DSSO Northern Sounds Magazine 2025-26 Volume 1 by Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra

6 Music Director Dirk Meyer

7 Executive Director J. David Arnott

8 Staff and Administration

8 Board of Directors

MEET THE ORCHESTRA

10–11 Orchestra Personnel

DULUTH SUPERIOR SYMPHONY YOUTH ORCHESTRAS

12 Duluth Superior Symphony Youth Orchestras

MASTERWORKS 1: Scheherazade

16–22 Program Notes

MASTERWORKS 2: Lord Nelson Mass

26–31 Program Notes

DSSO CHORUS

32–33 Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra Chorus

POPS 1: Holiday Spectacular

36 Program Notes

MASTERWORKS 3: Sibelius & Shostakovitch

40–46 Program Notes

SUPPORTING THE DSSO

50 How to Support the Orchestra

52–55 DSSO Contributors

56–57 In Memory

57 In Honor

58 Sponsors

Morning Classics

Host Stephanie Elkins

WELCOME FELLOW MUSIC LOVER

I am thrilled to welcome you to the DSSO’s 2025/2026 season! This year we celebrate Erin Aldridge’s 20th season as Concertmaster of the DSSO. What a remarkable achievement by an incredible musician! Erin will be featured on two of our Masterworks concerts. First, she will represent the voice of Scheherazade in Rimsky-Korsakov’s spellbinding masterpiece of the same name. Then, later in the season, she will be our featured soloist in one of her favorite concertos, Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No.1.

Talking about amazing soloists, Adam Golka joins us for two seldom performed works for piano and orchestra: Camille Saint-Saëns Africa and Fazil Say’s Silk Road Concerto, a work that incorporates all sorts of fascinating techniques and sound effects for the piano. We will feature wonderful vocal soloists alongside the DSSO Chorus for Haydn’s grand Lord Nelson Mass and

Poulenc’s Gloria. Finally, up-and-coming piano superstar Evren Ozel will join guest conductor William Eddins for Beethoven’s beloved Piano Concerto No.4.

In between we present many a musical jewel. Be it from less familiar composers such as Anna Clyne, Lili Boulanger or Michael Abels, or from blockbuster names such as Sibelius, Liszt, Bizet or Schumann, our season truly offers something for everyone.

Alongside our Masterworks Series, the DSSO will present two pops concerts: In December we bring back our popular Holiday Spectacular. Featuring the DSSO Chorus singing the most beloved melodies of the season, this is truly an event for the entire family. Then, in April, the DSSO takes you to the silver screen once more with John Williams’ legendary score to Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. With the full movie on the big screen and all music performed live by the orchestra, you will experience Steven Spielberg’s classic in a completely new way.

So, help us spread the word and let more members of our community experience the joy of orchestral music. Bring a friend, invite a neighbor, include the DSSO on your date night. However you like to enjoy the music, we are thrilled you are here, and we are honored to share our music with you.

Dirk Meyer, Music Director

Music Director Dirk Meyer

The smell of new carpet and a freshly printed program—it must be time for a new concert season! The DSSO is headed in the right direction. While we have undergone some profound changes over the last 18 months, the team we now have is operating on all cylinders and keeping the orchestra alive. While we are not always able to immediately answer every phone call, our phone answering system will now allow you to leave a detailed message, to which we will respond in the order your call was received. Having heard so much feedback from patrons about the live answering service, we have gone back to the more traditional system of “please leave your message after the beep.”

The new season includes a wide variety of exceptional music and musicians. Silk Road by Fazil Say will be an unforgettable piece.

2025-26

My favorite piece this season (and I am freely admitting it here) is Love’s Pure Light by Elaine Hagenberg which the DSSO Chorus will sing with us in December. Our guest conductor for Masterworks 5 is none other than Bill Eddins! Having played under his baton at least a few times, his presence will delight one and all, as will Evren Ozel’s Beethoven Fourth Piano Concerto. Evren recently placed in the Van Cliburn Piano Competition (his contract with us was signed prior to the competition!). And of course, we dedicate the whole season to Erin Aldridge’s 20th anniversary as concertmaster!

We are again in the movie business with a showing (possibly two) of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Besides being a great movie, the soundtrack to this is incredibly challenging and will keep the orchestra busy all night. We will again have value-added events and guests in the lobby to make this a fun event for the whole family (please invite your friends to this as well).

As always, we are seeking Chair Sponsors for musicians, Homestay hosts for those musicians who travel great distances to play with us (we are a “regional” orchestra after all), and volunteers for a variety of needs. There are many ways of supporting the DSSO—the most important of which is through the ticket you bought that got this program in your hands.

J. David Arnott, Executive Director

SEASON SCHEDULE

MW1 September 20, 2025

MW2 November 8, 2025

POPS 1 December 6, 2025

MW3 January 31, 2026

MW4 February 28, 2026

MW5 March 21, 2026

POPS 2 April 11, 2026

MW6 May 16, 2026

Executive Director J. David Arnott

ADMINISTRATION

J. David Arnott, Executive Director

Kristin Sande, Arts Administration Specialist

Andrea Halligan, Marketing and Design Consultant

ARTISTIC STAFF

Dirk Meyer, The Charles A. & Carolyn M. Russell Music Director

J. David Arnott, Director of Orchestra Operations

Wyatt Millaway-Roodell, Production Coordinator

Kathleen Laasko, Stage Manager

CHORUS

Richard Carrick, Chorus Master generously sponsored by members of the DSSO Chorus & anonymous donors

Áine Miller, Chorus Administrator

Beth Sobczak, Rehearsal Accompanist

CONCERT BOX OFFICE

Jean Larson, Box Office Associate

Hannah Wohlers, Front of House Assistant

Cas Bordner, Front of House Assistant

OF DIRECTORS

YOUTH ORCHESTRAS

Melanie Sever, Administrative Director and Concert Orchestra Conductor

Kristin Sande, Youth Orchestras Administrative Assistant

Ronald Kari, Youth Orchestras Coordinator

Byron Klimek, Youth Symphony Conductor

Kevin Hoeschen, Sinfonia Conductor

Teresa Aho, Sinfonia Conductor

Kristina Bock, Sinfonia Coach

Amy Eichers, Sinfonia Coach

Jeremy Craycraft, Percussion Ensemble Director

NORTHERN SOUNDS

Thanks to Pro Print for the printing of this edition of Northern Sounds.

NORTHERN SOUNDS PROGRAM NOTES

Vincent Osborn, Program Notes Author

Ronald Kari, Performance Historian, now in his 64th Season with DSSO

Kristin Sande, Research Assistant

2025/26 BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Branden Robinson, President, Treasurer

Mark Danielson, Secretary

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Linda Boben

Mark Danielson

Rhonda Degelau

Beth Gilbert

Olivia Huston

Maggie Johnson

Tegan Johnson

Jill Kaiser

Steve Mattson

James McLeod

Emily Nygren

William “Buzz” Palmer

Deborah Rausch

Branden Robinson

James Sebastian

Nairi Stack

Rajiv Vaidyanathan

Roberta Vose

Katrina Werchouski

J. David Arnott

Dirk Meyer

HONORARY LIFE DIRECTORS

Christabel Grant

Elaine Killen

Nancy Melander

James Zastrow

MEET THE ORCHESTRA

Dirk Meyer, The Charles A. & Carolyn M. Russell Music Director

FIRST VIOLIN

Erin Aldridge, Concertmaster

Sponsored by Arend J. & Verna Sandbulte in support of the concertmaster chair through the Sandbulte Orchestra Leadership Fund

Angela Waterman-Hanson, Associate Concertmaster

SECOND VIOLIN

Laurie Bastian, Principal

VIOLA

Kevin Hoeschen, Principal

CELLO

Betsy Husby, Principal Sponsored by Christabel Grant

Lucia Magney, Assistant Principal

DOUBLE BASS

Cassidy Morgan, Principal

FLUTE

James DeVoll, Principal

CLARINET

Jennifer Gerth, Principal

Sponsored by William “Buzz” & Saundra Palmer

Kristine Peterson, Clarinet 2

Theodore Schoen, Clarinet 3/Utility

HORN

James Pospisil, Principal

TRUMPET

Earl Salemink, Principal Sponsored by Mary Evans

Charles Leibfried, Trumpet 2

Sponsored by Jeff & Vickie Cadwell; Patricia & David Mast

Thomas Pfotenhauer, Trumpet 3

TROMBONE

Larry Zimmerman, Principal Sponsored by Gale & Jeri Kerns; Roberta Vose

Christian Howard, Trombone 2

James Erickson, Bass Trombone Sponsored by Mark Danielson & Theresa Smith

TUBA

Steve Grove, Principal

Sponsored by Helena Jackson & Doug Dunham

TIMPANI

Fred Morgan, Principal

PERCUSSION

Colin O’ Day, Principal Sponsored by Dr. Susan Relf

HARP

Janell Kokkonen Lemire, Principal Sponsored by Elaine B. Killen

KEYBOARD

Alexander Sandor, Principal

DULUTH SUPERIOR SYMPHONY YOUTH ORCHESTRAS

For 85 years, thousands of young musicians throughout the Northland have found inspiration in the Duluth Superior Symphony Youth Orchestras program (DSSYO).

