Photo: Yoav Etiel
TABLE of CONTENTS
Letter from the Director | A-2
Israeli Chamber Project with Hila Baggio, Soprano | A-3
Mark O’Connor’s An Appalachian Christmas
Featuring Maggie O’Connor | A-10
VOCES8 | A-14
Your Guide to Meany Center | A-18
Thanks to Our Donors | A-19
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo | January 23–25
Kodō | January 31–February 1
Conrad Tao & Caleb Teicher | February 14
Amjad Ali Khan & Son s | February 21
Isidore String Quartet | February 25
Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE | February 27–March 1
Jeremy Denk | March 18
Silkroad Ensemble: Uplifted Voices | March 28
Alonzo King LINES Ballet | April 3–5
Lara Downes | April 8
Taj Mahal & Leyla McCalla | April 12
Third Coast Percussion & Jessie Montgomery | May 3
Complexions Contemporary Ballet | May 8–10
Jonathan Biss | May 13
Hamid Rahmanian’s Song of the North | May 17
We acknowledge that Meany Center is on unceded and traditional land of the Coast Salish, including the Duwamish People, the first pe ople of Seattle. We honor with gratitude the land itself and those who have cared for it, past and present. Meany Center is committed to better understanding our relationship with this land and to building authentic relationships with the first people of this region.
Welcome to our festive December lineup! As we embrace the holiday season, we’re thrilled to present a diverse array of performances that promise to warm your hearts and inspire your spirits.
First, we welcome back the Israeli Chamber Project for a special celebration of Arnold Schoenberg’s 150th birthday. Their semistaged production of the groundbreaking expressionist cabaret, Pierrot Lunaire, featuring soprano Hila Baggio as the sad clown, promises to be captivating.
Mark your calendars for December 13 when Mark and Maggie O’Connor return with their beloved An Appalachian Christmas. This heartwarming show blends bluegrass and Americana music, creating a holiday atmosphere that has become a cherished tradition for many.
We’re excited to present the Seattle premiere of VOCES8’s Winter Tales on
John Robinson, President
Kyra Hokanson Gray, Vice President
Sashi Raghupathy, Vice President
Robert Babs, Treasurer
Manisha Advani
Melinda Bitners
Sara Bowen
Darlene Cheatham
Margie Chen
Luis Fernando Esteban Hsiao-Wuen Hon
Cathy Hughes
Yumi Iwasaki
Susan Joslyn
Megan Kennedy
Sally Kincaid
Olivia Lee
Jeff Lehman
December 17. This world-renowned British vocal ensemble will transport you with their celestial harmonies and innovative arrangements of seasonal favorites.
These performances embody our commitment to bringing you exceptional artistry from around the globe. Whether you’re seeking reflection, celebration or pure musical joy, we have something special for you this holiday season.
Thank you for being part of our Meany Center family. Enjoy!
Warmly,
Michelle Witt Executive & Artistic Director
Kambiz Parcham-Azad
Cecilia Paul
Jack Percival
Tina Ragen
Donald Rupchock
Marcie Stone
Scott VanGerpen
Gregory Wallace
Christy Weckner
EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS
Ana Mari Cauce
UW President
Dianne Harris
Dean, College of Arts & Sciences
Gabriel Solis
Divisional Dean of the Arts
EMERITUS BOARD
Matt Krashan
Emeritus Artistic Director
Linda Linford Allen
Cynthia Bayley
Thomas Bayley
Cathryn Booth-LaForce
J.C. Cannon
Elizabeth Cooper
Gail Erickson
Brian Grant
Randy Kerr
Susan Knox
Kurt Kolb
Sheila Edwards Lange
Frank Lau
Craig Miller
Dick Roth
Eric Rothchild
Jeff Seely
K. Freya Skarin
Rich Stillman
Dave Stone
Donald Swisher
Lee Talner
Thomas Taylor
David Vaskevitch
Ellen Wallach
Kathleen Wright
IN MEMORIAM
Ellsworth C. “Buster” Alvord
Linda Armstrong
Betty Balcom
Ross Boozikee
Ruth Gerberding
Ernest Henley
Mina Person
Lois Rathvon
Jerry Sanford, Sr.
December 3 | 7:30 p.m.
Hila Baggio, soprano
Guy Eshed, flute
Tibi Cziger, clarinet
Daniel Bard, violin/viola
Sivan Magen, harp
Michal Korman, cello
Assaff Weisman, piano
Shirit Lee Weiss, director
Maya Meidar Moran, costume
Itai Perelman Nasich, lighting
MAURICE RAVEL La Valse (1875–1937) (arr. Yuval Shapiro)
IGOR STRAVINSKY Scenes from Petrushka (1882–1971) (arr. Yuval Shapiro)
The Shrovetide Fair
Scene and Danse Russe
Petrushka’s Room
The Blackamoor
The Shrovetide Fair
INTERMISSION
ARNOLD Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21 SCHOENBERG (1874–1951)
CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES generously underwritten by Cecilia Paul & Harry Reinert and Eric & Margaret Rothchild
SEASON SUPPORT COMES FROM
SIGNATURE SUPPORT
Robert Craft Igor Stravinsky Foundation
ADDITIONAL SUPPORT COMES FROM
Warren & Anne Anderson
Stephen & Sylvia Burges
Katharyn Alvord Gerlich
Daniela & Torsten Grabs
Lynn & Brian Grant Family
Matthew & Christina Krashan
Gary L. Menges
John C. Robinson & Maya Sonenberg
Donald & Toni Rupchock
Craig Sheppard & Gregory Wallace
David & Marcie Stone
Donald & Gloria Swisher
Anonymous
Now in its second decade, the Israeli Chamber Project is a dynamic ensemble comprising strings, winds, harp and piano, that brings together some of today’s most distinguished musicians for chamber music concerts and educational and outreach programs both in Israel and abroad. It was named the winner of the 2011 Israeli Ministry of Culture Outstanding Ensemble Award and the 2017 Partos Prize in recognition of its passionate musicianship, creative programming and commitment to educational outreach.
Based both in Israel and in New York, the ensemble was created as a means for its members to give something back to the community where they began their musical education and to showcase Israeli culture, through its music and musicians to concert goers overseas. Among its members are prize-winners at the Tchaikovsky International Competition in Russia, the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, Avery
The Israeli Chamber Project’s tours have garnered rave reviews and established the ensemble as a major artistic force on both sides of the Atlantic. These tours include appearances on some of the premier chamber music series, whether in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, New York or Beijing, as well as in remote towns where access to live chamber music is extremely rare. Guest artists on ICP tours have included the Guarneri String Quartet’s Michael Tree and Peter Wiley, the Cleveland Orchestra’s Principal Flutist Joshua Smith, as well as international soloists Antje Weithaas, Liza Ferschtman and Marina Piccinini.
A strong advocate for music education, the ICP has partnered with several conservatories and educational institutions in order to offer lessons and masterclasses to students of all cultural and economic
backgrounds, many of whom have little or no opportunity to work with internationally recognized musicians.
An important part of the Israeli Chamber Project’s mission is to expand the chamber music literature by commissioning both new works as well as new arrangements of existing works. Original commissions have included works by Lowell Liebermann, Matan Porat, Jonathan Keren, Gilad Cohen, Yohanan Chendler, Amit Gilutz and Zohar Sharon. New arrangements of works by Debussy, Ravel, Barber, Stravinsky, Schumann and Bernstein created by Yuval Shapiro, Jonathan Keren and Sivan Magen have become a cornerstone of the ensemble’s programming.
The Israeli Chamber Project has appeared at venues including London’s Wigmore Hall, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Morgan Library & Museum, Town Hall and Merkin Concert Hall in New York City,
Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, Herbst Theatre in San Francisco, The Clark Memorial Library at UCLA, Ottawa’s Chamberfest, on tour in China and Hong Kong, and has been featured on NPR’s Performance Today and WQXR’s Young Artist Showcase.
With her crystal clear graceful soprano voice, Hila Baggio is one of the most successful and critically acclaimed Israeli sopranos. Among her engagements for 2024–25 are the role of “Das Ungeborene” in “Alma,” a new opera by Ella Miller Sheriff at Volksoper Vienna, concerts with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and Manfred Honeck, a concert of music by Maria Herz in ‘Shalom’ Festival Cologne, Cabaret Concert with Israel Sinfonietta Beer-Sheva and more.
In the 2023-2024 season she sang Betty Olivero’s Many Waters with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in Berlin Philharmonie and Konzerthaus Dortmund, Mozart Requiem in Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Beethoven Symphony No.9 with the Wiener Symphoniker on a tour to Taiwan, Pergolesi Stabat Mater with Israel Camerata Orchestra and Festival Liturgical in Nazareth, a concert with Jerusalem Quartet in Theater St.Gallen, Ligeti’s Mysteries of the Macabre and Schönberg’s Brettl-Lieder with Orchestre de Chambre du Luxembourg.
