Atlanta Symphony Orchestra - May/June 2022 by Encore Magazine

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

Mahler: Symphony No. 3 Robert Spano

MAY/JUNE 2022

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ASO | IN TUNE DEAR FRIENDS, It is hard to believe our 77th season is coming to a close. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to everyone who has helped make this season such a success. The ASO family pulled together to continue to serve our community with the lifechanging power of orchestral music, and I could not be prouder. To our worldclass Orchestra and Chorus, our Co-Artistic Advisors Robert Spano and Donald Runnicles, our conducting staff, our Board of Directors and Advisory Council, our administrative team, our donors, subscribers and volunteers, and to all of you, our loyal patrons—thank you so much! One person I would like to especially thank is Janine Brown, Partner in Charge of the Atlanta office of Alston and Bird, who will complete her three-year term as Chair of the ASO’s Board of Directors at the end of May. Janine’s steadfast leadership and optimism not only led us through an unprecedented time but allowed us to emerge stronger, better, more inclusive and more innovative than before. During her tenure, we heightened our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, expanded our education programs, pivoted to digital programming, announced our fifth Music Director, and are on track to complete our eighth consecutive year with a budget surplus. There are many people behind the scenes who have helped sustain us through the pandemic and thrive in its aftermath. As we pass the baton to our next Board Chair, Patrick Viguerie, I want to highlight the extraordinary dedication and leadership of Janine and the entire Board of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. The future is bright thanks to your leadership. As we look forward to Nathalie Stutzmann’s arrival in October, we pay an emotional tribute to Robert Spano, who has led the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra with passion and determination for over two decades. I can’t think of a more fitting work than Mahler’s monumental Third Symphony (June 9, 11 and 12) to serve as the capstone of an extraordinary year and the transition to a new era. After a pause in the 2022/23 season, we look forward to welcoming Robert back for many years to come.

With gratitude, Jennifer Barlament Executive Director

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2 | encore ASO | CO-ARTISTIC ADVISORS

t’s a creative partnership like no other, forged over two decades. Since 2001, Robert Spano and Sir Donald Runnicles have collaborated on each of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s seasons, curating a collection of works chosen for this time and this place. Together, our two maestros have led the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra into a new era. Robert Spano, conductor, pianist, composer and teacher, is known worldwide for the intensity of his artistry and distinctive communicative abilities, creating a sense of inclusion and warmth among musicians and audiences that is unique among American orchestras. After 20 seasons as Music Director, he will continue his association with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra as Co-Artistic Advisor for the 2021/22 season. An avid mentor to rising artists, he is responsible for nurturing the careers of numerous celebrated composers, conductors, and performers. As Music Director of the Aspen Music Festival and School since 2011, he oversees the programming of more than 300 events and educational programs for 630 students and young performers. Principal Guest Conductor of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra since 2019, Spano became Music Director Designate on April 1, 2021, and begins an initial three-year term as Music Director in August 2022. He will be the tenth Music Director in the orchestra’s history, which was founded in 1912. Sir Donald Runnicles is the General Music Director of the Deutsche Oper Berlin and Music Director of the Grand Teton Music Festival, as well as Principal Guest Conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. In 2019 Runnicles also took up post as the Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s first-ever Principal Guest Conductor. He additionally holds the title of Conductor Emeritus of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, having served as Chief Conductor from 2009-2016. Runnicles enjoys close and enduring relationships with many of the leading opera companies and symphony orchestras, and he is especially celebrated for his interpretations of Romantic and post-Romantic repertoire, which are core to his musical identity. Sir Donald Runnicles is born and raised in Edinburgh. He was appointed OBE in 2004, and was made a Knight Bachelor in 2020. He holds honorary degrees from the University of Edinburgh, the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Sir Donald Runnicles

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Robert Spano

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ASO | LEADERSHIP | 2021/22 Board of Directors OFFICERS Janine Brown

Howard Palefsky

Lynn Eden

James Rubright

chair

immediate past chair

vice chair

Patrick Viguerie

Susan Antinori

Bert Mills

chair elect

secretary

treasurer

DIRECTORS Phyllis Abramson, PhD. Carlos del Rio, M.D. FIDSA Keith Adams

Nancy Janet*

Doug Reid

Randolph J. Koporc

James Rubright

Juliet M. Allan

Sloane Drake

Carrie Kurlander

William Schultz

Susan Antinori

Lynn Eden

James H. Landon

Charles Sharbaugh

Jennifer Barlament*

Angela Evans

Donna Lee

Fahim Siddiqui

Paul Blackney

Craig Frankel

Sukai Liu

W. Ross Singletary, II

Rita Bloom

Sally Bogle Gable

Kevin Lyman

John Sparrow

Janine Brown

Rodrigo GarciaEscudero

Deborah Marlowe

Elliott Tapp

Bert Mills

Brett Tarver

Molly Minnear

S. Patrick Viguerie

Hala Moddelmog*

Kathy Waller

Terence L. Neal

Mark D. Wasserman

Galen Lee Oelkers

Chris Webber

Justin Bruns*

Anne Game

Benjamin Q. Brunt

Sally George

S. Wright Caughman, M.D.

Robert Glustrom

Susan Clare

Bonnie B. Harris

Lisa Chang

Charles Harrison

Russell Currey

Caroline Hofland

Erroll Brown Davis, Jr.

Tad Hutcheson, Jr. Roya Irvani

John R. Paddock, Ph.D. John B. White, Jr. Howard D. Palefsky

Richard S. White, Jr.

Cathleen Quigley

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

BOARD OF COUNSELORS Neil Berman

John T. Glover

Meghan H. Magruder

Michael W. Trapp

John W. Cooledge, M.D. Dona Humphreys

Penelope McPhee

Ray Uttenhove

John R. Donnell, Jr.

Aaron J. Johnson, Jr.

Patricia H. Reid

Chilton Varner

Jere A. Drummond

Ben F. Johnson, III

Joyce Schwob

Adair M. White

Carla Fackler

James F. Kelley

John A. Sibley, III

Sue Sigmon Williams

Charles B. Ginden

Patricia Leake

H. Hamilton Smith

Karole F. Lloyd

G. Kimbrough Taylor, Jr.

LIFE DIRECTORS Howell E. Adams, Jr.

Connie Calhoun C. Merrell Calhoun Betty Sands Fuller Azira G. Hill

*Ex-Officio Board Member

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6 | encore ASO | 2021/22 Musician Roster

FIRST VIOLIN

SECOND VIOLIN

CELLO

David Coucheron

Vacant

Rainer Eudeikis

concertmaster

principal

The Mr. and Mrs. Howard R. Peevy Chair

The Atlanta Symphony Associates Chair

The Miriam and John Conant Chair

Justin Bruns

associate principal

associate concertmaster

Sou-Chun Su acting / associate

The Charles McKenzie Taylor Chair

The Frances Cheney Boggs Chair

Vacant

Jay Christy

principal

assistant concertmaster

acting associate / assistant

Jun-Ching Lin

principal

Daniel Laufer The Livingston Foundation Chair

Karen Freer assistant principal

Dona Vellek assistant principal emeritus

assistant concertmaster

Dae Hee Ahn

Anastasia Agapova

Robert Anemone

Kevin Chen

Sharon Berenson

Carolyn Toll Hancock

Noriko Konno Clift

Brad Ritchie

The Wells Fargo Chair

David Dillard

BASS

John Meisner Christopher Pulgram Juan R. Ramírez Hernández Olga Shpitko Kenn Wagner Lisa Wiedman Yancich Sissi Yuqing Zhang SECTION VIOLIN ‡ Judith Cox Raymond Leung The Carolyn McClatchey Chair

Sanford Salzinger

Sheela Iyengar** Eleanor Kosek Ruth Ann Little

Thomas Carpenter Joel Dallow The UPS Foundation Chair

Joseph McFadden principal

The Marcia and John Donnell Chair

Rachel Ostler

Gloria Jones Allgood

VIOLA

The Lucy R. & Gary Lee Jr. Chair

Zhenwei Shi

Brittany Conrad**

principal

Karl Fenner

The Edus H. and Harriet H. Warren Chair

Paul Murphy associate principal

The Mary and Lawrence Gellerstedt Chair

Catherine Lynn

associate principal

Michael Kenady The Jane Little Chair

Michael Kurth Daniel Tosky FLUTE

assistant principal

Christina Smith

Marian Kent

The Jill Hertz Chair

Yang-Yoon Kim Yiyin Li

principal

Robert Cronin associate principal

Lachlan McBane

C. Todd Skitch

Jessica Oudin

Gina Hughes

Madeline Sharp

Players in string sections are listed alphabetically

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Robert Spano

Sir Donald Runnicles

Jerry Hou

The Robert Reid Topping Chair

co-artistic advisor

music director of the atlanta

co-artistic advisor

principal guest conductor;

The Neil & Sue Williams Chair

Norman Mackenzie

associate conductor;

director of choruses

symphony youth orchestra

The Frannie & Bill Graves Chair

The Zeist Foundation Chair

PICCOLO

CONTRA-BASSOON

TIMPANI

Gina Hughes

Juan de Gomar

Mark Yancich

OBOE

HORN

Elizabeth Koch Tiscione

Jaclyn Rainey

principal

The George M. and Corrie Hoyt Brown Chair

The Betty Sands Fuller Chair

Zachary Boeding

associate principal

Joseph Petrasek

Kimberly Gilman

principal

associate principal

The Kendeda Fund Chair

Samuel Nemec Emily Brebach ENGLISH HORN Emily Brebach CLARINET Laura Ardan principal

The Robert Shaw Chair The Mabel Dorn Reeder Honorary Chair

Ted Gurch associate principal

Marci Gurnow Alcides Rodriguez E-FLAT CLARINET Ted Gurch BASS CLARINET Alcides Rodriguez BASSOON

principal

The Walter H. Bunzl Chair

Michael Stubbart

Susan Welty

assistant principal

PERCUSSION

Chelsea McFarland**

The Julie and Arthur Montgomery Chair

Bruce Kenney

William Wilder

TRUMPET

assistant principal

Stuart Stephenson principal

The Madeline and Howell Adams Chair

The William A. Schwartz Chair

Michael Stubbart The Connie and Merrell Calhoun Chair

Michael Tiscione

HARP

associate principal

Elisabeth Remy Johnson

Anthony Limoncelli Mark Maliniak

The Sally and Carl Gable Chair

KEYBOARD

TROMBONE

The Hugh and Jessie Hodgson Memorial Chair

Vacant principal

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

Nathan Zgonc acting / associate

principal

Jeremy Buckler**

Peter Marshall † Sharon Berenson LIBRARY Katie Klich principal

Brian Hecht*

The Marianna & Solon Patterson Chair

Luke Sieve•**

Holly Matthews

principal

BASS TROMBONE

assistant principal librarian

The Abraham J. & Phyllis Katz Foundation Chair

Brian Hecht*

Anthony Georgeson

Luke Sieve•**

Andrew Brady

associate principal

Laura Najarian Juan de Gomar

The Home Depot Veterans Chair

TUBA Michael Moore principal

The Delta Air Lines Chair

Hannah Davis asyo / assistant

librarian

‡ Rotates between sections * Leave of absence † Regularly engaged musician • New this season ** One-year appointment

Members of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Advisory Council is a newly-formed group of passionate and engaged individuals who act as both ambassadors and resources for the ASO Board and staff. The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra extends heartfelt gratitude to the members listed on this page. 2021/22 CHAIRS Arthur Mills, IV advisory council chair

Frances Root patron experience task force chair

Jane Morrison diversity & community connection task force co-chair Eleina Raines diversity & community connection task force co-chair Otis Threatt diversity & community Connection task force co-chair

MEMBERS Krystal Ahn Paul Aldo Keith Barnett Meredith Bell Jane Blount Tracey Chu Donald & Barbara Defoe Paul & Susan Dimmick Bernadette Drankoski Diana Einterz Burt Fealing Bruce Flower John Fuller Sally George Tucker Green Nancy Harrison Sally Hawkins Mia Hilley

Justin Im Baxter Jones Brian & Ann Kimsey Jason & Michelle Kroh Scott Lampert Dr. Fulton D. Lewis, III Jason Liebzeit Belinda Massafra Bert Mobley Anne Morgan Tatiana Nemo Regina Olchowski Swathi Padmanabhan Margaret Painter Eliza Quigley David Quinn S. Neal Rhoney Felicia Rives Jim Schroder

Baker Smith Cindy Smith Peter & Kristi Stathopoulos Kimberly Strong Stephen & Sonia Swartz George & Amy Taylor Cathy Toren Sheila Tschinkel Robert & Amy Vassey Robert Walt Nanette Wenger Kiki Wilson Taylor Winn David Worley Jiong Yan Camille Yow

For more information about becoming an Advisory Council member, please contact Cheri Snyder at cheri.snyder@atlantasymphony.org or 404.733.4904.

22|23 SEASON

Introducing

BRAHMS: A German Requiem BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 9 FRANCK: Le chasseur maudit BARTÒK: Concerto for Orchestra MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 18 RACHMANINOV: Symphonic Dances MUSSORGSKY: Night on Bald Mountain MAHLER: Symphony No. 5 BACH: St. Matthew Passion RAVEL: Boléro

NATHALIE STUTZMANN Music Director

AH AR YH HIL

aso.org Programs and artists are subject to change. Season presented by

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A stellar season of guest artists and outstanding music including —

10 | encore ASO | SEASON SPONSORS We are deeply grateful to the following leadership donors whose generous support has made the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's season possible.

A Friend of the Symphony

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SPECIAL THANKS:

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra gives special thanks to the following donors for their extraordinary support of the Orchestra’s Stability Fund. Created at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Stability Fund helps mitigate the enormous challenges of the pandemic and allows the Orchestra to continue performing and sharing music with our community. A Friend of the Symphony (4) The Antinori Foundation The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Players’ Association Jennifer Barlament & Kenneth Potsic Janine Brown & Alex J. Simmons, Jr. The John and Rosemary Brown Family Foundation

Thalia & Michael C. Carlos Advised Fund Marcia & John Donnell In loving memory of Catherine W. Dukehart The Estate of Geoffrey G. Eichholz Angela Evans James H. Landon Bert & Carmen Mills Lynn & Galen Oelkers

Sally & Pete Parsonson Patty & Doug Reid Mr. John A. Sibley, III Ross & Sally Singletary Slumgullion Charitable Fund Kathy Waller & Kenneth Goggins Adair & Dick White The Estate of Hubert H. Whitlow, Jr. Kiki Wilson

This list recognizes donors who have made contributions to the ASO Stability Fund since March 2020.

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12 | may8 Concert of Sunday, May 8, 2022, 3:00pm SHEKU KANNEH-MASON, cello ISATA KANNEH-MASON, piano

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) Cello Sonata No. 4 in C Major, Op. 102, No. 1 (1815) I. Andante — Allegro vivace II. Adagio — Allegro vivace DMITRY SHOSTAKOVICH (1906–1975) Cello Sonata in D Minor, Op. 40 (1934) I. Allegro non troppo II. Allegro III. Largo IV. Allegro INTERMISSION

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FRANK BRIDGE (1879–1941) Cello Sonata in D Minor (1917) 25 MINS I. Allegro ben moderato II. Adagio ma non troppo — Molto allegro e agitato BENJAMIN BRITTEN (1913–1976) Cello Sonata in C Major, Op. 65 (1961) I. Dialogo: Allegro II. Scherzo-Pizzicato: Allegretto III. Elegia: Lento IV. Marcia: Energico V. Moto perpetuo: Presto

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.

