OKC PHIL program magazine 2017-18 edition #1

Richard Goode, Piano September 16, 2017

Matthew Troy, Guest Conductor Jennifer Koh, Violin

PG 25

October 7, 2017

PG 35

The Wonderful Music of Oz November 3-4, 2017

Michelle Merrill, Guest Conductor Yossi Arnheim, Flute

PG 45

November 18, 2017

PG 51

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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

Tara Burnett Development Coordinator

Kris Markes General Manager

Daniel Hardt Finance Director

Jennifer Owens Development Director

Whitney Hendricks Customer Service Representative

Ulises Serrano Customer Service Representative

Judy Hill Administrative Assistant Chris Stinchcomb Concert Operations and P.R. Coordinator Eddie Walker Executive Director Susan Webb Marketing & P.R. Director

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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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 Jesus Villarreal Christine Craddock Kara Koehn

FLUTE

CONTRABASSOON Barre Griffith

HORN

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

TRUMPET

Karl Sievers, Principal Jay Wilkinson Michael Anderson

TROMBONE

John Allen, Principal Philip Martinson Noel Seals, Bass Trombone

Valerie Watts, Principal Parthena Owens Nancy Stizza-Ortega

TUBA

PICCOLO

PERCUSSION

Nancy Stizza-Ortega

OBOE

Ted Cox, Principal David Steffens, Principal Patrick Womack Roger Owens

Lisa Harvey-Reed, Principal Dan Schwartz Katherine McLemore

TIMPANI

ENGLISH HORN

HARP

Dan Schwartz

Gaye LeBlanc Germain, Principal

CLARINET

PIANO

Bradford Behn, Principal Tara Heitz James Meiller

BASS/E-FLAT CLARINET James Meiller

Lance Drege, Principal

Peggy Payne, Principal

PERSONNEL MANAGER/LIBRARIAN Michael Helt

PRODUCTION MANAGER Leroy Newman

BASSOON

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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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 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 season.

Contributions of $100 and above are listed through July 27, 2017.

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 Inasmuch Foundation Kirkpatrick Foundation Inc. Oklahoma Arts Council Oklahoma City Orchestra League, Inc. The Oklahoman The Skirvin Hilton Hotel

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

Flips Restaurant, Inc. The Fred Jones Family Foundation Morningstar Properties

PLATINUM SPONSORS $10,000 - $39,999 405 Magazine Ad Astra Foundation American Fidelity Foundation Anschutz Family Foundation/ The Oklahoman Media Company BancFirst Bank of Oklahoma E.L. and Thelma Gaylord Foundation Express Employment Professionals HSPG and Associates, PC Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores Mathis Brothers Furniture Co., Inc. MidFirst Bank OGE Energy Corp.

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

SILVER SPONSORS $3,000 - $4,999 Clements Foods Foundation Gordon P. and Ann G. Getty Foundation Great Plains Coca-Cola Bottling Company OK Gazette The Friday True Sky Credit Union

BRONZE SPONSORS $1,750 - $2,999 Anthony Flooring Systems Inc. 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

SILVER PARTNERS $750 - $1,249 M-D Building Products, Inc. Charles M. Zeeck, CPM

BRONZE PARTNERS $300 - $749 Kent S. Johnson Law Firm

BUSINESS MEMBERS $100 - $299 BancFirst Trust Department

Special Thanks for assistance with our office relocation: Kirkpatrick Family Fund E.L. & Thelma Gaylord Foundation Presbyterian Health Foundation Oklahoma City Philharmonic Foundation

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 The Freede Family Jean and David McLaughlin Mary D. Nichols Nancy and George Records Mr. Richard L. Sias Mr. and Mrs. Richard Tanenbaum Mr. and Mrs. Charles E. 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 Mr. and Mrs. John A. Frost Mrs. Jane B. Harlow John and Claudia Holliman Mr. Albert Lang Ms. Veronica Pastel-Egelston Mr. H.E. Rainbolt Mr. and Mrs. John Richels Lance and Cindy Ruffel Mr. and Mrs. Douglas J. Stussi

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. Carlene Edwards Paul and Debbie Fleming Mrs. Bonnie B. Hefner Mr. Robert B. Milsten Larry and Polly Nichols Mr. James Nix Mrs. Ruby C. Petty Scott and Janet Seefeldt Mrs. June Tucker Mrs. Kathleen J. Weidley Mrs. Martha V. Williams Mrs. Anne Workman Mrs. Carol Wright Caroline Payne Young

Sustainer $1,750 - $2,999 Mr. Barry Anderson Dr. and Mrs. Dewayne Andrews Dr. and Mrs. John C. Andrus Ms. Zonia Armstrong 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 Mr. and Mrs. David G. Bryant Phil and Cathy Busey Mrs. Teresa Cooper Mr. and Mrs. Sidney G. Dunagan 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 Mrs. Janice Singer Jankowsky and Mr. Joseph S. Jankowsky Tom and Cindy Janssen Kim and Michael Joseph Mr. and Mrs. W. A. Joseph Terry and Kathy Kerr Ms. Rita Lapham Mr. and Mrs. Harrison Levy, Jr. Dr. and Mrs. Patrick McKee Mr. and Mrs. Herman Meinders Mr. and Mrs. Harry Merson Annie Moreau, MD Mrs. Jeaneen Naifeh 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 Mrs. Sally B. Saunders Ms. Jeanne Hoffman Smith Mr. and Mrs. John S. Spaid Sr. Mr. and Mrs. John E. Stonecipher Mr. and Mrs. Frederick K. Thompson 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 Howard K. Berry, Jr. and Denise Berry CONTINUED ON PAGE 61

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GALA OPENING NIGHT

CONCERT PREVIEWS

September 16, 2017 8:00 P.M.

CLASSICS

CLASSICS 1- SEPTEMBER 16, 2017 Joel Levine Music Director, OKC Philharmonic

RICHARD GOODE, PIANO JOEL LEVINE, CONDUCTOR

CLASSICS 2- OCTOBER 7, 2017 Matthew Troy Education Conductor, OKC Philharmonic CLASSICS 3- NOVEMBER 18, 2017 Michelle Merrill Associate Conductor, Detroit Symphony Orchestra CLASSICS 4- JANUARY 13, 2018 Alexander Mickelthwate Music Director Designate, OKC Philharmonic CLASSICS 5- FEBRUARY 3, 2018 Dan Schwartz Second Oboe/English Horn, OKC Philharmonic 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 CLASSICS 7-APRIL 7, 2018 Q&A with Philippe Quint, Violin and June McCoy, Violin, OKC Philharmonic and Concert Previews Chair, OKC Orchestra League

WEBER/arr. Berlioz ...... Invitation to the Dance, Op. 65

MOZART ....................... Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466

Allegro Romance Rondo: Allegro assai

Richard Goode, piano

INTERMISSION

BRAHMS ....................... Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73

Allegro non troppo Adagio non troppo Allegretto grazioso (Quasi Andantino) — Presto ma non assai Allegro con spirito

THIS CONCERT IS GENEROUSLY SPONSORED BY:

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

RENATE AND CHUCK WIGGIN

MRS. JANE B. HARLOW

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, October 11 at 8 pm and Saturday, October 14 at 8 am on “Performance Oklahoma”. Simultaneous internet streaming is also available during the broadcast.

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GUEST ARTIST C

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RICHARD GOODE Richard Goode has been hailed for music-making of tremendous emotional power, depth and expressiveness, and has been acknowledged worldwide as one of today’s leading interpreters of Classical and Romantic music. In regular performances with the major orchestras, recitals in the world’s music capitals, and through his extensive and acclaimed Nonesuch recordings, he has won a large and devoted following.

Gramophone magazine recently captured the essence of what makes Richard Goode such an original and compelling artist: ‘‘Every time we hear him, he impresses us as better than we remembered, surprising us, surpassing our expectations and communicating perceptions that stay in the mind.”

Richard Goode opened his 2017-2018 season at the Pablo Casals Museum in San Salvador, Spain and at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland. Among the orchestras with which he is appearing this season are the Cleveland Orchestra with Dohnanyi, the Los Angeles Philharmonic with Manze, the New York String Orchestra with Laredo at Carnegie Hall, and in Europe with the London Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, and BBC Philharmonic. One of today’s most revered recitalists, he will be heard in the Lincoln Center Great Performers Series, in Philadelphia, Berkeley, La Jolla, Madison, and in London and other European capitals.

In the 2016-17 season, Richard Goode appeared as soloist with Louis Langrée and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra in a program filmed as part of a documentary celebrating the 50th Anniversary of one of the country’s most popular summer musical events.

Another highlight of last season were concerts in Hungary and on tour in the U.S. with one of the world’s most admired orchestras and his recording partner, the Budapest Festival Orchestra and Ivan Fischer. Their recording of the five Beethoven Piano Concertos has won worldwide acclaim; Goode performed Concertos No. 2 and No. 4 on the tour, which included performances in February 2017 at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Lincoln Center, and for the Chicago Symphony, the University Musical Society in Ann Arbor, and Celebrity Series of Boston.

Among other highlights of recent seasons have been the recitals in which, for the first time in his career, Mr. Goode performed the last three Beethoven Sonatas in one program, drawing capacity audiences and raves in such cities as New York, London, and Berlin.

The New York Times, in reviewing his Carnegie Hall performance, hailed his interpretations as “majestic, profound readings... Mr. Goode’s playing throughout was organic and inspired, the noble, introspective themes unfolding with a simplicity that

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rendered them all the more moving.” He was also heard as soloist with Andris Nelsons in his first season as Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and at Carnegie Hall, where Goode was featured in two chamber music concerts with young artists from the Marlboro Music Festival, in a master class on Debussy and in a Main Hall recital. In anticipation of the 25th Anniversary in 2018-19 of the release of his historic recordings of the Complete Beethoven Sonatas, Nonesuch Records has re-released the acclaimed recordings.

An exclusive Nonesuch recording artist, Goode has made more than two dozen recordings over the years, ranging from solo and chamber works to lieder and concertos. His recording of the five Beethoven concertos with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and Iván Fischer was released in 2009 to exceptional critical acclaim, described as “a landmark recording” by the Financial Times and nominated for a Grammy award. His 10-CD set of the complete Beethoven sonatas cycle, the first-ever by an American-born pianist, was nominated for a Grammy and has been ranked among the most distinguished recordings of this repertoire. Other recording highlights include a series of Bach Partitas, a duo recording with Dawn Upshaw, and Mozart piano concertos with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.

A native of New York, Richard Goode studied with Elvira Szigeti and Claude Frank, with Nadia Reisenberg at the Mannes College of Music, and with Rudolf Serkin at the Curtis Institute. His numerous prizes over the years include the Young Concert Artists Award, First Prize in the Clara Haskil Competition, the Avery Fisher Prize, and a Grammy award for his recording of the Brahms Sonatas with clarinetist Richard Stoltzman. His first public performances of the complete cycle of Beethoven sonatas at Kansas City’s Folly Theater and New York’s 92Y in 1987-88 brought him to international attention being hailed by the New York Times as “among the season’s most important and memorable events.” It was later performed with great success at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall in 1994 and 1995.

Mr. Goode served, together with Mitsuko Uchida, as co-Artistic Director of the Marlboro Music School and Festival in Marlboro, Vermont from 1999 through 2013. Participating initially at the age of 14, at what the New Yorker magazine recently described as “the classical world’s most coveted retreat,” he has made a notable contribution to this unique community over the 28 summers he has spent there. He is married to the violinist Marcia Weinfeld, and, when the Goodes are not on tour, they and their collection of some 5,000 volumes live in New York City.

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Invitation to the Dance, Op. 65 Carl Maria von Weber, arr. Hector Berlioz First performance: 1/4/1940 Conductor: Victor Alessandro Last Performance: 5/21/2011 Conductor: Joel Levine Born: Probably November 19, 1786, in Eutin, Holstein, Germany (in what is now Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost German state) Died: June 5, 1826, in London Work composed: 1819, in its original version for solo piano, under the title Aufforderung zum Tanze, rondeau brillant; orchestrated by Hector Berlioz (1803-69) in 1841, under the title L’invitation à la valse Work premiered: in its orchestral version, on June 7, 1841, in Paris, with Pantaléon Battu conducting the orchestra of the Paris Opéra Instrumentation: Flute and piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, four bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, two cornets, three trombones, timpani, two harps, and strings

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discovered that “a preference for the dramatic began to become unmistakable in my musical individuality.”

Indeed, he spent much of his career in the orbit of opera. He served as music director at a succession of civic and court theatres and opera houses: at Breslau (1804-06), at Duke Eugen Friedrich of Württemberg’s castle at Carlsruhe in Upper Silesia (1806-07), in Prague (where he headed the German Opera Company from 1813-16), and in Dresden (where, at the King of Saxony’s behest, he oversaw the German Opera Theater from 1817-21). He worked on ten operas during his too-brief life. Not all were finished, and not everything he completed of them appears to have survived. But three of his operas—Der Freischütz, Euryanthe, and Oberon—remain at least somewhat before the public ear today (at least through their overtures), and Der Freischütz is honored as a touchstone of early German Romanticism.

Apart from opera, pianists still play his Concert-Stück occasionally, and clarinetists and bassoonists delight in the concerted works he composed to spotlight their instruments. His two symphonies have unfortunately fallen off the radar (and could be most profitably revived), but symphony audiences and especially ballet audiences do still hear orchestras play his Invitation to the Dance, though it is rarely programmed in its original piano version.

