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AT L A N TA SY M P H O N Y O R C H E S T R A

OCTOBER 2026

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I N T R O D U C T I O N S In Tune. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Music Director.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 ASO Musicians. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Atlanta Symphony Musicians Prepare for Brahms Revealed Festival. . . . . . . 14 Nathalie Stutzmann on the Sound and Sport of Conducting the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 N OT E S

O N

T H E

P R O G R A M

October 1/3/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 October 8/10.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Atlanta Symphony Musicians Prepare for Brahms Revealed Festival By Jon Ross

October 22/24. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Movies in Concert: Hocus Pocus.. . . . 42 D E PA R T M E N T S ASO Support. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Henry Sopkin Circle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 ASO Staff. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 The Woodruff Circle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

aso.org | @AtlantaSymphony | facebook.com/AtlantaSymphony

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E N C O R E M AG A Z I N E .C O M

P U B L I S H E R

Brantley Manderson brantley@encoremagazine.com SENIOR ACCOUNT DIRECTOR NASHVILLE

Kelli Dill kelli@encoremagazine.com

SENIOR ACCOUNT DIRECTOR CHARLOTTE

Hila Johnson hila@encoremagazine.com

E D I TO R

I N

C H I E F

Robert Viagas robert@encoremagazine.com

G R A P H I C

D E S I G N E R

Tamara Hooks tamara@encoremagazine.com

D I G I TA L

M E D I A

D I R E C TO R

Jennifer Nelson jennifer@encoremagazine.com P R O G R A M

P R O D U C E R

Whitney Hendrix Whitney.Hendrix@atlantasymphony.org

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C O N T A C T Kelli Dill kelli@encoremagazine.com

Hila Johnson hila@encoremagazine.com

4 | encore ASO | IN TUNE Welcome to this performance of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. This month we open the Orchestra’s 82nd season, filled with beloved masterworks and new discoveries. We hope you will join us for opportunities to connect with the classics, played with passion and virtuosity by the phenomenal musicians of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

TODD HALL

DEAR FRIENDS,

Our Music Director Nathalie Stutzmann has planned a season-long focus on the music of the great German symphonist Johannes Brahms, who stands alongside Bach and Beethoven as one of the “Three Bs” of classical music. At a time when other composers were moving away from the traditional symphonies toward theatrical or story-based music, Brahms revitalized the form, producing a body of work that has helped define and refine the traditional forms of concerto, symphony, requiem, string quartet and more. The Orchestra will perform all four of his symphonies, his piano concertos, his only violin concerto, his German Requiem and much more. To help elevate your experience and in-depth understanding of the music, throughout the season we will be “revealing” Brahms through lectures, chamber music concerts and events in the community. We hope you will join us for this enriching experience. In addition to providing great music, at the ASO we are dedicated to creating a welcoming and inclusive environment, inviting concertgoers to connect and build a community around a shared love of music. Our BRAVO Young Professionals and IN UNISON LGBTQ+ group offer pre- and post-concert events around concerts, and our College Pass and Veteran programs provide special pricing to ensure that concerts are affordable. To find out more about these programs, please visit our website.

With gratitude,

Jennifer Barlament, Executive Director

aso.org | @AtlantaSymphony | facebook.com/AtlantaSymphony

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ASO | NATHALIE STUTZMANN Nathalie Stutzmann is the Music Director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra since 2022. From 2021 to 2024, she was Principal Guest Conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra and will take the helm of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo in 2027/28 becoming their Artistic and Musical Director. In the 2026/27 season, Nathalie Stutzmann appears as Guest Conductor with the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, the Munich Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and will make her debut at Opéra national de Paris with Werther. Recent engagements include the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Orchestre de Paris. In the upcoming season, Nathalie Stutzmann joins forces with soloists including Janine Jansen, Seong-Jin Cho, Beatrice Rana, Benjamin Grosvenor and Anna Geniushene amongst others. Following her debut at the Bayreuth Festival in 2023 with Tannhäuser, she was subsequently named Best Conductor of the Year at the 2024 Oper ! Awards. Since then, she has firmly established herself as a major interpreter of Wagner Operas. This past summer saw her return to the Festival at the helm of Rienzi for its Historic premiere in the Festspielhaus. Nathalie Stutzmann is an exclusive Warner Classics artist. With the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, she recently released Bruckner Symphony No.4 in July 2026. Her previous album with the ASO dedicated to Dvořák , received OPUS Klassik nominations for Best Conductor and Best Symphonic Recording of the Year. Nathalie Stutzmann studied conducting in Finland with Jorma Panula. She grew up as a pianist, cellist and bassoon player. As a contralto, she has made more than 80 recordings and received numerous international accolades. She is a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, Commandeur dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and in 2025 was appointed an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music.

MUSIC DIRECTOR'S CORNER Recently, Nathalie was praised “a marvel,” (Bayerische Staatszeitung) with conducting that “bordered on perfection,” (El Periódico) during her return to Bayreuth for the Festival’s 150th anniversary to lead a new production of Rienzi. Stutzmann’s latest release of Bruckner’s “Romantic” Symphony No. 4 with the Atlanta Symphony through Warner Classics has topped streaming charts and has been met with high praise.

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Nathalie Stutzmann

2026/27 Musician Roster

music director

FIRST VIOLIN

SECOND VIOLIN

CELLO

David Coucheron

Anastasia Agapova-Lacomba

concertmaster

principal

Daniel Laufer acting / associate principal

The Mr. & Mrs. Howard R. Peevy Chair

The Atlanta Symphony Associates Chair

The Miriam & John Conant Chair

Justin Bruns*

Sou-Chun Su*

acting associate / assistant

associate concertmaster

associate principal

principal

The Charles McKenzie Taylor Chair

The Frances Cheney Boggs Chair

The Livingston Foundation Chair

Lauren Roth-Gómez acting associate / assistant

Jay Christy

Thomas Carpenter

concertmaster

principal

Jun-Ching Lin

Rachel Ostler*

assistant concertmaster

Robert Anemone

Kevin Chen Carolyn Toll Hancock The Wells Fargo Chair

Juan R. Ramírez Hernández Kelly Kanai John Meisner Christopher Pulgram Olga Shpitko Kenn Wagner Lisa Wiedman Yancich

acting associate / assistant

David Dillard Paul Halberstadt Eun Young Jung Eleanor Kosek Julia Su Yaxin Tan VIOLA Zhenwei Shi principal

The Robert Reid Topping Chair

Karen Freer

Joel Dallow The UPS Foundation Chair

Ray Kim Isabel Kwon Gabriella McClellan Nathan Mo Brad Ritchie BASS Joseph McFadden principal

The Marcia & John Donnell Chair

Gloria Jones Allgood associate principal

The Lucy R. & Gary Lee Jr. Chair

Jin Wook Suk

The Edus H. & Harriet H. Warren Chair

Sissi Yuqing Zhang

Paul Murphy

Michael Kurth

associate principal

The Jane Little Chair

Judith Cox

The Mary & Lawrence Gellerstedt Chair

Jungsu Lee

Raymond Leung

Catherine Lynn

The Carolyn McClatchey Chair

assistant principal

Daniel Tosky

Marian Kent

FLUTE

Yang-Yoon Kim

Christina Smith

Yiyin Li

principal

SECTION VIOLIN ‡

Karl Fenner

Nicholas Scholefield

Jessica Oudin

The Jill Hertz Chair The Mabel Dorn Reeder Honorary Chair

Madeline Sharp

Robert Cronin

Lachlan McBane

associate principal

C. Todd Skitch second flute

Gina Hughes piccolo / flute

William R. Langley resident conductor &

atlanta symphony youth

Norman Mackenzie

Finan Jones

director of choruses

assistant conductor

The Frannie & Bill Graves Chair

orchestra music director

The Zeist Foundation Chair

OBOE

HORN

TIMPANI

Elizabeth Koch Tiscione

Ryan Little

Jake Darnell

principal

The George M. & Corrie Hoyt Brown Chair

The Betty Sands Fuller Chair

The Walter H. Bunzl Chair

Zachary Boeding

Andrew Burhans

Michael Stubbart

associate principal

assistant principal timpani /

Kimberly Gilman

section percussion

second horn

PERCUSSION

associate principal

The Kendeda Fund Chair

William Dunlop second oboe

Emily Brebach english horn / oboe CLARINET Jesse McCandless principal

The Robert Shaw Chair

Alcides Rodriguez

acting associate principal / e - flat

Iván Valbuena second clarinet

BASSOON Cameron Bonner principal

The Abraham J. & Phyllis Katz Foundation Chair

Anthony Georgeson associate principal

Sam Blair second bassoon

Juan de Gomar contrabassoon / bassoon

Scott Sanders fourth horn

TRUMPET Elmer Churampi

Joseph Petrasek principal

The Julie & Arthur Montgomery Chair

principal trumpet

Michael Jarrett

Michael Tiscione

The William A. Schwartz Chair

associate principal

assistant principal

The Madeline & Howell Adams Chair Michael Stubbart The Connie & Merrell William Cooper Calhoun Chair second trumpet

Mark Maliniak utility / fourth trumpet TROMBONE Craig Mulcahy

HARP Elisabeth Remy Johnson principal

The Sally & Carl Gable Chair

principal trombone

KEYBOARD

The Terence L. Neal Chair, Honoring his dedication & service to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

The Hugh & Jessie Hodgson Memorial Chair

Nathan Zgonc second / associate principal /

Shih-Man Weng †

utility trombone

The Home Depot Veterans Chair

Chance Gompert bass trombone

TUBA Michael Moore principal

The Delta Air Lines Chair

David Mamedov † LIBRARY Emma Luty principal

The Marianna & Solon Patterson Chair

Sara Baguyos associate principal

James Nelson GUEST CONDUCTOR Neil and Sue Williams Chair

Players in rotating sections are listed alphabetically. ‡ Rotates between sections | * Leave of absence | † Regularly engaged musician

10 | encore ASO | LEADERSHIP | 2026/27 Board of Directors OFFICERS Angela Evans

Joia Johnson

Janine Brown

chair

treasurer

vice chair

Patrick Viguerie

Galen Oelkers

Lynn Eden

immediate past chair

secretary

vice chair

DIRECTORS Cathy Callaway Adams

Angela Evans

Donna Lee

William Schultz

Juliet M. Allan

Craig Frankel

Grace Lee, M.D.

June Scott

Susan Antinori

Sally Bogle Gable

Sukai Liu

V Scott

Rona Gomel Ashe

Anne Game

Jonathan Lively

Charles Sharbaugh

Carol Attridge

Rod Garcia-Escudero

Kevin Lyman

Gayle Sheppard

Andrew Bailey

Sally Frost George

Deborah Marlowe

Fahim Siddiqui

Jennifer Barlament*

Robert Glustrom

Rob McDonough

John Sparrow

Keith Barnett

Julie Goosman

Arthur Mills IV

Elliott Tapp

Brett Bartlett

Bonnie B. Harris

Molly Minnear

Yannik Thomas

Paul Blackney

Charles Harrison

Hala Moddelmog*

Maria Todorova

Gerry Boudreau

Tad Hutcheson, Jr.

Caroline Moïse

Ben Touchette

Janine Brown

Roya Irvani

Anne Morgan

Benny Varzi

Betsy Camp

Joia M. Johnson

Terence L. Neal

S. Patrick Viguerie

Lisa Chang

Baxter Jones

Galen Lee Oelkers

Kathy Waller

Russell Currey

Raymond Kotwicki, M.D., M.P.H.

Dr. John Paddock

Chris Webber

Margie Painter

Richard S. White, Jr.

Carlos del Rio, M.D. FIDSA

Jeff Kuester

Cathleen Quigley

Mack Wilbourn

Carrie Kurlander

Doug Reid

Lisa DiFrancesco, M.D.

Scott Lampert

James Rubright

Kevin E. Woods, M.D., M.P.H.

