InTune — The Houston Symphony Magazine — June 2019

THE HOUSTON SYMPHONY MAGAZINE

JUNE 2019

SIBELIUS & RACHMANINOFF 18

June 21 TCHAIKOVSKY’S ROMEO & JULIET June 22

24

DVOŘÁK’S NEW WORLD 28

June 28

BEETHOVEN 5 34

June 29

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InTUNE | J U N E

2019

Programs

Sibelius & Rachmaninoff

June 21 �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 18 Tchaikovsky’s Romeo & Juliet

June 22 ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������24 Dvořák’s New World

June 28 ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������28 Beethoven 5

June 29 ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������34

Features

Letter to Patrons ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������2 Bank of America Summer Sounds at Jones Hall �����������������������������9 Concert Preview: Selena Symphony ��������������������������������������������������� 12 Top Classical Series Musician Picks �������������������������������������������������� 17 Backstage Pass with Adam Dinitz ��������������������������������������������������������48

Your Houston Symphony

Your Symphony Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Music Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Upcoming Broadcasts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Orchestra Roster ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������6 Society Board of Trustees ������������������������������������������������������������������������������7 Staff Listing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Our Supporters

Vision 2025 Implementation Fund . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 New Century Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Leadership Council . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Houston Symphony Donors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Young Associates Council . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Chorus Endowment Donors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Corporate, Foundation, and Government Partners ��������������������42 Capital Investments ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������43 In-Kind Donors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Houston Symphony Endowment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Legacy Society & In Memoriam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Education and Community Engagement Donors . . . . . . . . . 46 Musician Sponsorships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

This July, Isabel Marie Sánchez pays tribute to Selena, the queen of Tejano.

12

InTUNE is published by the Houston Symphony.

615 Louisiana, Suite 102, Houston, TX 77002 713.224.4240 | houstonsymphony.org All rights reserved.

LETTER TO PATRONS JUNE 2019

After a series of unforgettable concerts from Music Director Andrés Orozco-Estrada and Principal Pops Conductor Steven Reineke last month, with Jimmy López’s Aurora, George Li, the Houston Symphony Chorus, Bluebeard’s Castle, and a salute to Broadway, we ended our 2018–19 Season on a high note. Thanks to the generosity of patrons like you, our end-of-season campaign “We’re Going Places” ensured the continuation of our orchestra’s exciting upward trajectory when our 2019–20 Season begins in September. Get a sneak peek of our musicians’ top Classical Series picks for the coming year on page 17.

InTune is produced by the Houston Symphony’s Marketing and Communications department.

Calvin Dotsey. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Publications Editor Melanie O’Neill. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Publications Designer Elaine Reeder Mayo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Editorial Consultant Shweiki Media. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Printing Ventures Marketing Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Advertising The Houston Symphony is a non-profit organization that relies on the support of our generous donors. Presenting nearly

170 concerts annually with an ensemble of 88 full-time professional musicians, the Symphony is Houston’s largest performing arts organization. We enrich the lives of hundreds of thousands through more than 900 annual community-based performances and inspiring classroom visits. Your support enables us to continue creating innovative and commanding musical experiences.

The activities and projects of the Houston Symphony are funded in part by grants from the City of Houston, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Texas Commission on the Arts.

The Houston Symphony currently records under its own label, Houston Symphony Media Productions, and for Pentatone and Naxos. Houston Symphony recordings are also available on the Telarc, RCA Red Seal, Virgin Classics, and Koch International Classics labels.

Cameras, Recorders, Cell Phones & Pagers

Cameras and recorders are not permitted in the hall. Patrons may not use any device to record or photograph performances. Please silence cell phones, pagers, and alarm watches and refrain from texting during performances.

All content © 2019. Contents cannot be reproduced in any manner, whole or in part, without written permission from the Houston Symphony or InTune Magazine.

Until then, we have plenty of great music to enjoy over the summer.

June begins when our musicians pack up their instruments and head to Miller Outdoor Theatre for our annual ExxonMobil Summer Symphony Nights. This beloved summer tradition lets Houstonians enjoy four free classical programs featuring artists who reflect the diversity of a new generation of musicians, led by dynamic young conductors Dalia Stasevska, Ruth Reinhardt, Paolo Bortolameolli, and Roderick Cox. Our ExxonMobil Summer Symphony Nights end with several bangs next month at our spectacular Star-Spangled Salute on July 4, complete with Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture and fireworks. The fun continues back at Jones Hall with Harry Potter and the Order of the PhoenixTM—In Concert, plus the Music of Queen and a very special tribute to Selena Quintanilla. Learn how this Texas native became the queen of Tejano on page 12.

Thank you for attending this concert—we hope to share more music with you soon.

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2 | Houston Symphony

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HOUSTON symphony JONES HALL FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS 615 Louisiana St. Suite 102 Houston, TX 77002

PATRON SERVICES

713.224.7575 Mon–Sat | 12p.m.–6 p.m. patronservices@houstonsymphony.org

GROUP SALES

713.238.1435 Mon–Fri | 9 a.m.–5 p.m. groupsales@houstonsymphony.org

ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICES 713.238.1420 Mon–Fri | 9 a.m.–5 p.m.

YOUR SYMPHONY EXPERIENCE JONES HALL

ETIQUETTE

Sixty-six foot ceilings, scarlet carpet, teakwood, and travertine marble greet visitors to Jones Hall, the home of the Houston Symphony. Opened in 1966, Jones Hall has a uniquely designed movable ceiling that enables the auditorium to shrink or expand from approximately 2,150 to 2,900 seats.

For Classical concerts, if a work has several movements it is traditional to hold applause until the end of the last movement. If you are unsure when a piece ends, check the program or wait for the conductor to face the audience.

If you feel truly inspired, however, do not be afraid to applaud! Brief applause between movements after an exceptional performance is always appreciated.

PRELUDE PRE-CONCERT CONVERSATIONS Led by Musical Ambassador Carlos Andrés Botero, Prelude Pre-Concert Conversations are held 45 minutes in advance of each Classical Series performance and provide interesting insights into composers and their works.

DEVICES Please silence all electronic devices before the performance. Photography and audio/video recordings of these performances are strictly prohibited.

FOOD & DRINK POLICY Encore Café offers a selection of food and drink options before performances and during intermission; we also have several bars located throughout the concert hall where you may purchase beer, wine, and mixed drinks. However, food or drinks are prohibited in the auditorium for Classical Series performances. Drinks (in plastic containers) are allowed for POPS concerts and some Symphony Specials.

LOST AND FOUND For lost and found inquiries, please contact Front of House Manager Sarah Rendón during the performance.

She also can be reached at sarah.rendon@houstonsymphony.org.

You also may contact Houston First after the performances at 832.487.7050.

CONNECT WITH US |

CHILDREN Children ages 6 and up are welcome to all Classical, POPS, and Symphony Special concerts. Children of all ages are welcome at BBVA Compass Family Series performances. Children must have a ticket for all ticketed events.

LATE SEATING Each performance typically allows for late seating, which is scheduled in intervals and determined by the conductor. Our ushers and front of house manager will instruct you on when late seating is allowed.

TICKETS Subscribers to six or more Classical or POPS concerts, as well as BBVA Compass Family Subscribers, may exchange their tickets at no cost.

Tickets to Symphony Specials or single ticket purchases are ineligible for exchange or refund.

If you are unable to make a performance, your ticket may be donated prior to the concert for a tax-donation receipt. Donations and exchanges may be made in person , over the phone, or online.

| HOUSTONSYMPHONY.ORG

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InTUNE — June 2019 | 3

OROZCO-ESTRADA MUSIC DIRECTOR

ROY AND LILLIE CULLEN CHAIR Andrés Orozco-Estrada has served as the Houston Symphony’s music director and as chief conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra since the 2014–15 season. He was appointed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra in September 2015 as its principal guest conductor. In the 2021–22 season, he becomes chief conductor of the Vienna Symphony.

Andrés conducts many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Staatskapelle Dresden, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and Orchestre National de France, as well as major American orchestras in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Chicago. He has also led many successful concerts and opera performances at the Glyndebourne, Salzburg, and Styriarte festivals.

Highlights of the 2018–19 season included his concert with the Vienna Philharmonic for Mozart Week and a new production of Rigoletto at the Berlin State Opera. He conducted his debut concert at the BBC Proms with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and led the Chamber Orchestra of Europe for the first time. As a guest, he returned to the Staatskapelle Dresden, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and The Philadelphia Orchestra. He and his Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra also performed Strauss’s Elektra in Frankfurt and Dortmund. In December, he led the Vienna Symphony with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

Andrés continues his commitment to young musicians, conducting a concert with the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic and leading a joint education project of the Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich with the Filarmónica Joven de Colombia, with whom he then tours.

His record releases with Pentatone have attracted great attention.

He was praised for his “beguiling recording” (Gramophone) of Stravinsky’s The Firebird and The Rite of Spring with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, and his recording of Richard Strauss’s An Alpine Symphony with the same orchestra earned him a reputation as “a fine Straussian” (Gramophone). With the Houston Symphony, he has recorded Dvořák’s last four symphonies, a “vital Dvořák with warm colors” (Pizzicato). In addition, he has recorded the complete symphonies of Brahms and Mendelssohn.

Born in Medellín, Colombia, Andrés Orozco-Estrada began his musical education with the violin. He received his first conducting lessons at 15 and began studying in Vienna in 1997, where he entered the conducting class of Uroš Lajovic (a pupil of the legendary Hans Swarowsky) at the prestigious University of Music and Performing Arts. Andrés lives in Vienna.

4 | Houston Symphony

Making Lives Better Through Print

Tune in to Houston Public Media News 88.7 FM Sunday nights at 8 p.m. to hear great performances from past Houston Symphony concerts. You can also listen Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. online through Houston Public Media's digital Classical station.

JUNE 2019 BROADCAST SCHEDULE ALL BROADCASTS AIR AT 8 P.M. June 2 | News 88.7 June 5 | Classical RECORDED: June 30, 2017

June 9 | News 88.7 June 12 | Classical RECORDED: June 20, 2015

Ben Gernon, conductor George Li, piano Glinka: Overture to Ruslan and Ludmila Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 1

Karina Canellakis, conductor Charlie Albright, piano Dvořák: Carnival Overture Gershwin: Piano Concerto in F Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances

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Hassle Free Printing Books | Magazines | Catalogs | Newsletters | Flyers | Postcards and More

June 16 | News 88.7 June 19 | Classical RECORDED: June 26, 2015

June 23 | News 88.7 June 26 | Classical RECORDED: June 17, 2016

June 30 | News 88.7 July 3 | Classical RECORDED: June 24, 2016

Robert Franz, conductor Changlu Wu, pipa Liu/Mao: Dance of the Yao People Smetana: The Moldau Griffes: The Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan Han: Rhapsody for Pipa and Orchestra Debussy: La Mer

Robert Franz, conductor Paul Huang, violin Mendelssohn: The Hebrides Bruch: Scottish Fantasy Brahms: Symphony No. 1

ROSÉ

Jacomo Bairos, conductor C. Rogerson: Luminosity Copland: Suite from Billy the Kid S. Hyken: Refried Farandole Stravinsky: Suite from The Firebird Márquez: Danzón No. 2

InTUNE — June 2019 | 5

ROSTER

ORCHESTRA Andrés Orozco-Estrada Music Director Roy and Lillie Cullen Chair FIRST VIOLIN Position Vacant, Concertmaster Max Levine Chair Eric Halen, Co-Concertmaster Ellen E. Kelley Chair Qi Ming, Assistant Concertmaster Fondren Foundation Chair Marina Brubaker Tong Yan MiHee Chung Sophia Silivos Rodica Gonzalez Ferenc Illenyi Si-Yang Lao Kurt Johnson Christopher Neal Sergei Galperin Boson Mo* Jenna Barghouti*

DOUBLE BASS Robin Kesselman, Principal Timothy Dilenschneider, Associate Principal Mark Shapiro Eric Larson Andrew Pedersen Burke Shaw Donald Howey Michael McMurray FLUTE Aralee Dorough, Principal General Maurice Hirsch Chair Matthew Roitstein, Associate Principal Judy Dines Kathryn Ladner PICCOLO Kathryn Ladner OBOE Jonathan Fischer, Principal Lucy Binyon Stude Chair Anne Leek, Associate Principal Colin Gatwood Adam Dinitz

SECOND VIOLIN MuChen Hsieh, Principal Hitai Lee Mihaela Frusina Annie Kuan-Yu Chen Jing Zheng Martha Chapman Tianjie Lu Anastasia Sukhopara Tina Zhang Jordan Koransky Lindsey Baggett* Katrina Bobbs Savitski*

ENGLISH HORN Adam Dinitz

VIOLA Wayne Brooks, Principal Mr. & Mrs. Jesse B. Tutor Legacy Society Chair Joan DerHovsepian, Associate Principal George Pascal, Assistant Principal Wei Jiang Linda Goldstein Sheldon Person Fay Shapiro Daniel Strba Jarita Ng Phyllis Herdliska CELLO Brinton Averil Smith, Principal Janice and Thomas Barrow Chair Christopher French, Associate Principal Anthony Kitai Louis-Marie Fardet Jeffrey Butler Maki Kubota Xiao Wong Charles Seo Emileigh Vandiver* James R. Denton** Community-Embedded Musicians David Connor, double bass Rainel Joubert, violin Patricia Quintero Garcia, violin Alexa Sangbin Thomson, viola

6 | Houston Symphony

Steven Reineke Principal POPS Conductor Robert Franz Associate Conductor Betsy Cook Weber Director, Houston Symphony Chorus

CLARINET Mark Nuccio, Principal Thomas LeGrand, Associate Principal Christian Schubert Alexander Potiomkin E-FLAT CLARINET Thomas LeGrand BASS CLARINET Alexander Potiomkin Tassie and Constantine S. Nicandros Chair BASSOON Rian Craypo, Principal Elise Wagner Adam Trussell

HORN William VerMeulen, Principal Robert Johnson, Associate Principal Jesse Clevenger*, Assistant Principal Brian Thomas Nancy Goodearl Ian Mayton TRUMPET Mark Hughes, Principal George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Chair John Parker, Associate Principal Robert Walp, Assistant Principal Richard Harris TROMBONE Allen Barnhill, Principal Bradley White, Associate Principal Phillip Freeman BASS TROMBONE Phillip Freeman TUBA Dave Kirk, Principal TIMPANI Leonardo Soto, Principal Matthew Strauss, Associate Principal PERCUSSION Brian Del Signore, Principal Mark Griffith Matthew Strauss HARP Megan Conley, Principal** KEYBOARD Scott Holshouser, Principal *Contracted Substitute ** On Leave

CONTRABASSOON Adam Trussell

Orchestra Personnel Manager Michael Gorman

Librarian Thomas Takaro

Stage Manager Stefan Stout

Assistant Orchestra Personnel Manager Josh Hall

Assistant Librarians Aspen McArthur Michael McMurray

Assistant Stage Manager José Rios

Stage Technician Nick DiFonzo

TRUSTEES

2019–20 SEASON

SOCIETY BOARD of

PAST PRESIDENTS OF THE HOUSTON SYMPHONY SOCIETY

Executive Committee Janet F. Clark President John Rydman President-Elect Steven P. Mach Immediate Past President

Steven P. Mach Chairman Robert A. Peiser^ Honorary Chairman Paul Morico General Counsel

Mike S. Stude Chairman Emeritus Barbara McCelvey Secretary John Mangum^ Executive Director/CEO

Evan B. Glick Chair, Popular Programming Barbara J. Burger Chair, Finance Miles O. Smith Chair, Artistic & Orchestra Affairs Brad W. Corson Chair, Governance & Leadership Viviana Denechaud Chair, Development Tracy Dieterich Chair, Community Partnerships Bobby Tudor At Large

Mary Lynn Marks Chair, Volunteers & Special Events Billy McCartney Chair, Education William J. Toomey II President, Houston Symphony Endowment Robert Orr Chair, Strategic Planning Manolo Sánchez Chair, Marketing & Communications Jesse B. Tutor Immediate Past Chair, Chair, Audit

Maureen Higdon^ President, Houston Symphony League Andrés Orozco-Estrada^ Music Director Adam Dinitz^ Musician Representative Mark Hughes^ Musician Representative Mark Nuccio^ Musician Representative Christine Kelly-Weaver^ Assistant Secretary ^Ex-Officio

GOVERNING DIRECTORS Farida Abjani Michael W. Adler Marcia Backus Janice Barrow ** Gary Beauchamp Bill Bullock Barbara J. Burger Janet F. Clark Brad W. Corson Viviana Denechaud Michael Doherty Terry Everett Sippi Khurana, M.D.

