Charleston Symphony's BRAVO! 2021-2022 Program (Volume 2)

BRAVO! 2021-2022 Program

Volume 2

WHAT'S INSIDE CONCERTS Masterworks 33

Hart of Tchaikovsky

44

Chopin's Masterpiece

50

Stravinksy's Petrushka

62

Beethoven's 9th (An Ode to Joy)

4 6 8 11 12 13 14 16 17

House Notes Musicians Musician Roster Guest Musician Sponsors Administration Board of Directors Charleston Symphony Inclusion Fellowship Program Letter from the Executive Director Letter from the Orchestra

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Pops 38

The Great American Songbook

56

Dreaming of April in Paris

Chamber 42

Dvořák’s Piano Quintet

60

Mozart's Masterpiece

18 19 20 22 28 75 76 78 80

About the Music Director Principal Pops Conductor CSO Chorus The CSOL Education Membership Benefits Donor Recognition In Honor / In Memory Guest Musician Hosts / In-Kind Gifts

INSPIRE

IN A WORD, WE BELIEVE IN THE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF THE ARTS.

Perhaps the most meaningful thing you can do with success is share it, giving back to worthy causes and being a patron to the people who inspire you.

A FA M I LY W E A LT H M A N A G E M E N T G R O U P I N C H A R L E S T O N S I N C E 1 9 9 3

360 Concord Street, Suite 210 // Charleston, SC 29401 843.720.3500 // 866.384.9891 // lynchcracraftwealth.com Raymond James & Associates, Inc., member New York Stock Exchange/SIPC 20-BR3KP-0126 TA 7/20

HOUSE NOTES Welcome and thank you for attending this performance of the Charleston Symphony! Here are some tips and suggestions to enhance the concert experience for everyone.

TICKET INFORMATION INDIVIDUAL CONCERT TICKETS www.CharlestonSymphony.org

FOR YOUR COMFORT, CONVIENENCE & SAFETY

In Person: Gaillard Center Ticket Office: Monday through Friday, 11am to 6pm and beginning two hours prior to a performance.

Parking: Two paid parking garages are located near the Gaillard Center: the Gaillard Parking Garage (flat $5 fee) adjacent to the hall and the parking garage located at the end of Calhoun Street near the South Carolina Aquarium.

Will Call closes 30 minutes after performance begins.

The Cumberland Street Parking Garage is near the Dock Street Theatre.

By Phone: Charleston Symphony…............(843) 723-7528 Gaillard Center Ticket Office..(843) 242-3099

Accessibility: To purchase wheelchair-accessible tickets, please call Patron Services at (843) 723-7528.

FOR THE ENJOYMENT OF ALL Electronic Devices: Please refrain from using personal electronic devices during the performances.

Late Seating: In consideration of both artists and audiences, latecomers will be seated at the discretion of the staff. Doors open one hour before the beginning of concerts and Will Call closes 30 minutes after the concert starts.

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Restrooms: All restrooms in the Gaillard Center are handicap accessible. Restrooms are available on all levels, with the exception of the Dress Circle.

HOUSE NOTES FOR YOUR SAFETY

IMPORTANT INFO

In the event of an emergency, please use the exit nearest your seat. This is your shortest route out of the hall.

Charleston Symphony staff members are onsite at all performances.

CHARLESTON SYMPHONY PATRON SERVICES (843) 723-7528

PLEASE HELP US RECYCLE

WEBSITE www.CharlestonSymphony.org

Please keep your program guide if you wish. We also encourage patrons to place your program guide in the recycle baskets outside the entrances to the hall as you leave this performance for use at future performances.

CHARLESTON SYMPHONY E-NEWS Receive the latest news, information, and special pricing opportunities by signing up for the CSO’s e-news at www.

CharlestonSymphony.org.

Concerts, performers, dates, times, and locations are subject to change.

SOCIAL MEDIA Facebook: www.facebook.com/ CharlestonSymphony

Your attendance constitutes consent for use of your likeness and/or voice on all video and/or audio recordings and in photographs made during Charleston Symphony events.

ADDRESS Mail: PO Box 30818 Charleston, SC 29417

Instagram: CharlestonSymphonyOrchestra Twitter: @ChsSymphony YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/ ChasSymphony Use hashtag #CharlestonSymphony throughout the season!

CharlestonSymphony.org 5

MUSICIANS CONDUCTORS

Ken Lam

Yuriy Bekker

Kellen Gray

Sponsored by Herzman-Fishman Charitable Fund and Carol H. Fishman

Sponsored by Valerie Luther

Sponsored by John and Betsy Cahill

Music Director

Principal Pops Conductor

Associate Conductor

CORE MUSICIANS

Yuriy Bekker

Micah Gangwer

Co-sponsored by Mrs. Andrea Volpe & Gerald and Gretchen Tanenbaum

Sponsored by Dr. James and Claire Allen

Concertmaster

Assistant Concertmaster

Asako Kremer

Assistant Principal Second Violin

Sponsored by Dr. and Mrs. Mariano La Via

Alexander Boissonault Violin

Sponsored by Albert and Caroline Thibault

Jan-Marie Joyce

Alexander Agrest

Norbert Lewandowski Damian Kremer

Sponsored by Ted and Joan Halkyard

Sponsorship Available

Sponsored by The Gray Foundation Principal Cello Chair permanently endowed by the CSOL®

Principal Viola

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Assistant Principal Viola

Principal Cello

Assistant Principal Cello Sponsored by Barbara Chapman

Coming Soon!

Auditioning Spring 2022 Antonio Marti

Brandon Nichols

Anne Holmi

Sponsored by William and Corinne Khouri

Sponsored by Cindy and George Hartley

Sponsored by Ted and Tricia Legasey

Principal Bass

Principal Trumpet

Sponsored in honor of Helen Faress Savard

Principal Horn

Second Horn

Christopher Lindgren Thomas Joyce

Beth Albert

Ryan Leveille

Sponsored by Dr. Cynthia Cleland Austin

Permantly endowed by Dr. S. Dwane Thomas

Sponsored by Anne P. Olsen

Principal Trombone

Bass Trombone

Sponsored by Jim and Susan Sullivan

Principal Timpani

Principal Percussion

Jessica Hull-Dambaugh Regina Helcher Yost

Zachary Hammond

Kari Kistler

Sponsored by Roger and Vivian Steel

Sponsored by Dr. Miriam DeAntonio

Sponsored in loving memory of John Frampton Maybank

Principal Flute

Second Flute & Piccolo

Sponsored by Paul and Becky Hilstad

Principal Oboe

Second Oboe & English Horn

Coming Soon!

Charles Messersmith

Gretchen Roper

Auditioning Spring 2022 Katherine St. John

Sponsored by Ilse Calcagno

Sponsored by Ann and Henry Fralix

Sponsored by Dr. and Mrs. William T. Creasman

Principal Clarinet

Second Clarinet

Principal Bassoon

Second Bassoon

Sponsored by Rajan and Suman Govindan

CharlestonSymphony.org 7

MUSICIAN ROSTER VIOLIN

Yuriy Bekker* Alexander Boissonnault* Micah Gangwer* Asako Kremer* Karel Abo Kathleen Beard Corine Brouwer Lydia Chernicoff David Edwards Andrew Emmett Shannon Fitzhenry Seth Gangwer Martha Gardner Catherine Hazan Frances Hsieh Alice Hong Tomas Jakubek Ha-Young Kim Nelly Kim Rudy Kremer Mary Ann Mumm Mayumi Nakamura Liviu Onofrei Anastasia Petrunina Jason Posnock Nina Sandberg Stephanie Silvestri Ari Streisfeld Marius Tabacila Mary Taylor Jenny Weiss Shr-Han Wu Christian Zamora

VIOLA

Jan-Marie Joyce* Alex Agrest* Jacob Adams Rebecca Boelzner Rachel Gangwer Stephen Goist Jenny Kozoroz Lynn Laplante Melissa Melendez Craig Mumm Sadie Nichols Michael Resetar Emily Schaad Daniel Sweaney Eve Tang Benjamin Weiss

CELLO

Norbert Lewandowski* Damian Kremer* Ryan Donohue Christopher Glansdorp Hilary Glen Charae Krueger Jon Lewis Johnny Mok Daniel Mumm Daniel Pereira Dan Shomper Claire Solomon Samuel Swift Cameron Williams

BASS

Nick Adams Judson Baines Benjamin DeKock Grey Fulmer Taddes Korris Jan Mixter Roman Pekar James Peterson Mary Reed

FLUTE/PICCOLO

Jessica Hull-Dambaugh* Regina Yost* Tacy Edwards Dilshad Posnock

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OBOE

TROMBONE

ENGLISH HORN

BASS TROMBONE

CLARINET

TUBA

Zac Hammond* Kari Kistler* Jessica Miller Sasha Shatalov Prior Kari Kistler*

Charles Messersmith* Gretchen Roper* Anastasia Christofakis Daniel Goldman Christian Schubert Sam Sparrow Andrew Warwick

BASSOON

Katherine St.John* Jake Thonis

CONTRABASSOON Helena Spencer

SAXOPHONE

Jonathan Kammer Mark Sterbank

HORN

Brandon Nichols* Anne Holmi* Michael Daly Vincent Kiray Chris Komer Alex Lane Grace Salyards Tanner West Kenneth Turner

TRUMPET

Antonio Marti* James Ackley Alexander Freund Timothy Hudson Steve Leisring Andrew Lott Philip Smith

Chris Lindgren* Lisa Albrecht Ben Dickinson Steven Osborne Thomas Joyce*

Justin Clarkson Jarrett McCourt

TIMPANI

Beth Albert*

PERCUSSION

Ryan Leveille* Robert Burrows Jeffrey Handel Dan Morris Denis Petrunin

HARP

Abigail Kent Andrea Mumm

KEYBOARD

Chee Hang See Ghadi Shayban *Core Musician

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WE NEED YOU!

Bring the Charleston Symphony into your home – LITERALLY! The CSO is looking for generous hosts to provide rooms for our visiting guest musicians.

Get to know some of the wonderful musicians that come to Charleston to bring you great music. Host only when it is convenient for you. The CSO brings nearly 150 guest musicians to the stage throughout the season. All you need to provide is a private bedroom and a love of music!

“They arrived as guests and left as friends.”

- CSO Host

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GUEST MUSICIAN SPONSORS Flute

Available x2

Percussion

Available

Clarinet

Available

Piano

Mr. David Savard

Oboe

Ms. Katherine M. Huger

Violin

Michael and Barbara Moody

Available

Tracy and Billy Grooms

Bassoon

Available

Available

Horn

Ike and Betsy Smith

Viola

Available

Trumpet

Macdonald Carew Family Fund

Ann and Lee Higdon Available

Cello

Sue and Ken Ingram

Available

Elizabeth Rivers Lewine

Trombone

Available

Available x3

Tuba Harp

Jon Olson and Anne Regan

Available

Bass

Frank and Kathy Cassidy Dr. and Mrs. Fritz Lorscheider

Available

We hope you will consider joining the many CSO hosts who already love the experience of having guest musicians in their homes.

For more information on this program, please contact: Tom Joyce, Personnel Manager & Bass Trombone personnel@charlestonsymphony.org • 843-469-4274 (mobile) Or sign up now at charlestonsymphony.wufoo.com/forms/cso-housing-survey

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ADMINISTRATION Executive Director Michael A. Smith

PATRON SERVICES

OPERATIONS

EDUCATION

General Manager Kyle Lane

Director of Education and Community Engagement Mitsuko Flynn

Director of Patron Services Cindy Branch

Personnel Manager Tom Joyce

DEVELOPMENT & MARKETING

Principal Librarian Rachel Gangwer

Director of Development and Marketing Alana Morrall Development and Marketing Manager Simms Oliphant

CHARLESTON SYMPHONY INCLUSION FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM Internal Relations Fellow Camryn Snell External Relations Fellow Jailan Williams

Assisting clients with their real estate needs throughout Charleston for over 18 years.

Angela Black Drake 843.991.0337 angela.drake@direalestate.com Angela Black Drake | License #3186

43 Broad Street , Suite 203 | Charleston, SC 29401 | DIrealestate.com

2021-2022 BOARD OF DIRECTORS EXCUTIVE COMMITTEE

President: Michael Moody – Chairman and CEO, Force Protection, Inc. (Retired) Treasurer: Tracy Grooms – Independent Board Director and Children’s Advocate Vice President, Development: Cynthia Mabry – Charleston Symphony Advocate Vice President, Nominating & Governance: Wendi Huff – Vice President of Programs & Clinical Care, Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America Vice President, Artistic: Jerry Hudson Evans – Partner Attorney, Richardson, Patrick, Westbrook & Brickman, LLC Secretary: Susan Sullivan – President, Wright Communications, Inc. (Retired) Edward Hart – Dean, School of the Arts, College of Charleston Lenna Macdonald – Chairman/CAO, MedTrust Holdings, Inc. Robert Siedell – President, Japan and Australia/New Zealand Region Head, American Express International, Inc. (Retired) Alex Boissonnault – Violin, Charleston Symphony Orchestra Carol Cronk – Co-President of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra League, Inc.

DIRECTORS

Dr. Bobby Baker – President, Baker Investments Taylor Charpia — Realtor, Taylor Charpia Real Estate and Community Advocate Carol H. Fishman – Attorney (Retired) and Community Volunteer Rajan Govindan – Community Volunteer, Management Consultant and Financial Services Executive (Retired) Clyde Hiers – Partner Emeritus, Daniel Island CPAs Natalie Ham – General Counsel for Charleston County School District Lee Higdon – President of Connecticut College (Retired) Patrick C. Ilderton – Ilderton Contractors LLC Elizabeth Rivers Lewine – Community Advocate Kay Maybank – Community Advocate Jon W. Olson – Sr. Vice President & General Counsel, Blackbaud, Inc. Jodi Rush – Management Consultant (Retired), Arts Advocate, Community Volunteer David Savard (Deputy Chair, Development) – Charleston Symphony, Charleston Symphony Orchestra League, Inc., and Artistic Community Advocate, Eaton Corporation (Retired) Gerald Tanenbaum – Charleston Symphony Orchestra Advocate; Partner, New York Law Firm (Retired)

VOTING EX-OFFICIO MEMBER

Carol Cronk – Co-President of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra League, Inc.

NON-VOTING EX-OFFICIO MEMBER

Andrew Hsu – President, College of Charleston Kyle Lahm – Cultural Arts Director, City of North Charleston Mark Lazzaro – President, Charleston Symphony Orchestra Chorus Jennifer Luiken – Professor of Voice, Charleston Southern University Lyn Magee – Past President, Charleston Symphony Orchestra League Mike Whack ¬ Special Assistant to the Mayor, City of Charleston

LIFE MEMBERS James Allen Ted Halkyard Max Hill, Jr.

Ted Legasey Marianne Mead Eloise Pingry

HONORARY TRUSTEE Ellen Dressler-Moryl

CharlestonSymphony.org 13

CHARLESTON SYMPHONY INCLUSION FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM

INTRODUCING: THE CHARLESTON SYMPHONY INCLUSION FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM The CSO is excited to announce the launch of a new program designed to offer immersive personal and professional development for future nonprofit arts leaders from backgrounds traditionally underrepresented in the field of classical music. The Charleston Symphony is committed to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the arts, and strives to provide culturally meaningful and relevant programming for audiences of all backgrounds. In partnership with the College of Charleston’s (CofC) School of the Arts, the year-long fellowship offers salaried compensation for two Executive Fellows. Meet our inaugural cohort to the right!

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CHARLESTON SYMPHONY INCLUSION FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM Camryn Snell, Internal Relations Fellow

C

amryn Snell is immensely proud to originate the role of Internal Inclusion Fellow at the CSO. Born in Columbia, South Carolina, Camryn was introduced to the arts at the age of 2 through ballet. Quickly, she became enamored of various arts forms, and they have played a key role in developing who Camryn is today.

Advocacy, a core value of hers, also plays a key role in developing who she is today and has been the impetus of Camryn’s life and career thus far. Furthermore, it was the driving force behind Camryn’s choice to join the Charleston Symphony’s team. Prior to joining the CSO, Camryn attended the College of Charleston in pursuit of a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. There, she became impassioned by international relations, immigration studies, and public policy. Soon after graduation, Camryn re-joined the College of Charleston community by joining the Master of Public Administration program, pursuing a Master of Public Administration and a Graduate Certificate in Arts and Cultural Management. Camryn spent the last year in the Community Assistance Program under the tutelage of Marla Robertson where she engaged in projects aimed at advancing racial equity and increasing Black representation and visibility in Charleston.

Jailan Williams, External Relations Fellow

J

ailan Williams is an artist, producer, multi-instrumentalist, and podcaster from Florence, South Carolina. He currently serves as the Charleston Symphony Orchestra’s new Inclusion Fellow working in External Relations. He says part of his mission with CSO is to “assist in creating a more inclusive/ diverse environment in the world of classical music.” As an Inclusion Fellow, Jailan looks to gain the education, skills, experience, and professional development needed for him to succeed and further his career in music.

