Monterey Symphony 80th Anniversary Program Book

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CONTENTS

Letter from Jayce

Season At-a-Glance

2025-2026 Special Events

Monterey Symphony Orchestra

Jayce Ogren Biography

OCTOBER

Saxophone Concerto Program

Timothy McAllister Biography Program Notes

NOVEMBER

Piano Concerto Program

Orion Weiss Biography Program Notes

FEBRUARY

MSO Singers Program Program Notes

Violin Concerto Program

Stefan Jackiw Biography Program Notes

Clarinet Concerto Program

Mariam Adam Biography Program Notes

MAY

USA 250 Program Program Notes

Christopher Anderson-Bazzoli Biography

Symphony Board & Administration

Donor List

“These concerts are especially full of iconic pieces, including many symphonies that count among my absolute favorites.”

Welcome to another thrilling season with the Monterey Symphony!

I feel so privileged to be part of this orchestra’s history, from its community-driven beginnings to its present-day professionalism, virtuosity and dynamism. This orchestra is thriving, and we’re thrilled that you’ve joined us. Long live the Monterey Symphony!

We’re marking this significant anniversary by presenting two world premieres and two co-commissioned works. Music is a living, ever-renewing art form, and in commissioning new pieces I hope to bring you a taste of the now—the RIGHT NOW! —and to add brilliant, important works to the orchestral repertoire. I’m particularly excited that we will open our season with the world premiere of Anemology by Steven Mackey, a saxophone concerto for renowned soloist Timothy McAllister. Premieres by Marina López, Sarah Kirkland Snider and our composer-in-residence, John Wineglass, will also be high points of the season.

These concerts are especially full of iconic pieces, including many symphonies that count among my absolute favorites. Rachmaninoff’s Second, Bruckner’s Ninth and Sibelius’ Seventh all look at Romanticism from different perspectives, and speak eloquently, sensitively to the human condition. It’s hard to argue against calling Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, Eroica, the greatest of all time, and its power is just as potent today.

I want you to hear soloists of the highest order on our concerts, and I’m so pleased that clarinetist (and Monterey native) Mariam Adam and violinist Stefan Jackiw will be making their Monterey Symphony debuts. We also look forward to the launch of the Monterey Symphony Singers, a professional choral ensemble to be featured on our February concerts.

Thank you for sharing your love of music with us and enjoy the season!

Yours,

Nurturing, Supporting, and Promoting the arts.

2025-2026 Symphony Season

SUNSET CENTER, CARMEL

Season Sponsor – Bertie Bialek Elliott Commissioned works – The Robert and Virginia Stanton Endowment

OCTOBER 18, 2025

7:30pm

OCTOBER 19, 2025

3:00pm

Timothy McAllister saxophone

NOVEMBER 22, 2025

7:30pm

NOVEMBER 23, 2025 3:00pm

Orion Weiss piano

FEBRUARY 21, 2026 7:30pm

FEBRUARY 22, 2026 3:00pm

Monterey Symphony Singers choir

MARCH 21, 2026

7:30pm MARCH 22, 2026 3:00pm

Stefan Jackiw violin

APRIL 18, 2026 7:30pm

APRIL 19, 2026 3:00pm

Mariam Adam clarinet

Mark Your Calendars!

2026-2027 Subscription Renewals – April 1, 2026

Love Letter Tickets On Sale – May 16, 2026

Single Tickets On Sale – July 15, 2026

Media Sponsors

MAY 16, 2026 7:30pm

MAY 17, 2026 3:00pm

Season Finale!

Mark Kooiman, CFP®, AAMS®, AIF®, CPFA®
Spencer Lloyd, CFP®, AIF®
Zach Harney, CFP®, AIF®, CIMA®
Cris Cabanillas, CFP®, AIF®, CIMA®
Gary Alt, CFP®, AIF®
Steve Merrell, CFP®, AIF®
Hannah Rogge, CFP®, AIF®, CIMA®

2025-2026 Special Events

SUNSET CENTER, CARMEL

Christopher Anderson-Bazzoli, featuring various artists

Saturdays – 6:30-7:00pm

Sundays – 2:00-2:30pm

POST-CONCERT TALK

Jayce Ogren and guest artists

Immediately following the concerts in November,

SATURDAY

PRE-CONCERT PARTIES

Season Opening Party

October 18, 2025

6:00-7:30pm

Sunset Center Lobby

Youth Arts Night

February 21, 2026

6:00-7:30pm

Studio 105, Sunset Center

8th Annual Women’s Night Out

March 21, 2026

6:00-7:30pm

Studio 105, Sunset Center

KAZU Member Night

April 18, 2026

6:00-7:30pm

Studio 105, Sunset Center

SUNDAY LOBBY SESSIONS

1:30-1:50pm

Sunset Center Lobby

October 19

Anne Ranzani, Principal bassoon

November 23

Sarah Bonomo, Principal clarinet

February 22

Dawn Walker, Principal flute

March 22

Dan Nebel, Principal horn

April 19

Frank Wyant, Principal percussion

May 17

Christina Mok, Concertmaster & Eric He, Principal timpani

BACKGROUND

MISSION

WACMB objective is to raise the standard of public awareness and encourage dialogue regarding global issues.

e Council is not an advocacy group, nor does it endorse any speci c foreign or domestic policy. Rather, through timely lectures and discussion groups, critical and philosophical viewpoints are encouraged from presenters and attendees during event and discussion sessions.

The Orchestra

MUSIC DIRECTOR

Jayce Ogren

Sponsored by Shari and Mark Lasher,

Herschel Loomis, Sherrie McCullough, and Joanne Church Taylor

VIOLIN I

Christina Mok, Concertmaster

Sponsored by Gary and Carolyn Bjorklund

Thomas Yee, Associate Concertmaster

Sponsored by Chris McCrum and Mira Katz

Xander Abbe

Allison Gigi Dang

Sponsored by Brenda Murdock

Claudia Fountain

Alexandros Gavriilidis-Petrin

Tina Minn

Jessica Poll

Sue-mi Shin

Jay Zhong

VIOLIN II

Zlata Grekov, Principal

Sponsored by Neal and Elaine Whitman

Lila Woolman, Assistant Principal

Sarah Chazin

Akiko Kojima

Calvin E. Lewis, Jr.

Sponsored by Diane Mall

Kevin Matson

Michelle Sheehy

Tingting Volonts

Eugenia Wie

Sponsored by Suzanne and Geoffrey Ashton

Shelby Yamin

VIOLA

Vladimir Khalikulov, Principal

David Allcott, Assistant Principal

Valerie Bengal

Fan Hu

Chad Kaltinger

Sarah Lee

Scot Moore

Alexander Volonts

CELLO

Robin Bonnell, Principal Sponsored by Maureen Sanders

Adelle-Akiko Kearns, Assistant Principal

Drew Ford

Nancy Kim

Linda Mehrabian

Isaac Pastor-Chermak

Saul Richmond-Rakerd

Sponsored by Maureen Sanders

Robin Snyder

Sponsored by Suzanne and Geoffrey Ashton

BASS

Bruce Moyer, Principal

Sponsored by Gary and Carolyn Bjorklund

Christy Crews, Assistant Principal

Robert Ryan Ashley

Christine Craddock

Richard Duke

Stan Poplin

FLUTE

Dawn Walker, Principal

Sponsored by Lloyd Nattkemper and Neal and Elaine Whitman

Teresa Orozco

Sponsored by Lloyd Nattkemper

PICCOLO/THIRD FLUTE

Kyounghee Park Uhm, Principal

OBOE

Bennie Cottone, Principal

Stephen Henry

ENGLISH HORN/THIRD OBOE

Ruth Stuart Burroughs, Principal

Sponsored by Alan Mason and Timothy Rodrigues

CLARINET

Julia Sarah Bonomo, Principal

Sponsored by Alan Mason and Timothy Rodrigues

James Pytko

BASS CLARINET/ THIRD CLARINET

Jeff Anderle, Principal

BASSOON

Anne Ranzani, Principal

Nicolasa Kuster

HORN

Daniel Nebel, Principal

Alicia Mastromonaco, Assistant Principal / Utility

Caitlyn Smith-Franklin

Sadie Glass

Sponsored by Kathryn and Ken Smith

Beth Zare

TRUMPET

Dylan Girard, Principal

Owen Miyoshi

Curtis Nash

TROMBONE

Phil Keen, Principal

Chase Waterbury

BASS TROMBONE/ THIRD TROMBONE

Will Baker, Principal

TUBA

Forrest Byram, Principal

TIMPANI

Zunhao Eric He, Principal

PERCUSSION

Frank Wyant, Principal

Victor Avdienko

James Kassis

HARP

Karen Julie Kirk, Principal

HARPSICHORD

Jonathan Salzedo, Principal

ASSOCIATE CONDUCTOR

Brad Hogarth

COMPOSER IN RESIDENCE

John Wineglass

Sponsored by Valera Lyles

MUSIC DIRECTOR EMERITUS

Max Bragado-Darman

TECHNICAL DIRECTORS

Pat Fitzsimmons - Sunset Center

Douglas Mueller - Forest Theater

Sponsored by Valera Lyles

RECORDING ENGINEER

Arman Boyles

programs to operatic world premieres, he is a leader in breaking down barriers between audiences and great music.

Mr. Ogren is Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Michigan, where he conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra, Contemporary Directions Ensemble and the Michigan Youth Symphony Orchestra. Additionally, he serves as Principal Guest Conductor of Philadelphia’s new music ensemble Orchestra 2001.

Mr. Ogren began his career as Assistant Conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra and Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, an appointment he held from 2006-2009. In the years since, he has conducted many of the world’s most prominent orchestras, including the BBC Symphony, Boston Symphony, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, the Dallas and San Francisco Symphonies, and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.

