March/April Applause

March/April 2013

thoroughly

Thielemann Washington Performing Arts Society hosts the German conductor for his Washington D.C.-area debut with Staatskapelle Dresden

inside: Strathmore VOCA PEOPLE touch down in Music Center Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Chaplin’s Modern Times The National Philharmonic Musical takeover

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On The Cover Christian Thielemann is the principal conductor of Staatskapelle Dresden

53

prelude

Applause at Strathmore march/april 2013

70

program notes

10

16

features

March 1 28 / Strathmore: Drumline Live!

April 7 58 / WPAS: Andras Schiff

10 Songs for a New Galaxy

March 2 30 / The National Philharmonic: The American Virtuoso Violin

April 11 62 / BSO SuperPops: Bond and Beyond—50 Years of 007

12 Modern Times and a Modern Orchestra

March 7 34 / Strathmore: Cirque Ziva

April 12 64 / Strathmore: Cameron Carpenter

The National Philharmonic is hands-on at a D.C. school

March 9 35 / BSO: Beethoven’s Seventh

April 13 65 / Strathmore: Under the Streetlamp

Cameron Carpenter elevates organ music

March 12 40 / WPAS: Anne-Sophie Mutter

April 14 66 / Strathmore: Maurizio Pollini

March 15 43 / BSO: Off the Cuff—Saint-Saën’s “Organ” Symphony

April 16 70 / WPAS: Staatskapelle Dresden

March 23 45 / BSO: Trpčeski Plays Rachmaninoff March 24 50 / Strathmore: Neil Berg’s 101 Years of Broadway

April 18 76 / Strathmore: VOCA People April 19 78 / BSO: Off the Cuff—Wagner, A Composer Fit for a King

April 20 80 / Strathmore: March 29 Michael Feinstein—The 52 / Strathmore: Emmylou Harris & Rod- Gershwins and Me ney Crowell and Richard April 25, 26 Thompson Electric Trio 81 / Strathmore: April 6 53 / The National Philharmonic: Sleepers Awake!

Gladys Knight

April 27 82 / BSO: Midori

2 applause at Strathmore • march/april 2013

A cappella group VOCA PEOPLE lands at Music Center BSO celebrates 200th anniversary of Richard Wagner’s birth

14 Music ABCs 16 Rank Insider 18 Mind, Body, Music Harmony from within keeps BSO principal flute healthy

20 Flash, Crash & Jam Musical inspiration hit like a bolt from the sky

22 Strum, Pick, Pluck Levine School of Music has guitar lessons for all

24 Thoroughly Thielemann An all-Brahms program fits the conductor’s sensibilities

departments

6 Musings of Strathmore CEO Eliot Pfanstiehl 6 A Note from BSO Music Director Marin Alsop 8 Calendar: May and June performances 96 Encore: Georgina Javor, Strathmore director of programming

musician rosters

37 Baltimore Symphony Orchestra 32 National Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorale

Strathmore

partners ● Strathmore

Under the leadership of CEO Eliot Pfanstiehl and President Monica Jeffries Hazangeles, Strathmore welcomes thousands of artists and guests to the Music Center, Mansion and 11-acre campus. As well as presenting performing artists and fine art, Strathmore commissions and creates new works of art and music, including productions Free to Sing and Take Joy. Education plays a key role in Strathmore’s programming, with classes and workshops in music and visual arts for all ages throughout the year. From presenting world-class performances by major artists, to supporting local artists, Strathmore nurtures arts, artists and community through creative and diverse programming of the highest quality. Visit www.strathmore.org.

● Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

● The National Philharmonic

Led by Music Director and Conductor Piotr Gajewski, the National Philharmonic is known for performances that are “powerful” and “thrilling.” The organization showcases world-renowned guest artists in symphonic masterpieces conducted by Maestro Gajewski, and monumental choral masterworks under Chorale Artistic Director Stan Engebretson, who “uncovers depth...structural coherence and visionary scope” (The Washington Post). The Philharmonic’s long-standing tradition of reasonably priced tickets and free admission to all young people age 7-17 assures its place as an accessible and enriching part of life in Montgomery County and the greater Washington area. The National Philharmonic also offers exceptional education programs for people of all ages. For more information, visit www.nationalphilharmonic.org.

● Washington Performing Arts Society

For more than four decades, the Washington Performing Arts Society has created profound opportunities for connecting the community to artists through both education and performance. Through live events in venues across the D.C. metropolitan area, the careers of emerging artists are guided, and established artists who have close relationships with local audiences are invited to return. WPAS is one of the leading presenters in the nation. Set in the nation’s capital and reflecting a population that hails from around the globe, the company presents the highest caliber artists in classical music, jazz, gospel, contemporary dance and world music. For more information, visit www.WPAS.org.

● CityDance Ensemble

CityDance provides the highest quality arts education and performances throughout the metropolitan area including at CityDance Center at Strathmore, where our School, pre-professional Conservatory and Studio Theater are housed. The Resident & Guest Artist Program allows professional dancers and choreographers to create and perform works in a world-class theater.

CityDance’s Community Programs provide free performances, after-school programs and camps to over 15,000 students a year in the region’s most under-resourced communities.

Visit www.citydance.net.

● Maryland Classic Youth Orchestras

Great music, artistry, plus the passion and exuberance of youth come together in one exceptional program—MCYO, the resident youth orchestra at the Music Center. Established in 1946, MCYO is the region’s premier orchestral training program, seating over 400 students in grades 4-12 in one of five quality orchestras. Concerts, chamber music, master classes and more. Discover MCYO. Hear the difference. Visit www.mcyo.org.

● Levine School of Music

Levine School of Music, the Washington D.C. region’s preeminent community music school, provides a welcoming environment where children and adults find lifelong inspiration and joy through learning, performing and experiencing music. Our distinguished faculty serve more than 3,500 students of all stages and abilities at four campuses in Northwest and Southeast D.C., Strathmore Music Center and in Arlington, Va. Learn more at www.levineschool.org.

● interPLAY

interPLAY company provides adults with cognitive differences with year-round rehearsals and concert experiences performing with traditional musicians. This activity results in a new personal language for those who have no musical education, and enlightened perspectives in the community about who can play serious music. interPLAY is always open for new players, musicians and mentors. Please contact Artistic Director Paula Moore at 301-229-0829.

4 applause at Strathmore • march/april 2013

Applause at Strathmore Publisher CEO Eliot Pfanstiehl Music Center at Strathmore Founding Partners Strathmore Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Resident Artistic Partners The National Philharmonic Washington Performing Arts Society Levine School of Music Maryland Classic Youth Orchestras CityDance Ensemble interPLAY Published by

Editor and Publisher Steve Hull Associate Publisher Susan Hull Senior Editor Cindy Murphy-Tofig Design Director Maire McArdle Art Director Karen Sulmonetti Advertising Director Sherri Greeves Advertising Account Executives Paula Duggan, Penny Skarupa, LuAnne Spurrell 7768 Woodmont Ave. Suite 204 Bethesda, MD 20814 301-718-7787 Fax: 301-718-1875 Volume 9, Number 4 Applause is published five times a year by the Music Center at Strathmore and Kohanza Media Ventures, LLC, publisher of Bethesda Magazine. Copyright 2010 Kohanza Media Ventures. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without permission is prohibited.

strathmore photo by jim morris

The Grammy Award-winning Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is internationally recognized as having achieved a preeminent place among the world’s most important orchestras. Under the inspired leadership of Music Director Marin Alsop, some of the world’s most renowned musicians have performed with the BSO. Continuing the orchestra’s 96-year history of high-quality education programs for music-lovers of all ages, the BSO presents mid-week education concerts, free lecture series and master classes. Since 2006, the BSO has offered Montgomery County grade schools BSO on the Go, an outreach initiative that brings small groups of BSO musicians into local schools for interactive music education workshops. For more information, visit BSOmusic.org.

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musings from Strathmore Strathmore has the world on a string—a violin string to be exact. Following our previous successful explorations of the history of the piano and the guitar, Strathmore is embarking on Storied Strings: The Violin in America, an 11-concert series celebrating the foundational role of the violin.

Vice President of Programming and Artistic Director Shelley Brown, who has shepherded Storied Strings along from its inception, puts it beautifully: “The violin, or fiddle, is the common denominator in Native American, African American and European music, forming a link between classical and traditional music.”

To explore the violin’s many inflections and influences, Strathmore is convening masters of many stringed musical genres to the Mansion and Music Center to celebrate generations of American musical exploration and integration—and to glimpse into the future of the instrument—in the 2012-13 season.

The Music Center festivities kick off with Christmas in Cape Breton, featuring the frenetic and vivacious fiddlework of Natalie MacMaster. She’ll be illustrating the influence of her homeland’s music on New England styles on Dec. 6. The legendary violinist and composer Mark O’Connor takes over the Concert Hall for a not-to-be-missed tribute to the traditional holiday music of his childhood on Dec. 13.The Music Center excitement continues into the New Year with a new program by Alasdair Fraser.

In the Mansion, exciting firsts from The Carpe Diem String Quartet and Jennifer Koh— who will be making the Washington, D.C.-area debut of her “Bach and Beyond” series—nod to the future of the violin. The Aaron Weinstein Trio, violinist Kristin Lee, the Marian Anderson String Quartet and Artist in Residence alumna Chelsey Green—debuting a new work by composer Robert Miller—will continue the series into the spring.

May your holidays be bright with family and music this whole season long.

Eliot Pfanstiehl

a note

CEO | Strathmore

from the BSO

For many, spring is a favorite time of year. After months of being cooped indoors, we can finally get outside and enjoy the sun. Spring is also my favorite season, but for quite a different reason: it’s finally time for the exciting 2013-2014 season to come out of hibernation, so to speak!

Next season, among the featured guest artists are two audience favorites, pianists André Watts and Jean-Yves Thibaudet. The BSO will treat you to some of classical music’s “greatest hits,” such as Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, which features one of the most ubiquitous pieces of music ever written, the Wedding March. Many of you will remember CSI: Beethoven, the symphonic play performed in 2008 that explored the cause of Beethoven’s hearing loss. In the same spirit, we will explore Mozart’s life in CSI: Mozart. Through performances of the musical scores that accompany Charlie Chaplin’s silent films, the BSO has shined a light on Chaplin’s great skill as a composer. The BSO will continue that tradition in 2013-2014 with a “Little Tramp” double-bill: The Idle Class and The Kid. Among the most notable works to symbolize a people’s hope for the future and sense of reconciliation is Britten’s War Requiem, composed in 1962 to consecrate the Coventry Cathedral, which was rebuilt after the original 14th century structure was destroyed in a World War II bombing. Two other works performed next season echo Britten’s hope: John Adams’ On the Transmigration of Souls—commissioned by the New York Philharmonic to commemorate the lives of those killed by the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center—and Beethoven’s Ninth, which reflects a universal belief in humanity.

All of this and more await you in the 2013-2014 season, and I cannot wait to share it all with you!

Marin Alsop

Music Director | Baltimore Symphony Orchestra 6 applause at Strathmore • march/april 2013

ELiot Pfanstiehl photo by michael ventura; Marin alsop photo by grant leighton

Dear Friends,

M E E T A C C L A I M E D N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C E X P L O R E R S !

TAL KS Mar 26

FULING: CRUCIBLE OF A CHANGING CHINA

Photographer Anastasia Taylor-Lind

Apr 4

FACE TO FACE | Photographer Alison Wright

Apr 11

PIRATES OF THE WHYDAH

Apr 25

Underwater Explorer Barry Clifford

BIRDS OF PARADISE

Photographer Tim Laman / Ornithologist Ed Scholes

May 1

PORTRAIT IN SEPIA | Writer Isabel Allende

May 2

VIEWS FROM WITHIN

May 6

Photographer Carolyn Drake

THE CALL OF EVEREST

Mar 17

ST. PATRICK’S DAY CONCERT with FullSet

TA S T I N G May 15

BEER FROM WHERE??

Brewmaster Garrett Oliver

SPECIAL EVENTS Mar 9

THE ART OF NATURE WRITING

Writer Jennifer Holland

Apr 27 & BIRD WALK ADVENTURE May 11 Artist, Author, Editor Jonathan Alderfer May 22

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC BEE

At National Theatre with host Alex Trebek

Climber Conrad Anker / Naturalist Alton Beyers Writer Mark Jenkins / Athlete Emily Harrington

Jun 22

May 9

MISSION TO MARS | Astronaut Buzz Aldrin AN EVENING OF EXPLORATION + DISCOVERY | Moderated by Boyd Matson

EXHIBITIONS

Jun 11

FIL MS Mar 15 Mar 19

AMAZON GOLD

Filmmaker Sarah duPont / Journalist Donovan Webster

FROM THE FILM MOONWALK

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calendar Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Time for Three Marin Alsop, conductor Time for Three Zachary DePue, violin Nicolas Kendall, violin Ranaan Meyer, double bass

John Adams: Shaker Loops Jennifer Higdon: Concerto 4-3 Prokofiev: Symphony No. 4 From bluegrass to jazz, from folk to classical, Time for Three has an energy you can feel. Hear them groove in Jennifer Higdon’s Concerto 4-3, composed especially for them.

u FRI., MAY 10, 8 P.M.

In this moving evening, Battle and acclaimed pianist Cyrus Chestnut Strathmore presents explore music that expressed the Béla Fleck and the Marcus suffering and salvation of enslaved Roberts Trio Africans as they found their way to Banjo man Béla Fleck has been freedom. Audience members can nominated in more Grammy catjoin the pre-concert lecture, Freedom egories than anyone in history, and has taken home 14 of the statuettes. Songs’ Journey to the Concert Hall, in the Education Center, Room 402 at This season, Strathmore favorite 6:30 p.m. Free with concert ticket.

Fleck brings a brilliant collaboration with one of today’s most lauded jazz ensembles, with Marcus Roberts on u SAT., MAY 25, 8 P.M. Baltimore Symphony Orchestra piano, Jason Marsalis on drums and Romeo and Juliet Rodney Jordan on bass. Audience Carlos Kalmar, conductor members can get a glimpse behind Jean-Philippe Collard, piano the scenes of artistic collaboration in How Do They Do It? The MindNarong Prangcharoen: Phenomenon Meld of Ensemble Improvisation at 6:30 p.m. in Education Center, Room Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 3 Prokofiev: Selections from Romeo 402. Free with concert ticket. and Juliet Carlos Kalmar conducts the great moments from Prokofiev’s intoxicating and impassioned ballet Romeo and Juliet. Also featured is pianist Jean-Philippe Collard, known for his masterful interpretation of SaintSaëns’ works, in the all too rarely performed Third Piano Concerto. u THURS., MAY 30, 8 P.M.

u SAT., MAY 4, 8 P.M.

SUN., MAY 5, 3 P.M. The National Philharmonic The Melodies of Brahms Natalie Haas Piotr Gajewski, conductor Denyce Graves, mezzo-soprano National Philharmonic Chorale

u SAT., MAY 11, 8 P.M.

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Chaplin’s Masterpiece: Modern Times Marin Alsop, conductor

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra BSO SuperPops: The Magic of Motown Jack Everly, conductor Spectrum, vocalists Radiance, vocalists

Relive the magic of the timeless, Brahms: Schicksalslied Chaplin: Modern Times soulful sounds of The Temptations, (“Song of Destiny”) Chaplin’s 1936 film Modern Times The Supremes, The Four Tops, Aretha Alto Rhapsody is a brilliant, biting satire on the Franklin and more, with theatrical Symphony No. 4 mechanical age. The BSO accompanache and inspired arrangements.

Denyce Graves, has garnered pop- panies this cinematic masterpiece, ular and critical acclaim worldwide performing Chaplin’s own original JUNE for her exscore. u SAT., JUNE 1, 8 P.M. pressive and u SAT., MAY 18, 8 P.M. The National Philharmonic rich voice, Wagner 200th Anniversary elegant stage Strathmore presents Celebration presence and Underground Railroad: An Piotr Gajewski, conductor exciting theatEvening With Kathleen Battle rical gift.

Kathleen Battle, soprano Wagner: Sponsored by Cyrus Chestnut, piano Overture (The Flying Dutchman) Ameriprise Heritage Signature Chorale Financial Stanley Thurston, director 8 applause at Strathmore • march/april 2013

graves photo by devon cass

MAY

u THURS. MAY 2, 8 P.M.

[May/June]

Prelude to Act III (Tannhäuser) Good Friday Spell (Parsifal) Entry of the Gods into Valhalla (Das Rheingold) Ride of the Valkyries (Die Walküre) Prelude (Die Meistersinger) Forest Murmurs (Siegfried) Siegfried’s Funeral Music (Götterdämmerung) Prelude to Act III (Lohengrin) Prelude and Liebestod “LoveDeath” (Tristan und Isolde) Enjoy selections from each of Richard Wagner’s 10 best known operas to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth. u THURS., JUNE 6, 8 P.M.

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Carmina Burana Marin Alsop, conductor Robin Johannsen, soprano John Tessier, tenor Brian Mulligan, baritone Morgan State University Choir Peabody Children’s Chorus

Mulligan photo by Peter Ross, West Side Story photo courtesy of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayor Studios Inc

Christopher Rouse: Ku-Ka-llimoku Christopher Rouse: Ogoun Badagris Revueltas: Sensemayá Orff: Carmina Burana

Enjoy the bacchanalian splendor of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana.

This rousing program beBrian Mulligan gins with two short, rhythmically punchy works by Baltimore native Christopher Rouse and Sensemayá, the most famous work of Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas.

u MON., JUNE 10, 7:30 P.M.

Strathmore presents Strathmore Children’s Chorus Spring Concert: The Music Of Jim Papoulis In their debut performance, the more than 100 members of the Strathmore Children’s Chorus take to the Music Center stage for an evening of joy-filled and uplifting music by renowned world music composer Jim Papoulis. The chorus presents a world premiere piece from the composer.

uSAT., JUNE 8, 8 P.M.

SUN., JUNE 9, 3 P.M. The National Philharmonic Carmina Burana Stan Engebretson, conductor Audrey Luna, soprano Robert Baker, tenor Leon Williams, baritone National Philharmonic Chorale Lutosławski: Three Poems by Henri Michaux Orff: Carmina Burana Carmina Burana blends secular medieval texts with seductive melodies and spellbinding rhythms to create an unforgettable concert.

[beyond the stage] Strathmore

Luck of the Draw Fine art and a good cause come together when Strathmore holds its biennial art raffle fund-raiser. Peruse the fine art and crafts at Strathmore April 18-28. Then, on April 28, a $100 raffle ticket guarantees you one work of art. The catch: ticketholders don’t choose a piece until their number gets drawn in the raffle. And there’s one more twist: the first three drawing slots will be auctioned off online. Every ticket guarantees a piece of art, and all the money raised goes to fund fine arts programs at Strathmore. An opening reception will be 6-8 p.m.

April 23, and the reception and drawing will be 6-8 p.m. April 28. Buy drawing tickets at www.strathmore.org/fineartexhibitions. Bidding for the top three slots begins on April 18 at www.biddingforgood.com/drawingforart.

u THURS., JUNE 13, 8 P.M.

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra West Side Story – Music & the Movie Marin Alsop, conductor Bernstein: West Side Story Experience the music of West Side Story live in concert as Marin Alsop and the BSO accompany the 10-time Oscar-winning motion picture.

u SAT., JUNE 29, 8 P.M.

Strathmore presents Reinventing Radio: An Evening With Ira Glass Go behind the scenes of public radio’s This American Life. In the style that has won millions of radio fans, Ira Glass talks about how it all comes together each week, mixing stories from the show with taped selections of stories and re-creating the sound of the show as the audience watches.

applause at Strathmore • march/april 2013 9

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strathmore

Songs for a

New Galaxy The Music Center serves as a landing zone for the a cappella group VOCA PEOPLE

By Chris Slattery

10 applause at Strathmore • MARCH/APRIL 2013

They came from outer space.

t

hat’s what Shai Fishman says, and as t h e c o m p o s e rarranger-music director for the international musical group VOCA PEOPLE, he should know.

“They’re aliens,” explains Fishman.

“They communicate using crazy articulations composed of complex text performed in a very specific way.”

Which makes the beat-boxing, a cappella-singing VOCA PEOPLE, with their white faces, ruby lips and extraordinary knack for re-creating the sounds of universal pop, classical and religious music, difficult to categorize.

As for what they look like, think Woody Allen in Sleeper, or something monochromatically Suessical come to life. Imagine them somewhere out there, on their own little planet tucked away behind the sun, hearing music wafting up from Earth and joyfully making it their own.

Fishman says their starship can sail only when there’s musical energy in the tank; they’re here on Earth to pick up steam, beat by syncopated beat, until they blast off to continue their intergalactic adventure. They’ll touch down at the Music Center at Strathmore at 8 p.m. Thursday, April 18.

They’re theatrical, yes. Musical, certainly. Funny, even. Jimmy Fallon adores them, they’re huge in Italy, and despite the similarity of their unconventionally-hued doubles they are no relation to Blue Man Group. VOCA PEOPLE perform without instruments, amplifiers, costume changes or sets, and amaze people while doing so.

“It’s pure enjoyment,” says Fishman, a classically trained musician who discov-

ered pop music as a 15-year-old in Tel Aviv and went on to a composing career. “There’s no message, just the love of music, the energy, the joy. And it’s always a surprise. You never know what’s coming next.”

Like a medley of Queen’s greatest hits, a tribute to Mozart or a rousing rendition of Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus.

Unlike other aliens who ended up on Steven Spielberg sets, in Roswell, N.M. or stranded in Area 51, the Voca People aliens crash landed (conveniently enough) on YouTube. From there—with a little help from Fishman and co-creator Lior Kalfo, the group’s artistic director and the director and choreographer of the Voca People stage show—the eight-alien ensemble took its “70 songs in 82 minutes” show on the road, wowing Europe, winning over New York City theater critics off-Broadway and gaining fans in South America and the Far East.

“It always works,” Fishman says. “It could be in Brazil, Israel, the States; it works the same way in Singapore and the Seychelles. This is not culture-related. It’s basic, it’s human.”

Because of little understood patterns of interplanetary sound wave frequencies between Earth and Planet Voca, the songs the aliens sing are well-established classics. Their humor—physical and innocent—transcends language. The group has grown steadily in popularity, going from Internet sensation to globetrotting team of four touring companies.

Now that world includes Strathmore,

Strathmore presents VOCA PEOPLE Thursday, April 18, 8 P.M.

where there’s been a new resolve to expand the scope of Music Center performances and include more theatrical acts.

The un-amplified, all-acoustic VOCA PEOPLE fit the bill, combining showmanship with simple, pure arrangements and maintaining a musical focus worthy of the venue’s acoustic perfection.

“The story is that three and a half years ago Lior, who is very famous where I’m from, met with me to discuss doing a show,” says Fishman, whose early obsession with beat-boxing had led him to a musical career in which he took apart and re-created musical structures as themes for television and the big screen.

“The fact that they’re aliens meant that the show could become very international very quickly—and it has.”

Fishman excitedly talks about the beat-box pioneers who inspired him— Bobby McFerrin, Eklips, Naturally 7, Jean-Yves Bonneau—and also composers John Williams and Quincy Jones. He seems as earnest as a Voca People alien in his strong belief that the joy of music has the power to re-energize the world.

“The show is for ages 6 to 106,” Fishman says. “Some songs won’t be known by everyone, but this is how music works: One night in Japan, right after a show, a child and his grandfather left, holding hands, and singing, ‘I like to move it, move it.’

“The show is quirky, funny and unique,” Fishman promises, “All eyes and ears are on the Voca People themselves. It’s kind of like a variety show: no fire, no water, nobody on trapezes: It’s just people singing.

“And being aliens.” 

applause at Strathmore • march/april 2013 11

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Baltimore Symphony ORchestra

Modern Times

and a modern orchestra

c

harlie Chaplin is my hero,” says Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Music Director Marin Alsop. “He starred in, wrote, directed, edited, produced and distributed his films. He was a real Renaissance man.”

That description of Chaplin as the embodiment of the ideals of an earlier era is doubly apt because Modern Times—which the BSO will present with a live score at 8 p.m. May 11 at the Music Center at Strathmore—was itself a throwback to an earlier era.

When Modern Times was released in 1936, Hollywood had been making talkies for almost a decade, yet the headstrong Chaplin was convinced that silence was intrinsic to his Little Tramp’s appeal. So Modern Times includes limited dialogue, none of it delivered by the Little Tramp. Depression-era audiences did get to hear Chaplin’s voice for the first time, though, when the Little Tramp sings in a scene late in the movie. He performs a nonsense song, of course, with a multilingual mishmash of lyrics.

That Chaplin eschewed a speaking part for the Little Tramp didn’t mean that he was unaware of the value of sound, however. To the contrary, Alsop says, Chaplin “was the first director to understand the emotional potential of the film score.”

Modern Times is the third Chaplin film that the BSO has presented with a live score—the others were The Gold Rush and City Lights—and the screenings have become something of a tradition for Alsop and the orchestra.

Chaplin himself composed all his own scores.

He’d hum or sing the melodies or pick them out on the piano, and his collaborators would write them 12 applause at Strathmore • march/april 2013

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra presents Chaplin’s Masterpiece: Modern Times Saturday, May 11, 8 P.M.

BSO continues tradition of celebrating Charlie Chaplin with a live screening of his satire on industrialization By M.J. McAteer

down and orchestrate them. His Modern Times a music director and composer, Alfred Newman, went on to win nearly 10 Oscars for his film adaptation of scores, including those for The King and I and Camelot.

Modern Times is alternately satiric and sentimental. Its theme is the dehumanizing effects of industrialization on the common man. As the film unreels, the Little Tramp and the unnamed “gamine,” love interest Paulette Goddard (later to be Chaplin’s third wife), are repeatedly abused and humiliated by an indifferent, “modern” world. Chaplin

But Chaplin rightly is considered one of the funniest men of all time; Modern Times is silly more often than it is somber, and it showcases some of the most inspired bits of physical comedy ever filmed.

In one classic scene, the Little Tramp is working on an assembly line turning out widgets. Although he can barely keep up with the rapid pace of the conveyor belt, the heartless factory owner keeps ordering the assembly line to go faster. The result is a frantic, slapstick ballet with a hefty dash of Harpo Marxstyle zaniness thrown in. I Love Lucy fans

Chaplin “was the first director to understand the emotional potential of the film score.”

photos by roy export s.a.s.

Marin Alsop

was said to have been inspired to make the movie in part by a conversation with Mahatma Gandhi in which Gandhi complained about “machinery with only consideration of profit.”

BSO Vice President of Artistic Operations Matthew Spivey says Modern Times tackles other serious subjects, too, such as drugs, crime and poverty. It also inspired a group of French existentialists to name their journal Les Temps Modernes.

will instantly recall Lucy and Ethel’s battle with the bonbons in the candy factory, a classic bit in its own right that obviously was inspired by Modern Times.

In another stunning sequence in the film, Chaplin’s impeccable comic timing and his remarkable agility are displayed in an attempt to impress the gamine.

The Little Tramp roller skates blindfolded, performing graceful arabesques, nimble pirouettes and backward glides on one foot, all the time unaware of being

inches from a neck-breaking abyss. The stunt used a painted scene on glass to evoke the drop-off, so the danger was an illusion, but the fluidity and grace Chaplin demonstrated were absolutely genuine.

In 1989, the Library of Congress deemed Modern Times “culturally significant,” and it is now preserved in the National Film Registry.

Not just any conductor can handle the demands of synchronizing the often rapid-fire scores with the images, Spivey says, but Alsop obviously enjoys the challenge.

“I need one eye on the image, one eye on the musicians and one eye on the score,” she explains, and then pauses, realizing what she has said. “Oh,” she laughs, “I am missing an eye!” 

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THE National Philharmonic

Music A The National Philharmonic, in a unique arrangement, created and delivers music curriculum at Washington, D.C.’s Doar School

By Roger Catlin

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B C ’s

he National Philharmonic has had experience with music education and outreach programs in its nearly 10 years, mostly through the Strathmore Student Concerts sponsored by Montgomery County Public Schools, Strathmore and the Philharmonic. But when it got a request from the William E. Doar Jr. Public Charter School for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., it was something much different.

“Hugely different,” said Piotr Gajewski, National Philharmonic’s music director and conductor. “In the past, the most we would do are programs where we might go into a school, do a couple of special classes with kids, or play some music for them, those kinds of things. For the Doar School, we were asked to completely create and deliver its music curriculum.”

Creating such a groundbreaking program happened quickly, with the first meetings occurring less than a year ago. Contracts were signed in the summer for a program that was in place in time for school to begin in August 2012.

The Philharmonic hired three full-time instructors, loaded the school with instruments and began a rigorous program such that every student in kindergarten through second grade receives Suzuki violin training each day.

Students in grades three through five who select music as one of their two areas

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of concentration receive intensive instruction in a new piano lab, vocal training or lessons on an orchestral instrument of their choice. Music students in sixth through eighth grades spend more than six hours a week in daily music instruction, reading music, developing skills and creating musical projects for presentation.

“In time,” says Doar Chairman of the Board John Goldman, who was the catalyst for the program, “we hope to have the region’s finest orchestra of eighth-graders.”

The National Philharmonic is one of three professional arts organizations that have partnered to provide free intensive arts instruction at Doar, a charter school with about 425 students in Northeast Washington; the others are the Kirov Academy of Ballet of D.C. and the Shakespeare Theatre Company. Students who choose concentration in dance or theater still receive an hour of general music instruction each week.

“It’s a pretty amazing opportunity that we’ve been given here—to be invited in to do something of this scale,” says Victoria Gau, associate conductor and director of education at the National Philharmonic. “It’s a model that doesn’t have a lot of precedent in terms of an orchestra going in and building this program from the ground up.”

A number of National Philharmonic musicians have visited the school, various quintets and quartets have put on concerts, and the students have all been invited to the orchestra’s home at the Music Center at

Strathmore, where the policy has long been that children 7 to 17 are admitted free to Philharmonic performances.

Doar officials are already seeing a jump in test scores; the discipline and respect required of students in music classes carries over to their other studies. “It’s a radical transformation for the positive that we’re tremendously proud of,” says Goldman. “I don’t think I’m being too bold in saying that what is happening here is something that will be modeled locally and nationally because of its success. And along the way there will be some very good music.”

“Seeing the progress on so many different levels on how the students are working and learning and participating has been very rewarding,” says Gau. One special benefit, she says, has been “watching the students’ eyes light up with ,music.”

At the annual Strathmore Student Concerts in the fall, the Doar students “were just bursting with excitement,” Gau says.

The students attended as a special visit so they could see the full orchestra perform.

“When they were asked their favorite part of concert, they all said the violinist who had been soloist, because these kids were all playing violin in the second grade.”

“We’re teaching kids, a vast majority of whom have never had a classical music experience of any kind,” Gajewski says. “And many come from difficult family situations and, in some cases, tough neighborhoods.

To ask an eighth-grader like this to listen to a piece of music such as Debussy’s Prelude to The Afternoon of a Faun and describe it, and he says, ‘it sounds like a sunset’—that just brings tears to my eyes. The music is reaching them, opening up parts of these children that are not open all that often.” 

Suzuki violin training for kindergartners through second-graders is part of the music curriculum created and delivered by the National Philharmonic at the Doar School.

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strathmore

Strathmore presents Cameron Carpenter Friday, April 12, 8 P.M.

Rank Insider Cameron Carpenter pipes up about the organ, the audience and ‘musical flights of fancy’ By Chris Slattery

as traditional in the extreme.”

And what could possibly be more traditional than playing the organ? But Carpenter does more than just play: he presides over the organ, feet and hands a blur. And he is happy to eschew the “miles of wire and feet of pipe” that leave traditional organs immobile in gloomy cathedrals in favor of the latest, technologically superior digital organs.

“I do consider myself revolutionary in a lot of ways,” he adds. “But revolution must be considered in context. I believe the digital organ is the most important development in the organ’s history, and that the contentiousness about it has been something of a smokescreen.

There’s a fetishism of the instrument, an idea that the organ is the point. But the

16 applause at Strathmore • march/april 2013

organ is never an end in itself. It’s an instrument.”

One that Carpenter has been, well, instrumental in taking out of the lofts of churches and onto the center stages of concert halls with his eclectic repertoire of classical works, jazz and pop collaborations and original compositions.

“The great pleasure of being able to be onstage in front of people is to be naked, to be there completely for the people for whom I’m performing.

“That’s why I fly around the world. . . . to make an ultimate musical statement, and to take the audience along on musical flights of fantasy.”

First, though, he’ll shake a few hands, sign a few programs, meet a few music lovers—now, while he still can. 

Michael Hart

f

ile it under “the hazards of fame.”

Musician Cameron Carpenter likes nothing better than to meet the audience before a performance: “My only first chance to connect with people.”

But lately Carpenter, 31, a classically trained organist who has gained increasing acclaim by pushing the boundaries of what his instrument can accomplish, has been drawing crowds that make pre-show mingling a challenge. “I’m happy to say it’s increasingly difficult for me to do that because of the number of people coming to my concerts,” he says.

That’s because Carpenter has taken the organ, that imposing collection of ranks and stops of wind-blown pipes most commonly found in church chancels and galleries, and made it his own unique and mesmerizing music delivery system. He’s become known to concertgoers around the world as an innovator, someone who takes the “glittering emotion machine,” as he calls the pipe organ, and uses it to thrill with music that’s at once familiar and incredibly elevated.

“I’m trying to present an incredibly honest portrayal and expression of ecstasy,” says Carpenter, who will perform at the Music Center at Strathmore at 8 p.m. April 12. “I regard what I’m doing

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Baltimore Symphony ORchestra

Mind, body, music BSO Principal Flute Emily Skala helps students find harmony from within before picking up an instrument By Laura Farmer

w

hen BSO Principal Flute Emily Skala describes a typical flute lesson with one of her students, you might wonder if you accidentally walked into a yoga studio instead of a music lesson.

“First, I have the students stretch and identify any restrictions in their body,” says Skala.

“We may spend a good portion of the lesson focusing on how to breathe fully to heighten the student’s self-awareness, or spend time isolating and stretching tissues in the hand.”

Skala’s emphasis on a well body as the foundation for great flute technique is based on years of research, often using herself as the guinea pig. A yoga enthusiast and avid fan of aromatherapy, she relies on these age-old remedies to help manage the stress and body fatigue that are a side effect of her busy schedule. Not only does she teach at The Peabody Institute in Baltimore, and maintain an intense practice and performance schedule, but Skala also must focus on raising her high school-aged daughter, Sophi.

“I apply rose oil each morning,” she says. “It opens my heart and mind and lifts my spirits at the start of the day. It helps me all day long.”

The therapeutic use of essential oils is just one of the alternative approaches to wellness that Skala draws pulls from what she calls her “toolbox” of remedies.

Another tool in that box is “Rolfing.” Named for its founder,

18 applause at Strathmore • march/april 2013

Ida Rolf, this massage technique seeks to restructure the fascia—the sheath-like connective tissue that binds muscles together— with the goal of improved body alignment and reduced pain.

