OKC PHIL program magazine 2017-2018 edition #3

Joyce Yang, Piano Alexander Mickelthwate, Guest Conductor

March 30-31, 2018

Philippe Quint, Violin Alexander Mickelthwate, Guest Conductor

The Music of ABBA – Arrival from Sweden

March 3, 2018

PG 35

April 7, 2018

May 4-5, 2018

PG 39

PG 49

PG 25

Pink Martini

Joel’s Farewell May 12, 2018

PG 53

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LOUISE CHURCHILL, President Oklahoma Philharmonic Society, Inc. Welcome to our 29th season! It is an exciting time in the evolution of our organization. This year we celebrate the career of our well-loved founding Music Director Joel Levine. Maestro Levine retires at the end of this season. We also welcome our Music Director Designate Alexander Mickelthwate to our Philharmonic family. We are thrilled to have him and his family in Oklahoma City, and we invite you to help them feel at home.

We have a marvelous season of programming for our Classics, Pops and Discovery Series.

Through our partnership with the Oklahoma City Orchestra League we continue to offer exceptional education and competition opportunities for students. The support of the Associate Board broadens our reach into younger generations in the community.

We continue to be grateful to our loyal patrons and donors. Please invite a friend or two to a concert this year. You are our best advocates of our superb orchestral music.

CAROL MCCOY, President Oklahoma City Orchestra League, Inc. The Oklahoma City Orchestra League welcomes you to the 29th season of the OKC Philharmonic. This season is very special! We will bid Maestro Joel Levine farewell and welcome Alexander Mickelthwate to the podium. An event not to be missed will be the Maestro’s Ball on October 27th. It will be our send off to Maestro Levine and I invite all of you to join us in recognizing his 29 years of outstanding orchestral music in Oklahoma.

Orchestra League members believe music is food for the soul and through our volunteer activities we help support the Philharmonic as well as provide educational programs that can introduce children to the wonders of music. Our Music Competitions have been a springboard to music careers for many talented Oklahoma musicians. Our largest fundraiser, the Symphony Show House will see its 45th year this spring. I invite you to join the Oklahoma City Orchestra League. More information can be found at www.okcorchestraleague.org

ASHLEY WILEMON, President Associate Board I am honored to be Associate Board President during a truly historic Oklahoma City Philharmonic season. In addition to an outstanding programming line-up featuring worldclass guest musicians, the added excitement of a new Music Director Designate makes this season particularly special. On behalf of each member of the Associate Board, thank you for choosing to spend time experiencing the beauty of orchestral music.

The Associate Board seeks to build - especially among young professionals — an understanding of and appreciation for the gift of the Philharmonic. Our signature Overture program provides a fun, engaging and unique way to become involved with the Philharmonic community and network with those who share a love of orchestral music, an interest in learning more about it, or a passion for new cultural experiences.

On behalf of the Associate Board, welcome to the 29th season of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic. We’re so glad you’re here

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JOEL LEVINE Beginning his twenty-ninth season leading the Philharmonic, Joel Levine is the longest serving music director in our City’s history. Including his tenure with the Oklahoma Symphony, Maestro Levine is enjoying his thirty-ninth year on the podium at Civic Center Music Hall. Under his leadership, the orchestra has appeared on international, national and local television broadcasts and released several recordings. Maestro Levine’s reputation for exceptional musical collaboration has enabled the Philharmonic to present one of the country’s most distinguished series of world-renowned guest artists. He has collaborated with many of the greatest performing artists of our time and has been called a “remarkable musician and visionary” by Yo-Yo Ma. For three decades, Maestro Levine has conducted many of the city’s historic programs including “Porgy and Bess” with the legendary Cab Calloway, the Paris Opera Ballet starring Rudolf Nureyev, “Rodeo” for Ballet Oklahoma under the direction of Agnes DeMille, the Philharmonic’s 100th anniversary production of “La Boheme,” the State of Oklahoma’s official Centennial Celebration, and the National Memorial Service following the Oklahoma City bombing. He has also conducted Young People’s programs around the State for thousands of children, twenty-five OKC productions of “The Nutcracker” since 1980, and led programs featuring Oklahoma’s celebrated native stars including Vince Gill, Reba McEntire, Jimmy Webb, Patti Page, Blake Shelton, Toby Keith, Kristin Chenoweth, Kelli O’Hara, Megan Mullally, Sandi Patty, Susan Powell and Leona Mitchell.

He has received international recognition for performances reflecting many different styles in the classical repertoire.

His program of Schubert and Schumann symphonies with Germany’s Brandenburg Symphony Orchestra led the reviewer to write: “Joel Levine proved that he is an absolute master of his profession; the audience honored this impressive performance with much applause.” Engagements in the great European capitols include concerts with the Czech National Symphony in Prague’s Dvorák Hall, and the Symphony Orchestra of Portugal in Lisbon. Other international invitations have included orchestras in Spain, Israel, Belgrade, Bucharest, and an appearance with the Mexico City Philharmonic.

Maestro Levine has conducted many of America’s major ensembles including three seasons with The National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and the orchestras of St. Louis, Detroit, Minneapolis, Baltimore, Indianapolis, Seattle, Denver, Nashville, Milwaukee and New Orleans. The national press has praised his performances: “the orchestra played with clarity and energy” (Los Angeles Times), “fine musicianship” (Washington Post), “Levine brings the needed sheen and rhythmic verve to the music” (Minneapolis Star), “Levine drew a crisp, bold and tonally lustrous account of the varied score from the orchestra and full-throated chorus” (Houston Post). His Detroit Symphony performances received “four stars” — the highest rating from the Detroit News.

Known for his work with major artists in the world of classical dance, he has conducted for three of the greatest male dancers: Rudolf Nureyev, Edward Villella, and Peter Martins. For the Kansas City Ballet, he collaborated with famed choreographer, Alvin Ailey and conducted the first contemporary performance of a “lost” Balanchine ballet, “Divertimento.”

Maestro Levine’s résumé includes collaborations with many of the immortal names of jazz, musical theater, film and television. Several of his recordings with Mexico’s Xalapa Symphony Orchestra are in international release and have been broadcast on the BBC. Maestro Levine has taken an active role in the cultural life of Oklahoma City since he arrived in 1976 as music director for Lyric Theatre. He worked actively for the passage of MAPS 1 and played a key role in the renovation of our hall. For his work as a founder of the Orchestra, he received The Governor’s Arts Award (1989), was named Oklahoma Musician Of The Year (1991), is a 2008 “Treasures of Tomorrow” honoree of the Oklahoma Health Center Foundation, received the 2014 Stanley Draper Award for his contributions to downtown Oklahoma City, and has received an Honorary Doctorate in Music from Oklahoma City University.

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MIDTOWN 432 N.W. 10th Street (E. of St. Anthony Hospital) (405) 602-6333

MOORE 1611 South I-35 Service Rd. (S.of Warren Theater) (405) 794-3474

OKLAHOMA PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY, INC.

P R O V I D I N G

I N S P I R A T I O N

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J O Y

T H R O U G H

O R C H E S T R A L

M U S I C .

THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS Officers

Lifetime Directors

Louise Churchill President

Jane B. Harlow Patrick Alexander

Teresa Cooper President Elect

Directors

Brent Hart Vice President Jeff Starling Treasurer Kathy Kerr Secretary Debbie Fleming Immediate Past President

Steven C. Agee, Ph.D. J. Edward Barth Lori Black Robert Clements Lawrence H. Davis Joseph Fleckinger Ryan Free Kirk Hammons Jane Jayroe Gamble Dean Jackson Michael E. Joseph Wesley Knight Brad Krieger

Carol McCoy David McLaughlin Margaret Freede Owens Donald Rowlett Melissa Scaramucci John Shelton Jerrod Shouse Glenna Tanenbaum J. Mark Taylor Donita Thomas Tony Welch Cheryl White Ashley Wilemon Wendi Wilson

Honorary Directors Josephine Freede Mary Nichols Richard Sias

ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF Katie Barrick Education Coordinator

Stephen Howard Database/Records Manager

Chris Stinchcomb Concert Operations and P.R. Coordinator

Tara Burnett Development Coordinator

Daryl Jones Box Office Manager

Eddie Walker Executive Director

Daniel Hardt Finance Director

Kris Markes General Manager

Susan Webb Marketing & P.R. Director

Whitney Hendricks Customer Service Representative

Jennifer Owens Development Director

Judy Hill Administrative Assistant

Ulises Serrano Digital Strategies Coordinator

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Classical KUCO 90.1 Garman Productions Heritage Press

Oklahoma City Police Association Production Essentials, Inc. Ryan Audio Services, LLC.

Stubble Creative, Inc. The Skirvin Hotel Tuxedo Junction

THE OKLAHOMA PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY, INC. 424 Colcord Drive, Ste. B • Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73102 Tickets: 405-842-5387 • Administration: 405-232-7575 • Fax: 405-232-4353 • www.okcphil.org

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OKLAHOMA CITY ORCHESTRA LEAGUE, INC.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Carol McCoy Debbie Minter President Membership VP

Julia Hunt Past President, Ex-Officio

Wendi Wilson Judy Austin President-Elect Ways & Means VP

Lisa Reed OCOL Executive Director, Ex-Officio

Glenna Tanenbaum Martha Pendleton Secretary Education VP

Eddie Walker Executive Director Oklahoma City Philharmonic (Ex-Officio, Advisory)

Judy Moore Treasurer

Margaret Biggs Competitions VP

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Julie Assef Newt Brown Joan Bryant

Rita Dearmon Jean Hartsuck Dixie Jensen Rachel Morris

Kirstin Reynolds Thomas Rossiter Matt Thomas

Mona Preuss Iva Fleck Priscilla Braun Susan Robinson Minna Hall Yvette Fleckinger June Parry Jean Hartsuck Judy Austin LaDonna Meinders Dixie Jensen Lois Salmeron

Glenna Tanenbaum Debbie McKinney Anna McMillin Sue Francis Peggy Lunde Cathy Wallace Sharon Shelton Cindy Raby Debbie Minter Deanna Pendleton Julia Hunt

PAST PRESIDENT’S COUNCIL Mary Ruth Ferguson Katherine Kirk Janelle Everest Lael Treat Josephine Freede Jane Harlow Jane Rodgers Joyce Bishop Ann Taylor Lil Ross Sandra Meyers

ORCHESTRA LEAGUE OFFICE 3815 N. Santa Fe Ave., Ste. 105 • Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73118 Phone: 405-601-4245 • Fax: 405-601-4278 Hours: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. • E-mail: orchleag@coxinet.net Website: www.okcorchestraleague.org

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THE ORCHESTRA -

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JOEL LEVINE, Music Director and Conductor EDDIE WALKER, Executive Director

FIRST VIOLIN

Gregory Lee, Concertmaster Gertrude Kennedy Chair Marat Gabdullin, Associate Concertmaster Densi Rushing, Assistant Concertmaster Sam Formicola Hong Zhu Beth Sievers James Thomson TBD Deborah McDonald Janet Gorton Ai-Wei Chang Lu Deng

SECOND VIOLIN

Katrin Stamatis, Principal McCasland Foundation Chair Catherine Reaves Sophia Ro Brenda Wagner Sarah Brown Mary Joan Johnston Angelica Pereira Cindy Zhang Laura Young TBD June McCoy Hannah Murray

VIOLA

Royce McLarry, Principal Mark Neumann Joseph Guevara Kelli Ingels Steve Waddell TBD Donna Cain Brian Frew Shaohong Yuan Lacie Savage

CELLO

Jonathan Ruck, Principal Orchestra League Chair Tomasz Zieba, Associate Principal

Meredith Blecha-Wells Valorie Tatge Emily Stoops Jim Shelley Angelika Machnik-Jones Jean Statham Rob Bradshaw Charles Helge

BASS

George Speed, Principal Anthony Stoops, Co-Principal Larry Moore Parvin Smith Mark Osborn Christine Craddock Kara Koehn

FLUTE

Valerie Watts, Principal Parthena Owens Nancy Stizza-Ortega

PICCOLO

Nancy Stizza-Ortega

OBOE

Lisa Harvey-Reed, Principal Dan Schwartz Katherine McLemore

ENGLISH HORN Dan Schwartz

CLARINET

Bradford Behn, Principal Tara Heitz James Meiller

BASS/E-FLAT CLARINET James Meiller

BASSOON

CONTRABASSOON Barre Griffith

HORN

Kate Pritchett, Principal G. Rainey Williams Chair Nancy Halliday Mirella Gable Frank Goforth

TRUMPET

Karl Sievers, Principal Jay Wilkinson Michael Anderson

TROMBONE

John Allen, Principal Philip Martinson Noel Seals, Bass Trombone

TUBA

Ted Cox, Principal

PERCUSSION

David Steffens, Principal Patrick Womack Roger Owens

TIMPANI

Lance Drege, Principal

HARP

Gaye LeBlanc Germain, Principal

PIANO

Peggy Payne, Principal

PERSONNEL MANAGER/LIBRARIAN Michael Helt

PRODUCTION MANAGER Leroy Newman

Rod Ackmann, Principal James Brewer Barre Griffith Larry Reed

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PLANNED GIVING

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NCORE SOCIETY

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P H I L H A R M O N I C

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The Oklahoma Philharmonic Society, Inc. is honored to recognize its Encore Society members — visionary thinkers who have provided for the future of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic through their estate plans.

