Love and Obsession: The Beatles to Berlioz

Journey Together 2021 –2022 S E ASO N

Corporate Season Sponsor:

Journey Together 2021 –2022 S E ASO N Welcome back to live symphonic music. I am so excited to have a full orchestra on stage again and an audience with whom to share this beautiful music. The past two years have brought challenges I never could have imagined.

We found ways to continue to make musical connections with small group performances, online presentations, and outdoor concerts; though each of these presented their own challenges for musicians and patrons alike, the biggest issue was not being together. I look forward to standing at the back of the hall during the shows and hearing the audience applaud the incredible talents of these professionals. I don’t know about you, but I am ready to clap, cheer and sing with friends and strangers, knowing we are experiencing something together that is truly and wonderfully unique.

Christmas in Tulsa is first-up and I know you will not be disappointed. Longtime Signature Symphony friend and Broadway artist Scott Coulter has put together an incredible show featuring past finalists from our Tulsa Sings! competitions. These artists all have Tulsa ties and will set the mood for the upcoming holidays. This concert always marks the start of the Christmas season for me and is made even better by sharing it with friends, both new and old.

In the spring, we will switch our focus to hiring our new Artistic Director and Conductor for Signature Symphony at TCC. More than two years ago, we had our first interviews with the top ten applicants for this unique position. The three finalists have been preparing to share their talents and vision for a long time; and it will finally happen in January, February, and early April when Scott Seaton, Alejandro Gómez Guillén and Robert Franz join us for a busy week of making music and getting to know Tulsa. I hope you will join us not only for the concerts, but also for the free rehearsals, pre-concert talks, and chats in the lobby to get to know these accomplished music directors. And yes, there will be a quiz at the end. We will be asking each patron for their feedback and impressions of the performances to better help us select the next (and only the third in 40+ years) Artistic Director for your orchestra.

What I have learned over the past two years is to have a Plan B (and even a Plan C, D, E and F) because things will change. This experience has taught me to be patient and flexible; but mostly it has renewed my passion for the arts and live music. We will continue to monitor the latest health trends and find ways to safely come together. I will never take for granted another opportunity to hear a musician perform live. It is a special gift and I am humbled and overjoyed you are here with us tonight to celebrate.

With deepest gratitude, Kelly Clark Dean of Visual and Performing Arts

Signature Symphony at TCC Signature Symphony at TCC is a professional orchestra operating as part of Tulsa Community College. In addition to performance, music education and community engagement are priorities for Signature Symphony and the Signature Symphony musicians. The orchestra includes 70 professional musicians who not only perform with the orchestra but also teach and coach music students at TCC, other colleges and universities, and various public and private schools and studios in the Tulsa area.

Christmas in Tulsa

Featuring Scott Coulter and Tulsa Sings! Finalists DEC. 11 • 7:30 P.M. We are kicking off the holiday season with Signature Symphony’s annual Christmas in Tulsa concert as our full orchestra returns to the PACE stage! This year’s concert features holiday favorites performed by our past Tulsa Sings! competition finalists led by Broadway star Scott Coulter. Embrace the sights and sounds of Christmas as the Signature Symphony long-standing tradition of welcoming the holidays with delightful music continues.

Tulsa Sings!

One of the creators of Tulsa Sings! is Scott Coulter, a New York City based vocalist and concert producer.

With former Signature Symphony Music Director Andrés Franco, he helped develop the vocal competition, now in its third year, and is instrumental in selecting and mentoring the finalists through the vocal competition.

We are pleased to welcome Scott and finalists from the 2018, 2019 and 2020 Tulsa Sings! competitions to the Signature stage this year for Christmas in Tulsa.

Scott Coulter Scott Coulter is one of New York’s most honored vocalists having received five MAC Awards, five Bistro Awards and two Nightlife Awards for Outstanding Vocalist. He’s performed at most of NYC’s top rooms including Feinstein’s at The Regency where he spent a record-setting eight months performing the revue 11 O’CLOCK NUMBERS AT 11 O’CLOCK which he also cocreated, directed and musically arranged. His self-titled debut CD won the 2003 MAC Award for Outstanding Recording and was chosen as the best recording of the year by TheatreMania and Cabaret Scenes magazines.

Scott was director and star of A CHRISTMAS CAROL: THE SYMPHONIC CONCERT in its world premiere with the Baltimore Symphony and reprised his performance in the Emmy-nominated PBS production. He is an Emmy nominee himself for his performance in American Song at NJPAC. Scott regularly performs in concert both as a solo artist and with a variety of legendary performers including Academy Award-winner Stephen Schwartz, Tony-winner Ben Vereen and Grammy-winner Sheena Easton, and has performed with symphonies all over the world. Schwartz has said, “One of the greatest things that can happen to a composer is to have his music interpreted by Scott Coulter.”