Lynn Eden

James H. Landon

Ravi Saligram

Yelena Epova

Daniel Laufer*

Sheila Lee Davies

BOARD OF COUNSELORS Neil Berman

John T. Glover

Shelley McGehee

G. Kimbrough Taylor, Jr.

Benjamin Q. Brunt

Dona Humphreys

Penelope McPhee

Ray Uttenhove

John W. Cooledge, M.D. Aaron J. Johnson, Jr.

Howard D. Palefsky

Chilton Varner

John R. Donnell, Jr.

James F. Kelley

Patricia H. Reid

Adair M. White

Jere A. Drummond

Patricia Leake

Joyce Schwob

Sue Sigmon Williams

Carla Fackler

Karole F. Lloyd

John A Sibley, III

Charles B. Ginden

Meghan H. Magruder

H. Hamilton Smith

LIFE DIRECTORS Howell E. Adams, Jr. John B. White, Jr. * Ex-Officio Board Member ^ On Sabbatical

Connie Calhoun

Azira G. Hill

Ben F. Johnson, III

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The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Advisory Council is a group of passionate and engaged individuals who act as both ambassadors & resources for the ASO Board and staff. The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra extends heartfelt gratitude to the members listed on this page. 2026/27 CHAIRS Jane Morrison advisory council chair

Justin Im internal connections task

force co-chair Kristi Stathopolous

internal connections task force co-chair

Jane Blount patron experience

task force co-chair

Gregory Heathcock patron experience

task force co-chair

Tiffany Rosetti community connections

& education task force co-chair Otis Threatt community connections

& education task force co-chair MEMBERS Dr. Marshall & Stephanie Abes Phyllis Abramson Joel & Toni Adler Kristi & Aadu Allpere Logan Anderson & Ian Morey Evelyn Babey Asad & Sakina Bashey Meredith W. Bell John Blatz Jane Blount Carol Brantley & David Webster Johanna Brookner Mrs. Amy B. Cheng & Dr. Chad A. Hume, Ph.D JC Chi Tracey Chu Bruce Cohen Kate Cook

DePorres & Barbara Cormier Mary Caroline Cravens & Will Sugden Daniel P. Debonis Donald & Barbara Defoe Paul & Susan Dimmick Bernadette Drankoski Xavier Duralde & Mary Barrett John & Catherine Fare Dyer Jerry H. Evans Mary Ann Flinn Bruce & Avery Flower Karen Foster Annie Frazer John D. Fuller Alex Garcias Dr. Paul Gilreath Nadeen Green Greg Heathcock & Cesar Moreno Elizabeth Hendrick Caroline Hofland Desmond L. Hollingsworth Justin Im Dr. Lillian Ivansco Frank & Janice Johnston Lana Jordan Jennifer B. Kahnweiler Rosthema Kastin Andrea Kauffman Alfred D. Kennedy & Bill Kenny Brian & Ann Kimsey Jason & Michelle Kroh Pam Kuester Van & Elizabeth Lear Dr. Fulton Lewis III & Mr. Neal Rhoney Robert Lewis, Jr.

Allen & Judy Lipis Eunice Luke Catherine & Bill Lundstrom Thomas Mabry Erin Marshall Alfredo Martin Belinda Massafra Catherine Massey Doug & Kathrin Mattox Ed & Linda McGinn Suneel Mendiratta Berthe & Shapour Mobasser Bert Mobley Maria & Chris Moffett Jamal Mohammad & Marcus Dean Sue Morgan Bill Morrison & Beth Clark-Morrison Jane Morrison Whitney Myers John & Christina Nail Gary Noble Regina Olchowski Bethani Oppenheimer Joseph Owen, Jr. Ralph & Suzanne Paulk Ann & Fay Pearce Jonathan & Lori Peterson Stephen Polley Doug Powell & Alexandra Miller Dr. John B. Pugh Eliza Quigley Joseph Rapanotti Leonard Reed Dr. Jay & Kimberley Rhee Vicki Riedel Felicia Rives

Angela Robinson Susan J. Robinson & Mary C. Roemer David Rock Frances A. Root Maurice & Tricia Rosenbaum Tiffany & Rich Rosetti Noelle Ross Thomas & Lynne Saylor Beverly & Milton Shlapak Suzanne Shull Rev. Jeanne S. Simpson Baker Smith Cindy Smith Janice Smith Victoria Smith Peter & Kristi Stathopoulos Tom & Ani Steele Deann Stevens Ian Steward Beth & Edward Sugarman Stephen & Sonia Swartz Sadie Talmadge George & Amy Taylor Bob & Dede Thompson Otis Threatt Jr. Cathy Toren Roxanne Varzi Robert & Amy Vassey Juliana Vincenzino Nadine Virani & Reza Kaba Emily C. Ward James Washburn Dr. Nanette K. Wenger Kiki Wilson Dr. Jiong Yan Camille Yow Peter Zimmerman

For more information about becoming an Advisory Council member, please contact Gregory Freeman at gregory.freeman@atlantasymphony.org or 404.733.4532.

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We are deeply grateful to the following leadership donors whose generous support has made the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's season possible.

hen Gloria Allgood first performed the Brahms Violin Concerto, tears welled in her eyes. The bassist, who has been part of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO) since 1984, got a chance to play the piece as a teenager during a summer trip to Interlochen Center for the Arts, but the music had been imprinted on her mind long before. “My history with Brahms goes back to when I was a tiny child. The piece that was always floating around on the record player was the Brahms Violin Concerto,” she said. “I love that piece, and I’m so thrilled we’re playing it.”

Gloria Allgood, Associate Principal Bass

Allgood’s deep familiarity with Brahms is not unique among musicians. Many of her on-stage colleagues first played the composer’s music long ago: Sections of his works make up well-worn audition pieces, and the symphonies are a hallmark of university orchestra programs.

With Brahms Revealed, a season-long study of Brahms spanning the composer’s four symphonies and six additional seminal works (Violin Concerto included), Music Director Nathalie Stutzmann will tap into that familiarity while creating her own artistic vision of the composer’s music.

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During Stutzmann’s first performance of the season (Oct. 1-4), the ASO pairs Brahms’ First Symphony with the concerto, welcoming Johan Dalene as the soloist. The very next weekend, it’s on to the Third Symphony, juxtaposing the work with bits of Wagner operas. Stutzmann leads five additional concert series showcasing Brahms’ works. On April 15, Music Director Laureate Robert Spano returns to Atlanta to conduct, among other works, Brahms’ Fourth Piano Concerto with soloist Dejan Lazič. Stutzmann is bringing her Brahms interpretations on the road as well. She’s scheduled to perform the First Symphony with orchestras in Zürich and Monte Carlo toward the end of the year. Allgood contrasts this season’s Brahms Revealed series, which she likens to walking through a museum of his music—an immersive experience that lets both the audience and the musicians really dig into the composer’s point of view—with the ASO’s recent indepth examination of Beethoven. The music this time around, she said, will be more broad-natured, less articulated and perhaps more rhythmically challenging than those Beethoven works from two seasons ago. “There’s a weight to Brahms that is a little different than Beethoven,” she said, explaining that Brahms is more about emotion and passion. “But in the same breath, he was intimidated by Beethoven so badly that he didn’t even start composing symphonies until he was 40.” The composer’s long lines have a song-like quality that is perfect for something that has become a hallmark of Stutzmann’s tenure in Atlanta: singing instrumental phrases to the orchestra during rehearsal to demonstrate the song-like quality she searches for in instrumental phrases. “We always talk about, in Brahms, playing the most expressive way, kind of imitating the human voice,” said clarinetist Iván Valbuena. He noted that sometimes these passages are deceptively simple at first glance, leading to oceans of depth and nuance on repeated study. “He’s always making everything a little bit more challenging to understand. And definitely you can see that evolution from one symphony to another.” It’s a musical outlook that highlights emotion, Allgood said, and the concentration of Brahms’ works will really allow the orchestra to bask in that worldview.

Iván Valbuena, Second Clarinet

“It’s not super virtuosic in terms of playing really fast passages or making the solos look very impressive for the audience,” he said. “It’s a different approach. His music is so deep and so simple at the same time.”

“You really get into the style,” she said of the intense focus. “It’s like learning a foreign language—you almost start thinking in that language.”

As a clarinetist, Valbuena holds late Brahms close to his heart, calling him one of the most important composers for the instrument. Those important works all came near the end of his life, years after he finished his final symphony: Brahms wrote a clarinet trio and a quintet in 1891, then a pair of clarinet sonatas, written three years before his death in 1897.

−Iván Valbuena

But even in the Brahms Revealed works, Valbuena points to radiant clarinet passages. The third and fourth symphonies have solos that “you practice all your life,” he said, his voice animated at the thought of applying all that academic study into performance with the ASO. These aren’t flashy bits of musicality, but they can be just as rewarding for musicians and audience members alike.

18 | encore Nathalie Stutzmann on the Sound and Sport of Conducting the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra by James L. Paulk

You recently renewed your contract as Music Director for another 3 years. You’ve had time to build a relationship with the musicians, and you’ve recruited 21 musicians. You’ve just had a really successful season. What do you see as the biggest challenges going forward? STUTZMANN: I think it’s a permanent challenge—you should never think you arrived somewhere. Every day we wake up, we are different, and the music has to be alive. So for the next years, I just want to go on with this work. You talked about creating an ‘Austro-Germanic sound’ with the ASO. Could you talk about what this means? STUTZMANN: I think the quality of the sound should be the working base for any symphony orchestra. If you look at the list of the repertoire, the Austro-Germanic repertoire is clearly the most important—so much of the repertoire comes from those composers, from Beethoven to Strauss. That is the base, and then of course you have to go in every direction. But what creates an identity in the sound is the work in this repertoire, because it has an exigence of sound quality. There is some repertoire that you can play with a nice sound, a beautiful ‘international sound,’ let’s say. And it works. But when you touch Mahler 2, like we did, or Strauss or Bruckner, you need to create a special identity. Otherwise, it doesn’t go… it doesn’t give emotion… it doesn’t serve the music. My origins—I’m half German, half French—all this repertoire is in my blood. Along this line, you’ve said you want the ASO to be ‘America’s most expressive orchestra.’ STUTZMANN: Yes, I grew up with all those recordings, including major American orchestras and, at that time, they each had a very specific sound. You could hear a CD and say: this is the Boston Symphony. I remember the sound of the Boston Symphony with Ozawa. I remember the sound of the Philadelphia, or Cleveland. Nowadays it’s very different. The general level of orchestras is getting better and better. But I feel there is a danger in the uniformity of the sound, internationalization of the sound. I want us to be unique. To have a

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sound that people can recognize is very rare in our days. My dream with Atlanta is to find this identity together. I think it’s something which also interests our musicians. You’ve had great success with opera. Would you consider an opera post somewhere? STUTZMANN: Honestly, I don’t know. For now, I am mainly a symphony orchestra conductor. I want to focus on that. I still have so much repertoire I want to approach with them. I adore opera, and I’m lucky enough that I get to work with great opera houses across the globe. I’m in Bayreuth, I’ll be at the Paris Opera this winter, and Bayerischer Staatsoper. So, if one of those wonderful houses one day offers me a music directorship, I would consider it, of course. But for now, it’s not an immediate plan. It was recently announced that you’ll become music director of the Monte-Carlo Symphony Orchestra. Will that permit you to cut back on guest conducting? STUTZMANN: You know, I am very lucky at this stage of my artistic life: I have the chance to conduct some of the best orchestras in the world. I have built wonderful relationships, like for example the London Symphony, which invites me every year, the Concertgebouw, the Munich Philharmonic. I want to keep those relationships strong. But the fact that I have now also a family in Europe doesn’t mean my heart is not in Atlanta [laugh]. Atlanta is my main sport; it will stay my main sport. Monte-Carlo is a more compact schedule, and a wonderful place. It’s a marvelous moment for me. I thought I had to go everywhere, and now I can choose. I love to be music director because I think the more you know the people, how to get the best of them, the better the relationship grows. And I saw that with Atlanta. It’s like building a family: sometimes you have easy moments, sometimes hard moments. You have to take strong decisions as music director, which are not always popular. But you have to take them for the best general interest. I see how our relationship has grown, and this year was so beautiful! Humanly, we are better together, we understand each other better. And the more we build up on that, the better the music is. I think it’s very obvious in our concerts: the joy of playing, the way the orchestra gives me so much energy, and that goes to the audience; that touches our people. A complete version of this conversation can be found at ArtsATL.org

20 | october1/3/4 The 4,218th, 4,219th and 4,220th concerts of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Thursday, October 1, 8:00pm Saturday, October 3, 8:00pm Sunday, October 4, 3:00pm Atlanta Symphony Hall NATHALIE STUTZMANN, CONDUCTOR JOHAN DALENE VIOLIN

If you need to exit the hall during the performance, you may reenter between works. The use of cameras or recording devices during the concert is strictly prohibited. Please be kind to those around you and silence your mobile phone and other hand-held devices.

GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL (1685-1759) Music for the Royal Fireworks (1749) 9 MINS Overture JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897) Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D major, Op. 77 (1878) 40 MINS I. Allegro non troppo II. Adagio III. Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace Johan Dalene, violin INTERMISSION

20 MINS

JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897) Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68 (1855-1876) 45 MINS I. Un poco sostenuto – Allegro II. Andante sostenuto III. Un poco Allegretto e grazioso IV. Adagio – Più andante – Allegro non troppo, ma con brio

notesontheprogram | 21 by Noel Morris Program Annotator

Notes to Know • German composer George Frideric Handel became a naturalized British citizen in 1727 and is a hallowed figure in English music. • The Brahms Violin Concerto is a cornerstone of the oboe repertoire. As the oboe takes the lead in the opening of the middle movement, the concerto tests the player’s breath control and musicianship, making it a frequent flyer on oboe auditions.

• Throughout his early adulthood, Johannes Brahms had a

hang-up over writing symphonies. With Beethoven as his model, his self-criticism bordered on debilitating and delayed the completion of his first symphony by more than 20 years. HANDEL Music for the Royal Fireworks

longside Burning Man 2023 and the notorious Fyre Festival, George II’s victory celebration ranks among the all-time greatest public fiascos. It started on the heels of the War of Austrian Succession in 1748. Britain got a bad deal, so King George II tried to put a good face on it. He commissioned a giant victory celebration. As Britain paid out subsidies to the Austrian Empress, George built a “machine” (building) to launch a massive fireworks display with 100 cannons. He also ordered his favorite composer, George Frideric Handel, to write music for martial instruments with “no fidles [sic].” Throughout the winter months, carpenters raised a structure spanning 410 ft x 114 ft. They decorated it with columns, arches, and festoons for flowers. Handel wrote a suite for peals of trumpets, horns, and winds. But then came the troubles.

First and most recent ASO performance: January 17, 2018 Stephen Mulligan, conductor Students at the Symphony performance

Ahead of the big day, presenters decided to open Handel’s rehearsal to the public, causing gridlock at London Bridge — the only Thames crossing — which shut down half of the city. Angry coachmen exchanged blows. Then, a cannoneer blew off his hand. During the celebration, one

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firework misfired, ripping through the crowd. It torched a woman’s dress and blinded a bystander. Next, the King’s massive machine went up in flames. The architect, Servandoni, was so furious that he drew his sword on a pyrotechnician and spent the night in jail. Such was the world premiere of Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks. Musically, Handel couldn’t bring himself to exclude the “fidles” and immediately scheduled a second performance to benefit orphan children. In the original version, the composer included a hefty complement of wind and brass players interspersed with fireworks and cannon fire. The revised version brings the winds and strings into balance — sans the explosives. ORCHESTRATION: 3 oboes, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 3 horns, 3 trumpets, timpani, harpsichord and strings JOHANNES BRAHMS

ohannes Brahms completed his First Symphony and Violin Concerto within two years in the 1870s. At the time, he was in mid-life and enjoying status and money. Yet both works look back on an earlier era, when he was but a 20-year-old from a rough part of Hamburg. Back in 1853, Brahms had just left home and was making contacts that would alter the course of his life. He loved his new friends, but recoiled from being anyone’s shiny new toy. That didn’t stop the comments.

George V, King of Hanover, labeled Brahms “little Beethoven.” The famed violinist Joseph Joachim wrote, “His purity, his independence…and the singular wealth of his heart and intellect find sympathetic utterance in his music.” The celebrated pianist Clara Schumann gushed, “Here again is one who comes as if sent from God!” Next, Robert Schumann wrote an editorial introducing him to the world: “I thought…that someone would suddenly come along…one whose mastery would not gradually unfold but, like Minerva, would spring fully armed from the head of Jupiter. And now he has arrived, a young blood, at whose cradle graces and heroes kept watch. His name is Johannes Brahms."

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“Joachim and the Schumanns took Brahms under their wing. In time, they advised him to write a symphony. (In fact, they weren’t wrong about the symphonic bearing of his piano music.) But Brahms wasn’t ready for such an undertaking. He felt he had a lot to learn about orchestral writing and protested, “You have no idea what it’s like to hear the footsteps of a giant like [Beethoven] behind you.” BRAHMS Violin Concerto

ast-forward to 1878, Brahms wrote much of his Violin Concerto while vacationing in the lakeside resort town of Pörtschach. After completing the first movement, he mailed the solo part to his friend Joachim, who made suggestions and revisions, and wrote the cadenza. (Brahms was a pianist whose imagination didn’t necessarily sit well on the violin.) Back and forth went the score. Joachim offered lots of suggestions, which Brahms didn’t necessarily follow.

First ASO performance: March 10, 1952 Henry Sopkin, conductor Robert Harrison, violin Most recent ASO performance: April 15, 2021 Robert Spano, conductor Robert McDuffie,

Today, audiences and musicians love the work for its violin sweet lyricism and boisterous bravado. Because the solo part is highly integrated into the piece’s architecture, the concerto has the typical Brahmsian symphonic bearing. It’s famously difficult for the soloist–without a flashy payoff– prompting the famous quip from conductor Hans van Bülow: it’s not a concerto for violin, but a concerto “against the violin.” Brahms rushed the work to completion ahead of its Leipzig premiere, which he conducted with Joachim as the soloist on New Year’s Day in 1879. ORCHESTRATION: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, solo violin and strings BRAHMS Symphony No. 1

n the road to writing a symphony, young Johannes Brahms first attempted to orchestrate his Sonata for Two Pianos. Even with enthusiastic encouragement, Brahms remained skeptical. That symphony never materialized. Today, we know it as Piano Concerto No. 1. There would be other false starts. In 1854, Brahms took a position as the director of the Court Concerts and Choral

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First ASO performance: April 30, 1949 Henry Sopkin, conductor Most recent ASO performance:

Society in Lippe-Detmold, which offered him free access to a fine orchestra and a veritable laboratory on orchestration. For that ensemble, he wrote two hefty multi-movement serenades, but stopped short of bringing symphonies to fruition.

Eight years later, the piece we know as the First Symphony began to take shape. Clara Schumann Nathalie Stutzmann, wrote to Joachim: “Johannes sent me the other day — conductor imagine my surprise! — the first movement of a symphony.” She went on to say it is “full of wonderful beauties” and copied down some of the music in the letter, a phrase from the first movement. Naturally, she expected the completed piece to follow. And it did — fourteen years later. April 5, 2024

In 1868, Brahms vacationed in Switzerland with his father and wrote out a melody over the words, “High on the mountain, deep in the valley, I greet you a thousandfold.” He sent his musical postcard to Clara. Eight years later, that melody became a horn call in the finale. The final symphonic push waited until the summer of 1876 between swims and hikes in the Black Forest. At the premiere in November, conductor Hans von Bülow noted echoes of Beethoven’s Ninth in the finale, to which Brahms snapped, “Any jackass can see that! ORCHESTRATION: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani and strings

meettheartist | 25

JOHAN DALENE, violin

inner of the 2019 prestigious Carl Nielsen Competition, Swedish-Norwegian violinist Johan Dalene “is not just a virtuoso like many others, he is a voice. He has a tone, a presence” (Diapason). At the age of 26, he has performed with leading orchestras and in celebrated recital halls both at home and abroad. In 2022, he was named Gramophone’s Young Artist of the Year. An advocate for new music, Johan will be embarking on a European tour with the Philharmonia and Esa-Pekka Salonen for Magnus Lindberg’s First Violin Concerto. He continues to play Thomas Adès’ music, notably with Adès himself conducting, and with orchestras such as the NDR Elbphilharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic, and Iceland Symphony. After residencies with the Royal Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Gavle Symphony orchestras, Johan will be debuting with orchestras such as the Gulbenkian Orchestra and Monte Carlo Philharmonic. Johan is equally passionate about chamber music and will be returning to the Schleswig-Holstein Festival to play a program dedicated to Nordic and Swedish repertoire. He has also played at celebrated festivals such as Verbier and Rosendal and in halls like Carnegie Hall and Wigmore Hall, where he is now a regular. Recording exclusively for BIS, Johan released his sixth album on the label in November 2025, featuring the Mendelssohn and Bruch concertos, as well as Vaughan Williams’ Lark Ascending. His previous recording entitled Souvenirs, a recital disc earned him his fourth coveted Editor’s Choice from Gramophone magazine. Johan began playing the violin at the age of four and made his professional concerto debut three years later. Johan plays the 1725 ‘Duke of Cambridge’ Stradivarius, generously on loan from the Anders Sveaas’ Charitable Foundation. Johan Dalene is managed by Enticott Music Management in association with IMG Artists.

Brahms Revealed: Hamburg and the Hungarians by Noel Morris

“I

f my father were still alive and I were sitting in the orchestra in the first chair of the second violins, then at least I could say to him that I had accomplished something.” —Johannes Brahms Picture a seedy hole in the wall in Hamburg, 1848. Sailors, Hungarian immigrants, and prostitutes huddle around the bar. At a nearby piano, a blonde-headed boy with dreamy blue eyes plays dance tunes and songs on demand. As money was tight for the Brahms family, “Hannes” played overnights at that bar from age twelve. Although formal education ended for him at fourteen, he was an avid reader and was said to keep his nose in a book as his fingers plinked at that piano. Hannes showed a persistent affinity for the keyboard, which annoyed his father (he had wanted the boy to be an orchestral musician like himself). Nevertheless, his parents relented, weaving an atmosphere of enormous benevolence around their prodigious child. Piano teachers instructed him for free. One relocated so the boy could have a shorter walk. Neighbors

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and local businesses let him practice on their instruments. And when piano wasn’t enough for this obsessive youth, Eduard Marxsen, Hamburg’s most prestigious musician, agreed to teach him composition. To be sure, those portside brothels left scars, along with some unspeakable memories, but Brahms took those things in stride. He had music to write, a hunger that inhabited his being from age 7. To his parents, composition was impractical, but he persisted. Always the perfectionist, Hannes wrote reams of music in his youth, but destroyed everything written before 1851. Brahms was a teenager when the Revolutions of 1848 created waves of Hungarian refugees. Thousands poured into his hometown seeking passage to America, and the people of Hamburg developed a taste for their music—the freewheeling sound of the Hungarian Roma (formerly known as Gypsies). Brahms soon connected with violinist Eduard Reményi, who found in him a brilliant recital partner. Reményi introduced Brahms to the community of Hungarians, exposing him to their hot-blooded music — a sound that would color his works from that point on. Soon, Brahms worked up some feverish piano parts to accompany his friend, and the two boys went on the road. The friendship didn’t last, but Reményi introduced Brahms to someone who would change his life: the prominent Hungarian violinist Joseph Joachim. Joachim became a trusted friend and a lifeline to the who’s who in music. He didn’t know it at the time, but Johannes Brahms was about to be famous.