Among the numerous progressive projects Mr. Ogren has conducted are Basil Twist’s The Rite of Spring with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Lincoln Center; the world premiere of David Lang’s symphony for a broken orchestra, bringing together 400 amateur and professional musicians in Philadelphia; 30th anniversary performances of Frank Zappa’s The Yellow Shark with Orchestra 2001; and the world premiere of Jack Perla’s Shalimar the Clown at Opera Theatre of St. Louis.

For over a decade, Mr. Ogren has been closely associated with the Leonard Bernstein Office, conducting the New York premiere of Bernstein’s only opera, A Quiet Place, at Lincoln Center; the European premiere of the film with live orchestra version of West Side Story at London’s Royal Albert Hall; and the world premieres of new orchestrations of Fancy Free and Dybbuk with Lost Dog New Music Ensemble.

A longtime collaborator of singer/songwriter/composer Rufus Wainwright, Mr. Ogren conducted the U.S. premiere of his opera Prima Donna at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Scandinavian premiere at the Royal Swedish Opera, and led its recording with the BBC Symphony on Deutsche Grammaphon. Mr. Ogren and Mr. Wainwright have since appeared together throughout the world, with ensembles such as the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, the Orchestre national d’Île-de-France in Paris and the Toronto Symphony.

A devoted educator, he was invited by renowned poet Paul Muldoon to create an interdisciplinary studio class at Princeton University for the 2017-2018 academic year. He has worked with students at the Bowdoin International Music Festival, Brevard Music Center, Cleveland Institute of Music, the Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, Music Academy of the West and Verbier Festival. In 2016, he presented a unique workshop in orchestral rehearsal techniques for music teachers at Carnegie Hall in collaboration with the Carnegie Hall Weill Music Institute and the Juilliard School Pre-College.

As a composer, Mr. Ogren has received commissions from ensembles throughout the United States. His Symphonies of Gaia for symphonic wind ensemble has been performed extensively throughout the world, and is published by C. Alan Publications.

Jayce Ogren holds degrees from St. Olaf College, New England Conservatory and the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, where he studied as a Fulbright Scholar with Alan Gilbert and Jorma Panula. His wife, Carly Berger Ogren, is an architect, and together they have an adventurous 7-year old son, Alistair. An avid athlete, he has competed in the Big Sur, Boston and New York City marathons, the JFK 50 Miler trail run, and the Ironman Lake Placid triathlon. As an individual member of 1% for the Planet, Mr. Ogren is proud to connect his artistic work with his deep love of nature and concern for the environment.

Sponsored by Shari and Mark Lasher, Herschel Loomis, Sherrie McCullough, and Joanne Church Taylor

Jayce Ogren

OCTOBER 18 & 19, 2025

SUNSET CENTER, CARMEL

Sponsored by Lee and Shirley Rosen

Jayce Ogren, Music Director and Conductor Timothy McAllister, saxophone

The Star-Spangled Banner [running time 3’]

Anemology [20’]

Commissioned with the Seattle Symphony and the Utah Symphony

I. II. III. Spindrift Soughing Aeolian Howl

Music by John Stafford Smith (1750-1836) Lyrics by Francis Scott Key (1779-1843)

Steven Mackey (b. 1956)

INTERMISSION [20’]

Symphony No. 2 in E minor [50’]

I. II. III. IV. Largo – Allegro moderato Allegro molto Adagio Allegro vivace

Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)

The October concert will be rebroadcast on KAZU’s HD2 Classical station on November 8th and 9th, 2025, both at 4 PM.

Timothy McAllister

As guest soloist, other recent engagements include the symphonies of Albany, Buffalo, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Seattle, St. Louis, among many others. In 2022, he premiered John Corigliano’s Triathlon: Concerto for Saxophonist and Orchestra with Giancarlo Guerrero and San Francisco Symphony to widespread acclaim. 2023 featured the U.S. Premiere of Tyshawn Sorey’s Adagio (For Wadada Leo Smith) for alto saxophone and orchestra with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

A widely-respected teacher of his instrument, McAllister is Professor of Saxophone at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance, and he appears at summer festivals and courses worldwide. He holds degrees from the University of Michigan, having studied with legendary saxophonist, Donald Sinta.

Program Notes

October 18-19, 2025 – Concert Synopsis

THE SUMPTUOUS THEMES OF A RUSSIAN ROMANTIC unite with rock-infused saxophone riffs in our stirring season opener. Rachmaninoff’s supremely melodic Symphony No. 2 returns after Jayce Ogren made his brilliant Monterey Symphony debut with it in the spring of 2022. Trailblazing saxophonist Timothy McAllister also returns for the world premiere of Anemology, a concerto by GRAMMY-winning American composer Steven Mackey (whose Turn The Key we heard in Jayce’s debut season). Born from his background as a rock guitarist, Mackey’s music spins improvisatory motifs into large-scale works both grooving and dramatic.

Anemology (2025)

Commissioned with the Seattle Symphony and the Utah Symphony

Steven Mackey (b.1956)

GRAMMY-winning composer Steven Mackey describes his musical DNA as a combination of Igor Stravinsky and Led Zeppelin. Mackey’s composition training gave him a foundation in modernist techniques and the post-war avantgarde. He forged a unique voice by incorporating his early experience as a rock guitarist –embracing “blue” notes and free improvisation. This hybrid led to large scale works for electric guitar and ensemble, many of which Mackey performs himself. Notable examples include Troubadour Songs, a microtonal work for electric guitar and string quartet, and Tuck and Roll, a concerto for electric guitar and orchestra. Monterey Symphony performed his orchestral work Turn the Key in 2022.

Commissioned by the greatest orchestras and chamber ensembles around the world, Mackey has received several awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Kennedy Center Friedheim Award, among others. Since 1985 Mackey has served as a professor of music at Princeton University where he teaches composition, theory, twentieth century music, improvisation, and a variety of special topics.

Mackey provided the following program note for Anemology:

“Many composers are focused on sound, which is understandable since the common definition of music is “an art of sound in time.” (Dictionary.com). I like sound as much as the next composer, probably more than the average civilian, but it is the “in time” part that has preoccupied me. Or more specifically, the movement of sound through time.

It seems improbable that a vibrating column of air directed by a saxophonist through a brass tube to produce varying frequencies at varying intervals of time could make us feel anything … other than a breeze. The small movements of our ear drum can be assembled by the brain into a vivid sense of motion at varying speeds across varying topographies in varying viscosities and through portals to surprising new dimensions – an epic journey with concomitant emotional ups and downs along the way. The illusion of movement in music is magic!

Woodwinds including the saxophone are generally capable of speed, agility and a variety of color, and Tim McAllister, Anemology’s dedicatee, possesses a rare and special virtuosity which I’ve become familiar with through various collaborations over the past 20 years. His playing howls, grooves, flutters and flows like the wind.

Anemology, the science, is the study of air movement … and so is music. Music and wind are invisible except for the movement they cause. Anemology celebrates movement.

P.S. Writing this program note on the return flight from a ski trip brings to mind how two of my lifelong passions – skiing and music – have influenced each other. They are frequently metaphors for each other, and at the core they share a joy of motion and a dance with invisible forces like wind, gravity and tonality.”

Symphony No. 2 in E minor (1908)

Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)

“Music is the sister of poetry and her mother is sorrow,” Sergei Rachmaninoff once wrote. “I am burdened with a harvest of sorrow.” With this observation the composer seems to define his music’s essence: an ineffable longing and fatalism born of an artist who lived a life in exile from the homeland he loved. After Russia’s October Revolution of 1917, the eminent pianist, composer, and conductor lost his livelihood and

property and subsequently fled to the United States – first settling in New York and ultimately Los Angeles. All the way until his death in 1943, Rachmaninoff never learned English fluently. In his personal life and in his music, Rachmaninoff’s heart never left Russia.

In a time of radical musical innovation, Rachmaninoff stayed firmly rooted in the Late

Romantic style of Russian predecessors like Tchaikovsky. Similar to his Italian contemporary Ottorino Respighi, Rachmaninoff eschewed modernism and embraced his country’s musical heritage by incorporating ancient religious chants. As a child, Rachmaninoff attended services of the Russian Orthodox Church in Novgorod (near St. Petersburg) where the sound of tolling bells and resonant choirs made a lasting impression. In the case of choral works like Vespers, Rachmaninoff transcribed chants directly. In instrumental works like the Symphony No. 2 in E minor, he crafted themes that utilize the chants’ unique scales (or “modes”) and evoke their solemn character.

The Symphony No. 2 begins with a brooding motif in cellos and basses whose descending step-wise motion recalls the Dies Irae (“Day of Wrath”) chant. Rachmaninoff spins the motif into a complex web of rising and falling gestures culminating with an opulent, soaring theme in the violins. The spotlight stays on the violins through the lively Allegro moderato (“moderately fast”) section with a new minor-key theme that builds to a cataclysmic statement for brass and percussion. The energy dissipates for a reappearance of the Largo (“slow”) introduction leading to an extended coda that interweaves previous themes.

The second movement, Allegro molto (“very fast”), has a rapid pulse initiated by assertive French horns playing a new variation of the Dies Irae. A solo clarinet calms the atmosphere to reveal a yearning second theme in the violins. The horns announce a return to the heart-racing opening followed by a cymbal crash that ignites an imitative, fugal sequence for strings.

The third movement, Adagio (“slowly”), opens with two melodies that Rachmaninoff gives an indelible Russian pathos – first heard in violins and then in solo clarinet. The two themes become intertwined in an extended, poignant reverie that slowly builds in intensity. The energy calms with a series of fleeting solos in French horn, solo violin, English horn, and flute, and ends in a dark statement in the violas.

In a time of radical musical innovation, Rachmaninoff stayed firmly rooted in the Late Romantic style of Russian predecessors like Tchaikovsky.