Scott is creator, arranger and director of several touring shows for symphonies and performing arts centers and a regular producer/director of Michael Feinstein’s STANDARD TIME at Carnegie Hall. He recently wrote the book for the new musical GOT TO BE THERE which celebrates the life and music of songwriter Elliot Willensky. Scott is founder/owner of SpotOn Entertainment and Spot-On Arts Academy. He’s the artistic director of the Pocono Mountains Music Festival and a resident director of programming at Feinstein’s/54 Below in NYC. He is a proud graduate of the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music which honored him with the CCM Young Alumni Award in 2010 and CCM’s Distinguished Service Award in 2020.

“The holidays are filled with memories of family so it’s a real treat to get to share this holiday season with the Tulsa Sings! family. It’s been exciting to find Christmas songs that perfectly suit each member of our cast. It’s a bit like finding the perfect present and wrapping it up with a big red bow. The range of talent involved means that the musical gifts in the concert will cover a wide array of genres and styles. In true Tulsa Sings! fashion there’s something for everyone.”

LOVE AND OBSESSION:

The Beatles to Berlioz Featuring Artistic Director Finalist Scott Seaton APRIL 23 • 7:30 P.M. What do the Beatles and Hector Berlioz have in common?

Both wrote passionately about love; the Beatles did it so well that they amassed millions of obsessed fans over five decades. Hector’s inspiration for his monumental Symphonie Fantastique was the love for... err, the obsession over the actress Harriet Smithson.

The result was a powerful masterpiece that gained the love of music-lovers for nearly two-hundred years. No concert about love would be complete without the power of dance, in this case the Tango por una cabeza made famous in Scent of a Woman. The performance opens with one of Leonard Bernstein’s most famous works, his Overture to Candide. This spirited overture represents an operetta based on a tale of love intertwined with an abundance of misadventures.

Scott Seaton Scott Seaton has garnered acclaim for his dynamic performances, innovative programming, and community and youth outreach and is in his seventh season as music director of the North State Symphony in Northern California. He has also been the principal conductor of the Veridian Symphony Orchestra. Since his international debut in 2007 with the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Seaton has conducted orchestras spanning North America, South America, and Europe. Seaton won the 2011 INTERAKTION competition and was given the opportunity to conduct an orchestra composed of all of Germany’s top orchestras.

Seaton is an enthusiastic advocate of contemporary music conducting numerous premieres in recent years along with curating programs and championing music by living composers. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from Université de Montréal, a Master of Music from the New England Conservatory, and a Bachelor of Music from Vanderbilt University. He has also studied at Tanglewood and the National Conducting Institute sponsored by the National Symphony Orchestra.

“Who could resist programming music by the Beatles? These timeless musicians really knew how to connect with everyone and most of their early songs were about love. They wrote for all the right reasons and created a message that resonated with millions of people around the world. To isolate someone who wrote a piece for all the wrong reasons, Hector Berlioz had an obsession and used this self-destructive passion to write about a woman who would never reciprocate the feelings he had. The result is a massive symphony that takes us deep inside a tormented artist, complete with vivid dreams, tantrums, moments of tenderness, dancing witches, ecstasy and gut-wrenching despair. In this program, I wanted to highlight the incredible musicians of the Signature Symphony in a variety of works complete with a tango and music from one of the greatest American composers who exuded love and obsession, Leonard Bernstein.”

Love and Obsession:

The Beatles to Berlioz Saturday, April 23, 2022 Scott Seaton, Artistic Director Finalist Bernstein

Candide Overture

Pera & Gardel/Williams

Tango Por una Cabeza from The Scent of a Woman

Maureen O’Boyle, violin Arr. Healy

Love Is All You Need

INTERMISSION Symphonie Fantastique, Op. 14

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Reveries, Passions Un bal cene (A Ball) Scene aux champs (Scene in the Country) Marche au supplice (March to the Scaffold) Songe d’une nuit du sabbat (Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath)

Signature Symphony 2021-2022 Corporate Season Sponsor

Berlioz

Donations

Finalist Robert Franz has withdrawn his name from consideration as Signature Symphony’s next Artistic Director and Conductor. We wish Mr. Franz all the best in his future endeavors.

The use of cameras and recording devices is strictly prohibited.

As a courtesy to others around you, please turn off cellular phones.

SIGNATURE SYMPHONY

VIOLIN 1

CELLO

HORN

Maureen O’Boyle,

Monty Lawson1

Joseph Falvey1,3

Erica Parker2,3

Marsha Wilson

Gordon Robson

Marci Falvey

Lauren Green

Ben Korzelius

Concertmaster Josiah Baker Alicia Ranne Val Hinkle Esther Fellows Elena Gavrilov James Ruggles Dina Litvinova

