Message from the Premier
Congratulations to the esteemed Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra (NSO) on the launch of their 2024-2025 season. The NSO remains a cornerstone of Newfoundland and Labrador’s cultural arts scene, captivating with diverse programming that embraces pop culture, broadening appeal across generations. In 2023-24, the NSO engaged communities by offering in-school and virtual programs for students and free online concerts for seniors, enriching lives through music. As they begin this new season, the NSO honours maestro Marc David for his remarkable 30-year career, shaping the orchestra’s legacy and leaving a lasting impact on Newfoundland and Labrador’s cultural landscape. The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador proudly supports the NSO, recognizing its pivotal role in enriching our province’s arts and culture sector.
Message from the Mayor
On behalf of the City of St. John’s, I extend warm greetings to the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra as you embark on your 2024/2025 season with the inspiring theme of “Resonance.” This season holds special significance as you celebrate the remarkable 30-year career of Maestro Marc David. His dedication, passion, and leadership have left a lasting mark on the NSO, resonating deeply with audiences in our city and beyond. The arts play a crucial role in enriching our lives, fostering creativity, and bringing people together. The NSO’s commitment to delivering exceptional musical experiences reflects the vibrant cultural landscape we’re fortunate to have in St. John’s. Your performances not only entertain but also inspire and uplift, creating lasting moments. As we celebrate this milestone season, my sincere gratitude goes to the musicians, staff, volunteers, and supporters of the NSO. Your tireless efforts ensure the symphony thrives and resonates with audiences of all ages. I’m confident that this season will be filled with memorable performances that leave a lasting impact. Congratulations to Maestro Marc David on his illustrious career, and best wishes to the NSO for a successful and resonant 2024/2025 season.
Joan Marie J. Aylward, O.N.L., B.N., R.N. Lieutenant Governor of NL
Danny Breen Mayor of St. John’s
Message from the Lieutenant Governor
As Honorary Patron, it is my pleasure to extend best wishes to the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra for the 2024/2025 season. Once again, the NSO will delight audiences with a season full of performances for many different musical tastes. This year’s theme is “Resonance”. Indeed, the NSO resonates throughout our province and contributes much to our rich artistic culture. Now with 84 members, the NSO has come a long way since its inception as a fledgling ensemble in 1962. This season also marks the final one for Principal Conductor Maestro Marc David. For 30 years the Orchestra has been guided by his steady hand. We join with you in celebrating his contributions, and his leadership with the NSO. Thank you Maestro Marc David for all the joy you have brought for audiences over your years with the NSO. I hope you will enjoy each performance this year. To the musicians, staff, crew, and all who play a part within the NSO, I wish you the best for your season, which I am confident will resonate with pride for audiences throughout the province. We are so proud of you, and we celebrate your continued success as you begin your new season in the Year of the Arts. Bravo!
Hon. Dr. Andrew Furey Premier
SINFONIA 3: TURBULENCE
Saturday, March 29, 2025 • D.F. Cook Recital Hall, MUN School of Music
Julian Pellicano, conductor
PROGRAMME
C. W. Gluck
Finale from the ballet Don Juan (1761) 4 min. Dance of the Spectres and Furies
F. J. Haydn Symphony no. 49 in F minor (1768)
I. Adagio
II. Allegro di molto
III. Menuet e Trio
IV. Finale: Presto
V. Fung Baroque Melting (2017) 6 min.
L. Boccherini La casa del diavolo (1771) 17 min. from Symphony no. 6 in D minor, op. 12
I. Andante Sostenuto - Allegro assai
II. Andantino con moto
III. Andante Sostenuto - Allegro con moto
We acknowledge the province of Newfoundland and Labrador as the traditional territory of diverse Indigenous groups, and we acknowledge with respect the diverse histories and cultures of the Beothuk, Mi’kmaq, Innu, and Inuit of this province. We strive for respectful relationships with all the peoples of this province as we search for collective healing and true reconciliation and honour this beautiful land together.