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22 MINS

14 | meettheartists ISATA KANNEH-MASON, PIANO

MIINAROBIN JUNG CLEWLEY

sata Kanneh-Mason is the recipient of the 2021 Leonard Bernstein Award, a 2020 Opus Klassik award for best young artist and, as a member of the Kanneh-Mason family, the 2021 best classical artist at the Global Awards. Since studying with Hamish Milne and Carole Presland at London’s Royal Academy of Music, graduating in 2020 with a Master of Arts in Performance and the Diploma of the Royal Academy of Music (awarded for outstanding postgraduate final recital performance), Isata has embarked on a successful and increasingly busy concert career as a solo artist, with concerto appearances, solo recitals and chamber concerts throughout the UK and abroad. During the UK’s Covid-19 lockdown in spring 2020, Isata performed a livestreamed rendition from her family home in Nottingham of the first movement of Beethoven’s third piano concerto accompanied by her brothers and sisters, which garnered over one million views. She recently gave her Wigmore Hall solo recital debut, which featured repertoire by female composers for International Women’s Day, and appeared in streamed performances with orchestras such as the Hallé and the BBC Scottish Symphony. In the 2021/22 season, Isata will continue as Young Artist in Residence with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. During the 2021/22 season, Isata will be one of the European Concert Hall Organisation’s Rising Stars, and will perform recital programs at some of the continent’s most illustrious concert venues. Isata also continues to perform with her siblings, including regular duo recitals with her brother, the cellist, Sheku Kanneh-Mason. She completed her undergraduate degree at the Academy as an Elton John scholar, and performed with Sir Elton in 2013 in Los Angeles. Isata is also grateful for support from the Nottingham Soroptimist Trust, Mr and Mrs John Bryden, Frank White, and Awards for Young Musicians. She is currently continuing her studies at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin with Kirill Gerstein.

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SHEKU KANNEH-MASON, CELLO heku Kanneh-Mason is already in great demand from major orchestras and concert halls worldwide. He became a household name in 2018 after performing at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at Windsor Castle, his performance having been greeted with universal excitement after being watched by nearly two billion people globally. Sheku initially garnered renown as the winner of the 2016 BBC Young Musician competition, the first Black musician to take the title. He has released two chart-topping albums on the Decca Classics label, Inspiration in 2018 and Elgar in 2020. The latter reached No. 8 in the overall UK Official Album Chart, making Sheku the first cellist in history to reach the UK Top 10. Since his debut in 2017, Sheku has performed every summer at the BBC Proms, including in 2020 when he gave a breath-taking recital performance with his sister, Isata, to an empty auditorium due to the Covid-19 pandemic. He has performed at the BAFTA awards ceremony twice in 2017 and 2018, is the winner of Best Classical Artist at the Global Awards in 2020 and 2021 (the latter as part of the KannehMason family), and received the 2020 Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Artists’ Award. Sheku continues his studies with Hannah Roberts at the Royal Academy of Music in London as a Bicentenary Fellow. He began learning the cello at the age of 6 with Sarah HusonWhyte and then Ben Davies at the Junior Department of the Royal Academy of Music. He has received masterclass tuition from Guy Johnston, Ralph Kirshbaum, Robert Max, Alexander Baillie, Steven Doane, Rafael Wallfisch, Jo Cole, Melissa Phelps, Julian Lloyd Webber, Frans Helmerson and Miklos Perenyi. Sheku was appointed a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2020 New Year’s Honours List. He plays a Matteo Goffriller cello from 1700 which is on indefinite loan to him. Sheku and Isata Kanneh-Mason appear by arrangement with Enticott Music Management. Sheku and Isata Kanneh-Mason record exclusively for Decca Classics.

JAKE TURNEY

16 | may12/14 Concerts of Thursday, May 12, 2022, 8:00pm Saturday, May 14, 2022, 8:00pm ALEXANDER SODDY, conductor RAINER EUDEIKIS, cello

ANNA CLYNE (b. 1980) Sound and Fury (2019) DMITRY SHOSTAKOVICH (1906–1975) Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major, Op. 107 (1959) I. Allegretto II. Moderato (attacca) III. Cadenza (attacca) IV. Allegro con moto Rainer Eudeikis, cello INTERMISSION EDWARD ELGAR (1857–1934) Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36 (“Enigma”) (1899) I. (C.A.E.) L'istesso tempo II. (H.D.S-P.) Allegro III. (R.B.T.) Allegretto IV. (W.M.B.) Allegro di molto V. (R.P.A.) Moderato VI. (Ysobel) Andantino VII. (Troyte) Presto VIII. (W.N.) Allegretto IX. (Nimrod) Adagio X. (Dorabella) Intermezzo: Allegretto XI. (G.R.S.) Allegro di molto XII. (B.G.N.) Andante XIII. (***) Romanza: Moderato XIV. (E.D.U.) Finale: Allegro

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.

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15 MINS

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31 MINS

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by Noel Morris Program Annotator

Sound and Fury is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, percussion and strings.

These are the first ASO performances.

Several upcoming projects explore Clyne’s fascination with visual arts, including Color Field for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, inspired by the artwork of Rothko, and Between the Rooms, a film with choreographer Kim Brandstrup and LA Opera. Within Her Arms opened the New York Philharmonic’s 2021/22 season. Other recent premieres include PIVOT, which opened the 2021 Edinburgh International Festival; A Thousand Mornings for the Fidelio Trio; Strange Loops for the Orchestra of St. Luke’s; Woman Holding a Balance, a film collaboration with Orchestra of St. Luke’s and artist Jyll Bradley; and In the Gale for cello and bird song, created with and performed by Yo-Yo Ma. Clyne served as Composer-in-Residence for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, L’Orchestre national d’Île-de-France, and Berkeley Symphony. She is currently the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s Associate Composer through the 2021/22 season and a mentor composer for Orchestra of St Luke's. Clyne’s music is represented on the AVIE Records, Cantaloupe Music, Cedille, MajorWho Media, New Amsterdam, Resound, Tzadik, and VIA labels. Both Prince of Clouds and Night Ferry were nominated for 2015 Grammy® Awards. Her music is published exclusively by Boosey & Hawkes. www.boosey.com/clyne From the composer: Sound and Fury draws upon two great works of art for its inspiration: Haydn’s Symphony No. 60 (“Il Distratto”) and Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The piece was premiered by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra on a program that included this Haydn symphony.

CHRISTINA KERNOHAN

ondon-born Anna Clyne is a Grammy®-nominated composer of acoustic and electro-acoustic music. Clyne is one of the most acclaimed and in-demand composers of her generation, often embarking on collaborations with innovative choreographers, visual artists, filmmakers, and musicians.

18 | encore “ll Distratto” incorporates Haydn’s music for Le Distrait, a play by Jean-François Regnard, so it seemed fitting to draw inspiration from both musical and literary sources for Sound and Fury. To begin, I listened to “lI Distratto” many times and on a single sheet of paper, I wrote down the key elements that caught my ear, which ranged from rhythmic gestures to melodic ideas, harmonic progressions, and even a musical joke (Haydn brings the feverish final prestissimo to a grinding halt for the violins to re-tune). I chose between one and four elements from each of the six movements and developed them though my own lens—layering, stretching, fragmenting and looping. Whilst experienced as one complete movement, Sound and Fury is also structured in six sub-sections that follow the same trajectory of “ll Distratto.” In the fifth section of Sound and Fury I looped a harmonic progression from Haydn’s Adagio in “ll Distratto,” and this provides a bed of sound to support the delivery of “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow…,” the last soliloquy delivered by Macbeth upon learning of his wife’s death, and from which this work takes its title. Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. The connection to Shakespeare’s play emerged gradually during the writing process, but especially after watching a recording of a 1979 masterclass with Sir Ian McKellen analyzing this soliloquy’s imagery and rhythmic use of language. Time lies at the heart of it: “hereafter … time … tomorrow … to day … yesterday …” and music provides us with this framework. The last line of this soliloquy (“Signifying nothing.”) is

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incomplete; McKellen explains “the beats of the rest of that pentameter are not there—because the end of the speech is total silence—total oblivion—total emptiness.” So rich in imagery and metaphor, I also found inspiration in Shakespeare’s rhythmic use of language. For example, before delivering this soliloquy, and after learning of his wife’s death Macbeth says, “She should have died hereafter; There would have been a time for such a word.” McKellen says: “There’s something about that line which trips—in Hamlet’s words—tick tocks like a clock.” This is something that I play with also—layering rhythmic fragments that repeat and mark the passage of time. My intention with Sound and Fury is to take the listener on a journey that is both invigorating—with ferocious string gestures that are flung around the orchestra with skittish outbursts—and serene and reflective— with haunting melodies that emerge and recede. Thank you to the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, The Orchestre National de Lyon and Hong Kong Sinfonietta for this opportunity to delve into “ll Distratto” for the first time, and to revisit Macbeth. Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major, Op. 107 In addition to the solo cello, this concerto is scored for two flutes (one doubling piccolo), two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons (one doubling contrabassoon), one horn, timpani, celeste and strings.

First ASO performances:

It is a wonder that Dmitry Shostakovich survived the Stalin era. Around him, hundreds of thousands were imprisoned or sent to their deaths—writers, artists, educators, party officials, scientists, landowners, entertainers and the Red Army all faced Stalin’s purges. Shostakovich suffered the loss of friends, inlaws, colleagues and some of the pillars of the cultural community. He walked a fine line between self-expression and Soviet dictates. When one of his compositions strayed too far into formalism—a Party term essentially meaning “new sounds”—he would hide it in a desk drawer.

Most recent

In the early days of the Soviet era, the creative community enjoyed artistic freedom, but gradually art became part

April 25–27, 1985 Robert Shaw, conductor Yo-Yo Ma, cello ASO performances: April 11–13, 2013 Lionel Bringuier, conductor Alisa Weilerstein, cello

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ADOBE STOCK

of the propaganda machine. On a fateful evening in 1936, Stalin attended an opera by Shostakovich and walked out mid-performance; he soon declared the composer an “enemy of the people.” Overnight, his friends stopped speaking to him. One who argued on his behalf, the theater director Vsevolod Meyerhold, was later arrested and shot. Under this nightmarish cloud, Shostakovich got himself out of hot water in 1937 by writing his Fifth Symphony. The Soviets loved the piece and paraded him around as a rehabilitated man. Going forward, he maintained an uneasy relationship with them until 1948, when the Party denounced him a second time. This time, they fired him from the Moscow Conservatory. The composer had been a favorite teacher of a brilliant young cello student named Mstislav Rostropovich. Shostakovich had bought young “Slava” his first concert attire and helped him to navigate Party politics. When officials fired his teacher, Slava quit the school in protest. The two became lifelong friends. When Stalin died in 1953, the cloud over Shostakovich lifted. With the tyrant out of the way, he began issuing his works “from the drawer.” Rostropovich considered asking his friend to write a cello concerto, but the composer’s wife intervened. She told Slava: The best way to get a piece out of her husband was not to ask. With some difficulty, Rostropovich bit his lip and was surprised on June 6, 1959, when Shostakovich announced his next piece would be a cello concerto. Rostropovich received the completed score on August 2. Four days later, he had the piece memorized. In the end, Rostropovich received two concertos from Shostakovich. After years of butting heads with the Soviets, the cellist was forced to leave the USSR and finish out his life in the West. When he died in 2007, he was laid to rest near Shostakovich (and Prokofiev) in a Moscow cemetery. The Shostakovich Motive Shostakovich used his musical monogram in the First Cello Concerto. Based on the German language, the four-note motif spells D-S-C-H for “D. Schostakovich.” In musical terms, “S” is the German symbol for E flat, and “H” is the German symbol for B natural.

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Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36 (“Enigma”)

First ASO performance:

The “Enigma” Variations are scored for two flutes (one doubling piccolo), two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, organ and strings.

April 1, 1952,

Henry Sopkin, conductor Most recent ASO performances: February 6–8, 2014,

James Feddeck, conductor dward Elgar married “up,” in the Victorian way of thinking. Caroline Alice Roberts was a general’s daughter; Elgar was a piano tuner’s son. Their marriage was an embarrassment to her class-conscious family. And despite having been knighted, the composer never got used to being among the upper class (to add to his discomfort, he was a Catholic living in a Protestant country).

Elgar’s father owned a music shop and was an active multi-instrumentalist. Clearly, little Edward absorbed a lot. Although he had almost no formal training, he became a professional musician at sixteen.

One evening in 1898, the 41-year-old composer was noodling around on the piano when Alice overheard him playing a new tune. He amused her with different portraits of people, each time infusing the same tune with an entirely different personality. The “Enigma” Variations was born. Apart from presenting a set of portraits of real people (initially identified only by their initials), Elgar maintained that the principal theme was a counterpoint to a famous melody that isn’t heard in the piece. He never revealed his source, hence the name “Enigma” (and many an attempt to crack the code). The piece was his first major success. Years later, the composer provided detailed descriptions of his “Enigma” Variations, highlighting the personal nature of his character portraits. C.A.E.: Caroline “Alice” Elgar was the composer’s wife. “The variation is really a prolongation of the theme with what I

WIKIMEDIA

“I am self-taught in the matter of harmony, counterpoint, form and in short in the whole of the ‘mystery’ of music,” he said. A native of Worcester, he became known locally as a pianist, violinist, conductor, choral conductor, bassoonist and church organist. His wife, Alice, a published author, became his business manager and champion.