BRAHMS REVEALED JOIN US for an in-depth, season-long exploration of a master melodist and orchestral architect. See what we're revealing at aso.org/brahms-revealed

28 | october8/10 The 4,221st and 4,222nd concerts of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Thursday, October 8, 8:00pm Saturday, October 10, 8:00pm Atlanta Symphony Hall NATHALIE STUTZMANN, CONDUCTOR

RICHARD WAGNER (1813-1883) Prelude to Lohengrin (1846-1847) JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897) Symphony No. 3 in F major, Op. 90 (1883) I. Allegro con brio II. Andante III. Poco allegretto IV. Allegro INTERMISSION

9 MINS

35 MINS

20 MINS

RICHARD WAGNER (1813-1883) Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde (1857-1859) 20 MINS Prelude: Langsam und schmachtend Liebestod: Sehr mäßig beginnend RICHARD WAGNER (1813-1883) Overture to Rienzi (1838-1840)

12 MINS

Thursday's concert is dedicated to MARTHA M. PENTECOST in honor of her generous support of the 2025/26 Annual Fund.

notesontheprogram | 29 by Noel Morris Program Annotator

Notes to Know • The Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde distill the opera into its two essential parts: the endless longing between two lovers, followed by their ecstatic union. • In 1849, Richard Wagner participated in a failed political uprising, forcing him into exile for more than a decade. For this reason, he missed the premiere of Lohengrin, but silently “followed along” with a score and a watch.

• During their lifetimes, Richard Wagner and Johannes Brahms sat at opposite poles between free-form musical storytelling and the use of traditional classical structures. WAGNER Prelude to Act I of Lohengrin

ichard Wagner had a way of bending stories to his purpose. In the case of Lohengrin, he tapped into the Holy Grail legend and added a cameo by God. At the start of Lohengrin, a king arrives to pompous fanfare. A damsel in distress named Elsa has a dream and foretells the coming of a hero, singing, “In splendid shining armor a knight approached, a man of such pure virtue as I had never seen before.” The mysterious man serves as her champion, ordained by God to stand for her in a trial by combat. For his devotion, the knight insists that she never ask his name, his heritage, or his origin (spoiler alert: he’s a knight of the Holy Grail). Richard Wagner wrote Lohengrin (mostly) in Dresden in the 1840s. Like Tristan and the Ring operas, he used leitmotifs to advance his storytelling (musical tags that represent people, things, and concepts). He built the Prelude to Act I around his Holy Grail motif.

First ASO performance: February 25, 2012 James Gaffigan, conductor Most recent ASO performance: October 5, 2019 Robert Spano, conductor

Note: If you love Dungeons and Dragons, cosplay, or the like, you might enjoy a deep dive into Wagner. One can spend years searching for coded leitmotifs that turn written mythology into musical storytelling. ORCHESTRATION: 3 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, and strings

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BRAHMS Symphony No. 3

First ASO performance: March 31, 1951 Henry Sopkin, conductor Most recent ASO performance: October 15, 2022 Nathalie Stutzmann, conductor

n 1853, 20-year-old Brahms knocked on the door of music’s power couple, Robert and Clara Schumann. Overnight, the blue-eyed youth became their protégé. What followed was some combination of hero worship, mentorship, mutual admiration, advocacy, dependency, lifelong friendship, and unrequited love. Sadly, Robert Schumann entered a hospital five months later and never recovered, but Johannes and Clara formed a lifelong bond and devoted themselves to promoting his legacy.

Fast forward to 1883, the 50-year-old Brahms followed the contralto Hermine Spies to Wiesbaden, where Brahms settled into a villa with a scenic overlook to write his Third Symphony. Gazing across the majestic waters of the Rhine, Brahms thought of Robert Schumann’s Third Symphony, Rhenish, written thirty years before. Picking up on a single phrase, Brahms repurposed Robert’s music for the stormy descending figure at the start of his own symphony. More broadly, he zeroed in on an inside joke that he shared with the Schumanns.

Decades before, their friend Joseph Joachim complained about his love life, declaring himself “frei aber einsam” (“free but lonely”). For laughs, Brahms, Albert Dietrich, and the Schumanns turned Joachim’s motto into the F-A-E sonata for violin and piano. Thirty years later, the eternal bachelor Brahms declared himself free but happy — “Frei aber froh.” Using F-A-F as a cipher, Brahms built his entire third symphony. The cipher serves as a private wink to Dietrich, Clara, and Joachim. At the same time, the symphony’s drama emerges from a tug of war between A and A-flat, which continually shifts the home key of F major to F minor. Although Brahms’ Third Symphony was a rousing success, he had his detractors. In fact, members of Vienna’s Wagner Club attended the premiere with the express purpose of shouting and disrupting the concert. In truth, Brahms’ Third Symphony is famously difficult to conduct. Like Beethoven, Brahms wrote a tightly integrated

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RICHARD WAGNER LEGACY Robert Schumann was not the only composer who occupied Brahms’ thoughts as he wrote his Third Symphony. Richard Wagner passed away in February of 1883. Although the two men weren’t exactly buddies, Brahms acknowledged his rival’s talent. That summer, while vacationing in the Rhineland, Brahms had easy access to the famous cliff called Lorelei, which Wagner animated in the Sirens’ call in Tannhaüser. In homage to Wagner, Brahms wove the Siren’s music into the first movement. piece based on building blocks of material. But rhythmically, he upsets the apple cart by punching unaccented beats and syncopating phrases to effectively hide the bar lines. In this way, the master craftsman was incredibly innovative, bringing warmly Romantic melodies into the space of classical architecture. ORCHESTRATION: 2 flutes (2nd doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, and strings WAGNER Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde

First ASO performance: March 22, 1963

Henry Sopkin, eonard Bernstein referred to Wagner’s music drama conductor Tristan und Isolde (1865) as “the central work Most recent ASO of all music history, the hub of the wheel.” It would performance: be no exaggeration to divide Western culture into March 16, 2014 before and after Tristan. Alex Ross of The New Yorker Donald Runnicles, wrote, “Wagnerism was by no means a purely or even conductor primarily musical event. It traversed the entire sphere of the arts — poetry, the novel, painting, theater, dance, architecture, film. It also breached the realm of politics.” Musically, Tristan upended tonal harmony.

The zinger happens in bar 3 of the Prelude, a chord spelled with F-B-D#-G#. Forever dubbed “the Tristan Chord,” Wagner used it to launch into a musical language that aches for resolution, but doesn’t — not for another four hours. It’s the musical counterpart to endless longing.

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The curtain rises on a voyage to Cornwall. Onboard, the two protagonists accidentally drink a magic potion, throwing them into a forbidden and all-consuming love. At the end of the opera, Tristan dies; Isolde hovers over his body and sings her ecstatic Liebestod (love-death). As she reaches the climax, she dies, and the two spirits dissolve blissfully into one being. ORCHESTRATION: 3 flutes (3rd doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, harp, and strings First ASO performance: September 25, 1948 Henry Sopkin, conductor Most recent ASO performance: July 8, 2001 Jere Flint, conductor

WAGNER Overture to Rienzi On July 26, 2026, Atlanta Symphony Music Director Nathalie Stutzmann conducted the Bayreuth Festival premiere of Richard Wagner’s grand opera Rienzi (1842). Although it was the composer’s first major success, his third opera (remarkably) had never before been performed at Wagner’s personal music fest.

In the past, conductors pointed to Wagner’s developments after the earlier works as a reason to neglect them. Traditionally, they only performed Rienzi’s Overture; this past summer, Stutzmann made a stunning case for the complete opera. Wagner based his plot on the 14th-century Roman populist, Cola di Rienzi, who unites the masses and, for a time, ousts the abusive nobility. Sadly, in his efforts to thwart his rivals, Rienzi turns to tyranny. Eventually, the people rise against him. The Overture trots out some of the opera’s highlights, starting with the Act III battle call of the Colonna family, heard in the solo trumpet. Wagner then previews Rienzi’s poignant Act V prayer before going out with a jaunty military march. ORCHESTRATION: 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 4 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, and strings

34 | october22/24 The 4,223rd and 4,224th concerts of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Thursday, October 22, 8:00pm Saturday, October 24, 8:00pm Atlanta Symphony Hall KRISTIINA POSKA, CONDUCTOR SULLIVAN FORTNER, PIANO

GEORGE GERSHWIN (1898-1937) Catfish Row: Suite from Porgy and Bess (1936) 23 MINS I. Catfish Row II. Porgy Sings III. Fugue IV. Hurricane V. Good Mornin’ Sistuh! GEORGE GERSHWIN (1898-1937) Rhapsody in Blue (1924) arr. Ferde Grofé Sullivan Fortner, piano INTERMISSION CARL NIELSEN (1865-1931) Symphony No. 4, Op. 29, “The Inextinguishable” (1914-1916) Allegro — Poco allegretto — Poco adagio quasi andante — Allegro

17 MINS

20 MINS

36 MINS

Supporting Partner

Saturday’s concert is dedicated to SUSIE & PATRICK VIGUERIE in honor of their generous support of the 2025/26 Annual Fund.

notesontheprogram | 35 by Noel Morris Program Annotator

Notes to Know • Porgy and Bess is based on DuBose Heyward’s novella about a Gullah Geechee community. Isolated after the Civil War, the Gullahs are descended from freed slaves who spoke their own language and lived off the land well into the 20th century. Celebrated weavers, the Gullahs’ sweetgrass baskets fetch hundreds of dollars. • George Gershwin was a self-taught pianist who learned jazz on the streets of New York City and at venues such as The Cotton Club in Harlem. • Carl Nielsen’s Fourth Symphony has four distinct movements, seamlessly integrated and played without pause. GERSHWIN Catfish Row Ever since its inception, Porgy and Bess, “the Great American opera,” has been a great American controversy. Produced at the height of Jim Crow, Gershwin poked the bear by writing for an all-Black cast. He then found uneasiness among some of the performers. Porgy and Bess is a Depression-era story set in Charleston’s Cabbage Row (“Catfish Row” in the opera). Taking us into the heart of a Gullah Geechee community, Porgy spotlights a joyful people. Sadly, cringy tropes generated by minstrels and mainstream entertainment caused many in the younger generation to abandon the Gullah heritage. So why do so many consider Porgy and Bess to be the great American opera? Not only is it a singularly brilliant score, but its story continues to resonate. Porgy and Bess exposes things we’re not done talking about in American society. It’s about wounds that won’t heal, and is just as likely to provoke conversation as it is a song in their heart.

First ASO performance: April 10, 1968 André Kostelanetz, conductor Most recent ASO performance: September 27, 1998 Yoel Levi, conductor

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THE MUSIC George Gershwin was the child of Russian immigrants who settled in New York’s Lower East Side. When he set out to write “Summertime” and “It Ain’t Necessarily So,” he took himself to the barrier islands of South Carolina. Singing, clapping, and stomping alongside Black preachers, he absorbed the extraordinary music and language of the Gullah people. He then parlayed them into his opera. As the renowned operatic bass and Atlanta native Morris Robinson noted, the “famous ending of the opera sounds to me very much like benediction at just about every Black Church I’ve ever visited in the Low Country…. This ‘back clap’ was foreign to me when I arrived in Charleston in 1987, but I soon became very familiar with it.” Since its premiere, Morris Robinson, Eric Owens, Sydney Poitier, Maya Angelou, Leontyne Price, Sammy Davis Jr., Audra McDonald, and many other acclaimed artists have brought Porgy and Bess to the stage. George Gershwin produced the orchestral suite, Catfish Row, in 1936. ORCHESTRATION: 2 flutes (2nd doubling piccolo), 2 oboes (2nd doubling English horn), 4 clarinets (4th doubling bass clarinet), bassoon, 3 horns, 3 trumpets, 2 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, piano, banjo, and strings First ASO performance: January 29, 1950 Henry Sopkin, conductor Oscar Levant, piano Most recent ASO performance: April 26, 2024 Lina González-Granados, conductor Cédric Tiberghien, piano

GERSHWIN Rhapsody in Blue

t was the post-holiday hangover. George Gershwin, his brother Ira, and Buddy De Sylva were shooting pool in the wee hours of January 3, 1924, when Ira noticed a newspaper article: “Paul Whiteman is giving a concert of experimental music next month… Jazz! Classical music!…Married together!” It went on to say that George Gershwin would play a new piano concerto. That’s when George learned he had just over a month to write the piece. Paul

