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 4: POSTCARDS FROM SPAIN
Saturday, May 3, 2025 • D.F. Cook Recital Hall, MUN School of Music
Dina Gilbert, conductor
PROGRAMME
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. V. Fung
M. Mozetich
Rota
I. Unfolding Sky
II. Weeping Clouds
III. A Messenger
I. Preludio. Allegro ben moderato e cantabile
II. Scherzo. Allegretto comodo
III. Aria. Andante quasi adagio
IV. Finale. Allegrissimo
Shchedrin
I. Introduction
II. Dance
III. First Intermezzo
IV. Changing of the Guard
V. Carmen’s Entrance and Habanera
VI. Scene
VII. Second Intermezzo
VIII. Bolero
IX. Torero
X. Torero and Carmen
XI. Fortune-Telling
XII. Finale
GUEST CONDUCTOR
Dina Gilbert
Regularly invited to conduct in Canada and overseas, Dina Gilbert attracts critical acclaim for her energy, her precision and versatility. From Québec, she is currently the Principal Conductor of the Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal and Music Director of the Kamloops Symphony where she is known for her contagious dynamism and her audacious programming. Dina Gilbert is passionate about communicating with audiences of all ages to broadening their appreciation of orchestral music through innovative collaborations.
Dina has conducted leading Canadian orchestras such as Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, the Orchestre métropolitain, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Hamilton Philharmonic and the Orchestre symphonique de Québec. She is frequently invited to conduct in France and also has conducted orchestras in the United States, Colombia, Spain and the Sinfonia Varsovia for a series of concerts in Japan.
Recent engagements included debuts with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Orchestre national des Pays de la Loire, a tour with the Orchestre national de Metz as well as several concerts with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and the Orchestre symphonique de Québec. Over the past seasons, as the Principal Conductor of the Orchestre des Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, she participated in tours in the US, in Colombia and in Spain, and has premiered several ballets from Peter Quanz (La Dame aux Camélias : music by Weber, Lili Boulanger, Louise Farrenc and Kaija Saariaho), Étienne Béchard (Carmen Shchedrin’s Carmen Suite), Garrett Smith (Danser Beethoven), Jayne Smeulders (Prokofiev’s Cinderella) and Edward Clug (Orff’s Carmina Burana), in addition to the Grands Ballets repertoire of the company.
Her innate curiosity towards non-classical musical genres and willingness to democratize classical music has sparked collaborations with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and the Orchestre national de Lyon in several Hip Hop Symphonic programs featuring renowned artists IAM, MC Solaar, Youssoupha, Arsenik and Bigflo & Oli. She has also conducted the world premiere of the film The Red Violin with orchestra at the Festival de Lanaudière and has conducted the North American premiere of film The Artist with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. As the founder and artistic director of the Ensemble Arkea, a Montreal-based chamber orchestra, Dina premiered over thirty works from emerging Canadian composers from 2011 to 2017. Committed to music education, she has reached thousands of children with her interactive and participative Conducting 101 workshops across Canada. From 2013 to 2016, Dina Gilbert was the assistant conductor of the Orchestre symphonique de Montreal and Maestro Kent Nagano, also assisting notable guest conductors including Zubin Mehta and Sir Roger Norrington. In April 2016, she received great acclaim for stepping in to replace Maestro Alain Altinoglu with the OSM in a program showcasing Gustav Holst’s The Planets.
Featured in the recent documentary “Femmes symphoniques”, Dina Gilbert earned her doctorate from the Université de Montréal, where she studied with Jean-François Rivest and Paolo Bellomia and she polished her skills in masterclasses with Kenneth Kiesler, Pinchas Zukerman, Neeme Järvi and the musicians from the Kritische Orchester in Berlin. Awarded the Opus Prize of “Découverte de l’année” in 2017, Dina Gilbert also was one of the 50 personalities creating the extraordinary in Québec in 2018 by the Urbania Magazine. She has also received support from the Canada Arts Council, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and from the Père-Lindsay Foundation. Dina Gilbert is represented by the KAJIMOTO agency.
MUSICIANS
VIOLIN 1
Heather Kao
Dominic Greene
Andy Kao
Lauren Smee
Whit Fitzgerald
VIOLIN 2
Nancy Case-Oates
Carole Bestvater
Elena Vigna
Jacquelyn Redmond
Natalie Finn (Carmen)
VIOLA
Kate Read
Ema Shiroma-Chao
Chantelle Jubenville
Rosaura Aguilar
CELLO
Nathan Cook
Nulibeth Ortiz
Amy Collyer-Holmes
Sandra Pope (Carmen)
BASS
Frank Fusari
Denise Lear(Carmen)
PERCUSSION
Rob Power
Etienne Gendron
Amy Parsons
Andrew Dunsmore
David Kerr
PROGRAM NOTES
Much as postcards sent home during travel aim to capture the essence of a certain locale, the pieces on tonight’s program offer a journey through a variety of moods and imagined locales, from the skies above to the passion of nineteenth-century Spain.
Pizzicato (2008) by Canadian composer Vivian Fung (b. 1975) takes its inspiration from Asian folk music. As suggested by the title, the string instruments never use their bows, but instead pluck the strings throughout, echoing the influence of the pipa and qin, two traditional Chinese plucked string instruments. The work’s constant motion and repeating melodic patterns also suggests the traditional style of Indonesian Gamelan.
As a young man, Canadian composer Marjan Mozetich (b. 1948) was drawn to the “super-modern” music of the midtwentieth century, even studying with experimental Italian composer Luciano Berio. Yet despite spending his early career as a member of the avant-garde, Mozetich’s later compositions show a distinct turn towards the romantic and lyrical. The melodies in Postcards from the Sky (1996) are lush and evocative, painting a sweeping picture of the endless horizons. Commissioned by Thirteen Strings Chamber Orchestra of Ottawa, the piece’s three movements— ‘Unfolding Sky,’ ‘Weeping Clouds,’ and ‘A Messenger’—create a world of both vast calmness and continuous motion. Under the long-sweeping melodies, the oscillating perpetual motion of the accompaniment evokes the minimalistic style of the mid-twentieth century,
Italian composer Nino Rota (1911-1979) enjoyed a prolific career as a film composer, scoring more than 150 films for the the likes of Fedrico Fellini, Franco Zeffirelli, and Francis Ford Coppola, and eventually winning an Academy Award for The Godfather Part II. Despite his prolific work for film, Rota also composed numerous works of traditional classical music, including operas, ballets, and chamber works. But even in these works, we can hear the language of film. Concerto for Strings (1964-65), originally commissioned for the Venice film festival but now a popular concert work, would not sound out of place in one of Rota’s film scores. From the mysterious intrigue of the prelude, the witty dance of the scherzo, the romantic tension of the aria, and the rushing energy of the finale, Rota creates a musical tableau unto which the listener can project their own narrative. While the term ‘concerto’ would normally suggest a single solo instrument, Rota features a variety of instruments throughout the work.
When ballerina Maya Plisetskaya asked her husband Rodion Shchedrin (b. 1932) to compose a ballet based on the story of Carmen, the composer found himself unable to separate the character from the music of Bizet’s famous opera. Shchedrin decided to embrace Bizet’s iconic music, but in order to create more distance from the operatic work, he adapted it for strings and percussion alone, eliminating brass and woodwind instruments. The resulting Carmen Suite (1967) features many of the original opera’s iconic melodies but presents them in new timbral contexts, rhythms, and counterpoints. Playing with the listener’s expectations, the ballet offers surprising twists and reimaginings in what Shchedrin called a “creative meeting of the minds.
- Notes 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