Houston Symphony Magazine - July 2010

m a g azine july • 2010

Hans Graf, Music Director

Hans graf music Director

Spotlight on Sponsors......................................................................................

The Houston Symphony salutes the following corporations, businesses and organizations for their financial support of our 2009-2010 season:

JPMorgan Chase

Andrews Kurth LLP

Bank of America - Bloomberg, LLP - CenterPoint Energy - Chubb Group of Insurance Companies - Cooper Industries - Deloitte Devon Energy Corporation - Fluor Corporation - Macy’s Foundation - Northern Trust - Randalls Food Markets, Inc. - Riviana Star Furniture - Swift Energy Company - Wachovia Wells Fargo Foundation

A special thanks to our corporate sponsors who supported “The Planets—An HD Odyssey”

If your company is interested in sponsoring the Houston Symphony and its educational and community activities, call (713) 337-8520 or visit houstonsymphony.org.

Contents

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Official Program Magazine of the Houston Symphony 615 Louisiana, Suite 102, Houston, Texas 77002 (713) 224-4240 • www.houstonsymphony.org

July • 2010

Programs 12 July 10 15 July 16-17 20 July 22 22 July 24

7

See Principal Timpanist Ron Holdman’s final music quiz on page 7.

10-11

Get a sneak peek at the Houston Symphony’s 2010-2011 Pops Season.

Features 10, 11 2010 - 2011 Pops Season

On Stage and Off 32 Backstage Pass 3 Credits 28-31 Donors 5 Executive Director’s Letter 7, 9 From the Orchestra 4 Hans Graf 24 Houston Symphony Chorus 27 Music Matters!

6 Orchestra and Staff 8 Symphony Society 26 Volunteers

Departments 1 Spotlight on Sponsors 25 Support Your Symphony 16 Upcoming Performances 26, 27 User’s Guide to the Houston Symphony

Cover photo by Sandy Lankford.

Contents photos by Bruce Bennett and PWL Studio.

For advertising contact New Leaf Publishing at (713) 523-5323 info@newleafinc.com • www.newleafinc.com • 2006 Huldy, Houston, Texas 77019 www.houstonsymphony.org

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If you missed the multimedia event in January, join us for two additional performances of The Planets—An HD Odyssey plus Star Wars this month!

Credits...........................

Mark C. Hanson Executive Director/CEO Jessica Taylor Editor Carl Cunningham Program Annotator Elaine Reeder Mayo Editorial Consultant

www.newleafinc.com (713) 523-5323 Janet Meyer Publisher janetmeyer@newleafinc.com Keith Gumney Art Director kgumney@newleafinc.com Jennifer Greenberg Projects Director jenniferg@newleafinc.com John Buck Director of Advertising jbuck@newleafinc.com Linda Lang Senior Account Executive lindalang@newleafinc.com Frances Powell Account Executive divascenes@aol.com Carey Clark CC Catalyst Communications Laura Manning Mediart Partners Sharon St. Romain-Frank Account Executive Marlene Walker Walker Media LLC Sasha Khalifeh Intern

Acknowledgements

The Official Airline of the Houston Symphony

The Official Health Care Provider of the Houston Symphony The activities and projects of the Houston Symphony are funded in part by grants from the Texas Commission on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts and the City of Houston through the Houston Downtown Alliance, Miller Theatre Advisory Board and Houston Arts Alliance.

The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion at The Woodlands is the Summer Home of the Houston Symphony.

Digital pre-media services by Vertis APS Houston Contents copyright Š 2010 by the Houston Symphony

July 2010

Hans Graf............................................................................................................

Photo by Sandy Lankford

This summer, Maestro Hans Graf will be in the United States for a collection of important projects.

Graf conducts Opening Night of the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado, one of the most prestigious classical events in the summer, on Friday, July 2. He leads the Aspen Chamber Symphony along with guest violinist, Gil Shaham, for the first night’s performance in the 2,050-seat Benedict Music Tent. The program includes Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 and Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D major as well as a piece composed by the AMFS resident composer, Christopher Rouse, entitled Odna Zhizn. Following the concert, Graf remains at the school for one week to provide training to the American Academy of Conductors who will lead a concert on Tuesday, July 6.

Graf will then head to Vail, Colorado to conduct the Dallas Symphony Orchestra at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival on July 7. He will lead the Dallas Symphony in Mozart’s Symphony No. 29 and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (Choral).

Following his trip to Colorado, Graf returns to Houston for a summertime appearance at Jones Hall for the Houston Chronicle Dollar Concert on Saturday, July 10. The program features Barber’s Medea’s Dance of Vengeance and Brahms’ Symphony No. 2. Each year, the Dollar Concert is also the venue in which the symphony performs with the gold medalist of the 2010 Houston Symphony Ima Hogg Competition. This year’s winner, clarinetist Stanislav Golovin, who was selected during the competition held in early June, performs the concert’s concerto.

From Houston, Graf will travel to Chicago for an appearance at the Grant Park Music Festival on Wednesday, July 14. Each summer, the festival provides free classical music in its new, modern venue – the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park – designed by internationally renowned architect Frank Gehry. Graf will be joined on stage by the Grant Park Orchestra and guest cellist Alban Gerhardt, who performed in Jones Hall in March 2010. The program features Russian pieces including Tchaikovsky’s The Tempest and Variations on a Rococo Theme, and Stravinsky’s Petrushka.

Rounding out his summer travels in the U.S., Graf will lead the Boston Symphony Orchestra in a program featuring the music of Richard Strauss and Johann Strauss Jr. at Tanglewood Music Festival on Sunday, July 25 as a substitute for BSO Music Director James Levine.

We look forward to welcoming Maestro Graf back to Houston for his 10th season as music director of the Houston Symphony on Saturday, September 11 with the presentation of “A Vienna Soiree,” the theme for the symphony’s Opening Night. He will also greet our new concertmaster, Frank Huang, for his first performance with the orchestra.

Biography............................................................................................................

Known for his wide range of repertoire and creative programming, Hans National du Rhin in Strasbourg.

Graf – the Houston Symphony’s 15th Music Director – is one of today’s most Graf and the Houston Symphony have recorded Zemlinsky’s Lyric highly respected musicians. He began his tenure here on Opening Night of Symphony and Berg’s Three Pieces from Lyric Suite, which Naxos released the 2001-2002 season. in May 2009. A disc of works by Bartók and Stravinsky, recorded for Koch Graf is a frequent guest with all the major North American orches- International Classics, is currently available. Other Graf recordings are on tras. Guest engagements include appearances with the Cleveland and EMI, Orfeo, CBC, Erato, Capriccio, JVC and BMG Arte Nova labels. His disPhiladelphia Orchestras, the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, cography includes the complete symphonies of Mozart and Schubert and the San Francisco, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Atlanta and National symphonies the premiere recording of Zemlinsky’s opera Es war einmal. and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, among others. Over the past decade, Born in 1949 near Linz, Graf studied violin and piano as a child. He he has developed a close earned diplomas in piano relationship with the Boston and conducting from the Hans Graf fills in for Boston Symphony Music Director at Tanglewood Symphony and appears reguMusikhochschule in Graz “Graf has quickly become a BSO favorite. He’s larly with the orchestra during and continued his studies the subscription season and appeared regularly with the orchestra during both with Franco Ferrara, Sergiu at the Tanglewood Music Celibidache and Arvid Jansons. the subscription season and at Tanglewood...”

Festival. He made his Carnegie His international career was Chris Baldwin, culturemap Houston Hall debut with the Houston launched in 1979 when he Symphony in January 2006 and was awarded first prize in the returned in March 2007 leading the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. Carnegie Hall Karl Böhm Competition. He has served as music director of the Salzburg welcomed Graf and the Houston Symphony again in January 2010 for the Mozarteum Orchestra, the Calgary Philharmonic and Orchestre National presentation of The Planets—An HD Odyssey.

Bordeaux Aquitaine.

Internationally, Graf conducts in the foremost concert halls and music In 2002 he was awarded the Chevalier de l’ordre de la Legion festivals of Europe, Japan and Australia. d’Honneur by the French government for championing French music An experienced opera conductor, Graf first conducted the Vienna around the world and, in 2007, the Grand Decoration of Honour in Gold for State Opera in 1981 and has since led productions in Berlin, Munich, Services to the Republic of Austria.

Paris and Rome, including several world premieres. Recent engagements Hans and Margarita Graf have homes in Salzburg and Houston. They include Parsifal at the Zurich Opera and Boris Godunov at the Opera have one daughter, Anna, who lives in Vienna.

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Executive Director’s Letter................................................................................

Photo by bruce bennett

Mark C. Hanson

Executive Director/CEO

July is a fun-filled month for our Houston Symphony family with a full array of exciting concerts.

Our musicians return to Jones Hall after spending June at Miller Outdoor Theatre and in various neighborhood venues for our Sounds Like Fun! series.

First, classical music fans can enjoy Maestro Graf and our orchestra on Saturday, July 10 for a bargain price at the annual Houston Chronicle Dollar Concert. Tickets start at just one dollar and the program features a solo performance by the 2010 Houston Symphony Ima Hogg Competition gold medalist, Stanislav Golovin. Golovin is an accomplished young clarinetist who dazzled the judges in June and thereby won the opportunity to perform on-stage with the Houston Symphony – along with a $5,000 cash prize! I look forward to his performance of the Copland Clarinet Concerto.

Next, we are bringing back two very popular concerts in a combined program for not one but two performances on July 16 and 17. The Planets—An HD Odyssey plus Star Wars promises to be a great concert for audiences of all ages. Here is your chance to experience the incredibly successful multimedia Planets project again or for the first time together with the music of film composer John Williams.

Later in the month, we will present the Music of Queen and Distant Worlds: music from FINAL FANTASY. Rock fans will be right at home with such hits as “Another One Bites The Dust” and “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Video game fans will enjoy all of the music – plus video – from the Final Fantasy series including material from the soon-to-be-released Final Fantasy XIV. I appreciate your patronage of our wonderful Houston Symphony and look forward to seeing you in Jones Hall for our remaining summer concerts and again in the fall for the start of the 2010-11 season. Be sure to check out page 10 of this month’s magazine for a preview of all of our upcoming Houston Symphony Pops concerts next season.

July 2010

Orchestra and Staff. ..........................................................................................

Mark C. Hanson, Executive Director/CEO

Hans Graf, Music Director Roy and Lillie Cullen Chair Michael Krajewski, Robert Franz,

Principal Pops Conductor

Associate Conductor

Sponsor, Cameron Management

Sponsor, Madison Charitable Foundation

Brett Mitchell,

Assistant Conductor/American Conducting Fellow Xiao Wong Myung Soon Lee James Denton Anthony Kitai

First Violin: Eric Halen, Acting Concertmaster Max Levine Chair Assia Dulgerska, Acting Associate Concertmaster Ellen E. Kelley Chair Qi Ming, Assistant Concertmaster Cornelia and Meredith Long Chair Marina Brubaker, Acting Assistant Concertmaster Fondren Foundation Chair Alexandra Adkins Hewlett-Packard Company Chair MiHee Chung Sophia Silivos Rodica Gonzalez Ferenc Illenyi** Si-Yang Lao Kurt Johnson Christopher Neal Sergei Galperin Quan Jiang*

double Bass: David Malone, Acting Principal Janice H. and Thomas D. Barrow Chair Mark Shapiro, Acting Associate Principal Eric Larson Robert Pastorek Burke Shaw Donald Howey Michael McMurray Flute: Aralee Dorough, Principal General Maurice Hirsch Chair John Thorne, Associate Principal Judy Dines Allison Garza Piccolo: Allison Garza

Second Violin: Jennifer Owen, Principal Charles Tabony, Associate Principal Hitai Lee Kiju Joh Ruth Zeger Margaret Bragg Martha Chapman Kevin Kelly Mihaela Oancea Christine Pastorek Amy Teare Open Position

Oboe: Robert Atherholt, Principal Lucy Binyon Stude Chair Anne Leek, Associate Principal Colin Gatwood Adam Dinitz English Horn: Adam Dinitz Clarinet: David Peck, Principal Thomas LeGrand, Associate Principal Christian Schubert Open position

Viola: Wayne Brooks, Principal Joan DerHovsepian, Associate Principal George Pascal, Assistant Principal Linda Goldstein Thomas Molloy Fay Shapiro Daniel Strba Wei Jiang Phyllis Herdliska Open Position

E-Flat Clarinet: Thomas LeGrand Bass Clarinet: Open position Tassie and Constantine S. Nicandros Chair Bassoon: Rian Craypo, Principal Stewart Orton Chair Eric Arbiter, Associate Principal American General Chair Elise Wagner J. Jeff Robinson

Cello: Brinton Averil Smith, Principal Christopher French, Associate Principal Haeri Ju Jeffrey Butler Kevin Dvorak

Contrabassoon: J. Jeff Robinson

Horn: William VerMeulen, Principal Wade Butin, Acting Associate Principal* Brian Thomas Robert and Janice McNair Foundation Chair Nancy Goodearl Philip Stanton Julie Thayer Trumpet: Mark Hughes, Principal George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Chair John DeWitt, Associate Principal Open position, Assistant Principal Anthony Prisk Speros P. Martel Chair Trombone: Allen Barnhill, Principal Bradley White, Associate Principal Phillip Freeman Bass Trombone: Phillip Freeman Tuba: Dave Kirk, Principal Timpani: Ronald Holdman, Principal Brian Del Signore, Associate Principal Percussion: Brian Del Signore, Principal Mark Griffith Matthew Strauss Harp: Paula Page, Principal Keyboard: Scott Holshouser, Principal Neva Watkins West Chair Orchestra Personnel Manager: Steve Wenig Assistant Orchestra Personnel Manager: Open Position Librarian: Thomas Takaro Assistant LibrarianS: Erik Gronfor Michael McMurray Stage Manager: Donald Ray Jackson Assistant Stage Manager: Kelly Morgan

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Steinway is the official piano of the Houston Symphony. James B. Kozak, Piano Technician. Local assistance is provided by Forshey Piano Co. The Houston Symphony’s concert piano is a gift of Mrs. Helen B. Rosenbaum.

Stage Technician: Toby Blunt Zoltan Fabry Cory Grant *Contracted Substitute ** Leave of Absence

Martha GarcĂ­a, Assistant to the Executive Director Meg Philpot, Director of Human Resources

Steven Brosvik, General Manager Roger Daily, Director, Music Matters!

Kristin L. Johnson, Director, Operations Steve Wenig, Orchestra Personnel Manager Donald Ray Jackson, Stage Manager Kelly Morgan, Assistant Stage Manager Meredith Williams, Assistant to the General Manager Carol Wilson, Manager, Music Matters!