At the Israeli Opera, she sang the roles of Lucia (Lucia di Lammermoor), Juliette (Roméo et Juliette), Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro), Gilda (Rigoletto), Oscar (Un Ballo in Maschera), Musetta (La Bohéme), Tytania (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Micaëla (Carmen), Norina (Don Pasquale), Adina (L’elisir d’amore), Marie (La Fille du Régiment), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Euridice (Orfeo ed Euridice), Rosina (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Despina (Cosi fan Tutte), Olympia (Les Contes d’Hoffmann), Frasquita (Carmen), Papagena (Die Zauberflöte), and Parteonis (La Belle Hélène). She
has sung Musetta (La Boheme) at Semperoper Dresden with Maestra Speranza Scappucci, Oscar (Un Ballo in Maschera) at Opera National de Lorraine in Nancy, Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg, Angers-Nantes Opéra and Opéra de Rennes in France, Giulia (La Scala di Seta) at The Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, Olympia (Hoffmanns Erzählungen) at the Landestheater Mecklenburg. Hila has performed under the baton of distinguished conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Frédéric Chaslin, Daniele Callegari, Rani Calderon, Dan Ettinger, Asher Fisch, Michele Gamba, Alexander Joel, Zubin Mehta, Corrina Niemeyer, Daniel Oren, Pascal Rophé, Speranza Scappucci, Lahav Shani, Omer Meir Wellber and others.
Hila shares her experience and knowledge of singing technique and performing with young singers. She is teaching privately and was invited to give masterclasses for institutions such as Conservatoire de la Ville de Luxembourg, program for outstanding singers in Jerusalem Music Center and Jerusalem Academy of Music.
Hila was a member of The Israeli Opera Studio. Her extensive career has gained her many prizes including second prize in the operetta category at the International Hans Gabor Belvedere Competition in Vienna, Israeli Minister of Culture Award, Rosenblum Prize for the performing arts, Silverman Prize, Grabov Award, Basser Award and America-Israel Cultural Foundation.
La Valse (1920) MAURICE RAVEL
In 1906, Ravel wrote to a friend that he was contemplating a musical homage to Johann Strauss, a waltzing symphonic poem to be called Wien (Vienna). “You know my affinity for those wonderful rhythms,” he said, “and that I value the joie de vivre
expressed by the dance.” By 1914, he had created a sketch for the work, but World War I and failing health intervened; he did not work on it again until after the war. La Valse developed from a piano piece to an expanded score for two pianos, and finally, into a colorful orchestral score.
In the winter of 1919–20, Ravel converted the initial sketch into La Valse, a “choreographic poem.” Before the World War made it inappropriate for him to write music solely in honor of an Austrian composer, he described the work-in-progress as “a kind of apotheosis of the Viennese waltz. Through whirling clouds, glimpses of waltzing couples are faintly seen. The clouds gradually scatter. An immense hall becomes visible, peopled with a circling crowd. The scene is gradually illuminated. The light bursts forth from the chandeliers. As the score evolved, Ravel began to think of it as a choreographic work in which the main character would dance herself to death.
La Valse builds to a large crescendo, developing from the motives heard quietly rumbling at the beginning. First, in the form typical of the Viennese waltz, Ravel introduces several themes, each based on a different melody. In the work’s center, the themes return in fragments, no longer retaining the rhythmic flow of the waltz. The music becomes transformed harshly, as demonic dissonance is interjected. Rhythms become irregular as tension mounts; the waltz is forever broken apart as a five-note motive dominates and carries this forceful, disturbing work to its end. Overall, the effect Ravel produces is the sense of motion at once erotic, delirious and somehow fantastic, surreal yet uncannily remote.
Serge Diaghilev, the director of the original Ballets Russes, for whom Ravel had written Daphnis et Chloé, was interested in La Valse for a ballet, but when he heard the composer and a friend play through it at two pianos,
he said it was a “masterpiece. . . but not a ballet” and thought it would not be effective as dance. Ravel became furious, picked up his music and left the room; the rift between the two became so deep they never spoke or collaborated again. History has, of course, proved the inimitable Diaghilev wrong, for Nijinska, Fokine and Balanchine all successfully choreographed La Valse.
Alexandre Benois, the designer, collaborated with Stravinsky on a new scenario and Michel Fokine, who had devised the dances for The Firebird, choreographed the score. Petrushka had its world premiere performed by Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris on June l3, 1911, with scenery and costumes by Benois. Vaslav Nijinsky performed the title role, and Tamar Karsavina was the Ballerina. Pierre Monteux conducted this enormously successful production. Petrushka was praised as a theatrical triumph for its set, its costume design, dancing, acting, storytelling and its brilliant music. At its center is the tale of a love triangle and a human soul suffering a tragic end, perhaps even with a moment of vengeance. Petrushka’s popularity has continued unabated.
In 1910, Igor Stravinsky defined his germ of an idea for a piece for piano and orchestra that was to be transmuted into his conception for the ballet collaboration for Petrushka: “Before tackling The Rite of Spring, which I knew would be a long and difficult task, I wanted to refresh myself by composing an orchestral piece in which the piano would play the most important part — a kind of Konzertstück. In composing the music, I had in my mind a distinct picture of a puppet, suddenly endowed with life, exasperating the patience of the orchestra with diabolical cascades of arpeggios. The orchestra, in turn,
retaliates with menacing trumpet blasts. The outcome is a terrific noise that reaches its climax and ends in the sorrowful and querulous collapse of the poor puppet. I struggled for hours … to find a title that would express in a word the character of my music…
“One day I leapt for joy. I had indeed found my title — Petrushka, the immortal and unhappy hero of every fair in all countries. Diaghilev was much astonished when, instead of sketches of The Rite, I played him the piece I had just composed, which later became the second scene of Petrushka. He was so pleased with it that he. . .began persuading me to develop the theme of the puppet’s sufferings and make it into a ballet.” While the original concert pieces for piano and orchestra did become the music for the second scene of the ballet, the rest, Stravinsky composed afresh.
Stravinsky’s music on its own constitutes a vivid musical narrative. The rich, brilliant score incorporates several Russian folk songs, two melodies by the 19th century Viennese waltz composer Joseph Lanner, and even a barrel-organ version of a French music hall ditty that Stravinsky thought to be a folk song. Petrushka is a “burlesque,” a comic Russian counterpart of the old commedia dell arte and of the familiar Punchand-Judy show. The ballet characters featuring Petrushka, the Blackamoor, the Ballerina and Pierrot, function as a parallel to the traditional tragic hero as well as Harlequin, his cynical and successful rival, and Columbine, the flirtatious object of their affections.
The first tableau or scene, the vibrant Shrovetide Fair, set in Admiralty Square in St. Petersburg around 1830 during carnival, is musically depicted as a lively occasion replete with crowds and hawkers, even an organ grinder, a music box and a dancer. A cruel, old magician exhibits his three puppets, Petrushka, the Blackamoor and the ballerina, whom he has magically
endowed with human feelings and has charmed to life with the sound of the flute. Petrushka, the ballerina, and the Moor take part in a wild Russian dance, Danse Russe.
In the second tableau, Petrushka’s Room, the setting shifts to the fantasy world of the puppets, who are sentient creatures whom the magician has given feelings. Petrushka is the most sensitive of them, but he is ugly. He is kicked into his spare room, where he is a prisoner, a puppet with a human soul. Two clarinets play an arpeggio that expresses his rage and hopelessness; it has become known as the “Petrushka chord,” a tritone, (three whole tones or six semitones, nicknamed The Devil’s interval, because of its dissonant sound.)
Composers studiously avoided the tritone for centuries. Stravinsky’s use of it was considered very modern and innovative in the early 20th century. Petrushka curses and tries to escape. When he makes advances to the beautiful Ballerina, she turns away toward the gaudily attired Blackamoor. In despair, Petrushka hurls himself at a portrait of the Magician, but only falls through a hole in the wall.
The third tableau, the Blackamoor, takes place in the Blackamoor’s resplendent room. He performs a dance, and the Ballerina enters playing a trumpet. She finds the Blackamoor romantic; he feels drawn to her, too. Consumed with jealousy, Petrushka bursts into the room to the sound of the muted trumpets’ loud noise, but the Blackamoor drives him out. Petrushka enters and sees the tryst but is chased away by the jealous, menacing Blackamoor.