Anonymous (3)

Joel Levine

Steven C. Agee, Ph.D.

John and Caroline Linehan

Mr. and Mrs. Patrick B. Alexander

Mr. and Mrs. Marvin C. Lunde, Jr.

Gary and Jan Allison

Mrs. Jackie Marron

Dr. Jay Jacquelyn Bass

Mr. and Mrs. John McCaleb

Louise C. Churchill

Jean and David McLaughlin

Mr. and Mrs. Robert H. Clements

R.M. (Mickey) McVay

Thomas and Rita Dearmon

Robert B. Milsten

Dr. and Mrs. James D. Dixson

W. Cheryl Moore

Paul Fleming

Carl Andrew Rath

Hugh Gibson

Michael and Catherine Reaves

Pam and Gary Glyckherr

Mr. and Mrs. William J. Ross

Carey and Gayle Goad

Drs. Lois and John Salmeron

Mr. and Mrs. J.A. Gowman

Mr. and Mrs. William F. Shdeed

Carol M. Hall

Richard L. Sias

Ms. Olivia Hanson

Doug and Susie Stussi

Jane B. Harlow

Larry and Leah Westmoreland

Dr. and Mrs. James Hartsuck

Mrs. Martha V. Williams

Mr. and Mrs. Michael E. Joseph

Mr. John S. Williams Mr. and Mrs. Don T. Zachritz

THANK YOU The Oklahoma Philharmonic Society, Inc. is grateful for the support of caring patrons who want to pass on a legacy of extraordinary music to future generations. You can join this special group of music enthusiasts by including a gift for the OKC Philharmonic’s future in your own will or estate plan. For more information on how to become an Encore Society member, contact Jennifer Owens at (405) 231-0148 or jennifer@okcphil.org or Eddie Walker at ewalker@okcphil.org.

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405.996.0411 blongarborist@gmail.com

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GIFTS TO THE PHILHARMONIC The Oklahoma City Philharmonic Orchestra gratefully acknowledges the commitment and generosity of individuals, corporations, foundations, and government agencies that support our mission. To help us provide inspiration and joy to the community through performances and education programs, please contact the Philharmonic’s Development Office at (405) 232-7575.

This Annual Fund recognition reflects contributions made in the 2017-2018 season. Contributions of $100 and above are listed through January 15, 2018.

If your name has been misspelled or omitted, please accept our apologies and inform us of the error by calling the phone number listed above. Thank you for your generous support!

CORPORATIONS, FOUNDATIONS & GOVERNMENT Express their generous commitment to the community.

UNDERWRITER $40,000 & Above

GOLD SPONSORS $5,000 - $9,999

GOLD PARTNERS $1,250 - $1,749

Allied Arts Foundation The Chickasaw Nation Devon Energy Corporation E.L. and Thelma Gaylord Foundation Inasmuch Foundation Kirkpatrick Foundation Inc. Oklahoma Arts Council Oklahoma City Orchestra League, Inc. The Oklahoman The Skirvin Hilton Hotel

The Crawley Family Foundation Garman Productions Mekusukey Oil Company, LLC The Metro Restaurant

Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages Flips Restaurant, Inc. The Fred Jones Family Foundation The Kerr Foundation, Inc.

SILVER SPONSORS $3,000 - $4,999

SILVER PARTNERS $750 - $1,249

Clements Foods Foundation Gordon P. and Ann G. Getty Foundation OK Gazette The Friday True Sky Credit Union

M-D Building Products, Inc.

PLATINUM SPONSORS $10,000 - $39,999 405 Magazine Ad Astra Foundation American Fidelity Foundation Anschutz Family Foundation/ The Oklahoman Media Company Bank of Oklahoma Express Employment Professionals HSPG and Associates, PC MidFirst Bank OGE Energy Corp.

Tyler Media Co./Magic 104.1FM and KOMA W&W Steel, LLC Wilshire Charitable Foundation

BRONZE SPONSORS $1,750 - $2,999 The Black Chronicle Globe Life and Accident Insurance Company Norick Investment Company Oklahoma Allergy & Asthma Clinic Testers, Inc.

MATCHING GIFT COMPANIES AND FOUNDATIONS Double the impact of an individual’s gift.

American Fidelity Foundation Bank of America Matching Gifts Program ExxonMobil Foundation

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Inasmuch Foundation The Williams Companies

BRONZE PARTNERS $300 - $749 BUSINESS MEMBERS $100 - $299 Richard Parry and Cory Robinson

GIFTS TO THE PHILHARMONIC MAESTRO SOCIETY Providing leadership support.

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Benefactor $5,000 - $9,999

MAESTRO SOCIETY

Guarantor $10,000 and above Mr. and Mrs. Andrew J. Evans, II Mrs. Jane B. Harlow Jean and David McLaughlin Mary D. Nichols Nancy and George Records Mr. Richard L. Sias Renate and Chuck Wiggin

Mr. and Mrs. Patrick B. Alexander Mrs. Betty D. Bellis-Mankin Marilyn and Bill Boettger Molly and Jim Crawley Mr. and Mrs. Douglas R. Cummings Lawrence H. and Ronna C. Davis Mrs. Carlene Edwards Mr. and Mrs. John A. Frost John and Claudia Holliman Mr. Albert Lang Ms. Veronica Pastel-Egelston Mr. H.E. Rainbolt Lance and Cindy Ruffel Mr. and Mrs. Douglas J. Stussi Glenna and Dick Tanenbaum

INDIVIDUALS Providing essential support for the Annual Fund.

Patron $3,000 - $4,999 Steven C. Agee, Ph.D. Mike and Dawn Borelli Louise Churchill Mrs. Teresa Cooper Mr. and Mrs. David C. DeLana Mr. and Mrs. Sidney G. Dunagan Paul and Debbie Fleming Mrs. Bonnie B. Hefner Mr. Robert B. Milsten Larry and Polly Nichols Mrs. Ruby C. Petty Mrs. June Tucker Mrs. Martha V. Williams Mrs. Anne Workman Mrs. Carol Wright

Sustainer $1,750 - $2,999 Mr. Barry Anderson Dr. and Mrs. Dewayne Andrews Dr. and Mrs. John C. Andrus Dr. John E. Beavers J. M. Belanger and Sarah Sagran Mr. and Mrs. John Biggs Dr. and Mrs. Philip C. Bird Larry and Sarah Blackledge Dr. and Mrs. L. Joe Bradley Priscilla and Jordan Braun Mrs. Phyllis Brawley

Dr. and Mrs. Robert C. Brown Phil and Cathy Busey David and Druanne Durrett Mrs. Patty Empie Mr. and Mrs. George Faulk Mr. and Mrs. Joseph M. Fleckinger Mr. Jerry A. Gilbert Mr. and Mrs. Carey Don Goad Dr. and Mrs. James Hartsuck Mr. Joseph S. Jankowsky Tom and Cindy Janssen Kim and Michael Joseph Mr. and Mrs. W. A. Joseph Terry and Kathy Kerr Mr. and Mrs. Harrison Levy, Jr. Cindy and Johnny McCharen Dr. and Mrs. Patrick McKee Mr. and Mrs. Herman Meinders Annie Moreau, MD Mr. and Mrs. Ronald J. Norick Mr. William G. Paul Dr. Joseph H. Phillips Mr. and Mrs. Jerry W. Plant Drs. Gary and Mary Porter Mr. and Mrs. Ray H. Potts Mr. Joshua Powell Kathryn and Robert Prescott Mr. and Mrs. Steven Raybourn Mr. and Mrs. Richard L. Reynolds Mrs. Melba Rhinehart Mr. and Mrs. William J. Ross Mr. Donald Rowlett Mr. Patrick J. Ryan

Drs. Lois and John Salmeron Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Sanchez Todd and Melissa Scaramucci Ms. Jeanne Hoffman Smith Mr. and Mrs. John S. Spaid, Sr. Mr. and Mrs. John E. Stonecipher Mrs. Billie Thrash William P. Tunell, M.D. Mrs. Janet Walker Ron and Janie Walker John and Lou Waller Mr. Tom L. Ward Mr. and Mrs. Ron Youtsey

Associate $1,250 - $1,749 Mrs. Mary Louise Adams Mr. J. Edward Barth Dr. and Mrs. William L. Beasley Mr. and Mrs. William Beck Lori Bedford Mr. and Mrs. Robert M. Benham Nick and Betsy Berry Robert and Lori Black Ms. Pamela Bloustine MAJ. GEN. William P. Bowden, Rt. Mr. and Mrs. Gary W. Bowker Mr. and Mrs. Del Boyles Ms. Betty Bridwell Mr. Derek K. Burch Bruce and Deann Campbell J. Christopher and Ruth Carey CONTINUED ON PAGE 61

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CLASSICS 6

CONCERT PREVIEWS

March 3, 2018 8:00 P.M.

CLASSICS

CLASSICS 6 - MARCH 3, 2018 Q&A with Joyce Yang, Piano and Dr. Sallie Pollack, Piano Division Head and Associate Professor of Collaborative Piano, University of Central Oklahoma

JOYCE YANG, PIANO ALEXANDER MICKELTHWATE, CONDUCTOR

CLASSICS 7 - APRIL 7, 2018 Q&A with Philippe Quint, Violin and June McCoy, Violin, OKC Philharmonic and Concert Previews Chair, OKC Orchestra League Emerging Artist Series

CLASSICS 8 - MAY 12, 2018 Rodney Ackmann Principal Bassoon, OKC Philharmonic

BATES .................................... Mothership*

RACHMANINOFF .................... Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43

Joyce Yang, piano

OKLAHOMA PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY, INC. ASSOCIATE BOARD Ashley Wilemon, President John Cannon, Vice President Marti Ribeiro, Treasurer

Intermission

BEETHOVEN ........................... Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 55 (Eroica) Allegro con brio Marcia funebre: Adagio assai Scherzo: Allegro vivace Finale: Allegro molto—Poco andante—Presto

J. Cruise Berry, Secretary Timothy Bunson

*First performance on this series

Christopher Cummings Laura Cunningham Kate Cunningham

THIS CONCERT IS GENEROUSLY SPONSORED BY:

Peter M. Harlin Robyn Matthews Patrick Randall Jessica Robbins

Text CLASSICS to 95577 to stay up to date on the latest Philharmonic info.

Listen to a broadcast of this performance on KUCO 90.1 FM on Wednesday, March 28 at 8 pm and Saturday, March 31 at 8 am on “Performance Oklahoma”. Simultaneous internet streaming is also available during the broadcast.