Gulya Hollopeter Ji Shim Anderson Ashley Allison

Bill Gable

Melody Garrett Amanda Wheaton

TROMBONE

Jeff Erb

Rich Fisher1

Valerie Goforth Knowlan Randza

Elizabeth Obal

Lisa Wagner1

Terry Pollak 2

Micah Neely

1

Principal Member of the Signature

String Quartet 3

Christy Foster Anne Watson

Constance Rhoades Ed Morse

Stephen Craft Ethan Linfoot

PERCUSSION

CLARINET 1

Missy Townsend

Brett Nichols1

TIMPANI

Julie Mitchener

Paul Roberts

TUBA John Jenkins

Ingrid Lobaugh

Jeff Smith1,2

2

L. Dale Barnett

Cherie Thomas

OBOE

Sarah Bailey

Brian Haapanen

FLUTE

Sarah Bryant

VIOLA

Event Coordinator Susan Martin

Colin Healey

1

Nicholas Bashforth

Development Officer Isaac Sheets

Personnel Ashley Allison

Greg Spears

Nancy Rath

Orchestra Manager Joseph Falvey

Keysto Stotz

Laura Duncan

Sarah Richardson

STAFF

Librarian Ed Morse

1

Robin Smith

Corbin Bodley1,2

Ben Hay1 Kade Goforth

BASS

Kiersten Moser

VIOLIN 2

TRUMPET

SIGNATURE SYMPHONY

Russell Grant1 Tim Brandt Becky Tupper

HARP

BASSOON

Lorelei Barton1

Jim Fellows1

Magera Shaw

Andrew Davis

TCC Adjunct Music

KC Chai

Instructor

Dayna Smith

PIANO Rob Muraoka 1,3

VANTREASE PACE STAFF Dean of Visual & Performing Arts Kelly Clark Administrative Assistant Michelle Dixon Interim Lighting Director Stephanie Stone Sound Designer Jon Kreilaus Operations Manager Ginelle Gordon Accounting Assistant Jessica Gray House Assistants Atlantis Frank

Daniel Hernandez Lisa Leake Zander Majors Patti Pineda Chase Posey

GUEST ARTIST

As Associate Professor of Music at the University of Tulsa, and Concertmaster of the Signature Symphony at TCC, Maureen O’Boyle enjoys a distinguished career as both a performer and teacher. She has performed as soloist and concertmaster with orchestras in the United States, Europe, Japan, South America, and Poland.

Growing up in a musical family, Ms. O’Boyle began her musical studies with her mother, Marilyn O’Boyle, later receiving her Bachelor of Music degree from University of New Mexico, where she studied with Leonard Felberg, and Master of Music degree from Yale University, where she studied with Syoko Aki. As a student at the Talent Education Institute in Matsumoto, Japan, Ms. O’Boyle was Assistant to Dr. Shinichi Suzuki and is now a SAA registered Instructor with the Suzuki Association of the Americas.

Ms. O’Boyle has served as Guest Concertmaster with the Symphony Orchestra of Torun, Poland, Guest Concertmaster of Lincoln’s Symphony Orchestra, Associate Concertmaster of the Tulsa Philharmonic, and Concertmaster of the Tulsa Opera Orchestra. She has held positions with Omaha Symphony, New Mexico Symphony, New Haven Symphony, the Grand Teton Music Festival, and the Santa Fe Concert Association. Her latest solo performances include concerts with Signature Symphony and University of Tulsa Symphony Orchestra.

Other activities include serving as Director of Chamber Music at TulsaFest, Tulsa Community College, Faculty on the University of Tulsa Chamber Music Camp, Instructor and Chamber Music Coach at Santa Fe Suzuki Institute, Suzuki Instructor at Northeastern State University, Chamber Music Coach at Music Festival of Arkansas, and Director of Missouri Southern Suzuki Academy.

PROGRAM NOTES

The following program notes are copyright © Susan Halpern, 2022.

Candide Overture

Leonard Bernstein (Born August 25, 1918, in Lawrence, Massachusetts; died October 10, 1990 in New York) One of the greatest American musicians of the 20th century, Leonard Bernstein was a prolific composer and conductor.

The Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, he wrote three symphonies and diverse concert works and made extensive contributions to musical theater, one of his great loves. The first of his Broadway musicals was On the Town, which was a hit of the 1944 season, when he was only twenty-six years old. Candide followed after Wonderful Town of 1953 and preceded West Side Story, which was performed for the first time in 1957.

Bernstein’s Candide was launched as a work for the Broadway theater on December l, 1956, but Bernstein and his collaborators, the dramatist Lillian Hellman and the poet Richard Wilbur, did not allow it to be presented with the usual billing of “a new musical.” They called it “a comic operetta based on Voltaire’s satire,” which immediately claimed a place for it alongside the works of Offenbach, Johann Strauss, and Gilbert and Sullivan, rather than among conventional Broadway musical comedies. The first stage production was not a commercial success, but the music instantly took on a life of its own. A recording by the original Broadway cast was popular for many years, and the overture became a part of the symphony orchestra repertoire. A Broadway revival in the 1970’s, with libretto and staging significantly revised but the music almost unchanged, enjoyed a very long run and stimulated many new productions. In the 1980’s Candide entered the repertoire of the New York City Opera. In 1997, Candide again made its way to Broadway.

Candide is the hero of the novel by Voltaire (1694-1778) that bears his name. He is a young man who, with his beloved, Cunegonde, experiences countless adventures and misadventures, yet fails to see until the very end that they belie the dictum of his tutor, Dr. Pangloss, that this is “the best of all possible worlds.”

