuel Hayes

Finance + Audit | Committee Chair

Don Herman

| Treasurer

Jim Hughes Letha MacLachlan QC Eileen Marikar

| Assistant Treasurer

Anne Howard

Byron Neiles

James Kusie

Ellen Parker

Dr. John Lacey

Ryan Stasynec

Tom McCaslin

| President

Elizabeth Middleton Lara Pella Donovan Seidle Casey Smith Marc Stevens | Ex-officio

Janet Yuchem | Board Chair

For an up-to-date list on administration, board members, and trustees, visit calgaryphil.com/about.

Welcome to our 2022/2023 Season. Whether you are new to the Calgary Phil or you’ve been coming to concerts for years, here are the answers to some frequently asked questions to make your experience as enjoyable as it can be.

What do I wear to the Orchestra?

When do I clap?

Whatever you want! At the Calgary Phil there is no formal dress code.

We want you to feel happy and relaxed so you can enjoy the performance. Most attendees wear business-casual attire, but you will see everything from jeans to cocktail wear. Dress in your own style and what makes you most comfortable.

This is our most common question.

Traditionally in classical music culture, audiences hold their applause until the end of an entire piece (there can be multiple movements, with short breaks between them, in one piece). This is intended to respect the performers’ focus and the flow of the music. You’ll know when the piece is finished because the conductor typically puts their arms down completely and turns to the audience.

But if you do happen to clap before the piece is finished, that’s okay! The musicians will be happy to know you’re enjoying the performance.

What is your mobile phone policy?

One of the joys of a live concert is you can sit back and experience the music without distractions, but we also know you don’t want to miss an important message from the babysitter. So, if you leave your mobile device on, we simply ask that you turn the sound off, turn the brightness down, and be considerate of your neighbours.

Where can I find parking?

There are several parking lots in the area but leave yourself time to find a spot as they fill up fast. Underground parking is available at Arts Commons and the nearby Civic Plaza and TELUS Convention Centre parkades.

If you take the CTrain, the stations are located one block from Arts Commons. Also, bike racks can be found on Stephen Avenue in front of the Jack Singer Concert Hall.

Are drinks allowed in the concert hall?

Yes! Alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks are permitted in the concert hall, with the exception of the occasional concert. Many people arrive early to enjoy a drink in the lobby before the performance.

Can I take photos or videos in the concert hall?

What happens if I’m late?

We realize that even the best laid plans sometimes go sideways. Ushers do their best to seat latecomers at appropriate breaks in the performance, but in some cases, this may not be possible until the completion of an entire work. We don’t want you to miss anything, so you can listen to the music and watch the screens in the lobby.

How long is a concert?

Concert length varies, but a typical performance starting at 7:30PM is about two hours long including a 20-minute intermission. Shorter concerts may not feature an intermission. Symphony Sundays for Kids concerts are held on select Sundays at 3PM, are usually one hour long with no intermission.

For more questions and the most up-to-date Health + Safety measures, visit calgaryphil.com/ plan-your-visit.

We are happy for you to share your experience at a Calgary Phil performance. For most concerts you can take a quick photo or video, but don’t use flash — it can interfere with the musicians’ performance.

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Orchestra Rune Bergmann | Music Director

Karl Hirzer

| Associate Conductor

Cris Derksen

| Artistic Advisor

Vincent Ho

| New Music Advisor

Roberto Minczuk

| Music Director Laureate

Hans Graf

Violas

Clarinets

Harp

Laurent Grillet-Kim

Slavko Popovic

Tisha Murvihill

Marcin Swoboda

Jocelyn Colquhoun

| Principal

| Assistant Principal

Arthur Bachmann Jeremy Bauman Peter Blake Michael Bursey Alisa Klebanov Jesse Morrison

| Principal

| Assistant Principal

Bassoons Antoine St-Onge | Principal

| Assistant Principal

Horns

Mario Bernardi

Arnold Choi

Position to be filled

Cenek Vrba

Josué Valdepeñas

Jennifer Frank-Umana

Dongkyun An Kathleen de Caen Thomas Megee David Morrissey Daniel Poceta

Position to be filled

| Conductor Laureate | Concertmaster Emeritus

First Violins Diana Cohen

| Concertmaster

John Lowry

| Associate Concertmaster

Donovan Seidle

| Assistant Concertmaster

Eric Auerbach Edmund Chung Hangyul Kim Olga Kotova Bonnie Louie Genevieve Micheletti Maria van der Sloot Hojean Yoo

Second Violins Lorna Tsai | Principal

Stephanie Soltice-Johnson | Assistant Principal

Erin Burkholder Jeremy Gabbert Hyewon Grillet-Kim Craig Hutchenreuther Minnie Min Kyung Kwon Theresa Lane Adriana Lebedovich Steven J. Lubiarz

| Principal

| Assistant Principal

Basses Sam Loeck | Principal

Kyle Sanborn

| Assistant Principal

| Associate Principal

| Assistant Principal

Maxwell Stein

| Assistant Principal

Repertoire often requires extra musicians including:

Trumpets

Gianetta Baril, harp Rolf Bertsch, keyboard Tim Borton, percussion Alicia Bots, bassoon Lise Boutin, violin Jeremy Brown, saxophone Stan Climie, clarinet Neil Cockburn, harpsichord + organ Aidan Dugan, oboe John Feldberg, bassoon Sarah Gieck, flute Gareth Jones, trumpet Janet Kuschak, cello Malcolm Lim, percussion Andrea Neumann, violin Aura Pon, oboe Richard Scholz, trumpet Eva Sztrain, violin Doug Umana, horn

| Assistant Principal

Adam Zinatelli | Principal

Miranda Cairns

| Assistant Principal

Flutes

Position to be filled

| Principal

Gwen Klassen

| Assistant Principal

Piccolo Gwen Klassen

Oboes Alex Klein | Principal

David Sussman

| Assistant Principal

David Sussman

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The Calgary Phil is proud to perform live symphonic music for Alberta Ballet, Calgary Opera, and the Honens International Piano Competition.

Heather Wootton

Trombones

English Horn Leave of absence

| Principal

Matthew Heller Trish Bereti-Reid Patrick Staples Jonathan Yeoh

Sara Hahn-Scinocco

Learn more about our musicians at calgaryphil.com/ musicians.

Michael Hope

Cellos

| Music Director Laureate

| Principal

James Scott | Principal

| Assistant Principal

Bass Trombone David Reid | Principal

Tuba Tom McCaslin | Principal

Timpani Alexander Cohen | Principal

Percussion Position to be filled | Principal

The members of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra are members of The Calgary Musicians Association, Local 547 of the American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada.

Rune Bergmann Music Director

Karl Hirzer Associate Conductor

Norwegian conductor Rune Bergmann is Music Director of the Calgary Philharmonic, Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Szczecin Philharmonic in Poland, and Music Director of Switzerland’s Argovia Philharmonic. Guest engagements in the 2022/2023 Season bring Bergmann once again to the podiums of the Baltimore, North Carolina, and Málaga Symphony Orchestras.

He will also make his debut with the recently formed ADDA Simfònica in Spain. Bergmann’s recent guest engagements include concerts with the Baltimore, Colorado Detroit, Edmonton, Houston, New Jersey, and Pacific symphony orchestras in North America, and the Bergen Philharmonic, Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, Orquesta Sinfónica Portuguesa, Norwegian National Opera Orchestra, Orquesta de València, Staatskapelle Halle, Wrocław Philharmonic, and the Risør Festival in Europe, to name a few.

Bergmann has also led performances of Il barbiere di Siviglia and La Traviata at the Norwegian National Opera and he made his US operatic debut in Yale Opera’s production of Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, as staged by Claudia Solti.

Previous guest engagements have led him to such auspices as the Oslo Philharmonic, New Mexico Philharmonic, Münchner Symphoniker, Mainfranken Theater Würzburg, Philharmonie Südwestfalen, as well as the symphony orchestras of Malmö, Helsingborg, Kristiansand, Stavanger, Trondheim, Karlskrona, and Odense.

Karl Hirzer, a conductor, pianist, and composer from New Westminster, British Columbia, has been Resident/ Associate Conductor with the Calgary Philharmonic since 2016.

Active internationally, Hirzer has led performances with ensembles such as the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Sczcecin Philharmonic, Symphony Nova Scotia, Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, Gstaad Festival Orchestra, and the Orchestra Giovanile Italiana.

He works regularly with local new music titans Land’s End Ensemble and a recent collaboration with American composer John Corigliano resulted in the composer’s praise: “Mr. Hirzer brought a combination of detailed accuracy and intense musical feeling to the work [Mr. Tambourine Man], resulting in an absolutely marvelous performance.” Hirzer previously acted as Assistant Conductor for the National Academy Orchestra of Canada, and the McGill Contemporary Music Ensemble. A steadfast educator, he has been a faculty member at the prestigious Morningside Music Bridge program and in 2020 created the popular educational webisode series: An Orchestra Adventure. Hirzer has performed with renowned soloists including Evelyn Glennie, Hélène Brunet, Chris Botti, Kinan Azmeh, Agata Szymczewska, Jonathan Crow, Arnold Choi, Laurent Grillet-Kim, and Owen Pallett.

A trained pianist, he holds bachelor’s (University of Victoria) and master’s (McGill University) degrees in performance, as well as an Associate of the Royal Conservatory of Toronto diploma.

Your Phil.

Your Style.

Explore our signature Calgary Phil collection — from totes to tees.

Proceeds from all merch sales directly support your Orchestra and help us keep the music playing.

Visit calgaryphil.com/shop.

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Vincent Ho New Music Advisor

Cris Derksen Artistic Advisor

Mark Bartel Chorus Master

Vincent Ho is a multiple awardwinning and four-time Junonominated composer of orchestral, chamber, vocal, and theatre music.

His works have been described as “brilliant and compelling” by the New York Times and hailed for their profound expressiveness and textural beauty, leaving audiences talking about them with great enthusiasm.

His many awards have included Harvard University’s Fromm Music Commission, the Canada Council for the Arts Robert Fleming Prize, ASCAP’s Morton Gould Young Composer Award, four SOCAN Young Composers Awards, and CBC Radio’s Audience Choice Award. From 2007 to 2014, Ho served as the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra’s composer-inresidence and presented a number of large-scale works that generated critical praise. Born in Ottawa, Ho began his musical training through Canada’s Royal Conservatory of Music, where he received his Associate Diploma in Piano Performance. He earned his Bachelor of Music from the University of Calgary, his Master of Music from the University of Toronto, and his Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Southern California.

Juno-nominated Cris Derksen is an internationally respected Indigenous cellist and composer. In a world where almost everything — people, music, cultures — gets labelled and slotted into simple categories, Derksen represents a challenge. Originally from Northern Alberta, she comes from a line of chiefs from North Tallcree Reserve on her father’s side and a line of strong Mennonite homesteaders on her mother’s. Derksen braids the traditional and contemporary, weaving her classical background and her Indigenous ancestry together with new school electronics to create genre-defying music. As a performer, Derksen has appeared nationally and internationally as a soloist and in collaboration with some of Canada’s finest, including Tanya Tagaq, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Naomi Klein, and Leanne Simpson, to name a few.

Recent concert destinations include Hong Kong, Australia, Mongolia, Sweden, and a whole lot of Canada: the place Derksen refers to as home.

Derksen’s 2021 commissions included pieces for the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Ottawa’s Chamberfest, the City of Toronto, Edmonton New Music, the Edmonton Symphony with support from the National Arts Centre, Vancouver’s Blueridge Chamber Festival, Vancouver Transform Cabaret, and a fourpart docuseries for the Knowledge Network. A new album of Cris Derksen’s works will be released in 2022.

Dr. Mark Bartel is in demand as a versatile conductor and music educator. After a 16-year tenure in the United States, he returned to Canada in 2019 to join the faculty at Ambrose University as Associate Professor of Music. Since arriving in Calgary, he has been Chorus Master with the Calgary Philharmonic Chorus, as well as Artistic Director of the Spiritus Chamber Choir. Bartel is known for his musical, educational, and community collaborations and has established a reputation as a successful builder of choirs and choral programs. He has conducted college and university choirs for over 20 years and has extensive experience leading a wide range of community choirs in both the United States and Canada.

In addition to his interest in choralorchestral works and choral music of the Baroque period, he brings his expertise as a solo singer and teacher of applied voice to his work with choirs. Bartel is a passionate advocate of the impact of the choral experience in the lives of choristers, in communities, and society at large.

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Chorus About the Chorus Established in 1963, the Calgary Philharmonic Chorus is one of only two choruses in Canada that is part of a major professional symphony orchestra.

The Chorus performs a wide variety of repertoire, including oratorio, opera, light classics, contemporary music, pops, and commissioned new works. In a typical Season, the acclaimed ensemble is featured in four to eight concerts with the Orchestra. The Chorus is made up of more than 100 dedicated volunteer singers from Calgary and surrounding communities who come from all walks of life. Celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2023, the Calgary Philharmonic Chorus delivers excellence in the performance of choral music and promotes the enjoyment and development of choral singing in Calgary communities.