Whiteman

was

one

the

most

popular

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bandleaders of the Prohibition era, performing “sweet jazz,” a style characterized by square rhythms and sentimental melodies (as opposed to the “hot jazz” coming from artists like Duke Ellington). With his “Experiment in Modern Music,” Whiteman sought to make a case for jazz to white audiences, who considered jazz immoral. If New York City gave Gershwin the musical vocabulary for Rhapsody in Blue, a trip to Boston inspired him. “It was on that train,” he said, “with its steely rhythms, its rattlety-bang that is so often stimulating to a composer…. I suddenly heard — and even saw on paper — the complete construction of the rhapsody from beginning to end.” Five weeks before the premiere, Gershwin disappeared into the back room of his parents’ apartment and began to write. He decided to open the piece with a clarinet trill and 17-note scale. During the rehearsal, clarinetist Ross Grossman jokingly played the scale as one long, sassy glissando. Gershwin liked Grossman’s gag so much, he wrote it into the piece. As Whiteman foretold, George played the solo piano at his star-studded affair. The audience included Fred and Adele Astaire, Igor Stravinsky, Jascha Heifetz, Fritz Kreisler, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Leopold Stokowski, Deems Taylor, Olin Downes, and John Philip Sousa. Meanwhile, the two Gershwin brothers word smithed a title for the new piece. “An American Rhapsody,” thought George. “No,” said Ira. “Rhapsody in Blue.” ORCHESTRATION: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 alto saxophones, tenor saxophone, 2 bassoons, 3 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, banjo, and strings

38 | encore

NEILSEN Symphony No. 4

he Fourth Symphony (1916) of Danish composer Carl Nielsen sometimes sounds like a riotous, untamed wilderness. In truth, this tightly crafted work comes from just a handful of themes that persist like kudzu. Writing during the throes of World War I, Nielsen maintained that his symphony isn’t about the War (Denmark remained neutral), yet his first audiences could think of nothing else. Pushing back, he wrote,

“Music is life. As soon as even a single note sounds in the air or through space, it is the result of life and movement. That is why music and the dance are the Sixten Ehrling, more immediate expressions of the will to life. The conductor symphony evokes the most primal sources of life and Most recent ASO performance: the wellspring of the life feeling. That is, what lies behind April 24, 1999 all human, animal, and plant life as we perceive or live Robert Spano, it…. It is, in a way, a completely thoughtless expression conductor of what makes the birds cry, the animals roar, bleat, run, and fight, and humans moan, groan, exult, and shout without any explanation. The symphony does not describe all this, but rather the basic emotion that lies beneath it. Music can do just this. It is its most profound quality, its true domain, because by simply being itself, it has performed its task. For it is life, whereas the other arts only represent and paraphrase life. Life is indomitable and inextinguishable.

First ASO performance:

December 20, 1970

INSIDE THE SCORE Throughout much of Nielsen’s Fourth Symphony, a second set of timpani sits dormant at the back of the orchestra, only to thunder to life at the end. Coming from the age of trench warfare, it’s challenging not to hear bombs exploding across the battlements in these timpani strikes. Yet the symphony’s ending is lifeaffirming. Nielsen wrote, “In case all the world was devastated, then nature would still begin to breed new life again, begin to push forward again. These forces, which are inextinguishable, I have tried to represent.”

meettheartist | 39

“The struggle, the wrestling, the generation and the wasting away go on today as yesterday, tomorrow as today, and everything returns. Once more, music is life and like it, inextinguishable.” ORCHESTRATION: 3 flutes (3rd doubling piccolo), 3 oboes, 3 clarinets, 3 bassoons (3rd doubling contrabassoon), 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, 2 timpani, and strings SULLIVAN FORTNER, piano

or more than a decade, Sullivan Fortner has been stretching his deep-rooted talents as a pianist, composer, band leader, and uncompromising individualist. The GRAMMY® Award-winning artist and recipient of the 2026 Larry J. Bell Jazz Artist Award has garnered international praise as a leader and a fierce collaborator. In 2026, Fortner earned the GRAMMY® for Best Jazz Instrumental Album with his trio album Southern Nights and was named Piano Player of the Year by The Jazz Journalists Association. Pulling distinct elements from different eras, Fortner’s artistry preserves tradition and evolves sound. The New Orleans native has worked with Wynton Marsalis, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Paul Simon, Diane Reeves, John Scofield, Ambrose Akinmusire, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Kassa Overall, Nicholas Payton, Chief Adjuah and Roy Hargrove. Fortner has appeared at acclaimed festivals around the world, including the North Sea Jazz Festival, Newport Jazz Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, Discover, Big Ears and the Gilmore Piano Festival among many others. Both Fortner’s works and his insights have been featured in culture drivers from The New York Times to The Root.

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KRISTIINA POSKA, conductor

ristiina Poska serves as Music Director of the Orchestre Français des Jeunes since 2025, and as Principal Guest Conductor of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra since the 2021/22 season. Previously, she held the position of Chief Conductor of the Flanders Symphony Orchestra from 2019/20 through 2024/25.

Recently, Poska debuted with Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Essen Philharmonic, Sinfonia Varsovia, Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. As Music Director of the Orchestre Français des Jeunes, she recently led two European tours, with performances at the Opéra de Dijon, BOZAR Brussels, and Philharmonie de Paris. Equally prolific in the operatic repertoire, Poska’s recent engagements included a return to the Norwegian National Opera, a debut at the Opéra de Dijon, among others. Poska’s musical foundation was shaped at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theater in Tallinn, where she studied choral conducting, and at Berlin’s Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler, where she honed her orchestral conducting skills.

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Disney “HOCUS POCUS” In Concert Live to Film

Starring Bette Midler Sarah Jessica Parker Kathy Najimy Directed by Kenny Ortega

Choreography Peggy Holmes Kenny Ortega There will be one intermission. Prints by TECHNICOLOR®

Produced by David Kirschner Steven Haft Screenplay by Mick Garris Neil Cuthbert Story by David Kirschner Mick Garris

Walt Disney Pictures Original Motion Picture Soundtrack available at Disneymusicemporium.com

Executive Producer Ralph Winter Score by John Debney Additional Music by James Horner Brock Walsh "I Put a Spell on You" Music and Lyrics by Jay Hawkins Arranged by Marc Shaiman Musical Arrangements by Marc Shaiman

This film is rated “PG”. Today’s performance lasts approximately 1 hour and 39 minutes with a 20 minute intermission. The performance is a presentation of the feature film “Hocus Pocus” with a live performance of the film’s score. Out of respect for the musicians and your fellow audience members, please remain seated until the conclusion of the end credits.

44 | encore

ccidentally conjured on Halloween night in modern-day Salem, three seventeenth-century witches known as the Sanderson sisters, plot to steal the life essence from the town’s children to ensure their own eternal life. The diabolical sisters are comically outwitted by three prankster kids and aided by Thackery Binx, a boy transformed into a cat centuries earlier for interfering with the witches. Released on July 16, 1993, and directed by Kenny Ortega, the spooky comedy stars Bette Midler (Winifred), Sarah Jessica Parker (Sarah), Kathy Najimy (Mary), Omri Katz (Max), Thora Birch (Dani), and Vinessa Shaw (Allison). Presentation licensed by Disney Concerts © All rights reserved.

STUART CHAFETZ, conductor

tuart Chafetz is the newly appointed Principal Pops Conductor of The Phoenix Symphony and currently serves as Principal Pops Conductor of the Columbus, Chautauqua, and Marin Symphonies. Chafetz, a conductor celebrated for his dynamic and engaging podium presence, is increasingly in demand with orchestras across the continent. This season Chafetz will be on the podium in Atlanta, Naples, Kansas City, Vancouver, and Seattle.

Chafetz is well regarded for his experience working with a wide array of artists across many genres. He has led concerts with renowned artists including Rick Ross, Ne-Yo, Leslie Odom, Jr., Kenny G, David Foster w/ Katherine McPhee, Chris Botti, Michael Bolton, Kool & The Gang, John Denver, Marvin Hamlisch, and Bernadette Peters. He was recently invited by Nas to conduct his residency at the Wynn Casino in Las Vegas in addition to conducting his show with multiple orchestras across the country. When not on the podium, Chafetz makes his home near San Francisco, CA, with his wife, Ann Krinitsky. Chafetz holds a bachelor’s degree in music performance from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati and a master’s from the Eastman School of Music.

46 | encore Campaign for the

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra has begun an ambitious campaign to generate new endowment and stability funding. Our Campaign for the Next Era will allow the ASO to achieve its vision while maintaining its financial health and ensuring long-term sustainability. This Campaign will create sustainable funding to: • Enable the ASO to continue to attract and retain the finest musicians in the world • Maintain and expand our community-wide education programs • Fully fund our nationally-recognized Talent Development Program Investments in the Campaign for the Next Era will help the ASO continue to enrich our beloved community with brilliant performances and music education for decades to come.

CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTORS The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra is grateful to the following donors and volunteers who have supported our Campaign for the Next Era Endowment Campaign. CAMPAIGN CHAIRS

CAMPAIGN CABINET

Kathy Waller

Bert Mills

Ray Uttenhove

John B. White, Jr.

Anne Morgan

Patrick Viguerie

Jim Rubright

For more information about the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s Campaign for the Next Era, please contact Grace Sipusic, Vice President of Development, at grace.sipusic@atlantasymphony.org or 404.733.5061.

encoreatlanta.com | 47

$1,000,000+ A Friend of the Symphony (4) Mr. Eric Bressner The Family of Ann Grovenstein Campbell Ms. Margie Painter The Zeist Foundation, Inc. $500,000+ A Friend of the Symphony The Farideh & Al Azadi Foundation Emerald Gate Charitable Trust Kathy Waller & Kenneth Goggins $250,000+ A Friend of the Symphony Sheila Lee Davies & Jon Davies Mr. & Mrs. Mark A. Kauffman Anne Morgan & Jim Kelley Mary & Jim Rubright Patrick & Susie Viguerie $100,000+ Balloun Foundation Janine Brown & Alex J. Simmons, Jr. Mr. & Mrs. Paul J. Blackney Ms. Elizabeth W. Camp Cari K. Dawson & John M. Sparrow Marcia & John Donnell Ms. Angela L. Evans Dick & Anne Game June & John Scott Mr. Fahim Siddiqui & Ms. Shazia Fahim Ann Marie & John B. White, Jr. $50,000+ A Friend of the Symphony (4) The Antinori Foundation Jeannette Guarner, MD & Carlos del Rio, MD Bonnie Harris James H. Landon Ms. Molly Minnear Bert & Carmen Mills Patty & Doug Reid Ross** & Sally Singletary Slumgullion Charitable Fund John & Ray Uttenhove

UP TO $50,000+ A Friend of the Symphony (2) Phyllis Abramson, Ph.D. Mr. Keith Adams & Ms. Kerry Heyward Juliet & John Allan Mr. & Mrs. Andrew Bailey Wright* & Alison Caughman Ms. Lisa V. Chang Lisa DiFrancesco, MD & Darlene Nicosia Craig Frankel & Jana Eplan The Gable Foundation Florencia & Rodrigo Garcia Escudero Sally & Walter George Georgia Power Company Pam & Robert Glustrom Elizabeth & Sheffield Hale Mr. & Mrs. Charles B. Harrison Tad & Janin Hutcheson Brian & Carrie Kurlander Donna Lee & Howard Ehni Dr. Jennifer Lyman & Mr. Kevin Lyman Ms. Deborah A. Marlowe & Dr. Clint Lawrence Massey Charitable Trust John & Linda Matthews Carla & Arthur Mills IV Galen Oelkers John R. Paddock, Ph.D. & Karen M. Schwartz, Ph.D. Victoria & Howard Palefsky Dr. Kenneth Sass & Mr. Daniel Lazarus Bill & Rachel Schultz Joyce & Henry Schwob Charlie & Donna Sharbaugh Elliott & Elaine Tapp

