Program Book - Civic Orchestra of Chicago: Wilkins Conducts Price & Dvořák
Thomas Wilkins CONDUCTOR
MAY 5 | 7:30
The 2024–25 Civic Orchestra season is generously sponsored by Lori Julian for the Julian Family Foundation, which also provides major funding for the Civic Fellowship program.
ONE HUNDRED SIXTH SEASON
CIVIC ORCHESTRA OF CHICAGO
KEN-DAVID MASUR Principal Conductor
The Robert Kohl and Clark Pellett Principal Conductor Chair
Monday, May 5, 2025, at 7:30
Thomas Wilkins Conductor
PRICE
Symphony No. 3 in C Minor
Andante—Allegro
Andante ma non troppo
Juba: Allegro
Scherzo-Finale: Allegro
INTERMISSION
DVOŘÁK
Symphony No. 8 in G Major, Op. 88
Allegro con brio
Adagio
Allegretto grazioso
Allegro ma non troppo
The 2024–25 Civic Orchestra season is generously sponsored by Lori Julian for the Julian Family Foundation, which also provides major funding for the Civic Fellowship program.
Major support for the Civic Orchestra of Chicago is also provided by John and Leslie Burns; Robert and Joanne Crown Income Charitable Fund; Nancy Dehmlow; Leslie Fund, Inc.; Judy and Scott McCue; Leo and Catherine Miserendino; Barbara and Barre Seid Foundation; the George L. Shields Foundation, Inc.; the Maval Foundation; and Paul and Lisa Wiggin.
This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association acknowledges support from the Illinois Arts Council.
The 2009 discovery of a substantial collection of manuscripts in an attic in Kankakee County led to the renaissance of one of this country’s important musical figures, Florence Price.
Price graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston with diplomas in piano and organ. She returned to her hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas, where she married Thomas Jewell Price, started a
family, and settled into a middle-class life in a predominantly Black neighborhood. Having spent two summers studying composition in Chicago, Florence realized this was the place to build her career, and in 1927, she and her family moved from Little Rock to Chicago, making the Great Migration alongside thousands of Black Americans fleeing the terrors of living in the South. Despite difficulties following the Depression and an abusive marriage that ended in divorce, she began to write music on a larger scale, with a certainty that composing was her calling. In January 1931, Price began the score that would change her life—a symphony in E minor. The world premiere of her symphony was given by Frederick Stock and the Chicago Symphony at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair, making Price the first Black female composer to have a large-scale composition performed by a major American orchestra.
Price completed her Third Symphony in 1940—the same year as the publication of Richard Wright’s powerful and harshly realistic novel, Native Son, set amid the poverty of Chicago’s South Side. Price said
above: Florence Price, portrait by R.D. Tones, 1933. Florence Beatrice Smith Price Papers Addendum, MC 988a, Box 2, Folder 1, Item 3. Special Collections, University of Arkansas Libraries, Fayetteville. For more on Florence Price, visit cso.org/experience/curation/florence-price.
that her symphony was “intended to be Negroid in character and expression.” In other words, its roots lie deep; it is not merely a European symphony decorated with borrowed melodies. She wrote,
No attempt has been made to project Negro music solely in the purely traditional manner. None of the themes are adaptations or derivations of folk songs. The intention behind the writing of this work was a not too deliberate attempt to picture a cross-section of present-day Negro life and thought with its heritage of that which is past, paralleled, or influenced by concepts of the present day.
Price’s Third Symphony, then, is truly a “new world” symphony. As in the old European model, there are four movements in the familiar sequence: a broad and vigorous opening Allegro in sonata form, a slow movement, a dance-like “scherzo,” and a big, rousing finale. But the material they are made from—the colors of their harmonies, the cut of their melodies, the sonorities of the instrumental combinations—often come from a different world.
The Third Symphony marks an advance over the score Stock introduced. Price is here writing for a larger orchestra than before, with a particularly active percussion section, and she shows a more highly refined sense of instrumental color. The music is as richly melodic as in her earlier scores, but Price’s harmonies have grown more complex, even tonally ambiguous.
The slow second movement is rooted in a kind of call-and-response use of antiphonal choirs of instruments, with a suggestion of an “Amen” cadence at the end. For the third movement—where Mozart wrote minuets and Beethoven composed scherzos—Price writes “Juba,” based on the syncopations of “pattin’ juba”—the sort of slave fiddler and banjo player music Solomon Northup describes in his 1853 autobiography, Twelve Years a Slave:
The patting is performed by striking the hands on the knees, then striking the hands together, then striking the right shoulder with one hand, the left with the other—all the while keeping time with the feet and singing.