Mark Bartel

| Chorus Master

Evan Mounce

| Assistant Chorus Master

Katt Hryciw

| Chorus Administrator

Sopranos Karine Baumgardner Lyndsay Bellemore Ellen Borak Michelle Bozynski Tricia Bray Carolyn Byers Christina Candra Twylla Jayne Conn Sheila Cook Laura Davis Charmaine de Jong Ina Dobrinski Larissa Donnelly Megan Duckett Gail Feltham Sim Galloway Carolyn Hatt Robyn Hauck Gloria Hendry Dale Hensley Jessica How Amethyst Klintberg Freya Melax Gillian Posey Colleen Potter Brier Reid Becky Salmond Lisa Sears-Walsh Joan Simmins Barbara Soles Becky Standing Chantelle Stevenson Melissa Symanczyk | Section Representative

Norma Webb Dianne Williams Chelsea Woodard | Principal

Betsy Woolner

Altos Louisa Adria Margaret Anderson

Susan Bell Barbara Boland Michelle Cariou Indrani Chatterjee

| Section Representative

Tanya Chow Breanne Coady Yvonne Courtney Ruth Cross Shirley Cumming Gillian Forster Racheal Githumbi Kay Harrison Pat Heitman Wanner Amanda Holt Helen Isaac Allison Johnson Cynthia Klaassen Heather Klassen Marlene Krickhan Catherine Lasuita Megan Lundrigan Barbara Mathies Susan Mendonca Julia Millen | Principal

Patty Mino Cindy Neufeld Britt Odegard Mara Osis Karen Palmer Anastasiya Petruk Anne Rodger Monica Samper Patti Vaillant Kaitlin Walker Dayna Wiebe

Peter Rilstone Jory Rusnak Richard Seale Dan Vandenbroek Dennis Voth

Basses Archi Adams 'Niyi Ayo-Ajayi Bamzy Banwo Aaron Bartholomew | Principal

Cam Bischoff Glenn Bontje Ian Charter Chad Conrad Tim Cooke Kevin Di Filippo Arthur Dick Alan Dornian Mark Dumbrique

| Section Representative

John Ghitan Al Huber Eric Klaassen Drew Kotchan David Mark Martin Mobach Keith Odegard Dave Pattison Dana Salter David Schey Dick Wanner Jim Weisert Keith Wyenberg

Tenors Tim Ahrenholz Tim Bell

| Section Representative

Tris Chivers Philip Dano Pat Favaro Richard Harding Katt Hryciw Jim Hume Eric Ma Jason Ragan | Principal

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© Sam Obadero

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CRESCENDO TO FORTE Borak Forte Program: Amplifying the Presence of the Calgary Philharmonic Chorus

By Stephania Romaniuk

he Calgary Philharmonic’s 2022/2023 Season features an important milestone in its 67year history: the first performance of a choral work commissioned specifically for the Calgary Philharmonic Chorus, which celebrates its 60th anniversary in 2023. I Rise sets the inspiring poetry of L.R. Knost to music by Canadian composer Laura Hawley, with creative input from over 100 Chorus members and a light orchestral setting that places their voices in the spotlight.

T

“This is a very special piece to finally bring to life,” reflects Ellen Borak, long-time Calgary Phil chorister, who celebrates her 26th season with the Chorus this year. “Although we’ve been a part of other people’s compositions, this brings us into greater prominence alongside the Orchestra, in terms of artistic programming and the development of new works. In the last few years, we’ve really seen the ship turning.”

In addition to being a chorister, Ellen, alongside her husband, Allen, have been some of the Chorus’s strongest advocates. Although both were born in Calgary, studies and careers took them to cities across the continent including Houston, where Ellen became a member of the Houston Symphony Chorus. “Prior to that, I had sung in community choirs, but it was in Houston where I discovered that big sound that I just love with orchestras. When we came back to Calgary, there was just no question: it had to be the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus,” Ellen recalls.

She joined the Chorus, and the couple began attending orchestral concerts as season ticket subscribers.

An engineer by training who retired in 2009 as Vice President and Chief

Information Officer of the Canadian Pacific Railway, Allen Borak was brought into the world of classical music through the passion of his wife, early in their relationship. “I don’t think I would have started going to concerts on my own,” he offers. “But I kept buying tickets and insisting that he show up!” Ellen adds, chuckling.

“But since I have been going, and I have been going for quite a few years, I have come to greatly enjoy them.”

“ if you want your organization to improve, you have to invest in that ” When the Boraks realized that more funding was required to support the artistic development of the Chorus, they began to consider how they could be of service. Ellen and Allen sought initial advice from local philanthropists on how to get started and then approached Calgary Phil leadership with their desire to help. After a series of productive conversations, the Borak Forte Program was established in 2010.

Annual support from the Borak Forte Program funds workshops with conductors, professional development for the Chorus Master, recording projects, new commissions, and special performances outside the concert season — “everything that will enhance the professionalism and the sound of the Chorus,” explains Ellen. “Coming from the corporate world, I know that if you want your organization to improve, you have to invest in that,” Allen adds. “And

then you ask, how do we measure the results? My wife is the one with the musical ear, and she can hear it in the sound. I look at the feedback from the Music Director and the fact that the Chorus can approach pieces that they perhaps could never have taken on before, signs that are very, very positive. I think it’s good for the Orchestra and it’s good for the city.”

This three-part conviction — that “classical choral repertoire needs to be presented, that it must be performed at a level commensurate with our excellent Orchestra, and that there is no reason why that cannot happen in Calgary” — has underpinned the Boraks’ artistic advocacy for over a decade. In 2019, to further this vision, they endowed the Chorus Master Chair in perpetuity.

“It takes a great deal of funding to program ambitious orchestral works with chorus — Mahler 8, the St. John Passion, Requiem for Afghanistan — and it’s opened up a tremendous number of doors for the Chorus,” shares Ellen. In recognition of their long-term philanthropic achievements, in 2015 the Boraks received the Golden Baton, the highest honour the Calgary Phil awards its supporters.

“When you have a vision, you must continue making sure the funding is achieving what you want it to achieve,” shares Allen. “You’ll run into challenges — finding those likeminded individuals, fine-tuning how you engage supporters, and always repeating your message to keep it fresh in people’s minds,” Ellen adds.

“You have to be tuned to the voices around you in performance and outside the hall, and I think that’s what I love best.”

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niya (I Am) Andrew Balfour (b. 1967) An Orchestral tone poem from a Cree perspective Niya is an orchestral tone poem from a Cree perspective written in the summer of 2022. This work is a journey (Ispiciwin) exploring the spirits of my ancestors through orchestral and choral forces. It’s a journey of self-discovery and hidden spirits regarding the ancient medicines, ceremony, music, and land of the prairies, where my ancestors lived and thrived for thousands of years until they and their spirits were almost wiped out with settler contact.

Niya is a message of sorrow mixed in with hope for the future of all Indigenous peoples of Mother Earth, particularly those on Turtle Island.

Program note by Andrew Balfour © 2022

Beethoven’s Ode to Joy

Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125 Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 to 1827)

Saturday 10 September / 7:30PM Jack Singer Concert Hall Specials Supported by Guest Artist Supporter: Naomi + John Lacey Virtuoso Program Chorus Sponsor: Borak Forte Program Program Rune Bergmann, conductor Jane Archibald, soprano Allyson McHardy, mezzo-soprano Andrew Haji, tenor Nathan Berg, baritone Andrew Balfour, composer Luminous Voices Calgary Philharmonic Chorus Andrew Balfour

niya (I Am) World Premiere

Ludwig van Beethoven

Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125 I. Allegro ma non troppo;

un poco maestoso II. Molto vivace III. Adagio molto e cantabile IV. Presto – Allegro assai –

Allegro assai vivace This concert has no intermission Program and artists subject to change without notice 12 | PRELUDE calgaryphil.com | 403.571.0849

12' 65'

The creation of this towering piece, one of the supreme achievements of Western art, spanned more than three decades. Once Beethoven read Friedrich Schiller’s poem Ode to Joy in 1793, he determined one day to set it to music. By mid-1823 he had virtually completed Symphony No. 9.

But when he came to feel that it cried out for words to express its goals more clearly, he decided that his long-delayed rendezvous with the Ode to Joy had finally arrived.

Symphony No. 9 was heard for the first time on 7 May 1824, in Vienna.

The performance was at best a mediocre one, yet it still drew an enthusiastic response. According to the alto soloist, “The Master, though placed in the midst of this confluence of music, heard nothing of it at all, and was not even sensible to the applause of the audience at the end of his great work. He continued standing with his back to the audience and beating the time, until I turned him, to face the people, who were still clapping their hands and giving way to the greatest demonstrations of pleasure. His turning about, and the sudden conviction thereby forced on everyone that he had not done so before because he could not hear what was going on, acted like an electric shock on all present, and a volcanic explosion of sympathy and admiration followed.”

Program note by Don Anderson © 2022 Rune Bergmann biography on page 7

© Bo Huang

What better way could there be to celebrate such hard-won contentment than by sharing it with the whole world? Yet Beethoven did not do so immediately. After the finale’s turbulent introduction, he proceeded to first review, then reject brief excerpts from the preceding movements. Cellos and basses quietly state the finale’s principal theme, a melody whose very lack of guile makes it completely appropriate to its function. It gathers momentum slowly, yet inexorably, until a reprise of the movement’s opening outburst set the scene for the baritone soloist’s entry — and a whole new era in music.

Beethoven’s setting of the Ode to Joy contains a tremendous variety of incident. They include passages of almost frenzied choral celebration; a march-like tenor solo spiked with Turkish-style percussion; a brilliant fugue for orchestra alone; and the simple, affecting piety of the central call to faith in God.

© Bo Huang

The first movement begins quietly, yet it vibrates with the expectancy of drama. Throughout this tumultuous movement, interludes of repose crop up, but tension and turmoil stand squarely at centre stage. The conclusion is, if anything, even bleaker than the beginning. The following scherzo raised this type of piece, formerly a simple jest or dance, to Olympian heights of drive and brilliance. At times, the energy level and driving rhythm push the music close to the diabolical. The prayer-like slow movement at last brings a sense of repose. It consists of variations on two gloriously warm-hearted themes.

Jane Archibald Soprano

Allyson McHardy Mezzo-Soprano

Jane Archibald began her career in Canada, before becoming an Adler Fellow with the San Francisco Opera. She then joined the ensemble of the Vienna State Opera, debuting in many coloratura roles. She has since gone on to perform regularly in celebrated opera houses and concert halls around the world. Her artistry has generated excitement across Europe and North America with engagements including Tytania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the title role in Alcina for Glyndebourne, Ginevra in Ariodante at the Palau des Arts in Valencia, Roxana in Krol Roger at the Oper Frankfurt, and the title role in Semele with the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra at the Shanghai Symphony Hall. Her career thus far has taken her to the Metropolitan Opera, Paris Opera, La Scala Milan, Carnegie Hall, Barbican London, Royal Opera House, and the Canadian Opera Company, performing with major orchestras in London, Atlanta, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto, Madrid, Hamburg, Tel Aviv, and Salzburg and at opera houses and festivals in Lyon, Geneva, Hyogo, Copenhagen, Toulouse, Baden-Baden, Aix-en-Provence, and Santa Fe, among others. Archibald appears on numerous CD and DVD recordings, including her Juno Award-winning solo album of Haydn coloratura arias. She lives in Halifax, Canada, with her husband, tenor Kurt Streit, and their family.

A unique vocal colour and commanding stage presence are the hallmarks of performances by mezzo-soprano Allyson McHardy.

Recent engagements include a series of Barber’s Riders to the Sea and Le Flambeau de la Nuit (premiere) with the Opéra de Montréal, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, Mahler’s Rückert Lieder with the Victoria Symphony, and multiple performances of Handel’s Messiah, including with Music of the Baroque, Les Violons du Roy, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra. McHardy also appeared with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra Chamber Soloists for a cycle of songs

by Samy Moussa. She has appeared with major orchestras across the globe, including for Ligeti’s Requiem (Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra), Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde (Vancouver Symphony), Handel’s Messiah in St. Louis, Madrid, and Chicago, and a staged production of Mozart’s Mass in D Minor for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

McHardy is a Juno nominated artist and has won two Prix Opus awards for performances with l’Opéra de Montréal and l’Opéra de Québec.

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Andrew Haji Tenor

Nathan Berg Baritone

Luminous Voices Ensemble

Canadian tenor Andrew Haji has become one of the most soughtafter voices on both operatic and concert stages. Winner of the Grand Prix at the 50th International Vocal Competition in ‘s-Hertogenbosch and the Montréal International Music Competition’s Oratorio Prize, Haji debuted at the Edinburgh Festival in August 2022, under the baton of Bernard Labadie, as Jonathan in Handel’s Saul. Recent performances include Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (Victoria Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony), La Traviata with Calgary Opera, Mozart’s Requiem (Les Violons du Roy, Canadian Opera Company, Orchestra of St. Luke’s — Carnegie Hall) and Handel’s Messiah (Houston Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra). Highlights of 2022/2023 include Haydn’s Creation with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, a program of Bach selections with the Handel and Haydn Society, and Verdi’s MacBeth with Calgary Opera. Haji also looks forward to repeat engagements this season with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Les Violons du Roy, and the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony.

A “tall, majestic bass” with “impeccable technique” and “a palpable presence on stage,” Canadian bass/baritone Nathan Berg has enjoyed a career spanning a range of repertoire on stage. He recently earned worldwide acclaim for his portrayals of the title role in Der fliegende Holländer in his Bolshoi Theatre debut, Alberich in Das Rheingold with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and Minnesota Opera, Doktor in Wozzeck with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Houston Symphony, for which he won a Grammy Award, and his company debut at Teatro alla Scala in Robert Carsen’s world-premiere production of Battistelli’s CO2.

In the 2022/2023 Season, Berg will debut the role of Melisso in Alcina with Les Violons du Roy and will join Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Orchestre Métropolitain for Bach’s Mass in B Minor and the New Jersey Symphony for Bruckner’s Te Deum. Berg will also return to the LA Philharmonic and Melbourne Symphony for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. Born in Saskatchewan, Berg studied in Canada, the United States, and Paris, as well as at the Guildhall School of Music, London, where he won the prestigious Gold Medal for Singers.