ASO | SUPPORT

he Atlanta Symphony Orchestra continues to prosper thanks to the support of our generous patrons. The list below recognizes the donors who have made contributions since June 1, 2025. Their extraordinary generosity provides the foundation for this worldclass institution. $1,000,000+ A Friend of the Symphony $100,000+ Sheila Lee Davies & Jon Davies Barney M. Franklin & Hugh W. Burke Charitable Fund The Estate of Mr. Max M. Gilstrap The Estate of Mr. Frederick D. Weaver $50,000+ The Antinori Foundation Paulette Eastman & Becky Pryor Anderson** Ms. Lynn Eden Ms. Angela L. Evans John D. Fuller The Gable Foundation Ms. Margie Painter ∞ Mr. Robert L. Setzer SFH Giving Fund Gayle Sheppard Ann Marie & John B. White, Jr. ° $35,000+ Farideh & Al Azadi Foundation Mr. & Mrs. Paul J. Blackney Sally & Walter George Jeannette Guarner, MD & Carlos del Rio, MD ∞ Sig & Billie Guthman Legacy Fund Donna Lee & Howard Ehni John R. Paddock, Ph.D. & Karen M. Schwartz, Ph.D. Sally & Pete Parsonson ∞ Patty & Doug Reid Mr. & Mrs. Ravi Saligram June & John Scott Patrick & Susie Viguerie Kathy Waller & Kenneth Goggins $25,000+ John & Juliet Allan Carol C. Attridge, in memory of Phil Attridge Mr. & Mrs. Andrew Bailey Jennifer Barlament & Kenneth Potsic

Mr. Keith Barnett Janine Brown & Alex J. Simmons, Jr. John W. Cooledge The Estate of Jimmy Waymon Crowe Cari K. Dawson & John M. Sparrow Mr. Richard H. Delay & Dr. Francine D. Dykes ∞ Mr. & Mrs. William S. Duffey, Jr. Dick & Anne Game Pam & Robert Glustrom Bonnie Harris Ms. Joia M. Johnson Sarah & Jim Kennedy Mr. & Mrs. Van R. Lear Massey Charitable Trust John & Linda Matthews Martha M. Pentecost Mary & Jim Rubright Bill & Rachel Schultz ° Katherine Scott Mrs. Edus H. Warren $17,500+ Mr. Neil Ashe & Mrs. Rona Gomel Ashe Ms. Elizabeth W. Camp Russell Currey & Amy Durrell Florencia & Rodrigo Garcia Escudero Dr. V. Alexander Garcias Mr. & Mrs. David Goosman Mr. James N. Grace Stephen & Carolyn Knight Dr. & Mrs. Scott I. Lampert Drs. Joon & Grace Lee Dr. Jennifer Lyman & Mr. Kevin Lyman ∞ Ms. Deborah A. Marlowe & Dr. Clint Lawrence Erin Marshall ∞ Mr. & Mrs. Arthur Mills IV Ms. Molly Minnear Caroline & Phil Moïse Terence L. & Jeanne Perrine Neal ° Galen Oelkers Ms. Cathleen Quigley

Dr. Kenneth Sass & Mr. Daniel Lazarus Ross** & Sally Singletary Slumgullion Charitable Fund Carolyn C. Thorsen John & Ray Uttenhove Roxanne & Benny Varzi Mrs. Sue S. Williams Dr. Jiong Yan & Baxter Jones $15,000+ A Friend of the Symphony (2) Phyllis Abramson, Ph.D. Cathy Callaway Adams Madeline** & Howell E. Adams, Jr. Aadu & Kristi Allpere ° Mr. & Mrs. Brett Bartlett Mr. David Boatwright Wright** & Alison Caughman Ms. Lisa V. Chang Dr. John Dyer & Mrs. Catherine Faré Dyer Eleanor & Charles Edmondson Ms. Yelena Epova & Mr. Neil Chambers Craig Frankel & Jana Eplan Roya & Bahman Irvani Mr. W. F. & Dr. Janice Johnston Dr. Raymond Kotwicki Brian & Carrie Kurlander ∞ James H. Landon Mr. Sukai Liu & Dr. Ginger Chen Belinda & Gino Massafra Mr. Robert McDonough & Ms. Cydnee Dubrof The Mendiratta Family ∞° Anne Morgan & Jim Kelley Mr. Edward Potter & Ms. Regina Olchowski ° Vicki & Joe Riedel David F. & Maxine A.** Rock V Scott Michelle & Steve Shlansky Mr. John A. Sibley, III Mr. Fahim Siddiqui & Ms. Shazia Fahim Tom & Ani Steele Mr. & Mrs. Edward W. Stroetz, Jr. Elliott & Elaine Tapp ° Judith & Mark K. Taylor

encoreatlanta.com | 49 Mr. Yannik Thomas Ms. Maria Todorova Carol & Ramon Tomé Family Fund Mr. Ben Touchette Ruthie Watts Adair & Dick White Hank Wilkinson Drs. Kevin & Kalinda Woods $10,000+ A Friend of the Symphony Mr. & Mrs. Calvin R. Allen Asad & Sakina Bashey Jack & Helga Beam Mr. & Mrs. Gerald R. Benjamin Kelley O. & Neil H. Berman Carol Brantley & David Webster Karen & Rod Bunn Patricia & William Buss Lisa & Russ Butner John Champion & Penelope Malone Mr. & Mrs. Thomas C. Chubb III Janet & John Costello Peter & Vivian** de Kok Mr. Christopher J. Decoufle & Ms. Karen Freer Donald & Barbara Defoe ° Marcia & John Donnell Ms. Diane Durgin Cheryl Etheridge in memory of David Etheridge Dr. & Mrs. Leroy Fass Mr. & Mrs. William A. Flinn Dr. Robert W. Gilbert Dr. Paul Gilreath The Hertz Family Foundation, Inc. Clay & Jane Jackson ∞ Ann A. & Ben F. Johnson III ° Jennifer & Bill Kahnweiler Ann & Brian Kimsey ∞ Pam & Jeff Kuester Dr. Fulton D. Lewis III & S. Neal Rhoney Allen & Judy Lipis Meghan & Clarke Magruder In Memoriam: Betty (B.J.) Malone Dr. & Mrs. Douglas Mattox Mr. Cesar Moreno & Mr. Greg Heathcock Jane Morrison ∞ Victoria & Howard Palefsky Margaret H. Petersen John H. Rains

Mr. Ron Raitz Mr. Joseph Rapanotti Leonard Reed Ms. Frances A. Root John T. Ruff Thomas & Lynne Saylor Ms. Barbara S. Schlefman Beverly & Milton Shlapak John & Yee-Wan Stevens Mr. G. Kimbrough Taylor & Ms. Triska Drake** George & Amy Taylor Drs. Jonne & Paul Walter Dr. & Mrs. James O. Wells, Jr. Kiki Wilson Mr. David J. Worley & Ms. Bernadette Drankoski Camille W. Yow $7,500+ Dr. Marshall & Stephanie Abes CBH International, Inc Ned Cone & Nadeen Green Kelly Goldston DeBonis & Daniel P. DeBonis Xavier Duralde & Mary Barrett Sally W. Hawkins The Reverend Elizabeth H. Hendrick Grace Taylor Ihrig** Mrs. Gail Johnson** Cecile M. Jones Jason & Michelle Kroh Ms. Eunice Luke Elvira & Jay Mannelly Ed & Linda McGinn Berthe & Shapour Mobasser Sue Morgan Ralph Paulk & Suzanne Redmon Paulk Ms. Eliza Quigley ∞ Mr. & Mrs. Joel F. Reeves Dr. Jay Rhee & Mrs. Kimberley Rhee Tiffany & Rich Rosetti Ms. Juliana T. Vincenzino Alan & Marcia Watt $5,000+ A Friend of the Symphony (5) Dr. & Mrs. Joel M. Adler Louis J. Alrutz The Hisham & Nawal Araim Family Foundation Azalea City Chapter of Links

Lisa & Joe** Bankoff Anthony Barbagallo & Kristen Fowks Meredith Bell Mr. John Blatz Rita & Herschel Bloom Jane & Greg Blount Dr. & Mrs. Jerome B. Blumenthal Mrs. Robert C. Boozer Ms. Jane F. Boynton Margo Brinton & Eldon Park Ms. Johanna Brookner Jacqueline A. & Joseph E. Brown, Jr. Mrs. Amy B. Cheng & Dr. Chad A. Hume, Ph.D JC Chi Helena & Phillip Choi Mr. & Mrs. Dennis M. Chorba Ms. Tracey Chu Bruce Cohen Malcolm & Ann Cole Carol Comstock & Jim Davis Matt & Kate Cook William & Patricia Cook Mr. & Mrs. DePorres Cormier Mary Caroline Cravens & Will Sugden Claire & Alex Crumbley Mr. & Mrs. Warren L. Culpepper Mr. & Mrs. Alan Dean Mr. & Mrs. Paul H. Dimmick ∞ Jerry H. Evans & Stephen T. Bajjaly Dr. & Mrs. Carl D. Fackler Ellen & Howard** Feinsand Bruce W. & Avery C. Flower ∞ Mr. David L. Forbes Karen Foster Annie Frazer & Jen Horvath ° Gaby Family Foundation Mr. & Mrs. Richard Goodsell Deedee Hamburger & Dr. Steven M. Gallant Mr. & Mrs. Steve Hauser John** & Martha Head Mrs. Nicole L. House For information about giving to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Annual Fund, please contact William Keene at 404.733.4839 or william.keene@ atlantasymphony.org.

ASO | SUPPORT Richard & Linda Hubert Susan J. Robinson & Mary C. Roemer Mr. & Mrs. Paul Huesken Ms. Noelle Ross & Mr. Tim Dorr Tad & Janin Hutcheson Mr. Justin Im & Dr. Nakyoung Nam Dr. & Mrs. Rein Saral Lillian Kim Ivansco & Joey Ivansco Suzanne Shull ∞ Gerald & Nancy Silverboard Lana M. Jordan ∞ Rev. Jeanne Simpson Paul** & Rosthema Kastin Baker & Debby Smith Mr. & Mrs. Mark A. Kauffman Ms. Cynthia Smith Mona & Gilbert Kelly ° Hamilton & Mason Smith Mr. Alfred D. Kennedy & Dr. William R. Kenny Janice B. Smith James Kieffer Ms. Victoria Smith Mr. Charles R. Kowal Ms. Lara Smith-Sitton Pat & Nolan Leake Ms. Angela Spivey Jonathan Lively Mr. & Mrs. Peter Stathopoulos Mr. William A. Lundstrom & In memory of Elizabeth B. Mrs. Catherine L. Lundstrom Stephens by Powell, Preston & Sally ∞ Thomas & Marianne Mabry Ms. Deann Stevens Ms. Ellen B. Macht Ian Steward Mr. Michael F. Mansfield Jr. Beth & Edward Sugarman Beau & Alfredo Martin Stephen & Sonia Swartz Mr. & Mrs. Christopher D. Martin Sadie Talmadge Marx & Marx LLC Dede & Bob Thompson Catherine Massey Mr. & Mrs. Stephen M. Masterson Mr. & Mrs. Peter Toren Mr. Jerry Stacy Tucker Ms. Darla B. McBurney Chilton D. Varner Gray McCalley Amy & Robert Vassey Martha & Reynolds McClatchey Nadine Virani & Reza Kaba Molly McDonald & Jonathan Gelber Emily C. Ward Ms. Whitney Myers Emily & James Washburn Mr. Bert Mobley ∞ Mr. & Mrs. Chris Webber Maria & Chris Moffett Dr. Nanette K. Wenger Mr. Jamal Mohammad & David & Martha West Mr. Marcus Dean Suzanne Bunzl Wilner Mr. William Morrison & Mr. & Mrs. M. Beattie Wood Mrs. Elizabeth Clark-Morrison Kaya Yamashita in memory of Agnes V. Nelson her parents, Hiroko & Tomohiro Ms. Bethani Oppenheimer Yamashita Donald S. Orr & Marcia K. Knight Danielle & Peter Zimmerman Mr. & Mrs. Joseph Owen, Jr. $3,500+ Mr. & Mrs. Solon P. Patterson Mr. & Mrs. Edmund F. Pearce, Jr. ° A Friend of the Symphony (2) Mr. Brett Badessa & Jonathan & Lori Peterson Dr. Cristina Del Toro Badessa Susan & Mike Petrik Dr. Bruce & Linda** Beeber In Memory of Sam & Linda Boyte Dr. Frank S. Pittman III Coenen-Johnson Foundation Stephen Polley Mary Carole Cooney & Dr. & Mrs. John P. Pooler Douglas Powell & Alexandra Miller Henry R. Bauer, Jr. Jean & Jerry Cooper Dr. John B. Pugh Mr. David S. Dimling Mrs. Susan H. Reinach Gregory & Debra Durden Ms. Felicia Rives ∞ Angela Robinson

