Program Notes: Noel Noel

PROGRAM ROBERT ALLEN / Arr. Bruce Donnelly "(There's No Place Like) Home for the Holidays"

INTERMISSION

JOHN FRANCIS WADE / Arr. Arthur Harris "Adeste fideles"

JOHN WILLIAMS / Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse Three Holiday Songs from Home Alone I. Somewhere In My

Memory

TRADITIONAL / Arr. Steven Amundson "Away in a Manger" TRADITIONAL / Arr. Gary Fry "De tierra lejana venimos" (Puerto Rican Carol) from Jornadas

Saturday, December 15 | 8PM Friday, December 21 | 8PM Saturday, December 22 | 2PM & 8PM

NOEL NOEL A Special Concert Presentation

FRANZ SCHUBERT / Arr. William Ryden "Ave Maria" ALAN SILVESTRI / Ed. William Ross "Believe" from The Polar Express SERGE PROKOFIEV Suite from Lieutenant Kijé, Op. 60 IV. Troika MYKOLA LEONTOVICH / Arr. Peter J. Wilhousky "Carol of the Bells" LUCAS RICHMAN Hanukkah Festival Overture

conductor Sameer Patel vocalist and narrator Bryonha Marie Parham San Diego Master Chorale SDMC Music Director John Russell San Diego Children's Choir SDCC Music Director Ruthie Millgard

JAMES CHADWICH / Arr. Arthur Harris "Angels We Have Heard on High"

LEROY ANDERSON Sleigh Ride

FRANZ XAVER GRUBER / Arr. John Rutter "Silent Night" STEVEN AMUNDSON Rejoice!

JERRY HERMAN / Arr. Robert Wendel "We Need a Little Christmas" DIMITRI TIOMKIN / Orch. Paul Marquart and Christopher Palmer; Revised by Patrick Russ and Paul Henning Suite from It's a Wonderful Life II. Theme IRVING BERLIN / Arr. John Moss "White Christmas" ERIC WHITACRE "Glow" JAMES STEPHENSON A Holly and Jolly Sing-Along

ADOLPH-CHARLES ADAM / Arr. Gary Fry "O Holy Night"

Performance at the Jacobs Music Center's Copley Symphony Hall

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PROGRAM JOHN FRANCIS WADE / Arr. Arthur Harris "Adeste fideles" TRADITIONAL / Arr. Steven Amundson "Away in a Manger" TRADITIONAL / Arr. Gary Fry "De tierra lejana venimos" (Puerto Rican Carol) from Jornadas VICTOR HERBERT / Trans. Frank Campbell-Watson "March of the Toys" from Babes in Toyland LEROY ANDERSON Sleigh Ride

Sunday, December 16 | 2PM

NOEL NOEL A Family Concert

JOHN WILLIAMS / Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse Three Holiday Songs from Home Alone I. Somewhere In My Memory FRANZ XAVER GRUBER / Arr. John Rutter "Silent Night" VINCE GUARALDI / Arr. David Pugh A Charlie Brown Christmas ALAN SILVESTRI / Ed. William Ross "Believe" from The Polar Express RANDOL ALAN BASS The Night Before Christmas

conductor Sameer Patel vocalist Bryonha Marie Parham

ERIC WHITACRE "Glow"

San Diego Master Chorale SDMC Music Director John Russell

JAMES STEPHENSON A Holly and Jolly Sing-Along

San Diego Children's Choir SDCC Music Director Ruthie Millgard

TRADITIONAL / Arr. Gary Fry “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”

All performances at the Jacobs Music Center's Copley Symphony Hall

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PROGRAM NOTES | NOEL NOEL – DECEMBER 15, 16, 21 & 22

ABOUT THE CONDUCTOR

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Internationally recognized for his deep musicianship and passionate communication, SAMEER PATEL is one of America's most exciting young conductors.

BRYONHA MARIE PARHAM most recently made her mark in the Hal Prince-Susan Stroman directed Broadway retrospective Prince Of Broadway, in which she created not just three distinct roles, but three different worlds. From the winsome shop girl Amalia of She Loves Me; to the British chanteuse of Cabaret; to an indelible Queenie from Show Boat, Parham proved herself an actress-singer-dancer of astonishing range and versatility. Parham is equally comfortable on Broadway (Prince of Broadway representing her fifth Broadway show) or the Opera House (Bernstein’s Mass with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Ricky Ian Gordon’s upcoming adaptation of Lynn Nottage’s Intimate Apparel, Metropolitan Opera, spring 2018).