In May 2021, Jailan graduated from the College of Charleston, where he received his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Arts Management, with a concentration in the music industry and a Minor in Music. His future career plans include being a producer/musician full-time, he plays electric bass, trombone, and piano. Other plans include owning a recording studio and record label. Additionally, he is the co-founder and co-host of his podcast, JusMusic. Jailan has experience with music production as he co-produced his first single, “Losing Grip” available on all streaming platforms and has done production for several independent artists.

CharlestonSymphony.org 15

LETTER FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Michael Smith

I

am thrilled and humbled to welcome you to the Charleston Symphony’s 2021-2022 performance season. This year will commemorate 85 years serving our community through the transformative power of music, and we could not be here without your support.

We have so much to be proud of this year and so much to celebrate.

Despite the pandemic, the Charleston Symphony continued to vigorously pursue its mission on and off the stage, having committed early on to maintaining robust operations. We are one of a select group of orchestras around the United States to have presented a full season of orchestral performances to live audiences during COVID-19, including eight of nine Beethoven symphonies in recognition of his 250th birthday! I want to recognize our amazing partners, the Charleston Gaillard Center, and the Medical University of South Carolina, who helped make this possible. Additionally, we began making significant plans to address diversity, equity, and inclusion in our industry and our community. The early fruit of this planning has resulted in the launch of the inaugural cohort of the Charleston Symphony Inclusion Fellowship this in partnership with the College of Charleston.

This season is a celebration of the orchestra’s ability to bring our community together through music, despite the challenging times. Programs will feature larger orchestras, expansive repertoire, exciting soloists, and an enhanced Virtual Concert Hall. The eight-month celebration of music and community culminates with the Beethoven Symphony Cycle completion; the orchestra is excited to welcome back the CSO Chorus to perform Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, an Ode to Joy. 2021-2022 will also mark Ken Lam’s eighth and final season as Music Director of the Charleston Symphony and we hope you will join us in celebrating his time and impact with special events throughout the year As we boldly return to the stage this fall, our strategic focus will be dedicated to several important goals: growing the CSO family, developing a revitalized long range artistic plan, and launching a successful endowment campaign. I invite you to be part of these efforts during this extraordinary time for our organization. We need your help to continue advancing the mission of the Charleston Symphony and ensure the Symphony’s future.

I look forward to another season of uplifting music, new initiatives, and expanding the CSO family. I am grateful to our musicians for their phenomenal artistry and dedication, the staff for their diligent hard work behind the scenes, the board of directors, volunteers, CSOL for their generous support, and most of all, you. Thank you for being here with us today and as valuable member of the CSO family.

Please enjoy the performance!

Sincerely, Michael A. Smith Executive Director

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LETTER FROM THE ORCHESTRA Norbert Lewandowski

G

reetings and welcome. My name is Norbert Lewandowski, and I am proud to be the Principal Cellist of the Charleston Symphony. I know that I speak for every musician on stage in saying how grateful and honored we are to be performing for you this season – and to a full hall once again!

So much has happened over the last year and a half. The world we live in has changed. But one constant that has been with us throughout the pandemic is music. We were so fortunate to have been able to perform for you last season, especially as I saw my friends and colleagues in other orchestras and theater companies remain out of work. While we presented over 35 concerts to live audiences including our entire Masterworks and Pops series, the orchestra was scaled down significantly to follow Covid-19 regulations. We are excited to present an average of 70 musicians performing onstage this season, doubling our orchestra size from last year. We would like to express our gratitude to MUSC for facilitating safe performances last season and administering over 1,000 COVID-19 tests for staff and musicians prior to each concert.

No one is happier than the musicians of the Charleston Symphony to return to the Charleston Gaillard Center for a bold, diverse, and vibrant season. We thank all of you for the incredible community support as we navigated unprecedented challenges. I was amazed to learn that our Personnel Manager had received a call from the Boston Symphony with a request to share our COVID procedures. How impressive that a major orchestra with a budget more than 20 times our size was seeking guidance from us and wanted to know how we were presenting concerts safely. We were able to provide continued full employment for our entire staff and core musicians, as well as a quarter million dollars of wages to more than 120 guest musicians from across the country whose livelihoods were so decimated by the shutdowns and whose artistic contributions to the CSO's success are so critical.

Music is a universal language with the breathtaking power to bring communities together, bridge distances through shared emotional experiences, and provide a shelter for solace in tumultuous times. I am thrilled to the stage to play with my orchestra, the Charleston Symphony, following a season of immense dedication in the midst of uncertainty. I look forward to once again communicating the joy and healing that music continues to inspire in us as we all move forward together toward a brighter future.

We need you, our dedicated and valued patrons, to help us spread the word about the Charleston Symphony and bring new members of the community into this family. Will you invite a neighbor, friend, or colleague to an upcoming concert? Tell them how moved you were at a recent performance, how amazed you were by the artistry of a soloist or featured performer, or how the music affected your mood. We want the entire Charleston community to know about the great things happening here at the CSO and we can’t do that without your help! On behalf of the entire orchestra, we wish you and your loved ones a happy and healthy year ahead.

Norbert Lewandowski, Principal Cello

CharlestonSymphony.org 17

ABOUT THE MUSIC DIRECTOR Ken Lam

T

he 2021-2022 season celebrates Ken Lam’s 8th and finale year as Music Director of the Charleston Symphony. He has conducted throughout the US and Asia. In recent seasons, he led performances with the symphony orchestras of Cincinnati, Baltimore, Detroit, Buffalo, Hawaii, Memphis, Meridien, as well as Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Seongnam Philharmonic, Guiyang Symphony and the Taipei Symphony Orchestra, collaborating with many of the world’s leading artists including Leon Fleisher, Yo-Yo Ma, Stephen Hough, Sir James Galway, Ricky Skaggs, Neil Sedaka and Steep Canyon Rangers.

A keen supporter of living composers, Maestro Lam has commissioned several new works, notably an Oboe Concerto by the Greek composer Yiorgos Vassilandonakis (2019), a Charleston Concerto for string quartet and orchestra by Edward Hart (2020) and the tone poem Gate of Horn by Carl Schimmel (2019).

Winner of the 2011 Memphis Symphony Orchestra’s International Conducting Competition and a featured conductor in the League of American Orchestra’s 2009 Bruno Walter National Conductors Preview with the Nashville Symphony, Maestro Lam made his US professional debut with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in June 2008 as one of four conductors invited by Leonard Slatkin. Maestro Lam first came to Charleston in 2012, when he directed the opera Feng Yi Ting by Chinese composer Guo Wenjing at the Spoleto Festival.

Maestro Lam also holds the posts of Music Director of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra, Resident Conductor of the Brevard Music Center in North Carolina, Artistic Director of Hong Kong Voices and Conductor Laureate of the Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestras. Previous positions have included posts as Associate Conductor for Education of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Assistant Conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Principal Conductor of the Hong Kong Chamber Orchestra.

Maestro Lam studied conducting with Gustav Meier and Markand Thakar at Peabody Conservatory, David Zinman and Murry Sidlin at the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen and Leonard Slatkin at the National Conducting Institute. He read economics at St. John’s College, Cambridge University and was an attorney specializing in international finance for ten years before becoming a conductor.

Maestro Lam is the recipient of the 2015 Johns Hopkins University Global Achievement Award, given to alumni who exemplify the university’s tradition of excellence and who have brought credit to the university and their profession in the international arena through their professional achievements.

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ABOUT THE PRINCIPAL POPS CONDUCTOR Yuriy Bekker

Y

uriy Bekker, critically acclaimed violinist and conductor, has led the Charleston Symphony Orchestra as Concertmaster since 2007 and was named its Principal Pops Conductor in 2016.

Bekker served as the orchestra’s Acting Artistic Director from 2010-2014 and Director of Chamber Orchestra from 2014-2015, playing a major role in the orchestra’s successful resurgence.

Mr. Bekker is an adjunct faculty member of the College of Charleston School of the Arts as a violin professor and as conductor of the College of Charleston Orchestra. He is Music Director of the Piccolo Spoleto Festival’s Spotlight Chamber Music Series and co-founder of the Charleston Chamber Music Institute. In the summer, he also serves on faculty of the Gingold Chamber Music Festival in Miami. Mr. Bekker was given the Outstanding Artistic Achievement award from the city of Charleston in 2011 to honor his cultural contributions to the community.

Bekker has also held the position of concertmaster for the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra and the AIMS Festival in Graz, Austria, and has held additional positions with the Houston Symphony and the Houston Grand Opera and Ballet Orchestras. Bekker has performed worldwide as a celebrated guest concertmaster, avid chamber musician, and critically acclaimed soloist. In addition to over a dozen concertos with the Charleston Symphony, he has performed with the Vancouver Symphony (British Columbia), Ulster Orchestra in Northern Ireland, Buffalo Philharmonic, Chicago Chamber Music Society, European Music Festival Stuttgart (Germany), Pacific Music Festival (Japan), Spoleto Festival USA, Piccolo Spoleto Festival, Aspen Music Festival, at the Kennedy Center, and in cities including New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Orlando, Amarillo, El Paso, Missoula, Asheville, Flagstaff, Scottsdale, Barcelona, Spain and Graz, Austria. He has collaborated with Herbert Greenberg, Claudio Bohorquez, Alexander Kerr, Andres Cardenes, Andrew Armstrong, Robert DeMaine, Sara Chang, Gil Shaham, Ilya Kaler, Joshua Roman, JoAnn Falletta, and Andrew Litton. As Principal Pops Conductor of the Charleston Symphony, Bekker has worked with notable guests artists such as Ben Folds, Tony Desare, Ellis Hall, and Cirque de la Symphonie.

Bekker’s recent and upcoming engagements include conductor and violinist with the Amarillo Symphony, violinist on Tchaikovsky’s, Bruch’s, and Edward Hart’s Concertos for Violin with the Charleston Symphony, conductor of Mahler’s Symphony No. 6 at the Miami Music Festival, a chamber music appearance with the Fort-Worth Chamber Music Society, and a busy upcoming pops season packed with exciting repertoire and guest artists. Bekker earned a Graduate Performance Diploma from the Peabody Conservatory under the tutelage of Herbert Greenberg. He also holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Indiana University School of Music, where he studied violin with Nelli Shkolnikova and Ilya Kaler. Mr. Bekker has studied conducting with Christopher Wilkins, David Zinman, Imre Pallo and David Effron. His debut CD, Twentieth Century Duos, received world-wide acclaim and a nomination for the International Classical Music Awards.

Born in Minsk, Belarus, Bekker is now a United States citizen, and is a proud husband and father to his wife, Jenny, their two young children, Nathanael, and Charlotte. He performs on the 1638 Franz Degen Andrea Guarneri violin, generously on loan to him from an anonymous patron. Visit www.YuriyBekker.com for more information.

CharlestonSymphony.org 19

CSO CHORUS

Dr. Robert Taylor, Director

T

he Charleston Symphony Orchestra Chorus (CSO Chorus) is the premier all-volunteer chorus in Lowcountry South Carolina. Composed of auditioned volunteers drawn from the greater Charleston metropolitan area, the Chorus is an independent, non-profit organization under the direction of Dr. Robert Taylor, the Director of Choral Activities for the College of Charleston. Dedicated to the promotion, enjoyment, and appreciation of choral music, the Chorus performs a diverse choral repertoire presented in concerts of the highest musical excellence that seek to entertain and educate audiences of all generations as well as nurture and encourage young singers.

Founded by Emily Remington as the Charleston Singers Guild, the full, 120 - voice Chorus has provided the choral component for a broad range of classical and modern choral Masterworks, Pops, and Spoleto USA concerts for the City of Charleston for five decades. Major work performances routinely include the voices of the College of Charleston Concert Choir, the Charleston Southern Singers as well as area children’s choirs.

The Chorus Chamber Singers, a select sub-division of the CSO Chorus, provides a smaller ensemble to perform works in the chamber repertoire, including multiple annual performances of Handel’s Messiah.

The 2019–2020 season included two Charleston Symphony Masterworks appearances Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem and Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, as well as the ever-popular Holiday Pop, and more.

The CSO is excited to welcome back the Chorus post-pandemic for performances during the 2021-2022 season.

The Chorus continues to seek skilled, experienced vocal talent and offers audition opportunities routinely in August and January. For additional information about the CSO Chorus or to register for an audition, please visit www.charlestonsymphonychorus.org.

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CHORUS ROSTER SOPRANO

Inga Agrest Tiffany Beckley Mary Bell Pat Benzien Susan Chagrin Katherine Clifton Gail Corvette Maryileen Cumbaa Erin Danly Libby Davis Jennifer Dickson Helena Dilling Tammy Dorociak Erika Janitschek Phyllis Jestice Emelia Keefner Tia Lewis Donna Mastrandrea Mendy McGuire Gray Yon Meyer Bethany Moebs Ruth Monsell Martina Mueller Alyssa Nestman Kay Nickel Rebecca Peters Carlen Quinn Judy Rinaman Andrea Rose Rousseaux Andrea Scheulen Silke Sida Danielle Simonian* Cathy Sippell Jessica Sucevich Meta VanSickle Julie Wolters Sarah Woods

ALTO

Rennie All Meghan Batson Susan Cheves Sally Clemence Anna-Sian Eigen Susan Findlay Jaimie Flack Lynne Flaugher Melody Flowers Savannah Gignac Carol Heckrotte Patricia Hoff Jean Kuhn Amanda Mazzaro Christe McCoyLawrence Tara None Marianne Nubel Donna Padgette* Joyce Peach Kourtnee Pierson Karen Ruggiero Jessica Sharp Charlene Whalen Sarah Woodall Anne Wray Christina Wynn

TENOR Philip Amarendran Kirk Beckstrom Celeste Carlson Gabe Chavarria Mitch Cohen Ralph D'Amico Jiska Ford Julian Ford Terry Goans Stevenson Griggs

TENOR (cont.)

Wayne Heckrotte Noah Jacobsen Mark Lazzaro Hank Martin Ellen McGeady Mike Mout Richard Rathmann Theresa Robards* Jordan Stoner John White Curtis Worthington

BASS Tom Bracewell Stanley Chepenik Thomas Churchill Jeff Collins Bruce Elliott Bill Flack Stuart Kaufman Jules Kerness Lee Kohlenberg Wei-Kai Lai* Scott McBroom Nate Medford Richard Pekruhn Karl Peterson Jack Pitzer Tim Rinaman Stuart Terry Bill Thornby Keith Timmons Dwight Williams McIver Watson Cameron White *Section Leader

CharlestonSymphony.org 21

THE CSOL®

A letter from our Co-Presidents

W

elcome Back, Fellow Music Lovers:

Thank you for joining us during the CSO’s Triumphant Return, their 85th season and the 57th year that the Charleston Symphony Orchestra League (CSOL®) has provided major financial support to the Charleston Symphony. In addition, we provide scholarships to talented musicians of all ages in the Tricounty area and advocate for music as part of the strong arts community throughout Charleston.

We’ve already enjoyed a successful Tour of Island Homes on Kiawah Island and introduced this year’s car raffle—an exciting 2022 Ford Mustang Mach-E Premium SUV. It’s all electric and exhilarating. You’ll learn more about the car in this edition of BRAVO!, and you can help us in our fundraising by purchasing tickets in the lobby. Your support helps us continue to proudly be the largest institutional donor to the Charleston Symphony.

In the spring of 2022, we’ll feature historic Charleston style in an exquisite design event downtown. More exciting events will be unveiled, too. Check out our website at csolinc.org for more information.

As an organization, we are over 240 members strong. Our members not only plan and support fundraising events but also are insiders: CSOL members are part of the Charleston Symphony family with opportunities to get to know the talented members of the orchestra. Members attend exclusive events and small, intimate gatherings, often including Symphony musicians and student scholarship recipients.

These events are fun and a wonderful way to make friendships and become thoroughly connected to our community.

Want to become a CSOL insider and help the CSOL “Play our part” in support of the Charleston Symphony? Membership information is available at csolinc.org. or send us an email.

Sincerely,

Carol Cronk carolcronk1@comcast.net CSOL Co-President

Marty Penkhus penkhus@icloud.com CSOL Co-President

The CSOL inspires the love of live music by providing major financial support for the Charleston Symphony, investing in talented musicians of all ages, and advocating music appreciation throughout the Charleston community.

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THE CSOL® Members

PLAYING OUR PART The Charleston Symphony Orchestra League, INC. (CSOL®) inspires the love of live music by providing major financial support for the Charleston Symphony, investing in talented musicians of all ages, and advocating music appreciation throughout the Charleston community.