Michael D. Pawson, Chief Financial Officer Sally Brassow, Controller Philip Gulla, Director, Technology Amed Hamila, Director, Database Support Heather Fails, Manager, Ticketing Database Janis Pease LaRocque, Manager, Patron Database Kay Middleton, Receptionist Maria Ross, Payroll Manager Armin (A.J.) Salge, Network Systems Engineer Chris Westerfelt, Manager, Accounts Payable and Special Projects

Aurelie Desmarais, Senior Director, Artistic Planning Merle N. Bratlie, Director, Artist Services Thomas Takaro, Librarian Amanda Tozzi, Director, Popular Programming and Special Projects Erik Gronfor, Assistant Librarian Michael McMurray, Assistant Librarian Rebecca Zabinski, Artistic Assistant

Glenn Taylor, Senior Director, Marketing Allison Gilbert, Director of Marketing, Subscriptions Melissa H. Lopez, Director of Marketing, Special Projects Gayle McMaster, Director, Group and Corporate Sales Carlos Vicente, Director of Marketing, Single Tickets Jenny Zuniga, Director, Customer Service Sarah Bircher, Marketing Administrative Assistant Natalie Ferguson, Graphic Designer Jeff Gilmer, Group and Corporate Sales Assistant Jason Landry, Customer Service Center Manager Melissa Seuffert, Assistant Marketing Manager, Digital Media/Young Audience Engagement

Jennifer R. Mire, Senior Director, Communications Jessica Taylor, Editor, Magazine Holly Cassard, Associate Marketing/PR Manager

Tara Black, Interim Senior Director, Development Vickie Hamley, Director, Volunteer Services Brandon VanWaeyenberghe, Director, Corporate Relations Laura Woods, Director, Events Peter Yenne, Director, Foundation Relations and Development Communications Jessica Ford, Patron Services Specialist Samantha Gonzalez, Patron Services Specialist Clare Greene, Associate Director, Events Danny Hutchins, Patron Services Specialist Abbie Lee, Patron Services Assistant Tim Richey, Manager, Patron Services Sarah Slemmons, Development Associate, Administrative Services Lena Streetman, Manager, Individual Giving Andrew Walker, Development Assistant

From the Orchestra: Test Your Musical Knowledge......................................

Photo by Eric arbiter

Answers to these trivia questions posed by principal timpanist Ron Holdman may be found on page 9.

1. What Russian composer wrote an opera titled The Nose?

2. What piece of music composed by Harry Armstrong in 1903 is performed by virtually every barbershop quartet?

3. Tito Gobbi, Robert Merrill, Sherrill Milnes, Hermann Prey and Ezio Pinza were all famous as what?

4. What ultrapatriotic American composer penned Decoration Day (a holiday now called Memorial Day), the Holidays Symphony, Variations on a National Hymn (America) and the Fourth of July? Hint: It’s not John Philip Sousa or George M. Cohan.

5. Who were Yum-Yum, Pitti Sing and Peep-Bo? 6. Irish pianist and composer John Field originated a musical form that Frederic Chopin later developed and poeticized. Do you know what it is? Hint: You may if you’re a night person.

7. What do Franz Xaver Süssmayr, Deryck Cooke and Franco Alfano have in common? Hint: Have you ever begun a project, but not finished it?

Ron Holdman Principal Timpani

8. What composer wrote more songs than Holland-Dozier-Holland, Lennon-McCartney, RodgersHammerstein, Sammy Cahn-Jimmy Van Heusen, Burt Bacharach-Hal David and Irving Berlin combined, despite dying at 31 in 1828?

9. If you were to have a musically gastronomical adventure, these food courses would suggest what composers? a. A fruit cup with three sliced oranges d. A slice of American pie b. Surf-and-turf entrée (two composers) of trout and hen e. A cup of coffee c. A cabernet wine that might put you in a waltzing mood 10. What do we call people who review manuscripts, verify data, check historical information, correct grammar/syntax/spelling and take on other related chores?

Houston Symphony Magazine sincerely thanks Ron Holdman for his knowledgeable contributions to each issue for the past two seasons. We look forward to his continued presence on the concert stage and to welcoming our next “From the Orchestra” contributor, Principal Cellist Brinton Averil Smith, next season.

July 2010

Symphony Society Board. .................................................................................

Executive Committee...............................................................................................

President Bobby Tudor

Chairman of the Board Ed Wulfe Immediate Past President Jesse B. Tutor

Executive Director/CEO Mark C. Hanson Chairman Emeritus Mike Stude

Vice President, Artistic and Orchestra Affairs Brett Busby

Vice President, Finance and Board Governance Steven P. Mach

Vice President, Volunteers Barbara McCelvey

Vice President, Popular Programming Allen Gelwick

Vice President, Education Cora Sue Mach

Vice President, Development David Wuthrich

Vice President, Audience Development and Marketing Robert Peiser

General Counsel Paul R. Morico

Presiding Trustee, Endowment Ulyesse J. LeGrange

EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS

Nancy Littlejohn, President, Houston Symphony League Martha GarcĂ­a, Secretary Mark Hughes, Orchestra Representative Rodney Margolis John Thorne, Orchestra Representative William VerMeulen, Orchestra Representative

At-Large Members Gene Dewhurst Jay Marks Helen Shaffer

Governing Directors.....................................................................................................

Terry Ann Brown Prentiss Burt Brett Busby * John T. Cater Janet Clark Michael H. Clark Scott Cutler Lorraine Dell Viviana Denechaud Gene Dewhurst Kelli Cohen Fein Julia Frankel Allen Gelwick Stephen Glenn

Gary L. Hollingsworth John Irvine Ulyesse LeGrange Rochelle Levit Nancy Littlejohn April Lykos Cora Sue Mach Steven P. Mach Beth Madison Rodney Margolis Jay Marks Mary Lynn Marks Barbara McCelvey Gene McDavid

Alexander K. McLanahan Paul Morico Arthur Newman Robert Peiser Fran Fawcett Peterson Geoffroy Petit David Pruner Stephen Pryor Gloria Pryzant John Rydman Manolo Sanchez Helen Shaffer Jerome Simon David Steakley

Mike Stude Bobby Tudor * Jesse B. Tutor Margaret Waisman Fredric A. Weber Vicki West Margaret Alkek Williams Ed Wulfe David Wuthrich Robert A. Yekovich

Trustees. .................................................................................................................

Philip Bahr * Janice Barrow Darlene Bisso Meherwan Boyce Walter Bratic Nancy Bumgarner Lynn Caruso Jane Clark Brandon Cochran Louis Delone Susanna Dokupil Tom Fitzpatrick Chris Flood Craig A. Fox

David Frankfort Susan Hansen Kathleen Hayes Brian James Joan Kaplan I. Ray Kirk Carolyn Mann Paul M. Mann Judy Margolis Brad Marks Jackie Mazow Elisabeth McCabe Marilyn Miles Tassie Nicandros

Scott Nyquist Edward Osterberg Jr. Chester Pitts J. Hugh Roff Jr. Kathi Rovere Michael E. Shannon Jule Smith Michael Tenzer L. Proctor (Terry) Thomas Stephen G. Tipps * Betty Tutor Mrs. S. Conrad Weil David Ashley White Jim T. Willerson

Steven J. Williams Ex-Officio Martha GarcĂ­a Mark C. Hanson Mark Hughes Deana Lamoreux John Thorne William VerMeulen * Life Trustee

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Past Presidents of the Houston Symphony Society

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.

www.houstonsymphony.org

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 Past Presidents of the Houston Symphony League

Miss Ima Hogg Mrs. John F. Grant Mrs. J. R. Parten Mrs. Andrew E. Rutter

Mrs. Aubrey Leon Carter Mrs. Stuart Sherar Mrs. Julian Burrows Ms. Hazel Ledbetter Mrs. Albert P. Jones Mrs. Ben A. Calhoun Mrs. James Griffith Lawhon Mrs. Olaf La Cour 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 H. Carruth

Mrs. David Hannah Jr. Mary Louis Kister Ellen Elizardi Kelley 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 Nancy Willerson Jane Clark

From the Orchestra......

Test Your Musical Knowledge with Ron Holdman Answers from page 7 1. Dmitri Shostakovich 2. Sweet Adeline 3. They were all famed operatic baritones 4. Charles Ives 5. These are the “three little maids from school,” characters from Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado. What has always been curious about these character names is that, despite the intellect of both Gilbert and Sullivan, they are either linguistically ignorant or racially stereotyping Asians. This story, which is set in a fictitious Japanese locale, should use Japanese language proper names, which are mutlisyllabic. It is other Asian languages that use monosyllabic proper names.

6. The nocturne 7. They all finished compositions left incomplete as a result of the deaths of the composers: • Süssmayr finished Mozart’s Requiem • Cooke finished Mahler’s Symphony No. 10 • Alfano finished Puccini’s Turandot 8. F ranz Schubert, who composed more than 600 songs for piano and voice 9. a. Prokofiev’s The Love for Three Oranges opera b. Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet and Haydn’s Symphony No. 83, “The Hen” c. Johann Strauss Jr.’s waltz Wine, Women and Song or The Champagne Polka (if you’re really celebrating!) d. Don McLean, although not quite the composer as the others e. Bach’s “Coffee Cantata” 10. Editors, proofreaders, research assistants: As this is my final contribution to Houston Symphony Magazine, I must sincerely thank several of these professionals for helping me with this little project for the past two seasons: Kristen Mueller, Jennifer Rudolph Mire, Elaine Reeder Mayo, Jessica Taylor and Denise Allen Zwicker.

July 2010

2010 – 2011 Pops Season..........................................................................................

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Broadway Rocks!

Chris Botti

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September 3, 4, 5, 2010 Michael Krajewski, conductor Gay Men’s Chorus of Houston

October 22, 23, 24, 2010 Grammy® Award-winning trumpeter-composer Chris Botti is back by popular demand! His charismatic style has led to four #1 albums. Botti is coming back to Houston to play his sultry versions of your favorites such as “Time to Say Goodbye,” “When I Fall in Love” and “Funny Valentine.”

With show-stopping numbers from the latest generation of Broadway musicals like Wicked and Mamma Mia!, this concert will have you tapping your toes and dancing in the aisles. Also hear upbeat selections from high energy shows such as The Lion King, Rent and more.

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One O’Clock Swings!

November 12, 13, 14, 2010 Brett Mitchell, conductor University of North Texas One O’Clock Lab Band In an unprecedented musical event, the Houston Symphony teams up with the esteemed University of North Texas’ One O’Clock Lab Band to form the biggest band in Texas. This extravaganza will feature songs from jazz greats like Duke Ellington with “Take the ‘A’ Train,” Count Basie with “Moten Swing” and John Coltrane. Plus, hear standards from the Great American Songbook with songs from Cole Porter and more!

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Very Merry Pops

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December 10, 11, 12, 2010 Michael Krajewski, conductor Houston Symphony Chorus Charles Hausmann, director Back again in 2010 is this much loved holiday tradition featuring Mike, the Houston Symphony and Chorus. This year, Very Merry Pops promises to be the highlight of your holiday. Bring the whole family to celebrate the season.

Music of Frank Sinatra with Matt Dusk

January 7, 8, 9, 2011 Michael Krajewski, conductor In the words of Frank Sinatra, “The Best is Yet to Come.” Join us for Sinatra favorites and more with swinging sensation, Matt Dusk.

Dusk will perform songs such as “As Time Goes By” and “That’s Life.”

Kenny Loggins February 18, 19, 20, 2011 Michael Krajewski, conductor With hits from the big screen like “I’m Alright” from Caddyshack and “Footloose” to major success with Loggins and Messina, Kenny Loggins has it all. Hear him perform music from Loggins and Messina and hits from his solo career like “Conviction of the Heart” and “This is It.”

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Pops Knockouts

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March 18, 19, 20, 2011 Michael Krajewski, conductor Houston Symphony Chorus Charles Hausmann, director

Rodgers & Hammerstein and More with Ashley Brown April 21, 22, 23, 2011 Robert Franz, conductor

Hum along to some of the greatest classical hits of all time such as “O Fortuna” from Carmina Burana, the 1812 Overture and Pachelbel Canon, featuring Houston Symphony musicians in the solo spotlight. Come out and enjoy the orchestral classics you know and love!

Ashley Brown, celebrated leading lady of the Broadway stage in such Disney blockbusters as Mary Poppins and Beauty and the Beast, recently came to Houston to reprise the role of Mary Poppins in the musical’s national tour. She returns to be a part of an unforgettable concert with the Houston Symphony and Robert Franz. Hear her perform your favorite Rodgers and Hammerstein songs along with selections from her Broadway roles and much, much more.

Subscribers Have Rewards!

(Due to the Easter holiday, Sunday subscribers attend Thursday.)

Being a season ticket holder is the best way to experience the Houston Symphony.

Save up to $189 and receive these added benefits: BEST PRICE – Save up to 50 percent off the price of individual tickets. All subscriptions are discounted.

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FREE Seat Exchanges – You can exchange your tickets to another performance when your schedule gets in the way. Only subscribers to the full nine-concert series and I Like Mike series can exchange for FREE. Same GREAT Seats – Your seat is YOURS for all of the concerts in your package.

Plus, you have first access to keep or upgrade your seats during renewals.

Priority FOR SPECIAL CONCERTS – Get the best seats for Symphony Specials like Michael Bolton and Paul Anka before they are released to the general public.

NEW! DISCOUNTS FOR ADDITIONAL TICKETS – Get 10 percent off additional tickets to season subscription concerts.

Share the music with friends and family at a great price!

Tribute to Ray Charles with Ellis Hall

May 27, 28, 29, 2011 Michael Krajewski, conductor “Let the Good Times Roll” with Ellis Hall as he performs the best of Ray Charles. A former protégé of Charles, Hall pays tribute to his friend in a concert dedicated to his music and memory with hits like “I Can’t Stop Loving You” and “Hit the Road Jack.”

July 2010 11

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Notes..................................

Program

by Carl Cunningham MEDEA’S DANCE OF VENGEANCE, OPUS 23A Samuel Barber

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Born: Mar 9, 1910, West Chester, Pennsylvania

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Symphony Summer in the City

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Work composed: 1945-46

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Saturday, July 10, 2010 7:30 pm Jones Hall

Died: Jan 23, 1981, New York, New York

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Recording: Yoel Levi conducting the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (Telarc) Instrumentation: three flutes (third doubling piccolo), two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, E-flat clarinet, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, piano and strings

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Houston Chronicle Dollar Concert

Copland

Clarinet Concerto

In 1945, Martha Graham asked Samuel Barber to write a score for a new modern dance work on the subject of Medea’s terrible vengeance upon her faithless husband, Jason. In her rage, Medea killed their two children and burned Jason’s new wife to death with the gift of an inflammable wedding robe.

The commission was sponsored by the Alice M. Ditson Fund and the work was slated for its premiere in May 1946 at Columbia University’s McMillan Theatre, as part of an annual festival of contemporary music. After some revisions, the dance work became Graham’s celebrated signature piece, Cave of the Heart, extrapolating upon the mythological story to explore the self-destructive effect of such hatred.

Barber also revised the dance score twice for use as a concert piece. In 1947, he reduced its nine sections to seven and expanded its 13-member instrumentation to a full symphonic orchestration. Simply titled Medea, the seven-movement concert suite received its premiere by Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra December 5, 1947.

However, that version received a mixed critical reception, and in 1955 Barber further compressed the suite into a one-movement work based entirely on the character of Medea, adding a few more instruments to the large orchestration of the second version. Dimitri Mitropoulos and the New York Philharmonic gave the first performance of this third and final version on February 2, 1956.

The score traces Medea’s changing emotional state from her tearful lament for her broken marriage to her terrible resolve to wreak havoc on all those around her. At first lyrical but furtive, the music grows to immense power as it moves on to Medea’s dance, exhibiting Barber’s masterly control and redeployment of its thematic elements and his brilliant sense of orchestral effect.