The DSSYO allows these young musicians to sharpen their music skills through a variety of experiences with DSSO conductors and musicians in rehearsals, sectionals, and side-by-side performances.

Auditions are held annually to find new members for the intermediate and advanced orchestras. The Sinfonia program is for string players only and is non-auditioned. DSSYO membership is open to students ages 10 through high school.

In addition to advanced performance opportunities and weekly rehearsals, your DSSYO membership includes free tickets to DSSO concerts (exclusions apply) and professional coaching, as well as an annual retreat. JOIN US FOR OUR 2025/26

2025/26 CONCERTS

10/25/25 Eek! The Depot Concert St. Louis County Depot 12/6/25 Holiday Spectacular DECC Symphony Hall 2/1/26 Lollipop with LOON DECC Symphony Hall 5/3/26 Spring Concert College of St. Scholastica

MASTERWORKS 1

Scheherazade

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2025, 7 PM

DECC SYMPHONY HALL – ALLETE STAGE

DIRK MEYER, CONDUCTOR

ADAM GOLKA, PIANO

WEBER

Overture to Abu Hassan

SAINT-SAËNS

Africa, op. 89

Adam Golka, piano

SAY

Silk Road, Piano Concerto No. 2

White Dove, Black Clouds

Hindu Dances

Massacre

Earth Ballad

Adam Golka, piano

INTERMISSION

RIMSKY-KORSAKOV

Scheherazade, op. 35

The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship

The Legend of the Kalendar Prince

The Young Prince and the Young Princess

Festival at Baghdad

Thank you to our generous concert sponsor

Adam Golka

Polish-American pianist Adam Golka (born 1987) first performed all of Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas when he was 18, and in 2020-2021 he performed the complete cycle at the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park (Florida) and at Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue (NYC), in socially-distanced and live-stream formats. Adam’s performances were complemented by 32 short films he created, known as 32@32 (available on YouTube), documenting his preparation for climbing the Everest of piano literature and featuring guests from an astrophysicist to Alfred Brendel.

Adam’s principal teachers have been José Feghali, with whom he studied at Texas Christian University, and Leon Fleisher at the Peabody Conservatory. He has since developed his artistry through mentorship from Alfred Brendel, Richard Goode, Murray Perahia, Mitsuko Uchida, Evelyne Crochet, Ferenc Rados, Rita Wagner, and Sir András Schiff, who invited him to perform at the Klavier-Festival Ruhr and Tonhalle Zürich for the “Sir András Schiff Selects” series. Adam has given solo recitals in Tokyo, Osaka, Amsterdam, Paris, Berlin, and New York’s Alice Tully Hall, as well as many venues across the US and Europe.

As a concerto soloist, he has appeared with the BBC Scottish Symphony, NACO (Ottawa), Warsaw Philharmonic, NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra, Shanghai Philharmonic, Orquesta Ciudad de Granada, Orquesta Filarmónica de Jalisco, Orquesta Sinfónica de Colombia, and over fifty US orchestras, including San Francisco, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Milwaukee, Indianapolis,

New Jersey, and San Diego symphonies. He has collaborated with conductors such as Joseph Swensen, Donald Runnicles, Pinchas Zukerman, Mark Wigglesworth, JoAnn Falletta, and frequently with his brother, conductor Tomasz Golka. Adam made his Carnegie Stern Auditorium début in 2010 with the New York Youth Symphony.

Chamber music is an integral part of his life, with performances at the Krzyżowa-Music “Music for Europe” Festival (including tours in Poland and Germany), as well as the Marlboro, Ravinia, and Caramoor festivals in the US. He collaborates regularly with the Manhattan Chamber Players and in recital with baritone John Moore, cellist Jonathan Swensen, and violinist Itamar Zorman, with whom he is scheduled for a third recital at London’s Wigmore Hall in 2026.

Adam’s career began with first prize and audience prize at the 2nd China Shanghai International Piano Competition. In 2008 he won the Gilmore Young Artist Award, and in 2009 the Max I. Allen Fellowship at the American Pianists Awards. He has recorded works by Beethoven, Schumann, and Brahms for First Hand Records, and in 2025 will release two new albums: Brahms’ early piano works plus a world premiere by Jan Swafford, and Chopin Sans Chopin, a curated selection of works inspired by Chopin, including a world premiere Mazurka by Natalia Janotha.

As a pedagogue, Adam was Artist-in-Residence for six years at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. He has premiered works by Michelle Barzel Ross, Richard Danielpour, Michael Brown, and Jarosław Gołębiowski, and most recently performed and recorded Andrea Casarrubios’ Piano Quintet. He currently serves as Artist-Teacher at the Longy School of Music of Bard College in Cambridge, MA, and is Artistic Advisor to the Krzyżowa-Music Festival. When not making music, Adam enjoys reading classic literature, visiting museums, swimming, and exploring somatic learning and movement awareness, especially the Feldenkrais Method.

Adam Golka also appeard with the DSSO March 24, 2012, Bohuslav Rattay (candidate conductor), Mozart Concerto No. 9, K. 271.

Overture to Abu Hassan

CARL MARIA VON WEBER

BAPTIZED: November 20, 1786, in Eutin (then in the Bishopric of Lübeck), Germany

DIED: June 5, 1826, in London, England

WORK COMPOSED: 1810-11

WORLD PREMIERE: June 4, 1811, Residenz Theater in Munich, Weber conducting

PERFORMANCE HISTORY: The DSSO performs this work for the first time tonight. There have been numerous performances of the overtures to Weber’s operas Der Freischütz, Oberon, and Euryanthe.

INSTRUMENTATION: Flute and piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, bass trombone, timpani, percussion (bass drum, cymbals, triangle) and strings.

DURATION: 4 minutes

Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber was a German composer, conductor, virtuoso pianist and guitarist in the early Romantic period. He was a crucial figure in the development of German Romantic opera. Weber’s mature operas: Silvana (1810), Abu Hassan (1811), Der Freischütz (1821), Die drei Pintos (1820-21), Euryanthe (1823) and Oberon (1826) had a major impact on other German opera composers such as Meyerbeer and Wagner.

As with many composers aristocratic patronage was very important. Weber’s new one-act opera Abu Hassan (composed between August 11, 1810

and January 12, 1811) was dedicated to the Grand Duke Ludwig I of Hesse-Darmstadt, for which he received a generous gift of 440 gulden (about $7,000 today). Abu Hassan is a comic opera and the earliest of Weber’s operas to have had a more or less continuous performance history. The overture to Abu Hassan is a lively and relatively short piece that opens with a solemn, chordal introduction establishing the tonality, then transitions into a faster section with characteristic Weberian melodies and textures. The style is firmly rooted in the Romantic genre with hints of Turkish influence, particularly in its use of the triangle and cymbals.

The incredible popularity of Weber’s opera Der Freischütz reached London in 1824 and resulted in the composer being invited to London to compose and produce an opera for Covent Garden based on Christoph Martin Wieland’s (1733-1813) poem Oberon. In 1826 Weber traveled to England where he finished the opera. He was already suffering from tuberculosis when he conducted the premiere on April 12 and another twelve sold-out performances during April and May. On June 5, 1826, Weber died at the home of his good friend and host Sir George Smart; he was 39 years old. He was buried in London in the vaults beneath the Catholic Chapel at Moorfields sixteen days later. In December 1844 his remains were transferred to the family burial plot in the Old Catholic Cemetery in Dresden at the side of his youngest son Alexander, who died of measles seven weeks before at the age of 19. Wagner composed a eulogy for unaccompanied male choir, An Weber’s Grabe, for the reburial on December 16, 1844. For this solemn occasion Wagner also composed “Funeral Music for Winds after Themes from Euryanthe of Weber”.