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JOYCE YANG Pianist Joyce Yang came to international attention in 2005 when she won the silver medal at the 12th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. The youngest contestant at 19 years old, she also took home the awards for best performance of chamber music and of a new work. A Steinway artist, in 2010 she received an Avery Fisher Career Grant.

Yang has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and BBC Philharmonic, among many others, working with such distinguished conductors as James Conlon, Edo de Waart, Manfred Honeck, Lorin Maazel, Leonard Slatkin, and Jaap van Zweden.

She has appeared in recital at New York’s Lincoln Center and Metropolitan Museum, Washington’s Kennedy Center, Chicago’s Symphony Hall, and Zurich’s Tonhalle.

In the 2017-2018 season, Yang embarks on a series of debuts, collaborations, and premieres. Highlights include her debut with New Zealand Symphony Orchestra under Edo De Waart performing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in five New Zealand cities, a performance with Albany Symphony at Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. featuring works by Michael Torke (Three Manhattan Bridges, written expressly for Yang

and commissioned by Albany Symphony) and Joan Tower (Still/Rapids), a reunion with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra for three performances of Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3, and her first collaboration with Aspen Santa Fe Ballet on a new work for dancers and solo piano choreographed by Jorma Elo which will receive its world premiere in Aspen this March. Yang will also perform alongside the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Lexington Philharmonic, Eugene Symphony, Santa Rosa Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony, Reno Philharmonic, Allentown Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, and Asheville Symphony. She will continue her enduring partnership with longtime collaborators Alexander String Quartet with performances of works by Schumann and Brahms in California and New York.

Born in Seoul, Korea, in 1986, Yang received her first piano lesson from her aunt at age four. In 1997 she moved to the United States to study in the pre-college division of The Juilliard School. After winning The Philadelphia Orchestra’s Greenfield Student Competition, she performed Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with that orchestra at just twelve years old. Yang appears in the film In the Heart of Music, a documentary about the 2005 Cliburn Competition.

“Her attention to detail and clarity is as impressive as her agility, balance and velocity.”

— Washington Post Joan Rheinthaler

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ALEXANDER MICKELTHWATE German conductor Alexander Mickelthwate is the newly appointed Music Director Designate of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, and he is in his 12th and final season as Music Director of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra in Canada. Since starting his tenure in 2006 he played a pivotal role in the rejuvenation and turnaround of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra which culminated in a highly successful and critically acclaimed performance at Carnegie Hall in May 2014. The New York Times noted the performance was “conducted expertly,” and the New York Classical review stated “under music director Alexander Mickelthwate, they play with excellent intonation and such a fine overall blend and balance of sound that, on their own terms, they may be the best orchestra to appear in the week’s worth of concerts.”

Deeply rooted in his German heritage, English music writer and critic Norman Lebrecht wrote about Mickelthwate’s interpretation of Mahler 10 with the Winnipeg Symphony: “Both Mahler 10 performances were intense and engaging. Every twist and turn in the score was fresh and surprising to my ears.”

And his interpretation of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 prompted the pianist Anton Kuerti to write a letter to the newspaper saying “I would like to call attention to the stunning performance heard after the intermission. To play Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 with the passion, profundity, emotional intensity, subtly and degree of perfection achieved by conductor Alexander Mickelthwate and the Winnipeg Symphony can only be called miraculous.”

In North America Alexander has guest conducted the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Houston Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Saint Luke’s, Milwaukee Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic and Toronto Symphony among others.

Just last season he conducted four successful performances with the Brandenburger Philharmoniker, Germany, and he was re-invited to conduct two weeks of performances with the National Orchestra of Chile in Santiago in May 2018.

His European debut was with the Hamburger Symphoniker. He also conducted the BBC London, Stuttgart Radio Orchestra,

Royal Scottish, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and NDR Hannover. Other notable performances include the Sao Paulo Symphony and the Simon Bolivar Orchestra in Venezuela.

He made his Australian debut with the Adelaide Symphony and the Tasmania Orchestra where he recorded the Mozart piano concerti Nos. 7 and 10 with the Silber Garburg Duo. Alexander Mickelthwate has worked several times with Dame Evelyn Glennie conducting the world premiere of two new percussion concerti by Vincent Ho. He also worked with Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell, Dawn Upshaw, Plácido Domingo, Ben Heppner, Leila Josefowitz, James Ehnes, Alban Gerhardt, Anton Kuerti, Horatio Gutiérrez, Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos and Sarah Chang among many others; and he worked very closely with composers Sofia Gubaidulina, Kaija Saariaho, John Adams, R. Murray Schafer, Steven Stucky, Gabriel Prokofiev, Unsuk Chin, Joan Towers, John Luther Adams and Mason Bates.

For three years Alexander created a critically acclaimed Indigenous Festival. Passionate to connect with all cultures, he created artistic collaborations between First Nations and Western cultures that culminated in the performances of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Revueltas’ Les Noches de los Mayas with new choreographies of contemporary and First Nations dance.

A few of the most creative projects for Alexander were the performance of movie director Guy Maddin’s Brand Upon a Brain with narration by actress Isabella Rossellini, the workshopping of a new opera Tesla by movie director Jim Jarmusch and composer Phil Klein and a production of Gavin Bryars The Sinking of the Titanic at PanAm Pool.

Alexander conducted for President Jimmy Carter and the Queen of England and received the Queen Diamond Jubilee Medal.

Born and raised in Frankfurt, Germany to a musical family, Alexander has received his degree from the Peabody Institute of Music. He studied conducting under Fredric Prausnitz and Gustav Meier as well as with Seiji Ozawa, Andre Previn, Daniel Barenboim and Robert Spano at Tanglewood. Following on from his tenure as Assistant Conductor with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, which he completed in 2004, Alexander Mickelthwate was Associate Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic for three years, under the direction of Essa-Pekka Salonen.

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PROGRAM NOTES C L A S S I C S S E

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Mothership Mason Bates First performance on this series Born: January 23, 1977, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Currently residing: Burlingame, California Work composed: 2011 Work premiered: March 20, 2011, at the Sydney Opera House (Australia) by the YouTube Symphony, conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas, and viewed by almost two million people live on YouTube Instrumentation: Three flutes (third doubling piccolo), two clarinets (both doubling bass clarinet) plus E-flat clarinet, three oboes (third doubling English horn), two bassoons and contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, three percussionists, harp, piano, strings, and laptop

cal ensembles, such as orchestras. He has written such works for the San Francisco Symphony (his B-Sides, premiered by the orchestra in 2009; this season the Joffrey Ballet stages it as a dance work), National Symphony, and YouTube Symphony, among a growing list of notable ensembles.

In 2015, he was named the first-ever composer-in-residence of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and his contract was recently extended to continue though 2019-20. Through that affiliation, musicians from the Kennedy Center’s resident ensembles (including the National Symphony Orchestra and the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra,) are performing a diverse selection of his new and existing works, and Bates is curating an imaginative newmusic series called KC Jukebox, which involves a confluence of acoustic and electronic music-making, imaginative lighting, and edgy technological applications.

He previously served (from 2010 to 2012) as Composer in Residence at the Chicago Symphony, where Riccardo Muti led the premiere of his Alternative Energy, a symphony in all but name. He was celebrated during the 2012-13 and 2014-15 seasons as “Composer of the Year” by the Pittsburgh Symphony; during the latter residency, that orchestra (conducted

by Leonard Slatkin) introduced a new violin concerto he wrote for the occasion, featuring soloist Anne Akiko Meyers. He has also served as composer-in-residence for Young Concert Artists, an organization that helps exceptionally promising performers at the outset of their careers; many of the group’s musicians have accordingly toured with Bates’ compositions.

Although Bates often appears onstage with ensembles to personally oversee the electronic aspects of his scores, he normally crafts his pieces so they can stand on their own without live electronics, which brings his music into a more practical realm for traditional symphony orchestras.

As a youngster growing up in Richmond, Virginia, Mason Bates studied composition with Schoenberg’s pupil Dika Newlin, and he went on to take degrees in composition and in English literature through a joint program of The Juilliard School (where his principal teacher was composer John Corigliano) and Columbia University. He became enmeshed in the club culture of New York’s Lower East Side, gaining a reputation as a deejay under the name DJ Masonic. In 2001, he moved to the Bay Area of California, where he continued his activities in the club scene. He concurrently furthered his academic studies, and in 2008 he was awarded the Ph.D. from the University of California Berkeley, where he pursued creative work at the Center for New Music and Audio Technologies. He has found an individualistic niche in pairing the sonic resources of electronica (the electronic sound production associated with the dance scene) and the acoustic elements of traditional classi-

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His first opera, The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, was premiered by Santa Fe Opera during the summer of 2017. Written to a libretto by Mark Campbell, it considers the intersection of personal and professional aspects of the enigmatic founder of the Apple empire. He also wrote the score for Gus Van Sant’s 2015 film The Sea of Trees. He was given the Heinz Award for Arts and Humanities (2012) in recognition of his work with the Pittsburgh Symphony, the citation observing that “his music has moved the orchestra into the digital age and dissolved the boundaries of classical music.” He was recently named Musical America’s 2018 Composer of the Year.

He composed Mothership as a vivacious program-opener for the YouTube Symphony, which was conceived as an orchestra whose performances would be crafted for the international audience made possible by the Internet. It was later used as the score for a dance work by New York City Ballet. Characteristic of Bates’ approach, the piece involves a mixture of electronic sounds (controlled from a laptop computer) within the orchestra of acoustic instruments, and it allows for the possibility of improvised sections from several musicians.

PROGRAM NOTES The Composer Speaks Mason Bates offered this comment about Mothership: This energetic opener imagines the orchestra as a mothership that is ‘docked’ by several visiting soloists, who offer brief but virtuosic riffs on the work’s thematic material over action-packed electro-acoustic orchestral figuration.

The piece follows the form of a scherzo with double trio (as found in, for example, the Schumann Symphony No. 2). Symphonic scherzos historically play with dance rhythms in a high-energy and appealing manner, with the ‘trio’ sections temporarily exploring new rhythmic areas. Mothership shares a formal connection with the symphonic scherzo but is brought to life by thrilling sounds of the 21st century—the rhythms of modern-day techno in place of waltz rhythms, for example.

— JMK

Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43 Sergei Rachmaninoff First performance: 2/17/1946 Piano: William Kapell

The failure of that First Symphony threatened to undo Rachmaninoff, and for the next three years he didn’t write a note.

His talent was such that, in the aftermath of his public failure, he simply turned to a different musical pursuit and focused on conducting for the next few years. Before long he also sought the help of a physician who was investigating psychological therapy through hypnosis, and by 1901 Rachmaninoff was back on track as a composer. A few years later he would add the obligations of a touring concert pianist to his schedule, and his numerous recordings reveal that his outstanding reputation as a performer—refined, precise, impressive of technique and analytical of approach—was fully merited.

He composed four piano concertos spread through his career—in 1890-91, 1900-01, 1909, and 1926—and was the soloist at the premiere of each. Standing as a pendant to these is a fifth work for piano and orchestra, the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, written during the summer of 1934 and premiered that November. It does not pretend to be a concerto, and it will not serve any purpose to argue that it actually is one, even though it displays dramatic balance between soloist and orchestra and, what’s more, is structured in a way that evokes the three-movement form of most Romantic concertos.

The “theme of Paganini” on which Rachmaninoff based this work was Paganini’s Caprice No. 24, which that master of the violin had composed in the early 19th century and which composers of ensuing generations found unusually intriguing. Schumann, Liszt, and Brahms all wrote compositions that tackled the possibilities inherent in this melody, and, in the years since Rachmaninoff, such composers as Witold Lutosławski, Boris Blacher, and George Rochberg have kept

Last Performance: 11/14/2009 Piano: Stephen Hough Born: March 20 (old style)/April 1 (new style), 1873, at Oneg, in the Novgorod region of Russia Died: March 28, 1943, in Beverly Hills, California Work composed: July 3 through August 18, 1934 Work premiered: November 7, 1934, in Baltimore Maryland, with the composer as soloist and Leopold Stokowski conducting The Philadelphia Orchestra Instrumentation: Two flutes and piccolo, two oboes and English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, three trombones, tuba, timpani, snare drum, triangle, cymbals, bass drum, glockenspiel, harp, and strings

Sergei Rachmaninoff was clearly a bundle of talent, but the early years of his career nonetheless proceeded by fits and starts. He was not at first a standout at the Moscow Conservatory, but by the time he graduated, in 1892, he was deemed worthy of the “Great Gold Medal,” an honor that had been bestowed on only two students previously. Then in 1897 he was dealt a major setback with the public failure of his First Symphony, which a particularly prominent review (by fellow-composer César Cui) likened to “a program symphony on the ‘Seven Plagues of Egypt’” that “would bring delight to the inhabitants of Hell.”