“When you think about it, musicians really are athletes. We practice the same repetitive motions for hours each day and that can really wear down those muscles.”

Skala credits these strategies with helping her remain injury-free throughout her nearly 30-year performance career, and says they’re a key to her critically acclaimed flute performances. Moreover, she is passing this holistic approach on to her students.

“I help the students replace any tension caused by fear and inhibition with harmony within their own bodies, which frees them to experience the sheer joy of making music.” 

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Baltimore Symphony ORchestra

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra presents Time for Three Thursday, May 2, 8 P.M.

Flash, crash & jam Love of improvisation—and a little bit of lightning—bond members of Time for Three

By Kathleen Wheaton

thunderstorm.

More than a decade ago, three students at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music formed a friendship over a shared love of jamming and improvising. Violinists Zachary de Pue and Nicolas Kendall, both fans of country western and bluegrass, began fiddling together in their free time; they were soon joined by double bassist Ranaan Meyer, who contributed his love of jazz to the mix.

What might have faded to a fondly remembered creative outlet instead caught fire at a July 2003 performance at Philadelphia’s Mann Center for the Performing Arts. De Pue and Meyer—then members of The Philadelphia Orchestra—improvised an acoustic jam session during a power outage caused by lightning. The audience went wild for their renditions of “Ragtime Annie” and “Orange Blossom Express,” and a musical paradigm was born. The self-proclaimed “classically trained garage band” will perform with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at 8 p.m. May 2 at the Music Center at Strathmore.

After two critically acclaimed CDs and over a thousand live concerts, audience response is still key to what makes

Time for Three such electrifying performers. “The group definitely feeds off the moment,” says de Pue. “Even having one extra person in the room affects how we play.”

At Strathmore, the group will perform Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Jennifer Higdon’s Concerto 4-3, which she wrote for the trio. The group has never played the unorthodox, slightly amped concerto exactly the same way twice, says de Pue: “It depends on the vibe in the room.”

Like members of any self-respecting garage band, Time For Three members toggle between the group and their “day jobs,” which include a residency with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, where de Pue serves as concertmaster. Meyer, in addition to composing, de-

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votes part of every summer to teaching at string camps for young bassists. Kendall, a Silver Spring native, is a member of the East Coast Chamber Orchestra and the Dryden String Quartet.

Time for Three plans to release a new CD this year and also would like to produce another music video following the YouTube success of “Stronger,” in which the trio covers the song by American hip-hop artist Kanye West and French electronic music duo Daft Punk. The storyline movingly portrays a teen violinist rising above school bullies. “It reflects our personal experience,” Meyer says. “Carrying a double bass around didn’t always make you the coolest kid in school. Our message to younger musicians is to follow your heart.” 

journey group

t

he charismatic and genre-bending violin and double bass trio Time for Three owes its existence in part to a summer

Crown

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strathmore Blues Jam Saturday, March 2, 2013 6:30-8:30 p.m.

The Music Center at Strathmore Education Room 309 Free for Levine students; $5 for the general public

Strum, pick, pluck Levine School of Music’s guitar department stresses the instrument’s flexibility By Briana Maley

w

hen you walk through the Levine School of Music’s halls at Strathmore, you hear so much more than just piano or classical music. Private lessons are offered on more than 22 instruments and guitar is just one of the instruments you’ll hear reverberating in the halls.

“The guitar is an extremely versatile instrument,’ says Risa Carlson, Levine faculty member and chair of the guitar department. “There is such a huge variety in the styles of music that one can play on the guitar—from Renaissance

to rock and everything in between, it’s all part of our repertoire.”

Levine faculty members’ guitar expertise ranges from electric to acoustic and from jazz to blues. Students can study classical, jazz, rock and other contemporary styles, Carlson said. “Also, since the guitar is so ubiquitous in our culture, everyone can relate to it, at any age. We have kids starting guitar lessons as young as 3 ½ years old and our oldest student right now is in his 80s.”

One great opportunity for students to demonstrate new skills is at Levine’s Blues Jam. The session begins with a one-hour class covering the basics of

Classical guitarist Manuel Barrueco (right) will teach a master class in April as part of his ongoing relationship with the Levine School of Music.

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Master Class with Manuel Barrueco Thursday, April 4, 2013 7 p.m.

The Music Center at Strathmore Education Room 309 Free and open to the public, RSVP requested Summer Guitar Intensives Electric Guitar Intensive (Teens & Adults): 5-8 p.m. July 8-12 Beginning Blues Guitar (Adults): 7-8 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays, July 15-31 Advanced Blues Guitar (Adults): 7-8 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays July 16-Aug. 1

how to participate in a blues jam. A coached jam session follows, and everyone will have the opportunity to solo and plan accompaniment.

Other opportunities for students include Levine’s annual master class series. The April 4 class, which is free and open to the public, will feature classical guitarist Manuel Barrueco.

In addition, several guitar intensives are being offered by Levine on the Strathmore campus, including a session on electric guitar for teens and adults as well as blues guitar sessions for beginning and advanced adults. These classes are ways students can improve their skills in a supportive atmosphere with fellow students and Levine faculty, Carlson says.

Whether a guitar student has a wide or focused interest in genres, he or she can find a happy musical home at Levine. “We have extraordinary guitar instructors at Levine—they are highly trained and dedicated to their students,” Carlson says. “I think it’s quite unusual for a community music school to have such a distinguished faculty, available to anyone at any level interested in studying the guitar.” 

Chevy Chase CARS

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Washington Performing Arts Society

thoroughly

Thielemann With an all-Brahms program, commanding conductor draws on passion for German Romantic works in his area debut with Staatskapelle Dresden

By Kathleen Wheaton

24 applause at Strathmore • MARCH/APRIL 2013

Washington Performing Arts Society presents Staatskapelle Dresden

m

aestro Christian Thielemann began studying the piano at age 4, and by age 6 was also taking organ lessons—a fact he managed to keep secret from his piano teacher. Finally, the teacher guessed the truth, and the boy confessed that the sound of the organ attracted him because it had “more colors.”

He then began studying viola, but soon the Berlin-born prodigy realized that the instrument with the most colors of all was the orchestra: “So I decided, very young, that I wanted to be a conductor.”

Appointed in 2012 the principal conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden, widely recognized as one of the best or-

Tuesday, April 16, 8 P.M. gramming for the Washington Performing Arts Society. “A match made in heaven,” she says. “From the exuberance of the Academic Festival Overture to the violin lament which opens the Fourth Symphony, it will be impossible not to be taken in emotionally.”

His appointment to lead the Staatskapelle Dresden has produced another kind of magic. Founded in 1548, it is the oldest continuous orchestra in the world. The orchestra has a storied history of working closely with legendary conductors and composers, including a 60-year relationship with Richard Strauss—the orchestra premiered nine of his operas.

“The Dresden Staatskapelle sound like they have been playing together since 1548,” Pollack says. “Their sound

The Dresden Staatskapelle’s sound “is full and lush, yet incredibly cohesive and precise.”

Samantha Pollack chestras in the world, the 54-year-old Thielemann might be forgiven for feeling satisfied. In his view, however, the best is yet to come: “Conductors are like a great wine—the older, the better.” Thielemann believes that while a young conductor can be “promising,” or “have fire,” his ideal comes from his longtime mentor Herbert von Karajan, who knew his orchestra so well that he could conduct “with an eyebrow, or a raised finger...I learned from him to listen to musicians, to breathe with them.”

Thielemann will make his Washington, D.C. debut with the Staatskapelle Dresden at 8 p.m. April 16 at the Music Center at Strathmore. The allBrahms program should perfectly showcase Thielemann’s gift for coaxing out a sumptuous German Romantic sound, says Samantha Pollack, director of pro-

is full and lush, yet incredibly cohesive and precise.”

Thielemann began his professional career in 1978 as a rehearsal pianist with the Deutsch Oper Berlin. A year later, at age 20, he became Karajan’s assistant. The famous Austrian conductor advised him to work his way up through small theaters and opera houses, and Thielemann did just that—at Karlsruhe, Hanover and Dusseldorf. At 31, he became Germany’s youngest music director of the Nuremburg Staatskapelle.

He returned to the Deutsche Oper Berlin in 1991 to conduct Wagner’s Lohengrin; the monumental opera has become a signature piece. His U.S. conducting debut, of Strauss’ Elektra with the San Francisco Symphony in 1991, was followed by enthusiastically received concerts in Chicago and New York.

Beginning this year, Thielemann will also direct the Salzburg Easter Festival, founded by Karajan in 1967. Karajan’s profound influence on the younger conductor can be observed in Thielemann’s ability to coax rich, voluptuous sound from his orchestra. And, like Karajan, Thielemann is identified with a traditional school of Austro-German conducting that values Romantic interpretations and elastic tempos, and one that cedes full authority to the conductor. “An orchestra is not a democracy,” Thielemann has said. His insistence on protecting his vision for the orchestra he conducts has led to clashes, and he stepped down early from posts at the Deutsche Oper Berlin in 2001 and the Munich Philharmonic in 2011.

But audiences and musicians alike revere him for his deep and intuitive understanding of German Romantic repertoire. Critics have remarked on his ability to probe musical scores from within, achieving a re-creation of the original that feels almost mystical.

Thielemann believes that learning to deal with tradition is one of the biggest challenges facing German musicians: “After World War II, a generation came of age in Germany that distrusted tradition because it had been misused,” he has said. Born in East Berlin, he was not yet 30 when the Berlin Wall came down in November 1989, an event he attended and which moved him deeply. “I am rooted in German culture, why should I fight against that?”

Delving deeply into beloved composers including Strauss, Wagner, Pfitzer, Bruckner, Brahms and Beethoven has enabled Thielemann to reach what is universal in music: “If you’ve just gone through something terrible and you near the beginning of the St. Matthew Passion or a Mozart symphony, the music carries you away from those thoughts,” he has said. “That is magic.” 

applause at Strathmore • march/april 2013 25

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Friday, March 1, 2013, 8 p.m.

FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 2013, 8 P.M.

● Strathmore Presents

Drumline Live!

Africa INTERMISSION

Drum Major/Shout It Out

American Soul

Street Beat Swingin’

The King

Halftime

Midnight Magic

Gospel

HBCU DRUMLINE

Funky Footwork

Ultimate Drum Battle

Don P. Roberts, creator/director/musical director Tour Staff Reggie Brayon, company manager Keith Bernard. tech director KD Morley, sound engineer Toi Whitaker, costume manager Creative Team Don P. Roberts, creator/director/musical director Brian Snell, assistant musical director Jacques Bell, assistant show director/choreographer Demetrius Hubert, percussion director Xavier Pierce, lighting designer Harlan Penn, scenic designer Glenda Morton, costume designer Trudy Jones, assistant costume designer Raymond Rolle II, Lindsey Sarjeant, Keven Shepherd, Nicholas Thomas and Terry Jones, arrangers The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

History

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) are institutions of higher learning that were established with the intention of serving the African-American community. There are more than 100 historically black colleges in the United States, located almost exclusively in the Southeast.

It was in these bastions of higher education that the tradition of the show style marching band was born.

The tradition began more than 50 years ago at Florida A&M University. HBCU marching bands began, as most do, as support for the college football team. The bands have since grown into a sport of their own, featuring characteristic high stepping, funky dance rhythms and exciting musical repertoire ranging from classical to Top 40.

Marching band competitions can draw audiences of 60,000 or more each and are a testament to the popularity of the sport. But it is only recently, with films such as Drumline, that this tradition has begun to capture the American public.

Program Notes Africa

The musical journey begins with the ancient rhythms of the world’s first drummers flying on the wings of time, re-invented in the sound and fury of a new band of musicians.

Drum Major/Shout It Out

Drumline Live!

Drumline Live! kicks off its fourth U.S. tour in the 2012-2013 season following its extremely successful tours in 20082009, 2010-2011 and 2011-2012. Drum-

line Live!’s energetic cast has honed its precision and energy with years of training in marching band programs across the southern United States.

This versatile group of musicians and dancers brings an explosive energy and athleticism to an eclectic mix of sounds.

Equally at home with contemporary hip hop, R&B, classic Motown tunes and the rousing sounds of the great brass tradition, Drumline Live! is thrilled to share the American marching band experience with a wider audience.

28 applause at Strathmore • MARCH/APRIL 2013

The band makes its grand introduction with loud music, choreography and unbridled energy.

American Soul

Some call it Motown. Some call it soul. Revel in the sounds that defined an American musical genre.

The King

Musicians and performers share a highlight reel from Michael Jackson, featuring choreographed renditions of “Smooth Criminal” and “Billie Jean.”

Friday, March 1, 2013, 8 p.m.

Midnight Magic

These ghostly drummers are hip and magical. The performers cloak the concert hall in darkness, performing with LEDs, neon lights and glow-inthe-dark elements.

Gospel

The band puts on its Sunday-go-tomeetin’ clothes for a hand-clapping, heart-thumping celebration of America’s southern gospel music.

Street Beat

Drumline Live! Cast Euphonium Bayshawn Holmes Brandon Kirksey Percussion Paul Woods Chris Belcher Bernard Smith Maurice Mosley Anthony Pasquini

This action packed group of percussionists will amaze.

Swingin’

French horns Darrell Johnson Mark Chapman Basses Michael Jones Larry Chery Trombone Edwin Blakely Aaron Davis Travord Rolle Reuben Ahukanna Jeffery Walker

The musicians commemorate the sounds of the Big Bands, with a swing medley fit for dancing and jiving.

Ultimate Drum Battle

Halftime

HBCU Drumline

Enjoy this tribute to the iconic halftime extravaganza made famous by HBCU bands from across America.

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Trumpet William Thompson Gladstone Edwards Aheisha Duke Eddy Falcon Yamin Mustafa Larry Allen Anthony Scott Saxophones Larry J. Smith II Jacques Bell

Dancers Micki Johnson Alicia Dixon Cormesha Johnson Tekelya Willis Drum Major Brian Snell Host Slater Thorpe

precision of the HBCU drumline.

The one-on-one battle of some of the best drummers you have ever witnessed.

The bass drums sound like thunder, the flash of cymbals is like lightning.

This number showcases the power and

Funky Footwork

Nothing can prepare you for the dazzling choreography of the HBCU dance routine and musical selections that highlight the best of the ’80s and ’90s hip hop.

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JUST ONE BLOCK OFF ROCKVILLE PIKE: EAST MIDDLE LANE | MARYLAND AVENUE | GIBBS STREET applause at Strathmore • MARCH/APRIL 2013 29

Saturday, March 2, 2013, 8 p.m.

SATURDAY, MARCH 2, 2013, 8 P.M.

● The National Philharmonic Piotr Gajewski, Music Director and Conductor

presents

The American Virtuoso Violin Piotr Gajewski, conductor Elena Urioste, violin Signs of Life II Russell Peck Arioso (1945 - 2009)

Scherzo

Two Lyric Pieces (world premiere)

Violin Concerto

Serenade (after Plato’s Symposium),

for Solo Violin, String Orchestra,

Harp and Percussion I. Phaedrus: Pausanius (Lento: Allegro)

II. Aristophanes (Allegretto)

III. Erixymathus (Presto)

IV. Agathon (Adagio)

V. Socrates: Alcibiades (Molto tenuto: Allegro molto vivace)

Elena Urioste, violin

Steven R. Gerber (1948-) Andreas Makris (1930-2005) Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)

All Kids, All Free, All the Time is sponsored by The Gazette This performance is part of Strathmore’s series Storied Strings: The Violin in America, a season-long exploration of the violin in American music.

The Music Center at Strathmore • Marriott Concert Stage

Elena Urioste has been hailed by critics and audiences alike for her rich tone, nuanced lyricism and commanding stage presence.

Since making her debut with The Philadelphia Orchestra at age 13, she has appeared as soloist with major orchestras throughout the U.S., including the Boston Pops; National Symphony Orchestra; and Cleveland, Atlanta, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, New Mexico and San Antonio symphony orchestras.

Urioste plays a Michelangelo Bergonzi, Cremona (circa 1750).

Program Notes Signs of Life II

Piotr Gajewski, conductor

Piotr Gajewski is widely credited with building the National Philharmonic to its present status as one of the most respected ensembles of its kind

in the region.

In addition to his appearances with the National Philharmonic, Gajewski is much in demand as a guest

conductor. In recent years, he has appeared with most of the major orchestras in his native Poland, as well as the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic in England, the Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra in the Czech Republic, the Okanagan Symphony in Canada and numerous orchestras in the United States.

Gajewski attended Carleton College and the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music, where he earned a bachelor’s of music

30 applause at Strathmore • MARCH/APRIL 2013

Russell Peck Born Jan. 25, 1945, in Detroit, Mich.; died in North Carolina in 2009

Russell Peck’s music is notable for colorful and idiomatic orchestration and an exceptionally accessible personal style in which he combined the classical idiom with a recognizable influence of popular American musical language.

Early in his career, Peck served as composer-in-residence for the city of Indianapolis. His orchestral

Gajewski Photo by Michael Ventura, Urioste photo by Jonathan D. Nimerfroh

and a master’s of music. in orchestral conducting. Upon completing his formal education, he continued refining his conducting skills at the 1983 Tanglewood Music Festival in Massachusetts, where he was awarded a Leonard Bernstein Conducting Fellowship.

His teachers there included Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, André Previn, Gunther Schuller, Gustav Meier and Maurice Abravanel.

Gajewski is also a winner of many prizes and awards, among them a prize at New York’s prestigious Leopold Stokowski Conducting Competition.

Saturday, March 2, 2013, 8 p.m.

compositions have been performed internationally, as well as by major American orchestras. In 2000-2001, a consortium of 39 American orchestras commissioned Peck’s Timpani Concerto “Harmonic Rhythm.” The premiere performances began with the Louisville Orchestra and proceeded with orchestras throughout the country.

For more than 30 years, Peck collaborated with his friend Marshall Gordon to create and implement a worldwide policy for eradicating starvation.

As Peck wrote, “a starvation-free world is utterly imperative for any hope of world peace.”

Signs of Life for symphonic strings was written in two movements: a lush Arioso and a jazzy Scherzo, using many exotic string sounds including the composer’s innovative “peckzicatto” technique. Signs of Life II added an Allegro, subtitled “Don’t tread on me,” as a first movement to those two, together creating a three-movement work. The music is often a fusion of styles with spiky texture, jazzy rhythms and repetitive themes. The composer wrote: “Signs of Life is a joyous work written in a language and style which asserts the continuing power of such traditional devices as tonality and meter to express beautiful and scintillating musical thought.” The inventive work, both fresh and accessible, contains all kinds of string techniques applied in imaginative and engaging ways.

Two Lyric Pieces (World Premiere)

Steven R. Gerber

Born in 1948 in Washington, D.C.

After the American premiere of his Violin Concerto at the Concert Hall of The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 1995 by Kurt Nikkanen and the National Chamber Orchestra under Piotr Gajewski, the Washington Post called it “a major addition to the contemporary violin repertoire: lyrical, passionate, beautifully tailored to the instrument’s character and capabilities ... Gerber has revived the spirit of romanticism in this work, with a strong sense of tonal melody and of

the dramatic effects and surprises still possible in traditional forms... one of the year’s most memorable events.”

Carter Brey premiered Gerber’s Cello Concerto with the same orchestra and conductor in 1996. Recent works of Gerber’s include a Viola Concerto written for Yuri Bashmet and premiered by Bashmet at his summer festival in Tours, France; String Quartets nos. 4 and 5, written respectively for the Fine Arts and Amernet String Quartets; “Spirituals” for clarinet and string quartet, commissioned by Concertante Chamber Players for performances in 2000 at the Library of Congress and Merkin Hall (NYC) and in Harrisburg; a Clarinet Concerto for Jon Manasse, premiered by him with the National Philharmonic Orchestra under Maestro Gajewski, and Fanfare for the Voice of A-M-E-R-I-C-A, premiered in 2003 at a 9/11 memorial concert.

Gerber’s music is also well-known in Russia and Ukraine; several of his major works were given their world premieres there, including “Dirge and Awakening” by the Russian National Orchestra under Mikhail Pletnev at the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, his Violin Concerto by the Novosibirsk Philharmonic under Arnold Katz, with soloist Kurt Nikkanen, and “Serenade Concertante” by Chamber Orchestra Kremlin under Misha Rachlevsky at the Small Hall of the Moscow Conservatory.

Gerber recently completed a new orchestral work, “Music in Dark Times,” commissioned by Vladimir Ashkenazy and premiered in 2009, with Ashkenazy conducting the San Francisco Symphony.

Two Lyric Pieces makes its world premiere at tonight’s concert. Gerber explains, “Two Lyric Pieces for solo violin and string orchestra (2005) are very different from my Violin Concerto,” also premiered by Gajewski and the National Philharmonic, in its previous incarnation as the National Chamber Orchestra (they also recorded the concerto on KOCH International).

Whereas the concerto was dramatic

and full of contrasts, this work is smallscale and entirely lyrical; as the title indicates, the two movements are not altogether dissimilar in character. The first movement frames a central section with an introduction and coda; the central section itself begins as a berceuse or lullaby, followed by a second melody over a repeating bass-line.

The second movement is a passacaglia whose theme is first stated by the solo violin unaccompanied.

Violin Concerto

Andreas Makris

Born March 7, 1930, in Salonika, Greece; died Feb. 3, 2005, in Silver Spring, Md.

Andreas Makris studied violin at Greece’s National Conservatory, later moving to the U.S. in 1950, to continue at Phillips University in Enid, Okla. He subsequently studied at the Kansas City Conservatory in Missouri and Mannes College of Music in New York, from which he graduated in 1956. Further training followed at the Aspen Music Festival and at the Fontainebleau School in France, where Makris studied composition with Nadia Boulanger.

Makris played violin with the Dallas Symphony and the St. Louis Symphony orchestras, but it was the National Symphony Orchestra to which he dedicated most of his performing life.

In 1961, at the invitation of conductor Howard Mitchell, he joined the first violin section and remained there for 28 years, working under Mitchell, Antal Doráti, Mstislav Rostropovich and Leonard Slatkin. During his tenure, many of his compositions were performed by the symphony, and, in 1970, he became the first composer to have a work premiered at The Kennedy Center. In 1995, he composed a work honoring the center’s 25th anniversary.

From 1979 to 1989, Makris served as NSO’s composer in residence, writing and arranging numerous incidental pieces for the symphony, including a piece for Leonard Bernstein’s birthday and an arrangement of Paganini’s Moto

applause at Strathmore • March/april 2013 31

Saturday, March 2, 2013, 8 p.m.

Perpetuo, which became a standard encore on the NSO’s many tours. He received several grants and awards for his compositions, including a National Endowment for the Arts grant and an ASCAP award. Upon his retirement from the NSO, Makris rededicated himself to composing.

In 1985, Makris developed a close friendship with National Philharmonic Music Director and Conductor Piotr Gajewski, at whose request he then composed several works for the Philharmonic. Among them are the Symphony for Soprano and Strings, the Violin Concerto and Strathmore Overture (composed for the National Philharmonic’s gala inaugural concert at the Music Center at Strathmore).

Sadly, Makris died just a few days before Strathmore Overture premiered.

Makris composed the Concerto for Violin and Strings in 1996 for the National Chamber Orchestra (now the National Philharmonic) and its concertmaster Jody Gatwood. The concerto has four movements and explores the various possibilities of string textures and their expressive capabilities.

The first movement begins with a brief introduction in which quick orchestra passages alternate with slower-paced solo cadenzas. The movement then develops along a classic sonata allegro form with a pensive coda at the end. Much like Makris’ other slow string movements, the second movement contrasts low string melodies and shimmering violin tremolos with pizzicato contrasts and occasional violent forte cluster interruptions.

The third movement is taken from a solo violin piece composed in 1988 entitled Caprice Tonatonal. The solo Caprice is brilliantly humorous; for the concerto, Makris simply adds a clever string orchestra accompaniment. The fourth and final movement opens with a reminiscence of the previous three movements followed by a short cadenza. A dancing tune follows and is developed. A short tremolo section interrupts the romp, and

National Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorale First Violins Justine Lamb-Budge, Concertmaster Jody Gatwood, Concertmaster emeritus Brenda Anna Michael Barbour Eva Cappelletti-Chao Maureen ConlonDorosh Claudia Chudacoff Lisa Cridge Doug Dubé Lysiane Gravel-Lacombe Jennifer Kim Regino Madrid Kim Miller Jennifer Rickard Benjamin Scott Leslie Silverfine Chaerim Smith Olga Yanovich Second Violins Mayumi Pawel, Principal Katherine Budner Arminé Graham Justin Gopal June Huang Karin Kelleher Alexandra Mikhlin Laura Miller Joanna Owen Jean Provine Rachel Schenker Jennifer Shannon Ning Ma Shi Hilde Singer Cathy Stewart Rachael Stockton Violas Julius Wirth, Principal Judy Silverman, Associate Principal Phyllis Freeman Nicholas Hodges Leonora Karasina Stephanie Knutsen Mark Pfannschmidt Margaret Prechtl Jennifer Rende Sarah Scanlon Chris Shieh Tam Tran Cellos Lori Barnet, Principal April Chisholm Danielle Cho Ken Ding Andrew Hesse Philip von Maltzahn Todd Thiel Kerry Van Laanen Basses Robert Kurz, Principal Kelly Ali Shawn Alger Barbara Fitzgerald William Hones Ed Malaga Michael Rittling Mark Stephenson Flutes David Whiteside, Principal Nicolette Oppelt David LaVorgna Piccolo David LaVorgna Oboes Mark Hill, Principal Kathy Ceasar-Spall

32 applause at Strathmore • MARCH/APRIL 2013

Fatma Daglar English Horn Ron Erler Clarinets Cheryl Hill, Principal Carolyn Alvarez-Agria Suzanne Gekker Bass Clarinet Carolyn Alvarez-Agria Bassoons Erich Hecksher, Principal Benjamin Greanya Sandra Sisk Ying-Ting Chiu Contrabassoon Nicholas Cohen French Horns Michael Hall, Principal Mark Wakefield Justin Drew Mark Hughes Ken Bell Trumpets Chris Gekker, Principal Robert Birch Carl Rowe John Abbraciamento Trombones David Sciannella, Principal Jim Armstrong Jeffrey Cortazzo Tuba William Clark Timpani & Percussion Tom Maloy, Principal Aubrey Adams Curt Duer Robert Jenkins Bill Richards Harp Rebecca Smith Elizabeth Blakeslee Keyboard William Neil Jeffery Watson Theodore Guerrant Sopranos Marietta R. Balaan Kelli Bankard Ahdia Bavari Mary Bentley* Jocelyn Bond Cheryl Branham Rosalind Breslow Rebecca Carlson** Anne P. Claysmith Nancy A. Coleman** Victoria Corona Eileen S. DeMarco Lauren Drinkwater Alejandra Durán-Böhme Lisa Edgley Amy Ellsworth Shirley J. Fan Sarah B. Forman Caitlin A. Garry Carrie Henderson Debbie Henderson Julie Hudson Robyn Kleiner Jessica Holden Kloda Stephanie Link Kaelyn Lowmaster Sharon Majchrzak-Hong Anaelise Martinez Kathryn McKinley Sara W. Moses

Katherine NelsonTracey* Mary Beth Nolan Gloria Nutzhorn Juliana S. O’Neill Lynette Posorske Maggie Rheinstein Carlotta Richard Lisa Romano Theresa Roys Aida L. Sánchez Katherine Schnorrenberg Shelly A. Schubert Michelle Strucke Carolyn J. Sullivan Chelsea Toledo Ellen van Valkenburgh Susanne Villemarette Louise M. Wager Amy Wenner Emily Wildrick Lynne Woods Altos Marsha Adler Helen R. Altman Sybil Amitay Toni Barrett Lynne Stein Benzion Carol Bruno Erlinda C. Dancer Sandra L. Daughton Jenelle M. Dennis Corinne Erasmus Robin Fillmore Shannon Finnegan Elissa Frankle Francesca Frey-Kim Maria A. Friedman Julia C. Friend Elizabeth Bishop Gemoets Jeanette Ghatan Sarah Gilchrist Lois J. Goodstein Jacque Grenning Stacey A. Henning Jean Hochron Debbi Iwig Sara Michael Josey* Natalie Kaftan Marilyn Katz Casey Keeler Irene M. Kirkpatrick Mary-Hannah Klontz Martha J. Krieger** Melissa J. Lieberman* Julie S. MacCartee Nansy Mathews Caitlin McLaughlin Susan E. Murray Daryl Newhouse Martha Newman Patricia Pillsbury Patricia Pitts Elizabeth Riggs Beryl M. Rothman Lisa Rovin Jan Schiavone Deborah F. Silberman Elizabeth Solem Lori J. Sommerfield Carol A. Stern Pattie Sullivan-Sten Bonnie S. Temple Renée Tietjen Susan Trainor Virginia Van Brunt Christine Vocke Sarah Jane Wagoner** Wendy J. Weinberg Tenors Kenneth Bailes Philip Bregstone

J.I. Canizares Colin Church Spencer Clark Gregory Daniel Paul J. DeMarco Ruth W. Faison* Greg Gross Carlos A. Herrán Dominick Izzo Don Jansky Curt Jordan Tyler A. Loertscher Ryan Long Jane Lyle David Malloy Michael McClellan Chantal McHale Eleanor McIntire Wayne Meyer* Tom Milke Tom Nessinger Steve Nguyen Anita O’Leary E.J. Pavy Joe Richter Drew Riggs Jason Saffell Robert T. Saffell Dennis Vander Tuig Basses Andres Almeida Russell Bowers Albert Bradford Ronald Cappelletti Pete Chang Dale S. Collinson Stephen Cook Clark V. Cooper Bopper Deyton J. William Gadzuk Robert Gerard Mike Hilton Chun-Hsien Huang John Iobst William W. Josey** Peter Kadeli Allan Kirkpatrick Ian Kyle Jack Legler Larry Maloney Ian Matthews Alan E. Mayers Dugald McConnell David J. McGoff Kent Mikkelsen* John Milberg** Oliver Moles Mark Nelson Leif Neve Devin Osborne Tom Pappas Anthony Radich Harry Ransom, Jr. Edward Rejuney* Frank Roys José Luis Sánchez Kevin Schellhase Harold Seifried Charles Serpan Carey W. Smith Charles Sturrock Alun Thomas Donald A. Trayer Wayne R. Williams Theodore Guerrant, Accompanist, Theodore M. Guerrant Chair * section leader ** asst. section leader

Saturday, March 2, 2013, 8 p.m.

cellos and basses can again briefly be heard articulating a slow tune, before a presto coda brings the work to its conclusion.

Serenade (after Plato’s Symposium), for Solo Violin, String Orchestra, Harp and Percussion

Leonard Bernstein

Born Aug. 25, 1918, in Lawrence, Mass.; died Oct. 10, 1990. in New York

Leonard Bernstein was influenced early on by his classical education at the Boston Latin School and Harvard College. When he was in his 30s, his re reading of Plato’s Symposium, a classic of philosophy, moved him to compose this “Serenade,” a work that could be thought of as a one-movement violin concerto or a concerto in five connected movements. In the Symposium, Plato, who lived in the fourth and fifth centuries B.C., tells of a social gathering, a banquet in honor of the tragic poet Agathon, at which Socrates, Plato’s mentor, is the leading figure in a discussion of love and beauty.

Bernstein dedicated his work to the “beloved memory of Serge and Natalie Koussevitzky.” The Koussevitzky Foundation commissioned the “Serenade.”

Koussevitzky, the conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1924 to 1949, was Bernstein’s teacher and mentor. In August 1954, after he completed the work, Bernstein wrote this description of it, here abridged: “There is no literal program for this ‘Serenade,’ despite the fact that it resulted from a rereading of Plato’s charming dialogue, Symposium. The music, like the dialogue, is a series of related statements in praise of love and generally follows the Platonic form through the succession of speakers at the banquet. The ‘relatedness’ of the movements does not depend on common thematic material, but, rather, on a system whereby each movement evolves out of the elements of the preceding one, a form I initiated in my second symphony, “The Age of Anxiety.”

“I. Phaedrus: Pausanius (Lento: Allegro). Phaedrus opens the symposium with a lyrical oration in praise of Eros, the god of love. Pausanias continues

by describing the duality of the lover, as compared with the beloved. . . in a classical sonata allegro, based on the material of the opening fugato.

II. Aristophanes (Allegretto). Aristophanes does not play the role of clown in this dialogue, but instead that of the bedtime storyteller, invoking the fairy tale mythology of love. The atmosphere is one of quiet charm.

“III. Erixymathus (Presto). The physician speaks of bodily harmony as a scientific model for the workings of love patterns. This is an extremely short fugato scherzo, born of a blend of mystery and humor.

“IV. Agathon (Adagio). Perhaps the most moving (and famous) speech of the dialogue, Agathon’s panegyric embraces all aspects of love’s powers, charms and functions. This movement is simply a three part song.

“V. Socrates: Alcibiades (Molto tenuto: Allegro molto vivace). Socrates describes his visit to the seer Diotima, quoting her speech on the demonology of love. Love as a daemon is Socrates’

image for the pro¬fundity of love. ...

This slow introduction… serves as a highly developed reprise of the middle section of the Agathon movement, thus suggesting a hidden sonata form.

The famous interruption by Alcibiades and his band of drunken revelers ushers in the Allegro, which is an extended Rondo ranging in spirit from agitation through jig like dance music to joyful celebration. If there is a hint of jazz in the celebration, I hope it will not be taken as anachronistic Greek party music, but rather the natural expression of a contemporary American composer imbued with the spirit of that timeless dinner party.”

The composer conducted the first performance, on Sept. 12, 1954, with Isaac Stern as soloist, at the Venice Festival. The score calls for solo violin, harp, timpani, snare drum, tenor drum, bass drum, triangle, suspended cymbal, tambourine, Chinese blocks,xylophone, glockenspiel, chimes and string orchestra.

Copyright Susan Halpern, 2012

It’s music to my ears.

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applause at Strathmore • March/april 2013 33

Thursday, March 7, 2013, 8 p.m.

THURSDAY, MARCH 7, 2013, 8 P.M.

● Strathmore Presents

Cirque Zíva Produced by Asian Artists Productions, Inc. Danny Chang, artistic director Randy Williamson, technical director Tony Tucci, lighting director Tour Direction by SRO Artists, Inc. Strathmore thanks Traditional Chinese Culture Institute International LLC for its promotional support of this performance.

The Music Center at Strathmore • Marriott Concert Stage

Cirque Zíva

The Golden Dragon Acrobats hail from Cangzhou, Hebei province, in the People’s Republic of China and have toured the United States continuously since 1978. The group averages 200 performances each year and has toured through all 50 states and in more

than 65 countries. In 2005, the group’s Broadway debut and seven-week run at the New Victory Theater earned two New York Drama Desk Awards nominations (for Best Choreography and Most Unique Theatrical Experience).

The group’s founder, producer and artistic director, Danny Chang, began

his training at age 8 with his family’s acrobatic school in Taipei, and joined its touring wing, the Golden Dragon Acrobats, at age 10.