The Overture to Candide opens with a fanfare and some battle music from the operetta. The music of the love duet, “Oh, Happy We” provides lyric contrast and is followed, after a look back at the battle music, by a passage derived from the ending of the coloratura aria, “Glitter and Be Gay.” A brilliant coda brings the short overture to a close.

The concert version of the Overture to Candide received its first performance on January 26, 1957, with the New York Philharmonic under the composer’s direction. It is orchestrated for piccolo and three flutes, two oboes, two clarinets plus E-flat clarinet and bass clarinet, two bassoons and contrabassoon, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, and strings.

Tango “Por una Cabeza” Carlos Gardel (Born in Toulouse, December 1890; died June 24, 1935 in Medellin, Colombia Carlos Gardel was an Argentine composer and tango singer. Although his origins have been widely debated by some since he was born in France, it is known that when he was only three, in 1893, he and his single mother emigrated to Buenos Aires. Gardel grew up singing in local bars, restaurants, and markets in Abasto, then a Buenos Aires neighborhood of Italian immigrants. From the arrabal (districts), he came to symbolize the fulfillment of the dreams of the poor Argentine porteños (from the port area of Buenos Aires), becoming a symbol of the immigrant who triumphs, a neighborhood singer who captivated the world. Before he became famous he worked at opera houses as a “clack” or professional applauder who roused audiences. He learned to sing operas and Spanish operettas, or zarzuelas, in addition to criolla music, a folkloric style from the Argentine countryside.

PROGRAM NOTES

By the early 1920s, he was firmly established as Argentina's leading tango singer; several successful European tours followed. Gardel formed a duo with the Uruguayan singer José Razzano in 1911, which lasted until 1925. He became known as a thoroughly modern figure, who revolutionized the tango and created a sensation with it in the 1920s and '30s. An icon touring South America, France, and the U.S. in the 1930’s, he is credited with introducing tango to the world. His romantic music and graceful style infuse his tangos. Gardel recorded almost 900 songs, and especially popularized the sung tango, even though both his career and songs were criticized for lacking a political thrust.

His “Por una cabeza” (“By only a head”) was written in 1935 as a tango song and became one of the most famous and popular tango songs before he adapted it for violin and piano. Alfredo Le Pera, a lyricist born in Brazil, created its lyrics. The song takes its name from a horse-racing phrase meaning “by a head” which connotes that a horse literally won a race by a narrow amount, as small as the length of its head. The song lyrics also address the gambler’s addiction to women’s attractions, as irresistible to him as his love of horses.

Both Gardel and his lyricist, Le Pera died in an airplane crash in Medellin on June 24, 1935. “Por Una Cabeza” was featured in a famous tango scene in the 1992 Martin Brest movie, Scent of a Woman and was also used in the opening scene of Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List (1993) and in James Cameron’s True Lies.

Love Is All You Need Arr. Bruce Healey Master arranger Bruce Healey brings us a spectacular showcase of pop music's greatest act with 13 memorable songs, each given a new creative treatment in this stunning symphonic arrangement, which includes: “All My Loving,” “All You Need Is Love,” “Blackbird,” “Can't Buy Me Love,” “Come Together,” “Day Tripper,” “Here Comes The Sun,” “If I Fell,” “Lady Madonna,” “Let It Be,” “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” “Something,” and “Yesterday.”

The songs, “All My Loving,” “All you need is Love,” “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “Come Together,” “Day Tripper,” “If I Fell,” “Lady Madonna,” “Let it Be,” and “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” were written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon.

“Yesterday” and “Blackbird” were created by Paul McCartney and credited to McCartney-Lennon. “Here Comes the Sun” and “Something” were written by George Harrison.

In an interview, Healey said, “One of my hidden goals in life is to help orchestras succeed in every way possible.

I’ve made it my small mission to seize the opportunity to write music that helps that cause, and makes live orchestras sound impressive, entertaining, and fun. . . .I helped launch the Disney Concert Library by contributing many arrangements to that program. I also began working with Hal Leonard Publishing to create arrangements for their Symphony Pops Series for Professional Orchestra. Love Is All You Need was written specifically for that series. The choice of songs was mine mostly, but I was given some general direction by the publisher to include more than the expected and most popular songs. So as I like to do, I explored nearly all the songs in the Beatles catalog with the goal of finding the songs that were most adaptable to an instrumental symphonic style arrangement.” In this arrangement, there are many songs the audience will recognize and some that may not be as familiar.

This medley is scored for piccolo, penny whistle, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, two bassoons, contra bassoon, two clarinets and bass clarinet, three trumpets, four horns, two trombones and bass trombone, tuba, percussion, timpani, piano/celeste, harp, and strings.