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the tune in play. It’s a striking and memorable theme, and listeners will have only occasional trouble spotting it as Rachmaninoff pokes and massages it through the 24 variations that make up this piece (not counting a short introduction and, at the other end, a short coda).

The variations of the Rhapsody are all connected without punctuation-like breaks, but they fall into groups that give the piece an unfailing logic and momentum as it unrolls. The first ten variations show off the piano to tremendous effect, and in their growing sense of the demonic seem to be playing with the legend, widely circulated in Paganini’s day, that the violinist was in league with the devil. In the seventh variation Rachmaninoff therefore introduces another borrowed theme, which plays a secondary role to Paganini’s: the “Dies irae” chant from the Roman Catholic Mass for the Dead. (This theme has also proved a favorite of composers, putting in famous appearances in Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, Liszt’s Totentanz, and Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, to name only three well-known titles from a very long list.) After a few variations investigate how those melodies might work together, the first section winds down in Variation 11, a sort of cadenza that serves as transition to the second section.

On the whole this second, middle section (the composer referred to it as “love episodes”) adheres to a slower tempo than the first, but parts of it skip along quickly all the same.

After that, Rachmaninoff embarks on the last six variations, effectively his “finale,” tying everything together by revisiting the “Dies irae” in the final climactic pages of this justly popular masterwork.

Rachmaninoff’s “Slow Movement” The “slow movement” of the Rhapsody, which begins with Variation 12, reaches its peak with Variation 18 (Andante cantabile), revered as the rarest pearl in the piece’s crown. It rarely fails to satisfy, and not just because of its graceful beauty; it also provides a welcome change of variation procedure. Here Rachmaninoff inverts Paganini’s theme. Attentive ears will be able to divine it being played upside-down, and much slower, than the “normal” presentation of the theme. What’s more, Rachmaninoff skews it from the work’s overall key of A minor into the distant harmonic realm of Dflat major, a contrast the ear welcomes at this advanced stage of the piece. Acknowledging this section’s standalone popularity, Rachmaninoff wryly observed, “That one’s for my manager.”

— JMK

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Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 55, (Eroica) Ludwig van Beethoven First performance: 1/31/1950 Conductor: Victor Alessandro Last Performance: 3/31/2007 Conductor: Joel Levine Born: December 16, 1770 (probably, since he was baptized on the 17th), in Bonn, Germany Died: March 26, 1827, in Vienna, Austria Work composed: The first sketches date from the summer or fall of 1802, most of the composition was carried out in 1803, and the symphony was completed in the spring of 1804; a prominent theme in the finale dates from 1801 Work dedicated: To the music-loving nobleman Prince Franz Joseph von Lobkowitz Work premiered: In private performances at Prince Lobkowitz’s palace in Vienna during the second half of 1804; in its first really public performance, on April 7, 1805, at Vienna’s Theater an der Wien, with the composer conducting Instrumentation: Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, three horns, two trumpets, timpani, and strings

Beethoven was a partisan of noble humanitarian principles, joining those who saw the democratic ideals of ancient Greece reflected in the aspirations of the Jacobins of post-Revolutionary France. At the head of the Jacobins was Napoleon Bonaparte, and Beethoven was among the political idealists who viewed Napoleon as a repository of hope for the social enlightenment of humankind.

At the urging of the future King of Sweden, Beethoven began contemplating a musical celebration of Napoleon as early as 1797. As his early sketches coalesced into a symphony, Beethoven resolved not to simply dedicate his composition to Napoleon, but to actually name it after him. In the spring of 1804, just as Beethoven completed his symphonic tribute, news arrived that Napoleon had crowned himself Emperor, that the standard-bearer of republicanism had seized power as a dictator of absolutism. It fell to Beethoven’s pupil Ferdinand Ries to inform the temperamental composer, and to relate the scene (which must have occurred in May 1804) in a later biography: Beethoven held [Napoleon] in extremely high esteem at that time and compared him to the greatest Roman consul. Both I and several of his closer friends saw this symphony lying on his table, already copied out in score; at the very top of the title-page was the word “Buonaparte” and at the very bottom “Luigi van Beethoven”—and that was all. Whether he intended to fill in the middle, and with what, I do not know. I was the first one to bring him the news that Buonaparte had declared himself emperor— whereupon he flew into a rage, shouting “Is even he nothing but an ordinary man! Now he will also trample upon human rights and become a slave to his own ambition; now he will set himself above all other men and become a

PROGRAM NOTES phony an hour long,” Beethoven is said to have countered, “it will be found short enough,” and, of course, he was proved right in the long run. Opinion about the Third Symphony shifted rapidly. By 1807, nearly all reactions to the piece were favorable, or at least respectful, and critics were starting to make sense of its more radical elements and accept it as one of the summit achievements in all of music.

Opening Rehearsal The course of the first movement of the Eroica Symphony is quite unpredictable, and one of its quirks led to an incident that must have been fearsome at the time. Just before the recapitulation, Beethoven writes what sounds like a false entrance for the horn, prefiguring immediately upcoming material but seeming dissonant against a chord sounding just then in the violins. An account by his pupil Ferdinand Ries says:

tyrant.” Beethoven went to the table, grabbed the top of the title-page, tore it in two, and threw it to the floor. The first page was re-written and the symphony was then for the first time given the title of Sinfonia eroica.

The autograph score thus mutilated has disappeared, but the library of Vienna’s Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde owns a copyist’s manuscript that Beethoven marked and used for conducting—and it tells a similar tale. Its title page originally read (in Italian) “Sinfonia grande intitolata Bonaparte del Sigr Louis van Beethoven” (“Grand Symphony titled Bonaparte by Mr. Ludwig van Beethoven”). But the words “titled Bonaparte” were erased with such vehemence that a gash stands in their place. When the piece was published, it was presented as Sinfonia Eroica … per festeggiare il sovvenire di un grand Uomo (“Heroic Symphony … to Celebrate the Memory of a Great Man”); and the work’s dedication, originally intended for Napoleon, was given over instead to Beethoven’s patron Prince Lobkowitz. It became a leitmotif in Beethoven’s life that individuals would fail to live up to his idealizations, and that the composer would prefer Mankind in the abstract to Man in the flesh.

At first, critical response was guarded. On February 13, 1805, readers of Leipzig’s Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung read this report: “The reviewer belongs to Herr van Beethoven’s sincerest admirers, but in this composition he must confess that he finds too much that is glaring and bizarre, which hinders greatly one’s grasp of the whole, and a sense of unity is almost completely lost.” The same critic maintained that the piece “lasted an entire hour”. That comment was an exaggeration, but the Eroica was nonetheless the longest symphony ever written when it was unveiled, and listeners and critics commented widely on that fact. “If I write a sym-

The first rehearsal of the symphony was terrible, but the hornist did in fact come in on cue. I was standing next to Beethoven and, believing that he had made a wrong entrance, I said, “That damned hornist! Can’t he count? It sounds frightfully wrong.” I believe I was in danger of getting my ears boxed. Beethoven did not forgive me for a long time.

— JMK

JAMES M. KELLER James M. Keller is the longtime Program Annotator of the New York Philharmonic and the San Francisco Symphony. From 19902000 he wrote about music on staff at The New Yorker, and in 1999 he received the prestigious ASCAP–Deems Taylor Award for his feature writing in Chamber Music magazine. He serves as Critic-at-Large for the Santa Fe New Mexican, the oldest newspaper west of the Mississippi.

The Rachmaninoff and Beethoven notes appeared in an earlier form in the programs of the New York Philharmonic and are reprinted with permission; © New York Philharmonic. Bates note, © James M. Keller

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PINK MARTINI MARCH 30-31, 2018 8:00 P.M.

POPS MATTHEW TROY, CONDUCTOR

PINK MARTINI

This concert is generously presented by:

Text POPS1 to 95577 to stay up to date on the latest Philharmonic info.

A special Thank You to Bo Taylor for providing musicians’ catering services.

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Matthew Thomas Troy is a highly sought after conductor and has led orchestras across the country including the North Carolina Symphony, Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Portland Symphony, Greensboro Symphony, UNC School of the Arts Symphony, Northern Lights Chamber Orchestra (AK), and the Salisbury Symphony. He is known for his inspired performances and artistically rich programming and having the ability to connect with audiences and orchestras alike. During the 2015 and 2016 season he was a listed as an “Emerging Artist” by the League of American Orchestras in Symphony Magazine.

Recently, he enjoyed a successful debut with the Rochester Philharmonic in New York. Maestro Troy also served for six years as an Associate Conductor with the Winston-Salem Symphony. During his tenure there Troy conducted Classics, Pops, Family, Education, Handel’s Messiah, and Side-by-Side, and gala concerts. He also served as the conductor of the Winston-Salem Youth Symphony and built this into a prominent ensemble. During the summers of 2015 and 2016 Troy served as the conductor of the Cannon Music Camp Orchestra in the mountains of North Carolina, where he also performed as a member of the faculty chamber music group as violist.

of the most highly respected professional wind ensembles in the United States.

Matthew Troy currently serves as the Music Director of the Piedmont Wind Symphony and the Education Conductor for the Oklahoma City Philharmonic. Since becoming Music Director of the Piedmont Wind Symphony, Troy has increased the budget size of the ensemble significantly, formed many new community and national partnerships, commissioned and premiered new works, and expanded the concert offerings across the season. Troy has also received numerous accolades for his innovative programming, including securing new grant and foundation support for his programs. Examples of this include popular film and music projects, expanded outreach programs in school and the local prison system, performances with prominent guest artists, and he has led efforts for board development, while more than doubling the overall audience size and demonstrated success creating a new and more diverse audiences. Additionally, under Maestro Troy, the Piedmont Wind Symphony was invited to perform as the featured ensemble during the 2017 North Carolina Music Educator’s Conference. During his time he has also expanded the Piedmont Wind Symphony’s youth programs to include two ensembles totaling more than 150 students.

These efforts have made the Piedmont Wind Symphony one

Troy is a frequent conductor/clinician and he has conducted the All-State Orchestras in North Carolina, Oklahoma, and in West Virginia. In 2010, Troy created an innovative educational program that partnered the Winston-Salem Symphony with a San Francisco based organization called the African Library Project. This program, created in conjunction with the popular educational concerts, used music and a corresponding short story competition to focus on the importance of literacy both locally and abroad.

Troy also continues as Education Conductor with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, where he conducts the Discovery Series, educational concert series, Carnegie Hall’s Link-Up programs, and other outreach events. Troy is also excited to make his debut with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic on the Pops series this season. Troy has led performances with many internationally renowned soloists including Midori, Anthony Dean Griffey, Antonio Pompa-Baldi, Eileen Ivers, Classical Mystery Tour, Judy Collins, Ben Folds, Bob Marley’s band - The Wailers, Pink Martini and many others. Troy has previously held positions as conductor of the Fibonacci Chamber Orchestra, the Wake Forest University Orchestra and the Salisbury Youth Orchestra. He has also served as Assistant Conductor of the Salisbury Symphony Orchestra and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) Symphony.

He has taught conducting on the faculties of University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Wake Forest University, and UNC-Greensboro.