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Medea’s Dance of Vengeance, Opus 23A

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Barber

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Hans Graf, conductor *Stanislav Golovin, clarinet Gold medal winner, 2010 Houston Symphony Ima Hogg Young Artist Competition

INTERMISSION

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Brahms Symphony No. 2 in D major, Opus 73 I Allegro non troppo II Adagio non troppo III Allegretto grazioso (Quasi andantino) IV Allegro con spirito

*Houston Symphony debut Hans Graf’s biography appears on page 4.

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The Houston Symphony thanks the Houston Chronicle for its generous support of tonight’s concert.

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

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This concert is being recorded for future broadcast on KUHF 88.7 FM, the Radio Voice of the Houston Symphony.

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The printed music for Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 in D major, Opus 73 was donated by Patricia Casey, in honor of the fine musicians of the Houston Symphony.

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CLARINET CONCERTO Aaron Copland Born: Nov 14, 1900, Brooklyn, New York Died: Dec 2, 1990, North Tarrytown, New York Work composed: 1948 Instrumentation: harp, piano and strings Recording: Clarinetist Stanley Drucker, with Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic (Deutsche Grammophon) Although Benny Goodman made his name as a hot jazz clarinetist and the “King of Swing” during the big band era, his training included study with classical clarinetists Bernard Schoepp and Reginald Kell. His professional career included appearances with orchestral and chamber ensembles, and he commissioned Bartók’s Contrasts for piano, violin and clarinet, and the clarinet concertos by Aaron Copland and Paul Hindemith.

Goodman’s commission to Copland came in 1946, and the composer began work on the piece in February 1947, while traveling in South America. Later that year, he set the work aside to pursue an opportunity to write some Hollywood film scores and did not complete the concerto until the late summer or early fall of 1948.

For his part, Goodman’s objections to some high notes in the concerto did not speed progress, and the premiere did not occur until November 6, 1950, when Goodman performed it with the New York Philharmonic under Fritz Reiner’s direction. In 1951, choreographer Jerome Robbins used the concerto for his ballet, The Pied Piper, in which the dancers fall under the spell of the clarinetist’s playing.

The connection between music and dance is especially interesting in this instance, because Copland used sketches for an incomplete pas de deux as the basis for the Clarinet Concerto’s dreamy opening theme. Robbins followed suit, beginning the ballet with a romantic pas de deux by a young couple attracted to the sound of a clarinet they hear somewhere down the street.

In his autobiography, Copland described the two-movement concerto as a three-part song form followed by a jazzy rondo. While the first movement has the pensive, pastoral character of much of his music in the 1940s, the fast, jazzy second movement harks back to his piquant, rhythmically complex music of the 1930s. Copland scholar Neil Butterworth considers it strongly reminiscent of Copland’s awesome, tightly contained Short Symphony, composed 15 years earlier. The two movements are joined by a solo cadenza and, in a salute to a celebrated clarinet solo in

Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, Copland ended the solo part with a glissando sliding up the scale, calling it a “smear.”

SYMPHONY NO. 2 IN D MAJOR, OPUS 73 Johannes Brahms Born: May 7, 1833, Hamburg, Germany Died: Apr 3, 1897, Vienna, Austria Work composed: 1877 Recording: Christoph Eschenbach conducting the Houston Symphony (Virgin)

Instrumentation: pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets and bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani and strings In 1876, Johannes Brahms won his 21-year struggle to complete his First Symphony.

That accomplishment not only earned him an honored place alongside Beethoven in the world of symphonic composition, but freed his creative spirit. Suddenly he entered into the most productive period of his career, producing three more symphonies, three con-

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the work for the Hamburg Philharmonic Society’s 50th anniversary.

At first Brahms turned down this invitation to conduct the first performance of the symphony in his native city, out of a lingering bitterness at having been passed over for the directorship of the orchestra 16 years earlier.

But at the last minute he relented and traveled to Hamburg where he was welcomed with open arms in a joyous reconciliation.

Several of his musical acquaintances and old friends, including the violinist Joseph Joachim, performed in the orchestra under his baton. ©2010, Carl R. Cunningham

Biography...................

Golovin

certos, two major overtures and numerous keyboard, vocal, choral and chamber music masterworks over the next decade.

The Second Symphony was the first major orchestral work to appear, and it was completed the very next year. While this D major symphony is obviously the work of the very same Brahms, its relaxed, genial character is sometimes as different from the frowning C minor Symphony as day is from night. It was composed in the sunny rural environment of Pörtschach, a remote lakeside village in the Carinthian Alps of Southern Austria. Biographer Karl Geiringer has recorded a characteristic quote on the symphony by Brahms’ close friend, the surgeon and amateur pianist Theodor Billroth: “It is all rippling streams, blue sky, sunshine, and cool green shadows. How beautiful it must be at Pörtschach!”

Billroth’s comment is especially applicable to the easy, rocking themes that dominate the exposition of the first movement and to the gentle Austrian minuet that makes up the third movement. Though the first movement builds up a typical Brahmsian storm in its central development section and its lengthy coda, the themes set forth at the beginning of the movement are mostly lyrical and untroubled. But even here Brahms’ stylistic fingerprints are readily apparent in a motivic imitation that shadows the opening horn theme and in the long, spun-out character of a subsidiary violin theme that soon follows. In his contrapuntal wizardry, Brahms combines the two themes when they return at the beginning of the recapitulation.

If sunlight is obscured by clouds anywhere in the symphony, it is in the beautiful but plaintive slow movement, which opens with one of Brahms’ heartfelt cello themes.

Gorgeous touches of his unique orchestration abound in this movement, along with elusive harmonic colors.

The third movement is the gentlest of minuets, interspersed with two trios. Each of its sections becomes a variant of what came before and contrast is achieved by sudden changes in the pulse. The extroverted finale makes an oblique reference to the symphony’s two opening themes, then builds climax upon climax in a gigantic movement that concludes in a brassy display, invariably bringing cheering audiences to their feet.

From the very beginning, concertgoers have given the symphony an enthusiastic reception. Conductor Hans Richter had to encore the bucolic third movement at the symphony’s premiere in Vienna on December 30, 1877. A particularly memorable performance occurred the following September, when the composer was invited to conduct

Chamber Orchestra and the Youngstown Symphony.

Golovin has won numerous awards and competitions, including the National Young Artist Competition of Uzbekistan, The Jewish Arts Performance Competition in Moscow, the Darius Milhaud Performance Prize Competition, the Wagner Prize Young Artist Competition in New York, the Fine Arts Award in clarinet from Interlochen Arts Academy, the Tuesday Musical Club Competition and the Cleveland Institute of Music Concerto Competition.

In 2009, Golovin played bass clarinet with the Cleveland Orchestra under Franz Welser-Möst, Giancarlo Guerrero, David Robertson, Paavo Järvi, James Gaffigan, Lionel Bringuier, Tito Muñoz and others. He is currently pursuing his master’s degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

Golovin dedicates this performance to the memory of his beloved grandfather, Semion Nagirner, who passed away this April and whose contribution to his current success is tremendous.

Stanislav Golovin, clarinet

Prize-winning clarinetist Stanislav Golovin has performed throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. Originally from Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Golovin started his musical training at the V. Uspensky Special Musical School for Gifted Children, from which he graduated with honors. In 2002, Golovin was awarded a full scholarship to attend the Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan and then a full scholarship to attend the Interlochen Arts Academy where he studied for two years with renowned clarinetist and pedagogue, Nathan Williams.

In 2005, Golovin continued his studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music with the principal clarinetist of The Cleveland Orchestra, Franklin Cohen. While studying at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Golovin performed in various concerts and events, including the grand opening of Mixon Recital Hall, the 2009 Graduation Commencement and the opening ceremony of the Academic School Year. He also represented the United States at former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s Memorial Concert for the victims of 9/11 in Rome, Italy.

In 2006 and 2007, Golovin participated in the Sarasota Music Festival in Florida.

Other orchestral engagements include CityMusic Cleveland, the “Singing Strings”

SAVE THE DATE! The Houston Symphony is taking its highly successful concert, The Planets—An HD Odyssey, on a tour of the United Kingdom.

Tour Schedule: October 8, 2010

Birmingham

October 9, 2010

Leeds

October 10, 2010

Edinburgh

October 12, 2010

Manchester

October 13, 2010 Gateshead/Newcastle October 15, 2010

Basingstoke

October 16, 2010 London - The Barbican

(2 performances)

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Program

by Carl Cunningham THE PLANETS Gustav Holst

Born: Sep 21, 1874, Cheltenham, England

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Died: May 25, 1934, London, England

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Symphony Summer in the City

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Recording: The Planets—An HD Odyssey DVD featuring the Houston Symphony conducted by Hans Graf and video by Duncan Copp

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Friday, July 16, 2010 7:30 pm Saturday, July 17, 2010 7:30 pm Jones Hall

Work composed: 1914-16

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Instrumentation: four flutes (two doubling piccolo and one doubling alto flute), three oboes (one doubling bass oboe), English horn, three clarinets, bass clarinet, three bassoons, contrabassoon, six horns, four trumpets, three trombones, tenor and bass tubas, timpani, percussion, two harps, celesta, organ, strings and women’s chorus

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The Planets—An HD Odyssey

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plus Star Wars

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Brett Mitchell, conductor Duncan Copp, producer/director Women of the Houston Symphony Chorus Charles Hausmann, director

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When Gustav Holst composed his famed orchestral suite, The Planets, nearly a century ago, there were only eight known planets in our solar system. Pluto’s existence was not discovered until the 1930s, and questions have been raised in recent times whether it really is a planet. In planning the work, Holst focused his interest on our celestial companions, completely ignoring the existence of Earth in the planetary lineup. He also jumbled the natural order of the first four “inner planets” in their distance from the sun, in order to suit his own musical needs. And his interest was aroused not by any scientific astronomical observations of the planets, but by astrological associations suggested by the mythological names they had been given.

Holst scholars have noted that the composer made a hobby of casting horoscopes and owned a book by Alan Leo on the subject.

Leo’s book was Holst’s source in determining the descriptive character of each piece in the seven-movement suite.

Holst completed work on the first movement, “Mars, The Bringer of War,” during the summer of 1914, just before World War I began. While the international tensions that led to war were certainly apparent, there is no evidence he planned the piece as a prophecy of that bloody conflict. Over the next two years, he composed the remaining six movements of The Planets during weekends and summer holiday periods, when he was free from his teaching duties at a girl’s school. Then, in 1917, he orchestrated the entire suite. He composed the seven movements in the order in which they are heard, except “Mercury,” which was the last piece he completed, early in 1916.

The first four movements follow each other in a sequence analogous to that heard in standard symphonic works: two big-boned outer movements, “Mars” and “Jupiter” enclose two smaller, more intimate ones, “Venus” and

J. Williams Suite from Star Wars I Main Title: Maestoso Excerpts from Close Encounters of the Third Kind

J. Williams

Adventures on Earth from E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial

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J. Williams

INTERMISSION Holst The Planets I Mars, the Bringer of War: Allegro II Venus, the Bringer of Peace: Adagio—Andante III Mercury, the Winged Messenger: Vivace IV Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity: Allegro giocoso— Andante maestoso V Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age: Adagio—Andante VI Uranus, the Magician: Allegro VII Neptune, the Mystic: Andante

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The printed music for J. Williams’ Suite from Star Wars was donated by Stu and Carol Levin, in memory of Todd P. Levine.

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

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The choral and instrumental parts for Holst’s The Planets were donated by Mr. and Mrs. John Garr in memory of Susan L. Webb.

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The printed music for Close Encounters of the Third Kind was donated by Wade and Mert Adams.

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Brett Mitchell, Assistant Conductor/American Conducting Fellow of the Houston Symphony, is a member of the American Conducting Fellow Program, a national conductor training program developed and managed by the League of American Orchestras.

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Upcoming Performances..................................................................................

Enjoy the 2010-2011 Symphony Specials Only subscribers have priority access to these special concerts before tickets go on sale to the general public on August 1, 2010.

Michael Bolton

September 8, 2010, 7:30 pm Randall Craig Fleischer, conductor Michael Bolton has not only sold more than 53 million records, won multiple Grammys® and earned a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, but he has also sung with artists such as Luciano Pavarotti and Ray Charles; written songs with Bob Dylan, Ne-Yo and Lady Gaga; penned hits for Barbra Streisand and KISS; and played guitar with B.B. King. Bolton is headed to Houston to perform such hits as “Time, Love and Tenderness,” “How Can We Be Lovers” and “When a Man Loves a Woman.”

Tickets: from $25

Opening Night: A Vienna Soirée

September 11, 2010, 7:30 pm Hans Graf, conductor Frank Huang, violin Wayne Brooks, viola J. Strauss Jr.: Overture to Die Fledermaus Mozart: Sinfonia concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra J. Strauss Jr.: Annen Polka J. Strauss Jr.: On the Beautiful Blue Danube No passport needed as you escape to an evening in Vienna! Find yourself transported by Strauss’ Blue Danube Waltz and his delightfully charming Overture to Die Fledermaus. Be captivated by the sounds of Vienna as you hear the Houston Symphony kick off a new season with our newly appointed concertmaster Frank Huang and principal viola Wayne Brooks playing Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante.

Tickets: from $45

Paul Anka

October 21, 2010, 7:30 pm Paul Anka is one of history’s most prolific and successful songwriters. His songs have been performed by some of the greatest names in entertainment history, including Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and Barbra Streisand. Anka will take the Jones Hall stage to perform all his hits such as “Diana,” “Put Your Head on My Shoulder” and “My Way.” The Houston Symphony does not appear on this program.

Tickets: from $35

The Music of Led Zeppelin: A Rock Symphony

April 15, 2011, 7:30 pm Brent Havens, conductor Randy Jackson of Zebra, lead singer Following the success of a sold-out performance in summer 2007, the Houston Symphony once again takes you back to experience the music of one of the greatest rock bands of all time. With songs from the chart-topping catalogue of Led Zeppelin, this show combines the power of an orchestra and a full rock band enhanced with dramatic lighting effects.

Tickets: from $45

Order Today!

houstonsymphony.org (713) 224-7575

16 www.houstonsymphony.org

Form a Group! Share Memories. Save Money.

Buy 10 or more tickets - Call (713) 238-1435.

Notes continued from page 15.....

“Mercury.” The third and fourth movements, “Mercury” and “Jupiter,” also approximate the character of a symphonic scherzo and rondo.

However, the analogy to a symphonic piece is obscured when all seven movements are played and the music itself has little in common with the organic developmental growth of themes characteristic of a symphony.

Instead, Holst seems to focus on the notion of planets suspended in space with music that is rather static and unchanging within each musical portrait. “Mars, The Bringer of War” is generally loud and bellicose with heavy brass climaxes. Certain rhythms and notes are insistently repeated throughout much of the piece.

By contrast, “Venus, the Bringer of Peace,” is a diaphanous slow movement, noted for its exotic tone colors and its subtle, elusive harmonies. “Mercury, the Winged Messenger,” has a will-o’-the-wisp lightness, punctuated by sudden bursts of tone as the music flits from one orchestral group to another. “Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity,” is full of robust humor and an easy sense of power. The proud theme at the center of the movement was later set as the patriotic hymn, “I vow to thee, my country.”