In 1998, Chang restructured the Golden Dragon Acrobats to form Asian Artists Productions, Inc. While the new company continued to produce and tour the Golden Dragon Acrobats, it also expanded to create theatrically elaborate shows.

Cirque Zíva is the latest of these shows, created in 2011. The production ran for 10 weeks at Asbury Park Boardwalk’s Paramount Theatre, where it packed houses and earned critical acclaim.

CARNEGIE MELLON SCHOOL OF MUSIC

PHILHARMONIC & CHOIRS RONALD ZOLLMAN, MUSIC DIRECtOR ROBERt PAGE, DIRECtOR OF CHORAL StUDIES

FEAtURING

BRUCkNER’S tE DEUM Friday, april 5, 8pm music center at strathmore tICkEtS: strathmore.org or 301.581.5100 $20 general admission, $15 seniors and students.

music.cmu.edu 34 applause at Strathmore • MARCH/APRIL 2013

DC’s Only Independent Nonprofit Film Center Visit us at

www.TheAvalon.org 5612 Connecticut Avenue Northwest Washington

Saturday, March 9, 2013, 8 p.m.

SATURDAY, MARCH 9, 2013, 8 P.M.

König has recorded works by Schoenberg, Prokofiev, Saariaho and Sibelius with the Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto.

He also has recorded a highly acclaimed CD of music by Henryk Melcer with pianist Jonathan Plowright and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

König was born in Dresden, where he sang as a boy soprano in the famous Dresdner Kreuzchor. He later studied conducting, as well as piano and voice, at the Hochschule für Musik in Dresden.

König is making his BSO debut.

● Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Marin Alsop, Music Director

presents

Beethoven’s Seventh Christoph König, conductor Katherine Needleman, oboe

Katherine Needleman, oboe

Petite Suite Claude Debussy (orch. Henri Büsser En bateau (1862-1918)

Cortège

Menuet

Ballet

Oboe Concerto in D Major Richard Strauss Allegro moderato (1864-1949)

Andante

Vivace

Katherine Needleman INTERMISSION

Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92 Ludwig van Beethoven Poco sostenuto – Vivace (1770-1827)

Allegretto

Presto

Allegro con brio Presenting Sponsor: M&T Bank The concert will end at approximately 9:45 p.m.

The Music Center at Strathmore • Marriott Concert Stage

Christoph König, conductor Christoph König currently holds positions as principal conductor of the Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto at the Casa da Música and principal conductor and music director of the Solistes Européens in Luxembourg.

Following a string of successes last season with the Colorado, Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, New Jersey, Pacific (Costa Mesa), Pittsburgh and Vancouver symphonies, König’s upcoming debuts include Calgary, Cincinnati, Milwaukee and Oregon.

Worldwide, he has conducted major orchestras throughout Europe and made appearances in New Zealand and China.

This is Katherine Needleman’s 10th season as principal oboist of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. She was appointed by Yuri Temirkanov the same year she won first prize in the International Double Reed Society’s Gillet-Fox Competition.

A Baltimore native, she attended Baltimore School for the Arts, but left early to be trained by Richard Woodhams at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. She has appeared as a guest in the first oboe chair at the Boston Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, San Diego Symphony and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. She has been soloist with The Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Haddonfield Symphony, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Colombia and the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, in addition to her multiple appearances with the BSO. Needleman has premiered solo works

by David Ludwig, Luis Prado and Chiayu. This summer, she returns to study chamber music at the Marlboro Music Festival, and has done several tours with Music from Marlboro.

Katherine Needleman last appeared as a soloist with the BSO in February 2010, performing Bach’s Concerto for Oboe and Violin in C minor, with Itzhak Perlman as soloist and conductor.

applause at Strathmore • MARCH/APRIL 2013 35

Saturday, March 9, 2013, 8 p.m.

Program Notes Petite Suite

Claude Debussy Born Aug. 22, 1862, in St. Germain-enlaye, France; died March 25, 1918, in Paris

Claude Debussy’s charming Petite Suite began its life as a work for duo-piano played four hands in 1889 when he was still an obscure composer and the piece that would make him famous, Prélude à l’après-midi d’une faune, was still five years in the future. It would probably be little known today if in 1907 the composer hadn’t needed some additions to his limited number of orchestral works for concerts he would be conducting in Italy and London. Interestingly, Debussy chose to turn the orchestration of Petite Suite over to Henri Büsser (1872–1973), with whom he had worked on the premiere performances of his opera Pelléas et Mélisande.

A suite is customarily a set of dance movements, and the Petite Suite follows this tradition for its four brief movements. It opens with a barcarolle (music to be sung or played on the water) En Bateau (“On the Boat”), whose undulating, gently syncopated music mimicks the swaying of the water. Cortège is a little fairytale procession full of delicately bright colors. The third-place Minuet is languid and sensuous with an old-fashioned modal coloring. The final movement, Ballet, the liveliest and most ebullient of the set, has a touch of impish humor.

Instrumentation: Two flutes, piccolo, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, percussion, harp and strings.

Oboe Concerto in D Major

Richard Strauss

Born June 11, 1864, in Munich, Germany; died Sept. 8, 1949, in GarmischPartenkirchen, Germany

After World War II came to an end in defeated Germany, two American soldiers—Alfred Mann and John de

Lancie—stationed in Bavaria knocked on the door of a large villa marked with the name “Dr. Richard Strauss” in the picturesque Alpine town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. They were not typical GIs—Mann was the son of the great German novelist Thomas Mann and de Lancie was the principal oboist of the Pittsburgh Symphony—and they were not there to harass the old man, but to pay their respects. Strauss invited them in, and they found that, though his home was intact, he and his wife had little to eat and no fuel to heat the large place. However, for residents of Germany in 1945, they were relatively fortunate. Strauss tried to keep his mind off their privations by composing something every day—what he called his “wrist exercises.”

On one of their visits, de Lancie— who would go on to become the principal oboe of The Philadelphia Orchestra—asked him if “in view of the numerous beautiful, lyric solos for oboe in almost all his works, he had ever considered writing a concerto for oboe.

Strauss answered, ‘no,’ and there was no more conversation on the subject.

He later told [Mann] that the idea had taken root as a result of that remark.” By late October 1945, Strauss had completed his Oboe Concerto, and he later contacted de Lancie to offer him the first American performance. The Concerto received its world premiere in Zürich on Feb. 26, 1946 with Marcel Saillet as soloist and the Zürich Tonhalle Orchestra.

Sadly, for various reasons, de Lancie did not have the opportunity to play “his” Concerto until many years later.

This Concerto is one of the greatest works ever written for the plangent-toned oboe, but it is notorious for the inhuman demands it makes on the player’s breath and stamina. The opening solo lasts an astonishing, unbroken 56 measures with virtually no opportunity to pause for breath. Strauss had experimented with compressed air hoses and a contraption called the aerophone to supply the oboist with a continuous stream of air, but these have never caught on. Instead, oboists have perfected a technique called circular breathing

36 applause at Strathmore • MARCH/APRIL 2013

in which they are able to exhale and inhale at the same time. Nevertheless, accomplishing what Strauss demands in this Concerto is a daunting task.

To ensure that the soloist stands out, Strauss chose a small orchestra of strings and woodwinds with only an English horn replacing the oboe section. The three movements are linked together without pause.

The Allegro moderato first movement opens with a little rumble of sixteenth notes in the cellos. Not only will this motive, eventually expanded by the violins, form the accompaniment for this movement, but it will also appear in the other two movements. Over this, the oboe unfurls its rhythmically supple, rhapsodic song for several breath-defying minutes.

From time to time, a solo clarinet joins in for subtle color contrast. The orchestra finally steps forward in music built from the rumbling motive. After the oboe’s return, the strings sing the second main theme: a graceful lyrical melody opening with repeated notes. This second-theme group also contains a spirited leaping idea tossed back and forth in canon between the oboe and the clarinet.

The orchestra leads off the fairly brief development section in a faster Vivace tempo. With the oboe’s reappearance, this eases into a pensive partial reminiscence of the repeated-note second theme. The oboe’s opening solo recapitulates, this time mercifully shortened a bit. The movement tapers off on the rumbling motive.

This motive continues to link the second movement to the first. In this very beautiful Andante, the oboe again is given a lengthy melody, marked cantabile (singing), to which the violins eventually add gorgeous accompaniment. The middle section of this ABA song form is a little quicker and dominated by the orchestra.

The reprise of the cantabile melody is expanded and given a more elaborate and sensuous orchestral accompaniment. A lyrical yet technically testing oboe cadenza bridges to the finale.

The finale is in a very free rondo form with the oboe introducing the quick, impish theme to which a flute adds its own merriment. Midway through comes a break in the playfulness as the oboe brings

Saturday, March 9, 2013, 8 p.m.

back the graceful repeated-note theme from movement one. After another oboe cadenza, Strauss embarks on something completely new: a bucolic dancing episode in a lilting 6/8 beat. But the Concerto’s last minute returns to the impish rondo theme—and a last flourish of the opening rumbling motive, now shimmering on high in the oboe and orchestra.

Instrumentation: Two flutes, English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns and strings.

Symphony No. 7 in A Major

Ludwig van Beethoven BornDec. 16, 1770, in Bonn, Germany; died March 26, 1827, in Vienna, Austria

Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony is one of the most extraordinary expressions of physical energy and joy in symphonic music. Completed in 1812, the Seventh, in the words of Beethoven biographer Maynard Solomon, “transports us into a sphere of laughter, play, and the exuberant release of bound energy.” This is a work without a shadow or a solemn thought or even a true slow movement: its well-loved Allegretto second movement only seems slow in comparison to its hyperkinetic companions. Indeed, Beethoven shows us the dynamic variety of joy.

In an off-quoted aphorism, Wagner has called the Seventh “the apotheosis of the dance.” More accurately, we might call this symphony “the apotheosis of rhythm.” Throughout Beethoven’s music, themes are as much characterized by their rhythmic patterns as by their melodic shapes or harmonic coloring. Here rhythm is the primary building block: the first, second, and fourth movements are all generated by one obsessive rhythmic figure announced at the opening; the scherzo has two such figures. Beethoven wields these rhythms with a display of unbridled energy and exuberance that shocked many of the Seventh’s first listeners.

The Seventh was introduced to the world at a spectacular celebrity-studded concert on Dec. 8, 1813 at the University of Vienna that was the most

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Marin Alsop, Music Director, Harvey M. and Lyn P. Meyerhoff Chair Jack Everly, Principal Pops Conductor Yuri Temirkanov, Music Director Emeritus Alexandra Arrieche, BSO-Peabody Conducting Fellow

First Violins Jonathan Carney Concertmaster, Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Chair Madeline Adkins Associate Concertmaster, Wilhelmina Hahn Waidner Chair Igor Yuzefovich* Assistant Concertmaster Rui Du Acting Assistant Concertmaster James Boehm Kenneth Goldstein Wonju Kim Gregory Kuperstein Mari Matsumoto John Merrill Gregory Mulligan Rebecca Nichols E. Craig Richmond Ellen Pendleton Troyer Andrew Wasyluszko Second Violins Qing Li Principal, E. Kirkbride and Ann H. Miller Chair Ivan Stefanovic Assistant Principal Leonid Berkovich Leonid Briskin Julie Parcells Christina Scroggins Wayne C. Taylor James Umber Charles Underwood Melissa Zaraya Violas Richard Field Principal, Peggy Meyerhoff Pearlstone Chair Noah Chaves Associate Principal Karin Brown Acting Assistant Principal Peter Minkler

Sharon Pineo Myer Delmar Stewart Jeffrey Stewart Mary Woehr Cellos Dariusz Skoraczewski Principal Chang Woo Lee Associate Principal Bo Li Acting Assistant Principal Seth Low Susan Evans Esther Mellon Kristin Ostling Paula Skolnick-Childress Basses Robert Barney Principal, Willard and Lillian Hackerman Chair Hampton Childress Associate Principal Owen Cummings Arnold Gregorian Mark Huang Jonathan Jensen David Sheets Eric Stahl Flutes Emily Skala Principal, Dr. Clyde Alvin Clapp Chair Marcia Kämper Piccolo Laurie Sokoloff Oboes Katherine Needleman Principal, Robert H. and Ryda H. Levi Chair Michael Lisicky English Horn Jane Marvine Kenneth S. Battye and Legg Mason Chair

Clarinets Steven Barta Principal, Anne Adalman Goodwin Chair Christopher Wolfe Assistant Principal William Jenken Bass Clarinet Edward Palanker E-flat Clarinet Christopher Wolfe Bassoons Fei Xie Principal Julie Green Gregorian Assistant Principal Ellen Connors** Contrabassoon David P. Coombs Horns Philip Munds Principal, USF&G Foundation Chair Gabrielle Finck Associate Principal Mary C. Bisson Bruce Moore Trumpets Andrew Balio Principal, Harvey M. and Lyn P. Meyerhoff Chair Rene Hernandez Assistant Principal Thomas Bithell** Trombones Christopher Dudley* Principal, Alex.

Brown & Sons Chair Joseph Rodriguez** Acting Principal James Olin Co-Principal John Vance

Timpani Christopher Williams Assistant Principal Percussion Christopher Williams Principal, Lucille Schwilck Chair John Locke Brian Prechtl Harp Sarah Fuller** Piano Lura Johnson** Sidney M. and Miriam Friedberg Chair Director of Orchestra Personnel Marilyn Rife Assistant Personnel Manager Christopher Monte Librarians Mary Carroll Plaine Principal, Constance A. and Ramon F. Getzov Chair Raymond Kreuger Associate Stage Personnel Ennis Seibert Stage Manager Todd Price Assistant Stage Manager Charles Lamar Sound *on leave ** Guest musician

Bass Trombone Randall S. Campora Tuba David T. Fedderly Principal

applause at Strathmore • MARCH/APRIL 2013 37

Saturday, March 9, 2013, 8 p.m.

successful of Beethoven’s career. Organized by Beethoven’s friend Johann Nepomuk Maelzel, the inventor of the metronome, it was a benefit concert to raise money for soldiers wounded at the recent Napoleonic battle of Hanau.

Both performers and audience were in high spirits for by this time it was clear that Napoleon’s days were numbered.

For the occasion, Beethoven had written one of his most notorious compositions, Wellington’s Victory: a military extravaganza calling for vast troops of musicians and a huge percussion battery.

In one of his last appearances as a conductor, Beethoven led the proceedings, but his deafness severely hampered his effectiveness. It is amazing the Seventh Symphony was even noticed in this circus atmosphere, but indeed it was warmly received and the audience demanded an encore of the second movement.

The first movement begins with a slow introduction: the biggest Beethoven ever wrote. Its expansive dimensions, accentuated by majestic

rising scales, allows for two lyrical interludes—led first by oboes, then by the flute—which carry the music to keys remote from the A-major home base. It is linked to the main Vivace section by the playful evolution of the galloping dotted rhythm that drives the rest of the movement. Late in its course, listen for the remarkable passage in which the low strings mutter a twisting dissonant motive—like an evil worm corrupting the tranquil, sustained harmony above.

Another persistent rhythmic pattern propels the beloved second movement: a gentle march beat of long-short-shortlong-long. Beethoven lets its wonderful theme gradually unfurl: first the barebones harmonic tune in low strings, then the stately march melody above, accompanied by graceful countermelodies. The form is one of Beethoven’s own devising: part rondo, part themeand-variations. And in a later return of the march theme, it evolves into a cunning fugue as well.

Movement three is Beethoven’s most

ebullient and propulsive scherzo, powered by the relentless chugging of quarter notes in a frenzied Presto tempo. Providing utmost contrast, the trio section, dominated by woodwinds, is smoothly lyrical over a sustained pedal note. In a favorite trick also used in his Fourth Symphony, Beethoven runs around the scherzo-trio track three times, though as the trio begins it third reprise, it falters harmonically and is roughly dismissed.

The finale is a fierce dance of triumph.

Again, a rhythmic motive starts the action: a cannon-boom followed by a threenote rat-ta-tat rifle response. This wild and surging music has a pronounced military flavor suited to its era. In fact, we hear a theme of swaggering martial gait early on, and in the coda, the trumpets carry it to a ringing affirmation. Here Beethoven joyfully trounces Napoleon and all the enemies of humankind.

Instrumentation: Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani and strings.

Notes by Janet E. Bedell copyright 2013

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Reserve early for Easter Brunch on March 31st!

Tuesday, March 12, 2013, 8 p.m.

TUESDAY, MARCH 12, 2013, 8 P.M.

● Washington Performing Arts Society Celebrity Series presents

Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin Lambert Orkis, piano

Sonata for Piano and Violin in G Major, K.379 Adagio; Allegro

Thema: Andantino cantabile

Fantasy in C Major for Violin

and Piano, D.934 Andante molto; Allegretto; Andantino;

Allegro vivace; Presto

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

INTERMISSION

Partita Allegro giusto

Ad libitum

Witold Lutosławski (1913-1994)

Largo

Ad libitum

Presto iolin Sonata No. 1 in D minor, Op. 75 V

Allegro agitato; Adagio

Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)

Allegretto moderato; Allegro molto The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin For more than 35 years, violinist AnneSophie Mutter has sustained a career of exceptional musicianship with an unwavering

commitment to the future of classical music. Since her international debut at the Lucerne Festival in 1976, followed by a solo appearance with Herbert von Karajan at the Salzburg Whitsun Concerts, Mutter has appeared in all the major concert halls of Europe, North and South America and Asia. In addition to performing and recording the established masterpieces of the violin repertoire, Mutter is an avid champion

40 applause at Strathmore • MARCH/APRIL 2013

of 20th- and 21st-century violin repertoire in both orchestral and chamber music settings. She has had new works composed for her by Sebastian Currier, Henri Dutilleux, Sofia Gubaidulina, Witold Lutoslawski, Norbert Moret, Krzysztof Penderecki, Sir André Previn and Wolfgang Rihm.

In 2013 Mutter will perform in Asia, Europe and North America. Highlights of the season include a concert in celebration of composer Witold Lutoslawski’s 100th birthday in Warsaw and a recital in Carnegie Hall on the 25th anniversary of her debut in the concert hall.

In 2008, Mutter established the AnneSophie Mutter Foundation to further strengthen worldwide promotion of top young musical talents. In 2012, she received the Atlantic Council’s distinguished artistic leadership award. She has been awarded the Brahms prize, the Erich-Fromm prize and the GustavAdolf prize for her social involvement, among other honors.

Lambert Orkis, piano

Lambert Orkis has appeared worldwide with violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter since 1988 and performed in recital with cellist Mstislav Rostropovich for more than 11 years.

His distinguished career includes appearances with cellists Lynn Harrell, Anner Bylsma, Daniel Müller-Schott and Han-Na Chang, violinist Julian Rachlin, and violist Steven Dann, and he has performed with the Vertavo, Emerson, American, Mendelssohn, Curtis and Manchester string quartets. As soloist he has made appearances with conductors including Mstislav Rostropovich, Leonard Slatkin, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Günther Herbig, Kenneth Slowik, John Mauceri, Robert Kapilow, Leon Fleisher, and others.

Orkis, with Anne-Sophie Mutter, has won a Grammy Award for “Best Chamber Music Performance” for the Beethoven piano and violin sonatas, and

Tuesday, March 12, 2013, 8 p.m.

a 2006 “Choc de l’année” award from the French magazine Le Monde de la Musique for the Mozart piano and violin sonatas audio recording.

Orkis has been principal keyboard of the National Symphony Orchestra since 1982. In addition to performing with the National Symphony Orchestra, Orkis is a founding member of the Kennedy Center Chamber Players. He is professor of piano at Temple University’s Esther Boyer College of Music and Dance in Philadelphia and has received the university’s Faculty Award for Creative Achievement.

Program Notes Sonata for Piano and Violin in G Major, K.379

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Born Jan. 27, 1756, in Salzburg, Austria; died Dec. 5, 1791, in Vienna, Austria

Mozart was called to Vienna in March 1781 along with the rest of Archbishop Colloredo’s party to attend the festivities surrounding the accession of Emperor Joseph II. Relations between the composer and the archbishop had been strained for some time, and after several stormy scenes in Vienna Mozart was finally given his release “with a kick on my arse … by order of our worthy Prince Archbishop.” Before his release, however, Mozart had been required to compose music for a party the archbishop gave in Vienna on April 8.

In a letter to his father that day, he described the Sonata in G Major as “a sonata with violin accompaniment for myself, which I composed last night between eleven and twelve (but in order to be able to finish it, I only wrote out the [violin part] and retained my own part in my head).” The way the rest of us stay up an extra hour to pay the bills, Mozart stayed up and dashed off this masterful music.

The Sonata in G Major has an unusual form: it is in only two movements, but the Allegro is preceded by a slow introduction so long that it almost becomes a distinct movement

of its own. Given the fact that Mozart wrote the keyboard part for himself, it comes as no surprise that that instrument plays so important a role, even if Mozart played the entire part from memory at the archbishop’s party.

The introduction itself is full of florid writing—rolled chords, turns, grace notes—but the mood changes sharply at the Allegro, which moves into G minor. The keyboard again takes the lead, but this time the theme, mottolike in its shortness, is full of snap, of Beethovenian drive. The second subject of this sonata-form movement is canonic, with fragments tossed between the two instruments. Following a dramatic development, the movement draws to a close on its opening theme.

After the fury of the Allegro, the final movement returns to the serene G major of the introduction. This themeand-variation movement, with a graceful opening melody marked Andantino cantabile, followed five variations. At the close of the fifth variation Mozart repeats the theme verbatim and closes with a brief coda. Each variation is in two parts, with the second section generally the more dramatic. Throughout this movement—by turns gentle and brilliant—the keyboard retains its prominence, as if Mozart were keeping himself firmly at center stage, protesting the Archbishop’s strictures on him even as he served them.

Fantasy in C Major for Violin and Piano, D.934

Franz Schubert Born Jan. 31, 1797, in Vienna, Austria; died Nov. 19, 1828, in Vienna

Schubert wrote the Fantasy for Violin and Piano in December 1827, only 11 months before his death at age 31.

The music was first performed in public on Jan. 20, 1828, by violinist Joseph Slavik and pianist Karl von Bocklet, one of Schubert’s close friends. That premiere was a failure. The audience is reported to have begun to drift out during the performance, reviewers professed mystification, and the Fantasy was

not published until 1850, 22 years after Schubert’s death.

Hearing this lovely music today, it is hard to imagine how anyone could have had trouble with it, for the only thing unusual about the Fantasy is its structure.

About 20 minutes long, it falls into four clear sections that are played without pause. Though it seems to have some of the shape of a violin sonata, the movements do not develop in the expected sonata form—that may have been what confused the first audience—and Schubert was quite correct to call this piece a “fantasy,” with that term’s implication of freedom from formal restraint.

Melodic and appealing as the Fantasy may be to hear, it is nevertheless extremely difficult to perform, and it demands players of the greatest skill. The first section, marked Andante molto, opens with shimmering ripples of sound from the piano, and the lovely violin line enters almost unnoticed. Soon, though, it rises to soar high above the accompaniment before brief cadenza-like passages for violin and then piano lead abruptly to the Allegretto. Here the violin has the dance-like opening idea, but the piano immediately picks this up, and quickly the instruments are imitating and answering each other.

The violin writing in this section, full of wide skips and string-crossings, is particularly difficult.

The third section, marked Andantino, is a set of variations. The piano alone plays the melody, which comes from Schubert’s song Sei mir gegrüsst (“Greetings to Thee”), written in 1821. Some of Schubert’s best-known compositions— the “Death and the Maiden” Quartet and the “Trout” Quintet—also build a movement out of variations on one of the composer’s own songs, and in the Fantasy Schubert offers four variations on Sei mir gegrüsst. These variations grow extremely complex—some have felt that they grow too complex—and once again the music makes great demands on its performers.

At the conclusion of the variations, the shimmering music from the beginning returns briefly before the vigorous final section, marked Allegro vivace. Schubert brings the Fantasy to a close with a Presto coda, both instruments straining forward

applause at Strathmore • MARCH/APRIL 2013 41

Tuesday, March 12, 2013, 8 p.m.

before the violin suddenly flashes upward to strike the concluding high C. Partita

Witold Lutosławski Born Jan. 25, 1913, in Warsaw, Poland; died Feb. 7, 1994, in Warsaw

Lutosławski’s Partita began with a slight misunderstanding that nevertheless had a profound impact on the music.

Lutosławski was commissioned by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra to compose a work for violinist Pinchas Zukerman and pianist Marc Neikrug, and because the commission had come from an orchestra, Lutosławski assumed that he was to write for violin and orchestra. He conceived a piece for violin and an orchestra that had a large piano part, and only when composition was underway did he learn that the commission was in fact for a chamber piece for only violin and piano. So Lutosławski had to switch gears: he recast the piece just for violin and piano and completed it in the fall of 1984; Zukerman and Neikrug gave the premiere on Jan. 18, 1985 in St. Paul.

For the composer, however, the original orchestral conception remained central to how he thought about this music— he came back to this score in 1988 and made an arrangement for violin and orchestra.

The title partita comes from baroque music, where it denoted a form made up of “parts,” usually a collection of dance movements. Lutosławski explained his choice of that title by noting: “The word ‘partita,’ as used by Bach to denominate some of his suite-like works, appears here to point out a few allusions to Baroque music, e.g. at the beginning of the first movement, the main theme of the Largo, and the gigue-like Finale.” In the published score, Lutoslawski made another connection to the baroque: “The three major movements follow, rhythmically at least, the tradition of pre-classical (18th century) keyboard music.” Yet these allusions should be understood only as a structuring metaphor— Lutosławski’s Partita does not sound like baroque music, and its idiom is thoroughly modern.

The work is in three major movements—Allegro giusto, Largo and Presto—but between these movements come ad libitum interludes, which are improvised by the performers from music written out by Lutosławski; a climactic sequence in the final movement is also performed ad libitum. Lutosławski was a first-class pianist, and he also played the violin as a young man, so he knew the instruments well. His writing for violin here emphasizes the lyric side of that instrument: he reminds his performer repeatedly to play cantabile and espressivo. Each of the three principal movements is sectional, with strong contrasts between the different sections within the movements. Lutosławski writes some of the violin part in the first movement in quarter-tones, and that movement rises to a climax before closing quietly. The composer stresses that in all the ad libitum passages, the violin and piano “are not to be coordinated in any way.” The first ad libitum builds to a forceful conclusion and plunges straight into the Largo, where the violin sings above steady quarter-note accompaniment. The dynamic here is forte and the atmosphere fierce, but the composer nevertheless stresses that this is to be played cantabile. The same sectional construction leads to another ad libitum interlude, and the music proceeds into the finale, which Lutosławski described as “gigue-like.” Bach’s gigue finales were usually in 9/8 or 12/8, and Lutosławski preserves some of that feel here (his metric marking is a very fast 15/8). Both meter and mood evolve somewhat as this movement proceeds, and Lutosławski breaks its progress with an ad libitum interval marked fortissimo.

Some have felt that this represents the climax of the entire Partita, and with this complete the music rushes to its abrupt close on three sudden strokes.

Violin Sonata No. 1 in D minor, Op. 75

Camille Saint-Saëns Born Oct. 9, 1835, in Paris; died Dec. 16, 1921, in Algiers, Algeria

Saint-Saëns wrote his First Violin Sonata in 1885. At age 50, he was at the

42 applause at Strathmore • MARCH/APRIL 2013

height of his powers. In that same year he wrote his Wedding Cake Waltz, and the following year he would write two of his most famous works: the “Organ” Symphony and the Carnival of the Animals.

Although Saint-Saëns did not play the violin, he clearly understood the instrument—already he had written three violin concertos and the famous Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso; the Havanaise would follow two years later.

The structure of the sonata is unusual.

It has four movements, but the first and second are connected, as are the third and fourth, dividing the sonata into two extended parts. Saint-Saëns’ marking for the opening movement—Allegro agitato—is important, for this truly is agitated music.

Beneath its quiet surface, the movement feels constantly restless. Its opening theme, a rocking tune for violin, alternates meters, slipping between 6/8 and 9/8. The lyric second idea—a long, falling melody for violin—brings some relief, and the dramatic development treats both these themes.

While the second movement is marked Adagio, it shares the restless mood of the first. The piano has the quiet main theme, but the music seems to be in continuous motion before coming to a quiet close.

The agreeable Allegretto moderato is the sonata’s scherzo. It dances gracefully, skittering easily between G major and G minor. At the center section, the violin has a haunting chorale tune over quietly cascading piano arpeggios; as the movement comes to its close, Saint-Saëns skillfully twines together the chorale and the dancing opening theme and presents them simultaneously. Out of this calm, the concluding Allegro molto suddenly explodes—the violin takes off on the flurry of sixteenth-notes that will propel the finale on its dynamic way. This is by far the most extroverted of the movements, and it holds a number of surprises: a declamatory second theme high in the violin’s register and later a brief reminiscence of the lyric second theme of the opening movement. At the end, Saint-Saëns brings back the rush of sixteenth-notes, and the sonata races to a close so brilliant that one almost expects to see sparks flying through the hall.

Program notes by Eric Bromberger

Friday, March 15, 2013, 8:15 p.m.

FRIDAY, MARCH 15, 2013, 8:15 P.M.

Brahms, Barber and Dvořák.

Alsop has led the BSO in several outreach initiatives. In 2008, she partnered with the BSO to launch OrchKids, a music education and life enrichment program for youth in West Baltimore. In 2010, she conducted the first “Rusty Musicians with the BSO,” an event that gives amateur musicians the chance to perform onstage with a professional symphony orchestra. In June 2010, Alsop conducted the inaugural BSO Academy, an immersive summer music program that gives about 100 amateur adult musicians the opportunity to perform alongside a top professional orchestra.

Alsop attended Yale University and received her master’s degree from The Juilliard School. In 1989, her conducting career was launched when she won the Koussevitzky Conducting Prize at Tanglewood, where she studied with Leonard Bernstein.

● Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Marin Alsop, Music Director

presents

Off the Cuff: Saint-Saëns’ “Organ” Symphony Marin Alsop, conductor Felix Hell, organ

Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, Camille Saint-Saëns

Op. 78, “Organ” (1835-1921) Adagio - Allegro moderato - Poco adagio Allegro moderato - Presto - Maestoso The concert will end at approximately 9:20 p.m.

Felix Hell, organ

The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

ALSOP PHOTO BY dean alexander; HELL PHOTO BY Katya Chilingiri

Marin Alsop, conductor Hailed as one of the world’s leading conductors for her artistic vision and commitment to accessibility in classical music, Marin Alsop made history with her appointment as the 12th music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

With her inaugural concerts in September 2007, she became the first woman to head a major American orchestra. She also holds the title of conductor emeritus at the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in the U.K., where she served as the principal conductor from 2002 to 2008, and is music director of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in California.

In 2005, Alsop was named a MacArthur Fellow, the first conductor to receive this prestigious award.

In 2007, she was honored with a European Women of Achievement Award.

In 2008, she was inducted as a fellow into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and in 2009 Musical America named her Conductor of the Year. In November 2010, she was inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame. In February 2011, Alsop was named the music director of the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, or the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, effective for the 201213 season. And in March 2011, Alsop was named to The Guardian’s Top 100 Women list. She was also named an artist-in-residence at the Southbank Centre in London in 2011.

Alsop is a regular guest conductor with the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic. In addition to her performance activities, she is also an active recording artist with award-winning cycles of

German concert organist Felix Hell “sets standards that many established and honoured older players would struggle to equal” (Michael Barone in The American Organist).

Hell has had an active concert career since age 9 and has already performed more than 750 recitals throughout Germany, as well as Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Iceland, Italy, Jamaica, Korea, Latvia, New Zealand, Norway, Malaysia, Singapore, Spain, Russia and the U.S. He has performed as a soloist with orchestras throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia.

In 2006, Hell received global recognition for his performance of the entire organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach in three full cycles.

In September 1999, at age 13, Hell enrolled at The Juilliard School. Two years later, he was admitted to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

While at Curtis, he trained with professors Martin Jean, Marie-Claire Alain,

applause at Strathmore • MARCH/APRIL 2013 43

Friday, March 15, 2013, 8:15 p.m.

Joan Lippincott and Gillian Weir. In May 2004, Hell received his bachelor’s of music, making him—at age 18—the youngest organ major ever to graduate from Curtis.

Hell pursued his graduate studies under the guidance of Professor Donald Sutherland at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, where he received his artist diploma in May 2007 and his master’s of music in 2008. In 2009, Hell was awarded Johns Hopkins University’s prestigious Outstanding Graduate Award.

Hell’s discography includes eight CDs, which have been critically acclaimed by the public, as well as by experts.

Hell is making his BSO debut.

Program Notes Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, “Organ”

Camille Saint-Saëns Born Oct. 9, 1835, in Paris; died Dec. 16, 1921, in Algiers, Algeria

In 1886, Camille Saint-Saëns more or less simultaneously wrote the two concert works for which he is most famous today—although he originally never intended to publish the delicious “Carnival of the Animals,” a private joke created for a musical party. The other work, however, was a most serious and substantial effort: his Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, commissioned by London’s Royal Philharmonic Society. Into it he poured all his formidable craft, suavity and penchant for the grand gesture.

That both pieces are still perennial audience favorites today would probably have tickled his Gallic sense of irony.

Saint-Saëns dominated French musical life for the last 40 years of the 19th century. As dazzling a prodigy as Mozart, he began composing at 3; at 10, he astounded a sophisticated Parisian audience at his official debut by brilliantly playing a taxing piano program and, then, as an encore, offering any of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas from memory! (“Whatever music will he be playing when he’s 20?” onlookers

asked his doting mother. “He will be playing his own,” she replied.)

He soon became as remarkable an organist as he was a pianist and, for 19 years, officiated at the console of Paris’ most fashionable church, La Madeleine.

First-time listeners to this symphony, nicknamed “Organ” (though not by the composer), tend to wait impatiently for the mighty instrument to make its appearance. But great organist that he was, Saint-Saëns chose to conduct, rather than to play, at the symphony’s premiere in London on May 19, 1886.

In this work, he was thinking of the organ not as a soloist but as a new orchestral color. In fact, the organ’s first entrance—about 10 minutes into the piece at the beginning of the Adagio section—is so subtle it can easily be missed. Its pianissimo chords give a burnished glow to the strings’ gentle melody.

For this is a true symphony, disguising a traditional four-movement plan within an interlinking two-part division. Dedicated to the memory of Franz Liszt, Saint-Saëns’ close friend who had recently died, the work is built from Liszt’s practice of “thematic transformation,” in which a core theme recurs throughout a work, undergoing metamorphosis from one appearance to the next.

We hear Saint-Saëns’ core theme or motto—a rushing sixteenth-note idea for strings (the composer in his note called it “somber and agitated”)—immediately following a brief slow introduction. Many, but by no means all, of the symphony’s themes are created from this motto. One that is completely independent is the rocking, slightly sentimental melody, introduced a little later by violins, that brings romantic tranquility to this otherwise nervous music.