The fourth movement, Allegro vivace (“fast and lively”), has a heroic, swashbuckling feel featuring a more aggressive version of the first movement’s brooding cello motive. The romantic Adagio theme makes a reappearance in the violins with imitative answers in the cellos. The fast tempo returns in an animated section (reminiscent of the scherzos of Mendelssohn) leading to a climactic ending of thunderous percussion and virtuosic orchestral flourishes.

Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2 premiered on January 26, 1908 at St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theater, conducted by the composer. In stark contrast to his poorly-received Symphony No. 1 in 1897, the Symphony No. 2 received widespread praise and reestablished Rachmaninoff as one of Russia’s finest symphonists.

NOVEMBER 22 & 23, 2025

SUNSET CENTER, CARMEL

Sponsored by Sherrie McCullough

Jayce Ogren, Music Director and Conductor Orion Weiss, piano

Dream Elegy [running time 8’]

Piano Concerto in A minor [30’]

I. II. III. Allegro Molto Moderato Adagio

Allegro moderato molto e marcato – Quasi presto –Andante maestoso

Jonathan Bailey Holland (b. 1974)

Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)

INTERMISSION [20’]

Symphony No. 9 in D minor [58’]

I. II.

III. IV. Feierlich, misterioso

Scherzo: Bewegt, lebhaft; Trio. Schnell

Adagio: Langsam, feierlich

Finale: Misterioso, nicht schnell

Anton Bruckner (1824-1896)

The November concert will be rebroadcast on KAZU’s HD2 Classical station on December 13th and 14th, 2025, both at 4 PM.

Orion Weiss

Sponsored by Carol Lee Holland

Known for his affinity for chamber music, Weiss performs at venues and festivals around the United States with such artists as violinists Augustin Hadelich, William Hagen and James Ehnes; pianists Michael Brown and Shai Wosner; cellist Julie Albers; and the Ariel, Parker, and Pacifica Quartets.

A native of Ohio, Weiss attended the Cleveland Institute of Music and made his Cleveland Orchestra debut performing Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in 1999. That same year, with less than 24 hours’ notice, Weiss stepped in to replace André Watts for a performance of Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Weiss’s awards include the Classical Recording Foundation’s Young Artist of the Year, Gilmore Young Artist Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant and more. His teachers include Paul Schenly, Jerome Lowenthal and Sergei Babayan. In 2004, he graduated from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Emanuel Ax.

Program Notes

November 22-23, 2025 – Concert Synopsis

SPANNING A WIDE RANGE OF EMOTION, this concert offers music both epic and intimate. Jolted to life by its famous opening chords, Grieg’s beloved Piano Concerto is the self-assured statement of Norway’s most famous musical son. The concerto continues to reign as an audience favorite and features brilliant piano soloist Orion Weiss. Anton Bruckner’s sprawling Symphony No. 9 is a passionate symphonic statement that produces what many call a “cathedral of sound.” The concert opens with American composer Jonathan Bailey Holland’s Dream Elegy, a work he describes as “a somber response to events related the #blacklivesmatter movement.”

Dream Elegy (2015) Jonathan Bailey Holland (b.1974)

Composer Jonathan Bailey Holland creates music deeply rooted in contemporary issues. “Across the board,” he says, “artists are feeling a need to respond somehow to everything that’s happening. Either to reflect on it, comment on it or make it more present.” Holland composed Dream Elegy in 2015 for wind ensemble (later adapting it for symphony orchestra) and calls the piece “a somber response to events related to the #blacklivesmatter movement.”

Dream Elegy unfolds as a plaintive chorale that builds intensity over its eight-minute duration. Beginning in the flute, the lead voice moves freely among diverse instrumental colors making it an elegy delivered by many voices. Tuba and trombone take up the chorale melody in a gradual build-up of harmonic complexity leading to an emotional crescendo for the full orchestra. Chiming notes in harp and glockenspiel bring moments of quiet reflection.

Originally from Flint, Michigan, Holland has received performances and commissions from organizations across the country and around the world. Recent orchestral works include Assemble for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Ode for the Cincinnati Symphony. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2022, Holland currently serves as Dean of the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University.

Piano Concerto in A minor (1868) Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)

on the Mothsgården Estate, a pastoral retreat in Søllerød, Denmark. It served as a welcome reprieve from a busy life performing and teaching in his home town of Bergen, Norway. In that idyllic atmosphere, the 24-year-old Grieg composed his first large scale work, the vibrant and affecting Piano Concerto in A minor. Trained at Germany’s Leipzig Conservatory, Grieg largely followed the Austro-German model provided by composers like Robert Schumann, whose own piano concerto (also in A minor) Grieg studied extensively. Grieg’s concerto distinguishes itself with a brilliant infusion of Norwegian folk music giving it an indelible regional character and an originality praised by another prominent German Romantic, Franz Liszt. After playing through the piano part, Liszt told Grieg: “You have what it takes and don’t let anyone scare you!”

The concerto opens with a bold A minor chord given sharp impact in the highest range of the solo piano. After descending to the bottom of its range in a sequence of aggressively accented gestures, the solo piano climbs out of the depths in lush, flowing

arpeggios. This pattern of marcato (“accented”) followed by legato (“flowing”) is a recurring feature of the movement. In the very next phrase, woodwinds introduce the main theme: a pointed, stately march with an expressive, lyrical second half. An embellished version of the piano introduction initiates the Animato (“animated”) section leading to a cantabile (“songlike”) second theme in the cellos.

One beloved feature of this concerto is its ability to combine dazzling virtuosity with moments of quiet repose. The placid Adagio movement begins with an extended poignant theme for strings played con sordino (“with mutes”) giving a hushed, gossamer quality to the sound. The theme suggests the influence of Frederic Chopin and anticipates Grieg’s later adagios such as “Åsa’s Death” and “Solveig’s Song” from his incidental music to the play Peer Gynt (a work performed by Monterey Symphony last season).

The third movement finale launches, without pause, into a vigorous Norwegian wedding dance called the halling. Interrupted momentarily by a tranquil flute theme, the energetic dance returns transformed into a springer – a similar folk dance, but with a waltz feel. The movement builds to a majestic statement of the tranquil theme for the full orchestra leading the concerto to its thrilling conclusion in a bright A major.

The Piano Concerto in A minor premiered on April 3, 1869 in Denmark’s capitol of Copenhagen, just a few miles from where it was composed. It became the first internationally-known piano concerto not to come from Austria or Germany and established Grieg as Norway’s most celebrated musical son.

Symphony No. 9 in D minor (1887-1896) Anton Bruckner (1824-1896)

Anton Bruckner’s monumental symphonies produce what one critic called “a cathedral of sound.” A devout Roman Catholic, Bruckner served as organist at the St. Florian Monastery just a few miles from Ansfelden, Austria, where he was born in 1824. Bruckner is one of music history’s late bloomers producing his first major work, the Symphony No. 1, at age 40 and achieving his first real success, the Symphony No. 7, at age 60. Since his death in 1896, Bruckner’s stature as a composer

has grown significantly due in part to the Symphony No. 9, a work he intended to be the summation of his life’s work and his ultimate statement in the genre.

When Bruckner began composing the Symphony No. 9 in 1887, he was already conscious of his declining health. Fearing “the curse of the Ninth,” the superstitious composer suspected this symphony, like Beethoven’s and Schubert’s, would

be his last. He completed three movements and extensive sketches for a fourth before passing away at age 72. Multiple scholars have orchestrated Bruckner’s sketches in an attempt to complete the symphony, but common practice now allows the third movement Adagio to be, musically speaking, Bruckner’s final word. The composer dedicated the work “to the beloved God” and later said: “If God takes my pen, it’s His responsibility.”

Bruckner is one of music history’s late bloomers producing his first major work, the Symphony No. 1, at age 40.

The first movement, Feierlich, misterioso, (“solemnly, mysteriously”) opens on the root note of D played in trembling, agitated strings – a possible reference to the same opening in Beethoven’s Ninth (also in D major). A solemn, powerful theme unfolds in the brass that embarks on the kind of mysterious tonal journey characteristic of Bruckner’s biggest influence, Richard Wagner. In this greatly expanded Classical sonata form, Bruckner develops not individual themes, but groups of themes, creating overlapping cycles that many interpret as Bruckner’s aspiration toward a spiritual, eternal sense of time. Sections of the form are often delineated by titanic themes in unison, that is, with the entire orchestra playing the melody together. It’s the kind of epic gesture that made Bruckner the target of critics in his day. Today it’s respectfully called Brucknerian.

The second movement Scherzo is marked Bewegt, lebhaft (“Moving, lively”). It opens with sustained woodwinds playing a harmonically-ambiguous chord known in music theory as “half-diminished seventh.” Historically, it’s Wagner’s iconic “Tristan chord” (from Tristan and Isolde), often cited as the birth of musical modernism. The chord is animated by a tiptoeing sequence of soft pizzicatos in the violins that builds to a thunderous stomp in the brass. An oboe introduces a light theme reminiscent of a Ländler – the Austrian folk dance that Gustav Mahler would later take up for his own symphonic scherzos.

Bruckner called the third movement Adagio a “farewell to life.” It marks the first appearance of the Wagner tuba, a brass instrument Wagner invented for his opera cycle The Ring of the Nibelung. Much smaller than the standard orchestral tuba, it is played as an alternate to the French horn and produces a brighter, more focused tone. The movement begins with an anguished upward leap in the violins that evolves into a lush, hymn-like theme in E major. The next section builds toward an apocalyptic vision culminating with a 10-note chord whose intense dissonance dissipates into silence. In the reflective coda, the oboe plays a meditative theme Bruckner borrowed from his sacred choral work Miserere (“Have mercy”) giving the movement, and the symphony, its final benediction.