Nan Ahern Claire Allen Mary Jo Armbrust Debbie & John Avinger Joanne Ayers Juliann Bannon & Peter Humphery Jack Barnett Jennifer Barnett Sue Barnett Yuriy Bekker Ledlie Bell Pat Benzien Ann Birdseye Margaret Bobo Judy Boehm Linda Bowden Jaclyn & Thomas Bracewell Cynthia Branch Ann Brann Verna Bunao-Weeks Barbara Burgess Ilse Calcagno Margot Campos M.E. Canaday Jean Carlton Barbara A. Chapman Judy & Jim Chitwood Bobbi Cohn Lynn Conley Beth Connolly* Gail Corvette* Erble Creasman Carol *& Ted Cronk Peggy Cross Jackie Cunningham

Mary Jo Daugherty Karen Davis Mary Davis Gisela Dawson Tanya Deke Alice DeLonge Donna DeRollo & Girard Mayer Terri DeVane Emily K. Dorton Gaye W. DuPre Karen Durand Lorraine Easterby Nancy Edwards Mary Elson Victora Fehr* & Dub Ward Julie Fenimore Prudence Finn Barbara Fitzgerald Jaimie Flack* Jill Fleming Papatakis Neva* & Richard Gadsden Jodie-Beth Galos Jackie & Sam Gawthrop Bob* & Ornella Gebhardt Gwen Gilmore Katherine (Kathy) Glick Sandra Gordon Janet Gorski Debbie Goulding Suman & Rajan Govindan Bobbie Greenebaum Glenna Greenslit Faye Griffin Edith P Haman Lisa Hamer Hilda Hamrick

Patricia & David Hannemann Celia & Chuck Hansult Dottie Hardin Gloria Hedden Stephen Herubin Cathy Hill Michal Hilling Becky & Paul Hilstad Judy Hines Sherry & Kenneth Hirsch Patricia (Trisha) Hoff Isabel Hopkins Hilde Hottendorf Heidi Huddleston Mary Nance Huff Connie Hughes Sissy Hunter Sue Ingram Karen Innella Jacquie Jacovino Brian & Kelly Johnson Marilyn Johnson Lucie Jones Sharon Kahn Roberta & Thomas Ketchin, III William & Corinne Khouri Catherine Kister Dianne Kochamba Ken Lam Julie Lamson-Scribner Jean Lang June & Mariano LaVia Elizabeth Leffel Susan Leggett* Lawrence M. Libater Carolyn Liles Julie Lorscheider CharlestonSymphony.org 23

THE CSOL®

Members Cont.

Valerie Luther Marian Crum-Mack Lyn Magee* & Ron Schildge Gail Maginnis Linda Manning Joan Marchetti Anna Marie Marshall Bev Marshall Pamela K. Marshall Stephanie Massey Jean Matthews Margaret G. Mauldin Barbara L. McCormick David McCracken Kathi McDaniel Pat McKee Debra McKinley Susan McLaughlin Jennifer Metts Carmen Miles Jane Opryszko Miller Ruth Miller Lindeke Mills Pam Mockler Charlotte Moran Marie-Louise Moreto Alana Morrall Joy Morris Kyra Morris Anne Nietert Martina Mueller & Martin Blanchard Cynthia Opelt Barb Pace Marie Palmatier Gloria Palmer-Long Celeste Patrick Joyce Peach Kathy Pease Marty* & Steve Penkhus Lorraine Perry Ruth Peters

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Patsy Pettus Eloise R. Pingry Claudia Porter & Stuart Hotchkiss* Helen Powell Cathy Price Dianne Pue Carlen Quinn Grace P. Rathkamp & Daniel G. Waetjen Donna Raye & Dennis Cash Kitty* & Don Reid Lola & Rob Reilly Donna D. Reyburn Tim & Judy Rinaman Theresa Robards & M.O. Coover Andrea Rose Rousseaux* Delores & Lou Rosebrock Cathy Rosenblum Chris Rougier-Chapman Karen Kichline Ruef Jill & Thomas Ruppel David Savard Marilyn Schultz Lauren Shakibanasab Annette & Enoch Sherman Silke Sida Leah Simmons Danielle Simonian Francesca Morselli Sinnott Sugar Slabaugh Ruth Sloggett Joy & Walker Smith Katie Smith Laura Smith Michael Smith Bill Smyth Mary Ann Spivey Joyce Stifel* Ellen Straub

Diane Swain Nita Swann Judith Tarleton Caroline* & Albert Thibault Ann E. Thomas Martha Thomson* Karen L. Tinsley Patti Tully Martha Ulmer Normandie Updyke Jennifer Van Brunt Patricia & Coby Van de Graaf Dave & Katy Vetta Frank Viquez* Jo Lynn & John Waller Gail P. Wamboldt* Cecily & John Ward Christina Ward Anne Warf* Sara Warf Patricia Wert Mary Whyte Gilbert Wildstein Bobbye C Wilson James & Jean Wolitarsky Carol Wood Karen & Jim Wordsworth Christina Demos Wynn Carol Lou Yaeger Marcia Young Members as of 10/18/21 *CSOL Board of Directors

WITH THE CARD ACCEPTED BY MORE HOSPITALS AND DOCTORS SouthCarolinaBlues.com

Discover Nature’s Music Caw Caw Interpretive Center

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EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

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he Charleston Symphony offers a multitude of enriching educational programs for students and teachers that inspire, challenge, and educate students through musical experiences. CSO programs range from introductory performances for children that are experiencing music for the first time, to mentoring the region’s top student instrumentalists of the Charleston Symphony Youth Orchestra. The CSO believes in the immense value of education through music and invests over $500,000 annually towards its educational initiatives, which allows CSO musicians to engage with over 15,000 students throughout the Lowcountry. This season, the CSO will continue to offer a variety of educational initiatives to further engage our community and educate young people through music.

ABOUT OUR INITIATIVES: Musicians in Schools: When the CSO Musicians are not on stage, they are performing for students in schools throughout the tri-county region at no cost to the school, eliminating barriers of access such as affordability and transportation. For many students, this is their first experience and only opportunity to see a live musical performance.

During the 2019-2020 season, CSO ensembles gave 91 performances at 63 schools, reaching over 13,000 students, 33% of whom are from Title I schools.

During the 2020-2021 season affected

by COVID-19, the CSO offered educational performances on the CSO’s Virtual Concert Hall, as well as virtual masterclasses, free to all schools and teachers in the Lowcountry!

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Young People's Concert: The Charleston Symphony is proud to partner with the Charleston Gaillard Center and Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute to present LINK UP: The Orchestra Moves! This highly engaging and participatory program is for students in grades 3-5, and connects the classroom with the concert hall, allowing students the opportunity to explore music through a year-long curriculum of activities then attend a culminating concert where they sing and play recorders with the orchestra from their seats! The CSO and Gaillard offers a district accredited curriculum workshop for all participating teachers. In the 2020-2021 season, the CSO was unable to offer a Young People’s Concert due to COVID-19. This season, CSO looks forward to serving close to 1,500 students.

EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Community Performances: The CSO partners with a variety of local organizations to provide the community with complimentary performances, such as Saltwater Sounds at the South Carolina Aquarium, Story Time at the Charleston County Public Library, performances at the local Farmers Markets, and more.

How do we do it?

The CSO is committed to serving our community and offers meaningful musical experiences to students through the generous support of donors, corporate sponsors, and community partners. To learn more about how you can support these programs, please contact the CSO’s Director of Education and Community Engagement, Mitsuko Flynn, at mflynn@charlestonsymphony.org or call (843) 723-7528.

Special thanks to our Education Supporters:

The Bihun Family Foundation BlueCross BlueShield Foundation of South Carolina Charleston Symphony Orchestra League Daniel Island Community Fund Dominion Energy Garth Family Foundation Kennedy-Herterich Foundation / Morgan and Lauren Herterich and Dieter and Karyn Kennedy Herterich Kite Foundation / Nancye B. Starnes Mark Elliott Motley Foundation Publix Charities Harriet Ripinsky South Carolina Arts Commission Town of Mount Pleasant

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EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT Charleston Symphony Youth Orchestra The Charleston Symphony Youth Orchestra is a core educational program of the Charleston Symphony and one of the leading youth orchestras in South Carolina. The CSYO program offers two ensembles: Charleston Symphony Youth Orchestra (CSYO) and Charleston Symphony Youth Strings (CSYS). Led by Youth Orchestra conductor, Kellen Gray and Youth Strings conductor, Ryan Silvestri, the CSYO program offers elementary, middle, and high school musicians from the tri-county area an opportunity to perform symphonic music with a high standard of musical excellence. The student musicians of the CSYO ensembles receive high quality musical instruction and have access to the resources of the Charleston Symphony such as mentorship by the CSO core musicians through sectional coachings and side-by-side rehearsals and concerts.

CSYS is designed for string students and aims to serve younger musicians to help sharpen their ensemble skills. CSYO welcomes advanced musicians in the strings, wind, brass, and percussion sections to perform significant orchestral repertoire.

In the 2020-2021 season, we served over 110 students in-person and virtually. The Youth Orchestra and Youth Strings rehearse on Sunday afternoons from September through May and perform three concerts throughout the season. Please visit www. charlestonsymphony.org/csyo for more information.

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MEET THE CSYO TEAM Kellen Gray

Charleston Symphony Associate Conductor and Charleston Symphony Youth Orchestra Music Director Versatility and innovation are the hallmarks of American conductor Kellen Gray. Newly named Assistant Conductor of the 125-year-old Royal Scottish National Orchestra, he began his tenure April 2021. An enthusiastic communicator both on and off the podium, Maestro Gray is equally passionate about traditional concerts as he is experimental and integrative multimedia programming. Acknowledged as a skilled relationship builder in the communities in which he serves and a staunch champion of music education, Gray’s duties with RSNO also include work with the Orchestra’s pioneering learning and engagement programme.

Gray currently serves as Associate Conductor in addition to Music Director of the Charleston Symphony Youth Orchestra, a position he has held since 2018.

Recent and upcoming engagements include the Boston Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Virginia Symphony, Charlotte Ballet, Chicago Sinfonietta, Chicago Philharmonic, Northwest Florida Symphony, and Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra. Past performances of note include Kellen’s Chicago Symphony Center debut with Chicago Sinfonietta, with Picture This Post commenting on his “…laser-like focus that allowed the entire orchestra to seem to become one organism.” Of his debut at North Carolina’s Eastern Music Festival, Classical Voice of North Carolina praised him for “…gestures so smooth and polished they’re almost choreography…” At a 2017 festival celebrating the 100th birthday of Georgia-born author Carson McCullers, Gray was awarded the honor of guest-conducting a collaboration of the music of David Diamond and the premiere of award-winning NY actor/director Karen Allen’s directorial debut film, “A Tree, A Rock, A Cloud.”

Off-stage, Maestro Gray has served on several panels, including as a discussion panelist for the 2018 League of American Orchestras conference on the value of leadership pipelines in classical music based on diversity, inclusion, and equity.

A native of Rock Hill, South Carolina, Kellen Grey earned a bachelor’s degree in Violin Performance and an Artists’ Diploma in Orchestral Conducting from the Schwob School of Music at Columbus State University, and a Master’s degree in Orchestral Conducting from Valdosta State University in Georgia.

Prior to his Charleston Symphony Orchestra appointment, Mr. Gray was a Project Inclusion Freeman Conducting Fellow, and later, Assistant Conductor, at Chicago Sinfonietta under Music Director Mei-Ann Chen. Other prior posts include serving as Assistant Conductor at the Valdosta Symphony Orchestra under Music Director Howard Hsu and Music Director of the Valdosta Symphony Youth Orchestra from 2014-16, and as one of eight Conducting Fellows at North Carolina’s Eastern Music Festival under the tutelage of Gerard Schwarz, Grant Cooper, and Jose-Luis Novo.

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MEET THE CSYO TEAM Ryan Silvestri

Charleston Symphony Youth Strings Conductor Ryan Silvestri is in his tenth year at Wando High School as Director of Orchestras. A native of Boardman, Ohio, Ryan earned a bachelor's degree in instrumental music education from Florida State University and a master's degree in violin performance from UNC-Greensboro. He completed his string education studies with the late Dr. Michael Allen, co-author of the Essential Elements for Strings series, as well as Dr. Rebecca MacLeod. As a violinist Ryan has performed with the Charleston, Greensboro, and Tallahassee Symphonies and also served as Concertmaster of the Brevard Music Center Sinfonia Orchestra. Primary violin teachers include Marjorie Bagley, Corinne Stillwell, Eliot Chapo, and John Wilcox.

Ryan has served as an adjudicator and guest clinician throughout South Carolina. Professional associations include the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) and the American String Teachers Association (ASTA). Mr. Silvestri has been published in the American String Teacher - a national string journal put out by the American String Teacher's Association. Under his direction, the Wando Orchestras have nearly tripled in size and consistently received Superior ratings at the South Carolina Music Educators Association (SCMEA) Concert Festival. In 2017, the Wando Honors Orchestra was invited to perform at the SCMEA state conference, and in 2018 competed in the ASTA National Orchestra Festival. Ryan lives in Mount Pleasant, SC with his wife and three children.

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MASTERWORKS JANUARY 7 & 8, 2022 7:30PM Charleston Gaillard Center

HART OF TCHAIKOVSKY Harlem Quartet Ilmar Gavilán and Melissa White, Violins Jaime Amador, Viola Felix Umansky, Cello Ken Lam, Conductor

Adolphus Hailstork (b. 1941) Fanfare on "Amazing Grace" Edward Hart (b. 1965) A Charleston Concerto [WORLD PREMIERE] I. Discovery II. Tragedy and Reconciliation III. Tomorrow

INTERMISSION Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36 I. Andante sostenuto II. Andantino in modo di canzona III. Scherzo: Pizzicato ostinato IV. Finale: Allegro con fuoco

THANK YOU TO OUR RECORDING PROJECT DONORS!

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ABOUT THE ARTIST Masterworks

Harlem Quartet

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ew York-based Harlem Quartet, currently quartet-in-residence at the John J. Cali School of Music and the Royal College of Music in London, has been praised for its “panache” by The New York Times and hailed in the Cincinnati Enquirer for “bringing a new attitude to classical music, one that is fresh, bracing and intelligent.”

It has also won plaudits from such veteran musicians as GRAMMY-winning woodwind virtuoso Ted Nash of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, who declared in a May 2018 Playbill article, “Harlem Quartet is one of the greatest string quartets I have ever heard. They can play anything.” Since its public debut at Carnegie Hall in 2006, the ensemble has thrilled audiences and students in 47 states as well as in the U.K., France, Belgium, Brazil, Panama, Canada, Venezuela, Japan, Ethiopia, and South Africa.

Harlem Quartet has three distinctive characteristics: diverse programming that combines music from the standard string quartet canon with jazz, Latin, and contemporary works; a collaborative approach to performance that is continually broadening the ensemble’s repertoire and audience reach through artistic partnerships with other musicians from the classical and jazz worlds; and an ongoing commitment to residency activity and other forms of educational outreach.

The quartet’s mission is to advance diversity in classical music, engaging young and new audiences through the discovery and presentation of varied repertoire that includes works by composers of color. Passion for this work has made the quartet a leading ensemble in both educational and community engagement activities. In this capacity, the quartet has written several successful grants, including a Cultural Connections Artist-In-Residence grant from James Madison University and a 2016 Guarneri String Quartet grant from Chamber Music America; the latter allowed the quartet to participate in an extended performance and educational residency in Mobile, AL, which included a close partnership with the Mobile Symphony Orchestra. In the 2017-18 season Harlem Quartet undertook a week of residency activities with the Santa Fe Youth Symphony. And since 2015 it has led an annual workshop at Music Mountain in Falls Village, CT, culminating in a concert at that venue.

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PROGRAM NOTES Masterworks Adolphus Hailstork Fanfare on "Amazing Grace" Adolphus Hailstork began his musical career at Howard University, the worldrenowned historically black university located in Washington DC. There he studied with Baltimore-born composer Mark Fax from whom he seems to have inherited his spectacular range of musical references and influences. During his long compositional career, Fax played live scores to silent films at the local theater, played gospel organ for his church choir on Sunday mornings, wrote music for modern dance icons including Martha Graham, wrote an opera for the Kennedy Center, and even taught for a spell at the experimental Black Mountain College following the Second World War. Hailstork has cut a similar path, drawing inspiration and influence from across European and African American traditions to create a compositional voice that is distinctively his own. Following his graduation from Howard in 1963, Hailstork spent the summer in Fontainebleau, France studying with the legendary composer and pedagogue, Nadia Boulanger. And after receiving his Ph.D. in composition from Michigan State University in 1971, Hailstork has spent most of the last four decades at his home in Virginia Beach serving as Composer-in-Residence first at Norfolk State and most recently at Old Dominion.

Given that Hailstork turned 80 years old last year, you might expect him to be bringing his compositional career to a graceful close. But Hailstork has continued to produce beautiful and challenging music with upcoming world

premieres currently slated for his Symphony No. 4 as well as a new orchestral cantata titled A Knee on The Neck inspired by the death of George Floyd in the summer of 2020. His Fanfare on “Amazing Grace” was originally composed for solo organ more than two decades ago, but the work has enjoyed a moment of national recognition following its performance by "The President’s Own" United States Marine Band at the 2021 Presidential Inauguration. In the tradition of the great “chorale preludes” by Baroque organ masters like J.S. Bach, Hailstork takes the well-known hymn tune as a contrapuntal jumping-off point and weaves a dynamic and thickly textured celebration of different variations and countermelodies throughout.

