Spanish Guitar
Saturday, November 5, 2022, at 7:30 PM
Sunday, November 6, 2022, at 2:30 PM
The Hemmens Cultural Center
John Devlin, conductor
Ana Vidovic, guitar
MENDELSSOHN The Hebrides (Fingal’s Cave), op. 26
RODRIGO Concierto de Aranjuez Allegro con spirito Adagio Allegro gentile Ana Vidovic, guitar
~ Intermission ~
CLARICE ASSAD Impressions
Personas: Theme & Variations
Fusion: Danca Brasileria
Affection: Slow Waltz
Precision: Perpetual Motion
Unity: Coda
TCHAIKOVSKY Romeo and Juliet Overture Fantasy
This program is supported, in part, by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency
Violin I
Isabella Lippi Concertmaster Mr. and Mrs. Harry Blizzard Chair
Eleanor Bartsch Assoc. Concertmaster Gerald Loughney Eric Pidluski
Joseph Malmquist
Susan Carlson Carol Dylan Helen Kim Lee Wendy Evans Rebecca Blaho* Jennifer Leckie
Violin II
Daniela Folker Principal Sharon Chang* Asst. Principal Carol Yampolsky* Maria Arrua Gonzalez Susan Thorne Steve Winkler
Cristina Buciu Elizabeth Huffman Kelvin Lin
Meghan Lanfear Kathryn Siegel Renée Paule Gauthier*
Viola Amanda Grimm* Principal Loretta Gillespie Asst. Principal Rebecca Swan Susan Posner
Cello Matthew Agnew Principal Sally Lee Chair Nazar Dzhuryn Asst. Principal Kerena Fox Mark Kuntz
Robert Weber Elizabeth Start Sara Sitzer
Double Bass Timothy Shaffer Principal Jeremy Attanaseo Asst. Principal Susan Sullivan Gregory Heintz Jason Niehoff John Floeter
Flute
Jean Bishop Principal Scott Metlicka Julia Richter*
Piccolo Julia Richter*
Oboe Erik Andrusyak* Principal Joseph Claude
English Horn Joseph Claude Clarinet Gene Collerd Principal Trevor O’Riordan
Bassoon
Vincent Disantis Principal Collin Anderson French Horn Greg Flint Principal Steven Replogle Sharon Jones Mary Buscanics Jones
Trumpet
Ross Beacraft Principal Michael Brozick David Gauger Asst. Principal Trombone Reed Capshaw Principal Adam Moen
Bass Trombone Mark Fry Tuba
Charles Schuchat Principal
Timpani
Robert Everson Principal Percussion Brian Oriente Principal Michael Folker George Blanchet
*Leave of Absence 2022 23
ORCHESTRA PERSONNEL
R. Bert Crossland* Board Chair
Andre Fiebig* Immediate Past Board Chair
Marc Thayer* CEO
Robert Chiappetta* Treasurer
Rev. Arlyn Tolzmann* Secretary
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Dr. Patricia Harkin* Governance Chair
Ross Beacraft**
Carlos Chavez
Dr. Gene Crume
Joyce Dlugopolski
Jennifer Fukala
K. Eric Larson
Dr. Thomas Long
Frank Maxson
Carole Medal
Martin Nobs Music Director Search Chair
Patrick Parks
Ron Rogers
Timothy Shaffer**
Dr. Savitha Susarla
James Tammi
Herman A. Zwirn
EXECUTIVE
Marc Thayer
Chief Executive Officer
Rebecca DeWane Director of Finance & Administration
Matthew Way Director of Development
Chuck Kocal Director of Marketing
ADMINISTRATION
ARTISTIC
Eric Gaston
Vice President of Artistic Planning & Operations
John Floeter Personnel Manager
OPERATIONS
Rylan Virnig
Community Partnerships and Marketing Coordinator
Macauley Manzano
Orchestra Librarian & Patron Services Manager
Erica Warszewik Box Office Manager
David Goldman Stage Manager
Eric Block Stage Manager
Ana Molina Translator
LaTrisha Williams
In Harmony Program Coordinator
ESO LEADERSHIP
*Executive Committee ** Orchestra Representative
Conductor John Gennaro Devlin is an ardent champion of American music, an innovator of concert design, and a thought leader in the field of classical music. In his third season as Music Director of the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra, Devlin is only the ninth conductor in its 90 year history to hold that title and , at 36, is one of the nation’s youngest music directors to lead a professional symphony orchestra.