FEBRUARY 21 & 22, 2026

SUNSET CENTER, CARMEL

Sponsored by Beverly Hamilton

Jayce Ogren, Music Director and Conductor

The Hebrides [running time 10’] with YMM Honors Orchestra

Ave verum corpus [4’]

Mass in G major [22’]

I. II.

III.

IV.

V.

VI.

Kyrie: Andante con moto

Gloria: Allegro maestoso

Credo: Allegro moderato

Sanctus: Adagio moderato

Benedictus: Andante grazioso

Agnus Dei: Lento

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

INTERMISSION [20’]

Symphony No. 104, “London” [29’]

I. II.

III.

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)

IV. Adagio – Allegro Andante

Menuetto and Trio: Allegro

Finale: Spiritoso

The February concert will be rebroadcast on KAZU’s HD2 Classical station on March 14th and 15th, 2026, both at 4 PM.

Program Notes

February 21-22, 2026 – Concert Synopsis

VOICES CARRY AT SUNSET CENTER when we are joined by the Monterey Symphony Singers for a concert of Classical and Romantic masters. Tonal waves crash on the rocks of the Scottish Isles in Felix Mendelsohn’s vivid concert overture The Hebrides. Composed for the Catholic Feast of the Corpus Christi, Ave Verum Corpus is a radiant gem and among a handful of works Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart completed in the final year of his life. Hear art song wunderkind Franz Schubert’s venture into sacred choral music in the sublime Mass in G major. The program concludes with a composer credited with inventing the symphony form: Franz Joseph Haydn and his propulsive Symphony No. 104, “London.”

The Hebrides (1832) Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

As a child, Felix Mendelssohn led a charmed life. Born in 1809 in Hamburg, Germany, Mendelssohn grew up in a cultured and intellectual family that enthusiastically supported his talent. While still a teenager, he became a celebrated piano prodigy and the composer of dozens of acclaimed works,

including Octet for strings and the Shakespeareinspired concert overture A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In 1829 the twenty-year-old Mendelssohn embarked on a tour of Scotland. Boating around the Hebrides islands, he and a friend took a small skiff to the mouth of Fingal’s Cave on the Isle of Staffa. The cave’s tall basalt columns amplified the Atlantic’s crashing waves and activated Mendelssohn’s imagination. “In order to make you understand how extraordinarily the Hebrides affected me,” he wrote in a postcard home, “I send you the following, which came into my head there.” Mendelssohn included the opening melodic motive of what would become his concert overture The Hebrides.

First heard in violas and cellos, the opening motive has the descending contour of a breaking wave. As the motive repeats and rises up through the orchestra, watery effects swirl in the lower strings punctuated by crashes in the timpani drum. Cellos and bassoons then introduce a longer cantabile (“songlike”) theme, one of Mendelssohn’s most beloved, followed by a

turbulent section that crests in fanfare-like statements for the brass. The tempo increases to a fast-paced torrent that leads to the overture’s powerful final chords followed by soft clarinet echoes and pizzicato strings that ripple on the shore.

Ave verum corpus (1791)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1843-1907)

numerous commissions with great success – from his operatic masterpiece The Magic Flute in the theater to the sublime Clarinet Concerto in the concert hall. However, an acute illness (believed to be rheumatic fever) began to take hold, and it became increasingly clear that he might not recover. That fear was realized when he passed away in December, still a young man of 35.

During the previous summer, Mozart felt well enough to travel from his home in Vienna to nearby Baden where his wife Constanze regularly visited a spa to improve her own health. In Baden, Mozart composed the motet Ave Verum Corpus for his friend Anton Stoll, a local choir master.

Mozart set the text of the Roman Catholic Eucharist, also known as Holy Communion, for the upcoming Festival of Corpus Christie. The original manuscript of Ave Verum Corpus has virtually no edit marks and appears to be an instance where Mozart (to quote Salieri in the film Amadeus) “simply wrote down music already finished in his head.”

Considered a miniature masterpiece, Ave Verum Corpus evokes an atmosphere of reverence. Marked in the score as sotto voce (“in a quiet voice”), it feels like a personal, rather than public, statement. Mozart gives the first phrase, “Hail, true body,” a profound simplicity with homophonic rhythm – that is, with the full choir enunciating the text together. On “having truly suffered,” words begin to separate and overlap, creating more emotional complexity. Mozart paints the image of Christ on the cross with a poignant dissonance on “latus” (“side”), characterizing the wound “from which blood flowed.” For the last phrase, male and female voices divide into counterpoint with an extended melodic melisma on the final word, “mortis” (“death”).

The

original manuscript of Ave Verum Corpus has virtually no edit marks and appears to be an instance where Mozart (to quote Salieri in the film Amadeus) “simply wrote down music already finished in his head.”

Mass in G major (1815)

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

composer celebrated his 18th birthday and produced an astonishing number of highly-regarded works including 140 Lieder (art songs), a string quartet, two piano sonatas, two symphonies, and two Masses. Schubert completed the Mass in G Major in just five days and premiered it at his family’s local church in Vienna’s Lichtenthal district. In contrast to his innovative Romantic Lieder, Schubert incorporated more conservative elements of stile antico (“old style”) in his early sacred works. The Mass in G Major often observes rules of strict counterpoint in accordance with Renaissance composers like Palestrina. It also displays a Classical elegance associated with Schubert’s hero, Mozart.

The Kyrie opens in a radiant G major for the full chorus on “Kyrie eleison” (“Lord, have mercy”) and journeys to a dark minor key for the soprano soloist’s answer “Christe eleison” (“Christ, have mercy”). The full chorus begins the Gloria in energetic praise, but separates into a dialogue with soprano and baritone soloists on the supplication “Miserere nobis” (“Have mercy on us”). The Credo features a slowly descending bassline often associated with lament in the masses of J.S. Bach. Schubert employs an imitative fugue on “Osanna in excelsis” (“Hosanna in the highest”) to emphasize the celebratory atmosphere of the Sanctus. The Benedictus begins as an aria for solo soprano, builds to a duet with tenor, and finally into a trio with bass, followed by recapitulation of the “Osanna” by the full choir. In the somber Agnus Dei, soloists and choir exchange phrases on “Miserere” ranging from tenderness to anguish. A yearning violin theme acts as a repeating refrain leading to a gentle G-major ending on “Dona Nobis pacem” (“Grant us peace”).

Symphony No. 104, “London” (1795) Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)

trips beginning in 1791 turned out to be his last. Symphony No. 104, “London,” is the last of the twelve and represents an apex in a genre that Haydn established as music’s most preeminent. Haydn accepted the invitation to travel to London from concert empresario Johann Peter Salomon after Haydn’s employer, Prince Nikolaus II, allowed Haydn to freelance from his duties at the Austrian Court of Esterházy. Haydn composed the Symphony No. 104 specifically for a benefit concert held in his own honor on May 4, 1795, at the King’s Theatre. “The whole company was thoroughly pleased,” Haydn wrote in his diary, “and so was I.”

Rhythmic drive and thematic clarity give this symphony a witty and inventive style – Haydn’s hallmark. It opens with two powerful declarations on the notes D and A, an “open fifth” interval that avoids defining either a major or minor key. Haydn’s soft answer in the low strings solves that mystery with a brooding D minor chord that initiates the Adagio introduction. The mood soon turns bright with a charming D major theme in a

brisk Allegro tempo. Classical form would normally dictate a contrasting second theme, but Haydn subverts expectations with a restatement of the first theme in the flute in the key of A major.

The Andante movement begins as a subdued, but stately, dance. Contrasting phrases move liberally between major and minor keys in both gentle and aggressive gestures. The movement is reminiscent of Haydn’s earlier Sturm und Drang (“Storm and Stress”) symphonies whose emotional extremes reflect an 18th Century German literary trend emphasizing the outward expression of innermost feeling.

The boisterous Menuetto features a waltz-like triple meter whose unexpected accents anticipate later symphonies by Haydn’s star student, Beethoven. Haydn again surprises the listener with playfully dramatic silences. A middle “Trio” section dances with a lighter step, but contains brief moments of melancholy.

The exuberant Finale features the melody of a Croatian folk song popular in London at the time, Oh Jelena. Haydn reinforces the folk spirit with a held bass note acting as a drone, suggesting a bagpipe or hurdy-gurdy. Orchestral virtuosity and fireworks abound in this fittingly celebratory movement capping the monumental career of a composer hailed as the “Father of the Symphony.”

MARCH 21 & 22, 2026

SUNSET CENTER, CARMEL

Sponsored by Bill and Nancy Doolittle

Jayce Ogren, Music Director and Conductor Stefan Jackiw, violin

Moño [running time 10’]

Moño was commissioned by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Orchestral Commissions Program, an initiative of the League of American Orchestras in partnership with the American Composers Orchestra.

Symphony No. 7 in C major [22’]

Marina López (b. 1991)

Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)

INTERMISSION [20’]

Violin Concerto in D major [29’]

I. II. III. Allegro moderato Canzonetta: Andante Finale: Allegro vivacissimo

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

The March concert will be rebroadcast on KAZU’s HD2 Classical station on April 11th and 12th, 2026, both at 4 PM.

Stefan Jackiw

VIOLIN

Sponsored by Lawrence G. Finch

In 2024, Jackiw returned to the New York Philharmonic to perform the Barber Concerto with Jaap van Zweden. His season also includes a quadruple World Premiere of new works at Roulette, performances with the Taiwan Philharmonic, China National Symphony, and the Junction Trio’s highly praised debut at Carnegie Hall.

Jackiw has performed in numerous major festivals and concert halls around the world, including the Aspen Music Festival, Ravinia Festival, Caramoor International Music Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, New York’s Mostly Mozart Festival, the Philharmonie de Paris, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, the Celebrity Series of Boston, and the Washington Performing Arts Society.