The result is an exhilarating and novel take on a well-known tune that is too often written off as plodding or maudlin—a welcome breath of fresh air that Hailstork has been breathing into classical repertoire for nearly five decades. *Program notes by Dr. Joshua Busman Edward Hart A Charleston Concerto Notes by the composer.

A Charleston Concerto was written to commemorate the 350th Anniversary of the City of Charleston. I am very grateful for this opportunity to collaborate with the Charleston Symphony, Maestro Ken Lam, and the Grammy-winning Harlem Quartet.

In this programmatic three-movement composition, I attempt to musically express Charleston’s autochthonous splendor, the city’s complex history, and its optimistic approach to the future.

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PROGRAM NOTES Masterworks

Movement I – Discovery In the first movement, I imagine the experience of the first people to gaze upon Charleston Harbor. This group of natives may have been traversing the dense subtropical forest, gradually noticing fleeting gusts of sea breeze and shards of sunlight, only to be awestruck when reaching the water’s edge, revealing the magnificent wind-swept harbor, filling them with a sense of awe and optimism.

Movement II – Tragedy and Reconciliation Old places have complicated histories, including tragedy. Charleston is no exception. Tragedy has come from natural disasters such as hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, and disease. We have also experienced man-made tragedy, including war and especially the enslavement of our fellow man with the subsequent ill treatment of their descendants. I have chosen to represent tragedy with a Gullah Spiritual entitled Sinnuh W’ah Yuh Doin’ Down Dere.

To me, reconciliation, both with our natural world and with each other, seems to be more of an ongoing process rather than a onetime act. The process itself is what creates hope. To represent this, I have used the Gullah Spiritual Silbuh Spade (Silver Spade).

The powerful first line, “You kin dig my grabe wid a silbuh spade, cus I ain’t gwine lib here no more,” is a statement of transcendent resilience, with the certainty of a better future.

A note about Gullah culture: Gullah is a rich culture that developed among

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the descendants of West Africans brought to America as slaves in the 17th and 18th centuries and found primarily in the coastal regions of South Carolina and Georgia.

Among its many important contributions are Gullah Spirituals, a musical genre combining elements of West African performance practice with text from or inspired by Biblical passages. In order to completely reflect Charleston’s multifaceted culture, it would be impossible to ignore this significant and highly original musical tradition.

Movement III – Tomorrow Optimism is a trait we all share in Charleston.

It seems to be in our collective DNA. This optimism is the fervent belief that, despite past and present challenges, our best days are ahead. Informed by our history, we forge our future with the heartfelt expectation of a better tomorrow. *Notes by Edward Hart.

Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36 In many ways, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4, Op. 36 was born somewhere between the love song and the breakup song. In the summer of 1877, Tchaikovsky was married to his former pupil from the Moscow Conservatory, Antonina Miliukova. This marriage, proposed by Tchaikovsky just a few weeks before their July wedding, seems to have been brought on by desperation. The 37-year-old Tchaikovsky proposed to Antoninia—whom he described as “a woman with whom I am not the least in love,” even at the time—to satisfy his family and put to rest the rumors about his sexuality which had begun to circulate around Moscow. But a relationship born out of desperation could never be the most stable, and the entire affair blew up with Tchaikovsky fleeing Moscow altogether just

six weeks later. As he fled from Antonina, unsure what his professional and personal future might hold during this self-imposed exile, another crucial woman entered his life: the influential businesswoman and philanthropist, Nadezhda von Meck. Now in Switzerland, Tchaikovsky had begun a romantic and artistic relationship with a violinist named Josef Kotek, who ultimately inspired his one and only violin concerto composed the same year, and it was Kotek who first introduced the two. Von Meck was taken immediately by Tchaikovsky’s music and offered to support him in exile with an incredibly generous yearly allowance.

Not only did von Meck’s assistance allow Tchaikovksy to remain in Switzerland and ultimately travel across the continent for the next two years, but it also gave him the freedom to quit his job at the Moscow Conservatory and focus on composition full time. Though Tchaikovsky and von Meck met in person only once, they exchanged more than 1,200 letters over the next 15 years and frequently spoke in glowing terms about one another to friends and acquaintances.

Symphony No. 4, written in this literal and metaphorical winter between 1877 and 1878, bears a dedication to “my best friend.”

Though he withheld von Meck’s name from the title page out of respect for her desire for privacy, he gushed to her in a letter, “I thought of you in every bar.” In his own program for the symphony, Tchaikovsky explained the piece’s journey as one from darkness to light and depression to a newfound joy that mirrored his own. “I was severely depressed last winter when writing the symphony, and it serves as a faithful echo of what I was experiencing,” he wrote to von Meck before the symphony’s premiere, “But it is only as an echo…I have already forgotten so much.” The first movement is perhaps the most ambitious single movement Tchaikovsky ever wrote and contains almost a full

symphonic scope on its own. It begins with the famous “Fate motif,” which Tchaikovsky imagines “hang[ing] above the head like the sword of Damocles” and “ensur[ing] that peace and happiness shall not be complete.” This “fate motif” permeates the movement at every moment and is obviously reminiscent of the famous “sound of fate knocking at the door” description for the opening motif of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5. Harmonically, the piece navigates a full cycle of minor thirds, beginning in F minor and modulating to A-flat major, B major, and D minor before coming back to the F minor of the movement’s opening. This harmonic sequence coupled with a novel use of sonata-allegro form is meant to mimic the desperation of Tchaikovsky’s depressed state by allowing the audience to glimpse hope and redemption only to have it slip away. The two middle movements are marked primarily by their extraordinary color: the first a plaintive ballad initiated by the oboe and the second a pizzicato kaleidoscope that places the listener in a hushed state of expectation. This expectation is satisfied almost immediately by the explosive opening of the finale which seems to finally cast off the pall of depression from the first movement almost entirely by simply outrunning it. The flurry of notes from the movement’s opening return in its final minutes and propel us to a triumphant conclusion that feels earned by the struggle that came before it. In addition to the piece’s trajectory from sadness to celebration, Tchaikovsky noted that he thought of the symphony as a journey outward from the dark interiors of the depressed mind to the joyful contours of community life. To close his own account of the piece, he wrote a set of sentences that serve equally well as a coda to this monumental symphony or a kind of ersatz life philosophy for all of us: “Joy is a simple but powerful force. Rejoice in the rejoicing of others. To live is still possible. *Program notes by Dr. Joshua Busman CharlestonSymphony.org 37

JANUARY 20, 2022 • 7:30pm Charleston Gaillard Center

THE GREAT AMERICAN SONGBOOK Charlton Singleton, Trumpet Quiana Parler, Vocalist Charlton Singleton Quartet Yuriy Bekker, Conductor Calvin Custer Salute to the Big Bands W.C. Handy, arr. Nelson Riddle St. Louis Blues George and Ira Gershwin, arr. Earl Mays Our Love Is Here To Stay Cole Porter, arr. Bill Holcombe Cole Porter Medley Night and Day, I Concentrate on You, You’re The Top, I Get A Kick Out Of You Barbara Streisand, arr. Bill Holcombe “Evergreen” from A Star Is Born Erroll Garner Misty George Gershwin Promenade (Walking the Dog) Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart, arr. Clifford Brown Blue Moon Mack Gordon and Harry Warren, arr. Riley Hampton At Last 38 CharlestonSymphony.org

Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler, arr. Bill Holcombe Get Happy

INTERMISSION Leonard Bernstein “Times Square: 1944” from On The Town Cole Porter, arr. Bill Holcombe I’ve Got You Under My Skin Ann Ronell, arr. Clifford Brown Willow Weep For Me Ben Bernie and Maceo Pinkard, arr. Earl Mays Sweet Georgia Brown Fred Fisher and Ada Benson Your Feet’s Too Big

George and Ira Gershwin, arr. Nelson Riddle Nice Work If You Can Get It Sammy Fain and Irving Kahal, arr. Bill Holcombe I’ll Be Seeing You John Lennon and Paul McCartney, arr. Bill Holcombe Hey Jude CharlestonSymphony.org 39

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Pops

Charlton Singleton, Trumpet

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native of Awendaw, SC, Charlton Singleton is a Grammy Award winning musician, was named the 2016 inaugural Artist in Residence at the Charleston Gaillard Center and is the organist and choir director at St. Patrick Catholic Church. Charlton Singleton began his musical studies at the age of three on the piano.

He would then go on to study the organ, violin, cello, and the trumpet throughout grade school. In 1994, he received a Bachelor of Arts in Music Performance from South Carolina State University. Since that time, he has taught music at the elementary, middle, and high school levels, as well as being an adjunct faculty member at the College of Charleston. In 2008 Charlton co-founded and served as the Artistic Director and Conductor of the Charleston Jazz Orchestra. He leads his own ensembles that vary in size and style. He has performed in France, Great Britain, Scotland, Spain, Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Norway, The Netherlands, as well as many great cities throughout the United States.

He is a founding member of the Grammy Award winning ensemble, Ranky Tanky. The group is a quintet that interprets the sounds of Gullah from the Southeast Coast of the United States.

In 2018 Ranky Tanky reached the top of the Billboard, iTunes, and Amazon Contemporary Jazz charts with their self-titled debut recording. In 2019, the band accomplished the same feat with the release of their sophomore effort, “Good Time”, which was nominated for a Grammy Award.

In addition to performing, he is in demand as a speaker, clinician, composer, and arranger. He has also shared the stage with and worked with some of most talented entertainers in the world, including Bobby McFerrin, Jimmy Heath, Slide Hampton, Houston Person, Darius Rucker, Fred Wesley, and Cyrus Chestnut.

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ABOUT THE ARTIST

Pops

Quiana Parler, Vocalist

A

native of Charleston, South Carolina. Quiana Parler began her professional career singing for Calvin Gilmore of the "The Carolina Opry". After years of being one of the most sought-after vocalists in South Carolina Low Country, in 2003 she parlayed a placement in the Top 48 of season two of the Fox hit “American Idol” into an enviable career as a featured vocalist on national tours with some of the country's most well-known artists. She has shared those stages with a diverse array of artists, including Kelly Clarkson, Maroon 5, Keith Sweat, Clay Aiken, Miranda Lambert, and others. Additionally, Quiana can be heard on albums

by Clay Aiken, Bianca Ryan, and Renee Olstead, and she has recorded with some of the industry's most respected producers, like Walter Afanasieff and David Foster. Her talents have been highly sought after for events held by some of the area's biggest corporate and non-profit organizations, such as Benefit Focus, Roper Xavier Hospital, The Duchess of York, Berkeley Electric Cooperative, DART, Baker Motor Company, Piccolo Spoleto, Morris Nissan, Moja Arts Festival, & many more. In addition to her national touring experience, Quiana has performed on Saturday Night Live, The View, NBC's Today Show, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Good Morning America, Tyra, and numerous other national television programs. Quiana Parler is also the lead vocalist for the Grammy Award winning band Ranky Tanky.

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CHAMBER MUSIC

JANUARY 28 & 29 7:30PM Charleston Library Society

DVOŘÁK’S PIANO QUINTET Jihye Chang, Piano Yuriy Bekker and Micah Gangwer, Violins Jan-Marie Joyce, Viola Norbert Lewandowski, Violoncello Charles Messersmith, Clarinet Regina Helcher-Yost and Jessica Hull-Dambaugh, Flutes

Aram Khatchaturian (1903-1978) Trio for Violin, Clarinet, and Piano I. Andante con dolore, con molto espressione II. Allegro III. Moderato Jihye Chang, Piano Charles Messersmith, Clarinet

Micah Gangwer, Violin Samuel Zyman (b. 1956) Fantasia Mexicana for Two Flutes and Piano Jihye Chang, Piano Jessica Hull-Dambaugh

and Regina Helcher-Yost, Flutes

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CHAMBER MUSIC

Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904) Piano Quintet in A Major No. 2, Op. 81 I. Allegro, ma non tanto II. Dumka: Andante con moto - un pochettino più mosso III. Scherzo IV. Finale Jihye Chang, Piano

Yuriy Bekker and Micah Gangwer, Violins Jan-Marie Joyce, Viola Norbert Lewandowski, Violoncello

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MASTERWORKS FEBRUARY 4 & 5 • 7:30PM Charleston Gaillard Center

CHOPIN’S MASTERPIECE Claire Huangci, Piano Ken Lam, Conductor

Julia Perry (1924-1979) A Short Piece for Small Orchestra Frédéric François Chopin (1810-1849) Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11 I. Allegro maestoso II. Romanze: Larghetto III. Rondo: Vivace INTERMISSION

Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) Symphony No. 5 in E-flat Major, Op. 82 I. Tempo molto moderato; Allegro moderato - Presto II. Andante mosso, quasi allegretto III. Allegro molto; Misterioso

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ABOUT THE ARTIST Masterworks

Claire Huangci, Piano

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he young American pianist Claire Huangci, winner of the first prize and the Mozart prize at the 2018 Geza Anda Competition, continuously captivates audiences with her “radiant virtuosity, artistic sensitivity, keen interactive sense and subtle auditory dramaturgy” (Salzburger Nachrichten). With an irrepressible curiosity and penchant for unusual repertoire, she proves her versatility with a wide range in repertoire spanning from Bach and Scarlatti to Bernstein, Gulda, and Corigliano. In solo recitals and with international orchestras, Claire has appeared in some of the most prestigious halls such as Carnegie Hall, Suntory Hall Tokyo, NCPA Beijing, Paris Philharmonie, Munich Gasteig, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, Salzburg Festspielhaus, and the Budapest Franc Liszt Akademie.

She is a welcome guest in renowned festivals including Lucerne Festival, Verbier Festival, Schleswig Holstein Musik Festival, Rheingau Musik Festival and Klavier Festival Ruhr. Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich, ORF Radio Orchester Vienna, Vancouver Symphony, and China Philharmonic Orchestra, together with Sir Roger Norrington, Howard Griffiths, Eva Ollikainen, Mario Venzago, Cornelius Meister, and Elim Chan are among her esteemed musical partners.

For an intense start of the 2020/21 season, Claire paid homage to Beethoven’s anniversary with a compelling interpretation of his Pastorale symphony arranged for solo piano by Franz Liszt, with concerts at the Klavier-Festival Ruhr and the Rheingau Musik Festival, where her recital was recorded for T-Mobile’s streaming platform MagentaMusik 360. After appearances as a piano duo with Alexei Volodin at the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie and the release of a new album with her Trio Machiavelli, a major highlight is her Fall 2020 recital tour at the main halls of Berlin Philharmonie, and Hamburg Elbphilharmonie. Later in the season, a further exciting debut takes place in the “Great Performers Series “at New York’s Lincoln Center. Among her orchestra engagements are dates with the Deutsche Radiophilharmonie Saarbrücken, Museumsorchester Frankfurt, Basel Chamber Orchestra and the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra. With the Nordic Chamber Orchestra, she will direct concertos of Mozart and Chopin from the keyboard.

Claire Huangci began her international career at the age of nine with concert performances and competition successes. After studying with Eleanor Sokoloff and Gary Graffman at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, she moved to Germany in 2007 for further studies with Arie Vardi at the Hannover Musikhochschule, completing them with honors in 2016. Early in her artistic career, she stood out as an expressive interpreter of Chopin, winning first prizes at the Chopin competitions in Darmstadt and Miami in 2009 and 2010. She was also the youngest participant to receive second prize at the International ARD Music Competition in 2011. After recording her debut CD with solo works of Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev and her prizewinning double album of Scarlatti sonatas (German Record Critics’ Award and Gramophone Editor’s Choice), she released highly acclaimed recordings of Chopin’s Nocturnes in 2017 and in 2018 of Rachmaninoff’s complete Préludes: Following recordings of Beethoven’s violin concerto in the piano version and Fantasy for piano and orchestra by Schubert / Kabalewski with the RSO Vienna, her first orchestral album with the Deutsche Radiophilharmonie Saarbrücken under Shiyeon Sung was released in Fall 2019. In summer of 2020, her first chamber music album was released with Trio Machiavelli, whose interpretations of Ravel trio and Chausson piano quartet proved “a wholly exhilarating debut (…) splendidly transparent, and always expressive.” (BR Klassik).

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Julia Perry A Short Piece for Small Orchestra Few twentieth-century composers can boast as impressive a pedigree as Julia Perry. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the prestigious Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ. She continued her studies at Juilliard and the Berkshire Center at Tanglewood. She was twice awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, first to study with famed composer and pedagogue Nadia Boulanger in Paris and the second to study in Florence with Luigi Dallapiccola, a composer she had first met during her time at Tanglewood. Her A Short Piece for Orchestra was performed and recorded by the New York Philharmonic in 1965. And during the late 1950s, she was tasked with curating a series of concerts across Europe on behalf of the US State Department’s "public diplomacy" efforts during the early years of the Cold War. Perhaps even more remarkably, Julia Perry accomplished all this as an African American woman, often the only female or non-white participant in the elite musical spaces into which she climbed.