Devlin’s artistry and versatility make him a frequent guest conductor with major orchestras across the nation. His engagements include performances with the National Symphony Orchestra, the Louisville Orchestra, the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra, the Columbus Symphony, the Omaha Symphony, the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, and the American Repertory Ballet. Of his debut with the National Symphony Orchestra and violin soloist Joshua Bell, Anne Midgette of The Washington Post wrote that Devlin “led the evening with flair … and was visibly in his element.”
Devlin spent three seasons from 2015 2018 apprenticing with some of the world ’s best conductors, soloists, and orchestras while based in Washington, D.C. During that time, he was the exclusive Cover Conductor for the National Symphony Orchestra, where he served as assistant to world renowned Music Directors Christoph Eschenbach and Gianandrea Noseda, accompanying the orchestra on its historic 2018 tour of Russia. He served concurrently as the Assistant Conductor of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra in New Jersey, working alongside Music Director Rossen Milanov.
A strong advocate fo r American music, Devlin has made it a programmatic focus, and has premiered over 40 new American works. His artistic partnerships with contemporary American composers include a decade long relationship with Eric Nathan, from whom he has commissioned works that he performed at Carnegie Hall and with the National Symphony Orchestra. Devlin has also premiered works by Adolphus Hailstork, Leanna Primiani, Michael Thomas Foumai, Enrico Lopez Yañez, Michael Ellis Ingram, Evan Meier, Alexandra Bryant, Nathan Stra sser, Tomek Regulski, Daniel Houglum, Timothy Brady, Matthew Levine, Christopher Caliendo, Liza Kravinsky, and David Matthews. In addition, Devlin commissioned and conducted the world premiere of La Saulaie , a semi finished work of Claude Debussy that was subsequently completed by British composer and musicologist Robert Orledge.
Also a leader in designing concerts that frame orchestral music in inventive ways, Devlin has partnered with others to generate such forward looking concepts as Gourmet Symphony, Go Go Symphony, Seamless Symphony, Interactive Symphony, and the New Retro Project. These collaborations paired artists such as Joshua Bell with gourmet chefs, and legendary musicians like Bootsy Collins, George Clinton, and Larry Graham with symphony orch estras for the first time. Each reflects Devlin’s mission of making the symphonic art form accessible and engaging for all audiences. The Washington Post hailed these projects as “refreshingly unfamiliar” events that deliver “a new audience for classical m usic” and brought “the sold out house to its feet, cheering.”
Committed to serving the wider arts community beyond the podium, Devlin is part of the six member Conductor Constituency Leadership Team of the League of American Orchestras, advocating for con ductors nationally. Previously, he served on the Conductors Guild’s Board of Directors and was a featured speaker at the
GUEST CONDUCTOR
organization’s annual conference, discussing the future of orchestras with the Executive Directors of the National and Baltimore Sympho ny Orchestras. He also delivered the keynote TED talk on “Innovation in Crowded Marketplaces” at a TEDx symposium. The talk, available on YouTube, details the thinking that resulted in the creation of Gourmet Symphony. In 2020, Devlin, alongside fellow con ductors Ankush Bahl, Anna Edwards and Enrico Lopez Yañez, launched Everything Conducting, an inclusive website for conductors to learn, share, and advance their craft. The project includes a vast online article database and the UpBeat podcast hosted by Dev lin and Lopez Yañez, Principal Pops Conductor of the Nashville Symphony.