Born to physicist parents of Korean and Ukrainian descent, Stefan Jackiw began playing the violin at the age of four. His teachers have included Zinaida Gilels, Michèle Auclair, and Donald Weilerstein. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University, as well as an Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory, and is the recipient of a prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. Jackiw plays a violin made in 1705 by Vincenzo Ruggieri. He lives in New York City.

Program Notes

March 21-22, 2026 – Concert Synopsis

THIS PROGRAM FEATURES a beloved concerto, an elemental symphony, and an exciting world premiere. Called “brilliantly skillful and selflessly musical” (Financial Times), violin soloist Stefan Jackiw joins the orchestra for one of classical music’s greatest hits: Tchaikovsky’s mighty Violin Concerto, a work as grand as it is intimate. The orchestra traverses the vast landscapes of Symphony No. 7 by Finnish master Jean Sibelius, a work the composer called a “symphonic fantasia.”

The concert opens with Moño, a new work by Pittsburgh-based composer Marina López whose music explores the psychological, ethnomusicological, and physical roots of her musical heritage.

Moño (2025)

Marina López (b. 1991)

the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Orchestral Commissions Program, an initiative of the League of American Orchestras in partnership with the American Composers Orchestra.

Born and raised in Mexico City, composer Marina López explores the psychological, ethnomusicological, and physical roots of her musical heritage. Her orchestral work Moño embraces her roots through connections with cherished objects and family history. The Spanish word moño means “bow,” specifically the kind used when tying one’s hair or wrapping a gift. López describes the form of this piece as a visual representation of a bow: “It starts with a full spectrum orchestra and then uses fewer and fewer instruments until there’s a ‘knot’ in the middle. Then it keeps adding more instruments until it’s full spectrum again at the finale – so the form of the piece looks like a bow.” The three sections also represent a Classical sonata form – with an exposition, a development, and a recapitulation.

The style of Moño is influenced by music López associates with her maternal grandmother. “It has two sources of inspiration,” López says. “The bigger one is mambo music. My grandmother told us the story about how she would go and dance to this music

Moño was commissioned by

in Mexico City in the ‘50s where a lot of musicians would come in from Cuba. It was like a melting pot.” López’s other source of inspiration comes from Mexican films of the 1940s that she and her grandmother watched together. “The particular sound of the music in those movies is very saccharine – like a meringue pie,” she says. “I wanted to capture that feeling.”

Moño was selected for a commission by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation in association with the New York-based American Composers Orchestra. In addition to Monterey Symphony, the piece will be performed by four other orchestras around the country. Currently based in Pittsburgh, Marina López has received performances of her music by the Transient Canvas, the Chamber Orchestra of Pittsburgh, the Carnegie Mellon University Contemporary Ensemble, and counter) induction ensemble, among others. In September of 2024, the Grand Rapids Symphony premiered her orchestration of Clara Schumann’s Three Romances for Violin and Piano under maestro Marcelo Lehninger.

Symphony No. 7 in C major (1914-1924)

Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)

the most profound silence in musical history. Finland’s most famous composer, the 60-year-old Sibelius withdrew from public life to the country village of Järvenpää, outside of Helsinki, producing no new works before his death in 1957. The enigmatic and superbly-crafted Seventh Symphony represents one of his last completed pieces and became his valedictory statement in the genre.

Sibelius never set out to fulfill a conventional form for its own sake, but let his musical ideas develop into the form they seem to suggest. “As usual I am a slave to my themes and submit to their demands,” he once wrote. Composed intermittently over the course of a decade, Sibelius took his original four-movement concept and, in the end, created a three-movement structure combined into a single movement. He went so far as to premiere the piece with the title Fantasia sinfonica No. 1 in Stockholm, Sweden, on March 24, 1924. Despite its unconventional form, Sibelius eventually acknowledged it as a proper symphony. >>>

Sibelius (continued)

A timpani stroke initiates the slow, Adagio, introduction followed by an ascending scale in the cellos. Sibelius gives each note a dark echo in the basses. Woodwinds and French horns interrupt the scale with a dissonant chord that begins to subtly shift as if searching for solid harmonic ground. A pair of flutes provide relief with a playful gesture that lands in F major. A dramatic declaration in the trombone – a theme Sibelius named in the score “Aino,” after his wife – appears like a musical beacon delineating each of the three main sections. A nimble scherzo develops gradually after a long series of phrases marked poco affrettando (“a little hurrying”). Rising and falling string figures evoke the tundra of the Scandinavian landscape out of which the triumphant trombone theme signals the final section. Strings and woodwinds alternate in pastoral phrases as familiar motives continue their interplay. A long sequence of repeated notes builds to the climactic final appearance of the trombone theme. In a clever mirror-image of the introduction, the violins echo the basses during the crescendo to the symphony’s resounding conclusion in C major.

Sibelius spent another decade working on an Eighth Symphony, even promising it to conductor Serge Koussevitzky for performance at the Boston Symphony. He eventually abandoned the project and burned the manuscript, literally. The intensely self-critical composer may have said his peace. “If I cannot write a better symphony than my Seventh,” he wrote, “then it shall be my last.”

Violin Concerto in D major (1878) Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

Unprecedented in emotional depth and expressivity, the music of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky became Russia’s first truly significant musical export. Resonating widely beyond Russia’s borders, it achieved lasting popularity in Europe and the United States, and, today, remains among the world’s most performed classical music. It’s an especially impressive accomplishment considering music was not even a viable profession in Russia when Tchaikovsky was a child. Despite his clear musical gifts, Tchaikovsky trained for a career as a civil servant. At age 22, he left that path and enrolled at Russia’s first Music Conservatory in St. Petersburg in 1862.

Tchaikovsky composed the Violin Concerto in D major in 1878 while staying in the picturesque town of Clarens, Switzerland, on Lake Geneva. He travelled there from Moscow to recover from the painful breakup of his ill-advised marriage to Antonina Miliukova, an obsessive and star-struck student. As a gay man living in Tsarist Russia, Tchaikovsky took desperate actions throughout his life to keep his sexuality hidden from public view. Violinist Yosef Kotek, always trying to coax a concerto out of his friend Tchaikovsky, travelled to Clarens and the two played through works of the violin repertoire together – with Tchaikovsky at the piano. Their performance of French composer Édouard Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole, a violin concerto in all but name, inspired Tchaikovsky to begin his own concerto and Kotek enthusiastically remained in Clarens to help him workshop the solo violin part.

In order to quash any rumors about Tchaikovsky and Kotek’s relationship, the concerto was sent to Leopold Auer, violin professor at St. Petersburg Conservatory, who refused the premiere and deemed the violin part unplayable. Always pushing the envelope, Tchaikovsky got the same reaction three years prior from pianist Nikolai Rubinstein to

his Piano Concerto No. 1. In the end, violinist Adolf Brodsky rose to the challenge and premiered the concerto in Vienna on December 4, 1881. Despite receiving harsh reviews, Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D major quickly became a popular favorite and stands today as among the greatest concertos ever written.

The first movement, Allegro moderato, begins with Classical simplicity, but quickly blossoms into Romantic opulence. The solo violin enters unaccompanied before launching into the yearning first theme with gentle support from the strings. A buoyant transition of increasing virtuosity leads to a second theme marked in the score con molto espressivo (“with great expression”).

The development section opens with a marvelous exploration of the first theme in which the solo violin provides some of its own accompaniment –playing the lead voice and simultaneously jumping down to lower strings to fill in supporting harmony.

An extended solo violin cadenza showcases both themes and ends on a soft trill followed by a gentle

recapitulation of the first theme in the flute. The solo violin joins in for one of Tchaikovsky’s hallmark slow builds, taking clever harmonic excursions through multiple tempo accelerandos.

Tchaikovsky calls the second movement Canzonetta (“little song”), a form his hero Mozart used most famously in the aria Deh, vieni alla finestra (“Oh, come to the window”) from Don Giovanni. After an introductory woodwind chorale, the solo violin enters with the aria-like theme. The flute answers with an elaborate version of the opening phrase and guides the mood into a comforting E-flat major theme in the solo violin.

The orchestra provides a raucous introduction to the Allegro vivaccissimo (“Fast and very lively”).

A brief solo violin cadenza anticipates a galloping Trepak, a slavic dance form Tchaikovsky used most famously in the “Russian Dance” scene from his beloved Nutcracker ballet. The tempo suddenly slows as aggressive strokes in the cellos establish a new gypsy-flavored theme. Fast and slow tempos alternate throughout the finale as interplay among the woodwinds delivers a thrilling conclusion.

Tchaikovsky became Russia’s first truly significant musical export. Resonating widely beyond Russia’s borders, it achieved lasting popularity in Europe and the United States.

APRIL 18-19, 2026

SUNSET CENTER, CARMEL

Sponsored by

Sponsored by The William H. and Patricia M. Smith Family Foundation

Jayce Ogren, Music Director and Conductor Mariam Adam, clarinet

The Dog-Breath Variations and Uncle Meat [running time 6’]

Symphony No. 2 in D major [11’]

I. II. III. Allegro Andante Presto

DEMOCRACY: Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra [15’]

Frank Zappa, America Composer, fl. (1940-1993)

Joseph Boulogne (1745-1799)

John Wineglass (b. 1972)

INTERMISSION [20’]

Symphony No. 3 in Eb major “Eroica” [45’]

I. II. III. IV. Allegro con brio

Marcia funebre: Adagio assai

Scherzo: Allegro vivace

Finale: Allegro molto

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

The April concert will be rebroadcast on KAZU’s HD2 Classical station on May 9th and 10th, 2026, both at 4 PM.

Zappa, FZ, Frank Zappa and the Moustache are marks belonging to the Zappa Family Trust. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission.

