Masterworks: The Grand Tour

contents

CONTENTS

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welcome letter

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general information

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program information: masterworks 4

17-24

program information: masterworks 5

27-33

program information: masterworks 6

35-41

program information: masterworks 7

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about the symphony

44-45

artistic biographies

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board of directors & foundation trustees

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musician roster

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chorus roster

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staff & production thank yous

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corporate, foundation & government gifts

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get involved

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endowment funds & RSL gifts of merit

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the rennolds society

Contact, Ticket, and Venue Policy Information

Vision, Mission, History, and Conductor Timeline

about the chorus Daniel Myssyk, and Erin R. Freeman

www.richmondsymphony.com

A Welcome from Valentina Peleggi, Music Director Dear friends, Welcome to the Richmond Symphony’s 202021 Season. It is such a joy to welcome you back and I am thrilled and honored to start our journey together, as your new Music Director.

I surely had imagined a quite different beginning, and I am sure you did too. But times like these make us reflect even more deeply on the role of the arts in a community. Now more than ever art has the incredible power to transform lives and to heal souls. Music is one of the greatest expressions of human values. It connects, it treasures the differences because it is based on balance and respect, it is a hymn to unity and inclusion. The Richmond Symphony has always been a light and an inspiration for its community: we are here for you, now more than ever.

Through the incredible success of the Summer Recital Series in July and August – with a sold-out live audience in the Dominion Energy Center and hundreds of new online subscribers – and the recent launch of the digital Richmond Symphony School of Music, we are looking to the future with enthusiasm while attracting widespread attention from performing arts groups across the nation and overseas.

We are excited to bring music on stage once again and have risen to the challenge of reimagining the programs to make the live experience meaningful and enjoyable while as safe as possible. Safety and artistic excellence have been our priorities. With this in mind, we wanted to be as inclusive as possible while shaping our new reality. We have expanded our offer to digital experiences, livestreamed concerts, and for the added comfort of those who prefer a shorter concert, we added Friday evening performances for Masterworks that will run less than 70 minutes, presented without intermission.

We are glad to announce that we have been able to honor our commitment with guest artists while we created programs that also respected the regulations on social distance between players. The season includes a greater number of diverse artists and composers, and marks the beginning of the Symphony’s

involvement in New Music USA’s Amplifying Voices partnership in order to increase support and promotion of composers of color and ensuring orchestra’s engagement with new repertoire, past and present.

We wanted the music to be as relevant, meaningful and inclusive as ever, so we have exciting plans for our Classics, Currents and Community programs, our Pops and LolliPops, Metro and Rush Hour. We are excited to open the 2020-21 Season with a program around American classical music with the incredibly versatile classical-jazz pianist Aaron Diehl and George Manahan on the podium, performing Gershwin, Copland, Joseph Turrin, Adolphus Hailstork and acclaimed Leonard Bernstein Award recipient Jessie Montgomery.

Our 2020-21 season is an inspired tribute to Richmond’s spirit of resilience, hope, and connection as we navigate these unprecedented times. We hope you will be surprised and delighted by the program as it unfolds.

On behalf of the Board of Directors, musicians and staff of the Richmond Symphony, thank you for being here today, and for helping us to bring great music, hope, and joy to everyone.

Let’s have a great season and I’ll see you there!

Sincerely,

Valentina Peleggi Music Director

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GENERAL INFORMATION Contact Richmond Symphony Patron Services 612 East Grace Street, Suite 401 Richmond, VA 23219 804.788.1212 patronservices@richmondsymphony.com Open Monday-Friday 9am-5pm Voicemail and email are checked 2 hours prior to concerts.

Ticket Information » Please note, at this time we are unable to offer discounted tickets for seniors, active military, students, or children.

These discounts will resume postCovid-19. » At this time, single ticket buyers who feel ill or have been recently exposed to Covid-19 may exchange tickets by contacting Patron Services at least 2 hours prior to the performance. » Subscribers may exchange tickets by contacting Patrons Services; some restrictions apply. » If you are unable to attend a concert and would like to donate your tickets, please contact Patron Services prior to the concert date and receive a receipt for your taxes.

Late Seating Late arrivals will be seated by ushers at an appropriate break in the music as determined by management.

Photography Feel free to take pictures without a flash during the concert and share them with us on Facebook or Instagram. We ask that you turn down the brightness of your screen and stay mindful of your neighbors.

Video or Audio Recording Due to copyright laws, audio and video recording is strictly prohibited inside the concert hall.

Plan Your Visit Check out our Plan Your Visit page at richmondsymphony.com or call Patron Services for information on restaurants and parking near the theater.

Donate Donations can be submitted online at www.richmondsymphony.com/give, by phone at 804.788.4717 ext. 102, or mailed to the Richmond Symphony at the address above. We thank you for your support!

Purchase Tickets & Subscriptions

By Phone Subscribers/Groups of 8+: 804.788.1212 Non-subscribers: 1.800.514.ETIX (3849) Online Visit our website at richmondsymphony.com

CONNECT WITH US!

In Person Visit the Altria Theater box office to purchase tickets to any Richmond Symphony concert; call 804.592.3384 for hours. Tickets may also be purchased at the door at least 1 hour before any concert (subject to availability). Subscriptions and group tickets cannot be purchased at the box office.

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/richmondsymphony @rvasymphony @rvasymphony

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At Altria, we're proud to support theatre, music and dance to foster an inclusive local culture, promote diversity and attract new audiences to our communities.

Altria salutes the Richmond Symphony.

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masterworks

Les Danses Françaises Valentina Peleggi, Music Director Lynette Wardle, Harp Friday, January 15, 2021 at 7:00 PM (This concert will have no intermisson)

Saturday, January 16, 2021 at 8:00 PM Sunday, January 17, 2021 at 3:00 PM Dominion Energy Center TA I L L E F E R R E

DEBUSSY

Concertino for Harp and Orchestra Allegretto Lento Rondo Lynette Wardle, Harp Danse sacrée et danse profane for Harp and Orchestra Danse sacrée: Très modéré Danse profane: Modéré Lynette Wardle, Harp

intermission OFFENBACH R AV E L

Galop (Can-Can) from Orpheus in the Underworld Pavane pour une infante défunte (Pavane for a Dead Princess) Le Tombeau de Couperin Prélude Forlane Menuet Rigaudon

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Patrons are requested to silence mobile devices. The use of recording devices and flash photography is prohibited, but we encourage you to take non-flash photos. Tag us on social media using @rvasymphony, /richmondsymphony and/or #rvasymphony. The Richmond Symphony is partially funded by the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts and CultureWorks & the Arts and Cultural Funding Consortium - supported by City of Richmond and the Counties of Hanover & Henrico

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Ms Peleggi previously served as Resident Conductor of the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra and Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the São Paulo Symphony Chorus. During her years with the Sao Paulo Symphony Peleggi conducted many subscription concerts, created innovative community projects and continues to return as a guest. She won the APCA Prize in 2016 as Conductor of the Year from the Sao Paulo Society of Critics of the Arts and was voted “Young Talent of 2017” by readers of Brazil’s specialist music magazine Revista Concerto. She currently holds the position of Guest Music Director of the Theatro Sao Pedro, responsible for Italian opera.

Valentina Peleggi

Music Director & Lewis T. Booker Music Director Chair Valentina Peleggi began her tenure as Music Director of the Richmond Symphony in Summer 2020. Described by the BBC Music Magazine as a “rising star”, Peleggi has led orchestras from around the world including most recently the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. In 2018 she joined English National Opera for 2 seasons as a Mackerras Fellow, conducting Carmen, Boheme, Orpheus in the Underworld and Dido and Aeneas.

She returns as a guest in 2021, when she will also debut at Garsington Opera.

In 20/21 planned symphonic engagements include her debuts with the Quebec Symphony, Malmo Symphony, Brussels Philharmonic and European Union Youth Orchestra in Ferrara; also the release of her first CD, featuring a cappella works by Villa Lobos in a new critical edition for Naxos, guest edited by Ms Peleggi and performed by the Sao Paulo Symphony Chorus. Spring 2020 saw a string of engagements cancelled due to the pandemic, notably with the Bournemouth Symphony, Residentie Orkest Den Haag, Gulbenkian Orchestra, National Symphony in Dublin, New Zealand Symphony, Tasmanian Symphony, BBC Singers, and the Orquestra della Toscana in her home town of Florence, Italy.

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The first Italian woman to enter the conducting programme at the Royal Academy of Music of London, she graduated with distinction and was awarded the DipRAM for an outstanding final concert as well as numerous other prizes, and was recently honoured with the title of Associate. She assisted Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Semyon Bychkov and Christian Thielemann, and furthered her studies with David Zinman and Daniele Gatti at the Zurich Tonhalle and at the Royal Concertgebouw masterclasses. She won the 2014 Conducting Prize at the Festival International de Inverno Campos do Jordão, received a Bruno Walter Foundation Scholarship at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in California, and the Taki Concordia Conducting Fellowship 2015-2017 under Marin Alsop.

Peleggi holds a Master in Conducting with honours from the Conservatorio Santa Cecilia in Rome, and in 2013 was awarded the Accademia Chigiana’s highest award, going on to assist Bruno Campanella and Gianluigi Gelmetti at Teatro Regio di Torino, Opera Bastille Paris, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Teatro Regio di Parma and Teatro San Carlo. She also assisted on a live worldwide broadcast and DVD production of Rossini’s Cenerentola with the Orchestra Nazionale della RAI. From 2005 to 2015 she was the Principal Conductor and Music Director of the University Choir in Florence and remains their Honorary Conductor, receiving a special award from the Government in 2011 in recognition of her work there. Ms Peleggi is passionate about the arts and holds a master in Comparative Literature.

Valentina Peleggi is represented by Intermusica worldwide.

Johnny Mathis, Marvin Hamlisch, Edgar Meyer, Yo-Yo Ma, Gil Shaham, Joshua Bell, Deborah Voigt, and Pavarotti. Ms. Wardle holds a Masters in Orchestral Performance from Manhattan School of Music.

Lynette Wardle Harp

An orchestra harpist, chamber musician, recording artist, and soloist, Lynette Wardle enjoys a varied and rewarding performance career. She has been recognized for her “refined tone production and spot-on rhythmic sense.” In addition to being the principal harpist of both the Richmond Symphony and the Albany Symphony, she performs regularly with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and the New York City Chamber Orchestra.

Lynette can be heard on Grammy Award-winning Albany Symphony recordings, and Original Cast Albums for Amélie, the Musical, Renascence, The Beast in the Jungle, and The Mad Ones. For the holiday seasons, she has been in the orchestra for A Christmas Story, the Musical, and the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. When Broadway opens again, she will be in the orchestra for the new musical Flying Over Sunset at Lincoln Center Theatre. She was also the harpist for the national tour of the Tony award-winning musical Light in the Piazza, and fills in regularly at the Broadway show Wicked.

Lynette is an integral part of Sax-O-Philm, Sounds and Sights of the 20’s, a multi-media concert production created by virtuoso saxophone player, Chad Smith.

She has shared the stage and studio with Megan Hilty, David Burnham, Lin-Manuel Miranda,

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program notes Tailleferre: Concertino for Harp and Orchestra “The world is divided into two aesthetic styles: French and German,” the American composer Ned Rorem once declared. “German art is known for being profoundly superficial and French art for being superficially profound.” He added mischievously: “I am French. If you disagree with my analysis, then you are German.”

In the aftermath of the gruesome First World War—well before Rorem made his observation—a small group of likeminded young composers emerged in 1920s Paris who seemed to illustrate this division. A critic dubbed them “Les Six” (“The Six”), an allusion to the nickname “The Five” that had been in vogue in the 19th century for a circle of composers based in Saint Petersburg who helped define Russian classical music.

Movements were all the rage at the time—especially in the visual arts— and the members of Les Six were bright, provocative, and naughtily iconoclastic figures who bonded over a desire to open up new spaces by dismantling the reverence applied to German tradition. In its place, they celebrated values of frivolity and spontaneous play. They mocked academic seriousness, taking cues from the iconoclastic humor of Erik Satie.

Satie himself recognized the gifts of Germaine Tailleferre and became an important early champion. From the start, she had struggled with P10

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her father’s opposition to a musical career—even though her talent was obvious early on, when she won prizes as a piano prodigy. The sole woman among Les Six, Tailleferre was only in her 20s when the group became known but outlived all of her colleagues.

Moreover, she did not sympathize with the group’s disdain for Debussy and Ravel. In fact, Tailleferre had studied with Ravel and developed a close friendship with him. She continued composing throughout her long life and died in 1983, having reached the age of 91. Her creative output ranges widely, from solo and chamber pieces to operas and many film scores.

The Concertino for Harp and Orchestra dates from 1926-27, when Tailleferre was living in the United States with her husband Ralph Barton, New Yorker cartoonist and caricaturist, to whom she dedicated the score. They had married very soon after meeting, though the relationship proved shortlived and ended in divorce. (Barton, pining over his previous wife—who later married the playwright Eugene O’Neill— would commit suicide in 1931.)

While she was working on the Concertino, Tailleferre and Barton became something of a power couple in New York: Tailleferre’s fame at the time actually eclipsed that of her husband. Serge Koussevitzky led the Boston Symphony in the premiere, with Marcel Grandjany as the harpist.