TRUSTEES

Jonathan Ayre Philip A. Bahr James M. Bell Jr. Devinder Bhatia, M.D. Nancy S. Bratic Terry Ann Brown** Brett Busby Ralph Burch Mary Kathryn Campion, Ph.D. John T. Cater** Michael H. Clark Virginia Clark Evan D. Collins, M.D., MBA Andrew Davis, Ph.D. Tracy Dieterich Kelli Cohen Fein, M.D. Jeffrey B. Firestone Eugene A. Fong Aggie L. Foster Julia Anderson Frankel

Rochelle Levit, Ph.D. Cora Sue Mach ** Steven P. Mach Paul M. Mann, M.D. Rodney Margolis** Jay Marks ** Mary Lynn Marks Billy McCartney Barbara McCelvey Alexander K. McLanahan ** Paul R. Morico Robert Orr John Rydman**

Helen Shaffer ** Ex-Officio Kafi Slaughter Vicki Buxton Tracy Dieterich Miles O. Smith Mike S. Stude ** Evan B. Glick William J. Toomey II Maureen Higdon Bobby Tudor ** Gloria G. Pryzant Betty Tutor ** Manolo Sánchez Andrés Orozco-Estrada Jesse B. Tutor ** John Mangum Judith Vincent Margaret Alkek Williams ** Mark Nuccio Adam Dinitz Scott Wulfe Mark Hughes David Wuthrich Christine Kelly-Weaver

Ron Franklin Betsy Garlinger Evan B. Glick Susan A. Hansen Gary L. Hollingsworth Brian James Joan Kaplan I. Ray Kirk, M.D. Ulyesse J. LeGrange** Carlos J. López Michael Mann, M.D. Jack Matzer Jackie Wolens Mazow Gary Mercer Marilyn Miles Shane A. Miller Janet Moore Leslie Nossaman Scott Nyquist Edward Osterberg Jr. Gloria G. Pryzant

David Pruner Tadd Pullin Richard Robbins, M.D. J. Hugh Roff Jr.** Miwa Sakashita Manolo Sánchez Ed Schneider Michael E. Shannon** Robert B. Sloan, D.D. Theol.

Jim R. Smith Tad Smith Ishwaria Subbiah, M.D. L. Proctor (Terry) Thomas III Shirley W. Toomim Margaret Waisman, M.D. Fredric A. Weber Mrs. S. Conrad Weil Robert Weiner Vicki West Steven J. Williams

Frank Wilson Ed Wulfe** Ellen A. Yarrell Robert Yekovich Frank Yonish Ex-Officio Ann Ayre Vicky Buxton Adam Dinitz Jennifer Gravenor Maureen Higdon Mark Hughes Mark Nuccio Jessie Woods Art Vivar **Lifetime Trustee

Mrs. Edwin B. Parker Miss Ima Hogg Mrs. H. M. Garwood Joseph A. Mullen, M.D. Joseph S. Smith Walter H. Walne H. R. Cullen Gen. Maurice Hirsch Charles F. Jones Fayez Sarofim John T. Cater Richard G. Merrill Ellen Elizardi Kelley John D. Platt

E.C. Vandagrift Jr. J. Hugh Roff Jr. Robert M. Hermance Gene McDavid Janice H. Barrow Barry C. Burkholder Rodney H. Margolis Jeffrey B. Early Michael E. Shannon Ed Wulfe Jesse B. Tutor Robert B. Tudor III Robert A. Peiser Steven P. Mach

PAST PRESIDENTS OF THE HOUSTON SYMPHONY LEAGUE Miss Ima Hogg Mrs. John F. Grant Mrs. J. R. Parten Mrs. Andrew E. Rutter Mrs. Aubrey Leno Carter Mrs. Stuart Sherar Mrs. Julian Barrows Ms. Hazel Ledbetter Mrs. Albert P. Jones Mrs. Ben A. Calhoun Mrs. James Griffith Lawhon Mrs. Olaf LaCour Olsen Mrs. Ralph Ellis Gunn Mrs. Leon Jaworski Mrs. Garrett R. Tucker Jr. Mrs. M. T. Launius Jr. Mrs. Thompson McCleary Mrs. Theodore W. Cooper Mrs. Allen W. Carruth Mrs. David Hannah Jr. Mary Louis Kister Mrs. Edward W. Kelley Jr. Mrs. John W. Herndon Mrs. Charles Franzen Mrs. Harold R. DeMoss Jr. Mrs. Edward H. Soderstrom

Mrs. Lilly Kucera Andress Ms. Marilou Bonner Mrs. W. Harold Sellers Mrs. Harry H. Gendel Mrs. Robert M. Eury Mrs. E. C. Vandagrift Jr. Mrs. J. Stephen Marks Terry Ann Brown Nancy Strohmer Mary Ann McKeithan Ann Cavanaugh Mrs. James A. Shaffer Lucy H. Lewis Catherine McNamara Shirley McGregor Pearson Paula Jarrett Cora Sue Mach Kathi Rovere Norma Jean Brown Barbara McCelvey Lori Sorcic Jansen Nancy B. Willerson Jane Clark Nancy Littlejohn Donna Shen Dr. Susan Snider Osterberg Dr. Kelli Cohen Fein Vicki West Mrs. Jesse Tutor Darlene Clark Beth Wolff

PAST PRESIDENTS OF THE HOUSTON SYMPHONY LEAGUE BAY AREA Fran Strong Selma Neumann Julia Wells Dagmar Meeh Priscilla Heidbreder Harriett Small Nina Spencer Elizabeth Glenn Ebby Creden Charlotte Gaunt Norma Brady Cindy Kuenneke Helen Powell Sharon Dillard Diane McLaughlin Roberta Liston Suzanne Hicks Sue Smith

Shirley Wettling Jo Anne Mills Phyllis Molnar Pat Bertelli Emyre B. Robinson Dana Puddy Angela Buell Pat Brackett Joan Wade Yvonne Herring Deanna Lamoreux Glenda Toole Carole Murphy Patience Myers James Moore Mary Voigt Martha McWilliams Nina McGlashan

FRIENDS OF JONES HALL REPRESENTATIVES Ronald G. Franklin

Steven P. Mach

Barbara McCelvey

Robert Orr

InTUNE — June 2019 | 7

STAFF

ADMINISTRATIVE

The Houston Symphony Administrative Staff is made up of 68 full-time and part-time professionals who work diligently behind the scenes to ensure all operations within the organization are run effectively and efficiently.

This inspiring team is dedicated to bringing the great music of the Houston Symphony to our community.

SENIOR MANAGEMENT GROUP John Mangum, Executive Director/CEO,

Margaret Alkek Williams Chair Pam Blaine, Chief of Education and Community Engagement Elizabeth S. Condic, Chief Financial Officer Vicky Dominguez, Chief Operating Officer Nancy Giles, Chief Development Officer Gwen Watkins, Chief Marketing Officer Christine Kelly-Weaver, Executive Assistant/Board Liaison DEVELOPMENT Michael Arlen, Associate Director,

Individual Giving and Major Gifts Rachel Bosworth, Manager, Special Events Julie Busch, Manager, League Relations and Fundraising J. Steven Covington, Director, Endowment and Planned Giving Timothy Dillow, Director, Special Events Amanda T. Dinitz, Major Gifts Officer Samuel García, Development Assistant Sydnee E. Houlette, Manager, Donor Services and Stewardship Leticia Konigsberg, Director, Corporate Relations Jessica Jelinek, Development Associate, Gifts and Records Mary Beth Mosley, Director, Institutional Giving and Stewardship Tyler Murphy, Development Officer, Major Giving Groups Shane L. Platt, Development Associate, Individual Giving Martin Schleuse, Development Communications Manager Molly Simpson, Director, Individual Giving and Major Gifts Christine Ann Stevens, Major Gifts Officer Christina Trunzo, Associate Director,

Foundation and Government Grants EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT Allison Conlan, Director, Education Emily Nelson, Associate Director,

Education and Community Engagement Ana Rodriguez, Education and Community Engagement Manager Garrett Shaw, Education and Community Engagement Coordinator FINANCE | ADMINISTRATION | IT | HR Brittany Basden, Support Engineer Robert Boyd, Budget Manager Henry Cantu, Accountant II Kimberly Cegielski, Staff Accountant Joel James, Senior HR Manager Tanya Lovetro, Director, Finance Morgana Rickard, Controller Gabriela Rivera, Senior Accountant Anthony Stringer, Director, IT Ariela Ventura, Office Manager/HR Coordinator Lee Whatley, Senior Director, IT and Analytics 8 | Houston Symphony

MARKETING | COMMUNICATIONS | PATRON SERVICES Mark Bailes, Marketing Coordinator Shelby Banda, Patron Services Representative Joshua Chavira, Patron Services Representative Davy Cruz, Patron Services Representative Calvin Dotsey, Communications Specialist Heather Fails, Manager, Ticketing Database Kerry Ingram, Director, Digital Marketing Kathryn Judd, Director, Marketing Mateo Lopez, Assistant Manager, Patron Services Center Edgar Ivan Morales, Patron Services Representative Melanie O’Neill, Creative Specialist Sarah Rendón, Front of House Manager Mireya Reyna, Public Relations Coordinator Vanessa Rivera, Digital Marketing Manager Ashley Rodriguez, Patron Services Senior Representative Eric Skelly, Senior Director, Communications Jenny Zuniga, Director, Patron Services OPERATIONS | ARTISTIC Carlos Andrés Botero, Musical Ambassador Becky Brown, Director, Operations Stephanie Calascione, Artistic Operations Assistant Anna Diemer, Chorus Manager Jessica Fertinel, Assistant to the Music Director Michael Gorman, Orchestra Personnel Manager Josh Hall, Assistant Orchestra Personnel Manager Aspen McArthur, Assistant Librarian Michael McMurray, Assistant Librarian Lesley Sabol, Director, Popular Programming Brad Sayles, Recording Engineer Thomas Takaro, Librarian Meredith Williams, Associate Director, Operations Rebecca Zabinski, Director, Artistic Planning

T H E

M U S I C

O F

JULY 5 & 6

The Houston Symphony’s 2019–20 subscription season begins in the fall, but you can hear the orchestra this summer, thanks to the return of Bank of America Summer Sounds at Jones Hall. The 2019 Summer Series includes seven performances that are sure to delight fans of classic rock, animated film, and Tejano music.

On July 5 & 6, the Houston Symphony pays tribute to Freddie Mercury with The Music of Queen. July 12 & 13 see the world’s first-ever orchestral concert celebrating the life and music of one of the most beloved Mexican-American entertainers of the 20th century, Selena Quintanilla, with The Music of Selena. The final weekend of the Series features a Disney favorite, The Little Mermaid — Film with Live Orchestra, on August 31 and September 1.

Bank of America’s generosity in supporting these concerts continues its long partnership with the Houston Symphony and service to Greater Houston.

The company has been a leading supporter of the Symphony since 1993, investing in activities ranging from the Symphony’s Annual Fund, special events supporting education and community programming, and the Young Associates Council.

Hong Ogle, Houston president for Bank of America, said, “At Bank of America, we believe in the power of the arts to help economies thrive, educate and enrich societies, and create greater cultural understanding.

On a global scale, the arts speak to us in a universal language that provides pathways to greater cultural understanding.”

JULY 12 & 13

The Houston Symphony is grateful to Bank of America for its outstanding support. Please join us in expressing our appreciation by attending one of the exciting concerts of the Bank of America Summer Sounds at Jones Hall.

Hong Ogle, Bank of America Houston President

FILM WITH LIVE ORCHESTRA

AUGUST 31 & SEPTEMBER 1 PRESENTATION LICENSED BY DISNEY CONCERTS.

InTUNE — June 2019 | 9

Vision

2025 Implementation Fund

Vision 2025, the Houston Symphony’s 10-year Strategic Plan, describes our vision to be America’s most relevant and accessible top 10 orchestra by 2025.

Since the plan was launched in 2015, the Houston Symphony has received generous contributions from hundreds of donors in support of the Vision 2025 Implementation Fund which surpassed $10 million in donations in the 2017–18 season. The fund includes support of specific initiatives that advance the goals of the Strategic Plan, such as:

• The orchestra’s first multi-city European Tour in 20 years.

• New and expanded education and community programming such as the industry-leading Community-Embedded Musicians initiative.

• Commissioning and recording initiatives such as our cycle of late Dvořák symphonies, Music of the Americas; Haydn—The Creation; and Berg: Wozzeck, which recently earned the Houston Symphony’s first Grammy Award.

In addition, in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, donors have also supported the Symphony’s Harvey Recovery Fund, allowing us to continue to work toward our vision during a challenging time. We are honored by their generous support. $1 MILLION OR MORE

The Brown Foundation, Inc. Janet F. Clark Rochelle & Max Levit

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For more information or to pledge your support for Vision 2025, please contact: John Mangum, Executive Director/CEO, 713.337.8540 Nancy Giles, Chief Development Officer, 713.337.8525 Mary Beth Mosley, Director, Institutional Giving and Stewardship, 713.337.8521 Molly Simpson, Director, Individual Giving and Major Gifts, 713.337.8526 10 | Houston Symphony

$1,000-$1,499

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Mr. & Mrs. Richard M. Armes Mr. & Mrs. Ed Banner George & Florence Boerger Mr. Ken D. Brownlee & Ms. Caroline Deetjen Leone Buyse & Michael Webster Mr. & Mrs. Joseph L. Campbell Jr. David Chambers & Alex Steffler Mr. Chaing-Lin Chen Dr. Evan D. Collins Mr. & Mrs. Jeffrey Detwiler Mr. Jonathan Fischer Gillin Family Charitable Fund Bill Grieves Stephen Jeu & Susanna Calvo Mrs. Margaret Ketcham Mrs. Mariquita Masterson Mrs. Karen Mende-Fridkis ONEOK, Inc. Michael P. & Shirley Pearson Dr. & Mrs. Joseph V. Penn Patrick T. Quinn Mr. John Robertson Ms. Christine L. Scruggs Ms. Kelly Somoza Doug & Kay Wilson Robert & Michele Yekovich *deceased

New Century Society FOR ARTISTIC EXCELLENCE AND INNOVATION The New Century Society for Artistic Excellence and Innovation recognizes the Houston Symphony’s most committed and loyal supporters who have pledged their leadership support over a three-year period to help secure the orchestra’s financial future.