Mariam Adam CLARINET

Mariam has over a dozen recordings that can be heard on E1 Classics, Steinway label, Warner Classics, Signum, and Orchid with her profile featured on NPR’s “Performance Today.” She has had works written for her by Valerie Coleman, Scott McAllister, and Fred O, with regular invitations to ClarFest, BUTI Tanglewood, YOLA, and Alarm Will Sound. Ms. Adam is a Vandoren and Paris Selmer Artist continuing to give masterclasses worldwide. She is a visiting professor at the Cleveland Institute of Music and is Professor of Clarinet at the Blair School of Music of Vanderbilt. She balances her time between Nashville and Paris. Her newest album will be released at the end of 2025 with Grammy-nominated composer of the year, Valerie Coleman, featuring chamber music from their 30-year friendship and collaborations.

Program Notes

April 18-19, 2026 – Concert Synopsis

FASCINATING HISTORIES MERGE in a program of eclectic rarities, a world premiere, and a heroic classic. Musical gadfly Frank Zappa took one of the themes from his band Mothers of Invention and created the electrifying symphonic work Dog Breath Variations. Joseph Boulogne, a French Chevalier of African descent, was the music instructor of Marie Antoinette, a champion fencer, and composer of the delightfully animated Symphony No. 2. Composer in residence

John Wineglass returns with another anticipated premiere: a new concerto called Democracy for versatile clarinetist Mariam Adam. The concert concludes with Beethoven’s iconic portrait of Napoleon: the gripping and revolutionary Symphony No. 3, “Eroica.”

The Dog-Breath Variations and Uncle Meat (1970) Frank Zappa, American Composer, fl. (1940-1993)

Zappa is best described in his own words, from The Real Frank Zappa Book: “One day I happened across an article about Sam Goody’s record store in Look magazine which raved about what a wonderful merchandizer he was. The writer said that Mr. Goody could sell anything—and as an example he mentioned that he had even managed to sell an album called Ionisation.” “The article went

on to say something like: ‘This album is nothing but drums—it’s dissonant and terrible; the worst music in the world’ Ahh! Yes! That’s for me!”

“I turned the volume all the way up (in order to get the maximum amount of ‘fi’) and carefully placed the all-purpose osmium-tipped needle on the lead-in spiral to ‘Ionisation.’ I have a nice Catholic mother who likes to watch Roller Derby. When she heard what came out of that little speaker at the bottom of the Decca, she looked at me like I was out of my fucking mind.”

“I bought my first Boulez album when I was in the twelfth grade: a Columbia recording of ‘Le Marteau Sans Maitre’ (The Hammer Without a Master) conducted by Robert Craft, with ‘Zeitmasse’ (Time-mass) by Stockhausen on the other side.”

“I didn’t know anything about twelve-tone music then, but I liked the way it sounded. Since I didn’t have any kind of formal training, it didn’t make any difference to me if I was listening to Lightnin’ Slim, or a vocal group called the Jewels […] or Webern, or Varèse, or Stravinsky. To me it was all good music.”

“What do you do for a living, dad? If one of my kids ever asked me that question, the answer would have to be: ‘What I do is composition.’ I just happen to use material other than notes for the pieces.” >>>

“A composer is a guy who goes around forcing his will on unsuspecting air molecules, often with the assistance of unsuspecting musicians. […] In my compositions, I employ a system of weights, balances, measured tensions and releases— in some way similar to Varese’s aesthetic. The similarities are best illustrated by comparison to a Calder mobile: a multicolored whatchamacallit, dangling in space, that has big blobs of metal connected to pieces of wire, balanced ingeniously against little metal dingleberries on the other end.”

“The orchestra is the ultimate instrument, and conducting one is an unbelievable sensation. Nothing else is like it, except maybe singing doo-wop harmony and hearing the chords come out right.”

“I find music of the classical period boring because it reminds me of ‘painting by numbers’. There are

Symphony No. 2 in D major (1779) Joseph Boulogne (1745-1799)

prejudice he faced as a biracial man. The son of a wealthy plantation owner and an enslaved African woman, Boulogne received extensive training in violin and composition. In 1769 he joined the violin section of Concert des Amateurs, a highly respected orchestra comprised of professionals and skilled amateurs. Four years later he became its music director, a position he held to great acclaim until 1781

certain things composers of that period were not allowed to do because they were considered to be outside the boundaries of the industrial regulations which determined whether the piece was a symphony, a sonata, or a whatever. All of the norms, as practiced during the olden days, came into being because the guys who paid the bills wanted the ‘tunes’ they were buying to ‘sound a certain way’”

“It’s all over, folks. Get smart—take out a real estate license. The least you can do is tell your students: ‘DON’T DO IT! STOP THIS MADNESS! DON’T WRITE ANY MORE MODERN MUSIC!’”

“‘Information is not knowledge, knowledge is not wisdom, wisdom is not truth, truth is not beauty, beauty is not love, love is not music. Music is the best.’” – Joe’s Garage, 1979

Boulogne’s fame extended well beyond music. American President John Adams called him “the most accomplished man in Europe in riding, running, shooting, fencing, dancing, and music.” At the outbreak of the French Revolution, Boulogne enlisted in the French army as a citizen-soldier and, after the war, went into hiding from the “Reign of Terror” because of his close association with his music student, Queen Marie Antoinette.

The three movements of Boulogne’s Symphony No. 2 in D major have the character of a French courtly dance built within a traditional Austro-German symphony form. The first movement, Allegro presto, opens in a fast triple meter and strongly establishes the first theme. The oboe offers a complimentary second theme as Boulogne juxtaposes piano (soft) and forte (loud) phrases – a new and thrilling orchestral effect in that era. The second movement, Andante, opens with alternating phrases in dark D minor and bright F major featuring imitative call and response gestures between upper and lower strings. The fast third movement has the galloping triplet feel of hunting music and features frequent imitation between the first and second violins.

DEMOCRACY: Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra World Premiere

John Wineglass (b. 1972)

In July of 2025, while still at work on Democracy, Monterey Symphony Composer-inResidence John Wineglass provided the following program note:

The title for my upcoming commissioned work, DEMOCRACY: Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra, reflects both a musical and philosophical commitment to dialogue, balance, and the collective voice. In a traditional concerto, the soloist often dominates as the “heroic” figure, but in this work, the clarinet doesn’t simply lead – it listens, responds, provokes, and occasionally steps back. The orchestra, rather than serving solely as accompaniment, functions as an equal participant. This dynamic is intended to mirror the principles of a thriving democracy: voices in conversation, tension resolved through cooperation, and individual expression within a greater collective. In naming the work Democracy, I aim to embody the values of open expression, creative collaboration, and the transformative power of civil discourse – all hallmarks both of democratic ideals and the communal experience of music. Ultimately, the title

is a statement and a question: What does it mean to hear each other? To share space? To struggle and still seek harmony? Through this concerto, I hope to invite both performers and audiences into that reflection — not as a political prescription, but as a musical exploration of the ideals and complexities of living, working, and creating together.

The clarinet itself – with its wide emotional range and versatility – serves as a powerful symbol for the many voices that make up a democratic society: at times lyrical, agitated, contemplative, or defiant. Through melodic gestures and rhythmic motifs – sometimes bold and assertive, sometimes tentative and questioning – the clarinet embodies the individual citizen: expressive, introspective, and capable of persuasion. Juxtaposing solo lines with ensemble responses illustrates the creative tension between individual voices and collective will.

Soloist Mariam Adam brings a unique voice as a performer, with a rich background in both classical and world music traditions. From the earliest stages of composition, we’ve engaged in some ongoing conversations about phrasing, articulation, tone color, and idiomatic writing for the clarinet. Because the work is titled Democracy, we will explore how her voice as a woman of color, Monterey native and internationally-recognized artist can reflect the soloist as a symbol of the individual in dialogue with society (represented by the orchestra). Our conversations have shaped how the clarinet navigates conflict, resolution, isolation, and unification – mirroring the civic experience. The natural beauty and cultural richness of the Monterey Bay region, coupled with the Monterey Symphony’s openness to new and socially engaged work, has shaped my voice as a composer committed to storytelling, place, and community. Whether I’m exploring themes of environmental stewardship, social justice, or personal reflection, I often write with the Monterey Symphony’s sound and ethos in mind.

Soloist Mariam Adam added the following:

“I think this collaboration with John is going to ‘birth’ a piece in the clarinet repertoire that’s going to speak to the versatile nature of the clarinet, encourage my love of chamber music and the dialogue it provides with musicians in all ensemble sizes, and pay homage to the foundation of democracy.”

Symphony No. in

Eb

major “Eroica” (1803) (1770-1827)

European audiences knew Ludwig van piano virtuoso and a gifted, if conventional, composer. The crisis of his oncoming deafness led to a personal transformation that was about change that. After confronting near suicidal despair chronicled in his famous Heiligenstadt Testament, Beethoven set out on one of history’s most impressive creative trajectories. Works like the Appasionata piano sonata, the Kreuzer violin sonata, and the Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Eroica, contained a new vitality and established Beethoven as a bold and progressive expanded the scope of the symphony genre. It’s a musical odyssey that influenced generations of composers and, many believe, christened the Romantic era.

Like the Wineglass clarinet concerto, the Eroica Symphony has the idea of democracy at its core. Beethoven composed it as a portrait of French revolutionary Napoleon Bonaparte, the composer’s ideal of an enlightened leader. In a somewhat apocryphal story, once Napoleon renounced democracy and declared himself Emperor of France on May 18, 1804, Beethoven violently scribbled out the original title Bonaparte and replaced it with Sinfonia Eroica (“Heroic Symphony”). Historians still argue about Beethoven’s true intentions for the dedication, but composer Igor Stravinsky brought the argument down to earth: “What does it matter if the Third Symphony was inspired by the figure of Bonaparte the Republican or Napoleon the Emperor? …It is only in the quality of his musical methods and not in the nature of his ideas that [Beethoven’s] true greatness lies.”