The composer’s son, Max Maria von Weber, reported that the main theme of Invitation to the Dance is derived from a tune his father encountered while touring Germany in 1810.

If that’s true, his father held on to it for nearly a decade before working it out as a “rondeau brillant” for solo piano in the summer of 1819. The idea of producing a concert piece in an unmistakable dance form was still somewhat new.

Here Weber constructs an entire suite of waltzes and melds them together into a proto-tone poem in which a gentleman asks a woman to dance with him, after which they dance and part, with the conclusion returning to the music of the beginning. The waltz was the “new kid on the block” among ballroom dances of the time, and Weber’s virtuosic keyboard piece immediately legitimized it as a concert form. It would soon become the dominant dance type of the nineteenth century.

In his Autobiographical Sketches, written in 1818, Carl Maria von Weber relates that his father was an excellent cellist and that it was therefore natural that he himself should have been encouraged in the arts. “My family’s withdrawn manner of life,” he explained, “the regular society of cultivated adults, and the scrupulous care with which I was kept from the rough company of my contemporaries early taught me to live predominantly in the world of my own imagination and to seek in it my interests and my happiness.” Following his early training in piano and composition, including a stint of instruction with Michael Haydn in Salzburg, he

In 1841, Hector Berlioz created an orchestration of Weber’s piano piece to include as part of a ballet sequence for a production of Der Freischütz that Berlioz was overseeing for the Paris Opéra. He would have preferred to leave the opera as Weber had written it, but the Parisian passion for operatic ballet scenes was unassailable. “Naturally there had to be a ballet,” Berlioz wrote in his Memoirs. “When all my efforts to stop it proved useless, I proposed devising a dance scene along the lines indicated by Weber himself in his rondo for piano, Invitation to the Waltz [Berlioz got the title almost right], and I arranged this delightful piece for orchestra.” His arrangement seems to have made no great effect in that staged context, but by the late 1840s it

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began to enter the repertoire as an increasingly popular standalone concert item. Berlioz himself conducted it in symphonic concerts, including a “monster concert” he led in 1848, with more than 400 singers and players participating in the theatre at the Château de Versailles; and in 1852, he conducted it with the New Philharmonic Society in London, insisting that the group round up eight harpists for the performance, to augment the parts that, in the score, are officially handled by only two.

The Composer Speaks When Carl Maria von Weber first played Invitation to the Dance for his wife, Caroline (to whom he would dedicate the piece), he offered this very specific scenario, which comes across as an object lesson in Romantic Era ballroom etiquette: First approach of the dancer, to whom the lady gives an evasive answer. His more pressing invitation; her acceptance of his request. Now they converse in greater detail; he begins, she answers; he with heightened expression; she responds more warmly; now for the dance! His remarks concerning it; her answer, their coming together; their going forward; expectation of the beginning of the dance. The Dance. End: his thanks, her reply and their parting. Silence.

to, and there was a concert to play that evening to launch a series of six that represented an important income opportunity. The evening’s program would include the premiere of the new concerto, assuming the music copyist could get the parts on the orchestra’s stands in time. In the midst of it all, at one o’clock in the afternoon, Mozart’s father, Leopold, arrived (with a friend) for a ten-week visit with Wolfgang and his wife.

“That same Friday,” Leopold would write to his daughter Nannerl in Salzburg, several days later, “we drove at six o’clock to his first subscription concert, where there was a vast concourse of people of rank. Each person pays one sovereign d’or (or three ducats) for the six Lenten concerts. It is in the Mehlgrube: for the use of the room he pays only one-half a sovereign d’or. The concert was incomparable, the orchestra was excellent. Apart from the symphonies, there was a singer

— JMK

Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466 Wolfgang Amadè Mozart First performance: 4/23/1944 Piano: Jose Iturbi Last Performance: 1/9/1962 Piano: Sylvia Zaremba Born: January 27, 1756, in Salzburg, Austria Died: December 5, 1791, in Vienna, Austria Work composed 1785, probably completed on February 10 of that year Work premiered: February 11, 1785, at Vienna’s Mehlgrube Casino, with the composer at the keyboard Instrumentation: Flute, two oboes, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, and strings, in addition to the solo piano Cadenzas: No original cadenzas by Mozart survive for this concerto. In this performance, Richard Goode plays Beethoven’s cadenzas.

Mozart was terribly busy on February 11, 1785, and he would have been busier still if he hadn’t managed to finish his Dminor Piano Concerto the day before. Some bureaucratic red tape at the Vienna Composers Society needed to be tended

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from the Italian theatre who sang two arias. Then came a new, superb piano concerto by Wolfgang, which the copyist was still writing out when we arrived, and your brother had not even found time to play through the Rondeau because he had to supervise the copying.”

Unfortunately, the concert prevented Mozart’s being on hand when his dear friend and mentor Franz Joseph Haydn was sworn in as an apprentice Freemason. A few days later Haydn visited the Mozarts (father and son) and uttered the pronouncement that Leopold would proudly quote to Nannerl in the same letter: “I tell you before God, and as an honest man, that your son is the greatest composer I know, either personally or by reputation; he has taste and moreover the greatest possible knowledge of the science of composing.”

PROGRAM NOTES Early Acclaim Mozart’s D-minor Piano Concerto was acclaimed from the outset and was singled out as unusually interesting among the composer’s works. In a memorial concert in Prague, in February 1794, it shared the program with the Prague Symphony and several other works. A reporter for the Prager Neue Zeitung explained, “For this evening Mozart’s best works had been chosen, [including] Mozart’s most splendid concerto, in D minor.” At another Mozart memorial program, in Berlin in 1830, an attendee observed that “it was highly interesting to hear at last one of Mozart’s piano concertos again, which are remote from our modern virtuosi because there is not enough passage work in them.” Passage work or not, the piece persevered to become the only one of Mozart’s piano concertos to gain a broad following in the 19th century, when listeners found in its troubled syncopations murmurings of their own more overt Romanticism.

— JMK

The D-minor Concerto that Leopold found so superb is a brooding, disturbing work, displaying a completely different character from the verdant F-major Concerto (K. 459) that directly preceded it and the sublime C-major Concerto (K. 467) that would follow a month later. The D-minor is one of only two Mozart piano concertos written in the minor mode, the other being the later C-minor Concerto (K. 491). It has often been remarked that Mozart linked certain keys with specific emotions. The key of D minor surfaces rarely in his oeuvre, but when it does—as in the String Quartet (K. 421), the opera Don Giovanni, and the unfinished Requiem— it tends to impart the same uneasy, even dangerous, atmosphere that the D-minor Concerto does. The orchestra boasts unusual, unsettling timbres—or would have in Mozart’s day, when the horn players were instructed to intone muted sounds by inserting their fists deep into their instruments’ bells. But even in this tense concerto Mozart allowed certain Classical norms to prevail. Just as he would in Don Giovanni, Mozart felt compelled to conclude his concerto in the major key, modulating at the very end into sunny D major and paying obeisance to the 18th-century aesthetic of the positive moral resolution or—simply put—the happy ending.

All told, the concerto resembles what listeners expect from Beethoven rather than from Mozart: unremitting intensity, violent outbursts, segregation of the soloist from the orchestra, a wide-ranging keyboard part. In fact, Beethoven, his contemporaries, and his followers would admire this

piece immensely. As a young pianist, Beethoven kept Mozart’s D-minor Concerto in his active repertoire, and in 1809 he composed cadenzas for the first and third movements. Mozart would have improvised his own cadenzas, and he didn’t write down any for this piece. Beethoven probably improvised them in performance, too, but he apparently composed his contributions as an aid for his student Ferdinand Ries. The first is especially impressive, though in an idiom that is far more Beethovenian than Mozartean—but, in a sense, that’s in line with the work as a whole.

Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73 Johannes Brahms First performance: 2/11/1945 Conductor: Victor Alessandro

Last Performance: 10/10/2009 Conductor: Joel Levine Born: May 7, 1833, in Hamburg, Germany Died: April 3, 1897, in Vienna, Austria Work composed: Summer 1877 Work premiered: December 30, 1877, with Hans Richter conducting the Vienna Philharmonic at the Musikverein in Vienna Instrumentation: Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, and strings

“I shall never write a symphony!” Brahms famously declared in 1872. “You can’t have any idea what it’s like to hear such a giant marching behind you.” The giant was Beethoven, of course, and although his music provided essential inspiration for Brahms, it also set such a high standard that the younger composer found it easy to discount his own creations as negligible in comparison.

Four more years would pass before Brahms finally signed off on his First Symphony. But once he conquered his compositional demons he moved ahead forcefully. Three symphonies followed that first effort in relatively short order: the Second in 1877 (only a year after he completed the First), the Third in 1882-83, and the Fourth in 1884-85. Each is a masterpiece and each displays a markedly different character. The First is burly and powerful, flexing its muscles in Promethean exertion; the Second is sunny and bucolic; and the Third, the shortest of his four, though introspective on the whole, mixes in a hefty dose of heroism. And with his Fourth Symphony, Brahms would achieve a work of almost mystical transcendence born from the opposition of melancholy and joy, severity and rhapsody, solemnity and exhilaration.

Brahms did much of his best work during his summer vacations, which he usually spent at some bucolic getaway or other in the Austrian countryside. The summer of 1877, during which he completed his Second Symphony, he spent in the resort town of Pörtschach, on the north shore of the Wörthersee (known in English as Lake Wörth) in the southern Austrian province of Kärnten (Carinthia), a bit west of the university

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city of Klagenfurt. Brahms was greatly taken with this locale, which was new to him that summer, and he remarked in a letter to the critic Eduard Hanslick (his friend and cheerleader) that there were “so many melodies flying about that you must be careful not to tread on any.” He would return to the same spot the following summer to write his Violin Concerto and yet again the year after that, when he was occupied with his G-major Violin Sonata (Op. 78). Others found the place similarly inspiring: not many years later, Mahler would build a summer getaway on the lake’s southern shore, and Alban Berg would compose his Violin Concerto while residing along Lake Wörth in the summer of 1935.

Brahms’ Second Symphony was viewed from the outset as a “landscape” symphony, a sort of equivalent to Beethoven’s Pastoral. “It is all blue sky, babbling of streams, sunshine, and cool green shade,” wrote Brahms’ musical physician-friend Theodor Billroth. “By Lake Wörth it must be so beautiful.”

Later commentators have added many a fine point to the discussion; but the general idea remains, and on the whole the Second Symphony is accepted as a sort of nature-idyll.

Having said that, it is also important to remark that this is,

troppo), just as the second movement is “Not too slow” (Adagio non troppo). Brahms labels his third movement ambivalently, wanting it to fall somewhere in the region of Allegretto grazioso (“pleasantly sort-of-quickly) and Quasi Andantino (“as if sort-of-slowly”), before galloping off in a Presto (“very quick”)—but in this case Presto ma non assai (“Very quick, but not very much so”). Only in the finale does the composer not pull his punch so far as tempo is concerned, allowing the orchestra to proceed relatively unbridled at Allegro con spirito (“Fast, with high spirits”).

Brahms on his Second Brahms was not usually very helpful when it came to describing his music. In the case of his Second Symphony we find him taking typical delight in being evasive and ironic. Just after finishing it, he wrote to his friend Elisabet [NOTE: NO H IN ELISABET] von Herzogenberg that, to get an idea of the new piece, “you have only to sit down at the piano, placing your little feet on the two pedals in turn and striking the chord of F minor several times in succession, first in the treble, then in the bass (ff and pp).” (In fact, one would be hard pressed to locate an F-minor chord anywhere in this piece.) After the dress rehearsal for the premiere he wrote again to her, observing subversively that “the orchestra here plays my new ‘Sinfonie’ with crepe bands on their sleeves because of its dirge-like effect, and it is to be printed with a black border, too.”

— JMK

JAMES M. KELLER

after all, a large-scale work by Brahms, and that fact in itself mandates that it will not be simplistic in its emotional stance, that even the most idyllic landscape will offer plenty of acreage for clouds and shadows, for the alternation of serenity and melancholy.

Another Brahmsian trait is that of not being in a hurry. This aspect is fully on display in the Second Symphony, which is the longest of his four. The movement markings themselves betoken the overall spirit of relaxation and moderation. The first movement is fast (Allegro) but “not too much so” (non

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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, which he serves as Contributing Editor.

The Mozart and Brahms essays appeared in earlier forms in the programs of the New York Philharmonic and are used with permission.

Leadership Square

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211 N. Robinson Ave.

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405-778-8938

OKLAHOMA PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY, INC. ASSOCIATE BOARD

CLASSICS 2 October 7, 2017 8:00 P.M.

CLASSICS

Ashley Wilemon, President MATTHEW TROY, CONDUCTOR JENNIFER KOH, VIOLIN

John Cannon, Vice President Marti Ribeiro, Treasurer J. Cruise Berry, Secretary Laura Cunningham Kate Cunningham Peter M. Harlin Kevin Learned

ROSSINI............................. Overture to The Barber of Seville

Robyn Matthews Patrick Randall Jessica Robbins Cyndi Tran

BARBER ............................ Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 14

Allegro Andante Presto in moto perpetuo

Jennifer Koh, violin

INTERMISSION

WAGNER ........................... Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde

HINDEMITH ....................... Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Weber

nichols hills plaza

Allegro Turandot, Scherzo (Moderato) Andantino Marsch

THIS CONCERT IS GENEROUSLY SPONSORED BY:

shoes . handbags . clothing . accessories www.ckandcompany.com 405.843.7636

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, November 1 at 8 pm and Saturday, November 4 at 8 am on “Performance Oklahoma”. Simultaneous internet streaming is also available during the broadcast.