22 | encore wished to be romantic and delicate additions,” he wrote. “Those who knew C.A.E. will understand this reference to one whose life was a romantic and delicate inspiration.” Eight years his senior, Alice lived until 1920. Following her death, Elgar quit writing music for more than a decade. H.D.S-P.: Hew David Steuart-Powell was an amateur pianist and chamber music partner of the composer. “His characteristic diatonic run over the keys before beginning to play is here humorously travestied in the [sixteenth-note] passages; these should suggest a Toccata, but chromatic beyond H.D.S-P.’s liking.” R.B.T.: Richard Baxter Townshend was an author and amateur actor who was often cast as an old man. Elgar parodied his rumbling speaking voice, which sometimes leaped into the soprano range. Elgar uses plucked strings and woodwinds to imitate Townshend’s habit of riding around Oxford, ringing his bicycle bell. W.M.B.: William Meath Baker was “a country squire, gentleman and scholar,” wrote Elgar. “In the days of horses and carriages it was more difficult than in these days of petrol to arrange the carriages for the day to suit a large number of guests. This Variation was written after the host had, with a slip of paper in his hand, forcibly read out the arrangements for the day and hurriedly left the musicroom with an inadvertent bang of the door.” R.P.A.: Richard Penrose Arnold was an amateur pianist who played with great insight. He was the son of poet Matthew Arnold. According to Elgar, “his serious conversation was continually broken up by whimsical and witty remarks.” Ysobel: Ysobel Fitton studied viola with the composer. “It may be noticed,” he wrote, “that the opening bar, a phrase made use of throughout the variation, is an ‘exercise’ for crossing the strings—a difficulty for beginners; on this is built a pensive and, for a moment, romantic movement.” Troyte: Arthur Troyte Griffith was one of Elgar’s best friends. “The uncouth rhythm of the drums and lower strings was really suggested by some maladroit essays to play the [piano],” wrote the composer. “Later the strong rhythm suggests the attempts of the instructor (E.E.) to make

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something like order out of chaos, and the final despairing ‘slam’ records that the effort proved to be in vain.” W.N.: Winifred Norbury lived in an eighteenth-century house with her sister, Florence. “A little suggestion of a characteristic laugh is given.” Nimrod: Nimrod was a biblical hunter. Here, the name refers to Elgar’s dear friend and publisher, August Jaeger (Jaeger is the German word for hunter). The quality of “Nimrod’s” music underscores his importance in Elgar’s life. The variation recalls Jaeger’s musings on the exquisite slow movements of Beethoven. Dorabella: Dora Penny was close to the composer. He nicknamed her “Dorabella” after the character in Mozart’s Così fan tutte. Dora spoke with a stammer, which comes through in the halting rhythms of the music. G.R.S.: Named after George Robertson Sinclair, according to Elgar, this variation is a portrait of Sinclair’s “great bulldog Dan (a well-known character) falling down the steep bank into the River Wye (bar 1), his paddling up stream to find a landing place (bars 2 and 3); and his rejoicing bark on landing (second half of bar 5). G.R.S. said ‘set that to music.’ I did; here it is.” B.G.N.: Cellist Basil George Nevinson was Elgar’s chamber music partner. ***: The three asterisks represent a lady, possibly Lady Mary Lygon. A thrum in the violas and timpani suggest the engines of a steamship carrying her overseas. Elgar quotes a theme from Mendelssohn’s Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage. E.D.U.: “Edu” was Alice Elgar’s nickname for her husband, Edward Elgar.

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24 | meettheartists ALEXANDER SODDY, CONDUCTOR

MIINA JUNG

ritish conductor Alexander Soddy has been General Music Director of the Mannheim National Theater since the 2016/17 season. His programmatic focus is on the classical German and Italian opera repertoire. Examples are the internationally celebrated new productions of Pelléas et Mélisande and Peter Grimes. In the 2021/22 season, his last as General Music Director, he will lead new productions of Tristan und Isolde and Der Ring des Nibelungen, as well as revivals of The Flying Dutchman and Hansel and Gretel. At the Metropolitan Opera, he celebrated great successes with La bohème in 2017 and will return with Madama Butterfly in spring 2022. He will return to the Berlin State Opera with Fidelio and to the Oper Frankfurt with Warten auf heute (Schönberg/Martin). In the past few seasons, Soddy has regularly conducted at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich (Die Zauberflöte, La bohème) and at the Staatsoper Berlin (Die Zauberflöte, Der Freischütz, La bohème). After his successful debut (Barbiere) he returned to the Vienna State Opera with Elektra, Salome and Carmen. Further guest engagements have taken him to the Royal Swedish Opera Stockholm (La bohème, Madama Butterfly), the Semperoper in Dresden (Der Freischütz) and the English National Opera in London (Midsummer Night’s Dream). Soddy was born in Oxford and received his education at the Royal Academy of Music and Cambridge University. After graduating in 2004, he was immediately appointed as répétiteur and conductor at the National Opera Studio in London and is the recipient of numerous awards.

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RAINER EUDEIKIS, CELLO ainer Eudeikis was appointed Principal Cellist, The Miriam & John Conant Chair, of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in 2019. He was previously the Principal Cellist of the Utah Symphony for five seasons and has performed in the same role at the Mainly Mozart Festival, Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music and the Central City Opera. Recent performance highlights include Haydn’s Cello Concerto No. 2 in D Major with the Atlanta Symphony and Donald Runnicles, Schumann’s Cello Concerto and Strauss' Don Quixote with the Utah Symphony, and Beethoven’s G minor Cello Sonata with pianist Emanuel Ax. He has participated in numerous international festivals, including the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival (Germany), Britten-Pears Programme at Aldeburgh (UK), and the Académie Musicale Internationale de Vaison-la-Romaine (France). Eudekis was a two-year fellowship recipient at the Aspen Music Festival and was a member of the New York String Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, where he was Principal Cellist in 2011. Born in Texas, Eudekis began cello studies at the age of 6. Following studies in Colorado with Jurgen de Lemos, he attended the University of Michigan as a student of Richard Aaron, completing his B.M. in three years with highest honors. He received his M.M. from Indiana University, where he studied with Eric Kim. In 2014, Rainer completed his Artist Diploma at the Curtis Institute of Music, studying with Carter Brey and Peter Wiley.

JEFF ROFFMAN

26 | may19/20 Concerts of Thursday, May 19, 2022, 8:00pm Friday, May 20, 2022, 8:00pm

GIUSEPPE VERDI (1813–1901) Rigoletto (1851) Act III Jasmine Habersham, soprano Gilda Denyce Graves, mezzo-soprano Maddalena

NICOLA LUISOTTI, conductor

Santiago Ballerini, tenor Duke of Mantua

MICHELLE BRADLEY, soprano

Reginald Smith, Jr., baritone Rigoletto

JASMINE HABERSHAM, soprano

Burak Bilgili, bass Sparafucile

DENYCE GRAVES, mezzo-soprano

INTERMISSION

SANTIAGO BALLERINI, tenor CLAY HILLEY, tenor REGINALD SMITH JR., baritone BURAK BILGILI, bass

These performances were made possible by a grant from the Barney M. Franklin and Hugh W. Burke

35 MINS

GIUSEPPE VERDI (1813–1901) Aida (1871) Act III—On the banks of the Nile, near the Temple of Isis Michelle Bradley, soprano Aida Denyce Graves, mezzo-soprano Amneris Clay Hilley, tenor Radames Reginald Smith, Jr., baritone Amonasro Burak Bilgili, bass Ramfis

Charitable Fund.

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.

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20 MINS 33 MINS

notesontheprogram

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by Noel Morris Program Annotator

Rigoletto

First ASO performance:

In addition to the soloists, Act III of Rigoletto is scored for two flutes (one doubling piccolo), two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, four trombones, timpani, percussion and strings.

March 9, 1967,

Shocked by Hugo’s assessment of the ruling elite, the French government banned his play after one performance. Less than twenty years later, Giuseppe Verdi chose it as the subject of his next opera. Never one to shy away from social commentary, Verdi found enormous inspiration in the court jester, likening him to the great anti-heroes of Shakespeare. Knowing there would be scrutiny around the depiction of royals onstage, Verdi moved Hugo’s tale to a duchy in Italy, thinking he could slip one past the censors. In fact, the Venetian police rejected the concept outright. The project was rescued by librettist Francesco Maria Piave who stepped in and carefully maneuvered around the censors’ concerns. Synopsis Act I All the nobles hate the court jester Rigoletto. And he hates them. They hold privilege, power, money and good looks, while he is born to serve and to suffer (he has severe curvature of the spine). After a lifetime of rejection and scorn, Rigoletto makes it his business to savagely humiliate the people at court—all to entertain his boss, the Duke. The Duke of Mantua is a shameless womanizer. When

Luisa De Sett, soprano Patricia Rand, mezzo-soprano Joyce Spelvin, mezzo-soprano Rosemary Rosales, alto Jack Horton, tenor William McDonald, tenor Franco Iglesias, baritone Michael More, baritone J. B. Davis, bass Robert Hale, bass Paul Kiesgen, bass

WIKIMEDIA

n 1832, Victor Hugo, author of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, brought a second hunchback into the literary universe, a tragic figure who works as a court jester and fights against the abuses of a licentious king. In a play called Le roi s’amuse, Hugo weaves a tale around a common theme in period dramas: honor. Honor was the thing that impacted a girl’s ability to marry—a girl who was otherwise denied practical means of supporting herself. In the play, Hugo turns up the heat by contrasting the decadent lifestyle of the privileged with that of the hardworking people who serve them.

Boris Goldovsky, conductor

28 | encore Count Monterone confronts him for having been with his daughter, Rigoletto is quick with the ridicule. Monterone continues to protest until the Duke condemns him to death, at which point, the distressed father levies a curse on both men. The curse haunts Rigoletto for the rest of the opera. In the second half of Act I, we meet Rigoletto’s daughter, Gilda, who has recently come to live with him after having been raised by nuns. Knowing the ways of the Duke, Rigoletto prohibits her from going anywhere but to church. Little does he know; his boss has already begun to woo the girl. In the closing scene, the courtiers conspire to play a practical joke on Rigoletto: they kidnap Gilda and deliver her into the arms of the Duke.

WIKIMEDIA

Act II The Duke has had his way with Gilda. Rigoletto swears vengeance and hires an assassin, but Gilda begs her father for mercy—she tells him she’s in love with the Duke. Act III The third act takes place in a wine shop owned by the assassin, Sparafucile. The Duke enters and says to him, “some wine and your sister.” (Often, this line is changed to “a room and some wine,” a tradition that goes back to 19th-century censors.) The assassin’s sister, Maddalena, lures their victim inside—but also develops feelings for him. Outside, Rigoletto tells Gilda to peep into the wine shop and witness her lover’s faithlessness. This sets up one of the great moments in opera: it’s a seduction scene between the Duke and Maddalena interwoven with the despairing music of father and daughter. Rigoletto orders Gilda to disguise herself as a man and flee to Verona. After Rigoletto leaves, she doubles back to the wine shop to rescue her man. Inside, Maddalena begs her brother to spare the Duke and murder Rigoletto instead. “What, am I a thief? A bandit?” Sparafucile protests. Out of his own twisted sense of honor, the assassin refuses to kill his client but agrees to bag a random stranger instead—if such a person enters the shop before Rigoletto’s return. Gilda resolves to be that person. She goes inside. In the final scene, Rigoletto drags the body bag to the river. He looks inside and finds Gilda, who dies in his arms. “My

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Gilda! She is dead,” he sings. “Ah, the curse!”

First ASO performances:

Aida

June 5–8, 2014

In addition to the soloists, Act III of Aida is scored for three flutes (one doubling piccolo), two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, four trombones, timpani, percussion and strings.

ver the years, productions of Aida have included horses, zebras, chariot races, camels, lions, tigers, elephants, puppets and enormous casts of humans. It is a glorious spectacle wrapped around an intimate story—and that speaks volumes about Verdi’s genius. He well understood that events of global significance often begin behind closed doors in places where key players experience doubt, loneliness and vulnerability. There are echoes of Romeo and Juliet in Aida. Aida is an Ethiopian princess; Radames is an Egyptian general. But it’s a love triangle that powers this tale. The Pharaoh’s daughter, Amneris, cannot fathom losing Radames to another woman. (If there are seven stages of grief, she experiences most of them in this opera.) At the same time, the two lovers live in their own private hell. Radames, bound by the historic events unfolding around him, cannot publicly acknowledge his love for an enemy prisoner. And Aida, Amneris’s slave, cannot acknowledge that she’s the daughter of the Ethiopian king—the same man who will face her lover on the battlefield. It is a classic human struggle set in a place that, for most Europeans, was a source of great mystery and intrigue. Isma’il Pasha reigned over Egypt and Sudan as Khedive between 1863 and 1879. He famously said, “My country is no longer only in Africa; we are now part of Europe, too.” Indeed, with the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, Egypt became the gatekeeper to one of the world’s busiest trade arteries. The Khedive invested heavily in programs to modernize and industrialize his land. Part of this was the construction of an opera house to commemorate the opening of the Canal. To inaugurate the new theater, he commissioned an opera by Europe’s most famous composer. It is said that Giuseppe Verdi was his first choice,

Robert Spano, conductor Kearstin Piper Brown, soprano Latonia Moore, soprano Michelle DeYoung, mezzo-soprano Stuart Neill, tenor Grant Knox, tenor Gordon Hawkins, baritone Burak Bilgili, bass Evan Boyer, bass Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus

30 | encore Richard Wagner his second. According to tradition, that’s exactly why Verdi took the job. By the mid-1850s, Verdi had grown weary of the music business—the official censors, the critics and the gossips had all taken their pound of flesh. Verdi’s output slowed. Gravitating toward country life, he rejected offers from various opera houses in favor of tending to his crops and horses. It had been four years since his last opera (not including the revision of La forza del destino). Verdi wrote Aida using a libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni. It takes place “in the time of the pharaohs.” It was premiered in Cairo in 1871. Synopsis Act I Radames enters an empty hall in the palace at Memphis and dreams of leading the Egyptian army against the Ethiopians. In his head, a military victory would buy him the political clout to marry Aida and ascend the throne in Ethiopia. Pharaoh’s daughter, Amneris, enters and notices the fire in his eyes. She wonders if it burns for someone else. When Radames glances at her slave, Aida, Amneris becomes suspicious. The Pharaoh enters and receives intelligence that the Ethiopian army is marching on Thebes. He appoints Radames as his commander. Aida frets over her father, her brothers, and Radames—all of whom are about to meet in battle. “For whom do I weep? For whom do I pray?” Act II Amneris informs Aida that Radames has died—just to see her reaction. In fact, Radames is alive. Through cunning and deceit, Amneris confirms the identity of her rival. A tremendous victory parade gets underway (this is the famous Triumphal March). Aida recognizes her father, Amonasro, among the prisoners of war. She conceals his true identity while Radames prevents their execution. As a sign of his gratitude, the Pharaoh gives Radames his daughter’s hand in marriage. (This is a fantastic moment in the opera when the celebratory music belies the crushing disappointment of the young lovers.)

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Act III Amneris prays in the Temple of Isis ahead of her wedding. Amonasro finds Aida outside and coerces her into spying for him. When Radames arrives, he and Aida conspire to run away together. But she asks him a fatal question: “Tell me, how can we avoid the Egyptian legions?” Radames tells her that his army will take the pass at Napata. Amonasro steps out of the shadows; he’s heard everything. When Radames learns the man’s true identity, he realizes he’s betrayed Egypt; he is devastated. Amneris emerges from the temple and discovers Radames with the Ethiopian king. The Egyptians arrest Radames and condemn him as a traitor. Act IV Aida has escaped the Egyptians. Amneris goes to Radames and begs him to marry her, renounce Aida, and save himself. He refuses. The guards seal him inside a tomb. He finds Aida waiting for him there. They fall into one another’s arms and await their deaths. Above ground, Amneris is left with her guilt and her anguish.