Stylistically, her music bears the marks of her diverse and accomplished musical education: the vocal sensitivities of the choral repertoire, the neoclassical levity and clarity of Boulanger, the harmonic and timbral daring of Dallapiccola, as well as a rhythmic and modal language that is unmistakably rooted in African American folk traditions.

Originally premiered in Florence, Italy in the summer of 1952, A Short Piece for Orchestra was an instant sensation with European audiences who praised its colorful orchestrations and daring syncopations. A 46 CharlestonSymphony.org

wide range of musical ideas seem to dance in and out of frame over the piece’s seven minutes providing a kaleidoscopic survey of mid-century composition. Despite its title, A Short Piece for Orchestra is an expansive and ambitious work that weaves together the many forces of Perry’s life and work in a compact, cinematic package.

Frédéric François Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11 1829 was a big year for the young Frédéric Chopin. He finished his course of study at his hometown Warsaw Conservatory.

He made his concert début with several successful shows in the cosmopolitan circles of Vienna. He saw, for the first time, a series of concerts by the violin virtuoso Niccolò Paganini who would provide the blueprint for his performance career and provide the confidence he needed to begin composing for himself. And he finished writing his first piano concerto, which would be premiered in Warsaw the following spring. Confusingly, this “first” piano concerto he completed is actually the one known to us as “Piano Concerto No. 2,” due to a lag in its eventual publication. The “Piano Concerto No. 1” on tonight’s program was written immediately after the successful premiere of “Piano Concerto No. 2” in preparation for a series of “farewell concerts” that accompanied Chopin’s permanent departure from Warsaw in the fall of 1830. Interestingly, these are the only two concerti that Chopin ever produced, and they were both written and premiered within the same eight-month stretch when the composer was only 20 years old. The Parisian musical climate in which Chopin spent the remainder of

PROGRAM NOTES Masterworks

his career was smaller and more intimate, privileging salons and elite soirées to the packed concert hall. These spaces would occasion Chopin’s voluminous and much more famous output for solo piano, but these concerti show a hungry, young composer who has finished his education and outgrown his provincial hometown. While they contain shades of the composer he would eventually become, the concerti are a kind of early musical resume in search of the big break that Chopin believed would inevitably propel him to stardom. In fact, it is telling that this concerto is dedicated to Friedrich Kalkbrenner, the German-born pianist and composer who had taken Paris by storm with his arrival at the prestigious Conservatoire just a few decades prior.

Formally, the concerto holds closely to the established arrangement of the time with three movements in a generally fast-slowfast progression. The first movement, as expected, is cast in sonata-allegro form, but Chopin introduces several harmonic left-turns throughout. Additionally, Chopin expands the form by relying on three recurring themes for the movement rather than the more typical two. The arrival of this surprise third theme in the parallel major— as well as its return in the movement’s recapitulation, though this time in the relative major instead— is one of the piece’s more thrilling moments. The swooning, lyrical “Romance” in the concerto’s middle was supposedly inspired by Chopin’s romantic feelings for his conservatory classmate, soprano Konstancja Gładkowska, and was described by Chopin himself as “giving the impression of someone looking gently

towards a spot that calls to mind a thousand happy memories.” Here, the piano serves as a kind of narrator or commentator on the action, providing constant embellishment and elaboration to the lushly orchestrated chords below. The concerto comes to a close with a rondo which centers on a fiery evocation of the Krakowiak, a fast, syncopated Polish folk dance that was particularly popular at the time. Though Chopin originally composed and premiered this piece with a Polish audience in mind, he never returned to his homeland after 1830 due to the outbreak of the PolishRussian War later that same year. To his future Parisian audiences and, to some extent, for Chopin himself, this movement came to symbolize his connection to his exilic homeland: a token of his adolescent past which reverberated forward into a stratospheric future that even the most ambitious young man couldn’t possibly have imagined.

Jean Sibelius Symphony No. 5 in E-flat Major, Op. 82 Jean Sibelius lost his father to typhoid fever when he was only two-and-a-half years old.

His father left behind substantial debts for the struggling young family and, as a result, Jean and his mother Maria were forced to sell their small home and move back in with her mother. This move brought young Jean back into contact with his aunt and uncle, both music enthusiasts who recognized the boy’s interest and aptitude from a very early age. His aunt Julia served as his first piano teacher beginning at the age of seven, and his uncle Pehr gifted him his first violin at

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the age of ten. Upon graduating from high school in 1885, he continued his musical training at the Helsinki Music Institute— after only briefly considering and rejecting the study of law. He extended his musical training after the Helsinki Music Institute with an additional year of training first in Berlin and then in Vienna. This sort of grand tour was typical of composers coming from the “peripheries” of Europe and typically resulted in a young composer choosing one of these cosmopolitan centers as their new home base (not dissimilar to Chopin’s move from Warsaw to Paris discussed above).

But Sibelius felt compelled to return to his Finnish homeland and to find for himself and his countrymen what might be built out of the native soil. As an undergraduate, Sibelius had become fascinated by the Kalevala, a Finnish folk epic consisting of fifty interconnected stories totally more than 22,000 lines in the original language.

These folk stories, as well as the songs that frequently accompanied them in performance, became a centerpiece of Sibelius’s compositional work and occupied him for the next seven decades. Sibelius’s faithful work of national storytelling almost instantly made him a figure of reverence and veneration in his home country. During his lifetime, the Helsinki Music Institute where he completed his studies was renamed to the Sibelius Academy, a name it still carries to this day. Sibelius’s tone poem Finlandia, which tells an episodic history of the Finnish people beginning with its mythic origins at the hands of the god Väinämöinen, has become an essential part of Finnish identity and the famous hymn which closes

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the piece has served as a de-facto national anthem for the country since its independence in 1917. And at the center of the capital city of Helsinki, there still stands a monument to Sibelius meant to capture the ability of the composer to unite and harmonize the mass of his fellow countrymen like the pipes of a grand national organ.

There is, perhaps, no greater evidence of Sibelius’s stature than the commission for his Symphony No. 5 premiered in 1915. The piece was requested on behalf of the Finnish government to celebrate the composer’s own 50th birthday, which had been declared a national holiday. In other words, he was so important to the Finnish government that they felt the need to honor him with a celebration and a new composition, but the only composer worthy to create something for the great master of Finnish music was Sibelius himself.

Like almost all of Sibelius’s symphonies, the Fifth has a kind of varied, mosaic quality in which each of the three movements seems to traverse multiple moods and styles within a single span. Music theorist James Hepokowski describes these short musical sections as “rotations,” graceful arcs that bring the listener back and forth between the myriad colors and timbres Sibelius is showcasing. The symphony closes with one of Sibelius’s most triumphant moments, the so-called "swan hymn" which begins in the French horns and moved outward in ever-widening intervals. Like the mythical Swan of Tuonela from Sibelius’s beloved Kalevala epic, the symphony slowly takes flight and climaxes in six breathtaking beatingwing punctuations with the full force of the orchestra leaving the viewer in awed silence. *Program notes by Dr. Joshua Busman

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MASTERWORKS MARCH 4 & 5 7:30PM Charleston Gaillard Center

STRAVINSKY’S PETRUSHKA SooBeen Lee, Violin Ken Lam, Conductor

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77 I. Allegro non troppo II. Adagio III. Allegro giocoso; ma non troppo vivace

INTERMISSION Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) Petrushka (rev. 1947) I. The Shrove-Tide Fair II. Petrouchka's Cell III. The Moor's Cell IV. The Shrove-Tide Fair (Towards Evening)

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ABOUT THE ARTIST Masterworks

SooBeen Lee, Violin

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iolinist SooBeen Lee has been praised by the Washington Post for her “poised presence, a luxurious sound, spot-on intonation, and a bow arm that surely will be the envy of her peers”. She has already appeared as soloist with every major Korean orchestra, including the Seoul and Busan Philharmonics and KBS (Korean Broadcasting System) Symphony Orchestra. Other distinctions include performances for Secretary-General of the United Nations Ki-moon Ban, at the Blue House for the King and Queen of Malaysia, with China’s Wuhan Philharmonic, at the Seoul Arts Center, and for many state guests in Korea. First Prize Winner of the 2014 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, she was also honored with YCA’s Slomovic Prize for support for her Washington, DC recital debut, the Michaels Award, which provided support for her New York recital debut, and three performance prizes.

Young Concert Artists also presented SooBeen’s New York concerto debut performing the Chausson Poème with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Alice Tully Hall.

She also performed recitals at New York’s Morgan Library and Museum and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC as recipient of the Korean Concert Prize. Additional performances have included the Tchaikovsky Concerto with the Gulf Coast and Rockford Symphonies, the Mendelssohn Concerto with the Plymouth Philharmonic, the Sibelius Concerto with the Longwood Symphony, the Brahms Concerto with the Palm Beach Symphony, and recitals for Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Southern Adventist University, Buffalo Chamber Music Society, Abbey Church Events and the Cosmos Club in Washington, DC. This season, SooBeen performs as soloist with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, and in recital at the Artist Series Concerts of Sarasota, Colgate University, and the Harriman-Jewell Series.

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Johannes Brahms Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77 On his 75th birthday in the summer of 1906, violinist Joseph Joachim was looking back on his storied performing career and supposedly remarked: “The Germans have four violin concertos. The greatest, most uncompromising is Beethoven's. Only the one by Brahms vies with it in seriousness.”

The other two mentioned by Joachim that day—by Mendelssohn and Max Bruch—are both beautiful compositions, but they are ultimately irrelevant to tonight’s proceedings, so let’s set them aside for the moment.

And despite the fact that is isn’t included on tonight’s program, let’s begin with the Beethoven concerto written in 1806. Though he was born six years after Beethoven’s death, Brahms lived a tremendous amount of his life in the shadow of Beethoven.

Truthfully, a vast majority of nineteenthcentury composition, especially in Germany and Austria, was undertaken in this shadowy territory, but Brahms seems to have felt its dark shade more palpably than most. Perhaps this was due to Brahms’s own perfectionism and relentless self-criticism: a series of traits he believed he learned by studying the master’s compositional process. Perhaps it was because of the particularly cutthroat nature of the German musical press at the time. Or perhaps it was a literal shadow cast by the imposing marble bust of Beethoven that looked down on Brahms’s desk while he composed in his home office. Regardless of the source, it wasn’t an accident that when Brahms set out to compose his first and only violin concerto to be premiered by Joseph Joachim in the early months of 1879, he

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chose the exact same key (D major) and three-movement format that had been used in Beethoven’s only violin concerto seven decades prior. One imagines that for Brahms, simply “vying with” Beethoven in Joachim’s later formulation would have been praise of the highest order.

In an additional nod to his looming compositional forebear, Brahms conceived of this concerto as a truly symphonic work in which soloist and orchestra work in ongoing creative partnership rather than in strictly divided hierarchy. While this was a source of consternation among some nineteenthcentury performers who preferred a virtuosic tour de force that would properly showcase their extraordinary skills, it has also contributed to each concerto’s longevity in the symphonic repertoire. As is typical for the “symphonic” format, a great deal of the piece is contained in the massive opening movement, which makes up nearly 60% of the total runtime. Following the gentle, almost pastoral opening, the first movement unfolds principally through the tensions between the strident and tempestuous first theme in the key of D minor that accompanies the first entrance of the soloist and the delicate, lyrical second theme in the key of A major. The middle movement, which Brahms derisively called a “meager Adagio” in communications with Joachim prior to the premiere, is actually a gorgeous serenade for the woodwinds featuring one of his most enduring melodies in the high oboe alternating with the solo violin. The final movement takes as its inspiration the

PROGRAM NOTES Masterworks

dance tunes of Joachim’s native Hungary and provides the soloist and opportunity to unless a torrent of double-stop runs and arpeggios as the orchestra provides the shifting and syncopated dance steps underneath. In a concerto that vies for “seriousness” above all, this finale is serious fun.

Igor Stravinsky Petrushka (rev. 1947) After the runaway smash hit of Stravinsky’s ballet The Firebird during the 1910 season, Ballets Russes impresario Sergei Diaghilev immediately contracted the composer for another exclusive ballet premiere in Paris the following summer. As he was putting the finishing touches on The Firebird, Stravinsky had already been conceiving a new ballet based on an ancient pagan rite in which a young girl was sacrificed by the elders of her community in order to break the spell of winter and appease the fickle gods of spring. The two came to an agreement, and Stravinsky headed back to Clarens, Switzerland where he was living at the time. However, when Diaghilev went to visit Stravinsky in Switzerland that fall, he discovered that the composer had completely discarded their agreed program and was hard at work on a completely new idea. Of course, the original story of ritual and sacrifice would reappear on the Ballets Russes calendar a few years later as the basis for Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, but for the moment, he was hard at work on a new piece about a puppet. While not much documentation of Stravinsky’s original treatment survives, his autobiography

suggests that Stravinsky conceived of the puppet as a kind of meta-commentary gag in which the puppet represented the stereotypical composer or poet of the Romantic tradition. The puppet composer would attempt to frustrate or exhaust the orchestra (as late Romantic composers often seemed to do), but this time the orchestra was free to fight back with percussive hammer blows and explosive trumpet blasts.

While Diaghilev was perhaps rightly skeptical about the widespread appeal of a satirical allegory on late Romantic composition practice, he seems to have instantly recognized the dramatic potential of puppetry and refocused Stravinsky on the beloved 19th-century slapstick character of “Petrushka” (better known in the Englishspeaking world as “Mr. Punch” from the popular “Punch and Judy” format that dominated Georgian London). With help from designer Alexandre Benois, Stravinsky incorporated a great deal of the existing music into a larger narrative framework that was propelled by a love triangle between three puppet characters: the hapless Petrushka, the beautiful Ballerina, and the dark, handsome Moor. And retained from Stravinsky’s original conception comes a kind of frame story in which a fourth character called simply “The Charlatan” or “The Magician” is seen animating— though not strictly controlling—the various puppets’ motions throughout.

Musically, Petrushka is a more daring and original undertaking than Firebird not least

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because of the ingenious way that Stravinsky uses a harmonic device to depict the dual nature of his central characters: both patients and agents, both actors and authors, both puppets and fully autonomous individuals.

The so-called “Petrushka chord” consists of two major triads placed three whole tones apart and played simultaneously. Our ear almost subconsciously recognizes the major modality of the notes in their individual groupings but can’t ultimately reconcile them because of the distance that separates them: the dreaded “tritone.” Each acts as a kind of counterweight to the other, providing a contradictory element and preventing any clear resolution. Stravinsky would ultimately take this idea of “polytonality,” simultaneously evoking multiple tonal centers, much further in Rite of Spring just two years later, but

here the idea has a kind of naive clarity. This simplicity, however, makes the conclusion of the piece all the more chilling. Following jealous Petrushka’s death at the hands of the Moor, the Charlatan puppetmaster holds the Petrushka puppet aloft as if to say “Don’t worry! It’s only a puppet!” to the horrified crowd of carnival spectators. As the gentle horn and woodwind oscillations return and the crowd disperses, Petrushka’s ghost suddenly appears above the puppet theatre in a series of searing trumpet phrases which outline the unsettled Petrushka chord one final time and leave the audience, real and imagined, wondering who was really pulling the strings. *Program notes by Dr. Joshua Busman

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MARCH 31 • 7:30pm Charleston Gaillard Center

DREAMING OF APRIL IN PARIS Diana Newman, Soprano Lisa Chavez, Mezzo-Soprano Natasha Drena, Vocals Velvet Caravan Ricardo Ochoa, Violin Jimmy Grant, Guitar Bill Peterson, Piano and Accordion Marc Chesanow, Bass Yuriy Bekker, Conductor

Claude Joseph de Lisle, arr. Arthur Luck La Marseillaise Maurice Ravel “The Fairy Garden” from Mother Goose Suite Camille Saint-Saëns “Mon Coeur s'Ouvre” from Samson et Dalila Jacques Offenbach Barcolle "O belle nuit, O nuit d'amour" from Tales of Hoffmann Jacques Offenbach “Overture” from Orphée aux enfers (Orpheus in the Underworld) Jacques Offenbach “Les Oiseaux dans la charmille” (Doll Song) from Tales of Hoffmann Georges Bizet “Scene” and “Habanera” from Carmen

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Claude Debussy “Dialogue du vent et de la mer” (Dialogue of the Wind and Sea) from La mer INTERMISSION Alexandre Desplat, arr. Alex Johansson “Julia’s Theme” from Julie & Julia Joseph Kosma and Jacques Prévert, translated by Johnny Mercer Autumn Leaves Dino Olivieri and Nino Rastelli J’attendrai Stephane Grappelli and Jean Reinhardt Djangology Édith Piaf, arr. James Stephenson La Vie en Rose Traditional Musette Waltz (Django style) Consuelo Velázquez and Oscar Aleman Bésame Mucho Hubert Giraud and Jean Dréjac, arr. Bill Holcombe Under Paris Skies Édith Piaf, arr. Jan Angermüller Non Je Ne Regrette Rien

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ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Pops

Diana Newman, Soprano

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merican soprano Diana Newman brings “fresh and intense” performances to opera houses and concert stages across the United States and Europe. Newman begins the 2019-20 season in her debut with the Dallas Opera as First Lady in The Magic Flute conducted by Music Director Emmanuel Villaume and joins the Metropolitan Opera Roster for the first time in December covering the role of Papagena in the same title. A recent graduate of the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Opera Center, she returns this season for the company’s Ring Cycle reprising her roles as Woglinde in Götterdämmerung and Woodbird in Siegfried, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis. In August Diana was seen as soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl for America in Space in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. During her tenure at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Diana performed the roles of Frasquita in Carmen, Pedro in Don Quichotte, Clorinda in La Cenerentola, Papagena in Die Zauberflöte, and as the Page in Verdi’s Rigoletto, a role she debuted with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel at the Hollywood Bowl. Additional recent performances include her house and role debuts at Palm Beach Opera as Adele in Die Fledermaus, as well as concert performances with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra for Carmina Burana and the Alabama Symphony for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. She made her house and role debuts covering the role of Sophie at the Glyndebourne Festival in the summer of 2018.