In the fourth tableau the scene is again outside at the Shrovetide Fair The merrymaking at the fair reaches its peak with a trained bear, a group of coachmen, grooms and nursemaids performing a variety of dances. Suddenly, Petrushka emerges from his little room pursued by the jealous
Blackamoor, who strikes him dead with a single blow of his scimitar to the sound of a tambourine being dropped. The magician reassures everyone that it is only a puppet show and that the characters are not real, but reality and fantasy have fused. As the magician packs up and the crowd leaves, Petrushka’s ghost is visible above the theatre leering at the magician who, terrified, flees into the darkness.
This legendary orchestral score has been arranged by Yuval Shapiro for a chamber ensemble consisting of flute, clarinet, violin, viola, cello, harp and piano, allowing Stravinsky’s legendary composition to retain its vitality and dramatic power with only seven performers.
Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21 (1912) ARNOLD SCHOENBERG
Arnold Schoenberg was a crucial creative figure in the history of music, a rare inventor who singlehandedly changed the course of 20th century music. After Mahler, Debussy and Strauss, Schoenberg, of the next generation, saw the need for a new grammar of musical expression. He gathered about him disciples whose highly varied works proved its flexibility and breadth. Schoenberg’s compositions are few in number considering the length of his career; he composed only an average of about one work per year over more than 50 years, but the weight of his influence can hardly be measured. Schoenberg’s mature work expanded the bounds of conventional tonality. Between 1908 when he officially abandoned tonality until around 1920, all of his music was completely atonal; after 1920, he devised his famous twelve-tone technique. Pierrot Lunaire was composed a decade before he developed his twelve-tone method.
Pierrot Lunaire, which can be translated as “Moonstruck Pierrot” or “Pierrot in the Moonlight,” appeared in 1912. “I believe I am approaching a new way
of expression,” wrote Schoenberg in his diary on March 12, 1912. After a period of hesitation, he had found his way in composing Pierrot Lunaire. The rest of the score would rapidly follow in an onrush of inspiration; its composition was later to be identified as a crucial moment in modernism. Apart from its familiar place in music history, however, Pierrot Lunaire remains an inexhaustibly fascinating creation: visionary and experimental, yet somehow timeless. It has been labeled as expressionist: dominated by dissonance and often creates an unsettled feeling among its listeners. For many, expressionistic music was synonymous with a rejection of the past and an acceptance of the innovative, uncharted territory of the future.
The soprano, Albertine Zehme, introduced Schoenberg to a cycle of French poems written in 1884 by the Belgian Symbolist Albert Giraud. Schoenberg selected 21 of the 50 poems to set. Giraud’s poetry inspired some of Schoenberg’s most colorful and inventive music. In 1912, Schoenberg worked with intensity and speed, completing the work in a period of less than four months; notably, he composed many of the movements in a single day. Pierrot Lunaire premiered in Berlin on October 16, 1912, after an extraordinary 40 rehearsals. Zehme, who commissioned the work, wore an androgynous Pierrot/Columbine costume for the premiere. Schoenberg conducted the ensemble from behind a screen. Initial reaction to Pierrot was mixed. The work was groundbreaking and highly influential: Stravinsky, Ravel, Puccini, Strauss and Gershwin were among the composers who attended its premiere performances and decided to incorporate many of the music’s ideas in their own works.
Zehme introduced Schoenberg’s new technique “Sprechstimme,” literally “speech-singing,” a technique somewhere between speaking and singing that revolutionized
declamation and appeared for the first time in Pierrot. The composer notated the sung pitches, but the notes were marked with a sign indicating they should not to be sustained at all as in regular singing; rather, the voice articulates the note then slides in a speech-like manner up or down to the next note. The effect is eerie and yet captivating. It complements Schoenberg’s intention for the piece to be ironic, both tender and grotesque, in the manner of cabaret songs.
Pierrot Lunaire addresses themes of alienation and uncertainty and explores the subconscious mind. It contains many contradictions: it is a work with elements of both classical music and cabaret; it is very involved with numbers, numerology and order, but at the same time, when it was new, it shocked listeners with the innovative freedoms it took. Contrasts and ambiguity are its signature qualities; Even though Giraud’s poems contain
the moonlit dreams of characters from the commedia dell’arte, the themes he explores are dark and serious, touching on violence, death and sacrilege. Today, more than a century after its composition, Schoenberg’s Pierrot retains both its impact and its strangeness, but they do not keep it from creating a powerful mood. The music’s dissonance and what was understood as the blasphemy of some of the poems were both highly controversial during the early performances. Pierrot Lunaire is considered one of the seminal works of musical modernism, yet acknowledged as one that is still both challenging and gripping.
Pierrot is a stock character from Italian commedia dell’arte; he is a lovesick clown, pining for Columbine as well as trusting, foolish, naïve, and sad. The cycle contains a dream sequence, and like any dream, there are always things in it which do not make sense.
The brief poems which Schoenberg sets reflect many contradictions. The female vocalist sometimes acts as the male Pierrot, sometimes not. Pierrot is sometimes a hero, sometimes merely a fool. Desire contrasts with cruelty, pleasure with pain, ecstasy with tragedy.
Arranged as three groups with seven poems in each, the three parts of Pierrot Lunaire have different emphases. In the first group, Pierrot sings of love, sex and religion. The work opens with Mondestrunken (“Drunk with Moonlight”) in which Pierrot becomes drunk because of the moon’s influence, causing him to fantasize not only about love and sex, but also about religion. The first song is based on a seven-note pattern (G sharp, E, C, D, B flat, C sharp and G) heard at the beginning, which comes to stand for Pierrot repeatedly throughout the work, helping to unify the cycle. Not coincidentally, the name Pierrot also has seven letters.
The second song, Colombine, in the form of a waltz, introduces Pierrot’s love interest in commedia dell’arte. In the song, the metaphor of moonlight merges with that of a flower’s buds, its blooming, and its need to be plucked. The third song, Der Dandy (“The Dandy”) features piccolo, clarinet, and piano. In the poem, the clown ponders the colors he will use to paint his face. In the fourth song, Eine blasse Wäscherin (“A Pallid Washerwoman”) Schoenberg makes us see the girl’s white arms, her silk clothes, and the moonlight shining onto them as the imagery takes on a sexual tone, with all the images blurring in the poet’s mind. The fifth song, Valse de Chopin (“Chopin Waltz”) is a waltz in 3/4 time, but there is little of Chopin here. The text speaks of music infused with a deathly charm like a drop of blood on the lip of a consumptive. The fifth song leads directly into the sixth, Madonna, which contains religious imagery: Mary bleeds in sorrow when she sees the crucified Jesus. The first part ends
by focusing on the cause of Pierrot’s drunkenness: the moon. The striking seventh song, Der kranke Mond (“The Sick Moon”) features the flute. The moon is sickly and pale, yet her light still affects men, exciting them to love.
The second group of seven songs has Pierrot going deeper into his fantasy world of nightmarish visions, of sacrilege and madness; the main subjects are violence, crime and blasphemy. In his work, Schoenberg not only innovates but also returns to old forms and compositional practices. The first song of the second part, Nacht (“Night”) is one such look backward to a passacaglia. The poem describes heavy, black moths obscuring the sun and penetrating men’s hearts. Next is Gebet an Pierrot (“Prayer to Pierrot”) in which the poet laments the loss of laughter and brightness in his life. After “Prayer” comes Raub (“Plunder”), in which Pierrot finds a hoard of bloodred rubies in a subterranean cavern. References to blood and precious gems and the color red heighten the sexual imagery. The next song, Rote Messe (“Red Mass”) begins without a break. The color red continues but the poem finds Pierrot in church, displaying his bleeding heart rather than the elements of communion. The twelfth song, Galgenlied, (“Gallows Song”) only 17 seconds long, expresses death and depravity. In the thirteenth song, Enthauptung (“Decapitation”), Schoenberg again delves into the musical past with the instruments playing non-repetitive counterpoint in a free, not rigid, structure. Pierrot hallucinates that the moon is a scimitar, and that it is about to cut off his head. An interlude is played by all the instrumentalists but the piano. The last song in Part Two is Die Kreuze (“The Crosses”). In it, the religious imagery reaches its peak. The poets are said to bleed silently, and their verses are holy crosses. Schoenberg includes vultures and blood, a sinking red sun, and finally, death.