Luminous Voices, Calgary’s professional chamber choir, was founded in 2012 by conductor and Artistic Director Timothy Shantz.

The choir unites local, national, and international artists and organizations to illuminate choral music of the past and present, spanning cultures and traditions. Since 2012, Luminous Voices has thrilled audiences in Calgary and beyond through exceptional sonic experiences encompassing live and virtual performances, recordings, workshops, new commissions by contemporary composers, and community education and development. The choir has four commercial recordings. The most recent is Artem Vedel: Twelve Sacred Choral Concerti & Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, released in 2021 on the Leaf Music label.

Sea Dreams, featuring music by Peter-Anthony Togni, was released in July 2020 (Leaf Music) and was nominated for a 2021 Juno Award.

The Far West was released in May 2016 and was the winner of the 2018 National Choral Award for Outstanding Choral Recording and 2016 National Choral Award for Outstanding Choral Composition from Choral Canada. Joshua Kosman of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote, “beautifully sung, as everything here is, by the aptly named Luminous Voices under Timothy Shantz.”

Mendelssohn’s Te Deum, released in March 2015, was the winner of the 2016 Choral Canada award for Outstanding Choral Recording.

14 | PRELUDE calgaryphil.com | 403.571.0849

Andrew Balfour Composer Of Cree descent, Andrew Balfour is an innovative composer, conductor, singer, and sound designer with a large body of choral, instrumental, electroacoustic, and orchestral works, including Take the Indian (a vocal reflection on missing children), Empire Étrange: The Death of Louis Riel, Bawajigaywin (Vision Quest), and Manitou Sky, an orchestral tone poem. His new Indigenous opera, Mishabooz’s Realm, was commissioned by l’Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal and Highlands Opera Workshop. Balfour is also the founder and Artistic Director of the vocal group Camerata Nova, now in its 22nd year of offering a concert series in Winnipeg. With Camerata Nova, Balfour specializes in creating ‘concept concerts’, many with Indigenous subject matter.

These innovative offerings explore a theme through an eclectic array of music, including new works, arrangements, and innovative inter-genre and interdisciplinary collaborations. Balfour has become increasingly passionate about music education and outreach, particularly on northern reserves and in innercity Winnipeg schools where he has worked on behalf of the National Arts Centre, Camerata Nova, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, and various Winnipeg school divisions.

In 2007, Balfour received the Mayor of Winnipeg’s Making a Mark Award, sponsored by the Winnipeg Arts Council, to recognize the most promising midcareer artist in the city.

Formerly the planetarium.

Presently out of this world.

Art. Right here on your doorstep.

See what’s on:

FALL 2022 | 15

Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun Claude Debussy (1862 to 1918) This poetically atmospheric work, the first piece to display Debussy’s sensuous mature style, developed out of his admiration for Stéphane Mallarmé’s poem, The Afternoon of a Faun. Debussy recognized in it a style similar to his own view of music. He composed his Prelude during the summer of 1894.

The words of the poem are those of a faun or satyr, a languid, pleasureloving half-man, half-goat figure from Classical mythology. Debussy wrote, “The music of this Prelude is a very free illustration of Mallarmé’s beautiful poem. It is not to be seen as an attempt at a synthesis of the poem; that is suggested rather by the succession of scenes through which the faun’s dreams and desires in the heat of the afternoon are expressed.”

Violin Concerto (Adrano) Samy Moussa (b. 1984) Composer and conductor Samy Moussa enjoys a flourishing international career. While visiting Italy, the myth of an ancient fire god, Adrano, who lived beneath Mt. Etna, inspired him to compose his Violin Concerto (2019). It was premiered by the Orchestra symphonique de Montréal and soloist Andrew Wan, led by Kent Nagano. The subsequent recording won a Juno Award for classical composition of the year.

Karen Gomyo: Violin Virtuoso Friday 16 September / 7:30PM Saturday 17 September / 7:30PM Jack Singer Concert Hall Curated Series 2

Poème, Op. 25 Ernest Chausson (1855 to 1899)

Supported by Guest Artist Supporter: Naomi + John Lacey Virtuoso Program Program Karen Kamensek, conductor Karen Gomyo, violin Claude Debussy

Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun

10'

Samy Moussa

Violin Concerto (Adrano)

15'

Intermission

20'

Ernest Chausson

Poème, Op. 25

16'

Alexander Scriabin

The Poem of Ecstasy, Op. 54

22'

Program and artists subject to change without notice 16 | PRELUDE calgaryphil.com | 403.571.0849

After deciding that composition was his true calling (he also displayed considerable talent as an author and sketch artist), Chausson entered the Paris Conservatoire at 25. He evolved a highly personal style. For many years, one of the main ingredients was the emotional, mystical approach shared by the hugely influential German operatic composer, Richard Wagner, and by Chausson’s primary teacher, César Franck.

Chausson heard several Wagner operas in Bayreuth, including the premiere production of Parsifal in 1882. Another strong influence was the impressionist style of his

close friend, Claude Debussy. This combination of factors resulted in a bittersweet, refined style that was concerned above all with beauty.

The Poem of Ecstasy, Op. 54 Alexander Scriabin (1872 to 1915)

In 1906 he published a lengthy poem.

Initially titled Orgiastic Poem, he changed the name to The Poem of Ecstasy and declared it the written embodiment of the orchestral work that he had already begun. Poem and music celebrate ecstasy of both the creative and erotic varieties. Opening in quiet contemplation, the musical poem (whose composition occupied him until 1908) consists of repeated waves of energy. Interludes of relative repose divert each wave from fulfilling the music’s maximum emotional potential. Solo trumpet plays a featured role in leading the way, until finally all uncertainties evaporate in the overwhelming sunburst of the concluding section.

Program notes by Don Anderson © 2022

© Todd Rosenberg

Early on, Scriabin focused his energies on a career as a concert pianist. He played a great deal of his own music, which at that time was sufficiently traditional to find widespread favour with audiences. Later he shifted his efforts primarily to composition. He also embraced philosophical concepts drawn from eastern religions and nonconformist Russian poetry. He came to think of music as a medium for the expression of his mystical beliefs, as well as a means to bring about the spiritual enlightenment of listeners. He saw himself as the purveyor of universal truth, his goal to prepare humanity, through music, for the upcoming intermingling of man and divinity. These feelings inspired him to compose music of soaring emotion, new, unusual harmonies, and immense colour.

Karen Kamensek Conductor

Karen Gomyo Violin

Grammy Award-winning conductor Karen Kamensek’s expansive artistry coupled with her deep commitment for championing composers of the 20th and 21st century is reflected in her work in both the opera house and on the concert stage. Recently she made a triumphant return to the Metropolitan Opera to lead the Olivier Award-winning production of Glass’ Akhnaten — for which she won a 2022 Grammy Award — and was asked to step in at the last minute to conduct the company’s production of Verdi’s Rigoletto to much critical acclaim.

Kamensek’s 2022/2023 Season is one of no less than 10 debuts and several high-profile and welcome returns with a wide range of repertoire, including numerous world premieres by some of today’s leading musical voices.

Chief among these: a new work

by Philip Glass (English National Opera Orchestra/BBC Proms), Geoffrey Gordon’s Eolian, A Concerto for Harp and Orchestra (Brussels Philharmonic), Vivian Fung’s Flute Concerto (Vancouver Symphony Orchestra), and David Bruce’s The Peacock Pavane (London Philharmonic Orchestra). Frequently in demand as a guest conductor with many of today’s most prominent opera companies and orchestras, she will lead the Norwegian Opera & Ballet (Bernstein’s Wonderful Town) and the Minnesota Opera (Mozart’s Don Giovanni) for the first time this season and returns to English National Opera for a revival of Glass’ Akhnaten.

Violinist Karen Gomyo has captivated audiences in North America, Europe, and Australasia with her musical integrity, technical assurance, and compelling interpretations. In North America, Gomyo has worked with the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestras, and the San Francisco, Atlanta, and Houston symphonies, among many others. Recent and upcoming appearances include engagements with the St. Louis, Detroit, and Toronto symphonies, and the Minnesota Orchestra. In Europe, Gomyo has appeared with the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, Orchestre Symphonique de Radio France, Deutsches SymphonyOrchester Berlin, and the Czech Philharmonic; and in Australasia with the Hong Kong Philharmonic and the Sydney and Melbourne symphonies.

She returned to Prague in December 2021 to play the Shostakovich Violin Concerto No. 1 with the Czech Phil and Maestro Bychkov. Strongly committed to contemporary works, Gomyo performed the world premiere of Samuel Adams’ Chamber Concerto, a work commissioned for her by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Esa-Pekka Salonen. Born in Tokyo, Gomyo studied in Montréal and in New York at The Juilliard School with famed violin pedagogue Dorothy DeLay. She plays on the Aurora, exFoulis Stradivarius violin made in 1703.

FALL 2022 | 17

5 things about

The Beatles They spent more than 2600 hours in the recording studio Over The Beatles’ eight-year career, they spent an estimated 2652 hours together in the recording studio. Some albums took more time than others, with Please Please Me only taking just a little more than 24 hours in total, while The Beatles took more than 700 hours to record.

They influenced the counterculture of the 1960s

Tribute to the Beatles: Classical Mystery Tour Friday 23 September / 7:30PM Saturday 24 September / 7:30PM Jack Singer Concert Hall Pops Program Martin Herman, conductor Classical Mystery Tour, ensemble Performing songs from the list below All songs written by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, or George Harrison A Day In the Life / A Hard Day’s Night / All You Need is Love / Come Together / Eleanor Rigby / Golden Slumbers / Good Night / Got to Get You Into My Life / Here Comes the Sun / I Am the Walrus / I Saw Her Standing There / Imagine / In My Life / Lady Madonna / Magical Mystery Tour / Ob-la-di, ob-la-da / Penny Lane / Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band / Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band / The Long and Winding Road / While My Guitar Gently Weeps / With a Little Help From My Friends / Yellow Submarine / Yesterday Concert includes a 20-minute intermission Program and artists subject to change without notice 18 | PRELUDE calgaryphil.com | 403.571.0849

As the 1960s progressed, social tensions grew during an era of change.

During this period, people, particularly youth, spoke out about civil rights issues.

With alternative lifestyles emerging in the rise of this cultural phenomenon, The Beatles played a key role in the antiestablishment counterculture movement, embracing the creative, carefree culture that inspired activism movements of women’s rights, anti-racism, gay rights, and environmentalism.

There are 61 famous (and not-so-famous) people on the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band The Beatles’ 1967 album has a widely recognized album cover with dozens of celebrities like Mae West, Bob Dylan, Edgar Allen Poe, Marilyn Monroe, Bette Davis, Albert Einstein, and of course, the Fab Four. Even German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen makes an appearance!

They used food and drinks in their lyrics — a lot The Beatles referenced many different types of food and beverages in their songs — from eggs, cornflakes, and honey to coffee, octopus, turkey, marmalade, coconut, mustard, and pies. There is no mention of scrambled eggs, however, which was Paul McCartney’s working title as he was composing Yesterday.

Their background lyrics were clever too!

The Lennon-McCartney partnership is still considered to be one of the most celebrated writing duos in music history, but they didn’t just have fun with the lead vocal lyrics. If you listen closely to the background vocals on Paperback Writer, you can hear John Lennon and George Harrison softly singing the lyrics to the classic French nursery rhyme, Frère Jacques.

where the music begins.

Martin Herman Conductor

Classical Mystery Tour Ensemble

A resident of Los Angeles, Martin Herman was educated at Duke University, University of Pennsylvania, University of California at Berkeley, and Stanford University.

He also spent two years in Paris on a Fulbright Grant where he worked as a composer and conductor with the New American Music in Europe and American Music Week festivals.

Aside from his conducting interests, Herman is an active composer and arranger. He has received fellowships and grants from the American Music Center, the Camargo Foundation, Meet the Composer, Trust for Mutual Understanding, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He has written chamber and orchestral works as well as three operas. He is recorded on the Albany Record label.

As a long time Beatles fan, Herman was commissioned to provide the orchestral transcriptions heard on the Classical Mystery Tour show. Recent guest conducting engagements include the Detroit Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Dallas Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, and the Philharmonia Chamber Orchestra in Prague, Czech Republic.

Since its initial performance at the Orange County Performing Arts Center (now renamed Segerstrom Center for the Arts) in 1996, Classical Mystery Tour has become the number one Symphony Pops attraction over the last decade. The group has been performing consistently for almost 25 years with more than 100 orchestras in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Asia, and Australia. The group played to packed houses at the Sydney Opera House and has performed with America’s most prestigious orchestras, including the Cleveland Orchestra, Boston Pops, Philadelphia Orchestra, and San Francisco Symphony, among many others. The Los Angeles Times called Classical Mystery Tour “more than just an incredible simulation...the swelling strings and soaring French horn lines gave the live performance a high goose-bump quotient...the crowd stood and bellowed for more.”

Classical Mystery Tour CDs and t-shirts are available for purchase at classicalmysterytour.com.

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FALL 2022 | 19

PIANO | FESTIVAL | COMPETITION

20 TO 28 OCTOBER 2022 The quest for the “Complete Artist” culminates in a thrilling night of excitement when finalists perform with the

Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Jeffrey Kahane.

TICKETS AT HONENS.COM Jon Kimura Parker 20 | PRELUDE Artistic Director calgaryphil.com | 403.571.0849

Q + A with Principal Tuba

TOM McCASLIN Q T hinking back to the beginnings of your musical journey, what drew you to the tuba as an instrument you would want to study?