It is in the last three movements that Holst’s imagination results in the most colorful orchestral effects. “Saturn, The Bringer of Old Age,” is represented by a solemn processional emerging from a faint, indefinite pulse of soft flutes and harps. After working its way to an inexorable climax, the movement bursts open with the brilliant sound of pealing bells.

“Uranus, The Magician,” begins with an ominous motto shouted out by the brass and timpani, then proceeds into a bold, riveting dance movement, interrupted twice more by the motto. And the foggy gases surrounding mystic “Neptune” are softly represented by undulating woodwind chords, growling brasses, a filmy curtain of broken chords in the celesta, harps and strings and, finally, by an unseen women’s chorus, whose wordless vocalise gradually disappears into a silent ending of The Planets. ©2010, Carl R. Cunningham

Biographies. ...............

Brett Mitchell, conductor

Now entering his fourth season as assistant conductor of the Houston Symphony, Brett Mitchell is one of America’s most promising young conductors. Since his appointment in September 2007, he has led the orchestra in nearly 100 performances; several of which were broadcast on SymphonyCast and Performance Today. He is the newly appointed music director of the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra and serves as a regular cover conductor for The Philadelphia Orchestra.

Mitchell has led the London Philharmonic, July 2010 17

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Leipzig Gewandhaus, Philadelphia, Rochester Philharmonic, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Oregon, Memphis, Peoria and Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestras, as well as the Northwest Mahler Festival Orchestra. He served as a musical assistant at the New York Philharmonic during the 2007-08 season and as cover conductor with the Cleveland Orchestra in 2009. He made his European debut in 2004 with Romania’s

Brasov Philharmonic and his Latin American debut in 2005 with the Orquesta Filarmónica de la UNAM in Mexico City.

Highlights of this season include debuts with the National Symphony Orchestra and Da Camera of Houston, as well as preparing a new production of Puccini’s Trittico for Maestro Lorin Maazel at the 2010 Castleton Festival.

Mitchell was assistant conductor of the

Orchestre National de France (2006-2009), director of orchestras at Northern Illinois University (2005-2007) and associate conductor of the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble (2002-2006). He has served as music director of numerous opera productions, including Igor Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, Mark Adamo’s Little Women and Robert Aldridge’s Elmer Gantry.

A Conversation with Filmmaker Duncan Copp.........................................

Houston Symphony Magazine spoke with Duncan Copp prior to the January premiere of The Planets—An HD Odyssey. This conversation is reprinted from the January 2010 issue.

Cou rt es yo f

What about this project was most appealing to you?

It’s a joy to work with a piece of music that I’ve known since I was a boy. And then to have this fantastic data set … these beautiful, aesthetically pleasing images from amazing parts of our solar system.

Although, it was a lot harder than we thought it was going to be, I have to admit. It sounds quite simple – putting pictures and music together – and this is something I do all the time in making a documentary. But we felt we really had to push the envelope with regards to our editing technique.

L& JP

SA NA

we turned to graphics. Based on the images we did have, we generated some longer and more dynamic graphic sequences.

You actually worked on the team that mapped the surface of Venus. Did that affect the way you worked on that movement?

Yes – because I knew the planet so well. It was nice to go back and look at those images again. I mean, I spent four years looking at them. And I’ve got my mapping area in there.

A little nod to your life as a scientist?

Well, it’s more than a nod. It’s totally biased! [laughter] No – my mapping area had two very prominent volcanoes: the Sif and Gula Mons.

And these volcanoes are spectacular to look at, so I wanted to include them. The coda to Venus is In what respect? the evening or the morning star, which is how I first The challenge was working with these very large, was introduced to Venus and how most people are high definition images. It’s a wonderful medium in which introduced to Venus. That brilliant, brilliant, white mornVenus to work, but the physical process of managing such high resing star – serene and beautiful. Venus actually is a hellish olution images caused a number of real issues. world. Temperatures are 470 degrees Celsius [878 degrees Fahrenheit] The HD medium is 1,080 pixels by 1,920 pixels. But some of my on the surface, and it’s got a choking atmosphere. It’s a hellish world, images were 10,000 pixels. Now you understand the challenge we but Holst saw it as a beautiful world, and his music reflects that. It’s the faced. The originals are very unwieldy. We had to sort of wrestle them goddess of beauty and love … a picture of pure serenity. down into some sort of manageable chunks that would work with our rostrum software. Now some of the other images are less than 1,080 by And was that your favorite movement of The Planets to work on?

1,920. So there we had the opposite problem.

Actually, if I was pushed to pick a planet I enjoy most with regards to the visual presentation, it would have to be Saturn. I think Steve Gomez and You mentioned rostrum software. Where did that enter into the process? the team at Bandito, the company responsible for the graphic sequences The classic way to bring still photographs to life is to conduct what’s in the film, did an outstanding job re-creating Saturn, which they based known as a rostrum session. It’s a matter of placing the photograph on high resolution data from the Cassini spacecraft in orbit around the on a platform mounted below a vertical camera. You then program the ringed world. The attention to detail with the Saturn graphic during the camera to either zoom in or out, or drift over the photograph in any middle of the movement is wonderful; look carefully and you’ll see two manner of combinations and speeds. Since all my images were digital, small “shepherd” moons scooting along next to the rings as the planet we learned to use a specially created piece of software which cleverly majestically rises and the music builds to a crescendo. The pacing and mimicked a rostrum session. It took a little bit of time to get up to speed movement of selected images is key in complementing the tempo of with this relatively new technique, but once we got the hang of it, it was the music, and I feel it works particularly well with the “Saturn” score. an incredibly powerful tool.

Besides, some of these images have such a vivid unearthly quality you just kind of get sucked in; the Saturnian system has an aesthetic quality Did one planet have more source material than others? second to none.

Take Venus: around 98 percent of the planet was imaged at high resolution by the Magellan spacecraft (using RADAR) which orbited between How was it different, working from music to film, rather than starting 1989 and 1993, so there’s almost global coverage; we have a clearer pic- with a film you would then have scored? ture of the surface of Venus than we do for our own planet (since much That’s interesting that you should say that because the score or the of our world lies under water!). Mars too has a huge database of images music to the film, I always think, is intrinsic. So I never see the music both from orbiting spacecraft and from the rovers which have wheeled as secondary in anything I produce. With regards to this project, we across parts of its surface. With Uranus and Neptune, I had far fewer already knew what the music was, which was great. It’s a fantastic to play with; these worlds have only been visited briefly by Voyager 2, score. So from that point of view, I guess it’s slightly unique in the way which flew past in a matter of hours. To get around the lack of imagery, that we came about it. The music was the scaffolding.

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Mitchell A Seattle native, Mitchell earned his bachelor of music in composition from Western Washington University and holds a doctorate degree from The University of Texas, where he was music director of the university’s orchestra. Mitchell participated in the National Conducting Institute in Washington, D.C., and studied with Kurt Masur as a recipient of the inaugural American Friends of the Mendelssohn Foundation Scholarship.

Duncan Copp

Duncan Copp grew up in Southwest England, where he discovered a passion for the landscape around him. His enjoyment of geology and space exploration became the backbone of his education. He holds a master’s degree in Satellite Remote Sensing and a doctorate in Astronomy, both from the University of London.

His doctoral research focused on unravelling the volcanic and geologic processes on Venus; he was a member of NASA’s Venus mapping team responsible for creating the first detailed geological maps of the planet.

While finishing his Ph.D., Copp researched the BBC’s landmark geology series Earth Story that was awarded the Walter Sullivan Award for Excellence in Science Journalism.

BBC’s series The Essential Guide to Rocks and Pioneer Productions’ Universe 2001 followed – both received awards from The Association of British Science Writers.

A freelance producer-director for more than 10 years, he worked with Rocket Men of Mission 105, Magnetic Storm and Global Dimming. He produced the much-acclaimed documentary In the Shadow of the Moon, the intimate story of the Apollo astronauts. It has received more than 15 awards internationally, including Best International Film at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.

Moon Machines (Discovery) recounts the trials of the engineers who built the machines that took the Apollo astronauts to the Moon. It was a Grand Remi winner.

Copp received the 2009 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics distinguished public service medal for stimulating public interest in science and technology, specifically

in space exploration.

He recently produced Henry VIII: Mind of a Tyrant. He is currently producing and directing Star City, a National Geographic documentary detailing the natural history of the Milky Way. Duncan Copp is a freelance science writer of more than 70 publications to date; he has been an on-screen presenter for BBC, Discovery and National Geographic. He lives in London.

The Planets—An HD Odyssey Credits Presenting Sponsor

Produced and Directed by: Duncan Copp Cinematography: Simon Fanthorpe Film Editor: David Fairhead Original Music Produced and Composed by: Philip Sheppard Special thanks to NASA, JPL – Caltech, JPL Scientists & Engineers, The Regional Planetary Imaging Facility, all at Bandito, all at Molinare, Re: Fine and The Bodleian Library, Oxford, which provided Holst’s original manuscript.

Additional support for this project was provided by San Jacinto College, National Endowment for the Arts, Houston Arts Alliance and KUHF 88.7 FM.

^ The Planets—An HD Odyssey DVD and Bluray sets are available for purchase in the lobby and at houstonsymphony.org.

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Program

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Symphony Summer in the City

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Thursday, July 22, 2010 7:30 pm Jones Hall

Havens

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The Music of Queen

Brent Havens, conductor

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Berklee-trained arranger/conductor Brent Havens has written music for orchestras, feature films and virtually all aspects of television. His TV work includes movies for the ABC, CBS and ABC Family networks, commercials, sports music for networks such as ESPN and even cartoons.

Havens has worked with the Doobie Brothers and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, arranging and conducting the combined group for Harley Davidson’s 100th Anniversary Birthday Party Finale attended by more than 150,000 fans. He recently completed the score for the film Quo Vadis, a Premiere Pictures remake of the 1951 gladiator film.

A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, he is the arranger and guest conductor for five symphonic rock programs – The Music of Led Zeppelin, The Music of the Doors, The Music of Pink Floyd, The Music of the Eagles and, now, The Music of Queen.

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Brent Havens, conductor Brody Dolyniuk, vocalist George Cintron, guitar and vocalist Dan Clemens, bass and vocalist Bart Kuebler, keyboards and vocalist Powell Randolph, drums and vocalist

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There will be one intermission.

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Dolyniuk

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This evening’s program will be announced from the stage.

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Brody Dolyniuk, vocalist

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Brody Dolyniuk mimicked voices even as a child, listening to old records and tapes. He is a gifted, self-taught musician who plays several instruments and has a particular knack for capturing the voices and mannerisms of classic characters from music, TV and movies.

His first professional gigs were at piano bars around the country. There he learned to charm audiences and expand his musical repertoire. Longing to perform the music of the many rock bands that inspired him, Dolyniuk assembled Yellow Brick Road (YBR), unques-

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

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The Music of Queen: A Rock Symphony Bridging the gap between rock n’ roll and classical music, conductor/arranger Brent Havens ascends the podium to present Windborne’s newest show, The Music of Queen, a program he scored to extend the listening experience of Queen’s exceptional tunes. Performed by the Houston Symphony and amplified with a full rock band and vocals, Havens and his ensemble capture Queen’s distinct sound while presenting both new and familiar musical colors.

The Real Deal Las Vegas star Brody Dolyniuk delivers a fabulous rendition of Freddie Mercury’s vocals. “When he came out to audition for the show, we knew immediately that he had something special. He not only knew the music, but he had clearly listened to every aspect of Mercury’s performance,” Havens says. “His inflections were spot-on and even the wailing rock sound had the right resonance.

Clearly, there will never be another Freddie Mercury, but close your eyes and listen to Dolyniuk, and you’re going to get something very close.”

Heightened by rock concert lighting, the symphonic rock hybrid meets with riotous approval at both ends of the hall. Many classical musicians enjoy the change of pace. “So many of the musicians grew up with this music much like we did,” says Havens. “Who can avoid hearing ‘We Will Rock You’ at sporting events, on TV shows and even in the super market?”

Queen’s music seems omnipresent. “We’ve successfully merged four different groups with the orchestra, and it seemed to me the next logical step in selecting a group was Queen. As always, we wanted to keep the foundation of the music as close to the originals as we could and then add additional colors to enhance what Queen had done,” Havens explains. “The wonderful thing with an orchestra is that you have an entire palette of sounds to call upon. The band is reproducing what Queen did live, as closely as possible within the constraints of personnel, and then having an orchestra behind the band gives the music richness, a whole new feel, a whole different sense of color, but still preserving the wonderful music that they originally produced.”

Orchestra Adds to Musical Landscape As with the other shows, Havens understands that Queen fans want to hear the original, familiar elements of the music, so he follows exact line arrangements and uses the orchestra for enhancement. The orchestra provides a large landscape with which to work. Just among the double-reed instruments – the oboe, English horn, bassoon – there are so many colors. Add in the violins, violas, cellos, basses and woodwinds, or more pure sounds from instruments like a flute or a clarinet, and the selection grows. Then consider the entire brass section – trumpets, trombones, French horns, and the lower brass like the bass trombone and tuba – and you realize the variety of choices available to accompany a distorted electric guitar, bass, keyboard and drums.

Queen’s rich chord structures and amazing vocal harmonies made the music ideal. “When I sat down to begin scoring the show, it was amazing how comfortably the orchestra fit within the structure of the music. Innovative chord progressions, wonderful melodies and the astounding vocals of Freddie Mercury make the music a perfect choice to orchestrate. And having world-class musicians makes the music even that much more compelling.”

The show introduces rock fans to the symphony experience. “As with our other shows, I’m sure there are people who are going to come out who have never seen the [Houston Symphony] and this allows them to experience something new along with the music that they already love,” says Havens.

Dolyniuk continued....................................................................................... tionably Las Vegas’ most successful classic rock band. Since 1997, YBR has been reshaping the casino entertainment scene by bringing a rock concert atmosphere to showrooms previously reserved for Top-40-style lounge acts. Along the way, he has made numerous

radio and TV appearances, earned a spot in the finals of two national singing competitions and self-produced several large rock production-style shows using multimedia, lasers, comedy and special effects.

In 2007, he sang several tracks on the

mega-hit video game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, and has done several more for the new Konami game Rock Revolution. As a devout classic rock/Queen fan, Dolyniuk’s enthusiasm, vocal ability and on-stage energy are the perfect fit for The Music of Queen.

July 2010 21

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Biographies. ........................

Program

Roth

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Symphony Summer in the City

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Saturday, July 24, 2010 7:30 pm Jones Hall

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Distant Worlds: music from FINAL FANTASY

Arnie Roth, conductor

Conductor Arnie Roth is a Grammy®-winning artist known for his work with a variety of performers including Il Divo, Diana Ross, Jewel, The Irish Tenors, Charlotte Church, Peter Cetera and Dennis DeYoung.

In addition to this return engagement with the Houston Symphony, he has conducted the London Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony, the Czech National Chamber Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, the San Diego Symphony, the Winnipeg Symphony, the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, the Detroit Symphony, the Ravinia Festival Orchestra, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tokyo Philharmonic and the Sydney Symphony.

Roth is well known in the world of video game music for his work with Nobuo Uematsu and Square Enix as music director and conductor of “Dear Friends: music from FINAL FANTASY,” “More Friends: music from FINAL FANTASY” and “VOICES: music from FINAL FANTASY,” as well as his role as music director and conductor of “PLAY! A Video Game Symphony.”