The depths of horror of part two become partially eased by the third and last part of the song cycle in which Pierrot travels home to Bergamo, Italy, still haunted by nostalgia for a past that most likely never occurred. The first of these last songs Heimweh (“Nostalgia or Homesickness”) tells of Pierrot’s heart, now a wasteland, yet still full of longing and yearning as he hears the familiar sounds of his home. In Gemeinheit (“Atrocity”) Pierrot’s vision is of Cassander’s bald head (Cassander is another character from commedia dell’arte), drilling into a brain and smoking rare Turkish tobacco. This song takes the form of a minuet. In the seventeenth song, Parodie (“Parody”), a Duenna, who has knitting needles in her hair, is in love with Pierrot and is being driven mad by the moon. In the eighteenth song, Der Mondfleck (“The Moonfleck”) Schoenberg again brings in musical forms and structures of the past, setting the text with contrapuntal ingenuity with the flute and clarinet in canon with each other, and the violin and cello playing another canon at the same time. In the song’s center, the two canons are played backwards, while simultaneously, the piano plays the flute and clarinet canon at half speed. The voice tells of Pierrot’s desperate attempts to rub a speck of moonlight from his back. Cassander reappears in the nineteenth poem, angry at Pierrot for playing grotesque sounds on his viola late at night. The penultimate song, a barcarolle, (a traditional folksong sung by Venetian gondoliers), Heimfahrt (“Homeward Journey”) follows without a break. In it, Pierrot heads home to Bergamo with a moonbeam as his rudder. The last song, O alter Duft (“Oh Ancient Fragrance”) brings the cycle to a happy ending with Pierrot back in his comfortable Bergamo, intoxicated with his homeland’s distinctive fragrance. He is happy to be away from the moon and its influences.
© Susan Halpern, 2024
JAN 11
Opera Workshop: Excerpts, Turn of the Screw; Hansel and Gretel
UW Voice students perform opera excerpts with members of the UW Symphony. With Ryan Farris, conductor. 7:30 pm Meany Hall—Studio Theatre
FEB 7
UW Symphony Orchestra with Carrie Shaw, Frederick Reece David Alexander Rahbee leads the UW Symphony in a program of works by Thea Musgrave, Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, and Felix Mendelssohn.
7:30 pm Meany Hall—Gerlich Theater FEB 20
Harmonia with UW Piano Students
Guest orchestra Harmonia (William White, director) performs winning concerto excerpts with UW piano students.
7:30 pm Meany Hall—Studio Theatre
ADDITIONAL SUPPORT COMES FROM
Warren & Anne Anderson
Stephen & Sylvia Burges
Katharyn Alvord Gerlich
Daniela & Torsten Grabs
Lynn & Brian Grant Family
Hsiao-Wuen & Tiffany Hon
Tuck Hoo & Tom Lyons
Matthew & Christina Krashan
Jeffrey Lehman & Katrina Russell
Hans & Kristin Mandt
Thomas McQuaid Jr.
Gary L. Menges
John C. Robinson & Maya Sonenberg
Eric & Margaret Rothchild
Donald & Toni Rupchock
Sally Schaake Kincaid
Craig Sheppard & Gregory Wallace
David & Marcie Stone
Donald & Gloria Swisher
Jeff & Carol Waymack
Anonymous
December 13 | 7:30 p.m.
Mark O’Connor, fiddle, acoustic guitar, mandolin, vocals
Maggie O’Connor, fiddle, vocals
There will be a 20-minute intermission.
The program will be announced from the stage.
For more information, please visit: www.markoconnor.com, www.maggieoconnorviolin.com, www.markandmaggieoconnor.com and www.oconnormethod.com.
The O’Connor Method for violin and strings is distributed by Shar Music www.oconnormethod.com.
For Mr. O’Connor’s downloadable sheet music and recordings on his own OMAC Records label distributed by ONErpm, please visit www.markoconnor.com and www.omacrecords.com
Mark and Maggie O’Connor use D’Addario Strings and Equipment
Grammy-winning composer and fiddler Mark O’Connor has created several arrangements of Christmas classics and fashions a wondrous mixture of both instrumental and vocal music in bluegrass and other American music genres. Concertgoers are treated to fresh takes on traditional songs with a few original compositions included. His renditions are playful and joyous but can be strikingly earnest too.
O’Connor’s Christmas concerts features himself performing on four instruments; fiddle, acoustic guitar, mandolin and mandocello. The shows include his wife and fellow Grammywinner Maggie O’Connor on fiddle and vocals. Mark and Maggie have performed An Appalachian Christmas together as husband and wife for nearly 10 years. Much of the year they tour behind their latest recording of original Americana songs and classics,
Life After Life. Together on stage, Mark and Maggie have a dynamic energy that bring their individual expertise to holiday themes and classics in the most delightful and musically satisfying way.
Mark O’Connor’s An Appalachian Christmas album (2011) reached the #1 ranking on Billboard’s Bluegrass Album charts. Hailed by critics from the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Los Angeles Times as a top 10 album of the holiday season, it has become a perennial classic Christmas recording.
O’Connor says, “Appalachia is the original melting pot of our country featuring more diverse styles of American music than just about anywhere. This theme makes for what is a trilogy of my ‘Appalachia’ recordings now: Appalachia Waltz, Appalachian Journey and An Appalachian Christmas. My album features well known carols as well
as several Appalachian-themed songs about a beloved hunting dog, passing a fiddle down through the generations, and offering a new version of ‘Appalachia Waltz’ itself with classical guitarist Sharon Isbin, one of my most well-known pieces. A few of my favorite Christmas centerpieces for the album include Renee Fleming’s soprano embraced by a mountain orchestra and fiddle solo on ‘Away In A Manger’ and ‘Amazing Grace’, the jazzy style of Jane Monheit with an all-acoustic string band on ‘Winter Wonderland’ and ‘The Christmas Song’ and terrific guest appearances by music legends James Taylor, Yo-Yo Ma and Alison Krauss.”
Mark O’Connor began his creative journey at the feet of American fiddling legend Benny Thomasson, and the iconic French jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli. Now, at age 59, he has melded these influences
into a new American classical music and is perpetuating his vision of an American School of String Playing. Mr. O’Connor has won three Grammys, seven CMA awards as well as several national fiddle, guitar and mandolin champion titles. His distinguished career includes representing the United States Information Agency in cultural diplomacy to six continents and performing in front of several U.S. presidents, including being invited to the White House by President Ronald Reagan to perform as a teenager.
After recording a series of albums for Rounder and Warner Bros including his multiple Grammy-winning New Nashville Cats, his recordings for Sony Classical with Yo-Yo Ma, Appalachia Waltz and Appalachian Journey sold a million CDs and gained O’Connor worldwide recognition as a leading proponent of a new American musical idiom.
Mr. O’Connor’s Fiddle Concerto released on Warner Bros. has become the most-performed violin concerto composed in the last 50 years. On his own OMAC Records label, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra recorded his sweeping “Americana Symphony” while his groundbreaking 9th concerto, “The Improvised Violin Concerto” was recorded in Boston Symphony Hall. The O’Connor Band consisting of family members (wife, son and daughter-in-law) debuted at #1 on Billboard Magazine’s bluegrass album chart and their first album Coming Home won a Grammy in 2017. His current album is Life After Life, an Americana music collection of his original songs and some classics he sings with his wife Maggie O’Connor who is featured on lead vocals. In 2023, O’Connor released his memoir, Crossing Bridges: My Journey from Child Prodigy to Fiddler Who Dared the World.
Mr. O’Connor has authored a series of educational books called the O’Connor Method and is now the fastest growing violin method in the country and tens of thousands can credit the O’Connor
books for learning how to play stringed instruments. The O’Connor Method features American music styles, creativity, cultural diversity and western classical technical training. Mr. O’Connor tours nationally with his wife Maggie, with his perennial An Appalachian Christmas and performs his original concertos with symphony orchestras. He resides in North Carolina with his wife and duo partner Maggie O’Connor.
Violinist and American fiddler Maggie O’Connor performs in a variety of musical styles throughout the U.S. and beyond, most recently as a member of the Grammy-winning Mark O’Connor Band. Frequently performing with her husband, violinist and composer Mark O’Connor, together they have appeared as guest soloists with the Singapore Chinese Orchestra, the Santa Rosa Symphony, the Walla Walla Symphony, the Nashville Symphony and many other symphony orchestras performing his compositions ranging from his “Strings and Threads Suite” to his “Double Violin Concerto” and “Johnny Appleseed Suite.”
The couple has also performed violin duos around the world, including the Leopold Auer Music Academy Hungary, as well as the Berlin Konzerthaus celebrating the centennial birthday of the great violinist Yehudi Menuhin. Maggie was a member of the O’Connor Band whose debut album Coming Home won a Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album of the Year in 2017. In addition to appearing in Mark O’Connor’s An Appalachian Christmas, the couple tours music in an Americana duo setting from their new album, Life After Life, a collection of original songs and classics.