The finale is more conventional but no less stirring. In one of her letters to Koussevitzsky, Price wrote:
I have a symphony in which I tried to portray a cross-section of Negro life and psychology as it is today, influenced by urban life north of the Mason and Dixon line. It is not “program” music. I merely had in mind the life and music of the Negro of today and, for that reason, treated my themes in a manner different from what I would have if I had centered my attention upon the religious themes of antebellum days, or yet the rag-time and jazz which followed; rather a fusion of these, colored by present cultural influences.
COMMENTS ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK
Born September 8, 1841; Nelahozeves, Bohemia
Died May 1, 1904; Prague, Bohemia
Symphony No. 8 in G Major, Op. 88
COMPOSED
August 26–November 8, 1889
FIRST PERFORMANCE
February 2, 1890; Prague, Bohemia
INSTRUMENTATION
2 flutes with piccolo, 2 oboes and english horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, strings
APPROXIMATE PERFORMANCE TIME
36 minutes
Dvořák was the first of the great European composers to visit Chicago. He came as a star attraction at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, where he conducted the Chicago Symphony— billed as the Exposition Orchestra for the occasion and then known as the Chicago Orchestra—in this G major symphony. Dvořák’s music was already popular in the city. Theodore Thomas, founder of the Chicago Symphony, had programmed Dvořák’s Husitská Overture to close the Orchestra’s inaugural concert in October 1891, and he led the U.S. premiere of his Violin
Concerto just three weeks into the season.
“Dvořák Has Arrived,” ran a headline in the Chicago Daily Tribune on August 12, 1893. “In disposition, he is modest and retiring and does not look near as fierce as would be supposed from his picture,” the paper reported. Dvořák, his wife, and their children had already taken up residence at the new Lakota Hotel on the southeast corner of Michigan Avenue and Thirtieth Street. The centerpiece of Dvořák’s visit was his headliner appearance with the Chicago Symphony in Festival Hall in honor of Bohemian Day, August 12. “The day was cool and bright,” the New York Times reported, “and the visitors evinced the keenest pleasure in viewing the many things of interest.” A crowd estimated at 10,000 watched a morning parade wind through the city’s South Side streets. Swarms of Bohemians, wearing blue and red, the national colors of Bohemia, began to arrive at the fair as soon as the parade was over, “and they came in such crowds that the hearts of the exposition officials were filled with joy.” Festival Hall, a great domed, colonnaded amphitheater overlooking a lagoon and situated at the
above: Antonín Dvořák, portrait by Jan Vilímek (1860–1938), ca. 1890–91. National Library of the Czech Republic
intersection of two broad promenades, was packed for the afternoon concert of Bohemian music. The hall seated 4,000, with standing room for another 2,000. The Exposition Orchestra, as it was billed, was essentially the Chicago Orchestra expanded to 114 men.
“As Dvořák walked out upon the stage, a storm of applause greeted him,” the Chicago Daily Tribune reported. “For nearly two minutes, the old composer stood beside the music rack, baton in hand, bowing his acknowledgments. The players dropped their instruments to join in the welcome.” Another article remarked that “the importance of the concert naturally centered in the Dvořák Symphony, a work of rare melodious beauty.” The Tribune concluded: “The orchestra caught the spirit and magnetism of the distinguished leader. The audience sat as if spellbound. Tremendous outbursts of applause were given.”
The G major symphony was listed as no. 4, which is how it was known during the composer’s lifetime, although we now number it the eighth of Dvořák’s nine symphonies. In fact, until the late nineteenth century, Dvořák was the composer of just five symphonies; only with the publication of his first four symphonies in the 1950s did we begin to use the current numbering. Soon, even generations of music lovers who grew up knowing this genial G major symphony as no. 4 came to accept it as no. 8.
By the time he came to Chicago, Dvořák had already conducted this symphony several times, always to an enthusiastic response—first in Prague
and then in London, Frankfurt, and Cambridge, when he received an honorary doctor of music degree there in 1891. (“Nothing but ceremony, and nothing but doctors,” he remembered. “All faces were serious, and it seemed to me as if no one knew any other language but Latin.”)