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32 | meettheartists NICOLA LUISOTTI, CONDUCTOR

RITA SIMONINI

rincipal Guest Conductor of Madrid’s Teatro Real, Maestro Luisotti served as Music Director of San Francisco Opera from 2009 to 2018, conducting over 40 operas and concerts since his Company debut in 2005. In 2018, he was awarded the San Francisco Opera Medal for artistic excellence. He has received critical acclaim from press and public alike for his performances at the Vienna State Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Genoa’s Teatro Carlo Felice, Venice’s La Fenice, Bologna’s Teatro Comunale, Turin’s Teatro Regio, Munich’s Bavarian State Opera, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Dresden, Hamburg, Valencia, Los Angeles Opera, Seattle Opera, Toronto’s Canadian Opera Company and Tokyo’s Suntory Hall. Maestro Luisotti was awarded the 39th Premio Puccini Award in conjunction with the historic 100th anniversary of La Fanciulla del West at the Metropolitan Opera, which he conducted there in 2010. Further engagements in the 2020/21 season will include Tosca at Teatro Real, La Traviata at the Suntory Hall, as well as concerts with Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala and Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid. Maestro Luisotti has also conducted several productions captured on DVD including the Metropolitan Opera’s La bohème and La Fanciulla del West, the Royal Opera Covent Garden productions of Don Giovanni and Nabucco, and San Francisco Opera’s Mefistofele. MICHELLE BRADLEY, SOPRANO

M DARIO ACCOSTA

ichelle Bradley is beginning to garner great acclaim as one of today’s most promising Verdi sopranos.

This season, Michelle Bradley makes her debut with the Lyric Opera of Chicago as the title role in Tosca and returns to the Metropolitan Opera as Liù in Turandot. In concert, she will debut with the San Francisco Symphony as the soprano soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra as the title role in act III of Verdi’s Aida. She will also be heard in a pair of solo recitals for the San Diego Opera with Brian Zeger at the piano. Future projects include a debut with then San Francisco

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Opera and returns to the Metropolitan Opera and the Lyric Opera of Chicago, all in leading roles. Last season, Bradley made debuts with the Prague State Opera as the title role in Aida and in recital with the Houston Grand Opera and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. She also appeared in concert with the Dallas Symphony in a program of gospel and in a gala concert with the San Diego Opera. Previously Michelle Bradley made debuts with the Vienna State Opera as Leonora in Il Trovatore (a role debut), the San Diego Opera as the title role in Aida and returned to the Metropolitan Opera for their New Year’s Eve Gala as Liù in Act II of Turandot. She appeared in solo recital at the Kennedy Center and performed Barber’s Knoxville, Summer of 1915 with the New World Symphony. DENYCE GRAVES, MEZZO-SOPRANO ecognized worldwide as one of today’s most exciting vocal stars, Denyce Graves continues to garner unparalleled popular and critical acclaim in performances at the world’s great opera houses and concert halls. Graves has become particularly well-known to operatic audiences for her portrayals of the title roles in Carmen and Samson et Dalila. In the 2020/21 season, Graves makes her debut at the Glimmerglass Festival as the title role in the world premiere of The Passion of Mary Caldwell Dawson, with music by Carlos Simon set to text by Sandra Seaton. She also performs in a program hosted by Tulsa Opera, entitled Greenwood Overcomes, honoring the centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre. Additionally, she participates in a program hosted by the Trust of the National Mall, as well as a special presented by PBS entitled “United in Song: Celebrating the Resilience of America.” Graves is a native of Washington, D.C., where she attended the Duke Ellington School for the Performing Arts. She continued her education at Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and the New England Conservatory. Graves is the recipient of many awards, including the Grand Prix du Concours International de Chant de Paris, the Eleanor Steber Music Award in the Opera Columbus Vocal

DEVON CASS

34 | encore Competition, a Jacobson Study Grant from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation and more. Graves’ dedication to the singers of the next generation continues to be an important part of her career; she is a member of the voice faculty at the Peabody Institute, and recently became a distinguished visiting faculty member at The Juilliard School. JASMINE HABERSHAM, SOPRANO

JEFF ROFFMAN

merican soprano, Jasmine Habersham is a versatile and dynamic performing artist. Jasmine’s 2020/21 season includes making her Seattle Opera debut as Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Nannetta in Falstaff (Berkshires Opera Festival) as well as joining the The Atlanta Opera Company Players debuting the roles of Bubikopf (Girl) in Der Kaiser von Atlantis and Micaëla in The Threepenny Carmen (The Atlanta Opera). An avid performer of new works, Jasmine has premiered the role of Mariola in Jake Heggie/Gene Scheer’s Out of Darkness: Two Remain (Atlanta Opera). She has also appeared as Pip in Moby Dick (Utah Opera), Pamina in The Magic Flute (Opera Theater St. Louis: Opera on the Go) Papagena in Die Zauberflöte (Cincinnati Opera and Glimmerglass Festival), Yum Yum in the The Mikado (Kentucky Opera), Esther in Intimate Apparel (Cincinnati Opera Fusion) and Clara in Porgy and Bess (Utah Festival Opera). She has won numerous awards including the Silver Medal for the 2020 American Traditions Competition, Special Award winner for the Lotte Lenya Competition, second place (2018 Southeast Regional Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions), The Strauss Award (National Orpheus Competition), John Alexander Memorial Award (CCM), and the Young Artist Guild Award (Central City Opera). Jasmine received her bachelor’s degree in Vocal Performance at Shorter College and her Master’s and Artist Diploma from the University of Cincinnati CollegeConservatory of Music

GUILLERMO ADAMI

SANTIAGO BALLERINI, TENOR

antiago Ballerini is recognized in the Americas as one of the leading tenors of the Bel Canto repertoire and is a celebrated performer in opera houses around the world. In January of 2020, Ballerini made his debut with

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the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto singing Barbiere di Siviglia. In late 2019, he was the tenor soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Giannandrea Noseda singing Carmina Burana at The Kennedy Center. Ballerini, a dual citizen of Argentina and Italy, is well recognized in Latin America where he started his opera career. He has been invited to sing lead roles for the last four seasons at the prestigious El Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires to include jünge Graf in Zimmerman’s Die Soldaten; Tenor italiano in Der Rosenkavalier, Mozart’s Requiem under the baton of Maestro Evelino Pidó, Lindoro in Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri and Ernesto in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale. In 2014, Ballerini was awarded “Upcoming Opera Singer’ in Argentina by the Congress of Argentina and the Agentine Association of Critics. He was also a featured soloist at the 50th Met Anniversary Gala honoring acclaimed baritone Sherrill Milnes, and was scholarship recipient to study with Mr. Milnes. Before his singing career, Ballerini was a pianist for 9 years and a certified Music Therapist. CLAY HILLEY, TENOR eldentenor Clay Hilley has appeared on many international stages in the most demanding operatic repertoire. At age 39 he sang the title role of Wagner’s Siegfried in Stefan Herheim’s new Ring Cycle at Deutsche Oper Berlin, under the baton of Sir Donald Runnicles, and he returned to the theatre in November 2021 and January 2022 for revival performances. The 2021/22 season sees the tenor in two prominent debuts: with Dutch National Opera as the title role of Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg in a new production by Nanouk Leopold, which heralds the arrival of the company’s new Music Director, Lorenzo Viotti; and at the Tiroler Festspiele Erl as Siegmund in a new production of Die Walküre directed by KS Brigitte Fassbaender. He sings the title role of Samson et Dalila in a fully staged presentation at Bob Jones University and a vibrant concert schedule includes Beethoven’s Missa solemnis with John DeMain and the Madison Symphony Orchestra, and Siegfried Act III with the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra led by Chief Conductor Erik Nielsen.

SUZANNE VINNIK

36 | encore The tenor received his Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education at the University of Georgia, a Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance from Georgia State University, a Professional Studies Certificate from the Manhattan School of Music, and a Performer’s Certificate from the Opera Institute at Boston University. REGINALD SMITH JR., BARITONE

aritone Reginald Smith, Jr., this year’s U.S. representative at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, will debut this season with the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Uncle Paul in Terrence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones, with the San Diego Opera as Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte and with Charleston’s Holy City Arts and Lyric Opera as Germont in La Traviata. In concert he will return to the Dallas Symphony for holiday concerts, debut with the Oregon Symphony in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, sing Amonasro in Act 3 of Aida with the Atlanta Symphony and perform Messiah with the Nashville Symphony. Mr. Smith will also appear in solo recital at Kennesaw State University. Future engagements include a debut with the Santa Fe Opera and a return to the Lyric Opera of Chicago, both in leading roles. Reginald Smith, Jr.’s last season included returns to the Atlanta Opera as Tonio in I Pagliacci (a role debut), the Cincinnati Opera as Don Bartolo in Il Barbiere di Siviglia and to the Dallas Symphony in a concert honoring the victims of racial violence and injustice. He also sang Jake in concerts of Porgy and Bess scenes with the New Orleans Opera. BURAK BILGILI, BASS

urak Bilgili is a Turkish operatic bass-baritone who was born in Akşehir, a town in the Konya Province of Turkey. Since his professional operatic debut at the Teatro alla Scala in 2002 as Don Alfonso in Lucrezia Borgia, he has sung in leading opera houses all around the world and has enjoyed a busy international career. Bilgili made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 2004, and he returned to the Metropolitan Opera in 2009 as Ferrando in Il Trovatore. Bilgili is still the only Turkish artist in history to perform a major role in Metropolitan Opera in New York City.

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A recipient of numerous awards, the Turkish bass garnered First Prizes in the International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition 2002 in Vienna, the International Alfredo Kraus Competition 2002 in Las Palmas, the Neue Stimmen International Opera Competition in 2001, the Mario Lanza Opera Competition, and the J. Parkinson Italian Opera Competition. He was also a winner of the Loren Zachary Opera Competition, the Licia AlbanesePuccini Foundation International Voice Competition, and was First Place winner in both the Giargiari Bel Canto Voice Competition and 1998 Siemens Opera Competition in Turkey. In 2003, Bilgili became Turkey’s first-ever representative at the BBC Cardi Singer of the World competition. Bilgili initially studied at Mimar Sinan University in Istanbul as a student of Guzin Gurel. After his graduation, he studied at the prestigious Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia with the support of Sedat Gurel – Guzin Gurel Arts and Science Foundation. With Zehra Yildiz Culture and Arts Foundation’s support, he studied with Katia Ricciarelli in Italy.

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38 | may21 Concert of Saturday, May 21, 2022, 7:00pm

FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809–1847) Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt (Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage), Op. 27 (1828)

NICOLA LUISOTTI, conductor

PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY (1840–1893) Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy (1869) 20 MINS

ITZHAK PERLMAN, violin

MAX BRUCH (1838–1920) Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 26 (1866) I. Vorspiel: Allegro moderato II. Adagio III. Finale: Allegro energico Itzhak Perlman, violin

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.

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13 MINS

25 MINS

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by Noel Morris Program Annotator

Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt, Op. 27

First ASO performance:

Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, contrabassoon, two horns, three trumpets, timpani and strings.

November 20, 1965

“T

Robert Mann, conductor Most recent ASO performances:

May 5–7, 2016 he boy was born on a lucky day,” said the famous Lothar Zagrosek, conductor poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Imagine hearing such an observation about yourself from one of the world’s greatest writers. And it was true. Felix Mendelssohn was just 16 when he composed his first masterpiece.

The son of a banker, he received the finest instruction available, excelling in music, literature, languages, geography, math and drawing. His parents cultivated a home life that was the envy of Europe, a gathering place for famous poets, scientists, writers, musicians, artists and thinkers in Berlin—a host of celebrities who came together for community, music, and to marvel at the uncanny abilities of the Mendelssohn prodigies (Felix and his sister Fanny). Mendelssohn first met Goethe at the age of 12, when his composition teacher Carl Friedrich Zelter took him to stay with the famous writer. In a letter to his parents, young Mendelssohn gushed, “Every morning, I receive a kiss from the author of Faust and Werther.” Goethe wrote the two poems “Calm Sea” and “Prosperous Voyage” no later than 1795. The first contemplates terror and deadly conditions at sea—it’s not about icebergs or violent storms, but sailing ships becalmed. The second poem expresses the sailors’ exultation as a breeze wafts across the water. Generally printed and read as a pair, the poems inspired music from Beethoven, Schubert and the poet’s 19-yearold friend Felix Mendelssohn, who wrote a concert overture on the subject in 1828.

40 | encore Calm Sea (Goethe)

Prosperous Voyage (Goethe)

Deep quiet rules the waters; motionless, the sea reposes, and the boatsman looks about with alarm at the smooth surfaces about him. No wind comes from any direction! A deathly, terrible quiet! In the vast expanse not one wave stirs.

The mist is torn away, The heavens turn bright, And Aeolus unfastens The bonds of fear. There, the winds rustle, the boatsman stirs. Quickly! Quickly! The waves rise up again. The distant view draws close, Land ho, I call

First ASO performances: December 17–18, 1959 Henry Sopkin, conductor Most recent ASO performances: March 8–10, 2018

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Stephen Mulligan, conductor

Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp and strings.

istorically, Russia was an isolationist country when it came to music. For centuries, Western instruments, harmonies, and dance rhythms were frowned upon by the Orthodox church. Sacred music and folk music necessarily served as the basis for Russian composition. And the first Russian conservatory didn’t open its doors until 1862. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was a member of the first graduating class. In the 1860s, a composer named Mily Balakirev loomed large over Russian music, badgering others to preserve the Russian style free from European (conservatory) influence. A terrific pianist and natural musician, Balakirev wore his lack of formal music education like a badge of honor. With his uncompromising attitude, he made enemies and lost his job in 1869. Quite unexpectedly, Tchaikovsky published an article in his defense. They became friends, and Balakirev saw in the 29-year-old Tchaikovsky a mind he could mold—at least for a time. That same year, Tchaikovsky destroyed one of his scores after having received savage criticism from his new friend Balakirev. (The tone poem Fatum was recovered from orchestral parts and published posthumously.) Balakirev then suggested the younger composer write a symphonic

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| 41

poem on the subject of Romeo and Juliet. Tchaikovsky agreed and went to work. “My overture is coming along quite quickly,” he explained to his mentor. “When it has emerged from my womb, you will see that, whatever else it may be, a great deal of it has been carried out in accordance with your instructions. In the first place, the overall scheme is yours: an introduction representing [Friar Laurence]; the struggle [Montagues and Capulets]… and love.” Tchaikovsky completed the first version in 1869, and it drew more criticism from Balakirev. The following year, Tchaikovsky made extensive revisions to his score while on holiday in Switzerland, including writing the introductory music as we know it today. Sadly, Balakirev suffered a mental breakdown and, for some years, withdrew from the music world. Through the 1870s, Tchaikovsky wrote some of his most famous works. He made a final revision to Romeo and Juliet in 1880, and with the score won Russia’s Glinka Award along with a cash prize of 500 rubles. Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 26 In addition to the solo violin, this concerto is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, timpani and strings.

usic insiders refer to this piece as “the Bruch Violin Concerto.” It is a mainstay for violin soloists and a perennial audience favorite; however, the fact that it’s known as the Bruch Violin Concerto speaks volumes about something that became a serious bone of contention for its composer: Bruch wrote three violin concertos, not one. In a letter to the publisher Fritz Simrock, he wrote: “Nothing compares to the laziness, stupidity and dullness of many German violinists. Every fortnight another one comes to me wanting to play the first concerto. I have now become rude; and have told them: ‘I cannot listen to this concerto any more—did I perhaps write just this one? Go away and once and for all play the other concertos, which are just as good, if not better.’”