Troy earned a bachelor’s degree in music as a violist under renowned violist Scott Rawls at UNCG, where he also completed his master’s degree in orchestral conducting as a student of Maestro Robert Gutter. He also has studied at the prestigious Pierre Monteux School under Maestro Michael Jinbo and with renowned conducting pedagogues Maestro Gerard Schwarz and Maestro Kenneth Kiesler at the Conductors Retreat at Medomak. In addition to his conducting engagements, Troy also keeps a very active schedule as a public speaker and is a member of numerous civic organizations and the Pi Kappa Lambda Honors Music Society. In his free time, he enjoys reading, studying new music, traveling, singing, and performing as a violist.

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PINK MARTINI In 1994 in his hometown of Portland, Oregon, Thomas Lauderdale was working on political campaigns, with the intention of eventually running for office. Drawing inspiration from music from all over the world – crossing genres of classical, jazz, and old-fashioned pop – and hoping to appeal to conservatives and liberals alike, he founded the “little orchestra” Pink Martini “to bring a little bit of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” to political fundraising for causes such as civil rights, affordable housing, cleaning up the Willamette River, libraries and education, among others.

One year later, Lauderdale called China Forbes, a Harvard classmate who was living in New York City, and asked her to join Pink Martini. They began to write songs together. Their first song – “Je ne veux pas travailler” or “I don’t want to work” – became an overnight sensation in France, was nominated for Song of the Year at France’s Victoires de la Musique Awards, and to this day remains a mantra for striking French workers. “Pink Martini is an American band, but because we spend a lot of time abroad we have the incredible diplomatic opportunity to represent a broader, more inclusive America . . . the America that is the most heterogeneously-populated country in the world. Except for Native Americans, all of us are immigrants from every country, of every language, of every religion,” says Lauderdale.

Featuring a dozen musicians with songs in over 25 languages, Pink Martini performs its multilingual repertoire on concert stages and with symphony orchestras throughout Europe, Asia, Greece, Turkey, the Middle East, Northern Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and North and South America. Pink Martini made its European debut at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997 and its orchestral debut

with the Oregon Symphony in 1998 under the direction of Norman Leyden. Since then, the band has gone on to play with more than 70 orchestras around the world, including multiple engagements with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, the Boston Pops, the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center, the San Francisco Symphony, the Chicago Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Seattle Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the BBC Concert Orchestra at Royal Albert Hall.

Other appearances include the grand opening of the LA Philharmonic’s Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall, with return sold-out engagements for New Year’s Eves in 2003, 2004, 2008, 2011, 2014 and 2016; four sold-out concerts at Carnegie Hall; the opening party of the remodeled Museum of Modern Art in New York City; three sold out shows with the Sydney Symphony at the renowned Sydney Opera House; sold-out concerts at Royal Albert Hall in London in 2011, 2013 & 2016, sold-out concerts at Paris’ legendary L’Olympia Theatre in 2011 and 2016; and Paris’ fashion house Lanvin’s 10-year anniversary celebration for designer Alber Elbaz in 2012. In 2014, Pink Martini was inducted into both the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame and the Oregon Music Hall of Fame.

In 2016, Pink Martini released its ninth studio album, Je dis oui!, featuring singers China Forbes, Storm Large, Ari Shapiro, fashion guru Ikram Goldman, civil rights leader Kathleen Saadat, and Rufus Wainwright. The album’s 15 songs span eight languages (French, Farsi, Armenian, Portuguese, Arabic, Turkish, Xhosa and English), and affirm the band’s 23-year history of global inclusivity and collaborative spirit.

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OKLAHOMA CITY PHILHARMONIC FOUNDATION PROVIDING LEADERSHIP AND ANNUAL SUPPORT The Oklahoma City Philharmonic Foundation was established to provide leadership and endowment expertise to help ensure a stable financial base for orchestral music and musical excellence in Oklahoma City for generations to come.

Distributions from the Oklahoma City Philharmonic Foundation provide a meaningful and secure source of annual income for the Philharmonic’s operations, continually confirming the importance of endowment in an organization’s long-range planning and overall success.

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CLASSICS 7 April 7, 2018 8:00 P.M.

CLASSICS PHILIPPE QUINT, VIOLIN ALEXANDER MICKELTHWATE, CONDUCTOR

PIAZZOLLA ................. Tangazo: Variaciones sobre Buenos Aires

(Tangazo: Variations on Buenos Aires) KORNGOLD ................. Concerto in D major for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 35

Moderato nobile

Romance

Finale: Allegro assai vivace

Philippe Quint, violin

Intermission

Michael E. Joseph President Jean Ann Hartsuck Vice President Douglas J. Stussi Treasurer Penny M. McCaleb Secretary DIRECTORS Steven C. Agee Patrick B. Alexander J. Edward Barth L. Joe Bradley Teresa Cooper T.A. Dearmon Paul Dudman Thomas J. Enis Misha Gorkuscha Jane B. Harlow Harrison Levy, Jr. Duke R. Ligon Michael J. Milligan Patrick J. Ryan Richard L. Sias Richard Tannenbaum

PROKOFIEV ................. Suite from Romeo and Juliet

Montagues and Capulets

The Child Juliet

Minuet

Masks

Romeo and Juliet (Balcony Scene)

Morning Dance

The Death of Tybalt

Aubade (Morning Serenade)

Romeo at Juliet’s Grave

The Death of Juliet

THIS CONCERT IS GENEROUSLY SPONSORED BY:

Text CLASSICS to 95577 to stay up to date on the latest Philharmonic info.

Listen to a broadcast of this performance on KUCO 90.1 FM on Wednesday, May 2 at 8 pm and Saturday, May 5 at 8 am on “Performance Oklahoma”. Simultaneous internet streaming is also available during the broadcast.

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PHILIPPE QUINT Multi Grammy Award nominee Philippe Quint has established himself as one of the leading violinists of his generation. His commanding technique and musical curiosity has led him to reimagine traditional works, rediscover neglected repertoire and continue his journey of presenting new works of some of the most outstanding composers of today.

With an award winning discography, the celebrated American violinist of Russian heritage has won worldwide acclaim playing with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors.

Quint’s most recent appearances have taken him to the London Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony, Houston Symphony, Weimar Staatskapelle, Royal Liverpool, China National, Orpheus, Berlin Komische Oper, and Leipzig’s MDR at the Gewandhaus. Conductors with whom he has worked are Marin Alsop, Carl St. Clair, Grant Llewellyn, Andrew Litton, Cristian Macelaru, Kurt Masur, Jorge Mester, Edo de Waart, Jahja Ling, Krzysztof Urbanski, Ludovic Morlot, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Tugan Sokhiev, Klauspeter Seibel, Christopher Seaman, Kenneth Schermerhorn, Steven Sloane, Michael Stern, Bramwell Tovey, and Martin Yates, among many others.

Highlights of Quint’s 2017-18 season include returns with Phoenix Symphony and Tito Munoz for the opening of their 70th season, his first collaboration with New York City Ballet and Andrew Litton for the performance of the Red Violin Concerto (Peter Martins choreography), a return to play/lead Vancouver Symphony in an all-Baroque program, and a celebration of Bernstein’s centennial in 2018 with returns to Milwaukee Symphony and Edo de Waart as well as North Carolina Symphony and Grant Llewellyn.

Philippe Quint is the first classical artist to star in the lead role of a major independent film Downtown Express co-starring Nellie McKay from producer Michael Hausmann (Gangs of New York, Brokeback Mountain and Amadeus) and multi-Emmy winning director David Grubin. This 2012 film premiered in New York and Los Angeles as well as at a number of national and international film festivals including Woodstock, New York, Houston (Opening Night), Mons (Belguim), Cuba, Vermont, and Florida.

Philippe Quint’s critically acclaimed discography contains a large variety of rediscovered treasures along with popu-

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lar works from the standard repertoire. Included are the Mendelssohn and Bruch violin concertos and Beethoven’s Romances with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería led by Carlos Miguel Prieto; Opera Breve with pianist Lily Maisky, a unique collection of opera transcriptions for violin and piano featuring both popular and rare songs; original arrangements of Bach’s music by composer/pianist Matt Herskowitz titled Bach XXI which debuted at Lincoln Center in February of 2016; the Glazunov & Khachaturian violin concertos with Bochumer Sinfoniker, Steven Sloane conducting; the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with Sofia Philharmonic led by conductor Martin Panteleev; the world premiere recording of John Corigliano’s Red Violin Caprices, Ned Rorem’s Concerto, Miklos Rozsa’s Complete Works for Violin and Piano with William Wolfram; Bernstein’s Serenade; and a unique compilation of works by Paganini arranged by Fritz Kreisler, which BBC Music Magazine called “truly phenomenal.”

An active chamber musician, Philippe frequently collaborates with cellists Alisa Weilerstein, Gary Hoffman, Carter Brey, Claudio Bohorquez, and Jan Vogler, pianists William Wolfram, Inon Barnatan, Alon Goldstein, Marc-Andre Hamelin, violists Nils Monkemeyer and Lily Francis as well as his esteemed violin colleagues Joshua Bell, Cho–Liang Lin, and Vadim Gluzman.

Born in Leningrad, Soviet Union (now St. Petersburg, Russia), Philippe Quint studied at Moscow’s Special Music School for the Gifted with the famed Russian violinist Andrei Korsakov, and made his orchestral debut at the age of nine, performing Wieniawski’s Concerto No. 2. After moving to the United States, he earned both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from The Juilliard School. His distinguished pedagogues and mentors included Dorothy Delay, Cho-Liang Lin, Masao Kawasaki, Isaac Stern, Itzhak Perlman, Arnold Steinhardt and Felix Galimir.

The Chicago Tribune proclaimed, “Here is a fiddle virtuoso whose many awards are fully justified by the brilliance of his playing.” Among his many honors, Quint was the winner of the Juilliard Competition and Career Grant Recipient of Salon de Virtuosi, Bagby and Clarisse Kampel Foundations.

Philippe Quint plays the magnificent 1708 “Ruby” Antonio Stradivari violin on loan to him through the generous efforts of The Stradivari Society®.

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Tangazo: Variaciones sobre Buenos Aires (Tangazo: Variations on Buenos Aires) Astor Piazzolla Single performance: 1/6/1996 Conductor: Stephen Gunzenhauser Born: March 11, 1921, in Mar del Plata, Argentina Died: July 4, 1992, in Buenos Aires, Argenita Work composed: 1969 Work premiered: February 1970, in Washington D.C., by the Ensemble Musical de Buenos Aires, Pedro Ignacio Calderón conducting Instrumentation: Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, guiro, triangle, glockenspiel, xylophone, three tom-toms, two cymbals, piano, and strings

Spain and Portugal left an extraordinary musical legacy in their colonies, and the revival of the colonial-era sacred music from the cathedrals and parish churches of Latin America has been an ear-opening experience of the past two decades. A secular repertoire was slower to develop in Latin America. The great names of Latin American concert music did not begin to appear until the 20th century, when substantial contributions were made by such figures as the Brazilian Heitor Villa-Lobos, the Argentine Alberto Ginastera, and the Mexicans Silvestre Revueltas and Carlos Chávez, among many others.

Of all Latin American concert composers, the most widely performed today is surely Astor Piazzolla, who has achieved something resembling pop status. Born in Argentina, he grew up in New York City, where his family moved in 1924. In deference to his American upbringing, he used an Americanized pronunciation of his surname, with the “double-l” sounded as the English letter “l,” rather than with the Spanish pronunciation of the letter “ll” as a “y,” or the Argentine pronunciation of “zh.”

In New York, he learned to play the bandoneón, a kind of accordion whose timbre instantly evokes the Argentine tango. Returning to his native country at the age of 16, he established himself as a working musician and performed with many popular ensembles before forming his own tango orchestra, the “Orquesta del 46,” in 1946. In that year, he wrote his first tango, the genre in which he would make an

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important mark as a composer. In 1950, he disbanded his ensemble, the better to dedicate his time to composing. He produced his first works for symphonic forces as early as 1953. The following year, he received a grant from the French Government to travel to Paris. There he studied with Nadia Boulanger, who urged him to develop his language as a composer on a foundation of distinctly Argentine sound. “Up to then,” he recalled, “I had composed symphonies, chamber music, string quartets; but when Nadia Boulanger analyzed my music, she said she could find nowhere any Piazzolla. She could find Ravel and Stravinsky, also Béla Bartók and Hindemith—but never Piazzolla. … Nadia made me play a tango to her and then she said, ‘You idiot! That is the real Piazzolla!’ So I threw away all the other music and, in 1954, started working on my New Tango.” By 1956, he began presenting his innovative, hybrid tangos in concert. On his return to Argentina he formed another ensemble, the Octeto de Buenos Aires, the first of several chamber ensembles that would serve as a laboratory for his continuing experiments in developing tango as a genre of contemporary music.