The story of Abu Hassan is taken from One Thousand and One Nights: the title character and his wife Fatime fake their deaths in order to collect burial funds that will enable them to pay off their considerable debts. Initially Hassan sends Fatime to the Caliph’s wife, Zobeide, to announce Hassan’s death, for which she receives fifty pieces of gold and a piece of brocade. Omar, a rich moneylender (loan shark), believes that Fatime has spoken to him of love and he agrees to pay all the other creditors. After Fatime returns, Hassan then goes to visit the Caliph and tells a similar story about his wife to get money from him. Omar reappears

to demand a kiss from Fatime, but Hassan returns. Omar hides in fear of being discovered. Mesrur, a messenger from the Caliph, arrives to see if Fatime really is dead. Both the Caliph and his wife want to know who it was who died, and if both, who died first. He sees Fatime’s body with Hassan at her side in distress. He leaves to tell the Caliph and as soon as he leaves Zobeide’s nurse appears on a similar errand and sees Hassan’s body with Fatime at his side in tears.

Now the Caliph and his wife are announced and Hassan and Fatime throw themselves on the divan and cover themselves as if they are dead. The Caliph offers 1,000 gold pieces to anyone who will tell him which one of them died first. Miraculously Hassan throws himself at the Caliph’s feet saying “It was me - I died first!” He asks for a pardon, as well as the gold. Fatime then does likewise and the Caliph pardons them both. Omar, who in hopes of winning Fatime’s heart had paid off Hassan’s debts, is then sent away in disgrace.

Africa, Op. 89

CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS

BORN: October 9, 1835, in Paris, France

DIED: December 16, 1921, in Algiers, Algeria (then under French rule)

WORK COMPOSED: 1891

WORLD PREMIERE: October 25, 1891, in Paris at the Concerts du Châtelet, MarieAimée Roger-Miclos soloist, Édouard Colonne conducting

PERFORMANCE HISTORY: There have been no previous performances of this work by the DSSO.

INSTRUMENTATION: Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, percussion (cymbals, triangle), strings and solo piano.

DURATION: 10 minutes

The death of his mother in December 1888 left Saint-Saëns depressed and suicidal. He left Paris for his favorite places, Algiers and Egypt, where he found solace walking and reading. Saint-Saëns left Algiers for Egypt to continue his recovery. In a letter dated September 20, 1889, he wrote pianist Marie-Aimée RogerMiclos (1860-1951), for whom he had made a commitment to compose a new piece, confessing his grief following his mother’s death and not being able to compose anything of importance. During this time in North Africa Saint-Saëns found the inspiration for his fantasia Africa

Saint-Saëns began composing Africa in March 1891 while he was in Cairo, completing it within a month. The work is in a single movement and requires outstanding technical virtuosity and agility from the soloist. Various African musical elements are incorporated into a Western European compositional framework. Saint-Saëns makes use of the nawâthar mode, a musical scale used in Egyptian music:

The beginning of Africa is an interpretation of a tune he heard in Bakra, a gateway settlement to the Sahara Desert. Based on the musical traditions of the Chaoui people (a Berber ethnic group native to the Aurès region in northeastern Algeria), the theme begins with the oboe playing an off-beat rhythm of the modal scale which is soon joined by the flute to bring in an exciting introduction for the piano.

Saint-Saëns wrote that Africa “is made up of African themes collected here and there over several years; there is even Tunisia’s national anthem. For a long time these materials wandered in my memory without my being able to coordinate them, when one day, in Cairo [...] I was seized by a ‘fever’ and the composition simply came to me.” The themes are melodic and rhythmic and they reveal the diversity of Africa’s musical traditions. He wrote to his publisher six months before the premiere of the work, “At times it borders on the Hungarian rhapsody; it is not my fault if the Bohemians of Hungary came from Africa. I have tried to show the unheard-of side of Africa, you will see if I have succeeded.”

The premiere of Africa was a huge success for Saint-Saëns. One reviewer praised it for its “exquisite finesse”, its “captivating and stylish finish”, and its “truly ingenious details in the orchestration.” Africa was performed around the world, usually with the composer as the soloist. He would write in his letters that he was very pleased with the piece and its performances, writing that “Africa fits me like a glove, I play it effortlessly, without worry.” Saint-Saëns considered Africa a signature work and he performed it frequently up until the First World War.

Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 4 Silk Road

FAZIL SAY

BORN: January 14, 1970, in Ankara, Turkey

WORK COMPOSED: 1994

WORLD PREMIERE: January 28, 1996, in Jordan Hall at the New England Conservatory of Music, Boston; Boston Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra, Fazil Say piano, Scott Yoo conducting

PERFORMANCE HISTORY: Tonight marks the first DSSO performance of any music by Fazil Say.

INSTRUMENTATION: Gong, strings and solo piano.

DURATION: 15 minutes

Fazil Say is a Turkish pianist and composer who works internationally. His father, Ahmet Say, was an author and musicologist. His mother, Gürgün Say, was a pharmacist. The young Fazil was a child prodigy, able to do basic arithmetic with four-digit numbers at the age of two. When his father heard him playing a melody on a makeshift flute with no prior training, he enlisted the help of Ali Kemal Kaya, a family friend and oboist. Fazil also started piano lessons at the age of three. By the age of fourteen Say was a student at the Ankara State Conservatory and he wrote a piano sonata, his first composition. His other earlier works display a significant personal style, drawing from melodic ideas based on folk music themes of Turkey and its neighbors. He attracted international attention with Black Earth, Op. 8 (1997), a piano piece that employs a prepared piano, a technique made popular by John Cage (1912-1992).

The publisher, Schott, describes the work: This concerto, composed by Fazil Say in Berlin at the age of 24, explores the fascinating story of the Silk Road adventure. The folkloric styles of four countries (Tibet, India, Mesopotamia, and Anatolia) are treated with contemporary sensitivity in this work.

Say invested five months listening to all 14,000 recordings of oriental music at the Völkerkunde Museum Berlin as part of an ethnological musicology project. Despite the fact that the work is an abstract treatment of folk music, the real goal is to capitalize on the boundlessness of the imagination and experience the caravan adventure through the sonic representation of the countries’ atmospheres.

Scheherazade, Op. 35

NIKOLAI RIMSKY-KORSAKOV

BORN: March 18, 1844, in Tikhvin, near the Russian city of Novgorod

DIED: June 21, 1908, in Lyubensk, near Saint Petersburg

WORK COMPOSED: 1888

WORLD PREMIERE: October 28, 1888, at the Club of Nobility in Saint Petersburg; Rimsky-Korsakov conducting

PERFORMANCE HISTORY: This is the tenth Masterworks performance of this work. In 2015 the Minnesota Ballet appeared with the DSSO and Dirk Meyer with Erin Aldridge playing the violin solos.

INSTRUMENTATION: Two flutes and piccolo, two oboes (one doubling English horn), two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (bass drum, cymbals, suspended cymbal, snare drum, triangle, tambourine, tamtam), harp and strings.

DURATION: 40 minutes

In July 1874 Rimsky-Korsakov took his wife and young child to Sevastopol on the southern coast of Crimea, which is across the Black Sea from what is now Istanbul. On a trip to the town of Bakchisaray, he was fascinated by the sounds and character of the coffee houses, vendors, the chanting from the mosques and the music. He wrote that “while hearing the gypsy musicians” he “first became acquainted with oriental music in its natural state.” It is this experience and his love of the sea that may have influenced him to write Scheherazade

Rimsky-Korsakov was busy finishing Borodin’s opera Prince Igor, which was left unfinished after Borodin’s untimely death at the age of 53. Putting off any composing of his own during the winter of 1887-88, he did conceive of two new orchestral pieces, which would also be the last of his works composed with virtually no Wagnerian influence. One was based on themes used in the Russian Orthodox Church that came to be known as his Russian Easter Overture and the other was based on episodes from the massive collection of tales known as The Arabian Nights Both works were finished in the summer of 1888.

Rimsky-Korsakov prefaced the first edition of his score to Scheherazade: “The Sultan Shahriar, convinced of the duplicity and infidelity of all women, vowed to slay each of his wives after the first night. The Sultana Scheherazade, however, saved her life by the expedient of recounting to the Sultan a succession of tales over a period of one thousand and one nights. Overcome by curiosity, the monarch postponed the execution of his wife from day to day, and ended by renouncing his sanguinary resolution altogether.” The titles for the four movements are: The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship, The Story of the Kalendar Prince, The Young Prince and the Young Princess, and The Festival in Baghdad-The Sea-Shipwreck on the Rock Surmounted by a Bronze Warrior. Two opposing themes open the first movement, The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship: a solemn and stern tune dominated by the brass, and a luscious violin melody introduced by the woodwinds. The violinist represents Scheherazade weaving her tales for the stern sultan. These two themes are found throughout all four movements, albeit in different moods corresponding to different images and actions. In search of greater wisdom, a royal prince disguises himself as a member of a wandering tribe called Kalendars in The Story of the Kalendar Prince. In the tale of The Young Prince and the Young Princess, they each live in different kingdoms and refuse to marry. Two interfering genies put them in bed together for one night and they fall instantly in love. But the genies whisk them away before they are even introduced and they fall ill because they cannot find each other again. Of course it’s a fairy tale and they are reunited and live happily ever after. The first three movements are recapped in the final movement, The Festival in Baghdad-The Sea-Shipwreck on the Rock Surmounted by a Bronze Warrior, with constant reminders that it is Scheherazade telling these stories to the murderous sultan. In the end, the sultan has been won over and accepts Scheherazade as his one permanent and loving wife.