The Concertino’s first movement shows Tailleferre’s links to the Neoclassical aesthetic of Igor Stravinsky but also her characteristic humor, casting the

program notes soloist in multiple roles—including a lengthy cadenza. The middle movement is touching, gently pierced by a mysterious melancholy, and the finale recalls the bustling, animated crowd scenes of Stravinsky’s Petrushka. The Boston audience immediately loved the piece— including Charlie Chaplin, who was in attendance.

Claude Debussy: Danses for Harp Over the centuries, certain traits have become associated with French musical identity. Among these are a preference for clarity of texture, a special sensitivity to timbre and color, and a rhythmic flexibility that mirrors qualities of the French language. While Claude Debussy arguably opened the door to musical Modernism in Europe, he remained in touch with these longstanding French values.

The Danse sacrée et danse profane (Sacred Dance and Profane Dance) from 1904 is an example of Debussy in a more “traditional” mode—though he would soon go on to complete one of his orchestral masterworks, La mer, a sequence of “symphonic sketches” that show the composer at his most visionary and innovative.

This pair of dances, which are conceived as a single work for solo harp and string orchestra, has a pragmatic origin. For the French piano manufacturer Pleyel, the acoustician Gustave Lyon had recently designed a chromatic harp that used crossstringing to replace the pedal system

of the conventional harp (which allows the latter to play accidental notes).

Pleyel wanted to publicize its new instrument and asked Debussy to write a piece to be used for Conservatory auditions. In the process, Debussy added a gem to the harp repertoire, though the new Pleyel instrument soon became an historical curiosity: it proved too inconvenient to deal with tuning issues and thus never superseded the older type of harp. But Debussy’s score is readily playable on conventional harp. (Ravel was similarly asked in 1905 to write a piece to showcase the Érard company’s new double-action pedal harp.)

The Sacred Dance evokes an “antique” air by suggesting Gregorian plainchant.

This music of the spirit leads on without pause to the second dance, whose “profane” nature refers to the world of the body, of the liberating joy of dance—here conveyed by a graceful waltz tempo.

Offenbach: Galop (Can-Can) from Orpheus in the Underworld Jacques Offenbach was born the son of a cantor into a German-Jewish family from Cologne—he jokingly signed his correspondence “O. de Cologne”—but was sent to Paris as a teenager to study at the Conservatory. He spent the rest of his life in France and became a shaping force in the history of French opera, setting the tone for the Paris of the Second Empire with his pioneering series of operettas and comic operas.

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program notes Orphée aux Enfers, (“Orpheus in the Underworld”) was one of his greatest successes. It opened in 1854 but was later expanded and still broke box office records in that version in the 1870s. The absurd plot parodies the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice with wickedly witty sophistication.

Offenbach targets artistic conventions along with the social and political realities of Paris in the middle of the 19th century. In this version, Eurydice is only too happy to be separated from her boring violin teacher husband Orpheus. The moralizing character Public Opinion gets Orpheus to head down to the Underworld to do his duty and find his deceased wife—and a depraved assembly of gods intervenes.

the Paris Conservatoire, where he studied composition with Fauré. (The young composer’s already advanced outlook resulted in his expulsion.) He was commissioned to write the Pavane in 1899 by a real, living princess: the Princesse Edmond de Polignac, born in the USA as Winnaretta Singer and heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune.

In 1893, she married the aristocrat Edmond de Polignac (in a lavender marriage), and their salon gatherings featured performances of works by important contemporary composers.

Admirers of the writing of Marcel Proust have a sense of what these salons must have been like—it was there that Proust acquired much of his musical education.

The passage we hear comes from the finale, where, so to speak, all hell breaks loose and Eurydice ends up becoming a devotee of the god Bacchus. Titled “galop infernal” (a galop refers to a wildly animated dance in duple meter), this music is also known as the “Can-Can” and is associated with an up-tempo number featuring chorus girls executing high kicks. After Offenbach’s death, the Moulin Rouge cabaret in Paris, regarded as the birthplace of the modern can-can, adopted this fizzy excerpt as its signature.

The Pavane began as a piano piece. The pianist Ricardo Viñes, Ravel’s friend since 1888, gave the belated premiere in 1902; its popularity brought the composer’s name before a wider public. Ravel later orchestrated the music in 1910.

Ravel: Pavane for a Dead Princess Pavane pour une infante défunte (“Pavane for a Dead Little Princess”) is an early piece from Maurice Ravel’s years at P12

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Preoccupation with forms of dance recurs across Ravel’s compositions.

There is also a connection with language and poetry. The alluring combination of sounds represented by the words “Pavane pour une infante défunte,” Ravel explained, prompted his imagination aside from any actual picture of an historical young princess. Musically, Ravel alludes to a stately, ceremonial dance in duple meter from Spain and Italy that became widespread in courts of the late Renaissance. Ravel described this work of poignant yet sensuous charm as “an evocation of a pavane that a

program notes little princess may in times of old have danced at the Spanish court.” The harmonies that clothe the evocative melody create an illusion of antiquity.

Ravel: Le Tombeau de Couperin Ravel began composing Le Tombeau de Couperin in 1914 as a tribute, for solo piano, to the French Baroque. He modeled it on the keyboard music of François Couperin (1668-1733). Yet the name “Couperin” could also stand for the distinguished dynasty of composers by that name and, by extension, as Ravel put it, for “18th-century French music in general.”

The outbreak of the First World War interrupted his progress—and changed the meaning of the project.

The middle-aged composer enlisted and served as an ambulance driver; he witnessed the nightmarish reality of the combat close-up. Ravel’s military discharge followed the death of his mother in 1917, which plunged him into a depression. He nevertheless found the will to complete Le Tombeau as a six-movement, neo-Baroque keyboard suite. Marguerite Long, the widow of one of its dedicatees gave the premiere in 1919—the year in which Ravel decided to orchestrate four of the movements for a suite, which has also been produced as a ballet. Several composers have gone on to orchestrate the remaining two movements from the original keyboard suite.

A “tombeau” in French culture refers to a literary and musical practice of homage. Ravel expanded his homage to Couperin into a vehicle to express contemporary cultural patriotism as well as to commemorate those who had died in the First World War. He dedicated each movement to a friend he had lost (or, in Rigaudon, to a pair of brothers killed on the same day early in the War).

This music is an early example of neoClassicism because of its emulation of forms from the past—in this case, of the dance forms that comprised the Baroque keyboard suite. But Tombeau is infused with Ravel’s own sensibility, whether in its poignant and justright harmonic choices or its crystalclear textures. The Prélude, with its charmingly shaped phrases and gentle wind scoring, hardly suggests a war memorial in the traditional sense.

But to refute the charge that Ravel was merely being cavalier, Marguerite Long responded: “When a musician of genius gives [the dead] the best of himself and … something they would have enjoyed, isn’t that the most moving tribute he can make?”

The Forlane refers to an Italian dance: to do its sprightly meter justice, Ravel actually transcribed an example

by Couperin before composing his version. The intersection of Baroque rhythm with modern harmony and color here is a good example of Ravel’s inventiveness. The Menuet gives prominence to the oboe and balances grace with pathos, especially in the shift to the minor in the middle section and in a reflective coda after the

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program notes reprise. The Rigaudon—a dance of folk origin which was co-opted by courtly styles—is the most-assertive movement in the suite. A shadow falls in the melancholy musings of the contrasting middle section, but the Tombeau ends with bright proclamations from the trumpet. Memory survives.

Program notes (c)2021 Thomas May

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At Altria, we're proud to support theatre, music and dance to foster an inclusive local culture, promote diversity and attract new audiences to our communities.

Altria salutes the Richmond Symphony.

16

www.richmondsymphony.com Take a closer look at Altria.com.

©

Altria Group, Inc. 2019

masterworks

Russian Treasures Kazem Abdullah, Conductor Orion Weiss, Piano Sam Huss, Trumpet Thomas P. Bryan Jr. Soloist Friday, February 5, 2021 at 7:00 PM (This concert will have no intermisson)

Saturday, February 6, 2021 at 8:00 PM Sunday, February 7, 2021 at 3:00 PM Dominion Energy Center B A L A K I R E V/ A R R . I A I N FA R R I N G T O N S H O S TA KO V I C H

Islamey

Concerto No. 1 in C Minor for Piano and Orchestra, Opus 35 Allegro moderato Lento Moderato Allegro brio Orion Weiss, Piano Sam Huss, Trumpet

intermission TCH A IKOVS K Y

Serenade in C Major for Strings, Opus 48 Pezzo in forma di sonatina. Andante non troppo – Allegro moderato Valse. Moderato. Tempo di Valse Elegia. Larghetto elegiaco Finale (Tema Russo). Andante – Allegro con spirito

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Patrons are requested to silence mobile devices. The use of recording devices and flash photography is prohibited, but we encourage you to take non-flash photos. Tag us on social media using @rvasymphony, /richmondsymphony and/or #rvasymphony. The Richmond Symphony is partially funded by the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts and CultureWorks & the Arts and Cultural Funding Consortium - supported by City of Richmond and the Counties of Hanover & Henrico

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Among his recent orchestral credits are the symphony orchestras of Oregon, Indianapolis, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati. In addition to his symphony engagements, he recently conducted an opera Gala for the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the American premiere of Charles Wuorinen’s opera Brokeback Mountain with the New York City Opera, and Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda for Cape Town Opera.

In the opera arena, Mr. Abdullah has guest conducted such esteemed companies as the Atlanta Opera, where he conducted Così fan tutte, and the Théâtre du Châtelet de Paris, where he led sold-out performances of Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha.

Mr. Abdullah made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 2009 conducting Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice. He returns to Metropolitan Opera in the 21-22 season to conduct Terrance Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in my Bones and will make his debut with Seattle Opera this spring in Tosca.

Kazem Abdullah Conductor

As both a Music Director and guest conductor, Kazem Abdullah excels at reaching newer and diverse audiences through innovative programming and riveting performances. In addition to exploring new venues to bring concerts to audiences, Kazem has also experimented with juxtapositions of styles in non-traditional concert formats. He is also a formidable opera conductor with a repertoire of over 30 operas.Kazem is recognized in the classical music industry for connecting with audiences through his well executed and inspiring concerts.

American conductor Kazem Abdullah currently lives in Nürnberg, Germany. He was Music and Artistic Director of the City of Aachen, Germany from 2012 to 2017. During his tenure, he succeeded in reaching newer and diverse audiences through innovative programming and moving out of the concert hall, and into atypical venues. In addition to exploring new venues to bring concerts to audiences and experimenting with juxtapositions of styles in non-traditional concert formats, he also performed over 25 operas and collaborated with musicians such as Johannes Moser, Lise de la Salle, Angela Gheorghiu, Augustin Haedelich, and Midori.

A passionate advocate of new music as well as established repertoire, Mr. Abdullah continues to develop relationships with national and international orchestras and opera houses.

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Trained as a clarinetist, Kazem Abdullah has performed extensively as an orchestral musician, chamber musician, and soloist. He spent two seasons as a member of the New World Symphony and has performed as a soloist with many orchestras including the Cincinnati and National Symphony Orchestras. He has also performed with prominent chamber ensembles such as the Paris based Trio Wanderer and the Auryn Quartet.

A dedicated educator, Mr. Abdullah has worked with student band and orchestras in the Los Angeles Unified School District, Interlochen, the Oklahoma Arts Institute, Tanglewood, and at universities in Cologne, Aachen, and Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Born in Indiana, Mr. Abdullah began his music studies at the age of 10 with clarinet and piano. He studied at the Interlochen Arts Academy, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, and the University of Southern California.

Artist of the Year in September 2010, in the summer of 2011 Weiss made his debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood as a last-minute replacement for Leon Fleisher. In recent seasons, he has also performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and in duo summer concerts with the New York Philharmonic at both Lincoln Center and the Bravo! Vail Valley Festival. In 2005, he toured Israel with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Itzhak Perlman.

Orion Weiss Piano

One of the most sought-after soloists in his generation of young American musicians, the pianist Orion Weiss has performed with the major American orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and New York Philharmonic. His deeply felt and exceptionally crafted performances go far beyond his technical mastery and have won him worldwide acclaim.

His 2018-19 season sees him beginning that season with the Lucerne Festival and ending with the Minnesota Orchestra, with performances for the Denver Friends of Chamber Music, the University of Iowa, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Albany Symphony, the Kennedy Center’s Fortas Series, the 92nd Street Y, and the Broad Stage in between. In 2017-18 Orion performed Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, toured with James Ehnes, and soloed with twelve orchestras around the United States. Other highlights of recent seasons include his third performance with the Chicago Symphony, a North American tour with the world-famous Salzburg Marionette Theater in a performance of Debussy’s La Boîte à Joujoux, the release of his recording of Christopher Rouse’s Seeing, and recordings of the complete Gershwin works for piano and orchestra with his longtime collaborators the Buffalo Philharmonic and JoAnn Falletta.

Also known for his affinity and enthusiasm for chamber music, Weiss performs regularly with the violinists Augustin Hadelich, William Hagen, Benjamin Beilman, James Ehnes, and Arnaud Sussman; the pianist Shai Wosner; and the cellist Julie Albers; and the Ariel, Parker, and Pacifica Quartets. As a recitalist and chamber musician, Weiss has appeared across the U.S. at venues and festivals including Lincoln Center, the Ravinia Festival, Sheldon Concert Hall, the Seattle Chamber Music Festival, La Jolla Music Society SummerFest, Chamber Music Northwest, the Bard Music Festival, the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, the Kennedy Center, and Spivey Hall. He won the 2005 William Petschek Recital Award at Juilliard, and made his New York recital debut at Alice Tully Hall that April. Also in 2005 he made his European debut in a recital at the Musée du Louvre in Paris. He was a member of the Chamber Music Society Two program of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center from 2002-2004, which included his appearance in the opening concert of the Society’s 2002-2003 season at Alice Tully Hall performing Ravel’s La Valse with Shai Wosner.