The first movement, Allegro con brio, opens with two bursts of an E-flat major chord. The cellos follow with a smooth waltz-like theme, aptly described by writer Michael Steinberg as “an E-flat chord flipped on its side.” As the theme

unexpectedly slides down to a dissonant C-sharp, an instability, both rhythmic and harmonic, unleashes a series of dramatic episodes. Beethoven disrupts the triple meter with insistent accents in patterns of two, a daring rhythmic syncopation at the time. Beethoven also diverges from tradition by introducing a new theme, heard in oboe in the remote key of E minor, in the middle of the development section. As the return of the home key approaches, a solo French horn enters with the first theme in E-flat major three bars before the rest of the orchestra. Hearing this at the symphony’s first rehearsal, Beethoven’s friend Ferdinand Ries turned to the composer and asked, “Can’t the damn hornist count!?” Beethoven did not forgive the remark for years. “I came pretty close to receiving a box on the ear,” Ries said.

Violins initiate the second movement, Marcia funèbre (“Funeral March”), with a C minor theme in their lowest, grittiest register. This kind of dirge often accompanied the funeral services of fallen military heroes and other state dignitaries. The woodwinds offer a brighter, more exalted second theme leading to a soft coda that brings the dynamic down to a whisper. The movement slowly builds back to a powerful close.

A hushed, nervous energy pervades the Scherzo movement as an oboe announces the nimble first theme. In this symphony, Beethoven expanded the French horn section from the traditional two players to three. They take center stage in, fittingly enough, the “Trio” section with fanfare-like figures and exciting hunting calls.

The Finale matches the scope and complexity of the first movement and serves as a culmination rather than the light flourish audiences would have expected in that era. Unique for a last movement, this theme–and–variations form operates in reverse. It starts with melodic fragments, beginning low in pizzicato basses, and gradually assembles the theme from its varied parts. It turns out to be a theme Beethoven borrowed from his own ballet score, The Creatures of Prometheus – one that he used again in a later piano work fittingly titled Eroica Variations.

MAY 16-17, 2026

SUNSET CENTER, CARMEL

Sponsored by Sponsored by Bill and Kathy Sharpe

Jayce Ogren, Music Director and Conductor

The Star-Spangled Banner [running time 3’]

Marmoris [8’]

Co-commissioned by University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance and the Monterey Symphony

Symphonic Dances from West Side Story [24’]

I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX.

Prologue (Allegro moderato)

Somewhere (Adagio)

Scherzo (vivace e leggiero)

Mambo (Meno Presto)

Cha-cha (Andantino con grazia) Meeting

Scene (Meno mosso)

Cool Fugue (Allegretto)

Rumble (Molto allegro)

Finale (Adagio)

Lincoln Portrait [14’]

Negro Folk Symphony [36’]

Music by John Stafford Smith (1750-1836)

Lyrics by Francis Scott Key (1779-1843)

Sarah Kirkland Snider (b.1973)

Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)

INTERMISSION [20’]

Aaron Copland (1900-1990)

William Dawson (1899-1990)

Hope in the Night O, Le’ Me Shine

I. II. III. The Bond of Africa

The May concert will be rebroadcast on KAZU’s HD2 Classical station on June 6th and 7th, 2026, both at 4 PM.

Program Notes

March 21-22, 2026 – Concert Synopsis

JAYCE OGREN’S INSIGHTFUL EXAMINATION OF AMERICAN MUSIC continues in this wide-ranging program exploring the musical character of the nation on the approach of its 250th birthday. The concert opens with a profound arrangement of our National Anthem by Italian-American composer Luigi Zaninelli. Sarah Kirkland Snider, a composer with “an unerring knack for breathtaking beauty” (The New Yorker), presents an anticipated new work, Marmoris – an ancient Latin word that means “the shimmering surface of the sea.” Next up is Leonard Bernstein’s effervescent Symphonic Dances from West Side Story followed by icon Aaron Copland’s Lincoln Portrait, narrated by surprise honorable guests from Monterey. The season concludes with William Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony, a 1934 work that reflects Black experience in America and has an enigmatic conclusion, representing an unresolved struggle.

The Star-Spangled Banner (1814)

Music by John Stafford Smith (1750-1836)

Arr. Luigi Zaninelli (b. 1932)

In recent seasons, the Monterey Symphony has performed America’s national anthem in multiple arrangements and interpretations. This concert

presents a unique and stirring arrangement from 1975 by Italian-American composer Luigi Zaninelli. Born in New Jersey in 1934, Zaninelli studied at the renowned Curtis Institute of Music with another Italian-American, Gian Carlo Menotti – composer of the popular Christmas opera Amahl and the Night Visitors..

Zaninelli’s arrangement of the anthem opens with a warm brass choir of French horns, trombones, and tuba. There is a tinge of darkness creating a sonic veil between the listener and the familiar melody. Light begins to enter in woodwinds and the bright bell tones of the glockenspiel. The increasing complexity between the lead melody and the inner voices brings a level of harmonic density that approaches jazz. The final strains build to full pomp and circumstance, including a dramatic drum roll and cymbal crashes befitting its ceremonial significance.

Marmoris (2025)

Co-commissioned by University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance and the Monterey Symphony

Sarah Kirkland Snider (b. 1973)

Based in Princeton, New Jersey, composer Sarah Kirkland Snider writes music of direct expression and vivid narrative that has been hailed as “rapturous” (The New York Times), “groundbreaking” (The Boston Globe), and “ravishingly beautiful” (NPR). Snider’s works have been commissioned by many distinguished orchestras and chamber ensembles including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, eighth blackbird, and Roomful of Teeth, among many

Orchestras bring together musicians from all different backgrounds and perspectives to listen to each other, empathize, and cooperate in the creation of a shared human experience that transcends political, cultural, and ideological differences.

others. Recent works include Forward Into Light for the New York Philharmonic, Drink the Wild Ayre for the renowned Emerson String Quartet, and Mass for the Endangered, a prayer for the environment for choir and ensemble that has been performed by dozens of choirs the world over. Her most recent recording is The Blue Hour, a multi-composer song cycle performed by vocalist Shara Nova (a frequent Snider collaborator), and Boston-based chamber orchestra A Far Cry.

Snider provided the following program note for Marmoris:

‘Marmoris’ is an ancient Latin word that means “the shimmering surface of the sea.”

Writing this piece in the months prior to the 2024 U.S. election, I found comfort in thinking about the world of the orchestra. Orchestras bring together musicians from all different backgrounds and perspectives to listen to each other, empathize, and cooperate in the creation of a shared human experience that transcends political, cultural, and ideological differences. The orchestra has often reminded me of an ocean in this way – a seemingly living, breathing thing consisting of myriad unique lifeforms pulsing, swaying, and churning in concert.

This piece reflects upon the forces in life that hold and enclose us, those vast similitudes that connect us and remind us we are a part of something much larger than our daily human struggles might allow us to perceive.

Symphonic Dances from West Side Story (1960) Leonard

Bernstein (1918-1990)

As a composer, conductor, and educator, American musical icon Leonard Bernstein made it his mission to bridge the gap between the ivory tower and the man in the street. Nowhere did he succeed more strikingly than with West Side Story, the 1957 collaboration with lyricist Stephen Sondheim and choreographer Jerome Robbins. A variation on Romeo and Juliet set on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, the Broadway musical’s eclectic score features fugues and arias, as well as mambos and cha-chas.

West Side Story’s orchestrators Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal arranged the Symphonic Dances as a suite that expands the modest Broadway pit ensemble to a large symphony orchestra. “Lenny knew it should certainly begin,” Ramin said, “with the famous signature tritone on which so much of the show’s music is based.” Accordingly, the Prologue opens with that distinctive melodic interval in an aggressive upward “rip” for trumpets

and trombones. Swing rhythms, along with finger snaps by the orchestra, introduce the show’s rival gangs, the Sharks and the Jets. A police whistle disrupts the tense episode.

“The order of the rest of the suite,” Ramin continues, “is based on ‘feel’ rather than on the plot.” A lyrical French horn introduces the soaring melody of Somewhere, expressing the song’s plea for love and tolerance. Its famous two-note motif develops into the Scherzo, a charming dance with an unmistakable kinship to Copland’s Appalachian Spring. Congas and timbales signal the Mambo, the scene in which star-crossed lovers Tony and Maria first see each other. The Cha-cha then enters as a courtly dance variation on Tony’s celebrated aria “Maria,” featuring the tritone interval in a softer setting. Cool Fugue may be Bernstein’s greatest example of a rigorous classical form transformed into a popular style while the Rumble turns the gentle swing rhythms from the Prologue into violent stabs.

“After the Rumble,” Ramin says, “Lenny inserted a flute solo unique to these symphonic dances, which makes a dramatic and beautiful change to I Have a Love (the only music in the suite that is not a dance in the show).” The song’s touching melody becomes the basis for a richly-voiced string serenade in the Finale. The two-note “Somewhere” motif echoes softly bringing the suite, and the show’s tragic story, to a poignant conclusion.

Lincoln Portrait (1942)

Aaron Copland (1900-1990)

Aaron Copland spent much of the 1940s composing works in support of America’s World War II effort. His iconic Fanfare for the Common Man evoked direct patriotism while his sentimental Letter from Home sought to comfort the public in difficult times. In 1942 he received a commission from conductor André Kostelanetz for a patriotic work based on an “eminent American.” Looking around for a suitable subject, Copland happened on a paperback biography of Abraham Lincoln by one Lord Charnwood, an author whose name he didn’t recognize. “I thought it was so odd,” Copland said, “for an English Lord to want to write a biography of Lincoln. I got some of the things quoted in my Lincoln Portrait from that book. So that was a lucky chance…”

A Lincoln Portrait has become one of Copland’s most performed works. It features narrated excerpts from several of Lincoln’s major speeches including the 1862 State of the Union Address and the 1858 debates with Senator Stephen Douglas. “The composition is roughly divided into three main sections,” Copland says. “In the opening section I wanted to suggest something of the mysterious sense of fatality that surrounds Lincoln’s personality.