Opened softly by organ and strings, the slow movement in D-flat major flows after a slight pause from the first section. Here is some of Saint-Saëns’ loveliest writing: an “extremely peaceful, contemplative theme” (all phrases in quotes are the composer’s own)

44 applause at Strathmore • MARCH/APRIL 2013

scored with great refinement. Pizzicato basses and cellos mysteriously offer the motto in a new guise for a harmonically unsettled middle section. The movement ends in a “mystical coda” of falling phrases over chords slowly alternating between D-flat major and E minor.

The symphony’s second part combines a scherzo movement and the finale. The scherzo opens in C minor with a rhythmically energetic theme for low strings; the high woodwinds answer this with a choppy new transformation of the motto. This music is succeeded by a “fantastic” trio section in a much faster tempo and brighter C major—full of “tricky gaiety” in its rhythmic cross-play and its scintillating high-register wind parts and unusual piano part.

Both the scherzo and trio music return, but during the repeat of the trio music, we hear a “grave and austere” slow theme emerging in the low brass.

“There is a struggle for mastery, which ends in the defeat of the restless diabolical element,” wrote the composer.

Now all is ready for the grand finale.

Suddenly the organ commands our attention with a fortissimo C-major chord summoning the rest of the orchestra to action.

In an imaginative stroke of orchestration, Saint-Saëns presents a captivating melody (derived from the motto) in soft strings, accompanied by sparkling piano. (Fans of the 1995 film Babe will recognize this as the porcine hero’s theme music!) Organ and full orchestra repeat the melody triumphantly. Intricate fugal developments of this theme follow.

Finally, Saint-Saëns delivers the most splendiferous of closes: fast, thrilling and with organ swelling the impact.

Instrumentation: Three flutes, piccolo, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, piano four-hands, organ and strings.

Notes by Janet E. Bedell copyright 2013

Saturday, March 23, 2013, 8 p.m.

SATURDAY MARCH 23, 2013, 8 P.M.

studies at Helsinki’s Sibelius Academy under the guidance of Leif Segerstam, Jorma Panula and Almila. He has also studied under Ilja Musinin and Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Slobodeniouk is making his BSO debut.

● Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Marin Alsop, Music Director

Simon Trpčeski, piano

presents

Trpčeski Plays Rachmaninoff Dima Slobodeniouk, conductor Simon Trpčeski, piano

The Rock, Fantasy, Op. 7 Sergei Rachmaninoff

(1873-1943) iano Concerto No. 4 in G Minor, Op. 40 P

Allegro vivace Largo

Allegro vivace

Simon Trpčeski INTERMISSION

ymphony No. 11 in G Minor, Op. 103, S

“The Year 1905”

The Palace Square: Adagio

The 9th of January: Allegro In Memoriam: Adagio The Tocsin: Allegro non troppo - Allegro

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)

Media Sponsor: WETA 90.9 FM

Slobodeniouk photo by Marco Borggreve, Trpceski photo by Simon Fowler

The concert will end at approximately 10:10 p.m.

The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

Dima Slobodeniouk, conductor

Dima Slobodeniouk combines his native Russian roots with his years of studying music in Finland, where he now makes his home.

With the 201213 season, Slobodeniouk forges new partnerships with London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Oslo and Bergen philharmonics, and Orchestre National de Belgique, while also building on established collaborations with returns to Nether-

lands Radio Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo and also of Strasbourg, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra.

This season demonstrates Slobodeniouk’s impressive skill across a broad field of repertoire, from Berio’s Sinfonia für 8 Singstimmen to concerti works with soloists including Rudolf Buchbinder, Denis Kozhukhin, Dejan Lazic, Alexander Toradze, Vilde Frang, Tabea Zimmermann and Jan-Erik Gustafsson.

In 1994, Slobodeniouk started his conducting studies participating in the class of Atso Almila. He continued his

Macedonian pianist Simon Trpčeski has established himself as one of the most remarkable musicians to emerge in recent years, performing with many of the world’s greatest orchestras and captivating audiences worldwide.

In 2012-13, Trpčeski will play Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra, Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 under Robin Ticciati with the Cleveland Orchestra and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra under Gianandrea Noseda. Trpčeski also will appear in recital at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and the National Philharmonic in Warsaw.

Born in the Republic of Macedonia, Trpčeski has won prizes in numerous international piano competitions. In 2009, the president of Macedonia honored him with the Presidential Order of Merit for Macedonia, and, in 2011, he was awarded the first-ever title National Artist of the Republic of Macedonia.

Trpčeski last performed with the BSO in November 2010, performing Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3, with Marin Alsop conducting.

Program Notes The Rock, Symphonic Poem, Op. 7

Sergei Rachmaninoff Born April 1, 1873, in Oneg, Russia; died March 28, 1943, in Beverly Hills, Calif.

In 1892, Sergei Rachmaninoff graduated from the Moscow Conservatory at age 19 and received the conservatory’s rarely awarded Great Gold Medal for

applause at Strathmore • MARCH/APRIL 2013 45

Saturday, March 23, 2013, 8 p.m.

his achievements in piano and composition. Immediately, he set to work not only on piano pieces and songs, but on tone poems for large orchestra.

In the summer of 1893, he wrote The Rock (also translated as “The Crag”), a tone poem that he said was inspired by these two lines by the Russian poet Mikhail Lermontov: “A golden cloud slept for her pleasure/ All night on the breast of a gaunt rock.” These lines also appeared at the head of “On the Road,” a short story written in 1885

by Anton Chekhov, and, a few years later, Rachmaninoff told Chekhov that he indeed was directly inspired by that story.

Tchaikovsky was taking an interest in the young composer, and when Rachmaninoff showed him the score, the revered older composer was impressed (The Rock shows a considerable debt to Tchaikovsky’s style) and told him he would like to conduct it in St. Petersburg and on a projected European tour. But on Nov. 6, Tchaikovsky suddenly died, and this great opportunity melted away. “The Rock” eventually premiered in Moscow on March 20, 1894; Rachmaninoff—also a gifted conductor—continued to program it in his concerts throughout his career.

In Chekhov’s story, a middle-aged man (the “gaunt rock”), whose life is weighed down by disappointments, meets a young woman by chance (the “golden cloud”), full of life and hope, in an inn on a snowy Christmas Eve. Over the course of the night, he recounts his many failures to her, and she responds with sympathy. But when Christmas morning arrives, she must go on to her relatives, and, despite the growing attraction, the man realizes this wonderful encounter is over forever. Sunk again in his sorrows, he watches her sleigh disappear; as he continues to gaze after her, the snow covers him, making him truly resemble Lermontov’s “gaunt rock.”

The Rock shows that Rachmaninoff, at age 20, had already developed considerable skill in writing colorfully for a large orchestra.

However, his ability to create and develop themes was not yet on as high a level. The tone poem’s progress is woven from three main thematic ideas. First we hear dark, brooding music for low strings, colored by bassoons: this represents the depressive personality of the man. By contrast, a dancing, lighter-than-aria theme for solo flute represents the young woman. A little later, solo flute and oboe introduce the yearning downand-up theme that describes the growing attraction between them. But day comes and the two separate. In its very fine closing moments, the music returns to the darkness with which it began.

Instrumentation: Two flutes, piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp and strings.

Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Minor, Op. 40

Sergei Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 4 is the stepchild of Rachmaninoff’s piano concertos: the one that gave him the most trouble composing, the one that received the most unflattering reviews at the premieres of both its versions and, by far, the least often performed today.

And yet it is worth discovering, for it contains music that is original and path-breaking for its composer. It conspicuously lacks the big Romantic tunes audiences love. As Rachmaninoff biographer Max Harrison writes: “Even if aspects of Concerto No. 4 had their roots in his Russian life, it was written mainly in New York, finished in Western Europe, and the composer, as a sensitive and intelligent man, had naturally been affected by the sights and sounds of the country in which he had chiefly lived for several years. The romantic haze had gone forever.”

Rachmaninoff may have begun working on it in 1914 while he was still in Russia. Its slow movement uses thematic material from the third of his solo Études-Tableaux, Op. 33 of 1911, a movement which he removed from the

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set before publication. After he left Russia in 1917, he did not write another piece for nine years, instead devoting himself to a frantic career as a touring piano virtuoso mostly in the U.S. In 1926, the urge to compose again—and perhaps to provide himself with another vehicle for his concerts—took hold, and he made that year a sabbatical from performing. Piano Concerto No. 4 was begun in New York City and completed in Dresden, Germany, that August.

But when Rachmaninoff premiered the concerto with The Philadelphia Orchestra on March 18, 1927, the audience was unenthusiastic and the critics were caustic.

Believing it too long, the composer cut it extensively and reintroduced it in 1928, but still to a quite negative response. He set it aside, but, in 1941, tried a final time to cut and revise it into the form we hear at these concerts. Still it never won the warm embrace that Concerto Nos. 2 and 4 enjoyed.

The orchestra launches the Allegro vivace first movement boldly with an exciting upward push that suggests the key is D major. But then there is a sudden swerve to the correct key of G minor as the pianist enters with a big arch-shaped theme, made grander still by the thick chording. This eventually dissipates in an improvisatory-sounding piano passage, before solo English horn and French horn set the stage for the lovely second theme in a slower tempo. This music, featuring gossamer work from the pianist, is rhythmically flexible in the manner of French impressionism (commentators have noted that this is the least Russian-sounding of Rachmaninoff’s concertos). Listen next for a harsh signal-like motive of four notes leaping sharply upward in the pungent tones of solo bassoon and muted trumpet; it will play an important role in the ensuing development section, which slowly builds from reverie to a dramatic climax.

The recapitulation brings back the grand-opening theme in a beautiful transformation: floating softly on high in the violins and suggesting Rachmaninoff’s best Romantic manner. But the composer will not allow us to wallow, and he brusquely shifts both tempo and meter to send us back to G-minor reality.

Saturday, March 23, 2013, 8 p.m.

In the taut and brooding Largo movement in C major, the music is mostly generated from the simple threenotes-descending motive. But Rachmaninoff creates from it a wonder of constantly shifting instrumental colors, harmonies and keys as he moves it between piano and orchestra. A brief violent interjection from the piano cannot disturb its melancholy calm. Towards the end, violins and cellos sing a beautiful ascending melody that the composer borrowed from his Études-Tableaux of 1911.

Back in a brisk Allegro vivace tempo, the finale takes off like a runner propelled by the orchestra’s starting-gun crack, which keeps returning to urge on the soloist’s efforts. The principle theme is more notable for its relentless whirl of fantastically difficult piano scales and figurations than for its spirited melody.

Eventually, the pace eases a bit, and the violins float in with a lovely rocking second theme, incorporating the down-up Dies Irae chant melody that was such a signature in Rachmaninoff’s music. But once again, the composer doesn’t allow us to luxuriate in this melody as he would have in the past.

The development section is fueled by the leaping signal-cry motive we heard in the first movement. And near the end, that movement’s soaring first theme returns, too, and is given a grandiose, though brief, treatment by the orchestra and pianist. But mostly the emphasis is on the glittering virtuosity of the piano part: Rachmaninoff showing the world that age had not robbed him of his legendary keyboard brilliance.

Instrumentation: Two flutes, piccolo, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion and strings.

Symphony No. 11 in G Minor, Op. 103, “The Year 1905”

Dmitri Shostakovich Born Sept. 25, 1906, in St. Petersburg, Russia; died Aug. 9, 1975, in Moscow

On Sunday, Jan. 9, 1905, several thousand workers and their families, led by

a Russian orthodox priest and carrying icons and a respectful petition to the Tsar, converged on the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg to ask for improvements in their hard lives. Despite their intimidating numbers, they were a peaceful assembly singing hymns and Russian patriotic songs. Tsar Nicholas II was not at the palace to receive their petition. The Tsar’s soldiers, perhaps reacting in panic, fired repeatedly on the crowd, killing, by conservative estimates, 130 people, but some said upwards of a thousand.

“Bloody Sunday,” as it became known, sparked a series of protests and strikes across Russia against the corrupt and oppressive Tsarist regime and went down in history as the prelude to the Russian Revolution of 1917.

As the U.S.S.R. celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Russian Revolution in 1957, Dmitri Shostakovich turned to that fateful day as the basis of his Symphony No. 11; it would be paired with his Symphony No. 12, “The Year 1917.”

Premiered on Oct. 30, 1957 in Moscow, it pleased the Soviet authorities and won Shostakovich the Lenin Prize the following year. But it also kicked off a controversy in musical circles both inside the Soviet Union and internationally. Many accused Shostakovich of playing politics, rather than being true to his artistic conscience, of writing a swollen example of “Socialist Realism” to improve his standing—damaged by more “dangerous” earlier works—with the regime. And they suggested that No. 11 was a piece of program music depicting historical events and not a real symphony at all.

However, No. 11 is a much greater work than its detractors claimed and, though programmatic in its first two movements, is indeed a satisfying symphony in its construction. Its most unusual feature is that its thematic material is primarily composed of quotations from prison and revolutionary songs of the 1905 era, which are woven together and developed according to symphonic principles. The symphony’s four massive movements are linked by recurring motives and reprises of the song melodies and are played without pause.

It also seems that Shostakovich intended this work to have a more universal and timeless message, beyond the commemoration of one particular moment in history. Many Russian listeners—and even the composer’s son, Maxim—thought No. 11 also referred to the bloody Soviet suppression of the Hungarian Revolution one year earlier in 1956. Shostakovich’s friend Lev Lebedinsky reported that “his son, with whom he wasn’t in the habit of sharing his deepest thoughts, whispered to Dmitri Dmitriyevich during the dress rehearsal, ‘Papa, what if they hang you for this?’” In any case, this Symphony can be heard as a musical response to mindless violence and the oppression of the innocent in any time and place.

Shostakovich called movement one, subtitled “The Palace Square,” the symphony’s introduction. It opens with very soft music of widely spaced chords for strings and two harps evoking the cold and bleakness of that longago winter morning; this music will return throughout the work. We also hear two other important elements: a rumbling motive in the timpani using triplet rhythms and a distant military call on muted trumpets, both of which oscillate uneasily between the major and minor modes. Eventually, a pair of flutes sing over the timpani motive the first of the revolutionary songs: “Listen” (“Like a treasonous deed, like a tyrant’s conscience, the autumn night is black...”).

Snare drum and muted trumpets build a more aggressive passage from this theme. After this dies down, cellos and basses intone a grim ascending melody: “The Prisoner” (“The walls of the prison are strong, fastened at the gate by two iron locks...”). The movement’s closing moments mix all these thematic elements as the music hovers expectantly.

Movement two, “The Ninth of January,” describes the events of that day with shocking power. Rushing low strings depict the crowd converging on the square before the Winter Palace.

Clarinets and bassoons sing another revolutionary song that Shostakovich also set in his choral poem “The Ninth of January” of 1951: “Oh Tsar, Our Little

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Saturday, March 23, 2013, 8 p.m.

Father” (“Look around you; life is impossible because of the Tsar’s servants, against whom we are helpless”). Passed from one group to another, this theme becomes louder and more urgent, until the whole orchestra as the fully assembled crowd shouts it out . As this finally subsides, we hear the stark melody of “Bare Your Heads” (“Bare your heads!

On this mournful day the shadow of a long night passed over the earth”), with its many repeated notes rising upward in the brass. A quiet development of “Oh Tsar” follows in the strings as the crowd waits patiently. After another forceful climax, the music calms, and the timpani motive and the chilly string music of the first movement return, the latter now given to the woodwinds.

A snarl of snare drum announces the arrival of the Tsar’s troops. A fierce fugato breaks out in the strings and builds to a frenzied climax. Then, with a brutal expansion of the timpani motive, Shostakovich describes the soldiers’ attack on the crowd. The tumult ceases

suddenly, and in a beautiful arrangement for the harps, celeste and trilling strings, the opening string music returns again in shocked response to the tragedy. The movement closes quietly with “Listen” in the flutes.

The third movement, “In Memoriam,” is a threnody for the victims of Bloody Sunday—and implicitly for all victims of oppression. Over plucked cellos and basses, the warm voices of violas sing the funeral march, “You Fell as a Sacrifice” (“You fell a victim in the fateful battle, with selfless love for the people”). Horns then lead rich-toned music of mourning reminiscent of Gustav Mahler, one of Shostakovich’s mostadored composers. This grows to a gigantic, passionate climax with “Bare Your Heads” hurled out by the brass over thundering triplet rhythms drawn from the timpani motto.

The finale, “The Tocsin,” bursts on us with the brass shouting in unison the melody “Rage, Tyrants” (“Rage, Tyrants, mock at us ... although our bodies

are trampled, we are stronger in spirit”). From its jagged dotted rhythms, the strings build an abrasive accompaniment that powers this aggressive march for many minutes. At its climax, the violins shrilly implore “Oh Tsar.”

The crash of the tam-tam clears the way for a return of the opening string music. Over it, the English horn sorrowfully sings an extended statement of “Bare Your Heads.” The movement gradually regains its fury as various brass instruments and even a xylophone sing the opening of this song. With bells clanging the tocsin, the music proclaims a militant resolve to overthrow the oppressors, but its clinging to the key of G minor suggests this will not be an easy task.

Instrumentation: Three flutes, piccolo, three oboes, English horn, three clarinets, bass clarinet, three bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, two harps and strings.

Notes by Janet E. Bedell copyright 2013

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Friday, March 24, 2013, 7 p.m.

FRIDAY, March 24, 2013, 7 P.M.

● Strathmore Presents

Neil Berg’s 101 Years of Broadway Carter Calvert, vocals Robert DuSold, vocals Sandra Joseph, vocals Craig Schulman, vocals Ron Bohmer Roger Cohen, drums Booker King, bass Eugene Gwozdz, keyboards Neil Berg, piano/music director The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

Neil Berg

Neil Berg is the composer/lyricist of the hit Off-Broadway musical The Prince and the Pauper, which ran for two years at the Lambs Theater in New York City.

He also is the composer for the new Broadway-bound musical Grumpy Old Men, based on the 1993 film.

Berg is collaborating with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Robert Schenkkan on a new rock musical called The 12. Following a series of successful concert performances at the China Club and B.B. King’s in New York City, Riverspace in Nyack, and the Broward Center in Ft. Lauderdale, The 12 had its regional premiere at the Inserra Theater

in Montvale, N.J. Berg’s latest musical, The Man Who Would Be King, with book and lyrics by DJ Salisbury, had a developmental reading/workshop at The Village Theater in Issaquah, Wash., directed by Tony Award-winner Brian Yorkey (Next to Normal).

Berg received the 1995 Bistro Award for Best Musical for his show Asylum in the Night, a revue of Berg’s theater music. He had an evening dedicated to his music at Joe’s Pub, and returned to Feinstein’s for a two-week engagement in July 2011 after a sold out performance in 2010.

Berg is the creator and co-producer of Neil Berg’s 100 Years of Broadway, which played in more than 120 cities in 2010-2011.

As owner of Leftfield Productions, Inc., Berg has produced more than a thousand Broadway concerts worldwide with such stars as Michael Crawford, Bernadette Peters, Ben Vereen, Betty Buckley, Rita Moreno, Donna McKechnie, Liz Callaway, Mark Kudisch, Alice Ripley, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Stepha-

50 applause at Strathmore • MARCH/APRIL 2013

nie Block and Sir Cliff Richard.

Berg recently produced the concert version of the Broadway musical The Secret Garden in association with its composer, Lucy Simon. He has also produced concert versions of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Chess and Jesus Christ Superstar.

Carter Calvert

Carter Calvert is best known for originating her role in the Tony nominated, It Ain’t Nothin’ But the Blues on Broadway.

New York credits include the Broadway, original cast album and touring productions of It Ain’t Nothin’ But the Blues. Off-Broadway she appeared in Forbidden Broadway and The Thing About Men at the Promenade Theatre.

Calvert toured Europe in Smokey Joe’s Café, and played Grizabella in the Broadway national tour of Cats. She appeared in the world premiere of Forbidden Vegas in a role she originated and as the title role in Always, Patsy Cline.

Television credits include The David Letterman Show, The Rosie O’Donnell Show and The Today Show. She has opened for Liza Minnelli, The Temptations, Chubby Checker and Marilyn McCoo. In 1993, she was named Best Female Vocalist of the Year by Starsong Records.

A native of Cincinnati, Calvert is a proud graduate of the School for the Creative and Performing Arts.

Calvert’s new CD, Carter Calvert and the Roger Cohen Trio, is available for purchase.

Robert DuSold

Robert DuSold’s Broadway and national tour credits include Jason Green in The Producers, Javert and Valjean in Les Misérables, Monsieur André in The Phantom of the Opera, Old Deuteronomy in Cats, Pete in Showboat, and assorted roles in Jekyll and Hyde, Kiss of the Spiderwoman and Chicago.

DuSold recently played Harry Bright in the Las Vegas production of Mamma Mia! Recent New York credits include Mimi le Duck opposite Eartha Kitt OffBroadway, the title role in Don Imbro-

Friday, March 24, 2013, 7 p.m.

glio at the New York Music Theater Festival, as well as Ned in the Drama Desk-nominated The Audience.

Recordings include A Gala for Harold Prince, Sondheim: An Evening in Celebration at Carnegie Hall, the Anastasia soundtrack and others. DuSold also is featured in the book, Making It on Broadway: Actors’ Tales of Climbing to the Top published by Allworth Press.

Sandra Joseph

Sandra Joseph holds the distinction of being the longest-running leading lady in Broadway’s longest-running show. For 10 years, she starred as Christine Daaé in The Phantom of the Opera.

While Joseph continues to perform on stages across the country, she is also a passionate keynote speaker, workshop facilitator and author of the book, Behind the Mask: A Memoir of Faith, Love, and The Phantom of the Opera. Joseph has given presentations for companies including eBay. She has shared the stage with luminaries such as Caroline Myss, the Rev. Michael Bernard Beckwith, Mark Nepo and Jack Kornfield.

Craig Schulman

Craig Schulman has portrayed three of the greatest musical theater roles—the Phantom in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera, Jean Valjean in Les Misérables and the title roles in Jekyll & Hyde. He has portrayed Jean Valjean in four different companies in three countries for a total of nearly 2,000 performances. Widely recognized from the PBS broadcast of The 10th Anniversary: Les Misérables in Concert, Schulman also has played Che in Evita, Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, Archibald in The Secret Garden and Father in Children of Eden.

Schulman moves freely between the worlds of Broadway, opera and symphonic pops programs. He has appeared with many opera companies around the U.S., and has sung leading tenor roles in The Tales of Hoffmann, Tosca, Madame Butterfly, Carmen, Die Fledermaus, La Bohème, La Traviata, The Crucible and Manon. In 2003, he sang the title role in the world premiere of Marco Polo

in China in Singapore in Mandarin Chinese.

Ron Bohmer, vocals

Ron Bohmer has starred on Broadway and on a national tour as the Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera and Joe Gillis in Sunset Boulevard. He also has appeared in The Scarlet Pimpernel, Aspects of Love, The Woman in White, Les Misérables, Fiddler on the Roof and Disney’s High School Musical. He most

recently starred on Broadway as Father in the critically acclaimed revival of Ragtime, a role he originated at The Kennedy Center.

Off-Broadway roles include Sebastian in The Thing About Men, Howard in The Joys of Sex, the title role in The Third Person, the 10th anniversary cast of I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change and multiple roles in New York’s longrunning comedy hit Forbidden Broadway (2005 Drama Desk award).

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Friday, March 29, 2013, 8 p.m.

● Strathmore Presents

Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell and Richard Thompson Electric Trio The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell

The title song of Old Yellow Moon may be the concluding track on the first official album-length collaboration between Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell, but it actually represents a starting point for this long-anticipated project, produced by Brian Ahern.

Crowell and Harris “were picking songs as we sat around Brian’s big kitchen

table,” Harris says. She was going over Hank DeVito and Lynn Langham’s “Old Yellow Moon” with Crowell for the first time, but their impromptu performance together was so naturally emotive that Ahern decided to build a track around it.

It was nearly 40 years earlier, in 1974, when Harris first heard Rodney Crowell. At the time, she and Ahern were auditioning song demos for her first album for Warner Bros., but the session wasn’t going well. Then, right at the end, they listened to music by Crowell.

“The first song was ‘Bluebird Wine,’ and from that first bar of music, I just knew,” Harris says.

The passage of time is a recurring motif on Old Yellow Moon, especially in the singles “Back When We Were Beautiful” and “Here We Are,” which Harris had originally recorded in 1979 as a duet with George Jones.

For Crowell and Harris, Old Yellow Moon was a platform to showcase songs they’d each been aiming to record or revisit for years. Getting back into the studio with Harris, says Crowell, “feels the same as it always had. We were young and foolish and that was lovely and the world was all out in front of us. Then you go on. Emmy and I have always been close over the years, but she went down one road and I went down another, and we’d intersect on occasion.

But when we finally got together, it was as if no time had passed. We’re blood in that way.”

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Richard Thompson

Richard Thompson’s latest album, Electric, comes in what is arguably his most creatively productive period in a career that stretches back about 45 years.

He has dozens of albums consistently high on critics’ polls and guitar skills that have earned him a Top 20 spot on Rolling Stone’s list of Best Guitarists of All Time. His guitar work also brought him MOJO magazine’s Les Paul Award, and his songwriting earned him the 2012 Americana Music Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Whether featuring electric or acoustic guitar, the songs on Electric are built around the tightly focused core of the trio: Thompson, drummer Michael Jerome (Better Than Ezra, John Cale) and bassist Taras Prodaniuk (Lucinda Williams, Elvis Costello).

“I wrote this record very much with the trio in mind,” he says. “And I thought we could do something that was kind of folk, in an English-Celtic sense, and also funky, in the more ’70s sense of the word. And I like the idea of sort of a ‘Celtic power trio.’ So that was the idea I was aiming for when I was writing. And I think to some extent it is that.”

It’s very much that on the opening song, “Stony Ground,” a stomping beat by which to tell the tale of an unashamedly lustful senior citizen. The song, Thompson says, puts him in mind of popular English poet Sir John Betjeman’s “Late-Flowering Lust.”

The lyrical, rueful “Salford Sunday,” with some prickly mandolin touches, sees its conflicted narrator waking up left and lonely in the titular burgh, just outside of Manchester. And in “Good Things Happen to Bad People,” an attractive melody carries the dark delight of schadenfreude, as the bad person of the title is set up for an inevitable fall.

Harris and Crowell photo by David McClister

FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 2013, 8 P.M.

Saturday, April 6, 2013, 8 p.m.

SATURDAY, APRIL 6, 2013, 8 P.M.

● The National Philharmonic Piotr Gajewski, Music Director and Conductor

presents

Bach: Sleepers Awake!

Piotr Gajewski, conductor Rosa Lamoreaux, soprano Matthew Smith, tenor Kevin Deas, bass Justine Lamb-Budge, violin

Brandenburg Concerto No. 1, Johann Sebastian Bach in F Major, BWV 1046 (1685-1750)

Allegro moderato

Adagio

Allegro

Menuet – Trio I – Menuet da capo Polacca – Menuet da capo

Trio II – Menuet da capo

Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D Major, BWV 1050

Allegro

Affettuoso

Allegro

Cantata No. 140 Wachet auf, “Sleepers Awake”

Gajewski PHOTO BY MICHAEL Ventura, LamoreaUx PHOTO BY DAVID Rogers

Chorus: Wachet auf,

ruft uns die Stimme

Recitative (Tenor):

Er kommt, er kommt, der Bräutigam kommt

Duet (Soprano, Bass): Wenn,

kömmst du, mein Heil Chorus: Zion hört die Wächter singen (“Sleeper’s Awake”)

Recitative (Bass): So geh herein zu mir

Duet (Soprano, Bass): Mein Freund ist mein!

Chorale: Gloria sei

dir gesungen All Kids, All Free, All the Time is sponsored by The Gazette The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

Piotr Gajewski, conductor

Piotr Gajewski is widely credited with building the National Philharmonic to its present status as one of the most respected ensembles of its kind in the region.

In addition to his appearances with The National Philharmonic, Gajewski is much in demand as a guest conductor. In recent years, he has appeared with most of the major orchestras in his native Poland, as well as the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic in England, the Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra in the Czech Republic, the Okanagan Symphony in Canada and numerous orchestras in the United States.

Gajewski attended Carleton College and the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music, where he earned a bachelor’s of music and a master’s of music in orchestral conducting.

Upon completing his formal education, he continued refining his conducting skills at the 1983 Tanglewood Music Festival in Massachusetts, where he was awarded a Leonard Bernstein Conducting Fellowship.

Rosa Lamoreaux, soprano

Lyric soprano Rosa Lamoreaux has been a soloist for Bruno Weil at the Carmel Bach Festival, Robert Shaw with the Atlanta Symphony and Cincinnati Symphony orchestras, Sir David Willcocks at the Bethlehem Bach Festival, Norman Scribner and the Choral Arts Society at The Kennedy Center, and J. Reilly Lewis and the Cathedral Choral Society and Washington Bach Consort.

Lamoreaux has toured with “Musicians from Marlboro” and is the soprano in the award-winning Vocal Arts Quartet, which has been featured at many European music festivals and has been the quartet-in-residence at the National Gallery of Art for 15 years.

Lamoreaux’s recordings include the B applause at Strathmore • March/april 2013 53

Minor Mass of Bach on Dorian; “Luminous Spirit,” Chants of Hildegard von Bingen; “Dancing Day,” Christmas music from 12th to 17th centuries; Messe Solennelle of Berlioz; “Four Centuries of Song” and “Gentle Annie,” songs of Stephen Foster and Charles Ives; “Spain in the New World” and “I Love Lucette,” Chansons of the French renaissance theater; and “My Thing is My Own,” bawdy songs of 17th and 18th centuries.

Ravinia and Saratoga festivals.

His recent recordings include Die Meistersinger with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the late Sir Georg Solti and Varèse’s Ecuatorial with the ASKO Ensemble under Riccardo Chailly, both on Decca/London.

Other releases include Bach’s B Minor Mass and Handel’s Acis & Galatea on Vox Classics and Dave Brubeck’s To Hope! with the Cathedral Choral Society on the Telarc label.

Matthew Smith, tenor

Justine Lamb-Budge, violin

Matthew Smith has performed with the Washington Bach Consort, Cathedral Choral Society, Washington Concert Opera, Niagara Symphony Orchestra, Pennsylvania Chamber Orchestra and the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia.

His operetta and operatic roles have included Frederic in Pirates of Penzance, Baron Zsupàn in Countess Maritza, The Prologue in The Turn of the Screw, Kaspar in Amahl and the Night Visitors, the Mayor in Albert Herring and Torquemada in L’heure Espagnol.

Smith received the Carmel Bach Festival’s Adams Fellowship in 2008.

He studied voice with Beverley Rinaldi and Christine Anderson while earning his bachelor’s of music in voice at the Cleveland Institute of Music and a master’s of music in opera from Temple University. Smith currently serves with the Air Force Singing Sergeants in Washington, D.C.

Kevin Deas, bass

American bass Kevin Deas is celebrated for his riveting portrayal of the title role in Porgy and Bess with the New York Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and Philadelphia Orchestra, and the San Francisco, Atlanta, San Diego, Utah, Houston, Baltimore and Montreal symphonies, as well as at the

Violinist Justine Lamb-Budge, the National Philharmonic’s concertmaster, is bringing “youthful vibrancy” to orchestral performances on stages across North America and Europe.

Lamb-Budge is also principal second violinist of Symphony in C and associate concertmaster of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, and frequently performs with the Philadelphia Orchestra. She has participated in the Verbier, Tanglewood, NYSOS and Aspen music festivals, and has performed throughout the United States, Germany and Switzerland.

Lamb-Budge has received the Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award and a Marian Anderson Young Artist Study-Grant. She has performed as soloist with orchestras including the Ocean City Pops, the Old York Road Symphony and the Federal Way Symphony.

Lamb-Budge is the Merck Annual Fellow at the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studies with renowned violinists Ida Kavafian and Joseph Silverstein.

Program Notes Concerto No. 1, in F Major, BWV 1046

Johann Sebastian Bach Born March 21, 1685, in Eisenach, Germany; died July 28, 1750, in Leipzig, Germany

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Between 1717 and 1723, Bach served Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen as director of chamber music and court conductor, and it was during this period that he composed most of his music for instrumental ensemble. When Prince Leopold went to Carlsbad to take the waters in 1718 and 1720, Bach and several additional court musicians traveled with him. It was probably on one of these trips that Bach met Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg, a devoted amateur musician who collected concertos as one might collect coins or stamps, and who commissioned from Bach a set of concertos for his collection.

Each concerto in the set that Bach sent to Brandenburg is written for a different combination of instruments. Each was composed with great care and was probably tried out in Cöthen, before being sent to the Margrave on March 24, 1721, with an elaborate, obsequious letter of dedication in French, under the simple title “Six Concertos with Several Instruments.” The elaborate and obsequious letter (as translated in The Bach Reader, edited by H.T. David and A. Mendel) said: “Your Royal Highness, As I had a couple of years ago, the pleasure of appearing before Your Royal Highness, by virtue to Your Highness’ commands, and as I noticed then that Your Highness took some pleasure in the small talents which Heaven has given me for Music, and as in taking leave of Your Royal Highness, Your Highness deigned to honor me with the command to send Your Highness some pieces of my Composition: I have then, in accordance with Your Highness’ most gracious order, taken the liberty of rendering my most humble duty to Your Royal Highness with the present Concertos, which I have adapted to several instruments; begging Your Highness most humbly not to judge their imperfection with the rigor of the fine and delicate taste which the whole world knows Your Highness has for musical pieces; but rather to infer from them in benign Consideration the profound respect and the most humble obedience which I try to show Your Highness therewith. For the rest, Sire, I beg Your Royal Highness

Lamb-Budge PHOTO BY Pete Checchia

Saturday, April 6, 2013, 8 p.m.

Saturday, April 6, 2013, 8 p.m.

very humbly to have the goodness to continue Your Highness’ gracious favor toward me, and to be assured that nothing is so close to my heart as the wish that I may be employed on occasions more worthy of Your Royal Highness and of Your Highness’ service—I, who without an equal in zeal am, Sire, Your Royal Highness’ most humble and obedient servant, Jean Sebastien Bach.”

The concertos were probably never performed at Brandenburg, for the parts show no signs of use. When the Margrave died in 1734, his library was divided into two lots. In the second lot, consisting of 77 lesser concertos, were the six masterpieces by Bach, each one valued at four groschen, only worth a few cents. Eventually, the manuscript score came into the possession of Bach’s pupil, Johann Philipp Kirnberger, who bequeathed them to Frederick the Great’s sister, Princess Amalie of Prussia, whom he served as music director. They were published for the first time in 1850, a century after the composer’s death. Although the Margrave of Brandenburg seems to have forgotten that he owned the concertos, Bach did not forget that he had written them, and, in later years, he adapted at least one of them to another use.