In the 1880s and ’90s, Dvořák was as popular and successful as any living composer, including Brahms, who had helped promote Dvořák’s music early on and had even convinced his own publisher, Simrock, to take on this new composer and issue his Moravian Duets in 1877. Dvořák proved to be a prudent addition to the catalog, and the Slavonic Dances he wrote the following year at Simrock’s request became one of the firm’s all-time best sellers. Dvořák was then insulted and outraged when, in 1890, Simrock offered him only a thousand marks for his G major symphony (particularly since the company had paid three thousand marks for the last one), and he gave the rights to the London firm of Novello instead. (At least he did not follow the greedy example set by Beethoven and sell the same score to two different publishers.)
Dvořák’s G major symphony is his most bucolic and idyllic—it is, in effect, his Pastoral—and like Brahms’s Second or Mahler’s Fourth, it stands apart from his other works in the form. Like the subsequent New World Symphony, composed in a tiny town set in the rolling green hills of northeast Iowa, it was written in the seclusion of the countryside. In the summer of 1889, Dvořák retired to his country home at
Vysoka, away from the pressures of urban life and far from the demands of performers and publishers. There, he realized that he was ready to tackle a new symphony—it had been four years since his last—and that he was eager to compose something “different from the other symphonies, with individual thoughts worked out in a new way.”
Composition was remarkably untroubled. “Melodies simply pour out of me,” Dvořák said at the time, and both the unashamedly tuneful nature of this score and the timetable of its progress confirm the composer’s boast. He began his new symphony on August 26; the first movement was finished in two weeks, the second a week later, and the remaining two movements in just a few days apiece. The orchestration took only another six weeks.
The first movement is, as Dvořák predicted, put together in a new way. The opening theme— pointedly in G minor, not the G major promised by the key signature— functions as an introduction, although, significantly, it is in the same tempo as the rest of the movement. Like a signpost, it appears at each of the movement’s crucial junctures—here, before the exposition; later, before the start of the development; and finally, to introduce the recapitulation. Dvořák is particularly generous with melodic ideas in this movement. As Leoš Janáček said of this music: “You’ve scarcely got to know one figure before a second
one beckons with a friendly nod, so you’re in a state of constant but pleasurable excitement.”
The second movement, an adagio, alternates C major and C minor, somber and gently merry music, as well as passages for strings and winds. It is a masterful example of complexities and contradictions swept together in one great paragraph. The central climax, with trumpet fanfares over timpani roll, is thrilling.
The third movement is not a conventional scherzo, but a lilting, radiant waltz marked Allegretto grazioso—the same marking Brahms used for the third movements of his second and third symphonies. The main theme of the trio was rescued from Dvořák’s comic opera The Stubborn Lovers, where Toník worries that his love, Lenka, will be married off to his father.
The finale begins with a trumpet fanfare and continues with a theme and several variations. The theme, introduced by the cellos, is a natural subject of such deceptive simplicity that it cost its normally tuneful composer nine drafts before he was satisfied. The variations, which incorporate everything from a sunny flute solo to a determined march in the minor mode, eventually fade to a gentle farewell before Dvořák adds one last rip-roaring page to ensure the audience enthusiasm that, by 1889, he had grown to expect.
Phillip Huscher is the program annotator for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
PROFILES
Thomas Wilkins Conductor
Devoted to promoting a lifelong enthusiasm for music, Thomas Wilkins brings energy and commitment to audiences of all ages. He is hailed as a master at communicating and connecting with audiences. Wilkins is principal conductor of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra; artistic partner for the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s education and community engagement and conductor of the Germeshausen Youth and Family Concerts; and principal guest conductor of the Virginia Symphony. He holds Indiana University’s Henry A. Upper Chair of Orchestral Conducting, established by the late Barbara and David Jacobs as a part of that university’s Matching the Promise Campaign. Wilkins completed his long and successful tenure as music director of the Omaha Symphony Orchestra at the close of the 2020–21 season. Other past positions have included resident conductor of the Detroit Symphony and Florida Orchestra (Tampa Bay) and associate conductor of the Richmond Symphony (Virginia). He has served on the music faculties of North Park University in Chicago, the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga, and Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.