GUEST CONDUCTOR
Julian Pellicano
Known for his versatility across a broad spectrum of genres, dynamic interpretations and meticulous technique, AmericanCanadian conductor Julian Pellicano has been recently appointed to the conducting staff of the National Ballet of Canada starting with the 24-25 season and is Music Director of Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet. Bringing an incisive musicality and collaborative spirit to every performance, he has built a wide-ranging international career leading the Winnipeg Free Press to proclaim that “his versatility is truly astonishing.” Associate conductor of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra from 20132024, Julian conducted hundreds of performances on all of the orchestra’s various series, contributed to the development of the orchestra’s programming and established himself in the community as an ambassador for the WSO. As a guest he has conducted orchestras in North America and abroad including the Seattle Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Orquestra de Valencia, Edmonton Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic, The Florida Orchestra, and Orquestra Sinfônica de Porto Alegre, among others.
Passionate about the intersection of music and dance, he has conducted numerous classical and contemporary ballet productions, performing the works of internationally renowned choreographers. Guest engagements include performances with Hong Kong Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet and Orlando Ballet in addition to performing and touring with the National Ballet of Canada and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. Highly experienced with live-to-film performances, his film project credits encompass more than 30 titles including legendary films scored by John Williams, recent blockbusters, and classic films of the “Golden Age” of Hollywood. A musician with a penchant for collaboration, Julian has performed with an eclectic array of world-class musicians including Vadim Gluzman, Ann Schein, Timo Andres, Steven Page, Jann Arden, Paul Shaffer, Andy Summers (The Police), Rajaton, Crash Test Dummies, and Natalie MacMaster to name a few.
The creation of a new performance edition of George Antheil’s original 1923 groundbreaking work Ballet Mecanique first brought Pellicano to the public’s attention. Conductor of Yale University’s Norfolk New Music Workshop for more than a decade, Pellicano has been recognized for his transparent interpretations of contemporary music and many premieres by emerging and established composers including the first performances of Martin Bresnick’s critically acclaimed opera My Friend’s Story and the first American performance of Hans Werner Henze’s Drei Geistliche Konzerte. In 2010, he released a recording of Ingram Marshall’s Peaceable Kingdom with the Yale Philharmonia and recorded music by Australian composer Nicole Murphy. Other notable projects include a concert tour of Turkey and a collaboration with Soprano/ Director Susan Narucki and the Kallisti Ensemble on Pascal Dusapin’s opera To Be Sung at the University of California San Diego. Julian Pellicano studied conducting at the Yale School of Music with Shinik Hahm and during that time also trained in masterclasses with Kurt Masur, Martyn Brabbins, Peter Eötvös, Zsolt Nagy, Carl St. Clair, L’Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. From 2009 to 2013 he served as music director of the Longy School of Music Conservatory Orchestra where he developed the orchestra’s repertoire, engaged world-class soloists, and establishing a rigorous and distinctive new orchestral program. He served as Music Director of the University of Manitoba Symphony Orchestra for seven seasons.
His career grew out of unconventional beginnings, starting as a primarily self-taught percussionist, timpanist, drummer and accordionist, performing in a wide variety of styles, genres, bands and ensembles. He studied percussion at the Peabody Conservatory with Jonathan Haas, the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, Sweden with Anders Loguin, and at the Yale School of Music with Robert Van Sice where he was a member of the critically acclaimed Yale Percussion Group. As a percussionist, he has performed in concert halls and festivals in North America, Europe and Asia. He also holds a degree in philosophy from The Johns Hopkins University.