Concerto No. 1 requires the largest number of performers: a string ensemble and a group of soloists that sometimes enriches its sound by joining it in tutti (unison) passages. In accordance with the usage of the time, a keyboard instrument, whose player was then the equivalent of the conductor, fills in the harmonies implied in the bass line. The solo instruments are three oboes, bassoon, two “hunting horns” and a violino piccolo.

This “little violin” was built to produce higher notes than could be easily managed on the conventional instrument. In 1756, Leopold Mozart (father of Wolfgang) wrote in his violin instruction book that it had fallen into disuse as musicians had advanced in the art of playing in the upper register of the violin. Since the violino piccolo is not required in the alternate versions of this music, and its special capabilities are

exploited here to only a limited degree and in only a single phrase of the slow movement, it seems that Bach probably put it in just to show that he could.

The concerto consists of the usual three fast-slow-fast movements, plus a little group of dances as an addendum.

The first movement is rich in polyphonic interplay of soli (soloists) and tutti, during which the horns occasionally signal for attention with two hunting calls that were well-known at the time. Next comes an Adagio dialogue of oboe and solo violin. The Allegro third movement resembles the first in character, but the writing is even more complex and the parts more difficult to play.

The addendum or epilogue is a Minuet with three alternativi, after each of which the Minuet is repeated. The first of these contrasting sections is a Trio for two oboes and bassoon; the second, a Polacca for strings (without the violino piccolo, which lacked the low notes the music requires); the third, a Trio for the two horns and a third line played by all the oboes together.

The instrumentation includes two corni da caccia (hunting horns), three oboes, bassoon, violino piccolo , and two violins, viola, cello and basso continuo.

Brandenburg Concerto No. 5

Johann Sebastian Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 is probably the first harpsichord concerto ever written. There are two additional solo instruments in the group that would be called a concertino if this were a concerto grosso, a violin and a flute (the transverse flute, more like our modern day flute, not the recorders of the Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 2 and 4), but despite the extensive writing for the group as a trio, the leader is the keyboard instrument.

In addition to its solos, the harpsichord also has its important traditional role to play, as accompanist to the ripieno, the full body of strings against which the soloists are pitted. Bach marks such passages clearly. In the way this concerto is written, the harpsichord is both

soloist and accompanist, taking up two distinct and separate roles.

This concerto, which scholars have concluded may have been the last of the six composed, is in three movements, then a modern format. As the Allegro first movement proceeds along its course, the harpsichord part slowly increases in complexity and importance until the surprising moment when the rest of the instruments drop out and leave it alone to play a relatively simple version of a subsidiary idea. In just a few minutes of music that are probably much like his legendary improvisations, but, in our minds, similar to what later concertos always include as a cadenza, Bach builds musical tension to a degree that no other composer of his time (and few later) was able to do. Just then, Bach redirects our attention and takes us into another even more intense development, and, giving much-needed relief, the orchestral strings finally break in with a simple statement of the opening theme. After the exhilaration of this solo and its dramatic ending, a sweet slow movement for the soloists alone follows, Affetuoso, Italian for “affectionately or tenderly.” The string body does not play at all in this movement, which is more like the movement of a trio sonata. Further contrast is provided in the light and joyful Allegro finale, which masterfully melds the dance rhythm of a gigue (or jig), the form of an aria and the texture and style of a fugue.

The Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 is scored for solo flute, solo violin, harpsichord and a string ensemble which could consist of one violin, one viola, one cello and double bass, or a larger complement of strings doubling, tripling to enlarge the basic group.

Cantata No. 140 Wachet auf, “Sleepers Awake”

Johann Sebastian Bach Written in 1731, Cantata No. 140 is one of the best known and most dramatic of Bach’s sacred cantatas. In the Leipzig of Bach’s time, a cantata was sung as part of the principal ceremonial public occasions. Among the duties

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Saturday, April 6, 2013, 8 p.m.

of his position, there was the selection and preparation of about 60 cantatas a year, which he might compose or might choose from the library or some other sources.

During his long tenure, he was responsible for about 1,600 cantata performances, some 300 of which were his own compositions, but less than 200 of them have survived the centuries. The word “cantata” is simply Italian for “something sung,” and it specifies no particular form or style.

Bach created Cantata No. 140, Wachet auf, for a rarely occurring date, the 27th Sunday after Trinity, a day that occurs only when Easter comes particularly early. Since this was an unusual event, happening only twice during Bach’s 26 years in Leipzig, Bach used a very large ensemble and wrote the cantata on a grand scale. Bach’s cantatas were sung in church before the sermon, with the purpose of reinforcing the message of the day’s Bible lesson. Based on the gospel of the day,

a parable of the 10 wise and foolish virgins, and Philipp Nicolai’s hymn, Wachet auf, this work is essentially a wedding cantata, a loving story of the uniting of Christ and the human soul.

Most of Bach’s cantatas require solo and choral voices, and an orchestra whose constitution varies with the occasion and with the presumed availability of instrumentalists.

Cantata No. 140 contains a first, fourth and final movement calling for chorus singing the three verses of a hymn that comes from a 1599 hymn tune by Philipp Nicolai. Interspersed are two recitatives and two arias. The Bridegroom is a metaphor for Jesus; his bride is the Christian soul.

In the first movement, from the chorus we hear the approach of the Bridegroom’s procession; the music depicts the bustling Jerusalem crowds waiting for the Bridegroom. Next, a tenor recitative represents the night watchmen announcing the Bridegroom’s coming: Er kommt, er kommt,

56 applause at Strathmore • MARCH/APRIL 2013

der Bräutigam kommt. A soprano and baritone duet between the two lovers, Jesus and the soul, an ardent operatic aria, follows: Wenn, kömmst du, mein Heil. In the fourth movement, the melodically beautiful, Zion hört die Wächter singen (“Zion hears the watchmen calling”) “Sleeper’s Awake” is based on the second verse of the chorale. Bach follows the style of a chorale prelude, with the phrases of the chorale sung as a cantus firmus by the tenors or by the tenor soloist, entering in dialogue with a famous lyrical melody, played in unison by the violins and the viola, accompanied by the basso continuo. After this verse, the baritone Bridegroom recites tender words to his beloved within their wedding chamber, followed by another love duet rejoicing in their unity. The last movement combines choir and orchestra, a chorus of thanksgiving and glory, proclaiming Nicolai’s third verse, Gloria sei dir gesungen (“Let all creatures now adore me.”).

Copyright Susan Halpern 2012

Sunday, April 7, 2013, 7 p.m.

SUNDAY, APRIL 7, 2013, 7 P.M.

● Washington Performing Arts Society Celebrity Series presents

András Schiff, piano

INTERMISSION

The French Suites, BWV 812-817 Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Suite No. 1 in D minor, BWV 812

Allemande Courante Sarabande

Menuet I

Menuet II Gigue

Suite No. 2 in C minor, BWV 813

Allemande Courante Sarabande

Suite No. 1 in D minor, BWV 812

Allemande Courante Sarabande

Menuet I

Menuet II Gigue

Suite No. 2 in C minor, BWV 813

Allemande Courante Sarabande Air Menuett Gigue

Suite No. 4 in E-flat Major, BWV 815

Allemande Courante Sarabande Menuett Gavotte Air Gigue

Suite No. 5 in G Major, BWV 816

Allemande Courante Sarabande Gavotte Bourrée Loure Gigue

Suite No. 6 in E Major, BWV 817

Allemande Courante Sarabande Gavotte Polonaise Menuett Bourrée Gigue

Suite No. 3 in B minor, BWV 814

Allemande Courante Sarabande Menuett Anglaise Gigue

This performance is made possible through the generous support of Betsy and Robert Feinberg.

The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

58 applause at Strathmore • MARCH/APRIL 2013

Sunday, April 7, 2013, 7 p.m.

András Schiff, piano András Schiff is world renowned and critically acclaimed as a pianist, conductor, pedagogue and lecturer. Born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1953, Schiff started piano lessons at age 5 with Elisabeth Vadász.

One of the most prominent proponents of the keyboard works of J.S. Bach, Schiff has long proclaimed that Bach stands at the core of his music making. In October 2012, April 2013 and October 2013, Schiff will embark on The Bach Project in North America, comprising six Bach recitals and an orchestral week of Bach, Schumann and Mendelssohn with Schiff at the piano and on the podium. His recording of The Well-Tempered Clavier for ECM, to be released in September 2012, is expected to be one of the pre-eminent performances of the work.

Schiff has established a prolific discography, and since 1997 has been an exclusive artist for ECM New Series and its producer, Manfred Eicher. Recordings for ECM include the complete Beethoven Sonatas on eight discs, Janáček, two solo discs of Schumann and his second recordings of the Bach Partitas and Goldberg Variations. He is recording Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations for release in 2013.

Schiff has worked with most of the major international orchestras and conductors, but now performs mainly as conductor and soloist. In 1999 he created the Cappella Andrea Barca, which consists of international soloists, chamber musicians and friends. He also works every year with the Philharmonia Orchestra London and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.

Schiff has been awarded numerous international prizes and his relationship with publisher G. Henle continues with a joint edition of Mozart’s Piano Concertos and both volumes of The WellTempered Clavier.

In spring 2011, Schiff attracted

attention because of his opposition to the latest Hungarian media law, and in view of the ensuing attacks on him from some Hungarian Nationalists, has made the decision not to perform or return to his home country.

Program Notes French Suite No. 1 in D minor, BWV 812

Johann Sebastian Bach Born March 21, 1685, Eisenach, Germany; died July 28, 1750, Leipzig, Germany

In May 1720, Bach—then music director at the Cöthen court—accompanied his prince to Carlsbad, where Leopold was taking the waters, and returned to Cöthen in July to discover that his wife had died while he was gone. Bach, then 35 years old, waited nearly 18 months to marry again, and his choice was a good one. In December 1721 he married the 21-year-old Anna Magdalena Wilcken, daughter of a court trumpeter and herself an accomplished musician; she would bear Bach 13 children and survive him by a decade. In the first years of their marriage Bach composed for her a Clavierbüchlein (“little keyboard book”), just as he had written a similar volume several years earlier for his son Wilhelm Friedemann. Composed for her instruction or perhaps simply for her pleasure, this was a collection of short keyboard pieces that were certainly first performed within the Bach household.

In Anna Magdalena’s Clavierbüchlein are early versions of five of the six works that would later be published as Bach’s French Suites (the sixth apparently dates from shortly after the family’s move to Leipzig in 1723).

Let it be said right from the start: the name French Suite is misleading, and while it has become inseparably a part of this music, Bach never heard that name.

For him, these were simply a set of short keyboard suites that he wrote for his young wife. There is nothing consciously—or even unconsciously—French about them, just as there is nothing recognizably English about Bach’s English

Suites: in both cases, these nicknames were attached to the music after the composer’s death. The French Suites (inevitably, we have to use that name) are in the standard four-movement suite sequence—allemande, courante, sarabande and gigue—into which Bach introduces a variety of dance movements, always between the sarabande and gigue. All movements are in binary form. In contrast to the English Suites, which are large-scale works stretching out to nearly half an hour, the French Suites seem tiny. This is small-scaled, intimate music, and these suites—even with their six to eight movements—last only about a dozen minutes each.

The Suite No. 1 in D minor takes its somber character from that key, though many of these movements relax their tensions by slipping—however tentatively—into D major in their final measure. The Allemande rides along a steady pulse of sixteenth-notes that is divided between the two hands; Bach enlivens the melodic line with a number of ornaments. The Courante, set here in 3/2, proceeds along complex contrapuntal textures, while the Sarabande is stately and expressive. The interpolated movements here are a pair of minuets, and the suite concludes with a Gigue that is all hard edges. In quadruple time rather than the expected 12/8, it features imitative patterns in the two hands, full of dotted rhythms and 32nd-note runs.

Bach inverts his theme at the beginning of the second half and drives this music to an almost stark close on a solitary Fsharp, the one note that will transform D minor into D major.

The Suite No. 2 in C minor also has a somber dignity throughout. Particularly striking here are the outer movements: an Allemande in which the melodic line is syncopated throughout and a Gigue built on short melodic phrases (the meter is 3/8), dotted rhythms and sharply angular themes. The two interpolated movements are an Air that feels very much like one of Bach’s Two-Part Inventions and a Menuet built on flowing melodic lines.

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Sunday, April 7, 2013, 7 p.m.

The Suite No. 3 in B minor opens with a propulsive but graceful Allemande, which is followed by ebullient Courante and a poised Sarabande. The first interpolated movement is a Menuet full of unexpected energy and drive; it surrounds a sturdy Trio. The second interpolation is a movement Bach calls Anglaise. In the 18th century that title (which means “English”) referred to music thought to be of English origin, such as the hornpipe. This particular Anglaise is an animated dance that seems to be in 4/4, though Bach’s metric marking is a simple 2. The suite concludes with a quick Gigue set in 3/8.

The first three French Suites are in minor keys, the last three in major.

The Suite No. 4 in E-flat Major opens with a spirited Allemande, driven along a happy rush of steady sixteenths. The Courante sets triplets in the pianist’s right hand against dotted eighths in his left, while the Sarabande moves grace-

 

fully along a walking bassline in the pianist’s left hand (this line sometimes moves into the right hand). The Fourth Suite exists in several versions: a Gavotte is followed by a subdued Menuet at this point, and the Air place here is sometimes eliminated. The suite concludes with a vigorous Gigue marked by quick trills.

The Allemande of the Suite No. 5 in G Major makes some very attractive modulations, as moments of shade pass over the sunny G-major surface of this dance. Then follow a quick Courante, reminiscent of the Two-Part Inventions Bach was composing in these same years, and a graceful, light Sarabande.

The interpolated movements—three of them in this suite—are a Gavotte (which has become so popular that it is sometimes performed separately), an athletic Bourrée and a Loure marked by swirls and cascades of sound, almost arpeggiated chords. The concluding

Gigue, a fugue, is the most difficult movement in the suite; it races impetuously along its unusual 12/16 meter.

The Suite No. 6 in E Major is the only one of the French Suites not part of Anna Magdalena’s Clavierbüchlein—it apparently dates from shortly after the Bach family’s move to Leipzig in 1723. Its eight movements are all extremely concise. The Allemande is full of bright energy, while the Courante features rapid exchanges between the performer’s hands and the Sarabande offers rich rolled chords. There are four interpolated movements: a firm Gavotte, a Polonaise (the only polonaise in the six suites), a Bourrée in duple meter (Bach’s metric marking is simply 2), and a Menuet (there is some debate among scholars as to whether the Bourrée or the Menuet should come first). Bach rounds matters off with a spirited Gigue in 6/8, somewhat in the manner of his Two-Part Inventions.

Program notes by Eric Bromberger

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Community Profits AD

Thursday, April 11, 2013, 8 p.m.

THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 2013, 8 P.M.

Michael Krajewski, conductor

● Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Marin Alsop, Music Director

presents

Bond and Beyond: 50 Years of 007

The James Bond Theme John Barry (1933-2011) from The Best of Bond (arr. & orch. Jeff Tyzik) Theme from John Barry From Russia with Love

Theme from You Only Live Twice John Barry (arr. Nic Raine)

Theme from John Barry Diamonds Are Forever (orch. Wendell Smith) Theme from The World is Not Enough

David Arnold (arr. Don Black) (1962-)

Concerto for Cell Phone James M. Stephenson

(1969-) Suite from Casino Royale and David Arnold

Quantum of Solace (arr. & orch. Gregory Prechel)

Theme from Goldfinger John Barry (arr. Tim Berens)

Skyfall Adele Adkins (1988-) and Paul Epworth (arr. Wendell Smith)

Theme from Goldfinger John Barry (arr. Tim Berens) INTERMISSION

Secret Agent Man P.F. Sloan (1945-) and Steve Barri (1942-) (arr. & orch. Gregory Prechel) Soul Bossa Nova (Theme from Austin Powers

Quincy Jones (1933) (arr. Tim Berens)

“ Sooner or Later” from Dick Tracy Stephen Sondheim (1930-)

(arr. & orch. Gregory Prechel) “Inspector Clouseau Theme” Henry Mancini from The Pink Panther (1924-1994)

Skyfall Adele Adkins (1988-) and Paul Epworth (arr. Wendell Smith)

The Best of Bond John Barry (arr. & orch. Jeff Tyzik)

The concert will end at approximately 10:10 p.m.

The Music Center at Strathmore • Marriott Concert Stage

62 applause at Strathmore • MARCH/APRIL 2013

Known for his entertaining programs and clever humor, Michael Krajewski is a highly sought after conductor of symphonic pops.

He is the principal pops conductor of the Houston Symphony, the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra—the first to hold such a title in Atlanta.

As a guest conductor, Krajewski has performed with the Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestras; the Boston and Cincinnati Pops; the San Francisco, Baltimore, Detroit, Indianapolis, Seattle, Dallas, St. Louis and National symphonies; and numerous other orchestras across the United States.

In Canada he has led Ottawa’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Calgary Philharmonic and the Edmonton, Winnipeg and Kitchener-Waterloo symphonies.

Other international appearances include performances with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and the Ulster Orchestra in concerts in Belfast and Dublin.

Krajewski is the conductor of the video Silver Screen Serenade with violinist Jenny Oaks Baker that aired worldwide on BYU Broadcasting.

In addition, Krajewski also has led the Houston Symphony on two holiday albums: Glad Tidings and Christmas Festival.

During the 2012-13 season Krajewski will be conducting his original Sounds

Michael Tammaro

Thursday, April 11, 2013, 8 p.m.

of Simon & Garfunkel program all over North America featuring national touring artists AJ Swearingen and Jonathan Beedle.

Krajewski’s other collaborative programs have included such artists as flutist James Galway, pianist Alicia de Larrocha, guitarist Angel Romero and pop artist Roberta Flack.

He also has appeared with Judy Collins, Art Garfunkel, Kenny Loggins, Ben Folds, Doc Severinsen, Patti Austin, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, The Chieftains, Pink Martini, Rockapella, Cirque de la Symphonie, Classical Mystery Tour and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.

Krajewski was a Dorati Fellowship Conductor with the Detroit Symphony and later served as that orchestra’s assistant conductor. He was resident conductor of the Florida Symphony and for 11 years served as music director of the Modesto Symphony Orchestra.

Michael Krajewski last conducted the BSO Pops in November 1999.

Debbie Gravitte, soprano

Debbie Gravitte has had a varied career taking her from the Broadway stage to the symphony hall and points in between.

Gravitte has won a Tony Award for best featured actress in a musical for Jerome Robbins’ Broadway and a New York Showstopper Award and was nominated for a Drama Desk Award.

After making her Broadway debut in the original cast of They’re Playing Our Song, she went on to appear in Perfectly Frank, Blues in the Night, Ain’t Broadway Grand, Zorba, Chicago and Les Misérables.

Gravitte also has appeared in the Encore series productions of The Boys From Syracuse, Tenderloin and Carnival at New York’s City Center.

Anticipate more...

fun

Gravitte has sung with numerous symphony orchestras including National Symphony, Boston Pops, Atlanta Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Utah Symphony, St. Louis, Houston and San Diego symphonies.

Overseas, she has sung with the London, Aalborg and Birmingham symphony orchestras, Stockholm Philharmonic, Gotesborg and Jerusalem symphonies, Munich Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Symphonica of Brazil.

Gravitte recently finished her latest CD, Defying Gravity, a follow-up to The MGM Album, Part Of Your World and The Alan Menken Album.

Gravitte recently debuted with the New York City Ballet singing in Peter Martin’s “Thou Swell” at Lincoln Center. She appeared with Bette Midler in the film Isn’t She Great? and can be heard as one of the voices in the film The Little Mermaid.

Debbie Gravitte is making her BSO debut.

Morning yoga, an afternoon movie, quality time with the grandkids, or an engaging event created by one of our cultural partners.

Whatever your definition of fun – you’ll find it at Asbury Methodist Village. Residents find that their calendars fill up fast with so many wonderful things to do. When you’re having fun, the smiles come easy.

Call 301-960-3830 to learn about the Strathmore Society at Asbury, with special programming for Asbury residents and guests.

AsburyMethodistVillage.org 201 RUSSELL AVENUE, GAITHERSBURG, MARYLAND 20877 applause at Strathmore • MARCH/APRIL 2013 63

Saturday, April 12, 2013, 8 p.m.

SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 2013, 8 P.M.

● Strathmore Presents

Cameron Carpenter

Cameron Carpenter

A virtuoso composer-performer unique among keyboardists, Cameron Carpenter’s approach to the organ is smashing the stereotypes of organists and organ music while generating a level of acclaim, exposure and controversy unprecedented for an organist.

His repertoire—from the complete works of J. S. Bach and Cesar Franck, to his hundreds of transcriptions of non-organ works, his original compositions and his collaborations with jazz and pop artists—is perhaps the largest and most diverse of any organist. He is the first organist nominated for a Grammy Award for a solo album.

As a keyboard prodigy, he performed Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier at age 11 before joining the American Boychoir School in 1992 as a soprano.

During his four years of high school studies at The North Carolina School

of the Arts, he made his first studies in orchestration and orchestral composition, and transcribed for the organ more than 100 major works, including Gustav Mahler’s complete Symphony No. 5. Carpenter continued composing after moving to New York City in 2000 to attend The Juilliard School.

While at the school he composed art songs; the symphonic poem Child of Baghdad (2003) for orchestra, chorus and Ondes Martenot; his first substantial works for solo organ; and numerous organ arrangements of piano works by Chopin, Godowsky, Grainger, Ives, Liszt, Medtner, Rachmaninoff, Schumann and others.

Carpenter received a master’s degree from Juilliard in 2006.

The same year, he began his worldwide organ concert tours, giving numerous debuts at venues including Royal Albert Hall, the Leipzig

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Gewandhaus, Melbourne Town Hall, Tchaikowky Hall in Moscow, Davies Hall in San Francisco and many others. His first album for Telarc, the Grammy-nominated Revolutionary (2008), was followed in 2010 by the critically acclaimed DVD and CD Cameron Live! Edition Peters became his publisher in 2010, beginning the ongoing release of his original works with Aria, Op. 1 (2010). His first major work for organ and orchestra, The Scandal, Op. 3, was commissioned by the Cologne Philharmonie (KölnMusic GmbH) and premiered on New Year’s Day 2011 by the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie under the direction of Alexander Shelley.

Carpenter is one of the only performing artists to make a practice of meeting his audience in person before his performances—often spending more than an hour before each concert shaking hands and signing autographs on the floor of a concert venue.

Carpenter has received millions of hits on YouTube In addition, he has appeared in features on CBS Sunday Morning, BBC Radio 3, The New York Times, The New Yorker and The Wall Street Journal, among other media.

2/1/13 8:45 AM

Michael Hart

The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

Saturday, April 13, 2013, 8 p.m.

SATURDAY, APRIL 13, 2013, 8 P.M.

● Strathmore Presents

Under the Streetlamp Michael Cunio, vocals Michael Ingersoll, vocals Christopher Kale Jones, vocals Shonn Wiley, vocals The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

Under the Streetlamp

The pop quartet Under The Streetlamp is poised to bring the repertoire of The American Radio Songbook of the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s to a whole new audience—while reminding original fans why they fell in love with the music in the first place.

“We perform music that was introduced to the public under the humblest of spotlights,” says Michael Cunio, who with Shonn Wiley, Michael Ingersoll and Christopher Kale Jones make up Under the Streetlamp, which specializes in doo-wop, rock ‘n’ roll and Motown-era soul classics. “We think of ourselves as hosts to a party—

and we’ve invited people of all ages.

They can sing along. They can dance in the aisles.”

Formed in Chicago in 2010, Under the Streetlamp quickly earned a local devoted following and a reputation that has led to a much-anticipated debut CD/DVD, titled Under The Streetlamp: Live!.

Groups such as Dion and The Belmonts (“I Wonder Why”), The Chords (“Sh-Boom”) and The Drifters (“Save The Last Dance For Me”) all have songs represented on Under The Streetlamp: Live!. Also featured are songs by The Beach Boys (“I Get Around”), The Temptations (“Get Ready”), The Beatles (“Twist And Shout”), The Turtles (“Happy Together”), and, notably, The Four Seasons (“Workin’ My Way Back To You”). It was a stint in Jersey Boys—the awardwinning Broadway musical based on The Four Seasons—that brought Under the Streetlamp together.

“All four of the main characters in the show were played by one of us at one time or another,” says Ingersoll.

In fact, Ingersoll, Wiley and Cunio all played in Jersey Boys together in Chicago for a year, while Jones, who had previously worked with Ingersoll, appeared in the first national touring

company.

“Then I started doing cabaret shows around Chicago featuring other performers—including Chris, Michael and Shonn,” Ingersoll recalls. “Some people came to see us because of Jersey Boys, but we discovered that it was the synergy between the four of us in this non-theatrical setting that audiences were responding to.”

Each of the players has a lot of great prior performance experience.

Ingersoll, from Dayton, Ohio, became interested in music through his grandfather Roy Francis, a jazz pianist who toured with the late Dave Brubeck. Other major musical influences include Roy Orbison, and his rousing rendition of “Pretty Woman” can also be heard on Under The Streetlamp Live!

Wiley, who grew up in Adrian, Mich., started singing and dancing as a child. He performed on Broadway prior to Jersey Boys, and is the group’s choreographer.

Jones is from Hawaii, where he grew up listing to oldies radio and singing in award-winning choirs. Like Wiley, he came to Jersey Boys with prior acting experience in New York theater.

Cunio picked up his love of music during his boyhood in Seattle. He also performs his original songs as frontman of the alternative rock band Reckless Place.

The group is expanding its repertoire to include 1980s artists such as Billy Joel, Bob Seger and Huey Lewis.

Members also conduct workshops, master classes before sound checks and provide a platform for students to perform during a show.

“There’s something unique about the music that came out of the ‘60s period,” Cunio says. “Not many young people are doing this music live, and we’re trying to make sure it doesn’t stop with our generation in our more fragmented digital time. This music exists in everyone’s consciousness unlike any other genre, and we keep that in mind and pay respect to it.”

applause at Strathmore • MARCH/APRIL 2013 65

SunDAY, April 14, 2013, 4 P.M.

● Strathmore Presents

Maurizio Pollini

Prelude in C-sharp minor, Op. 45 Frédéric Chopin

(1810-1849)

Ballade No. 2 in F Major, Op. 38 Ballade No. 3 in A-flat Major, Op. 47

Four Mazurkas, Op. 33 No. 1: Mazurka in G-sharp minor

No. 2: Mazurka in D major

No. 3: Mazurka in C major

No. 4: Mazurka in B minor

Scherzo No. 3 in C-sharp minor, Op. 39 INTERMISSION

Preludes, Book 1 Claude Debussy

(1862-1918) I. Danseuses de Delphes

VII. Ce qu’a vu le vent d’ouest

VIII. La fille aux cheveux de lin

II. Voiles

III. Le vent dans la plaine IX. La sérénade interrompue

IV. “Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l’air du soir”

V. Les collines d’Anacapri

VI. Des pas sur la neige

X. La cathédrale engloutie XI. La danse de Puck XII. Minstrels

Program subject to change Columbia Artists Management LLC Personal Direction: TIM FOX 1790 Broadway, N.Y., N.Y. 10019 The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

Maurizio Pollini, piano The name Maurizio Pollini evokes an extremely important career: the story of a man and an

artist known all over the world, prized by audiences and critics across many latitudes and several generations.

As a performer for over 40 years in all the major European, American and Japanese concert halls and festivals, Maurizio Pollini has performed with the most celebrated conductors and orchestras.

66 applause at Strathmore • MARCH/APRIL 2013

Maurizio Pollini has been awarded many international prizes: the Vienna Philharmonic Ehrenring (1987); the Goldenes Ehrenzeichen of the Town Salzburg (1995); the Ernstvon-Siemens Music Prize in Munich (1996); the “A Life for Music – Artur Rubinstein” Prize in Venice (1999); the Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli Prize in Milan (2000); the prestigious Prize Imperiale in Tokyo (2010); and the Royal Philharmonic Society Award (2012).

In 1995 Maurizio Pollini opened Tokyo’s festival dedicated to Pierre Boulez. In the same year and in 1999, the Salzburg Festival invited him to create and present his own cycle of concerts, which included works of different epochs and styles. With the same philosophy, between 1999 and 2006, Maurizio Pollini realized new cycles performed in New York at Carnegie Hall (in 1999/2000 and 2000/2001), in Paris for la Cité de la Musique and in Tokyo (both in 2002), in Rome at the Parco della Musica (March 2003) and Vienna with programs including both chamber and orchestral performances and mirroring his wide musical tastes from Gesualdo and Monteverdi to the present. During the summer of 2004, he was named the “Artist Etoile” at the International Festival Lucerne, performing a recital and concerts with orchestra conducted by Claudio Abbado and Pierre Boulez.

Maurizio Pollini created new concert cycles between 2008 and 2013 at the Lucerne Festival, Accademia di Santa Cecilia Roma, Cité de la Musique Paris, Teatro alla Scala Milano, in Tokyo and in Berlin.

Maurizio Pollini’s repertoire ranges from Bach to contemporary composers (including premier performances of Manzoni, Nono and Sciarrino) and includes the complete Beethoven Sonatas, which he has performed in Berlin, Munich, Milan, New York, London, Vienna and Paris.

Maurizio Pollini has recorded works from the classical, romantic and contemporary repertoire to worldwide critical acclaim. His recordings of the complete works for piano by Schoen-

Pollini_photo by Mathias Bothor

Sunday, April 14, 2013, 4 p.m.

Sunday, April 14, 2013, 4 p.m.

berg, and of works by Berg, Webern, Manzoni, Nono, Boulez and Stockhausen are a testament to his great passion for music of the 20th century.

Maurizio Pollini’s recent recording of Chopin’s Nocturnes was received with the greatest enthusiasm by audiences and critics alike: in 2007 he was awarded a Grammy for the best Instrumental Soloist Performance as well as the Disco d’Oro; in 2006 he was awarded an Echo Award (Germany) and the Choc de la Musique, Victoires de la Musique and Diapason d’Or de l’Année (France). A CD with the Mozart piano Concertos n.12 KV414 and n.24 KV491 with the Vienna Philharmonic was released in April 2008 followed by the second CD with Concertos n.17 KV453 and n.21 KV467 as well as a new recording dedicated to Chopin. Maurizio Pollini’s recording of Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 with Staatskapelle Dresden and Christian Thielemann was released as both a CD and DVD in late fall 2011.

Deutsche Gramophone recently released a 3-CD boxed set dedicated to the Art of Maurizio Pollini and will also release a new CD in late 2012 featuring Chopin Préludes and other pieces.

Program Notes Prelude in C sharp minor, Op. 45

Frédéric Chopin Born ca. March 1, 1810 in Zelazowa Wola, Poland; died Oct. 17, 1849, in Paris

Of all the music composed for the piano, Frédéric Chopin’s is the most often performed. The son of a high school French teacher, he was largely self-taught as a musician, although he did study piano and composition in his youth with the director of the Warsaw Conservatory, Jósef Elsner.

The Prelude in C sharp minor, Op. 45 is a short piece composed in 1841, while Chopin was living with George Sand in Paris. During this time of relatively small output, he kept aloof from the musical world, preferring instead to frequent aristocratic salons, although

he did what he could to support new composers, such as Cesar Franck. This Prelude is built on a single motif. The theme in octaves in the right hand is reminiscent of, and in the same key as, that of Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata. The theme recurs over an arabesque figure and moves up over a range of three octaves.

Copyright 1991 Columbia Artists Management Inc. Ballade No. 2 in F Major, Op. 38

Frédéric Chopin Although he had begun Ballade No. 2 in 1836, Chopin revised it during the winter of 1838, which he spent in the spellbinding company of his inspirational paramour, writer George Sand (Aurore Dudevant). They lived in an abandoned monastery in Majorca in a room the composer described as having “the shape of a tall coffin.” He revised it a second time in 1839, dedicating it to Schumann, probably in return for the latter’s dedication of Kreisleriana to him in 1838. Interestingly, the copy of Schumann’s work was found after Chopin’s death with the leaves of the pages uncut—a terrible insult to Schumann, had he known! In fact, Chopin had even changed the original dedication “Friend Robert Schumann” to “Mr. Robert Schumann;” the Polish Chopin had little respect for the German Schumann.

Copyright 1994 Columbia Artists Management Inc. Ballade No. 3 in A-flat Major, Op. 47

Frédéric Chopin In the works of Frédéric Chopin we find a unique example of a composer writing almost exclusively for the piano, who nonetheless has been granted a place among the greatest composers of all time—universally idolized in his own century and in ours. Of all the composers of music for the piano, Chopin holds the enviable position of being the one whose music is most frequently performed. His contemporaries, perhaps from jealousy, were

sometimes slighting; yet, despite their derogatory epithets, the fact remains that Chopin invented a keyboard style that fitted ideally into 19th-century Romanticism. His music is tinged with melancholy, suggesting a neverending search for the unattainable, yet invariably it is arrayed in an impeccable technical structure. All his works demand of the player not only a flawless touch and technique but also an imaginative use of the pedals and a discreet application of tempo rubato, which Chopin himself described as a slight pushing or holding back within the phrase of the right hand while the left hand continues in strict time.

In all, Chopin composed four Ballades between 1831 and 1842. These works were not conceived as a group, and there does not seem to be a predetermined plan in their structure, or in the thematic deployment and development. The only set principle is their free composition, as the form of each of the four Ballades is essentially self-generative. Other composers after him—- Fauré, Franck, Vieuxtemps, Liszt, Dukas and Brahms, for example—adopted Chopin’s “invention,” the Ballade, but they all used a stricter form, usually three-part song form; this is especially true of Brahms, whose Ballades could claim equal renown, as those by his predecessor. In another example, Grieg’s Ballade in Form von Varationen über eine norwedische Melodie, by virtue of being strophic, is closer to the literary ballad than Chopin’s works in this form. Indeed, unfettered by conventions, the Polish composer gave free rein to his inspiration in the Ballades, as his genius chose not to accommodate the constraints of traditional forms or rules.

Each of Chopin’s Ballades is constructed on two primary melodic ideas and the listener can find in them techniques related to the sonata, rondo and variation forms. In each work, the melodic beauty enfolds as the thematic material is successively transformed, supported by a rich harmonic framework. Another common feature of the Ballades is their

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Sunday, April 14, 2013, 4 p.m.

compound meters (6/4 or 6/8)—meters whose rhythms convey a certain feeling of narration in musical terms.

The Ballade in A-flat Major, Op. 47, the third work of the genre, was composed during Chopin’s most prolific period in 1840-41—years of relative happiness in the composer’s life and when his involvement with George Sand was at its peak. Liszt once claimed that Chopin had improvised the piece on a whim for the poet Heinrich Heine; the story goes that the composer wanted to make a musical commentary on the poem Willi by Mickiewicz, recounting the adventures of the water-sprite Ondine, sister to Lorelei. The work was first heard in public in February 1842 at the Salle Pleyel in Paris, during a concert given by Chopin and the singer Pauline Viardot-García.