John Gennaro Devlin is an American conductor of Italian and Irish heritage. He completed his master’s and doctoral degrees in orchestral conducting under the tutelage of James Ross a t the University of Maryland. His undergraduate degree is from Emory University, where he graduated summa cum laude with a double major in Clarinet Performance and Latin. While a student, he benefitted enormously from his time as a member of the New York Y outh Symphony, at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, and at the Pierre Monteux School. His professional career has been shaped by his time as an assistant to conductors Gianandrea Noseda, Christoph Eschenbach, Rossen Milanov, and Victoria Gau.
GUEST ARTIST
Ana Vidovic is an extraordinary talent with formidable gifts taking her place among the elite musicians of the world. She is known for her beautiful tone, precise technique, well defined phrasing and thoughtful artistry and musicianship.
Her international performance career includes frequent recitals, concerto engagements and festival appearances in most of Europe’s cultural destinations including Amsterdam, Brussels, Budapest, Copenhagen, London, Oslo, Paris, Rome, Salzburg, Vienna, Warsaw, and Zagreb. Her tours have also taken her to Australia, Brazil, Israel, Japan, Korea, and Mexico. Equally impressive is the fact that she has recorded 6 CDs. Mel Bay Publications has released Ana Vidovic’s DVD entitled “Guitar Artistry in Concert,” a journey through the music of Torroba, Piazzolla and Pierre Bensusan, Sergio Assad, Stanley Myers, Villa Lobos, and Agustin Barrios Mangoré, and “Guitar Virtuoso,” a performance of works by Bach, Torroba, Paganini, and Walton,
During recent seasons Ms. Vidovic’s prolific career has taken her to London, where she has performed at King’s Place twice and where she returns in Fall 2022; to European cities including Bordeaux, Paris, Vienna’s Musikverein, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Avezzano and Pescara (Italy), Aachen, Ansbach, Baden Baden and Ettlingen (Germany); to Japan, São Paulo (Brazil), Adelaide, Brisbane and Sydney (Australia), Hong Kong, Istanbul, Tel Aviv; and to the Canadian cities of Calgary, Edmonton, Kitchener Toronto and Winnipeg. She has performed throughout the U.S. at major performance venues in Austin, Baltimore, Bethesda (The Strathmore), Boston, Champaign, IL (Krannert Center), Cleveland, Dallas, Dayton, Ft. Worth, Houston, the Hawaiian Islands, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Portland (OR), St. Louis, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Santa Fe, Seattle, Washington DC and New York City, where Ms. Vidovic has performed in recital at the New York Guitar Seminar at Mannes College of Music, Baruch College, the 92nd St. Y and Le Poisson Rouge. Her dazzling concerto performances have taken place with many orchestras including Asheville Symphony, Bangor Symphony, Erie Philharmonic, Hartford
Symphony, Illinois Philharmonic, Knoxville Symphony, Missoula Symphony, Rogue Valley Symphony (Oregon), Orchestra Iowa, West Virginia Symphony, Wheeling Symphony, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Slovene Orchestra and Zagreb Philharmonic. Festival appearances include Le Domaine Forget (Quebec), International Guitar Festival (London), Big Sky, Montana, Caramoor Festival (Katonah, NY), Colorado Music Festival and Lake Tahoe Summerfest.
During the Covid 19 pandemic, many of Ms. Vidovic’s engagements were redesigned to take place, including the 92nd St Y in NYC, Philadelphia, and San Francisco (Omni Concerts), where she performed at the venue in a live streamed concert. Her 2021 22 season was highlighted by returns to NYC’s 92nd Street Y for an in person concert with live audience, as well as in San Francisco, Austin, St. Louis, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. Ms. Vidovic’s on line masterclasses in Athens during the pandemic continue on a frequent basis and she will perform and teach in Athens in 2022 23. Summer 2022 included the Madrid International Guitar Festival, the Mediterranean Guitar Festival in Barcelona and at the New Ross Festival in Wexford, Ireland. In addition to her return to London in Fall 2022, Ms. Vidovic performs at the Drôme Guitar Festival in Valence, France, Trento, Italy, and a tour in Spain. Her USA engagements in 2022 23 include the Asheville Symphony, Austin Symphony, Elgin Symphony (IL), Reading Symphony (PA), Victoria (TX) Symphony; plus recitals in San Francisco, Sarasota and Milwaukee, and overseas in Rome and Aachen, Germany.