He was the winner of the Best Score Award at the 2003 DVD Premiere Awards for his film score Barbie™ as Rapunzel; he was nominated for an Emmy in 2007 for his original song “Shine” from the movie Barbie™ in The Twelve Dancing Princesses. Roth has produced dozens of best-selling CD’s. Visit www. awrmusic.com.

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Arnie Roth, conductor Nobuo Uematsu, composer Houston Symphony Chorus Charles Hausmann, director

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Uematsu

Liberi Fatali from Final Fantasy VIII

Uematsu

To Zanarkand from Final Fantasy X

Uematsu

Don’t Be Afraid from Final Fantasy VIII

Uematsu

Ronfaure from Final Fantasy XI

Uematsu/Miyano- Memorio de la Stono – Distant Worlds from Final Fantasy XI S. Hamaguchi-N. Mizuta Uematsu

Dear Friends from Final Fantasy V

Uematsu

Vamo’ al Flamenco from Final Fantasy IX

Uematsu

The Man With the Machine Gun from Final Fantasy VIII

INTERMISSION Uematsu Bombing Mission from Final Fantasy VII Fisherman’s Horizon from Final Fantasy VIII

Uematsu/A. Roth

Swing de Chocobo from Final Fantasy

Uematsu

Aeris’s Theme from Final Fantasy VII

M. Hamauzu

The Promise and Fang’s Theme from Final Fantasy XIII

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Uematsu/Miyano- S. Hamaguchi

Uematsu/T. Narita Twilight Over Thanalan and Beneath Blood Borders from Final Fantasy XIV Opera, Maria and Draco from Final Fantasy VI

Uematsu/A. Roth- E. Roth

J-E-N-O-V-A from Final Fantasy VII

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Uematsu

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Prelude to Final Fantasy—

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N. Uematsu/S. Miyano

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The program is subject to change.

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Music director and conductor: Arnie Roth

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Producers: AWR Music Production LLC and Nobuo Uematsu Video producer: Chris Szuberla

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Production team: Leanne Araya, Fritz Hocking, Eric Roth, Marcy Roth, Chris Szuberla

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© Square Enix Co. LTD All Rights Reserved. DISTANT WORLDS is a registered trademark or trademark of Square Enix Co., LTD. FINAL FANTASY, SQUARE ENIX and the SQUARE ENIX logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd.

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22 www.houstonsymphony.org

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

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Uematsu

Nobuo Uematsu, composer

Nobuo Uematsu is one of the most celebrated composers in the video game field. He has achieved global recognition for his work on the Final Fantasy series that has been performed by world-class orchestras around the world. Uematsu has been recognized as a major contributor in the increasing appreciation and awareness of video game music. A prime example is the FINAL FANTASY VIII theme song, “Eyes on Me,” which he composed and produced. His song featured Hong Kong pop star Faye Wong and sold a record 400,000 copies. It also won Song of the Year (Western Music) at the 14th Annual Japan Gold Disc Awards in 1999, the first time that music from a video game had attained this illustrious honor. The music from the game series has grown to such notoriety, Uematsu was named as one of the “Innovators” in Time magazine’s “Time 100: the Next Wave Music” feature.

Distant Worlds: music from FINAL FANTASY

AWR Music Productions LLC is proud to present the official symphony concert world-tour “Distant Worlds: music from FINAL FANTASY.” Launched in conjunction with the 20th anniversary of Final Fantasy, this concert tour features the music of Japanese video game and series composer Nobuo Uematsu and is conducted by Grammy® award-winner Arnie Roth.

Japan’s best-selling franchise Final Fantasy, which has sold more than 75 million units worldwide, combines stirring screen images to match the soaring emotions of a symphony orchestra performing music from Square Enix’s world-renowned video game series. This multi-media experience is put together with the expertise of primary tour consultant Thomas Böecker who has been working in the game industry since 1999, serving as executive producer, music producer and music consultant for the audio portion of various major titles.

After the success of the 2002 Final Fantasy concert in Japan, Square Enix announced a six-city, seven-show tour of Japan in 2004, “Tour de Japon: music from FINAL FANTASY.” The first stateside concert, “Dear Friends: music from FINAL FANTASY,” sold out in three days and was performed by the acclaimed Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Master Chorale on May 10, 2004, at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. The positive reception of this performance gave rise to the 2005 U.S. concert tour. Uematsu’s awardwinning music was then featured in “More Friends: music from FINAL FANTASY” at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles. Later that year, the “VOICES: music from FINAL FANTASY” concert took place in Tokyo with the Tokyo Philharmonic under the direction of Arnie Roth.

Video game music has grown increasingly popular in the last few years. Music plays an integral role in today’s games, enhancing the players’ overall experience. While still a growing market, video game soundtracks are now sold in major outlets and include a variety of genres such as rock, hip-hop, electronica, classical compositions and songs performed by popular artists. Square Enix hopes to pioneer awareness and appreciation of not only its own musical creations, but also video game music throughout the industry.

July 2010 23

Houston Symphony Chorus..............................................................................

Dr. Charles S. Hausmann was named director of the Houston Symphony Chorus in 1986 and has prepared the group for more than 500 concerts and more than 40 acclaimed conductors, including Hans Graf, Christoph Eschenbach, Claus Peter Flor and Robert Shaw. His extensive repertoire includes most of the major choral/orchestral masterworks.

As director of choral studies and professor of conducting at the University of Houston’s Moores School of Music, Hausmann directs the master’s and doctoral programs in choral conducting and conducts the Moores School Choral Artists, a graduate chamber choir. He is especially interested in conducting pedagogy and choral/orchestral performance.

Current research activity on the use of dance pedagogy in teaching conducting resulted in co-authorship of an article, “The Dance of Conducting.”

Hausmann also serves as director of choral music at Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church, where he led the Houston Symphony and Chorus in a special performance of Mendelssohn’s St. Paul in the spring of 2008.

During the 2010-2011 season, Hausmann will prepare the chorus for Siegel’s Kaddish, Verdi’s Requiem, Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky, Messiah, Very Merry Pops and a concert of Pops favorites.

Hausmann frequently appears as a guest conductor, lecturer and clinician, and has conducted numerous concert tours throughout the United States, Europe and Mexico. He led the chorus on its fourth European tour in 2007, when he appeared as guest conductor during the Prague Spring Festival. He and the chorus share a 24-year collaboration with Mexico City’s Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería, recently performing Mendelssohn’s Elijah with former Associate Conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto.

The Houston Symphony Chorus, directed by Charles Hausmann, is made up of volunteer musicians from all parts of the Houston metropolitan area. Its members rehearse at Moores School of Music every Tuesday evening, motivated by the challenge and joy of performing great music and the opportunity to work with the Houston Symphony. For audition information, contact the Chorus manager at (713) 444-9221 or chorus@sbcglobal.net.

24 www.houstonsymphony.org

Photo by jeff fitlow

Hausmann Charles Hausmann, director

Charles Hausmann, Director Paulo Gomes Assistant Director

First Soprano Ramona R. Alms Kelly Anderson Alice Beckstrom Lindsey Braden Robyn Branning Megan Crump Sarah Damaske Erin Doty Lyla El-Messidi Kathleen Forbes Clarice Gatlin Marta-Marie G. Giles Becky Hamilton Lorraine Hammond Amanda Harris Sarah B. Keifer Gillian Kruse Veronica Lorine Pamela A. Magnuson Ada Fay Pechon * •Karen Rennar Wendy Ridings Heidi Sanders Beth Slaughter Katrina Tanner Anne Treverton Lisa Trewin Tania Van Dongen Maria Cristina Yañez Amanda Zuniga Second Soprano Yoset Altamirano Lisa Anders Erin Asprec Laura Bohlman Nancy Shelton Bratic Anne Campbell Debby Cutler Vickie Davis Karen Fess-Uecker Kellie Garden •Debbie Hannah Jane Heinze Megan Henry Kristen Hurter Sylvia J. Hysong Yukiko Iwata Natalia Kalitynska •Amy Scott Mobley Lisa Morfin •Carol Ostlind Linda Peters Linda Richardson Susan Scarrow

Susan Scarrow Chorus Manager

Scott Holshouser Accompanist

Tony Sessions Librarian

Vicki Ann Seldon Paige Sommer Veronica A. Stevens Cecilia Sun •Nancy Vernau Jennifer Young

Laurie Reynolds Liane Slaughter Holly Soehnge * •Mary Voigt Morgana Williams

Taylor Faulkner Scott Hassett John Knapp Jay Lopez •Ken Mathews Clemente Mathis William McCallum Chris Ming Matt Neufeld Gary Scullin Stephen Shadle Thom Sloan Mark Standridge Samuel V. Stengler Paul Van Dorn Joe Villarreal J. Kevin Wallace

First Alto Rosemary Allen Patricia Bumpus Barbara E. Bush Nancy Christopherson Corita Dubose Natasha Flores Mary H. Gahr Heather MacLaughlin Garbes Holly Gardner Judy Hill Jo Ann Hoffman Berma M. Kinsey Joyce Lewis * •Mary Lopushansky Joan O’Connor Thao Pham Linda Renner •Carolyn Rogan Holly S. Rubbo June Russell Maria D. Schoen •Andrea Pedersen Slack Patsy Wilson Shelby Wilson Second Alto Melissa Bailey Adams Krista Borstell Susan Casper Jenny Chiovaro Sarah Wilson Clark M. Evelyn Clift Rochella Cooper Andrea Lee Creath Robin Dunn Holly Eaton Christine Economides Rachel El-Saleh Thi Ha Julie Herbert Denise K. Holmes Catherine Howard •Lois Howell Crystal Meadows •Lynne Moneypenny Nina Peropoulos

First Tenor Robert E. Browning James R. Carazola Patrick G. Drake Richard Field * •Robert Lee Gomez Steve Hazel Donald Howie Francisco J. Izaguirre Darrell Mayon James K. Moore Christopher Ortiz Peter Peropoulos Allen Roberts Douglas Rodenberger David Schoen Tony Sessions Jeff Simmons Second Tenor * •Bob Alban Randy Boatright Harvey Bongers Martin Brockett William Cole Paul Damaske Donn Dubois Jorge Fandino Joseph S. Frybert John Grady Craig Hill Andrew S. Kesten Philip E. Lewis David G. Nussmann Richard Selby Dewell Springer Jonathan Vaughan Anthony Vazquez Leonardo Veletzuy Lee E. Williams First Bass Wilton Adams Joe Anzaldua Greg Barra Justin Becker John P. Bond Jerome Bourgeois * •Bruce Boyle Christopher Burris Steve Dukes

Second Bass Steve Abercia •Marty Ambrose Bill Cheadle John Colson Roger Cutler Tom Everage Chris Fair Ian W. Fetterley David M. Fox Yevgeny Genin Matthew C. Henderson Terry Henderson George Howe Chuck Izzo Nobuhide Kobori Alan MacAdams Scott Mermelstein Robert Morehead Greg Nelson Bill Parker John Proffitt •Robert Reynolds * •Clark E. Robison Richard White * Section Leader •Council Member

As of June 24, 2010

Support Your Symphony....................................................................................

The Houston Symphony salutes The Houston Symphony Chorus for supporting The Chorus Endowment Campaign

A permanent fund to supplement Symphony Chorus activities for future generations.

We are pleased to acknowledge the following contributors to the 2009-2010 Season: Wilton Adams Bob Alban Ramona Alms Mrs. Lisa Anders Gerald and Virginia Batte Alice Beckstrom John Bond Harvey and Suzy Bongers Krista L. Borstell Bruce and Sue Boyle Mr. and Mrs. Gregory Branning Nancy and Walt Bratic Patricia and William Bumpus Anne and Scott Campbell Mr. and Mrs. James R. Carazola Sarah Wilson Clark John Colson Nadene and Jim Crain Picture This Photography Drs. Paul and Sarah Damaske Paul and Vickie Davis Aurelie Desmarais Donn DuBois and Yukiko Iwata Stephen Dukes Mr. and Mrs. Randy Dunn Holly T. Eaton Christine Economides Chris Fair David and Joyce Fox Dr. Robert Furse Clarice Gatlin Yevgeny Genin Marta-Marie G. Giles Paulo Gomes Robert Lee Gomez Meredith Griffis Mr. and Mrs. James S. Gunst Peter and Tamara Ham Debbie and Steve Hannah

Danny Harris Elizabeth and Dale Hauck Charles S. Hausmann Terry and Karen Henderson Matthew C. Henderson Denise K. Holmes Catherine Howard George Howe Lois Howell Donald Howie Ben and Mary Gwen Hulsey Hurter Associates Inc. Marya Ingram Sylvia Hysong Francisco J. Izaguirre Nobuhide Kobori Philip and Audrey Lewis Joyce Lewis Alan MacAdams Gerald and Shirley Mathews Mr. and Mrs. Toby Mattox Darrell Mayon William McCallum Ken Mathews Joan K. Mercado George Mitchell Amy and Greg Mobley Lynne Moneypenny James Moore Matthew and Lisa Morfin Matt Neufeld Dave Nussmann Carol Ostlind Rachel El-Saleh Laura Parker Corita Parker-Dubose Nina and Peter Peropoulos John Proffitt Karen and Hank Rennar Linda A. Renner

Robert Reynolds Linda Loewe Richardson Robert and Phyllis Rinehart Clark and Judy Robison Carolyn Rogan Edward Ross Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Rubbo Susan Scarrow Janet and David Scarrow David and Maria Schoen Gary Scullin Vicki Seldon Tony Sessions Gudmundur Sigurthorsson Thomas Sloan Harriet Smith Jan Smith Paige and Rich Sommer Dewell Springer Mark Standridge John and Veronica Stevens Dr. Cecilia Sun Corrie Ten-Have G.M. Tolunay Sonia Townsend Lisa Rai Trewin Karen Fess-Uecker and Wil Uecker June Russell and Bob Ulrich Paul Van Dorn Johnathan Vaughan George and Nancy Vernau Robert and Mary Voigt Carolee Weber Don and Linda Weinmann David A. White Richard White Lee E. Williams Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Wilson Jennifer Young

Special thanks to CenterPoint Energy, Remora Energy and ExxonMobil Foundation for matching their employees’ gifts to the Endowment.

(This list includes all gifts received as of May 14, 2010.)

July 2010 25

Volunteers....................................................... User’s Guide to the Houston Music and Volunteerism: A Perfect Match photos by jeff fitlow

ENTRANCES TO JONES HALL The doors to Jones Hall open one hour before each performance.

Street-level entrances provide access to the main lobby from Louisiana Street and the side entrance on Texas Avenue. The courtyard entrance is accessible through the tunnel from the parking garage.

EMERGENCY PHONE NUMBER If someone needs to contact you for emergency purposes while you are in a concert, please have him/her call the Jones Hall emergency phone. Please have the caller provide name and seat location (row, seat and level). An usher will notify you of the call. The emergency phone number is (713) 238-2384.

PRELUDE Connect to the Houston Symphony with Prelude, sponsored by Fluor. These informal, interactive discussions begin 50 minutes prior to each classical season concert at the cross-aisle of the Orchestra level in the Jones Hall auditorium. They are free to performance ticket holders.