A I had started on trombone but

my first teacher, John Griffiths, knew that a lower instrument was something I wanted to try, so I switched to the tuba in Grade 6.

I found a happy place playing the tuba and I haven’t looked back!

Q W hat do you enjoy about the tuba?

A T he variety! No two weeks are the

same for me. One week I could be playing a Mahler Symphony with important, soloistic parts, and the next I could be counting a lot of rests and having to play something even more difficult but much less noticeable. The tuba is really a bit of a chameleon — it can be used in different contexts.

Q W hat is the best part of being a musician, and what is most challenging?

A B y far the best part is getting to

collaborate with my colleagues and other musicians. The challenging part is managing my practice and performance schedule with family. We have an unorthodox schedule!

Q W hat is the tuba's role within the Orchestra, and how does the tuba collaborate with the other musicians?

A T he tuba’s role is to be an

accompanimental instrument.

It supports and blends with the trombones into the texture of the low strings and low woodwinds.

But as the tuba has gotten older (it’s the youngest instrument in the Orchestra!) composers have discovered it’s melodic and singing abilities...

Q Y ou will be performing

John Williams’ Concerto for Tuba and Orchestra as a soloist with the Calgary Phil in November.

What can the audience expect from this exhilarating concerto?

A I ’m not sure if there is a composer

who understands the different abilities of the tuba better than John Williams. He writes so well for individual instruments. Many people don’t realize how many tuba solos he has written in his scores: Jaws, Home Alone, all the Star Wars movies… His Tuba Concerto is vintage John Williams writing, incorporating soaring fanfares, long melodic phrases, and a third movement that might remind some of Ewoks or wizards.

Q Y ou have been living in Calgary

since you joined the Calgary Philharmonic in 2016, what are some of your favourite things to do in Calgary?

A M y favorite things are the

wonderful seasons, being close to the mountains, the wonderful local coffee/espresso roasters and being back in the country I am proud to be from.

T om McCaslin performs

John Williams with the Calgary Phil on 5 November.

FALL 2022 | 21

I Rise Laura Hawley (b. 1982)

Black Joy by Destiny Kirumira

I Rise Presented in partnership with Pink Flamingo

I first took the singers through a history of how composers from the Renaissance to today have approached text setting. I challenged the singers to analyze a poem and discuss how it could be set musically, and we listened to contrasting settings of that poem to compare ideas. The choristers then submitted text ideas for our new work and voted on their favourite. L.R. Knost’s I Rise emerged as the top choice.

Saturday 1 October / 7:30PM Jack Singer Concert Hall Specials Supported by Chorus Sponsor: Borak Forte Program Program Leslie B. Dunner, conductor Sinzere, rap/soul artist Uyemi, vocals Laura Hawley, composer Calgary Philharmonic Chorus Adolphus Hailstork

An American Fanfare

4'

Duke Ellington

Suite: The River I. Spring II. Meander III. Giggling Rapids IV. Vortex V. Lake VI. Falls VII. Riba VIII. Two Cities

26'

Mary D. Watkins

Soul of Remembrance from Five Movements in Color

4'

Laura Hawley

I Rise

5'

Intermission

20'

Florence Price

38'

John Stephens, Lonnie Lynn, and Che Smith

Symphony No. 1 in E Minor I. Allegro ma non troppo II. Largo, maestoso III. Juba Dance IV. Finale Glory from Selma

Program and artists subject to change without notice 22 | PRELUDE calgaryphil.com | 403.571.0849

In August 2020, the Calgary Philharmonic approached me about working collaboratively online with the Chorus to create a piece that Chorus members would have direct creative influence on. This was a new approach for me — normally my interaction with a choir doesn’t happen until the commission is done!

So, my first step for this project was to create a framework that would empower the choristers to think like composers.

Next, I shared examples of my own music that demonstrated different ways I have previously approached text setting, inviting the singers to consider how each approach might generate musical ideas for our new piece. Working in small groups, we began brainstorming about the poem’s structure, emotional architecture, backstory, and opportunities for word-painting, range, points of dissonance and resolution, excitement, and rest.

I came away with a long list of strong musical ideas the singers had developed and the task of working these ideas into the piece! I found I was able to stay quite true to the musical ideas we developed together without feeling restricted in my writing; I still had plenty of freedom for my own creative voice. The result, originally composed for choir with piano quintet, is something truly unique and entirely ours.

Program note by Laura Hawley © 2022

3'

An American Fanfare Adolphus Hailstork (b. 1941) Adolphus Hailstork received his Ph. D. in composition from Michigan State University, following studies at the Manhattan School of Music and the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau, France with renowned tutor Nadia Boulanger.

He has composed numerous works for chorus, solo voice, chamber ensembles, band, and orchestra.

Suite: The River Edward ‘Duke’ Ellington (1899 to 1974) arr. Ron Collier One of the all-time greats of jazz, Ellington toured with his band for decades, and composed countless songs and instrumental pieces that have strongly maintained their popularity. He regularly created more ambitious works — musicals, film scores, incidental music for plays, sacred music, and numerous extended instrumental suites. He composed the ballet The River in 1970. He himself wrote detailed descriptions of the events and scenes of the river on its course from burbling spring to the sea.

Soul of Remembrance Mary D. Watkins (b. 1939) Trained in classical music at Howard University, Watkins has composed three operas and has written for symphony orchestras, chamber and jazz ensembles, film, theatre, dance, and choral groups, in addition to being a popular recording artist. The Soul of Remembrance is the second movement from the 1994 orchestral suite Five Movements in Colour.

Watkins calls this lushly emotional music “a statement about the AfricanAmerican experience.”

Symphony No. 1 in E Minor Florence Price (1887 to 1953) The first female African-American composer to earn a national reputation, and to have a symphony performed by a major orchestra, Florence Price enjoyed considerable renown during her lifetime. In recent

years she has come to be recognized as a significant American composer of the 1930s and 1940s. She composed Symphony No. 1, her first full-scale orchestral work, from January 1931 to early 1932. She entered it in a competition designed to stimulate and support the creation of music

by African-American composers.

Her winning four prizes attracted the attention of Frederick Stock, the German-born conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

He conducted the CSO in the Symphony’s premiere in June 1933, to a positive reception. A major source of inspiration was Czech composer Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 (subtitled From the New World.)

That great and revered composition reflected the interest in AfricanAmerican and Native-American music that his living in the USA had engendered in him. He did not use authentic traditional melodies in it, preferring to compose original themes in similar style. The symphony proved enormously inspiring for American composers, whether or not they possessed African or Native ancestry.

Price adopted a similar approach in Symphony No. 1.

Glory from Selma John Stephen (b. 1978) Lonnie Lynn (b. 1972) Che Smith (b. 1977) This uplifting, Oscar-winning song was introduced in the 2014 film Selma, which portrays the 1965 Selma to Montgomery anti-prejudice protest marches.

Program notes by Don Anderson © 2022

Leslie B. Dunner Conductor Conductor of the Interlochen Arts Academy Orchestra, Leslie B. Dunner is also Artistic/Music Director of the South Shore Opera since 2014 and Resident Conductor of New Jersey's Trilogy Opera since 2018. His stirring performances with the Long Beach Opera of Anthony Davis’ The Central Park Five received the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in Music. He served as Music Director of the Joffrey Ballet and Music Director for the symphony orchestras of Annapolis, Dearborn, and Nova Scotia. Dr. Dunner has held principal conducting positions at the Dance Theatre of Harlem, Harlem Festival Orchestra, Louisville Ballet, and the Orquesta Filarmónica de Jalisco in Guadalajara, Mexico. He has served as cover and assistant conductor for the Detroit and Chicago Symphonies as well as the New York Philharmonic. He has appeared with distinguished ensembles in Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Minnesota, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, as well as orchestras in Canada, Mexico, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Ukraine, Russia, and South Africa. In addition to his professional conducting work, Dr. Dunner is a dedicated music educator. The first American prizewinner in the Arturo Toscanini International Conducting Competition, he is also a recipient of the Leonard Bernstein American Conductors Award and the NAACP’s James Weldon Johnson and Distinguished Achievement Awards.

When not conducting, Dr. Dunner is a composer, and continues to perform as a clarinetist.

FALL 2022 | 23

Sinzere Rap/Soul Artist

Uyemi Vocals

Laura Hawley Composer

Sinzere is a rap/soul artist from Calgary. For her, music serves as a vessel she uses to inspire people through her cutting-edge lyrics and deep cinematic sound. Sinzere is inspired by many different styles of music — everything from Queen Latifah, Notorious BIG, and Jay-Z, to James Brown and Canadian rap royalty, Drake. With an immense appreciation and diverse ear for music, Sinzere is intent on building something that is completely her own, while also paying homage to the golden era of hip-hop. Sinzere is transparent with her listeners — her music is raw, gritty, and created with the intent to inspire her fans. Her lyrics are witty and go against the grain, but she stays true to the idea that storytelling comes from the heart. 2021 would prove to be Sinzere’s most impactful year to date, landing sync licensing placements on CBC’s The Block, season’s two and three of CBCs Diggstown, and writing and performing on a Sport Chek commercial. Sinzere has been featured on major publications such as Complex, the Calgary Herald, Shifter Magazine, and Virgin Radio Calgary’s Local Feature Friday. In 2019, Sinzere was named Sled Island Music & Arts Festival’s Spotlight Artist. She has opened up for hip-hop royalty such as Rakim, KRS-ONE, Raekwon, Rick Ross, and Cordae, and shared the stage with Manilla Grey and Grandtheft at the 2021 Badlands Music Festival. After releasing four EPs and a variety of visuals in 2020/2021, Sinzere released her debut album Tabula Rasa in August 2022.

Born in Nigeria and raised in Canada, enigmatic Calgary singer Uyemi found her voice listening to the outliers of neo-soul and contemporary R&B, from Erykah Badu and SZA to Frank Ocean and Jhené Aiko. Her debut EP Butterfly Effect excavates the depths of love, heartbreak, sexuality, and the battle within yourself. Emerging from pandemic isolation, Uyemi releases the trauma and pain of the past few years through her diaristic narratives and effortless vocal flow. Uyemi landed in the Top 100 of CBC’s Searchlight contest in 2020 for her self-empowering single, Don’t Get in Your Way, about choosing the wrong people in love and loving yourself first before loving another. Since then, she has released a number of singles and become a go-to vocalist in the Alberta music scene. The singer has collaborated with artists such as Jae Sterling and A.Y.E., having appeared on his recent video for BLACK, a potent celebration of Blackness.

Laura Hawley is a Canadian composer, conductor, pianist, and educator known for her creative musical leadership, artistic programming, community engagement, distinctive compositional style, and passionate advocacy for Canadian choral art.

Hawley’s output demonstrates an ongoing interest in writing for all artists from the developing musician to the professional ensemble. Her works have been commissioned, performed, and recorded by many of Canada’s top performing groups including Canadian Chamber Choir, Pro Coro Canada, Elektra Women’s Choir, Vancouver Youth Choir, Cantiamo Choirs, Halifax Camerata, Toronto Children’s Chorus, and National Youth Choir. Hawley’s works are published by Oxford University Press, Rhythmic Trident Music Publishing, Cypress Choral music, Silent Dawn Music Publishing, Santa Barbara Music Publishing, and on laurahawley.ca. A leader in the Canadian choral scene, Hawley is Artistic Director of Da Camera Singers (Edmonton), conductor of ChandraTala (Edmonton), pianist/ singer with the Canadian Chamber Choir, founding Artistic Director of Hypatia’s Voice Women’s Choir (Ottawa), and co-founder of the Sonic Timelapse Project. She has taught theory, conducting, and composition at the university level. Hawley has studied with Arlene MacNay and Sandra Webster (piano); Wayne Toews, Morihiro Okabe, Michael Zaugg, and Lone Larsen (conducting), Stephen Gellman, Ugis Praulins, and Allan Bell (composition), and Elizabeth Turnbull (voice).

24 | PRELUDE calgaryphil.com | 403.571.0849

Pink Flamingo is a Black-led advocacy organization that uplifts the QTBIPOC community in your city by creating events, workshops, education, and safer spaces.

In doing this, Pink Flamingo is proudly providing facilitation of an array of opportunities.

Pink Flamingo partnership initiatives have created a vast network of artists and organizers of diverse experience, including an ambassador program that provides access to farreaching corners of the LGBTQ2SIA+ community. @pinkflamingoyyc pinkflamingo.ca

Music Inspires At United Active Living, we are proud supporters of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra.

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Music Up Close FOREIGNERZ is a full service art and production house focused on pushing the boundary in film, music, art, and culture.

The team is comprised of multidisciplinary artists who are working to create visionary films, campaigns, installations, visuals, and music video productions with a focus on uncovering new narratives in Canada and beyond. They prioritize QTBIPOC voices in their work and their vision aims to amplify these narratives through innovative and strategic production. @sansfuccs frnrz.com

2022/2023 Concert Season

Subscribe to our Series or get individual tickets from $35. Visit calgarypromusica.ca for details.

