CARMINA BURANA & FATE NOW CONQUERS

CARMINA BURANA & FATE NOW CONQUERS

Friday, June 7, 2024 at 7:30 pm

Saturday, June 8, 2024 at 7:30 pm

Sunday, June 9, 2024 at 2:30 pm

ALLEN-BRADLEY HALL

Ken-David Masur, conductor

Megumi Kanda, trombone

Dashon Burton, bass-baritone

Sonya Headlam, soprano

Brian Giebler, tenor

Milwaukee Symphony Chorus

Cheryl Frazes Hill, director

Milwaukee Children’s Choir

Rachel Maki, director

CARLOS SIMON

Fate Now Conquers

TAN DUN

Three Muses in Video Game for Trombone and Orchestra

I. Muse of Bili

II. Muse of Xiqin

III. Muse of Sheng

Megumi Kanda, trombone

IN TERMISSION

CARL ORFF

Carmina Burana

Fortuna imperatrix mundi [Fortune, Empress of the World]

I. Primo vere [In Springtime]

Uf dem Anger [On the Green]

II. In taberna [In the Tavern]

III. Cour d’amours [The Court of Love]

Blanziflor et Helena [Blancheflour and Helen]

Fortuna imperatrix mundi

Dashon Burton, bass-baritone

Sonya Headlam, soprano

Brian Giebler, tenor

Milwaukee Symphony Chorus

Milwaukee Children’s Choir

The 2023.24 Classics Series is presented by the UNITED PERFORMING ARTS FUND and ROCKWELL AUTOMATION The length of this concert is approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes.

Guest Artist Biographies

MEGUMI KANDA

Megumi Kanda, principal trombone of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra since 2002, is an internationally acclaimed performer, teacher, and author.

Kanda has performed as a soloist across the U.S., Europe, and Asia, including with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Pershing’s Own Army Band, the U.S. Army Field Band, and the Prague Chamber Orchestra. She has commissioned and premiered works of numerous composers and has been a featured guest artist at many trombone workshops and festivals, including the International Trombone Festival and the American Trombone Workshop.

Kanda has appeared as guest faculty at numerous music institutions, including the New World Symphony, National Youth Orchestra, and Interlochen Arts Academy, and has given master classes and recitals across the U.S. and Asia.

In April 2006, Kanda was recognized by the Arion Foundation in Tokyo, Japan, as one of the most influential Japanese classical musicians. She has also received a Certificate of Commendation from the Consul General of Japan at Chicago in recognition for distinguished service contributing to the friendship between the U.S. and Japan. Kanda was named a 2017 Woman of Influence by the Milwaukee Business Journal in the category of education. In 2020, she was named the recipient of the International Trombone Association Award, which recognizes the highest level of creative and artistic achievement.

Kanda’s two books, The One Hundred (2015) and Trombone Unlimited (2020), are resources widely used by aspiring trombonists around the world.

As a JVC/Victor Entertainment artist, Kanda recorded three solo albums: Amazing Grace, Gloria, and Mona Lisa. She also can be heard on Magnifique Live, a live recording of Kanda and other JVC artists in the August 2005 performance at Takemitsu Hall in Tokyo’s Opera City.

A native of Tokyo, Japan, Kanda began to play the trombone at age 10 and continued her studies at the prestigious Toho High School of Music, where she studied with Sumio Miwa, formerly of the NHK Symphony. At age 15, she became the youngest player ever to be named as one of the top ten trombonists at the Japanese Wind and Percussion Competition. Two years later, she won the Grand Prize in the National Competition for Solo Trombone.

Kanda moved to the U.S. in 1994 and received a Bachelor of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with James DeSano, former principal trombone of The Cleveland Orchestra. Prior to joining the Milwaukee Symphony, she served as principal trombone of the Albany Symphony Orchestra, as a member of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, and on the faculty of the Eastman School of Music Community Education Division.