In this Ballade, two themes are developed in a freely adapted sonata form. Here, the prevailing mood is one of playful coquetry, before the darker mood of the development section in C-sharp minor is reached. The third Ballade was dedicated to a pupil, Mlle. Pauline de Noailles, who is said to have remarked, “There is moonlight in this music, and sunlight too.”

Ileen Zovluck Copyright 2001 Columbia Artists Management Inc. Four Mazurkas, Op. 33

Frédéric Chopin The Mazurka originated as a countrydance in the province of Mazovia, near Warsaw, where the inhabitants were known as Mazurs. The music is in triple meter, sometimes sung as well as danced, with strong accents tapped by the heel on the second or third beat. The dances vary in character according to the neighborhood and social status of the dancers. Chopin, who became interested in Polish folk music as a youth, came upon the popular form during his summer holidays in 1824 that were spent in a friend’s country manor. Composed with an improvisational flair, Chopin’s mazurkas, of which he wrote more

than 50, reflect a variety of moods in delicately beautiful melodic lines and subtle changes in harmonic nuances.

Copyright 1994 Columbia Artists Management Inc.

Préludes, Book I (1910)

Scherzo No. 3 in C sharp minor, Op. 39

Claude Debussy is heralded as the father of Impressionism in music and generally considered the founder of the modern school of harmony, he did for music what the Impressionists did for painting and literature; he literally created “tonal colors” which one can find not only in his compositions for the orchestra but in his piano works as well. In his music, Debussy sought to emphasize a new freedom of expression largely inspired by his close observation of nature. As a pianist, he—like Chopin and Liszt before him— tried to make the piano not a piano. His mellowness of tone made the listener forget that the piano has hammers; the sonorities created by him were once described as “rising up into a transparent atmosphere, where they unite without merging and dissolve in iridescent mists.”

Perhaps no other work of his illustrates this better than the masterful Préludes.

Like Chopin before him, and perhaps in subconscious tribute to the 19th century master, Debussy wrote 24 preludes, published in two sets. The first set, or Book I, was written and published in 1910; the second was composed between 1912 and 1913 and published in the latter year.

The Préludes are not only a testament of Debussy’s love for Chopin’s music, but they also contain his last homage to the genre of descriptive miniatures that began with Mendelssohn and Schumann.

The titles contain all the themes that served as inspiration to their composer: nature; exoticism and travel; the humorous and ironic; classical antiquity; and movement. These themes are deployed in the Préludes through intricate figurations and varied pedal effects, and by the creation of tonal colors and unique sonic masses that proclaim themselves free from the laws of conventional harmony.

Of the two sets of Préludes, Book I, heard in this performance, has always been the most popular and widely performed.

Frédéric Chopin The term “scherzo” was used originally for vocal madrigals in the early 17th century (Monteverdi’s secular Scherzi musicali for three voices is an example), but soon afterward it was applied solely to instrumental works. In fact, few scherzi appeared at all from 1650 to 1750; a single one ends Bach’s A minor Partita, after which a few more are found in the works of Haydn and C.P.E. Bach.

Most scherzi are in triple meter, and since Beethoven, act as the third movement of a larger work. Chopin’s exist, however, as separate compositions. He composed his four scherzi as bravura pieces, to show off the possibilities of the piano. Thus, the scherzo was glorified and developed into a large-scale, serious form. Although the Italian term “scherzo” means “a joke,” the scherzi by the Polish composer are hardly playful pieces. The virtuoso pianist Alfred Cortot described them as “games, but terrifying games; dances, but feverish, hallucinatory dances that seem to find their rhythm in the bitter round of human torment.” Indeed, in the scherzi Chopin created moods that are very grave, fierce and sardonic, yet also passionate and melancholic.

The Scherzo in C sharp minor, composed during Chopin’s stay at Majorca, is dedicated to Gutmann, a favorite pupil of the composer (he actually died in Gutmann’s arms).

The work is replete with the drama that characterizes so much of Chopin’s music. The lovely trio marks a liturgical interlude in the wrathful music that mounts to a fine climax, ending surprisingly in the major mode.

Ileen Zovluck Copyright 2000 Columbia Artists Management Inc.

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Claude Debussy Born Aug. 22, 1862, in Saint-Germainen-Laye, France; died March 25, 1918, in Paris

Sunday, April 14, 2013, 4 p.m.

I. Danseuses de Delphes (“Dancers of Delphi”): A Greek relief representing three women in a slow dance was Debussy’s inspiration. The languid and mysterious melody passes from archaic modality to being diatonic, then becoming pentatonic, and eventually turning chromatic.

II. Voiles (“Sails” or “Veils”): The title of this piece evokes the sails of boats, billowing in the wind, or swirling veils; according to Debussy, the play on words was intentional. Of all the Préludes, this piece utilizes the whole-tone scale most thoroughly.

III. Le vent dans la plaine (“The Wind of the Plain”): Whole-tone and pentatonic scales come into play once again. Whereas the wind played delicately on the sails/veils of the previous piece, here the gathering winds whirl and swirl more determinedly across the countryside, only to spin themselves into silence at the end.

IV. “Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l’air du soir” (“Sounds and Odors Blend in the Evening Air”): lines in the poem, “Harmonie du soir,” from Les fleurs du mal, suggested this haunting and nostalgic melody by Charles Baudelaire. With sensuously rich harmonies covering the 12-tone gamut, Debussy suggests intoxicating sounds and fragrances mingling at the end of the day.

V. Les collines d’Anacapri (“The Hills of Anacapri”): This piece captures the festivity and color of a celebration on the island of Capri.

Hints of a tarantella and Neapolitan folk songs are heard against tolling bells in the background.

VI. Des pas sur la neige (“Footprints in the Snow”): In this prélude, the atmosphere is stark and bleak as it resonates with loneliness. The composer wrote that the basic rhythm of the piece “should have the aural value of a melancholic, frozen landscape.”

VII. Ce qu’a vu le vent d’ouest (“What the West Wind Saw”): The nightmarish quality of this prélude deploys a palette of orchestral colors, with such extreme dynamic indications as “animated and tumultuous,” “plaintive and in the distance,” “strident,” “fast and furious,” etc. Here, the frenzied West Wind storms across France with sweeping fury, suggested by whirling arpeggios and striking discords.

VIII. La fille aux cheveux de lin (“The Girl with the Flaxen Hair”): In this, the most famous of all the Préludes, a soothing, lyrical and charming melody contrasts with the preceding furor of the hurricane. The inspiration for this piece came from Leconte de Lisle’s Chansons écossaises. Here pentatonic scales provide a certain folkloric flavor and an aura of timelessness rather than the expected exoticism associated with such scales.

IX. La sérénade interrompue (“The Interrupted Serenade”): An ironic humor pervades this miniature sketch of a nocturnal scene in which a Spanish lad attempts at serenading his beloved are repeatedly interrupted. Against the guitar’s punteado (“plucking of individual strings”) and the rasgueado (“strumming chords)—techniques paralleled here by the piano—we hear a plaintive Moorish melody as well as fragments from Debussy’s own suite Iberia. After all the interruptions the serenader gives up and we hear him frustratingly receding into the distance.

X. La cathédrale engloutie (“The Engulfed Cathedral”): Based on a legend from Brittany, this mystical prélude tells of the Cathedral of Ys, which dwells beneath the sea, submerged in the fourth or fifth century as punishment for the sins of its inhabitants.

The Cathedral rises again with each sunrise as a warning and example to others, before returning to its oceanic slumber. Three motifs come into play: an ascending chordal melody for the placid sea, a chant treated as a medi-

eval organum, representing the cathedral itself, and a rumbling figuration on the left hand as the tide surges with more strength to engulf the cathedral once again; this is punctuated throughout by the tolling of the bells.

XI. La danse de Puck (“Puck’s Dance”): Debussy’s sense of musical humor pervades this roguish sketch.

Shakespeare’s “joyous nomad of the night,” Oberon’s page in A Midsummer Night’s Dream is seen here tripping lightly, now vanishing and reappearing again, dancing through the enchanted forests; every once in a while we also hear Oberon’s beckoning horn call, but Puck’s mischievous nature cannot be restrained. This capricious prélude evokes not only Puck’s elfin gaiety, but also his darker, mocking side.

XII. Minstrels: This prélude depicts not the medieval troubadours of old, but a contemporaneous music hall, characterized by shuffling old Broadway songs and the entertaining dance steps of black-faced minstrels. Having pioneered the American musical theater in the 1840s, minstrels were popular attractions at European fairs and resorts by the turn-of-the-century. In this cakewalk of a prélude, Debussy captures the shifting moods of the characters, careening from bawdy comedy to heartfelt pathos and back to jovial cavorting.

Among the most significant piano works ever written by a French composer, Debussy’s Préludes were instantly recognized as masterpieces of the Impressionist school. They were introduced to the public at three different concerts in Paris. Debussy himself premiered Nos. 1, 2, 10 and 11 on May 25, 1910 and Nos. 3, 4, 6 and 12 on June 29, 1911, the latter concert consisting of an all-Debussy program. The composer’s friend, Ricardo Viñes introduced Nos. 5, 8 and 9 on Jan. 14, 1911. Since these historic performances, the Préludes have become an indispensable part of the concert literature for virtuoso pianists around the world.

Copyright 1997 Columbia Artists Management Inc.

applause at Strathmore • MARCH/APRIL 2013 69

Tuesday, April 16, 2013, 8 p.m.

TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2013, 8 P.M.

● Washington Performing Arts Society Celebrity Series presents

The Staatskapelle Dresden Christian Thielemann, principal conductor Lisa Batiashvili, violin Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80 Johannes Brahms

(1833-1897) Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77 Allegro non troppo

Adagio Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace

Lisa Batiashvili, violin

INTERMISSION

Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98 Allegro non troppo

Andante moderato

Allegro giocoso

Allegro energico e passionato

The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

Christian Thielemann, conductor

Christian Thielemann began his professional career in 1978 as a rehearsal pianist at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin. Following positions in Gelsenkirchen, Karlsruhe and Hanover he joined

the conducting staff of the Rhine Opera in Dusseldorf in 1985. Three years later he moved to Nuremberg to become Germany’s youngest music director, before returning to the Deutsche Oper in Berlin in 1997, holding the position of music director there for seven years.

Thielemann conducted the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra from 2004 to 2011. In the summer of 2012 he took up the baton as principal conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden.

Thielemann’s repertoire ranges from

70 applause at Strathmore • MARCH/APRIL 2013

Praised by audiences and fellow musicians for her virtuosity and “profound sensitivity” (Financial Times), Lisa Batiashvili is one of the world’s most sought after violinists. In Europe she frequently works with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Staatskapelle Dresden, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. In the U.S. she performs every season with the New York Philharmonic and regularly returns to the Philadelphia Orchestra and Boston Symphony Orchestra.

During the 2012-13 season Batiashvili holds the position of Capell-Virtuosin with the Staatskapelle Dresden, performing several times with the orchestra. She is artist-in-residence with the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, and forms new musical partnerships with Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin, Gustavo Dudamel and Gothenburg Symphony

Batiashvili Photo by Anja Frers and DG

Bach to Henze and Gubaidulina. His interpretations of German romantic music, both in opera and on the concert stage, are regarded as exemplary. Since his Bayreuth debut in the summer of 2000, his annual appearances have set new standards in conducting. He has been musical advisor to the Bayreuth Festival since 2010. At the 2011 Salzburg Festival, Thielemann directed a new, highly acclaimed production of Die Frau ohne Schatten by Richard Strauss.

Together with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra he has recorded a complete cycle of Beethoven’s symphonies.

His recordings with the Staatskapelle include Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony, Beethoven’s Missa solemnis, the ZDF New Year’s Eve Concerts of 2010 and 2011 and Faust compositions by Wagner and Liszt.

Thielemann also is the new artistic director of the Salzburg Easter Festival, and the Staatskapelle Dresden is the festival orchestra.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013, 8 p.m.

Orchestra, Thomas Hengelbrock and NDR Sinfonieorchester, and Mariss Jansons and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

A dedicated chamber musician, Batiashvili has appeared at the Salzburg, Edinburgh International, SchleswigHolstein, Heimbach and Verbier festivals, and tours regularly with musicians such as oboist François Leleux, violist Lawrence Power and cellist Sebastian Klinger. In the 2012-13 season she also embarks on a recital tour with pianist Paul Lewis.

Batiashvili plays the 1715 ex-Joachim Stradivarius, kindly loaned by the Nippon Music Foundation.

The Staatskapelle Dresden

On Sept. 22, 2008, the Staatskapelle Dresden celebrated its 460th jubilee.

Founded by Prince Elector Moritz von Sachsen in 1548, it is one of the oldest orchestras in the world. Over its long history many distinguished conductors and internationally celebrated instrumentalists have left their mark on this one-time court orchestra.

Previous directors include Heinrich Schütz, Johann Adolf Hasse, Carl Maria von Weber and Richard Wagner, who called the ensemble his “miraculous harp.” The list of prominent conductors of the past 100 years includes Ernst von Schuch, Fritz Reiner, Fritz Busch, Karl Böhm, Joseph Keilberth, Rudolf Kempe, Otmar Suitner, Kurt Sanderling, Herbert Blomstedt and Giuseppe Sinopoli. The orchestra was directed

by Bernard Haitink from 2002 to 2004 and by Fabio Luisi from 2007 to 2010.

Christian Thielemann began the post of principal conductor of the Staatskapelle in the 2012-13 season. The upcoming season also sees the introduction of the new position of principal guest conductor, whose first holder will be MyungWhun Chung.

Richard Strauss and the Staatskapelle were closely linked for more than 60 years. Nine of the composer’s operas were premiered in Dresden, including Salome, Elektra and Der Rosenkavalier, while Strauss’s Alpine Symphony was dedicated to the orchestra.

Countless other famous composers have written works either dedicated to the orchestra or first performed in Dresden. In 2007 the Staatskapelle reaffirmed this tradition by introducing the annual position of Capell-Compositeur, successively held by composers Isabel Mundry, Bernhard Lang, Rebecca Saunders, Johannes Maria Staud and Lera Auerbach. The Capell-Compositeur for the 2012-13 season is Hans Werner Henze.

Program Notes Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80

Johannes Brahms Born May 7, 1833, in Hamburg, Germany; died April 3, 1897, in Vienna, Austria

The University of Breslau conferred an honorary doctorate on Brahms in March 1879. This was an unusual honor for someone who had never attended college, but Brahms (perhaps true to character) responded only by sending off a postcard of thanks.

When it was diplomatically suggested that a somewhat more significant gesture of gratitude might be in order, Brahms got the hint. In the summer of 1880, he fled to his favorite summer retreat—Bad Ischl, in the mountains east of Salzburg—where he wrote two overtures. These two pieces were utterly opposite in character, as Brahms well knew. “One laughs, the other weeps,” he said.

If the Tragic Overture weeps, the Academic Festival Overture does indeed laugh. Brahms described it as “a potpourri of student songs a la Suppé,” but this music is a good deal more complex than that, for it features an unusual treatment of sonata form (with introduction and finale), subtle thematic transformation and some appropriately learned counterpoint. Brahms wears this learning lightly, though, and the Academic Festival Overture emerges as one of those rare things among his works—a fun piece, full of high spirits and tonguein-cheek humor.

After a mock-serious introduction in C minor (a musical portrait of an academic procession?), Brahms builds the overture on traditional German student songs. Quiet trumpets nobly announce Wir hatten gebauet ein stattliche Haus (“We Had Built a Stately House”), and the second theme group is built around the bustling bassoons’ comic treatment of an old song making fun of green freshmen, Was kommt dort in der Höh (“What Comes There on High?”)— the full orchestra’s explosive answer completes the joke. Brahms transforms his themes very subtly—beneath the laughing surface, this is an extremely well-made piece—and rounds things off with the best joke of all: at the end, the old celebration song Gaudeamus igitur (“Therefore let us enjoy ourselves”) becomes the mock-heroic climax, thundered out by the brass as strings race madly along beneath them.

Brahms himself conducted the premiere at the University of Breslau on Jan. 4, 1881, with the faculty of the university seated solemnly behind him.

One wonders just how amused those professors were by Brahms’ music, which is part gesture of appreciation, part fun and part send-up of the whole notion of academic seriousness.

Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77

Brahms spent the summer of 1878 in Pörtschach on the Wörthersee. He loved this resort town on the lake surrounded by snow-capped mountains, and to a friend he noted how much he felt like writing music there: “So many melodies fly about that one must be careful not to tread on them.” Brahms set out that summer to write something for his friend and colleague of 25 years, the great violinist Joseph Joachim. Brahms did not play the violin, and he consulted frequently with Joachim during the composition of this concerto, asking for advice and criticism (some of which he took, some he did not). In its original form, this concerto was in four movements, but Brahms threw out the two middle movements, replacing them with what he called— with characteristic self-deprecation—“a

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feeble Adagio” (three years later, the deleted scherzo became part of the Second Piano Concerto). Joachim was soloist and Brahms the conductor at the premiere in Leipzig on Jan. 1, 1879.

Brahms’ Violin Concerto is extraordinarily difficult for the soloist, and in a famous jibe it has been called “a concerto against the violin rather than for it” (this remark has been attributed variously to Sarasate, Lalo, Hellmesberge, and others; we will probably never know for sure who said it). But this music is not impossible, and in fact Brahms’ Violin Concerto is quite playable and even quite violinistic. It requires a tremendous violinist, one with the ability to make huge leaps and land with dead-center accuracy, to project the violin’s sound over a large orchestra, and to have hands big enough to play the tenths that Brahms frequently calls for.

Yet this is not a showy or a flashy piece.

Violin and orchestra are beautifully integrated here, with the melodic line flowing seamlessly between them and the soloist’s skills always at the service of the music, rather than the reverse.

Many have felt a similarity—musical and spiritual—between Brahms’ Violin Concerto and his Second Symphony, also composed at Pörtschach and premiered only a few months before he began work on the concerto: both are large-scale (about 40 minutes in length), both are in D major, and both are lyric and spacious works. Brahms stays close to classical tradition in the first movement of the concerto, where a long orchestral exposition introduces the themes before the entrance of the violinist. The very beginning, with its arching and falling main subject, is distinctive for the way Brahms manages to disguise the meter: it is in 3/4, yet the stresses of the opening phrases obscure the downbeats. Solo oboe introduces the second theme (which will be extended in many ways), and the full string section stamps out the third; this last bears a close relation to the opening of Bach’s Chaconne for unaccompanied violin, a work Brahms very much admired (he had made a piano arrangement of the Chaconne two years before 72 applause at Strathmore • MARCH/APRIL 2013

Staatskapelle Dresden

Christian Thielemann, Principal Conductor First Violins Kai Vogler, Concertmaster Thomas Meining Jörg Faßmann Federico Kasik Christian Uhlig Johanna Mittag Jörg Kettmann Susanne Branny Wieland Heinze Anett Baumann Anselm Telle Sae Shimabara Franz Schubert Renate Peuckert Lenka Matejáková

Robin Porta Anna Buschuew Florian Kapitza

Second Violins Heinz-Dieter Richter, Concertmaster, second violins Frank Other Annette Thiem Stephan Drechsel Jens Metzner Ulrike Scobel Olaf-Torsten Spies Mechthild von Ryssel Alexander Ernst Emanuel Held Holger Grohs Kay Mitzscherling Martin Fraustadt Paige Kearl

Double Basses Andreas Wylezol, Solo Christoph Schmidt, Solo Martin Knauer Torsten Hoppe Helmut Branny Christoph Bechstein Thomas Grosche Vieri Giovenzana

Violas Michael Neuhaus, Solo Stephan Pätzold Anya Muminovich Michael Horwath Ulrich Milatz Ralf Dietze Wolfgang Grabner Juliane Böcking Uta Scholl

Violoncellos Friedwart Christian Dittmann, Solo Simon Kalbhenn, Solo Tom Höhnerbach Uwe Kroggel Johann-Christoph Schulze Jörg Hassenrück Jakob Andert Anke Heyn Matthias Wilde Matthias Schreiber

Flutes Rozália Szabó, Solo Andreas Kißling, Solo Bernhard Kury Dóra Varga Oboes Bernd Schober, Solo Celine Moinet, Solo Andreas Lorenz Michael Goldammer Clarinets Wolfram Große, Solo Ulrich Pluta, Solo Dietmar Hedrich Jan Seifert

Bassoons Joachim Hans, Solo Thomas Eberhardt, Solo Joachim Huschke Andreas Börtitz Horns Jochen Ubbelohde, Solo Robert Langbein, Solo Andreas Langosch Harald Heim Manfred Riedl Julius Rönnebeck Miklós Takács Eberhard Kaiser Trumpets Mathias Schmutzler, Solo Tobias Willner, Solo Siegfried Schneider Sven Barnkoth Trombones Uwe Voigt, Solo István Juhász Jürgen Umbreit Frank van Nooy Tuba Hans-Werner Liemen, Solo Timpani Thomas Käppler, Solo Percussion Christian Langer Jürgen May Jakob Eschenburg Harps Vicky Müller, Solo Astrid von Brück, Solo Aline Khouri

Tuesday, April 16, 2013, 8 p.m.

he wrote the Violin Concerto). Only when these themes have been fully presented does the solo violin enter with its dazzling two-octave run up the scale, followed by a series of blistering stringcrossings. This is a big, dramatic movement, and it can make a huge sound, but the score itself is littered with Brahms’ performance instructions, and these make clear what he believed the true character of this music to be: dolce, espressivo, tranquillo, lusingando (a term that does not translate easily from the Italian, but means generally coaxing or charming). Much of the writing for violin is graceful and lyric, and in particular Brahms’ transformation of the second subject into a slow waltz is a moment of pure magic. This concerto has all the thrust and fire and excitement a concerto should have, but despite its fearsome reputation, this is also a very violinistic concerto (even its notorious tenths are made easier by Brahms’ often making one of those notes an open string).

Perhaps as a nod to Joachim, Brahms

did not write out a cadenza for the first movement (he wrote all the cadenzas for his other three concertos); Joachim produced a splendid cadenza, and others have been drawn to write their own.

One of the other magic moments in this movement comes with the return of the orchestra at the end of the cadenza: over quiet accompaniment, the violinist lays out once again the movement’s opening theme and then takes it very high on long sustained notes as the orchestra sings far below. Gradually the music descends from these Olympian heights, gathers momentum and strength, and hurtles to the resounding D-major chord that closes the movement.

The Adagio, in F major, is anything but “feeble.” The entire opening statement is given to the wind choir, and it is the solo oboe rather than the solo violin that announces the main idea of the movement; when the violinist enters, it is with music that is already a variation of the oboe’s noble song. The center section, which moves to F-sharp minor,

Orchestrated

grows much more impassioned, with the violin burning its way high above the orchestra before the return of the poised opening material and a graceful close.

The last movement is the expected rondo, which Brahms marks Allegro giocoso (“fast and happy”), but he also specifies ma non troppo vivace: “not too fast.”

Many have remarked on the Hungarian flavor of this movement, and some have seen this as another nod toward Joachim, who was Hungarian. In fact, Brahms loved Hungarian music (which means, more exactly, gypsy music), and he hardly needed an excuse to compose in that style. This is a difficult movement for the soloist, full of extended passages in octaves and great leaps across the range of the violin, but there are some wonderfully lyric interludes along the way. A great cascade of runs from the violinist introduces the coda, where Brahms subtly recasts the 2/4 rondo tune so that it seems to be in 6/8. This gathers strength, and all appears set for the expected closing fireworks, but in the

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last measures Brahms springs one final surprise, winding the music down so that it seems almost to have lost its way before three great chords ring out to proclaim the true close.

Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98

The impact of Brahms’ final symphony defies simple description. This music has been called autumnal, tragic, melancholy, sad, serious and elegiac, and all listeners instinctively feel its gravity and intensity in every bar. Yet from the tentative violin figure that opens the symphony to the mighty cataclysm that ends it 40 minutes later, it is also exhilarating, glorious music, one of Brahms’ finest achievements and certainly one of the greatest symphonies ever written.

Brahms composed the Fourth Symphony in the tiny town of Murzzuschlag high in the Styrian Alps, about 50 miles southwest of Vienna. He wrote the first two movements in the summer of 1884 and the final two when he returned the following summer. Aware of the seriousness of this music, Brahms wrote the conductor Hans von Bülow: “I am pondering whether this symphony will find more of a public. I fear it smacks of the climate of this country; the cherries are not sweet here, and you would certainly not eat them.”

It was Brahms’ custom to send copies of his new works to friends for their comments; habitually he accompanied the copies with self-disparaging remarks to which his friends would have to protest as they praised the new work.

This time, to his dismay, his friends did not like the new symphony. After hearing it played in a two-piano version, critic Eduard Hanslick complained that, “All through I felt I was being beaten by two terribly clever men.” Elizabeth von Herzogenberg wrote to Brahms: “Your piece affects me curiously, the more penetration I bring to bear on it, the more impenetrable it becomes.” The stunned composer was left protesting to Clara Schumann that “the piece does not altogether displease me.” It did not altogether displease audiences either— the premiere in Meiningen on Oct. 25,

1885, was a triumph.

The criticism by Brahms’ friends may seem strange today, but there is something severe about the Fourth Symphony. Many have noted the fusion of passion and intellect that marks Brahms’ finest music, but the Fourth Symphony takes both of these to an extreme, blending an impassioned emotional content with the most inexorable musical logic. One feels this concentration from the first instant. The Fourth is the only one of Brahms’ symphonies to open without an introduction: it simply begins with the rising-and-falling main subject in the violins, and much of the thematic material of this sonataform movement is coiled embryonically within the intervals of this simple theme. A series of fanfares leads to the second subject, a broadly-striding melody for cellos and horns; while there is no exposition repeat, Brahms begins the development with so literal a repetition of the beginning that only gradually does the listener recognize that the music is pressing ahead even as it seems to go back. From the most understated of beginnings, this movement drives to one of the most powerful climaxes in all of Brahms’ music.

By contrast, the Andante moderato seems calm, flowing, and melodic, yet it too is in sonata form, and once again Brahms spins glorious music out of the simplest material: the opening horn call evolves smoothly into the main clarinet tune, and this in turn takes many shapes across the span of the movement. To the young Richard Strauss, assistant conductor of the Meiningen Orchestra, this movement sounded like “a funeral procession moving in silence across moonlit heights.”

When Brahms returned to Murzzuschlag in the summer of 1885 to compose the final two movements, he wrote the finale first, then the third movement.

Knowing in advance just how rigorous the finale was, Brahms made the Allegro giocoso as rollicking a symphonic movement as he ever wrote. That marking means “lively, playful,” and this music is Brahms’ closest approach to a symphonic scherzo. Yet with many differences:

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once again, it is in sonata form (there is only a brief whiff of a trio section), and Brahms sets the movement in 2/4 rather than the standard 3/4 meter of scherzos.

The mighty opening theme plunges downward (and is quickly inverted), while relief comes with the lovely second subject, a relaxed violin melody marked grazioso. Brahms enlivens the orchestral textures here with instruments he rarely used: piccolo, triangle, contrabassoon and an extra timpani.

The Fourth Symphony concludes an Allegro energico e passionate, one of the most extraordinary—and powerful— movements in the symphonic literature.

It is a passacaglia, a musical form already old when Bach used it a century and a half before. Brahms in fact took this passacaglia theme from the concluding chorale of Bach’s Cantata No. 150, Nach Dir, Herr, verlanget mich: he re-barred Bach’s original five-measure theme into eight measures and changed one note to heighten chromatic tension. The trombones, silent to this point in the symphony, stamp out this theme, and this ground bass repeats 30 times. Above these 30 strict repetitions, Brahms spins out a set of variations extraordinary for their variety and expressiveness. Even more impressive is how this old baroque form is made to conform to the general shape of sonata form: after the powerful initial statements, the violins have a lyric variation, and this sequence leads a quiet central episode climaxed by a lovely flute solo over the (barely suggested) ground bass. The “recapitulation” begins with an earth-shaking explosion over the passacaglia theme, there is a brief flirtation with two waltz-like variations, and a coda derived from the passacaglia theme drives majestically (and inexorably) to the close.

Brahms was 52 when he completed the Fourth Symphony and still had 12 years to live. Twice in that span he contemplated writing another symphony and in each case made a few sketches, yet he abandoned both projects. However much we may regret the loss of those symphonies, perhaps Brahms was right to let them go; it is difficult to conceive how he might have gone beyond the Fourth Symphony.

Program notes by Eric Bromberger

RE

RO HO UND TH US EA E T

2012/ 1 3 SEASO N

How to Write a New Book for the Bible EAST COAST PREMIERE

Becky Shaw

By Bill Cain Directed by Ryan Rilette

AREA PREMIERE

April 10 – May 5, 2013 “Bracingly personal, smart, funny, affecting…sharp wit and penetrating intelligence” — San Francisco Chronicle

In a beautiful new play from the author of Equivocation, a man moves in with his ailing but always funny mother when she’s unable to care for herself. Their reunion heals old wounds, opening a heartfelt, humorous new chapter in their relationship.

By Gina Gionfriddo Directed by Patricia McGregor May 29 – June 23, 2013 “Devastatingly funny…

Gionfriddo is some kind of genius” — Variety

When Suzanna sets her friend Max up on a blind date with her husband’s co-worker, a series of cataclysmic events are set in motion that change all their lives. A Pulitzer Prize finalist and an Off-Broadway hit, Becky Shaw is an engrossing, ferociously funny comedy of romantic errors.

$10 (weekday) & $15 (Saturday & Sunday) tickets for age 30 and under

240.644.1100

roundhousetheatre.org

Thursday, April 18, 2013, 8 p.m.

THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2013, 8 P.M.

● Strathmore Presents

VOCA PEOPLE Lior Kalfo, creator and director Shai Fishman, composer, arranger and music director Revital & Lior Kalfo, Leeorna Solomons and Doron Lida, producers The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

About VOCA PEOPLE

VOCA PEOPLE is an international vocal theater performance that combines amazing vocal sounds and a cappella singing with the art of modern beat box, which imitates the sounds of drums, trumpets, guitars, other instruments and musical effects. All this is done without using any musical instruments on stage, performed in a humorous way and with audience participation.

About the VOCA PEOPLE show

After a millennium of traveling through space, the VOCA PEOPLE aliens finally land on Earth, sadly discovering that their spaceship engine, charged by music alone, has been depleted. Slowly, the aliens learn earthly habits and typical earth music, and with the help of the audience, reboot

their spaceship with music energy.

Somewhere in outer space gleams the white planet of VOCA, a musical planet. The VOCA PEOPLE live peacefully and musically on their planet, using only music and vocal expressions to communicate and interact. They have heard the music of Earth and of other planets and visit different planets, spreading their special musical message and way of life to other galactic cultures.

The VOCA PEOPLE group is an ensemble of eight musician-actors; three alien female singers (alto, mezzo-soprano and soprano) and three alien male singers (bass, baritone and tenor). In addition, two beat box artists create extraordinary sounds and are considered to be the best performers in their field. The innovative performance is one of the few in the world that combines singers and beat box performers to form an entire orchestra without musical instruments.

Lior Kalfo

Lior Kalfo is an award-winning actor and creator. In 1995, Kalfo co-wrote and starred in one of Israel’s most popular TV comedy series The Comedy Store, which ran for 102 episodes.

Kalfo stars also in Ramzor, a series that recently won an Emmy Award for Best Comedy Series. In 1999 Kalfo co-wrote and played the lead role in

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Aladdin during the successful Israeli run.

In 2003, he established the Israeli Black Light Theater, Fun-Tazi, with three shows: FunTazi, FunTazi-Kids and an original version of Oscar Wilde’s classic tale The Selfish Giant.

Kalfo carried the idea of VOCA PEOPLE in his mind for almost four years until the first rehearsals in February 2009 took place. The show combines theater, comedy and extreme vocal talents into one musical theater experience.

Shai Fishman

Shai Fishman, 35, has been writing and creating music since age 8. Fishman plays seven instruments—piano, drums, bass guitar, recorder, French horn, trumpet and saxophone—specializing in MIDI and computer music programming.

Fishman’s credits as a composer include the IMAX films Future Moon, Dinosaur’s Prophecy, 2012: Secrets of the Mayans and Night of the Titanic. His original musical theater productions include: Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Rachav’s Cabaret, The Dream: A Band, Return to Sender, Samson & Delilah and Towards the Horizon.

Fishman was recently honored for his musical direction and arrangements on T-Mobile’s “Welcome Back” campaign and received the British Television Advertising Awards’ 2011 Best Commercial of the Year award.

Fishman divides his time between New York City and Los Angeles, where he operates and runs Fish-i Studios, a production house and music label, in which he composes music for motion pictures, television, commercials and theater.

Fishman also serves as head composer for NASA, Houston Museum of Natural Science, Avela Communications, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, E-planetarium and Rice University.

Staff and support

International management: LIDOR ENTERTAINMENT Worldwide touring: Doron Lida

Thursday, April 18, 2013, 8 p.m.

Leeorna Solomons Company manager: Ronen Sharon Assistant Director: Gil Kepten, Tom Shwartzberg Assistant music director: Hilel Shitrit Sound engineer: Naor Ben Meir Light designer: Roy Milo Marcom manager: Ornit Egosi Graphics and art: Rani Arieli, Yael Mor Haim Choreography: Lior Kalfo Costumes: Hana Yefet Artistic advisor: David Ottone, Gilad Kimchi Comic advisors: Inon Ben David, Boaz Ben David Sound operator: Gal Motil, Elad Berliner, Nir Raveh Light operator: Nitai Doron, Itamar Houri, Raz Shamir Video Photographer: Shlomi Albo Video editing: Peleg Netanel Stills Photographer: Leon Sokolozki Mr. Artichoke Graphic Design Musical Staging: Naomi Perlov

Cast Beat On Boaz Ben David Mark Martin Michael Feigenbaum Isato Boyko Scratcher Inon Ben David Ofir Tal Ran Cimer Tubas Eyal Edelmann (Cohen) Shimon Smith Alon Shar Tenor Jacob Schneider Nick Anastasia Chris Dilley Almog Kapach

Alto Adi Kozlovsky Maya Pennington Vered Regev Mezzo-soprano Vered Sasportas Sharon Laloum Liran Saporta Baritone Jacob Schneider Matthew Bryan Feld Oded Goldstein Soprano Alona Alexander Doris Nemni Michal Reshef Spaceship design BLONDIN—PHASE 4

SPEND YOUR SUMMER AT STRATHMORE • REGISTRATION NOW OPEN!

UKEFEST 2013: UKE AND GUITAR SUMMIT

Cathy Fink Marcy Marxer

Stuart Fuchs

Gerald Ross

Painter and collage artist Rosana Azar and her team of professional arts educators from Creative Adventures provide expert instruction from professional artists in a fun, relaxed environment. It’s the perfect summer experience for kids who love the arts.

3 WEEKS OF CAMPS FOR AGES 6–15 JULY 29–AUGUST 16

It’s an event like no other, a harmonic convergence of ukuleles and the people that love them—plus Hawaiian steel guitars, tenor guitars and a host of uke-related events! Strathmore goes uke-crazy with Grammy-winning hosts Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer and their crew of professional musician instructors present activities that range from music lessons to jam sessions to concerts to classes in yoga and hula.