PROGRAM NOTES

Symphonie Fantastique Hector Berlioz (Born December 11, 1803, in La-Côte-Saint-André; died March 8, 1869, in Paris) In 1830, just three years after Beethoven’s death, the little known twenty-six-year-old French composer, Hector Berlioz, composed his Symphonie Fantastique, a work that revealed him as a most original musical thinker, a man composing with great new powers of expression. The work is remarkable for its combination of musical imagery and emotional representation. It became a model for Liszt, Wagner, and Strauss, yet when first performed, it drew a wide range of response, much of it negative. Although Berlioz took many musical conventions well beyond their limits, he called his work a symphony.

When he was in his mid-twenties, Berlioz first became acquainted with Beethoven's symphonies, and these, together with his introduction to Shakespeare’s plays at around the same time, had such a tremendous effect on him that he sought to express in his Symphonie Fantastique. In 1827, a traveling theatrical company arrived from London to perform Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet, and the young composer was entranced with Shakespeare.

Harriet Smithson, a beautiful, Irish actress exactly Berlioz’s age, played both Ophelia and Juliet, and Berlioz fell passionately in love with her. He arranged for her to attend the performance of his symphony and its sequel, Lélio, five years later on December 9, 1832, when although she was aware of his interest in her, the two had still never met. She had no idea that she was the beloved or that the symphony owed its inspiration to her until she saw the words of the text in which Berlioz longs for “the Juliet, the Ophelia for whom my heart cries out.” She was charmed to discover that Berlioz’s text expressed his feelings for her; they were married the following October. The flame of what he had called his “eternal and inextinguishable passion,” however, soon died. Within a few years, they realized that they were miserable together and they separated. When Harriet died a decade later, Berlioz married his mistress of many years.

The Symphonie Fantastique grew in part from the turbulent emotion the actress aroused, but although Berlioz contended that she was explicitly embodied in the symphony, he had actually written much of the symphony before he met her, and it is quite likely that it was not originally written to follow an elaborate descriptive program.

Symphonie Fantastique is most renowned for its brilliantly imaginative orchestration and for Berlioz's use of a

single melody, which pervades all five movements. It varies from the traditional four-movement form with the composer’s insertion of a waltz before the slow movement and a march after it. Berlioz felt his work followed naturally from Beethoven’s symphonies, and his “idée fixe” was the next musical step toward symphonic unity.

In an entirely original way, Berlioz used the same melody (the “idée fixe”) in every movement and as the germ from which other themes grow, as a connecting link binding the whole work together. This melody represents his beloved, Harriet Smithson, and like her, is an “ideé fixe,” a persistent obsession. The work reflects his fascination with the supernatural and the grotesque, with heroic longing and frenzied romance. Another innovation Berlioz used in the work is new possibilities for orchestration, new tone colors and effects as well as sounds that suggest an infinite variety of emotions and ideas. In concentrating on his innovations, he neglected standard motivic development.

Berlioz distributed a literary program at the premiere in which a footnote he had written stated: “The distribution of this program to the audience, at concerts in which this symphony is to be played, is indispensable for the complete understanding of the work's dramatic plan.”

PROGRAM NOTES

He had compounded its highly colored plot by drawing from such diverse works as Goethe's Faust, E.T.A. Hoffmann's Tales, DeQuincey's Confessions of an Opium Eater, and Chateaubriand's René. The original program included: PART ONE: DAYDREAMS, PASSIONS He recalls an uneasiness of soul, moments of melancholy and joy which he experienced before seeing his beloved; then comes the fiery love with which she inspired him, leading to moments of delirious anguish, of jealous fury, a return to loving tenderness and his religious consolation.

PART TWO: A BALL He sees his beloved at a ball, in the midst of a brilliant fête.

PART THREE: SCENE IN THE COUNTRY One summer evening in the country, he hears two shepherds playing Ranz-des-vaches in alternate dialogue; this pastoral duet, the scene around him, the trees gently swaying in the breeze, and his own hope all combine to restore an unusual calm in his heart; but then she appears again, his heart stops beating, and he is agitated and concerned about whether she might betray him! One of the shepherds begins his song again, the other does not answer him. The sun sets, and there is the sound of distant thunder and solitude. Silence.

PART FOUR: MARCH TO THE SCAFFOLD He dreams that he has killed his beloved and is condemned to death. He is being led to execution. The procession advances to a somber and wild, as well as brilliant and solemn march. The dull sound of heavy footsteps follows after resounding outbursts. At the end, the idée fixe reappears briefly, like the last thought of love interrupted by the fatal stroke.

PART FIVE: DREAM OF A WITCHES' SABBATH He sees himself at the witches' Sabbath in the middle of a group of ghosts, magicians, and monsters of all sorts, who have come together. He hears strange noises, groans, ringing laughter, and shrieks. The idée fixe reappears, but it has now become an ignoble, trivial, and grotesque dance-tune. She comes to the witches' Sabbath. There are expressions of joy at her arrival. She takes part in the diabolic orgy. Funeral bells and a parody of Dies irae sounds. Witches' dance and then the Dies irae and the witches' dance come together.