In the 2018-19 season, Patel continues in his role as Associate Conductor of the San Diego Symphony and as Associate Conductor of the Sun Valley Summer Symphony, whose distinguished musicians come from many of North America’s finest orchestras. Upcoming and recent engagements include the orchestras of Toronto, St. Louis, Detroit, New Jersey, Phoenix, Sacramento, La Jolla, Toledo, New Hampshire, Fresno, Knoxville, Pacific, Alabama, Naples, Reading and Jacksonville, as well as the National Symphony in Washington, D.C and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. Abroad, he has conducted acclaimed performances with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Sanremo, the Orchestra Giovanile Italiana, the Leipziger Sinfonieorchester and others. With an unending enthusiasm for understanding the music of our time, Patel has curated programs and has championed music by living composers such as Adam Schoenberg, Anna Clyne, Mason Bates, Ellen Reid, Hannah Lash, Tan Dun and others.

His impressive work across three continents has led to three consecutive Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Awards, which are given to promising young conductors in the early stages of their career. In 2016 he was recognized by Daniele Gatti as a top conductor at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, Italy, which led to his acclaimed professional debut with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Sanremo. In 2013 Kurt Masur, the late Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, recognized Patel’s talents with a prize from the Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Foundation, which allowed him to study with and assist Maestro Masur in his appearances with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. That same year, Patel was one of only six conductors selected by the League of American Orchestras for the Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, which led to subsequent, multiple engagements with that orchestra. In the early stages of his career he held prestigious fellowships with the Chicago Sinfonietta and Boston Philharmonic, and previously served as Associate Conductor of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic in Indiana.

A graduate of the University of Michigan, Patel furthered his training across Europe with some of the greatest conductors of our time, including Gianandrea Noseda, Daniele Gatti, the late Kurt Masur, Bernard Haitink, David Zinman and Neeme and Paavo Järvi.

Born and raised in Michigan, Patel is an enthusiastic advocate for music education, and in his spare time he pursues his passions for literature, languages, traveling, history and geopolitics. He makes his home in Southern California with his wife, Shannon, and their young son, Devan.

You can follow Patel on Twitter and Instagram: @sameerap2 n

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Broadway first took notice of Parham take notice in the acclaimed Kennedy Center revival of Ragtime, where she tore off the roof with the scorching Act 1 finale; then for director Diane Paulus’ Tony-winning revival of Porgy & Bess, she broke audience’s hearts with her searing rendition of the mournful, show-stopping aria “My Man’s Gone Now.” Other appearances on the great stem include featured roles in After Midnight and Book Of Mormon.

In addition to her career on Broadway, Parham has graced major regional theatre stages, having twice essayed the role of Effie in Dreamgirls in critically acclaimed, award-nominated turns; a groundbreaking voice of the Plant in Little Shop Of Horrors; and the Beggar Woman in Sweeney Todd for “Live At Lincoln Center.”

Hailing from Kansas City, Missouri, Bryonha is a graduate of the Music Theatre Department at Illinois Wesleyan University. She currently resides in Manhattan. n

DR. JOHN RUSSELL is the Director of Choral and Vocal Studies at Palomar College and the Music Director of the San Diego Master Chorale and.

At Palomar he conducts the Chamber Singers and the Palomar Chorale oversees the vocal music program.

As Music Director of the SDMC, Dr. Russell conducts and coordinates all artistic activities of the chorale, which include preparing the chorus for performances with San Diego Symphony and other San Diego orchestras including the Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra and La Jolla Symphony. In addition, he serves on the summer conducting faculty at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey where he teaches master classes in conducting for the annual Westminster Summer Choral Festival.

Dr. Russell is also frequently in demand as a tenor soloist and was recently noted for his “heart-melting legato”. His recent solo performances include Hector Berlioz’s Te Deum with the San Diego Symphony, St. John Passion (Evangelist) with Pepperdine University, Carl Orff's Carmina Burana with the Lisbon Summer S AN DIEG O SYM P H O N Y O RC H ES T RA 2 0 1 8-1 9 S EAS ON D E C E M B E R 20 1 8

PROGRAM NOTES | NOEL NOEL – DECEMBER 15, 16, 21 & 22 Choral Festival Chorus and Orchestra in Lisbon, Portugal, and Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass with the Bach Collegium San Diego.