^ Houston Symphony League member Norma Jean Brown encourages a young patron to try the tambourine in the Instrument Petting Zoo. Volunteers are vital to this hands-on experience – no instrument experience required!

If you’re passionate about music and enjoy volunteering, the Houston Symphony is the place for you! Our volunteers support the symphony through their participation in educational outreach programs and fundraising activities. Whether they are demonstrating the use of orchestral instruments in the Instrument Petting Zoo, assisting with children’s activities at family concerts or ushering at student concerts, these dedicated individuals enhance the experiences of young audiences at Houston Symphony performances. You’ll find our volunteers working in the Symphony Store, organizing fundraising events, planning concert activities for Houston Symphony Junior Patrons, helping in the office and singing in the Houston Symphony Chorus.

Members of the Houston Symphony League, Houston Symphony League Bay Area, First Juniors and National Charity League, together with employees of Deloitte, Weatherford and TOTAL, donate thousands of hours each year in support of the educational and fundraising goals of the symphony.

Share your time and talents as a Houston Symphony volunteer. For more information, contact Vickie Hamley, director, Volunteer Services, at (832) 531-6701 or vickie.hamley@houstonsymphony.org.

LATE SEATING In consideration of audience members, the Houston Symphony makes every effort to begin concerts on time. Ushers will assist with late seating, allowed only at pre-designated intervals.

CHILDREN AT CONCERTS In consideration of our patrons, we ask that children be 6 years and older to attend Houston Symphony concerts. Children of all ages, including infants, are admitted to Weatherford Family Concerts. Any child over age 1 must have a ticket for those performances.

FOOD AND BEVERAGES Food and beverages are available in the lobby and are permitted in the lobby area only during most performances.

However, during Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pops at Jones Hall performances, patrons may take bottled water into the hall.

SMOKING In accordance with a city ordinance that forbids smoking in public buildings, please do not smoke within 25 feet of Jones Hall entrances.

CAMERAS, RECORDERS, CELL PHONES & PAGERS To maximize your concert experience, cameras and recorders are not permitted in the hall.

Patrons may not use any device to record or photograph performances. Please also silence cell phones, pagers and alarm watches and refrain from texting during performances.

RESTROOMS There are four restroom areas in Jones Hall for your convenience: •C ourtyard level—past the main elevator and up the stairs. Wheelchair accessible restrooms are located here.

• Orchestra level—right side and down the stairs near the Texas Avenue side entrance.

^ Weatherford employees volunteer during Junior Patron activities at the symphony’s family concerts, engaging young visitors with projects that relate to the concert’s theme.

26 www.houstonsymphony.org

• Box/Mezzanine level—on the right side of the hall.

Symphony............................. Music Matters!.......................................................

•B alcony level—on the right side of the hall.

Wheelchair accessible restrooms are located here.

Students Experience Lincoln as the Narrator Fulfills a Dream “We highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain . . .” How many times have we read these lines from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and been filled with pride for our country? Haven’t we all wondered what it would have been like to be in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania that day in the fall of 1863 and to have heard the 16th president’s words in person?

Fast forward to spring 2010, to the Houston Symphony’s Explorer Concerts. Although not Abe himself, Jeffrey Bean was a masterful substitute as he narrated Aaron Copland’s Lincoln Portrait for approximately 25,000 upper elementary and middle school students. In eight concerts at Jones Hall, plus one at The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion for Conroe ISD, Bean, a Houston favorite from the Alley Theatre, enthralled young audiences with his ever-so-Lincoln-like voice. It was a shivers-up-the-spine, tears-in-the-eyes experience for those young Americans.

ACCOMMODATIONS FOR DISABLED PATRONS For the comfort and convenience of patrons with special needs, the following accommodations are available: • T he Theater District Parking Garage has designated parking spaces for the disabled on the green level near the Jones Hall tunnel entrance with a stair-free route to the main elevator.

• Restrooms for disabled patrons are located on the courtyard level near the main elevator and on the balcony accessible by the courtyard and stage door elevators.

photo by jeff fitlow

• Disabled patrons may obtain tickets held at Will Call by asking the courtyard-level security guard to radio the Box Office.

• Wheelchair ramps are located on Capitol Street and Texas Avenue.

• Wheelchair and companion seating is available.

To request these seats when ordering tickets to concerts, please call (713) 224-7575, Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.

• FM headsets and loops for the hearing impaired are available in the lobby at no charge for each performance. Please ask an usher for assistance.

THE HOUSTON SYMPHONY ONLINE

Experience the Symphony in a whole new way.

Our new website is here!

The Houston Symphony is proud to unveil its brand new website this season. The new site is visually compelling with a wealth of information. We hope you will enjoy the many updated features, including: • a search box to help you get the information you need quickly • audio and video links that bring upcoming performances to life • a new and improved ticket purchasing process • a blog that takes you inside the symphony • links to social media sites so you can connect with other symphony fans Look for us on: The Houston Symphony iPhone App is now available for free download from the iTunes® App store.

^ Houston-area students eagerly await entry into Jones Hall for the opportunity to hear the Houston Symphony in the Explorer concert series.

As a child, Bean remembers peering down from the box seats at the Orpheum Theater as his mother, a violinist and conductor, rehearsed with the Omaha Symphony. That experience, coupled with a box set of LPs of Copland’s works, sparked his life-long love of classical music.

That recording of Lincoln Portrait was narrated by Henry Fonda who, also a native of Omaha, was one of Bean’s heroes.

Bean and his mother met the composer himself on a 1978 “Copland Conducts Copland” tour in Lincoln, Nebraska. The star-struck 10-year-old remembers Copland as being very kind and gracious. Consequently, when he was contacted about narrating Lincoln Portrait for the Houston Symphony, the grown-up Bean was thrilled about the prospect of fulfilling a 30-year-old dream.

His mother even came from Omaha to attend the final, awesome performance!

The symphony’s Explorer concert series is now entering its 18th year of providing curriculum-focused concert programming. The concerts examine orchestral music as it relates to the world, reinforcing the social studies and language arts curricula as they showcase the wonders of classical music. Appropriate for upper-elementary to middle school students, these Explorer concerts introduce children to symphonic music as it relates to academic disciplines and help prepare them for the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) test using alternative learning approaches.

The theme for this season’s Explorer concerts was “Six Flags over Texas,” and featured works related to or inspired by composers from the countries of which Texas has been a part.

Conducted by Associate Conductor Brett Mitchell, the program included works by Bizet, Turina and Moncayo, in addition to Copland’s masterpiece. The students left with a gallop as the concert concluded with Overture to The Cowboys by John Williams.

But Lincoln – and Bean – carried the day. “…that the government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from this earth.” Who wouldn’t go back to school with pride and a song in their hearts after that?

July 2010 27

Annual Campaign Donors. .........................................................................................

The Houston Symphony expresses its deepest appreciation to the donors listed on this and the following pages for their generous contributions in support of Symphony programs. More information is available from the Individual Giving Department at (713) 337-8500, the Corporate Support Department at (713) 337-8520 or at www.houstonsymphony.org.

Corporations....................................

As of June 1, 2010 $100,000-$499,999 BBVA Compass Continental Airlines Fidelity Investments LINN Energy, LLC Shell Oil Company Foundation Spencer Stuart & Associates $50,000-$99,999 American Express Chevron ConocoPhillips * GDF SUEZ Energy North America The Methodist Hospital System TOTAL * Weatherford International Ltd. Weill Cornell Medical College $25,000-$49,999 Crown Castle * ExxonMobil Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P. * JPMorgan Chase KPMG LLP * Marathon Oil Company Vinson & Elkins LLP $10,000-$24,999 Andrews Kurth L.L.P. Baker Botts L.L.P. * Bank of America Bracewell & Giuliani LLP * CenterPoint Energy Cooper Industries, Inc.

* Devon Energy Corporation * Deloitte Ernst & Young * Fluor Corporation Frost Bank I W Marks Jewelers, LP * Macy’s Foundation Northern Trust Röhe & Wright Builders Spir Star, Ltd. Star Furniture * The Wachovia Wells Fargo Foundation

$500-$9,999 * Beirne, Maynard & Parsons, LLP Big Covey Exploration Bloomberg L.L.P. * Randalls Food Markets, Inc. * Smith, Graham & Company * South Texas College of Law * Swift Energy Company

Foundations...................................................

As of April 1, 2010 $1,000,000 and above * Houston Symphony League The Wortham Foundation Inc. $500,000-$999,999 * M. D. Anderson Foundation * The Brown Foundation, Inc. The Cullen Trust for the Performing Arts The Fondren Foundation * Houston Endowment Inc. Mr. George P. Mitchell $100,000-$499,999 The Cullen Foundation Madison Charitable Foundation * Spec’s Charitable Foundation $50,000-$99,999 The Alkek and Williams Foundation The William Stamps Farish Fund * Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo Educational Fund * John P. McGovern Foundation * The Robert and Janice McNair Foundation * Dorothy Richard Starling Foundation $25,000-$49,999 Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation * The Humphreys Foundation The Schissler Foundation $10,000-$24,999 * Bauer Foundation Carleen and Alde Fridge Foundation

*Sponsors of Houston Symphony Education and Outreach programs. Includes Annual Fund and designated annual production support.

* George and Mary Josephine Hamman Foundation William E. and Natoma Pyle Harvey Charitable Trust Albert and Ethel Herzstein Charitable Foundation Hood-Barrow Foundation * Houston Symphony League Bay Area * The Powell Foundation * Sterling-Turner Foundation Strake Foundation

$2,500-$9,999 The Becker Family Foundation * Harry S. and Isabel Cameron Foundation * Ray C. Fish Foundation * The Melbern G. and Susanne M. Glasscock Foundation Huffington Foundation Leon Jaworski Foundation William S. & Lora Jean Kilroy Foundation * Robert W. & Pearl Wallis Knox Foundation Lubrizol Foundation * Kinder Morgan Foundation * Lynne Murray, Sr. Educational Foundation The Helmle Shaw Foundation Susman Family Foundation * Vaughn Foundation * The Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff Family Foundation Government Donors * City of Houston through the Houston Downtown Alliance, Houston Arts Alliance and Miller Theatre Advisory Board National Endowment for the Arts State Employee Charitable Campaign * Texas Commission on the Arts

Individual Donors. .................................................................................................

As of June 14, 2010 Maestro Society Anonymous (1) Mr. & Mrs. Morrie Abramson Ferenc Illenyi, first violin Mr. & Mrs. Thomas D. Barrow Sophia Silivos, first violin Gary & Marian Beauchamp Martha Chapman, second violin Mr. & Mrs. Edward F. Blackburne Jr., Tubular Perforating Manufacturing Sergei Galperin, first violin Mr. & Mrs. J. Brett Busby Assia Dulgerska, first violin, acting associate concertmaster Ms. Janet F. Clark Kevin Dvorak, cello Mr. & Mrs. Michael H. Clark George Pascal, viola, acting associate principal Dr. Scott Cutler Scott Holshouser, keyboard, principal Mr. Richard Danforth Jeffrey Butler, cello Leslie Barry Davidson & Robins Brice Colin Gatwood, oboe Dr. & Mrs. Alexander Dell Paula Page, harp, principal Mr. & Mrs. Gene Dewhurst Phillip Freeman, bass trombone Mr. & Mrs. Michael Dokupil Dror Charitable Foundation for the Arts Mrs. Robin A. Elverson John DeWitt, trumpet, associate principal Dr.s & Mrs. William Estrada Robert Pastorek, double bass

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Angel & Craig Fox David Malone, double bass, associate principal Mr. S. David Frankfort Stephen & Mariglyn Glenn Christian Schubert, clarinet Hans & Margarita Graf Dr. Gary L. Hollingsworth Robert Walp, trumpet, assistant principal Dr. Marie-Luise & Dr. M. S. Kalsi Eric Halen, first violin, acting concertmaster Mr. & Mrs. Ulyesse J. LeGrange Thomas LeGrand, clarinet, associate principal Rochelle & Max Levit Sergei Galperin, first violin Mr. & Mrs. Gerald Lowe Ms. Beth Madison Assia Dulgerska, first violin, acting associate concertmaster Dr. & Mrs. Paul M. Mann Robert Atherholt, oboe, principal Mr. & Mrs. Rodney H. Margolis Eric Halen, first violin, acting concertmaster Mr. & Mrs. J. Stephen Marks Brian Del Signore, percussion, principal Mr. & Mrs. D. Patrick McCelvey Adam Dinitz, oboe/English horn Mr. & Mrs. Alexander K. McLanahan William VerMeulen, horn, principal Mr. & Mrs.s George P. Mitchell Jennifer Owen, second violin, principal Mrs. Sybil F. Roos Ms. Charlotte A. Rothwell Mark Shapiro, double bass

Mr. & Mrs. Christopher Sarofim Mrs. Maryjane Scherr Mr. & Mrs. James A. Shaffer Eric Halen, first violin, acting concertmaster Laura & Michael Shannon Rian Craypo, bassoon, principal Mr. & Mrs. Robert R. Springob, Laredo Construction, Inc. Thomas Molloy, viola Mr. & Mrs. David Steakley Mr. & Mrs. M. S. Stude Ruth Zeger, second violin Paul Strand Thomas Julie Thayer, horn Stephen & Pamalah Tipps Allen Barnhill, trombone, principal Mr. & Mrs. Robert G. Tudor III Bradley White, trombone, associate principal Mr. & Mrs. Jesse B. Tutor Daniel Strba, viola Dr. Margaret Waisman & Dr. Steven S. Callahan Mark Griffith, percussion Mr. & Mrs. Fredric A. Weber Paula Page, harp, principal The Diana and Conrad Weil Jr. Family Foundation Amy Teare, second violin Mrs. Joan Hohlt Wich & Mr. J. Roger Wichs Mrs. Margaret Alkek Williams Mr. & Mrs. Ed Wulfe Dave Kirk, tuba, principal

Musician Sponsor Anonymous Open, bass clarinet Anonymous Daniel Strba, viola Eric S. Anderson & R. Dennis Anderson George Pascal, viola, acting associate principal Frances & Ira Anderson Mr. & Mrs. Maurice J. Aresty Christopher French, cello, associate principal Mr. & Mrs. Philip A. Bahr Allison Garza, flute/piccolo Mr. Tom Becker Fay Shapiro, viola Dr. Meherwah & Mrs. Zarine Boyce Mr. & Mrs. Walter Bratic Christopher Neal, first violin Ms. Terry Ann Brown James Denton, cello The Robert & Jane Cizik Foundation Qi Ming, first violin, assistant concertmaster Mr. & Mrs. Lucas T. Elliot Mr. & Mrs. Martin J. Fein Ferenc Illenyi, first violin Mr. & Mrs. Russell M. Frankel Aralee Dorough, flute, principal Mr. & Mrs. David Frankfort Mr. & Mrs. Allen Gelwick J. Jeff Robinson, contrabassoon Mr. & Mrs. Michael Hafner Mr. & Mrs. Richard Hansen Kevin Kelly, second violin Mr. & Mrs. David V. Hudson Jr. Philip Stanton, horn

.....................................................................................................................................