First ASO performance: March 3, 1953 Henry Sopkin, conductor Robert Harrison, violin Most recent ASO performances: January 10–13, 2021 Gemma New, conductor Randall Goosby, violin

42 | encore

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

During his lifetime, Bruch was an important conductor, choral composer, and professor of music. He premiered his First Symphony at the age of 14 and wrote at least some of the material that would go into the Violin Concerto while still a teenager. He started to compose the Concerto in 1864, and conducted a premiere in 1866, but was dissatisfied with it. By then, he had caught the attention of the famous violinist Joseph Joachim, who helped him make revisions. In 1868, Joachim played the premiere of the piece as we know it today. By the age of 30, Bruch had a huge hit on his hands and probably expected to grow into a life as an esteemed composer. But nothing he wrote compared to the popularity of his Violin Concerto No. 1. A century after his death, Bruch has been spared the fate of the one-hitwonder by two delightful, if not quite as popular works: the Scottish Fantasy, based on Scottish folk song, and Kol Nidrei, based on sacred Hebrew melodies.

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NICOLA LUISOTTI, CONDUCTOR See biography on page 32.

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ITZHAK PERLMAN, VIOLIN

ndeniably the reigning virtuoso of the violin, Itzhak Perlman enjoys superstar status rarely afforded a classical musician. Beloved for his charm and humanity as well as his talent, he is treasured by audiences throughout the world who respond not only to his remarkable artistry, but also to his irrepressible joy for making music. Having performed with every major orchestra and at concert halls around the globe, Perlman was granted a Presidential Medal of Freedom—the nation’s highest civilian honor—by President Obama in 2015, a Kennedy Center Honor in 2003, a National Medal of Arts by President Clinton in 2000 and a Medal of Liberty by President Reagan in 1986. Perlman has been honored with 16 Grammy® Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Kennedy Center Honor, a Grammy® Lifetime Achievement Award and a Genesis Prize. In 2021/22, Perlman opened the Baltimore Symphony season, performed at the NY Philharmonic’s 2021 Season Gala, appeared in recital at venues including Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and Jones Hall in Houston, and he brings his new program entitled “An Evening with Itzhak Perlman” which captures highlights of his career through narrative and multi-media elements intertwined with performance to San Francisco, Seattle, East Lansing, West Palm Beach, Ft. Myers and Tallahassee. Most recently, Perlman launched an exclusive series of classes with Masterclass.com, the premier online education company that enables access to the world’s most brilliant minds including Gordon Ramsay, Wolfgang Puck, Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, Helen Mirren, Jodie Foster and Serena Williams, as the company’s only classical music presentation.

44 | may26/28 Concerts of Thursday, May 26, 2022, 8:00pm Saturday, May 28, 2022, 8:00pm NICOLA LUISOTTI, conductor ELIZABETH KOCH TISCIONE, oboe

This weekend’s concerts are dedicated to Gary Lee

ELISABETTA BRUSA (b. 1954) Adagio for String Orchestra (1996) ALESSANDRO MARCELLO (1673–1747) Oboe Concerto in C Minor (c. 1717) I. Allegro moderato II. Adagio III. Allegro Elizabeth Koch Tiscione, oboe INTERMISSION JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833–1897) Symphony No. 4 in E Minor, Op. 98 (1885) I. Allegro non troppo II. Andante moderato III. Allegro giocoso IV. Allegro energico e passionato

in honor of his extraordinary support of the 2020/21 Annual Fund.

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.

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13 MINS 12 MINS

20 MINS 39 MINS

notesontheprogram

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by Noel Morris Program Annotator

Adagio

These are the first

Adagio is scored for strings.

ASO performances.

From the composer: Elisabetta Brusa was born in Milan, and as a child wrote 32 piano pieces. At the Milan Conservatory, she studied Composition with Bruno Bettinelli and Azio Corghi, graduating in 1980. She also received instruction from Sir Peter Maxwell Davies and Hans Keller. After winning first prize at the Washington International Competition for Composition for String Quartet in 1982, she was awarded the Fromm Music Foundation Fellowship, a Fulbright Commission for the Tanglewood Music Center, and three Fellowships from the MacDowell Colony later in the decade. She is best known for her orchestral works recorded in four volumes on the Naxos Records label. Her music has been performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, RSNO Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Philharmonisches Gera Altenburg Orchester, Aachener Kammerorchester, CBC Vancouver Orchestra, State Hermitage Orchestra, St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra and The Women’s Philharmonic of San Francisco. She taught Composition in various conservatories since 1978 and at the Conservatory of Milan from 1985 to 2018. In 1997 she married the conductor Gilberto Serembe. Brusa’s Adagio (1996) for string orchestra is a freely structured composition in a single movement inspired by well-known masterpieces such as those of Albinoni, Mahler (Adagietto), Rodrigo and Barber. Independent of a pre-established form (sonata or suite), it originated as an autonomous composition in which neo-tonal techniques are amalgamated with contrapuntal techniques, and it follows a certain formal tradition and an expressive style that have distinguished the numerous Adagios of the past. The composition is permeated by a dark atmosphere with some lyric moments and a strong tension that captures the attention of the listener.

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46 | encore First ASO performances: January 22–23, 1959 Henry Sopkin, conductor Raymond Toubman, oboe Most recent ASO performances: March 22–25, 1979 Louis Lane, conductor Elizabeth Camus, oboe

Oboe Concerto in C Minor In addition to the solo oboe, this concerto is scored for strings and basso continuo.

s much as people love Baroque music, a lot of it has fallen by the wayside. For all the performances of Handel, Vivaldi and Bach, much more music has landed in the trash heap or, perhaps, in a dusty vault somewhere in Europe. When a modern performer falls in love with a previously unknown gem, a flurry of detective work follows.

The Oboe Concerto of Alessandro Marcello is a good example of the convoluted history of a 300-year-old composition. It is a much-loved piece by oboe players but has a background that causes head-scratching.

WIKIMEDIA

Marcello was a Venetian nobleman who wrote music to enjoy with his friends. He felt no imperative to be anything but an amateur musician. Nevertheless, the Oboe Concerto found its way into an anthology that traveled northward, where it fell into the hands of Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach liked the concerto so much he transcribed it for harpsichord in the key of D minor. Thinking it was written by Vivaldi (another Venetian), Bach added the name “A. Vivaldi” to his manuscript. For a hundred years or so, interest in Bach’s music receded until Felix Mendelssohn staged a revival in the 19th century. With this came legions of devotees who scoured archives, private collections, choir books and rare-book shops for everything Bach. From Bach came an interest in performing the “Vivaldi” Oboe Concerto in its original form. Just outside Berlin, a scholar named Arnold Schering (1877–1941) discovered the orchestral parts of the Oboe Concerto at a library in Schwerin. Unlike the Bach arrangement, the concerto was in C minor and attributed to “Marcello.” Baroque music lovers celebrated the discovery and went digging for more information about Benedetto Marcello, the brother of Alessandro (Benedetto had been the more famous composer of the two). It wasn’t until a 1717 copy of the concerto surfaced in the British Library that scholars finally understood the piece to be the work of Alessandro Marcello.

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Since then, different editions have filtered into the public sphere. One is a D-minor version based on Bach’s arrangement and includes his ornamentation. The other adheres to the original key of C minor, with some string parts rewritten to fit the range of the modern viola (the original was composed for an earlier stringed instrument called the viola da gamba). The scholar Eleanor Selfridge-Field offers a brief profile in her book Venetian Instrumental Music. In it, she quotes Apostolo Zeno: “[Alessandro Marcello] is a distinguished student of mathematics. He composes verses in Latin and Italian… has a knowledge of many languages…is most ingenious in working with mathematical instruments and globes, and even in drawing and painting. He plays many instruments and knows a good deal about music…He dresses impeccably and is incomparably kind.” Symphony No. 4 in E Minor, Op. 98

First ASO performance:

Symphony No. 4 is scored for two flutes (one doubling piccolo), two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, percussion and strings.

March 10, 1952 Henry Sopkin, conductor Most recent ASO performances:

March 3–5, 2016 Johannes Brahms spent half his career making aborted Marc Piollet, conductor attempts at writing symphonies. And it seems there were a couple of reasons. For one thing, he dreaded being compared to Beethoven, who was a giant in the genre. For another, Brahms held himself to a nearimpossible standard. As far as he was concerned, it wasn’t enough to write beautiful melodies (which he did). He aspired to be a great craftsman, infusing his works with almost mathematical perfection.

On September 30, 1853, the shy, blonde-haired, blueeyed, 20-year-old Brahms had knocked on the door of Robert and Clara Schumann. He played some of his piano works for them. Robert, who was editor of a music journal, shared the experience with the greater music community. “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

48 | encore Jupiter,” he wrote. “And now he has arrived, a young blood, at whose cradle graces and heroes kept watch. His name is Johannes Brahms.” It was high praise for a youth who had written a few piano pieces. For years after, Brahms was burdened by Schumann’s prophesy. Not long after the article was published, he got it in his head that he needed to write a symphony, and thus began a long series of frustrated attempts, one of which became his Piano Concerto No. 1 in 1858. Others became his First and Second Serenades. Over the following decade, Brahms produced his German Requiem, his variations on a theme by Haydn, and a number of important chamber works, songs, piano pieces—but still no symphony. The first real glimmer came in 1862 when he shared the first movement of his First Symphony with Clara Schumann (Robert was long dead). It seemed he was on his way, but no—he wouldn’t finish the piece for another 14 years. With the premiere of the First Symphony in 1876, Brahms slew his demons (at least that one). The next three symphonies came much more quickly. By then he was a celebrity, earning good money and living for his art. And he fell into a routine: during the fall and winter months, he stayed in Vienna, giving concerts, supervising his publications and pursuing various scholarly interests (he edited a number of Baroque works for publication). During the summer, he wrote music, always at some picturesque getaway. In the summer of 1884, the composer traveled to the mountain village of Mürzzuschlag where he registered with the local police as an “itinerant musician.” He rented rooms on the main street, befriended people in the local tavern, and took daily hikes. His landlady said she often heard him pacing the room and humming to himself. Out of that came the first two movements of his Fourth Symphony. He returned to the village the following summer and wrote the last two movements. For some added inspiration, Brahms looked to one of his greatest passions: the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. “On one stave, for a small instrument, the man writes a whole world of the deepest thoughts and most powerful

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feelings,” Brahms said of Bach. He was referring to Bach’s Chaconne from the Partita No. 2 for violin (the chaconne is a Baroque form in which the composer spins a yarn over repetitions of a bassline). Brahms modified a sequence from Bach’s Cantata 150 to serve as a bassline and crafted a chaconne for the finale of his Fourth Symphony, building a great drama across thirty variations. At the time, people close to him questioned this choice (they considered the chaconne to be outmoded). Ignoring their misgivings, Brahms conducted the Fourth Symphony’s premiere in October of 1885. Within a year, it was played throughout Europe and in New York City. In the spring of 1897, he heard the Fourth performed for the last time in Vienna. According to witnesses, people craned their necks to get a look at him and broke into a thunderous ovation after each movement. He died less than a month later.

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50 | meettheartists

JEFF ROFFMAN

NICOLA LUISOTTI, CONDUCTOR See biography on page 32.

ELIZABETH KOCH TISCIONE, OBOE

rincipal Oboe Elizabeth Koch Tiscione joined the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in 2007 and currently holds the George M. and Corrie Hoyt Brown Chair. She also performs at the Grand Teton Music Festival, Strings Music Festival, Festival Mozaic and the Colorado College Summer Music Festival. Tiscione has appeared as guest principal with New York Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and Jacksonville Symphony. She has also performed at the Aspen Music Festival, Sun Valley Summer Symphony, Bellingham Music Festival, Mostly Mozart Festival, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Music in the Vineyards. Tiscione can be heard on recent broadcasts of NPR's "From the Top" and PBS's "Now Hear This.” A native of Hamburg, NY, Tiscione studied at Curtis Institute of Music with Richard Woodhams and at Interlochen Arts Academy with Dan Stolper. She currently serves as a Kennesaw State University faculty member, a Curtis Institute of Music temporary faculty member and is an active private instructor.

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52 | jun9/11/12 Concerts of Thursday, June 9, 2022, 8:00pm Saturday, June 11, 2022, 8:00pm Sunday, June 12, 2022, 3:00pm

GUSTAV MAHLER (1860–1911) Symphony No. 3 in D Minor (1896) 102 MINS Part 1: I. Kräftig. Entschieden. Part 2: II. Tempo di Minuetto. Sehr mäßig, III. Comodo. Scherzando. Ohne Hast. IV. Sehr langsam. Misterioso. Durchaus ppp. V. Lustig im Tempo und keck im Ausdruck. VI. Langsam. Ruhevoll. Empfunden.

ROBERT SPANO, conductor KELLEY O’CONNOR, mezzo-soprano WOMEN OF THE ASO CHORUS Norman Mackenzie, Director of Choruses

GEORGIA BOY CHOIR David R. White, Artistic Director and Conductor These performances were made possible by a grant from the Barney M. Franklin and Hugh W. Burke Charitable Fund. This weekend’s concerts are dedicated to Ann Marie and John B. White, Jr. in honor of their extraordinary support of the 2020/21 Annual Fund. 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.

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by Noel Morris Program Annotator

Symphony No. 3 in D Minor is scored for alto soloist, women’s chorus, children’s chorus, four flutes (all doubling piccolo), four oboes (one doubling English horn), four clarinets (one doubling bass clarinet and one doubling E-flat clarinet), E-flat clarinet, four bassoons (one doubling contrabassoon), eight horns, four trumpets, post horn (offstage), four trombones, tuba, timpani (two players), percussion, two harps and strings.

First ASO performances:

n 1895, Gustav Mahler was working as First Conductor at the Hamburg Municipal Theater and as director of the symphony orchestra. In those days, Hamburg was an independent city-state with a democratic constitution. For its time, it was a liberal place with separation of church and state, and freedom of press, assembly, and association. Mahler started working there in 1891 and conducted 85 opera performances his first season. Overwhelmingly, people regarded him as a major force on the podium—not as a composer. With an exhausting conducting schedule, writing music was something he confined to summer holidays.