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MASTERWORKS 2

Lord Nelson Mass

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2025, 7 PM

DECC SYMPHONY HALL – ALLETE STAGE

DIRK MEYER, CONDUCTOR

SARAH LAWRENCE, SADIE CHESLAK, JOSHUA KOHL, ANDREW WILKOWSKE

DSSO CHORUS

RICHARD CARRICK, CHORUS MASTER CLYNE

Restless Oceans (2018)

BRAHMS

Serenade No. 2 in A Major, op. 16

Allegro moderato

Scherzo. Vivace

Adagio non troppo

Quasi menuetto

Rondo. Allegro

INTERMISSION

HAYDN

Missa in angustiis (Lord Nelson Mass)

Kyrie

Gloria Credo

Sanctus Benedictus

Agnus Dei

Dona nobis

Thank you to our generous concert sponsor

Sarah Lawrence, Sadie Cheslak, Joshua Kohl, Andrew Wilkowske

DSSO Chorus

Restless Oceans (2018) by Anna Clyne is presented under license from Boosey & Hawkes, Inc.

Sarah Lawrence

Sarah Lawrence enjoys a widely varied career as a singing actor in opera, musical theatre, and in concert, singing everything from Baroque to Broadway.

Ms. Lawrence has performed with the symphonies of Augusta, Omaha, Madison, Milwaukee, Boise, the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, the San Luis Obispo Symphony Orchestra, Music St. Croix, Oratorio Society of Minnesota, and Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, singing repertoire including Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s Creation, Bach’s B Minor Mass, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, and Prokofiev’s Ugly Duckling. A frequent pops soloist, Sarah has sung concerts of Rodgers & Hammerstein, Lerner & Loewe, Sondheim and Bernstein.

Equally comfortable on the stage, Ms. Lawrence has performed more than 30 roles in opera and musical theatre.

Ms. Lawrence appeared as Christine Daaé as a member of the Third National Tour of The Phantom of the Opera and in Phantom: The Vegas Spectacular

Last season included performances as Adele in the Lyric Opera of the North production of Die Fledermaus and a Bernstein-Sondheim concert with Oratorio Society of Minnesota. This season includes Messiah with Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and a turn as Desiree in A Little Night Music with Lyric Opera of the North at the Depot Theatre. Sarah and her husband Cal Metts are the co-General Artistic Directors at Lyric Opera of the North. They make their home in Duluth with their daughter Giulia. For more information about Sarah Lawrence, please visit sarahelawrence.com.

Sadie Cheslak

Sadie Cheslak is a mezzo-soprano originally from Duluth, Minnesota. In March, Sadie won the 2025 Metropolitan Opera’s Laffont Competition, receiving The Birgit Nilsson Award of the American-Scandinavian Foundation. Ms. Cheslak won first prize at the 2025 Jensen Foundation Vocal Competition, first prize at the Wagner Society of New York’s 2025 Singers Competition, first prize at the Vero Beach Opera 2025 Rising Stars Competition, third prize and The Luana DeVol Prize for the Dramatic Voice at the 2024 SAS Performing Arts Vocal Competition, and fourth overall and the prize for Most Promising Voice of the Competition at the 2024 NATS Artist Awards. Sadie was last heard in Duluth in recital with Lyric Opera of the North joined by soprano Lacy Sauter In September. Sadie recently finished her time as a young artist at Merola Opera Program in San Francisco, where she performed the role of La zia Principessa in Suor Angelica scenes. In January, Sadie covered the role of Madame de la Haltière in Massenet’s Cendrillon with Cedar Rapids Opera as a Smith Young Artist. In 2024, she sang at Wolf Trap Opera as a Studio Artist, featured in excerpts of Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice as Orphée, covered the alto soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, and covered Mrs. Pascal in a workshop of The House of Yes by Kamala Sankaram. Excelling in contemporary opera, Sadie has workshopped roles like Lumee in prism by Ellen Reid (2019 Pulitzer Prize winner and Beth Morrison Project), Jane Doe in Black Square by Ilya Demutsky, and performing the title role in The Surrogate by Sky Macklay. Sadie earned a BM Voice Performance from Concordia College, her MM Voice Performance and Literature from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, and a Postmaster’s Certificate in Voice from DePaul University. This January, Sadie Cheslak joins the prestigious Adler Fellowship Program, a resident artist program through San Francisco Opera.

Joshua Kohl

Joshua Kohl, a seasoned tenor with over 20 years of experience on the international opera stage, brings a wealth of artistic expertise to his role as Artistic Director of Fargo-Moorhead Opera. His distinguished performance career includes leading roles with companies such as Seattle Opera, Minnesota Opera, and Pittsburgh Opera, as well as international engagements at Musiktheater im Revier and Konzert Theater Bern.

Renowned for his versatility and dramatic depth, Joshua performed an extensive repertoire during his six seasons with Theater Freiburg, including Des Grieux, Rodolfo, Pinkerton, and Peter Quint, earning critical acclaim for his recording of Hulda. His connection to FM Opera began in 2013 with performances in Gianni Schicchi, Carmen, and La Bohème, and in 2017, he made Fargo his home.

In addition to his artistic leadership, Joshua works as a Professional Search Consultant at Preference Employment Solutions, supporting the local community. Drawing on his global experience and collaborative spirit, he is committed to building upon FM Opera’s legacy of excellence and fostering new talent.

Andrew Wilkowske

Hailed by Opera News as “a natural comedian and a fine singer,” Andrew Wilkowske is known on the opera and theater stage for his dynamic performances and masterful stage presence. He has performed at Minnesota Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Komische Oper Berlin, Cincinnati Opera, Atlanta Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Chicago Opera Theater, and Carnegie Hall among others. His rock recital Guns N’ Rosenkavalier has played across the country, and he and librettist Kelley Rourke were commissioned by Theater Latte Da in Minneapolis to re-imagine the Verdi/Piave opera Macbeth for rock instrumentation. Wilkowske lives in St. Paul, MN. For more information about Andrew Wilkowske, please visit andrewwilkowske.com.

Restless Oceans

ANNA CLYNE

BORN: March 9, 1980, London, England

WORK COMPOSED: 2018

WORLD PREMIERE: January 22, 2019, at the World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland; Taki Concordia Orchestra, Marin Alsop conducting

PERFORMANCE HISTORY: Only one other work by Anna Clyne has been given by the Orchestra: PIVOT on September 16, 2023 with Dirk Meyer conducting.

INSTRUMENTATION: Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, percussion (large kick bass drum, snare drum) and strings.

DURATION: 4 minutes

Anna Clyne composed Restless Oceans in 2018 for Marin Alsop and the all-female Taki Concordia Orchestra to be premiered at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Clyne found her inspiration from a poem by Audre Lorde, A Woman Speaks. Julia Grella O’Connell writes in her program notes for the Binghamton Philharmonic that Lorde’s poem “uses time and the cosmos as metaphors for the strength and vision of Black womanhood.” The title of Clyne’s composition comes from the poem: “if you would know me/ look into the entrails of Uranus/where the restless oceans pound.”

Clyne wrote that her intention was to write “a defiant piece that embraces the power of women.” From the very opening of Restless Oceans one instantly recognizes the driving, mixed-meter intensity of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. These defiant and intense sections are interspersed with tender, pastoral episodes where the musicians vocalize the lyrical melody. However, as calming as the pastoral episode sounds, the forward motion lies underneath like a restless ocean. O’Connell describes the use of the two different moods as the “tempestuous changes of the natural world with the emotional resilience of the human heart.”

Serenade No. 2 in A major, Op. 16

JOHANNES BRAHMS

BORN: May 7, 1833, in Hamburg, Germany

DIED: April 3, 1897, in Vienna, Austria

WORK COMPOSED: 1859; revised 1875

WORLD PREMIERE: February 10, 1860, in Hamburg, Germany; Brahms conducting

PERFORMANCE HISTORY: The only DSSO performance of this piece was on a special chamber music concert in 1985 at First Lutheran Church in Duluth with Taavo Virkhaus conducting. Serenade No. 1 has not been played by the Orchestra.

INSTRUMENTATION: Two flutes and piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, and strings (no violins).