MASTERS SERIES Parker Quartet Ensemble Caprice Maxwell Quartet & Stewart Goodyear, piano Phaeton Piano Trio St. Lawrence String Quartet HORIZONS SERIES “Counterpoint in Motion”—Alexi Kenney, violin & Bridget Kibbey, harp “Free Will”—Marmen Quartet “Legacies”—Thalea Quartet & Michelle Cann, piano @calpromusica

@calgarypromusica

FALL 2022 | 25

Anthony Parnther Conductor

Disney in Concert: Frozen Friday 7 October / 7:30PM Saturday 8 October / 2:30PM + 7:30PM Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium Specials Program Anthony Parnther, conductor Christophe Beck

Frozen (Film with Orchestra)

Presentation licensed by Disney Concerts © All rights reserved Concert includes a 20-minute intermission Program and artists subject to change without notice 26 | PRELUDE calgaryphil.com | 403.571.0849

123'

American conductor Anthony Parnther is the Music Director and Conductor of the San Bernardino Symphony Orchestra and the Southeast Symphony & Chorus in Los Angeles.

Over the next season, Parnther will premiere Kris Bower’s Concerto for Horn with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Tamar-kali Brown’s Oratorio We Hold These Truths with the Los Angeles Opera, work alongside composer Anthony Davis on his Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Central Park Five with the Long Beach Opera. He has led the Hollywood Studio Symphony in recording sessions for many international projects including Star Wars: The Mandalorian, Tenet, Star Wars: Book of Boba Fett, Little, American Dad, The Hunt, Fargo, The Way Back, The Night Of, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Encanto, and Ice Age: Adventures of Buck Wild. His live orchestral concert appearances for e-sports titan League of Legends in Barcelona, Beijing, Seoul, and Los Angeles are among the most widely viewed symphonic concerts in the world. In 2015, Parnther was profiled by Los Angeles’ KCET/TV as a ‘Local Hero’ for his extensive community outreach and advocacy for the performance of works

by Black, Latino, and Women artists. Parnther studied music performance at Northwestern University and continued his musical studies at Yale University where he studied orchestral conducting with Lawrence Leighton Smith and Otto Werner Mueller.

Support Your Phil Every donation to your Calgary Philharmonic makes a difference for the Orchestra and in our communities. We offer a series of Donor Benefits to demonstrate how grateful we are for your support.

G

grand

F

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C

celebration

A

applause

D

dynamic

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ensemble

B

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Donor events take place throughout the season and will give you a deeper understanding of your Calgary Phil and a greater appreciation of orchestral music. Depending on your level of support, you will have the opportunity to attend events with Calgary Phil musicians, exclusive donor rehearsals, donor recitals, our popular music and lecture series Music to My Ears, post-concert receptions, access to the Founders' Room, and more.

Your generosity is at the heart of the Calgary Phil as we ensure your financial support is more impactful than ever. Thanks to your dedication and enthusiasm, the Calgary Phil will continue to connect our communities and celebrate the transformative power of orchestral music.

For more information on benefit details and how you can support your Calgary Phil, visit calgaryphil.com/support.

BRINGING MUSIC to MURALS and CONCERT to COMMUNITY

By Aurora Sol

left to right: Jason Stasiuk, Manager, Artistic Operations Allison Dunne, Director + Founder, Pink Flamingo Hawley, Composer 28 Laura | PRELUDE calgaryphil.com | 403.571.0849

© HarderLee Studios

Olivia Johnson, Artist

and then to descend into rest until it’s time to rise again.

And again I rise.”

Black Joy

by Destiny Kirumira

4812 14 Ave SE

fter two years of lockdowns and ongoing health restrictions that hit concert venues and performers the hardest of any sector in Canada, the return of in-person concert programming at the Calgary Philharmonic has been long awaited.

Over the years, partnerships have been a focus of the Calgary Phil with projects like the recent Napi and the Rock — a free, online performance made in collaboration with Making Treaty 7, and a performance by drag performance artist Thorgy Thor in partnership with Calgary Pride. This season, the Calgary Phil is focused on deepening these sorts of collaborations — how can programming be continually beneficial to the greater good of Calgary and the many intersecting communities within it?

were invited to respond to a new commission by Canadian composer Laura Hawley, written for the Calgary Philharmonic Chorus, and based on L.R. Knost’s poem, I Rise:

As part of its 2022/2023 Season, the Calgary Phil presents a very special concert produced in partnership with Black-led advocacy organization, Pink Flamingo, which originally started as a QTBIPOC (Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, People of Color) event organization in Calgary and has since branched into doing advocacy work meant to uplift QTBIPOC communities in cities across Canada.

2140 Brownsea Dr NW

A

“I rise.

Again. And again.

Not as the morning bird whose song springs to sudden glorious life at the dawning of the light, but as the sun who touches the horizon with tender fingertips before reaching open arms across the sky to embrace another day to weather the storms to stand tall and breathe fire

In the Summer of 2020, both Pink Flamingo and the Calgary Phil were working separately on different projects. In the case of Pink Flamingo, their Black Lives Matter Murals Project was under way, with phase one showcasing a work by renowned Calgary artist Jae Sterling, titled The Guide and Protector. Despite violent racially motivated threats, Sterling’s mural was completed in September 2020 and Pink Flamingo began working on another Call for Artists for phase two in Summer 2021.

“ this concert is a celebration of us, of our community, and we are making some real waves because these are not things that we have ever seen happen before in this realm of classical music ” The River That Never Rests

by Olivia Johnson

Titled I Rise, this concert is the product of a collaboration aiming to represent both the struggle of Black artists in Calgary, as well as the beauty, strength, and resilience of the BIPOC community. Six mural artists who were involved in the 2021 Black Lives Matter Murals Project FALL 2022 | 29

D

uring this time, the Calgary Phil had approached Canadian composer Laura Hawley to commission her to write a collaborative piece for the Chorus.

Chorus members were given direct creative influence during the writing process, and the group selected L.R. Knost's poem as a piece of creative writing to work with.

(Peyahtik)

by SJ Okemow

4294 Bow Trail SW

Since these beginnings, Allison and Jason have been working together with individuals from both organizations, including the mural artists, Chorus members, and Orchestra musicians, but also videographers, editors, writers, composers, administration, and many others who put forth their skills and time to bring the project to life. In this regard, it is a community collaboration involving dozens of people with various skill sets and involvement in the Calgary arts community.

Our Black Ancestors celebrating our Ancestors of African heritage who have been in Alberta since the late 1800s

by Roger Garcia and Elsa Robinson Mobile Mural

Mashkiki

by Harley Burden

In early 2021, Jason Stasiuk, Artistic Operations Manager of the Calgary Philharmonic reached out to Allison Dunne, Director and Founder of Pink Flamingo, about the possibility of the two organizations working together. Since the Black Lives Matter murals were already in motion, Allison and Jason conceived the idea that the upcoming 2021 Black Lives Matter Mural Project would include an invitation to the artists involved to respond to L.R. Knost's poem in their murals.

2140 Brownsea Dr NW

“I've always really loved and appreciated the Calgary Philharmonic — I used to go with a neighbour that would buy tickets when I was younger and it was a really formative experience for me,” says Allison Dunne.

“But at the same time, I never really felt like I fit in or totally belonged there. I didn't have the right clothes and I felt awkward. I only saw a few people that looked anything like me, and there was no Black representation.

But I still always loved going!”

While the lack of gender representation has been slowly changing in classical music over the last decade, there has still been a staggering lack of racialized, and especially Black representation, within this realm of musical expression and performance.

As in many creative realms, gender diversity has been addressed more and more while the problem of lacking racial representation has remained.

30 | PRELUDE calgaryphil.com | 403.571.0849

“When the Calgary Philharmonic approached us about this partnership, I thought, 'I wonder if other people feel like this as well?' And obviously, there are definitely people that do. It's kind of funny to talk about, because in a way, this is actually how Pink Flamingo started in the first place, with throwing queer events — we really initially started throwing these parties because it was pretty obvious that a lot of the events aimed at the queer community are very white, and not necessarily safe or even appealing for a lot of BIPOC.” Jason Stasiuk adds, “This project, and really this partnership, started because there is a clear discrepancy within classical music — it has historically been dominated by straight, white men. And it's been like this since the induction of classical music. The Calgary Phil would like to be part of changing that, and the mural project, which in and of itself has been so powerful, seemed like a great place to start.”

With the help of the talented multidisciplinary creatives at Calgary's art and production house, FOREIGNERZ, the project takes engaging footage of the different murals to showcase the open-ended, raw responses to the chorus piece from six artists, to create a multimedia audio-visual concert unlike anything the Calgary Phil has done before.

I Rise will take place on 1 October, conducted by world-class, New Yorkbased composer, conductor, and renowned clarinetist, Leslie B. Dunner.

The concert will celebrate the results of the collaboration with the debut of Hawley's work for the Chorus, accompanied by the Pink Flamingo mural artwork, and feature music by Duke Ellington and Florence Price with performances by local hip-hop artists Uyemi and Sinzere.

“This concert is a celebration of us, of our community, and we are making some real waves because these are not things that we have ever seen happen before in this realm of classical music,” says Allison Dunne.

“But I think ultimately, this is just the beginning of what we want to see happening, and what the future looks like.”

Pink Flamingo and the Calgary Phil present I Rise on 1 October.

MEET THE ARTISTS Harley Burden @tiredkitt3n Harley Burden (anishinaabe name, Gin g'ba g'was) is from Nipissing First Nation and lives and works in Treaty 7 territory.

She grew up in Northern Ontario, going to powwow and ceremonies since before she could remember. She has been making art since childhood and has had the pleasure of helping bring other people's visions to life. She does graphic design, digital art, and is exploring using traditional anishinaabe art style to help with collective and personal grieving and healing.

Roger Garcia @rogergarcia_illustration | rogergarcia.ca Roger Garcia is a self-taught professional illustrator and art educator based out of Edmonton. A refugee from El Salvador, his parents always believed in being humble, never forgetting your roots, and giving back to the community — which is why he’s been involved in the local community for over 20 years sharing his skills with children, adults, and newcomers.

Olivia Johnson @oaj.liv | oliviajohnsondesign.com Olivia Johnson is a Calgary based artist who explores the mediums of paint, assemblage sculpture, graphic design, illustration, and video production. Her work is presented through several lenses — addressing themes of intergenerational trauma and how art can work towards a mode of healing for marginalized populations. She recently participated in BUMP Road Works and containR Fest. Her artwork can be found in Sunnyside.

Destiny Kirumira @destinykirumira Destiny Kirumira is a Black visual artist and architect. In 2018, she received a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics and Physics and in 2021 she completed her Master of Architecture. She is pursuing her Ph.D. at McGill University, which centers on the architecture of Black settlements in Canada. Destiny’s work attempts to uproot and reconcile the roots of racism with an emphasis on Black spaces and narratives. Her art poses questions surrounding race, gender, and politics to bring attention to some of the world’s most grotesque injustices.

SJ Okemow @vernacularstudios | vernacularstudios.com SJ Okemow is a multidisciplinary artist of Nehiyaw and Eastern European descent. Her work and practice has focused on the unseen, using her background in science as a gateway into animation and imagemaking. She has a Bachelor of Science, a Master of Science, and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. looking at visual aesthetics in medicine.

Elsa Robinson @elsarobinsonart | elsarobinson.com Elsa Robinson is a Jamaican-Canadian multimedia artist living in Amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton). Her decades-long artistic practice has imbued her work with vibrancy, versatility, and an intuitive spiritual poignancy. In the mural Our Black Ancestors, Elsa celebrates the roots of the African Diaspora community in Alberta. Elsa holds the degrees of Bachelor of Arts in Art and Design from the University of Alberta and Master of Fine Arts from Vermont College of Fine Arts.

FALL 2022 | 31

5 things about

Frank Sinatra He was one of America’s first teen idols At the height of his career, Frank Sinatra became one of the first big teen idols, due to the power of the teen magazine industry, the postwar economic boom, and the increasing role of TV in daily life, encouraging teenagers with time and money to support their favourite pop culture icons.

He was a champion of civil rights Frank Sinatra was an early activist during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, giving financial support to Martin Luther King Jr. He performed and became friends with artists like Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, and Count Basie and refused to play in whites-only clubs or stay in segregated hotels, insisting on providing equal pay and treatment for all of his musicians.

He helped introduce the concept album

Rhapsody in Blue Eyes: Sinatra + Beyond Friday 14 October / 7:30PM Saturday 15 October / 7:30PM Jack Singer Concert Hall Pops Supported by Guest Artist Supporter: Naomi + John Lacey Virtuoso Program Program Stuart Chafetz, conductor Tony DeSare, vocals and piano Program to be announced from stage Concert includes a 20-minute intermission Program and artists subject to change without notice 32 | PRELUDE calgaryphil.com | 403.571.0849

Many critics consider Frank Sinatra’s 1946 debut release, The Voice of Frank Sinatra, to be the first concept album — an album featuring a cycle of songs on a particular theme. With eight songs, all with the theme of lost love, the album sold for $2.50 (the equivalent of almost $40 today) and topped the charts for seven weeks.

He couldn’t read music Frank Sinatra Conducts Music of Alec Wilder was released in 1946.

Sinatra played the role of conductor on the album even though he never actually learned to read sheet music.

Instead, he learned music and sang by ear. According to many musicians who performed with him, Sinatra’s conducting skills were just as good as many great conductors of the time.

My Way is the sixth most covered song of all-time Quite possibly the most popular number from the final act of his career, My Way became a success for several performers including Aretha Franklin and Elvis Presley. Even though Sinatra disliked the song, over time, it has become one the most covered songs in music history, sharing a list with The Beatles’ Yesterday, The Rolling Stones’ Satisfaction, and Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean.