Maggie continues to work as codirector with Mark at O’Connor Method String Camps featuring the lesson book series that is rising in popularity each year. Maggie also makes unique violin peg necklaces to raise funds for scholarships at these
camps. She is featured on her and her husband’s album Duo, in which David McGee of Deep Roots Magazine states “As a technician and as an expressive player, she is formidable, has it all. What I find so special about her, apart from the sheer soulfulness abundant in the music she makes, is her uncanny sense of playing off of and with Mark, knowing when to assert herself and when to be empathetic and supportive.”
Growing up in a musical family in the suburbs of Atlanta, Maggie started playing the violin at age 7 in a family band. Concurrently, she took classical violin lessons with Larisa Morgulis, a distinguished graduate of the Odessa Conservatory in Ukraine. Playing music with her family band is where Maggie began to develop an ear for arranging, recording, group playing and improvisation — skills she has embraced throughout her musical life. In her early years, she was a member of numerous bluegrass and rock bands while also being a member and soloist with Atlanta’s top three youth orchestras.
After growing up playing American and classical music styles, Maggie continued her professional training at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University where she studied with violinist Herbert Greenberg earning Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in violin performance. She was also a finalist in the Marbury Prize Competition for Undergraduate Violinists while finishing up her bachelor’s degree with distinction and had the honor of being accepted into the Five-year Advanced Degree Program along with being awarded the Career Development Grant while at Peabody. She was the recipient of full tuition scholarships while studying at the Aspen Music Festival and School for three years. Maggie currently resides in North Carolina with her husband and plays a beautifully handcrafted 1996 violin made by Lukas Wronski.
SIGNATURE SUPPORT
Cathyrn Booth-LaForce & Kenneth LaForce
ADDITIONAL SUPPORT COMES FROM
Warren & Anne Anderson
Stephen & Sylvia Burges
Katharyn Alvord Gerlich
Daniela & Torsten Grabs
Lynn & Brian Grant Family
Hsiao-Wuen & Tiffany Hon
Tuck Hoo & Tom Lyons
Matthew & Christina Krashan
Jeffrey Lehman & Katrina Russell
Hans & Kristin Mandt
Thomas McQuaid Jr.
Gary L. Menges
John C. Robinson & Maya Sonenberg
Eric & Margaret Rothchild
Donald & Toni Rupchock
Sally Schaake Kincaid
Craig Sheppard & Gregory Wallace
David & Marcie Stone
Donald & Gloria Swisher
Jeff & Carol Waymack
Anonymous
December 17 | 7:30 p.m.
Andrea Haines, soprano
MaryRuth Miller, soprano
Katie Jeffries-Harris, alto
Barnaby Smith, alto and artistic director
Blake Morgan, tenor
Euan Williamson, tenor
Christopher Moore, baritone
Dominic Carver, bass
Chant
Angelus ad Virginem arr. VOCES8
Reena Esmail
Michael Praetorius
The Unexpected Early Hour
Es ist ein Ros’ entsprungen
Kerensa Briggs A Tender Shoot
Sergei Rachmaninov
Tamsin Jones
Philip Stopford
Hieronymous Praetorius
Bogoroditse Devo
Noel: Verbum Caro Factum Est
Lully, Lulla, Lullay
Magnificat Quinti Toni, with Joseph Lieber Joseph Mein In Dulci Jubilo
INTERMISSION
Elizabeth Poston Jesus Christ the Apple Tree
Traditional In Dulci Jubilo arr. Robert Lucas Pearsall
Luke Wenceslas Mayernik The Lamb
Traditional Scandinavian Mitt hjerte alltid vanker arr. Blake Morgan
Traditional Joseph and Mary arr. John Rutter
Traditional Silent Night arr. James Burton
Jay Livingston and Ray Evans Silver Bells arr. Blake Morgan
Jule Styne Let it Snow arr. Jim Clements
VOCES8 is represented by Scott Mello, Opus 3 Artists, LLC for exclusive North American booking in collaboration with Robin Tyson, Edition Peters Artist Management as General Manager.
The 2023 Grammy-nominated British vocal ensemble VOCES8 is proud to inspire people through music and share the joy of singing. Touring globally, the group performs an extensive repertory both in its a cappella concerts and in collaborations with leading musicians, orchestras and conductors. Versatility and a celebration of diverse musical expression are central to the ensemble’s performance and education ethos which is shared both online and in person. VOCES8 is passionate about music education and is the flagship ensemble of the VOCES8 Foundation which actively promotes “Music Education for All,” reaching up to 40,000 people annually.
VOCES8 has performed at many notable venues since its inception in 2005, including Wigmore Hall,
Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Berlin Philharmonie, Cité de la Musique Paris, Vienna Konzerthaus, Tokyo Opera City, NCPA Beijing, Sydney Opera House, Mariinsky Theatre Concert Hall, Victoria Concert Hall Singapore, Palacio de Bellas Artes Mexico City and many others. This season they perform over 100 concerts around the world, their 20th Anniversary season, including a birthday celebration concert at the Barbican, London.
VOCES8’s entrepreneurial and community spirit is fostered by CoFounders Paul and Barnaby Smith. The Covid-19 pandemic gave the impetus for VOCES8 to transform its already exceptional offerings, nurturing a new online audience community providing a chance to engage with classical music in new
ways. Pioneering initiatives include the LIVE From London online festival and the VOCES8 Digital Academy
LIVE From London was created as a specific response to the pandemic. Winning praise for its collaborative approach with artists, press and audiences around the world, the team has delivered ten digital festivals to date, broadcasting over 150 concerts and selling over 250,000 tickets around the world. The VOCES8 Digital Academy is an online choral program for high schools, colleges and individuals featuring live interaction with members of the ensemble, live and recorded lectures, and video resources to learn and perform music from the renaissance to today. Both LIVE From London and the Digital Academy are filmed by VOCES8 Studios, the in-house recording company.
VOCES8 is a Decca Classics artist, also releasing on the VOCES8 Records label. The recording of Christopher Tin’s “The Lost Birds” was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2023. Their new album Nightfall is a collection of reflective and transcendent music inspired by the night. Recent releases are A Choral Christmas in which VOCES8 joins its own Foundation Choir and Orchestra; Home, conducted by Eric Whitacre, featuring his work “The Sacred Veil,” and “Seven Psalms” by Paul Simon.
VOCES8 is passionate about music education and is the flagship ensemble of the music charity VOCES8 Foundation which actively promotes “Music Education For All.” Engaging in a broad range of in-person outreach work, the Foundation runs an annual program of workshops and masterclasses at the VOCES8 Centre at St. Anne and St. Agnes Church, London. Dedicated to supporting promising young singers, VOCES8 awards eight annual choral scholarships through the VOCES8 Scholars initiative, linked to the annual Milton Abbey Summer School at which amateur singers of all ages learn and perform with VOCES8.
VOCES8 is proud to be working with Ken Burton as Composer-inResidence and Jim Clements as Arranger-in-Residence. They publish arrangements of its music, original compositions and educational material with the new digital VOCES8 Publishing house, as well as E.C. Schirmer with whom they curate the VOCES8 Foundation Choral Series, and with Edition Peters with whom they have published two anthologies and a series of single octavos. The VOCES8 Method written by Paul Smith is a renowned and unique teaching tool now available in four languages that adopts music to enhance development in numeracy, literacy and linguistics. For more info, visit www.voces8.com and voces8.foundation.
bviolinsltd.com
JAN 23–25
“The funniest night you’ll ever have at the ballet!” — The Guardian
JAN 31–FEB 1 One Earth Tour 2025: Warabe
The House Manager desk is located at the entrance to the lobby. Ask the House Manager or any of our ushers if you need assistance or have questions.
The Meany Hall Box Office opens one hour before the performance and is located in Meany Hall’s main entrance.
Food and beverage options are available for Meany Center events. Food and beverage is not allowed in the theater.
Restrooms are located on the lower and upper lobby levels. Lower lobby restrooms are accessible by elevator.
Lobby doors open one hour before the show and seating begins 30 minutes prior to show time. Performances begin promptly as scheduled. Out of respect for the artists and seated patrons, late seating is not guaranteed and is at the discretion of the artists and theater personnel.
Please turn off these devices before performances. The use of photographic recording equipment is prohibited. Flash cameras can be disruptive and dangerous to some artists.
Contact the Meany House Manager in the lobby immediately following the performance or at bnancy@uw.edu or 206-543-2010.
Instruments, skateboards, large bags or other egress hazards are not allowed in the seating area.
Children 5 years of age or older are welcome at all Meany Center performances.