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JENNIFER KOH Violinist Jennifer Koh is recognized for her intense, commanding performances, delivered with dazzling virtuosity and technical assurance. An adventurous musician, she collaborates with artists of multiple disciplines and curates projects that find connections between music of all eras, from traditional to contemporary. She believes that all the arts and music of the past and present form a continuum and has premiered over 60 works written especially for her.

Ms. Koh has been heard with leading orchestras worldwide, including the Los Angeles and New York Philharmonics; the Cleveland, Mariinsky, Minnesota, Philadelphia, and Philharmonia (London) Orchestras; and the Atlanta, BBC, Chicago, Cincinnati, National, New World, NHK, RAI (Torino), and Singapore Symphonies. She has worked with conductors including John Adams, Marin Alsop, James Conlon, Gustavo Dudamel, Christoph Eschenbach, Carlos Kalmar, Lorin Maazel, Sakari Oramo, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Juraj Valčuha, Osmo Vänskä, Alexander Vedernikov, and Edo de Waart.

Among Ms. Koh’s orchestral engagements this season are appearances with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (Leonard Slatkin), Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra (Karina Canellakis), and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (Peter Oundjian) in which she performs new concertos by Christopher Cerrone and Andrew Norman written for her MIXTAPE concerto commissioning project. Through commissions from a diverse collective of composers, this multi-season project explores the form of the violin concerto and its potential for artistic engagement with contemporary societal concerns and issues. The project launched at the 2017 Ojai Music Festival with the premiere of Vijay Iyer’s concerto Trouble.

In addition to MIXTAPE, Ms. Koh has curated such projects as Shared Madness, comprising more than 30 short solo works that explore violin virtuosity in the 21st century; Bridge to Beethoven, a recital series with pianist Shai Wosner exploring the impact Beethoven has had on a diverse group of artists, pairing the composer’s sonatas for violin and piano

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with new works by composers Anthony Cheung, Vijay Iyer, and Andrew Norman; and Bach and Beyond, which traces the history of the solo violin repertoire from Bach’s six Sonatas and Partitas to works by contemporary composers, including new commissions from John Harbison, Phil Kline, Missy Mazzoli, Kaija Saariaho, and video artist Tal Rosner.

She continues all of these projects in recital during the 201718 season and also recently expanded Shared Madness with a web series on WQXR’s Q2 Music (q2music.org/sharedmadness), featuring her interviews with project composers.

Ms. Koh’s discography for Cedille Records includes Tchaikovsky: Complete Works for Violin and Orchestra with the Odense Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alexander Vedernikov; Bach & Beyond: Parts 1 & 2; Two x Four with her former teacher, violinist Jaime Laredo; Signs, Games + Messages with Mr. Wosner; Rhapsodic Musings: 21st Century Works for Solo Violin; the Grammy-nominated String Poetic; Portraits with the Grant Park Orchestra under conductor Carlos Kalmar with concerti by Bartók, Martinů, and Szymanowski; Violin Fantasies; and Solo Chaconnes.

Born in Chicago of Korean parents, Ms. Koh began playing the violin by chance, choosing the instrument in a Suzukimethod program only because spaces for cello and piano had been filled. She made her debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at age 11, and went on to win the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, the Concert Artists Guild Competition, and an Avery Fisher Career Grant.

In 2016, she was Musical America’s “Instrumentalist of the Year.” She has a degree in English literature from Oberlin College and studied at the Curtis Institute, where she worked with Jaime Laredo and Felix Galimir. She is Artistic Director of arco collaborative, an artist-driven nonprofit that fosters a better understanding of our world through a musical dialogue inspired by ideas and the communities around us.

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MATTHEW TROY 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 summer 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.

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

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 later 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 is a frequent conductor/clinician and he has conducted the All-State Orchestras in North Carolina, Oklahoma, and later this season in West Virginia. In 2010, Troy created an innovative educational program that partnered the WinstonSalem 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 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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Overture to The Barber of Seville Gioachino Rossini First performance: 11/29/1949 Conductor: Victor Alessandro Last Performance: 10/6/2007 Conductor: Joel Levine Born: February 29, 1792, in Pesaro, Italy Died: November 13, 1868, in Paris, France Work composed: Late 1813, as the Overture to Rossini’s opera Aureliano in Palmira Work premiered: December 26, 1813, at La Scala, Milan, at the premiere of Aureliano in Palmira; first heard attached to Il barbiere di Siviglia at that opera’s premiere (under the title Almaviva, ossia L’inutile precauzione) on February 20, 1816, at the Teatro Argento in Rome Instrumentation: Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, trombone, timpani, bass drum, and strings

pounds lighter and certain that the world is not so hopeless after all.

The Rossini opera you are most likely to encounter is The Barber of Seville (Il barbiere di Siviglia). By the time he introduced it, in early 1816, young Rossini was acclaimed as one of the finest opera composers of his time: sixteen of his operas had already been produced, including such successes as Tancredi and L’italiana in Algeri (both in 1813). And yet the opening of The Barber of Seville was one of the famous fiascos of operatic history. It’s hard for us to imagine how the initial audiences can have overlooked what soon became obvious to operagoers everywhere: that this is one of the best comic operas ever penned. Still, there were complicating factors. Beaumarchais’ play Le Barbier de Séville had already enjoyed quite a few operatic settings, and one of them, Giovanni Paisiello’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, premiered in 1782, had by then reigned as an operatic touchstone for more than three decades. Direct competition would have been viewed by many as at least problematic and possibly sacrilegious. Imagine, by way of vague comparison, if a 23-year-old composer today should suddenly decide to accost Broadway with an entirely new setting of A Chorus Line. At least Rossini had the good sense to change the title of his setting to Almaviva, ossia L’inutile precauzione (Almaviva, or the Useless Precaution) and to extract Paisiello’s blessing for his new setting (at least so Rossini claimed). But he also took the questionable step of including a sort of disclaimer in the printed libretto, lauding “the immortal composer who has preceded him” while explaining that he decided to add “several new situations of musical pieces which were, moreover, called

A Quick Turnaround

In 1863, Gioachino Rossini signed off in the postscript to his Petite Messe solennelle (Little Solemn Mass), a Mass that was none too petite and far from solemn, with a comment directed on high: “Thou knowest, O Lord, that I was born to write opera buffa. Rather little skill, a bit of heart, and that’s all. So be Thou blessed and admit me to Paradise.”

Rossini knew himself well. By then 71 years old and on the verge of his 72nd birthday—the fact that he was born on February 29 brought him untold delight—he had written plenty of songs and piano pieces, a substantial catalogue of sacred music, and even a handful of thoroughly serious operas on topics tragical, historical, and Biblical; but there was no getting around the fact that his most towering achievement had been as one of music’s greatest comedians—as a composer of opera buffa. Spend an evening enmeshed with any of Rossini’s comic operas, and by the end you are likely to feel five

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The opening night of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville was marred by protests from Paisiello diehards, but once they were out of the way the opera had far better fortunes. According to a report from Salvatore Marchesi di Castrone, Rossini told him that he was too distressed to face the audience at the next performance: “I had stayed home alone. I tried to distract myself by writing, by composing music; but my head was elsewhere. With a watch in hand, counting the minutes, agitated feverish, I had sung and played to myself the Overture and the First Act. The irresistible curiosity and impatience took hold of me. I burned with the desire to know how my music had been received at the second performance. I had decided to dress myself and go out when I heard down on the street a devil of a hubbub.” The crowd was on its way to congratulate him on what was a triumph after all.

— JMK

PROGRAM NOTES for by modern theatrical taste, so greatly changed from the period in which the famous Paisiello wrote his music” (a compliment that could be interpreted as back-handed). The Paisiello claque behaved badly at the premiere, but Rossini’s version quickly pushed Paisiello’s into the shadows and by 1816 Rossini’s opera became universally purveyed under the title Il barbiere di Siviglia.

Rossini is said to have spent a mere 13 days composing this opera. He typically wrote his overtures last, and in this case, pressed for time, he simply lifted the Overture he had written just over two years earlier for his opera seria Aureliano in Palmira, which had scored only a moderate success. In the meantime Rossini had already double-dipped with this piece, expanding its orchestration slightly (with trombones and timpani—the instrumentation used here) into the Overture for his historical opera Elisabetta, regina d’Inghilterra.

Today we know it all but exclusively as the Overture to The Barber of Seville, but the fact that essentially the same piece could serve to introduce an opera seria, an opera buffa, and a historical tragic opera speaks to the adaptability of Rossini’s basic style to a variety of dramatic situations.

At Curtis, Barber studied principally piano (with Isabelle Vengerova), composition (with Rosario Scalero), and voice (with the baritone Emilio de Gorgorza, who was a colleague of Barber’s aunt’s at the Met). While a student there, he produced several works that have entered the enduring repertoire, including his Dover Beach for baritone and string quartet (which he sang in its first commercial recording) and his orchestral Overture to The School for Scandal and Music for a Scene from Shelley. Thanks to a Rome Prize he spent 1935-37 at the American Academy in that city completing, among other pieces, his Symphony in One Movement: it quickly received high-profile performances in Rome, Cleveland, and New York, as well as in the opening concert of the 1937 Salzburg Festival. The following year his reputation was cemented when Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony broadcast his Essay No. 1 and his Adagio for Strings; the latter would become one of the most recognized compositions of the century. Barber was famous, and he was not yet 30 years old.

Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 14 Samuel Barber First performance: 11/13/1998 Violin: Robert McDuffie Last Performance: 10/19/2013 Violin: Jennifer Koh Born: March 9, 1910, in West Chester, Pennsylvania Died: January 23, 1981, in New York City Work composed: Summer 1939 through July 1940; revised in 1948 Work premiered: February 7, 1941, in Philadelphia, with Eugene Ormandy conducting The Philadelphia Orchestra and violinist Albert Spalding; the revised version was introduced January 7, 1949, with Serge Koussevitzky conducting the Boston Symphony and soloist Ruth Posselt.

Instrumentation: Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, snare drum, piano, and strings, in addition to the solo violin

When the Curtis Institute of Music opened its doors to receive its first students, on October 1, 1924, Samuel Barber was second in line. It was a violinist who managed to pass through the portal before him: Max Aronoff, a future member of the Curtis String Quartet, the ensemble for which Barber would compose (a dozen years later) his String Quartet with its famous slow movement, often heard in its string-orchestra setting as his Adagio for Strings. Barber’s musical gifts had been apparent from an early age, and he was fortunate to be born into a family that was attuned to recognize them. Though his parents were not professional musicians, his aunt, the contralto Louise Homer, was a mainstay at the Metropolitan Opera, and her husband, Sidney Homer, was well known as a composer of light lieder of the parlor-song sort.

In 1939, he returned to the Curtis Institute, this time as composition professor, and he maintained that position until 1942, when he traded his affiliation with Curtis for one with the U.S. Army Air Forces. During this pre-War period he composed his Violin Concerto, which also grew out of a Curtis connection. Samuel Fels, of Fels Naptha soap fame, served on the school’s board of directors, and in early 1939 he offered Barber a $1000 commission to write a violin concerto for a Curtis violin student he was interested in assisting. Barber accepted. He got to work on the piece that summer he while staying in Sils-Maria, Switzerland. He had occasion to focus his attention on another violin concerto during those months, hearing in Lucerne a performance of the Beethoven Violin Concerto with Adolf Busch as soloist and with Toscanini conducting; even more than a decade later, he would characterize it as “the most beautiful performance of the Beethoven Concerto.” He moved on to Paris, where he hoped to complete the finale, but war broke out in August. Notwithstanding the chaos of people trying to flee Europe, Barber managed to secure prompt passage CONTINUED ON PAGE 40

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on the transatlantic liner Champlain. As World War II spread through Europe, Barber continued working on his finale in America.

This was not the only time that a finale proved to be a bugbear for Barber. While he was writing his Violin Concerto, for example, he was also searching for the right way to end his String Quartet (Op. 10), the finale of which he would “reinvent” several times over the course of seven years.

The finale of the Violin Concerto was in part problematic because the violinist for whom the concerto was commissioned expressed particularly displeasure with it. After provisional read-throughs, plus technical input from the violinist Oscar Shumsky, Barber showed his concerto to the noted violinist Albert Spalding, who was reputedly on the lookout for an American piece to add to his concerto repertoire. Spalding signed on instantly, and it was he who introduced the work, with Eugene Ormandy conducting The Philadelphia Orchestra, following its extended gestation.

Prelude and “Liebestod” from Tristan und Isolde (1858-59) Richard Wagner First performance: 3/14/1938 Conductor: Ralph Rose Last performance: 10/6/2007 Conductor: Joel Levine Born: May 22, 1813, in Leipzig, Saxony (Germany) Died: February 13, 1883, in Venice, Italy Work composed: 1858-59 Work premiered: The opera Tristan und Isolde was premiered June 10, 1865, at the Königliches Hof- und National theater in Munich, with Hans von Bülow conducting, though the Prelude had been performed as a concert excerpt, with a specially prepared concert ending, in Paris in early 1860.