Dr. Russell was previously the Director of Choral Activities at California State University, San Bernardino, and has held similar positions at Albion College (Michigan), Los Angeles City College, Cypress College and the San Diego Children’s Choir. Prior to his work in California, Dr. Russell was the principal choral conductor at the LaGuardia School of Music & Art and Performing Arts (the Fame School) in New York City. At LaGuardia he was the assistant chairperson of the Music Department, conductor of the symphonic chorus and voice instructor for the school’s advanced vocalists.

While in New York he conducted in over 20 performances with the world-renowned Orchestra of St. Luke’s, served as a clinician for the New York Philharmonic’s Education Department and was a guest conductor with New York City National Chorale.

Dr. John Russell is a native of Kalamazoo, Michigan and is a graduate of Western Michigan University and Columbia University. He received his Doctorate of Musical Arts in Choral Music from the University of Southern California. His primary conducting mentors are Craig Arnold, Joe Miller and Jo-Michael Scheibe and he has studied voice with William Appel, Curt Peterson, Jeanne Goffi-Fynn and Gary Glaze. He currently resides in San Diego with his wife, Jill and son, Parker. n

Declared "The Voice of San Diego" by mayoral proclamation, SAN DIEGO MASTER CHORALE (SDMC) is the region’s premier choral ensemble, showcasing approximately 100 of San Diego's finest singers. Established in 1961, the SDMC is the preferred ensemble for the San Diego Symphony Orchestra and other collaborating organizations, and it produces an annual series of concerts featuring the world’s greatest choral works.

The Chorus was presented the with the prestigious ASCAP/Alice Parker Award for Innovative Choral Programming in recognition of its debut performance of Daniel Kellogg's The Fiery Furnace with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra. In 2012 The San Diego Master Chorale was also chosen to perform under the direction of the celebrated Chinese composer Tan Dun in the San Diego premiere of his Water Passion According to St. Matthew.

The mission of the San Diego Master Chorale is “to promote and preserve the art of choral music through performance, education and diverse community outreach.” Their singers, who are all unpaid volunteers, also participate in the Chorale's community outreach programs. They regularly collaborate with the San Diego Youth Symphony, Youth Philharmonic Orchestra and other San Diego arts organizations.

After completing her undergraduate degree, she taught music to 6-12th graders in Queens, New York where she developed and implemented a comprehensive music program at a new public school. During her undergraduate and graduate training, Millgard performed with choirs in regional and national American Choral Director's Association (ACDA) conventions and in various venues across Europe. The chamber ensemble she sang at the University of Oregon won first place in the Fleischmann International Trophy Competition in 2013 in Cork, Ireland, competing against professional choirs from around the globe. More recently, Millgard conducted various district honors’ choirs at the middle and elementary school levels. Graduate conducting coaching includes Oregon Bach Festival Artistic Director Matthew Halls, Matthew Oltman of Chanticleer and founding member of the Kings Singers, Simon Carrington. Millgard has been a teacher/conductor with the San Diego Children’s Choir since 2014. n

Founded in 1990, the SAN DIEGO CHILDREN'S CHOIR is the area's oldest and largest choral training program serving children ages four–18 at locations throughout San Diego County.

The San Diego Children’s Choir provides children with music education and performance opportunities that foster performance excellence and collaboration at the highest artistic level, nurturing individual development and creating a foundation for lifelong success. The Choir enriches the cultural fabric of San Diego County through the transformative power of music.

Our instructors are passionate about providing the highest quality of music education. Music literacy is taught at every level and includes healthy vocal technique, pitch matching, sight reading music, identifying structural elements and working well as a group. For our choristers, that translates to confidence, poise and cooperation.

The San Diego Children's Choir teaches music education through creative rehearsal techniques that engage the whole child in healthy vocal production and music literacy as well as encouraging self-confidence and a sense of community and belonging. San Diego Children's Choir choristers also gain leadership skills during their time in the choir that are nurtured through opportunities in rehearsal and, at the older levels, through formal leadership roles. Because of their training, San Diego Children's Choir choristers have the tools to pursue a wide variety of musical outlets, and the confidence to pursue their goals! n

RUTHIE MILLGARD has a bachelor's degree in music education from Western Washington University and a master of music in choral conducting from the University of Oregon. Millgard started out in children's choirs as a girl, singing in the Boise Opera Children's Chorus and the Seattle Girls’ Choir.

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