Kanda is proud to be a Greenhoe artist and performs on a Greenhoe trombone.

Guest Artist Biographies

DASHON BURTON

Hailed as an artist “alight with the spirit of the music” (Boston Globe), threetime Grammy-winning bass-baritone Dashon Burton has established a vibrant career appearing regularly throughout the U.S. and Europe. Highlights of his 2023.24 season include multiple appearances with Michael Tilson Thomas, including a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the San Francisco Symphony and Copland’s Old American Songs with the New World Symphony. Burton also performs Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Washington Bach Consort, sings Handel’s Messiah with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and performs the title role in Sweeney Todd at Vanderbilt University. With The Cleveland Orchestra, Burton participates in a semi-staged version of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, and he joins the Milwaukee Symphony and Music Director Ken-David Masur for three subscription weeks as their artistic partner.

Last season, Burton returned to The Cleveland Orchestra for Schubert’s Mass No. 6 with Franz Welser-Möst in Cleveland and at Carnegie Hall; to the Houston Symphony for Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex with Juraj Valčuha; and to the New York Philharmonic for Michael Tilson Thomas’s Meditations on Rilke, led by the composer. Debut appearances included Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra led by Ken-David Masur, the world premiere of Chris Cerrone’s The Year of Silence with the Louisville Orchestra led by Teddy Abrams, and Dvořák’s Requiem with the Richmond Symphony. In summer 2023, Burton appeared at Tanglewood and Caramoor in critically acclaimed performances of Handel’s Acis and Galatea with Philharmonia Baroque. He continues his relationship with San Francisco Performances as an artist-in-residence with appearances at venues and educational institutions throughout the Bay Area.

A multiple award-winning singer, Burton won his second Grammy Award in March 2021 for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album with his performance featured in Dame Ethyl Smyth’s masterwork The Prison with The Experiential Orchestra (Chandos). As an original member of the groundbreaking vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth, he won his first Grammy Award in 2013 for their inaugural recording of all-new commissions, and his third Grammy Award in 2024 for their most recent recording, Rough Magic, featuring more new commissions from Caroline Shaw, William Brittelle, Peter Shin, and Eve Beglarian.

His other recordings include Songs of Struggle & Redemption: We Shall Overcome (Acis), the Grammy-nominated recording of Paul Moravec’s Sanctuary Road (Naxos), Holocaust, 1944 by Lori Laitman (Acis), and Caroline Shaw’s The Listeners with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. His album of spirituals garnered high praise and was singled out by The New York Times as “profoundly moving…a beautiful and lovable disc.”

Burton received a Bachelor of Music degree from Oberlin College and Conservatory and a Master of Music degree from Yale University’s Institute of Sacred Music. He is an assistant professor of voice at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music.

Guest Artist Biographies

SONYA HEADLAM

With a voice described as “golden” (Seen and Heard International), soprano Sonya Headlam performs music that spans from the 16th century to the present. Recent highlights include solo appearances with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Apollo’s Fire, the North Carolina Symphony, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, among others. She contributes to the vibrant music ministry of the historic Trinity Church in downtown Manhattan, New York City, as a member of the Grammy-nominated Choir of Trinity Wall Street.

Headlam connects with audiences through a variety of repertoire and settings, ranging from singing Renaissance motets in chapels to performing recitals in intimate settings, as well as the concert hall and opera stage. She is passionate about contemporary music in addition to the core repertoire, and she champions the works of lesser-known composers from history who have made noteworthy contributions to our musical heritage. This season, Headlam performed several solo recitals, including a performance at the 2024 MTNA National Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, which featured the music of composers of African heritage from the 18th century to the present. Equally at home on the opera stage, Headlam has delighted audiences with her portrayals of characters such as le Feu in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges, Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, the title role in Delibes’s Lakmé, and Musetta in Puccini’s La bohème.

Looking forward to the 2024.25 season, Headlam will return to her home state of Ohio to perform Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the Akron Symphony Orchestra. She will also make her debut with the New Jersey Symphony in her current home state, singing Handel’s Messiah.