He derived the introduction from a romance he had composed under the influence of a youthful infatuation. The “idée fixe” theme, repeated throughout the movements of the work, originally appeared in Herminie, a cantata he wrote in 1828. The main thematic material of the first movement is meant to suggest the artist's reveries and passions. The violins first articulate the “idée fixe” melody, a forlorn statement of longing, after the long, slow introduction to the symphony’s opening movement. By the end of the first movement, the protagonist's anxiety subsides into religious consolation, announced by repeated, sustained hymnal amens.

The second movement, Valse, Allegro non troppo, is simply a traditional ternary dance movement, a waltz, with the “idée fixe” appearing as the Trio. The harps and the woodwinds add special color to the ball. This movement shifts the programmatic musical focus away from an interior emotional experience to an invocation of the surroundings, yet Berlioz deftly blurs the boundary between interior and exterior space when the hero finds himself briefly confronted by his beloved at the ball.

PROGRAM NOTES

The slow movement is placed third instead of second just as Beethoven did in his Ninth Symphony. This movement, Adagio, includes bird calls and intermittently flowing rhythmic patterns, and it owes much to the “scene by the brook” movement from Beethoven's Sixth Symphony, the Pastorale. In sonata form, the movement includes the “idée fixe” as the secondary theme. It opens with an exchange between the English horn and oboe, simulating shepherd calls of the ranz des vaches, or alphorn sounding “the tune used by the Swiss to call the flocks together.” The scene buoys the young musician's imagination, but with the reappearance of the beloved and intimations of her faithlessness, darkness gathers. The close is equivocal as the shepherd falls silent and the muffled tympani suggest the sound of distant thunder.

The unsettled close of the third movement effectively prepares the way for the nightmare that follows. Again, recalling Beethoven’s Pastorale, the fourth and fifth movements are structurally linked in their scoring for large orchestra with a full brass ensemble. The garish March to the Scaffold serves as prologue to the Witch's Sabbath finale. The march, Allegretto non troppo, is based on the March of the Guards from Berlioz’s unfinished opera Les Francs-Juges; tonally and temperamentally, it provides an effective transition from the vague foreboding at the close of the third movement to the fourth/fifth-movements’ (Larghetto – Allegro, the unleashing of horror in which the Beloved (the “idée fixe”) is turned into a hideous witch, shrieking in the clarinet and leading the rest of the spirits on the wild dance of the Witches’ Sabbath. The lovely “idée fixe” melody has become grotesque with grace notes and trills, but the witches greet the sound with shrieks of laughter.

The “idée fixe” returns, yet the bell sounds and the playing of a melody of the Dies Irae, a medieval melody used for funerals, part of the Requiem Mass, and well known to audiences of the time, interrupt the revelry. Dies Irae signified Judgment Day. Berlioz used it here to create the extreme contrast of the apocalyptic idea occurring in the middle of the witches’ revelry. Witches poke fun at the sacred; they profane the good and the just. The “idée fixe”and Dies irae mix in a grotesque Ronde du Sabbat (Sabbath Round Dance), which eventually becomes a fugue.

The large orchestra explodes with full energy in the coda.

Berlioz completed the symphony in Paris in April 1830, and it was first performed there on December 5, but it was not the Symphonie fantastique we hear today; Berlioz reworked much of it in the next two years in Italy, after winning the Prix de Rome. Later Berlioz added the religioso coda of the first movement and wrote several versions of the symphony’s descriptive program. He originally headed his symphony Episodes from the Life of an Artist, and added Symphonie Fantastique later as a subtitle.

He considerably toned down his attack on the beloved’s faithlessness, and, over time, became more willing to let the music speak for itself without an accompanying text. By 1855, he had recast it so that the musician takes a dose of opium at the beginning, and thus the symphony becomes an opium dream. The beloved transforms into a melody, like an “idée fixe” which he hears everywhere. The following is a translation of his final program: “A young musician of morbid sensibility and ardent imagination poisons himself with opium in a fit of despair over love. The narcotic dose, too weak to bring him death, plunges him into a heavy sleep accompanied by the strangest of visions, in which his sensations, sentiments and recollections are translated, in his sick mind, into musical ideas and images. Even his beloved has become a melody for him, an obsession that he finds and hears everywhere.”

The instruments required are two flutes and piccolo, two oboes and English horn, three clarinets and small clarinet in E-flat, four bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, two cornets, three trombones, two tubas, timpani, percussion, two harps, and strings.

FIRST CHAIR SOCIETY The First Chair Society is a premier package for Signature Symphony at TCC patrons who support the outstanding musical performances and education engagement programs provided by Signature Symphony. Members enjoy special events with visiting guest artists and members of the orchestra throughout the season. We greatly appreciate the members of this special donor group who help make our work possible.

For information about joining the First Chair Society, call 918-595-8147 or email signature@tulsacc.edu.