Weiss’s impressive list of awards includesthe Gilmore Young Artist Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Gina Bachauer Scholarship at the Juilliard School and the Mieczyslaw Munz Scholarship. A native of Lyndhurst, OH, Weiss attended the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with Paul Schenly, Daniel Shapiro, Sergei Babayan, Kathryn Brown, and Edith Reed. In February of 1999, Weiss made his Cleveland Orchestra debut performing Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1. In March 1999, with less than 24 hours’ notice, Weiss stepped in to replace André Watts for a performance of Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. He was immediately invited to return to the Orchestra for a performance of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto in October 1999. In 2004, he graduated from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Emanuel Ax.

Named the Classical Recording Foundation’s Young

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When not performing, Sam loves to spend time with friends and family as well as finding ways to explore and enjoy the outdoors.

Sam Huss Trumpet

Samuel Huss is in his third season with the Richmond Symphony as Principal Trumpet.

Originally from Sanford, Michigan, Sam started out his life as a trumpeter after being given his mother’s trumpet in the fifth grade. In high school, Sam began his studies with Dr. Dennis Horton. Sam attended the Eastman School of Music and earned a Bachelor of Music Performance studying with James Thompson. He recently completed a Master of Music degree from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University where he studied with Barbara Butler. Sam has been a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center as well as a member of the National Repertory Orchestra and the National Orchestra Institute.

Before starting in Richmond, Sam has performed with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and the Alabama Symphony. Sam has been an award-winning soloist in several competitions.

Most recently he was award 2nd prize at the 2016 Ellsworth Smith International Trumpet Solo competition. Sam has been a featured soloist with the Galveston Symphony Orchestra, the Midland Concert Band and the Huxford Symphony in Alabama.

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program notes Russian Treasures: A Voyage across Two Centuries with Three Composers

brutally challenging century.

Balakirev: Islamey, Op. 18

If asked to name some major classical composers, many would likely include at least one or two Russian names in the mix. But Russians are, relatively speaking, newcomers to the party.

The topic of how the tradition from Central Europe and Italy became the benchmark for what we refer to as “classical music” is a matter of great debate today—above all because the dominance of that tradition causes other voices to be marginalized. It’s helpful to realize that this perspective is not entirely new. The history of American classical music itself is in one sense a history of overcoming the inferiority complex of relying on Central European models. And a similar development took place in Russia as well, though for very different reasons.

Composers in Russia of the 19th century, like their American counterparts, became increasingly concerned with establishing a national identity in their music. The influence of sacred music exerted tremendous power in Russia. The Orthodox Church’s ban on instrumental music resulted in a state of arrested development with regard to the kinds of advances being made in secular music to the West.

But the sheer willpower of figures like Mily Balakirev, whose music begins this program, jumpstarted a collective effort by talented composers. Tchaikovsky would go on to combine aspects of the quest for a “Russian sound” with inspiration from the Western tradition. In the radically changed context of the Sovi-et Union, Shostakovich helped redefine Russian music for a new,

Born into a noble family, Mily Balakirev started his musical career as a pianist and piano teacher but by his early 20s became the guru to an entire generation of composers seeking to establish a unique and authentic Russian musical identity by leading a varied group of like-minded artists. Along with Balakirev, this group included Modest Mussorgsky, Alexander Borodin, César Cui, and Niko-lai Rimsky-Korsakov.

Known as “The Five” or “The Mighty Handful,” they were keenly interested in Russian folk music but at the same time introduced innovations. They scorned the “academicism” of Western classical music— being an amateur with an unrelated day job was an advantage in their eyes. They especially prized self-reliance and the role of fantasy (often taking the form of free associating about Russia’s distant past). The role of the imagination in particular, they lamented, had become eclipsed by Western composers’ concerns over matters of form and genre.

Islamey dates from 1869 and reflects the influence of the travels Balakirev had made in the summer of 1862 in the Caucasus (which, among other things, also inspired the idea, never completed, of an opera on the legend that Igor Stravinsky later treated in his breakthrough ballet The Firebird). Subject to mental health problems, Balakirev often struggled over many years to complete a composition, but he took only a month to finish Islamey as an independent piece. He did, however, envision it at first in connection with a

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program notes envision it at first in connection with a larger work for orchestra (Tamara) in the manner of Franz Liszt’s symphonic poems, which he did not complete until 1882. For all the resentment that The Five expressed towards the German musical tradition— an influence from which they declared independence—Liszt left a strong imprint on Balakirev.

Balakirev wrote Islamey for solo piano, very much in the vein of Liszt’s bravura piano style. It retains legendary status as one of the most technically challenging pieces ever written for that instrument. In fact, Balakirev himself confessed that certain passages were beyond his ability; the premiere was given by Nikolai Rubinstein, part of an immensely influential musical family in the history of 19th-century Russian music. Balakirev revised the score in 1902, but what was originally a piano showpiece has become known as an orchestral tour de force through several arrangements. The one we hear, by the British Iain Farrington, is of recent vintage and for chamber orchestra.

The title Islamey refers to a dance tune that Balakirev had encountered during his trip to the Caucasus region, which he incorporates into the score. What especially inspired the composer, he later wrote, was “the majestic beauty of luxuriant nature there and the beauty of the inhabitants that harmonizes with it—all of these things together made a deep impression on me.”

Balakirev paid close attention to folk music traditions and got to know a prince from the Circassian peoples “who frequently came to me and played folk tunes on his instrument, which was something like a violin. One of them, called ‘Islamey,’ a dance-tune, pleased me extraordinarily and … I began to arrange it for the piano. The second theme was communicated to me in P22

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Moscow by an Armenian actor, who came from the Crimea and is, as he assured me, well known among the Crimean Tatars.”

Islamey is cast in three parts. The first presents a pair of themes, including the ‘Islamey’ tune, which are then worked up and varied in the third section; in the slower second part, the Crimean vocal melody enchants. Balakirev wraps it all up with a pulse-accelerating finale.

Shostakovich: Concerto in C Minor for Piano, Trumpet, and String Orchestra, Op. 35 Only 13 years separate Tchaikovsky’s tragic early death at the age of 53 and the birth of Dmitri Shostakovich in 1906; Balakirev lived on for four years more, dying in 1910.

But what a sea change young Shostakovich faced as an uber-gifted teenager in the early years of the Soviet Union.

Shostakovich rose to fast fame when, for his graduation exercise, he wrote an astounding symphonic debut that rivals the First Symphonies of Beethoven and Mahler in its proud self-confidence. But the tide quickly changed. When Shostakovich, riding a wave of enormous success, was publicly denounced by an editorial in Pravda in 1936, it became clear that any deviation from officially prescribed artistic taste entailed grave danger—a matter of life and death, quite literally, as numerous artistic colleagues discovered. Throughout his career, Shostakovich had to negotiate the tightrope walk of not offending the Soviet thought police while at the same time remaining true to his artistic conscience.

The concerto we hear is an early work from a period when experimentation and initiative were still relatively possible.

When he started his musical career,

program notes Shostakovich had a double identity as a virtuoso pianist and composer. But failure to win a prize at the 1927 Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw threw a wrench into his plans for a performing career. Meanwhile, his precocious First Symphony branded Shostakovich as a fearless innovator and opened the doors to an exciting array of new projects. So it is no surprise that his principal focus soon centered on composition. Still, he continued intermittently to give public performances at the keyboard until his last decade.

Shostakovich had acquired practical experience playing piano outside conventional concert venues—the movie houses where he performed as accompanist to silent films, for instance. At the same time, he was exploring the legacy of the classical piano tradition with such works as his first set of 24 Preludes. This seems to have renewed Shostakovich’s aspirations to perform as a concert soloist.

The Piano Concerto No. 1, written in 1933 over a period of a few months, is Shostakovich’s first foray into the concerto genre—yet at the same time, it already deviates from the genre’s expectation of one solo instrument. Shostakovich later recalled that his initial impulse was to write a trumpet concerto. The chamberlike orchestration of a string ensemble along with a solo trumpet at times gives the impression that this is a double concerto for piano and trumpet. Overall, the Piano Concerto playfully tweaks the serious traditions of concerto writing, offsetting “highbrow” references with saucy comic posturing.

intriguing interplay between piano and trumpet that is a recurrent thread of this piece. The piano gives the main theme, which Beethoven fans will notice echoes the beginning of the Appassionata Sonata.

Between recurrences of this fatalistic music comes a jaunty array of stylistic and musical-historical shifts of gear, with hints of the music hall and other popular entertainments.

A doleful, slow-motion waltz ensues without pause. The music is first played by the strings, which are then joined by the piano soloist. Mahler, one of Shostakoviich’s idols (and this long before Mahler had become fashionable) is a subliminal presence. Shostakovich distills remarkable variety from his economy of material. Listen for the surprising re-entry of the trumpet, muted and contributing a bluesy melancholy, and for the whispered pizzicatos near the movement’s close.

Shostakovich alters the expected format of the three-movement concerto (fast-slowfast) with a very brief interlude, which opens with a quasi-Baroque piano solo and serves as a passage to the raging finale. The stylistic mélange here almost prefigures postmodern attitudes: jazzily syncopated passages and quotes from popular song mingle with Neo-classical poses. The music evokes a state of inebriation during the race toward its conclusion. In the end, the trumpet suddenly rushes forward as if to haggle for star billing.

The opening gesture foreshadows the P23

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program notes Tchaikovsky: Serenade for Strings in C Major, Op. 48 As an ambitious young composer, Tchaikovsky received important encouragement from Balakirev, who planted the idea for his breakthrough orchestral work, The Fantasy Overture on Romeo and Juliet. But Tchaikovsky had an ambivalent relationship with the St. Petersburg-based nationalist composers led by Balakirev (The Five). Eventually, he forged a path of his own. Tchaikovsky’s solution was to adapt “professional” Western models while drawing on identifiably Slavic elements to create a uniquely imaginative and emotionally gripping style that has never lost its popularity.

Tchaikovsky is perhaps the best-known icon of Romanticism in the Russian style.

But he was a tremendously versatile composer, and another, often overlooked aspect of his creativity shows the influence of his idol Mozart, as we find in works like the Serenade for Strings. In these works, Tchaikovsky even anticipates the “neo-Classical” philosophy that became so decisive in the early 20th century, in particular through the work of his fellow Russian Igor Stravinsky.

Composed in 1880, the Serenade recalls a type of music that had been perfected

by Mozart during that composer’s early Salzburg years: the multi-movement, melody-rich genre that was often used to celebrate special occasions (weddings, graduation ceremonies, and the like).

Tchaikovsky’s choice of instrumentation certainly suggests a Mozartian angle. The Classical serenade typically called for a mix of strings, woodwinds, and possibly brass, but Mozart’s best-known serenade, A Little Night Music, was unusually cast for P24

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strings alone. (The last of his serenades, written during Mozart’s Viennese years, Eine kleine Nachtmusik literally means “a little serenade” in German.) Tchaikovsky likewise limits his ensemble to strings. The resulting four movements evoke something “between a symphony and a string quartet,” he observed—though in a more relaxed vein, without the heavy-duty working out of motifs conventionally associated with those genres.

Tchaikovsky adds a separate line for double bass—merely optional in Mozart’s score— thus giving the Serenade a more full-bodied sound. And, in keeping with contemporary Romantic trends, the Serenade is unified through motivic echoes and internal connections between movements.

Opening with a chord sequence that brings to mind a stirring chorale, the introductory section, which is reprised at the very end of the Serenade, is the source for much of the thematic material. In the second movement, Tchaikovsky exchanges the classical poise of a minuet for a lilting waltz (later choreographed by George Balanchine).

The emotional heart of the work is a slow movement titled 023, which similarly begins with a chorale-like passage. Another slow introduction (with muted strings) provides the transition into the finale, which borrows a pair of tunes from Russian folk music. Tchaikovsky’s writing for the strings here actually mimics native Russian instruments. The lively dance tune that figures among the finale’s ideas turns out to be a speeded-up version of the chorale that had opened the work, thus emphasizing the unity of conception that binds together the Serenade.

Program notes (c)2021 Thomas May

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masterworks

Beethoven in Vienna Valentina Peleggi, Music Director Gabriela Martinez, Piano Florence Robertson Givens Guest Artist Friday, March 5, 2021 at 7:00 PM (This concert will have no intermisson)

Saturday, March 6, 2021 at 8:00 PM Sunday, March 7, 2021 at 3:00 PM Dominion Energy Center

BEETHOVEN

Concerto No. 1 in C Major for Piano and Orchestra, Opus 15 Allegro con brio Largo Rondo: Allegro Gabriela Martinez, Piano

intermission

BEETHOVEN

Symphony No. 4 in B-flat Major, Opus 60 Adagio - Allegro vivace Adagio Allegro vivace Allegro ma non troppo

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Ms Peleggi previously served as Resident Conductor of the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra and Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the São Paulo Symphony Chorus. During her years with the Sao Paulo Symphony Peleggi conducted many subscription concerts, created innovative community projects and continues to return as a guest. She won the APCA Prize in 2016 as Conductor of the Year from the Sao Paulo Society of Critics of the Arts and was voted “Young Talent of 2017” by readers of Brazil’s specialist music magazine Revista Concerto. She currently holds the position of Guest Music Director of the Theatro Sao Pedro, responsible for Italian opera.