Mr. Ralph Fruchtman & Mr. Ted Gulick Marty & John Gillin ° Sandra & John Glover Richard & Debbie Griffiths Ms. Susan V. Heerin Mr. & Mrs. John Hellriegel Barbara M. Hund Ms. Rebecca Jarvis Sally C. Jobe Wolfgang** & Mariana Laufer Deborah & William Liss Barbara & Jim MacGinnitie Ms. Kathy Powell S.A. Robinson Ms. Donna Schwartz Ms. Martha Solano Kay R. Summers Johnny Thigpen & Clay Martin Dr. Brenda G. Turner Mr. & Mrs. Timothy A. Vanderver III Mr. & Mrs. Robert L. Welch Sally & Mel Westmoreland Russell F. Winch & Mark B. Elberfeld Judy Zaban-Miller & Lester Miller** $2,000+ A Friend of the Symphony (6) Paul & Melody Aldo Herschel Beazley Dr. & Mrs. Joel E. Berenson Susan & Jack Bertram Leon & Joy Borchers Martha S. Brewer Mr. Stephen Brown Laurel & Gordon Buchmiller Dr. Aubrey Bush & Dr. Carol Bush Mr. & Mrs. Walter K. Canipe Betty Fuller Case Mr. Jeffery B. Chancellor & Mr. Cameron England Julie & Jerry Chautin Mr. Michael J. Clifford & Ms. Sandra L. Murray Mr. James Cobb Nicky Cohen & Simon Dibley Liz & Charlie Cohn ° Ms. Sandra Cook Dr. & Mrs. John E. Cooke Mr. William R. Cranshaw

encoreatlanta.com | 51 R. Carter & Marjorie A. Crittenden Foundation Susan & Ed Croft Kaitlin & Sheila Crumrine Dr. & Mrs.** F. Thomas Daly, Jr. Jerome J. Dobson Mr. & Mrs. Graham Dorian Mr. Trey Duskin & Ms. Noelle Albano ° Mrs. Eve F. Eckardt Tom & Kim Eckhardt Mr. & Mrs. Robert G. Edge Mr. & Mrs. Craig R. Edwards William Eiselstein & Andrew Greene Dieter Elsner & Othene Munson Robert S. Elster Foundation Mr. & Mrs. Paul G. Farnham Mr. & Mrs. John Ferguson Dr. Donald & Janet Filip Tom & Cecilia Fraschillo Dr. Elizabeth C. French Mr. & Mrs. Sebastien Galtier ∞ Mrs. Janet D. Goldstein Mr. Robert Golomb ** Mrs. Beverly Green Juan & Debbie Guerra Mr. & Mrs. George Gundersen Phil & Lisa Hartley Patti Heinz & Brooke Chaplain Bill & Babette Henagan Ann J. Herrera & Mary M. Goodwin Kenneth & Colleen Hey Dr. Thomas High Azira G. Hill Mrs. Leslie H. Hill & Mr. Jacob C. Hill Sarah & Harvey Hill, Jr. ° Mr. Larry B. Hooks & Mrs. Carole W. Hooks Laurie House Hopkins & John D. Hopkins James & Bridget Horgan ° Mrs. Sally Horntvedt Mr. & Mrs. Brian Huband Dr. Dorothy M. Huenecke Mr. Christopher Hurst Cameron H. Jackson ° Mr. Kevin F. Jameson Aaron & Joyce Johnson Dr. & Mrs. Eike Jordan Teresa M. Joyce, Ph.D Kyle & Danielle

Dr. & Mrs. William C. Land, Jr. Lillian Balentine Law Salli LeVan Mr. & Mrs. J. David Lifsey Dr. Peter C. Mann Dr. Marcus Marr Ben Mathis & Mary Anne Mathis In Memory of Pam McAllister Cody & Missy McClatchey Mr. & Mrs. James McClatchey Mr. & Mrs. Penn McClatchey Birgit & David McQueen Mr. & Mrs. Charles H. McTier Mr. & Mrs. Eugene F. Meany Anna & Hays Mershon Bert & Carmen Mills Mr. & Mrs. Thomas B. Mimms, Jr. Pat Mitchell & Scott Seydel Ms. Helen Motamen & Mr. Deepak Shenoy Mrs. & Mr. George Neil Gary R. Noble, MD & Joanne Heckman Mr. & Mrs. G. Ferrell Patrick Martha & Al Pearson Mr. Greg Poirier Provaré Technology Ms. Ronda Respess Mr. & Mrs. Douglas G. Riffey, Jr. Ms. Francene Riley Mr. & Mrs. Kenneth Roberts Betsy & Lee Robinson Dr. Judith C. Rohrer Stuart Romm Ms. Lili Santiago-Silva & Mr. Jim Gray Dr. Marianne Scharbo-DeHaan Drs. Lawrence & Rachel Schonberger Dick Schweitzer Mallie Sharafat Angela Allen Sherzer Alan & Marion Shoenig Helga Hazelrig Siegel Diana Silverman Caryl & Kendrick Smith Mr. Kelly W. Smith James & Shari Steinberg Dr. Steven & Lynne Steindel ° Ms. Lizanne E. Stephenson & Mr. Alan Kendall Dr. & Mrs. John P. Straetmans Lauren, RJ, & Mia Stuart Ms. Linda F. Terry

Herb & Elke Timmerman Duane P. Truex III Mr. Ronald M. Turbayne & Ms. Charlotte S. Lee Wayne & Lee Harper Vason Bill & Judy Vogel Mrs. Joyce Vroon ** Dr. James L. Waits Mr. Charles D. Wattles & Ms. Rosemary C. Willey Mr. John Wilson Mrs. Lynne M. Winship Mr. Will Young Herbert** & Grace Zwerner ** = deceased ° = We are grateful to these donors for taking the extra time to acquire matching gifts from their employers. ∞ = Leadership Council We salute these extraordinary donors who have signed pledge commitments to continue their support for three years or more. Patron Leadership (PAL) Committee We give special thanks to this dedicated group of Atlanta Symphony Orchestra donor-volunteers for their commitment to each year’s annual support initiatives: Kristen Fowks chair

Kristi Allpere Helga Beam Bill Buss Pat Buss Deedee Hamburger Judy Hellriegel Belinda Massafra Linda Matthews Sally Parsonson June Scott Milt Shlapak Lara Smith-Sitton Kay Summers Jonne Walter Marcia Watt

52 | encore CORPORATE PARTNERS $250,000+ The Coca-Cola Company Delta Air Lines The Home Depot Foundation $100,000+ Bloomberg Philanthropies Georgia Power Company Piedmont Realty Trust $75,000+ Alston & Bird LLP The Norfolk Southern Corporation $50,000+ Dennis Dean Catering Four Seasons Hotel Atlanta Graphic Packaging International, Inc. Regions Bank $25,000+ Bank of America Charitable Foundation BlueLinx Corporation Chick-fil-A Foundation | Rhonda & Dan Cathy Deloitte Eversheds Sutherland Genuine Parts Company Huntington Bank King & Spalding LLP KPMG LLP, Partners & Employees

$25,000+ CONTINUED Publix Super Markets Charities, Inc. PwC The QUIKRETE® Companies RSUI The Robert W. Woodruff Health Sciences Center of Emory University Truist Bank

$5,000+ A Friend of the Symphony Big Dome Promotions, LLC. Drummond Woodsum FayTak Designs | Farideh Takaloo Perkins&Will The St. Regis Atlanta Ticketmaster

$15,000+ Atlanta Parent BlackRock Cisco EY FleishmanHillard Google Rough Draft Atlanta Tony Brewer and Company Tower Beer, Wine & Spirits Warner Bros. Media

$2,000+ Allen Organ Studios Legendary Events Phoenix Senior Living The Piedmont National Family Foundation Premier Events / Chastain Concessions Prime Pharmaceuticals & Compounding Pharmacy Smith + Howard

$10,000+ Buckhead Village Costco Wholesale Georgia-Pacific Gift of Music Greenberg Traurig Merrill Music Matters WABE 90.1 FM WCLK 91.9 FM

$1,000+ A&E Photobooths Baker Donelson Brooklyn Bagel & Deli Elise

FOUNDATION AND GOVERNMENT SUPPORT $250,000+ Lettie Pate Evans Foundation∞ Goizueta Foundation∞ $100,000+ Emerald Gate Charitable Trust The Halle Foundation Charles Loridans Foundation, Inc. Amy W. Norman Charitable Foundation The Zeist Foundation, Inc.

$35,000+ City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs The Roy & Janet Dorsey Foundation Livingston Foundation

$10,000+ Georgia Council for the Arts The Scott Hudgens Family Foundation In Memory of Betty Sands Fuller

$25,000+ The Jim Cox, Jr. Foundation Fulton County Arts & Culture The Graves Foundation The Marcus Foundation, Inc. ∞ Massey Charitable Trust

$5,000+ The Breman Foundation, Inc. Georgia Department of Public Health

$50,000+ Paul M. Angell Family Foundation $15,000+ The Molly Blank Fund of the Arthur M. National Endowment for the Arts Blank Family Foundation∞ The Sartain Lanier Family Foundation∞

$2,000+ Catholic Foundation of North Georgia Georgia Humanities $1,000+ Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University The Parham Fund South Arts

Viola Van Horn has a secret to share... in Broadway’s Death Becomes Her.

explore experience discover

The show opens with Viola Van Horn and her group of immortals sharing “a secret you would die for” by offering the audience a magic potion that grants eternal beauty and perfection (“If You Want Perfection”). Vain and self-absorbed actress Madeline Ashton performs in the Broadway show Me! Me! Me! (“For the Gaze”). She is visited by her old friend and struggling writer Helen Sharp, whom she frequently belittles and insults for her own amusement. However, Helen has one-upped Madeline by revealing she is engaged to famed plastic surgeon, Ernest Menville, and relishes the opportunity to get back at her frenemy (“That Was Then, This is Now”). Madeline invites the two over to her home, where she seduces Ernest (“Tell Me, Ernest”), steals him from Helen and ends up marrying him (“Madeline Ashton’s Intimate Wedding Extravaganza”), with Ernest promising during the wedding to stay “til death do us part” (“Ernest’s Real Vows”). Helen has a psychotic break and is forcibly committed to a mental hospital, where she obsesses over killing Madeline (“Madeline”).