Margaret Alkek Williams Janice Barrow Rochelle & Max Levit Cora Sue & Harry Mach John & Lindy Rydman / Spec’s Wines, Spirits & Finer Foods/ Spec’s Charitable Foundation Bobby & Phoebe Tudor Clare Attwell Glassell Albert & Ethel Herzstein Charitable Foundation Mr. John N. Neighbors Mr. & Mrs. Jim R. Smith Mike Stude Mr. & Mrs. Jesse B. Tutor

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Donor SPOTLIGHT Kusum and K. Cody Patel joined the Houston Symphony’s Young Associates Council five years ago and are members of the Conductor’s Circle. Music is a very important part of their lives, and they encourage those who want music to be a part of kids’ futures to join the Houston Symphony family.

Leadership COUNCIL Leadership Council donors have committed $45,000 or more in support of the Annual Fund, special projects, and fundraising events over a three-year period ($15,000+ annually).

Mr. & Mrs. Walter V. Boyle Brett & Erin Busby The Elkins Foundation Evan B. Glick Mr. & Mrs. Fred L. Gorman

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For more information or to pledge your support for the New Century Society or the Leadership Council, please contact: Nancy Giles, Chief Development Officer, 713.337.8525 Molly Simpson, Director, Individual Giving and Major Gifts, 713.337.8526

InTUNE — June 2019 | 11

SYMPHONY AN ORCHESTRAL TRIBUTE TO THE QUEEN OF TEJANO

concert PREVIEW JULY 12 & 13 • JONES HALL

12 | Houston Symphony

A small, four-piece rhythm section waits on stage. The house lights are low. The red seats are empty. Isabel Marie Sánchez, a young vocalist with a gleaming smile, steps onto the Jones Hall stage for the first time. She begins one of Selena’s greatest hits, and instantly, the hall resonates with the music of one of the greatest artists who ever lived: Selena Quintanilla. “Just being able to perform these songs with the Symphony is truly an honor,” said Isabel Marie. As she dances across the stage and sings “Bidi Bidi Bom Bom,” “Como la Flor,” and “Dreaming of You,” one can see she is a natural performer.

“The Queen of Tejano Music,” Selena performed in venues across Texas, including her record-breaking, sold-out show in Houston’s Astrodome during the 1995 Houston Rodeo season—her last live performance before her passing.

Now, under the auspices of its Hispanic Leadership Council, the Houston Symphony joins with young recording artist Isabel Marie (currently signed to Q-Zone Records, the label owned

by Selena’s father) for The Music of Selena, giving Selena fans the chance to hear her music like never before, in fresh arrangements that stay true to the timeless hits of the Tejano star.

Most popular in Texas, Tejano is a unique genre of music that integrates Texas country beats and traditional Mexican rhythms, including the Latin sounds of cumbias and mariachi.

Arranger Adam Podd, commissioned with the support of the Houston Symphony Hispanic Leadership Council, has been tasked with translating Selena’s music to a full orchestra augmented by the rhythm section of a pop band, and he knows how special Selena’s music is. “One of the greatest things about arranging Selena’s music for orchestra is that it’s so emotional,” said Adam. “It’s very dramatic for pop music […] you really get an emotional—dramatic— performance from the singer. That’s what an orchestra does best. You can make an orchestra go from really small to really big and highlight that drama.”

Some of Selena’s music already includes lines for strings and trumpets, but an orchestra offers even more colors. As the orchestrator and arranger, Adam must “highlight the other players as well when there’s an opportunity. There are other instruments to be added. I’ll find the places where we can afford a little flute line here. I’ll look for places to add color and texture.”

At the same time, he respects that Selena’s music is nostalgic for fans who grew up listening to her at family gatherings and parties—they recognize even small details in her recordings.

While orchestrating Selena’s songs, Adam said he makes sure “to get those elements to feel the way people are used to hearing them,” while adding the power, colors, and textures of an orchestra.

Selena’s posthumous album, Dreaming of You, featured her greatest Englishlanguage hits, songs the Tejano star never performed live. “I’m looking forward to singing ‘I Could Fall in Love’ just because […] she wasn’t able to perform those songs—‘Dreaming of You’ and all her English songs. I really feel honored to be able to perform them,” said Isabel Marie, “especially with the Symphony. It’s going to be beautiful. I just can’t wait to hear all the instruments bring it to life.”

—Mireya Reyna

InTUNE — June 2019 | 13

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16 | Houston Symphony

TOP GERSHWIN’S PIANO CONCERTO & PORGY AND BESS

SEPTEMBER 27, 28 & 29, 2019 I’m especially looking forward to Catfish Row: Symphonic Suite from Porgy and Bess.

Gershwin is one of my favorite composers, and Porgy and Bess is among the most inspired things he wrote—it’s great American music!

—Allen Barnhill, principal trombone

2019–20

classical series musician picks While gearing up for the start of our 2019–20 season in September, we asked our musicians what Classical Series concerts they are most excited about this year. From Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess to Mahler’s epic Seventh Symphony, discover what our musicians are most looking forward to with these top picks. Subscribe today to experience these and other breathtaking Classical Series concerts starting this fall!

ALL-STRAUSS THANKSGIVING

SHAHAM PLAYS BRAHMS DECEMBER 5, 7 & 8, 2019

NOVEMBER 29 & 30, DECEMBER 1, 2019

Double bassists especially love playing the challenging and thrilling orchestral themes in Death and Transfiguration, Don Juan, and Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks. The hauntingly beautiful Four Last Songs with renowned soprano Miah Persson rounds out a perfect Richard Strauss concert!

—Michael McMurray, double bass

PAGANINI + PINES OF ROME JANUARY 9, 11 & 12, 2020

Guest conductor Jader Bignamini is a rising star—and, like me, a clarinetist! I have heard so many wonderful things about his musicianship, and the program that he has chosen will certainly show off our terrific orchestra. —Mark Nuccio, principal clarinet What I am most looking forward to is the amazing Augustin Hadelich—his technique is “out of this world.” —Rodica Gonzalez, first violin

Gil Shaham is one of the absolute best violinists today, and to be able to play one of the best violin concertos with him and Andrés will be special. I have to add, the Brahms violin concerto has one of the most important second bassoon excerpts, and I am looking forward to playing it!

—Elise Wagner, bassoon

SCHUMANN FESTIVAL

FEBRUARY 8, 9, 13, 15 & 16, 2020 The Schumann Festival, which encompasses all four of his symphonies, is a personal highlight. I always savor the chance to dive into a singular composer’s inner world.

Schumann’s music is warm and elegant, full of grace and ease. And who would dare miss the gorgeous horn and trombone chorale in his Rhenish Symphony?

—Joan DerHovsepian, associate principal viola

top pick!

ANDRÉS CONDUCTS MAHLER 7 APRIL 3, 4 & 5, 2020

Mahler’s Symphony No. 7 is a piece that is not performed often enough. With leadership from our wonderful music director, Andres Orozco-Estrada, it is guaranteed to be a huge crowd pleaser near the end of the season. —Mark Nuccio, principal clarinet Mahler 7. I have never even had the opportunity to hear it live, much less play it. It is sure to be an unforgettable weekend. —Robin Kesselman, principal double bass Mahler 7, period. —Mark Hughes, principal trumpet

Subscribe today at houstonsymphony.org and save!

InTUNE — June 2019 | 17

FEATURED PROGRAM

SIBELIUS & RACHMANINOFF Friday

June 21

8:30 p.m.

Miller Outdoor Theatre

*Dalia Stasevska, conductor *Houston Symphony debut

Karelia-Suite, Opus 11

I Intermezzo: Moderato

II Ballade: Tempo di Menuetto

III Alla marcia: Moderato

ca. 15

Sibelius

The Swan of Tuonela from Lemminkäinen Suite,

Opus 22, No. 2 Adam Dinitz, English horn

ca. 10

Sibelius

Finlandia, Opus 26, No. 7

Sibelius

ca. 8

I N T E R M I S S I O N

Rachmaninoff

Symphonic Dances, Opus 45

I Non allegro

II Andante con moto (Tempo di valse)

III Lento assai—Allegro vivace

ca. 35

Did you know?

• Rachmaninoff consulted his friend, Robert Russell Bennett (the orchestrator for Oklahoma! and The Sound of Music) regarding which member of the saxophone family would be best suited to play the famous solo in the first movement of Symphonic Dances.

PHOTO BY FABIO JOCK

18 | Houston Symphony

Sibelius & Rachmaninoff | Program Biography

Program BIOGRAPHY

EXXONMOBIL SUMMER SYMPHONY NIGHTS

These performances are generously supported in part by:

Dalia Stasevska | conductor

JARMO KATILA

Finnish conductor Dalia Stasevska was appointed principal guest conductor designate of the BBC Symphony Orchestra in January 2019 and will take up the position next month.

Guarantor City of Houston through the Miller Theatre Advisory Board Partner

Dalia’s charismatic and dynamic musicianship has established her as a conductor of exceptional versatility. This season, she will celebrate a number of debuts, including this one with the Houston Symphony, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Orchestre National de Lyon at the Annecy Classic Festival, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, and the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. She will return to the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Trondheim Symfoniorkester, the Gävle Symphony Orchestra, and the Orchestra of Opera North. In December, she had the honor of conducting the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra at the Nobel Prize Ceremony in Stockholm.

In the 2017–18 season, she debuted with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Dalia returned to the Oslo Philharmonic, the Trondheim Symfoniorkester, and the Gothenburg Symphony, where she celebrated the 100th anniversary of Finnish independence. She also returned to Finnish National Opera, conducting Sebastian Fagerlund’s Höstsonaten at the Baltic Sea Festival in Stockholm in a production featuring Anne-Sofie von Otter.

Public Media Partner

The Houston Symphony's Miller Outdoor Theatre concerts are supported in part by an endowed fund from The Brown Foundation, Inc. in memory of Stewart and Hanni Orton.

A passionate opera conductor, this season Dalia debuts with Kungliga Opera Stockholm conducting a production of Don Giovanni directed by Ole Anders Tandberg as well as with Opéra de Toulon conducting Eugene Onegin. She has conducted The Cunning Little Vixen with Finnish National Opera and Lucia di Lammermoor with Norske Opera.

Dalia was originally educated as a violinist, violist, and composer at the Tampere Conservatoire and the Sibelius Academy. As a conductor, her teachers have included Jorma Panula, Leif Segerstam, Hannu Lintu, JukkaPekka Saraste, Susanna Mälkki, Mikko Franck, and Sakari Oramo.

The Houston Symphony's sound shell ceiling is made possible through the generosity of the Beauchamp Foundation and the Fondren Foundation.

InTUNE — June 2019 | 19

Jean Sibelius by Eero Järnefelt circa 1892

awakes Though some classical authors mention them, the Finns’ real recorded history begins in the middle ages, when they were conquered by the Swedes. For perhaps 600 years, Sweden ruled Finland, and many Finns were obliged to adopt the Swedish language and customs until Russia wrested the province away during the Napoleonic Wars. The resulting Grand Duchy of Finland was initially permitted its own legislature and a great deal of autonomy; nevertheless, some Finns viewed their new, autocratic tsar with suspicion. The idea that ethnic groups had a right to selfdetermination was just beginning to gain currency in Europe, and Finns began to apply this thinking to their own country.

This posed a problem, however; how could they claim to be truly Finnish when so many Finns spoke Swedish? Adolf Ivar Arwidsson, a prominent journalist, summed up the conclusion of many: “Swedes we are not; Russians we do not want to become; let us therefore be Finns.” A call went out for the revival of the Finnish language and culture, which led to the publication of the Kalevala in 1835 by Elias Lönnrot. A physician stationed in the wild, undeveloped region of eastern Finland known as Karelia, Lönnrot trekked to remote villages and copied down their songs, assembling them into an epic to rival the Iliad or the Odyssey.

With its mythical stories, the Kalevala became a touchstone for the emerging nation.

Just as Finns were becoming more aware of their identity, so too were Russians, and pan-Slavist chauvinists began clamoring for the Russification of the tsar’s vast and diverse domains. In the 1880s, the Russians began to tighten their grip on Finland by promoting the Russian language and encroaching on freedom of speech. The Finns responded with a flowering of the arts inspired by the Kalevala, believing great art would show the world that Finland was a nation that could govern itself.

Sibelius grew up in the midst of this cultural revival. Though he came from a Swedish-speaking family, he began learning Finnish as a teenager. His formative years as a student composer were shaped by this historical context, and his sentiments solidified when he fell in love with Aino Järnefelt, a beautiful heiress and the daughter of influential advocates for Finnish culture. The two spent their honeymoon in Karelia, discovering authentic Finnish folksong. Sibelius combined this folk music with his traditional, classical training to create a new, Finnish style of classical music that would inspire his people to resist Russian oppression. —Calvin Dotsey

20 | Houston Symphony

Program NOTES Karelia-Suite, Opus 11 Jean Sibelius (1865–1957)

In 1893, Sibelius was commissioned to compose music for a fundraiser in support of establishing a Finnish-language school in the Karelian town of Viipuri (modern day Vyborg, Russia).

His music accompanied a series of tableaux vivants depicting scenes related to the history of Karelia. French for “living picture,” tableau vivant is a somewhat antiquated art form today, although it seems poised for a comeback in the Instagram age.

Complete with elaborate costumes, sets, props, and lighting, actors would strike static, artistically arranged poses on stage, as if they were in a painting.

The incidental music proved successful, and in 1906, Sibelius published three excerpts from it as his Karelia Suite. The first movement, an intermezzo, accompanied a scene from the winter of 1333, in which Karelians gave furs as tribute to a Lithuanian duke remembered for his defense of Karelia from foreign invaders. Sibelius evokes the medieval setting with Brucknerian tremolo strings and echoing horn calls, which evolve into a jaunty march. The second movement, titled “Ballade,” jumps ahead to 1446 and Karl Knutsson’s Swedish court at Vipurii castle. Sibelius evokes the refinement of castle life with a graceful minuet. The “Ballade” occurs near the end of the movement with an English horn solo, which stands in for the baritone who sang a Swedish folk song at the premiere.

The finale, “alla marcia,” connected two military scenes; it is appropriately a tuneful, colorfully orchestrated march.

The Instruments: 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, and strings

The Swan of Tuonela from Lemminkäinen Suite, Opus 22, No. 2 Jean Sibelius (1865–1957)

The Swan of Tuonela was adapted from the overture to The Building of the Boat, an abandoned opera project inspired by the Kalevala. The opera centered on the hero Väinämöinen, who constructs a magical vessel so he can sail across the sea to meet his love, Kuutar, the daughter of the moon. To complete it, he must venture into the underworld of Tuonela to learn three magic words from Tuonetar, the goddess of death. When the opera foundered, Sibelius recycled its sketches in his Lemminkäinen Suite, which follows the adventures of another Kalevala hero, Lemminkäinen. Like Väinämöinen, he is driven to Tuonela through a quest for love; he may marry the woman he desires if with a single arrow he can kill the swan on the black river surrounding the isle of the dead. Instead, Lemminkäinen himself is hacked to pieces, and his mother must resurrect him by magic.

Sibelius’s tone poem features a haunting solo for the English horn, traditionally interpreted as representing the swan itself.

His unconventional orchestration of shimmering divisi strings and ominous bass drum vividly evokes the subterranean world

Sibelius & Rachmaninoff | Program Notes

of Tuonela. The piece was first performed in 1896 as part of the four-movement Lemminkäinen Suite, but Sibelius revised and published it as an independent piece in 1900.

The Instruments: oboe, English horn, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trombones, timpani, percussion, harp, and strings

Finlandia, Opus 26, No. 7 Jean Sibelius (1865–1957)

Finlandia, Sibelius’s most popular and patriotic work, resulted from a charity event not unlike the one that gave rise to the Karelia Suite, tableaux vivants and all. The circumstances, however, had grown worse; in 1898, Tsar Nicholas II appointed Nikolay Bobrikov as the new Governor-General of Finland, and he immediately introduced a more intense phase of Russification, undermining the authority of the Finnish legislature and attacking the press. Critical newspapers were shuttered, and the 1899 fundraiser was to help support journalists. The final tableaux, Suomi herää (Finland Awakes), presented an optimistic vision of a modernizing Finland (complete with a papier-mâché locomotive) under the comparatively benevolent reign of Tsar Alexander II, who had respected Finnish autonomy.