On the concert stage, Diana has recently appeared as a soloist in Maria Schneider’s Winter Morning Walks at the Lucerne Festival, Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the Eastern Sierra Symphony Summer Festival, and Vivaldi’s Gloria in Havana, Cuba. Additional concerts include Mozart’s Exsultate jubilate with the USC Alumni Orchestra, Bach’s “Coffee” Cantata with the Whittier Bach Festival, and Mahler’sSymphony no. 4 in her debut with the American Youth Symphony. Her debut with the Grant Park Music Festival came in 2016, appearing as Curly’s Wife in Floyd’s Of Mice and Men. Committed to the performance of art song and new works, Diana has attended numerous programs including the Ravinia Festival Steans Music Institute, SongFest, and the Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar run by Stephanie Blythe. In 2014 she performed at Carnegie Hall in a master class led by legendary mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig as part of the Marilyn Horne Song Continues series. She performed George Crumb’s Madrigals Book IV at Music Academy of the West, Frank Ticheli’s Songs of Love and Life and Angels in the Architecture with the UT New Music Ensemble, and Lukas Foss’s Time Cycle with faculty members of the Aspen Music Festival, where she also covered the role of Daisy Buchanan in John Harbison’s The Great Gatsby. She has given multiple premieres of works by living composers, including Francesco Cilluffo, Dr. Alan L. Smith, and David Newman.

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ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Pops

Lisa Chavez, Mezzo-Soprano

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isa Chavez hailed for “her buttery, richly colored Mezzo” by Opera News. The 18/19 season was capped off with a "star turn" as Maggie in the World Premiere of Iain Bell's Stonewall commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising with New York City Opera. This season was full of role debuts including Rosina in The Barber of Seville and Fenena in Verdi's Nabucco with Sarasota Opera, as well as Amneris in Aida with Washington Opera Society. She returned to Sarasota Opera after her debut in 2017, as Madame de Croissy in Dialogues of the Carmelites for all 11 performances of Carmen in their Winter 2018 season. She immediately followed Sarasota to sing Carmen with Opera in Williamsburg as well as with Washington Opera Society in D.C. Past Carmen productions include performances as a Guest Artist with Opera San Jose, and performances with New York City Opera. She garnered rave reviews including, “Lisa Chavez was born to play Carmen, equipped with the classic Carmen look, vocal power and attitude.” Other roles with New York City Opera include the New York premiere of Tobias Picker’s Dolores Claiborne and Paula in Florencia en el Amazonas.

Opera Today wrote, “… Lisa Chavez, who gives one of the most compelling performances of the evening. With a rich, healthy mezzo voice, she brings the most three-dimensionality to her character, and her second act aria is one of the most heartbreaking moments in the opera.” Next season includes debuts with both Knoxville Opera and Odyssey Opera, as well as 2 role debuts.

Velvet Caravan

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elvet Caravan is one of the most unusual ensembles in the area. Combining Gypsy, Honky-Tonk, Swing and Latin, this band plays upbeat tunes from all over the world with thunderous virtuosism and relentless sense of humor. .

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CHAMBER MUSIC

APRIL 22 & 23 7:30PM Charleston Library Society

MOZART’S MASTERPIECE Yuriy Bekker, Alexander Boissonnault and Asako Kremer, Violins Jan-Marie Joyce, Viola Norbert Lewandowski and Damian Kremer, Violoncellos Gretchen Roper, Clarinet Karen Kistler, English Horn

Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967) Duo for Violin and Cello, Op. 7 I. Allegro serioso, non troppo II. Adagio III. Maestoso e largamente, ma non troppo lento Asako Kremer, Violin Damian Kremer, Violoncello Ulysses Kay (1917-1995) Pieta for English Horn and String Quartet Karen Kistler, English Horn

Yuriy Bekker and Alexander Boissonnault, Violin Jan-Marie Joyce, Viola Norbert Lewandowski, Violoncello

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CHAMBER MUSIC

Jennifer Higdon (b. 1962) Soliloquy for English Horn and String Quartet Karen Kistler, English Horn

Yuriy Bekker and Alexander Boissonnault, Violins Jan-Marie Joyce, Viola Norbert Lewandowski, Violoncello Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) Clarinet Quinet in A Major, K. 581 I. Allegro II. Larghetto III. Menuetto IV. Allegretto con Variationi Gretchen Roper, Clarinet

Yuriy Bekker and Alexander Boissonnault, Violins Jan-Marie Joyce, Viola Norbert Lewandowski, Violoncello

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MASTERWORKS APRIL 28 & 29 • 7:30PM Charleston Gaillard Center

BEETHOVEN’S 9th Saundra DeAthos, Soprano Sara Couden, Alto Harold Meers, Tenor Mark Delavan, Baritone Charleston Symphony Orchestra Chorus, Dr. Robert Taylor, Director College of Charleston Concert Choir, Dr. Robert Taylor, Director Charleston Southern University Concert Singers, Dustin Ousley, Director Ken Lam, Conductor

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) Five Mystical Songs I. Easter II. I Got Me Flowers III. Love Bade Me Welcome IV. The Call V. Antiphon INTERMISSION

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 I. Allegro ma non troppo; un poco maestoso II. Molto vivace III. Adagio molto e cantabile IV. Presto - Allegro assai - Allegro assai vivace

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ABOUT THE ARTIST Masterworks

Saundra DeAthos, Soprano

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yric soprano, Saundra DeAthos, recently took on the position of Assistant Voice Professor at the College of Charleston in Charleston, SC. Prior to this appointment she served at Illinois Wesleyan University as voice teacher and music coordinator for the School of Theater Arts. In addition to teaching private voice and repertoire class, her responsibilities included coordinating the musical activities for the department and music directing/conducting the mainstage productions. Some of her favorite collaborations have been Passion, The Drowsy Chaperone, 9 to 5, Once Upon A Mattress, and Of Thee I Sing. In addition to teaching, Saundra continues to be an active performer in opera. She has been heralded for the remarkable quality of both her vocal and dramatic presentations. Excelling in a varied and broad repertoire, she began her career in the Merola Opera Program and as an Adler Fellow with the San Francisco Opera.

Flourishing in the spotlight, Saundra claimed principal assignments with the San Francisco Opera in Alcina, Ariadne auf Naxos, The Cunning Little Vixen, La Cenerentola, Die Entführung auf dem Serail, La Finta Giardiniera, and Così Fan Tutte on tour with Western Opera Theater.

Of her San Francisco Opera performances, OPERA Magazine admired, "Saundra DeAthos imparted vulnerability and an elegant soprano.” Accordingly, the San Francisco Chronicle noted, "Saundra DeAthos delivered a virtuosic performance… a real charmer of a soprano, (she) made one love the character." The San Francisco Classical Voice confirmed, “Saundra DeAthos nailed all of (her) coloratura flights and showed perfect timing in broad physical comedy." Ms. DeAthos has graced the stages of many outstanding opera companies across the United States, such as San Francisco Opera, Western Opera Theater, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Boston Lyric Opera, Amarillo Opera, Virginia Opera, Eugene Opera, Sacramento Opera, Opera North, Opera Illinois, and West Bay Opera among others. Admired especially for her Mozart interpretations, the Boston Globe observed, “Saundra DeAthos was a feisty presence as Zerlina" and as Servilia in La Clemenza di Tito, Saundra "was particularly sweet-toned and elegant.” While her entry into opera focused largely on the operas of Mozart, highlights of her repertoire include her acclaimed portrayal of the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor, Juliette in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, Marguerite in Faust, Gilda in Rigoletto, Mimì and Musetta in La Bohème, Micaela in Carmen, Nedda in I Pagliacci and Gretel in Hansel and Gretel. In addition to her operatic activities, Ms. DeAthos performs regularly with symphony orchestras throughout the United States including the San Francisco Symphony, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Sinfonia da Camera, Illinois Symphony Orchestra, Helena Symphony, Fresno Symphony Orchestra, and the Elgin Symphony Orchestra. Saundra offers a considerable concert repertoire that encompasses Handel’s Messiah and Jeptha, Mozart’s Requiem and Coronation Mass, Gorecki’s Sorrowful. Songs, Poulenc’s Gloria, Dvořák’s Te Deum, and the Brahms Ein Deutches Requiem. Ms. DeAthos holds a bachelor’s degree in Music Education from Central Michigan University, a Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance and a Doctor of Musical Arts in Vocal Performance and a minor in Vocology from the University of Illinois and is a graduate of the Opera Institute at Boston University.

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ABOUT THE ARTIST Masterworks

Sara Couden, Alto

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raised for her "unusually rich and resonant voice" (Opera News), contralto Sara Couden is a premiere interpreter of operatic, chamber, and song repertoire. Her 2019 season included company debuts with Winter Opera St. Louis as Ruth in Pirates of Penzance, Ars Minerva as Ormondo/Clorindo in Ermelinda, and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra as Israelitish Man in Judas Maccabaeus, as well as a return to Staunton Music Festival as Irene in Theodora. In 2020 she sang for the first time with the Philadelphia Orchestra as Mother/Cup/Dragonfly in L'enfant et les sortileges. Her scheduled 2020 debuts with San Francisco Opera as Rita in The Handmaid's Tale and Seattle Symphony in Messiah were unfortunately canceled due to COVID. In 2021, Ms. Couden will debut with Portland Baroque Orchestra in a program of early Italian music, tour Stravinsky's Three Songs from William Shakespeare and Gubaidulina's Ein Engel with Musicians from Marlboro, sing Junon in Platee in a Mark Morris Dance Group and Philharmonia Baroque co-production, and perform Kindertotenlieder at the Staunton Music Festival.

Highlights of 2018 included a return to Carnegie Hall as the alto soloist in Sir Karl Jenkins' Stabat Mater, Dejanira in Handel's Hercules at the Staunton Music Festival, Testo in Stradella's La Susanna with Heartbeat Opera /Opera Lafayette, Bach cantatas at the Philadelphia Chamber Music Series, Shostakovich's From Jewish Folk Poetry with the Chamber Music Series at Lincoln Center, Bach's St. Matthew Passion with True Concord Voices and Orchestra, and a return to the Met to cover Marta / Pantalis in Mefistofele. In previous seasons, Ms. Couden made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Albine in Thais and covered Erste Magd in Elektra. She toured Japan with Maestro Masaaki Suzuki in Bach's B Minor Mass, performed Third Lady in Die Zauberflote with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Dryad in Ariadne auf Naxos and Penelope in Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria with West Edge Opera, and sang "Urlicht" as the alto soloist in Mahler's Second Symphony with the Santa Cruz Symphony. She completed the Lindemann Young Artist Program at the Metropolitan Opera in 2017 and has been a fellow at the Marlboro Music Festival, Music@Menlo, Music Academy of the West, and the Institute for Young Dramatic Voices. Ms. Couden holds a Master of Music with Honors from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and an AD in Early Music, Chamber Music, and Oratorio from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music.

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ABOUT THE ARTIST Masterworks

Harold Meers, Tenor

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ince his professional debut with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Harold Meers has established himself as one of the outstanding American tenors performing today. He has garnered critical and popular praise for performances at the most important venues in North America including the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Minnesota Opera, Opera Theater of St. Louis, Boston Lyric Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Opera Omaha, Nashville Opera, New Orleans Opera, Baltimore Opera, Cleveland Opera, and Virginia Opera.

In the current season, Harold has appeared as Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly with Opera Santa Barbara and in concert “Storie d’amore” with soprano Saundra DeAthos. He will also perform at the National Theatre in the Czech Republic as Manolios in Martinů's Greek Passion and present a concert performance of Carmen in the role of Don Jose with the Helena Symphony Orchestra.

Additionally, Harold also serves the newly appointed Founder/General Director of Charleston Opera Theater. In the 2018/19 season, Harold sang Riccardo in Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera at the Hessisches Theater Wiesbaden, Boris in Janáček's Káťa Kabanová at Opera North in Leeds and reprised his signature role of Rodolfo in La Bohème with Theater Freiburg. He also appeared as a soloist with the Southwest Florida and Santa Barbara Symphonies in Verdi's Requieum.

This past season Harold returned to Opera Santa Barbara as Des Grieux in Massenet’s Manon and covered the title role in Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann at LA Opera. He also assumed 3 leading roles at Theater Freiburg in Germany: the title role in Offenbach's Les Contes Hoffmann; Boris in Janáček's Káťa Kabanová; and Rodolfo in Puccini's La Bohème. In the 2016/17 season Harold made an international debut in Mexico at the historic Teatro Degollado as Cassio in Otello in a staged production with the Filharmonica de Jaslico. Additional season highlights included his renown Don José in Carmen with Opera Santa Barbara, Madama Butterfly with Kentucky Opera, and concert performances with the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, Helena Symphony Orchestra, and Rochester Philharmonic. Meers’ engagements for the 2015/16 season included a return to the Metropolitan Opera as Cassio (cover) in the company’s new production of Verdi’s Otello, plus his critically heralded role debut in the title role of Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann with Madison Opera under the baton of John DeMain, and Luigi/Rinuccio in Puccini’s Il Trittico with the Utah Festival Opera.

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ABOUT THE ARTIST Masterworks

Mark Delavan, Baritone

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ark Delavan, a singer of “incisive vocal power and fierce theatrical acuity,” is sought after throughout the United States and Europe for the most demanding roles in his operatic repertoire. At the Metropolitan Opera, Mr. Delavan took his interpretation of Wotan in cycles of Der Ring des Nibelungen under Fabio Luisi to critical acclaim. He has also performed at the esteemed house, the title roles of Simon Boccanegra and Nabucco, and has appeared as Scarpia in Tosca, Amonasro in Aida, Tomsky in Pique Dame, Alfio in Cavalleria rusticana, Carlo in La forza del destino, Gianciotto in Zandonai’s Francesca da Rimini, Gerard in a major revival of Andrea Chénier, and in recent productions of La Fanciulla del West and Falstaff.

Internationally, Delavan has worked most frequently with the Deutsche Oper Berlin, in performances of Wotan in Der Ring des Nibelungen, as well as in stand-alone performances of Das Rheingold and Die Walküre led by Donald Runnicles, as Scarpia in Tosca, Jupiter in Die Liebe der Danae, Alfio/Tonio in the double-bill of Cavalleria rusticana/Pagliacci, and Iago in Otello. He débuted as Jochanaan in Salome at Teatro Carlo Felice in Genova under Fabio Luisi and went on to perform the role in productions with Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu and in concert with the Prague State Opera. He also has sung Jack Rance in La fanciulla del West for Den Jyske Opera and Scarpia in Tosca with the Canadian Opera Company.

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PROGRAM NOTES Masterworks Ralph Vaughan Williams Five Mystical Songs By composer standards, Ralph Vaughan Williams was something of a late bloomer.

Though he reportedly showed musical aptitude from a young age, even taking a correspondence course in music from the University of Edinburgh at age eight, his compositional career was slow to start. He spent the majority of his 20s bouncing between Royal College of Music and Trinity College, Cambridge eventually earning his doctorate in music in 1901. It wasn’t until the following year, when he was nearly 30 years old, that his first composition actually appeared in print. All this time in school seems to have made Vaughan Williams into a kind of perpetual student who was constantly looking for his next teacher. There are even stories about the young composer finding time for composition lessons with German composer Max Bruch while on his 1897 honeymoon in Berlin.

So it was that more than half a decade after finishing his doctorate, Vaughan Williams spent the winter term in Paris studying with Maurice Ravel, a firebrand young composer who was actually three years his junior.

According to Vaughan Williams, it was these brief months under Ravel’s tutelage that helped him to shake off “the heavy contrapuntal Teutonic manner” he had learned in his decades of schooling and begin to find his own compositional voice. And find it he did. In the five short years between his return from Paris and the outbreak of the First World War, Vaughan Williams produced some of his most celebrated and enduring

works, including his song cycle On Wenlock Edge, his Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, his first string quartet, and his first two symphonies. Right in the middle of that burst of musical productivity, he produced a set of Five Mystical Songs based on the poetry of the seventeenth-century Welsh priest, George Herbert. The work was composed for the Three Choirs Festival held each summer in Worcester and is features a baritone soloist in addition to choir and orchestra.