AUGUST 10–14 EARLY BIRD SPECIAL Register by July 2 for $30 off tuition!

REGISTER! ONLINE www.strathmore.org • Look Under “Education” | PHONE (301) 581-5100 applause at Strathmore • MARCH/APRIL 2013 77

Friday, April 19, 2013, 8:15 p.m.

● Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Marin Alsop, Music Director Jack Everly, Principal Pops Conductor

presents

A Composer Fit for a King: Wagner and King Ludwig II

Marin Alsop, music director and conductor Didi Balle, playwright and stage director

Richard Poe

Richard Wagner

Pomme Koch King Ludwig II Tony Tsendeas

Court Secretary Pfeffermeister

Program Act I: A Bankrupt Composer’s Surprise Coronation Scene 1: A Warning & Premonition (April 1864) Scene 2: The King Anoints Wagner Royal Composer (May 1864) Act II: Banishment & Near Abdication Scene 3: Banished From Bavaria Scene 4: Ludwig Threatens Abdication to Live with Wagner Act III: Lies & Betrayals Scene 5: The King is Not Amused Scene 6: Wagner Bites the Hand That Feeds ACT IV: Bayreuth Or Bust Scene 7: Broke in Bayreuth Scene 8: Gratitude and Goodbye (1876) The music heard during this program includes selections from: Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, Lohengrin, Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Siegfried’s Idyll The program will be performed without intermission and will end at approximately 9:40 p.m.

The Music Center at Strathmore • Marriott Concert Stage

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Marin Alsop, conductor Hailed as one of the world’s leading conductors for her artistic vision and commitment to accessibility in classical music, Marin Alsop made history with her appointment as the 12th music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

With her inaugural concerts in September 2007, she became the first woman to head a major American orchestra. She also holds the title of conductor emeritus at the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in the U.K., where she served as the principal conductor from 2002 to 2008, and is music director of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in California.

In 2005, Alsop was named a MacArthur Fellow, the first conductor to receive this prestigious award.

In 2007, she was honored with a European Women of Achievement Award.

In 2008, she was inducted as a fellow into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and in 2009 Musical America named her Conductor of the Year. In November 2010, she was inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame. In February 2011, Alsop was named the music director of the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, or the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, effective for the 201213 season. And in March 2011, Alsop was named to The Guardian’s Top 100 Women list. She was also named an artist-in-residence at the Southbank Centre in London in 2011.

Alsop is a regular guest conductor with the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic. In addition to her performance activities, she is also an active recording artist with award-winning cycles of Brahms, Barber and Dvořák.

Alsop has led the BSO in several outreach initiatives. In 2008, she partnered with the BSO to launch

DeaN Alexander

FRIDAY, April 19, 2013, 8:15 P.M.

Friday, April 19, 2013, 8:15 p.m.

OrchKids, a music education and life enrichment program for youth in West Baltimore. In 2010, she conducted the first “Rusty Musicians with the BSO,” an event that gives amateur musicians the chance to perform onstage with a professional symphony orchestra. In June 2010, Alsop conducted the inaugural BSO Academy, an immersive summer music program that gives about 100 amateur adult musicians the opportunity to perform alongside a top professional orchestra.

Alsop attended Yale University and received her master’s degree from The Juilliard School. In 1989, her conducting career was launched when she won the Koussevitzky Conducting Prize at Tanglewood, where she studied with Leonard Bernstein.

Didi Balle, playwright and stage director

Didi Balle’s credits as a professional writer and director include numerous commissions, broadcasts and stage productions of her work spanning symphonic plays, radio musicals, plays, musical theater, song cycles and opera. She’s created a new genre of writing with her plays for actors and orchestras called symphonic plays.

Music Director Marin Alsop and the BSO commissioned Balle to write and direct A Composer Fit For A King: Wagner & Ludwig II for a program celebrating the 200th anniversary of Wagner’s birth. The symphonic play is a seamless blend of music and theater dramatizing the backstage story behind the making of The Ring Cycle. This symphonic play marks Balle’s fourth creative collaboration of a new symphonic show with Alsop.

In March, Balle’s new symphonic play, commissioned by Yannick NezetSeguin for The Philadelphia Orchestra.

Shostakovich: Notes for Stalin premiered at Verizon Symphony Hall to great success. Created for actors and orchestra, the play dramatizes the harrowing

political rule in Stalin’s Soviet Union that shaped the creation of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5.

Symphonic plays written and directed by Balle include: CSI: Beethoven (BSO); Analyze This: Mahler & Freud (BSO); Elements of the Earth: A Musical Discovery (Philadelphia Orchestra); The Secret Life of Isaac Newton; Shostakovich: Notes For Stalin (Philadelphia Orchestra); and Radio Rhapsody (City of London Sinfonia).

Balle is the founding director and producer of Symphonic Stage Shows.

She received her master’s of fine arts from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts’ music theater program, where she was awarded the Oscar Hammerstein Scholarship as a playwright-lyricist. Balle also is a published writer and journalist and worked as a contributing editor for The New York Times for 13 years.

Upcoming commissions for 2014 include CSI: Mozart with Alsop and the BSO.

in Winnipeg and Toronto.

He has been narrating books for more than 20 years and has more than 90 titles to his credit. He was nominated for Audie Awards for his work on Blood Meridian and The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, and won in 2004 for his narration of East of Eden.

Richard Poe

Tony Tsendeas

Richard Poe received the Barrymore Award for Best Actor for his recent performance in The Outgoing Tide at the Philadelphia Theatre Company.

On Broadway he’s been part of the original companies of M. Butterfly (1988 Tony Award, Best Play); The Pajama Game with Harry Connick Jr. (2006 Tony Award, Best Musical Revival); Journey’s End (2007 Tony Award, Best Play Revival) plus Cry-Baby; Moon Over Buffalo; Our Country’s Good; Execution of Justice; The Dinner Party; Tom Sawyer, The Musical; Fiddler on the Roof and Present Laughter.

Poe has created roles in the premieres of plays by Christopher Durang and Paul Rudnick and toured the country as the 1st Gangster in the Tony Award-winning revival of Kiss Me, Kate. He played Serge in the Chicago company of the comedy Art, then reprised it with a Canadian company

Pomme Koch

Pomme Koch’s credits include Henry V at the Folger Theatre, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo at Round House Theatre and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson at The Studio Theatre. He also is scheduled to appear in A Few Good Men at the Keegan Theatre later this year. He has participated in stage readings at the Shakespeare Theatre and Theater J. Koch earned his bachelor’s of fine arts in theater performance from the University of Michigan.

Tony Tsendeas appeared at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall with the BSO as Beethoven in the symphonic stage show CSI: Beethoven and as Sigmund Freud in Analyze That: Freud and Mahler. He also has narrated a BSO performance of The Magic Flute.

Tsendeas’ work as an actor, director and writer has received critical acclaim both in the U.S. and in Europe. He was the artistic director of the Action Theater and was an artistic associate of the Baltimore Shakespeare Festival. Tsendeas also is a member of the theater faculty of the Baltimore School For the Arts.

In 1998, Tsendeas was nominated as best actor in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival by London’s Stage Magazine for his performance in BeckettLand, which he also directed. His production of Albee’s American Dream was selected best play of the year by Baltimore City Paper.

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SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 2013, 9 P.M.

● Strathmore Presents

2012 Spring Gala at Strathmore Michael Feinstein The Gershwins and Me Andrew Brattain, tour manager The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

Michael Feinstein

Michael Feinstein, the multi-platinumselling, two-time Emmy and five-time Grammy Award-nominated entertainer dubbed “The Ambassador of the Great American Songbook,” is considered one of the premier interpreters of American standards.

Feinstein has received national recognition for his commitment to celebrating America’s popular song and preserving its legacy for the next generation. In 2007, he founded the Michael Feinstein Great American Songbook Initiative, dedicated to celebrating the art form and preserving it through educational programs, Master Classes and the annual High School Vocal Academy and Competition, which awards scholarships and prizes to students across the country. Feinstein also serves on the Library of Congress’

National Recording Preservation Board, an organization dedicated to ensuring the survival, conservation and increased public availability of America’s sound recording heritage.

His new book The Gershwins and Me, which is combined with a new CD of Gershwin standards, was published by Simon & Schuster in October 2012.

The roots of Feinstein’s work began in Columbus, Ohio, where he started playing piano by ear as a 5-year-old.

After graduating from high school, he worked in local piano bars for two years and moved to Los Angeles when he was 20. There, the widow of legendary concert pianist-actor Oscar Levant introduced him to Ira Gershwin in July 1977. Feinstein became Gershwin’s assistant for six years, which earned him access to numerous unpublished Gershwin songs, many of which he has since performed and recorded.

From this immersion in Gershwin’s style Feinstein evolved into a captivating performer, arranger, composer and interpreter of music legends such as Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Johnny Mercer, Duke Ellington and Harry Warren.

In 2005, Feinstein recorded Hopeless Romantics, a songbook of Harry Warren classics recorded with legendary jazz pianist George Shearing. The previous

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year, he completed a national tour with songwriting icon Jimmy Webb based on their album Only One Life – The Songs of Jimmy Webb.

In 2003, Feinstein received his fourth Grammy nomination for his release Michael Feinstein with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, his first recording with a symphony orchestra. The year before, Rhino/Elektra Music released The Michael Feinstein Anthology, a two-disc compilation spanning the years 1987 to 1996 and featuring old favorites and previously unreleased tracks.

Feinstein’s own record label, Feinery, a Concord Records subsidiary, released The Livingston & Evans Songbook, featuring Feinstein and special guest Melissa Manchester. Feinery also records favorite current artists and restores recordings and musical broadcasts from the golden age of popular song.

Feinstein earned his fifth Grammy Award nomination in 2009 for his CD The Sinatra Project. A follow-up, The Sinatra Project, Volume II: The Good Life, was released in 2011. Other recent releases include The Power Of Two, in which Feinstein collaborated with Cheyenne Jackson from Glee and 30 Rock, and Cheek To Cheek with Broadway legend Barbara Cook. His newest recording is We Dreamed These Days, featuring the Carmel Symphony Orchestra; Feinstein co-wrote the title song with Maya Angelou.

Feinstein serves as artistic director of the Palladium Center for the Performing Arts in Carmel, Ind. The theater is home to an annual international Great American Arts festival, diverse live programming and a museum for his rare memorabilia and manuscripts. Starting in 2010, he became the director of the Jazz and Popular Song Series at New York’s Jazz at Lincoln Center. This year, Feinstein will replace the late Marvin Hamlisch as the lead conductor of the Pasadena Pops.

He also has designed a new piano for Steinway called “The First Ladies,” inspired by the White House piano and signed by several former First Ladies. It was first played to commemorate Ronald Reagan’s centennial on Feb. 6, 2011.

Gilles Toucas

Saturday, April 20, 2013, 9 p.m.

Thursday, April 25, 2013, 8 p.m. and Friday, April 26, 2013, 8 p.m.

THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2013, 8 P.M. FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2013, 8 P.M.

● Strathmore Presents

Gladys Knight The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

Derek Blanks Photography

Gladys Knight

Georgia-born Gladys Knight began performing gospel music at age 4 in the Mount Mariah Baptist Church and later sang as a guest soloist with the Morris Brown College Choir.

Three years later, she won the grand prize on television’s Ted Mack’s Amateur Hour, and the following year, she, along with her brother Bubba, her sister Brenda and her cousins William and Elenor Guest, formed The Pips.

In 1959, Brenda and Elenor left the group, replaced by cousin Edward Patten and friend Langston George. The group was renamed Gladys Knight & The Pips, and following George’s

departure in 1962, the classic line-up was in place.

The group debuted its first album in 1960, when Knight was just 16. With Knight singing lead and The Pips providing lush harmonies and graceful choreography, the group went on to achieve icon status. The group has recorded some of the most memorable songs of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, including “Every Beat of My Heart,” “Letter Full of Tears,” “I Heard it Through the Grapevine,” “If I Were Your Woman,” “Neither One of Us (Wants to be the First to Say Goodbye),” “I’ve Got to Use My Imagination,” “Best Thing to Ever Happen to Me” and the No. 1 single “Midnight Train to Georgia.”

The party kept rolling with hits such as “On and On” from the Academy Award-nominated soundtrack of Claudine, the 1974 comedy about love in the inner city. Knight enjoyed another No. 1 hit in 1985 when she teamed with Stevie Wonder, Elton John and Dionne Warwick on “That’s What Friends are For.” All told, Knight has recorded more than 38 albums over the years, including four solo albums during the past decade: Good Woman (1991); Just for You (1994); the inspirational Many Different Roads (1999); and At Last (2001).

Her involvement in other creative undertakings, business ventures and humanitarian activities has been ex-

tensive, and has brought her honors from industry and community alike.

In 1986, she produced and starred in the Cable Ace Award-winning Sisters in the Name of Love, an HBO special co-starring Dionne Warwick and Patti LaBelle. That same year, she showcased her acting ability when she co-starred with Flip Wilson in the CBS comedy Charlie & Co. Other acting roles followed on such TV shows as Benson, The Jeffersons and New York Undercover, and in such television films as Pipe Dreams, An Enemy Among Us and Desperado.

She recorded the title theme for the James Bond movie License to Kill (1989). In 1999, she completed a starring run on Broadway in the musical Smokey Joe’s Café.

In 1995, Knight earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and the next year, Gladys Knight & The Pips were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Knight published her autobiography, Between Each Line of Pain and Glory, in 1997, and the next year, she and The Pips were presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame. In 2004, Knight received the “Lifetime Achievement Award” at the annual BET Awards ceremony.

A humanitarian and philanthropist, Knight is devoted to various worthy causes, including the American Diabetes Association, for which she is a national spokesperson, the American Cancer Society, the Minority AIDS Project, amFAR and Crisis Intervention. She has been honored by numerous organizations as well, including the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Congress of Racial Equality and B’Nai Brith.

Today, Knight helps oversee her busy career from the Las Vegas headquarters of Shakeji, Inc., her personal entertainment corporation. She is a mother, great-grandmother, performer and a businesswoman with a spiritual outlook on her life. Her faith in God has been the driving force behind all of Knight’s endeavors, guiding her through her many successes.

applause at Strathmore • MARCH/APRIL 2013 81

Saturday, April 27, 2013, 8 p.m.

saturday, APRIL 27, 2013, 8 P.M.

● Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Marin Alsop, Music Director

presents

Midori Gilbert Varga, conductor Midori, violin

Violin Concerto No. 2

Allegro non troppo Theme and Variations: Andante tranquillo

Rondo: Allegro molto

Béla Bartók (1881-1945)

Midori

INTERMISSION Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 68 Johannes Brahms

Un poco sostenuto – Allegro (1883-1897)

Andante sostenuto Un poco allegretto e graziosodagio Più andante Allegro non troppo, ma con brio Supporting Sponsor: DLA Piper The concert will end at approximately 9:50 p.m.

Varga PHOTO BY Felix Broede; Midori PHOTO BY Timothy Greenfield-Sanders

The Music Center at Strathmore Marriott Concert Stage

Gilbert Varga, conductor

A commanding and authoritative figure on the podium, Gilbert Varga is renowned for his elegant baton technique and has held positions with and guest-conducted many of the major orchestras throughout the world.

Over the past decade, Varga’s reputation in North America has grown rapidly, and the 2012-13 season sees his return to the symphony orchestras of Baltimore, Houston, Atlanta, St. Louis, Colorado and Utah, among

others. In Europe, Varga regularly conducts the major orchestras in musical centers such as Berlin, Leipzig, Frankfurt, Cologne, Budapest, Lisbon, Brussels and Glasgow, with soloists such as Mørk, Ehnes, Vinnitskaya, Hamelin and Gerstein. Highlights of the 2012-13 season include his return to the Gürzenich Orchestra, Berlin Konzerthausorchester and Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

In the earlier part of his conducting career Varga concentrated on work with chamber orchestras, particularly the Tibor Varga Chamber Orchestra, before rapidly developing a reputation as a symphonic conductor. He was chief conductor of the Hofer Symphoniker between 1980 and

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1985, and, from 1985 to 1990, he was chief conductor of the Philharmonia Hungarica in Marl, conducting their debut tour to Hungary with Yehudi Menuhin. In 1991, Varga took up the position of permanent guest conductor of the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra until 1995 and, from 1997 to 2000, was principal guest of the Malmö Symphony. From 1997 to 2008, Varga was music director of the Basque National Symphony Orchestra, leading them through 10 seasons, including tours across the U.K., Germany, Spain and South America.

Varga last appeared with the BSO in October 2010, conducting Glinka’s Ruslan and Ludmilla Overture, Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1 and Stravinsky’s Petrouchka.

Midori, violin

Since her debut 30 years ago with the New York Philharmonic, at age 11, Midori has established a record of achievement which sets her apart as a master musician, an innovator and as a champion of the developmental potential of children.

In 1992 Midori founded Midori & Friends, a non-profit organization in New York, which brings music education programs to thousands of underserved children each year. Two other organizations, Music Sharing (based in Japan) and Partners in Performance (based in the U.S.), also bring music into the lives of people who may not otherwise have involvement. Her commitment to community collaboration and outreach extends beyond these foundations to her work with young violinists in master classes all over the world, to her Orchestra Residencies Program and to her positions as distinguished professor, Jascha Heifetz chair and chair of the strings department at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music.

Saturday, April 27, 2013, 8 p.m.

Midori last performed with the BSO in January 2001, performing Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, with Yuri Temirkanov conducting.

Program Notes Concerto No. 2 for Violin

Béla Bartók Born March 25, 1881, in Nagyszentmiklós, Hungary (now Romania); died Sept. 26, 1945, in New York City

When Béla Bartók created his Violin Concerto No. 2 for his fellow Hungarian Zoltán Székely in 1937 and 1938, he was at the peak of his career, but the ground was already beginning to tremble beneath his feet. On March 28, as he worked on the concerto, Vienna fell to the Nazi Anschluss, and Bartók realized it would be only a matter of time before the rest of the Austro-Hungarian empire was also in Hitler’s grasp. Earlier in his career, he had decried the unhealthy dominance of German culture over Hungarian artistic expression, and through his collecting of indigenous folksong material, he’d sought an authentic, nonTeutonic voice for Hungarian music.

But the Nazi threat was incalculably worse. Even though he was not Jewish, Bartók knew he would have to leave the country that was the source of his artistry. By 1940, he had fled into unhappy exile in America.

But for the moment, his genius burned at its brightest. Two of his works, Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta and the Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, had proceeded the concerto. In what Halsey Stevens has called his “harvest years,” he had retreated somewhat from his most strenuous modernist style.

Bartók had written another Violin Concerto 30 years earlier as an expression of his ardor for the beautiful young violinist Stefi Geyer. But he had never published it (it was finally published posthumously as Violin Concerto No. 1), and so Székely, founder and first violin of the

Hungarian String Quartet, must have believed he was commissioning the composer’s first essay in the genre.

Although he did not play the violin himself, Bartók had already proven his mastery of this instrument in solo, chamber and orchestral settings. But like Mendelssohn and Brahms before him, he worked closely with his violinist to ensure an idiomatic result.

Bartók originally wanted the concerto to be a large-scale theme-andvariations, but Székely pressed for a more conventional three-movement work. However, while bowing to the violinist, Bartók also pleased himself.

Besides structuring the middle movement as a theme with six variations, he also contrived the finale to be a variation on the themes and sonataform layout of the first movement.

The first movement alternates between slower and faster tempos, lyricism and vehemence, introversion and extraversion. While the orchestral part is beautifully meshed with the violin and imaginatively colored, the soloist is clearly the leader. Over strumming harp and plucked low strings, she introduces the principal theme: an expansive, rhapsodic melody with a touch of angularity in its intervals and slow syncopated rhythms. The contrasting Vivace sections emphasize fast chromatic flourishes for both the violin and orchestra. Bartók includes an elaborate cadenza for the soloist; rich in multiple stops, it is announced by an arresting and demanding passage of oscillating quarter-tones.

A melancholy, folklike theme, sung by the violin, opens the slow middle movement. The orchestral palette here emphasizes delicate pastel hues as Bartók spins six exquisite variations on the theme. The second of these features ethereal scoring with harp and high woodwinds radiating around the violin playing in soulful low register, while the fifth variation is a scherzo of sparkling fireflies.

The first movement’s chromatic flourishes open the finale, which recycles the themes and tempo/expressive contrasts of that movement, but now in a more

brilliant and extroverted manner. Its principal theme also returns in a dancing 3/4time variation for the soloist. A new motive of buzzing repeated notes propels the music; though Bartók still finds time for contemplative moments. Midori will play the more brilliant of two alternative endings: the one requested by Székely, who was naturally unhappy that the composer originally left the soloist out of the orchestra’s exciting rush to the finish.

Instrumentation: Two flutes, piccolo, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, percussion, harp, celeste and strings.

Symphony No. 1 in C Minor

Johannes Brahms Born May 7, 1833, in Hamburg, Germany; died April 3, 1897 in Vienna, Austria

Johannes Brahms’ No. 1 was undoubtedly the most eagerly awaited symphony in musical history. When he completed it in 1876 after two decades of labor, Brahms was already 43 and one of Europe’s most revered composers. He had created masterpieces in every musical genre, save opera—a field he never chose to enter—and, more surprisingly, the symphony. Back in 1853, when he was only 20, Schumann had proclaimed him “the young eagle” and prophesied: “If he will sink his magic staff… where the capacity of masses in chorus and orchestra can lend him its powers, still more wonderful glimpses into the mysteries of the spirit world will be before us.” Such flowery tributes imposed a burden that such a sensitive and conscientious man as Brahms found hard to bear.

Over the next 20 years, his publisher nagged, and his friends beseeched him for a symphony. In 1872, he finally exploded at conductor Hermann Levi: “I shall never write a symphony! You can’t have any idea what it’s like always to hear such a giant marching behind you!”

The giant, of course, was Beethoven.

His nine symphonies were, for Brahms, the apotheosis of the symphonic form; beside them, Brahms found his own symphonic efforts utterly inadequate.

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Saturday, April 27, 2013, 8 p.m.

Thus, he served a long apprenticeship, honing his skills in lighter orchestral works, such as the two Serenades and the Variations on a Theme of Haydn.

Meanwhile, he was laboring off and on at the work in C minor that would become the Symphony No. 1. In 1862, he sent a version of its opening movement to Clara Schumann. At this stage, it lacked its titanic slow introduction and began with an abruptness that startled her. In 1868, another teaser arrived, penned on a postcard from Switzerland sent to heal a recent quarrel. It contained the haunting horn call from the finale with a little fencemending verse written underneath: “Thus blew the alphorn today: High in the mountains, deep in the valley, I greet you a thousand times over.”

Because Brahms was very secretive about the genesis of this work and, unlike Beethoven, usually destroyed his sketches, we don’t know much beyond these clues. Scholars believe the first movement was composed first (receiving its slow introduction very late in the process); the finale, next; and then the two middle movements. Nervous about the response of the Viennese critics, Brahms had the symphony premiered in the musical backwater of Karlsruhe on Nov. 4, 1876.

Beethoven was indeed Brahms’ model for this work. Of its emotional scenario, Jan Swafford, in his superb biography, writes: “As in Beethoven’s Third, Fifth, and Ninth Symphonies, Brahms’ First is a symbolic journey from darkness to light, from fatalistic uncertainty to apotheosis, from tragedy to joyous liberation.” And Beethoven’s No. 5 also provided the key progression: from darkest C minor to triumphant C major. When friends pointed out that the last movement’s chorale tune reminded them of No. 9’s “Ode to Joy,” Brahms gruffly retorted: “Any ass can see that!”

But in emulating his hero, Brahms was by no means painting by numbers.

No. 1 was completely in his own voice and broke new ground for symphonic form. Brahms outdid Beethoven at his own game: creating and developing his

themes from a handful of motivic nuggets, all smelted together into a shining edifice, with nothing wasted. Brahms’ two middle movements bring something new to symphonic construction: They are gentle intermezzos providing necessary relief between the power and weight of his opening and closing movements. Brahms’ orchestral sound also is unique: by turns dark and meltingly warm, often infused with a rueful quality expressing a strain of sadness in his personality never lightened by professional success.

First movement: Brahms immediately hurls us into the drama with music of unbearable passion and pain.

Over pounding timpani, the orchestra tears itself asunder, as strings struggle upward by laborious half-steps against an undertow of woodwinds descending by half-steps. This battle of ascending and descending lines will be the crux of the movement. Listen for two more important ideas: first, woodwinds swooping downward in large intervals; then, an oddly gapped up-and-down theme in the strings. These are the basic nuggets out of which the movement is built. With a snap, the tempo livens to Allegro, and the aggressive, angular principal theme bounds into action (built from the strings’ earlier up-anddown idea).

The dramatic development section is driven forward by a very familiar rhythm thumping away in brass fanfares and timpani: It is the da-da-da-dum “fate knocking at the idea” from Beethoven’s No. 5. The movement closes in a truce, with the upward-straining string idea dominating the downward undertow.

The muffled timpani still recalls its opening assault; the tonality has tentatively moved from C minor to C major, but the battle is far from won.

The second movement is as gentle as the first was forceful. Strings open a lovely, pensive melody in E major, tinged with Brahmsian shadows of minor. An oboe solo picks up the second half of the melody; later, it introduces the middle section. Brahms seems to have had a special love for this instrument’s bittersweet timbre (remember

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the Violin Concerto’s beautiful oboe solo). As the opening melody returns in the winds, Brahms veils it in exquisite colors: diaphanous strings cascading downward, plucked cellos, the faintest murmur of drums. Now solo violin joins oboe and horn in a beguiling trio, leading the orchestra to a radiant coda.

Movement three is lighter still: an interlude in the country. Its outer sections are all effortless flow, led by clarinets. For the middle trio section, key and meter change to a buoyant peasant dance in 6/8-time. The bucolic charm of this music reminds us that the mature Brahms spent his summers composing in rural retreats far from Vienna.

The finale’s slow introduction plunges us back into C minor and the first movement’s terrible struggle. It opens with a swelling cry of despair from the violins over the descending half-tone undertow in the woodwinds.

Then a sign of hope: C major suddenly appears in the form of the magical alphorn call Brahms sent Clara Schumann from Switzerland. The trombones respond with a brief, majestic chorale.

The clouds lift completely for one of Brahms’ best tunes—his “Ode to Joy”—sung in the strings’ warmest low register. After lyrical themes led by the solo oboe, this “Joy” theme returns even more splendidly, before veering off into a vigorous development section. Its culmination brings forth not the “Joy” theme we’re expecting, but the horn call. And as Brahms accelerates to his conclusion, he only teases us with fragments of this theme. Instead, the climax goes to the trombone chorale of the slow introduction. The cry of despair is hurled out one more time—deliciously, it turns out to be the minor-mode form of the “Joy” theme. Four vehement thunderclaps salute Brahms’ triumph over tragedy—and his symphonic hang-up.

Instrumentation: Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani and strings.

Notes by Janet E. Bedell, copyright 2013

Strathmore Hall Foundation, Inc. Board of Directors EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Nancy E. Hardwick Chair William G. Robertson Vice Chair Dale S. Rosenthal Treasurer Robert G. Brewer, Jr., Esq. Secretary

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Joseph F. Beach Dickie S. Carter David M.W. Denton Hope B. Eastman, Esq. Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg William R. Ford Hon. Nancy Floreen

Barbara Goldberg Goldman Sol Graham Thomas H. Graham Paul L. Hatchett Delia K. Lang Carolyn P. Leonard Hon. Laurence Levitan J. Alberto Martinez, MD Caroline Huang McLaughlin Thomas A. Natelli Kenneth O’Brien DeRionne P. Pollard Donna Rattley Washington Graciela Rivera-Oven Wendy J. Susswein Carol A. Trawick Regina Brady Vasan James S. Whang

Donors Strathmore thanks the individuals and organizations who have made contributions between July 1, 2011 and June 30, 2012. Their support of at least $500 and continued commitment enables us to offer the affordable, accessible, quality programming that has become our hallmark.

$250,000+ Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County Maryland State Arts Council Post-Newsweek Media, Inc. (includes in-kind) Carol Trawick $100,000+ Booz Allen Hamilton $50,000+ Delia and Marvin Lang Lockheed Martin Corporation $25,000+ Alban Inspections, Inc. Asbury Methodist Village GEICO Jordan Kitt’s Music Carolyn and Jeffrey Leonard The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation National Endowment for the Arts PEPCO Emily Wei Rales and Mitchell Rales Symphony Park LLC $15,000+ Capital One, N.A. Jonita and Richard S. Carter Kiplinger Foundation MARPAT Foundation Natelli Communities LP Restaurant Associates

$10,000+ Adventist Health Care Paul M. Angell Family Foundation Clark Construction Group, LLC Clark-Winchcole Foundation Comcast Elizabeth W. Culp The Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation, Inc. EagleBank Starr and Fred Ezra Federal Realty Investment Trust Suzanne and Douglas Firstenberg Glenstone Foundation Giant Food LLC Dorothy and Sol Graham Nancy and Raymond Hardwick Joel and Liz Helke Effie and John Macklin Montgomery County Department of Economic Development Janine and Phillip O’Brien Leon and Deborah Snead Hailin and James Whang Lien and S. Bing Yao $5,000+ Rona and Jeffrey Abramson Pennie and Gary Abramson Mary and Greg Bruch Dallas Morse Coors Foundation for the Performing Arts Ellen and Michael Gold Julie and John Hamre Vicki Hawkins-Jones and Michael Jones Yanqiu He and Kenneth O’Brien Bridget and Joseph Judge

86 Applause at Strathmore • March/April 2013

Strathmore Circles members Adele and Roy Igersheim with Adele Igersheim’s mother, Estelle Fox, at Patti LuPone’s performance, Matters of the Heart.

Dianne Kay Lerch, Early & Brewer, Chartered Sharon and David Lockwood Constance Lohse and Robert Brewer J. Alberto Martinez Katherine and William Parsons Susan and Brian Penfield Della and William Robertson Carol Salzman and Michael Mann Theresa and George Schu John Sherman, in memory of Deane Sherman Ann and Jim Simpson Jane and Richard Stoker UBS Financial Services, Inc. Meredith Weiser and Michael Rosenbaum Ellen and Bernard Young Paul and Peggy Young, NOVA Research Co. Washington Post. Co. $2,500+ Anonymous Louise Appell Artsite, Inc. BB&T Bank Barbara Benson Vicki Britt and Robert Selzer Frances and Leonard Burka Peter Yale Chen Jane Cohen Alison Cole and Jan Peterson Margaret and James Conley Carin and Bruce Cooper CORT Carolyn Degroot Hope Eastman Vivian Escobar-Stack and Robert Stack Michelle Feagin Carolyn Goldman and Sydney Polakoff Lana Halpern Laura Henderson Cheryl and Richard Hoffman A. Eileen Horan Igersheim Family Foundation Alexine and Aaron (deceased) Jackson Johnson’s Landscaping Service, Inc. (in-kind) Peter S. Kimmel, in memory of Martin S. Kimmel Teri Hanna Knowles and John M. Knowles Judie and Harry Linowes Jill and Jim Lipton Loiederman Soltesz Associates, Inc. M&T Bank Janet L. Mahaney Delores Maloney Marsh USA Inc. Caroline and John Patrick McLaughlin Patricia and Roscoe Moore Susan Nordeen

Paley, Rothman, Goldstein, Rosenberg, Eig & Cooper Chtd Carole and Jerry Perone Charlotte and Charles Perret Mindy and Charles Postal PRM Consulting, Inc. Restaurant Associates at Strathmore Tasneem Robin-Bhatti Lorraine and Barry Rogstad Dale S. Rosenthal Elaine and Stuart Rothenberg Janet and Michael Rowan Barbara and Ted Rothstein Phyllis and Ken Schwartz Tanya and Stephen Spano Wendy and Don Susswein Paulette and Larry Walker Ward & Klein, Chartered Susan Wellman Ronald West Anne Witkowsky and John Barker $1,000+ Anonymous Swati Agrawal Susan and Brian Bayly Carole and Maurice Berk Deborah Berkowitz and Geoff Garin Gary Block Harriet and Jerome Breslow Carol and Scott Brewer Dian and Richard Brown Ellen Byington Linda and James Cafritz Eileen Cahill Lucie and Guy Campbell Eleanor and Oscar Caroglanian Allen Clark April and John Delaney Carrie Dixon E. Bryce and Harriet Alpern Foundation Eaglestone Wealth Advisors Fidelity Investments Eileen and Michael Fitzgerald Marlies and Karl Flicker Theresa and William Ford Senator Jennie Forehand and William E. Forehand, Jr. Sally and John Freeman Noreen and Michael Friedman Suzanne and Mark Friis Nancy Frohman and James LaTorre Carol Fromboluti Pamela Gates and Robert Schultz Loreen and Thomas Gehl Susan and Allen Greenberg Greene-Milstein Family Foundation Judy and Sheldon Grosberg Marla Grossman and Eric Steinmiller Linda and John Hanson Monica Jeffries Hazangeles and John Hazangeles

At left: Montgomery County Chief of Police J. Thomas Manger and Jacqueline Manger, immediate past chair of the board of directors for the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, with Anna Laszlo in the Comcast Circles Lounge during Patti LuPone’s Matters of the Heart concert. At right: Strathmore President Monica Jeffries Hazangeles, Rick and Nancy Farren, Connie Lohse, Pat McGee—Strathmore’s 2012-2013 season-opening musician—Shelley Brown, vice president of programming and Strathmore’s artistic director, and Strathmore board member Robby Brewer.