Ms. Vidovic has won an impressive number of prizes and international competitions including first prizes in the Albert Augustine International Competition in Bath, England, the Fernando Sor competition in Rome, Italy, and the Francisco Tarrega competition in Benicasim, Spain. Other top prizes include the Eurovision Competition for Young Artists, Mauro Giuliani competition in Italy, Printemps de la Guitare in Belgium and the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New York. In Croatia, she has performed with the Symphony Orchestra of the Croatian Radio and Television, as well as having been featured in three television documentaries by the eminent Croatian film director Petar Krelja. Ana Vidovic comes from the small town of Karlovac near Zagreb, Croatia, and started playing guitar at the age of 5. At age 7, she gave her first public performance and at the age of 11 she was performing internationally. She became the youngest student at age 13 to attend the prestigious National Musical Academy in Zagreb where she studied with Professor Istvan Romer. Ms. Vidovic’s reputation in Europe led to an invitation to study at the Peabody Conservatory from which she graduated.
PROGRAM NOTES
In 1829, Felix Mendelssohn made his first trip to England, where he dazzled one and all not only with his musical brilliance but also with his charm, good looks, and general air of cultivation. This, incidentally, was the beginning of a love affair between the composer and the English public that would last throughout his tragically short lifetime and well beyond. Mendelssohn’s only major complaint seems to have been no surprise here the weather. As a side trip, he journeyed to Scotland, where he encountered weather that was even worse than that of London, as well as folk music of the bagpipe variety that was not to his taste. Another disappointment was a visit to the novelist Sir Walter Scott, then a world figure and one of Mendelssohn’s favorite writers. The composer described the day as follows:” We found Sir Walter in the act of leaving Abbotsford, stared at him like fools, drove eighty miles and lost a day for the sake of at best one half hour of superficial conversation.”
Even so, Scotland’s beauty made a deep impression on the composer, and he began to plan what would eventually, some twelve years later, become his “Scottish” Symphony (Symphony No. 3). A more immediate result was obtained by a trip to the
The Hebrides (Fingal’s Cave), op. 26 Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
Hebrides Islands off the west coast of Scotland, where he visited the spectacular natural phenomenon known as Fingal’s Cave, on the island of Staffa. The cave remains a tourist attraction today, and is highly touted by travel writers. Frommer’s Guide to Scotland has this description: “It’s the only such formation known in the world that has basalt columns; over the centuries the sea has carved a huge cavern in the basalt, leaving massive hexagonal columns.” Among the many visitors of the time was Queen Victoria herself, who for once was genuinely amused, describing the cave as follows: “The effect is splendid, like a great entrance into a vaulted hall. The sea is immensely deep in the cave. The rocks under water were all colors pink, blue and green.”
So impressed was Mendelssohn that he immediately jotted down a musical idea with a strongly rhythmical rippling effect, presumably reminiscent of the motion of waves in the cave, which would become the opening theme of an orchestral work. Although this overture, today known either as The Hebrides or as Fingal’s Cave, has long been considered a masterpiece, it caused the composer considerable anxiety, passing through several revisions before reaching its final form. While wrestling with one version of it, Mendelssohn wrote his family a letter in which he said one part of the work “tastes more of counterpoint than of whale oil and seagulls and cod liver oil, and it ought to be the other way around.” The premiere actually took place to great acclaim on Mendelssohn’s second trip to London in the spring of 1832, but further revisions were made before the work was published in 1834.