MUSICIANS
VIOLIN 1
Heather Kao
Dominic Greene
Lauren Smee
Whit Fitzgerald
Natalie Finn
VIOLIN 2
Nancy Case-Oates
Carole Bestvater
Elena Vigna
Ilyas Duissen
VIOLA
Kate Read
Ema Shiroma-Chao
Chantelle Jubenville
Rosaura Aguilar
CELLO
Nathan Cook
Nulibeth Ortiz
Amy Collyer-Holmes
BASS
Denise Lear
Nick Howlett
OBOE/ENGLISH HORN
Annie Corrigan
Kathy Conway-Ward
BASSOON
Grant Etchegary
HORN
Emily Dunsmore
Doug Vaughan
HARPSICHORD
Jenny Griffioen
PROGRAM NOTES
The late eighteenth century was an era of revolution, not just in the politics of Europe and America, but also music. The beginnings of this musical revolution can be found in the works of Bohemian composer Christoph Gluck (1714-1787), who sought to infuse his operas and ballets with real drama, placing an emphasis on natural movement and expression over formalized dance or the desire of singers to show off their vocal abilities. One of the most lasting aspects of Gluck’s operatic reform was his belief that orchestral music could, on its own, convey character and drama. This “envoicing” of the orchestra would not only impact Classical composers such as Mozart and Beethoven, but would also ultimately pave the way toward nineteenth-century romanticism. In Dance of the Furies, originally appearing in the ballet “Don Juan” (1761), Gluck captures the malevolence and chaotic energy of the spirits who arrive to drag the titular rake down to hell. Gluck later reused the piece in the French version of his opera “Orfeo ed Euridice” as the former enters hell to save his beloved wife.
We hear echoes of Gluck’s furies in Joseph Haydn’s (1732-1809) Symphony No. 49 in F minor (1763). This work exemplifies the “Sturm und Drang” movement (Storm and Stress), characterized by minor keys, sudden changes in tempo and dynamics, and an overall sense of agitation or heightened emotion. We can hear these characteristics in the funereal character of the opening Adagio, the agitated syncopations and register leaps of the second movement, the surprisingly mournful minuet, and the fiery passion of the closing Presto. Despite bearing the nickname “La Passion” (earned after a performance during Holy Week in 1790), sources indicate the work may have had a theatrical connection, being inspired not by religiosity but Nicolas Chamfort’s 1764 play, “La Jeune Indienne.” We can thus see Haydn’s Sturm and Drang as another attempt to convey feeling and character through music, even to the point of evoking an on-stage drama.
In her piece Baroque Melting (2017), Vivian Fung (b. 1975) does not engage directly with the music of the 1760s, instead focusing several decades earlier on the music of J.S. Bach. Her piece first introduces several familiar baroque idioms and then starts to contort them, bending them in and out of focus. Playing with the audience’s expectations, Fung creates her own kind of “Sturm and Drang” as she twists the music from the familiar to the avant garde.
Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805) had first-hand experience of Gluck’s musical revolutions. At just 18, the young composer played cello in the premier of Don Juan in 1761. We can see the lasting impact of this encounter in Boccherini’s Symphony No. 6, “La Casa del Diavolo” (1776). Boccherini’s “House of the Devil” was inspired by Gluck’s depiction of hell, with the composer actually quoting “Dance of the Furies” in the symphony’s third and final movement. Like the works of his contemporaries, Boccherini infuses his symphony with impassioned, turbulent music, evoking the revolutionary spirit of his musical era.
Program Notes provided by Dr. Annalise Smith
Lynn Ann Pye, Patron Relations Manager
Jennifer Brennan, Education & Outreach Coordinator
Maria Penney, Marketing & Development Manager
Dominic Greene, Personnel Manager
Steve Power, Production Manager/Video Production/Editing
Jenny Griffioen, Librarian
Kyle McDavid, Graphic Designer
N SO Bo ard
T om Hickey (Chair)
Ian Penne y (Vice-Chai r)
Paul McDonald (Past Chair)
D ouglas Wright (Treasurer)
Conor Stack (Corporate S ecretary)
J essica Chapman
H e a ther McKinnon
Michelle Davis
A n d rea Rose
Duncan Fitzpatri ck
Glenn Colton
Photo: Brad Clarke