The place where theatre fans go for the latest Broadway news, behind-the-scenes stories, show announcements, and more.

www.encoremagazine.com

aso.org | @AtlantaSymphony | facebook.com/AtlantaSymphony

encoreatlanta.com

| 55

Mr.* & Mrs.* Fred A. Hoyt, Jr. William L.* & Lucia Fairlie* Pulgram Jim* & Barbara Hund Ms. Judy L. Reed* Clayton F. Jackson Carl J. Reith* Mary B. James Vicki J. & Joe A. Riedel H E N RY S O P K I N C I R C L E Nancy Janet Helen & John Rieser Mr. Calvert Johnson & Named for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s Mr. Kenneth Dutter Dr. Shirley E. Rivers* founding Music Director, the HENRY SOPKIN Joia M. Johnson David F. & Maxine A.* Rock CIRCLE celebrates cherished individuals and Dr. Jiong Yan & Baxter Jones Glen Rogerson* families who have made a planned gift to the Deforest F. Jurkiewicz* Tiffany & Richard Rosetti Anne Morgan & Jim Kelley Mr.* & Mrs.* Martin H. Sauser Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. These special Bob Kinsey Bob & Mary Martha Scarr donors preserve the Orchestra’s foundation James W.* & Mary Ellen* Mr. Paul S. Scharff & and ensure success for future generations. Ms. Polly G. Fraser Kitchell Dr. Barbara S. Schlefman Miss Florence Kopleff* Bill & Rachel Schultz Mr. Robert Lamy A Friend of the Mr. & Mrs. William R. Cummickel James H. Landon Dr. Sanford & Ellen Schwartz Symphony (22) Bob* & Verdery* Cunningham Ouida Hayes Lanier Mrs. Joan C. Schweitzer* Madeline* & Vivian* & Peter de Kok June & John Scott Lucy Russell Lee* & Howell E. Adams, Jr. Mr. Richard H. Delay & Gary Lee, Jr. Edward G. Scruggs* Mr.* & Mrs.* John E. Aderhold Dr. Francine D. Dykes Ione & John Lee Dr.* & Mrs. George P. Sessions Paul & Melody Aldo John R. Donnell Mr. Larry M. LeMaster Mr. W. G. Shaefer, Jr. Mr. & Mrs. Ronald R. Antinori Dixon W. Driggs* Mr.* & Mrs.* William C. Lester Charles H. Siegel* Elizabeth Ann Bair* Pamela Johnson Drummond Liz & Jay* Levine Mr. & Mrs. H. Hamilton Smith Dr. & Mrs. William Bauer Mrs. Kathryn E. Duggleby* Robert M. Lewis, Jr. Mrs. Lessie B. Smithgall* Helga Beam Catherine Warren Dukehart* Carroll & Ruth Liller* Ms. Margo Sommers Mr. Charles D. Belcher* Ms. Diane Durgin Ms. Joanne Lincoln* Elliott Sopkin Neil H. Berman Arnold & Sylvia Eaves Jane Little* Elizabeth Morgan Spiegel Susan & Jack Bertram Mr. & Mrs. Robert G. Edge Mrs. J. Erskine Love, Jr.* Mr. Daniel D. Stanley* Mr.* & Mrs.* Karl A. Bevins Geoffrey G. Eichholz* K Maier Gail & Loren Starr The Estate of Donald S. & Elizabeth Etoll John W. Markham* Peter James Stelling* Joyce Bickers Mr. Doyle Faler* Mrs. Ann B. Martin Ms. Barbara Stewart* Ms. Page Bishop* Brien P. Faucett Linda & John Matthews Beth & Edward Sugarman Mr.* & Mrs.* Sol Blaine Dr. Emile T. Fisher* Mr. Michael A. McDowell, Jr. C. Mack* & Mary Rose* Taylor John Blatz Moniqua N Fladger Dr. Michael S. McGarry Isabel Thomson* Rita & Herschel Bloom Mr. & Mrs. Bruce W. Flower Richard & Shirley McGinnis* Jennings Thompson IV The Estate of Mrs. A. D. Frazier, Jr.* John & Clodagh Miller Margaret* & Randolph* Thrower Gilbert H. Boggs, Jr. Nola Frink* Mr. & Mrs. Arthur Mills, IV Kenneth & Kathleen Tice W. Moses Bond Betty* & Drew* Fuller Ms. Vera Milner Mr. H. Burton Trimble, Jr.* Mr.* & Mrs. Robert C. Boozer Sally & Carl Gable Mrs. Gene Morse* Mr. Steven R. Tunnell Elinor A. Breman* William & Carolyn Gaik Hal Matthew Mueller* & Mr. & Mrs. John B. Uttenhove Carol J. Brown Dr. John W. Gamwell* Constance Lombardo Mrs. Anise C. Wallace* James C. Buggs* Mr.* & Mrs.* L.L. Gellerstedt, Jr. Ms. Janice Murphy* Diane Woodard & Hugh W. Burke* Ruth Gershon & Sandy Cohn Mr. & Mrs. Bertil D. Nordin Bruce Wardrep Mr. & Mrs. William Buss Max Gilstrap* Mrs. Amy W. Norman* Mr. Robert Wardle, Jr. Wilber W. Caldwell* Mr. & Mrs. John T. Glover Galen Oelkers The Allan Wasserman Mr.* & Mrs. C. Merrell Calhoun Mrs. David Goldwasser* Charitable Remainder Trust Roger B. Orloff Cynthia & Donald Carson Robert Hall Gunn, Jr. Fund Mr. & Mrs. John B. White, Jr. Barbara D. Orloff Mrs. Jane Celler* Billie & Sig Guthman* Mr. & Mrs. Paul Joseph Owen Jr. Adair & Dick White Mr. Jeffery B. Chancellor & Betty G.* & Joseph* F. Haas Mr. Hubert H. Whitlow, Jr.* Dr. Bernard* & Sandra Palay Mr. Cameron England Dr. Charles H. Hamilton* Sue & Neil* Williams Sally & Pete Parsonson Lenore Cicchese* Bonnie Harris Suzanne Bunzl Wilner James L. Paulk Dr.* & Mrs. Grady S. Sally & Paul* Hawkins Mrs. Frank L. Wilson, Jr. Ralph & Suzanne Paulk Clinkscales, Jr. John* & Martha Head Mrs. Elin M. Winn Dan R. Payne Suzanne W. Cole Sullivan Ms. Jeannie Hearn* Ms. Joni Winston Bill Perkins Robert Boston Colgin Barbara & John Henigbaum* George & Camille Wright Mrs. Lela May Perry* Mrs. Mary Frances Ms. Elizabeth Hendrick Mr.* & Mrs. Rezin E. Pidgeon, Jr. Mr.* & Mrs.* Charles R. Yates Evans Comstock* Jill* & Jennings* Hertz Janet M. Pierce* Miriam* & John A.* Conant Mr.* & Mrs. Charles K. * deceased Reverend Neal P. Ponder, Jr. Dr. John W. Cooledge Holmes, Jr. Dr. John B. Pugh Dr. Janie Cowan

aso.org | @AtlantaSymphony | facebook.com/AtlantaSymphony

56 | encore ASO | STAFF EXECUTIVE

Sara Baguyos

Jennifer Barlament

associate principal

SALES & REVENUE MANAGEMENT

FINANCE & ADMINISTRATION

James Nelson

Russell Wheeler vice president, sales &

Susan Ambo

assistant librarian

revenue management

& cfo

management

David Lesser

Nancy James

Kimberly Hielsberg

Alvinetta Cooksey executive &

director of orchestra

front of house manager

vice president of finance

personnel

Erin Jones

April Satterfield

executive director

Lizzy Clements

executive assistant, senior

librarian

finance assistant

Meagan Rwambaisire

ARTISTIC

assistant orchestra

audience development

Gaetan Le Divelec vice president, artistic

personnel manager

Dasha Allen

Jesse Pace

planning

Meredith Morse artistic administrator

Catherine Barkes executive assistant to the music director

Zachary Nelson artistic liaison

EDUCATION & COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT Sarah Grant vice president of education

& community engagement

senior director of sales &

senior manager of ticketing

production manager, aso

& patron experience

Crystal Fasanya

Dennis Quinlan manager, business insights & analytics

production manager,

goizueta & education

Harold Abbott head flyman/carpenter

Robin Smith

Lydia Falcon

Brandon Eggert

stage technician

audience development

Will Field

associate

stage technician

MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS Ashley Mirakian vice president, marketing &

guest services coordinator

ATLANTA SYMPHONY HALL LIVE Nicole Panunti vice president, atlanta symphony hall live

executive vice president

controller

Brandi Reed staff accountant

DEVELOPMENT Grace Sipusic vice president of development

William Keene senior director of development

Renee Contreras

director of development, institutional giving

Rachel Bender associate director of individual giving

James Paulk senior annual giving

communications

Will Strawn

officer

Camille McClain

director of marketing

Beth Freeman

manager

& communications

director of ticketing &

gifts

Elena Gagon Dunn family programs &

Adam Fenton

parking

Liza Palmer

Sharveace Cameron

director of

community engagement

multimedia technology

director of operations

associate

manager

Matt Dykeman

Dan Nesspor

director of

senior ticketing manager,

Jenny Ricke manager, grants

manager of school

digital content

atlanta symphony hall live

and development

engagement

Whitney Hendrix

communications

senior manager of creative

Nicole Jurovics booking & contract

talent development

services

manager

Matthew Enfinger manager, corporate

program manager

Amy Godwin

Lisa Eng

relations

senior manager

senior manager of

of marketing &

creative services, live &

AJ McCurry

communications

development

engagement and events

manager

Ron Davalos

Meredith Chapple

marketing specialist

associate marketing

Gregory Freeman

Hannah Pearson

Ryan Walks atlanta symphony youth

orchestra & teen programs director of marketing

Michael Kralik

Kamyron Williams

OPERATIONS Emily Liao Master vice president & general

assistant general manager

Justin Richardson senior manager of operations

Marcia Chandler chorus administrator

Emma Luty principal librarian

Christine Lawrence

manager, live

Maria Austin

marketing coordinator, live

Steven Thompson event coordinator, live RaSheed Lemon

event coordinator, live

senior manager of major

senior development

manager of donor

development associate

58 | encore

aso.org | @AtlantaSymphony | facebook.com/AtlantaSymphony

encoreatlanta.com

ASO | CORPORATE & GOVERNMENT SUPPORT

Major support is provided by the City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs.

Major funding is provided by the Fulton County Board of Commissioners.

This program is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

| 59

60 | encore

THE WOODRUFF CIRCLE Thank you to our Woodruff Circle donors, whose generous annual support advances the transformative arts and education programs of the Alliance Theatre, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and High Museum of Art.

$1,000,000+

A Friend of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra • Lauren Amos The Estate of Rose Mary Kolpatzki • Orange Barrel Media

$500,000 - $999,999 Anonymous

Georgia Power Foundation

Art Bridges Foundation

The Home Depot Foundation

Dan and Merrie Boone Foundation

The SKK Foundation

Alfred A. Thornton Venable Trust

$250,000 - $499,999 Bank of America

Lucy Clair Harris Atlanta Arts Trust

The Rich’s Foundation

Molly Blank Fund

Sarah and Jim Kennedy

The Shubert Foundation

Bloomberg Philanthropies

E. McBurney Trust

Truist Trusteed Foundations:

The Chestnut Family Foundation

Norfolk Southern Foundation

Chick-fil-A Foundation |

Novelis, Inc.

Rhonda and Dan Cathy Google

Nell Warren Elkin and William Simpson Elkin Foundation

PNC

UPS

Garnet and Dan Reardon

The Zeist Foundation, Inc.

$100,000 - $249,999 A Friend of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (3)

The Estate of Mr. Max M. Gilstrap Graphic Packaging

Amy W. Norman Charitable Foundation

International, Inc.

Piedmont Realty Trust

Farideh and Al Azadi Foundation

The Halle Foundation

Patty and Doug Reid

Sandra and Dan Baldwin

Huntington Bank

Terra Foundation

The Arthur M. Blank Family

The Imlay Foundation

Alston & Bird

Foundation Helen Gurley Brown Foundation City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta Sheila Lee Davies and Jon Davies

Mr. and Mrs. M. Douglas Ivester King & Spalding, Partners and Employees KPMG LLP, Partners and Employees Sartain Lanier Family Foundation The Charles Loridans

Emerald Gate Charitable Trust

Foundation, Inc.

Barney M. Franklin and Hugh W.

Henry Luce Foundation

Burke Charitable Fund

The Marcus Foundation

for American Art Carol and Ramon Tomé Family Fund Warner Bros. Discovery The Estate of Mr. Frederick D. Weaver Kelly and Rod Westmoreland