Instrumentation: Three flutes (third doubling piccolo), two oboes and English horn, two clarinets and bass clarinet, three bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, harp, and strings

The Composer Speaks Barber contributed this comment to the Philadelphia Orchestra’s programs for the premiere of his Violin Concerto. Written in the third person, it refers to tempo markings that Barber would later simplify: The Concerto for Violin and Orchestra was completed in July, 1940, at Pocono Lake, Pennsylvania, and is Mr. Barber’s most recent work for orchestra.

It is lyric and rather intimate in character and a moderate-sized orchestra is used: eight woodwinds, two horns, two trumpets, percussion, piano, and strings.

The first movement—allegro molto moderato—begins with a lyrical first subject announced at once by the solo violin, without any orchestral introduction. This movement as a whole has perhaps more the character of a sonata than concerto form. The second movement—andante sostenuto—is introduced by an extended oboe solo. The violin enters with a contrasting and rhapsodic theme, after which it repeats the oboe melody of the beginning.

The last movement, a perpetual motion, exploits the more brilliant and virtuoso characteristics of the violin.

— JMK

Richard Wagner is one of the most discussed figures of music history and has been ever since he began putting his emphatic stamp on the esthetic world of the mid-19th century. He has been adored and he has been reviled. He has been decried as the end of the musical tradition as it was known and loved, and he has been revered as the wellspring of the modern and a visionary whose conceptions continue to fuel the avant-garde. The subject of Wagner tends to invite extreme reactions from informed music-lovers as well as from esthetes of other stripes.

It is marvelous to think that such strong opinions—and so many of them—swirl around a composer who is known to modern music-lovers almost exclusively through ten compositions: Der fliegende Holländer (premiered in 1843); Tannhäuser (1845); Lohengrin (1850); Tristan und Isolde

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PROGRAM NOTES From the Peanut Gallery From the moment it appeared, Tristan und Isolde has elicited responses that run the gamut from adoration to loathing. The conservative wing was aghast. The pianist and composer Clara Schumann wrote of her first exposure to Tristan und Isolde: “It is the most repulsive thing I ever saw or heard in my life. To have to sit through a whole evening watching, listening to such love-lunacy till every feeling of decency was outraged, and to see not only the audience but also the musicians delighted with it was—I may well say—the saddest experience of my whole artistic career.” Johannes Brahms was blunt in his reaction to the piece: “If I look at the score in the morning, I am cross for the rest of the day.” The influential Viennese music critic Eduard Hanslick delivered one of his memorable zingers: “The Prelude to Tristan und Isolde reminds me of the old Italian painting of a martyr whose intestines are slowly unwound from his body on a reel.”

—JMK

(1865); Die Meistersinger (1868); Das Rheingold (1869); Die Walküre (1870); Siegfried (1876); Götterdämmerung (1876); and Parsifal (1882). It would not do to refer to this list as a “mere ten compositions,” since there is nothing mere about any of them; they stand among the longest and in some ways the most imposing pieces in the active operatic repertoire. They do not represent the entirety of Wagner’s creative output. Apart from these operas he wrote three others (early works rarely visited today) and about a hundred further pieces, not all of them complete or extant, for various vocal and/or orchestral forces (the Siegfried Idyll being the best-known of them), not to mention a numbingly extensive outpouring of prose works on a variety of topics, many of them bizarre and contradictory in their content, that in published form take up several shelf-feet of library space.

Wagner’s earliest operas amalgamated more-or-less standard traditions of German Romantic opera (as codified in the works of Weber, Marschner, and others) and French Grand Opera (a large-scale enterprise typified by Meyerbeer and his contemporaries in Paris). As Wagner’s career progressed he moved increasingly toward realizing his ideal of a Gesamtkunstwerk, a work of artistic expression synthesized from disparate artistic disciplines, including music, literature, the visual arts, ballet, and architecture.

The operas of Wagner’s maturity are so distinct in this way that they are often referred to not as operas at all, but rather as “music dramas,” in an attempt to underscore the singularity of his esthetic goals. Nonetheless, Wagner

himself was not averse to extracting sections from these closely woven works to present apart from their operatic context. During his lifetime he conducted orchestral extracts from his operas as standalone concert works on numerous occasions, as did quite a few other conductors.

Tannhäuser and Lohengrin may be considered to signal the demarcation between the early phase of Wagner’s career and the ultimate realization of his ideals of the Gesamtkunstwerk in his operas of the 1850s and beyond. With Tristan und Isolde and Die Meistersinger, we find Wagner in his full maturity, already immersed in plotting his tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen (comprising Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung), which would not reach its completion until after Tristan und Isolde and Die Meistersinger were already unveiled.

Tristan und Isolde digs deep back into the period of the Middle Ages, which was an ongoing Wagnerian fascination.

In this tale much retold through the ages, King Marke has sent his nephew Tristan from Cornwall, where they live, to Ireland to fetch Isolde, who is to become the King’s bride through an enforced arrangement. In the course of the journey Tristan and Isolde fall in love and get “carnally involved,” encouraged by a potion prepared by Isolde’s maid. They are discovered and Tristan is attacked by one of the King’s soldiers. He dies with Isolde at his side, after which she, too, expires in an ecstatic combination of love and grief. The first and last passages of the opera, fused into a single span, have become famous as the Prelude and “Liebestod” (Love-Death), sometimes with a soprano singing Isolde’s final scene, sometimes in a purely orchestral transcription, as here.

Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes

by Carl Maria von Weber Paul Hindemith First performance: 1/21/1964 Conductor: Guy Fraser Harrison Last performance: 11/14/2009 Conductor: Joel Levine Born: November 16, 1895, in Hanau, near Frankfurt, Germany Died: December 28, 1963, in Frankfurt, Germany Work composed: Partly sketched in March 1940; composed in earnest in New Haven, Connecticut, in June and August 1943, completed on August 29 of that year Work premiered: January 20, 1944, at Carnegie Hall in New York City, with Artur Rodzinski conducting the New York Philharmonic Instrumentation: Two flutes and piccolo, two oboes and English horn, two clarinets and bass clarinet, two bassoons and contrabassoon, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, tambourine, snare drum, tenor drum, tom-toms, bass drum, triangle, cymbals, small tam-tam, tubular bells, wood block, glockenspiel, and strings

Sixty or seventy years ago, Paul Hindemith was regularly cited as one of the most significant and influential composers of the 20th century. His public stock fell sharply in CONTINUED ON PAGE 42

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ensuing years, but several of his compositions continue to hold a relatively persistent place in the active repertoire, including his Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes of Carl Maria von Weber (to use the form of the tile he preferred for English-language contexts), his Mathis der Maler Symphony, his cantata When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom’d (after Whitman’s poem), and a number of his chamber works.

These last include a stream of challenging and terrifically useful solo sonatas (with piano accompaniment) for nearly every instrument of the orchestra and chamber works for combinations of many of them—even such underserved instruments as English horn, heckelphone, trombone, alto horn, tuba, and double bass.

was tapped to perform on an instrument he or she did not already know how to play.

With the rise of the Third Reich he became persona non grata in his homeland; his own modernist proclivities were deemed offensive enough, and the fact that his wife was Jewish sealed the deal. The Hindemiths left for Switzerland in 1937 and proceeded in 1940 to the United States, where he took American citizenship and served as a professor at Yale University through 1953. Shortly after his arrival he was approached by the choreographer Leonid Massine, for whom he had previously composed the ballet Nobilissima visione. Massine proposed a new ballet for which Hindemith would provide arrangements of music written in the early 19th century by Carl Maria von Weber. Within two weeks,

Hindemith’s Sources

The years that followed World War I marked a free-for-all for creative artists, who were suddenly operating in a world that had overthrown central assumptions about society and humanity. Hindemith reveled in the variety of styles that swirled through the musical atmosphere, proving adept in a multitude of languages that, in retrospect, seem more innate to other composers: Puccini’s melodic lyricism, Strauss’s rich-blooded late-Romanticism, Schreker’s Symbolist synthesis, Schoenberg’s Expressionism, Ravel’s orientalism, Bartók’s modality and rhythmic intricacy, and the inevitable allure of American jazz. Through all this imitation and experimentation, Hindemith was developing his own angular and contrapuntal voice, a style based on strict harmonic rules of his own devising that he developed out of an idiosyncratic interpretation of musical acoustics.

While sounding firmly tonal, his music often wends its way through musical hierarchies that are not exactly those of the time-honored tonic-dominant system. He was also keeping busy as concertmaster of the Frankfurt Opera Orchestra (1915-23) and as the violist of the Amar Quartet (1921-29), and the Wolfstahl (later Goldberg)-Hindemith-Feurmann Trio (1929-34) He spoke openly about the challenges busy musicians needed to address if they were to avoid falling into stultifying routine, and he put his recommendations into practice by constructing programs with constantly changing repertoire, even forming ensembles in which each member

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The German composer Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826) earned his niche in the musical pantheon through his epoch-defining opera Der Freischütz, premiered in 1821. In 1911, Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes catapulted him to prominence among balletomanes when they introduced Mikhail Fokine’s Le Spectre de la Rose, danced to Weber’s piano solo Invitation to the Dance (Aufforderrung zum Tanze), as arranged by Hector Berlioz; the OKC Philharmonic performed that version just three weeks ago. For his Symphonic Metamorphosis, Hindemith selected four little-known pieces, three of which Weber had written as piano four-hands works for the Princesses Maria and Amalia of Württemberg: the Allegro all’ongarese (Allegro in the Hungarian Style), Op. 60, No. 4, from Eight Pieces for Piano Duet (1818-19); a melody from the incidental music for Schiller’s play Turandot, Op. 37 (1809, based on a lost orchestral work written five years before, with the melody itself ostensibly being of ancient Chinese origin); the Andantino, Op. 10, No. 2, from Six Pieces for Piano Duet (1809); and the Marcia funebre, Op. 60, No. 7. Even apart from its stunning orchestration, Hindemith’s score is entirely original except for the tunes, extending to such niceties as a bluesy fugato variation that shows off the various instrumental families in the Turandot movement, an elaborate flute obbligato Hindemith superimposes near the end of the Andantino, and the powerful momentum with which he infuses the concluding march, here transformed from its original funereal guise into a roisterous celebration.

—JMK

Hindemith completed two movements and sent them to Massine, who did not like what he heard. “The Weber ballet has gone down the drain,” Hindemith wrote to his wife. “I wrote two nice numbers for it, coloring the music lightly and making it a bit sharper. … It seems the music is too complicated for them and that they simply wanted an exact orchestral arrangement of the original Weber. I am not just an orchestrator and furthermore I had already told them what I was going to do. One really cannot work seriously with Massine.”

Three years later he returned to his sketches and developed them—literally “metamorphosing” Weber’s originals—into a virtuosic four-movement concert work, by general consent the most colorful, debonair, and exuberant that ever issued from his pen. Reviewing the premiere in the New York Times, the critic Olin Downes described the Symphonic Metamorphosis as “diverting and delightful music—one of the most entertaining scores Hindemith has ever given us,” an opinion that has been seconded by listeners ever since.

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, which he serves as Contributing Editor.

Portions of these essays appeared in earlier forms in the programs of the New York Philharmonic and are used with permission

TripAdvisor 2017 Certificate of Excellence echocanyonmanor.com 580.421.5076

THE WONDERFUL MUSIC OF OZ NOVEMBER 3-4, 2017 8:00 P.M.

POPS DAVID ANDREWS ROGERS, CONDUCTOR

STARRING

KELLI RABKE AGRESTA

SCOTT COULTER

BLAINE KRAUSS

JOHN BOSWELL

With the UNIVERSITY SINGERS FROM OKLAHOMA CITY UNIVERSITY, under the direction of TONY GONZALEZ This concert is generously sponsored by:

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

A special Thank You to Scratch Kitchen and Cocktails for providing musicians’ catering services.

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DAVID ANDREWS ROGERS David Andrews Rogers is thrilled for the opportunity to return to Oklahoma City to Guest Conduct the extraordinary musicians of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic. He made his debut with the orchestra in their 2012 season with the ABBA Tribute concert, Waterloo, and has returned to conduct The Midtown Men (2013), All That Jazz: A Symphonic Tribute to Kander and Ebb (2015), and The Spy Who Loved Me, starring Sheena Easton (2016). Oklahoma City audiences may also remember David from his 45 appearances as Music Director and Conductor for Lyric Theatre, beginning with his debut there in 1993 with a production of the Yeston/Kopit Phantom.

David’s regional theatre experience includes Ford’s Theatre in Washington DC, Sacramento’s Music Circus, Westchester Broadway Theatre, the Gateway Playhouse on Long Island, the Denver Center, Boston’s Charles Playhouse, and the North Carolina Theatre. He made his regional theatre debut at Dallas Repertory Theatre in 1978 with a production of Shenandoah. In New York, David has been Music Director, Supervisor, and/or Arranger for numerous readings and workshops of new musicals including Caligula and Unlock’d, both at the New York Music Theatre Festival, as well as Boy Meets Boy, Merman’s Apprentice, Portofino, and Happy Hunting.

David made his Carnegie Hall debut conducting the New York Pops in 2003 in an All-Star Tribute to Kander and Ebb. He returned to Carnegie Hall annually for several years as a conductor or orchestrator or both, including Bravo to Broadway in 2008. His other Guest Conducting experience includes New York’s Lincoln Center, the Nebraska Jazz Orchestra, and Harlem’s legendary Apollo Theatre.

He made his Off-Broadway debut as Music Supervisor for The Vocal Lords at the Theatre at St. Clements. In 1995, David began his touring career with the Broadway National Tour of The Phantom of the Opera. His additional road experience includes the Hal Prince production of Show Boat, as well as Les Misérables, Chicago, Cats, and Fiddler on the Roof starring Topol and later, Harvey Fierstein.