Earplugs are available available at the House Manager desk. Booster cushions are available in the lobby of the Katharyn Alvord Gerlich Theater. Large print programs are available at the House Manager’s desk.
Wheelchair locations and seating for patrons with disabilities are available. Check with an usher for assitance in storing mobility devices near seating.
Assistive listening devices amplify and clarify sound by cutting down on ambient noise. RF (radio frequency) assistive listening systems are installed in the theater. You can check out a receiver and induction loop (can use a personal neckloop with a 3.5 mm jack) for those that use hearing aids or cochlear implants with a “T” switch or a headset for those without hearing aids. Please ask at the House Manager’s desk for assistance. Photo ID deposit is required.
In case of fire or other emergency, please follow the instructions of our ushers, who are trained to assist you. To ensure your safety, please familiarize yourself with the exit routes nearest your seat.
Smoking is not permitted on the University of Washington campus.
Possession or use of firearms, without special written permission from UW Police, is prohibited on the UW Campus.
Our accessible drop off and pick up location is inside the Central Plaza Garage (4100 15th Ave NE), at the CPG 2 Elevator Lobby. For more information: meanycenter.org/visit/directions-parking
The University of Washington is committed to providing access, equal opportunity and reasonable accommodation in its services, programs and activities for individuals with disabilities. To request these services or other accommodations at no additional cost, please contact the ArtsUW Ticket Office.
Meany Center for the Performing Arts University of Washington Box 351150
Seattle, WA 98195-1150
206-543-4882
ArtsUW Ticket Office 1313 NE 41st Street
Seattle, WA 98105
206-543-4880 or 800-859-5342
Email: ticket@uw.edu
Hours: Mon–Fri, 12 p.m.–4 p.m.
MANY THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING DONORS WHOSE GENEROUS SUPPORT MAKE OUR PROGRAMS POSSIBLE:
PRODUCER’S CIRCLE
Sven & Melinda Bitners
Sylvia & Stephen Burges
Katharyn Alvord Gerlich
Hans & Kristin Mandt
Thomas McQuaid Jr.
Gary L. Menges
Margaret Dora Morrison †
Cecilia Paul & Harry Reinert
Judy Pigott
John C. Robinson & Maya
Sonenberg
Sally Schaake Kincaid
DIRECTOR’S CIRCLE
Nancy C. Alvord †
Warren & Anne Anderson
Lynn & Brian Grant Family
Hsiao-Wuen & Tiffany Hon
Yumi Iwasaki & Anoop Gupta
Sunil Paul & Michelle Odom
Tina Ragen & son, Ian
Eric & Margaret Rothchild
Donald & Gloria Swisher
Richard Szeliski & Lyn McCoy
Scott VanGerpen & Britt East
Ellen Wallach & Thomas Darden
Anonymous
SERIES BENEFACTOR
Manisha Advani & Rajib
Chakrabarti
Linda & Thomas † Allen
Col. Ron & Mrs. Darlene
Cheatham
Terrel Dean & Robert Lefferts
Cynthia Gantz & Joshua Taft
Sharon Gantz Bloome †
Daniela & Torsten Grabs
The Hokanson Family
Tuck Hoo & Tom Lyons
Matthew & Christina Krashan
Jeffrey Lehman & Katrina Russell
Dennis Lund & Martha Taylor
Lois Rathvon †
Donald & Toni Rupchock
Craig Sheppard & Gregory
Wallace
David & Marcie Stone
Donna & Joshua Taylor
Jeff & Carol Waymack
George S. Wilson & Claire L.
McClenny
EVENT SPONSOR
Philip Anderson
Barbara Billings & Ernest Vogel
Paul Blinzer & Theodora Letz
Heidi Charleson & Louis
Woodworth
Jim & Margie Chen
Leonard Costello & Patricia
McKenzie
Susan & Lewis Edelheit
Phil Lanum & Gail Erickson
Justin & Tiffany Grimm
Dr. M. Elizabeth Halloran
Shuko Hashimoto
Elizabeth Hebert
Hugues Hoppe & Sashi
Raghupathy
David Kimelman & Karen Butner
Olivia Lee
Rebecca Norton & Craig Miller
Richard and Sally † Parks
Lorraine Toly
Manijeh Vail
Anonymous
Kenneth & Marleen Alhadeff
Jillian Barron & Jonas Simonis
Mel Belding & Kate Brostoff
Cathryn Booth-LaForce & W Kenneth LaForce
Kalman Brauner & Amy Carlson
Pat Braus & Holly Boone
James Bromley Jr. & Joan Hsiao
Shannon Bruce
Eric & Susan Carlson
Carol & Carl Corbin
Margaret Crastnopol & Charles
Purcell
Sharon Ducey
Dunn Lumber Family
Susan Ewens & James Luby
Albert Fisk & Judith Harris
Corinne Fligner & Mark Wener
JoAnn Forman
Davis Fox & Rosemary Coleman
Judith Frey & Flick Broughton
Matthew & Michelle Galvin
Ruth Gerberding †
John Goodfellow Jr. & Barbara
Peterson
Arthur & Leah Grossman
Phyllis Hatfield
Susan Herring
Thomas Highsmith
Paul & Alice Hill
Paul Hopp
Gwen & J. Randy Houser
Mary, Mike & Emily Hudspeth
Weldon Ihrig & Susan Knox
Mike Dryfoos & Ilga Jansons
Jean & David Koewler
Connie & Gus Kravas
Eric Larson & Teresa Bigelow
Teresa Lawson
Hank Levy & Ronit Katz
Kathleen Lindberg & David Skar
Barbara Mack
Melodie Martin & Kenneth
Dayton
Rupal Mehta & Srivats Srinivasan
John & Gail Mensher
Jim & Pamela Murray
Gloria & Dan Overgaard
Gowri & Ramesh Pabbati
Cheryl Redd-Cuthbert & Richard Cuthbert
Joy Rogers & Robert Parker
Karen Sandeen
Cathy Sarkowsky
Noah & Kate Scooler
Virginia Sly
Clark Sorensen & Susan Way
Robert & Ethel Story Sr.
Keith Swartz
Dale Sylvain & Thomas Conlon
Jack & Gayle Thompson
Pieter & Tjitske Van der Meulen
Christine & Olaf Weckner
Melanie Ito & Charles Wilkinson
John & Lynn Williams
Michelle Witt & Hans Hoffmeister
Igor Zverev & Yana Solovyeva
Anonymous
Dick Ammerman
Julia Bacharach & Daniel Cory
Heather & Mark Barbieri
Christopher & Cynthia Bayley
John & Carol Belton
Cristi Benefield
Robert Bergman
Michael Bevan & Pamela Fink
David Bobroff
Michelle & Matthew Bomberger
Heida Brenneke
Jonathan & Bobbe Bridge
Dave & Debbie Buck
Leo Butzel & Roberta Reaber
Rita Calabro & James Kelly
Katherine Graubard & William
Calvin
Myrna & Grayson Capp
Fran Clifton
R. Bruce & Mary-Louise Colwell Jr.
Jill Conner
Robert Cook
Judy Cushman & Robert Quick
Suzanne Dewitt & Ari Steinberg
Toby Diamond
Susan & David Dolacky
Christopher & Carrie Doring
Patricia Emmons & Shmuel El-Ad
In Memory of Toby Faber
Kai Fujita
Lisa Garbrick
Sergey Genkin
Virginie Grange
Denise Gregory Wyatt
J. David & Brenda Griswold
Richard Groomer & Betsy
Lieberman
Susan & Richard † Hall
Steven Haney
Katherine Hanson & Michael Schick
Karen Henley & Laurie Goldman
Pamela Hinckley
Robert Hirsch
Kate Hokanson
Robert Jenkins
Nancy & Michael Kappelman
Paul Kassen
Aaron Katz & Kate Dougherty
Mary Kenny
Frederick Klein IV
Karen L. Koon
Peggy Larson
Joanna & Frank Lau
Martha Leonard
William Levering III & Susan Hert
Michael Linenberger & Sallie
Dacey
Arni Litt
Neil Ludman
Thomas Manley & Mariann Carle
Bernadette Margin
Tessa Matthey & Peter Durkee
Anna & Paul McKee
Christopher & Mary Meek
Robin Mendelson & Josse Delage
MANY THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING DONORS WHOSE GENEROUS SUPPORT MAKE OUR PROGRAMS POSSIBLE:
M. Lynn Morgan
Jonathan Newmark
Margarete Noe
Anne & Bill Nolan
Amanda Overly
John Nemanich & Ellendee
Pepper
William & Suzanne Phillips
Desiree Prewitt
Kristi Rennebohm & Eldon H.