The theme mentioned above not only opens the work but dominates it, as its rhythm recurs throughout. In addition, there is also another theme, broad and expressive, heard first in bassoon and cellos, and then later in a beautifully atmospheric moment in the clarinets. Among the striking picturesque effects are woodwinds echoing each other throughout the cave as well as what seems to be a storm scene in the middle section. Mendelssohn managed to get his whale oil and seagulls after all.
A footnote: Students of Romantic literature and painting will notice that Mendelssohn was well in tune with the Zeitgeist. Fingal was an heroic figure from Gaelic folklore whose name served as the title of an epic poem published in 1762 by the Scottish poet, James Macpherson. Although Macpherson claimed that the work was a discovery of original work by the legendary Gaelic bard Ossian, Fingal turned out to be a hoax, much of it being invented by Macpherson himself. Hoax or not, the fad for stories of ancient heroes in settings of melancholy, wild nature swept across Europe and served as prime material for the new Romantic movement. In describing the actual cave, Mendelsohn was in the best artistic company, for it was also rendered on canvas by Joseph Turner and praised by poets such as Keats, Wordsworth, and Tennyson, good Romantics all.
Concierto de Aranjuez Joaquín Rodrigo (1901-1999)
The upheavals of the Spanish Civil War (1936 1939) left Joaquín Rodrigo stranded outside his native country, forcing him to seek refuge first in Germany and then in France. In 1938, he received a request from his old friend, the distinguished guitarist Regino Sainz de la Maza, to write a concerto for guitar. Rodrigo’s interest was piqued, and working quickly in his apartment in Paris, he was able by the beginning of 1939 to surprise his wife with the last two movements already written. Incidentally, in her memoirs, Señora de Rodrigo mentions that she had a miscarriage at the time, and that her husband consoled them both by playing on the piano the famous soulful theme that would become the slow movement of the concerto.
By the fall of 1939 the Civil War had ended, Señora de Rodrigo’s health had recovered, and completed guitar concerto in hand, the Rodrigos moved back to Spain. The premiere of the work, which was dedicated to de la Maza and played by him, took place in Barcelona in 1940. The event was a spectacular success, proving to be a milestone not only in Rodrigo’s career but in the history of Spanish music. The war torn country was hungry for cultural heroes and the authentic Spanish flavor of the new work helped to rekindle interest in the native style which had been lost before the war. Rodrigo’s
fame would spread quickly, and with the death of Manuel de Falla a few years later in 1946, he would inherit the mantle of Spain’s leading composer.
Adding to the interest of the premiere was the fact that the very idea of a guitar concerto was something of a novelty. Although the guitar had, through its long and noble history, amassed a rich repertoire of solo music, relatively few concertos of high quality existed. A primary consideration had been the difficulty of balancing the delicate sound of the guitar with the sound of a full orchestra, a problem, incidentally, which caused Rodrigo’s sleepless night before the first rehearsal. His worries proved to be groundless, however, for the skillful orchestration highlighted the solo part without obscuring it. The world wide popularity of the Concierto de Aranjuez has inspired a number of other guitar concertos, and Rodrigo himself would go on to write several others.
The concerto takes its name from the royal palace located some 50 kilometers from Madrid, on the road to Andalusia. Originally built by Philip II in the sixteenth century, the palace was rebuilt by Ferdinand VI in the eighteenth century and served as a favorite country retreat in spring and summer for the Bourbon kings. The palace has long been a park open to the public and is famous for its beautiful gardens, which, among other things, produce asparagus and beautiful, large strawberries. Rodrigo has said that his aim was to evoke the spirit of the Spanish courtly life that would have been lived in the palace at the turn of the nineteenth century. The music combines a feeling of nostalgia for a graceful, courtly, and chivalrous time with the fire and color of the Spanish temperament. Also to be heard from time to time are influences from French music, which Rodrigo absorbed during his stay in Paris, including study with the composer Paul Dukas.