Following his highly successful first season with the Boston Symphony, the Boston Globe named him among
the Best People and Ideas of 2011. In 2014 Wilkins received the prestigious Outstanding Artist Award at the Nebraska Governor’s Arts Awards for his significant contribution to music in the state, and in 2018, he received the Leonard Bernstein Lifetime Achievement Award for the Elevation of Music in Society, conferred by Boston’s Longy School of Music. In 2019 the Virginia Symphony bestowed Thomas Wilkins with its annual Dreamer Award. In 2022 the Omaha Entertainment and Arts Awards presented him with a Lifetime Achievement Award for Music, the Boston Conservatory awarded him an honorary doctorate of arts, and the League of American Orchestras honored him with the Gold Baton Award.
During his conducting career, Wilkins has led orchestras throughout the United States, including the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cincinnati Symphony, and National Symphony. Additionally, he has conducted the Philadelphia and Cleveland orchestras, the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Baltimore, San Diego, Seattle, Louisiana, North Carolina, and Utah, and the Buffalo and Rochester philharmonics, as well as at the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago, to name a few.
His commitment to the community has been demonstrated by his participation on several boards of directors, including the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, Charles Drew Health Center in Omaha, Center Against Spouse Abuse in Tampa
PHOTO BY BILL SITZMANN
Bay, and Museum of Fine Arts and Academy Preparatory Center, both in St. Petersburg, Florida. Currently, he serves as chairman of the board for the Raymond James Charitable Endowment Fund and as national ambassador for the non-profit World Pediatric Project headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, which provides children throughout Central America and the Caribbean with critical surgical and diagnostic care.
A native of Norfolk, Virginia, Thomas Wilkins is a graduate of the Shenandoah Conservatory of Music and the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. He and his wife, Sheri-Lee, are the proud parents of twin daughters, Erica and Nicole.
Civic Orchestra of Chicago
The Civic Orchestra of Chicago is a training program of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Negaunee Music Institute that prepares young professionals for careers in orchestral music. It was founded during the 1919–20 season by Frederick Stock, the CSO’s second music director, as the Civic Music Student Orchestra, and for over a century, its members have gone on to secure positions in orchestras across the world, including over 160 Civic players who have joined the CSO. Each season, Civic members are given numerous performance opportunities and participate in rigorous orchestral training with its principal conductor, Ken-David Masur, distinguished guest conductors,
and a faculty of coaches comprised of CSO members. Civic Orchestra musicians develop as exceptional orchestral players and engaged artists, cultivating their ability to succeed in the rapidly evolving music world.
The Civic Orchestra serves the community through its commitment to present free or low-cost concerts of the highest quality at Symphony Center and in venues across Greater Chicago, including annual concerts at the South Shore Cultural Center and Fourth Presbyterian Church. The Civic Orchestra also performs at the annual Crain-Maling Foundation CSO Young Artists Competition and Chicago Youth in Music Festival. Many Civic concerts can be heard locally on WFMT (98.7 FM), in addition to concert clips and smaller ensemble performances available on CSOtv and YouTube. Civic musicians expand their creative, professional, and artistic boundaries and reach diverse audiences through educational performances at Chicago public schools and a series of chamber concerts at various locations throughout the city.
To further expand its musician training, the Civic Orchestra launched the Civic Fellowship program in the 2013–14 season. Each year, up to twelve Civic members are designated as Civic Fellows and participate in intensive leadership training designed to build and diversify their creative and professional skills. The program’s curriculum has four modules: artistic planning, music education, social justice, and project management.