David has conducted for Broadway stars and recording artists including Patti LuPone, Joel Grey, Sutton Foster, Nell Carter, Kristin Chenoweth, Karen Ziemba, Robert Cuccioli, Anita Gillette, Sally Struthers, Cloris Leachman, Dean Jones, Harvey Fierstein, Olivia Newton-John, and Topol. In addition, for 12 years, David was Music Director and Conductor for 80s recording artist Debbie Gibson in venues as diverse as Carnegie Hall, live appearances on Sirius Radio, at Retrolicious (an 80s tribute concert in Singapore), and in casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City.

David’s association with The Wizard of Oz includes his being Music Director and Conductor for two regional theatre productions (at Casa Mañana in Fort Worth and at Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma), plus two recent national tours of the new Andrew Lloyd Webber production which featured new songs

by Webber and Tim Rice. David was also Music Director, Conductor, and Associate Music Supervisor for a European tour - as Le Magicien D’Oz - which opened at the Palais de Congrès in Paris.

As an orchestrator and arranger, David’s work has been played by orchestras all over the United States and Canada, and he is represented on recordings including Broadway singer Sal Viviano’s The Standards of Love, former star of the Moulin Rouge, Debbie DeCoudreaux’s debut album Have a Little Paris on Me, and RSVP …the vocal group’s debut recording No Holds Barred. His most recent orchestrations have been for Debbie Gibson in association with Cirque Musica, for Florence Henderson in the 2015 edition of Broadway Backwards, and for The Midtown Men.

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As an educator, David has been on the faculty of New York’s American Musical and Dramatic Academy and Dallas’ Performing Artists’ Musical Theatre Conservatory as well as in his private voice studio in New York and in master classes and workshops for the Broadway Classroom. David is a Member of the Board of Directors of the Organization of United Children/Child Ambassadors of Peace, and he also serves on the Advisory Board of the New York Conductors’ Symphony Orchestra. Educated at Southern Methodist University in Dallas and at Queen’s College, Oxford University in England, David is originally from Texas, and now makes his home in New York City.

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KELLI RABKE AGRESTA

Kelli got her “big break” playing the role of Dorothy in Paper Mill Playhouse’s acclaimed production of The Wizard of Oz. Shortly thereafter, she was handpicked by Andrew Lloyd Webber to play the lead role of the Narrator in the Broadway revival of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Following that, she played her dream role: Eponine in Les Miserables on Broadway.

She went on to perform around the country in such roles as Mabel in Mack and Mabel, Christine in Phantom, and in Stephen Schwartz’s Children of Eden as Yonah. She is one of only two Broadway stars to originate a role in both a Stephen Schwartz and an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical — a distinction for which she is incredibly honored.

Kelli left the bright lights of the stage for a few years and turned her attention to her family. Her proudest accomplishments to date are her son, Joseph, and daughter, Abigale. A new chapter in her career began when joining the board of the bergenPAC in Englewood, NJ. There she developed the Kidz Cabaret series, the beyondMusic program of instrumental lessons, and her personal favorite: MUSIC SPEAKS – an early childhood music education class for infants through 4 years old. Kelli also served as producer and creative director for “Beyond the Storm” – a Hurricane Sandy relief concert which raised money for local towns hard hit by the storm.

Kelli was thrilled to return to the NYC stage at the beautiful and historic Town Hall where she has been seen in numerous concerts including Broadway Originals and Broadway Unplugged.

Recently, she was the headliner for the Broadway on the Boardwalk concert in Ocean City, NJ, performed at Broadway Ballyhoo at the Laurie Beechman Theatre. Her concert work has taken her all over the world.

SCOTT COULTER Scott regularly performs in concert both as a solo artist and with a variety of legendary performers including Stephen Schwartz, Ben Vereen and Sheena Easton and has performed with symphonies all over the world including San Francisco, Baltimore, Seattle, Phoenix, Winnipeg, St. Louis and Calgary.

SCOTT COULTER is one of New York’s most honored vocalists. For his work in cabaret, Scott has received five MAC Awards (Manhattan Association of Cabarets & Clubs), five Bistro Awards and two Nightlife Awards for Outstanding Vocalist and has performed at most of NYC’s top rooms including Birdland, 54 Below, The Oak Room at the Algonquin, and Feinstein’s at The Regency where he spent a record-setting eight months performing the revue 11 O’Clock Numbers at 11 O’Clock which he also co-created, directed and musically arranged. His self-titled debut CD won the 2003 MAC Award for Outstanding Recording and was chosen as the best recording of the year by TheatreMania and Cabaret Scenes magazines. Scott also earned an Emmy nomination for his work on “American Songbook at NJPAC.”

As a director Scott’s credits include many shows for The Town Hall in NY and BBTY for The Berkshire Theatre Festival and Broadway by the Bay. He’s produced and directed several installments of Michael Feinstein’s Standard Time at Carnegie Hall. He is creator, arranger and director of several touring shows including Music of the Knights, Cinema Toast, Southern Comfort, Broadway’s Elite, That’s Life: A Toast to Sinatra, You’ve Got a Friend: Carole King, Neil Sedaka and the Music of the Brill Building, Blockbuster Broadway! and his critically acclaimed solo show, The Fella Sings Ella. His concert creation The King: The Music of Elvis is currently playing symphony halls across America and Canada. Scott recently wrote the book for the new musical “Got to be There” which celebrates the life and music of songwriter Elliot Willensky.

Scott is founder/owner of Spot-On Entertainment. He’s a resident director of programming at 54 Below (Broadway’s Supper Club) in NYC and is a graduate of the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

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BLAINE KRAUSS Blaine made his Broadway debut in the smash hit Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 after traveling the world as ‘Simba’ in The Lion King and starring in the Radio City Summer Spectacular. He performs with symphonies around the globe and is a regular performer at Feinstein’s/54 Below.

His talents led him in 2011 to be a feature performer for the largest Commemoration of 9/11 outside of the U.S at the Trocadero in Paris, France. In 2010 he was selected to be one of twenty Presidential Scholars in the Arts by the White House and Presidential Scholar Commission. This venture

led to having met President Obama and concluded with a performance at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. He was selected to be the Feature Vocalist at the 2010 July 4th Celebration at the US National Archives; was a selected participant at the International Fringe Festival in Edinburgh Scotland. His theatrical credits include Godspell and Spelling Bee at the West Virginia Public Theatre, Evita, Into the Woods, Civil War, Make Me a Song, Chess and Jean Valjean in CCM’s Les Miserables.

JOHN BOSWELL John has served as musical director for Judy Collins, Andy Williams and Bob Newhart as well as the concert tours of Cinema Toast, That’s Life: A Toast to Sinatra, Blockbuster Today, Three Men and a Baby Grand, Blockbuster Broadway! and The Spy Who Loved Me starring Sheena Easton. John played the role of Moose in the national tour of Crazy for You. Broadway/Off-Broadway credits include Crazy for You,

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The Secret Garden, Back to Bacharach and David, and The Kathy and Mo Show: Parallel Lives. Most recently John composed music for the HBO special Kathy and Mo: The Dark Side. John has six CD’s of original music on Hearts of Space Records; The Painter, Kindred Spirits, Count Me In, Festival of the Heart, Trust and Love.

211 N Robinson Ave.; Suite 1600 • Oklahoma City, Ok 73102 • 405-236-3041

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.

Current officers and directors of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic Foundation are: OFFICERS Michael E. Joseph President Jean Ann Hartsuck Vice President

CLASSICS 3 November 18, 2017 8:00 P.M.

CLASSICS MICHELLE MERRILL, CONDUCTOR YOSSI ARNHEIM, FLUTE

PISTON ...................... Ballet Suite from The Incredible Flutist REINECKE .................. Concerto in D major For Flute and Orchestra, Op. 283*

Allegro molto moderato Lento e mesto Moderato—In tempo animato—Tempo I—Più mosso— Più lento maestoso

Yossi Arnheim, flute

INTERMISSION

Douglas J. Stussi Treasurer

COPLAND ................... Appalachian Spring Suite

Penny M. McCaleb Secretary

LIGETI ........................ Concert Românesc (Romanian Concerto)*

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

Andantino— Allegro vivace— Adagio ma non troppo— Molto vivace

(The movements are played without separation.)

*First performance on this series

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, December 13 at 8 pm and Saturday, December 16 at 8 am on “Performance Oklahoma”. Simultaneous internet streaming is also available during the broadcast.

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YOSSI ARNHEIM Yossi Arnheim is Principal Flutist with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

He has appeared in many countries around the globe with the IPO as well as soloist with other international orchestras and in recitals and music festivals.

Yossi Arnheim is an active performer of chamber music in diverse settings, involving renowned artists. His broad musical horizons also include Middle Eastern and Arabic music with Sheshbesh, a group of Arab and Jewish musicians. His 14 released CD recordings for international labels feature a variety of styles, from Baroque to World Music.

Arnheim is a major ambassador for music by Israeli composers, and has commissioned and performed flute Concertos, played by the Israel Philharmonic. Orchestra in major concert halls in Europe.

Yossi Arnheim is a flute professor at the Buchman-Mehta School of Music at the Tel-Aviv University and at the Jeru-

salem Academy of Music and Dance. Many of his former students are involved in the professional music scene in Israel and elsewhere.

He regularly gives flute master classes and courses in Germany, in Vienna, in Paris and at leading music schools in the USA, Hungary, the Ukraine, the Netherlands, Korea, and Japan.

Arnheim is also member of the leading team for the Young Israel Philharmonic Orchestra at the Jerusalem Music Centre.

The OKlahoma Israel Exchange (OKIE) celebrates 25 years of advancing the warm, fruitful friendship between Oklahoma and Israel.

In 1992 Governor David Walters and the Israeli Consul General signed a joint declaration drawing on the rich social fabric and pioneering spirit of both states. Therefore the mission of OKIE is to foster cooperation on projects of mutual benefit in commerce, agriculture, culture and education.

OKIE coordinates activities between the two states by identifying and sponsoring projects, ensuring responsiveness to economic opportunities, showcasing culture through the arts, developing networks through people-to-people partnerships, and serving as a catalyst to further goodwill. Since inception OKIE has thrived by building on past successes and initiating new programs and relationships that enhance both states.

OKIE’s momentum soars through a spectrum of good and important work. OKIE organizes and leads high profile missions to Israel with government officials, entrepreneurs, academics, and lay leaders. Participants see the country from majestic ancient sights to vibrant cosmopolitan centers to booming high-tech sector. Working with the American Israel Friendship League-Youth Ambassador Student Exchange, dozens of teenagers from across Oklahoma have participated on powerful trips to Israel. These young people are exposed to a comprehensive life-changing learning experience. OKIE imports cutting edge and renown musical talent for colorful programs highlighting Israel’s rich culture. Concerts ranging from classical to rock impressed audiences from the Panhandle to the Red River. Oklahoma and Israel have a common agricultural focus shared both in a conference setting as well as in the field with an expert from the Israeli Ministry. Israel’s newest technologies in irrigation, water conservation, plasticulture and innovative farming practices have been adopted with great success statewide.

Brimming with pride OKIE celebrates 25 sterling silver years Saturday, November 18 in a special collaboration between the Oklahoma City Philharmonic and Israeli Philharmonic!

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MICHELLE MERRILL Rapidly rising conductor Michelle Merrill currently serves as the Associate Conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra where she also carries the title of Phillip and Lauren Fisher Community Ambassador. A passionate and dynamic artist, Ms. Merrill was named as one of Hour Detroit Magazine’s 3 Cultural Organization Leaders to Watch, and was recently profiled by the Ford Motor Co. for their website fordbetterworld.org. She is also a recipient of a 2016 Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award.

Recent and upcoming engagements include the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Jacksonville Symphony, Toledo Symphony Orchestra, West Virginia Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic, Orlando Philharmonic, Symphoria (Syracuse), Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera, Boise Philharmonic, New Music Detroit, and the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic, where she formerly served as Assistant Conductor before coming to Detroit.

In March of 2014, Ms. Merrill stepped in on short notice with the Meadows Symphony Orchestra for their performance of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 4, which music critic Scott Cantrell of the Dallas Morning News described as “stunning” and later named to his list of Top Ten Classical Performances of 2014. She was awarded in 2013 the prestigious Ansbacher Conducting Fellowship by members of the Vienna

Philharmonic and the American Austrian Foundation, which enabled her to be in residence at the world-renowned Salzburg Festival.

A strong advocate of new music, Ms. Merrill recently conducted the world-premiere performance of Gabriela Lena Frank’s “Walkabout: Concerto for Orchestra” with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. In June 2015, she made her debut at the St. Augustine Music Festival conducting the worldpremiere performance of Piotr Szewcyzk’s “St. Augustine Suite” which was written in honor of that city’s 450th anniversary. The highly praised performance was later featured nationwide on NPR’s “Performance Today”. Additionally, her work in the 2011/12 season with Voices of Change, Dallas’s professional contemporary music ensemble, was part of a program later named as one of Dallas Morning News critic Scott Cantrell’s Top Ten Classical Performances of 2011.

Born in Dallas, TX, Ms. Merrill studied conducting with Dr. Paul C. Phillips at Southern Methodist University’s Meadows School of the Arts, where she holds a Master of Music Degree in conducting and a Bachelor of Music in performance.