The opening movement, in the composer’s own words, “is animated by a rhythmic spirit and vigor without either of the two themes contained within it interrupting its relentless pace.” The jaunty, irregular rhythmic effect heard throughout the movement which alternates the feeling of 2 to a bar with that of 3 to a bar is a variant of an ancient and honorable rhythmic device known as hemiola, a practice used for centuries in many different kinds of folk music as well as European art music and, these days, particularly associated with Latin folk and popular music.
The hauntingly beautiful slow movement has become perhaps the single best known movement in the guitar repertoire. Here a deeply emotional melody soars over a deep steady pulse reminiscent of a heartbeat, which is said to have represented that of the unborn child. The composer’s wife has said that the music “was an evocation of the happy days of our honeymoon when we would walk through the parks of Aranjuez; at the same time, it was a song of love.” Melodies as expressive as this have a way of entering the popular culture; it has often been used in films and television and was set in jazz style on a recording by Miles Davis.
Rhythmic irregularity returns in the final movement, with a constant fluctuation between two and three beats to a bar. Rodrigo has written that he is here recalling a courtly dance which “maintains a taut tempo right to the closing bar.”
Impressions
Clarice Assad (b. 1978)
Clarice Assad’s remarkably versatile career as composer, performer, and teacher takes her regularly takes her through many musical genres. An accomplished vocalist and pianist, she performs in jazz and pop styles as well as concert music with orchestras and chamber ensembles. As a Grammy award nominated composer, she writes frequently within classical traditions yet shows influences from jazz and world music.
Ms. Assad was born in a suburb of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, into a musical family which included her father, the distinguished guitarist Sergio Assad. At the age of twenty she moved with her family to Chicago, where she is based today. Here broad musical education includes degrees from Roosevelt University and the University of Michigan, where she studied composition with Michael Daugherty.
Her compositions have been performed by such renowned musicians as cellist Yo Yo Ma and violinist Nadja Salerno Sonnenberg; orchestras such as the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and
the Louisville Symphony Orchestra; as well as by chamber groups such as the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, the Turtle Island String Quartet, and the Chicago based ensemble Third Coast Percussion. As a teacher, she works frequently with youth groups and is focused particularly on providing opportunities for young women.
Impressions was commissioned in 2008 by the New Century Chamber Orchestra, an ensemble based in the San Francisco Bay area. Scored for an orchestra of strings alone, the work is in five movements. The opening one, entitled Personas, serves as a kind of introduction to the group by showcasing the various sections, including an extended bass solo, through a series of variations. The second movement, Fusion, pays tribute to the composer’s Brazilian heritage in a Dança Brazileira, characterized by syncopated rhythms. The emotions of Hollywood film noir are evoked in the third movement, entitled Affection, which is an unabashedly sentimental slow waltz with lush harmonies. True to its title, Precision: Perpetual Motion, the fourth movement is a whirlwind of motion demonstrating the virtuosity of the group. The brief coda, entitled Unity, serves as a bookend by returning to the opening theme of the work.
In 1893, when Gustav Mahler conducted a performance of Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet in Hamburg, a critic made the amazing statement that the work was “devoid of melodic invention.” That critic has long since been consigned to whatever punishment awaits misguided pundits.
These days it is difficult to find an unkind word about Tchaikovsky’s homage to the Immortal Bard. Of the myriad musical works inspired by Romeo and Juliet, none has proved more popular and durable than Tchaikovsky’s concert overture. Audiences love it, orchestra managers love it, and even the most hard boiled musicians and the most desiccated scholars admit that it is one of Tchaikovsky’s most nearly flawless masterpieces.
It is a young man’s music, completed in 1869 when the composer was 29 years old, roughly the same age, incidentally, as Shakespeare was when he made his version of the old tale. Whatever passions may have ignited Tchaikovsky’s creative fire to produce such emotional music, he received very down to earth advice from Mily Balakirev, an important composer whom Tchaikovsky respected but with whom he had a rather complicated relationship. Balakirev actually suggested the Shakespearian subject and even went so far as to give an outline of the formal structure of the piece. Tchaikovsky would eventually make several revisions at Balakirev’s urging, a concession to the taste of another that was quite unusual for him.