DURATION: 29 minutes

From his early childhood Brahms was considered a prodigy. His first piano teacher observed, after the death of Felix Mendelssohn (18091847), that “A great master of the music arts has gone hence, but an even greater one will bloom for us in Brahms.” At the age of twenty Brahms introduced himself to the Schumanns, Robert (1810-1856) and Clara (1819-1896), and played for them a few of his pieces. Writing in his journal that evening, Robert described Brahms as a genius. Schumann published an article soon afterwards calling Brahms the coming savior of German music, saving it from what Schumann

considered the “vandalisms of Wagner and Liszt, who had turned away from Classical forms and genres.” Schumann declared Brahms “a real Beethovener,” with the unspoken expectation that he would produce symphonies exceeding the level of the great Beethoven. No pressure there! Brahms agonized over composing his first symphony and he worked long and hard on it, beginning in 1854 and completing it in 1876.

Shortly after Robert Schumann died, Brahms resided in Detmold where he had access to an orchestra. He composed two Serenades, Op. 11 and 16, which one might consider preliminary steps to composing a full symphony. A previous attempt at a symphony developed into his First Piano Concerto, which he completed in 1858. His Serenade No. 1 is for a full orchestra while Serenade No. 2 has no violins, trumpets or timpani. He dedicated this Serenade No. 2 to Clara Schumann, who was delighted with it (Brahms valued Clara’s opinions of his works). Years later, in 1875, Brahms revised it and created a chamber orchestra version. The same year he also reworked the piece for piano four-hands.

For the very curious, it is extremely interesting to listen to the two Serenades and then follow them with the four Symphonies. They are all identifiable with Brahms’ style but the symphonies contain an emotional depth that is missing in the Serenades. Of course, Brahms was still a relatively young man full of himself when he composed the Serenades. On the title page of the Serenade in D major he wrote “Symphony-Serenade” then later scratched out “Symphony.” He didn’t want anyone to consider the Serenades any more ambitious than what they were - tuneful, cheery and delightful works.

Serenade No. 2 has all the stuff that is recognizable as the real Brahms. Warmth, flowing and gracious melodies, rhythmic complexities are all characteristic of his later works and are all found in this Serenade. The final movement dances along and is filled with all manner of orchestral brilliance that is augmented by the bright piccolo at the very end.

Mass in D minor, Hob. XXII:11, Lord Nelson Mass

JOSEPH HAYDN

BORN: March 31, 1732, in Rohrau, Austria

DIED: May 31, 1809, in Vienna

WORK COMPOSED: July 10-August 31, 1798

WORLD PREMIERE: September 23, 1798, at St. Martin’s Cathedral in Eisenstadt, Burgenland, Austria

PERFORMANCE HISTORY: There have been two previous performances of this work: in 2005 with Markand Thakar conducting and in 1980 with Taavo Virkhaus.

INSTRUMENTATION: Flute, two oboes, two clarinets, bassoon, two horns, three trumpets, timpani, organ, strings, mixed chorus and solo vocal quartet.

DURATION: 42 minutes

The Missa in angustiis (Mass for troubled times), commonly known as the Lord Nelson Mass is one of the six masses written near the end of Haydn’s life and, as his chief biographer puts it, “arguably Haydn’s greatest single composition.” Written for the Esterházy family, the Lord Nelson Mass, along with his other late sacred works, was influenced by the experience of his London symphonies.

The summer of 1798 the world was in turmoil. Napoleon had won four major battles against the

Austrian army and in early 1797, French armies had crossed the Alps and threatened Vienna itself. On August 1, 1798, the French Navy had been dealt a crushing defeat at the Battle of the Nile by a British fleet under the command of Rear Admiral Horatio Nelson. The mass gradually earned the nickname Nelson Mass because of the coincidence of the mass being written during the time of this battle. The nickname became indelible when Nelson himself visited Esterházy Palace in 1800 and may have possibly heard the mass conducted by Haydn, whom he also met. Haydn did not include woodwinds in the mass, but used three trumpets and timpani to create a military feel. Prince Esterházy had dismissed the wind players to fight in the war. Later Haydn made suggestions to the publisher for adding woodwinds and horns, but he did not supervise their work which resulted in numerous errors and changes (they have been corrected). The Nelson Mass is also notable for its extreme demands on the soprano soloist. Haydn simplified several passages in the solo vocal parts, evidently to make the work more accessible to less accomplished soloists. There is a very interesting side note to contemporary performances of the Nelson Mass. Most modern orchestras in the United States use A=440 as their standard tuning pitch. However, the standard during Haydn’s lifetime was around A=423.5. This may not seem like a big difference, but it actually results in the pitch being about a quarter-tone flat - something that the singers might find much more comfortable.

Shortly after Haydn first arrived in England in 1784 he attended the Handel commemoration at Westminster Abbey. “He is the master of us all,” Haydn said. The grandeur of Handel’s choruses and the English choral tradition had an enormous impact on Haydn’s future compositions. The Nelson Mass is a monumental work that has endured for over two hundred years and deservedly so.

DULUTH SUPERIOR SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA CHORUS

Founded

in 1959, the volunteer DSSO Chorus

is an integral part of the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra, regularly joining the orchestra for choral masterworks, operas, and pops concerts.

The DSSO Chorus has performed an impressive range of choral masterpieces, from monumental works like Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (“Ode to Joy”) and Mahler’s “Resurrection Symphony” to vibrant and dramatic favorites such as Orff’s Carmina Burana and Bizet’s Carmen. Their repertoire also includes Michael Tippett’s A Child of Our Time, Brahms’ and Fauré’s Requiems, and, of course, no choral repertoire would be complete without Handel’s Messiah, a timeless and beloved oratorio that continues to inspire and uplift listeners.

MEET DSSO’S CHORUS MASTER

Richard Carrick is a conductor, clinician, singer, and educator. He is the Director of Choral Activities at The College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, MN, Director of Music at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary, and a founding member and conductor of Borealis Chamber Artists. He holds a D.M.A. in Choral Conducting from the University of Washington and has performed with the Oregon Bach Festival Chorus, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Minnesota Orchestra. When not teaching or conducting, Richard can be found on a trail somewhere in the woods, or baking with his wife and children. Chorus Master generously sponsored by members of the DSSO Chorus and an anonymous donor.

MEET THE CHORUS

CHORUS MASTER Dr. Richard Carrick

REHEARSAL ACCOMPANIST Beth Sobczak

CHORUS ADMINISTRATOR Aine Miller

SOPRANOS

Sydney Adkins

Jenna Altonen*

Cathy Ameel

Laura Berdahl

Emilie Bowman

Terry Chialastri

Susan Dake

Nancy Dent

Maureen Gamradt

Anita Gille

Rose Heldt

Sara Henriksen

Mary Holm-Lund

Jan Johnson

Raina Johnston

Jill Kaiser

Tasha Kapp

Michelle Kessler

Lynne King

Lita Lind

Steph Love

Kelli Marlow

Rosanne Mellesmoen

Aine Miller

Alesha Murphy

Emily Nygren

Barbara Olson

Eileen Patterson

Debra Schroeder

Susan Smart

Sara Stefancik

Beth Storaasli

Shannon Swegle

Megan Taves

Angela Valero

Mary Wilson

ALTOS

Andrea Asleson

Alison Aune

Mariana Beier

Audrey Beyer

Lea Carr

Kelly Crosby

Laura Donovan

Bonnie Lou Dunphy

Erin Durkee

Jill Geyer

Jane Gilley

Anneke Hoegan

Carol Hoeschen

Carrie Kelsey

Laura Kirwin

Lindsey Korthals

Lisa Larson

Debora Magee

Carolyn Mikel

Grace Monson

Jillian Odell

Stacy Olson

Alanna Pekuri

Katie Peterson

Sharon Sandvik

Ann Sanford

Linda Senta

Sandy Skrien

Tomina Starke

Anne Stephen

Kathy Stinnett

Briana Stolan

Charlotte Taylor

Shelby Trost

Gudrun Witrak

TENORS

Robert Asleson

Linda Backman

Torstein Baxter-Zink*

Anne Bier

Nathan Borka

Katherine Dean

Corbin Eddy

Jim Johnson

Tegan Johnson

Glen Krenelka

ArMand Nelson

James Schulzetenberg

Tom Sjoberg

BASSES

Richard Carrick

Mark Danielson

Tim Delnay

Tom Diener

David Ellison

Nathaniel Fechtelkotter

Hillary Godard

David Helf

Riley Hinnenkamp

Christopher Kemnitz

Mark Knutson

Larry LeBlanc

Mike Lyons

Glenn McGill

Mark Monson

Andrew Nast

Chris Nylander

Joe O’Connell

Dave Olson

Dennis Paulson

Luther Qson

Randy Schmidt

David Steinberg

Kirby Wood

*Denotes Section Leader

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nor are

POPS 1

Holiday Spectacular

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2025

DECC SYMPHONY HALL, ALLETE STAGE

DIRK MEYER, CONDUCTOR

DSSO CHORUS

RICHARD CARRICK, CHORUS MASTER

DSSO YOUTH SYMPHONY

BYRON KLIMEK, CONDUCTOR

CASUAL CONCERT

Arr. Davis

Joy to the World

Arr. Chase

Around the World at Christmastime

Hagenberg

Love’s Pure Light

Wendel

A Chanukah Overture

Murtha

Our Winter Wonderland

Anderson

Sleigh Ride

Forrest

See Amid the Winter’s Snow

Herbert

March of the Toys

Massenet

Scènes de féerie (Fairytale Scenes) Suite No. 6

Cortège

Bacchanale

With DSSO Youth Symphony

Anderson

A Christmas Festival

With DSSO Youth Symphony

Thank you to our generous concert sponsor

EVENING CONCERT

Arr. Campbell

A Christmas Celebration (Overture)