The texts set are all by Herbert but were gathered by Vaughan Williams from across the poet’s output and point towards broad themes of hope, joy, and fulfillment. Though Vaughan Williams had pronounced himself an atheist as a precocious boarding school student of 14, he was frequently inspired throughout his life by the liturgy and music of the Anglican church and especially by the visionary or mystical side of religious experience articulated by someone like Herbert. This dynamic is on absolutely spell-binding display in the final stanza of the middle movement “Love Bade Me Welcome.”

The poem relates a simple allegory of a Guest whom Love has invited in for supper. The Guest, believing himself unworthy repeatedly refuses the invitation, but is finally persuaded

by Love’s gentle servitude. At the moment of the Guest’s final acquiescence narrated by the soloist (“You must sit down..), the chorus enters with a wordless rendition of the plainchant melody “O sacrum convivium,” a Eucharistic hymn penned by Saint Thomas Aquinas. At this moment, a spectacular act of transubstantiation takes place in which the

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PROGRAM NOTES Masterworks

“sacred banquet” is received in the here and now through the gift of hospitality. And this gift is seemingly repaid by the protagonist through the affirmation of “The Call” and the culminating celebration of the final hymn of praise, “Antiphon.” This is the ordinary becoming sacred and the sacred becoming ordinary.

Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 Perhaps no single work has loomed larger in the history of Western classical music than the ninth and final symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven. Beethoven’s Ninth was the culmination of a career that had already had a transformative effect on music history. In his earlier “heroic” period—epitomized by his “Heroic” Symphony No. 3—Beethoven had expanded the scope and formal possibilities of instrumental music beyond anything imagined by his predecessors. And by time he sat down to start writing the Ninth Symphony in 1822, he had redefined what it meant to be an artist in the nineteenth century. It is wellknown that Beethoven was near-completely deaf for the final ten years of his life. This is a fact which undoubtedly adds an almost supernatural quality to the expansive sounds he explores throughout the Ninth Symphony.

However, the trope of the “suffering artist” has become so familiar to us at this point in history that perhaps it doesn’t seem unique: Vincent Van Gogh cut off his ear, Emily Dickinson lived in reclusive isolation, and countless artists have struggled with depression and substance abuse of various

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kinds. But Beethoven is not simply another name in this long list; he is largely the source of this mythology. In 1802, Beethoven wrote a famous letter to his brothers in which he exclaimed “I would have ended my life—it was only my art that held me back. It seemed to me impossible to leave the world until I had brought forth all that I felt was within me.” Published after his death, this socalled “Heiligenstadt Testament” created the template for countless artists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in which the stones of personal pain sharpen the sword of artistic insight.

For composers who came after him, the question wasn’t whether or not one would follow in Beethoven’s footsteps, but simply how one would do so. By the end of the nineteenth century, the German music world was split in two by the “War of the Romantics”: the avant-garde devotees of Richard Wagner on one side and the more conservative disciples of Johannes Brahms and Clara Schumann on the other. What’s fascinating, however, is the fact that both sides of this debate would justify their positions by appealing to this final symphony of Beethoven. Wagner’s massive music dramas cracked open and reconfigured the opera just as Beethoven had done to the symphony. While Brahms argued that Beethoven would have continued to innovate inside the handful of traditional genres and forms that characterized all of his late output.

Both claimed that their music was the logical extension of this unimpeachable masterword.

In fact, the legacy of Beethoven’s Ninth

PROGRAM NOTES Masterworks

Symphony is so long that it extends well into the twentieth century. For instance, have you ever wondered why CDs needed to be 120 millimeters across? This size allows them to hold approximately 80 minutes of music which satisfied Sony executive Norio Ohga’s mandate to his engineers that their new audio technology be able to contain the entirety of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony on a single disc.

On the surface, the organization of Beethoven’s Ninth is similar to other symphonic works of the time. The piece is cast in four movements with the outer movements in a continuously developing sonata form and the inner movements a scherzo and slow, gorgeous adagio respectively. But the resemblances to past symphonies more-or-less stop there. The first, and perhaps, most obvious thing that differentiates Beethoven 9 from previous examples of the form is the inclusion of a choir in the final movement. The famous “Ode to Joy,” with its text taken from German poet Friedrich Schiller, serves as the capstone for the final movement and makes explicit the sense of the infinite that permeates the rest of the work. The opening creation ex nihilo of the first movement is mirrored in the evocation of the teeming millions receiving the kiss of the Creator under the canopy of stars in the final lines of the poem. Another thing that differentiates this piece from previous symphonies is its sheer size. A single movement of Beethoven’s Ninth is as long as an entire symphony by Mozart or Haydn. Nearly a century later, the

Austrian composer Gustav Mahler, an heir to the symphonic tradition that Beethoven initiated, famously remarked “A symphony must be like the world...it must contain everything.” This monumental work is the first to attempt such a world-encompassing symphonic approach and perhaps the first to succeed. *Program notes by Dr. Joshua Busman

The Sound of Charleston From Gosp el to Gersh win

Charleston’s history as heard through her music.

Featuring CSO artists Jessica Hull-Dambaugh, Charles Messersmith, Ghadi Shayban and Chee-Hang See

Presented at historic Circular Congregational Church Visit our website for full schedule of performances.

SoundOfCharleston.com | (843) 270-4903

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LIBRETTO Lyrics

Ralph Vaughan Williams

Five Mystical Songs Libretto from The Temple: Sacred Poems

by George Herbert (1593-1633) I. Easter

II. I Got Me Flowers

Rise heart; thy Lord is risen.

Sing his praise without delays, Who takes thee by the hand, That thou likewise with him may'st rise; That, as his death calcined thee to dust, His life may make thee gold, and much more, just.

I got me flowers to strew thy way; I got me boughs off many a tree: But thou wast up by break of day, And brought'st thy sweets along with thee.

from Easter

Awake, my lute, and struggle for thy part With all thy art.

The cross taught all wood to resound his name, Who bore the same.

His stretched sinews taught all strings, what key Is the best to celebrate this most high day.

Consort both heart and lute, and twist a song Pleasant and long; Or since all music is but three parts vied And multiplied.

O let thy blessed Spirit bear a part, And make up our defects with his sweet art.

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from the second half of Easter

The Sun arising in the East.

Though he give light, and the East perfume; If they should offer to contest With thy arising, they presume.

Can there be any day but this, Though many suns to shine endeavour?

We count three hundred, but we miss: There is but one, and that one ever.

LIBRETTO Lyrics

III. Love Bade Me Welcome

IV. The Call

Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back.

Guilty of dust and sin.

But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack From my first entrance in, Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning If I lack'd any thing.

Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life: Such a Way, as gives us breath: Such a Truth, as ends all strife: Such a Life, as killeth death.

from Love (III)

A guest, I answer'd, worthy to be here: Love said, You shall be he.

I the unkind, ungrateful? Ah, my dear, I cannot look on thee.

Love took my hand, and smiling did reply, Who made the eyes but I? Truth Lord, but I have marr'd them: let my shame Go where it doth deserve.

And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?

My dear, then I will serve.

You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat: So I did sit and eat.

from The Call

Come, my Light, my Feast, my Strength: Such a Light, as shows a feast: Such a Feast, as mends in length: Such a Strength, as makes his guest.

Come, my Joy, my Love, my Heart: Such a Joy, as none can move: Such a Love, as none can part: Such a Heart, as joys in love.

V. Antiphon

from Antiphon (I) Let all the world in every corner sing: My God and King.

The heavens are not too high, His praise may thither fly; The earth is not too low, His praises there may grow.

Let all the world in every corner sing: My God and King.

The Church with psalms must shout, No door can keep them out; But above all, the heart Must bear the longest part.

Let all the world in every corner sing: My God and King.

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LIBRETTO Lyrics

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven

O Freunde, nicht diese Töne!

Sondern laßt uns angenehmere anstimmen, und freudenvollere.

Oh friends, not these sounds!

Let us instead strike up more pleasing And more joyful ones!

Freude!

Freude!

Joy! Joy!

Freude, schöner Götterfunken Tochter aus Elysium, Wir betreten feuertrunken, Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!

Deine Zauber binden wieder Was die Mode streng geteilt; Alle Menschen werden Brüder, Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.

Joy, beautiful spark of divinity, Daughter from Elysium, We enter, burning with fervour, Heavenly being, your sanctuary!

Your magic brings together What custom has sternly divided.

All men shall become brothers, Wherever your gentle wings hover.

Wem der große Wurf gelungen, Eines Freundes Freund zu sein; Wer ein holdes Weib errungen, Mische seinen Jubel ein!

Ja, wer auch nur eine Seele Sein nennt auf dem Erdenrund!

Und wer's nie gekonnt, der stehle Weinend sich aus diesem Bund!

Whoever has been lucky enough To become a friend to a friend, Whoever has found a beloved wife, Let him join our songs of praise!

Yes, and anyone who can call one soul His own on this earth!

Any who cannot, let them slink away from this gathering in tears!

Freude trinken alle Wesen An den Brüsten der Natur; Alle Guten, alle Bösen Folgen ihrer Rosenspur.

Küsse gab sie uns und Reben, Einen Freund, geprüft im Tod; Wollust ward dem Wurm gegeben, Und der Cherub steht vor Gott.

Every creature drinks in joy At nature's breast; Good and Evil alike follow her trail of roses.

She gives us kisses and wine, A true friend, even in death; Even the worm was given desire, And the cherub stands before God.

Froh, wie seine Sonnen fliegen Durch des Himmels prächt'gen Plan, Laufet, Brüder, eure Bahn, Freudig, wie ein Held zum Siegen.

Gladly, just as His suns hurtle Through the glorious universe, So you, brothers, should run your course, joyfully, like a conquering hero.

Freude, schoner Gotterfunken, Tochter aus Elysium, Wir betreten feuertrunken, Himmlische, dein Heiligtum.

Joy, fair divine spark, Daughter of Elysium, Intoxicated with fire, we enter, O Heavenly One, your sacred shrine.

Symphony No. 9, Mvt 4

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Symphony No. 9, Mvt 4

LIBRETTO Lyrics

Symphony No. 9, Mvt 4 cont'd

Symphony No. 9, Mvt 4 cont'd

Deine Zauber binden wieder Was die Mode streng geteilt, Alle Menschen werden Bruder, Wo dein snfter Flugel weilt.

Your magic once again unites All that Fashion had sternly divided.

All men become brothers Where your gentle wings abide.

Seid umschlungen, Millionen!

Diesen Kuß der ganzen Welt!

Brüder, über'm Sternenzelt Muß ein lieber Vater wohnen.

Be embraced, you millions!

This kiss is for the whole world!

Brothers, above the canopy of stars must dwell a loving father.

Ihr stürzt nieder, Millionen?

Do you bow down before Him, you millions?

Freude, schoner Gotterfunken, Tochter aus Elysium, Wir betreten feuertrunken, Himmlische, dein Heiligtum.

Joy, fair divine spark, Daughter of Elysium, Intoxicated with fire, we enter, O Heavenly One, your sacred shrine.

Seid umschlungen, Millionen!

Diesen Kuss der ganzen Welt!

Be embraced, ye millions!

This kiss to the whole world!

Ihr sturtz nieder, Millionen!

Ahnest du den Schopfer, Welt?

Such ihn uberm Sternenzelt!

Bruder--uberm Sternenzelt Muss ein lieber Vater wohnen.

Do you fall headlong, o millions?

Do you sense the Creator, World?

Seek Him above the canopy of stars!

Brothers--above the canopy of the stars Surely a loving father dwells.

Freude, Tochter aus Elysium!

Deine Zauber binden wieder Was die Mode streng geteilt, Alle Menschen werden Bruder, Wo dein snfter Flugel weilt.

Joy, daughter of Elysium!

Your magic once again unites All that Fashion had sternly divided.

All men become brothers Where your gentle wings abide.

Seid umschlungen, Millionen!

Diesen Kuss der ganzen Welt!

Bruder--uberm Sternenzelt Muss ein lieber Vater wohnen.

Ahnest du den Schöpfer, Welt?

Such' ihn über'm Sternenzelt! Über Sternen muß er wohnen.

Be embraced, ye millions!

This kiss to the whole world!

Brothers--above the canopy of the stars Surely a loving father dwells.

Do you sense your Creator, O world?

Seek Him above the canopy of stars!

He must dwell beyond the stars.

Freude, schoner Gotterfunken, Tochter aus Elysium, Freude, schoner Gotterfunken!

Joy, fair divine spark, Daughter of Elysium, Joy, fair divine spark!

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HOW YOU CAN HELP THE CSO YOU ARE INSTRUMENTAL TO OUR SUCCESS!

Did you know that ticket sales cover less than 50% of the CSO’s annual operating expenses? As a nonprofit organization, we rely on the generosity of our patrons to bridge that gap every year. Thanks to our donors, the CSO is able to serve almost 50,000 adults and children every year. You can make a difference with a gift of any size. Your support will ensure the Charleston Symphony continues to provide the community with the healing power of music as we look beyond COVID-19. We need you now more than ever! Play your part by making a tax-deductible gift today.

“PHILANTHROPY LIES AT THE HEART OF HUMAN GREATNESS.” - PATRICK J. RYAN

WAYS TO GIVE

Online: www.charlestonsymphony.org Email: development@charlestonsymphony.org Check: Payable to Charleston Symphony Orchestra Mailing address: P.O. Box 30818, Charleston, SC 29417 Stock: Contact Millennium Private Wealth (843) 471-2641 CSO Account #: 7643-8103 | DTC #: 141 Required Minimum Distribution (RMD): Are you over the age of 71 ½? We hope you will consider making a tax-free gift to CSO from your IRA account. A donation to the CSO counts as an RMD but does not increase your adjusted gross income. The CSO's Tax ID number is 57-6000192.

COMPOSE YOUR LEGACY WITH PLANNED GIVING Ensure the gift of music remains accessible for future generations by including the Charleston Symphony in your estate plans. Leave a gift of cash or securities to the CSO in your will. Designate the CSO as a beneficiary of your retirement fund, life insurance policy, annuity, and more. Opportunities to join the Charleston Symphony Legacy Society are endless! For more information, please visit the CSO online at www.CharlestonSymphony.org/support-us.

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MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS

THE ORCHESTRA FUND: 2021-2022 ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS With appreciation for your annual support, the following special benefits and events are designed to enhance your connection with the CSO: COMPOSER’S CLUB Bach Level Member ($100-$249) Subscription to E-Notes, the CSO’s digital newsletter for supporters Mozart Level Member ($250-$499) benefits above, plus: Donor recognition online and in the Annual Report Special invitation to CSOL Coffee and Wine events with the Maestro Beethoven Level Member ($500-$999) benefits above, plus: Season-long recognition in Bravo, the CSO’s program book Invitation to one working orchestra rehearsal Chopin Level Member ($1,000-$1,999) benefits above, plus: Invitation to the CSO’s Annual Meeting Invitation to two working orchestra rehearsals SYMPHONY SOCIETY ($2,000-$4,999) benefits above, plus: Complimentary parking in the Charleston Gaillard garage Invitation to private donor receptions and special events throughout the concert season MUSICIAN’S CIRCLE ($5,000-$9,999) benefits above, plus: Opportunity to sponsor a Guest Musician Chair Opportunity to sponsor a select “Overture” as part of a Masterworks performance Invitation to the Musician Donor Luncheon Invitation to Meet the Musicians receptions Reserved seating at the Sunset Serenade concert ARTIST’S CIRCLE ($10,000 - $14,999) benefits above, plus: Opportunity to sponsor a CSO Section Core Musician Opportunity to sponsor a Soloist/Artist or a “Concerto” as part of a Masterworks performance Exclusive parking opportunities for one vehicle in the George Street lot Reserved seating for Chamber Music and Messiah performances PRINCIPAL’S CIRCLE ($15,000-$24,999) benefits above, plus: Opportunity to sponsor a CSO Principal Musician Opportunity to sponsor a “Symphony” as part of a Masterworks performance MAESTRO’S CIRCLE ($25,000+) benefits above, plus: Gifts at this leadership level demonstrate a tremendous dedication to the Charleston Symphony. To discuss benefits and personalized experiences that come with this level of commitment, please contact the Development office at amorrall@charlestonsymphony.org | 843.723.7528.