The music Sibelius wrote for this grand finale seems to go a step further—having no words or images, it was more difficult to censor. The menacing opening for brass has been widely interpreted as Finland under the Russian yoke; the lively music that follows shows the awakening of the Finnish spirit of independence (some have heard the locomotive in this section); and the lyrical, hymn-like melody that concludes the work is a prayerful, wordless national anthem. The audience went wild, and the piece soon became a part of Finland’s national lore. It was variously known as La patrie (French for “The Nation”) or the less political “Impromptu” until Sibelius’s friend Axel Carpelan suggested the name that stuck: Finlandia. Sibelius’s music would play an important role in inspiring Finns to resist Russia, ultimately leading to the country’s independence in 1917.

The Instruments: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, and strings

Symphonic Dances, Opus 45

Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) After fleeing Russia with his family and a few possessions during the Revolution of 1917, Rachmaninoff dedicated the rest of his career to the piano. Though the grueling tours he made each year as a traveling virtuoso were the fastest and surest way to recoup his family’s lost fortune, his concert schedule left little time for composing; during the last 26 years of his life, he would finish only six original compositions. Completed at age 67, Symphonic Dances would be his last. He wrote it while staying at a quiet estate on Long Island during the summer of 1940, as the Battle of Britain raged on the other side of the Atlantic.

InTUNE — June 2019 | 21

Program NOTES , continued

When asked about his new piece by a reporter, Rachmaninoff offered a typically cryptic answer: “A composer always has his own ideas of his works, but I do not believe that he should ever reveal them.” Rachmaninoff did leave a few clues as to “his own ideas,” however, in the form of musical quotations and the suggestive movement titles “Noon,” “Twilight,” and “Midnight,” which Rachmaninoff supplied for a ballet adaptation of the work that never materialized.

After a quiet, almost hesitant opening, the first movement (“Noon”) launches into a forceful dance. Quieter woodwind solos then lead to one of the most famous saxophone solos in the orchestral literature: a long, haunting melody that is later taken up by the violins and cellos. Marked misterioso, a bass clarinet solo initiates a strange, fantastical development. The fierce opening dance returns, but dissipates as shimmering, tremolo strings introduce a dreamy coda.

as it is developed, leading to icy, descending figures in the violins. Gradually, the faster dance returns, this time full of grotesquely glittering appearances of the Dies irae. After a climactic statement of the Dies irae, the Alleluia melody makes a militant return. With these two forces locked in combat, the dance races defiantly to its end. — Calvin Dotsey The Instruments: 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, alto saxophone, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, piano, and strings

The violins then play a quotation from Rachmaninoff’s First Symphony, a brilliant work that tragically met with failure at its premiere in 1897 and remained unknown until after Rachmaninoff’s death. In his First Symphony, the theme functions as an ominous, Tchaikovskian “fate” motif that recurs throughout the work—indeed, its first four notes bear a strong resemblance to those of the Dies irae, a medieval chant that became a musical symbol of death. Here, however, it sounds almost like a wistful memory.

The “Twilight” second movement begins with a figure played by muted brass instruments; it stands like a gate leading into a world of memories. This figure recurs throughout the movement, demarcating a series of ghostly waltzes. By 1940, the waltz was a dance of the past; the movement seems to evoke memories of a vanished epoch, perhaps prerevolutionary Russia. Near the end, the waltz swells to a ghastly climax, and the music accelerates to a powerful rhythmic passage. This quickly collapses, however, and the movement ends with fragments of the waltz.

The “Midnight” finale begins with a flashing chord for full orchestra followed by sighing woodwinds. This introduction leads to a fast, fantastical main theme. Though its influence is subtle at first, the Dies irae permeates this movement: this is a dance of death. Another force is also at work, however; the Dies irae is answered by a vigorous, march-like theme played by the lower strings, as if in imitation of a men’s chorus.

Indeed, this theme is a traditional Russian Orthodox chant that Rachmaninoff used in his All-Night Vigil, a major sacred choral work he composed in 1915. In the original, the melody sets praises of the divine, ending with the words “Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, glory to you, God.” The Alleluia theme builds to a dramatic fanfare for full orchestra. The sighing introduction then returns to begin a slower, contrasting middle section. The Dies irae now appears lugubriously in the cellos amid strange, sliding violin glissandi.

Above rumbling cellos and basses, the bass clarinet intones a haunting new idea, which becomes lusher and more passionate

22 | Houston Symphony

Since it opened in 1923, Miller Outdoor Theatre has been Houston’s premiere venue for free, professional-caliber outdoor performances. Located in Hermann Park, it is the only proscenium theatre in America that offers an eight-month season of outstanding artistry, including classical music, jazz, dance, drama, films, and more. The Miller Theatre Advisory Board (MTAB) stewards public and private funds to ensure that Miller Outdoor Theatre can serve Houstonians from throughout the city and all walks of life.

The Houston Symphony’s partnership with Miller Outdoor Theatre dates back to the summer of 1940. Last summer, the six-concert ExxonMobil Summer Symphony Nights Series, including the annual Star-Spangled Salute on July 4, drew audiences of more than 43,000. The histories of Miller and the Symphony have been closely connected, including the opening performance of the new theatre in 1968, the Symphony’s 100th Birthday Concert in 2013, and the first performance led by new Music Director Andrés Orozco-Estrada in 2014.

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InTUNE — June 2019 | 23

FEATURED PROGRAM

TCHAIKOVSKY’S ROMEO & JULIET Saturday

June 22

8:30 p.m.

Miller Outdoor Theatre

*Ruth Reinhardt, conductor *MuChen Hsieh, violin *Houston Symphony solo debut

D. Glanert Saint-Saëns

Three American Preludes Prelude No. 1: Allegro molto

ca. 6

Violin Concerto No. 3 in B minor, Opus 61

I Allegro non troppo

II Andantino quasi allegretto

III Molto moderato e maestoso—Allegro non troppo

ca. 29

I N T E R M I S S I O N

Dvořák Tchaikovsky

Othello Overture, Opus 93

ca. 15

Romeo and Juliet, Overture-Fantasy

ca. 21

24 | Houston Symphony

Did you know?

• Detlev Glanert’s decision to pursue composition as a profession at 16 was met with some skepticism from his parents. In an interview with his publisher, he recalled his father asking him, “How would you earn your life with that?

Because composers die of hunger!”

Tchaikovsky’s Romeo & Juliet | Program Biographies

EXXONMOBIL SUMMER SYMPHONY NIGHTS

These performances are generously supported in part by:

Guarantor City of Houston through the Miller Theatre Advisory Board Partner

Program BIOGRAPHIES Ruth Reinhardt | conductor One of today’s most dynamic and nuanced young conductors, Ruth Reinhardt is building a reputation for her musical intelligence, programmatic imagination, and elegant performances. In the 2019–20 season, Ruth makes her debuts with the orchestras of Houston, Detroit, Indianapolis, Baltimore, San Antonio, and Grand Rapids, as well as the Los Angeles and St. Paul Chamber Orchestras.

In Europe, debuts include the Orchestre national d’Île de France in Paris; Frankfurt Radio Symphony; DSO-Berlin; Tonkünstler Orchestra; and the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony, Helsingborg Symphony, and Gävle Symphony Orchestras, among others. She will return to the Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra, and Dallas Symphony Orchestra, where she served as assistant conductor for two seasons under Jaap van Zweden, concluding at the end of the 2017–18 season.

Highlights of Ruth’s 2018–19 season included debuts with the symphony orchestras of Fort Worth, Omaha, Orlando, Portland, and Sarasota in this country; and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Grosses Orchester Graz, and Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra in Europe. She also returned to conduct The Cleveland Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, impuls Festival in Germany, and Dallas Symphony Orchestra for both a subscription week and the contemporary alternative ReMix series. In the summers of 2018 and 2019, she served as the assistant conductor of the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra.

Public Media Partner

The Houston Symphony's Miller Outdoor Theatre concerts are supported in part by an endowed fund from The Brown Foundation, Inc. in memory of Stewart and Hanni Orton.

The Houston Symphony's sound shell ceiling is made possible through the generosity of the Beauchamp Foundation and the Fondren Foundation.

Ruth received her master’s degree in conducting from The Juilliard School, where she studied with Alan Gilbert. Born in Saarbrücken, Germany, she began studying violin at an early age and sang in the children’s chorus of Saarländisches Staatstheater, Saarbrücken’s opera company. She attended Zurich’s University of the Arts to study violin with Rudolf Koelman and began conducting studies with Constantin Trinks with additional training under Johannes Schlaefli. She has also participated in conducting masterclasses with, among others, Bernard Haitink, Michael Tilson Thomas, David Zinman, Paavo Järvi, Neeme Järvi, Marin Alsop, and James Ross.

Prior to her appointment in Dallas, Reinhardt was a Dudamel Fellow of the Los Angeles Philharmonic (2017–19), conducting fellow at the Seattle Symphony (2015–16) and at the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Tanglewood Music Center (2015), and an associate conducting fellow of the Taki Concordia program (2015–17).

InTUNE — June 2019 | 25

Program BIOGRAPHIES , continued

MuChen Hsieh | violin A native of Taiwan, MuChen Hsieh joined the Houston Symphony as principal second violin in 2017. Prior to her appointment in Houston, she worked with leading conductors, including Thomas Adès, Charles Dutoit, Larry Rachleff, David Robertson, Joshua Weilerstein, and Hugh Wolff. She studied with Kathleen Winkler at Rice University’s Shepherd School and with Malcolm Lowe and Masuko Ushioda at the New England Conservatory of Music.

MuChen regularly performs in recitals, chamber music ensembles, and orchestras in the United States and Taiwan.

She has served as concertmaster of the Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra on numerous occasions, including the orchestra’s 2016 tour to Carnegie Hall. She has performed with the New York Philharmonic as a Zarin Mehta Global Academy Fellow.

An avid chamber musician, she has collaborated with James Dunham, Jon Kimura Parker, and Winkler. When MuChen is home in Taiwan, she enjoys organizing chamber music concerts with friends. She has a passion for coaching and leading youth orchestra concerts in her hometown of Puli.

MuChen is sponsored by Janet F. Clark.

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26 | Houston Symphony

Program NOTES Three American Preludes, Prelude No. 1: Allegro molto Detlev Glanert (1960-)

Detlev Glanert is one of today's leading composers of Germanlanguage opera, having made a name for himself with works that typically explore the darkest aspects of humanity. He also has a lighter side, however, as is evinced by this compact orchestral showpiece, one in a cycle of three concert-openers composed in 2014 for various American orchestras. The work begins with brassy fanfares, which soon lead to a broad main theme for violins, horns, and double reeds above a churning accompaniment. A Mozartian pause precedes a contrasting second theme introduced by a few desks of pizzicato strings.

These ideas are then developed with vivid orchestral colors until the music accelerates to a maestoso return of the main theme.

The piece then fades away to a playfully quiet ending.

The Instruments: 3 flutes (1 doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, and strings

Violin Concerto No. 3 in B minor, Opus 61 Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921)

Though busy with concert touring and composing a grand opera about Henry VIII, Camille Saint-Saëns found time during the early months of 1880 to compose a violin concerto for the great Spanish virtuoso Pablo de Sarasate. The two musicians had been friends for years, and Sarasate’s legendary talent was such that for some time “no violinists could be persuaded to perform at my home, so terrified were they of the idea of inviting comparison,” as Saint-Saëns later recalled. Though the work was tailored to Sarasate’s sweet, pure tone and flawless technique, it was soon played by other violinists and remains a staple of the repertoire.

It opens with a dramatic first movement; above tremolo strings the soloist introduces the main theme, a dark, expressive melody traditionally played on the violin’s lowest string. Virtuoso passagework leads to a contrasting, broadly lyrical melody.

Instead of building to a climax, the ensuing development gradually becomes softer and softer. Ingeniously, Saint-Saëns reprises the movement’s main themes in reverse order, allowing him to save the most intense, climactic passages for the end.

The slow second movement has a distinctly pastoral character: above a resonant, drone-like accompaniment of divided lower strings, the soloist intones a folksong-like melody. Characterized by the gentle, dotted rhythms of the sicilienne (a kind of dance), the theme has an affecting simplicity. A stronger, more passionate theme appears in the middle of the movement. After a varied reprise of the sicilienne theme, a remarkable coda features exquisite harmonies and whistling harmonics for the soloist created by barely touching the violin’s strings.

Tchaikovsky’s Romeo & Juliet | Program Notes

Saint-Saëns saves the best for last with a thrilling finale designed to showcase the debonair Sarasate’s virtuoso skill. The soloist begins the movement by theatrically striking up the band, then launches into a dashing tarantella. A lyrical transition leads to one of Saint-Saëns’ most inspired melodies, a theme expressive of deep joy. A developmental section based on the tarantella then begins, but soon takes an unexpected turn as the high strings intone a mysterious chorale. After a reprise of the main themes, the chorale makes a grand return in the brass.

Amid reminiscences of the lyrical second theme and virtuoso pyrotechnics, the soloist leads the orchestra to the concerto’s brilliant conclusion.

The Instruments: 2 flutes (1 doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, and strings

Othello Overture, Opus 93 Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904)

By 1891, Dvořák had composed eight of his nine symphonies.

Perhaps desiring a change of pace, he decided to write three programmatic overtures, titling this ambitious cycle Nature, Life, Love. Though he intended the three overtures to be performed together and linked them with a recurring melodic idea, in the end they were published separately. The third overture, Othello, corresponds to “Love” in his original plan and explores the darker side of human passion. Dvořák’s powerful score vividly suggests Shakespeare’s classic play about a Moorish general whose unfounded jealousy leads him to strangle his wife.

A slow introduction begins with a choir of muted strings imitating a solemn hymn. The entry of the harp signals the appearance of one of the overture’s main melodic ideas in the woodwinds. This is the recurring theme that united all three overtures; in the first two it represented the life force of nature, but in this one, it seems more associated with Othello’s intense passions. The music soon accelerates, and the passion theme is interwoven with exotic music characterized by military cymbals—likely representing Othello’s campaign to defeat the Turks. A fittingly turbulent transition shows the destruction of the Turkish navy in a storm. The love theme associated with Othello’s wife, Desdemona, is introduced by the oboe.

Later, a powerful crescendo to a cymbal crash marks the turning point of the drama: “In the mind of Othello jealousy and revenge begin to grow,” Dvořák tells us. After a reprise of the passion theme in the horns, the lowest instruments of the orchestra play violent, downward-plunging gestures punctuated by short outbursts from the higher instruments: “Othello murders her at the height of his anger.” Desdemona’s love theme then returns as a flute solo: as she expires “she tells him of her innocence for the last time.” After dying away, the music builds to a cymbal crash: “The desperate Othello begins to regret his deed.” Dvořák then adds a detail not found in Shakespeare: the hymn-like theme from the introduction returns as Othello prays. The harp

accompanies a final, deathly kiss, and rumbling timpani and basses signal Othello’s resolve to kill himself. The overture then races to its tragic ending.

The Instruments: 2 flutes (1 doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, and strings

Romeo and Juliet, Overture-Fantasy Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893)

We often imagine that artistic geniuses are solitary creatures who do their best work alone, but this is not always so; in some instances, collaboration and constructive criticism prove instrumental in the genesis of a masterpiece. Such is the case with Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy, one of the composer’s first mature works.