The tango that he inherited was a sexy dance born in the back alleys and brothels of Buenos Aires (or, Uruguayans may argue, Montevideo). Piazzolla injected a sense of modernity into the genre, so transforming it that his music, and that of his colleagues and followers, is today referred to as “the New Tango,” in contradistinction to the classic dance form. While the classic tango remains recognizable as the root of his music, his pieces also reflect aspects of jazz and of classical developments that trace their ancestry to Stravinsky. Piazzolla’s New Tangos met great resistance from tango traditionalists,

About Tangazo In Le Grand Tango: The Life and Works of Astor Piazzolla, the joint authors María Susana Azzi and Simon Collier describe Tangazo: Tangazo is a remarkable work. Densely scored, without bandoneon, it starts with the double basses playing a slow fugato. The strings, as described by the conductor Alicia Farace, gradually open out like a fan. The woodwinds invert and develop the main theme. A horn then introduces a new, wistful melody, reinforced by orchestral tutti, and is countered by jaunty forte passages. The music seems to be heading toward a bacchanalian finale, but ends abruptly with a rather startling pianissimo. This is one of the best of Piazzolla’s attempts to translate the tango into symphonic music.

— JMK

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most of whom dismissed them outright; indeed, he viewed his compositions as essentially works of classical chamber music. It is in that spirit that they began to embraced in the mid-1990s by a number of distinguished classical musicians.

In Tangazo, Piazzolla offers an absolutely symphonic work, about as far removed from the sonic world of the tangoband as he ever got. Nonetheless, it clearly springs from the relaxed rhythms and sinuous contours of tango.

Concerto in D major for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 35 Erich Wolfgang Korngold First performance: 1/9/1993 Violin: Sidney Weiss Last performance: 2/7/2009 Violin: Glenn Dicterow Born: May 29, 1897, in Brno, Moravia (then in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, now in the Czech Republic) Died: November 29, 1957, in Hollywood, California Work composed: Summer 1945, with the orchestration completed that October Work dedicated: To Alma Mahler-Werfel Work premiered: February 15, 1947, in St. Louis, with Jascha Heifetz as soloist and Vladimir Golschmann conducting the St. Louis Symphony Instrumentation: Two flutes (second doubling piccolo), two oboes (second doubling English horn), two clarinets and bass clarinet, two bassoons (second doubling contrabassoon), four horns, two trumpets, trombone, timpani, glockenspiel, xylophone, vibraphone, cymbals, chimes, tam-tam, bass drum, harp, celesta, and strings, in addition to the solo violin

Erich Wolfgang Korngold was one of history’s most extraordinary child prodigies, rivaled in the annals of very young composers only by Mendelssohn and possibly Mozart. He was born into a musical family: his father, Julius Korngold, was a music critic who succeeded the esteemed Eduard Hanslick on the staff of Vienna’s Neue Freie Presse. Music came naturally to him. His mother, asked later in life about when her son began playing the piano, replied, “Erich always played the piano.” In fact, he never had more than “basic training” on the instrument (curiously, since his father could have opened the doors to the most renowned studios in Vienna), but it’s not clear that regimented study would have improved what already seemed to be absolute fluency at the keyboard. He never pursued a performing career, but people who heard him play remarked on how he seemed almost organically connected to the keyboard. Ultimately his musical interests were not those of a piano virtuoso. Repeating a piece over and over and rendering its notated details to perfection seemed not to hold his attention. He was a creator rather than a re-creator, and his natural route was instead a more improvisatory approach that allowed him to adapt a piece to express momentary inspirations.

In 1906, his father convinced Gustav Mahler to assess the nine-year old boy. After hearing Korngold play his (now

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lost) cantata Gold at the piano, Mahler declared him to be a genius and recommended that he be put under the compositional care of Alexander von Zemlinsky. In 1910, Korngold’s ballet-pantomime Der Schneeeman (The Snowman) was produced to astonished acclaim at the Vienna Court Opera.

By then he had completed his Piano Trio (Op. 1) and he would momentarily finish his Piano Sonata No. 2, which the pianist Artur Schnabel immediately put into his concert repertoire.

Two years later Korngold produced his Sonata for Violin and Piano; and again, it was Schnabel who took up its cause, programming it in joint recitals with the eminent violinist Carl Flesch. Composers all over Europe gawked in awe at their young colleague; Richard Strauss, Giacomo Puccini, Jean Sibelius, and many others scrambled for superlatives to describe what they heard. By the time Korngold was 20, his orchestral works had been played by the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic, and his operas Der Ring des Polykrates and Violanta had been premiered at the Munich Court Theatre, with Bruno Walter on the podium.

During the interwar years Korngold continued from strength to strength, and in 1934 the theatrical director Max Reinhardt invited him to travel to Hollywood to compose the soundtrack for his film adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It was a fateful and fortunate invitation. Hollywood agreed with Korngold, and Korngold, being Jewish, assuredly would not have agreed with Austria had he remained there. During this second phase of his career Korngold created masterful symphonic scores for some 20 motion pictures, including Captain Blood, The Prince and the Pauper, Anthony Adverse (which brought him his first Academy

PROGRAM NOTES Award), Robin Hood (which earned him his second), The Sea Hawk, and Kings Row. If, listening to his Violin Concerto, you think you hear echoes of familiar film music, you’re right. Most of its themes are drawn from Korngold’s soundtrack scores: in the first movement, from Another Dawn (1937) and Juarez (1939); in the second, from Anthony Adverse (1936; the movement’s misterioso middle section is original to the concerto); in the mercurial finale, from The Prince and the Pauper (1937).

(The script for Juarez, incidentally, was drawn partly from the novel Maximilian and Carlota by Franz Werfel, the third husband of the Violin Concerto’s dedicatee, Alma MahlerWerfel.) But a concerto is more than its themes, and in reworking and developing this mostly pre-existent melodic material Korngold crafted a virtuoso showpiece that is hard not to love. It was born of a language that was in no way avant-garde in 1945, but it prolongs lush post-Romanticism into an era when many concert-hall composers proved far less concerned about charming listeners.

From One Violinist to Another

Selections from Romeo and Juliet Sergei Prokofiev First performance: 10/29/1963 Conductor: Guy Fraser Harrison Last performance: 5/12/2007 Conductor: Joel Levine Born: April 11 (old style)/23 (new style), 1891—so he maintained, though his birth certificate said April 15/27—in Sontsovka, in the Ekaterinoslav district of Ukraine Died: March 5, 1953, in Moscow, USSR Work composed: 1935-36 Work premiered: The complete ballet Romeo and Juliet was premiered on December 30, 1938, in Brno, Czechoslovakia, with Quirino Arnoldi conducting. Much of its music had already been heard through the two concert suites Prokofiev assembled in late 1936 and that were premiered respectively on November 25, 1936, at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow (with George Sebastien conducting) and April 15, 1937, in Leningrad (with the composer conducting). In 1946, he created a third suite, which was premiered March 8, 1946, with Vladimir Degtyarenko conducting.

Instrumentation: Two flutes and piccolo, two oboes and English horn, two clarinets and bass clarinet, tenor saxophone, two bassoons and contrabassoon, four horns, two trumpets and cornet, three trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, tambourine, snare drum, cymbals, bass drum, xylophone, piano (doubling celesta), harp, and strings

The revered Polish-born violinist Bronisław Huberman had been trying to pry a concerto out of Korngold for years; but when the piece finally materialized, Huberman was committed to a busy touring schedule and kept failing to schedule the concerto’s first performance.

When Korngold conveyed to Huberman that Bronislav Gimpel, the concertmaster of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, was expressing interest in premiering the work, Huberman shot back a furious telegram: “I absolutely forbid you to even show it to another violinist!”

Then Jascha Heifetz, heard about the new, as-yetunplayed piece. He convinced Korngold to give him a preview of it and to lend him the score to study. Korngold invited Huberman to lunch, where he confessed: “Huberman, I haven’t been unfaithful yet, I’m not engaged … but I have flirted.” Finally Huberman found the time to listen to Korngold play through the work for him, and afterwards he submissively declared, “Even if Heifetz does play the world premiere, I’ll play it anyway.”

Heifetz did indeed play the premiere, and he went on to become permanently identified with the piece through a famous recording with Alfred Wallenstein conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic. And Huberman? He died precisely four months after the premiere, not yet having found an opportunity to perform the piece he had so persistently desired and so inexplicably resisted.

— JMK

Today everybody would agree that Prokofiev’s ballet Romeo and Juliet is one of the finest ballet scores of all time, but that was not the general consensus at the outset of its history. It is easy for us to hear it as supremely apt music for choreography, its memorable themes—by turns lyric and dramatic, always incisive and specific—so filled with movement that they seem the very embodiment of the dance.

How puzzling it is to be reminded that the dancers of the Bolshoi Ballet, preparing for a Russian premiere that would be repeatedly delayed, complained bitterly about Prokofiev’s score, dismissing it as “undanceable!”

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Romeo and Juliet was a joint project of Prokofiev and Sergei Radlov, a modernist director who had staged the Russian premiere of Prokofiev’s opera The Love for Three Oranges in 1926. Apart from his work with avant-garde plays, Radlov was also noted for his daring productions of Shakespeare, including, in 1934, a Russian staging of Romeo and Juliet. In 1935, he crafted a scenario of 58 episodes of roughly equal length based on Shakespeare’s play about Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet, the idealistic young lovers whose passion is doomed by the animosity of their feuding families.

change my mind about the whole thing was a remark someone made to me. ‘Your music does not express real joy at the end.’ That was quite true. After several conferences with the choreographer, it was found that the tragic ending could be expressed in dance after all, and in due course the music for that ending was written.”

Prokofiev was officially living in Paris when he composed this ballet. He would move back to his native country in January 1936, but during the preceding year he actually spent more time in Russia than not, and the chief project that occupied him during those months was this ballet.

He passed much of the year at a resort town on the Oka River, where many artists associated with the Bolshoi Theatre spent their time off. “I am enjoying this peace and quiet,” he wrote to a friend. “I swim in the Oka, play tennis and chess, go for walks in the forests with our ballerinas, do some reading, and work for about five hours a day. … I am not resting so much as writing Romeo.”

Frustrated in getting his Romeo and Juliet ballet produced, Prokofiev decided to introduce some of its music to the public as standalone orchestral works. In late 1936, he put together two concert suites, published under the rubrics Op. 64bis and Op. 64ter (Op. 64 being the identifier for the complete ballet). They proved immediately popular and remain to this day among his most frequently programmed scores. In 1946, Prokofiev produced yet another suite (labeled Op. 101), which is less frequently heard. Alexander Mickelthwate has assembled a sequence of movements that draws on material from all three of Prokofiev’s suites. From the Suite No. 1 come “Minuet,” “Masks,” “Romeo and Juliet (Balcony Scene),” and “The Death of Tybalt.” Suite No. 2 furnished the music for “Montagues and Capulets,” “The Child Juliet,” “Friar Laurence,” and “Romeo at Juliet’s Grave.” “Morning Dance,” “Aubade (Morning Serenade),” and “The Death of Juliet” are included in Prokofiev’s Suite No. 3.