© Bill Westmoreland

© Pat Johnson

Stuart Chafetz Conductor

Tony DeSare Vocals and Piano

Stuart Chafetz is the Principal Pops Conductor of the Columbus Symphony and the newly appointed Principal Pops Conductor of the Chautauqua and Marin Symphonies. Chafetz, a conductor celebrated for his dynamic and engaging podium presence, is increasingly in demand with orchestras across the continent and in the 2022/2023 Season, Chafetz will be on the podium in Detroit, Houston, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, and Naples, and will conduct the Philly Pops and Cincinnati Pops orchestras. He enjoys a special relationship with the Phoenix Symphony where he leads multiple programs annually. He previously held posts as Resident Conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and Associate Conductor of the Louisville Orchestra. As Principal Timpanist of the Honolulu Symphony for 20 years, Chafetz would also conduct annual performances The Nutcracker with Ballet Hawaii and Principals from the American Ballet Theatre. It was during that time that Chafetz led numerous concerts with the Maui Pops Orchestra. He has led numerous Spring Ballet performances at the world-renowned Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. In the summers, Chafetz spends his time at the Chautauqua Institution, where he conducts the annual Fourth of July and Opera Pops.

Chafetz makes his home near San Francisco, California, with his wife Ann Krinitsky, and holds a bachelor’s degree in music performance from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati and a master’s from the Eastman School of Music.

Named a Rising Star-Male Vocalist in DownBeat magazine, Tony DeSare has lived up to this distinction by winning critical and popular acclaim for his concert performances throughout North America and abroad. From jazz clubs to Carnegie Hall to Las Vegas headlining with Don Rickles and major symphony orchestras, DeSare has brought his fresh take on old school class around the globe.

DeSare has four top ten Billboard jazz albums under his belt and has been featured on CBS’ The Early Show, NPR, A Prairie Home Companion, NBC’s Today Show and his music has been posted by social media celebrity juggernaut, George Takei. DeSare has also collaborated with YouTube icons Postmodern Jukebox. DeSare’s most recent release, Lush Life, debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard Traditional Jazz Chart. DeSare is an accomplished award-winning composer. He not only won first place in the USA Songwriting Contest, but has written the theme song for the motion picture, My Date With Drew, several broadcast commercials, and has composed the full soundtracks for the Hallmark Channel’s Love Always, Santa and Lifetime's new A Welcome Home Christmas. DeSare releases new recordings, videos of standards and new originals regularly on his YouTube channel, iTunes, and Spotify. DeSare is a Yamaha Artist.

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Register for Cpossibilities at calgaryphil.com.

FALL 2022 | 33

Don Juan, Op. 20 Richard Strauss (1864 to 1949) Don Juan was Strauss’s second tone poem, following immediately after the completion of Macbeth. By the time he put the finishing touches on it, he had taken up the position of assistant conductor at the opera house in Weimar, Germany. Naturally he planned to perform Don Juan there, but his wish nearly came to grief when the members of the orchestra balked at the high technical demands it placed on them. The sensationally successful premiere on 11 November 1889, and the many other performances that followed quickly, catapulted the twenty-five year old genius into the world’s musical spotlight.

Inspiration for it lay in dramatic verses written in 1844 by Austrian author Nicolaus Lenau. Reflecting the growing psychological and moral complexity of the time, Lenau depicted Don Juan as more than simply the heartless, high-born rake of earlier treatments. Lenau made him something of a philosopher, too, seeking through his many amorous conquests the ‘ideal woman.’

Disillusioned and weary of his aimless, unsatisfying life, this Don Juan allowed himself to be killed in a duel.

Tom McCaslin performs John Williams Saturday 5 November / 7:30PM Jack Singer Concert Hall Curated Series 3

Concerto for Tuba and Orchestra John Williams (b. 1932)

Supported by Guest Artist Supporter: Naomi + John Lacey Virtuoso Program Associate Conductor Supporter: Mary Rozsa de Coquet Program Karl Hirzer, conductor Tom McCaslin, tuba Richard Strauss

Don Juan, Op. 20

17'

John Williams

Concerto for Tuba and Orchestra

15'

Intermission

20'

Béla Bartók

36'

Concerto for Orchestra I. Introduzione: Andante non

troppo – Allegro vivace II. Giuoco delle coppie:

Allegretto scherzando III. Elegia: Andante non troppo IV. Intermezzo interrotto: Allegretto V. Finale: Pesante - Presto Program and artists subject to change without notice 34 | PRELUDE calgaryphil.com | 403.571.0849

John Williams is the world’s best known composer of film music, and a highly successful conductor and recording artist. He also composes concert music. It adopts selected modern techniques without abandoning the fundamentals of romantic traditions. He created the attractive, witty, and virtuosic Tuba Concerto in 1985, for the 100th anniversary season of the Boston Pops Orchestra.

He dedicated this one-movement work to Chester Schmitz, Principal Tuba of the orchestra, who gave the premiere performance under the composer’s direction.

Williams has written, “I’ve always liked the tuba and even used to play it a little. I wrote a big tuba solo for a Dick van Dyke movie called Fitzwilly and ever since I’ve kept composing

for it — it’s such an agile instrument, like a huge cornet. I’ve also put passages in for some of my pets in the orchestra — solos for the flute and English horn, for the horn quartet and a trio of trumpets. It’s light and tuneful and I hope it has enough events in it to make it fun.”

Are your finances in tune?

Concerto for Orchestra Béla Bartók (1881 to 1945) In 1940, to avoid being trapped in Hungary by the advancing Nazi forces, Bartók emigrated to the United States. Circumstances led to his finding himself virtually destitute, but his proud nature would not allow him to accept anything resembling charity. Two old friends, violinist Joseph Szigeti and conductor Fritz Reiner, persuaded Serge Koussevitzky, Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, to commission a new work from Bartók. Bartók composed the Concerto for Orchestra from August to October 1943. Koussevitzky conducted the highly successful premiere one year later.

The first movement opens with an emotionally clouded introduction, then plunges into a restless, thrusting principal section. Game of the Pairs, the first of two scherzo-like movements, showcases the pokerfaced side of Bartók’s sense of humour. The concerto’s emotional heart lies in the third movement, Elegy. After woodwinds and harp have set the ethereal mood, Bartók gradually builds a searing central climax. The second scherzo, Interrupted Intermezzo, is less subtle than the first but just as amusing. A grand flourish by the horns introduces the concerto’s exuberant finale. The strings execute swirling, perpetual motion figurations, intertwined with heroic brass fanfares and stamping Hungarian dance rhythms.

Program notes by Don Anderson © 2022 Karl Hirzer biography on page 7

Tom McCaslin Tuba Tom McCaslin has been described

by Fanfare Magazine as “one of the contemporary tuba virtuosos.”

Originally from Regina, Saskatchewan, McCaslin’s playing and teaching have taken him around the globe. He has performed and taught in Canada, the United States, Switzerland, Portugal, Finland, New Zealand, and Australia. As an orchestral musician he has performed with the Minnesota Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Boston Symphony Orchestra, North Carolina Symphony, New Mexico Symphony, Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música (Portugal), Lahti Symphony (Finland), and was acting Principal Tuba in the Auckland Philharmonia (New Zealand). McCaslin has three commercially released solo albums.

His most recent: Chasing Light and Sound: The Tuba Music of Elizabeth Raum (2022) garnered him a nomination for Classical Artist of the Year by the Western Canadian Music Awards. McCaslin received degrees from McGill University and Arizona State University, with extensive study with legendary tubists John Griffiths, Fritz Kaenzig, Roger Bobo, Dennis Miller, and Samuel Pilafian. McCaslin is a Yamaha Performing Artist and plays exclusively on Yamaha instruments.

When not sitting behind his tuba he relishes his time with family, cycling, espresso, and laughing as much as humanly possible.

Live well and find financial harmony with us!

Start the conversation to find out how

chfinancial.ca 403.237.6570

FALL 2022 | 35

R E V EL IN THE WIT A ND F O L LY

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST

BY OSCAR WILDE DIRECTED BY BRONWYN STEINBERG

OCT 25 – NOV 19, 2022 SHA R E THE D ELIG HT, LOV E , A ND SP IR IT

LITTLE WOMEN

BY KATE HAMILL ADAPTED FROM THE NOVEL BY LOUISA MAY ALCOTT DIRECTED BY JENNA RODGERS

DEC 7 – 31, 2022

BUY YOUR TICKETS TODAY: 403-294-7447 theatrecalgary.com 36 | PRELUDE calgaryphil.com | 403.571.0849

Golden Baton

The Golden Baton Award recognizes the contributions made by outstanding supporters of the Calgary Philharmonic over the years. They have dedicated their time, talent, and treasure to keeping the Orchestra operating at its best and they each play an important role in bringing orchestral music to our communities.

We are delighted to have presented

Letha MacLachlan QC with the Golden Baton, which was announced at the final classics concert of our last season.

Letha, together with her late husband John Ridge, founded the MacLachlan/Ridge Emerging Artist Program, which helps to develop Canada’s next generation of artists.

Past recipients of the Golden Baton Award: Vera Swanson (posthumous) Andrea Brussa Irene and Walt DeBoni Ellen and Allen Borak Margaret and Paul Boëda Ethelene and John Gareau Barbara and Jim Palmer Judith and Terry Dalgleish Judith and William Kilbourne Livia and Tibor Fekete Jan and Larry Fichtner Naomi and Dr. John Lacey Calgary Herald Joyce and Dick Matthews CM Drs. Lola and Ted Rozsa Learn more at calgaryphil.com/golden-baton.

FALL 2022 | 37

Symphony No. 5 in C-Sharp Minor Gustav Mahler (1860 to 1911) During Mahler’s lifetime he was better known as a conductor than as a composer. Some of the variable success that his music earned back then can be traced to Mahler himself. His brusque conducting style, constant desire to innovate, and quality-first administrative decisions alienated scores of singers, orchestral players, managers, and journalists. Those who saw past his difficult exterior found a warm heart; the others heaped abuse upon him whenever possible. He lived to see at least part of this venomous tide reversed. “My time will come,” he stated, and how right he was!

“A symphony should be like the world,” he told fellow composer Jean Sibelius in 1907, “it must contain everything.” Each of Mahler’s major compositions, in its own way, seeks to express a world’s worth of emotion and experience. The same symphony, or even the same movement of a symphony, may contain any or all of the following: heroism and tragedy, nobility and satire, simplicity and sophistication, despair, and contentment. Massive blocks of orchestral sound dissolve into passages scored with the delicacy of chamber music (and viceversa). Raucous marching bands and whirling, stamping country dancers rub shoulders with angelic, heavenly choirs.

Mahler’s Fifth Symphony Friday 11 November / 7:30PM Saturday 12 November / 7:30PM Jack Singer Concert Hall Curated Series 1 Program Rune Bergmann, conductor Gustav Mahler

Symphony No. 5 in C-Sharp Minor Part I I. Trauermarsch II. Stürmisch bewegt Part II III. Scherzo: Kräftig, nicht zu schnell Part III IV. Adagietto V. Rondo-Finale

This concert has no intermission Program and artists subject to change without notice 38 | PRELUDE calgaryphil.com | 403.571.0849

68'

In February 1901, he suffered hemorrhaging so massive that it threatened his life. His strong constitution ensured that he made a full recovery, but friends noted that his brush with death had left him with a more subdued and sombre outlook.

Reflecting this frame of mind, much of the music he wrote that summer — several songs (include portions of the cycle Songs on the Death of Children) and the first two movements of the Fifth symphony — is filled with bleakness and despair.

On the other hand, he also created the symphony’s third movement, a swirling, buoyant scherzo. Perhaps he considered it a ‘thank you’ for his recovery, and a re-affirmation of his enduring (if diminished) faith in the positive side of life. This is how he described it in a letter to a

friend: “Each note is full of vitality and everything in it revolves as though in a whirlwind or the tail of a comet. Neither romantic nor mystical elements belong in it, it’s merely the expression of unparalleled power, that of a man in the full light of day who has reached the climax of his life.”

The following year brought a further positive development. He married Alma Schindler, an intelligent, spirited, attractive and musically talented young woman. His happiness is mirrored in the major creations of that summer, the final two movements of the Fifth.

After rehearsals with the Vienna Philharmonic in September 1904, he made the first of several revisions to the orchestration. The first public performance followed on 18 October, in Cologne, under his own baton. The reaction of critics and listeners alike proved largely unfavorable.

Mahler’s principal biographer, Henry-Louis de La Grange, writes of the Fifth, “(it) displays the mastery of a fully mature composer at the peak of his powers who also felt the need to renew himself. (It represents) a move toward abstraction, towards the abandonment of all references to the past, childhood and paradise, philosophical-religious themes and pantheism; an attempt to achieve a tighter polyphonic web and a new orchestral style, an enriched and broader variety of sound and a denser, more coherent symphonic structure.”

In the emotional arc it traces from darkness to light, Symphony No. 5 mirrors the Fifth symphony of Beethoven. The expansion in timescale, emotional extremity and orchestral apparatus reflects a century’s worth of societal and artistic change.

Program note by Don Anderson © 2022 Rune Bergmann biography on page 7

Stories that...

INFORM CONNECT ENLIGHTEN Calgary Herald and their award-winning journalists are dedicated to bringing you comprehensive, trustworthy stories that matter.

Join us for our 2022-23 Season at the Bella Concert Hall, MRU

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FALL 2022 | 39

Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser Conductor

Friday 18 November / 7:30PM Jack Singer Concert Hall Specials Program Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser, conductor Tynomi Banks, drag performer Program to be announced from stage Concert includes a 20-minute intermission Program and artists subject to change without notice 40 | PRELUDE calgaryphil.com | 403.571.0849

© Matt Barnes

Tynomi Banks: Queen of the Orchestra

A passionate communicator, Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser brings clarity and meaning to the concert hall, fostering deep connections between audiences and performers.