We owe the piece to Mily Balakirev, the leader of a group of composers in St. Petersburg known as “the Five” that most notably included Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Modest Mussorgsky, and Alexander Borodin. Balakirev suggested composing a piece based on Shakespeare’s play to Tchaikovsky while visiting Moscow during the summer of 1869, and Tchaikovsky took to the idea immediately; as a closeted gay man living in 19th-century Russia, it is easy to see how the classic story of forbidden love would have had parallels in his own life.

Initially, however, he struggled with writer’s block. He wrote to Balakirev, “I am played out completely, and not a single tolerable little musical idea will creep into my head.” In response, Balakirev sent him a detailed plan: a slow introduction would depict Friar Lawrence; a fast, stormy theme the vendetta between the Montagues and Capulets; a contrasting, lyrical melody would evoke the young lovers; and the ensuing development, reprise of the main themes, and coda would suggest the outline of the tragedy. Balakirev’s suggestions seemed just the stimulus Tchaikovsky needed, and Tchaikovsky produced a piece that followed Balakirev’s plan to the letter.

The premiere of this first version took place in Moscow in March 1870, but remarkably, it failed to make an impression.

“My overture had no success whatever here,” Tchaikovsky wrote to a friend. Balakirev urged revisions, and during the summer of 1870, Tchaikovsky made substantial changes to the overturefantasy. This brought the piece much closer to what we know today, but Balakirev was still unsatisfied, writing, “I feel strongly that you need to make further revisions to the overture, and not just to wave your hand at it, and hope for the best in your future compositions.” Tchaikovsky, however, conceded, “I could cheerfully make some further revisions, but […] I have absolutely no more energy for this task.” Only 10 years later would he return to the overture to recompose the ending. Tchaikovsky was now convinced the work was “a genuine chef d'oeuvre,” and posterity has agreed with him. —Calvin Dotsey The Instruments: 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, and strings

InTUNE — June 2019 | 27

FEATURED PROGRAM

DVOŘÁK’S NEW WORLD Friday

June 28

8:30 p.m.

Miller Outdoor Theatre

*Paolo Bortolameolli, conductor *Drew Petersen, piano *Houston Symphony debut

Grieg

Piano Concerto in A minor, Opus 16

I Allegro molto moderato II Adagio—

III Allegro moderato molto e marcato

ca. 30

I N T E R M I S S I O N

Dvořák

Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Opus 95 (From the New World)

I Adagio—Allegro molto II Largo

III Scherzo: Molto vivace

IV Allegro con fuoco

ca. 45

Did you know?

• When Dvořák arrived in the United States, he read an article about African American music that profoundly influenced his New World Symphony. The article was signed “Johann Tonsor,” a pen name of Mildred Hill, who was a composer in her own right: she is best remembered for writing the tune to “Happy Birthday,” one of the most famous melodies in history.

PHOTO BY COLTON DUKE

28 | Houston Symphony

Dvořák’s New World | Program Biographies

Program BIOGRAPHIES

EXXONMOBIL SUMMER SYMPHONY NIGHTS

These performances are generously supported in part by:

MICHIKO TIERNEY

Paolo Bortolameolli | conductor

Guarantor City of Houston through the Miller Theatre Advisory Board Partner

Public Media Partner

The Houston Symphony's Miller Outdoor Theatre concerts are supported in part by an endowed fund from The Brown Foundation, Inc. in memory of Stewart and Hanni Orton.

Chilean conductor Paolo Bortolameolli has gained international attention as one of the most interesting and versatile Latin American conductors of his generation.

Currently assistant conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, music director Gustavo Dudamel has praised and promoted Paolo as “knowledgeable, deep in intellect, and a great artist.” In his debut with that orchestra, the Los Angeles Times wrote, “every moment of the action was alive [...] a crisp, dynamic performance […] a great career awaits this young conductor.” He is also guest conductor-in-residence for Orchestra of the Americas.

In addition to the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, Paolo has recently guest conducted the Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar in Venezuela, the Orquesta Clásica Santa Cecilia in Spain, the Orquesta Filarmónica de Buenos Aires, the Orquesta Filarmónica de Chile, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Chile, the Orquesta Sinfónica del Sodre in Uruguay, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería in Mexico, and the Orquesta Joven de Colombia. Having conducted every significant orchestra in his Chilean homeland, he has been awarded three times by the International Association of Art Critics as an orchestral and operatic conductor in Chile.

Passionately committed to new music and new audiences, he has developed innovative projects such as RiteNow, a celebration of the 100th anniversary of The Rite of Spring’s premiere. He also created PONLE PAUSA, a project that seeks to revolutionize music education through short videos and concerts targeting social network users. This year, he was invited as lecturer for a TED Talk in New York.

Paolo received his Master of Music degree from the Yale School of Music in 2013; a graduate performance diploma from the Peabody Institute in 2015; a piano performance diploma from the Universidad Católica de Chile in 2006; and a conducting diploma from the Universidad de Chile in 2011.

The Houston Symphony's sound shell ceiling is made possible through the generosity of the Beauchamp Foundation and the Fondren Foundation.

InTUNE — June 2019 | 29

DARIO ACOSTA

Program BIOGRAPHIES , continued

Program NOTES

Drew Petersen | piano

Piano Concerto in A minor, Opus 16

Praised for his commanding and poetic performances of repertoire ranging from Bach to Zaimont, American pianist Drew Petersen received the 2018 Avery Fisher Career Grant, the 2017 American Pianists Award, the Christel DeHaan Classical Fellowship of the American Pianists Association, and a residency at the University of Indianapolis.

Drew has also received prizes from the Leeds International Piano Competition, the Hilton Head International Piano Competition, the Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin Competition for Young Pianists, and the New York Frederic Chopin Piano Competition.

Highlights of his 2018–19 season included appearances with orchestras in Indianapolis, New Jersey, Santa Fe, and Milwaukee in addition to his Orange County debut.

His first solo recording of American music was released in 2018 on the Steinway label. In the 2017–18 season, he made debuts with the Tucson and Milwaukee Symphony Orchestras, and performed with symphony orchestras in Indiana, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. Drew made solo recital appearances at the Gilmore Keyboard Festival, the University of Indianapolis, the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts in Chicago, and the Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists, followed by an eight-city U.S. recital tour. Summer 2018 included chamber concerts within Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival and a recital at Chicago’s Ravinia Festival. Past seasons have included recitals at the Musica e Arte Festival in Tolentino, Italy; Verbier Festival in Verbier, Switzerland; Euro Music Festival in Leipzig, Germany; and American Spring Music Festival of the Czech Republic.

A frequent radio contributor, Drew has performed on the McGraw-Hill Young Artists Showcase, NPR’s From the Top, American Public Radio’s Performance Today and WFMT’s Impromptu. Profiles include The New York Times, New York Magazine, and the documentary just normal by awardwinning director Kim A. Snyder. A champion of chamber music, Drew has appeared on French radio’s France Musique while a member of a Verbier Festival piano trio.

Drew graduated cum laude from Harvard at age 19 with a Bachelor of Liberal Arts in social science and did his undergraduate and graduate music studies at The Juilliard School as a recipient of the prestigious Kovner Fellowship. He is currently enrolled in the artist diploma program at Juilliard.

30 | Houston Symphony

Edvard Grieg (1843–1907)

After studying music in Germany as a young man, Grieg returned to his native Norway, where his compatriots inspired him to create a new, Norwegian style of classical music. In 1866, he settled in Oslo and flung himself into the arduous quest of developing audiences and institutions to support the art form in a country that still had limited interest in it. With a new wife and child to support, he was hard pressed to make money by giving piano lessons and seldom had time to compose. In the summer of 1868, he took his family on an extended holiday to visit his in-laws in Denmark. There, the creativity that had been dammed up within the 25-year-old composer at last came pouring out in the form of his piano concerto, and the premiere took place the following spring. Despite the concerto’s instant success, the perfectionistic Grieg continued to make adjustments to it as late as 1906. From its premiere, however, audiences and pianists alike treasured its heart-on-sleeve emotions, virtuoso pianism, and unforgettable Nordic melodies.

The concerto famously begins with a timpani roll and a dramatic descent for the soloist. Woodwinds then introduce the resolute main theme of the first movement; later, the cellos introduce a meltingly beautiful, contrasting second theme.

Dramatic trumpet fanfares initiate a dreamy development based on fragments of the main theme, and the following reprise of the main themes leads to an intense cadenza—an extended passage for the soloist alone. The orchestra briefly reenters, and the movement ends as it began.

The slow second movement transports listeners to a distant dream-world with a long, yearning theme for strings. The entrance of the piano begins a tranquil contrasting section, and the soloist concludes the movement with a passionate version of the strings’ opening theme.

The finale opens with a distinctive melody that recalls the Hardanger fiddle music of the halling, an athletic Norwegian folk dance. This vigorous main theme alternates with contrasting episodes, including a lyrical melody introduced by a solo flute. At the end, the halling theme is transformed, switching from duple to triple meter and from minor to major. The concerto concludes with a magnificent return of the flute theme. Influenced by Norwegian folk music, it is inflected with G-naturals in place of the expected G-sharps. In 1869, Grieg presented his new concerto to the great composer-pianist Franz Liszt, who astounded Grieg by playing it perfectly at sight. Years later, Grieg recalled “one particularly divine episode”:

Dvořák’s New World | Program Notes

“In the very last measures […] [Liszt] suddenly stopped, rose to his full height, left the piano, and with mighty theatrical steps and raised arms strode throughout the great monastery hall, literally roaring out the theme.

When he got to the above mentioned G, he gestured imperiously with his arm and cried: ‘G, G, not G-sharp!

Fantastic! That’s the real Swedish article!’”

True, Grieg was Norwegian, but in light of the master’s excitement, the young Grieg was easily able to forgive him.

The Instruments: 2 flutes (1 doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, and strings

Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Opus 95 (From the New World) Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904)

Greeted by the recently installed Statue of Liberty, Antonín Dvořák sailed in to the metropolis of gilded-age New York on September 27, 1892, ready to assume his duties as the new director of the National Conservatory of Music. Officially incorporated in 1891, the institution was remarkably progressive for its time, offering need-based scholarships and welcoming women, minorities, and the disabled. It was the brainchild of visionary philanthropist Jeannette Thurber, who had successfully tempted the world-renowned Czech composer away from his beloved Bohemia.

Thurber, however, was interested in more than the prestige Dvořák would bring to the school. By the end of the 19th century, the United States had become a formidable economic powerhouse, but many Americans now wished to compete with the centuries-old artistic traditions of Europe.

Thurber hoped Dvořák would compose new classical works in a distinctly American style, providing guidance to the next generation of American composers.

In many ways, Dvořák was ideally suited for this task. He had made his reputation by taking the genres at the center of the Austro-German classical tradition—symphonies and string quartets—and making them Czech, helping to invent a new style influenced by Slavic folk music traditions. Though he was ardently attached to his homeland, Dvořák also had long been fascinated by the United States. He had devoured Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha, an epic poem inspired by the stories of the Ojibwa Indians, and he had deep sympathies for American democracy.

As soon as Dvořák arrived, he was barraged by music critics, colleagues, and other acquaintances who were eager to provide him with examples of American music that might inspire him. Perhaps the most important influence, however, came from a black student at the conservatory: Harry

Burleigh. Burleigh became a frequent guest at Dvořák’s East 17th Street apartment, where he sang songs learned from his mother and grandfather, one of the few enslaved people who had been able to buy his own freedom before the Civil War. “[Dvořák] was in his shirtsleeves, with all his kids round him,” Burleigh later recalled. “I’d accompany myself at the piano. Dvořák especially liked ‘Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen’ and ‘Go Down Moses.’”

Fired by the manifold sights and sounds he experienced in New York, Dvořák began composing a symphony in January 1893 and completed it by May. The premiere with the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall on December 16, 1893, proved one of the great successes of Dvořák’s career.

The symphony itself is a sweeping drama, by turns full of conflict and longing. Dvořák was a master at creating highly evocative music that begs for narrative interpretation.

Though he himself only hinted at possible sources of inspiration, many have tried to find hidden meanings and stories within Dvořák’s masterpiece. Even if he did have something in mind, however, Dvořák himself realized it was best left unsaid. His recurring melodies are mysterious symbols that invite us to discover our own meanings within them. The 400th anniversary of Columbus Day, Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha, living memories of the Civil War, continued 

ExxonMobil, the largest publicly traded international oil and gas company, uses technology and innovation to help meet the world’s growing energy needs. ExxonMobil holds an industry-leading inventory of resources, is one of the largest refiners and marketers of petroleum products, and its chemical company is one of the largest in the world.

At ExxonMobil, strengthening the community is a core value, with support of the arts being a key area of focus. The company is proud to support the Houston Symphony’s Summer Symphony Nights, which provides patrons with a series of free full orchestra concert performances under the stars at Miller Outdoor Theatre. It also presents the ExxonMobil Summer Neighborhood Concerts Series, bringing the sounds and sights of live symphony entertainment free to families in communities throughout the Greater Houston area.

InTUNE — June 2019 | 31

Program NOTES , continued tales of the American West, and the tremendous growth and energy of contemporary New York may all have played a part in Dvořák’s imagination. For many, the symphony is a powerful expression of the dynamism, aspirations, and contradictions of turn-of-the-century America.

The third movement is a whirling scherzo that features doubled flute and oboe in a dancing canon with the clarinet.

This main theme alternates with lyrical contrasting episodes, and the main idea of the first movement also reappears, most notably at the end of the movement when it seems to dwarf the dancing scherzo theme.

It begins with a slow, mysterious introduction that leads to the faster main body of the movement, which focuses on three ideas: the first is an energetic main theme that begins with an arc-shaped, ascending-then-descending motif for horn; the second, a furtive melody introduced by doubled flute and oboe; the third, more pastoral in character, is introduced by a solo flute. It is the mirror image of the first theme—its melodic shape descends then ascends.

After the traditional repeat of these main ideas, an intense development ensues, pitting fragments of the mirror-image first and third themes against each other. The main themes are then reprised with subtle variations. In a dramatic coda, the first theme seems to prevail decisively over the third.

After a mysterious introduction for brass and winds, the slow second movement begins with one of Dvořák’s best-loved themes, a long melody full of tenderness and longing for English horn. This main theme acts as a refrain throughout the movement, alternating with contrasting episodes, including a haunting theme introduced by doubled flute and oboe and a lively episode that climaxes with the unexpected return of the main theme from the first movement.

The symphony’s finale begins with a powerful, warlike theme for horns and trumpets. The music soon takes flight as rushing strings lead to a passionate second theme for clarinet. A developmental passage then ensues, in which the main themes of the second and third movements reappear.

The music builds in intensity, until the first movement theme returns dramatically, squaring off with the warlike main theme of the finale. The finale’s theme prevails, but then collapses. Just as it seems about to die, the passionate second theme reappears, bringing the music back to life.

In a remarkable coda, the main themes of the previous movements all reappear, like the narrative strands coming together at the end of an epic tale. At last, the opposing main themes of the first movement and finale are combined, fused together over powerful harmonies, and the symphony races to a surprisingly quiet final chord. —Calvin Dotsey The Instruments: 2 flutes (1 doubling piccolo), 2 oboes (1 doubling English horn), 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, and strings

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FEATURED PROGRAM

BEETHOVEN 5 Saturday

June 29

8:30 p.m.

Miller Outdoor Theatre

*Roderick Cox, conductor TBC, soloist (Silver medal winner, 2019 Houston Symphony Ima Hogg Competition) *Houston Symphony debut

R. Strauss TBC

Don Juan, Opus 20

ca. 18

TBC I N T E R M I S S I O N

Beethoven

Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Opus 67

I Allegro con brio

II Andante con moto III Allegro— IV Allegro

34 | Houston Symphony

ca. 30

Did you know?