Civic Orchestra of Chicago
Ken-David Masur Principal Conductor
The Robert Kohl and Clark Pellett Principal Conductor Chair
VIOLINS
Ran Huo
Herdis Gudmundsdottir
Kimberly Bill
Polina Borisova
Carlos Chacon
Jenny Choi
Rose Haselhorst
Harin Kang
Hojung Christina Lee
Matthew Musachio*
Tricia Park
Annie Pham
Justine Jing Xin Teo
Yulia Watanabe-Price
Lina Yamin*
Hannah Zhao
Hobart Shi
Yebeen Seo
Darren Carter
Isabelle Chin
Adam Davis
Ebedit Fonseca
Sean Hsi
Jonah Kartman
Elise Maas
Marian Antonette Mayuga*
Munire Mona Mierxiati
Naomi Powers
Keshav Srinivasan
Alec Tonno
VIOLAS
Yat Chun Justin Pou
Sanford Whatley
Jason Butler
August DuBeau
Elena Galentas
Judy Yu-Ting Huang
Xiaoxuan Liang
Carlos Lozano
Mason Spencer*
Sava Velkoff*
CELLOS
Sam Day
David Caplan
Luis Gonzalez
Lidanys Graterol
J Holzen*
Buianto Lkhasaranov
Nick Reeves
Jiho Seo
Somyong Shin
Santiago Uribe-Cardona
BASSES
Alexander Wallack
Walker Dean
Tina Battaglia
Daniel W. Meyer
J.T. O’Toole*
Victor Stahoviak+
FLUTES
Cierra Hall
Jungah Yoon
Daniel Fletcher
PICCOLOS
Alexander Day
Cierra Hall
OBOES
Kyungyeon Hong
Jonathan Kronheimer
ENGLISH HORNS
Orlando Salazar
Kyungyeon Hong
CLARINETS
Hae Sol (Amy) Hur*
Elizabeth Kapitaniuk
BASS CLARINET
Tyler Baillie
* Civic Orchestra Fellow + Civic Orchestra Alumni
BASSOONS
Ian Schneiderman
Alexander Lake
HORNS
Layan Atieh
Kate Meffert
Lauren Goff
Loren Ho
Emily Whittaker
TRUMPETS
Hamed Barbarji
Sean-David Whitworth
Abner Wong
TROMBONES
Arlo Hollander
Dustin Nguyen
BASS TROMBONE
Tim Warner
TUBA
Ben Poirot
TIMPANI
Tomas Leivestad
PERCUSSION
Alex Chao
Charley Gillette
Cameron Marquez*
Tae McLoughlin
Kevin Tan
Karel Zambrano
HARP
Kari Novilla*
CELESTA
Marissa Kerbel
LIBRARIAN
Benjimen Neal
NEGAUNEE MUSIC INSTITUTE AT THE CSO
the board of the negaunee music institute
Leslie Burns Chair
Steve Shebik Vice Chair
John Aalbregtse
David Arch
James Borkman
Jacqui Cheng
Ricardo Cifuentes
Richard Colburn
Dunni Cosey Gay
Charles Emmons
Judy Feldman
Lori Julian
Toni-Marie Montgomery
Rumi Morales
Mimi Murley
Margo Oberman
Gerald Pauling
Harper Reed
Melissa Root
Amanda Sonneborn
Eugene Stark
Dan Sullivan
Ex Officio Members
Jeff Alexander
Jonathan McCormick
Vanessa Moss
negaunee music institute administration
Jonathan McCormick Managing Director
Katy Clusen Associate Director, CSO for Kids
Katherine Eaton Coordinator, School Partnerships
Carol Kelleher Assistant, CSO for Kids
Anna Perkins Orchestra Manager, Civic Orchestra of Chicago
Zhiqian Wu Operations Coordinator, Civic Orchestra of Chicago
Rachael Cohen Program Manager
Charles Jones Program Assistant
Frances Atkins Content Director
Kristin Tobin Designer & Print Production Manager
Petya Kaltchev Editor
civic orchestra artistic leadership
Ken-David Masur Principal Conductor
The Robert Kohl and Clark Pellett Principal Conductor Chair
Coaches from the Chicago
Symphony Orchestra
Robert Chen Concertmaster
The Louis C. Sudler Chair, endowed by an anonymous benefactor
Baird Dodge Principal Second Violin
Teng Li Principal Viola
The Paul Hindemith Principal Viola Chair
Brant Taylor Cello
The Blickensderfer Family Chair
Alexander Hanna Principal Bass
The David and Mary Winton Green Principal Bass Chair
Stefán Ragnar Höskuldsson Principal Flute
The Erika and Dietrich M. Gross Principal Flute Chair
William Welter Principal Oboe
Stephen Williamson Principal Clarinet
Keith Buncke Principal Bassoon
William Buchman Assistant Principal Bassoon
Mark Almond Principal Horn
Esteban Batallán Principal Trumpet
The Adolph Herseth Principal Trumpet Chair, endowed by an anonymous benefactor
John Hagstrom Trumpet
The Bleck Family Chair
Tage Larsen Trumpet
Michael Mulcahy Trombone
Charles Vernon Bass Trombone
Gene Pokorny Principal Tuba
The Arnold Jacobs Principal Tuba Chair, endowed by Christine Querfeld
David Herbert Principal Timpani
The Clinton Family Fund Chair
Vadim Karpinos Assistant Principal Timpani, Percussion
Cynthia Yeh Principal Percussion
Justin Vibbard Principal Librarian
HONOR ROLL OF DONORS
Negaunee Music Institute at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
The Negaunee Music Institute connects individuals and communities to the extraordinary musical resources of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The following donors are gratefully acknowledged for making a gift in support of these educational and engagement programs. To make a gift or learn more, please contact Kevin Gupana, Associate Director of Giving, Educational and Engagement Programs, 312-294-3156.