Apart from music, she loves cooking, running, hiking, and spending time with her husband, Steve Merrill, who serves as the principal percussionist of the Jacksonville Symphony, and their newborn son, Davis.

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Ballet Suite from The Incredible Flutist Walter Piston First performance: 10/5/1971 Conductor: Guy Fraser Harrison Last Performance: 5/2/1998 Conductor: Joel Levine Born: January 20, 1894, in Rockland, Maine Died: November 12, 1976, in Belmont, Massachusetts Work composed: the original ballet in 1938, the Suite in 1940 Work premiered: the original ballet on May 30, 1938, in Boston, Massachusetts, with Arthur Fiedler conducting the Boston Pops Orchestra; the Suite on November 22, 1940, with Fritz Reiner conducting the Pittsburgh Symphony Instrumentation: Two flutes and piccolo, two oboes and English horn, two clarinets and bass clarinet, two bassoons and contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, snare drum, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, tambourine, glockenspiel, piano, and strings.

monic Analysis (1933), Harmony (1941), Counterpoint (1947), and Orchestration (1955). As a group, they purvey not just the skills composers were traditionally expected to cultivate but also how they might think about the foundations of their craft. “Musical theory,” Piston wrote in the commonsensical introduction to Harmony, “is not a set of directions for composing music. It is rather the collected and systematized deductions gathered by observing the practice of composers over a long time, and it attempts to set forth what is or has been their common practice. … The person gifted for creative musical composition is taking a serious risk in assuming that his genius is great enough to get along without a deep knowledge of the common practice of composers. Mastery of the technical or theoretical aspects of music should be carried out by him as a life’s work, running parallel to his creative activity but quite separate from it.”

He was widely honored during his lifetime. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music twice—in 1948 for his Symphony No. 3 and in 1961 for his Symphony No. 7—and was given the New York Music Critics’ Circle Award three times—for his Symphony No. 2 (1944), Viola Concerto (1959), and String Quartet No. 5 (1964). He was elected a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the French government decorated him as an Officier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Still, the ultimate reward has largely eluded him; his music goes practically unheard today, although on the rare occasions when it is programmed, listeners tend to applaud it vigorously. Everything he wrote is for instrumental forces, either symphonic or chamber music— no operas, no art songs, and only two choral pieces. His scores do not trade in the wide-open-spaces nationalistic sounds that were popular during the early decades of his career (like Copland or Harris) or in the dodecaphony or serial methods enforced by the mainstream in the 1950s and ’60s (although he did make some gestures toward 12-tone music, perhaps not with great conviction). He was always meticulous in his arrangement of notes and choice of sounds. “I can spend an hour deciding to set down a note on paper,” he once remarked, “and then another hour deciding to erase it.”

More than four decades after his passing, the name of Walter Piston is still invoked in reverential tones. Just after graduating from Harvard, a fellowship enabled him to travel to France, where he studied with Nadia Boulanger and Paul Dukas. He returned home two years later and accepted a position teaching at his alma mater. He remained at Harvard from 1926 until 1971, and the roster of budding composers who benefited from his guiding hand became impressive indeed—Elliott Carter, Leonard Bernstein, Leroy Anderson, Frederic Rzewski, John Harbison, and many others.

His influence on emerging generations of composers spread far beyond Harvard’s ivied halls thanks to the international popularity of the textbooks he authored: Principles of Har-

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The only one of his works to become an orchestral standard is The Incredible Flutist, and even it is heard far less frequently than it was decades ago. Ironically, it is one of only two works in his catalogue that is in any way programmatic; the only other contender is his Three New England Sketches, which have something of the landscape about them. The Incredible Flutist was a ballet, and although it was premiered (in 1938) by the Boston Pops, the musicians were joined onstage on that occasion by the company of the dancer-choreographer Hans Wiener (a.k.a. Jan Veen). It never became a repertoire ballet, but in 1940 Piston assembled about half of the work’s music into the suite performed here. It traces the general trajectory of the ballet’s scenario, reduced to a dozen short sections,

PROGRAM NOTES which unroll without a break. A circus parade bursts through a village, and its chief attraction—the Incredible Flutist—enchants the merchant’s daughter, creates further confusion, and sets things aright again before the parade wends its way out of the town.

The August 1938 issue of Dance magazine included this summary of the scenario of the ballet The Incredible Flutist: The siesta is over. With a hearty yawn and a wide stretch the village shakes off its drowsiness.

First to wake up, the Apprentice opens the shop, and life begins its eventful flow. The Merchant’s Daughters demonstrate their father’s wares to Shoppers. The Busybody and the Crank have their argument. But what is this? ... A march is heard! The Band, the Circus Band, marches in, followed by the people in the circus. They’re all here: the Barker, the Jugglers, the Snake Dancer, the Monkey Trainer with her Monkeys, the Crystal Gazer, and, of course, the main attraction, the Flutist.

Concerto in D major for Flute and Orchestra, Op. 283 Carl Reinecke First performance on this series Born: June 23, 1824, in Altona (near Hamburg), Germany Died: March 10, 1910, in Leipzig, Germany Work composed: 1908 Work premiered: March 15, 1909, in Leipzig; the soloist was Maximilian Schwedler, the work’s dedicatee.

Instrumentation: Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, timpani, triangle, and strings, in addition to the solo flute

The Flutist is a remarkable fellow, an incredible fellow. He not only charms snakes; he also charms, believe it or not, the Snake Dancer. He is so romantic, the Incredible Flutist, and perhaps just a bit promiscuous, for he also charms the Merchant’s Daughter, and they meet at eight o’clock that very evening.

When the clock strikes eight, young couples are all over the place, and love is in the air. Even the prudish, rich widow cannot resist the charged atmosphere and grants the Merchant the kiss he’s been begging for well nigh two years. But they don’t fare so well. Their sustained embrace is discovered, and the poor rich Widow faints right into the arms of her bewhiskered boy friend. But the Incredible Flutist hies to her rescue. A little dancing, a little fluting, and the Widow comes out of her swoon, none the worse for wear. And then ... the Band strikes up, the spell is broken; the Circus, Incredible Flutist and all, leave the village.

— JMK

Johannes Brahms so dominated Central European symphonic and chamber music in the second half the 19th century that later listeners might imagine that he held up those domains all on his own. That was far from the case. Although he emerged as the front-runner even in his own time, he shared the field of instrumental music with a host of high-quality German and Austro-Hungarian figures whose works are little encountered today, including Friedrich Gernsheim, Karl Goldmark, Max Bruch, Hermann Goetz, and Carl Reinecke, all of whom can still provide enrichment to modern listeners.

Reinecke came of age when German musical Romanticism was at high tide. He received a thorough grounding from his father, a respected music theorist, and as a young man he embarked on a touring career as a pianist. In 1846, he was appointed court pianist in Copenhagen, and five years later he moved to Cologne (and thence to Barmen—now part of Wuppertal—and Breslau) to pursue a freelance existence as a pianist and teacher. By then he had already made a favorable impression on Schumann and Mendelssohn, who spotted a talent they felt should be encouraged. In Paris, he became CONTINUED ON PAGE 56

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acquainted with Berlioz and Liszt; the latter commended Reinecke on his “beautiful, gentle, legato, and lyrical touch” and had him give piano lessons to his daughters Blandine and Cosima (the future Mrs. Richard Wagner). In 1860, he was invited to Leipzig to assume the directorship of the Gewandhaus Orchestra. He remained on that orchestra’s podium until his forced retirement in 1895, when he was succeeded by Arthur Nikisch.

All the while, he was also teaching at the Leipzig Conservatory, which he built into a stellar music school. He remained there for more than four decades, from his appointment in 1860 until his retirement in 1902, and he spent the last five years of his tenure as the school’s director. The roster of students who passed through the conservatory while he was there includes many names that would soon grow famous, including the conductors Karl Muck and Felix Weingartner and the composers Edvard Grieg, Arthur Sullivan, Christian Sinding, and Johann Svendsen. The school gained a reputation for a reactionary musical stance—possibly justified, since Reinecke and the musicians he brought on board were indeed committed to the idea that developing musicians ought to be well schooled in the accepted norms of their discipline before embarking on the new paths.

He was nonetheless personally susceptible to the avant-garde influence of Wagner, most notably in his opera König Manfred, premiered in 1867. He was especially known for his piano music, which resembled that of Mendelssohn and especially Schumann, but he composed in most of the principal genres of his day, including symphonies (he wrote three), concertos (four for piano, plus examples for cello, violin, harp, and flute), songs, and chamber music. His chamber music in particular displays some Brahmsian traits. He and Brahms first met in 1853. Brahms’ confidant and biographer Max Kalbeck said that Brahms privately disliked Reinecke, believing (mistakenly, it turned out) that Reinecke had been behind some negative magazine articles early in Brahms’ career. For his part, Reinecke proved a devoted Brahms champion, conducting the premiere of the complete A German Requiem and playing piano in the premiere of Brahms Cello Sonata No. 1, not to mention inviting Brahms to conduct the Leipzig premieres of many of his works, including all four of his symphonies.

Reinecke visited Brahms several times in Vienna in 1896 and 1897, their last meeting being only three weeks before Brahms’ death.

Composed in 1908, Reinecke’s late-in-life Flute Concerto stands considerable distance back from the adventurous edge of what was going on in classical music at the time; by way of comparison, Schoenberg’s String Quartet No. 2, Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 1, and Strauss’s Elektra were written that same year. The opening movement has its Brahmsian moments—Brahms in a relaxed, breezy mode, rather than a weighty one. Reinecke integrates the flute into the texture practically from the beginning, giving the soloist a preludial

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phrase before the orchestral introduction begins in earnest.

The movement largely emphasizes the flute’s lyrical potential, although a central section provides opportunities for sparkling, leggiero playing (the mood even being emphasized by the surprising inclusion of a triangle in the orchestra).

The slow movement is an extended, rather melancholy song for the soloist, and the finale dances with the spirit of a polonaise, though with a section of imitative counterpoint worked in for contrast.

Carl Reinecke is beloved to flute players, for whom he provided three notable works. The earliest was his Sonata for Flute and Piano, subtitled Undine (Op. 167), written in 1882; it probably qualifies as his most frequently performed composition today. The other two date from 1908, when he was 84 years old: the Concerto played here and the Ballade (Op. 288) for Flute and Orchestra, the latter being premiered posthumously. The Concerto was written for Maximilian Schwedler, principal flutist of the Gewandhaus Orchestra from 1881 to 1917 and flute professor at the Leipzig Conservatory from 1908-32. He was an exponent of the old-style conical-bore flute long after that design had been largely supplanted by the modern “Boehm flute,” and he devised various mechanical alterations that enabled such old-fangled instruments to negotiate technical demands of new music. Schwedler was also a pioneering devotee of early music; already in the late 19th century he presented “historical recitals” in which he played a one-keyed Baroque flute, accompanied by harpsichord and viola da gamba.

— JMK

Appalachian Spring Suite Aaron Copland First performance: 1/17/1954 Conductor: Guy Fraser Harrison Last Performance: 5/21/2011 Conductor: Joel Levine Born: November 14, 1900, in Brooklyn, New York Died: December 2, 1990, in Peekskill, New York Work composed: Spring 1943 through early August 1944; this performance offers the suite Copland prepared for use as a symphonic suite in 1945, “omitting those sections in which the interest is primarily choreographic,” as the score’s preface explains.

Work dedicated: To Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Work premiered: October 30, 1944, at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C., as a staged ballet, with Louis Horst conducting; the 1945 suite played in this concert was premiered October 4, 1945, by the New York Philharmonic, with Artur Rodzinski conducting

PROGRAM NOTES Instrumentation: Two flutes (second doubling piccolo), two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, two trombones, timpani, xylophone, snare drum, bass drum, cymbals, tabor (long drum), wood block, claves, triangle, glockenspiel, piano, harp, and strings

Copland and Graham had flirted with collaborating as early as 1941, when Graham was envisioning a ballet that might be described as Medea set in New England. When Copland didn’t evince much enthusiasm Graham’s thoughts turned instead to something imbued with the gentle spirit that had made such an impact in Thornton Wilder’s 1938 play Our Town. This would be the emotional heart of Appalachian Spring. Copland reported that the first script he received from Graham began: “This is a legend of American living. It is like the bone structure, the inner frame that holds together a people.”

Such a vague approach was not atypical of Graham’s method, and, although it vexed many of the composers with whom she worked, it appears not to have rattled Copland, who diplomatically called his score-in-progress simply Ballet for Martha and wisely allowed the project to develop considerably in Graham’s imagination before he invested much time in actually committing music to the page.

As it developed, Graham’s scenario conflated many strands of American social history, all intersecting around the time of the Civil War in some generalized place in the American heartland.

Eventually the setting coalesced on rural western Pennsylvania, a region well known to Graham, who had spent her childhood in the town of Allegheny, not far from Pittsburgh.

Few nights in the history of the arts in America can rival October 30, 1944, when the ballet Appalachian Spring was premiered at the Library of Congress. That the music was

by Aaron Copland and the choreography was by Martha Graham speaks for the level of creativity that was put before the audience. By the time Appalachian Spring appeared, Copland had won his place in the hearts of balletomanes through his “Wild West” ballets Billy the Kid (1938) and Rodeo (1942), and Graham’s name had become synonymous with the new direction of modern dance. But others involved in the project were as eminent in their own ways. Erick Hawkins and Merce Cunningham, both of whom would go on to lead their own dance companies to prominence, shared the stage with Graham in the performance, and the artist Isamu Noguchi designed the sets. The “nuts and bolts” side of the production was starry, too, involving principally Mrs. Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, the doyenne of Washington’s cultural patrons, who commissioned the ballet, and Dr. Harold Spivacke, head of the Music Division of the Library of Congress, who patiently prodded the masterpiece through its extended labor.