Franz
John Rochford & Nick Utzinger
Mark & Barbara Roller
Richard Roth
Harriet Round
David & Joanne Rudo
Joseph Saitta
Werner & Joan Samson
Peter Seitel & Janet Geier
Mark & Patti Seklemian
Louise Shields
Sigmund Snelson
Sunita Sondur
Mark Taylor
Kris & Epaminondas Trimis
Linda Vangelos & Stephen Kaufer
Ann & Richard Weiner
Kai Wilhelm
Todd & Valerie Yerkes
Carol Young
Anonymous
GREAT PERFORMER
Mary Alberg
Nancy & John Angello
Robert Babs
Trudy Baldwin
Lisa Baldwin & John Cragoe
Melissa Belisle
James & Suzette Birrell
Peter Byers & Virginia Sybert
Erin Candee
Inez & Lior Caspi
Alan & Phyllis Caswell
Alan & Sandra Chait
Sandra & Dan Ciske
Libby & Leslie Cohen
Misti Davis
Annette de Soto
Karen Domino & Gene Brenowitz
Anne Eskridge
Gary Fuller & Randy Everett
Beatrice Graham
Martin Greene & Kathleen
Wright
Pamela & Stephen Gruber
Kirsten Gunn
Allison & Paulo Gutscher
Lynn Hagerman & James Hummer
Dianne Harris & Lawrence Hamlin
Robin Hendricks
Andrew Himes & Alexandra Wilber
Patricia Hynes
Robert Johnson & Heather Erdmann
Tamara & Randel Josserand
Marcia Kamin
Deborah Katz
Marcia Killien
Brandon Koeller & Kim Davis
Inge & Leslie Larsen
Margaret Levi & Robert Kaplan
Kris Lewis
Mary Louis & Robert Arnold
Gwendolyn Lundberg & David Aggerholm
Dean & Tomilynn † McManus
Christopher Miller
Sally Mizroch
Raymond Monnat Jr. & Christine
Disteche
Marion Nielson
David Owsiany & Everett Seven
James Packman & Andrew Cohen
Kathy Partida
James Phelps & Ena Urbach
Kerry Radcliffe & Michael Fox
Paula Riggert
Chester Robachinski
John & Margaret Sanders
Norman & Elisabeth Sandler
Jean Schweitzer
Michael Scupine & Kim Abson
Harold & Ruth Spalter
Sarah Stanley & Dale Rogerson
Bonnie Steele
David Stiner
Linda Stone
Ingvil Syversen
Diana Frumkes Thompson &
Richard Thompson
Michelle & Stephen Turnovsky
Raymond Tymas-Jones
Mary Vogelzang
Francine Walsh
Merle Weiss & Diana Pien
Tracey West
KEY PLAYER
Ann Adam
Jill Bader
Jonas Barklund
Michelle & Robert Berman
David Bird
Luther Black & C. Christina
Wright
Cleo Bloomquist
Helen Bodkin
Edward & Adele Bolson
Katherine Bourbonais &
Donald Ramsey
Lydia & Scott Brennan
Shannon Bryan
Kate & Jerry Campbell
Frances Carr
Connie Case
Marise Chan
Patricia Cirone
Alton & LeeAnn Cogert
Janet & William Corriston
Jean Crill
Christopher Curry
Dana Davoli & Bob Goldsmith
Lynne De Merritt
Susan Dorn & Adam Jonas
Michael Dryja
Laurie & C. Bert Dudley
Karen Elledge & Gerald Ginader
Hollie & Lynne Ellis
Michael Erickson & David Doody
L. Jay Field & Deborah Dwyer
Melanie Field & Vinaya Chepuri
Virginia Fitzhugh & Miguel Morales
Gerald Folland
Brenda Fong
Denise Fonseca
Jackie Forbes & Douglas Bleckner
William Friedman
Michael Furst
Brian Giddens & Steve Rovig
David & Anne Gilbert
George Gilman
Sara Glerum
J. David Godwin II &
Ginger Reeves
Joan & Steve Goldblatt
Harvey Greenberg
Tim Groggel & Annette Strand
Emile Haddad & Terryll Bailey
Keala Hagmann & Bur Davis
Lia & Benjamin Halasz
Keith Hawley
Bruce Horne
Nicholas Horvath
Travis Howland
Anne Huey
Lynne Iglitzin & Walter Bodle
Lowell Ing
M. Johnson
Christopher & Linda Johnson
Giff & Mary Jones
Carolyn Kast
Linda Katz
Kayla Kinnunen
James & Elaine Klansnic Jr.
Glen Kriekenbeck & Quentin King
John Lee & Pm Weizenbaum
Peter LeVeque
Kathryn Lew & Dennis Apland
Ariel Lopez & Thomas Finley
Sara Magee
Ronald & Lee Magid
Constance Mao
Janelle Martin
John Martines & Joel Gibson
Lila May
Robin McCabe
Pamela & David McDonald
Mary McGuire
Robert & Catherine McKee
Susan McNabb
Michael & Sarajane Milder
Jacquelyn & Gordon Miller
Reza & Carol Moinpour
Anne Morrison
Christine Moss
Susan Mulvihill & James Liverman
Joseph & Kay Neal
Michael Nelson &
Louise Durocher
Betty Ngan & Tom Mailhot
Marianne Nijenhuis
David Norman
Georgia Oistad
Dennis Oliver & Stephanie Prince
Robert Otto
Jae Paek
Anna Peterson
Jeanne Peterson
Gregory & Margaret Petrie
Wendy & Murray Raskind
Linda Reeder
Dennis Reichenbach
Jason Reuer
Cynthia Richardson
Carla Rickerson
Sharon Rodgers
Keith Rowe & Ann Stover
John & Janet Rusin
Jerret Sale & Rachel Klevit
Margaret Sandelin
Murl Sanders
Laura Sargent
Patricia Scott
George Sharp
Marc Sinykin
Sara Stamey & Winston Saunders
Derek Storm & Cynthia Gossett
Dawson & Lois Taylor
Kevin Thompson
Mary Thorbeck
Christian Torgersen & Emily Vason
Elena Trubnikova
John & Gail Wasberg
Robert & Andrea Watson
James Whitson & Patricia Adams
Karin Williams
Deborah Wilson & Ngan Teng
Eyva Winet
Grant Winther
Donna Wolter
Evgueni & Tatiana Zabokritski
Maxine Zemko
Reginald Zisette & Beth Gendler
Anonymous
Julia Adams
Adrianne Allen
Suzanne & Marvin Anderson
Dean Arnold
Samia Ashraf & Lewis Davidson
Lauret Ballsun
Holly Bays
Dana & Rena Behar
John Beierle
G. Carter Bentley & Lynda Emel
Thomas Bird
Jane Blackwell
Wayne Briscoe
Virginia Burdette & Gary Wieder
David Butterfield & Janice
DeCosmo
Dennis Calvin
Joan Casey
Carol Chellino & Robert Andrews
Thomas & Susan Colligan
Merrilee Conway & James
Young III
Trisha Davis & Eric Muller
Alban Dennis
Marsha Devine
Kathleen Dickeman
Janice Dilworth
Cliff Eastman & Leah Kleinman
Sally & Stephen Edwards
Gaylord Escalona
Nicole Faghin & David Spence
Molly Flemming
Bryant Fujimoto
Matthew Gani
Dolores Gill Schoenmakers
Harold Gillies
Jerry & Lyn Grinstein
Stephen Haeck
Susan Hamilton & Timothy Bates
Michael Harnisch
Erin Hawley
Maryetta & Tina Healy
Judith Herrigel
Katharine & Frank Holland
Lynn Holmes
Greg Hope & Sandra Hunt
Leslie Jacobson & Barbara Barnes
Natarajan Janarthanan & Ponni Rajagopal
Barbara & P. Redmond Johnston
Erica & Duane Jonlin
Margaret Kenrick
Linda Kent & James Corson
Lee Klastorin & Ralph Walden
Roger Kohn
Kent Koprowicz
Susan Krom
Elizabeth Leo
James & June Lindsey Jr.
Louise Lipnick
Robin Luke & John Casseday
Donna McCampbell
Meredith McClurg
Brian McHenry
Tim McTigat
Angela Medina
Sharon Metcalf & Randall Smith
Sheree Miller
Charles & Rene Murry
Matthew Nugent & Andrea Hanses
Shyril O’Steen
Jennifer & Robert O’Twomney
Jack Percival
Sandra Piscitello
Ann Rael
James & Ruth Raisis
Meryl Retallack
Tom & Nancy Roth
Eric Schmidt & Kristin Henderson
Lika Seigel
Dennis Shaw & Julie Howe
Luciana Simoncini & Todd
Scheuer
Mani & Karen Soma
Hank & Dorothy Stephens
Nancy Stewart
Myrna & Donald Torrie
Emily Transue
Bruno & Yvonne Vogele
Greta Ward
Lucy & Larry Weinberg
Robert Wood
Janice Yamauchi
Robert Zauper
Deceased †
This listing includes donors from July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024.