• Thanks to Carl Sagan, Otto Klemperer’s recording of the first movement of Beethoven’s Fifth is spiraling ever further away from us in outer space on board the Voyager spacecrafts’ Golden Records.

Beethoven 5 | Program Biography

Program BIOGRAPHY

EXXONMOBIL SUMMER SYMPHONY NIGHTS

These performances are generously supported in part by:

JOSH KOHANEK

Roderick Cox | conductor

Guarantor City of Houston through the Miller Theatre Advisory Board Partner

Public Media Partner

The Houston Symphony's Miller Outdoor Theatre concerts are supported in part by an endowed fund from The Brown Foundation, Inc. in memory of Stewart and Hanni Orton.

Winner of the Solti Foundation U.S.’s 2018 Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award, Roderick Cox was named the Minnesota Orchestra’s associate conductor in September 2016 for a two-year period following a year in which he served as the ensemble’s assistant conductor. Before arriving in Minnesota, he served for two years as assistant conductor of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra and music director of the Alabama Symphony Youth Orchestra.

Roderick was awarded the Robert J. Harth Conducting Prize from the Aspen Music Festival in 2013, which led to national recognition and a return to the Festival as a Fellow. He has also held fellowships with the Chicago Sinfonietta as part of the Project Inclusion program and with the Chautauqua Music Festival, where he was a David Effron Conducting Fellow.

Recent guest conducting highlights include a subscription concert debut with the Minnesota Orchestra and debut concerts with the Cleveland, Seattle, Santa Fe, and BBC Symphony orchestras. He has appeared at the Lanaudière Festival with the Orchestre Mètropolitain de Montreal; the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago; and at the Manhattan School of Music, conducting Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. Roderick also conducted a performance sponsored by Google and the Colour of Music Festival for the opening of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. In the 2018–19 season, Roderick made his Los Angeles Philharmonic subscription debut with Cameron Carpenter, which led to an immediate invitation to conduct the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA) during summer 2019. He also made his opera debut with Houston Grand Opera in performances of Bizet’s Les pêcheurs de perles as well as symphonic debuts with Sinfonia Varsovia and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

In addition to this performance with the Houston Symphony, further debuts this season include performances with the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Brighton Festival, the Peninsula Music Festival, and the Dresden Philharmonic. This summer, Roderick returns to the Cleveland and Minnesota Orchestras.

The Houston Symphony's sound shell ceiling is made possible through the generosity of the Beauchamp Foundation and the Fondren Foundation.

InTUNE — June 2019 | 35

Program NOTES Don Juan, Opus 20

at Don Juan’s ultimate fate—and the lust theme immediately resumes its insatiable course.

Richard Strauss was a musically precocious child who produced two symphonies as well as concertos for horn and violin by the age of 20. The son of the great horn player Franz Strauss (who believed that music had gone downhill since the death of Mendelssohn), Richard began by composing in a conservative style modeled on the classics of Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert; in 1885, however, he rebelled.

Don Juan begins his next seduction with a brooding melody in the cellos and violas, to which a sighing flute responds. This time however, a tender oboe melody arises, suggesting a deeper emotional involvement. In the play, Don Juan alludes to Anna, the only woman who seems to have touched his heart. Naturally, this interlude does not last: as Don Juan renounces monogamy, the horns belt a new, heroic theme, traditionally matched with one of the quotes Strauss selected: “I shun satiety and the weariness of pleasure, and keep myself fresh in the service of the beautiful; hurting the individual woman, I adore the whole species. […] Out, then, and away after ever-new victories as long as the fiery ardors of youth still soar!”

Richard Strauss (1864–1949)

That year, young Richard was converted to the music of Wagner, the composer his father detested most. Influenced by Wagnerian ideas, Richard abandoned the abstract, classicizing symphonies and sonatas of his youth and began composing graphic tone poems inspired by literature. In 1889, the 24-year-old composer would complete his first masterpiece: Don Juan.

Specifically, Strauss found inspiration in a fragmentary verse drama by the mid-19th century German poet Nikolaus Lenau, who left his Don Juan incomplete upon his descent into madness and untimely death. There is also evidence suggesting that Strauss had more personal sources of inspiration, including stern letters from his father warning him against scandalous behavior. Sometime between 1883 and 1889, Richard had a passionate, but ultimately impossible affair with a married woman, and in 1887, he began giving music lessons to the fiery soprano Pauline de Ahna, who would later become his wife.

Though Strauss titled his tone poem Don Juan and prefaced the score with quotations from the play, he himself never provided a detailed plot for the piece. Nevertheless, traditional interpretations have arisen, and much of the music is quite explicit on its own. The frenzied opening of the piece indubitably represents Don Juan’s lust. Lenau’s play commences with a scene in which Don Juan’s brother, Diego, confronts the rake with a message from their father, who implores Don Juan to abandon his reckless life and come home. Defiantly, Don Juan declares, “That magic circle, immeasurably wide, of beautiful femininity with their multiple attractions, I want to traverse in a storm of pleasure, and die of a kiss upon the lips of the last woman.” Just as Don Juan thumbs his nose at his father, so too does Strauss with wild, ultra-modern music unmistakably influenced by Wagner. From the beginning, the entire piece is incredibly difficult, requiring an orchestra of virtuosos. During a rehearsal for the premiere, one of the horn players famously cried out, “Dear God! What sin have we committed, for You to send us this scourge for our backs!”

The sins are all Don Juan’s, however; after the lust theme, a giggling transitional passage has traditionally been interpreted as Don Juan’s first conquest. No sooner is it completed than the lust theme strikes up again, until a demur violin solo appears— usually interpreted as the next feminine object of Don Juan’s desire. Soon the violins (representing the woman) begin a duet with the horns and cellos (representing Don Juan), their melodies entwining about each other with increasing passion.

The climax, however, is surprisingly dark—perhaps hinting 36 | Houston Symphony

This new theme initiates a developmental section which spirals out of control. Traditionally, this has been interpreted as a drunken, orgiastic carnival scene. Lenau’s play does contain a masked ball, but other episodes seem perhaps even more suited to the music. In one scene, Don Juan sneaks a bevy of young women disguised as page boys into a monastery. At his signal, they reveal themselves. The apparently helpless monks immediately succumb to their charms, much to the dismay of the prior, who attempts to burn the monastery down with everyone inside (fortunately, they all escape). Another possibility occurs at the end of the play, when a horde of women and bastard children demanding justice descend upon Don Juan’s castle.

The episode collapses, leading to an eerie passage traditionally associated with a cemetery scene from the play. Brief quotations of the earlier love themes suggest memories of the women Don Juan seduced—alternatively, some of those women do indeed appear to confront Don Juan at the end of the play. Don Juan promises to divide the residue of his estate among them when he dies, and Don Pedro, whose father was killed by Don Juan in a duel, obligingly appears seeking vengeance.

The return of the lust theme seems to correspond with Don Juan’s duel with Don Pedro. As skilled in the arts of war as in those of seduction, Don Juan easily bests him, but is careful to avoid seriously injuring him. The heroic horn theme of Don Juan’s resolve to eternally seek after new women then returns with intense longing. The lust theme consumes it, building to a thunderous silence.

Almost on a whim, Don Juan, bored with life and the endless cycle of seduction, casts aside his rapier, and Don Pedro stabs him. In the preface, Strauss quotes Don Juan: “All my desires and hopes are in suspended animation; perhaps a lightning bolt, from the heights that I contemned, mortally struck my amorous powers, and suddenly my world became deserted and benighted.

And yet, perhaps not—the fuel is consumed and the hearth has become cold and dark.” The piece ends with deathly quiet as Don Juan perishes.

At its premiere in Weimar on November 11, 1889, Don Juan scandalized and delighted audiences; never before had they

Beethoven 5 | Program Notes

heard such graphically suggestive music. Don Juan sealed Strauss’s fame as the genius of his generation, and he became the darling of the musical modernists.

Special thanks to Amy Tanguay for her help in translating Lenau’s Don Juan.

The Instruments: 3 flutes (1 doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, and strings

Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Opus 67 Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)

Beethoven lived during an era of extraordinary violence and upheaval: the Napoleonic Wars. But battles were not only fought around Beethoven; with regard to his music, perhaps the most important struggle was within himself. Just as Beethoven was winning a reputation as the leading composer in Vienna, he was faced with a terrible fate: slow, progressive hearing loss that would render him completely deaf by the end of his life. In 1802, Beethoven contemplated suicide, writing, “It was only my art that held me back. Oh, it seemed impossible to me to leave this world before I had produced all that I felt capable of producing…”

This crisis marked a major turning point in his musical style; he took the musical language he had inherited, tore it apart, and put it back together again, determined to write music that could chart the course from despair to victory. Of all his works, the Fifth Symphony best exemplifies Beethoven’s new, “heroic” style. Though sketches for the symphony can be traced to 1804, Beethoven truly set to work on the piece in late 1807, completing it in early 1808. It has since become one of music history’s bestknown works, but it would have sounded strange and new to Beethoven’s contemporaries.

In the Fifth Symphony, Beethoven creates a narrative arc over the course of its four movements that leads from the darkness of the opening to the triumph of the finale. The first movement begins with perhaps the four most famous notes in all music.

Traditionally interpreted as “fate knocking at the door,” this iconic opening idea forms the basis of the entire symphony; Beethoven constructs his grand musical forms from simple building blocks, making the music gripping and coherent. The opening idea soon cascades throughout the orchestra until the horns expand on it, introducing a new, softer theme in the violins. This more hopeful melody is derived from the opening idea, but turned upside-down; in a way, it is its mirror image.

The opening returns and the main ideas of the movement are repeated, leading to a turbulent development. As the development progresses, the music becomes weaker, as if dying away, until the opening idea makes a powerful reappearance.

The oboe plays a brief, poignant solo before the other main ideas of the movement are reprised. In the end, the fateful opening idea ultimately prevails.

The slower second movement begins with a ruminative melody in the violas and cellos, to which the woodwinds and violins

respond with consoling phrases. A brighter, more optimistic theme emerges in the clarinets and bassoons, but it is interrupted by uncertain, questioning music in the violins. Turning away from these doubts, the theme resumes resplendently in the brass.

These two themes alternate and are varied with each appearance, growing more complex as the movement unfolds.

After a brief, misty introduction, the third movement begins with a grim march based on the rhythm of the four notes that began the symphony. A contrasting middle section banishes the oppressive mood of the march with an upsurge of life; when the march returns, it appears in a weakened form featuring pizzicato strings.

The final movements are linked by a mysterious bridge that crescendos to the triumphant entrance of the trombones, which mark the beginning of the finale. Beethoven presents a series of soaring, triumphant themes, leading to a final, stormy development. Suddenly, the music slows and becomes quieter as the weakened version of the march from the third movement reappears. The uplifting main themes of the movement are then reprised in preparation for an extended, jubilant coda.

—Calvin Dotsey The Instruments: 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, and strings

Houston First Corporation operates Houston’s finest convention, arts, and entertainment venues and leads the effort to have Houston recognized as one of the great cities of the world.

As a local government corporation, Houston First manages more than 10 city-owned buildings, plazas, and parking facilities, including the Houston Symphony’s home stage—the Jesse H. Jones Hall for the Performing Arts, Miller Outdoor Theatre, the Wortham Center, George R. Brown Convention Center, and Hilton Americas-Houston.

The mission of Houston First is to enhance the quality of life of all Houstonians and to advance the economic prosperity and development of our great city. Houston First accomplishes this through its services, attractions, and venues by inspiring the world to think Houston First, Houstonians to explore Houston First, and employees to deliver Houston First class service.

InTUNE — June 2019 | 37

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InTUNE — June 2019 | 41

Corporate, Foundation, & Government PARTNERS The Houston Symphony is proud to recognize the leadership support of our corporate, foundation, and government partners that allow the orchestra to reach new heights in musical performance, education, and community engagement, for Greater Houston and the Gulf Coast Region.

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(as of May 1, 2019)

Frost Bank Houston Baptist University Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo Kirkland & Ellis *The Lancaster Hotel Mann Eye Institute Occidental Petroleum Palmetto Partners Ltd./The Robert and Janice McNair Foundation Shell Oil Company Vinson & Elkins LLP Sponsor  $25,000 and above *Bright Star EOG Resources Goldman, Sachs & Co. H-E-B Tournament of Champions *Houston Chronicle *Houston First Corporation IberiaBank *Jackson and Company Marine Foods Express, Ltd. McGuireWoods, LLP *Neiman Marcus Sidley Austin LLP *Silver Circle Audio SPIR STAR, Ltd. *Steinway & Sons The University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center Wells Fargo WoodRock & Co.

CORPORATE MATCHING GIFTS Aetna Foundation, Inc. Akzo Nobel Inc. Albemarle Corporation Allstate Insurance Company American International Group (AIG) Ameriprise Financial, Inc. Aon Foundation Bank of America BBVA Compass BHP Billiton British Petroleum Matching Fund Programs Caterpillar Matching Gifts Program Chevron Matching Gifts Program CITGO Petroleum Corporation ConocoPhillips Company 42 | Houston Symphony

Partner  $15,000 and above Accenture Anadarko Petroleum Corporation *City Kitchen *Glazier’s Distributors Gorman’s Uniform Service Heart of Fashion Independent Bank Laredo Construction, Inc. Locke Lord LLP Lockton Companies of Houston Macy’s USI Southwest Supporter  $10,000 and above *Abraham’s Oriental Rugs CenterPoint Energy Emerson Northern Trust *Silver Eagle Distributors Triten Corporation White & Case LLP *Zenfilm

Benefactor  $5,000 and above Barclay’s Wealth and Investment Management Beck Redden LLP Louis Vuitton Nordstrom Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, L.L.P. Russell Reynolds Associates, Inc. *University of St. Thomas Wortham Insurance and Risk Management Patron  Gifts below $5,000 Amazon Baker Hughes Bering’s Beth Wolff Realtors Burberry Dolce & Gabbana USA, Inc. Kinder Morgan Foundation *Quantum Bass Center SEI, Global Institutional Group Smith, Graham & Company Stewart Title Company TAM International, Inc. * Includes in-kind support

(as of May 1, 2019)

Dominion Energy Foundation Matching Gift Program Eli Lilly and Company Emerson Electric Company, Inc. ExxonMobil Matching Gift Program Fannie Mae Corporation FMC Corporation Freeport-McMorRan Copper & Gold Inc. General Electric General Mills, Inc. Goldman Sachs Halliburton Company Hewlett Packard IAC Interactive IBM Corporation ING Financial Services Intermec

Johnson & Johnson JPMorgan Chase & Co. LyondellBasell Industries Macy's, Inc. (Macy's and Bloomingdale's) Merrill Lynch Microsoft Corporation Motiva Enterprises, LLC Murphy Oil Corporation NACCO Industries Neiman Marcus Group, Inc. Northern Trust Occidental Petroleum Phillips 66 Plains All American Pipeline PricewaterhouseCoopers Prudential Financial Inc. Regions Shell Oil Company

Southwestern Energy Spectra Energy SPX Corporation Texas Instruments The Boeing Company Matching Program The Coca-Cola Company Thomson Reuters TransCanada Pipelines Limited Transocean Offshore Deepwater Drilling Inc. Travelers Companies, Inc. UBS Union Pacific Walt Disney Company Westlake Chemical Williams Companies, Inc.