Arr. Davis

Joy to the World

Hagenberg

Love’s Pure Light

Wendel

A Chanukah Overture

Bach/Stokowski

Sheep May Safely Graze

Arr. Chase

Around the World at Christmastime

Forrest

Gloria in Excelsis

INTERMISSION

Anderson

Sleigh Ride

Murtha

Our Winter Wonderland

Herbert

March of the Toys

Forrest

See Amid the Winter’s Snow

Silvestri/Brubaker

Concert Suite from The Polar Express

Massenet

Scènes de féerie (Fairytale Scenes) Suite No. 6

Cortège

Bacchanale

With DSSO Youth Symphony

Anderson

A Christmas Festival

With DSSO Youth Symphony

DSSO YOUTH SYMPHONY

CONDUCTOR, Byron Klimek

FIRST VIOLIN

Hayden David

Zinnia Kraker

Yupeng Chen

Joshua Tang

Lauren Fuchs

Alek Shefchik

Victor Ramos

Torin Marma

Tuuli Rova

SECOND VIOLIN

Elisa Lushine

Oscar Thompson

Nicolai Shefchick

Julia Kyes

Annabelle Wu

Gemma Kim

Karena Loban

Milaina Hansen

Ethan Adams

VIOLA

Hanna Coulon

Isaiah Mason

Anja Harju

Piper Linn

Emma Bridges

CELLO

Toko Nakajima

Cian James

Hans Bettendorf

Liv Caine

Kamran Zaidi

Callum Richardson

DOUBLE BASS

Margaret Bergen

Jayda Bellefeuille

Wesley Schooler

Lyla Ronkainen

Reijer Klyn

FLUTE

Matilda Johnson

Clara Lund

Abigail Froehle

CLARINET

Madelyn Jaros

Madison White

BASSOON

Ashton Wigg

HORN

Elliette Lahti

Dallas Jondreau

TRUMPET

Ethan Lavan

Caleb Lund

TROMBONE

Robert Harwood

Sam Mumford

TUBA

Rainer Jacobson

PERCUSSION

Nico Cartier

Griffin Dallum

Samantha Koos

Hermione Linn

Nicholas Tyson

Reija Williams

Depot Pick up resize

MASTERWORKS 3

Sibelius & Shostakovich

SATURDAY, JANUARY 31, 2025, 7 PM

DECC SYMPHONY HALL – ALLETE STAGE

DIRK MEYER, CONDUCTOR

DVOŘÁK

Carnival Overture, op. 92

SIBELIUS

Karelia Overture and Suite, opp. 10 and 11

Overture

Intermezzo

Ballade

Alla marcia

Symphony No. 9 in E-flat Major, op. 70

Allegro

Moderato

Presto

Largo

Allegretto – Allegro

Les préludes

Thank you to our generous concert sponsor

Symphony No. 9 in E-flat Major, op. 70 by Dmitri Shostakovich is presented under license from G. Schirmer, Inc. and Associated Music Publishers, copyright owners.

Carnival Overture, Op. 92, B. 169 ANTONÍN

DVOŘÁK

BORN: September 8, 1841, in Nelahozeves, near Prague, Czech Republic (then Bohemia)

DIED: May 1, 1904, in Prague

WORK COMPOSED: 1891

WORLD PREMIERE: April 28, 1892, in the Rudolfinum, Prague; National Theatre Orchestra, Dvořák conducting

PERFORMANCE HISTORY: There have been only four DSSO performances of this piece and all in early years of the Orchestra: in 1934, 1938, 1940, and on February 27, 1953 (the latter with Hermann Herz conducting).

INSTRUMENTATION: Two flutes and piccolo, two oboes and English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (tambourine, triangle, cymbals), harp and strings.

DURATION: 10 minutes

Dvořák composed his Carnival Overture between July 28 and September 21, 1891. It began its life as the second of three overtures conceived as an orchestral triptych entitled “Nature, Life, and Love.” Dvořák conducted the premiere of the triptych in Prague on April 28, 1892, the night before he left for America. Subsequently he also conducted the American premiere of the triptych on October 21 that year in Carnegie Hall. Ultimately the individual overtures were published in March 1894 under separate titles: In Nature’s Realm, Carnival, and Othello. Dvořák decided by then that each of the three should be viewed as “a self-contained whole.”

Otakar Šourek writes in his biography of Dvořák that “Dvořák wished in this cycle to draw in overture-form musical pictures of three of the most powerful impressions to which the human soul is subjected: the impression of the solitary, wrapped about by the exalted stillness of the summer night; the impression of a man seized into the joyous vortex of life, and finally the feeling of a man in the power of a violent love poisoned by jealousy. In more concise terms: to present nature itself, free acceptance of it, and distortion of it.”

The bright and flashy opening depicts a colorful and lively carnival. Indeed we are drawn into the midst of Mardi Gras (Shrove Tuesday) and as Dvořák indicates in his own program notes, the Carnival Overture expresses the sentiments of “a lonely, contemplative wanderer reaching at twilight a city where a carnival is in full sway. On every side is heard the clangor of instruments mingled with the shouts of joy and unrestrained hilarity of people giving vent to their feelings in songs and dance tunes.”

Carnival, as well as the other two parts of the triptych, represents the culmination of Dvorak’s Bohemian influences. The day after the premiere the composer began his journey to the ‘New World’ where he would be exposed to new cultures and experiences. Carnival, with its vibrancy and lighthearted nature, is the most performed of the three overtures.

Karelia Overture, Op. 10 and Suite, Op. 11

JEAN SIBELIUS

BORN: December 8, 1865, in Hämeenlinna, in the Russian Grand Duchy of Finland

DIED: September 20, 1957, in his home, Ainola, at Lake Tuusula, Järvenpää, Finland

WORK COMPOSED: 1893

WORLD PREMIERE: November 23, 1893, at the Imperial Alexander University in Helsinki; Helsinki Philharmonic Society, Sibelius conducting

PERFORMANCE HISTORY: Only the Overture has been played on the Masterworks Concerts: in 1940 (Paul Lemay conducting) and in 1992.

INSTRUMENTATION: Two flutes and piccolo, two oboes and English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (tambourine, triangle, bass drum, cymbals) and strings.

DURATION: 23 minutes

Prior to the Finnish War (1808-09) between the Kingdom of Sweden and the Russian Empire, Finland was under Swedish rule. During that time Swedish was the official language and Finnish was considered the language of peasants. Sweden ceded Finland to Russia in 1809 as a result of the war and Finland became the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland within the Russian Empire. However, the laws of the era remained largely unchanged and Swedish

continued to be the official language. By the second half of the 19th century the rise of Finnish nationalism had started to take hold. Instrumental in the development of the Finnish national identity was the publication of the Kalevala in 1835. The Kalevala is regarded as the national epic of Karelian and Finnish oral folklore and mythology and one of the most significant works of Finnish literature. It was instrumental in the development of the Finnish national identity and led to Karelianism, a Finnish-language nationalist movement. The intensification of Karelianism ultimately led to Finland’s independence from Russia in 1917.

The main city and important center of Finnish culture in Karelia was Viipuri. Sibelius was commissioned by the Viipuri (Vyborg) Students’ Association to compose a work that would present a historical tableau of the Viipuri Province dating from 1293. Sibelius traveled to Karelia and collected folk tunes during the summer of 1892 to experience the culture of the people and the essence of their music. In a letter to Aino, his wife, he wrote, “I now grasp those Finnish, purely Finnish tendencies in music less realistically but more truthfully than before.”