BRIAN GIEBLER

Praised for his “lovely tone and deep expressivity” by The New York Times, Grammy-nominated tenor Brian Giebler radiates “shine and clarity” (Opera News) in every phrase using “his high-placed tenor with great skill” (Opera Magazine). His debut solo album, A Lad’s Love, garnered high praise from Gramophone, Opera News, and San Francisco Classical Voice, and earned him his first Grammy Award nomination for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album. “The sweetness of Giebler’s impressive high tenor” and his “expressive and elegant phrasing” (Cleveland Classical) have been heard as Apollo/Chorus in Handel’s Semele with The English Concert and the Clarion Music Society with Harry Bicket; Stravinsky with The Cleveland Orchestra; Adam in REV 23 at the Prototype Festival; Arnalta in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea with Boston Baroque; Evangelist in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with Trinity Wall Street; Bach’s Cantatas with the Grand Rapids Symphony and Handel & Haydn Society; Handel’s Messiah with Music of the Baroque (available on recording), Seoul Metropolitan Chorus, and the Charlotte, Rhode Island, Memphis, and Virginia symphonies; Aeneas in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with Atlanta Baroque Orchestra; Haydn’s The Creation with Santa Fe Pro Musica; Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra; and on stage with Boston Modern Orchestra Project and Boston Early Music Festival. Other highlights included a tour of the Ravinia and Caramoor Festivals with Apollo’s Fire, and Handel’s L’Allegro, il Penseroso with Mark Morris Dance Group (BAM). www.briangiebler.com

Guest Artist Biographies

MILWAUKEE CHILDREN’S CHOIR

Milwaukee Children’s Choir (MCC) is Southeastern Wisconsin’s premier youth choir. Founded in 1994 by Emily Crocker, MCC has been delighting audiences throughout our city and around the country through in-person concerts, online video performances, and live streams. We provide children ages four through 18 with exceptional choral music education and performance experiences that foster creativity, personal expression, and social growth.

As an audition-based, advanced children’s choral music program, MCC is known for our collaborations and relationships with local arts organizations. MCC has collaborated with Danceworks for MCC’s Sing Me A Story Concert, performed with Bel Canto Chorus in their Christmas in the Basilica concerts, and continues to perform with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra for their annual educational program, ACE (Arts in Community Education). In previous seasons, MCC created artworks that were displayed in Milwaukee’s City Hall with Walker’s Point Center for the Arts for MCC’s Force for Good concert, organized a donation drive to the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Milwaukee during the Give Thanks concert, and volunteered at the Urban Ecology Centers for the Brilliant Earth concert. This year, MCC continues collaborating with the MSO, Florentine Opera, and Danceworks for our 30th Anniversary Season.

Milwaukee Children’s Choir is a proud member of American Choral Directors Association, Wisconsin School Music Association, and Chorus America.

RACHEL MAKI, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Rachel Maki has educated students of all levels throughout Michigan, New Jersey, and Wisconsin. As an advocate of music education, Maki led a Wisconsin school to receive the 2014 Grammy Select Schools Enterprise Award, an award given to high schools that are retaining their music programs despite budgetary limitations. Maki has served the Milwaukee Children’s Choir for eight years, finishing her fourth season as artistic director.

Maki holds a Bachelor of Music Education from Northern Michigan University and a Master of Music with distinction from Westminster Choir College, New Jersey. While at Westminster, she was a member of the Grammy-nominated Westminster Williamson Voices and studied conducting with Dr. James Jordan, Dr. Joe Miller, and Dr. Amanda Quist. She has performed with many notable groups, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, New Jersey Symphony, and Vienna Philharmonic. She has also performed at New York City’s Apollo Theater and at Carnegie Hall.

Program notes by Elaine Schmidt

CARLOS SIMON

Born 13 April 1986; Washington, D.C.