FOUNDATIONS & GOVERNMENT AGENCIES Diamond Guarantor  $1,000,000 and above The Brown Foundation, Inc. Houston Symphony Endowment Houston Symphony League The Wortham Foundation, Inc. Premier Guarantor  $500,000 and above City of Houston and Theater District Improvement, Inc. The Cullen Trust for the Performing Arts Albert and Ethel Herzstein Charitable Foundation The C. Howard Pieper Foundation Grand Guarantor  $150,000 and above City of Houston through the Miller Theatre Advisory Board The Cullen Foundation The Hearst Foundations Houston Endowment The Humphreys Foundation

MD Anderson Foundation Guarantor  $100,000 and above The Jerry C. Dearing Family Foundation The Elkins Foundation Underwriter  $50,000 and above The Fondren Foundation Houston Symphony Chorus Endowment League of American Orchestras’ Futures Fund LTR Lewis Cloverdale Foundation John P. McGovern Foundation The Robert and Janice McNair Foundation / Palmetto Partners Ltd. The Powell Foundation The Robbins Foundation

Capital INVESTMENTS Beauchamp Foundation Miller Outdoor Theatre

Sound Shell Ceiling

Portativ organ Berlioz bells Adam’s German Timpani Orchestra synthesizer Adam’s vibraphone Small percussion and other instruments The Fondren Foundation Miller Outdoor Theatre Sound Shell Ceiling

In-Kind DONORS A Fare Extraordinaire Alexander’s Fine Portrait Design Alpha-Lee Enterprises, Inc. Aspire Executive Coaching, LLC Bergner & Johnson Design Bering’s BKD, LLP Boat Ranch Burberry Cognetic Complete Eats Corinthian Houston Culinaire Carl R. Cunningham DLG Research & Marketing Solutions Elaine Turner Designs Elegant Events by Michael Elliot Marketing Group

(as of May 1, 2019)

Sponsor  $25,000 and above Beauchamp Foundation National Endowment for the Arts Texas Commission on the Arts The William Stamps Farish Fund Partner  $15,000 and above Edward H. Andrews Foundation Ruth & Ted Bauer Family Foundation The Melbern G. & Susanne M. Glasscock Foundation The Hood-Barrow Foundation Barbara Bush Literacy Foundation Houston Symphony League Bay Area The Schissler Foundation The Vivian L. Smith Foundation The Vaughn Foundation

Supporter  $10,000 and above The Carleen & Alde Fridge Foundation William E. & Natoma Pyle Harvey Charitable Foundation Petrello Family Foundation Radoff Family Foundation Anonymous Benefactor  $5,000 and above Leon Jaworski Foundation The Scurlock Foundation Keith & Mattie Stevenson Foundation Strake Foundation Patron  Gifts below $5,000 The WC Handy Foundation The Lubrizol Foundation

The Houston Symphony thanks the generous donors who, since 2012, have made possible infrastructure additions to further enhance the sound and quality of our orchestral performances.

Albert & Ethel Herzstein Charitable Foundation Enhancements to Jones Hall Video System Houston Symphony League Steinway Concert Grand Piano Instrument Petting Zoo Lewis Elementary Residency violins Ms. Nancey G. Lobb Piccolo Timpani LTR Lewis Cloverdale Foundation Lyon & Healy Harp

Vicky & Michael Richker Family Adolfo Sayago, Orquestas Sybil F. Roos Rotary Trumpets Silver Circle Audio Enhancements to Jones Hall Recording Suite Beverly Johnson, Ralph Wyman and Jim Foti, and Thane & Nicole Wyman in memory of Winthrop Wyman Basset Horns and Rotary Trumpets Mr. & Mrs. Charles Zabriskie Conductor’s Podium

(as of May 1, 2019)

Elsie Smith Design Festari Foster Quan LLP Gucci Hermann Park Conservancy Hilton Americas – Houston Hotel Granduca Hotel Icon Hotel ZaZa Memorial City Houston Astros Houston Grand Opera Houston Texans InterContinental Hotel Houston Jim Benton of Houston, LLC JOHANNUS Organs of Texas John L. Worthan & Son, L.P. John Wright/Textprint JW Marriott Houston Downtown Karbach Brewing Co.

Kuhl-Linscomb LG Entertainers Limb Design Martha Turner Properties Meera Buck & Associates Michael’s Cookie Jar Minuteman Press – Post Oak Momentum Jaguar Music & Arts New Leaf Publishing, Inc. Nos Caves Vin The Parson Family in memory of Dorothy Anne Parson Prime Systems Pro/Sound Randalls Food Markets Rice University Richard Brown Orchestra Saint Arnold’s Brewery

Saks Fifth Avenue Shecky’s Media, Inc. Singapore Airlines Staging Solutions Stewart Title Tony’s Tootsies Valobra Jewelry & Antiques Versace Village Greenway VISION Yahama

InTUNE — June 2019 | 43

Houston Symphony ENDOWMENT The Houston Symphony Endowment is a separate non-profit organization that invests contributions to earn income for the benefit of the Houston Symphony Society.

TRUSTEES William J. Toomey II, President Gene Dewhurst

James Lee Lynn Mathre

Jerry Simon Scott Wise

An endowed fund can be permanently established within the Houston Symphony Society through a direct contribution or via a planned gift such as a bequest. The fund can be designated for general purposes or specific interests.

For more information, please contact: Nancy Giles, Chief Development Officer, 713.337.8525.

GENERAL ENDOWMENT FUNDS



to support operational and annual activities

Accenture (Andersen Consulting) Fund AIG American General Fund M.D. Anderson Foundation Fund Mr. & Mrs. Philip Bahr Fund Janice H. & Thomas D. Barrow Fund Mrs. Ermy Borlenghi Bonfield Fund Jane & Robert Cizik Fund Mr. Lee A. Clark Fund Cooper Industries, Inc. Fund Gene & Linda Dewhurst Fund DuPont Corporation Fund Elkins Charitable Trust Agency Fund The Margaret & James A. Elkins Foundation Fund Virginia Lee Elverson Trust Fund Charles Engelhard Foundation Fund William Stamps Farish Fund Dr. Kelli Cohen Fein & Martin J. Fein Fund Stephen & Mariglyn Glenn Fund Jo A. & Billie Jo Graves Fund

DESIGNATED FUNDS



George & Mary Josephine Hamman Foundation Fund Dr. Gary L. Hollingsworth & Dr. Ken Hyde Fund Houston Arts Combined Endowment Fund Drs. M.S. & Marie-Luise Kalsi Fund Mr. & Mrs. Marvin Kaplan Fund Ann Kennedy & Geoffrey Walker Fund Martha Kleymeyer Fund Rochelle & Max Levit Fund Mr. E. W. Long Jr. Fund Mr. & Mrs. Rodney H. Margolis Fund Jay & Shirley Marks Fund Mr. & Mrs. J. Stephen Marks Fund/ The Marks Charitable Foundation Marian & Speros Martel Foundation Fund Barbara & Pat McCelvey Fund The Menil Foundation Fund Monroe Mendelsohn Jr. Estate Sue A. Morrison & Children Fund National Endowment for the Arts Fund

to support annual performance activity

The Brown Foundation Guest Pianist Fund The Cullen Foundation Maestro’s Fund General & Mrs. Maurice Hirsch Memorial Concert Fund in memory of Theresa Meyer and Jules Hirsch, beloved parents of General Maurice Hirsch, and Rosetta Hirsch Weil and Josie Hirsch Bloch, beloved sisters of General Maurice Hirsch The Houston Symphony Chorus Endowment Fund

ENDOWED CHAIRS

to attract, retain and support world-class conductors, musicians, guest artists, and executive leadership 

Janice & Thomas Barrow Chair Brinton Averil Smith, Principal Cello Roy & Lillie Cullen Chair Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Music Director Fondren Foundation Chair Qi Ming, Assistant Concertmaster General Maurice Hirsch Chair Aralee Dorough, Principal Flute Ellen E. Kelley Chair Eric Halen, Co-Concertmaster Max Levine Chair George P. & Cynthia Woods Mitchell Chair Mark Hughes, Principal Trumpet Tassie & Constantine S. Nicandros Chair Alexander Potiomkin, Bass Clarinet Lucy Binyon Stude Chair Jonathan Fischer, Principal Oboe Winnie Safford Wallace Chair

ENDOWED FUNDS

to attract, retain, and support world-class conductors and guest artists American General Fund Speros P. Martel Fund Stewart Orton Fund Dan Feigal Prosser Fund 

44 | Houston Symphony

Stewart Orton Fund Papadopoulos Fund Nancy & Robert Peiser Fund Rockwell Fund, Inc. Fund Mr. & Mrs. Clive Runnells Fund Estate of Mr. Walter W. Sapp Fund Mr. & Mrs. Matt K. Schatzman Fund The Schissler Foundation Fund Mr. & Mrs. James A. Shaffer Fund Mr. & Mrs. William T. Slick Jr. Fund Texas Eastern Fund Dorothy Barton Thomas Fund Bobby & Phoebe Tudor Fund Mr. & Mrs. Jesse B. Tutor Fund Dede & Connie Weil Fund The Wortham Foundation Fund Anonymous (5)

Fayez Sarofim Guest Violinist Fund through The Cullen Trust for the Performing Arts The Wortham Foundation Classical Series Fund endowed in memory of Gus S. & Lyndall F. Wortham

 to support annual education and community engagement activities Margarett & Alice Brown Endowment Fund for Education Ronald C. Borschow Fund Lawrence E. Carlton, M.D. Endowment Fund for Youth Programs Richard P. Garmany Fund for the Houston Symphony League Concerto Competition The William Randolph Hearst Endowed Fund for Education Programs Selma S. Neumann Fund Spec’s Charitable Foundation Salute to Educators Concert Fund  to support new commissions and innovative artistic projects The Micajah S. Stude Special Production Fund

to support access and expand geographic reach The Alice & David C. Bintliff Messiah Concert Fund The Brown Foundation’s Miller Outdoor Theatre Fund in memory of Hanni & Stewart Orton Mach Family Audience Development Fund George P. & Cynthia Woods Mitchell Summer Concerts Fund 

 to support electronic media initiatives The Cullen Trust for the Performing Arts Fund for Creative Initiatives

to support the Ima Hogg Competition Nancy B. Willerson Mr. & Mrs. C. Clifford Wright Jr. 

to support piano performance Michael B. & Christine E. George Fund to support Piano Performance Concerts Mary R. Lewis Fund for Piano Performance C. Howard Pieper Foundation 

LEGACY COMMITMENTS

 through The Brown Foundation Challenge to support artistic excellence Janet F. Clark Gloria Goldblatt Pryzant Mr. & Mrs. Jesse B. Tutor Legacy Society Chair Wayne Brooks, principal viola Ms. Vicki West in honor of Hans Graf Anonymous (1)

LEADERSHIP GIFTS OF WORKING CAPITAL provided as part of the Campaign for the 20th Century, Campaign for Houston Symphony and My Houston, My Symphony—Campaign for a Sound Future Hewlett Packard Company Fund The Robert and Janice McNair Foundation Neva Watkins West Fund Gift in memory of Winifred Safford Wallace for the commission of new works



Legacy SOCIETY The Legacy Society honors those who have included the Houston Symphony Endowment in their long-term estate plans through bequests, life-income gifts, or other deferred-giving arrangements.

Farida Abjani Mr. & Mrs. Jeffrey B. Aron Myra W. Barber Daniel B. Barnum George* & Betty Bashen Dr. Joan Hacken Bitar Dorothy B. Black Kerry Levine Bollmann Ermy Borlenghi Bonfield James & S. Dale Brannon Zu Broadwater Joan K. Bruchas & H. Philip Cowdin Mr. Christopher & Mrs. Erin Brunner Eugene R. Bruns Cheryl & Sam Byington Sylvia J. Carroll Dr. Robert N. Chanon William J. Clayton & Margaret A. Hughes Mr. & Mrs. Byron Cooley The Honorable & Mrs. William Crassas Dr. Lida S. Dahm Leslie Barry Davidson Judge & Mrs. Harold DeMoss Jr. Susan Feickert Ginny Garrett Mr. & Mrs. Harry H. Gendel Mauro H. Gimenez & Connie A. Coulomb Mr. Robert M. Griswold Randolph Lee Groninger

Claudio J. Gutierrez Mr. & Mrs. Jerry L. Hamaker Mrs. Gloria Herman Marilyn & Robert M. Hermance Timothy Hogan & Elaine Anthony Dr. Gary L. Hollingsworth Dr. Edward J. & Mrs. Patti Hurwitz Dr. Kenneth Hyde Brian & Catherine James Barbara & Raymond Kalmans Dr. & Mrs. Ira Kaufman, M.D. John S. W. Kellett Ann Kennedy & Geoffrey Walker Dr. James E. & Betty W. Key Dr. & Mrs. I. Ray Kirk Mrs. Frances E. Leland Samuel J. Levine Mrs. Lucy Lewis E. W. Long Jr. Sandra Magers David Ray Malone & David J. Sloat Mr. & Mrs. Rodney H. Margolis Jay & Shirley Marks James G. Matthews Mr. & Mrs. John H. Matzer III Dr. & Mrs. Malcolm L. Mazow Mary Ann & David McKeithan Mr. & Mrs. Alexander K. McLanahan Dr. Tracey Samuels & Mr. Robert McNamara Mr. & Mrs. D. Bradley McWilliams

Catherine Jane Merchant Dr. Georgette M. Michko Marilyn Ross Miles & Stephen Warren Miles Foundation Katherine Taylor Mize Ione Moran Sidney Moran Richard & Juliet Moynihan Gretchen Ann Myers Patience Myers Mr. John N. Neighbors, in memory of Jean Marie Neighbors Mr. & Mrs. Richard C. Nelson Bobbie Newman John & Leslie Niemand Leslie Nossaman Dave G. Nussmann John Onstott Macky Osorio Edward C. Osterberg Jr. Mr. & Mrs. Edmund & Megan Pantuliano Imogen “Immy” Papadopoulos Christine & Red Pastorek Peter & Nina Peropoulos Sara M. Peterson Darla Powell Phillips Geraldine Smith Priest Dana Puddy Patrick T. Quinn Lila Rauch

Ed & Janet Rinehart Mr. Floyd W. Robinson Evie Ronald Walter Ross Mr. & Mrs. James A. Shaffer Dr. & Mrs. Kazuo Shimada Lisa & Jerry Simon Tad & Suzanne Smith Sherry Snyder Marie Speziale Emily H. & David K. Terry Stephen G. Tipps Steve Tostengard, in memory of Ardyce Tostengard Jana Vander Lee Bill & Agnete Vaughan Dean B. Walker Stephen & Kristine Wallace David M. Wax* & Elaine Arden Cali Geoffrey Westergaard Nancy B. Willerson Jennifer R. Wittman Lorraine & Ed Wulfe David & Tara Wuthrich Katherine & Mark Yzaguirre Edith & Robert Zinn Anonymous (6)

Dr. & Mrs.* Robert M. Mihalo Sue A. Morrison & children in memory of Walter J. Morrison Mr. & Mrs. Marvin H. Mueller Drs. John & Dorothy Oehler Robert A. Peiser Gloria G. Pryzant Clive Runnells, in memory of Nancy Morgan Runnells Mr. Charles K. Sanders Donna Scott Charles & Andrea Seay Michael J. Shawiak Jule* & Albert Smith Mr. & Mrs. Louis J. Snyder

Mr. Rex Spikes Mike & Anita* Stude Mr. & Mrs. Jesse B. Tutor Elba L. Villarreal Margaret Waisman, M.D. & Steven S. Callahan, Ph.D. Mr. & Mrs. Fredric A. Weber Robert G. Weiner Vicki West in honor of Hans Graf Susan Gail Wood Jo Dee Wright Ellen A. Yarrell Anonymous (2)

CRESCENDO CIRCLE $100,000+ Dr. & Mrs. George J. Abdo Priscilla R. Angly Janice Barrow James Barton James Bell Joe Brazzatti Terry Ann Brown Drs. Dennis & Susan Carlyle Janet F. Clark Mr. William E. Colburn Darrin Davis & Mario Gudmundsson Harrison R.T. Davis Andria N. Elkins Jean & Jack* Ellis The Aubrey & Sylvia Farb Family

Eugene Fong Mrs. Aggie L. Foster Michael B. George Stephen & Mariglyn Glenn Evan B. Glick Jo A. & Billie Jo Graves Bill Grieves Jacquelyn Harrison & Thomas Damgaard Dr. Rita Justice Mr. & Mrs. U. J. LeGrange Ms. Nancey G. Lobb Joella & Steven P. Mach Bill & Karinne McCullough Betty & Gene* McDavid

*Deceased

In MEMORIAM We honor the memory of those who in life included the Houston Symphony Endowment in their estate plans. Their thoughtfulness and generosity will continue to inspire and enrich lives for generations to come.