Ruxandra Donose,

In the summer of 1895, Mahler traveled to Steinbach in Upper Austria where he enjoyed alpine vistas and the aquamarine waters of the Attersee. To get away from the bustle of family and friends, he kept a “composing hut” at the water’s edge, outfitted with a desk, a piano, some windows, and a stove (it’s now part of a Mahler museum). It was there that he wrote his Third Symphony in 1895 and 1896. Mahler once said, “A symphony must be like the world; it must contain everything.” And that’s what you get; his music is an aural record of his world. Through the prism of a symphony orchestra, he echoes sounds of nature, bells, folk songs and folk dances, funeral marches, military fanfares and a plethora of visceral experiences. As in the natural world, he sets up these sounds to overlap and collide with one another. Originally, Mahler’s outline for his Third Symphony carried the title The Happy Life—A Midsummer Night’s Dream (no connection to Shakespeare). As he refined his scenario, “Happy Science” replaced “Happy Life,” in deference to

Robert Shaw, conductor Elizabeth Mannion, mezzo-soprano Most recent ASO performances: March 4–6, 2010 Robert Spano, conductor mezzo-soprano

WIKIMEDIA

February 23–25, 1984

54 | encore Friedrich Nietzsche. By the end of the first summer, he had composed six movements. (He cut the last of these and used it as the finale of his Fourth Symphony.) The following summer, Mahler wrote the Symphony’s massive first movement. The autograph manuscript bears the heading A Midsummer Noon’s Dream and lists six movements representing Creation. Part 1 I. Introduction: “Pan Awakes,” followed immediately by “Summer Marches In” (Bacchus’s Parade”) Mahler explained his vision to his friend Natalie BauerLechner. “Summer Marches In,” he told her, but “does not happen without a battle against the opponent, winter. But he is overconfident and easily overthrown; summer, strong and superior, soon prevails.” Part 2 II. “What the Flowers in the Meadow Tell Me” Mahler explained, “[the ‘Flower Piece’] is the most carefree music I have ever written, as carefree as only flowers can be,” he wrote. “It all sways and ripples like flowers on limber stems sway in the wind. . . . this innocent flowery cheerfulness does not last but suddenly becomes serious and weighty, you can well imagine. A heavy storm sweeps across the meadow and shakes the flowers and leaves. They groan and whimper, as if pleading for redemption to a higher realm.” III. “What the Animals in the Woods Tell Me” For the scherzo, Mahler borrows a tune from one of his own songs, “Ablösung im Sommer” (Relief in Summer). In it, the cuckoo dies and gives way to the nightingale. The movement includes a trio section featuring an offstage post horn solo. Soon, a military fanfare interrupts the post horn evoking the sounds of an army garrison (Mahler lived near one as a child). He composed “Ablösung im Sommer” in 1892 using a folk poem from Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Youth’s Magic Horn).

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IV. “What Mankind Tells Me” The fourth movement features an alto solo: “Joy—deeper yet than woe is she.” The text comes from Nietzsche’s poem “Zarathustra’s Roundelay” from Also Sprach Zarathustra. V. “What the Angels Tell Me” The fifth movement returns to the folk poems of Des Knaben Wunderhorn. This time the song is “Es sungen drei Engel” (Three Angels were Singing). “And you will attain heavenly joy,” it says. This movement enlists a children’s choir, a women’s chorus, and an alto soloist. VI. “What Love Tells Me” Mahler wrote: “Everything has dissolved in peace and quiet.” In a letter to his lifelong friend Fritz Löhr, he wrote, “What Love Tells Me” is a summary of my emotions about all creatures. Deeply painful interludes cannot be avoided, but these gradually turn into blessed confidence: ‘the joyful science.’” On June 9, 1902, a group of the musically curious traveled to Krefeld, Germany, to see Mahler conduct the world premiere of his Third Symphony. The audience included Richard Strauss, Engelbert Humperdinck, the conductor Willem Mengelberg, and the composer’s fiancée, Alma Schindler. At the end of the performance, Mahler took 12 curtain calls. After the premiere, he decided his descriptive titles were too distracting for the audience and published the symphony without them. TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS SOLOIST O Mensch! Gib Acht! Was spricht die tiefe Mitternacht? ‘Ich schlief, ich schlief –, Aus tiefem Traum bin ich erwacht: – Die Welt ist tief, Und tiefer als der Tag gedacht. Tief ist ihr Weh –, Lust – tiefer noch als Herzeleid: Weh spricht: Vergeh! Doch alle Lust will Ewigkeit –, – will tiefe, tiefe Ewigkeit!’

O Man! Take heed! What does the deep midnight say? ‘I was asleep, asleep –, I have awoken from deep dreams: – The world is deep, And deeper than the day imagined. Deep is its grief! Joy, deeper still than heartache! Grief says: Perish! But all joy seeks eternity –, – seeks deep, deep eternity!’

Text by Friedrich Nietzsche. Translation by Richard Stokes, author of: The Book of Lieder (Faber). Provided via Oxford Lieder (www.oxfordlieder.co.uk).

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56 | encore BOY CHOIR Bimm-bamm, bimm-bamm! ANGEL CHORUS Es sungen drei Engel einen süßen Gesang, Mit freuden es selig in dem Himmel klang. Sie jauchzten fröhlich auch dabei, Daß Petrus sei von Sünden frei. Und als der Herr Jesus zu Tische saß, Mit seinen zwölf Jüngern das Abendmal aß, Da sprach der Herr Jesus: “Was stehst du denn hier? Wenn ich dich anseh’, so weinest du mir!”

Ding-dong, ding-dong! Three angels were singing a sweet song; With blissful joy it rang in the heavens. Their joyful praise was heard therein, That Peter was freed from sin. And as the Lord Jesus sat at the table, With his twelve disciples eating the evening meal, Then the Lord Jesus said, “Why do you stand here? When I see you, you weep before me!”

ST. PETER (Soloist) “Und sollt’ ich nicht weinen, du gütiger Gott?”

“And should I not weep, thou wonderful God?”

CHORUS “Du sollst ja nicht weinen.”

“You should not be weeping.”

ST. PETER “Ich hab übertreten die zehn Gebot. Ich gehe und weine ja bitterlich.”

“I have broken the Ten Commandments. I go about weeping bitterly.”

CHORUS “Du sollst ja nicht weinen.”

“You should not be weeping.”

ST. PETER “Ach komm und erbarme dich über mich!”

“O come and have mercy on me!”

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CHORUS AND BOY CHOIR “Hast du denn übertreten die zehn Gebot, So fall auf die Kniee und bete zu Gott! Liebe nur Gott in alle Zeit, So wirst du erlangen die himmlische Freud’.” Die himmlische Freud’ ist ein selige Stadt, Die himmlische Freud’, die kein ende mehr hat! Die himmlische Freude war Petro bereit’t, Durch Jesum und Allen zur Seligkeit.

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“If you have broken the Ten Commandments, Then fall on your knees and pray to God! Love God alone all the time, Thus will you acquire heavenly joy.” Heavenly joy is a blessed place, Heavenly joy, that has no end! Heavenly joy was given to Peter By Jesus, and for the salvation of all.

Text from Des Knaben Wunderhorn. English translation by Nick Jones.

Donna Choate 678-778-1573 donna@encoreatlanta.com

Amanda Tolbert 310-801-1940 amanda@encoreatlanta.com

58 | encore

BEN DASHWOOD

ROBERT SPANO, CONDUCTOR See biography on page 2.

KELLY O’CONNOR, MEZZO-SOPRANO

ossessing a voice of uncommon allure, the Grammy® Award-winning mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor is one of the most compelling performers of her generation. She is internationally acclaimed equally in the pillars of the classical music canon—from Beethoven and Mahler to Brahms and Ravel—as she is in new works of modern masters—from Adams and Dessner to Lieberson and Talbot. In the 2021/2 season Kelley O’Connor returns to the Concertgebouworkest for performances of Peter Lieberson’s Neruda Songs led by Stéphane Denève and a robust North American concert calendar includes performances of Mozart Requiem with Fabio Luisi conducting the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Mahler Das Lied von der Erde with Asher Fisch and the Seattle Symphony, Mendelssohn Elijah with Jun Markl and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Juraj Valčuha and the Minnesota Orchestra and with Michael Stern and the Kansas City Symphony. Additional performances bring her together with Ken-David Masur and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra for a program of Canteloube and Duruflé, with Andrés Orozco-Estrada and the Houston Symphony for Mahler’s Second Symphony. For her debut with the Atlanta Symphony in Ainadamar, Kelley O’Connor joined Robert Spano for performances and a Grammy® Award-winning Deutsche Grammophon recording. Her discography also includes Mahler’s Third Symphony with Jaap van Zweden and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Lieberson’s Neruda Songs and Michael Kurth’s Everything Lasts Forever with Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony, Adams’ The Gospel According to the Other Mary with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Franz Welser-Möst and the Cleveland Orchestra. ATLANTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA CHORUS

he Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus, founded in 1970 by former Music Director, Robert Shaw, is an allvolunteer, auditioned ensemble that performs on a regular basis with the Orchestra and is featured on many of its recordings. Led by Director of Choruses, Norman Mackenzie,

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

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the chorus is known for its precision and expressive singing quality. Its recordings have garnered 14 Grammy® Awards (nine for Best Choral Performance; four for Best Classical Recording and one for Best Opera Recording). The Chorus performs large symphonic choral works, under the direction of Co-Artistic Advisors Maestro Robert Spano and Principal Guest Conductor Sir Donald Runnicles, and Music Director Designate Nathalie Stutzmann. In addition, the Chorus has been involved in the creation and shaping of numerous world-premiere commissioned works. NORMAN MACKENZIE, DIRECTOR OF CHORUSES As Director of Choruses for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra since 2000 and holder of its endowed Frannie and Bill Graves Chair, Norman Mackenzie was chosen to help carry forward the creative vision of legendary founding conductor Robert Shaw to a new generation of music lovers. In his 14-year association with Shaw, he was keyboardist for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, principal accompanist for the ASO Choruses, and ultimately Assistant Choral Conductor. Mackenzie prepares the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus and Chamber Chorus for all concerts and recordings, works closely with Robert Spano on the commissioning and realization of new choral-orchestral works. During his tenure, the Chorus has made numerous tours and garnered its most recent four Grammy® Awards. Mackenzie also serves as Director of Music and Fine Arts for Atlanta’s Trinity Presbyterian Church, and pursues an active recital and guest conducting schedule. THE GEORGIA BOY CHOIR

stablished in 2009 under the baton of Artistic Director and Conductor, David R. White, the Georgia Boy Choir has quickly gained a reputation as one of the finest choirs of its kind. Known for the transcendent beauty of their singing and powerful, nuanced musical interpretation, the Choir has garnered an impressive international fan base through touring and its many performance videos on YouTube with millions of views from over 100 countries. Operating on a five-tier music education system, the Choir serves over 85 boys and young men from all around the metropolitan

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60 | encore Atlanta region. Recognizing that a musician must care for his instrument, the Georgia Boy Choir invests a great deal of time, energy and focus on the care and development of its instrument—the boys themselves. At every rehearsal, each boy is encouraged to “Be the Best Boy You Can Be.” The boys are taught the importance of hard work, selfdiscipline and focus, all in an environment that is positive, encouraging and fun. In this way, the boys are allowed to be their true selves and find expression of the greatness that lies within them. DAVID R. WHITE, Artistic Director and Conductor David R. White has been training boys and young men to sing for more than two decades. In 1994, he founded the Boy Choir of the Carolinas in Greenville, South Carolina. In 1998 he became the Music Director of Florida’s Singing Sons Boychoir in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. From 2001 to 2009, Mr. White was the Artistic Director and Conductor of the Atlanta Boy Choir. He has also served as conductor of the Greenville Symphony Orchestra Chorus and Director of Music at the Second Presbyterian Church of Greenville. There, he founded an annual Summer Music Camp for children and adults. Under his direction, choirs have participated in numerous festivals throughout the world including the Prague International Choral Festival, the Pacific International Children’s Choir Festival, the Anchorage Choral Festival, the Cultural Olympiad in Greece, the Baltimore Boychoir Festival, the Southeast Festival of Song, and the Choral Olympics in Linz, Austria. He has been a conductor on the faculty at the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Interlochen, Michigan as well as the Csehy Summer School of Music in Philadelphia. In addition to conducting, White has been a featured soloist with numerous choral organizations and orchestras throughout the Southeast. He was a member of Robert Shaw’s Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus from 19871990. White holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Voice Performance from Georgia College and is active as a lecturer, adjudicator and conductor for choral and vocal competitions, workshops and festivals. He currently holds the position of Repertoire and Standards Chair for the Georgia Chapter of the American Choral Directors Association. aso.org | @AtlantaSymphony | facebook.com/AtlantaSymphony

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WOMEN OF THE ATLANTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA CHORUS Jeffrey Baxter

Norman Mackenzie

Peter Marshall

director of choruses

choral administrator

The Frannie & Bill Graves Chair

The Florence Kopleff Chair

SOPRANO 1 Ellen Abney Hanan Davis Khadijah Davis Michelle Griffin* Erin Jones Arietha Lockhart** Alexis Lundy Mindy Margolis* Joneen Padgett* Mary Martha Penner Susan Ray Samaria Rodriguez Lydia Sharp Stacey Tanner Brianne Turgeon* Deanna Walton Erika Wuerzner Michelle Yancich Wanda Yang Temko*

SOPRANO 2 Sloan Atwood* Barbara Brown Maggie Carpenter Martha Craft Erika Elliott Mary Goodwin Amanda Hoffman Rachel Hughes Kathleen Kelly-George* Mary Mulvey Rachel O’Dell Heidi Padovano Lindsay Patten Murray Chantae Pittman Tramaine Quarterman Paula Snelling* Anne-Marie Spalinger* Cheryl Thrash** Donna Weeks**

accompanist

ALTO 1 June Abbott** Pamela Amy-Cupp Patricia DinkinsMatthews* Angel Dotson-Hall Katherine Fisher Beth Freeman Cynthia Harris Unita Harris Beverly Hueter* Janet Johnson** Susan Jones Virginia Little* Staria Lovelady* Frances McDowell-Beadle** Linda Morgan** Katherine Murray* Kathleen Poe Ross Noelle Ross Marianna Schuck Laura Emiko Soltis Camilla Springfield** Nancy York*

ALTO 2 Nancy Adams* Ana Baida Angelica Blackman-Keim Emily Boyer Marcia Chandler* Carol Comstock Meaghan Curry Cynthia Goeltz DeBold** Michèle Diament Sally Kann* Nicole Khoury* Lynda Martin Laura Rappold* Sharon Simons* Kiki Wilson** Diane Woodard** Carol Wyatt*

Wilson Lea Joshi Lee Nate Merritt McCaidan Moore Devon Scott-VanDyck Vidith Shastrula

Benjamin Stockard Richard Wang Bennett Welcn McLain Welch Sanjiv Westbrook

* 20+ years of service ** 30+ years of service # Charter member (1970)

GEORGIA BOY CHOIR David R. White artistic director and conductor

Winsten Chiu Cameron Cobb Max Cook Anderson Dean Gavin Eapen Elisha Gunter

Hank Hilscher Will Hilscher Bronson Holsinger Aidan Howerton Ian Kim Tate Kim

62 | encore 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, 2020. Their extraordinary generosity provides the foundation for this world-class institution.

$1,000,000+

A Friend of the Symphony ∞

$100,000+

1180 Peachtree The Antinori Foundation Page Bishop* The Molly Blank Fund of the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation∞ The John and Rosemary Brown Family Foundation The Coca-Cola Company Sheila L. and Jonathan J. Davies Delta Air Lines, Inc. Lettie Pate Evans Foundation, Inc.∞

Barney M. Franklin & Hugh W. Burke Charitable Fund Georgia Power Foundation The Goizueta Foundation The Halle Foundation The Home Depot Foundation Abraham J. & Phyllis Katz Foundation The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation∞ Amy W. Norman Charitable Foundation PNC The Zeist Foundation, Inc.