Bartholomew-Poyser is concurrently the Principal Education Conductor and Community Ambassador of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Artist in Residence and Community Ambassador of Symphony Nova Scotia, Resident Conductor of Engagement and Education of the San Francisco Symphony, and Principal Youth Conductor and Creative Partner of the National Arts Centre Orchestra. Previously, he served as Assistant Conductor of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony and Associate Conductor of the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra.

Bartholomew-Poyser has performed with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, and was Cover Conductor with the Washington National Opera in 2020. He is the host of CBC’s nationally broadcast weekly radio show Centrestage. He was also the subject of an award winning, full-length CBC documentary called Disruptor Conductor, focusing on his concerts for Neurodiverse, Prison, African Diaspora, and LGBTQ2S+ populations.

avenue © Quinton Cruickshanks

Tynomi Banks Drag Performer With over a decade of experience, Tynomi Banks is a world-class Drag Entertainer in Toronto, Canada.

Recognized best for her full production performances, Banks dominates a stage while radiating a powerful, but playful energy. Her hustle led her to become the first Drag Entertainer to perform in Toronto’s Dundas Square during World Pride 2014. In just one month, during Pride 2018, she became the first Drag Entertainer to work with the Hudson’s Bay Company and the only Queen to partner with Spotify for a featured playlist, which also resulted in a billboard over Dundas Square in Toronto during Pride.

She has since partnered with Sephora, Shoppers Beauty, Amazon, Absolut, Netflix, Crest, and Ikea to name a few, and became the first Drag Entertainer to be the trophy bearer at the 7th Annual Canadian Screen Awards.

In 2021, Banks was the only Drag Entertainer to be featured in a Super Bowl ad other than RuPaul herself. In February 2022, she partnered with Black Lives Matter Canada to create and sell a line of merchandise where partial proceeds went to dismantle all forms of antiBlack racism, liberate Blackness, support Black healing, affirm Black existence, and create freedom to love and self-determine. Catch Tynomi Banks on season one of Canada’s Drag Race on Crave.

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FALL 2022 | 41

The Three-Cornered Hat Suite, Suite No. 1 Manuel de Falla (1876 to 1946) Falla took the score he had composed for a stage pantomime based on a novel, The Corregidor and The Miller’s Wife, and expanded it into a fulllength ballet, The Three-Cornered Hat, which premiered in 1919. The story takes place in the Spanish countryside. The principal characters are a miller and his wife, plus the Corregidor, a local official whose three-cornered hat symbolizes his rude, snobbish nature. The Corregidor sets his sights on the miller’s wife, but his clumsy efforts come to nothing and the couple resumes its happy life.

Stravinsky’s Firebird Saturday 26 November / 7:30PM Jack Singer Concert Hall Specials

Le Tombeau de Couperin

Supported by Associate Conductor Supporter: Mary Rozsa de Coquet

Through this delectable suite, which Ravel composed from 1914 to 1917, he paid his most direct homage to his beloved Baroque era. The very name reflects Baroque practice: numerous eighteenth-century composers created such tombeaux or memorial tributes to fellow artists. In the title, Ravel chose to honour the celebrated composer and harpsichordist François Couperin (1668 to 1733). He stated, however, that he conceived the suite as more of a salute to the entire Baroque period than to any specific composer. His health, mental as well as physical, suffered grievously during the war years. Suffering from depression and insomnia, he accepted an invitation from a friend to rest and recuperate at her country estate. There he completed Le Tombeau de Couperin.

He dedicated each movement to a friend who died in combat.

Maurice Ravel (1875 to 1937)

Program Karl Hirzer, conductor Edmund Stripe, choreographer Alberta Ballet School Manuel de Falla

El sombrero de tres picos (The Three-Cornered Hat Suite), Suite No. 1 I. Mediodia (Afternoon) II. Danza de la molinera

(Dance of the Miller’s Wife) III. El Corregidor (The Corregidor) IV. Las uvas (The Grapes)

12'

Maurice Ravel

17'

Le Tombeau de Couperin I. Prélude II. Forlane III. Menuet IV. Rigaudon

Intermission

20'

Erik Satie

10'

Trois Gnossiennes

Igor Stravinsky

The Firebird Suite I. Introduction II. L’Oiseau de feu et sa danse &

Variation de l’oiseau de feu III. Ronde des princesses IV. Danse infernale du roi Kastcheï V. Berceuse VI. Final Program and artists subject to change without notice 42 | PRELUDE calgaryphil.com | 403.571.0849

23'

Trois Gnossiennes Erik Satie (1866 to 1925) Satie was one of the great eccentrics of music. His offbeat, oddly titled creations (Flabby Preludes, Automatic Descriptions, etc.) mirrored his surreal life, much of which he spent playing the piano in Parisian cafés. In time he won a certain amount of success and many devoted young followers.

Satie never explained the meaning of the word ‘Gnossienne.’ In their placid, otherworldly beauty they resemble his best-known works, the Gymnopédies.

The Firebird Suite (1919 version) Igor Stravinsky (1882 to 1971) The ballet The Firebird belongs to Stravinsky’s first period, when his music still showed the influence of the colourful, folk-based approach favoured by his teacher, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. It came into being thanks to impresario Sergei Diaghilev. For the second Parisian season of his celebrated company, Les Ballets russes (The Russian Ballet), Diaghilev envisioned a lavishly mounted new dance production, its plot adapted from Russian fairy tales.

When his first choice as composer, his former music teacher Anatoly Liadov, was judged too slow to complete the score on time, Diaghilev cast about desperately for a replacement.

Familiar with Stravinsky, Diaghilev offered the 27-year-old composer a tentative commission for The Firebird.

“I had already begun to think about The Firebird when I returned to St. Petersburg from Ustilug in the autumn of 1909,” he wrote, “although I was not yet certain of the commission (which in fact did not come until December, more than a month after I had begun to compose).” The premiere on 25 June 1910 achieved a glittering triumph, launching him into the front rank of contemporary composers. Stravinsky’s music for this fairy-tale ballet is highly atmospheric, colourful, imaginative and melodious, and includes quotations from two authentic Russian folk songs.

Program note by Don Anderson © 2022 Karl Hirzer biography on page 7

Alberta Ballet School Ensemble

Edmund Stripe Choreographer

Established in 1991, the Alberta Ballet School is recognized as one of Canada’s leading dance schools. Under the leadership of School Director, Ashley McNeil, the Alberta Ballet School has an annual enrollment of over 1,000 local, national, and international students in classes and programs with locations in Calgary and Edmonton, where all students — from those who dance once a week to those completing their advanced levels — receive high-calibre instruction to develop emerging skills and foster a life-long appreciation for the art form. Sessional, full-year, and summer programming is available to students of all ages and levels in the Open Division. The Calgary studio is also home to Professional training programs for students pursuing a career in dance. Professional programs include an on-site artistic and academic program for students Grade 7 through 12, as well as Postgraduate programs. Acceptance to Professional programs is by audition. As the official training school for the Alberta Ballet Company, students are afforded the opportunity to train with the ballet’s artistic staff and dance in company productions.

This, paired with the quality instruction provided by acclaimed school faculty, ensures students have every opportunity to develop skills in a warm and positive learning environment.

Edmund Stripe was born in London, England and trained at the Royal Ballet School, England. A prolific choreographer, he has established a notable career in both contemporary and classical ballet fields as a dancer, teacher, and ballet master. After a 20-year dancing career with Ballet Gulbenkian (Portugal), London City Ballet, and West Australian Ballet, he became Ballet Master for the West Australian Ballet, followed by Singapore Dance Theatre and Alberta Ballet. Stripe holds the prestigious Enrico Cecchetti Final Diploma in dance and is currently Senior Teacher and Choreographic Associate at the Alberta Ballet School. His previous collaborations with the Calgary Philharmonic include Pulcinella (2019) and Appalachian Spring (2020).

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Instrument Discovery Zoo Do you have a young music fan on your hands? Symphony Sundays for Kids concerts are about one hour long with no intermission, and feature classical favourites every child should know.

Arrive early for the Instrument Discovery Zoo in the Jack Singer lobby, where you can visit different stations hosted

by Orchestra musicians. Each station features an instrument or musical activity for children to try, so they can learn firsthand what it’s like to blow in a trumpet or run a bow across the strings of a violin.

Firebird for the Family Sunday 27 November / 3PM Instrument Discovery Zoo / 2PM Jack Singer Concert Hall Symphony Sundays for Kids

This fun, hands-on experience is the perfect way to indulge your child’s curiosity and excitement about visiting the Orchestra.

Supported by Associate Conductor Supporter: Mary Rozsa de Coquet

The Instrument Discovery Zoo starts at 2PM and the performance starts at 3PM.

Program Karl Hirzer, conductor Edmund Stripe, choreographer Alberta Ballet School Manuel de Falla

El sombrero de tres picos (The Three-Cornered Hat), Suite No. 1 I. Mediodia (Afternoon) II. Danza de la molinera

(Dance of the Miller’s Wife) III. El Corregidor (The Corregidor) IV. Las uvas (The Grapes)

12'

Erik Satie

10'

Trois Gnossiennes

Igor Stravinsky

The Firebird Suite I. Introduction II. L’Oiseau de feu et sa danse &

Variation de l’oiseau de feu III. Ronde des princesses IV. Danse infernale du roi Kastcheï V. Berceuse VI. Final Program and artists subject to change without notice 44 | PRELUDE calgaryphil.com | 403.571.0849

23'

FALL 2022 | 45

46 | PRELUDE calgaryphil.com | 403.571.0849

Rune’s Christmas 2 December / 7:30PM Jack Singer Concert Hall

Rune’s Christmas: Relaxed Performance 3 December / 2:30PM Jack Singer Concert Hall

Sounds of the Season: On the Road 6 December / 7:30PM YMCA Rocky Ridge 7 December / 7:30PM YMCA Seton

Home Alone in Concert 9 December / 7:30PM 10 December / 2:30PM Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium

Traditional Christmas 13 + 14 December / 7:30PM Grace Presbyterian Church

Salute to Vienna New Year’s Concert 1 January / 2:30PM Jack Singer Concert Hall

Tickets start at $25 at calgaryphil.com.

Join our community of visionary supporters Thanks to our donors' support, the Calgary Philharmonic can continue to create extraordinary musical experiences that bring our communities together, sustaining musical excellence and fostering a greater appreciation of orchestral music.

The Calgary Philharmonic Foundation is the largest annual supporter of your Calgary Phil, exceeding all levels of government support, and ensures the permanence of the Orchestra and that future generations have access to the power of orchestral music.

This program has been bringing world-class artists to perform with your Calgary Phil since 2008, enhancing musical presentations for both audiences and musicians. Many Virtuoso artists also perform at donor recitals or teach masterclasses to aspiring young musicians in our communities.

Founded by Ellen and Allen Borak, this program helps elevate the art of choral music by supporting and nurturing the development of the Calgary Philharmonic Chorus.

This program provides more than 100 volunteer singers with the opportunity to grow in their performance of choral music and promotes the enjoyment of choral singing in our communities.

Irene and Walt DeBoni created this program to support the commissioning of new Canadian works necessary for the continued development and vitality of orchestral music. Thanks to this program, the Orchestra premieres enticing and trailblazing new works each season.

Celebrating 10 years, the MacLachlan/Ridge Emerging Artist Program helps provide outstanding young Canadian musicians an opportunity to advance their careers by performing with the Orchestra to develop Canada’s next generation of artists.

JOYCE + DICK MATTHEWS PHILANTHROPIC PROGRAM

This philanthropic program was created in memory of Joyce and Dick Matthews, who were dedicated and generous supporters of your Calgary Phil for more than 50 years. This program provides supporters with the opportunity to recognize someone special in memoriam.

Founded by Judith Kilbourne, PhilKids is an after-school program for students aged 5 to 11, bringing music to the hands and hearts of children who otherwise would not have access to such artistic development, fueling the empowerment of children through the exploration of music.

Support one of these programs, or donate to our Greatest Needs fund at calgaryphil.com/support.

Sponsors + Supporters Government

Foundations

Corporate

Media

Artistic + Community

Hospitality

FALL 2022 | 49

Our Donors Leadership Giving The Calgary Philharmonic expresses its deep gratitude to the passionate and dedicated supporters whose significant lifetime giving to the Calgary Philharmonic Society and Calgary Philharmonic Foundation helps us achieve our vision.