MAESTRO

FIRST CHAIR PLUS

John and Mary Ann Bumgarner

Shelby Beil

Dean and Vesta VanTrease

Linda Booker

Stinnett and Associates

Tim and Carol Lyons

David and Rachel Wagner

Joe and Carol McGraw Carol Messer

Marcia and Dan Brueggenjohann

FIRST CHAIR

Thomas Michael

CONCERTMASTER

Tim Caldwell

Loren Arnoff

David Morse

Kelly and Phil Fonkalsrud

Jim Cameron

Howard and Billie Barnett

Eleanor and Larry Payne

Terence Golla

Steve and Ruthie Duenner

Terry Bevins

Michael and Mary Ann Pierce

Jim and Julie Higgins

Janice Fonkalsrud

Dan and Becky Bloom

Public Service Company of Oklahoma

Jim Langdon and JuleyRoffers

Susan and Jim Harris

Eric and Jan Bohne

Kate Robertson

Geordie and Kristine Robinson

Ron and Susie Looney

Montie and Betty Box

Isaac Sheets and Scott Gove

Richard and JoAnn Smith

Philip and Leslie Maltby

Jim and Marilyn Brill

Kari and Matt Shults

Mollie Williford

Delia Pierson

Lauren and Robert Brookey

Jeffrey and Robin Smith

Roy and Rebekah Wood

Jane and Henry Primeaux

Joe and Marci Falvey

Michael Tate and Aubrey Cain

Andrew and Hannah Ralston

Irving and Dixie Frank

Steve and Nancy Wells

Richard and Alicia Ranne

Leigh and Mark Goodson

Victor Whiteside

Hannah and Joe Robson

Jim and Ginelle Gordon

Jacqueline Wilson

Dawne and Robert Stafford

David and Katie Johnson

Signature Symphony truly appreciates the generous planned giving donation from the estate of Carolyn Grove, a long-time patron of the orchestra. Her gift will help Signature Symphony continue to provide rich musical experiences in Tulsa through live performances and music education and community engagement programs.

Signature Symphony also wishes to thank The Gerald H. Westby, Jr. Foundation for supporting the Artistic Director finalist concerts this season.

SIGNATURE SYMPHONY ADVISORY BOARD The Signature Symphony Advisory Board supports the mission of the Signature Symphony at TCC and promotes the growth of the orchestra through fundraising, advocacy, and education. The commitment and dedication of these community leaders to the Signature Symphony through membership on our board are greatly appreciated.

Dawne Stafford, Chair

Shelby Beil, Vice Chair

Leslie Brier, Secretary

Jaime Smith, Treasurer

Marcia Brueggenjohann Cathy Campbell Laura Cowan Dr. Noam Faingold Dr. Kim Falcon

Susan Harris Carole Huff Hicks Julie Higgins Dr. John Jenkins Katie Johnson

Ron Looney Erica Parker Dr. Eleanor Payne Delia Pierson Jane Primeaux

Andrew Ralston Kate Robertson Geordie Robinson Dr. Dean VanTrease David Wagner

Kelly Clark Dr. Joseph Falvey

Dr. Leigh Goodson Ginelle Gordon

TCC Staff Representatives Susan Martin Isaac Sheets

Kari Shults Dr. Greg Stone

Drs. Jill Clark and Bob Murtaugh

FANTASTICAL:

Firebird Meets Harry Potter Featuring Artistic Director Finalist Alejandro Gómez Guillén FEB. 26 • 7:30 P.M. Experience a symphonic journey of myth, magic, and folklore!

Featuring music by the Brazilian-American powerhouse Clarice Assad, Argentina’s versatile Osvaldo Golijov, paired with John William’s iconic score and Stravinsky’s timeless masterpiece.

Alejandro Gómez Guillén An accomplished baroque and modern player, Alejandro Gómez Guillén leads Mozart and Haydn concertos from the violin. He may be familiar to Signature Symphony at TCC patrons after appearing in Nov. 2019 as conductor/guest artist for Mozart’s Prague Symphony. He is entering his sixth season as artistic director and conductor of Bloomington Symphony Orchestra, artistic director of Sphere Ensemble and acting concertmaster/principal second violin of Midland-Odessa Symphony & Chorale. He previously served as Associate Conductor of Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.

Guillén has served as Assistant Professor at Colorado Mesa University, Music Director of Colorado Youth Philharmonia, and led performances with Off Broadway School of Fine Arts, Javeriana University Symphony Orchestra, Spokane Youth Symphony, and University of Colorado Symphony and Chamber Orchestras. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in conducting from the University of Colorado at Boulder and two Master of Music degrees in conducting and violin performance from the same school as well as a Bachelor of Music in violin performance from Texas Christian University.

“I am excited about a program that represents just some of my passions in music and programming: giving voice to underrepresented composers and soloists, highlighting facets of diverse music in the Americas, and featuring masterpieces new and old, all while curating an entertaining experience that uplifts and educates.

Once we knew that due to the challenges posed by the pandemic we had to essentially combine the two full orchestra concerts originally scheduled into one, I welcomed the challenge capturing the spirit of my original programming ideas in a way that made sense as a musical journey. I am very much looking forward to sharing with our Signature Symphony musicians and audiences awesome music that comes from different cultures and traditions while exploring contrasting aspects of the human experience.