MANY THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING INDIVIDUALS FOR SUPPORTING THE FUTURE OF MEANY CENTER THROUGH PLANNED GIFTS AND CONTRIBUTIONS TO OUR ENDOWMENT:
Planned Gifts
Linda & Thomas † Allen
Cathryn Booth-LaForce
Wimsey J.N. Cherrington
Cheryl Redd-Cuthbert & Richard Cuthbert
Bill & Ruth Gerberding †
Michael & Nancy Kappelman
Matthew & Christina Krashan
Teresa Lawson
Tomilynn † & Dean McManus
Cecilia Paul & Harry Reinert
Lois Rathvon †
Dave & Marcie Stone
Donald & Gloria Swisher
Lee & Judy Talner
Ellen J. Wallach
Anonymous
Ellsworth C. & Nancy D. Alvord
Endowed Fund
Estate of Ellsworth C. Alvord*
Kathleen Dickeman
Arts Al!ve Student Fund for Exploring the Performing Arts
Lowell Douglas Ing
Susan Knox and Weldon Ihrig*
Mina Brechemin Person Endowed Fund
Estate of Mina B. Person*
Sylvia & Steve Burges Meany Center for the Performing Arts Endowment
Sylvia & Stephen Burges*
Nancy & Eddie Cooper Endowed Fund for Music in Schools
Kei Schafer
Marcie & Dave Stone*
Katharyn Alvord Gerlich Endowment for Artistic Excellence
Katharyn Alvord Gerlich*
Elaine & Ernest Henley Endowment for Classical Music
Mary Johnke Alberg
Anne Futterman
Joel Gibson & John Anthony Martines
Elaine & Ernest Henley*
Dr. Karen Henley & Dr. Laurie Goldman
J. Randy and Gwen Houser
Catherine & David Hughes Asian Programming Endowment
Catherine & David Hughes*
Matt Krashan Endowed Fund for Artistic & Education Excellence in the Performing Arts Matthew & Christina Krashan
Lee & Judy Talner
(*Multiple Founders)
Gary L. Menges Endowment for Chamber Music and Dance
Gary Menges*
Live Music for World Dance Series Endowed Fund
Cecilia Paul & Harry Reinert*
Meany Center Education Endowment
David Aggerholm & Gwendolyn Lundberg
Suzette & James Birrell
Jill Hanley Conner
Sandra Piscitello
(*Multiple Founders)
Meany Center Programming Endowment Fund
(*Multiple Founders)
Margaret Dora Morrison Meany Endowed Fund
Margaret Dora Morrison*†
Elizabeth Rennebohm Music
Performance and Education Memorial Endowment
Roger Kohn
Kristi Rennebohm Franz & Eldon H. Franz*
Gloria Wilson Swisher Music
Education & Outreach Endowment
Julia Adams
John and Nancy Angello
David Olmsted Bobroff
Jonathan Bridge
Paul Crawford
Kristin Henderson
Karen L. Koon
Jonathan Newmark
Kerry Radcliff e & Michael Fox
Alan & Susan Sherbrooke
Deborah Wilson & Ngan Chong Teng
George S. Wilson & Claire L. McClenny
* Endowment founder † Deceased
Note: Dollar amounts rounded to the nearest thousand.
This listing includes endowment founders and endowment donors from July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024. For more information on how to make a gift through your will or trust, or to name Meany Center for the Performing Arts as a beneficiary of your retirement plan or insurance policy, please call 206-616-6296 or visit uwfoundation.org/giftplanning.
A gala benefiting the artistic and educational programming of Meany Center for the Performing Arts
SATURDAY, MARCH 22, 2025, 5:00–8:00 P.M.
MEANY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS
CONSIDER A GIFT to the Meany Center through your will, trust or retirement plan, and help future generations of artists and arts lovers see a little further by standing on your shoulders.
Contact:
Cristi Benefield, Director of Philanthropy, Meany Center 206-616-6296
cristi@uw.edu meanycenter.org/donate
WE ARE DEEPLY GRATEFUL TO THE FOLLOWING CORPORATIONS, FOUNDATIONS, GOVERNMENT AGENCIES AND CAMPUS COMMUNITY PARTNERS WHOSE GENEROUS SUPPORT MAKE OUR PROGRAMS POSSIBLE:
$25,000 AND ABOVE
Classical King FM 98.1*
National Endowment for the Arts
Nesholm Family Foundation
$10,000-$24,999
4Culture
ArtsFund
Microsoft Corporation
New England Foundation for the Arts
Peg and Rick Young Foundation
Seattle Office of Arts and Culture
The Robert Craft Igor Stravinsky Foundation
UW College of Arts and Sciences/
Jones Fund
University Inn*
Watertown Hotel*
UP TO $9,999
ArtsWA
College Inn Pub Creative West
Ladies Musical Club
Macrina Bakery*
Pagliacci Pizza*
UW Graduate School
MATCHING CORPORATE GIFTS
Apple Inc.
Google, Inc.
IBM Corporation
Intel Corporation
Merck Company Foundation
Microsoft Corporation
Nordstrom
Starbucks Coffee Company
The Boeing Company
T-Mobile USA, Inc.
CAMPUS AND COMMUNITY PARTNERS
ArtsUW
UW Department of Dance
UW School of Drama
UW School of Music
UW Alumni Association
Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center
Early Music Seattle
Henry Art Museum
Ladies Musical Club
Langston
NW Film Forum
On the Boards
Seattle Public Schools
Seattle Sacred Music and Art
Unmute the Voices
Velocity Dance Center
Wa Na Wari
* full or partial In-kind donation
Join an impressive roster of companies of all sizes that support Meany Center, its mission, and its performances. Sponsors receive significant recognition throughout the season and an array of benefits catered to your organization’s goals. For more information, please contact the Meany Center Philanthropy Department at 206-685-2819.
Michelle Witt, Executive and Artistic Director
Sarah Wilke, Senior Director for Planning and Operations
Mahmoud Jaber, Assistant to the Executive and Artistic Director
Michelle J. Ward, Director of Finance
Yevgeniy Gofman, Accountant
Eric Schielmann, Fiscal Specialist
Elizabeth C. Duffell, Director of Artistic Engagement
Kristen Kosmas, Engagement Manager
Sara Jinks, Artist Services Coordinator
Alycia Zollinger, Artist Services Assistant
Gloria Gonzalez, Green Room Student Assistant
Cristi Benefield, Director of Philanthropy
Marianna Clair, Philanthropy Officer
Francesco D’Aniello, Philanthropy Coordinator
Kim Davis, Grants Officer
Bella Preciado, Philanthropy Student Assistant
Arthur Grossman, Philip D. Lanum, Event Photographers
Teri Mumme, Director of Marketing and Communications
Cynthia Mullis, Marketing and Communications Manager
Michaela Marino, Senior Digital Marketing Manager
Ana Alvira, Graphics Specialist
Yvonne Tran, Graphic Design Assistant
Amber Sanders, Tessitura Administrator
Tom Burke, Technical Director
Brian Engel, Lighting Supervisor
Juniper Shuey, Stage/Video Supervisor
Matt Starritt, Audio Supervisor
Jessica Jones, Swing Technician
Trevor Cushman, Studio Theatre Stage Technician
Rosa Alvarez, Director of Patron Services
Liz Wong, Assistant Director of Patron Services
Marchette DuBois, Patron Services Associate
Keeli Erb, Patron Services Associate
Colette Moss, Patron Services Associate
Cathy Wright, Patron Services Associate
Melia Blumenfeld, Maggie Hedrick, Jingyun Li,
Yokabed Ogbai, Andrea Yu, Ticket Office Student Assistants
Nancy Hautala, Director of Audience Services
Taylor Freeman, Lindsay Hanlon, House Managers
K Bailey, Joan Swartwood, Dominic Levenseller-Watland
Lead Ushers
Ushers
Kinsey Abraham / Cristian Chavez-Reyes / Kaipo Colston / Jayda Fitch / Kaylee Flawau-Pate / Carter Grose / Noor Hasan / Maxwell Jesme / Maleekah Khan / Heejin Kim / Jonah Miyashiro / Chloe Osborn / Brianna Pak / Josha Paonaskar / Belle Pearson / Carlos Salinas / Sebastian Shacteau / Harry Schuckman
Catering by Bay Laurel