In the end, the ballet’s plot was straightforward. A bride and bridegroom become acquainted, shyly and nervously, and members of their community, including a revivalist preacher, express their sentiments. The couple grows more comfortable with the ritual of daily life that lies ahead, their humility underscored by Copland’s use of the Shaker tune “Simple Gifts,” and they greet the future with a sense of serenity.

The “Simple Gifts” section of Appalachian Spring is the part that has lodged most insistently in the popular memory, and Copland’s variations on that melody are indeed remarkable.

Nonetheless, it is a curious inclusion in the context of the final scenario. Copland later remarked, “My research evidently was not very thorough, since I did not realize that there have never been Shaker settlements in rural Pennsylvania!”

Although the general sound of Appalachian Spring can be found elsewhere in Copland’s works of this period, this is the music that established its vocabulary as representing the quintessential “American sound.” Rich in wide-open, disjunct intervals, it’s a style that became much imitated by American composers—including very often by Copland himself. That it seemed to evoke something inherently American made it irresistible to composers of strictly commercial music, and in a sentimentalized form it thrives to this day as the inspiration for countless soundtracks of movies with a “period” setting.

Copland himself was aware of the pitfalls of empty nostalgia that might torpedo his score, and some years later, after he had conducted it frequently, he would write, “I have often admonished orchestras, professional and otherwise, not to get too sweet or too sentimental with it.”

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From Ballet into symphonic Suite In 1945, Copland extracted eight sections of his Appalachian Spring ballet score (to be played without pause) and expanded the instrumentation for full orchestra. When this orchestral suite was premiered (by the New York Philharmonic on October 4, 1945), Copland provided the following outline to help the audience imagine the action that the music was meant to portray: 1. Very slowly. Introduction of the characters, one by one, in a suffused light.

2. Fast. Sudden burst of unison strings in A-major arpeggios starts the action. A sentiment both elated and religious gives the keynote to this scene. …

3. Moderate. Duo for the Bride and her Intended— scene of tenderness and passion.

4. Quite fast. The Revivalist and his flock. Folksy feelings—suggestions of square dances and country fiddlers.

5. Still faster. Solo dance of the Bride—presentiment of motherhood. Extremes of joy and fear and wonder.

6. Very slow (as at first). Transition scenes reminiscent of the introduction.

7. Calm and flowing. Scenes of daily activity for the Bride and her Farmer-husband. There are five variations on a Shaker theme. The theme, sung by a solo clarinet, was taken from a collection of Shaker melodies compiled by Edward D. Andrews, and published under the title The Gift to Be Simple. The melody I borrowed and used almost literally is called “Simple Gifts.”

8. Moderato. Coda. The Bride takes her place among her neighbors. At the end the couple are left “quiet and strong in their new house.” Muted strings intone a hushed, prayer-like passage. We hear a last echo of the principal theme sung by a flute and solo violin. The close is reminiscent of the opening music.

— JMK

Concert Românesc (Romanian Concerto) György Ligeti First performance on this series Born: May 28, 1923, in Dicsöszentmárton, Transylvania (now Târnăveni, Romania) Died: June 12, 2006, in Vienna, Austria Work composed: 1951; revised in the mid-1990s and published in its new version in 1996 Work premiered: It was played in a private orchestral rehearsal in Budapest in the 1950s but was not officially premiered until August 21, 1971, at the Peninsula Music Festival in the Gibraltar Auditorium, Fish Creek, Wisconsin, with Thor Johnson conducting The Festival Orchestra.

Instrumentation: Two flutes (second doubling piccolo), two oboes (second doubling English horn), two clarinets, two bassoons, three horns (the third seated at a distance from the others and fulfilling an echo function), two trumpets, suspended cymbal, crash cymbals, snare drum, bass drum, and strings

Growing up in a Jewish family in a Hungary that was in turns dominated by Hitler and Stalin, György Ligeti did not experience life as a bed of roses. Unlike his father and his brother, he managed to survive internment in a labor camp. Despite his perilous condition, he was able to cobble together a firm musical education, and he spent the years immediately following World War II studying at the Academy of Music in Budapest. He produced the stream of folk-based choral music that was de rigueur in Hungary at the time, but he also worked at blatantly experimental pieces, building on the models of Bartók and the few other avant-garde composers of whose music he was aware. He prudently kept these scores to himself.

Ligeti became part of the great Hungarian exodus of 1956 and settled in Germany, where he avidly soaked up the thriving

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PROGRAM NOTES From the Composer Later in life, Ligeti reminisced about the musical attitudes and activities of the period in which he produced his Concert Românesc: In 1949, when I was twenty-six, I learned how to transcribe folksongs from wax cylinders at the Folklore Institute in Bucharest. Many of these melodies stuck in my memory and led in 1951 to the composition of my Romanian Concerto [Concert Românesc]. However, not everything in it is genuinely Romanian as I also invented elements in the spirit of the village bands. I was later able to hear the piece at an orchestral rehearsal in Budapest—a public performance had been forbidden. Under Stalin’s dictatorship, even folk music was allowed only in a “politically correct” form, in other words, if forced into a straitjacket of the norms of socialist realism. Major-minor harmonizations à la Dunayevsky were welcome and even modal orientalisms in the style of Khachaturian were still permitted, but Stravinsky was excommunicated. The peculiar way in which village bands harmonized their music, often full of dissonances and “against the grain,” was regarded as incorrect.

In the fourth movement of my Romanian Concerto there is a passage in which an F-sharp is heard in the context of F major. This was reason enough for the apparatchiks responsible for the arts to ban the entire piece.

—JMK

culture of contemporary music. Within a couple of years he became associated with the avant-garde center of Darmstadt and started producing captivating works of daring complexity, often within very free rhythmic frameworks. In 1960, his dramatic Apparitions for orchestra was premiered in Vienna, and it boosted him to a prominent position among experimental composers. Its dense, cloud-like textures, the result of great clusters of orchestral sounds, wove vaguely through the slowly evolving piece, sometimes in “micropolyphony” (his word) in which canons at the unison unrolled in what sounds like random fashion.

In the course of the 1960s he grew increasingly fascinated with the possibility of music displaying a harmonic center (an inherently retrograde idea that was accordingly unorthodox at the time). This interest led him in the direction of the now-classic Lontano, composed in 1967. Writing in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (second edition), the critic and Ligeti biographer Paul Griffiths

explains of Lontano: “This was not a return to conventional tonality … but, together with the principle of canon, it allowed him access to the continuity of conventional tonal music. Lontano is partly a salute, across a gulf of elapsed time, to the late Romantic symphony.”

The new-music community was watching Ligeti closely well before he was thrust to a sort of popular fame in 1968. That’s when, without the composer’s knowledge or permission, Stanley Kubrick incorporated three of his compositions— Atmosphères, Lux Aeterna, and Requiem—into the soundtrack of the MGM film 2001: A Space Odyssey. In 1980, Kubrick would make further, now authorized use of Ligeti’s music, this time of Lontano (among other pieces) to help create the creepy background in The Shining, along with excerpts of works by Bartók, Penderecki, and Berlioz.

Ligeti’s scores usually project a sensual appeal to which audiences overwhelmingly respond, even though its vocabulary is not that of most other music. Writing in Music, Society and Imagination in Contemporary France (Routledge, 1994), François-Bernard Mache proposed a metaphor that may help listeners interested in how such music is built: “Musical technique is like the technique of plaiting and consists of bringing ordered networks into being, in composing various types of intersections. In a way, that is comparable to the techniques used in the textile industry, musical skill works on a fibrous material to which it gives glowing colour, profusion, mobility.”

We may sense this impulse toward “weaving” a musical composition even in such an early Ligeti score as the Concert Românesc (1951). Its four movements—played without separation and totaling only 12 minutes—may be taken as a sort of autobiographical snapshot by the composer. “I grew up in a Hungarian-speaking environment in Transylvania,” he wrote. “While the official language was Romanian, it was only in secondary school that I learned to speak the language that had seemed so mysterious to me as a child.

I was three when I first encountered Romanian folk music, an alpenhorn player in the Carpathian Mountains ….” Ligeti here continues the tradition of such works as Enescu’s Romanian Rhapsodies and Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances, infusing the “symphonic-folk” tradition with sounds that are both modernist and listener-friendly.

JAMES M. KELLER James M. Keller is the longtime Program Annotator of the New York Philharmonic and the San Francisco Symphony. From 1990-2000 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, which he serves as Contributing Editor.

Portions of these essays appeared in earlier forms in the programs of the San Francisco Symphony (Copland) and the New York Philharmonic (Ligeti), and the and are used with permission.

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Mr. and Mrs. John A. McCaleb Cindy and Johnny McCharen Mr. and Mrs. Tom J. McDaniel Mr. Jeffrey McDougall Mrs. Debra McKinney Bruce and Claire McLinn John and Anna McMillin Mr. and Mrs. K. T. Meade, Jr. Mrs. Deann Merritt Parham Mr. and Mrs. Stewart E. Meyers, Jr. Tom and Katherine Milam Mrs. Donna W. Miller Chip and Michelle Mullens Dr. and Mrs. Gene L. Muse Bill and Tracy Nester Dr. O’Tar and Elissa Norwood Mr. J. Edward Oliver Mr. Chip Oppenheim Mrs. Barbara Pirrong Mr. Virgil Lee Powell Mr. and Mrs. Lynn Pringle Mr. Larry Reed Dr. Steven V. Richards Mrs. Carol Ricks Mr. and Mrs. Christopher Salyer Lin Sanchez Todd and Melissa Scaramucci Mr. and Mrs. Fred Schmitt Dr. and Mrs. Hal Scofield Janet and Frank Seay Mr. and Mrs. John M. Seward Mr. and Mrs. William F. Shdeed Sharon and John Shelton Robert and Susan Shoemaker Mr. and Mrs. Jerrod Shouse Drs. Paul and Amalia Silverstein Dr. Richard V. and Jan Smith Rick and Amanda Smith Ms. Jane Smythe Dr. and Mrs. Brian E. Snell Mr. and Mrs. Jeff Starling John Stuemky and James Brand Ms. Betsy Timken Drs. Richard and Betty Van Horn Robert Varnum and Sharon Varnum, LCSW Mr. Robert Weiss Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth K. Wert Mr. John S. Williams Mrs. Carol F. Williams Larry and Paula Willis Robert and Lorraine Wilson Dr. James B. Wise M. Blake and Nancy Yaffe Michael and Laura Young

Friend $750 - $1,249 Anonymous Hugh G. and Sharon Adams

Gary and Jan Allison Ms. Patrice Aston Tom and Fran Ayres Mr. and Mrs. Van A. Barber Mrs. Gail Beals Jackie and Jerry Bendorf Dr. and Mrs. William G. Bernhardt Mr. and Mrs. Glenn Blumstein Don and Grace Boulton Carole and Deal Bowman Dennis and Chris Box Mr. and Mrs. Robert F. Browne Mr. and Mrs. Bob G. Bunce Ms. Janice B. Carmack Ms. Annette Clifton Joseph and Valerie Couch Mrs. Patricia Czerwinski Dr. Nancy Dawson Tony and Pam Dela Vega Mr. and Mrs. Richard Dugger Ms. Anna Eischen Dr. Thurma J. Fiegel John and Sue Francis Dr. and Mrs. Ralph G. Ganick Melvin and Bobbie Gragg Mr. and Mrs. Nick S. Gutierrez, Jr. ,M.D. George M. and Jo Hall Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence K. Hellman Frank and Bette Jo Hill Colonel and Mrs. Dean C. Jackson Mr. David R. Johnson Kent and Brenda Johnson Mr. and Mrs. Drake Keith Ms. Claren Kidd Mr. and Mrs. Brad Krieger Mr. and Mrs. Owen Lafferty Ms. Mary Jane Lawson Mr. Joel Levine Mr. and Mrs. Paul Lindsey Brad and Janet Marion Dr. Gary L. Massad J. Thomas and Anita R. May Ronald T. and Linda Rosser McDaniel Ms. Vickie McIlvoy Mr. and Mrs. Stuart P. Milsten Ann Marie and Jerry Parker Dr. and Mrs. William L. Parry Donita and Curtis Phillips Carl and Deborah Rubenstein Mr. and Mrs. John Santore Dr. and Mrs. Olaseinde Sawyerr Ms. Madeline E. Schooley Mrs. Mary Sherman Mr. Frank J. Sonleitner Mr. James Stelter Dr. and Mrs. James B. Stewart, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas E. Stott Paula and Carl Stover Donita and Larry Thomas Mr. and Mrs. Dale Toetz Mr. Phillip S. Tomlinson CONTINUED ON PAGE 62

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GIFTS TO THE PHILHARMONIC CONTINUED FROM PAGE 61

INDIVIDUALS Providing essential support for the Annual Fund.