Also, near the end of that section, something of his gentleness and simplicity of spirit.” Copland employs his signature “prairie” texture and simple, austere themes. The opening oboe motif develops into the piece’s main theme first heard in the trombone.

“The quick middle section,” Copland says, “briefly sketches in the background of the times he lived.” In a fast Allegro tempo, Copland employs the melody of Camptown Races, a Stephen Foster song used by the 1860 Lincoln Presidential campaign. Copland continues: “This merges into the concluding section where my sole purpose was to draw a simple but impressive frame about the words of Lincoln himself.”

It features narrated excerpts from several of Lincoln’s major speeches including the 1862 State of the Union Address and the 1858 debates with Senator Stephen Douglas.

Negro Folk Symphony (1934, rev. 1952) William Dawson (1899-1990)

Born in Anniston, Alabama, William Dawson ran away from home at age 13 to study music as a pre-college student at the Historically Black Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University). After learning multiple instruments, performing with the choir, and composing original works, Dawson graduated from Tuskegee in 1921. He returned there six years later as director of its music department, a position he held until 1955. Under his directorship, the 100-member Tuskegee choir gained international fame, performing at the White House, Carnegie Hall, and on national radio programs. Dawson passed away in 1990 and was laid to rest at Tuskegee University Cemetery.

In his Negro Folk Symphony of 1934, Dawson intended to claim a place for Black music within the Classical music tradition. “I wanted to show how the Negro folk music of America could be elevated to the highest musical forms.” For Dawson, Negro wasn’t a derogatory term, but, to the contrary, a dignified term that encompassed the rich heritage of his race. Following the model of Dvorák’s From the New World, Dawson composed a symphony in the Romantic tradition built around original themes derived from Negro spirituals. “I’ve only woven them into symphonic form,” he said. “I want my music to be heard not as a Negro work but as a symphony.”

The first movement, The Bond of Africa, opens with a French horn theme that represents “the link broken by the slave trader between the Negro of Africa and his descendants in America.” An Allegro con brio (“Fast and with spirit”) tempo brings a fascinating expansion of the theme. After travelling to Africa, Dawson made revisions to the symphony in 1952 giving it a new rhythmic vitality exemplified by the introduction of syncopated triplet rhythms within the duple meter.

The second movement, Hope in the Night, brings an introspective, elegiac tone expressing the idea of endurance through suffering. It begins with a long, wistful theme for English horn and builds to a majestic statement for the full orchestra with the theme soaring high in violins. A pair of oboes present an animated second theme that becomes a duet for flute and French horn.

The third movement, ‘O, Let Me Shine,’ takes its name from the spiritual that Dawson quotes, heard first in the oboe. In its shape and character, it shares a kinship with the “broken-link” theme from the first movement. A celebratory atmosphere of emancipation and cultural acceptance pervades the movement, including a call-and-response section reminiscent of gospel music. African-inspired percussion instruments, xylophone and clave, drive this work to its exciting conclusion.

Negro Folk Symphony premiered with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski on November 3, 1934. Despite enthusiastic audiences, rave reviews, and several additional performances in its first two years, the piece sadly dropped out of the repertory. However, this American masterpiece has recently enjoyed a resurgence of interest and critical acclaim, fueled by multiple performances and new recordings.

pantheistic, often erotic poetry” (Raphael’s Music Notes). Nominated for an Emmy Award at age twenty-one, AndersonBazzoli composed scores for twenty feature and short films including the Venezuelan thriller Ellipsis (Fox) and the technology documentary Revolution OS (7th Art), among others. He received a Sundance Composer Fellowship and served as copyist, music librarian, or orchestrator on over three hundred films and TV shows including Disney’s Encanto, The Lion King (2019), and Top Gun Maverick. As a conductor he worked with top recording artists Michael Bublé, Dr. Dre, Christina Aguilera, and She & Him (Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward) and served as editor and copyist for eminent composerconductor Esa-Pekka Salonen.

While growing up in Pacific Grove, California, Christopher Anderson-Bazzoli learned tuba at age eleven, graduated from Stevenson School, and later earned a B.A. in Tuba and an M.A. in Music Composition from UCLA. In 2022 he relocated from Los Angeles to Carmel with his wife Donna Eshelman, a neuromuscular therapist and choreographer.

Media

BOARD OF DIRECTORS & ADMINISTRATION

BOARD OFFICERS

Nena Montgomery – Chair

Donn Wilkerson – Vice Chair

Jenny Kuan – Treasurer

Jeffrey Wallace – Secretary

Charles Schimmel – Immediate

Past Chair

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Jeryl Abelmann

Mollie Hedges

Wendi Kirby

Lisa Lapin

Bruce Lindsey

Jan Loomis

Liz Lyman

Diane Mall

Alan Mason

Sherrie McCullough

Noelle Micek

Brenda Murdock

Lee E. Rosen

Maureen Sanders

William Sharpe

Kathryn Smith

Pinkie Terry

LEGAL COUNSEL

Mark O’Connor

HONORARY COUNCIL

Bill Doolittle

Roberta Elliott

Gabrielle Hahn

Carol Lee Holland

Joanne Church Taylor

ADMINISTRATION

Nicola Shangrow Reilly, President and CEO

Noemi Vera, Director of Operations

Virginia Marine, Director of External Relations

Julie Lim, Director of Patron Services

Drew Ford, Personnel Manager and Orchestra Librarian

PROGRAM BOOK

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Virginia Marine

PROGRAM BOOK DESIGN

Steve Averitt, Averitt Creative

PHOTOGRAPHY

Manny Espinoza

Julie Chon

MONTEREY SYMPHONY

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Leaving a LEGACY

– Tonya Antle

Donor Advised Fund Holder & Legacy Society Member

Tonya Antle with daughter Natalie and granddaughter Simone

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IMPASSIONED PERFORMANCES

Legacy Society

OUR LEGACY SOCIETY is made up of those individuals who wish to be a part of the future of the Monterey Symphony. We honor and celebrate this amazing group of individuals annually, and we cordially invite you to join the Legacy Society. Please let us know that you have included the Monterey Symphony in your planned giving.

Greta Alexander

Andrew Allison

The Dorothy L. Becker Trust

Bethany Beckman*

Gary & Carolyn Bjorklund

Lewis & Sally Cantor

Jacqueline M. Clampett-Jones

Katharine Comstock

Alan and Sandy Cordan

Leland E.* & Gloria U. Dake

Roderick & Suzanne Dewar*

Bill & Nancy Doolittle

William & Nancy Fisher*

Robert M. & Betty Jo Graham*

Louise Guard*

Ruth S. Hartmann*

Mollie Hedges

Dr. & Mrs. Michael Hendrickson

Jill Himonas*

Peter & Patti Hoss

Herschel & Shirley* Loomis

Marjorie Love*

Sally Maggio

Sherrie McCullough

Dick* & Grace Merrill

Mr. Don Newmark

John Philips & June Dunbar

Margaret Anderson Radunich*

Nicola Shangrow Reilly

Lee & Shirley Rosen

Barbara Rupp*

Virginia Ruth

Charles Schimmel

William & Kristine Schuyler*

Everett Anton “Tony” Singer

Robert Sykes

Joanne Taylor

Elizabeth Haywood Watt*

Neal and Elaine Whitman

Donald* & Renate Wunsch

*deceased

If you are interested in joining the Legacy Society, please contact Nicola Shangrow Reilly, President and CEO, at nreilly@montereysymphony.org or call our office at (831) 645-1131.

Institutional Supporters

The Monterey Symphony would like to thank the following Institutional Supporters:

Action Art, Inc

Arts Council for Monterey County

Berkshire Foundation

California American Water

Carmel Gives Fund of the Community Foundation for Monterey County

City of Carmel-by-the-Sea

The Community Foundation for Monterey County, Community Impact

Creative Planning

Harden Foundation

KAZU, 90.3 FM

KRML, 94.7 FM

Lauralie and J. Irvine Fund and the June P. Sheppard Fund for the Performing Arts of the Community Foundation Monterey County

Monterey Audubon Society

Montage Health

Monterey County Weekly

Monterey County Gives! Fund of the Community Foundation for Monterey County

Monterey Peninsula Foundation, host of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and PURE Insurance Championship Impacting the First Tee

Music Performance Trust Fund

Pebble Beach Company Foundation

Sally Hughes Church Foundation

The Robert and Virginia Stanton Endowment

The Symphony Fund at the Community Foundation for Monterey County

Taylor Farms

Christmas with the Camerata Singers

SALINAS: Compass Church, 7:30 pm • FRIDAY DECEMBER 5, 2025

SPRING

with the Camerata Singers

SALINAS: See camerata-singers.org for details 7:30 pm • FRIDAY

MONTEREY: First Presbyterian Church 7:30 pm • SATURDAY DECEMBER 6, 2025 2:30 pm • SUNDAY visit camerata-singers.org for more information

MONTEREY: First Presbyterian Church 7:30 pm • SATURDAY 2:30 pm • SUNDAY

MAKE MUSIC WITH INK

FRIDAY, JANUARY 23, 2026 – 5:00PM

MONTEREY PENIN S ULA COUNTRY CLUB BLACK TIE

TICKET S ON S ALE MONTEREYS YMPHONY.ORG • 831.646.8511

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Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.