$150,000 AND ABOVE
Lori Julian for The Julian Family Foundation
The Negaunee Foundation
$100,000–$149,999
Abbott Fund
Allstate Insurance Company
Megan and Steve Shebik
$75,000–$99,999
John Hart and Carol Prins
Barbara and Barre Seid Foundation
$50,000–$74,999
Anonymous
BMO
Robert and Joanne Crown Income
Charitable Fund
Lloyd A. Fry Foundation
Judy and Scott McCue
Ms. Deborah K. McNeil
Polk Bros. Foundation
Michael and Linda Simon
Lisa and Paul Wiggin
$35,000–$49,999
Bowman C. Lingle Trust
National Endowment for the Arts
Margo and Michael Oberman
$25,000–$34,999
Anonymous
Carey and Brett August
John D. and Leslie Henner Burns
Crain-Maling Foundation
Nancy Dehmlow
Kinder Morgan
The Maval Foundation
Ms. Cecelia Samans
Shure Charitable Trust
Gene and Jean Stark
$20,000–$24,999
Anonymous
Mary and Lionel Go
Halasyamani/Davis Family
Illinois Arts Council Agency
Richard P. and Susan Kiphart Family
Mr. Philip Lumpkin
PNC
D. Elizabeth Price
Sandra and Earl Rusnak, Jr. †
Charles and M. R. Shapiro Foundation
The George L. Shields Foundation, Inc.
Dr. Marylou Witz
$15,000–$19,999
Nancy A. Abshire
Mr. & Mrs. John Baldwin
Robert and Isabelle Bass Foundation, Inc.
Sue and Jim Colletti
Dr. Leo and Catherine Miserendino
$11,500–$14,999
Barker Welfare Foundation
Mr. † & Mrs. David A. Donovan
Nancy and Bernard Dunkel
Benjamin J. Rosenthal Foundation
Ksenia A. and Peter Turula
$7,500–$11,499
Anonymous (2)
Robert H. Baum and MaryBeth Kretz
Fred and Phoebe Boelter
The Buchanan Family Foundation
Mr. Lawrence Corry
Mrs. Carol Evans, in memory of Henry Evans
Ellen and Paul Gignilliat
Mr. & Mrs. Joseph B. Glossberg
Chet Gougis and Shelley Ochab
Mary Winton Green
Mr. & Mrs. Edward T. Joyce
The League of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association
Mr. Glen Madeja and Ms. Janet Steidl
Drs. Robert † and Marsha Mrtek
Ms. Susan Norvich
Mr. & Mrs. Aaron Oberman
Ms. Emilysue Pinnell
Mary and Joseph Plauché
Ms. Liisa M. Thomas and Mr. Stephen L. Pratt
Laura and Terrence Truax
Theodore and Elisabeth Wachs
$4,500–$7,499
Dora J. and R. John Aalbregtse
Joseph Bartush
Charles H. and Bertha L. Boothroyd Foundation
Ann and Richard Carr
Harry F. and Elaine Chaddick Foundation
CIBC
Dr. Brenda A. Darrell and Mr. Paul S. Watford
Charles and Carol Emmons
Tarek and Ann Fadel
Mr. Graham C. Grady
Ms. Dawn E. Helwig
Mr. James Kastenholz and Ms. Jennifer Steans
Dr. June Koizumi
Leoni and Bill McVey
Jim and Ginger Meyer
Stephen and Rumi Morales
David † and Dolores Nelson
Dr. Linda Novak
The Osprey Foundation
Lee Ann and Savit Pirl
Robert J. Richards and Barbara A. Richards
Dr. Scholl Foundation
Dr. & Mrs. R. Solaro
Ms. Joanne C. Tremulis
Mr. Paul R. Wiggin
Zell Family Foundation
$3,500–$4,499
Anonymous (2)
Mr. & Mrs. Paul Clusen
Mr. & Mrs. Dwight Decker
Mr. Clinton J. Ecker and Ms. Jacqui Cheng
Judith E. Feldman
Ms. Mirjana Martich and Mr. Zoran Lazarevic
Mr. Bruce Oltman
$2,500–$3,499
Anonymous
David and Suzanne Arch
Mr. James Borkman
Adam Bossov
Ms. Danolda Brennan
Ms. Rosalind Britton
Mr. Ray Capitanini
Ms. Debora de Hoyos and Mr. Walter Carlson
Lisa Chessare
Mr. Ricardo Cifuentes