Valentina Peleggi

Music Director & Lewis T. Booker Music Director Chair Valentina Peleggi began her tenure as Music Director of the Richmond Symphony in Summer 2020. Described by the BBC Music Magazine as a “rising star”, Peleggi has led orchestras from around the world including most recently the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. In 2018 she joined English National Opera for 2 seasons as a Mackerras Fellow, conducting Carmen, Boheme, Orpheus in the Underworld and Dido and Aeneas.

She returns as a guest in 2021, when she will also debut at Garsington Opera.

In 20/21 planned symphonic engagements include her debuts with the Quebec Symphony, Malmo Symphony, Brussels Philharmonic and European Union Youth Orchestra in Ferrara; also the release of her first CD, featuring a cappella works by Villa Lobos in a new critical edition for Naxos, guest edited by Ms Peleggi and performed by the Sao Paulo Symphony Chorus. Spring 2020 saw a string of engagements cancelled due to the pandemic, notably with the Bournemouth Symphony, Residentie Orkest Den Haag, Gulbenkian Orchestra, National Symphony in Dublin, New Zealand Symphony, Tasmanian Symphony, BBC Singers, and the Orquestra della Toscana in her home town of Florence, Italy.

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The first Italian woman to enter the conducting programme at the Royal Academy of Music of London, she graduated with distinction and was awarded the DipRAM for an outstanding final concert as well as numerous other prizes, and was recently honoured with the title of Associate. She assisted Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Semyon Bychkov and Christian Thielemann, and furthered her studies with David Zinman and Daniele Gatti at the Zurich Tonhalle and at the Royal Concertgebouw masterclasses. She won the 2014 Conducting Prize at the Festival International de Inverno Campos do Jordão, received a Bruno Walter Foundation Scholarship at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in California, and the Taki Concordia Conducting Fellowship 2015-2017 under Marin Alsop.

Peleggi holds a Master in Conducting with honours from the Conservatorio Santa Cecilia in Rome, and in 2013 was awarded the Accademia Chigiana’s highest award, going on to assist Bruno Campanella and Gianluigi Gelmetti at Teatro Regio di Torino, Opera Bastille Paris, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Teatro Regio di Parma and Teatro San Carlo. She also assisted on a live worldwide broadcast and DVD production of Rossini’s Cenerentola with the Orchestra Nazionale della RAI. From 2005 to 2015 she was the Principal Conductor and Music Director of the University Choir in Florence and remains their Honorary Conductor, receiving a special award from the Government in 2011 in recognition of her work there. Ms Peleggi is passionate about the arts and holds a master in Comparative Literature.

Valentina Peleggi is represented by Intermusica worldwide.

Orchestra in Venezuela. Recent season highlights include debut appearances with the Buffalo, Boulder, Dayton and National philharmonic orchestras and the Jacksonville, Delaware, Akron, La Crosse, Modesto, Rogue Valley, Springfield (MO), Topeka, and Wichita symphony orchestras.

Gabriela Martinez

Piano & Florence Robertson Givens Guest Artist Versatile, daring and insightful, Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Martinez is establishing a reputation on both the national and international stages for the lyricism of her playing, her compelling interpretations, and her elegant stage presence.

Delos recently released Ms. Martinez’s debut solo album, Amplified Soul, which features a wideranging program including works by Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, and Szymanowski. She also pays homage to acclaimed composers Mason Bates and Dan Visconti, whose title selection, Amplified Soul (world premiere recording), was written for her.

Ms. Martinez collaborated with Grammy Award-winning producer David Frost on the recording. A music video of Amplified Soul can be found on Ms. Martinez’s YouTube Channel.

Since making her orchestral debut at age 7, Ms. Martinez has played with such distinguished orchestras as the San Francisco, Chicago, Houston, New Jersey, Tucson, West Michigan, Pacific and Fort Worth symphonies; Germany’s Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, Nurnberger Philharmoniker; Canada’s Victoria Symphony Orchestra; the Costa Rica National Symphony and the Simon Bolivar Symphony

She has performed with Gustavo Dudamel, James Gaffigan, James Conlon, Marcelo Lehninger and Guillermo Figueroa, among many others, and has performed at such esteemed venues as Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Merkin Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York City; the Broad Stage in Santa Monica, El Paso Pro Musica Series, the Kansas City Harriman-Jewell Series; Canada’s Glenn Gould Studio; Salzburg’s Grosses Festspielhaus; Dresden’s Semperoper; Copenhagen’s Tivoli Gardens; and Paris’s Palace of Versailles. Her festival credits include the Mostly Mozart, Ravinia, and Rockport festivals in the United States; Italy’s Festival dei Due Mondi (Spoleto); Switzerland’s Verbier Festival; the Festival de Radio France et Montpellier; and Japan’s Tokyo International Music Festival.

Her wide-ranging career includes world premieres of new music, live performance broadcasts, and interviews on TV and radio. Her performances have been featured on National Public Radio, CNN, PBS, 60 Minutes, ABC, From the Top, Radio France, WQXR and WNYC (New York), MDR Kultur and Deutsche Welle (Germany), NHK (Japan), RAI (Italy), and on numerous television and radio stations in Venezuela.

Ms. Martinez was the First Prize winner of the Anton G. Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Dresden, and a semifinalist at the 12th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, where she also received the Jury Discretionary Award. She began her piano studies in Caracas with her mother, Alicia Gaggioni, and attended The Juilliard School, where she earned her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees as a full scholarship student of Yoheved Kaplinsky. Ms. Martinez was a fellow of Carnegie Hall’s The Academy, and a member of Ensemble Connect (formerly known as Ensemble ACJW), while concurrently working on her doctoral studies with Marco Antonio de Almeida in Halle, Germany.

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program notes Beethoven in Vienna: A Concerto and a Symphony Near the end of 1792, a not-quite-22year-old Ludwig van Beethoven made the arduous, multi-stage journey via coach from Bonn, where he had been born in 1770, to Vienna. Beethoven had been encouraged to spend some time there studying with Haydn. In the process, he was also escaping the chaos that threatened Bonn from further to the West, where the French Revolution was expanding. In fact, French troops would occupy Bonn within two years, and Beethoven would never return.

Bonn, though relatively small, was important as a political center and cultural crossroads. What the composer left behind there was a predictable career as a musician forced to wear the uniform of a servant and controlled by the whims of those who called the shots at court. In Vienna Beethoven would pursue a revolution of his own, inspired by his faith in the radical power of music to transform people.

Vienna became home for the rest of Beethoven’s life—even if he moved restlessly within the city and its outlying regions, changing his address more than 60 times before he died in middle age, a victim of cirrhosis of the liver, in 1827.

Vienna beckoned as one of the great musical centers of Europe, the capital of the vast Habsburg Empire. Mozart had died less than a year before; Haydn, a close friend and ally of P30

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Mozart, had emerged as a cultural giant, the most acclaimed composer in Europe. This is the backdrop for the famous remark made by Count Waldstein, an early patron of Beethoven, just before the composer set out from Bonn: “Through your unceasing hard work, you will receive Mozart’s spirit from the hands of Haydn.”

But these deep connections with a living tradition also involved inherent rivalry—a drive to go beyond anything his predecessors had done. Beethoven was anything but a careless rulebreaker, despite the cliche—the breaking has no meaning if the “rules” are considered pointless to begin with—but he pressured the conventions and language he inherited to yield unprecedented discoveries and a new expressive intensity.

The program that Maestra Valentina Peleggi has chosen illustrates Beethoven’s approach to his situation as a young composer in Vienna, working in formats that were closely identified with Mozart (the piano concerto) and Haydn (the symphony).

“In some ways, the First Piano Concerto looks ahead into the future, while the Fourth Symphony casts a glance back to the past,” she observes.

Comparisons and contrasts are even more noticeable because both scores call for the same instrumentation (aside from the solo piano): only one flute; pairs of oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horn, and trumpets; timpani; and strings. But using these relatively limited resources, Beethoven creates

program notes sound worlds that are uniquely his, despite any echoes from Mozart, Haydn, or other musical sources (including the boldly affirmative sonorities that were identified with French Revolutionary composers).

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 15 Beethoven had actually tried his luck in Vienna once before the move in 1792. He was sent in 1787, possibly to study with Mozart, but had to return almost immediately to Bonn when word arrived that his mother was dying. It is unknown whether he actually managed to meet Mozart, but Beethoven well have had a chance to hear the older musician in performance.

It was Mozart who had blazed the trail Beethoven himself started to follow in his first years in the big city—the path of the freelance composerperformer. Mozart had grown tired of the humiliations of court employment in his native Salzburg.

Unceremoniously—and to the horror of his musician father, ever worried about his son’s security—he broke with his aristocratic boss, burning bridges in an epic, curse-laden meltdown. Mozart then supported himself as a freelance artist in Vienna, which he dubbed “the land of the clavier [piano].” He followed fortune’s wheel—sometimes basking in great success—and made his own way until his premature death in 1791 (though he did win a very minor

and poorly paid court appointment in his last years).

Composers in this era frequently followed parallel performance careers, but Mozart commanded an unusual degree of celebrity as a brilliant keyboard virtuoso. A major source of income came from organizing concerts in which he appeared as the star soloist. At these events, he would introduce his latest works in the concerto format that he had raised to a particularly high art.

When Beethoven’s name started circulating among the rich and influential in Vienna, he was primarily identified as a fascinating and eccentric pianist.

We can glean something of the impression Beethoven must have made when he would improvise in the salons of his noble patrons from this recollection by Carl Czerny, a very young prodigy who became one of Beethoven’s students: “He knew how to produce such an effect upon every hearer that frequently not an eye remained dry, while many would break out into loud sobs; for there was something wonderful in his expression in addition to the beauty and originality of his ideas and his spirited style of rendering them.”

But Beethoven also possessed a mischievous, wayward sense of humor.

Czerny remarks how he would then prank his audience: “After ending an improvisation of this kind he would burst into loud laughter and mock his listeners for the emotion he had caused in them. ‘You are fools!’ he would say.”

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program notes Thus the idea of a piano concerto held special significance for Beethoven: like Mozart, he introduced these works by performing the solo part himself (in the first four of his five published concertos; by the time of No. 5, his growing deafness had put an end to his piano concertizing career). The first three piano concertos in particular use many tricks of the trade that Beethoven learned from close study of Mozart’s concertos. At the same time, they show off both his distinctive piano personality and his unique adaptation of Classical style.

The Piano Concerto No. 1 is actually predated by the one we call “No. 2,” which reaches back to the Bonn years.

Beethoven realized that the C Major Concerto sounded more confident: it made a more brilliant effect and really did make him sound like Mozart’s heir. Since he wanted it to become known as his first published work in the genre, he held off on publishing the earlier one. The C Major Concerto thus spans a half-decade or so: he first wrote it around 1795, making it a “secret weapon” to play in concert but then reworking it in 1800 and publishing it the following year.

The first movement teases with a deceptively calm orchestral statement of the first theme before revealing its full pomp and glory. As for the tender second theme, Beethoven makes us wait until the soloist enters the picture and partners with the orchestra before we are allowed to hear the melody unfold to completion. The soloist is given an unusual, theatrically rich role to play in relation to the orchestra, 32

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including a Shakespeare monologuesized cadenza near the end of the first movement (a passage where we can try to imagine what one of Beethoven’s wildly far-ranging improvisations must have sounded like to his original audiences).

The slow movement reminds us that Beethoven had an enviable gift to write transportive melodies. As with Mozart, these require every nuance of attention and sensitivity from the soloist for their full potential to be revealed. The orchestral density in this movement is much lighter (the flutes, oboes, trumpets, and drums stay quiet), but the solo clarinet adds soulful character.

Where Mozart’s “spirit” can be discerned in the first two movements, Haydn makes an appearance in the finale, as Beethoven pays tribute to his sense of humor and vital energy.

The main tune keeps coming back but remains full of surprises—including an unexpected slowing right before the rushing final moments, as if everyone is caught in a moment of nostalgic reflection.

Beethoven: Symphony No. 4 in B-flat Major, Op. 60 In the summer of 1806, Beethoven set aside sketches for a work still in progress (it would become the Fifth Symphony) to focus on another symphonic work of a very different character. The Fourth Symphony is often described as a “return” to earlier,

program notes more familiar patterns of Viennese Classical style—a composition that shows its creator “relaxing” between the exertions of the genre-bending Third Symphony (the Eroica) and the tightly condensed Fifth (both works prominently feature aspects of the French Revolutionary influence mentioned before). The reason Beethoven set aside the Fifth to work on another symphony (the Fourth) was to satisfy the request of a conservative patron (the Silesian Count Franz von Oppersdorff ). The Count had expressed preference for his Second Symphony over the more radical Third.

reprise, when the timpanist is elevated to protagonist: first playing quietly, then becoming louder as the music rekindles in a joyful restatement of the main theme.

But Beethoven was never content to repeat earlier compositional solutions. The Fourth explodes with an originality of its own. You hear it right at the outset in the very long slow introduction. Haydn had turned this kind of slow opening into a trademark in his late symphonies. Beethoven used it in his First and Second Symphonies as well, but here he stretches it to an astonishingly dramatic extreme. The music begins in a murky minor key (even though this is a symphony in B-flat Major) and seems to wander through a mysterious, uncertain fog, searching for signposts.

Haydn’s humor and playfulness get a new twist in the third movement.