Mr. Thomas D. Barrow George Bashen Paul M. Basinski W. P. Beard Ronald C. Borschow Mrs. H. Raymond Brannon Anthony Brigandi Lawrence E. Carlton, M.D. Mrs. Albert V. Caselli Lee Allen Clark William J. & Patricia S. Cunningham Fredell Lack Eichhorn Jack Ellis Mrs. Robin A. Elverson Frank R. Eyler Dr. & Mrs. Larry L. Fedder Helen Bess Fariss Foster

Christine E. George Lila-Gene George Mr. & Mrs. Keith E. Gott John Wesley Graham Dorothy H. Grieves Mrs. Marcella Levine Harris Gen. & Mrs. Maurice Hirsch Miss Ima Hogg Burke & Octavia Holman David L. Hyde Dr. Blair Justice Mr. Max Levine Dr. Mary R. Lewis Mrs. L. F. McCollum Gene McDavid Mr. & Mrs. Charles E. McKerley Doretha Melvin

Monroe L. Mendelsohn Jr. Mr. Ronald Mikita Robert Austin Moody Mrs. Janet Moynihan Arthur Newman Constantine S. Nicandros Hanni Orton Stewart Orton, Legacy Society co-founder Dr. Michael Papadopoulos Miss Louise Pearl Perkins Mary Anne H. Phillips Mr. Howard Pieper Walter W. Sapp, Legacy Society co-founder J. Fred & Alma Laws Lunsford Schultz Ms. Jean R. Sides

Lola Sinclair Blanche Stastny John K. & Fanny W. Stone Dorothy Barton Thomas Dr. Carlos Vallbona Mr. Harry C. Wiess Mrs. Edward Wilkerson Daisy S. Wong / JCorp Anonymous (1)

InTUNE — June 2019 | 45

Education & Community Engagement DONORS The Houston Symphony acknowledges those individuals, corporations, and foundations that support our education and community engagement initiatives. Each year, these activities impact the lives of more than 97,000 children and students and provide access to our world-class orchestra for more than 150,000 Houstonians free of charge.

Principal Guarantor $250,000+



John & Lindy Rydman / Spec’s Wines, Spirits & Finer Foods / Spec’s Charitable Foundation

Guarantor $100,000+



BBVA Compass The Jerry C. Dearing Family Foundation City of Houston through the Miller Theatre Advisory Board The Hearst Foundations, Inc. Houston Endowment Houston Symphony Endowment Mr. John N. Neighbors

Underwriter $50,000+



Chevron The Elkins Foundation ENGIE Exxon Mobil Corporation League of American Orchestras’ Futures Fund Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo The John P. McGovern Foundation The Robert & Janice McNair Foundation Occidental Petroleum The Powell Foundation Mr. & Mrs. William K. Robbins Jr./ The Robbins Foundation Shell Oil Company

Sponsor



$25,000+

Mr. & Mrs. John P. Dennis III/ WoodRock & Co. Houston Symphony Hispanic Leadership Council Sterling-Turner Foundation Wells Fargo

Partner  $15,000+ Anadarko Petroleum Corporation Ruth and Ted Bauer Family Foundation Barbara Bush Literacy Foundation The Melbern G. and Susanne M. Glasscock Foundation H-E-B Tournament of Champions Houston Symphony League Houston Symphony League Bay Area Macy’s Vivian L. Smith Foundation Mr. Jay Steinfeld & Mrs. Barbara Winthrop Texas Commission on the Arts Ellen A. Yarrell in memory of Virginia S. Anderson and in honor of Cora Sue Mach Supporter



$10,000+

CenterPoint Energy George & Mary Josephine Hamman Foundation William E. & Natoma Pyle Harvey Charitable Trust Nancy & Robert Peiser

Benefactor



$5,000+

Houston Symphony League Bay Area Nordstrom Randalls Food Markets

Donor



$1,000+

Lilly & Thurmon Andress Diane & Harry Gendel Kinder Morgan Foundation Cora Sue & Harry Mach Karinne & Bill McCullough Tricia & Mark Rauch Hazel French Robertson Education & Community Residency Strake Foundation

Support by Endowed Funds Education and Community programs are also supported by the following endowed funds, which are a part of the Houston Symphony Endowment: Margarett & Alice Brown Endowment Fund for Education Spec’s Charitable Foundation Salute to Educators Concert Fund The Brown Foundation’s Miller Outdoor Theatre Fund in honor of Hanni & Stewart Orton The William Randolph Hearst Endowed Fund for Education Programs Lawrence E. Carlton, M.D. Endowment Fund for Youth Programs Richard P. Garmany Fund for Houston Symphony League Concerto Competition Houston Symphony Ima Hogg Competition Endowed Fund Selma S. Neumann Fund

Support for Symphony Scouts Cora Sue & Harry Mach in honor of Roger Daily’s 13 years of service as Director of the Houston Symphony’s Education and Community Programs

Support for the Community-Embedded Musicians Initiative The Community-Embedded Musicians Initiative is supported in part by a generous grant from the American Orchestras’ Futures Fund, a program of the League of American Orchestras made possible by funding from the Ann & Gordon Getty Foundation.

The Houston Symphony residency at Lewis Elementary is presented by BBVA Compass and the BBVA Compass Foundation. We are also thankful to HISD and these lead supporters of the CommunityEmbedded Musician program: Robert and Janice McNair Foundation Medistar National Endowment for the Arts Spec’s Wines, Spirits and Finer Foods / Spec’s Charitable Foundation Nancy & Robert Peiser Mr. Jay Steinfeld & Mrs. Barbara Winthrop H-E-B Tournament of Champions

Sponsor SPOTLIGHT Bob Weiner, a longtime supporter of the Symphony and auction chair of the annual Wine Dinner, recently became Musician Sponsor for Second Violin Anastasia Sukhopara.

46 | Houston Symphony

MUSICIAN SPONSORSHIPS Donors at the Conductor’s Circle Silver Baton level and above are provided the opportunity to be recognized as sponsoring a Houston Symphony Musician. For more information, please contact Tyler Murphy, Development Officer, Major Giving Groups, at tyler.murphy@houstonsymphony.org or 713.337.8536.

Janice Barrow Sophia Silivos, First Violin Gary & Marian Beauchamp Martha Chapman, Second Violin Nancy & Walter Bratic Christopher Neal, First Violin Mr. Gordon J. Brodfuehrer Maki Kubota, Cello Ralph Burch Robin Kesselman, Principal Double Bass Barbara J. Burger Andrew Pedersen, Double Bass Dr. M.K. Campion Rodica Gonzalez, First Violin Drs. Dennis & Susan Carlyle Louis-Marie Fardet, Cello Jane & Robert Cizik Qi Ming, Assistant Concertmaster Janet F. Clark MuChen Hsieh, Principal Second Violin Mr. Michael H. Clark & Ms. Sallie Morian George Pascal, Assistant Principal Viola Roger & Debby Cutler Tong Yan, First Violin Leslie Barry Davidson & W. Robins Brice Colin Gatwood, Oboe Scott Ensell & Family Donald Howey, Double Bass Kelli Cohen Fein & Martin Fein Ferenc Illenyi, First Violin Mr. & Mrs. Russell M. Frankel Aralee Dorough, Principal Flute Stephen & Mariglyn Glenn Christian Schubert, Clarinet Evan B. Glick Tong Yan, First Violin Mr. & Mrs. Fred L. Gorman Christopher French, Associate Principal Cello Dr. Gary L. Hollingsworth & Dr. Kenneth J. Hyde Robert Walp, Assistant Principal Trumpet Drs. M.S. & Marie-Luise Kalsi Eric Halen, Co-Concertmaster

The Joan & Marvin Kaplan Foundation Mark Nuccio, Principal Clarinet

Nancy & Robert Peiser Jonathan Fischer, Principal Oboe

Ms. Judith Vincent Matthew Roitstein, Associate Principal Flute

Dr. & Mrs. I. Ray Kirk Linda Goldstein, Viola

Dave & Alie Pruner Matthew Strauss, Percussion

Shirley & Joel Wahlberg Matthew Strauss, Percussion

Mr. & Mrs. U. J. LeGrange Thomas LeGrand, Associate Principal Clarinet

Gloria & Joe Pryzant Matthew Strauss, Percussion

Margaret Waisman, M.D. & Steven S. Callahan, Ph.D. Mark Griffith, Percussion

Rochelle & Max Levit Sergei Galperin, First Violin Cora Sue & Harry Mach Joan DerHovsepian, Associate Principal Viola

Ron & Demi Rand Annie Chen, Second Violin Lila Rauch Christopher French, Associate Principal Cello

Joella & Steven P. Mach Eric Larson, Double Bass

Sybil F. Roos Mark Hughes, Principal Trumpet

Mrs. Carolyn & Dr. Michael Mann Ian Mayton, Horn

Mr. Glen A. Rosenbaum Aralee Dorough, Principal Flute

Mr. & Mrs. Rodney H. Margolis Eric Halen, Co-Concertmaster

Linda & Jerry Rubenstein Brian Del Signore, Principal Percussion

Mr. & Mrs. J. Stephen Marks Brian Del Signore, Principal Percussion Jay & Shirley Marks Sergei Galperin, First Violin Michelle & Jack Matzer Kurt Johnson, First Violin Dr. & Mrs. Malcolm L. Mazow Rodica Gonzalez, First Violin Barbara & Pat McCelvey Adam Dinitz, English Horn Betty McDavid Linda Goldstein, Viola Mr. & Mrs. Alexander K. McLanahan William VerMeulen, Principal Horn Martha & Marvin McMurrey Rodica Gonzalez, First Violin Dr. Robert M. Mihalo Brian Thomas, Horn Rita & Paul Morico Elise Wagner, Bassoon Mr. & Mrs. Robert E. Nelson Mihaela Frusina, Second Violin Bobbie Newman Rodica Gonzalez, First Violin

John & Lindy Rydman / Spec’s Wines, Spirits & Finer Foods Anthony Kitai, Cello

Stephen & Kristine Wallace Allen Barnhill, Principal Trombone Mr. & Mrs. Fredric A. Weber Megan Conley, Principal Harp Vicki West Rodica Gonzalez, First Violin Robert G. Weiner & Toni Blankman Anastasia Sukhopara, Second Violin Steven & Nancy Williams MiHee Chung, First Violin Jeanie Kilroy Wilson & Wallace S. Wilson Xiao Wong, Cello

Mr. & Mrs. James A. Shaffer Eric Halen, Co-Concertmaster

Mr. & Mrs. C. Clifford Wright Jr. Jarita Ng, Viola

Laura & Michael Shannon Rian Craypo, Principal Bassoon

Lorraine & Ed Wulfe Dave Kirk, Principal Tuba

Tad & Suzanne Smith Marina Brubaker, First Violin

Nina & Michael Zilkha Kurt Johnson, First Violin

Alana R. Spiwak & Sam L. Stolbun Wei Jiang, Viola Mr. & Mrs. Robert R. Springob, Laredo Construction, Inc. Mihaela Frusina, Second Violin Carol & Michael Stamatedes Eric Larson, Double Bass Mike Stude Brinton Averil Smith, Principal Cello Linda & Paul Thomas Robert Johnson, Associate Principal Horn Susan H. Thompson George Pascal, Associate Principal Viola

Scott & Judy Nyquist Sheldon Person, Viola

Bobby & Phoebe Tudor Bradley White, Associate Principal Trombone

Susan & Edward Osterberg MiHee Chung, First Violin

Mr. & Mrs. Jesse B. Tutor Daniel Strba, Viola

Mr. & Mrs. Jonathan E. Parker Nancy Goodearl, Horn InTUNE — June 2019 | 47

Meet Adam Dinitz, English horn

Adam Dinitz joined the Houston Symphony in September 2007 as solo English horn. He held prior positions with the San Francisco Symphony, the Florida Orchestra, and the Sarasota Orchestra and has performed with The Cleveland Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, among others. He has participated in summer festivals, including the Tanglewood Music Center, Aspen Music Festival, Sun Valley Summer Symphony, Spoleto Festival USA, and St. Bart’s Music Festival. Adam has performed as soloist with the Houston Symphony and as a chamber musician with Da Camera of Houston, The Greenbriar Consortium, and the St. Cecilia Chamber Music Society.

Adam joined the faculty of the University of Houston in 2014 and has given oboe and English horn masterclasses at many universities. A native of suburban Washington, D.C., he received a Bachelor of Music from Northwestern University and a Master of Music from Rice University. Adam lives in the Houston Heights with his wife, Amanda, Major Gifts Officer of the Houston Symphony, and their son, Zachary.

You have a prominent solo in Sibelius’s tone poem, The Swan of Tuonela, programmed for our first ExxonMobil Summer Symphony Nights concert this month. Why do you think Sibelius chose to evoke the legendary swan with the English horn?

The English horn’s rich tone and proclivity for long phrases lend themselves well to the image of a floating swan. In the story that inspired the piece, however, the hero is tasked with killing the swan! Hopefully, our performance will not put me under that kind of pressure.

How did you choose your instrument?

My parents started me on piano lessons at a young age, but I didn’t make much progress because I never had the patience to practice. I played the trumpet from fifth to seventh grade, until the band director asked if anyone would like to switch to the oboe. My response was, “What’s an oboe? Sure, I’ll do it!” Little did I know that I’d later be doomed to endless hours of reed making! I picked up the English horn in college, where all oboists are occasionally required to play this slightly larger instrument. I immediately took a liking to it.

What career would you pursue if you were not a musician?

My first two choices, PGA golfer and lottery winner, unfortunately have not panned out. However, I love movies. If I hadn’t become a musician, I think I would have pursued a career in film or television.

Would you like to share a particularly memorable moment from your career?

The concert in Vienna, one of the world’s major cultural capitals, was a highlight of the Houston Symphony’s European tour last March. My incredible colleagues, many of whom were ill with a nasty bug traveling through the orchestra, gave one of the most inspiring performances I have ever been a part of. It was thrilling to share the Houston Symphony’s high level of artistry in one of the world’s most important places for classical music.

Adam Dinitz is sponsored by Barbara & Pat McCelvey.

48 | Houston Symphony

Top: Professional headshot Second: My son, Zach, helping me choose an English horn to purchase at the Lorée Factory in Paris Third: My wife, Amanda; son, Zach; and myself at the HS Magical Musical Morning event Bottom: Amanda and I vacation in Jackson, Wyoming, while staying with Barbara and Pat McCelvey

Your Values.

Your Influence.

Your Legacy.

Our Advice.

From left: Tom Williams, Donnie Roberts, Maureen Phillips, Leah Bennett, Shelitha Smodic, Allen Lewis, Susan Wedelich

Westwood Wealth Management | Houston 10000 Memorial Drive, Suite 650, Houston, Texas 77024 | T 713.683.7070 westwoodgroup.com