Mr. & Mrs. John A. Irvine Christine Pastorek, second violin Mr. Brian James Mr. & Mrs. Marvin Kaplan David Peck, clarinet, principal Dr. & Mrs. I. Ray Kirk Burke Shaw, double bass Mr. & Mrs. Erik P. Littlejohn Kiju Joh, second violin Mr. & Mrs. Thomas Lykos Kiju Joh, second violin Cora Sue & Harry Mach Joan DerHovsepian, viola, acting assistant principal Mr. & Mrs. Steven P. Mach Eric Larson, double bass Dr. & Mrs. Paul M. Mann Allison Garza, flute/piccolo Jay & Shirley Marks Sergei Galperin, first violin Dr. & Mrs. Malcolm L. Mazow Rodica Gonzalez, first violin Mr. & Mrs. Brian P. McCabe Betty & Gene McDavid Linda Goldstein, viola Miss Catherine Jane Merchant J. Jeff Robinson, contrabassoon Dr. & Mrs. Robert M. Mihalo Brian Thomas, horn Mr. & Mrs. Michael D. Moore Donald Howey, double bass Mr. & Mrs. Lucian L. Morrison Wayne Brooks, viola principal Mrs. Sue A. Morrison Allen Barnhill, trombone, principal Mr. & Mrs. Robert E. Nelson Mihaela Oancea, second violin Bobbie & Arthur Newman Rodica Gonzalez, first violin Mrs. Tassie Nicandros Hanni Ortons Imogen “Immy” Papadopoulos Scott Holshouser, keyboard, principal Mr. & Mrs. Jonathan E. Parker Nancy Goodearl, horn Mr. & Mrs. Michael Parmet Nancy & Bob Peiser Anthony Prisk, trumpet Mr. & Mrs. Philip M. Peterson Mr. & Mrs. David R. Pruner Gloria & Joe Pryzant Jennifer Owen, second violin, principal Kathryn & Richard Rabinow John Thorne, flute, associate principal Drs. Neal & Virginia Reisman Mark Hughes, trumpet, principal Ann & Hugh Roff Robert Atherholt, oboe, principal Mr. Glen A. Rosenbaum Aralee Dorough, flute, principal Mrs. Helen Rosenbaum Eric Arbiter, bassoon, associate principal Julia & Albert Smith Foundation Eric Arbiter, bassoon, associate principal Dr. Alana R. Spiwak & Sam Stolbun Wei Jiang, viola Alice & Terry Thomas Roger Kaza, horn, associate principal Matthew VanBesien & Rosanne Jowitt Mr. & Mrs. Joel Wahlberg Anthony Prisk, trumpet Vicki & Paul West Rodica Gonzalez, first violin Dr. & Mrs. Jim T. Willerson Anne Leek, oboe, associate principal Mr. & Mrs. Steven Jay Williams MiHee Chung, first violin Mr. & Mrs. Wallace S. Wilson Xiao Wong, cello Ms. Jennifer Wittman The Honorable & Mrs. Alvin Zimmerman Erla & Harry Zuber Matthew Strauss, percussion

Conductor’s Circle Anonymous (2) Mr. & Mrs. Karl H. Becker Mr. & Mrs. Charles G. Black III Mr. & Mrs. Walter V. Boyle Mr. Joe Brazzatti Ruth White Brodsky Mrs. George L. Brundrett Jr. Dr. & Mrs. Coleman D. Caplovitz Mrs. Lily Carrigan William J. Clayton & Margaret A. Hughes Roger & Debby Cutler Mr. Joe R. Davis & Ms. Janet Swikard Mr. & Mrs. Paul F. Egner Jr. Aubrey & Sylvia Farb Dr. & Mrs. William D. George Mrs. Elizabeth Glenn Mrs. Aileen Gordon William A. Grieves & Dorothy McDonnell Grieves Marilyn & Robert M. Hermance Mr. & Mrs. Frank Herzog Debbie & Frank Jones Drs. Blair & Rita Justice Dr. & Mrs. Bernard Katz Mr. & Mrs. Clyde W. Lea Mrs. Margaret H. Ley Mr. & Mrs. E.W. Long Jr. Mr. & Mrs. Bradley H. Marks Mrs. Beverly T. McDonald Mr. James F. Mailey & Mrs. Sharon McMahon Cameron Mitchell Sidney & Ione Moran Mr. & Mrs. Richard P. Moynihan Mr. & Mrs. Edward C. Osterberg Jr. Mr. & Mrs. Harry Phillips Jr. Mr. Howard Pieper Mrs. Lila Rauch Mr. & Mrs. Richard P. Schissler Mr. & Mrs. William Slick Mr. & Mrs. Mark Smith Mr. & Mrs. Tad Smith Mr. & Mrs. Keith Stevenson Mr. & Mrs. Antonio M. Szabo Mr. Stephen C. Tarry Shirley Toomin Ann Trammell Mr. & Mrs. C. Harold Wallace Robert G. Weiner Woodell Family Foundation Winthrop Wyman & Beverly Johnson Nina & Michael Zilkha Grand Patron Anonymous (2) Maida & Paul Asofsky Richard C. Bailey Mr. & Mrs. James D. Bozeman Mr. Prentiss Burt Dr. & Mrs. William T. Butler Mrs. Toba Buxbaum Dougal Cameron Mr. & Mrs. Thierry Caruso Mr. & Mrs. John T. Cater J. R. & Aline Deming Judge & Mrs. Harold DeMoss Jr. Mr. & Mrs. David Denechaud Mr. & Mrs. Carr P. Dishroon Mr. & Mrs. Jeffery B. Early Larry & Mary Ann Faulkner Mr. & Mrs. Bruce Ference Mr. George B. Geary Thomas & Patricia Geddy Mrs. Lila-Gene George Mr. Jerry George Dr. & Mrs. Eric J. Haufrect Mr. & Mrs. W. R. Hayes General Stuart Haynsworth Ms. Mary E. Huffine Mr. Steve Hulsey Mr. & Mrs. Richard D. Kinder Mr. & Mrs. Eric Heggeseth William & Cynthia Koch

Dr. & Mrs. Daniel E. Lehane H. Fred & Velva G. Levine Mr. James F. Mailey & Ms. Sharon McMahon Mr. David M. McClanahan Mr. & Mrs. James M. Mercurio Julia & Chris Morton Ms. Peggy Overly & Mr. John Barlow The Petrello Family Foundation Tim & Katherine Pownell Mr. Stephen Pryor Michael & Vicky Richker Drs. Alex & Lynn Rosas Mr. & Mrs. Clive Runnells Mr. Manolo Sanchez Mr. Charles King Sanders Anne Taylor & Edward Harris Mrs. Carol J. VanBesien Ms. Helen R. Vierck Mr. David Ashley White Mr. & Mrs. Jeff Wray Mr. & Mrs. David J. Wuthrich Edith & Robert Zinn

Patron Anonymous (9) Dr. & Mrs. George Abo Mr. & Mrs. Edgar D. Ackerman Mrs. Harold J. Adam Mrs. Nancy C. Allen, President, Greentree Fund John & Pat Anderson Mr. & Mrs. John M. Arnsparger Dr. & Mrs. Jeffrey B. Aron Dr. & Mrs. Roy Aruffo Mr. Jeff Autor Edward & Joyce Backhaus Mr. & Mrs. John Bauer J. Craig Bourgeois Maurice & Karey Bresenhan Vera S. Brown Anne H. Bushman Mr. & Mrs. Roy L. Carlisle Dennis & Susan Carlyle Mr. & Mrs. W. T. Carter IV Dr. Robert N. Chanon Mr. & Mrs. Allen Clamen Ms. Sandra F. Clark Mr. & Mrs. James G. Coatsworth William E. Colburn Mr. Mark C. Conrad Dr. & Mrs. James D. Cox Mr. David A. Coyle Sylvia & Andre Crispin Mr. & Mrs. T. N. Crook Mr. & Mrs. Harry H. Cullen Jr. Mr. Carl Cunningham Mr. & Mrs. Louis F. Delone Michael & Debra Dishberger Norman Duncan Mr. & Mrs. David G. Edgar Mr. Roger Eichhorn Mr. William Elbel & Ms. Mary J. Schroeder Inci & Atilla Ertan Mr. Parrish N. Erwin Jr. Mr. & Mrs. J. Thomas Eubanks Mrs. Carolyn Grant Fay Mr. & Mrs. Bruce Ference Jerry E. & Nanette B. Finger Linda & Ronnie Finger Foundation Dr. & Mrs. Ronald Fisher Mr. & Mrs. Patrick M. Flynn Mr. Edwin C. Friedrichs & Ms. Darlene Clark Mr. John Gee Mr. & Mrs. Jerry George Mrs. Joan M. Giese Dr. & Mrs. Jack Gill Mr. & Mrs. Bert Golding Robert & Michele Goodmark Mr. & Mrs. Martyn Goosen Joyce Z. Greenberg Charles H. Gregory Dennis Griffith & Louise Richman Mr. & Mrs. H. B. Hackethorn

Mrs. Thalia Halen Ms. Margaret Hansen Mr. & Mrs. James Harithas W. Russell Harp & Maarit K. Savola-Harp Ms. Terry Hartline Mr. & Mrs. Phillip J. Hawk Dr. Ann R. B. Heald Mr. & Mrs. Eric Heggeseth Mr. & Mrs. George A. Helland Mr. & Mrs. David Hemenway Mark & Ragna Henrichs Dr. William L. & Lori K. High Mr. Tim Hogan Linda J. Holmberg & Gregg Hill Mrs. Rosann F. Hooks Evelyn Howell Ms. Debra W. Jackson Dr. & Mrs. Joseph Jankovic Deborah O. Jennings Mr. & Mrs. John F. Joity Mrs. Lawrence Kagan Mr. Benjamin Kamins & Ms. Janet Rarick Mr. & Mrs. Harvey Katz Sam & Cele Keeper Linda & Frank S. Kelley John Kelsey & Gaye Davis Mary Louise & Alberts Kister Mr. Willy Kuehn Mr. & Mrs. Kevin Lane Dr. and Mrs. Shane Lanys Mr. & Mrs. James Laperouse Mr. & Mrs. Robin Lease Golda K. Leonard Emily C. Leseman Mr. & Mrs. Sandy Levin Beverly & Bjorn Lindgren William W. Lindley Mr. & Mrs. H. Arthur Littell Mr. & Mrs. Dwight T. Lohkamp Robert & Gayle Longmire Mr. Alberto Lozano Mr. Stephen A. Lubanko Dr. & Mrs. Fred R. Lummis Jr. Mr. & Mrs. Bob Lunn Madison Benefits Group, Inc. Mr. Christopher Mancini Dr. John Marcellus Mr. & Mrs. James W. McCartney Joan & Mac McKerley Mr. & Mrs. Michael McGuire Odette & James McMurrey Mr. & Mrs. William B. McNamara Janet McQuaid Kenneth & Dorothy Miller Mr. & Mrs. Richard Mithoff Dr. Florence M. Monroe Dr. Eleanor D. Montague Ms. Marsha L. Montemayor Mr. & Mrs. Gerald Moynier Mr. & Mrs. Marvin Mueller Ewell E. Murphy Jr. Mary & Terry Murphree Edna Myer-Nelson Jonathan Nash Dr. D. Patricia Nelson Mr. Kevin Neumann Mr. & Mrs. Charles G. Nickson John & Leslie Niemand Dr. & Mrs. Thomas Oley Mr. & Mrs. Patrick Olfers Sue & Steve Olson Edward Oppenheimer Mr. Edward Oppenheimer Jr. Caroline Osteen Jane & Kenneth Owen Mr. & Mrs. Robert R. Page Mr. & Mrs. Raul Pavon Michael & Shirley Pearson Mr. & Mrs. James D. Penny Mr. James D. Pitcock Michael H. Price Clinton & Leigh Rappole Mr. & Mrs. Risher Randall Joan Read

July 2010 29

Donors continued......................................................................................................

Record Family Mr. & Mrs. Allyn Risley Ms. Janice Robertson Dr. & Mrs. Franklin Rose Mr. Charles K. Sanders Mary Louise & David Sanderson Harold H. Sandstead, M.D. Dr. & Mrs. Raymond Sawaya Mrs. Myrna Schaffer Mr. & Mrs. Lawrence Schanzmeyer Beth & Lee D. Schlanger Dr. & Mrs. H. Irving Schweppe Jr. Mr. & Mrs. Roy G. Shaw Jr. Mr. & Mrs. Richard Shell Mr. & Mrs. Laurence E. Simmons Dean & Kirk Snider Mr. & Mrs. Michael Stamatedes Dr. & Mrs. James H. Steele Mr. & Mrs. James R. Stevens Cassie B. Stinson Emily C. Sundt Earl & Terralyn Swift Mr. & Mrs. Albert S. Tabor Jr. Ms. Nina Tate Mr. Mark Taylor Mr. & Mrs. Van Teeters Jean & Doug Thomas Mr. & Mrs. Timothy J. Unger Stephen & Kristine Wallace JoAnn E. Welton Mr. & Mrs. Eden N. Wenig Mr. & Mrs. Robert E. Whitson Mr. Thomas Wilson Dr. & Mrs. Robert Yekovich Betsy I. Zimmer

Krajewski Club Centerstage Anonymous (1) Rita & Geoffrey Bayliss

Jim & Ellen Box Sara J. Devine Mr. & Mrs. James E. Dorsett Mr. & Mrs. Byron F. Dyer John & Joyce Eagle Carol & Larry Fradkin Mr. & Mrs. Julius Glickman Mr. & Mrs. Fred L. Gorman Mr. & Mrs. Jerry L. Hamaker Dr. & Mrs. Robert Healy Dr. Alice McPherson & Mr. Anthony A. Mierzwa Paul & Rita Morico Mr. & Mrs. Terry Murphree Robert J. Pilegge Mr. & Mrs. Allan Quiat Mr. & Mrs. W.E. Rasmussen Roman & Sally Reed Mr. & Mrs. Ben A. Reid Mr. George Rizzo Jr. Mr. & Mrs. William K. Robbins Jr. Mr. & Mrs. Ken N. Robertson Mrs. Annetta Rose Annetta & Soren Rose Linda & Jerry Rubenstein Mr. & Mrs. R. K. Schulze Vernon Servier Jr. Mr. & Mrs. Louis J. Snyder Ms. Jody Verwers Mr. & Mrs. William B. Welte III Mr. & Mrs. Denney Wright

Krajewski Club Headliners Anonymous (2) Mr. & Mrs. Robert Bray Mr. & Mrs. Jerry L. Hamaker Mr. & Mrs. George A. Helland Mr. & Mrs. Kevin Lane Mr. & Mrs. Michael L. Mason

Dr. & Mrs. Raghu Narayan Mr. & Mrs. James L. Phillips Mr. & Mrs. John T. Riordan Mr. & Mrs. Lawrence D. Wallace Mr. & Mrs. Russell R. Williams

In Kind Donors. ......

Alexander’s Fine Portrait Design Baker Botts Be Friends Bergner and Johnson Cognetic Mr. Carl R. Cunningham Darryl & Co. Deville Fine Jewelry DocuData Solutions Game Crazy/Hollywood Video Hilton Americas - Houston Houston Chronicle Jackson and Company JOHANNUS Organs of Texas Jim Benton of Houston LLC JR’s Bar and Grill KUHF 88.7 FM The Lancaster Hotel Limb Design Morton’s The Steakhouse Music & Arts Neiman Marcus New Leaf Publishing, Inc. PaperCity Pride Houston Pro/Sound Riazul Premium Tequila Saez & Zouk Saint Arnold’s Brewery Saks Fifth Avenue Shecky’s Media, Inc.