Romeo and Juliet is in sonata form, that time honored procedure used in countless overtures, sonatas, symphonies, and concertos since the middle of the eighteenth century.
Although the work can be heard as an abstract composition like the first movement of a symphony, Tchaikovsky gives each of the parts of the form a Shakespearian significance and thus tells the familiar tale through the music.
The slow introduction sets the somber tone for the tragedy to come and introduces Friar Laurence, who is represented by suitably ecclesiastical music. The sonata form proper begins with the vigorous “feud” theme representing the conflict between the Montagues and the Capulets. The dictates of the form would then lead us to expect a contrasting lyrical theme and Tchaikovsky, of course, gives us such a theme in excelsis. It is the famous love theme, one of the best known melodies in all of music and one that would no doubt have granted Tchaikovsky immortality even had he never penned another. Both the feud theme and the Friar Laurence theme are further explored in the development section, as the plot thickens. In the recapitulation, the love theme returns with even greater passion, if that is possible. Finally, in the coda the love theme is transformed into a hymn of mourning as the lovers are united in death. Devoid of melodic invention, indeed.
Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893)
ANNUAL GIVING FUND
The following honor roll celebrates the generosity of those who have supported this musical community since July 1, 2021, with a gift of $250 or more. If you have any questions about this roster or wish to make a gift, please contact Director of Development Matthew Way at 847.888.4028 or visit elginsymphony.org/donate
Season Sponsors
$25,000+
Anonymous (2)
R. Bert Crossland Evelyn W. Hunt Trust Nancy V. Rascher
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Foundations, Corporations, and Small Businesses make it possible for the Elgin Symphony to offer access and equitable programming throughout the Fox River Valley. We value these strategic partners and celebrate their collaboration and generosity with the following honor roll.
Lead Season Sponsors +100,000 Evelyn W. Hunt Trust Willow Springs Charitable Fund
Season Sponsors +50,000 S.E. (Stu) Ainsworth Family OTTO The Pepper Family Foundation John B. Sanfilippo & Son, Inc. Seigle Foundation
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Francis J. & Patricia A. Houlihan Foundation Illinois Arts Council Agency Snodgrass Family Fund of DuPage Foundation
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Elgin Symphony League Florence B. Palmer & Cornelia A. Palmer Foundation National Endowment for the Arts Wells Fargo Advisors
Guest Artist Sponsors +5,000
Barrington Area Community Foundation Judson University, World Leader’s Forum Northern Trust Fall 2021 Farny R. Wurlitzer Foundation Fund Grant Found at Dekalbccf.org
Partners +2,500
Elgin Cultural Arts Commission Quarles & Brady
ENCORE SOCIETY
Planned Giving is a meaningful and generous way to ensure the longevity of your Elgin Symphony Orchestra. It is more than a donation it is a statement of devotion and trust in our community impact for generations to come. If you’d like to start a conversation about Planned Giving or if you have already arranged for a legacy gift, we want to hear from you! Please call us at 847.888.4028.
Membership Anonymous (1) S.E. “Stu” Ainsworth ◊ Harry ◊ & Phyllis Blizzard R. Bert Crossland David & Arlene Donovan Cyril Friend ◊ Gwendolyn Rowe Gage Wally & Andrea Gumm Jeanne Hebeisen Evelyn W. Hunt ◊ Sally Lee ◊ Marcene Linstrom ◊
Dr. Thomas & Linda Long Michael & Kelly McKay Betty Moorehead Leo & Marilyn Nelson Dr. Eleanor Pick ◊ Tom & Sue Rakow Ed & Karen Schock
Jeanne Sigman David Waring Herman & Mary Zwirn
◊ denotes deceased members