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DONORS MAESTRO'S CIRCLE ($250,000+) With special gratitude: Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Ziff

MAESTRO'S CIRCLE ($100,000-$249,000)

Charleston Symphony Orchestra League, Inc. Herzman-Fishman Charitable Fund and Carol H. Fishman Kite Foundation Fund / Nancye B. Starnes

MAESTRO'S CIRCLE ($25,000-$99,999)

Dr. Cynthia Cleland Austin City of Charleston Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation The Garth Family Foundation Ted and Joan Halkyard The Kennedy-Herterich Foundation Morgan and Lauren Herterich and Karyn Kennedy Herterich and Dieter Herterich Martha Rivers Ingram Advised Fund of The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee Peter R. & Cynthia K. Kellogg Foundation Elizabeth Rivers Lewine Endowment for CSO Fund of Coastal Community Foundation Samuel Freeman Charitable Trust South Carolina Arts Commission South Carolina Cares Act Nonprofit Relief Storey Foundation Susan W. and James V. Sullivan Mrs. Andrea Volpe

PRINCIPAL'S CIRCLE ($15,000-$24,999)

BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina John T. and Elizabeth K. Cahill Fund of Coastal Community Foundation Ilse Calcagno Dr. and Mrs. William T. Creasman Dr. Miriam DeAntonio Mr. and Mrs. Mark Gernand Lee and Ann Higdon Robert and Catherine Hill Corinne and William Khouri Katherine M. Maybank Mr. and Mrs. G. Richard Query

ARTIST'S CIRCLE ($10,000-$14,999)

Patricia Ann Abraham Claire and James Allen Family Foundation Frank and Kathy Cassidy Barbara Chapman Dr. James L. and Judy E. Chitwood Chitwood Family Fund

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Maryileen & Charlie Cumbaa Dominion Energy Mr. Ronald H. Fielding and Ms. Susan Lobell Dr. and Mrs. Frederick J. Goulding Gray Charitable Trust Clyde and Jill Hiers Henry and Ann Hurd Fralix Sue and Ken Ingram June and Mariano La Via Tricia and Ted Legasey Macdonald Carew Family Fund Barbara and Michael Moody Anne P. Olsen David Savard and Helen Savard Thomas and Alison Schneider Dr. Christian and Mrs. Jutta Schwabe Helen and Robert Siedell Roger and Vivian Steel Gerald and Gretchen Tanenbaum Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Ziff

MUSICIAN'S CIRCLE ($5,000-$9,999)

Mary Jo and Fred Armbrust Mrs. Sharon Balderson John & Mary Lou Barter Tricia Bliss Lon and Deborah Bouknight Dr. Ivy Broder and Dr. John F. Morrall III Mary and William Buckley Lucia Childs Eliza Chrystie Colbert Family Fund of CCF Gail and David Corvette Daniel Island Community Fund Mary and John Degnan Dr. Jeffery and Mrs. Tammy Dorociak Jerry H. Evans and Stephen T. Bajjaly Kathy and Pete Gaynor Rajan and Suman Govindan Judith Green and Dr. Michael Fritz Richard and Ann Gridley Tracy and Billy Grooms Dr. William D. Gudger Cindy and George Hartley Henry & Sylvia Yaschik Foundation, Inc. Paul and Becky Hilstad Mr. and Mrs. Raymond D. Houlihan Katherine M. Huger Gail Kahn Foundation Fund at The Chicago Community Foundation Dr. and Mrs. Fritz Lorscheider Cynthia S. and James C. Mabry Mrs. Gail Maginnis Jon Olson and Anne Regan Rev. Dr. William P. Rhett, Jr. Roper St. Francis Healthcare

Claire and Joseph Schady Ike and Betsy Smith Albert and Caroline Thibault Christine and Richard Yriart

SYMPHONY SOCIETY ($2,000-$4,999)

Anonymous Dr. and Mrs. Baker Allen Mr. and Mrs. Brady and Betty Anderson Mr. and Mrs. James P. Anderson Mr. Ivan V. Anderson and Dr. Renee Dobbins Anderson Dr. Charles A. Andrus Dr. Bobby and Julie Baker The Bihun Family Foundation Henry M. Blackmer Foundation, Inc. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas W. Boswell Richard Clapp Dr. Malcolm C. Clark Wynona G. Crosby Sally and Colin Cuskley Nancy and Ralph Edwards Keith and Susanne Emge Mrs. Vernelle Evans Julie and John Fenimore William and Prudence Finn Charitable Trust Richard J. Friedman, M.D. and Sandra Brett Chris and Miranda Fuller Mr. and Mrs. Richard H. Gadsden, Jr. Dr. Robert Gant Jesse W. Garth Jenny and Jack Gelston Arthur and Betty Glenn Michael Griffith and Donna Reyburn Charles and Celia Hansult Mr. James C. Hare, Jr. Nelson Hicks Bob and Marcia Hider Peter Holmi The Horan Family Philanthropic Fund Jim and Bettie Keyes Dr. Michael S. Kogan Karl H. Kuester, Sr. Mr. and Mrs. Michael Laughlin Susan and Bob Leggett Mr. and Mrs. Fulton D. Lewis John H. Longmaid and Ruth Monsell Capt. and Mrs. Nat Malcolm Jack and Cathy McWhorter The Mark Elliott Motley Foundation Robert Nicholson Bill and Sheila Prezzano Dr. and Mrs. Bert Pruitt Publix Super Markets Charities Mr. and Mrs. William J. Raver Mr. and Mrs. Donald S. Reid

The CHARLESTON SYMPHONY gratefully acknowledges the following individuals and families, businesses and foundations, and government entities for their commitment to advancing our mission. Listed below are gifts received between July 1, 2020, and June 30, 2021: Robert S. and Sylvia K. Reitman Family Foundation Harriet Ripinsky Royall Ace Hardware Inc. Jodi Rush and Jon Baumgarten Gretchen and Fritz Saenger Ginger and David Scott Ms. Mindelle Seltzer and Dr. Robert Lovinger Mr. and Mrs. Michael Sommer Elizabeth and Charles Sullivan Marilyn and George Taylor Foster and Betty Thalheimer Town of Mount Pleasant Mr. and Mrs. John H. Warren, III Jennifer Welham Ann L. Wessel Mr. and Mrs. D. Sykes Wilford Mr. and Mrs. Bonum S. Wilson, Jr.

CHOPIN LEVEL MEMBERS ($1,000-$1,999) Anonymous (2) Bartley Antine MD Gene and Mary Arner Atlantic Services Charitable Trust Lou and Karen Attanasi Charles and Sharon Barnett Anne and Philip Bergan Mr. and Mrs. R. Jeffrey Bixler Robert and Ruth Bonelli Lawrence R. Burtschy Dr. and Mrs. H. Fred Butehorn, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. James A. Cathcart, III Dr. Harry and Mrs. Jennifer Clarke Bubber Cockrell, MD Ellen Costello and Michael Judge Rosalie Crouch Robert and Joan D'Amato Ellen and Tommy Davis Richard and Jean Day Charles & Edith Dixon Ellen Moryl Jaimie and Bill Flack Sharon Fratepietro and Herb Silverman James and Margie Freston Joe and Sylvia Gamboa George & Pooh Gephart John and Pamela Gerstmayr Dr. and Mrs. Edward M. Gilbreth Peter and Shelley Hempstead Paul and Joanne Hennessy Kandace and William Higley Abby and Frederick T. Himmelein Bill and Ruth Hindman Sherry and Kenneth Hirsch Dr. Eddie Irions Herb and Marge Jarvis Dr. and Mrs. Joseph M. Jenrette, III

Dr. and Mrs. Joseph John Mr. and Mrs. Lee Kohlenberg John & Ardath Labriola Anne and Cisco Lindsey Louise Lingerfelt Clarence and Judy Manning Cathy Marino The Jack and Joanne Martin Charitable Foundation Gwen and Layton McCurdy Thomas and Lorraine McDermott Patricia Mesel Sonnie and Ed Moran Gerd and Helen Mueller Dr. Martina Mueller Dennis and Margaret Hawk O'Brien Anthony and Janice Oglietti Charitable Fund Lorraine Perry and Ford Reese James and Kathleen Ramich Family Fund Layton L. Register The John M. Rivers, Jr. Foundation Inc. Kathleen Rivers & Bob Carroll Mr. and Mrs. Claron A. Robertson Mr. and Mrs. Robert K. Schafer Stephen and Jeannie Schwartz Bill and Gloria Seaborn Mr. and Mrs. Walter G. Seinsheimer, Jr. Elaine and Bill Simpson Martha and Richard Ulmer Peter Zavell

BEETHOVEN LEVEL MEMBERS ($500-$999) Anonymous Susan Parsons and Angus Baker Jacquelin S. Bennett The Boatwright Family Charitable Fund of National Christian Foundation Elizabeth C. Bonner Foundation John and Jean Breza Dr. Tina Brollier Dr. and Mrs. Ronald Bruce Dr. and Mrs. William Y. Buchanan Mr. and Mrs. T. G. Burke Mary Elizabeth Canaday Paul and Polly Cathcart Mr. and Mrs. Fernando E. Casasco Mr. H. Capers Cross Jill Davidge Dr. and Mrs. Victor E. Del Bene Gary and Susan DiCamillo Dr. Carol Drowota Mr. and Mrs. W. Foster Gaillard Paula and Eugene Freed Veronica D. and Peter B. Goodrich Mrs. Faye F. Griffin The James and Pamela Hentges Charitable Fund

Mrs. Judy Hines Richard Hogue Mr. and Mrs. Addison Ingle Phyllis G. Jestice Mr. & Mrs. Brian Browning Johnson Riley Rogers Kash Mr. and Mrs. Michael Kirk Richard Konrath John and Shea Kuhn Jonathan R. Lamb Linda W. Larsen The Lesher Family Richard and Lasca Lilly Mr. Spencer Lynch Christopher J. and Lane H. MacAvoy Dr. and Mrs. John C. Maize Mike and Mary Jo Manning Gary and Donna Mastrandrea Mr. Tony Mazurkiewicz J Bradford McIlvain Susan and Larry Middaugh Dr. and Mrs. Terence N. Moore Kyra and Robert Morris Valerie Morris and Boris Bohun-Chudyniv Joanne and Morgan Morton Margalit and Gary Neiman Network for Good Bob and Rosie Omahne Tony and Joanne Panek Eleanor and Louis Parker Dr. and Mrs. Leonard L. Peters James and Linda Pierce Eloise R. Pingry David Ploth MD Ms. Pamela Pollitt Helen C. Powell Donor Advised Fund at the Boston Foundation Robert and Judith Rainear Pringle-Read Endowment of CCF Mr. and Mrs. Helene and James Rovito David M. Rubin and Tina Press Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Seeger Duane and Lee Spong Harold and Louise Talbot Drs. Terri Thomas and Alex Kent Anne and Ken Tidwell Barbara and Jock Vincentsen John and Cecily Ward Jane O. Waring Constance West Chris and Ellen White Mr. Joseph L. Wright, Jr. Shelley and Marty Yonas

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IN HONOR / IN MEMORY IN HONOR CSO Musicians Ellen Moryl

Mitsuko Flynn and Kellen Gray Alesia and Scott Ross

Yuriy Bekker, Cindy Branch, Ken Lam, Michael Smith Renee Anderson

Sarah Hawbecker-Fuller and Jonathan Fuller Chris and Miranda Fuller

Yuriy Bekker Neil and Marsha Gewirtzman Judith Green and Dr. Michael Fritz Cindy Branch Drs. Lydia Engelhardt and Bill Rambo Mr. and Mrs. James T. Coleman Anne Coleman Quinn Delaney Norah Diedrich Gene and Nancy Deveney Sheila D. Warren Marsha A. Ferira Dr. Ashley Jordan Ferira

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Jodie-Beth Galos Kyra and Robert Morris David Nussenbaum David and Patricia Hannemann George Scott John. H. Warren, III Esq. Henry M. Blackmer Foundation, Inc.

IN HONOR / IN MEMORY IN MEMORY Rosemary Vona Alvarez Kathleen Lowry Frances and Frank Lowry Dina Horn Nida Schiavone Phillip Jackey David Vona Albert Lowry Phillip Alvarez Charles and Marion Caccavale Mr. Erwin Atzinger Doris Mindes Blumenthal Georgette Smith Granville Curtis Garth The Garth Family Foundation Kerry Goldmeyer Rick Goldmeyer Bob Hider Nancy & Flo Brown Foley Dr. and Mrs. Stan Ullner Elise Haderer Ann Kent David and Cherie Root Tori Langen Claire and James Allen Family Foundation Sherry Vincent Joan Johnson Freddie Weisberg Martha McCoy

Dr. Wendell S. Johnson Betty DeLoach Mr. and Mrs. Morse Johnson Linda Perry Landfried Barbara Neptune Stuart Eric Larsen Linda W. Larsen Michael Allen Maginnis, MD Monday Night Literary Club Donald V. Marti Mrs. Mary Wells John F. Maybank Katherine M. Maybank Richard Moryl Dr. Michael S. Kogan Ellen Moryl Janis Ploth David Ploth MD Dorothy Irene Carson Rhett Rev. Dr. William P. Rhett, Jr. Linda Ripinsky Harriet Ripinsky L. Mendel Rivers and Margaret M. Rivers Bubber Cockrell, MD Dr. Jules Vassaluzzo Robert and Mary Anne Grenfell

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GUEST MUSICIAN HOSTS & IN-KIND GIFTS GUEST MUSICIAN HOSTS Ann Beauchamp Jenny & Yuriy Bekker Ledlie Bell Linda Bergman Sarah J. Blum Mr. & Mrs. J. Sidney Boone, Jr. Mr. & Mrs. Thomas W. Boswell Sandy Bowers Curt Brouwer Tony Buccafurri & Stephen Murray Doug & Verna Bunao-Weeks Barbara Burgess Dr. & Mrs. Phil Buscemi Mary Bridget Cabezas Jean Carlton Judy & Bill Casey Stuart & Susan Chagrin Joan & Richard Chardkoff Lydia Chernicoff & Jaan Rannik L. John & Judy Clark Anne Cline Judy Collins Ann & Paul Comer Carol M Conklin Jeanne Anne Coplestone Ms. Carolyne Cox Bill & Erble Creasman Allen Curry Genta Dani Jill Rabon Davidge Giulio & Donatella Della Porta Dr. Jeffery & Mrs. Tammy Dorociak Graham Drayton, Jr. Ms. Karen Durand Tacy & Darrell Edwards Andrew Emmett Susan Fasola Gail & Evan Firestone Carol H. Fishman George Flynn Ann Hurd & Henry Fralix Paul & Barbara Franklin Ed Galaid & Chris Tobin Joe & Sylvia Gamboa Rachel & Micah Gangwer Bob & Ornella Gebhardt Jenny & Jack Gelston Pam & John Gerstmayr Dr. Lily Gomez & Dr. Angel Cobiella Bill & Sarah Good Suman & Rajan Govindan

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Tracy & Billy Grooms Edith Haman Zac Hammond Celia & Chuck Hansult Ellen & Ed Harley Jo & Ray Hauck Louise Heikes & Roy Liebman Carole & Rick Heilman Nancy Hendricks Stephen & Terri Herubin Eric & Margaret Herzlich Ron & Linda Hicks Becky & Paul Hilstad Frances Hsieh & Richard Krenmayer Connie & Lowry Hughes Blake & Julie Ives Glenn & Judy Jackson Cheryl Jalbert Marijayne Jensvold Colin Johnson Kurt & Vicki Johnson Christina Jones & Sam Lynah Jan-Marie & Tom Joyce Michael & Joy Ellen Kauffman Cheryl & Jerry Kaynard Kari Kistler Sharon Kloss Carolyn Kostopoulos & John Paull Asako & Damian Kremer Matt & Jean Kuhn Peggy & Franklin LaBelle June & Mariano La Via Liz & Phil Leffel Penelope Leighton & John Hurshman Courtenay & Norbert Lewandowski Chris Licata & Jennifer Blevins Chris Lindgren & Vincent Kiray Rachel Ruth Lindsay Gail Maginnis Ren & Judy Manning Dr. Bill & Pamela Marsh Kay Maybank Marjorie T. McManus Georgia Meagher Janice & Jay Messeroff Ed & Clare Meyer Cathleen Mooney & Joseph Fanelli Terri & Bob Musor Anne Nietert The family of Devin O'Brien Roy Owen & Susan McClinton

Barbara & Tom Pace Dr. & Mrs. Basil Papaharis Joyce & Paul Perocchi Lorraine Perry & Ford Reese Claudia Porter & Stuart Hotchkiss James Ravenel Katie Roberts Gretchen and John Samuel Roper Robert & Janet Rosenzweig Bill & Amy Sage Nina Sandburg & Chee-Hang See Barbara Sanders Dr. Keith A. & Mrs. Theresa T. Sanders Meta Van Sickle Dr. and Mrs. Adam Sokoloski Katherine & Michael St. John Carol Spitznas Lovorka Stojanov Char Stricklin Deborah A. Swan Mr. & Mrs. Gerald S. Tanenbaum Albert & Caroline Thibault Laurie & Frank Thigpen Ms. Kathleen Tresnak & Mr. William Reehl Susan Walsh Mr. & Mrs. D. Sykes Wilford Regina & Dr. Jeffrey Yost Rich & Julie Young Julie & Stephen Ziff Ms. Mary Zimerle

IN-KIND GIFT DONORS Allegro Charter School of Music Belva's Flower Shop Carnegie Hall Charleston County Parks and Recreation Charleston Southern University College of Charleston French Eclectic Event Rentals Gibbes Museum of Art James Island Cleaners John Wesley Methodist Church Lutheran Church of the Redeemer Second Presbyterian Church Snyder Events St. Andrew’s Church

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