Romeo and Juliet had been envisioned originally for the Mariinsky Theatre in Leningrad, but political turmoil had changed plans such that the premiere was rescheduled to take place at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. That production also failed to take form. With frustration mounting, Prokofiev created an orchestral suite from his completed ballet score and unveiled it in November 1936, two years before the ballet reached the stage. A further suite followed fast on its heels, and a third in 1946. In the event, Romeo and Juliet received its first performances not in Russia but rather in Czechoslovakia, and only later made its way to Russia—first to Leningrad (in 1940, with the Kirov Ballet) and eventually to Moscow (in December 1946), where the members of the Bolshoi Ballet company were finally convinced that the music was not “undanceable” after all.

In the original scenario, Prokofiev and Radlov made a major change to the Shakespearean plot: they arranged for Romeo to arrive just before Juliet ingests poison, with the result that the young lovers do not die but rather live happily ever after—a twist that should have met with pleasure from the Soviet cultural authorities, who liked nothing more than optimism. “There was quite a fuss about our attempt to give Romeo and Juliet a happy ending,” the composer later recalled. “The reason for this bit of barbarism was purely choreographic: the living can dance, the dying cannot. …

Curiously while the report that Prokofiev was writing a Romeo and Juliet ballet with a happy ending was received quite calmly in London, our own [Russian] Shakespeare scholars proved more Catholic than the Pope and rushed to the playwright’s defense. But what really caused me to

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From Ballet into Orchestral Suites

— JMK

JAMES M. KELLER James M. Keller is the longtime Program Annotator of the New York Philharmonic and the San Francisco Symphony. From 19902000 he wrote about music on staff at The New Yorker, and in 1999 he received the prestigious ASCAP–Deems Taylor Award for his feature writing in Chamber Music magazine. He serves as Critic-at-Large for the Santa Fe New Mexican, the oldest newspaper west of the Mississippi.

These notes appeared in an earlier form in the programs of the New York Philharmonic and are reprinted with permission; © New York Philharmonic.

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THE MUSIC OF ABBA - ARRIVAL FROM SWEDEN MAY 4-5, 2018 8:00 P.M.

POPS DOUGLAS DROSTE, CONDUCTOR

This concert is generously sponsored by:

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A special Thank You to Fuzzy’s Taco Shop for providing musicians’ catering services.

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DOUGLAS DROSTE Conductor Douglas Droste is recognized as possessing “obvious joy” for making music and a “sure sense of timing” when on the podium. Those under his baton routinely acknowledge his in-depth interpretations, keen sense of communication, and personable ability to empower musicians. Droste is the Artistic Director of the Muncie Symphony Orchestra, Director of Orchestras at Ball State University, and Conductor of the Music For All Summer Symposium Youth Orchestra.

In Muncie, Droste has been called “The People’s Maestro” because of his rapport with musicians, audience members, and presence in the community. He has led dynamic performances with the MSO and has been praised for his innovative programming of mixing new works with traditional repertoire. Droste has helped develop the MSO’s new Family Series, and has expanded its community engagement with concerts such as the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Concert, a Toddler Pops concert, and the popular Young People’s Concert, Music is Science! Droste programs accessible pops concerts, including the annual Festival on the Green, and Picnic and Pops featuring the Ball State University “Pride of Mid-America” Marching Band.

At Ball State, Droste conducts the Ball State Symphony Orchestra, opera productions, and oversees the orchestral conducting program. The BSSO also performs a diverse mix of standard repertoire and contemporary music, and has enjoyed unique collaborations with the BSU Jazz Ensemble, Ron McCurdy and his Langston Hughes Project, and in addition, performs an annual Sensory Friendly concert for children with special needs. The BSSO performed at the 2016 Indiana Music Education Association Conference.

Recent guest conducting includes the orchestras of Kansas City, Indianapolis, Columbus, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Chappaqua (NY), Midland-Odessa, Fox Valley (IL), and the Amarillo Virtuosi. In 2014, Droste and jazz violinist Christian Howes

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were invited on a goodwill cultural exchange by the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, where he guest conducted the INSOLviv Symphony Orchestra and led a conducting masterclass.

Demonstrating his versatility, Droste has conducted pops concerts with artists such as Ben Folds, The Flaming Lips, Pink Martini, Michael Cavanaugh, Time for Three, Project Trio, Under the Streetlamp, John Pizzarelli, and Disney’s AllAmerican College Orchestra Alumni.

A dedicated advocate of music education, Droste regularly conducts youth orchestras, serves as a clinician and adjudicator for school orchestras and festivals, and has guest conducted at the prestigious Midwest Clinic. As conductor of the Music For All Summer Symposium Youth Orchestra, he has overseen unprecedented growth in the program. He most recently led the orchestra in a collaboration with the hip-hop duo, Black Violin. Droste is a Yamaha Performing Artist and Master Educator, and is also affiliated with the American String Teachers Association and Festival Disney.

A talented violinist, Droste has performed as a soloist with the MSO and Amarillo Virtuosi, and has performed with the orchestras of Fort Wayne, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Nashville, Memphis, Lubbock, and the Lancaster Festival (OH). He is a former student of John Gilbert and the late Michael Davis.

Droste is also skilled on viola and trumpet, and has sung tenor with a variety of choral ensembles.

Droste has held positions at Oklahoma State University, Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Oklahoma Youth Symphony, Austin Peay State University, and Liberty Union-Thurston School District (OH). He studied conducting at the Pierre Monteux School, the Oregon Bach Festival with Helmuth Rilling, as well as other prominent conducting seminars. His primary conducting mentors include Gary Lewis, Michael Jinbo, and Larry Rachleff. Droste holds degrees from The Ohio State University and Texas Tech University.

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JOEL’S FAREWELL May 12, 2018 8:00 P.M.

CLASSICS JOEL LEVINE, CONDUCTOR EDDIE WALKER, NARRATOR

nichols hills plaza IN MEMORY OF SEYMOUR & ANNE LEVINE

COPLAND ................... Lincoln Portrait

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Eddie Walker, narrator

RAVEL ........................ Boléro

Intermission

TCHAIKOVSKY ............ Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36

Andante sostenuto—Moderato con anima

Andantino in modo di canzona

Scherzo. Pizzicato ostinato: Allegro

Finale: Allegro con fuoco

THIS CONCERT IS GENEROUSLY SPONSORED BY:

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Listen to a broadcast of this performance on KUCO 90.1 FM on Wednesday, May 30 at 8 pm and Saturday, June 2 at 8 am on “Performance Oklahoma”. Simultaneous internet streaming is also available during the broadcast.

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EDDIE WALKER Eddie Walker is Executive Director of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic Orchestra, a position he has held since 1999.

In this role, he supports and guides the institutional vision of the Orchestra in partnership with the board of directors, the music director, a professional full-time staff of 15, and 300+ volunteers.

At the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Eddie Walker oversees a $5.5 million annual operating budget. Early accomplishments include the planning and execution of a $9 million endowment campaign, including a unique collaborative component supporting the orchestra’s work with Oklahoma City Ballet and Canterbury Voices, as well as the successful relocation from and return to the renovated Civic Center Music Hall. In partnership with the Oklahoma City Orchestra League he oversaw the revitalization and growth of the Orchestra’s education programs now serving pre-schoolers through adults.

Hallmarks of Eddie’s tenure are a commitment to fiscal strength and sustainability and remarkably positive employee morale and relations. His proudest accomplishment is the design, execution and result of the recent Music Director Search which positions the Orchestra for continued growth and notoriety for years to come. The 2017-18 season is on track be the 20th consecutive season with a budget surplus.

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Eddie Walker joined the Oklahoma City Philharmonic in 1989 as an intern. He served as operations coordinator, operations manager, director of operations and general manager before being appointed Executive Director. He has served as adjunct faculty at the Ann Lacy School of Dance and Arts Management at Oklahoma City University where he taught undergraduate and graduate management courses in music and entertainment disciplines.

Eddie Walker has a Bachelor of Music degree in piano pedagogy from the University of Oklahoma. He has completed course work at The Fund Raising School of the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. At the Stanford Graduate School of Business, he took part in the Executive Program for Nonprofit Leaders and in the National Arts Strategies’ Stanford programs for managing change, strategy, and strategic marketing. He is a member of Rotary Club 29, a graduate of Leadership OKC Class XXI, and a proud husband and father of 16 year olds Campbell and Samuel.

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Lincoln Portrait Aaron Copland First performance: 2/9/1947 Narrator: George Ande Last performance: 11/10/2000 Narrator: Mayor Kirk Humpreys Born: November 14, 1900, in Brooklyn, New York Died: December 2, 1990, in Peekskill, New York Work composed: Early 1942, completed by late April or early May Work premiered: May 14, 1942, in Cincinnati, with André Kostelanetz conducting the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and narrator William Adams Instrumentation: In addition to the narrator, the work is scored for two flutes (doubling piccolos), two oboes and optional English horn, two clarinets and optional bass clarinet, two bassoons and optional contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets (third optional), three trombones, tuba, timpani, snare drum, cymbals, bass drum, tam-tam, glockenspiel, sleigh bells, xylophone, optional celesta, harp, and strings. All optional instruments are used in this performance CK.

Aaron Copland struck many of his earliest listeners as a brash, in-your-face modernist, but history would prove that he was merely up-to-date. He did not just keep up with his times; one might say that he even defined the sound of his times (or at least a certain strain of modern sound), to the extent that the musical vocabulary and syntax he formalized in the 1930s and ’40s continues to connote deep-rooted “Americanness” to this day. Especially in his later years, the appellation “Dean of American Composers” became so over-used as to seem almost a part of Copland’s surname. Nonetheless, he surely deserved the title for many reasons, among which an important qualification was that as he himself put it, he could help out as “a good citizen of the Republic of Music.”

Copland studied music theory and composition with Rubin Goldmark in New York for four years before sailing to France to spend the summer of 1921 at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau. France agreed with him, and from 1921 through 1924 Copland worked with that school’s founder, Nadia Boulanger, both at Fontainebleau and in Paris, becoming

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one of the earliest in a succession of “Boulangerie”-trained American composers that would include Virgil Thomson, Roy Harris, Elliott Carter, and Philip Glass. Boulanger had a way of developing her pupils’ unique gifts without bending them to adhere to any particular method. That proved congenial to Copland, such that even his earliest “mature” works afford glimpses of his distinctive voice.

When the conductor André Kostelanetz had the inspiration in late 1941 to invite several American composers to create a patriotic musical portrait gallery of figures from American history it was natural that he should include Copland on the shortlist. “Some of the personalities which occur to me,” Kostelanetz wrote when he offered the wartime commission, “are George Washington, Paul Revere, Walt Whitman, Robert Fulton, Henry Ford, Babe Ruth. … In addition to approaching you on this matter I am writing to Virgil Thomson and Jerome Kern.”

“My first choice was Whitman,” Copland recalled, “but when Kern chose Mark Twain, Kostelanetz requested that I pick a statesman rather than another literary figure.” So it was that Copland set about writing a Lincoln Portrait, rather than—one imagines—a Whitman Sampler. The fruits of Kostelanetz’s symphonic commissioning program were unveiled in the spring of 1942—“probably the year when morale was lowest, Copland said—and Time magazine tallied them thus: “Copland’s Lincoln Portrait, Kern’s Portrait for Orchestra (Mark Twain), Thomson’s brassy Mayor LaGuardia Waltzes and Canons for Dorothy Thompson.”

Lincoln was a brave choice—“inevitable,” Copland would recall, although Thomson “amiably (and wisely) pointed out that no composer could hope to match in musical terms the stature of so eminent a figure as Abraham Lincoln.” “After reading through his speeches and writings,” Copland continued, “I was able to choose a few excerpts that were particularly apposite to America’s situation in 1942. I avoided the temptation to quote only well-known passages, permitting myself the luxury of only one from a world-famous speech.” That exception was from the Gettysburg Address, and its effectiveness inspired Copland to write to his English friend Benjamin Britten: “Reports say that audiences get all excited by it. Moral: you can’t go wrong with the Gettysburg Address to end a piece. (Why not try Magna Carta?)”