Unexpected accentuations are extreme—imagine trying to dance to this beat! It’s tricky for the orchestra to play but incredibly delightful to experience. In the contrasting middle trio, Beethoven has the violins indulge in quasi-giggles.

The music casts such an intense shadow that Beethoven has to dispel it with an equally intense move in the opposite direction—a sudden, blinding flash of the sun. The orchestra accelerates with blazing power to affirm the certainty of the home key and the untrammeled joy of the first movement. Contrasts in volume and orchestral texture here achieve maximal effect. A favorite example is the return of the mysterious opening mood in the passage right before the

The Adagio starts off with a kind of ticking motion in the strings. This becomes a unifying theme throughout this movement. It’s almost the antithesis of melody—mechanical and robotically rhythmic—yet it underscores one of the loveliest melodies to be found anywhere in Beethoven (essentially made of a descending scale).

Along with its melodic grace and charm, the Fourth is a work of enormous humor and high spirits.

Exuberance comes to the fore in the last movement, an unbuttoned romp that goes wild with churning motion—to nearly absurd extremes. At one point, Beethoven makes a joke at the bassoonist’s expense, making the player seem to start the reprise before the rest of the orchestra—just one of the endlessly delightful moments in the Fourth, a symphony of shadow, light, and eternal playfulness.

Program notes (c)2021 Thomas May

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masterworks

From Salzburg and Guadeloupe Rennolds Memorial Concert Chia-Hsuan Lin, Conductor Kevin Zhu, Violin Friday, April 16, 2021 at 7:00 PM (This concert will have no intermisson)

Saturday, April 17, 2021 at 8:00 PM Sunday, April 18, 2021 at 3:00 PM

BOULOGNE

Symphony No. 2 in D Major (Overture to L’amant Anonyme) Violin Concerto No. 2 in A Major, Op. 5 Allegro moderato Largo Rondeau Kevin Zhu, Violin

intermission

MOZART

Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, K. 550 Molto allegro Andante Menuetto: Allegretto Allegro assai

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Ballet, Peninsula Music Festival Orchestra, Virginia Commonwealth University Symphony Orchestra, Academy of Taiwan Strings and Taipei Philharmonic Chorus. Her recent performance of Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6 with the Williamsburg Symphony was praised as “an exceptionally absorbing interpretation and rendering.” (The Virginia Gazette).

A champion of the next generation of music and musicians, her list of premieres continues to grow with new works by Stephen Prutsman, Laura Schwendinger, and Jennifer Jolley. Lin has also been a featured guest in Classical Revolution RVA’s Mozart Festivals, sharing orchestral music in non-traditional venues, and she conducted the “Land Dive Project” in cooperation with the Institute for Contemporary Art at the Virginia Commonwealth University, a live art installation including a chamber ensemble and a scuba diving team.

Chia-Hsuan Lin

Associate Conductor & Jack and Mary Ann Frable Associate Conductor Chair Hailed by the Virginia Gazette as “a rock solid” and “animated” conductor, Chia-Hsuan (“Joshwin”) Lin delights audiences throughout the world with her trademark energy and command.

Appointed Associate Conductor of the Richmond Symphony Orchestra in 2016, Lin begins her fifth season with the Richmond Symphony in 2020 and was recently named the Interim Music Director of the Contemporary Youth Orchestra of Cleveland. Clark Bustard wrote of Lin’s Brahms Fourth Symphony with RSO, “I’ve never heard a more compelling live performance than this one.”

(Letter V) Other RSO highlights include Handel’s Messiah, the Metro Collection Series, Symphony Pops, family concerts, and a record crowd exceeding 19,000 for Henrico County’s “Red, White, and Lights” Independence Day celebration in 2018.

Formerly the Assistant Conductor of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Lin punctuated the end of her tenure in 2016 “with the command and energy of a soccer star” before a record crowd for a FWP subscription concert. (larryhayes.com) Lin enjoys frequent guest appearances around the world. She made her Minnesota Orchestra debut in 2020, and has also led the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Virginia Symphony, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Williamsburg Symphony, Richmond 36

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Lin previously served as Music Director of Richmond Symphony Youth Orchestra, University of Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, South Loop Symphony Orchestra (Chicago) and Assistant Conductor of Opera at the CCM Spoleto Music Festival in Italy. Fueling her passion for vocal works, Lin conducted a lecture concert as part of the Taiwanese premiere of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, and assisted and led opera performances at Northwestern University and the University of Cincinnati.

Lin began her musical training with piano lessons in Taiwan at age three. She studied percussion and conducting at National Taiwan Normal University while performing with Taipei Percussion Group. Lin earned her master degree at College-Conservatory of Music of the University of Cincinnati, and completed her doctorate at Northwestern University.

She studied with Apo Hsu, Mark Gibson, and Victor Yampolsky and has further refined her craft in workshops with the RSO, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, and the Romanian Royal Camerata, and masterclasses with Günther Herbig, Jorma Panula, Imre Palló, Gábor Hollerung, Helmuth Rilling, Steven Smith, Mei-Ann Chen, Harold Farberman, Markand Thakar, Israel Yinon, and Douglas Bostock.

Lin is married to horn player James Ferree, and she enjoys traveling, gardening, and cooking.

Orchestra, Moscow Virtuosi, and China Philharmonic Orchestra. A highly sought-after recitalist, he has toured across the United States and Europe with repertoire ranging from Beethoven to contemporary commissions. Kevin is also a passionate chamber musician, collaborating with artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Lawrence Power, and Jan Vogler.

In addition to his efforts on stage, Kevin serves as a Culture Ambassador of the Lin Yao Ji Music Foundation of China. He has repeatedly been featured on BBC Radio 3, NPR’s From the Top, and RAI Radio 3.

Kevin Zhu

Kevin is a proud recipient of a Kovner Fellowship at The Juilliard School, where he studies with Itzhak Perlman and Li Lin. Kevin performs on the c1722 “Lord Wandsworth” Antonio Stradivari violin, which is on loan from the Ryuji Ueno Foundation and Rare Violins In Consortium, Artists and Benefactors Collaborative.

Violin

Twenty-year-old Kevin Zhu has amassed an outstanding record of concert performances and competition wins since he began playing violin at age three. Praised for his “awesome technical command and maturity” (The Strad) and “absolute virtuosity, almost blinding in its incredible purity” (L’ape musicale), Kevin regularly performs on the world’s largest stages, ranging from Carnegie Hall in New York to London’s Royal Festival Hall to the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing. Initially coming to international attention after winning the 2018 Paganini Competition and 2012 Yehudi Menuhin Competition, he has established himself as a leading figure among the next generation of musicians, astonishing audiences with his peerless technical mastery and inimitable artistic voice.

In the 2020-21 season, Kevin will make debuts with the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra, Polish Baltic Philharmonic, and Colorado Springs Philharmonic, and returns to the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa performing Elgar’s Violin Concerto. He also performs solo recitals in Dresden and New York City, embarking on a project to perform Paganini’s complete 24 Caprices in one concert, one of few violinists to ever do so.

Recent performing highlights include concerto appearances with the Pittsburgh Symphony www.richmondsymphony.com

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program notes From Salzburg and Guadeloupe: Mozart Meets Boulogne You would be hard-pressed to find someone who can honestly say they have never heard the name Mozart.

Conversely, mention Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, and chances are you will be met with a puzzled look and a request to elaborate.

Both men were contemporaries, lived in sophisticated musical capitals, and wrote music for some of the finest musicians in Europe—among whose ranks they themselves numbered prominently. Yet as a man of color, Joseph Boulogne had to cope with Europe’s systemic racism despite his extraordinary talents (not only musical)—and despite the radical declaration of equal rights put forward by the French Revolution.

Boulogne was the son of an enslaved African woman named Nanon (a teenager at the time) and Georges de Boulogne Saint-Georges, a married French colonist who had grown wealthy from his plantations in Guadeloupe. Born in Basse-Terre in that south Caribbean colony, Joseph was brought to France as a child and achieved renown not only as a violinist and composer but also as a fencing champion—all the while facing hurdles because of his race.

Still, Boulogne made a mark on the classical music scene of his era. It’s even likely that he and young Mozart were housed in the same ducal mansion for a couple of months in 1778, when the latter was searching for work in Paris—a city whose musical life Boulogne helped shape but where Mozart experienced alienation and grief (his mother died during the trip).

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But Boulogne fell into oblivion after his death. Recent attempts to dismantle racist attitudes in classical music have brought his name and music back into the spotlight. In 2016, the American conductor Marlon Daniel established the Festival International de Musique Saint-Georges in Guadeloupe as a tribute to Boulogne, and it has become an important cultural event in the Caribbean. Searchlight Pictures last year announced a forthcoming biopic, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, to be helmed by Watchmen director Stephen Williams.

Along with his significant contributions to musical life, which drew the attention of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI, Boulogne’s fascinating biography includes legendary fencing triumphs, a period of imprisonment during the Reign of Terror that nearly cost him his life, and a dangerous excursion to the violent revolution in another Caribbean colony, Saint-Domingue.

The present program offers a sampling of Boulogne’s instrumental work, with a focus on the violin concerto, a genre he cultivated to showcase his virtuosity as a soloist. Boulogne’s concert music dates largely from the 1770s. Mozart’s symphonies, by contrast, span from 1764 to 1788—over two-thirds of his alltoo-short life. The later ones embody a revolutionary shift away from the symphony conceived as light-hearted entertainment toward something far more emotionally complex and finely wrought. The final three symphonies in particular (conventionally known as Symphonies 39 through 41) reflect Mozart’s awareness of the innovations being implemented by his friend Haydn. They also look ahead to the ambitious new vistas Beethoven would claim for the genre.

program notes Boulogne: Symphony No. 2 in D Major and Violin Concerto in A Major Boulogne was not entirely forgotten in the 19th century. In 1840, the writer Eugène Augustin Nicolas Roger (known by his pseudonym Roger de Beauvoir and an associate of Alexandre Dumas and Victor Hugo) published a a swashbuckling, fictional treatment of his life titled Le Chevalier de SaintGeorges that romanticized the facts.

Roger’s inventions unfortunately “found their way into serious biographies, dictionaries, and encyclopedias,” according to Gabriel Banat, a violinist and authority on Boulogne.

Even Boulogne’s year of birth has been disputed, but Banat maintains that it was December 25, 1745—which would make the composer from Guadeloupe just a decade and a month older than his colleague from Salzburg.

Boulogne came of age in Paris, where his father had taken him as a child, and received an elite education in fencing and horsemanship. He developed a reputation as a champion fencer; the title “Chevalier de Saint-Georges” was conferred on him after graduation.

Boulogne’s dashing athletic feats and skills as a dancer meanwhile won him entrée into high society. So did his musical feats. He was reportedly “admitted to make music with the Queen,” and likely playing his violin sonatas with Marie Antoinette at the keyboard.

Oddly, details of the young Boulogne’s musical training are unknown, but he emerged as a formidable master of the violin when François-Joseph Gossec, a leading figure in Parisian musical life, invited him to perform with his orchestra. Gossec also dedicated chamber music to his young protégé.

Music centered around the violin

and other strings, not surprisingly, was an important focus of Boulogne’s composition—his first publication was a set of string quartets, at the time a novel genre in France that Haydn had been pioneering from far-off Austria.

Despite its title, the Symphony in D Major originated not in the concert hall but the opera house. Boulogne increasingly turned his attention from instrumental music to opera in the late 1770s, writing several opéras comiques for the Comédie-Italienne in Paris. This refers to a genre that blended spoken dialogue with music.

His opera debut came in 1777 with a work titled Ernestine, which failed on account of its weak libretto, though the score was praised. His second opera, La chasse (“The Hunt”), proved much more successful, and L’amant anonyme (“The Anonymous Lover”) appeared in March 1780 and became his biggest operatic success. Boulogne was in the running to become director of the Paris Opera, the most prestigious musical position in France, but he withdrew in the face of racist protests by a group of performers who resented the prospect of a person of color at the helm.

The D Major Symphony, which was published as the second of the Op. 11 pair of symphonies, is actually the overture to L’amant anonyme. The opera, writes Banat, revolves around the “rather ingenious psychological twist” of the titular hero disguising his identity from his beloved for fear that she will otherwise reject him— possibly mirroring the composer’s own fears about rejected on account of his identity, according to Banat.

The Symphony/Overture unfolds in three brief movements, two fast ones sandwiching a charming Andante.

At the start of his musical career in Paris, Boulogne had come before the public as a violinist. With the support of his mentor Gossec, he became www.richmondsymphony.com

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program notes concertmaster of the orchestral society founded by Gossec and known as the Concert des Amateurs. Later, Boulogne took over its directorship. Banat cites a contemporary critic who declared that under Boulogne, the players (a mix of professionals and determined amateurs) had become “the best orchestra for the Symphonies there is in Paris, and perhaps in all of Europe.”

One of more than a dozen violin concertos he authored, the Op. 5 Concerto in A Major dates from this period; it was published in 1775, an especially productive year. Banat and others deem this to be his finest work in a genre that was so personal to Boulogne’s musical identity. The entrance of the solo violin, following an exposition of the main ideas by the orchestra, he likens to “an operatic soprano holding onto a high, long A” and leading to an “abundance of new material.”

The soloist similarly enters on a sustained high note in the Largo, which highlights Boulogne’s gift for rhapsodic, lyrical invention. “The exciting corner movements [of the violin concertos] reveal a virtuoso probing the limits of his instrument,” writes Banat. “But in their lovely slow movements, the composer, giving free reign to his gift for expressive lyricism, allows us to share his innermost feelings.”