Fate Now Conquers

Composed: 2020

First performance: 8 October 2020; Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor; Philadelphia Orchestra

Last MSO performance: MSO Premiere

Instrumentation: flute; piccolo; 2 oboes; 2 clarinets; 2 bassoons; 2 horns; 2 trumpets; timpani; strings

Approximate duration: 5 minutes

Grammy-nominated, multi-genre composer and performer Carlos Simon is the composer in residence for the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. and holds the inaugural Boston Symphony Orchestra Composer Chair. A native of Atlanta and the son of a preacher, Simon counts a gospel mass scheduled for performance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in April 2025 among his upcoming premieres. He has written music for large and small ensembles, as well as film scores, combining influences of jazz, gospel, and neo-romanticism, and often finds musical inspiration in the written word. Also a performer, he serves as music director and pianist for American singer-actress Jennifer Holliday.

Simon explained Fate Now Conquers in a program note, explaining that the piece has its roots in the words and music left us by Ludwig van Beethoven:

This piece was inspired by a journal entry from Ludwig van Beethoven’s notebook written in 1815: ‘Iliad, The Twenty-Second Book But Fate now conquers; I am hers; and yet not she shall share In my renown; that life is left to every noble spirit And that some great deed shall beget that all lives shall inherit.‘

Using the beautifully fluid harmonic structure of the second movement of Beethoven’s seventh symphony, I have composed musical gestures that are representative of the unpredictable ways of fate. Jolting stabs, coupled with an agitated groove with every persona. Frenzied arpeggios in the strings that morph into an ambiguous cloud of freeflowing running passages depict the uncertainty of life that hovers over us.

We know that Beethoven strived to overcome many obstacles in his life and documented his aspirations to prevail, despite his ailments. Whatever the specific reason for including this particularly profound passage from the Iliad, in the end, it seems that Beethoven relinquished to fate. Fate now conquers.

TAN DUN

Born 18 August 1957; Changsha, China

Three Muses in Video Game for Trombone and Orchestra

Composed: 2021

First performance: 5 November 2021; Shiyeon Sung, conductor; Jörgen van Rijen, trombone; Concertgebouw Orchestra

Last MSO performance: MSO Premiere

Instrumentation: 2 flutes; piccolo; 2 oboes; English horn; 2 clarinets; bass clarinet; 2 bassoons; contrabassoon; 4 horns; 3 trumpets; 2 trombones; bass trombone; tuba; timpani; percussion (bass drum, conga drum, crash cymbal, drum set, glockenspiel, paigu, marimba, mark tree, slapstick, snare drum, suspended cymbals, taiko drum, tam-tam, tom-tom, triangle, tubular bells, vibraphone, water drips, waterphone, wind chime); harp; strings

Approximate duration: 22 minutes

Born in the Hunan province of China and now living in New York City, Chinese American composer Tan Dun is known for deftly combining elements of Chinese and Western culture and sounds in his music. He also combines the unusual: elements of nature, history, and modern life in his music — or at least the sounds of those elements, from traditional Chinese instruments to cell phones, and sounds that would have been produced by ancient Chinese instruments that no longer exist. He has incorporated audiovisual technology into his pieces, as well as elements of traditional Chinese theater and cultural rituals. Among his accolades are an Academy Award and a Grammy Award, both for his score for Ang Lee’s film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Tan Dun’s cryptically titled Three Muses in Video Game is a trombone concerto that is built of three movements, each of which is named for an ancient Chinese musical instrument: the bili, the xiqin, and the sheng. He has explained that the piece was inspired by Dunhuang, “an ancient outpost along the Silk Road, where generations of monks and pilgrims carved shrines out of the rock and painted the cliffs. They are known today as the Morgan Cliffs.” Tan Dun worked with a Chinese company to research and build the instruments in the paintings.