$75,000+

Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation

Alston & Bird LLP

$50,000+

Accenture Thalia and Michael C. Carlos Foundation, Inc. Thalia and Michael C. Carlos Advised Fund Chick-fil-A Foundation | Rhonda & Dan Cathy Ms. Lynn Eden

Diana Einterz Graphic Packaging The Graves Foundation King & Spalding LLP Gary Lee, Jr. Charles Loridans Foundation, Inc. Ann Marie & John B. White, Jr.°∞

$35,000+

BlackRock City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs Mr.* & Mrs.* Bradley Currey, Jr. Ms. Angela L. Evans

Patty & Doug Reid Mary & Jim Rubright Bill & Rachel Schultz° Patrick & Susie Viguerie

$25,000+

Paul & Linnea Bert Mr. & Mrs. Paul J. Blackney Janine Brown & Alex J. Simmons, Jr. Connie & Merrell Calhoun John W. Cooledge The Roy & Janet Dorsey Foundation Betty Sands Fuller John D. Fuller∞ The Gable Foundation Georgia Council for the Arts Jeannette Guarner, MD & Carlos del Rio, MD Bonnie & Jay Harris Donna Lee & Howard Ehni The League of American Orchestras The Livingston Foundation, Inc.∞

The Marcus Foundation, Inc.∞ Slumgullion Charitable Fund National Endowment for the Arts Sally & Pete Parsonson∞ John R. Paddock, Ph.D. & Karen M. Schwartz, Ph.D. Publix Super Markets Charities June & John Scott∞ Mrs. Charles A. Smithgall, Jr.* Mr. G. Kimbrough Taylor & Ms. Triska Drake United Distributors, Inc. Kathy Waller & Kenneth Goggins WarnerMedia Mrs. Harriet H. Warren

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$17,500+ Aadu & Kristi Allpere° Jennifer Barlament & Kenneth Potsic Russell Currey & Amy Durrell Cari K. Dawson & John M. Sparrow Mr. Richard H. Delay & Dr. Francine D. Dykes Fulton County Arts & Culture Mr. & Mrs. Charles B. Harrison Mr. & Dr. Kevin Lyman Massey Charitable Trust John & Linda Matthews Moore Colson, CPAs & Bert & Carmen Mills Martha M. Pentecost Ms. Cathleen Quigley Joyce & Henry Schwob Mr. Fahim Siddiqui & Ms. Shazia Fahim John & Ray Uttenhove Mrs. Sue S. Williams

$15,000+ Phyllis Abramson, Ph. D. Madeline* & Howell E. Adams, Jr. Mr. Keith Adams & Ms. Kerry Heyward° Mr. & Mrs. John Allan Mr. David Boatwright Benjamin Q. Brunt Wright & Alison Caughman Mr. & Mrs. Benjamin Clare° The Jim Cox, Jr. Foundation Mr. & Mrs. Erroll B. Davis, Jr. Sally & Walter George Georgia Power Eleanor & Charles Edmondson Fifth Third Bank Mr. Craig M. Frankel & Mrs. Jana A. Eplan Dick & Anne Game° Georgia-Pacific Mr. Max M. Gilstrap∞ Pam & Robert Glustrom Roya & Bahman Irvani Anne Morgan & Jim Kelley

James H. Landon Mr. Sukai Liu & Dr. Ginger J. Chen Ms. Deborah A. Marlowe & Dr. Clint Lawrence John F. & Marilyn M. McMullan Ms. Molly Minnear Terence L. & Jeanne Perrine Neal Lynn & Galen Oelkers Ms. Margaret Painter∞ Victoria & Howard Palefsky Charlie & Donna Sharbaugh Mr. John A. Sibley, III Ross & Sally Singletary Elliott & Elaine Tapp Ms. Brett A. Tarver Carol & Ramon Tomé Family Fund Adair & Dick White Kiki Wilson

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Pat & Nolan Leake The Monasse Family Foundation∞ North Highland Company Vicki & Joe Riedel Beverly & Milton Shlapak Dr. Steven & Lynne Steindel° John & Yee-Wan Stevens Judith & Mark K. Taylor The Mark and Evelyn Trammell Foundation Ms. Sheila Tschinkel Turner Enterprises, Inc. Dr. & Mrs. James O. Wells, Jr.

$7,500+

A Friend of the Symphony Paul & Marian Anderson* Jack & Helga Beam∞ Lisa & Russ Butner Ms. Diane Durgin Deedee & Marc Hamburger° $10,000+ Sally W. Hawkins A Friend of the Symphony Grace Ihrig* Paul & Melody Aldo∞ Ann & Brian Kimsey Farideh & Al Azadi Foundation∞ Dr. & Mrs. Scott I. Lampert Julie & Jim Balloun Mr. Bert Mobley Bell Family Foundation Thomas & Lynn Saylor for Hope Inc Peter James Stelling* Meredith Bell Stephen & Sonia Swartz Bloomberg Philanthropies George & Amy Taylor∞ The Breman Foundation, Inc. CBF Foundation Leadership Council ∞ CBRE We salute those extraordinary Colliers donors who have signed Sally & Larry Davis pledge commitments to Peter & Vivian de Kok continue their annual giving Marcia & John Donnell for three years or more. Eversheds Sutherland Dr. & Mrs. Leroy Fass The Robert Hall Gunn, Jr., Fund For The Hertz Family more information Foundation, Inc. about giving to the Atlanta Clay & Jane Jackson Symphony Orchestra Annual JBS Foundation Fund, please contact William Ann A. & Ben F. Johnson III° Keene at 404.733.4839 Stephen & Carolyn Knight or william.keene@ The Sartain Lanier atlantasymphony.org. Family Foundation

°We are grateful to these donors for taking the extra time to acquire matching gifts from their employers. *Deceased

64 | encore ASO | SUPPORT (cont.) $5,000+ A Friend of the Symphony Mr. & Mrs. Calvin R. Allen Judy & Dick Allison Dr. Evelyn R. Babey Lisa & Joe Bankoff Mr. Keith Barnett Asad Bashey Kelley O. & Neil H. Berman Natalie & Matthew Bernstein Jane & Gregory Blount Elaine & Jerome Blumenthal Mr. & Mrs. Philip P. Bolton Mrs. Sidney W. Boozer Margo Brinton & Eldon Park Mrs. Judith D. Bullock Karen & Rod Bunn Patricia & William Buss Mr. John T. Champion & Ms. Penelope Malone Ms. Tracey Chu Mark Coan & Family Dr. & Mrs. Richard W. Compans Ralph & Rita Connell William & Patricia Cook Carol Comstock & Jim Davis Donald & Barbara Defoe° Mr. & Mrs. Paul H. Dimmick Dorsey Alston, Realtors Drew Eckl & Farnham, LLP in memory of Clayton Farnham Xavier Duralde & Mary Barrett Paulette Eastman & Becky Pryor Anderson∞ Dr. & Mrs. Carl D. Fackler Ellen & Howard Feinsand

Bruce W. & Avery C. Flower Mary & Charles Ginden Mr. & Mrs. Richard Goodsell∞ Melanie & Tucker Green Azira G. Hill CBH International, Inc Mr. Justin Im & Dr. Nakyoung Nam Mr. Baxter P. Jones & Dr. Jiong Yan Paul* & Rosthema Kastin Ms. Carrie L. Kirk Mr. & Mrs. Jason M. Kroh Dr. Fulton D. Lewis III & S. Neal Rhoney Peg & Jim Lowman Lubo Fund Dr. & Mrs. Ellis L. Malone Elvira Mannelly Mary Ruth McDonald The Fred & Sue McGehee Family Charitable Fund Mr. & Mrs. Arthur Mills IV Judge Jane Morrison Gretchen Nagy & Allan Sandlin Mr. Samir Nikocevic Bethani Oppenheimer Mrs. Kay Adams* & Mr. Ralph Paulk° Margaret H. Petersen The Hellen Ingram Plummer Charitable Foundation, Inc. Mr. Edward Potter & Ms. Regina Olchowski Ms. Eliza Quigley Leonard Reed° Mr. & Mrs. Joel F. Reeves Ms. Felicia Rives Betsy & Lee Robinson Ms. Frances A. Root John T. Ruff Ms. Katherine Scott Suzanne Shull Baker & Debby Smith Ms. Cynthia Smith

Doug Smith Hamilton & Mason Smith Mr. & Mrs. Peter Stathopoulos In memory of Elizabeth B. Stephens by Powell, Preston & Sally∞ Mr. & Mrs. Edward W. Stroetz, Jr. Ms. Kimberly Strong Dr. Nossi Taheri & Ms. Hope Vaziri Dede & Bob Thompson Ms. Cathy Toren Trapp Family Burton Trimble Chilton & Morgan* Varner Amy & Robert Vassey Mr. Robert Walt & Mr. Daniel J. Hess Drs. Jonne & Paul Walter Ruthie Watts Dr. Nanette K. Wenger David & Martha West Suzanne B. Wilner Mr. & Ms. Taylor Winn Mr. David J. Worley & Ms. Bernadette Drankoski Camille W. Yow

$3,500+ A Friend of the Symphony The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc. Mr. Herschel V. Beazley John Blatz Jacqueline A. & Joseph E. Brown, Jr. Mr. & Mrs. Dennis M. Chorba Dieter Elsner & Othene Munson Mr. & Mrs. Paul G. Farnham John & Martha Head Sarah & Harvey Hill°

Donald S. Orr & Marcia K. Knight Mr. Charles R. Kowal Isabel Lamy Lee Deborah & William Liss° Belinda & Gino Massafra Martha & Reynolds McClatchey Ed & Linda McGinn° Michael & Carol Murphy Gary R. Noble, MD Dr. & Mrs. John P. Pooler Ms. Kathy Powell S.A. Robinson Ms. Martha Solano Tom & Ani Steele Dale L. Thompson Alan & Marcia Watt

$2,000+ A Friend of the Symphony 2492 Fund Dr. & Mrs. Marshall Abes Mr. & Mrs. Ivan Allen IV Mr. & Mrs. Walker Anderson The Hisham & Nawal Araim Family Foundation Ross & Yum Arnold Mrs. Juanita Baranco Anthony Barbagallo & Kristen Fowks Mr. Julian Bene & Dr. Amy Lederberg Susan & Jack Bertram Shirley Blaine Leon & Joy Borchers Mr. & Mrs. Andrew J. Bower° Carol Brantley & David Webster Martha S. Brewer Harriet Evans Brock Dr. & Mrs. Anton J. Bueschen Dr. Aubrey Bush & Dr. Carol Bush Mr. & Mrs. Walter K. Canipe

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Mr. & Mrs. Charles Cape Julie & Jerry Chautin James Cobb Susan S. Cofer Malcolm & Ann Cole Mr. & Mrs. R. Barksdale Collins° Mr. Thomas J. Collins & Mr. Jeff Holmes Ned Cone & Nadeen Green Jean & Jerry Cooper Janet & John Costello R. Carter & Marjorie A. Crittenden Foundation The Dancu Foundation, Inc. Mr. Jeffrey M. Daniel & Mr. Michael M. Arens Dr. & Mrs. F. Thomas Daly, Jr. Greg & Debra Durden Mr. & Mrs. Robert G. Edge Mr. Ramsey Fahs Ken Felts & A. Richard Bunn Mr. & Mrs. William A. Flinn Dr. Karen A. Foster Mr. Nathan Gaby Mr. & Mrs. Sebastien Galtier Raj & Jyoti Gandhi Family Foundation Mr. & Mrs. Edward T.M. Garland Marty & John Gillin° Mrs. Janet D. Goldstein Mary C. Gramling Richard & Debbie Griffiths Mr. & Mrs. George Gunderson Phil & Lisa Hartley Mr. & Mrs. Marc S. Heilweil Mr. & Mrs. John Hellriegel Liz Hendrick Mr. Kenneth & Ms. Colleen Hey

Laurie House Hopkins & John D. Hopkins James & Bridget Horgan° Mrs. Sally Horntvedt Dr. Michael D. Horowitz° Dona & Bill Humphreys Barbara M. Hund The Hyman Foundation Mary & Wayne James Nancy & John Janet Ms. Rebecca Jarvis Aaron & Joyce Johnson Mrs. Gail Johnson Mr. W. F. & Dr. Janice Johnston Cecile M. Jones Mr. & Mrs. David T. Jones Lana M. Jordan William L. & Sally S. Jorden Teresa M. Joyce, Ph.D Mr. & Ms. James Kieffer David & Jill Krischer Wolfgang* & Mariana Laufer Mr. & Mrs. Theodore J. Lavallee, Sr. Lillian Balentine Law Olivia A. M. Leon Elizabeth J. Levine Mr. & Mrs. J. David Lifsey Eunice Luke Dr. & Mrs. David H. Mason In Memory of Pam McAllister Mr. & Mrs. James McClatchey

Mr. & Mrs. Robert McDuffie Albert S. McGhee* Dr. Larry V. McIntire Birgit & David McQueen Anna & Hays Mershon Mr. & Mrs. Thomas B. Mimms, Jr. Berthe & Shapour Mobasser Laura & Craig Mullins Janice & Tom Munsterman∞ Melanie & Allan Nelkin John C. & Agnes V. Nelson Mr. & Mrs. Edmund F. Pearce , Jr.° The Piedmont National Family Foundation Mrs. Susanne Pinkerton In Memory of Dr. Frank S. Pittman III Mary Kay & Gene Poland° John H. Rains Dr. Susan Reef Dr. & Mrs. Rein Saral Mrs. Susan H. Reinach Sharon & David Schachter° Dr. Bess T. Schoen Drs. Lawrence & Rachel Schonberger Mr. Jim Schroder Ms. Donna Schwartz Sam Schwartz & Dr. Lynn Goldowski

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Mr. & Mrs. S. Albert Sherrod° Nick & Annie Shreiber Helga Hazelrig Siegel Gerald & Nancy Silverboard Diana Silverman Johannah Smith Mr. & Mrs. Raymond F. Stainback, Jr. Dr. & Mrs. Gerald M. Stapleton Richard M. Stormont Dr. & Mrs. John P. Straetmans Beth & Edward Sugarman Kay & Alex* Summers Lara C. Tumeh° Ms. Linda F. Terry Carolyn C. Thorsen ∞ Wayne & Lee Harper Vason Ms. Juliana T. Vincenzino Vogel Family Foundation Mr. & Mrs. Robert L. Welch Ron & Susan Whitaker Thomas E. Whitesides, Jr. M.D. Russell F. Winch Mrs. Lynne M. Winship Ms. Sonia Witkowski Mr. & Mrs. M. Beattie Wood Zaban Foundation, Inc. Herbert* & Grace Zwerner

Patron Partnership and Appassionato Leadership 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: Linda Matthews chair

Kristi Allpere

Helga Beam Bill Buss Pat Buss Deedee Hamburger Judy Hellriegel Kristen Fowks

Nancy Janet Belinda Massafra Sally Parsonson June Scott Milt Shlapak Sheila Tschinkel