Meanwhile, he notes that the virtuosic writing for the violin in the first and last movements “bypasses the Classical style and, reaching back to virtuosos of the Baroque like Vivaldi and Locatelli, created a technical vocabulary of his own”—a vocabulary that Banat argues would influence Beethoven.

Mozart: Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550 Mozart wrote three magnificent symphonies within a six-week period in the summer of 1788, one after the other (Nos. 39, 40, and 41). Each contains a distinctive world in itself; there are also connections to be found that link them into a kind of mega-symphony, according to some commentators.

What prompted such a creative outburst? Mozart had just suffered a crushing blow when his opera Don Giovanni (a hit at its Prague premiere) failed to impress the Viennese. The marvelous piano concertos that had brought in much-needed income were by this point going out of fashion, and the economy was in a perilous state.

The fact that these symphonies do not appear to have been commissioned has only added to their mystique. For a long time they were thought to represent a case of “art for art’s sake” —not exactly the way Mozart usually operated—nor most composers of that era.

Recent scholarship finds the notion that Mozart had no practical use in mind when he wrote these symphonies to be an implausible, romantic myth.

For example, Mozart revised his scoring for the Symphony No. 40, which indicates that it was likely performed during his lifetime, even if no records survive. Neal Zazlaw writes: “Mozart would hardly have gone to the trouble of adding the clarinets and rewriting the flutes and oboes to accommodate them had he not had a specific performance in view.”

Still, the mystery surrounding these works lingers on. We lack records tying them to a commission or a benefit concert. And, as Mozart’s piano

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program notes concertos demonstrate, composing for the “here and now” did not preclude a groundbreaking attitude. In any case, the consensus is the Symphony No. 40 and its companions represent the summit of Mozart’s creative achievement as a symphonist. One year before violent revolution was to intervene and topple generations of comforting certainties, these acts of pure music—unattached to the church or stage—resonate with Mozart’s most glorious instrumental creativity.

The G minor Symphony is the dark night, the tragic station that is necessary to experience in order for the varieties of joy contained in the flanking symphonies to have full effect (the Symphony No. 39 in E-flat Major and the Symphony No. 41 in C Major, nicknamed—by posterity—“Jupiter”).

Mozart seems to have associated the key of G minor with a certain pathos that particularly interested the Romantics of the 19th century.

They prized the “demonic” passions of Mozart in the minor key. Others have even perceived a “suicidal” desperation—as if Mozart were merely channeling the serious real-life anxieties that had beset him during his final years in Vienna.

What is clear is that the Symphony No. 40 brims with bold, unusual, revolutionary ideas. Opening with a brief introductory accompaniment, Mozart tosses us at once situates into the emotional tempest. It’s a daring departure from the forceful call to attention that conventionally launches a symphony. The violins outline a sighing figure made of a simple half-step. This gesture was already long familiar from its use over the centuries by Renaissance and Baroque composers. But it takes on a fresh sense of desperation and immediacy here.

And Mozart treats it obsessively—two decades before Beethoven’s Fifth

Symphony, with its incessant motto of “fate knocking at the door.”

This “sigh” reappears in mutated form as the gracious embroidery running through the gently shaded gestures of the Andante—a movement that comes close to chamber music in its delicate poise.

In this symphony, Mozart exploits rhythmic ideas as well. Where convention would lead us to expect a lighter minuet in the third movement, Mozart ramps up the tension through syncopation and layered entries.

The staggering of lines creates a claustrophobic feeling that subverts the triple meter pulse of the dance.

A brief, idyllic respite from horns in the middle section only ratchets up the sense of tension when this music returns.

In the finale, Mozart creates a counterweight to the first movement’s pathos and intensity. Its upwardrocket theme even incorporates the “sigh” motif. In one of the most overtly radical moments of all three last symphonies, there’s even a prediction of Schoenberg and his twelve-tone method. This occurs in a passage in which the orchestra blurts out the entire chromatic scale in seemingly random order—except the anchor note of G. The Symphony No. 40, for the pianist and musicologist Charles Rosen, is “a work of passion, violence, and grief.” He added: “It is only through recognizing the violence and sensuality at the center of Mozart’s work that we can make a start.”

Notes (c) 2021 Thomas May

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ABOUT THE RICHMOND SYMPHONY

VISION We change lives through the power of our music.

MISSION The Richmond Symphony performs, teaches, and champions music, to inspire and unite our communities.

HISTORY

Each season RSO performs more than 200 performances and reaches 200,000 patrons through concerts, educational programs, and radio broadcasts.

Innovative and unexpected concert formats such as Rush Hour at Hardywood Park Craft Brewery and our mobile performance space, the Big Tent, help attract new and more diverse audiences.

Founded in 1957, the Richmond Symphony is dedicated to excellence in both contemporary and traditional symphonic music. Its mission is to perform, teach and champion music, to enrich and entertain communities throughout Virginia.

Through the incorporation of classical, contemporary, and popular music, the Symphony makes great music interesting and accessible to everyone. The League of American Orchestras recognized the Symphony as a leader of innovation in the orchestral field by selecting the Symphony as one of their 21 national Futures Fund orchestras and awarding the Symphony the Catalyst Grant in 2020, to help implement effective practices to enhance diversity, equity and inclusion.

The Symphony reaches 55,000 students each year through our educational programs, including our Musical Ambassadors Program and Discovery Concerts. Our Youth Orchestra Program provides the region’s premiere orchestral experience for 250 college and conservatory-bound students. In July 2020, the Symphony launched the Richmond Symphony School of Music (RSSoM), which will house all of its education programs and extend service into the digital realm.

The Symphony includes an orchestra of 70 professional musicians and an all-volunteer chorus of 150, is overseen by a 42-member Board, and has a staff of 25. Ancillary but separate organizations include the Richmond Symphony Foundation, which manages the organization’s endowment, and the volunteer Richmond Symphony League. In May 2020, RSO appointed its first woman Music Director, Valentina Peleggi.

The Symphony is acting as the Lead Partner for Menuhin Competition: Richmond 2021. Also known as “the Olympics of the Violin,” this international competition will bring 44 of the best young violinists in the world to Richmond for eleven days in May 2021 for performances, masterclasses, community engagement, and education activities.

MUSIC DIRECTOR TIMELINE

1957–1971

Edgar Schenkman

1971–1986

1986–1998

George Manahan

Jacques Houtmann

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1999–2009

2010–2019 Steven Smith

Mark Russell Smith

CURRENT

Valentina Peleggi

ABOUT THE RICHMOND SYMPHONY CHORUS

Richmond Symphony Chorus

Erin R. Freeman Director of the Richmond Symphony Chorus & James Erb Choral Chair The Richmond Symphony Chorus is an award-winning, auditioned, all-volunteer ensemble of 150 members from the Richmond region. They perform regularly with the Richmond Symphony, Richmond Ballet, and in stand-alone performances around the community.

The chorus members, ages 16-85, are a diverse group – teachers, medical professionals, attorneys, business leaders, students – all sharing a love of choral singing.

James Erb found the Richmond Symphony Chorus in 1971 to perform Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis under the baton of renowned conductor Robert Shaw. Erb, a professor at the University of Richmond and a scholar of Renaissance music, led the group for 36 years. Erin Freeman became director in 2007 and has led its singers in performances in Richmond, Wintergreen, Carnegie Hall, and Paris, France. (See Dr. Freeman’s profile in the program.)

Repertoire ranges from classical masterworks to pops favorites. Annual performance of Handel’s Messiah and Let It Snow Christmas Pops are highlights of the Symphony season. In 2018, the chorus was featured

in the Grammy-nominated recording of the premier performance of Children of Adam by American composer Mason Bates and Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem.

Spring of 2019 found the Chorus moving from the Carpenter Theater stage to backstage to the lobby in a rousing performance of Bizet’s Carmen with soloist Denyce Graves, while Fall included performances under the direction of celebrated conductors Marin Alsop and George Manahan.

So what is the Chorus doing during the coming months of social distancing and masks? We’re singing, of course! Our members are attending virtual rehearsals from their home offices, guest bedrooms, dining rooms, and family rooms! Look for some virtual performances from us later this season, with each singer’s voice combined with many others into a single video recording. We look forward to physically gathering and singing together as soon as we can safely do so.

(If you’re interested in auditioning for the Chorus, please visit www.rschorus.com/auditions.)

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leadership, three recent VCU Opera productions of “The Gondoliers” (2015), “The Old Maid and the Thief” (2012), and “Hansel & Gretel” (2011) won top prizes at the National Opera Association competition.

Myssyk’s recordings have received widespread critical acclaim. In 2012, he completed the recording of “Czech Serenades” with works by Suk and Dvořák.

The CD was in nomination for best recording of the year at the “ADISQ” awards, Quebec’s equivalent of the Grammys and at the Prix Opus from the Conseil québécois de la musique. Jean-Yves Duperron of the Classical Sentinel wrote: “Conductor Daniel Myssyk and the members of the Appassionata Chamber Orchestra ply their magic in this music, and shape each and every phrase, and infuse each and every note, with care and sincere expression. I’ve rarely heard these two works played with this much conviction.”

Daniel Myssyk Assistant Conductor

Assistant Conductor of the Richmond Symphony, Canadian-American conductor Daniel Myssyk was Music Director of the Montreal based Orchestre de chambre Appassionata from 2000 to 2016. A few years ago, he led his orchestra on its first American tour, which included two concerts in Richmond.

The group also toured before enthused audiences in Ontario in January of 2014.

In recent years, he has made critically acclaimed appearances with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, and the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra, among others. In 2015, Myssyk made his debut in Guanajuato (Mexico) where he has been returning every season since, and also conducted the Michoacan State Orchestra. In 2019, return engagements have brought him back to Canada to conduct the Orchestre symphonique de Trois-Rivières and the Orchestre de la Francophonie.

Myssyk conducts repertoire from the classical, romantic, modern and contemporary periods with great attention to stylistically appropriate detail.

He maintains a continuous engagement with opera in a variety of styles ranging from Mozart to Menotti. Sensitive to the music of our time, he has contributed to the creation of many contemporary North-American works, including the worldpremiere of Anthony Brandt’s opera, “The Birth of Something” with Da Camera in Houston. Under his 44

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In 2010, his CD “Idyla” (on Fidelio label), was nominated for an Opus Prize as best recording of the year. A CD featuring American trumpet player and VCU colleague Rex Richardson playing Dana Wilson’s “Concerto for Trumpet and Strings” was released on Summit Records, earning rave reviews from the International Trumpet Guild Journal. His most recent CD, on the Atma label, features works

by Quebec composer François Dompierre and has earned excellent reviews from Radio-Canada and Magazine Son et image.

Professor Daniel Myssyk has been Virginia Commonwealth University’s Director of Orchestral Activities since 2007. His involvement toward the youth reflects a well-honed passion for music education. In addition to his work at VCU, he is a regular collaborator with the All-Virginia State Orchestra, and the Hampton Roads Chamber Players, among many others. He is currently the music director of the Richmond Symphony Youth Orchestra.

In the early 2000s, Myssyk was a conducting fellow at the Aspen Music Festival and School where he spent two summers under the tutelage of David Zinman. A student of Larry Rachleff, he received his Masters Degree in Conducting from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in 2006.

with the Orchestre Symphonique Bel’Arte and an internationally assembled chorus at La Madeleine in Paris, choral preparation for the Defiant Requiem Foundation, multiple engagements with the Richmond Symphony, and three productions with the Richmond Ballet. In 2019-2020, Freeman premiered with the Portland (Maine) Symphony Orchestra, conducted the Richmond Ballet in three grand productions, led the Richmond Symphony, and prepared the Richmond Symphony Chrous for performances with Marin Alsop and George Manahan.

Erin R. Freeman

Director of the Richmond Symphony Chorus & James Erb Choral Chair Versatile, engaging, and spirited, conductor Erin Freeman serves in multiple positions throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia and maintains a national presence through guest conducting engagements. Freeman holds a joint position as Director of the award-winning Richmond Symphony Chorus and Director of Choral Activities at Virginia Commonwealth University. Additionally, she is the Artistic Director of Wintergreen Music, which presents the annual Wintergreen Music Festival in Blue Ridge Mountains, and Resident Conductor of the Richmond Ballet, the State Ballet of Virginia.

Adapting quickly to the reality of the pandemic, Freeman created and led a 10 week Online Community with Wintergreen Music, including classes, interactive performances, musician-led masterclasses, special interest sessions, and a rare family conversation with Arianna Zukerman and Pinchas Zukerman. She also revamped Fall semester to create a choral film project called Adaption, led voices in Black Lives Matter protests and events, and overhauled the Richmond Symphony Chorus’s schedule to keep singing alive and well in the city of Richmond.

A recent finalist for Performance Today’s Classical Woman of the Year, Freeman has also been named one of Virginia Lawyers Weekly’s “50 Most Influential Women in Virginia” and an “Extraordinary Woman Leader” by the VCU School of Business. Freeman holds degrees from Northwestern University (BMus), Boston University (MM), and Peabody Conservatory (DMA). Instructors include Gustav Meier, Victor Yampolsky, Helmuth Rilling, Murry Sidlin, Ann Howard Jones, and Robert Shaw.