In the concerto, he continued, “I have chosen three of the ancient instruments, cultural relics that are in danger of disappearing. They became my three muses and represent a dialog between past and present. Between past and future. Between reality and imagination.” Although it is not based on an actual video game, he has said, “There is a link to our history, our old legends and stories.” If you hear elements of humor in the piece, don’t worry — several critics have heard humor, as well.

CARL ORFF

Born 10 July 1895; Munich, Germany

Died 29 March 1982; Munich, Germany

Carmina Burana

Composed: 1935 – 1936

First performance: 8 June 1937; Bertil Wetzelsberger, conductor; Oper Frankfurt Last MSO performance: 23 June 2019; Francesco Lecce-Chong, conductor; Sarah Shafer, soprano; Derek Stark, tenor; Hugh Russell, baritone; Milwaukee Symphony Chorus; Milwaukee Children’s Choir Instrumentation: 3 flutes (2nd doubling on 2nd piccolo, 3rd doubling on 1st piccolo); 3 oboes (3rd doubling on English horn); 3 clarinets (2nd doubling on E-flat clarinet, 3rd doubling on bass clarinet); 2 bassoons; contrabassoon; 4 horns; 3 trumpets; 3 trombones; tuba; timpani; percussion (bass drum, castanets, chimes, cymbals, finger cymbals, glockenspiel, ratchet, sleigh bells, snare drum, suspended cymbals, tam-tam, tambourine, triangle, xylophone); celeste; 2 pianos; strings

Approximate duration: 59 minutes

We would probably only know German composer Carl Orff for his still-popular music education method (built around children’s instinctive need to move to music) were it not for his selfdescribed “scenic cantata,” Carmina Burana. The powerful piece captivated audiences from the beginning, making its way into film and television scores, and making it one of the most-oftenperformed choral pieces in the world. Its 1937 German premiere was followed by a U.S. premiere in 1954. Olin Downes, music critic for The New York Times for many years of the 20th century, wrote that the piece was “one of the most fascinating and delightful choral works that this century has produced, on either side of the water.”

Carmina feels like a meant-to-be creation, given the number of unrelated, random events that led Orff to discover the text he would use for the piece. It is based on a collection of secular poems, mostly written in the 11th–13th centuries by what amounts to the vagabond hippies of that era. Thought for centuries to be lost, the collection turned up in 1803, in a Bavarian Benedictine abbey that was shutting down. The collection was published in 1847 as Carmina Burana, which is translated as “Songs of Beuren,” referring to the region in which the abbey had been located. Written in Latin, with bits of Old French, Middle High German, and plenty of bawdiness tossed in, the poems deal with the delights and dangers of gambling, gluttony, drinking, and the sorrows of love. They also cover a topic upon which we can all agree: the unbridled joy one feels at the return of spring.

Orff stumbled upon the book about 88 years later while browsing in a shop in Germany. Fascinated, he created his most famous, most roof-raising piece, using once-forgotten poems, some dating back nearly a thousand years.

2023.24 SEASON

KEN-DAVID MASUR

Music Director

Polly and Bill Van Dyke

Music Director Chair

EDO DE WAART

Music Director Laureate

RYAN TANI

Assistant Conductor

CHERYL FRAZES HILL

Chorus Director

Margaret Hawkins Chorus Director Chair

TIMOTHY J. BENSON

Assistant Chorus Director

FIRST VIOLINS

Jinwoo Lee, Concertmaster, Charles and Marie Caestecker Concertmaster Chair

Ilana Setapen, First Associate Concertmaster

Jeanyi Kim, Associate Concertmaster

Alexander Ayers

Yuka Kadota

Elliot Lee**

Ji-Yeon Lee

Dylana Leung

Kyung Ah Oh

Lijia Phang

Yuanhui Fiona Zheng

SECOND VIOLINS

Jennifer Startt, Principal, Andrea and Woodrow Leung Second Violin Chair

Timothy Klabunde, Assistant Principal

John Bian, Assistant Principal (3rd chair)