Mrs. Dorothy J. Turk Mrs. Donna Vogel Larry L. and Leah A. Westmoreland Denver and Yvonne Woolsey Jim and June Young Mr. and Mrs. Don T. Zachritz

Partner $300 - $749 Dr. Gillian Air John and Nancy Alsup Arden Barrett Ms. Sherry K. Barton Ms. Karen Beckman Mrs. Mary C. Blanton Mr. and Mrs. Morris Blumenthal Alan Booth and Debbie Kelly Dr. Reagan Bradford, Jr. Sharlene S. Branham Mr. and Mrs. F. M. Buxton Mrs. Jo Carol Cameron Ms. Katherine Cates Mr. and Mrs. Earl J. Cheek Drs. Fong Chen and Helen Chiou Mr. and Mrs. Ed Cunningham Ms. Madeleine W. Cunningham Shirley E. Dearborn, M.D. Ms. Melinda Finley Mrs. Betty Foster Dr. Athena Friese, M.D. Laura Gary Joe and Tijuana Gilliland Pam and Gary Glyckherr Mr. and Mrs. Keith G. Golden Mr. Herbert M. Graves Mr. and Mrs. Ronald Greenberg LTC and Mrs. Walter A. Greenwood Carol and George Hoebing Mr. Jerome A. Holmes Mr. Roger Farrell and Mrs. Trish Horn Lois and Roger Hornbrook Mrs. Lily R. Hummel Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Johnson Greg and Mary Joan Johnston Mr. and Mrs. Wes Knight Mr. Dan Little Mr. Joe A. McKenzie Ronald L. and D. Yvonne Mercer Dorman and Sheryl Morsman David Miller and Barbara Neas Rudi Nollert and Mary Brodnax Larry and Deanna Pendleton Mike and Cathy Perri Mrs. Mona Preuss Dr. and Mrs. Laurance Reid Mr. and Mrs. Sheldon M. Reznik Mr. Arthur J. Rus Shirley and Ben Shanker Mr. Lee Allan Smith Mr. and Mrs. Paul A. Specht

62

Reta and Richard Strubhar Mrs. Ann Taylor Mrs. Evelyn Margaret Tidholm Mr. and Mrs. Sammy Todd Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Towell Mr. Curtis VanWyngarden Susan and Nate Webb Mr. and Mrs. Albert Weise John and Cheryl White Jim and Polly Worthington

Member $100 - $299 Maria and Craig Abbott Mrs. Joan Allmaras Ms. Beth M. Alonso Mr. David Andres Mrs. Patricia Austin Mrs. Pamela S. Bale Judy Barnett Ms. Marcia M. Bennett Ms. MarEllen Benson Mrs. Lillian Boland Harry S. and Elaine Boyd Rev. Thomas Boyer Mr. Reagan Bradford, Sr. Mrs. Betty L. Brady Mr. Ryan Bunyan Vikki Ann Canfield, M.D. Ms. Kathryn Carey Mr. and Mrs. Jack Carpenter Mr. and Mrs. M. E. Carpenter Dr. and Mrs. Don R. Carter Mr. Michael P. Cassidy Linda Cavanaugh Clark Dr. and Mrs. Douglas C. Chancellor Ms. Henrie Close Mrs. Emogene Collins Ms. Rosemarie Coulter Marilyn and Weldon K. Davis Ms. Carol A. Davito Mr. James DeWarns Mr. W. Samuel Dykeman Mr. and Mrs. Richard Ehlers Ms. Elizabeth K. Eickman Dr. and Mrs. Robert B. Epstein Mrs. Barbara L. Eskridge Irving and Sandy Faught Mike and Deb Felice Mr. and Mrs. Mead Ferguson Mr. and Mrs. John Fischer Mr. and Mrs. John E. Frank Mr. and Mrs. Ryan Free Stephen P. and Nancy R. Friot Mr. and Mrs. Robert Garbrecht Mr. Hugh Gibson Mr. and Mrs. M. Charles Gilbert Ms. Joan Gilmore Robert and Carmen Goldman

John and Judy Gorton Mr. Steven Graham and Ms. Vicky Leloie Kelly Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth G. Greer Mr. and Mrs. John T. Greiner, Jr. Ms. Deborah Gresh Mr. and Mrs. Barre Griffith Dr. and Mrs. John E. Grunow Mr. and Mrs. John Gunter Pat Hackler Mr. Daniel Hardt Lisa Hart Mrs. Diane Haser-Bennett and Mr. Ray Bennett Ms. Zoe Haskins Major and Mrs. John M. Heitz David and Marilyn Henderson Mr. and Mrs. J.C. Herriage Judy Hill Kenneth Hopkins Mrs. LeAnn Hufnagel Julia and Dick Hunt Ms. Mary Lu Jarvis Mr. Peter Jensen Mr. and Mrs. L.J. Johnson Mr. Richard Johnson Jessica Karaffa Mr. and Mrs. Alfred H. Karchmer Mr. Bill Kemp Ms. Young Y. Kim Edith and Michael Laird Mr. Robert Leveridge David and Lynne Levy Bob and Kay Lewis Ms. Hilda Lewis Rosemary and Paul Lewis Dr. William Lovallo Roy and Sharon Love Mr. and Mrs. Paul J. Lutes Mr. and Mrs. Ronald M. Manning Kris and Peter Markes Ms. Allison Matoi Mrs. Patricia Matthews Mrs. M. Geraldine Mayes Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth R. McAlister Mr. and Mrs. Robert S. McKown Ms. Ann McVey Lt. Col. Terry L. Mock Connie Monnot Mr. L.E. Montgomery Mr. Cole Morgan Judy and Wes Morrison Ms. Sylvia Ochs Mr. James P. O’Gorman Mr. Robert G. Oltmanns Mrs. Mildred B. Parsons Michael and Ginger Penn Robert and Karen Petry Dr. and Mrs. Marvin D. Peyton Mr. William Powell Ms. Jan Prestwood

SPECIAL GIFTS Dr. Jenney Qin Roger and Joy Quinn Gary and Tommie Rankin Carole and Michael Read Ms. Valerie Reimers Tom and Fran Roach Ms. Joanne M. Roan-Wismer Dr. and Mrs. Michael Fred Robinson Mr. William Robinson III Gary and Carol Sander Carolyn Sandusky-Williams Hank and Anne Schank Ms. Gayle Scheirman Ms. Geraldine Schoelen Mrs. Theresa Cunha and Mr. Kurt Schroeder Ms. Edith Nan Scott Mr. and Mrs. A. Lee Segell Fred and Carolyn Selensky Mr. Robert R. Shaw Dr. and Mrs. Richard Shifrin Mr. and Mrs. Richard Shough Mr. Robert E. Simmons Dr. and Mrs. Floyd E. Skarky Mr. and Mrs. R. Emery Smiser Mr. Jay Smith Mrs. Darla Smith Ms. Amy Sommer Tom and Venita Springfield Mrs. Joyce Statton Mr. Keith Stelting Mr. Paul Stillwell Jonathan and Andrea Stone Ms. Xiao-Hong Sun and Mr. Xiaocong Peng Greg Taber Duke and Jill Thomas Kent and Sally Trentman LTC Ret. and Mrs. George B. Wallace Dr. and Mrs. D. A. Weigand Mr. and Mrs. Tony Welch Mr. and Mrs. Ted Wernick Mr. Don Wester Dr. Ellen Jayne Wheeler Mr. and Mrs. Jack Wheeler Ms. Linda Whittington Ms. Ghita Williams Ms. Lonnie F. Williams Ms. Neta J. Wilson Ruth and Stanley Youngheim Rachel and Leon Zelby Helene Zemel

Honor loved ones, celebrate occasions, recognize achievements and support the Philharmonic’s mission.

In Memory of Charles R. Bale Mrs. Pamela S. Bale In Memory of Martin and Gladys Brechbill Ms. Janice B. Carmack In Memory of Jackson Cash Pam and Gary Glyckherr Oklahoma City Philharmonic Staff In Memory of Bill Churchill Ms. Margaret Kidd Defenderfer Paul and Debbie Fleming Pam and Gary Glyckherr Mr. and Mrs. William F. Shdeed Mrs. Jane B. Harlow Mr. and Mrs. Duke R. Ligon Mrs. Donna K. Vogel Mr. and Mrs. Charles E. Wiggin In Memory of William B. and Helen P. Cleary Steven C. Agee, Ph.D. Louise Churchill Mr. and Mrs. Andrew J. Evans, II Ms. Mary Ella Kidd In Memory of James O. Edwards, Jr. Mrs. Carlene Edwards In Memory of Jack Gunter Ms. Joanne M. Roan-Wismer In Memory of Steve Haneborg Sharlene S. Branham

Ms. Amy Sommer Phyllis Stough and Family Duke and Jill Thomas Kent and Sally Trentman Mrs. Donna K. Vogel Mrs. Anne Workman Carolyn and Don Zachritz BancFirst Trust Department In Memory of John Vincent and Josephine Perri Mike and Cathy Perri In Memory of Rick Rogers Maria and Craig Abbott Stanley and Suzanne Cunningham Ike and Sharon Dowell Peggy Gandy and David Tarpenning Mr. Kevin Hanley Frank and Bette Jo Hill Jean Inge Larry and Donna Miles Melodie and Greg Osburn Roger and Parthena Owens Alice M. and Wayne Edward Pettit Mr. Paul Robben Dr. and Mrs. Floyd E. Skarky Mrs. Billie Thrash Mr. and Mrs. Charles E. Wiggin Charla and Jim Wille Jim and Polly Worthington Celebrity Attractions Inc.

Im Memory of Betty Johnson Ms. Katherine Cates

In Memory of Grace Ryan Sharlene S. Branham Colonel and Mrs. Dean C. Jackson Sue F. Pike Mrs. Donna K. Vogel

In Honor of Joel Levine Kim and Michael Joseph

In Memory of Juanita M. Simpson Legacy Legal Center PLLC

In Memory of Sylvia Levey Helen Zemel

In Honor of Linda Sinor Mr. and Mrs. Ryan Free

In Memory of Aubrey K. McClendon Pam and Gary Glyckherr Kim and Michael Joseph

In Memory of Earl Statton Mrs. Joyce Statton

In Memory of John and Suzanne Hebert Greg and Mary Joan Johnston

In Memory of William S. Myers, Jr. Sharlene S. Branham In Memory of Mrs. Barbara B. Paul MAJ. GEN. William P. Bowden, Rt. Mr. and Mrs. William Frankfurt Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth G. Greer Mr. and Mrs. Royce M. Hammons Mrs. Jane B. Harlow Ms. Elinor Lottinville, Ph.D. Robert and Donna McCampbell James P. O’Gorman Mr. William Robinson III Mr. and Mrs. Leo M. Rodgers, Jr. Mr. Richard L. Sias Lee Allan Smith

In Memory of Eileen Stephenson Mrs. Barbara Hahn In Memory of Marie Tice Mrs. Darla Smith In Honor of Eddie Walker Ms. Joan Gilmore Mrs. Jane B. Harlow In Honor of Kathy Weidley and Pam Glyckherr Susan and Nate Webb In Memory of Richard D. Williams Mrs. Carol F. Williams In Memory of Robert L. Yount Ms. Zonia Armstrong

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HOUSE NOTES

RESTROOMS are conveniently located on all levels of the theater. Please ask your usher for guidance.

LATECOMERS and those who exit the theater during the performance will be seated at intermission or during the first convenient pause as determined by the management.

ELECTRONIC DEVICES must be turned off and put away during the performance (no calling, texting, photo or video use please).

FOOD AND BEVERAGES: Bottled water is permitted in the theater at the Classics Series concerts. Beverages are permitted in the theater at the Pops Series concerts; however, bringing coffee into the theater is discouraged due to the aroma.

Snacks, drinks and desserts are available at the Civic Center Café on the main floor and snack areas located on floors 1-4.

SMOKING in the Civic Center Music Hall is prohibited. The Oklahoma City Philharmonic promotes a fragrance-free environment for the convenience of our patrons.

FIRE EXITS are located on all levels and marked accordingly. Please note the nearest exit for use in case of an emergency.

ELEVATORS are located at the south end of the atrium of the Civic Center Music Hall.

CHILDREN of all ages are welcome at the Philharmonic Discovery Family Series and Holiday Pops performances; however, in consideration of the patrons, musicians and artists, those under five years of age will not be admitted to evening Classics and Pops concerts unless otherwise noted.

BOOSTER SEATS for children are available in the Civic Center event office. Please inquire at the ticket office.

COLLEGE STUDENT RUSH TICKETS are $6 each and available with a college or university I.D. and email address at the box office 45 minutes prior to the start of each Philharmonic performance. Tickets are offered based on availability only and seats may be located throughout the theater.

VIDEO MONITORS are located in the lobby for your convenience.

WHEELCHAIR AVAILABLE SEATING – Persons using wheelchairs or with walking and climbing difficulties will be accommodated when possible. Those wishing to use the designated wheelchair sections may purchase the wheelchair space and a companion seat. Please inform the Philharmonic or Civic Center Ticket Office staff of your need when ordering tickets so that you may be served promptly and appropriately.

Please request the assistance of hall ushers to access wheelchair seating.

LOST & FOUND is located in the Civic Center Office (405-297-2584) weekdays 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

PHILHARMONIC TICKET OFFICE may be contacted by calling 405-TIC-KETS (405-842-5387) or you can visit the Philharmonic Ticket Office located on the first floor of the Arts District Garage at 424 Colcord Drive in Suite B. The Philharmonic Ticket Office is open Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and by phone on concert Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

CIVIC CENTER TICKET OFFICE hours are Monday through Friday, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and two hours prior to each performance. (405-297-2264) Artists and Programming Subject to Change.