G ifts to the Calgary Philharmonic Foundation Ad Astra Campaign 1 0 years or more of lifetime giving 2 0 years or more of lifetime giving

$10,000,000 and above F. Richard + Joyce Matthews $1,000,000 to $9,999,999 Walt + Irene DeBoni John + Ethelene Gareau Dr. John Lacey Morningside Music Bridge Foundation Drs. Ted + Lola Rozsa Estate of Mario James Stella Calgary Arts Development Authority Canada Council for the Arts Alberta Foundation for the Arts Government of Canada One Anonymous Donor $500,000 to $999,999 William + Irene Bell Marg + Paul Boëda Cenovus Energy Inc. CNOOC (formerly Nexen) Annie Freeze Carol + Frank Gray Mary Rozsa de Coquet Robbin Shandel Taylor Family Foundation $250,000 to $499,999 Said Arrata The Estate of Marjory Barber Ms. Cheryl Bishop Leslie + David Bissett Heather + Ian Bourne Andrea Brussa Norma Carroll Heather Edwards The Flanagan Foundation Larry + Jan Fichtner Tony + Liz Fricke

Judith Kilbourne KPMG LLP Estate of Murray Lipsey Letha MacLachlan QC The Palmer Family Foundation Repsol Oil & Gas Canada Inc Rozsa Foundation Muriel A. Stewart TELUS Corporation $100,000 to $249,999 ARC Resources Ltd. Jeff Arsenych Bellport Resources Ltd. Gerald + Beverly Berkhold Ellen + Allen Borak BP Petroleum Lori Caltagirone Canada Life Jeremy + Elaine Clark Judith + Terence Dalgleish James Doleman + Dori Wood Enbridge Pipelines Inc. Tibor Fekete Estate of Geraldine Fish Tony + Liz Fricke Glasswaters Foundation Estate of Winnifred Griffith Richard + Lois Haskayne Jane Hayward Barbara J. Hejduk Imperial Oil Limited Jeanette King Estate of Evelyn Christine Kings H.D. Klebanoff Memorial Fund Allan Markin Estate of Mary McIntosh James + Janice Morton Dan O’Grady John M. + Jean Partridge PQR Limited Macquarie Group Foundation Nickle Family Foundation The Rabinovitz Family Fund Seagram Company Ltd. Clarice A. Siebens Margaret Southern Carla + Klaus Springer Trent + Josie Stangl Mary Ann Steen Muriel A. Stewart Sunesis Consulting Inc. TC Energy TD Canada Trust Deborah Yedlin + Martin Molyneaux Shirley Zielsdorf

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Endowed Chairs

Named Funds

Rozsa Endowed Chair Music Director

The Marjory Barber Fund Borak Forte Fund DeBoni New Works Fund Geraldine Fish Memorial Fund in support of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra Naomi + John Lacey Virtuoso Program Fund Murray Lipsey Memorial Fund in support of the Calgary Philharmonic Chorus MacLachlan Ridge Emerging Artist Fund

Rozsa Foundation Endowed Chair Associate Conductor Ellen + Allen Borak Endowed Chair Chorus Master John + Ethelene Gareau Endowed Chair Concertmaster Peter + Jeanne Lougheed Endowed Chair Associate Concertmaster Margaret + Paul Boëda in Memory of Jennifer Boëda-Dahl Endowed Chair Principal Flute Eckhardt-Gramatté Foundation Endowed Chair Principal Viola Frank + Carol Gray Endowed Chair Principal Trumpet (In memory of Vincent Cichowicz) Frank + Carol Gray Endowed Chair Principal Percussion (In honor of Tim Rawlings 42 years of service to Calgary Phil) Esther Violet Hall (nee Young) Endowed Chair Principal Second Violin Judith + William Kilbourne Named Chair Assistant Principal Horn (In recognition of the Kilbournes long term support) Debbie Lynne Hall (daughter of Esther Violet Hall) Endowed Chair Assistant Principal Second Violin Bill + Irene Bell Endowed Chair Piccolo Hotchkiss Endowed Chair First Violin Section Member H.D. Klebanoff Endowed Chair First Violin Section Member Dennis Sharp + Helen Cote-Sharp Endowed Chair Second Violin Section Member Dalgleish Endowed Chair 66 John + Jean Partridge Endowed Chair Cello Section Member Deborah Yedlin + Martin Molyneaux Endowed Chair Cello Section Member Joyce + Dick Matthews Endowed Chair Piano

2021/2022 Donors The Calgary Philharmonic expresses its deep gratitude to the following supporters who made generous gifts to the Calgary Philharmonic Society and the Calgary Philharmonic Foundation between 1 July 2021 and 30 June 2022.

For complete listings, visit calgaryphil.com/support.

Gifts of $500,000 and above Dr. John Lacey Canada Council for the Arts Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra Foundation Alberta Foundation for the Arts Government of Canada Gifts of $100,000 to $499,999 Estate of Marjory Barber Mary Rosza de Coquet Calgary Arts Development Authority Honens Calgary Philharmonic Society Fund Taylor Family Foundation Gifts of $50,000 to $99,999 Walt + Irene DeBoni Heather Edwards Government of Alberta One Anonymous Donor Two Anonymous Donors Gifts of $10,000 to $49,999 Allen + Ellen Borak Ian + Heather Bourne CH Financial CH Financial Calgary Shaw Charity Classic Foundation Canada Life Alan D. Castle Endowment for the Arts Walter + Ute Dilger Estate of Esther Emmett Enbridge Pipelines

Estate of Geraldine Fish Annie Freeze Tony + Liz Fricke Glasswaters Foundation Geoff + Jacky Granville Ryan Green Keyera Philip Ireland + Sheila McIntosh Letha MacLachlan QC Janice + James Morton Chris + Ruchi Ryley Shaw Communications Mike Shaik Valerie + Allen Swanson TD Canada Trust Viewpoint Foundation One Anonymous Donor Two Anonymous Donors Gifts of $5,000 to $9,999 Moon Beams Foundation Jenny Belzberg Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP James + Patricia Burns CWB Wealth Management – McLean + Partners Cyril + Elizabeth Challice Walter + Gloria Chayka Lori Cutler + Nick Kuzyk Dynasty Power The Globe and Mail E Ann Falk Franklin Templeton Investments Imperial Oil Limited InterPipeline Jeanette King Dr. John Lacey Janet + Rick Matthews Elizabeth + Ross Middleton The Honourable Lois E. Mitchell Mobsquad Anne Marie Peterson Legacy Fund Janet Poyen C A Siebens Marc + Claire Stevens United Active Living The Welty Family Foundation One Anonymous Donor Gifts of $1,000 to $4,999 Ian + Gwen Anderson Karen Ashbee Roy, Hazel, + Nancy Austin Fund Andrew Azmudeh Michelle Bailey Barbara R. Beaton Belinda + Thomas Boleantu Brad Boychuk Marion R Burrus Eileen Butler Richard Byers Calgary Foundation Bob + Sylvia Carey Cynthia Clark Marie-Josee Claveau + Nicholas Tremblay Stan Climie

Harry + Martha Cohen Foundation Gertrude Cohos Gary Cole Fern Cyr Fern Cyr Paula Davies Alexander De Freitas James Doleman + Dori Wood Judy Dofoo Lawrence Fan Tom + Dianne Ferguson Donna Fonteyne Wayne Foo Foundation Shirley Foster Shirley Foster Kathleen Fox Audrey + John Fry Glen + Nancy Charitable Gift Fund Donald + Joan Greenfield Pamela Grigg Carolyn Guichon Dr. Danelle J. Hames Julianna Hegg + Bill Hogg David Henley Mary Hetherington Arthur Hibbard + Gloria Wong Jevon Hills Gordon + Joan Holland Linda + Gordon Hong James Hughes Inter Pipeline Carrol Jaques + Bob Loov Glen + Arlene Johnston Robert Kulhawy Lennox Family Foundation Michael Lipnicki Fine Pianos + Laura Hunt Dr Jonathan Liu Loch Gallery Luxe Du Jour David + Diane MacDonald Chris MacKimmie Simone MacRae Peter + Heather Marreck John + Pat Martin Davide Martino Masters Gallery Laurie Matiation Elizabeth Maurice Dale S Meister Richard Mercer Elizabeth + Ross Middleton Patricia Moore Jean Morris + Matthew Vyse Jean Murray Faiz Nadir Tae Nosal John + Jean Partridge Peabody Family Lara Pella + Geoff Holub Eric Ruygrok Alex + Aliza Sarian Henry Schultz Rod + Wendy Schultz Joan + Geoffrey Simmins

Roger + Lorna Smith Don Smith + Helen Young Alfred Sorensen Betty J Stein John Thompson Erin Thrall + Peter Johnson James Ulrich United Church of Canada Foundation Russel Varnam VivianeARt Brent Warren Margaret Warren Stanley Waterman Norma + Ron Westcott Julie Westgate WestJet Airlines Mark Wittrup Reg Worsley Wood Pittman Fund Deborah Yedlin + Martin Molyneaux Frederick Young Janet Yuchem 7 Anonymous Donors 2 Anonymous Donors Gifts of $500 to $999 John Abbott Dean Allatt Christopher Beare Robert Binda Heide Blakely Paul + Marg Boeda Marilyn Braden Ian Burgess Callow & Associates Management Consultants Ah-Ling Cheng Adam + Christina Carpenter Dorothy Chisholm F Thomas Christie Rowena Cromwell Joseph De Angelis Jane and Allan De Caen Joan Dennis Noreen Dyke Tibor Fekete Larry + Jan Fichtner David + Beverley Foy A Gordon Giesbrecht Corinne Grigoriu Glen Hammerlindl Carol Hanna Ian Hawkins Dr. Janice Heard Donald Herman William Hopson Allan Huber Bruce + June Johnston Valerie + Craig Johnstone Mary Ellen Kirk Eric Loughead Andrew + Alison Love Alla Magid Sharon Martens Estate of A V McCall

Rene McManus Anne McWhir Brian Neufeld Keith + Kathleen Nicholson Richard + Beth Olver Joaquina + Fritz Painsi Parker PR Dan Phillips Steve Poceta Ken Potma Marlene Raasok Rosza Foundation Salopek & Associates Don Seaman Kelly + James Scott Ruth Scott Douglas Soeder Sponsor Energy Mira Starczyk Ingrid Vicas Dixie + Tony Webb Terry + Anne Wilson Ray Woods Holly Wong Sol + John Wright Anne + Frank ZinatellI 8 Anonymous Donors Gifts made In Honour of Andrew Azmudeh Kim Bruce Jim Campbell Carol Cole Paul Dornian Bev Macleod Lauren Ridge Ryan Stasynec Gifts made In Memory of Dr. James H. Acheson Sara + Louis Binda Arlene Christie Judith Dalgleish Arlene McCall John David Payne Dorothy Pommen Klaus Springer Allan Sweetser Joyce Williams Stacey Christina Worsley

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SEPT. 24 Jill Barber OCT. 1 Dame Evelyn Glennie and Land’s End Ensemble OCT. 2 Whitehorse with guests

AT T H E B E L L A TAY LO R C E N T R E . C A

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NOV. 21 Tim Baker with guests DEC. 2 Matthew Good

Building to New Heights Together we can strengthen our community, pursue artistic excellence, and ensure a sustainable future for the Calgary Philharmonic.

Support our Capital Campaign.

Learn more at calgaryphil.com/AdAstra.

FALL 2022 | 53

ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES

By David Sussman, Assistant Principal Oboe

ne of my earliest memories of playing in an orchestra was the sheer thrill of participating in something larger than just me.

Dozens of players were taking these notes written on a page and together we were creating a work of art in real time. It seemed like magic.

O

Collaboration is central to being an orchestral musician. We must all be going at the same pace, in tune, and in balance, while shaping musical lines with like-minded intent.

How do we do this?

Once an initial pace is established (usually by the conductor) we each must maintain that speed and ensure that our musical parts fit in rhythmically with each other. We must listen carefully at all times to be together. It is trickier when we must respond uniformly to a speed-up or slow-down.

During the pandemic, many of us participated in virtual performances where we recorded our parts individually and then put them together. It was impossible to be perfectly together because we could not hear any of the other players to match up with. The sound engineers tried to synch it up (with surprising success!).

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Even something as seemingly simple as starting a note at the same time can be a challenge when 66 people are doing it. We all try to respond to a conductor’s beat as an orchestra. If in doubt, we make sure we are with our section leader or the concertmaster.

Most orchestras play a little ‘behind’ the beat. Rather than playing when the baton is at the lowest point in a downbeat, we play when it is coming back up. This allows more time to respond to speed-ups or slow-downs.

Conductors differ on how far behind the beat they like an orchestra to play, but we, as a group, have developed a default response.

We must end notes together, with the same shortness or fullness, too. String players must all move their bows up or down at the same time. This requires immense concentration (and sometimes a bit of extra sensory perception!).

Although we tune before performing a piece, we must listen carefully to stay perfectly in pitch. We must know which note in a chord we are playing, what other instruments are playing that same note, and then match them.

We must know if we are playing the main melody, a counter melody, harmony or a rhythmic underpinning,

and play the appropriate loudness to provide the right balance (the conductor standing at the front is very helpful in ensuring this happens).

The musical interpretation must be collaborative too. I may have a preferred way of playing a melody, but if the choice (usually by the conductor) is to play it a different way, it is my job to play it the new way and make it as beautiful as possible.

If a melody is passed around from instrument to instrument, we try to each play it with the same character and style.

Somehow, when we are concentrating so intently and ‘in the zone’, this great beauty and art emerges.

After more than four decades of playing with the Calgary Phil, I still feel the magic I encountered early on.

It is a visceral thrill to be in the midst of an orchestra, hearing my talented and artistic colleagues inspiring me to match them to collectively bring you great music.

SEPTEMBER 22 - OCTOBER 2, 2022 Operated by

Get showtimes at CIFFcalgary.ca FALL 2022

| 55

A BELOVED FAMILY HOLIDAY TRADITION

December 16 – 24 Alberta Ballet’s The Nutcracker features exquisite dance, spectacular sets and costumes, over 120 performers of all ages, a live orchestra and Tchaikovsky’s timeless score.

Join Klara on her magical journey to the Kingdom of Sweets with her beloved nutcracker prince this Christmas and make memories that will last a lifetime.

Join Alberta Ballet, Alberta Ballet School and the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra for this timeless classic the whole family will enjoy.

TICKETS AT ALBERTABALLET.COM

Dance with Alberta Ballet School!

Recreational and dedicated dance programs available for all ages and levels of experience.

Our quality dance training is delivered through active, engaging classes and live accompaniment

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Register for seasonal or full-year programs albertaballetschool.com calgaryphil.com | 403.571.0849 or call 403.245.2274 ext. 739