Jonne Walter Marcia Watt

°We are grateful to these donors for taking the extra time to acquire matching gifts from their employers. *Deceased

66 | encore H E N RY S O P K I N CIRCLE

Jill* & Jennings* Hertz Mr. Albert L. Hibbard Richard E. Hodges Named for the Atlanta Symphony Mr.* & Mrs. Charles K. Holmes, Jr. Orchestra’s founding Music Mr.* & Mrs.* Director, the HENRY SOPKIN CIRCLE Fred A. Hoyt, Jr. Jim* & Barbara Hund celebrates cherished individuals and Clayton F. Jackson families who have made a planned gift Mary B. James to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Calvert Johnson & Mr. Kenneth Dutter These special donors preserve deForest F. Jurkiewicz* the Orchestra’s foundation and Herb* & Hazel Karp ensure success for future Anne Morgan & generations. Jim Kelley Bob Kinsey James W.* & Mary Ellen* A Friend of the Bob* & Verdery* Kitchell Symphony (22) Cunningham Paul Kniepkamp, Jr. Madeline* & Howell E. John R. Donnell Miss Florence Kopleff* Adams, Jr. Dixon W. Driggs* Mr. Robert Lamy Mr.* & Mrs.* Pamela Johnson Drummond James H. Landon John E. Aderhold Mrs. Kathryn E. Duggleby Ouida Hayes Lanier Mr. & Mrs. Catherine Warren Dukehart* Lucy Russell Lee* & Ronald R. Antinori Ms. Diane Durgin Gary Lee, Jr. Dr. & Mrs. William Bauer Mr. Richard H. Delay & Dr. Ione & John Lee Helga Beam Francine D. Dykes Mr. Larry M. LeMaster Mr. Charles D. Belcher* Arnold & Sylvia Eaves Mr.* & Mrs.* Neil H. Berman Mr. & Mrs. William C. Lester Susan & Jack Bertram Robert G. Edge Liz & Jay* Levine Mr.* & Mrs.* Geoffrey G. Eichholz* Robert M. Lewis, Jr. Karl A. Bevins Elizabeth Etoll Carroll & Ruth Liller The Estate of Donald S. & Mr. Doyle Faler Ms. Joanne Lincoln* Joyce Bickers Brien P. Faucett Jane Little* Ms. Page Bishop Dr. Emile T. Fisher* Mrs. J. Erskine Love, Jr.* Mr.* & Mrs. Sol Blaine Moniqua N Fladger Nell Galt & Will D. Magruder Rita & Herschel Bloom Mr. & Mrs. Bruce W. Flower K Maier The Estate of Mrs. A. D. Frazier, Jr. Gilbert H. Boggs, Jr. John W. Markham* Nola Frink W. Moses Bond Mrs. Ann B. Martin Betty & Drew* Fuller Mr.* & Mrs. Linda & John Matthews Sally & Carl Gable Robert C. Boozer Mr. Michael A. William & Carolyn Gaik Elinor A. Breman* McDowell, Jr. Dr. John W. Gamwell* James C. Buggs* Dr. Michael S. McGarry Mr.* & Mrs.* Mr. & Mrs.* Richard & Shirley McGinnis L.L. Gellerstedt, Jr. Richard H. Burgin John & Clodagh Miller Ruth Gershon & Hugh W. Burke* Ms. Vera Milner Sandy Cohn Mr. & Mrs. William Buss Mrs. Gene Morse* Micheline & Bob Gerson Wilber W. Caldwell Ms. Janice Murphy* Max Gilstrap Mr. & Mrs. C. Merrell Calhoun Mr. & Mrs. Mr. & Mrs. John T. Glover Cynthia & Donald Carson Stephen L. Naman Mrs. David Goldwasser Mrs. Jane Celler* Mr. & Mrs. Bertil D. Nordin Robert Hall Gunn, Jr. Fund Lenore Cicchese* Mrs. Amy W. Norman* Billie & Sig Guthman Margie & Pierce Cline Galen Oelkers Betty G.* & Dr. & Mrs. Grady S. Roger B. Orloff Joseph* F. Haas Clinkscales, Jr. Barbara D. Orloff James & Virginia Hale Robert Boston Colgin Dr. Bernard* & Ms. Alice Ann Hamilton Mrs. Mary Frances Sandra Palay Dr. Charles H. Hamilton* Evans Comstock* Sally & Pete Parsonson Sally & Paul* Hawkins Miriam* & John A.* Conant James L. Paulk John & Martha Head Dr. John W. Cooledge Ralph & Kay* Paulk Ms. Jeannie Hearn* Mr. & Mrs. William R. Dan R. Payne Barbara & John Henigbaum Cummickel Bill Perkins

Mrs. Lela May Perry* Mr.* & Mrs. Rezin E. Pidgeon, Jr. Janet M. Pierce* Reverend Neal P. Ponder, Jr. William L.* & Lucia Fairlie* Pulgram Ms. Judy L. Reed* Carl J. Reith* Mr. Philip A. Rhodes Vicki J. & Joe A. Riedel Helen & John Rieser Dr. Shirley E. Rivers* David F. & Maxine A.* Rock Tiffany & Richard Rosetti Mr.* & Mrs.* Martin H. Sauser Mr. Paul S. Scharff & Ms. Polly G. Fraser Dr. Barbara S. Schlefman Bill & Rachel Schultz Mrs. Joan C. Schweitzer June & John Scott Edward G. Scruggs* Dr. & Mrs. George P. Sessions Mr. W. G. Shaefer, Jr. Charles H. Siegel* Mr. & Mrs. H. Hamilton Smith Mrs. Lessie B. Smithgall* Ms. Margo Sommers Elliott Sopkin Elizabeth Morgan Spiegel Mr. Daniel D. Stanley Gail & Loren Starr Peter James Stelling* Ms. Barbara Stewart C. Mack* & Mary Rose* Taylor Jennings Thompson IV Margaret* & Randolph* Thrower Kenneth & Kathleen Tice Mr. H. Burton Trimble, Jr. Mr. Steven R. Tunnell Mr. & Mrs. John B. Uttenhove Mary E. Van Valkenburgh Mrs. Anise C. Wallace Mr. Robert Wardle, Jr. Mr. & Mrs. John B. White, Jr. Adair & Dick White Mr. Hubert H. Whitlow, Jr.* Sue & Neil* Williams Mrs. Frank L. Wilson, Jr. Mrs. Elin M. Winn Ms. Joni Winston George & Camille Wright Mr.* & Mrs.* Charles R. Yates *Deceased

Freddie Trembath: Her planned gift helped the ASO keep playing during the pandemic

MARY “FREDDIE” TREMBATH died on August 7, 2019, leaving a substantial bequest to the ASO. Freddie grew up in Cleveland, OH, the daughter of an Army bandleader, and became a gifted musician, substituting as a flutist in the Cleveland Orchestra during her youth and in playing with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra when she was working at Fort Benning. And though she ultimately pursued a civil service career, her passion for music was a big part of her entire life. She soon arrived in Atlanta, where she worked for the IRS in a variety of management positions. A devoted member of Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church, she sang in the Chancel Choir for 33 years, including several times when the choir joined the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus to sing under Robert Shaw. She loved the ASO and came regularly to concerts. Freddie lived simply and frugally and was a prodigious saver, putting her tax and business savvy to use with her investments. Her six-figure bequest to the ASO was one of the factors in the Orchestra’s ability to continue playing during the pandemic and to position itself for a bold new era with Nathalie Stutzmann as Music Director, a development that would have meant much to Freddie, a pioneering woman in her own field. One of Freddie’s favorite quotes is from Goethe: “A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.”

Become a member of the Henry Sopkin Circle by making a Planned Gift to the Orchestra. Contact:

Jimmy Paulk, Senior Annual Giving Officer james.paulk@ atlantasymphony.org 404.733.4485

68 | encore CAN’T ATTEND A CONCERT? You may exchange your tickets by 4pm the day prior to the performance. Tickets may also be donated by calling 404.733.5000.

GROUP DISCOUNTS Groups of 10 or more save up to 15 percent on most Delta Classical concerts, subject to ticket availability. Call 404.733.4848.

WOODRUFF ARTS CENTER BOX OFFICE The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Box Office is open two hours prior to a performance time and closes at the end of intermission. If a performance has no intermission, the Box Office will close 30 minutes after the performance start time. Call 404.733.5000 ext. 3 M – F: 9am-5pm Visit aso.org to order anytime. Please note: All artists and programs are subject to change

GIFT CERTIFICATES Available in any amount for any concert, through the box office. Call 404.733.5000. DONATE Donations to the ASO allow us to broaden our audiences locally and globally, reach greater artistic heights, and transform lives through the power of our music. To make a gift, please call 404.733.5079 or visit aso.org/give.

ASO | GENERAL INFO LATE SEATING Patrons arriving late will be seated at an appropriate interval in the concert program, determined by the House Manager. Reserved seats are not guaranteed after the performance starts. Late comers may be seated in the back, out of courtesy to the musicians and other patrons.

IMPORTANT PHONE NUMBERS

SPECIAL ASSISTANCE All programs of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra are accessible to people with disabilities. Please call the box office to make advance arrangements: 404.733.5000.

Atlanta Symphony Associates (Volunteers) 404.733.4485

THE ROBERT SHAW ROOM ASO donors who give $2,500 or more annually gain special access to this private dining room. For more information, please call 404.733.4683.

The Woodruff Arts Center Box Office 404.733.5000 Ticket Donations/ Exchanges

404.733.5000

Subscription Information/ Sales 404.733.4800 Group Sales

404.733.5169

Educational Programs

404.733.4633

Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra

404.733.5096

Lost and Found

404.733.5239

Donations & Development 404.733.5079

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

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ASO | STAFF EXECUTIVE

Elizabeth Graiser

Jennifer Barlament

manager of

executive director

Alvinetta Cooksey executive & finance assistant

Elise Kolle executive assistant to senior management

ARTISTIC Evans Mirageas artistic advisor

Jeffrey Baxter choral administrator

RaSheed Lemon artist liaison

Carol Wyatt executive assistant to the co-artistic advisors

EDUCATION & COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT Sarah Grant director of education

Elena Gagon education coordinator

SALES & REVENUE MANAGEMENT

FINANCE & ADMINISTRATION

Hsing-I Ho

Russell Wheeler vice president, sales &

Susan Ambo

assistant orchestra

revenue management

& vice president,

personnel manager

Anna Caldwell

business operations

operations

& asyo

Victoria Moore director of orchestra personnel

Jesse Pace

manager

Leah Branstetter director of digital content

Caitlin Buckers

marketing manager, live

Elizabeth Daniell associate director of communications

Lisa Eng multimedia creative

talent development

Adam Fenton director of multimedia

OPERATIONS

technology

Sameed Afghani vice president &

Mia Jones-Walker

general manager

Rob Phipps

Paul Barrett senior production

director of publications

marketing manager

Bob Scarr archivist & research

Tyler Benware

coordinator

director of orchestra

Will Strawn

operations

& asyo

senior director of

director of sales

Tammy Hawk vice president, marketing & communications

manager, live

stage manager

Kimberly Hielsberg

Erin Jones Milo McGhee

Ryan Walks program manager

guest services associate

MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS

Delle Beganie content & production

associate director of

Richard Carvlin

marketing, live

stage manager

Madisyn Willis

chief financial officer

guest services associate

manager of patron experience

& season

tickets

Dennis Quinlan data analyst

Robin Smith patron services

& season

financial planning

Brandi Hoyos

director of diversity, equity

& inclusion

April Satterfield controller

DEVELOPMENT Grace Sipusic vice president, development

ticket associate

Renee Contreras

Jake Van Valkenburg

associate director

sales coordinator

Lindsay Walker director of audience experience

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

Christine Lawrence associate director of guest services

Dan Nesspor ticketing manager

Joshua Reynolds event manager

Michael Tamucci event coordinator

analysis

of development communications

William Keene director of annual giving

Catherine MacGregor assistant manager of donor engagement

Dana Parness individual giving coordinator

James Paulk annual giving officer

Cheri Snyder senior director of development

Sarah Wilson development operations associate

marketing manager

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

70 | encore ASO | CORPORATE & GOVERNMENT SUPPORT

This program is supported in part by the City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs.

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

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

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

encoreatlanta.com

THE WOODRUFF CIRCLE

| 71

Woodruff Circle members have contributed more than $250,000 annually to support the arts and education work of the Alliance Theatre, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and High Museum of Art. We are deeply grateful to these partners who lead our efforts to help create opportunities for enhanced access to the work.

$1MILLION+

A Friend of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

$500,000+ A Friend of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra A Friend of the Woodruff Arts Center Bank of America The John W. and Rosemary K. Brown Family Foundation Chick-fil-A Foundation | Rhonda & Dan Cathy The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta Georgia Power Foundation, Inc. The Douglas J. Hertz Family The Home Depot Foundation Sarah and Jim Kennedy SunTrust Trusteed Foundations: Walter H. and Marjory M. Rich Memorial Fund Thomas Guy Woolford Charitable Trust

$250,000+ A Friend of the Woodruff Arts Center Farideh & Al Azadi Foundation The Molly Blank Fund Helen Gurley Brown Foundation Cathy Cousins Foundation The Estate of Catherine Warren Dukehart The Estate of Dr. John W. Gamwell The Goizueta Foundation Estate of Burton M. Gold Mr. and Mrs. James S. Grien Invesco The Marcus Foundation, Inc. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation PNC The Rich Foundation, Inc. UPS WarnerMedia and AT&T Foundation The Zeist Foundation, Inc.

72 | encore THE BENEFACTOR CIRCLE Benefactor Circle members have contributed more than $100,000 annually to support the arts and education work of the Alliance Theatre, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and High Museum of Art. We are deeply grateful to these partners who lead our efforts to help create opportunities for enhanced access to the work.

$100,000+ 1180 Peachtree Alston & Bird American Academy of Arts and Letters The Antinori Foundation Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles Atlantic Station The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation The John W. and Rosemary K. Brown Family Foundation The Estate of Mr. Hugh W. Burke Thalia and Michael C. Carlos Advised Fund City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs Eversheds Sutherland Forward Arts Foundation The Fraser-Parker Foundation Georgia Natural Gas Georgia-Pacific Louise S. Sams and Jerome Grilhot The Halle Foundation The Imlay Foundation, Inc. Institute of Museum & Library Services Jones Day Foundation & Employees

Kaiser Permanente King & Spalding , Partners & Employees Knobloch Family Foundation The Charles Loridans Foundation, Inc. The Henry Luce Foundation, Inc. Morris Manning & Martin LLP National Endowment for the Arts Amy W. Norman Charitable Foundation Northside Hospital Novelis Victoria & Howard Palefsky Patty and Doug Reid The Sartain Lanier Family Foundation The Shubert Foundation Carol & Ramon Tomé Family Fund Triad Foundation The Estate of Mrs. Mary F. Trembath Wells Fargo Rod Westmoreland WestRock Company wish Foundation The David, Helen & Marian Woodward Fund

encoreatlanta.com

| C3

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