Twitter: @ErinFreeman1

Guest conducting engagements include the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, South Carolina Philharmonic, Savannah Symphony, Charlottesville Symphony Orchestra, Virginia Symphony Orchestra, and additional ensembles in Massachusetts, Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, Missouri, North Carolina, and Illinois. She has conducted at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center, and has conducted and/or prepared the Richmond Symphony Chorus for multiple recordings, including the 2019 release of Mason Bates’ Children of Adam on the Reference Recording label. The 2018-2019 season included her debut at Boston Symphony Hall with Berkshire Choral International, a performance

Website: erinrfreeman.com Facebook: ErinFreemanConductor

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2020/21 BOARD OF DIRECTORS EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

DIRECTORS

Mr. George L. Mahoney Chair

Mr. Joshua Bennett Mr. Phillip H. Bennett Mr. Stuart W. Blain Mr. John Bock Dr. John W. Braymer Ms. Priscilla A. Burbank Mrs. Sandra Chase Dr. Jill Bussey Harris Ms. Lisa Byrd Ms. Angel Clarke Dr. Ronald A. Crutcher Mrs. Alison W. Eckis Mr. Gary Flowers Mrs. Cheryl G. Goddard Ms. Maria Gogova Mrs. Rebecca J. Horner D. Brennen Keene, Esq. Mr. Christopher W. Lindbloom, DMA Mr. J. Theodore Linhart* Mr. William Mears

Mrs. Elizabeth Cabell Jennings Vice Chair Lacey Huszcza Executive Director Mr. Rick Sample Treasurer Ms. Maura Scott Secretary

Mr. Patrick Murtaugh Mr. Roger D. Neathawk* Mr, Kelly O’Keefe Ms. Valentina Peleggi Mr. Dale Porfilio Mr. Kamran P. Raika Mr. Leon E. Roday Mr. Richard Smith Dr. Richard A. Szucs Mr. Brandon C. Taylor Mrs. Marcia H. Thalhimer* Mr. John L. Walker III Mrs. Ludi Webber Mark W. Wickersham, Esq. Mr. Mark Wolfram Dr. Elisabeth M. Wollan* Mrs. Bucci Zeugner

*At Large Members of the 2020/21 Executive Committee

2020/21 RICHMOND SYMPHONY FOUNDATION TRUSTEES The Richmond Symphony Foundation is organized and established for cultural and charitable purposes benefiting the Richmond Symphony through its endowment. Gifts, planned gifts, and/or bequests may be made to the Foundation; if you choose to notify us, please contact Trish Poupore, c/o Richmond Symphony, 612 East Grace Street, Suite 401, Richmond, Virginia 23219 or tpoupore@richmondsymphony.com. For additional information, please call Trish Poupore at 804.788.4717, ext. 115.

Mr. David M. Carter President Mr. Jose Luis Murillo Vice President Mrs. Tara H. Matthews Treasurer Lacey Huszcza Secretary Trish Poupore Donor Relations Director

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Mrs. Maureen Ackerly, Esq. Mr. Kenneth M. Perry Mr. Thomas N. Allen Mr. Ernesto Sampson Mr. David B. Bradley Mr. Richard M. Smith Mr. J. Alfred Broaddus, Jr. Mr. George Y. Wheeler III

Mrs. Ann T. Burks Mrs. Anne Marie Whittemore, Esq. Mr. Robert L. Chewning Mr. Nicomedes De León Mr. Ellis M. Dunkum Mr. Wendell Fuller Mrs. Carolyn Garner Ms. Kristian Gathright Mr. James B. Hartough Ms. Helen Lewis Kemp, Esq. Mrs. Marlene D. Jones Mr. George L. Mahoney Mr. William H. Mears, Jr. Mr. Wallace B. Millner III Dr. Richard L. Morrill Mr. Randall S. Parks

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2020/21 MUSICIAN ROSTER OF THE RICHMOND SYMPHONY Valentina Peleggi, Music Director & Lewis T. Booker Music Director Chair Chia-Hsuan Lin, Associate Conductor & Jack & Mary Ann Frable Associate Conductor Chair Daniel Myssyk, Assistant Conductor Erin R. Freeman, Director of the Richmond Symphony Chorus and James Erb Choral Chair VIOLIN Daisuke Yamamoto, Concertmaster, Tom & Elizabeth Allen Concertmaster Chair Adrian Pintea, Associate Concertmaster Ellen Cockerham Riccio, Principal Second Violin Meredith Riley, Associate Principal Second Violin, Bob & Nancy Hill Associate Principal Second Violin Chair Alana Carithers Catherine Cary Jill Foster Justin Gopal Alison Hall Margie Heath Jeannette Jang Timothy Judd Susanna Klein Stacy Matthews Anna Rogers Susan Spafford Jocelyn Adelman Vorenberg Ross Monroe Winter Susy Yim

Kelly Ali Alec Hiller Peter Spaar

VIOLA Molly Sharp, Principal, The Mary Anne Rennolds Chair HyoJoo Uh, Associate Principal Zsuzsanna Emödi Stephen Schmidt Elizabeth Gopal Wayne Graham Derek Smith Jocelyn Smith

BASSOON Thomas Schneider, Principal Matthew Lano, Associate Principal +

CELLO Neal Cary, Principal Jason McComb, Associate Principal, RSL Chair Ryan Lannan Schuyler Slack, Kenneth and Bettie Christopher Perry Foundation Chair Barbara Gaden Adrienne Gifford-Yang Peter Greydanus Ismar Gomes DOUBLE BASS Andrew Sommer, Principal Rumano Solano, Associate Principal

FLUTE Mary Boodell, Principal Jennifer Debiec Lawson, Associate Principal Catherine Broyles PICCOLO Catherine Broyles OBOE Shawn Welk, Principal+ Lauren Williams, Associate Principal + ENGLISH HORN Lauren Williams, Principal + CLARINET David Lemelin, Principal Edward Sundra, Associate Principal E-FLAT CLARINET Edward Sundra, Principal BASS CLARINET Sara Reese

TIMPANI James Jacobson, Principal PERCUSSION Clifton Hardison, Principal Robert Jenkins David Foster HARP Lynette Wardle, Principal PIANO & CELESTE Russell Wilson, Principal, Quincy & Anne Owen Cole Chair + acting * leave of absence With the exception of principal musicians, string sections are listed alphabetically.

The Richmond Symphony is a member of the League of American Orchestras.

As of September 14, 2020

CONTRABASSOON Vacant HORN Dominic Rotella, Principal Devin Gossett, II Horn The Luzi & George Wheeler Second Horn Chair Erin Lano, Associate Principal Roger Novak TRUMPET Samuel Huss, Principal Brian Strawley, Associate Principal Mary Bowden TROMBONE Evan Williams, Principal Scott Winger BASS TROMBONE Scott Cochran TUBA Vacant

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2020/21 RICHMOND SYMPHONY CHORUS Erin Freeman, Director and James Erb Choral Chair Barbara Baker, Manager Ingrid Keller, Rehearsal Pianist SOPRANO Arianne Barrus, Music Section Leader Faith A. Alejandro Gerry Baldwin Arianne Barrus Gabrielle Francesca Bergeret Kerry Blum Leslie Brewer Brittany Brooks Hailey Broyles Carrie Bullard Ann Whitfield Carter Leigh Anne Clary Miranda Clayton Victoria Cottrell Lauren Lexa Crapanzano Shirley B. Diggs Minh-Vy Duong Courtnei A. Fleming Claire Foley Sharon B. Freude Lisa C. Fusco Catrina J. Garland Sarah George Bethanie Glover Kerry L. Grey Jennifer Hagen Amanda Halverson Elizabeth C. Harper Rebecca Harrison Cynthia Hickman Victoria A. Jackson Ella Nelson Johnson Amanda Khalil Deborah Klosterman Nina Lankin Ashley Larson Stevee Libert Ashley M. Love Gail A. Lyddane Leslie Maloney Eve Minter Ariel Mitchell Lucy Wagner Mitzner Terry Moffett Shannon Montague Anna Moore Kristen Morrow Kari Nordvig Jeanne Patton Stephanie Poxon Emma Riggs Samantha P. Sawyer Allison Elliott Schutzer Johanna Scogin 48

Margaret Duncan Storti Erin Stuhlman Ann Voss Mary Ellen Wadsworth Madeleine Wagner Emily Anderson Walls Daniella White Savannah Whittenburg Cora Wise Michele Wittig ALTO Rachel Foster Fish, Music Section Leader Andrea Johnson Almoite Jan Altman Barbara Baker Caroline Bass Barbara C. Batson Marcia Becker Laura McBride Box Elaina F. Brennan Ayana Butler Sarah Capehart Melva Carle Laura Altman Carr Linda H. Castle Charlene Nash Christie Erin Clapp Chelsea Cockburn Pamela Cross Savannah Rai Daniels Lynn DiChristina Mary Butler Eggleston Kathryn Rawley Erhardt Maria J. K. Everett Rachel Foster Fish Sarah Frook Gallo Vivienne Gire Elizabeth Goodwin Liz Holland Shannon Hooker Elena Jones Kate Juliana Sadie Lougée Julia Martin Judy Mawyer Janna Maxey Sarah McGrath Melisse Menchel Charity Myers Samantha Nacman Elliott Neal Kyndal Owens Eunyoung Park Kenna Payne Janet Tice Powell

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Kevin L. Barger, Assistant Rehearsal Pianist Melva Carle, Rehearsal Assistant Carl Eng, Rehearsal Assistant Emily Powers Lynne H. Read Patricia Reddington Nancy Reed * Jane Pulliam Riddle Kate Roberts Arianna Rose Charlotte Rowe Meaghan Rymer Faith D. Sartoris * Katherine Shenk Jayne Sneed Mary Lou P. Sommardahl Maureen Stinger Darlene Walker Temple Jane Koenig Terry Alexandria Vandervall Casey Vandervall Sally Warthen * Becca Wethered Julian White TENOR Aaron Todd, Music Section Leader Benjamin T. Almoite Ric Anderson Jake Barger Kevin L. Barger David Carter Joshua Ellis Carl J. Eng John D. Finney Ed Galloway Matt Gillis Jody Gordon Roy A. Hoagland Jeremy Hoffman Zachary James David Kehlenbeck Rondy Michael Lazaro William N. Marshall Alex McKay Tommy Miller William Miller Christopher Nixon LeGrand Northcutt Charles H. O’Neal * Wesley Pollard Jim Rakes

Henry P. Robb Craig E. Ross Rick Sample Aaron Todd Steve Travers Roger Wooldridge BASS John Luther, Music Section Leader Ed Alexander Matt Benko Jim Bennett John Byrne M. Stephen Cates Mike Champlin J. Coltrane Conklin David C. Cooley Don Creach Andrew J. Dolson Zachary Haga Sam Holland * David Hoover Charles Inch Don Irwin Chris James Marc Kealhofer Brian Lam Aaron Loy John Luther Kevin Mann Martin McFadden Bryon Mitchell Douglass Moyers W. Hunter Old Cameron Parker Val Puster Stephen G. Read William Bradley Roberts James V. Romanik Michael Simpson Alexei Staruk Richard Szucs Jon A. Teates Paul C. Tuttle Dillard Watt John D. Watt Hunter Williamson Stephen V. Wright

*Active membership since the Chorus’s first performance in 1971.

The Chorus thanks Epiphany Lutheran Church for the use of its facilities for auditions.

RICHMOND SYMPHONY STAFF Administration Lacey Huszcza, Executive Director Gail Henshaw, Director of Finance & Administration Shacoya Henley, Accounting & Human Resources Manager Advancement & Patron Communications Frances Sterling, Director of Advancement & Patron Communications Helena Barth, Digital Marketing Coordinator Victoria Cottrell, Annual Fund Coordinator Kira Gay Hiller, Senior Manager of Patron Services & Sales Ashley Moore, Production Designer Ryan Scott, Office & Executive Assistant Zoe Thomas, Patron Services Assistant Richmond Symphony Chorus Barbara Baker, Manager Education & Community Engagement Walter Bitner, Director of Education & Community Engagement

Ingrid Keller, RSSoM Program Manager Marcey Leonard, RSSoM Program Manager & Community Partnerships Manager Amy Pintea, MAP & Housing Coordinator Jonathan Sanford, Education Coordinator Jennifer Tobin, Assistant Director of Education & Youth Orchestra Manager Menuhin Competition Richmond 2021 Miriam Fogel, Project Director Ashley Davis, Marketing & Communications Manager Operations Jennifer Arnold, Director of Artistic Planning & Orchestral Operations Brent Bowden, Production Manager Kevin Estes, Personnel Manager Matthew Gold, Orchestra Librarian Brent Klettke, Special Events & Assistant Production Manager Pete Mathis, Operations Manager

PRODUCTION THANK YOUS Bringing this concert to your homes and creating the extra digital content such as interviews and watch parties would not have been possible without the following people. We are very grateful for their time and input into our new livestream endeavour.

Virginia Public Media Livestream Partner Craig Keeton, Director Coleman Jennings, Audio Mike Rogers, Camera Phillip Newsome, Camera Dan Tierney, Mobile Production Engineer Elliott Torrence, Engineering For the Richmond Symphony Ed Thompson, Audio Engineer

We would also like to thank Dolly Vogt and the wonderful staff at ASM who have ensured the Dominion Energy Center is safe and well managed for the public to use during these unprecedented times. www.richmondsymphony.com

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CORPORATE, FOUNDATION, & GOVERNMENT GIFTS The Richmond Symphony gratefully recognizes the following organizations for their support, received between July 1, 2019 and June 30, 2020.