Silver Eagle Distributors Sky Bar Sonoma Wine Bar & Cafe Spec’s Wines, Spirits & Finer Foods Strip House Valobra Jewelry & Antiques Whole Foods Market

.......................

sDeceased

Legacy Society. ................................................... In Memoriam....................

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

Members of the Legacy Society enjoy a variety of benefits, including an annual musical event with a renowned guest artist. The Houston Symphony extends its deepest thanks to the members of the Society, and with their permission, is pleased to acknowledge them.

Anonymous (8) Mr. & Mrs. Thomas D. Barrow George & Betty Bashen Dr. & Mrs. Peter Benjamin Dorothy B. Black Ermy Borlenghi Bonfield Ronald C. Borschow Anneliese Bosseler Joe Brazzatti Zu Broadwater Terry Ann Brown Dr. Joan K. Bruchas & H. Philip Cowdin Eugene R. Bruns Sylvia J. Carroll William J. Clayton Leslie Barry Davidson Harrison R. T. Davis Mr. & Mrs. Jeremy Davis Jean & sJack Ellis Mrs. Robin A. Elverson The Aubrey and Sylvia Farb Family Ginny Garrett Michael B. George Stephen and Mariglyn Glenn Mr. & Mrs. Keith E. Gott Randolph Lee Groninger Gloria Herman Marilyn & Robert M. Hermance Dr. Gary L. Hollingsworth Dr. Edward J. & Mrs. Patti Hurwitz Kenneth Hyde Mr. Brian James Drs. Rita & Blair Justice Mr. John S. W. Kellett Ann Kennedy & Geoffrey Walker

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Dr. & Mrs. I. Ray Kirk Mr. & Mrs. Ulyesse LeGrange Mary R. Lewis E. W. Long Jr. Sandra Magers Mr. & Mrs. Jay Marks James Matthews Dr. and Mrs. Malcolm Mazow Mr. & Mrs. Gene McDavid Charles E. McKerley Mr. & Mrs. Alexander K. McLanahan Miss Catherine Jane Merchant Dr. & Mrs. Robert M. Mihalo Ron Mikita Katherine Taylor Mize Ione Moran Sidney Moran Sue A. Morrison and Children Mr. & Mrs. Richard P. Moynihan Gretchen Anne Myers Tassie Nicandros David G. Nussmann Edward C. Osterberg Jr. Joan D. Osterweil Imogen “Immy” Papadopoulos Sara M. Peterson Mr. Howard Pieper Geraldine S. Priest Daniel F. Prosser Gloria & Joe Pryzant Drs. Alex & Lynn Rosas Walter M. Ross Mr. & Mrs. Michael B. Sandeen Charles K. Sanders Charles King Sanders

Donna Scott Mr. & Mrs. Charles T. Seay II Mr. & Mrs. James A. Shaffer Dr. & Mrs. Kazuo Shimada Jule & Albert Smith Mr. & Mrs. Louis J. Snyder Mike and sAnita Stude Mr. & Mrs. David K. Terry Stephen G. Tipps Mr. & Mrs. Jesse B. Tutor Dr. Carlos Vallbona and Children Margaret Waisman, M.D. & Steven S. Callahan, Ph.D. David M. Wax & Elaine Arden Cali Robert Weiner Geoffrey Westergaard Jennifer R. Wittman Mr. & Mrs. Bruce E. Woods Mr. & Mrs. David Wuthrich As of June 11, 2010

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

W. P. Beard Mrs. H. Raymond Brannon Anthony Brigandi Lawrence E. Carlton, M.D. Lee Allen Clark Jack Ellis Frank R. Eyler Helen Bess Fariss Foster Christine E. George General and Mrs. Maurice Hirsch Miss Ima Hogg Burke & Octavia Holman Mrs. L. F. McCollum Joan B. McKerley Monroe L. Mendelsohn Jr. Mrs. Janet Moynihan Constantine S. Nicandros Hanni Orton Stewart Orton, Legacy Society co-founder Dr. Michael Papadopoulos Miss Louise Pearl Perkins Walter W. Sapp, Legacy Society co-founder J. Fred & Alma Laws Lunsford Schultz John K. & Fanny W. Stone Dorothy Barton Thomas Mrs. Harry C. Wiess Mrs. Edward Wilkerson

For more information on creating a legacy for the benefit of the Symphony, please contact the Planned Giving Office at (713) 337-8524 or email plannedgiving@houstonsymphony.org.

My Houston, My Symphony: Campaign for a Sound Future. .......................

Artistic excellence, strong leadership, robust ticket sales and growing philanthropic support are vital, but they alone cannot guarantee the Houston Symphony’s future. To do so, its endowment must be increased. My Houston, My Symphony: Campaign for a Sound Future has two major goals: add $60 million to the Symphony’s endowment and raise $15 million in working capital. We are proud to recognize those who have already made commitments to this campaign and invite others to join them as we build an artistically and financially sound Houston Symphony.

Campaign Cabinet

Members

George Mitchell, Honorary Chair M. S. Stude, Chair Gene Dewhurst, Vice Chair Jesse B. Tutor, Vice Chair Mike McLanahan, Vice Chair Ulyesse J. LeGrange, Vice Chair

Jan Barrow Daniel Dror Rochelle Levit Rodney H. Margolis Jay Marks J. Stephen Marks

Houston Symphony Endowment Harry J. Phillips Jr. Robert B. Tudor III Wallace S. Wilson

President

Ulyesse J. LeGrange

Trustees

Prentiss Burt Janet Clark J. Cole Dawson III Gene Dewhurst Jesse B. Tutor

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Mr. & Mrs. Jay Marks * Mr. & Mrs. Alexander K. McLanahan * Foundations......................

Mrs. Sue A. Morrison and Children Mr. & Mrs. Lucian L. Morrison Jr. $10,000,000 The Brown Foundation, Inc. * $1,000,000 - $4,999,999 Anonymous The Cullen Trust for the Performing Arts * Houston Endowment Inc. Spec’s Charitable Foundation The Wortham Foundation, Inc. $500,000 - $999,999 The Fondren Foundation $100,000 - $499,999 M. D. Anderson Foundation The Cullen Foundation The Margaret and James A. Elkins, Jr. Foundation The William Randolph Hearst Foundation Albert & Ethel Herzstein Charitable Foundation Mach Family Fund The Marks Charitable Foundation $25,000 - $99,999 Dror Charitable Foundation The Kayser Foundation The Nightingale Code Foundation

Corporations. ................... $100,000 - $250,000 Baker Botts L.L.P. Chevron ConocoPhillips Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P. Marathon Oil Company Foundation $50,000 - $99,000 Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell LLP $25,000 - $49,999 Amegy Bank of Texas Goldman Sachs $10,000 - $24,999 Sterling Bank

Individuals.......................

Founder Anonymous Grand Guarantor Mr. & Mrs. Philip A. Bahr * Mr. & Mrs. Thomas D. Barrow * The Honorable David H. Dewhurst Barbara & Patrick McCelvey Phoebe and Bobby Tudor Guarantor Estate of Lawrence E. Carlton, M.D. Mr. & Mrs. Marvin Kaplan Mr. & Mrs. Rodney H. Margolis

Estate of Mr. Walter W. Sapp * Mr. & Mrs. Michael E. Shannon Mr. & Mrs. Jesse B. Tutor * Major Benefactor Dr. & Mrs. Alexander Dell Levit Family/Grocers Supply Dr. & Mrs. Michael Mann

Benefactor Anonymous * Linda & Gene Dewhurst Mrs. Robin A. Elverson Mr. & Mrs. Marvy A. Finger Houston Symphony Chorus Drs. Blair & Rita Justice Dr. Marie-Luise & Dr. M. S. Kalsi * Mr. & Mrs. James A. Shaffer Mr. & Mrs. Stephen G. Tipps * Major Sponsor Anonymous Mr. & Mrs. David J. Beck Mrs. Ruth White Brodsky Mr. & Mrs. John T. Cater Mr. Michael H. Clark & Ms. Sallie Morian * Mr. Martin J. Fein & Dr. Kelli Cohen Fein in memory of Jean Viney Mr. & Mrs. Russell M. Frankel Stephen & Mariglyn Glenn Dr. Gary L. Hollingsworth Ms. Martha Kleymeyer Mr. & Mrs. Gene McDavid Mr. & Mrs. Michael D. Moore * Mr. & Mrs. Scott S. Nyquist Kathy & Harry Phillips Fund Gloria & Joe Pryzant Mr. & Mrs. J. Hugh Roff Jr. Ms. Charlotte A. Rothwell Mr. & Mrs. Paul N. Schwartz Ms. Ann Trammell Mr. & Mrs. Steven J. Williams Mr. & Mrs. Ed Wulfe Sponsor Anonymous (2) Mr. Clayton Baird Mr. & Mrs. Gary Beauchamp * Mrs. Ermy Borlenghi Bonfield Dr. & Mrs. Gary Brock Ms. Catherine Campbell-Brock Ms. Janet F. Clark Mr. & Mrs. Jeffrey B. Early Mr. & Mrs. Craig A. Fox * Mr. Frank T. Garcia & Dr. Elizabeth M. Spankus Mr. & Mrs. Robert M. Hermance Mr. Jack Holmes * Dr. & Mrs. I. Ray Kirk Mr. & Mrs. Ulyesse J. LeGrange Dr. & Mrs. Daniel E. Lehane Mr & Mrs. Harry Mach Ms. Judi McGee

Mr. & Mrs. Arthur Newman Mr. & Dr. Edward C. Osterberg Jr. Nancy & Bob Peiser Mr. & Mrs. Joseph P. Quoyeser Mr. & Mrs. Albert J. Smith Jr. Mr. & Mrs. Fredric A. Weber *

Major Patron Mr. Thomas Becker & Mr. Jim Rosenfeld * Mr. Gordon B. Bonfield Mr. Anthony Brigandi Ms. Terry Ann Brown Mr. & Mrs. John R. Dennis III Mr. & Mrs. Osborne J. Dykes III Mr. & Mrs. Frank J. Hevrdejs Mr. & Mrs. Frank G. Jones Mr. E. W. Long Jr. The MacDonald-Peterson Foundation Inc. Mr. & Mrs. Tommy O. Mann Mr. & Mrs. C. W. Merchant Mr. & Mrs. James M. Mercurio * Mr. & Mrs. Kirk B. Michael Mrs. Hanni Orton * Mr. & Mrs. J. Dale Ramsey Mr. & Mrs. William J. Rovere Jr. Dr. Margaret Waisman & Dr. Steven S. Callahan Vicki & Paul S. West Mr. & Mrs. Melvyn Wolff Mr. David Zerhusen & Mrs. Kathy Schoff Patron Mr. & Mrs. Willie J. Alexander Mr. & Mrs. Marty Ambrose Ms. Martha Z. Carnes Dr. Scott Cutler Mrs. Benjamin Danziger Ms. Leslie B. Davidson & Mr. W. Robins Brice Paul & Vickie Davis Mr. & Mrs. Patrick M. Dreckman The Estate of Emma Sue B. Frank Dr. Susan E. Gardner & Dr. Philip D. Scott Robert Lee Gomez Mr. Robert Grant Mr. & Mrs. Anthony W. Hall Jr. Susan & Dick Hansen Mr. & Mrs. Robert S. Harrell Mr. & Mrs. Fraser A. McAlpine Mr. & Mrs. John S. Orton Mr. & Mrs. P. C. Peropoulos Mrs. Helen Rosenbaum * Joseph & Holly Rubbo Susan Scarrow Estate of Dorothy Barton Thomas Mr. David Ashley White Mr. & Mrs. David J. Wuthrich * Donor to endowment and working capital Listing as of August 31, 2009

July 2010 31

Backstage Pass. .................................................................................................

David Peck, clarinet

Brinton Averil Smith, cello

Birthplace: Ventura, California

Birthplace: Royal Oak, MI (a suburb of Detroit)

Education: University of Southern California; BM, BA in clarinet performance and music composition

Education: The Juilliard School: DMA, MM; USC: MA (math, age 19); Arizona State: BA (math, age 17)

Joined the Houston Symphony: I joined the Houston Symphony in 1975 as associate principal clarinetist, became principal clarinetist at the San Diego Symphony in late 1985, and returned to Houston as principal clarinetist in 1991.

Joined the Houston Symphony: 2005 Looking forward to in the 2010-11 Season: Gil Shaham’s Walton concerto, Wagner’s “Ring” Without Words and our special Kaddish concert commemorating the heroic journey of Holocaust survivors, including those still living in Houston.

Earliest musical memory: When I was just a few weeks old my mother (a pianist) was rehearsing with the principal cellist of the Detroit Symphony; they discovered that I would keep sleeping as long as they kept playing, but when they stopped, I immediately woke up. It must have imprinted on me!

Beginnings: I was 9 years old when I started the clarinet in the fourth grade. A friend showed me his clarinet and I pestered my mother until she got me one.

Earliest musical memory: My father was a classical music and opera lover. He played recordings on our hi-fi and I was soon hooked. When I was very young, we listened to only classical music. I was at least 10 or 11 before I started listening to popular music.

All in the family: My older sister was at one time a very fine amateur pianist and my father had a fairly decent baritone voice. His claim to fame (of sorts) was that he had a couple of voice lessons with Lawrence Tibbet in exchange for washing the windows at his Hollywood home.

Best thing about being a musician: The aural beauty and excitement of performing great music. There’s nothing quite like it.

Favorite performance piece: Ideally, the one I’m currently performing!

It’s really hard to say – there are so many great works.

Current listening: Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9 – a recording with a reconstructed fourth movement.

Finding the perfect instrument: I don’t have a perfect instrument. I have a very good instrument that I acquired the way most woodwind players do. You find something you think you might like and learn to play on it.

Pastime and good company: I enjoy reading, cooking, gardening, traveling and swimming when I can.

Discovering my vocation: I wanted to be a cellist from the outset. My parents, noting that I seemed to be spectacularly uncoordinated, suggested I get a “real” degree first… “just in case!” Because I started college early, I was able to complete a math degree at 17 and even went through the master’s program in math before finally running off to join the “circus!”

Alternate reality: Most likely something in the sciences; probably astrophysics, though I’m not sure if I would have had the wits to succeed – those people are seriously smart!

Musical inspiration: Almost all the great composers are inspirational. They are some of the greatest artistic minds in human history.

For performers, I love the old-school; players like Heifetz, Feuermann, Rachmaninoff and Toscanini represent the pinnacle of our art to me.

Keeping the music fresh: What really keeps it interesting is always trying to learn more and to improve. You will find musicians even in their 60s and 70s who still feel they are just discovering new techniques and better interpretations, and the journey is inspiring.

Biggest challenge: One of the hardest things about string instruments is that they are constantly changing. The wood is still alive in a sense and every day it reacts differently to your playing, to the weather, etc, so you always have to adjust.

Pastime and good company: I teach at Rice University and perform often with my wife, pianist Evelyn Chen, and we’ve founded the Restoration Chamber Music series in Galveston. Beyond that we are kept fairly busy chasing our 8-year-old daughter and two dogs!

32 www.houstonsymphony.org