This is a concert that will combine great aspects of classics and pops shows into a family-friendly experience overall.”

Trailblazers in American Music

Featuring Artistic Director Finalist Robert Franz APRIL 9 • 7:30 P.M. When it comes to trailblazers, Florence Price steps right up to the front of the line.

She was the first African American woman to have an orchestral piece played by a major U.S. orchestra.

The Chicago Symphony first performed her First Symphony in 1933 at the World’s Fair in Chicago.

George Gershwin is THE iconic American composer.

Not only was he a commercial success on Broadway, but his requirement that his opera, Porgy and Bess, was to always be performed by African American singers was revolutionary in 1935 when it was first performed. This concert allows us to celebrate in our own small way the successes of these musical giants.

Robert Franz Robert Franz is described as “an outstanding musician with profound intelligence.” He serves as music director of the Windsor Symphony Orchestra and Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival Orchestra, associate conductor of the Houston Symphony, and artistic advisor of the Boise Baroque Orchestra.

His appeal as a first-rate conductor and enthusiastic award-winning educator is acclaimed by critics, composers and audiences of all ages. Honored with awards for his visionary leadership to the arts, he has achieved success by focusing on high artistic standards, building bridges in his communities, and dedication to music education.

Franz is in increasing demand as a guest conductor, appearing with the Austin Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Italy’s Orchestra da Camera Fiorentina, North Carolina Symphony, Opera Idaho, Phoenix Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, and St. Louis Symphony. Franz holds a Master of Music and Bachelor of Music from the North Carolina School of the Arts.

“The music of Florence Price represents an important addition to the orchestral canon artistically. In addition, her voice is important as she overcame so much prejudice and hatred to do what she did. George Gershwin took a big risk in bringing African-Americans to the stage in Porgy and Bess. This program is full of amazing musical contributions that made a difference on so many levels.”

Education and Community Engagement Since its formation in 1979, the Signature Symphony at TCC has been committed to providing rich musical experiences through its performances and valuable musical instruction to support music education, aspiring musicians and engagement in our community.

Seedling Symphony is a program developed by Signature Quartet musicians to raise the level of music exposure for early childhood by introducing young children six and under to complex and intricate music using string instruments. Seedling Symphony works with children in early learning centers throughout the Tulsa area, in addition to performances with hands on activities open to the public twice a year.

Helpful Harmonies for Wellness is a concert series focusing on sensory friendly performances, helping to bring communities and families closer and stimulating the pleasure sensors of the brain for people of all ages to promote good health and a positive outlook. Helpful Harmonies for Wellness venues include nursing homes, cancer treatment centers and Alzheimer’s centers in addition to activities open to the public at the VanTrease PACE. Tulsa Sings! vocal competition was launched by Signature Symphony in 2017 as part of a year-long season exploring Tulsa’s music connections and highlighting talented vocalists from the Tulsa community. Each Tulsa Sings! competition provides the opportunity for finalists to work with and learn from experienced vocalists and have the opportunity to perform on the VanTrease Performing Arts Center for Education stage with Signature Symphony’s professional musicians and Broadway star Scott Coulter who helped develop the Tulsa Sings! competition and is instrumental in selecting and mentoring the finalists.

Free Open Rehearsals is Signature Symphony’s most exciting music education engagement program. These events allow the audience to experience actual professional orchestra rehearsals and get to know our conductor, musicians and guest artists as they prepare for upcoming concerts.

This spring music lovers of all ages will enjoy a lively and educational interactive experience with each of our Artistic Director Finalists from 6:30 to 7:00 pm, followed by an opportunity to observe the orchestra on stage during the first part of the evening’s rehearsal from 7:00 to 8:00 pm.

Thursday, January 20, 2022 Love & Obsession: The Beatles to Berlioz Artistic Director Finalist: Scott Seaton Thursday, February 24, 2022 Fantastical: Firebird Meets Harry Potter Artistic Director Finalist: Alejandro Gómez Guillén Thursday, April 7, 2022 Trailblazers in American Music Artistic Director Finalist: Robert Franz

Free Open Rehearsals are sponsored

by The Oxley Foundation.

Journey Together 2021 –2022 S E ASO N

Christmas in Tulsa DECEMBER 11 Featuring Scott Coulter and Tulsa Sings! Finalists

LOV E A N D O B S E S S I O N :

The B Beeatles tto o Berlioz Featuring Artistic Director Finalist Scott Seaton

FA N TA S T I C A L :

Firebird Meets Harry Potter FEBRUARY 26 Featuring Artistic Director Finalist Alejandro Gómez Guillén

Trailbla blazzerins in Ame merricMus ansMu ic APRIL 9 Featuring Artistic Director Finalist Robert Franz

— A L L CO N C E R T S S TA R T AT 7: 3 0 P. M . — Don’t miss a beat. Call 918-595-7777 or email signature@tulsacc.edu for ticket info. signaturesymphony.org Corporate Season Sponsor:

“TTCU IS THE PERFECT PARTNER FOR OUR MONEY.” – Seth and Ashley, TTCU members