Lincoln Portrait became irresistible repertoire for any number of narrators, including actors of particularly dignified mien (Henry Fonda, Gregory Peck, Claude Rains, Paul Newman, James Earl Jones), newscasters (Walter Cronkite, Cokie Roberts, Bob Costas), and a seemingly endless succession of politicians (Adlai Stevenson, Norman Schwarzkopf, Margaret Thatcher, Barack Obama). On July 4, 1942, the poet Carl Sandburg narrated while the work was played on a barge in the Potomac against the background of the Lincoln Memorial. Reported Copland: “When it was over and there was no applause at all, Carl said to André, ‘We were a flop.’ But Kostelanetz soon realized the audience had been moved beyond applause, CONTINUED ON PAGE 56

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and he reminded Sandburg that Lincoln himself had heard no applause after delivering his Gettysburg Address.”

In the Composer’s Words Aaron Copland provided these observations about his Lincoln Portrait in a conversation with the historian Vivian Perlis, published in her book Copland: 1900 through 1942: Lincoln Portrait is a thirteen-minute work for speaker and full orchestra, divided roughly into three sections. In the opening, I hoped to suggest something of the mysterious sense of fatality that surrounds Lincoln’s personality, and near the end of the first section, something of his gentleness and simplicity of spirit. I was after the most universal aspects of Lincoln’s character, not physical resemblance. The challenge was to compose something simple, yet interesting enough to fit Lincoln—I kept finding myself back at the C-major triad! The first section opens with a somber sound of violins and violas playing a dotted figure that turns into a melodic phrase by the eighth bar; the second subject is a transformed version of “Springfield Mountain.” This section ends with a trumpet solo, leading without pause into an unexpected allegro for full orchestra. The second section is an attempt to sketch in the background of the colorful times in which Lincoln lived. Sleigh bells suggest a horse and carriage in nineteenth-century New England, and the lively tune that sounds like a folk song is derived in part from “Camptown Races.”

In the conclusion, my purpose was to draw a simple but impressive frame around the words of Lincoln himself—in my opinion among the best this nation has ever heard to express patriotism and humanity.

The quotations from Lincoln’s writings and speeches are bound together by narrative passages, simple enough to mirror the dignity of Lincoln’s words. For example, “That is what he said, that is what Lincoln said.” And, “He was born in Kentucky, raised in Indiana, and lived in Illinois. And this is what he said. …” The background music in the final section, while thematically related to the orchestral introduction, is more modest and unobtrusive, so as not to intrude on the narration. But after Lincoln’s final “… shall not perish from this earth,” the orchestra blazes out in triple forte with a strong and positive C-major statement of the first theme — JMK

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Boléro Maurice Ravel First performance: 2/21/1938 Conductor: Ralph Rose Last performance: 5/21/2011 Conductor: Joel Levine Born: March 7, 1875, in Ciboure, near St-Jean-de-Luz, Basses-Pyrénées, France Died: December 28, 1937, in Paris, France Work composed: July 6 through October 1928, in St-Jean-de-Luz Work dedicated: To Ida Rubinstein Work premiered: November 22, 1928, at the Paris Opéra, in a ballet production by Ida Rubinstein directed by Bronislava Nijinska and conducted by Walther Straram; the first concert performance took place November 14, 1929, at Carnegie Hall in New York, with Arturo Toscanini conducting the New York Philharmonic.

Instrumentation: Two flutes and piccolo, two oboes (second doubling oboe d’amore) and English horn, two clarinets plus E-flat clarinet and bass clarinet, three saxophones (sopranino in F, soprano, and tenor, although soprano often handles the sopranino part, sopranino saxophones in F being largely extinct), two bassoons and contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets and piccolo trumpet in D, three trombones, tuba, timpani, two side drums, cymbals, tam-tam, celesta, harp, and strings

Melody, harmony, rhythm, timbre, dynamics—these are the irreducible materials of musical composition, and in nearly every piece they follow a certain hierarchical pecking order.

In Western music, melody and harmony—the tune and the way the tune weaves through the gravity exerted by its key—are generally conceded to be the most important elements of composition, with rhythm—the pulse underlying these musical processes—placing a distant third. Timbre—the acoustical sound of the instruments playing the music—is widely viewed as icing on the cake, as is dynamics—the volume at which the

PROGRAM NOTES music is played; although both unquestionably effect how music comes across, composers have often considered them as less vital in defining the essence of a composition.

All five of these elements are present in Boléro, to be sure, but Ravel manipulates them in a way that skews their accustomed balance. The work’s extended, sinuous melody is surely memorable, but there is no more than a single melody in the entire 17-minute piece and it is repeated over and over without the slightest development or elaboration until near the very end. The harmony, working in lockstep with the melody, is similarly repetitive and unvarying. Since the melody never changes, its rhythm (like its pitches) remains always constant; and so does the essentially pitchless two-bar rhythmic figure that accompanies the melody: tat rat-a-tat tat rat-a-tat tat tat tat rat-a-tat tat rat-a-tat rat-a-tat rat-a-tat. In the course of Boléro that rhythmic cell is heard ceaselessly, 169 times over, collapsing only in the rupture of the final few measures.

By dint of obsessive repetition, the interest of the melody, harmony, and rhythm is dissipated; the listener remains very much aware of them, but their unchanging patterns soothe the ear into complacency.

As these aspects of the composition fade into familiarity, timbre and dynamics take on growing importance in how the piece unrolls. From the nearly silent beginning—the pianissimo drum tattoo, the pizzicato string chords suggestive of a guitar, and the melody introduced by a flute in its low register—the composer builds through a tour-de-force of additive instrumentation, increasing the texture of those parts with every repetition and seizing upon an astonishing variety of constantly changing instrumental combinations, including prominent input from such rarely spotlighted orchestral instruments as oboe d’amore and three sizes of saxophones.

What begins by occupying only three separate lines of musical score grows to occupy huge pages of staves, and, as one would expect, the volume increases accordingly, from gentlest pianissimo to grand fortissimo. The work’s method, however revolutionary, was essentially simple. Wrote Ravel in a 1931 letter to his friend the critic M.D. Calvocoressi: “It is an experiment in a very special and limited direction, and should not be suspected of achieving anything different from, or anything more than, it actually does achieve. [It is] a piece lasting seventeen minutes and consisting wholly of orchestral tissue without music—of one very long, very gradual crescendo.

The themes are impersonal—folk tunes of the usual SpanishArabian kind.”

Ravel wrote this piece on request as a ballet score for the troupe of Ida Rubinstein. At first he demurred, suggesting instead that he merely orchestrate an existing piece by Albéniz. Ravel put off the project and in the end decided to write something original, explaining, “After all, I would have orchestrated my own music much more quickly than anyone else’s.” When all is said and done, the piece he wrote turned out to be principally orchestration. At the first orchestral rehearsal Ravel was as astonished as everyone else by the momentum his piece conveyed, but he nonetheless told his

friends that he had no doubt that so radical an experiment would never find a place in normal orchestral concerts. Was he ever wrong! It became an instant mega-hit. Invitations to conduct the piece poured into Ravel’s mailbox and today its niche in the orchestral repertoire remains utterly secure.

“Malheureusement il est vide de musique,” Ravel remarked— “Unfortunately, it contains no music.” Audiences tend not agree with him about that.

Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36 Pyotr Ilich Tchaikovsky First performance: 1/25/1940 Conductor: Victor Alessandro Last performance: 5/22/2010 Conductor: Joel Levine Born: April 25 (old style)/May 7 (new style), 1840, in Votkinsk, Russia Died: October 25/November 6, 1893, in St. Petersburg, Russia Work composed: Perhaps March 1877 through December 28, 1877/January 9, 1878 Work premiered: February 10/22, 1878, at a concert of the Russian Musical Society in Moscow, with Nikolai Rubinstein conducting Dedicated: “To my best friend,” by which Tchaikovsky meant Mme. Nadezhda von Meck Instrumentation: Three flutes (third doubling piccolo), two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, bass tuba, timpani, triangle, cymbals, bass drum, and strings

Tchaikovsky got involved with his mysterious patron Nadezhda von Meck and began composing his Fourth Symphony practically at the same time. The two “projects” were greatly intermeshed in his mind. In letters to von Meck he often referred to it as “our symphony,” sometimes even as “your symphony.” By May 1877, he completed the lion’s share of work on the new piece. “I should like to dedicate it to you,” he wrote that month, “because I believe you would find in it an echo of your most intimate thoughts and emotions.”

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PROGRAM NOTES C L A S S I C S S E

R

I

E

Then Tchaikovsky’s life veered off in a bizarre direction when he precipitously married and just as quickly abandoned his bride. During the misadventure of Tchaikovsky’s wedding and his subsequent melt-down, the Fourth Symphony was put on hold. Only in the latter half of 1877 did Tchaikovsky return to edit and orchestrate what he had composed between February and May. “Our symphony progresses,” he wrote to von Meck late that summer. “The first movement will give me a great deal of trouble with respect to orchestration. It is very long and complicated: at the same time, I consider it the best movement. The three remaining movements are very simple, and it will be easy and pleasant to orchestrate them.”

Tchaikovsky’s comment is apt: the center of gravity is indeed placed on the first movement, and the other three stand as shorter, less imposing pendants. When von Meck begged him to explain the meaning behind the music, Tchaikovsky broke his rule of not revealing his secret programs and penned a rather detailed description in prose about the opening movement: The introduction is the seed of the whole symphony, undoubtedly the central theme. This is Fate, i.e. , that fateful force which prevents the impulse towards happiness from entirely achieving its goal, forever on jealous guard lest peace and well-being should ever be attained in complete and unclouded form, hanging above us like the Sword of Damocles, constantly and unremittingly poisoning the soul. Its force is invisible, and can never be overcome. Our only choice is to surrender to it, and to languish fruitlessly. …

S

On the other hand, music is not prose, and its essence is different from that of the written word—or, as Tchaikovsky reminded von Meck by quoting Heine, “Where words end, music begins.” To his pupil and friend Sergei Taneyev, Tchaikovsky wrote: “Of course my symphony is program music, but it would be impossible to give the program in words. …

But ought this not always to be the case with a symphony, the most lyrical of musical forms? Ought it not to express all those things for which words cannot be found but which nevertheless arise in the heart and cry out for expression?”

The Composer Speaks A famous oboe solo opens the Andantino in modo di canzona, a generally melancholy movement in B-flat minor.

“You feel nostalgic for the past,” Tchaikovsky wrote to Mme. von Meck of this movement, “yet no compulsion to start life over again. Life has wearied you; it is pleasant to pause and weigh things up.” Much of the movement does seem to carry a heavy weight on its shoulders, but—as in the first movement—the proceedings are leavened by glimpses of balletic arabesques.

— JMK

When all seems lost, there appears a sweet and gentle daydream. Some blissful, radiant human image hurries by and beckons us away. … How good this feels! How distant now seems the obsessive first theme of the Allegro. …

No! These were dreams, and fate wakes us from them.

Thus all life is an unbroken alternation of harsh reality with fleeting dreams and visions of happiness … There is no escape. … We can only drift upon this sea until it engulfs and submerges us in its depths. That, roughly, is the program of the first movement.

He continues, at length, for each of the ensuing movements: the second, “another phase of depression,” “that melancholy feeling that comes in the evenings when, weary from your labor, you sit alone, and take a book—but it falls from your hand”; the third, comprising “the elusive images that can rush past in the imagination when you have drunk a little wine and experience the first stage of intoxication”; the fourth, “a picture of festive merriment of the people.” Even while recognizing that Tchaikovsky penned these words after he had essentially completed the symphony we may find something convincing in his program, given the emotional roller coaster he had ridden in the preceding months.

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JAMES M. KELLER James M. Keller is the longtime Program Annotator of the New York Philharmonic and the San Francisco Symphony. From 19902000 he wrote about music on staff at The New Yorker, and in 1999 he received the prestigious ASCAP–Deems Taylor Award for his feature writing in Chamber Music magazine. He serves as Critic-at-Large for the Santa Fe New Mexican, the oldest newspaper west of the Mississippi.

These notes appeared in an earlier form in the programs of the New York Philharmonic and are reprinted with permission; © New York Philharmonic.

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