Sibelius’ composition, Karelia Music, consists of an Overture, 8 Tableaux, and 2 Intermezzi and runs about 45 minutes. Sibelius conducted its premiere on November 13, 1893, in Helsinki. Ten days later he conducted the Karelia Suite, three parts of the Karelia Music, along with the Overture on November 23.

Following the Overture the Suite begins with a dramatic introduction, setting the stage for the historical narratives that follow. The Intermezzo is a lively, march-like piece with a strong sense of patriotic fervor, reflecting the region’s resilience and spirit. The melancholic melody played by the English horn in the Ballade evokes a sense of longing and remembrance of the region’s past. The finale is a spirited march that builds to a powerful climax, representing the region’s strength and resolve.

The Karelia Overture and Suite are favorites that are performed regularly. They were the first major triumphs of Sibelius as a composer and, with their publication in 1899, helped establish him as a leading Finnish composer.

Symphony No. 9 in E-flat major, Op. 70

DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH

BORN: September 25, 1906, in Saint Petersburg, Russia

DIED: August 9, 1975, in Moscow

WORK COMPOSED: 1945

WORLD PREMIERE: November 3, 1945, in Leningrad (Saint Petersburg); Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, Yevgeny Mravinsky conducting

PERFORMANCE HISTORY: There has only been one previous DSSO performance of this work: on October 21, 1988.

INSTRUMENTATION: Two flutes and piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (snare drum, bass drum, tambourine, triangle, cymbals) and strings.

DURATION: 25 minutes

Shostakovich intended his Ninth Symphony to be a celebration of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany. On January 16, 1945, Shostakovich told his students that the previous day he had begun work on a new symphony. A week later he told them that the work would open with a big tutti and that he had reached the middle of the development section. In late April he played about ten minutes of the first movement for Isaak Glikman (1911-2003), his close friend, Soviet

literary critic, librettist and professor. Shostakovich stopped working on it soon after, resuming again on July 26 and completing it on August 30, 1945. The resulting Symphony No. 9 was completely unrelated to the one he had originally planned. (For the curious: a draft of the first movement of the original version was published as Symphonic Fragment and recorded by the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Mark Fitz-Gerald, on the Naxos label.)

Shostakovich and Sviatoslav Richter (1915-1997) played the Ninth Symphony on the piano, in a four-hand arrangement, for musicians and cultural officials in early September 1945. Yevgeny Mravinsky (1903-1988) conducted the premiere on November 3, 1945 in the opening concert of the 25th season of the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra. The concert was broadcast live on the radio and the program included Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5. A colleague of Shostakovich, Gavriil Nikolayevich Popov (1904-1972) wrote that his initial reaction was generally favorable: “Transparent. Much light and air. Marvelous tutti, fine themes (the main theme of the first movement - Mozart!). The finale is splendid in its joie de vivre, gaiety, brilliance, and pungency!!” However, Soviet critics censured the symphony for its “idealogical weakness” and its failure to “reflect the true spirit of the people of the Soviet Union.” Mravinsky wrote that it “scoffs at complacency, pompousness, the ‘desire to rest on one’s laurels’, and sing one’s own praises, but the symphony is not entirely ironical. It also has genuine lyricism and profound sorrow.” He made note of Shostakovich’s irreverent, absurdist and sardonic sense of humor. The New York WorldTelegram reported on July 27, 1946, “The Russian composer should not have expressed his feelings about the defeat of Nazism in such a childish manner.” Although the Ninth Symphony was nominated for the Stalin Prize in 1946 (it did not win), it was banned together with some other works on February 14, 1948, and finally removed from the list in the summer of 1955 when the symphony was again performed and broadcast. Unlike his monumental symphonies that preceded it, notably the Seventh and Eighth, the Ninth is concise and draws comparisons to Haydn

and Mozart. This is most apparent in the first movement; it is Shostakovich’s only symphony that follows the 18th-century sonata form that repeats the exposition. The repeated mini-fanfare of the trombone is downright slapstick humor. The second movement is rooted in dance and has a darker mood. The final three movements are played without pause beginning with the mercurial Scherzo, which becomes nearly demonic and instead of building to a climax, loses momentum and starts to die away, leading to menacing statements by the trombones and tuba. These are interspersed with a soulful bassoon solo. The bassoon leads into the main theme of the Finale, at sometimes feeling like a dance and sometimes like a march. One cannot help but compare this with Prokofiev’s use of the bassoon in Peter and the Wolf, where he uses it to portray the Grandfather. Mravinsky called this transition to the Finale “the somehow affected, unjustified merriment of the finale.”

An interesting uniqueness in Shostakovich’s symphonies becomes apparent when comparing different recordings of the same work. Unlike the music of so many other great composers, the conductor has more of an effect on the emotion

and pace of Shostakovich’s music. One can find a plethora of recordings of the Ninth Symphony, many of which are truly wonderful. My absolute favorite is an older recording that has been reissued on CD with the Moscow Philharmonic conducted by Kirill Kondrashin. I found the album in a used record shop in Philadelphia many years ago that has a few Rice Krispies (Snap, Crackle & Pop) moments on it, but what an amazing recording it is! Included on the recording is The Execution of Stepan Razin, also by Shostakovich and in my honest opinion the very best recording of that work you will ever find.

Symphony No. 9 is a relatively short, fivemovement work that departs from the expected celebratory tone of a victory symphony. Instead it is often described as playful, even mischievous, with elements of parody and satire. Some critics have interpreted it as a subtle critique of Soviet authority. Therein lies the rub, as they say: everyone was awaiting a triumphal Victory Symphony marking the USSR’s victory in World War II and the symbolism of a Ninth Symphony, inviting comparisons with Beethoven’s Ninth with chorus. A grandiose piece was desired to glorify Stalin’s regime, not to make a mockery of it.

Les préludes, S. 97

FRANZ LISZT

BORN: October 22, 1811, Doborján, Kingdom of Hungary, Austrian Empire (Raiding, Hungary)

DIED: July 31, 1886, Bayreuth, Germany

WORK COMPOSED: 1854

WORLD PREMIERE: February 23, 1854, in Weimar, Liszt conducting

PERFORMANCE HISTORY: Once a very often played work on the Orchestra’s Masterworks series, seven performances between 1934 and 1952, it was last heard on March 23, 1956. (It was played on February 14, 1985 on a special guest appearance on the DSSO’s series by the Milwaukee Symphony, Lukas Foss conducting.) Les préludes is the only one of Liszt’s tone poems to be played by the DSSO.

INSTRUMENTATION: Three flutes (third flute doubles piccolo), two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (field drum, cymbals, bass drum), harp and strings.

DURATION: 16 minutes

Franz Liszt was to the piano as Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840) was to the violin. Liszt was a phenomenon; from an early age he achieved success as a concert pianist and he became a European sensation as he toured the continent in the 1830s and 1840s. He developed a

reputation for technical brilliance as well as physical attractiveness. His degree of popularity and stardom was dubbed Lisztomania by poet Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) in 1844. Liszt was a rock star; women fought over his silk handkerchiefs and velvet gloves, which they ripped to shreds as souvenirs. At his performing peak Liszt was considered the greatest pianist of his time.

In 1855 Liszt wrote an essay on Berlioz’s Harold in Italy where he coined the term ‘program music,’ referring to pieces which are “driven by an overarching poetic image or narrative.” One of Liszt’s most endearing works is Les préludes, one of the earliest examples of an orchestral work entitled ‘Symphonic Poem’. Les préludes (d’après Lamartine), to use its full title, serves as a musical representation of an ode from Alphonse de Lamartine’s (1790-1869) Nouvelles meditations poétiques of 1823, which explores themes of love, loss, nature, and the cyclical nature of life, all culminating in death.

The 1856 published score includes a text preface, not from Lamartine, which sets the stage for a musical exploration of life’s journey, with its joys, sorrows, and inevitable end:

What else is our life but a series of preludes to that unknown Hymn, the first and solemn notes of which is intoned by Death? Love is the glowing dawn of all existence; but what is the fate where the first delights of happiness are not interrupted by some storm, the mortal blast of which dissipates its fine illusions, the fatal lightning of which consumes its altar; and where in the cruelly worded soul which, on issuing from one of these tempests, does not endeavor to rest his recollection in the calm serenity of life in the fields? Nevertheless man hardly gives himself up for long to the enjoyment of the beneficent stillness which at first he has shared in Nature’s bosom, and when “the trumpet sounds the alarm”, he hastens, to the dangerous post, whatever the war may be, which calls him to its ranks, in order at last to recover in the combat full consciousness of himself and entire possession of his energy.

Les préludes employs a single, unifying theme that undergoes various transformations to reflect the emotional shifts within the music. The work is

built around five distinct sections that correspond to the ode’s themes:

•Question (Introduction and Andante maestoso): Atmospheric and introduces main theme.