Patricia A. Clickener
David and Janet Fox
Mr. † & Mrs. Robert Heidrick
William B. Hinchliff
Michael and Leigh Huston
Dr. Victoria Ingram and Dr. Paul Navin
Merle L. Jacob
Ronald E. Jacquart
Ms. Stephanie Jones
Anne and John † Kern
Northern Trust
Ms. Jane Park
Mr. & Mrs. Jeffery Piper
Mr. & Mrs. Stephen Racker
Erik and Nelleke Roffelsen
Mr. David Sandfort
Gerald and Barbara Schultz
Mr. & Mrs. Thomas Scorza
Jessie Shih and Johnson Ho
Amanda A. Sonneborn
Carol S. Sonnenschein
Mr. † & Mrs. Hugo Sonnenschein
Mr. Peter Vale
Mr. Kenneth Witkowski
Jack And Goldie Wolfe Miller Fund
Ms. Camille Zientek
ENDOWED FUNDS
Anonymous (5)
Dr. & Mrs. Bernard H. Adelson Fund
Marjorie Blum-Kovler Youth Concert Fund
Civic Orchestra Chamber Access Fund
The Davee Foundation
Frank Family Fund
Kelli Gardner Youth Education Endowment Fund
Jennifer Amler Goldstein Fund, in memory of Thomas M. Goldstein
Mary Winton Green
John Hart and Carol Prins Fund for Access
William Randolph Hearst Foundation Fund
Richard A. Heise
Julian Family Foundation Fund
The Kapnick Family
Lester B. Knight Charitable Trust
Robert Kohl and Clark Pellett Chair Fund
The Malott Family School Concerts Fund
Eloise W. Martin Endowed Funds
Murley Family Fund
The Negaunee Foundation
Margo and Michael Oberman Community Access Fund
Nancy Ranney and Family and Friends
Helen Regenstein Guest Conductor Fund
Edward F. Schmidt Family Fund
Shebik Community Engagement Programs Fund
The Wallace Foundation
Zell Family Foundation
CIVIC ORCHESTRA OF CHICAGO SCHOLARSHIPS
Members of the Civic Orchestra receive an annual stipend to help offset some of their living expenses during their training in Civic. The following donors have generously helped to support these stipends for the 2024–25 season.
Ten Civic members participate in the Civic Fellowship program, a rigorous artistic and professional development curriculum that supplements their membership in the full orchestra. Major funding for this program is generously provided by Lori Julian for the Julian Family Foundation
Nancy A. Abshire
Mason Spencer,* viola
Dr. & Mrs. Bernard H. Adelson Fund
Elena Galentas, viola
Fred and Phoebe Boelter
Daniel W. Meyer, bass
Rosalind Britton^
Sam Day, cello
John and Leslie Burns**
Layan Atieh, horn
Will Stevens, oboe
Robert and Joanne Crown
Income Charitable Fund
Charley Gillette, percussion
Kyungyeon Hong, oboe
Buianto Lkhasaranov, cello
Matthew Musachio,* violin
Sam Sun, viola
Mr. † & Mrs. David Donovan
Bennett Norris, bass
Charles and Carol Emmons^ Will Stevens, oboe
David and Janet Fox^
Carlos Lozano Sanchez, viola
Ellen and Paul Gignilliat
Tiffany Kung, bass
Mr. & Mrs. Joseph B. Glossberg
Hannah Novak, bass
Richard and Alice Godfrey
Darren Carter, violin
Jennifer Amler Goldstein Fund, in memory of Thomas M. Goldstein
Alex Chao, percussion
Chet Gougis and Shelley Ochab
Nick Reeves, cello
Mary Winton Green
Walker Dean, bass
Jane Redmond Haliday Chair
Munire Mona Mierxiati, violin
Lori Julian for the Julian Family Foundation
David Caplan, cello
Lina Yamin,* violin
League of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association