LEAD GIFTS ($100,000+) Altria Group, Inc. Chesterfield County E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation Richmond Symphony League

GUARANTOR’S CIRCLE ($50,000 - $99,999)

City of Richmond CultureWorks & The Arts and Cultural Funding Consortium Dominion Energy* Genworth Henrico County Virginia Commission for the Arts

VIRTUOSO’S CIRCLE ($20,000 - $49,999) Atlantic Union Bank Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU Covington Travel Hanover County Moses D. Nunnally, Jr. Charitable Trust B R.E.B. Foundation The Rea Charitable Trust Shelton H. Short, Jr. Trust Weinstein Properties

CONDUCTOR’S CIRCLE ($10,000 - $19,999) Hamilton Beach Brands, Inc. Keiter The London Company Riverfront Investment Group Troutman Sanders LLP* 50

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Truist (SunTrust Bank)* Wells Fargo The Wilbur Moreland Havens Charitable Foundatin

CONCERTMASTER’S CIRCLE ($7,500 - $9,999) Bank of America Charitable Foundation* The Estes Foundation Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP Margarete and Siegfried Eckhaus Charitable Trust Wauford Group

PRINCIPAL’S CIRCLE ($5,000 - $7,499)

Emily S. and Coleman A. Hunter Charitable Trust KPMG LLP Markel Corporation VAMAC, Inc.

MUSICIAN’S CIRCLE ($3,000 - $4,999) Chesapeake Corporation Foundation County of Goochland School Board ExxonMobil Foundation* H & H Aircraft Services, Inc. Powhatan County School Board

BENEFACTOR CIRCLE ($1,500 - $2,999) The Arts Council of Randolph-Macon College Christian Family Foundation Cowardin Jewelers Deloitte Elmon Duff Charitable Lead Annuity Trust Kiwanis Club of Richmond M&T Bank

McGuireWoods LLP Mutual Assurance Society of Virginia NewMarket Corporation Spider Management Company, LLC TahDah Foundation TCV Trust and Wealth Management, Inc. TowneBank University of Richmond VPM Williams Mullen

SUSTAINER LEVEL ($1,000 - $1,499) Kiwanis Club of Midlothian-Chesterfield RECO Industries, Inc. Whitley/Service Roofing & Sheet Metal Company

FAMILY LEVEL ($500 - $999) Blackwood Development Cauthorne Paper Company, Inc. Coille Limited Partnership, LP* Jan Hampton Violins

SUPPORTER ($250 - $499)

G.E. Foundation* McKesson * Microsoft* Pfizer, Inc.* RGA Reinsurance Company* Rhapsody Piano & Guitar TabbCo Virginia Credit Union*

* Denotes Matching Gift Company

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PLEASE MAKE A GIFT! Make a gift today to the Richmond Symphony and help change lives. Now, more than ever, we all need to be uplifted through the power of music and thanks to our Symphony family we are able to do this. Your gift ensures the artistic excellence of the Richmond Symphony, attracts world-class artists to our region, brings welcoming free community festivals to our neighborhoods, enriches our educational offerings for the young and old alike of our community, and helps us expand our digital presence to offer online experiences for all to enjoy.

HOW TO GIVE » Give online at www.richmondsymphony.com/give » Call Victoria Cottrell,

Annual Fund Coordinator 804.788.4717, ext. 102 » By check in the mail to: The Richmond Symphony ATTN: Victoria Cottrell 612 East Grace St., Suite 401, Richmond, VA 23219 QUESTIONS? Contact Victoria Cottrell, Annual Fund Coordinator 804.788.4717, x 102 vcottrell@richmondsymphony.com STOCK GIFTS AND TRANSFERS The Richmond Symphony has accounts with two brokerages: BB&T Scott & Stringfellow Account #70491091 DTC #0702 Phone: 804.780.3232 Davenport & Company Account #7085-4226 DTC #0715 Phone: 804.780.2000 52

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THE DONOR ADVISORY BOARD A forum and sounding board of those significantly invested in the organization’s success, the Donor Advisory Board meets for conversations and receptions with the Symphony’s leadership team. Members receive special behind-the-scenes access, serve as advocates and ambassadors for the Symphony, and provide feedback and advice on the Symphony’s work.

The group consists of individuals who make annual leadership gifts of $1,500 or more or represent businesses that contribute $5,000 or more.

THE 20/30 GROUP The 20/30 Group is a collection of individuals between the ages of 21-39 who attend concerts, engage in networking and social activities, and provide feedback to help the Richmond Symphony enhance programming and reach new audiences in the Richmond community. To learn more contact 2030group@richmondsymphony.com

THE COMMUNITY COUNCIL The Community Council is a group of civic leaders and individuals from throughout Metro Richmond.

Membership is intended to reflect every district of the City and surrounding counties. The Council advises the Symphony on methods to enhance the diversity, inclusivity, engagement and accessibility of its offerings.

DONOR LISTING A warm thank you to all of the generous donors who gave to the annual fund during the 2019/2020 season. In an effort to ensure that these listings are kept as updated as possible, they will now be kept on our website.

To view the most recent list, please visit www.richmondsymphony.com/donors

ENDOWMENT FUNDS We welcome additional gifts to the endowed funds already established within the Richmond Symphony Foundation. Please contact Trish Poupore (804.788.4717, ext.115) for more information.

• • • •

• • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Tom and Elizabeth Allen Concertmaster Chair Fund Lewis T. Booker Music Director Chair Fund The Braymer Family Music Library Fund Thomas P. Bryan, Jr. Fund (Featured performance by a Richmond Symphony musician/s on a subscription series once each season) Rudy Bunzl Fund for the Future (formerly known as the Rainy Day Reserve Fund) Cabell Fund for Artistic Excellence Quincy and Anne Owen Cole Chair Fund (Principal Piano/Celeste) The Dunkum Endowed Fund for Music Education James Erb Choral Chair Fund The David J.L. Fisk Special Events Fund Founders’ Fund (Unrestricted Endowment) Jack and Mary Ann Frable Associate Conductor Chair Fund Florence Robertson Givens Guest Artist Fund (Guest Pianist annually) Stephen M. and Cheryl G. Goddard Fund Bob and Nancy Hill Assistant Principal Second Violin Chair Fund Hopkins-Eggleston Family Fund for Discovery Concerts The Linhart Foundation Fund The Joe and Caroline Murillo Fund for Artistic

Excellence and Community Engagement • Music Director’s Commissioning Fund (including the John Powell Fund) • Music Education Scholarship Fund (including the Virginia Optimist Clubs’ Scholarship Fund and the Dominion Resources Scholarship Fund for the Richmond Symphony Youth Orchestra Program) • Martha D. Newell Memorial Scholarship Fund • Mary Morton Parsons Education Fund • Kenneth and Bettie Christopher Perry Foundation Cello Chair Fund • Edmund A. Rennolds, Jr. Fund (Memorial Concert annually) • Mary Anne Rennolds Chair Fund (Principal Viola) • Richmond Symphony League Chair Fund (Assistant Principal Cello) • The Brian Szabo Memorial Scholarship Fund • Emma Gray Trigg Fund • The John R. Warkentin Fund • The Watkins Big Tent Fund • The Luzi & George Wheeler Second Horn Chair Fund • Cheryl G. and Henry A. Yancey, Jr., M.D. Fund • Tribute Fund (Gifts in memory or in honor of people or event) or events)

GIFTS OF MERIT TO THE RICHMOND SYMPHONY LEAGUE The Richmond Symphony League is a non-profit corporation with the sole purpose of supporting the operating and educational programs of The Richmond Symphony. The generosity of the League’s donors and event attendees allows it to make annual donations to the Richmond Symphony. This listing acknowledges donors during the 2019/20 Season:

Gifts of $5,000+

Chuck and June Rayfield The Renaissance Lisa and George Ruzek Butch and Ludi Webber Mrs. Henry A. Yancey, Jr.

Gifts of $1,000 - $4,999 Mary Ball Joanne Barreca Ann and Phil Burks Butler Portraits Myra Bennett Geoffrey and Allene Cahill Custom Kitchen Inc Faye W. Holland Jeff Lubin Portrait Studio

Susan Murphey Outdoor Lighting Perspectives Red Carpet Benefit Auctions Rejuvenate MD Veronica and Jerry Wauford Matthew and Susan Williams Susan and Fred Williams Jack and Helen Winn

Gifts of $300 - $999

Betty J. Anderson Rev. Dr. Vienna Cobb Anderson David H. Berry Paul and Ann Bolesta David and Julie Brantley Geoff and Allene Cahill Covington Travel

David Barden Interiors Yves Delorme Fink’s Jewelers Flemming’s Steak House and Wine Bar Maria E. Gallegos Susan Scharpf Gentry Hermitage Country Club Jo Kennedy Kroger Elinor and Frank Kuhn Carol Meese Tom and Beth Noakes Richmond Country Club Richmond Symphony Salisbury Country Club Total Wine and More Willow Oaks Country Club

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THE RENNOLDS SOCIETY Edmund A. Rennolds, Jr. (affectionately known as “Ned”) and his wife, Mary Anne, were founders of the Richmond Symphony with Brigadier General Vincent Meyer and Emma Gray Trigg. Ned and Mary Anne were synonymous with the Richmond Symphony. They worked tirelessly to help establish the orchestra – volunteering in many capacities, housing musicians, holding meetings and receptions in their home, supporting the orchestra financially, and giving valued guidance. They agreed to lend their name to the Rennolds Society hoping membership would grow and help sustain the future of the Richmond Symphony.

It’s easy to join the Rennolds Society – enjoy special events for members, use of the Dominion Energy Center for the Performing Arts Donor Lounge, and help secure the future of the orchestra! Members have an interest in the Symphony and have made provisions for the orchestra in their will or other estate planning vehicle.

The Richmond Symphony gratefully acknowledges the vision and foresight of the Rennolds Society members: Anonymous (9)

Lisa Fusco

Mrs. Gordon C. Raab †

Tom and Elizabeth Allen

The Honorable Barbara J. Gaden

Chuck and June Rayfield

Dr. Virginia A. Arnold †

Mrs. Ross S. Gibson †

Mr. and Mrs. Charles L. Reed, Jr.

Joanne Barreca and Victor Bouril †

Ross S. Gibson, Jr. †

Edmund A. Rennolds, Jr. †

Matthew T. Blackwood †

Jane and Jim Hartough

Mr. and Mrs. W. Taylor Reveley III

Nancy † and Lewis † T. Booker

Mr. and Mrs. Robert E. Hill

Robert E. Rigsby

Laura McBride Box and Richard Box

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Jefferson III

David B. Robinson, CPA

Mrs. Caroline Y. Brandt

Lawrence Ryan Jones and Mary

Lisa and Leon Roday

Drs. Meta and John Braymer

Lynn Jones

T. Raysor Salley, Jr. †

Dr. and Mrs. O. Christian Bredrup, Jr.

Frank and Elinor Kuhn

Rick Sample

Miss Goldie H. Burkholder†

Celia K. Luxmoore and David J.

Eric L. Schellenberger

Ann Turner Burks

Baker

Mrs. Elizabeth G. Schneider †

Mrs. Royal E. Cabell, Jr. †

Jane S. and James T. † Lyon

Lawson and Joanne Sherman

Steve and Claire Capel

Dr. Edgar E. MacDonald †

Joan M. Spyhalski

Miss Phyllis Cartwright †

John B. Mann

Mr. and Mrs. Donald E. Steeber

Neal Cary

Bob † and Mary Coleman † Martin

Mr. † and Mrs. Charles G. Thalhimer

The Rev. Dr. Vienna Cobb-Anderson

Ms. Sarah Maxwell †

Marcia and Harry Thalhimer

Miss Hannah Lide Coker †

Mrs. John H. McDowell †

Mrs. Nancy White Thomas †

Lucille B. † and Robert O. † Cole

David A. and Charlotte A. McGoye

Rebecca R. Trader

Waverly M. Cole, M.D. †

Mr. Dana E. McKnight

Dr. E. Randolph Trice †

Dr. John R. Cook †

Lynn and Pierce † McMartin

Dr. John R. Warkentin

Janet C. Coon

Heather Miller

Butch and Ludi Webber

Don Creach and Karen Raschke

Jeffrey Miller

Robert H. Welch †

Charles “Chuck” Dabney †

Mr. † and Mrs. † William Read Miller

Mr. Perry A. Weyner†

Elizabeth R. and Ellis M. Dunkum

Virginia B. and A. Scott Moncure

Dr. Elisabeth M. Wollan

Emma Gray Emory † and Howard

Gerald Morgan, Jr. †

Cheryl G. and Henry A. Yancey, Jr.,

McCue, Jr. †

J. Dabney and Betty Booker Morriss

Ruth and James† Erb

Mr. and Mrs. † Johnson C. Moss, Jr. †

Marilyn Lipsitz Flax and Robert L.

Margaret I. † and Walter J. † O’Brien, Jr.

Flax Mrs. Suzanne Franke

M.D. † John and Bucci Zeugner

Mrs. Hunter R. Pettus, Jr. (Patsy)

As of October 13, 2020

G.V. Puster, Jr.

† Deceased

For information, please contact Trish Poupore, Donor Relations Director, tpoupore@richmondsympony.com 54

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2021 season winter/spring

St udio Series: f e bruary February 9 – 21 St udio Series: m arch March 16 – 28 St udio Series: may May 11 – 23

Extraordinary dancing for extraordinary times

v irtu al and in - pe r s o n t ic k et s ava ila ble 804.344.0906 x224 | richmondballet.com www.richmondsymphony.com

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