•Love (Allegro ma on troppo): Represents the ‘enchanted dawn’ of existence and the passionate nature of love, often depicted with lively and energetic music.

•Storm (Allegro tempestuoso): Illustrates the turbulent and challenging aspects of life, with dramatic and intense musical passages.

• Bucolic calm (Allegretto pastorale): Provides a contrasting moment of calm and solace, evoking the beauty and tranquility of the natural world.

• Battle and Victory (Allegro marziale animato): Depicts the struggle and eventual triumph of the human spirit, culminating in a powerful and heroic conclusion.

There are many examples of symphonic poems, program music, or tone poems with each composer creating their own versions. Using music to evoke images was not a new innovation, but the intentional usage and descriptive programming was relatively rare before Liszt employed that technique and labeled it as such. Les préludes is the third of thirteen unrelated symphonic poems and it is the most popular with a very recognizable theme.

RICHARD ROBBINS

DSSO chorus master Richard Robbins is the director of choral activities at the University of Minnesota Duluth, where directs the University Singers and Chamber Singers, in addition to teaching an array of choral conducting and music courses. Robbins travels extensively as a clinician, adjudicator, and director for choral festivals and honor choirs across the country, with recent engagements in Miami, Los Angeles, Orlando, San Francisco, Chicago, Baltimore, and New York City. He has conducted and lectured internationally on multiple occasions at Warsaw’s Chopin Conservatory of Music, the John Paul II Liturgical Institute, and at Krakow’s Academy of Music. As a conductor, his performances have been featured on numerous nationally syndicated programs, including American Public Media’s Pipedreams. His extensive experience in preparing choral-orchestral performances includes leading choirs for the Houston Ballet and for over 50 performances with the Houston Symphony. He has prepared choruses for several major conductors, including Christoph Eschenbach, Ermanno Florio, Hans Graf, Joan Glover, Bernard Labadie, Klaus Peter Flor, Michael Krajewski, Stephen Cleobury, Robert Franz, and Dirk Meyer

The closing fanfare was used for news bulletins by the Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft during the Nazi regime. The fanfare would cue the announcer to say, “Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt…” (“The supreme command of the armed forces announces…”) before relating the Nazis’ latest victory. Germans were so conditioned by the militaristic usage of Les préludes that there was a de facto ban on the piece after the war. A performance of Les préludes concludes each summer camp session at the Interlochen Center for the Arts and is performed by the camp’s large ensembles in the oldest building on the ICA grounds, the Interlochen Bowl, which dates from 1928. It was also used as background music for the mid-20th century radio programs of Flash Gordon and Lone Ranger. The familiarity of Les préludes comes from Liszt’s mastery of orchestration that would be emulated by so many other composers. Les préludes is a clear and strong example of how powerful the symphonic poem can be. It is concise with structure, beauty and contrast telling a wonderful story that uplifts the soul.

35 DULUTH

MUSICIAN PROFILE

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Jim Pospisil, Principal French Horn, with his generous chair sponsors, James and Mary Zastrow.

Play a vital role in the DSSO's success by becoming a Chair Sponsor. Your support directly sustains the talented musicians who bring each performance to life. We’re excited to introduce a $500 First-Time Chair Sponsorship Level designed especially for new supporters—making it easier than ever to get involved. As a token of our gratitude, Chair Sponsors enjoy exclusive benefits, including access to open rehearsals, recognition in our season program, and special opportunities to meet and connect with the artists they support. It’s a unique and rewarding way to deepen your connection to the music you love—and the people who make it possible.

Building the Future

DSSO CONTRIBUTORS

Thank you to the following corporate and individual contributors who have given in support of the DSSO July 1, 2024 through August 31, 2025.

LEGACY

($25,000 & up)

Anonymous (1)

Margaret Ames Memorial Fund

Estate of Adelaide M. Cline

The Depot Foundation

Jeremy & Carol Fryberger

Arnold “Larry” Luukkonen Irrevocable Trust

McKnight Foundation

Minnesota State Arts Board

North Shore Bank of Commerce

Pachel Foundation

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Muriel Whiteside Charitable Trust

MAESTRO

($10,000 to $24,999)

Dr. & Mrs. Bernhard Boecker Foundation Charitable Trust

Mark Danielson & Theresa Smith

Duluth Grill Family of Restaurants

Helena Jackson & Douglas Dunham

Jill & Tom Kaiser

Wildey H. Mitchell Family Foundation

Nancy Odden & Doug Britton

Richard D. Kivela

Charles A. & Carolyn M.

Russell Family Foundation

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J. David Arnott & Tamara

Bottge

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Karl Diekman

Thomas & Barbara Elliott

Essentia Health

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Tegan Johnson

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Keyport Liquor

Elaine B. Killen

maurices

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Minnesota Power - An ALLETE Company

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Anonymous (15)

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OVERTURE

($1 to $249)

Anonymous (10)

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Rasmussen

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Moore

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Alexander

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Elizabeth Young

Mary Wagner Zbaracki

IN MEMORY

Our hearts go out to the families and friends of musicians or patrons who have passed. *This list represents those we have been made aware of through Memorial Gifts.

ERIN ABRAMSON & JACOB NEPHEW

Bettina Keppers

Moms Run This Town

WILLIAM “BILL” ALEXANDER

Branden Robinson

Kristin Sande

DR. EUGENE THOMAS ALTIERE

Karen Finseth

DOROTHY ANWAY

Allen Anway

DR. & MRS. BERNHARD BOECKER

Dr. & Mrs. Bernhard Boecker Foundation Charitable Trust

ELIZABETH MURPHY BURNS

Roberta Vose

MARY BETH DUNDER BROWN

Janice Biga

Kay Biga & Patrick Spott

ROBERT H. EVANS

Anonymous

AUDREY FISHER

Jean & Sharon Captain

JAMES GRANT

Fiona Adams

John & Kathleen Berchild

Kay Biga & Patrick Spott

Steve & Lauri Cushing

Mark Danielson & Theresa Smith

Mary & Don Davidson

Connie & Bill Dinan

Gary & Marcia Doty

Mary Evans

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Helena Jackson & Doug Dunham

Peter Jongewaard

George & Lynn Lehman

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Penelope & Ron Morton

Mayur Rao

Deborah Rausch & Dean Peterson

Scott Risdal & Zandra Zweibel

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Ann-Marie Stojevich

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Roberta Vose

PHILOMENA GREGORIAN

Cathy Kurtz

Anne Laible

Scott & Pamela Larson

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Richard Sandahl & Eileen Stack-Sandahl

Paul Stack

LINDA HAAGENSEN

Kathleen & James Sanders

MILT HILL

Kay Hill

Pastor Dennis Morreim

ALICE HOLM

Paul Holm

ROBERT G. HOWELL

Bryan Howell

JOHN HUSSEY

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Jane Jarnis

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Debbie Davis

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Charles Hanson

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Mesabi Symphony Orchestra

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Roxanne Stahl

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KOKKONEN

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Alexander

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Jane Killough

Ann Kraker

Kristin Randall

Jill Siegfried

Richard Skogg

Roberta Vose

Sally Wahman

Karen Wahmanholm

Elizabeth Young

IN HONOR

JAMES PETTIGREW

Jill Kaiser

Ann Kraker

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ANNETTE RADTKE

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DR. CLARENCE

MALCOLM SCOTT

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Shirley Tratechaud

DAVID VOSE

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Roberta Vose

DR. ROBERT WAHMAN

Kay Biga & Patrick Spott

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Roderick Hood

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Eleanor Simon

Kay Slack

Roberta Vose

ALBERTE & TREVOR

WHITE

Trevor & Kathy White

This list represents gifts being made in tribute to an individual, organization, or occasion.

LAURIE BASTIAN

Thomas & Cynthia Storm

LINDA BOBEN

Mark Boben

ANGIE BOMIER

Paul Holm

RICHARD CARRICK

Anonymous (1)

Karen Finseth

KATHLEEN DALY

Deborah Good

THOMAS DONAHUE

Charles & Jean Leibfried

DSSO VIOLIN SECTION

Beth Arnson

KEVIN HOESCHEN

Karen Hoeschen

MARY HUNNER ROBINSON

Sally Hunner

ANDRE & MARILYN LAMOUREA

Janis & Gautam Sengupta

VINCENT OSBORN

Ruth & Dale Thorpe

BRANDEN ROBINSON

Sally Hunner

MELANIE SEVER

Malcolm Davy & Cindy Spillers

TAKE A BOW, SPONSORS

We are pleased to offer a big thank you to our sponsors for the 2025-2026 Season. Their generous support makes it possible for the DSSO to bring world-class concerts, educational programs, and community outreach to the Northland. BRAVO!

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.