Glenn Asch

Lisa Johnson Fuller

Paul Hauer

Hyewon Kim

Alejandra Switala**

Mary Terranova

VIOLAS

Robert Levine, Principal, Richard O. and Judith A. Wagner Family Principal Viola Chair

Georgi Dimitrov, Assistant Principal (2nd chair), Friends of Janet F. Ruggeri Viola Chair

Samantha Rodriguez, Assistant Principal (3rd chair)

Alejandro Duque, Acting Assistant Principal (3rd chair)

Elizabeth Breslin

Nathan Hackett

Erin H. Pipal

Helen Reich

CELLOS

Susan Babini, Principal, Dorothea C. Mayer Cello Chair

Nicholas Mariscal, Assistant Principal*

Shinae Ra, Acting Assistant Principal (2nd chair)

Scott Tisdel, Associate Principal Emeritus

Madeleine Kabat

Peter Szczepanek

Peter J. Thomas

Adrien Zitoun

BASSES

Jon McCullough-Benner, Principal, Donald B. Abert Bass Chair*

Andrew Raciti, Acting Principal

Nash Tomey, Acting Assistant Principal (2nd chair)

Brittany Conrad

Teddy Gabrieledes**

Peter Hatch*

Paris Myers

HARP

Julia Coronelli, Principal, Walter Schroeder Harp Chair FLUTES

Sonora Slocum, Principal, Margaret and Roy Butter Flute Chair

Heather Zinninger, Assistant Principal

Jennifer Bouton Schaub

PICCOLO

Jennifer Bouton Schaub

OBOES

Katherine Young Steele, Principal, Milwaukee Symphony League Oboe Chair

Kevin Pearl, Assistant Principal

Margaret Butler

ENGLISH HORN

Margaret Butler, Philip and Beatrice Blank English Horn Chair in memoriam to John Martin

CLARINETS

Todd Levy, Principal, Franklyn Esenberg Clarinet Chair

Benjamin Adler, Assistant Principal, Donald and Ruth P. Taylor Assistant Principal Clarinet Chair*

Taylor Eiffert*

Madison Freed**

E-FLAT CLARINET

Benjamin Adler*

BASS CLARINET

Taylor Eiffert*

Madison Freed**

BASSOONS

Catherine Van Handel, Principal, Muriel C. and John D. Silbar Family Bassoon Chair

Rudi Heinrich, Assistant Principal

Beth W. Giacobassi

CONTRABASSOON

Beth W. Giacobassi

HORNS

Matthew Annin, Principal, Krause Family French Horn Chair

Krystof Pipal, Associate Principal

Dietrich Hemann, Andy Nunemaker

French Horn Chair

Darcy Hamlin

Kelsey Williams**

TRUMPETS

Matthew Ernst, Principal, Walter L. Robb Family Trumpet Chair

David Cohen, Associate Principal, Martin J. Krebs Associate Principal

Trumpet Chair

TROMBONES

Megumi Kanda, Principal, Marjorie Tiefenthaler Trombone Chair

Kirk Ferguson, Assistant Principal

BASS TROMBONE

John Thevenet, Richard M. Kimball

Bass Trombone Chair

TUBA

Robyn Black, Principal, John and Judith Simonitsch Tuba Chair

TIMPANI

Dean Borghesani, Principal

Chris Riggs, Assistant Principal

PERCUSSION

Robert Klieger, Principal

Chris Riggs

PIANO

Melitta S. Pick Endowed Piano Chair

PERSONNEL MANAGER

Françoise Moquin, Director of Orchestra Personnel

Paris Myers, Hiring Coordinator

LIBRARIANS

Paul Beck, Principal Librarian, Anonymous Donor, Principal Librarian Chair

Matthew Geise, Assistant Librarian & Media Archivist

PRODUCTION

Tristan Wallace, Production Manager/ Live Audio

* Leave of Absence 2023.24 Season

** Acting member of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra 2023.24 Season