Linda and I. Robert Horowitz Randy Hostetler Living Room Fund Linda and Van Hubbard Patricia and Christopher Jones Joan and Howard Katz Renee Korda and Mark Olson Carole and Robert Kurman Leadership Montgomery Barbara and Laurence Levitan Nancy and Dan Longo Sandra and Charles Lyons Jacqueline and J. Thomas Manger Pamela and Douglas Marks Paul Mason Mathis Harper Group Janice McCall Virginia and Robert McCloskey Ann G. Miller (in memory of Jesse I. Miller) Denise and Thomas Murphy Lissa Muscatine and Bradley Graham New England Foundation for the Arts Karen O’Connell and Tim Martins Gloria Paul and Robert Atlas Cynthia and Eliot Pfanstiehl Charla and David Phillips Gregory Proctor Jane and Paul Rice Karen Rosenthal and M. Alexander Stiffman LeaAnn and Tom Sanders Charlotte and Hank Schlosberg Richard Silbert James Smith Spectrum Printing (in-kind) Mary Talarico and Michael Sundermeyer Marilyn and Mark Tenenbaum Myra Turoff and Kenneth Weiner Rebecca Underhill Judith Welch Judy Whalley and Henry Otto Karen and Roger Winston Jean and Ken Wirsching Susan and Jack Yanovski $500+ Mary Kay and Dave Almy Judy and Joseph Antonucci Jeff Aslen Laura Baptiste and Brian Kildee Mary Bell Ben & Jerry’s Bethesda Travel Center LLC Michelle and Lester Borodinsky Trish and Timothy Carrico Kathy and C. Bennett Chamberlin Dorothy Fitzgerald Winifred and Anthony Fitzpatrick Gail Fleder John Fluke Joanne Fort Michael Frankhuizen Victor Frattali

Juan Gaddis Nancy and Peter Gallo Sandra and Steven Gichner Mr. and Mrs. Alan Gourley Gerri Hall and David Nickels Diana and Paul Hatchett Fred Hiatt Hilary and Robert Hoopes Carol and Larry Horn Bootsie and David Humenansky Barbara and David Humpton Beth Jessup Cheryl Jukes Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Kamerick Zorina and John Keiser Barbara and Jack Kay Henrietta and Christopher Keller Deloise and Lewis Kellert Iris and Louis Korman Susan and Gary Labovich Julia and James Langley Catherine and Isiah Leggett The Leon Foundation Lerner Enterprises Dorothy Linowes Susan and Eric Luse Maryland Classic Youth Orchestras Lynne Mayo Nancy McGinness and Thomas Tarabrella John and James Meiburger Cynthia and Toufic Melhi Vijaya and Daniel Melnick William Oakcrum Grace Rivera Oven and Mark Oven Margie Pearson and Richard Lampl Phyllis Peres and Rajat Sen Rose Porras Dr. and Mrs. William Powell Stephanie Renzi Marylouise and Harold Roach Christine Schreve and Thomas Bowersox Henry Schalizki Estelle Schwalb Betty Scott and Jim McMullen Roberta and Lawrence Shulman Diane and Jay Silhanek Donald Simonds Cora and Murray Simpson Tina Small Valerye and Adam Strochak Chris Syllaba Reginald Taylor Marion and Dennis Torchia Peter Vance Treibley Anne and James Tyson Linda and Irving Weinberg J. Lynn Westergaard Irene and Steven White Penelope Williams Jean and Robert Wirth

Con Brio Society Securing the future of Strathmore through a planned gift.

Anonymous Louise Appell John Cahill Jonita and Richard S. Carter Irene Cooperman Trudie Cushing and Neil Beskin Julie and John Hamre Yanqiu He and Kenneth O’Brien A. Eileen Horan Vivian and Peter Hsueh Tina and Art Lazerow

STRATHMORE STAFF Eliot Pfanstiehl Chief Executive Officer Monica Jeffries Hazangeles President Carol Maryman Executive Assistant to the President & CEO Mary Kay Almy Executive Board Assistant

DEVELOPMENT Bianca Beckham Director of Institutional Giving Bill Carey Director of Donor and Community Relations Lauren Campbell Development & Education Manager Julie Hamre Development Associate

PROGRAMMING Shelley Brown VP/Artistic Director Georgina Javor Director of Programming Harriet Lesser Visual Arts Curator Sam Younes Visual Arts Assistant Sarah Jenny Hospitality Coordinator

EDUCATION Betty Scott Education Coordinator

OPERATIONS Mark J. Grabowski Executive VP of Operations Miriam Teitel Director of Operations Allen V. McCallum, Jr. Director of Patron Services Jasper Cox Director of Finance Ira Daniel Staff Accountant Marco Vasquez Operations Manager

Melody and Chui Lin Diana Locke and Robert Toense Janet L. Mahaney Carol and Alan Mowbray Barbara and David Ronis Henry Schalizki Phyllis and Ken Schwartz Annie Simonian Totah and Sami Totah Maryellen Trautman and Darrell Lemke Carol Trawick Peter Vance Treibley Myra Turoff and Kenneth Weiner Julie Zignego

Phoebe Anderson Dana Operations Assistant Allen C. Clark Manager of Information Services Kristin Lobiondo Rentals Manager Christopher S. Inman Manager of Security Chadwick Sands Ticket Office Manager Will Johnson Assistant Ticket Office Manager Christian Simmelink Ticket Services Coordinator Christopher A. Dunn IT Technician Johnathon Fuentes Operations Specialist Brandon Gowan Operations Specialist Jon Foster Production Stage Manager William Kassman Lead Stage Technician Lyle Jaeger Lead Lighting Technician Caldwell Gray Lead Audio Technician

THE SHOPS AT STRATHMORE Charlene McClelland Director of Retail Merchandising Lorie Wickert Director of Retail Operations and Online Sales

MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS Jennifer A. Buzzell VP, Marketing and Communications Jerry Hasard Director of Marketing Jenn German Marketing Manager Julia Allal Group Sales and Outreach Manager Michael Fila Manager of Media Relations

STRATHMORE TEA ROOM Mary Mendoza Godbout Tea Room Manager

Applause at Strathmore • March/April 2013 87

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

Barry D. Berman, Esq. Richard Hug M. Sigmund Shapiro

Kari Peterson and Benito R. and Ben De Leon Mr. Joseph Fainberg Sherry and Bruce Feldman Georgetown Paper Stock of Rockville Drs. Ronald and Barbara Gots John R. Hauge Homewood at Crumland Farms Retirement Community Madeleine and Joseph Jacobs Dr. Robert Lee Justice and Marie Fujimura-Justice S. Kann Sons Company Foundation, Amelie & Bernei Burgunder Marc E. Lackritz & Mary B. DeOreo Burt & Karen Leete Mr. & Mrs. Howard Lehrer Mrs. June Linowitz & Dr. Howard Eisner Dr. James and Jill Lipton Dr. Diana Locke & Mr. Robert E. Toense Linda & Howard Martin Marie McCormack Mr. & Mrs. Humayun Mirza David Nickels & Gerri Hall Jan S. Peterson & Alison E. Cole Mr. Martin Poretsky and Ms. Henriette Warfield Ms. Nancy Rice Mr. and Mrs. John Rounsaville Patricia Smith and Dr. Frances Lussier Mr. Alan Strasser & Ms. Patricia Hartge Ms. Mary K. Sturtevant John & Susan Warshawsky Washington Post Foundation Dr. Edward Whitman Paul A. & Peggy L. Young, NOVA Research Company

CHAIRMAN LAUREATE

SYMPHONY SOCIETY

Board of directors OFFICERS

Kenneth W. DeFontes, Jr.*, Chairman Kathleen A. Chagnon, Esq.*, Secretary Lainy LeBow-Sachs*, Vice Chair Paul Meecham*, President & CEO The Honorable Steven R. Schuh*, Treasurer

BOARD MEMBERS

A.G.W. Biddle, III Barbara M. Bozzuto * Constance R. Caplan Robert B. Coutts George A. Drastal Alan S. Edelman* Susan G. Esserman* Michael G. Hansen* Murray M. Kappelman, M.D. Stephen M. Lans Sandra Levi Gerstung Ava Lias-Booker, Esq. Susan M. Liss, Esq.* Howard Majev, Esq. Liddy Manson Hilary B. Miller David Oros Marge Penhallegon^, President, Baltimore Symphony Associates Michael P. Pinto Cynthia Renn^, Governing Member Chair Scott Rifkin, M.D. Ann L. Rosenberg Bruce E. Rosenblum* Stephen D. Shawe, Esq. The Honorable James T. Smith, Jr. Solomon H. Snyder, M.D. * Andrew A. Stern

William R. Wagner Jeffrey Zoller^, BSYO Chair

LIFE DIRECTORS

Peter G. Angelos, Esq. Willard Hackerman H. Thomas Howell, Esq. Yo-Yo Ma Harvey M. Meyerhoff Decatur H. Miller, Esq. Linda Hambleton Panitz

DIRECTORS EMERITI

Michael G. Bronfein Calman J. Zamoiski, Jr.

BOARD OF TRUSTEES BALTIMORE SYMPHONY ENDOWMENT TRUST

Benjamin H. Griswold, IV, Chairman Terry Meyerhoff Rubenstein, Secretary Michael G. Bronfein Kenneth W. DeFontes, Jr. Mark R. Fetting Paul Meecham The Honorable Steven R. Schuh Calman J. Zamoiski, Jr. *Board Executive Committee ^ ex-officio

SUPPORTERS OF THE BALTIMORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is deeply grateful to the individual, corporate, foundation and government donors whose annual giving plays a vital role in sustaining the Orchestra’s tradition of musical excellence. The following donors have given between November 1, 2011 and December 14, 2012.

LEADERSHIP CIRCLE

Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation The Maryland State Arts Council National Endowment for the Arts

CHAIRMAN’S CIRCLE PARTNERS ($25,000 and above) M&T Bank PNC Lori Laitman and Bruce Rosenblum

MAESTRA’S CIRCLE

($10,000 and above) Mr. and Mrs. A. G. W. Biddle, III Clark Winchcole Foundation George and Katherine Drastal Ms. Susan Esserman and Mr. Andrew Marks Michael G. Hansen & Nancy E. Randa Mr. and Mrs. Stephen M. Lans Susan Liss and Family In memory of James Gavin Manson

Hilary B. Miller & Dr. Katherine N. Bent The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Mr. and Mrs. Arnold Polinger Total Wine & More

Governing Members Gold ($5,000-$9,999) Anonymous Ms. Deborah Wise / Edith and Herbert Lehman Foundation, Inc. The Charles Delmar Foundation Susan Fisher Joel and Liz Helke Dr. David Leckrone & Marlene Berlin Mr. and Mrs. William Rogers Mike & Janet Rowan Daniel and Sybil Silver

GOVERNING MEMBERS SILVER ($2,500-$4,999) Mr. Gilbert Bloom Mr. and Mrs. David S. Cohen Jane C. Corrigan

88 Applause at Strathmore • March/April 2013

($1,000-$2,499) Anonymous (3) Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Abell Mr. William J. Baer and Ms. Nancy H. Hendry Phebe W. Bauer Ms. Elaine Belman David and Sherry Berz Mr. Lawrence Blank Hon. & Mrs. Anthony Borwick Dr. Nancy Bridges Gordon F. Brown Frank and Karen Campbell Dr. Mark Cinnamon & Ms. Doreen Kelly Mr. Harvey A. Cohen and Mr. Michael R. Tardif Mr. Herbert Cohen Mr. and Mrs. Arthur C. Cox Joan de Pontet Delaplaine Foundation Jackson and Jean H. Diehl Marcia Diehl and Julie Kurland Dimick Foundation Ms. Marietta Ethier Sharon and Jerry Farber Mr. and Mrs. Charles Fax Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth R. Feinberg Dr. Edward Finn Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Fitzpatrick Catoctin Breeze Vineyard Mr. and Mrs. Arthur P. Floor Mr. and Mrs. John Ford Mr. and Mrs. Roberto B. Friedman Carol & William Fuentevilla Mary and Bill Gibb Peter Gil Dr. and Mrs. Sanford Glazer Alan and Joanne Goldberg Drs. Joseph Gootenberg & Susan Leibenhaut Dr. and Mrs. Sheldon Gottlieb Mark & Lynne Groban Mr. & Mrs. Norman M. Gurevich Ms. Lana Halpern Ms. Gloria Shaw Hamilton Mr. & Mrs. John Hanson Sara and James A. Harris, Jr. Mr. Fred Hart and Ms. Elizabeth Knight Esther and Gene Herman Ellen & Herb Herscowitz David A. & Barbara L. Heywood Fran and Bill Holmes Betty W. Jensen Dr. Henry Kahwaty Dr. Phyllis R. Kaplan Mr. and Mrs. Charles Kelber Virginia and Dale Kiesewetter Dr. and Mrs. Peter C. Luchsinger

Michael & Judy Mael Ms. Janet L. Mahaney Mr. Winton Matthews David and Kay McGoff Bebe McMeekin Mr. and Mrs. Anne Menotti Dr. & Mrs. Stanley R. Milstein Ms. Zareen T. Mirza Edwin H. Moot Delmon Curtis Morrison Teresa and Don Mullikin Douglas and Barbara Norland Jerry and Marie Perlet Mr. and Mrs. Peter Philipps Herb and Rita Posner Richard and Melba Reichard Dr. and Mrs. Gerald Rogell Mr. and Mrs. William Rooker Dr. and Mrs. Arthur Sagoskin Estelle D. Schwalb Mr. and Mrs. Roger Schwarz Ms. Phyllis Seidelson Mr. Donald M. Simonds Marshall and Deborah Sluyter Don Spero & Nancy Chasen Mr. and Mrs. Richard D. Spero Jennifer Kosh Stern and William H. Turner Margot & Phil Sunshine Mr. and Mrs. Richard Swerdlow Venable Foundation, Inc. Dr. and Mrs. Leonard Wartofsky David Wellman & Marjorie Coombs Wellman Ms. Susan Wellman Mr. and Mrs. Richard Westin Ms. Ann Willis Sylvia and Peter Winik Marc and Amy Wish Eileen and Lee Woods H. Alan Young & Sharon Bob Young, Ph.D. Robert & Antonette Zeiss

BRITTEN LEVEL MEMBERS

($500-$999) Anonymous Dr. and Mrs. Marshall Ackerman Ms. Barbara K. Atrostic Thomas and Mary Aylward Donald Baker Ms. Margot Baron Leonard and Gabriela Bebchick Mr. Donald Berlin Ms. Cynthia L. Bowman-Gholston Mr. Kurt Thomas Brintzenhofe Mr. Richard H. Broun & Ms. Karen E. Daly Mr. & Mrs. Leonard Burka Ms. Lynn Butler Cecil Chen & Betsy Haanes Bradley Christmas and Tara Flynn Barbara & John Clary Mr. & Mrs. Jim Cooper Mr. John C. Driscoll Mr. and Mrs. Robert Fauver Mr. Harvey Gold Ms. Alisa Goldstein Frank & Susan Grefsheim Ms. Haesoon Hahn Keith and Linda Hartman Dr. Liana Harvath Mr. Jeff D. Harvell & Mr. Ken Montgomery Mrs. Patricia Hoefler Ms. Daryl Kaufman Dr. Birgit Kovacs Ms. Delia Lang Ms. Pat Larrabee and Ms. Lauren Markley Mr. Darrell H. Lemke & Ms. Maryellen Trautman Ms. May Lesar Mr. Richard Ley Harry and Carolyn Lincoln Drs. David and Sharon Lockwood W. David Mann Merle and Thelma Meyer Ms. Ellen Miles Mr. & Mrs. Walter Miller Ms. Marlene C. Mitchell Mr. William Morgan Eugene and Dorothy Mulligan Mr. and Mrs. Philip Padgett Mrs. Jane Papish Mr. and Ms. Donald Regnell Mr. James Risser Ms. Trini Rodriquez and Mr. Eric Toumayan Mr. & Mrs. Barry Rogstad Harold Rosen Ms. Ellen Rye

Dr. Lee Poth with Leonard and Donna Wartofsky at a backstage event

Dr. & Mrs. Jerome Sandler Mr. and Mrs. William Schaefer Mr. Allen Shaw Ms. Terry Shuch and Mr. Neal Meiselman Ms. Sonja Soleng Mr. and Mrs. Charles Steinecke III Mr. Peter Thomson Ms. Ann Tognetti John A. and Julia W. Tossell Mr. & Mrs. Richard Tullos Dr. and Ms. George Urban Linda and Irving Weinberg Robert and Jean Wirth

BRAHMS LEVEL MEMBERS

($250-$499) Anonymous (4) Ms. Kathryn Abell Ms. Judith Agard Rhoda and Herman Alderman Sharon Allender and John Trezise Mr. and Mrs. Charles C. Alston Mr. Bill Apter Pearl and Maurice Axelrad Mr. and Mrs. James Bailey Drs. Richard and Patricia Baker Mr. Robert Barash Mr. and Mrs. John W. Barrett Mr. & Mrs. John W. Beckwith Melvin Bell Alan H. Bergstein and Carol A. Joffe Mr. Neal Bien Mr. and Mrs. Jeffrey Binckes Nancy and Don Bliss Mr. & Mrs. John Blodgett Mr. Edward Bou Ms. Judith A. Braham Mr. Philip Brannen Ms. Carol Bray Mr. & Mrs. Ronald Brotman Dr. William Dickinson Burrows Mr. and Mrs. Serefino Cambareri Ms. Miranda Chiu Mr. Steven Coe Ms. June Colilla Ms. Marion Connell Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Cooper Ms. Louise Crane Ms. Margaret Cusack Dr. & Mrs. James R. David Mr. David S. Davidson William Dietrich Mr. Ahmed El-Hoshy Lionel and Sandra Epstein Ms. Claudia Feldman Mr. Michael Finkelstein Dr. & Mrs. David Firestone Estelle Diane Franklin Mr. & Mrs. Marvin Freedenberg Mr. & Mrs. Michael Scott Friedman Lucian & Lynn M. Furrow Dr. Joel and Rhoda Ganz Roberta Geier Irwin Gerduk Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Giddings Drs. Marlene and Bill Haffner Rev. Therisia Hall Brian and Mary Ann Harris

BSO Principal Pops Conductor Jack Everly and John Waters with Total Wine & More co-owner David Trone and wife June

Mr. Lloyd Haugh Mrs. Jean N. Hayes Joel and Linda Hertz Mr. & Mrs. William L. Hickman Ms. Linda Lurie Hirsch Mr. Roland Hirsch Mr. Frank Hopkins Mr. Joel Horwich Mr. John Howes Mr. & Mrs. Paul Hyman Ms. Susan Irwin Dr. Richard H. Israel Dr. and Mrs. Herbert Joseph Mr. Peter Kaplan Dr. & Mrs. Robert W. Karp Lawrence & Jean Katz Mr. & Mrs. Christopher Keller Mr. & Mrs. James Kempf Mr. & Mrs. Anthony Kern Mr. and Ms. George Kinal Dr. Richard D. Guerin and Dr. Linda Kohn Mr. William and Ms. Ellen D. Kominers Ms. Nancy Kopp Dr. Arlin J. Krueger Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Lambert Mr. and Mrs. Francis Leahy Ms. Marie Lerch and Mr. Jeff Kolb Mr. Harry LeVine Alan and Judith Lewis Lois and Walter Liggett Ms. Julie E. Limric LTC David Lindauer, U.S. Army (Ret’d) Dr. Richard E. and Susan Papp Lippman Mr. Gene Lodge Lucinda Low and Daniel Magraw Mr. and Mrs. William MacBain Thomas and Elizabeth Maestri Mr. James Magno Mr. David Marcos Mr. and Mrs. Charles H. Matterson Mr. Mark Mattucci Ms. Susan McGee Ms. Anna McGowan Mr. and Mrs. Michael Merchlinsky Mr. Steve Metalitz Mrs. Rita Meyers Ms. Caren Novick Mr. & Mrs. Robert Obenreder Ms. Marian O’Donnell Amanda & Robert Ogren Mrs. Judy Oliver Mrs. Patricia Olson Mr. Jerome Ostrov Mr. Kevin Parker Ms. Frances L. Pflieger Thomas Plotz and Catherine Klion Marie Pogozelski and Richard Belle Ms. Carol Poland Andrew and Melissa Polott Mr. and Mrs. Edward Portner Mr. and Ms. Richard Pratt Dr. Israel and Carol Preston Ms. Laura Ramirez-Ramos Dr. and Mrs. Bernard Reich Mr. Thomas Reichmann Dr. Joan Rittenhouse & Mr. Jack Rittenhouse

BENEFITS OF MEMBERSHIP WITH THE BSO Make a donation today and become a Member of the BSO! There is a gift level that is right for everyone, and with that comes an insider’s perspective of your world-class orchestra.

For a complete list of benefits, please call our Membership Office at 301.581.5215 or contact via e-mail at membership@BSOmusic.org. You may also visit our Web site at BSOmusic.org/benefits.

Frances and Leonard Burka at a backstage toast

Ms. Leeann Rock & Mr. Brian Anderson Lois and David Sacks Mr. & Mrs. Robert Sandler Ms. Beatrice Schiff David and Louise Schmeltzer Mr. J. Kenneth Schwartz Mr. Paul Seidman Anatole Senkevitch, Jr. Ms. Debra Shapiro Donna and Steven Shriver Mr. & Mrs. Larry Shulman Mr. and Mrs. Micheal D. Slack Ms. Deborah Smith Richard Sniffin Gloria and David Solomon Ms. Rochelle Stanfield and Mr. Edward Grossman Timothy Stranges and Rosanna Coffey

Mr. and Mrs. Duane Straub Mr. Alan Thomas Mr. John Townsley Ms. Jane Trinite Ms. Maria Volpe Mr. David Wallace Dr. and Mrs. Jack Weil Mr. and Mrs. Robert Wein Ms. Roslyn Weinstein Ms. Elizabeth Welles and Mr. Charles Cromwell Alan White Mr. David M. Wilson Ms. Carol Wolfe Dr. Charlotte Word Dr. & Mrs. Richard N. Wright Mr. Daniel Zaharevitz Ms. MaryAnn Zamula Mr. Warren Zwicky

Baltimore symphony Orchestra STAFF Paul Meecham, President & CEO John Verdon, Vice President and CFO Leilani Uttenreither, Executive Assistant Eileen Andrews, Vice President of Marketing and Communications Carol Bogash, Vice President of Education and Community Engagement Deborah Broder, Vice President of BSO at Strathmore Dale Hedding, Vice President of Development Matthew Spivey, Vice President of Artistic Operations ARTISTIC OPERATIONS Toby Blumenthal, Manager of Facility Sales Tiffany Bryan, Manager of Front of House Anna Harris, Operations Assistant Chris Monte, Assistant Personnel Manager Marilyn Rife, Director of Orchestra Personnel and Human Resources Meg Sippey, Artistic Planning Manager eDUCATION Nicholas Cohen, Director of Community Engagement Annemarie Guzy, Director of Education Hana Morford, Education Associate Nick Skinner, OrchKids Site Manager Larry Townsend, Education Assistant Dan Trahey, OrchKids Artistic Director DEVELOPMENT Jennifer Barton, Individual Giving Manager Adrienne Bitting, Development Assistant Margaret Blake, Development Office Manager Allison Burr-Livingstone, Director of Institutional Giving Kate Caldwell, Director of Philanthropic Services Stephanie Johnson, Donor Relations Manager, BSO at Strathmore Rebecca Potter, Institutional Giving Specialist Joanne M. Rosenthal, Director of Major Gifts, Planned Giving and Government Relations Valerie Saba, Institutional Giving Coordinator Rebecca Sach, Director of the Annual Fund Richard Spero, Community Liaison for BSO at Strathmore

FACILITIES OPERATIONS Shirley Caudle, Housekeeper Bertha Jones, Senior Housekeeper Curtis Jones, Building Services Manager Ivory Miller, Maintenance Facilities FINANCE AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Tom Allan, Controller Sarah Beckwith, Payroll Administrator Sophia Jacobs, Senior Accountant Janice Johnson, Senior Accountant Evinz Leigh, Administration Associate Chris Vallette, Database and Web Administrator Jeff Wright, Director of Information Technology MARKETING AND PUBLIC RELATIONS Rika Dixon, Director of Marketing and Sales Laura Farmer, Public Relations Manager Derek A. Johnson, Manager of Single Tickets Theresa Kopasek, Marketing and PR Associate Bryan Joseph Lee, Direct Marketing Coordinator Alyssa Porambo, PR and Publications Coordinator Michael Smith, Digital Marketing and E-Commerce Coordinator Adeline Sutter, Group Sales Manager Elisa Watson, Graphic Designer TICKET SERVICES J. Morgan Gullard, Ticket Services Agent Timothy Lidard, Manager of VIP Ticketing Kathy Marciano, Director of Ticket Services Juliana Marin, Senior Ticket Agent for Strathmore Peter Murphy, Ticket Services Manager Michael Suit, Ticket Services Agent Thomas Treasure, Ticket Services Agent BALTIMORE SYMPHONY ASSOCIATES Larry Albrecht, Symphony Store Volunteer Manager Louise Reiner, Office Manager

Applause at Strathmore • March/April 2013 89

GIFTS OF $15,000+ Patricia Haywood Moore and Roscoe M. Moore, Jr. for the Guest Artist Fund Paul & Robin Perito for the Vocal Guest Artist Fund Maestro Circle Ms. Anne Claysmith for the Chorale Chair-Soprano II Fund Mrs. Margaret Makris Dr. Kenneth P. Moritsugu, Emily Moritsugu & Ms. Lisa R. Kory, includes match by Johnson & Johnson Paul A. & Peggy L. Young

National Philharmonic Board of directors Board of Directors Robert Beizer Ruth Berman Rabbi Leonard Cahan *Carol Evans Ruth Faison Dr. Bill Gadzuk Ken Hurwitz Dieneke Johnson William Lascelle Greg Lawson Joan Levenson Dr. Wayne Meyer Kent Mikkelsen Dr. Roscoe M. Moore, Jr. Dr. Kenneth Moritsugu *Robin C. Perito JaLynn Prince Peter Ryan Dr. Charles Toner

Board Officers

Principal Circle Mr. & Mrs. Joel Alper Dr. Ryszard Gajewski Dr. & Mrs. Val G. Hemming Ms. Dieneke Johnson, includes match by Washington Post

Board of Advisors

Philharmonic Circle Mrs. Nancy Dryden Baker, in memory of Lt. Cmdr. William F. Baker, Jr. Mr. Robert Beizer Mr. Steven C. Decker & Ms. Deborah W. Davis Dr. & Mrs. John V. Evans J. William & Anita Gadzuk * Dr. Robert Gerard & Ms. Carol Goldberg * Mr. Ken Hurwitz Mr. William A. Lascelle & Ms. Blanche Johnson Mr. & Mrs. Peter Ryan Drs. Charles and Cecile Toner Mr. & Mrs. Mark Williams, includes match

by Ameriprise Financial

*Todd R. Eskelsen, Chair *Albert Lampert, First Vice Chair *Mark Williams, Treasurer *Paul Dudek, Secretary * Joel Alper, Chair Emeritus Joel Alper Albert Lampert Chuck Lyons Roger Titus Jerry D. Weast

As of January 2013 *Executive Committee

As of January 1, 2013

SUPPORTERS OF THE NATIONAL PHILHARMONIC The National Philharmonic takes this opportunity to gratefully acknowledge the following businesses, foundations and individuals which have made the Philharmonic’s ambitious plans possible through their generous contributions.

Maestro Circle Concertmaster Circle Principal Circle Philharmonic Circle Benefactor Circle Sustainer Circle Patron Contributor Member

$10,000+ $7,500 to $9,999 $5,000 to $7,499 $3,500 to $4,999 $2,500 to $3,499 $1,000 to $2,499 $500 to $999 $250 to $499 $125 to $249

ORGANIZATIONS

Maestro Circle Ameriprise Financial Paul M. Angell Family Foundation Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Philip L. Graham Fund Ingleside at King Farm Maryland State Arts Council Montgomery County, MD Montgomery County Public Schools Musician Performance Trust Fund National Endowment for the Arts NOVA Research Company Schiff Hardin, LLP The State of Maryland Concertmaster Circle Clark-Winchcole Foundation The Gazette Principal Circle Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation Harris Family Foundation Johnson & Johnson Jim and Carol Trawick Foundation, Inc. Philharmonic Circle National Philharmonic/MCYO Educational Partnership

Concertmaster Circle Mr. and Mrs. Paul Dudek

The Washington Post Company Benefactor Circle Corina Higginson Trust Henry B. & Jessie W. Keiser Foundation, Inc. Rockville Christian Church, for donation of space TD Charitable Foundation Sustainer Circle American Federation of Musicians, DC Local 161-170 Bettina Baruch Foundation Cardinal Bank Dimick Foundation Embassy of Poland Executive Ball for the Arts KPMG Foundation Lucas-Spindletop Foundation Patron American String Teachers’ Association DC/MD Chapter Boeing Gailes Violin Shop, Inc. GE Foundation IBM Lashof Violins The Potter Violin Company The Stempler Family Foundation Violin House of Weaver Washington Music Center Contributor Bank of America The Italian Cultural Society, Inc. INDIVIDUALS GIFTS OF $25,000+ Ann & Todd Eskelsen for the Chorale Music Fund Tanya & Albert Lampert for the Guest Artist Fund

90 Applause at Strathmore • March/April 2013

Benefactor Circle Mrs. Ruth Berman Mr. Edward Brinker & Ms. Jane Liu Mr. Dale Collinson * Dr. Lawrence Deyton & Dr. Jeffrey Levi * Mr. & Mrs. John L. Donaldson Mr. & Mrs. Joseph A. Hunt Mr. Greg Lawson, includes match by Bank of America Mr. Larry Maloney * Mr. & Mrs. Kent Mikkelsen * Nancy and J. Parker Michael & Janet Rowan Sustainer Circle Anonymous (3) Mrs. Rachel Abraham Fred & Helen Altman * Ms. Sybil Amitay * Ms. Nurit Bar-Josef Mr. & Mrs. Darren & Elizabeth Gemoets * Dr. Ronald Cappelletti * Dr. Mark Cinnamon & Ms. Doreen Kelly Ms. Nancy Coleman * Drs. Eileen & Paul DeMarco * Dr. Stan Engebretson * Mr. William E. Fogle & Ms. Marilyn Wun-Fogle Dr. Maria A. Friedman * Ms. Sarah Gilchrist * Mr. Barry Goldberg Dr. Joseph Gootenberg & Dr. Susan Leibenhaut Mr. and Mrs. David Henderson * Dr. Stacey Henning * Mrs. Joan M. Levenson Mr. & Mrs. Leslie Levine Mr. & Mrs. Charles A. Lyons Mr. Winton Matthews Mrs. Eleanor D. McIntire * Mr. & Mrs. Richard McMillan, Jr. Dr. Wayne Meyer * Mr. Robert Misbin Susan & Jim Murray * Mr. & Mrs. Charles Naftalin Mr. Thomas Nessinger * Ms. Martha Newman * Dr. & Mrs. Goetz Oertel

Mr. & Mrs. Jerome Pinson, includes match

by GE Foundation Ms. Aida Sanchez * Mrs. Jan Schiavone * Ms. Kathryn Senn, in honor of Dieneke Johnson Ms. Carol A. Stern * Sternbach Family Fund Dr. & Mrs. Robert Temple * Mr. & Mrs. Scott Ullery Ms. Ellen van Valkenburgh * Mr. & Mrs. Robert Vocke * Mr. & Mrs. Royce Watson Mr. & Mrs. Bernard J. Young Patron Mary Bentley & David Kleiner * Rabbi & Mrs. Leonard Cahan Ms. Linda Edwards Mr. John Eklund Ms. Kimberly Elliott Mr. Joseph Fainberg Ms. Ruth Faison * Mr. & Mrs. William Hickman Mr. David Hofstad William W. & Sara M. Josey* Mr. Robert Justice & Mrs. Marie Fujimura-Justice Ms. May Lesar Ms. Jane Lyle * Dr. & Mrs. Oliver Moles Jr. * Mr. & Mrs. Raymond Mountain David Nickels & Gerri Hall Mr. Larz Pearson & Mr. Rick Trevino Ms. Kari Wallace & Dr. Michael Sapko Mr. & Mrs. Steven Seelig Dr. John Sherman Ms. Lori J. Sommerfield * Mr. Gerald Stempler Mr. John I. Stewart & Ms. Sharon S. Stoliaroff Mr. Robert Stewart Mr. & Mrs. John F. Wing Mr. & Mrs. Jack Yanovski Contributor Anonymous (2) Ms. Ann Albertson Mr. Robert B. Anderson Mike & Cecilia Ballentine Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Bechert Ms. Michelle Benecke Mr. & Mrs. Gilbert Bloom Ms. Patricia Bulhack Mr. John Choi Mrs. Patsy Clark Ms. Irene Cooperman Mr. Dean Culler Mr. & Mrs. Tom Dunlap Mr.& Mrs. J. Steed Edwards Mr. & Mrs. William English Mr. & Mrs. Elliott Fein, includes match

by IBM Mr. Eliot Feldman Mr. & Mrs. Joe Ferfolia Dr. & Mrs. John H. Ferguson David & Berdie Firestone Mr. & Mrs. Mayo Friedlis Mr. & Mrs. Piotr Gajewski Mr. Dean Gatwood Mr. Steven Gerber Mr. Carolyn Guthrie Mr. & Mrs. William Gibb Dr. Karl Habermeier Dr. William Hatcher Frances Hanckel Mrs. Rue Helsel Dr. Roger Herdman Mr. & Mrs. James Hochron * Dr. Elke Jordan Ms. Anne Kanter Dr. & Mrs. Charles Kelber Ms. Martha Jacoby Krieger * Ms. Cherie Krug Ms. Joanna Lam Mr. & Mrs. John R. Larue Mr. & Mrs. Paul Legendre Mr. & Mrs. Herbert J. Lerner Mr. & Mrs. Eliot Lieberman *

Board members Dieneke Johnson and Roscoe M. Moore Jr. with guests in the Comcast Lounge

Mr. Frederick Lorimer Mr. Kevin MacKenzie Mr. Jerald Maddox Mr. Tom Maloy Mr. David E. Malloy & Mr. John P. Crockett * Mr. & Mrs. Andrew Mannes Mr. David McGoff * Jim & Marge McMann Ms. Cecilia Muñoz and Mr. Amit Pandya Mr. Stamatios Mylonakis Ms. Katherine Nelson-Tracey * Dr. Ruth S. Newhouse Mrs. Jeanne Noel Ms. Anita O’Leary * Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth A. Oldham, Jr. Dr. & Mrs. Joe Parr III Mr. & Mrs. Alan Peterkofsky Ms. Cindy Pikul Dr. & Mrs. Manuel Porres Mrs. Dorothy Prats Mr. & Mrs. Clark Rheinstein * Mr. Jacques Rosenberg Ms. Lisa Rovin * Ms. Joyce Sauvager Ms. Sandi Saville Mr. Charles Serpan Dr. & Mrs. Kevin Shannon Mr. & Mrs. Greg Wager Tom & Bobbie Wolf Dr. & Mrs. Richard Wright Mr. & Mrs. Philip Yaffee Member Anonymous Mr. Dan Abbott Mr. & Mrs. Donald Abbott Mrs. Fran Abrams Mr. & Mrs. Nabil Azzam Ms. Marietta Balaan * Mr. Mikhail Balachov Mr. Robert Barash Ms. Michelle Benecke Mr. & Mrs. Richard Bender Mrs. Barbara Botsford Mr. & Mrs. Jerome Breslow Mr. & Mrs. Frederick Brown Mrs. Dolores J. Bryan Mr. & Mrs. Stan Bryla Mr. John Buckley Mr. J. Michael Rowe & Ms. Nancy Chesser Dr. F. Lawrence Clare Mr. and Mrs. Johnny Clark Dr. & Mrs. Gordon M. Cragg Mr. Alan T. Crane Ms. Louise Crane Ms. Margaret Cusack Dr. & Mrs. James B. D’Albora Mr. Carl DeVore Mr. Jian Ding Mr. Paul Dragoumis Mr. Charles Eisenhauer Mr. Philip Fleming Mr. Harold Freeman

Ms. Phyllis Freeman Mr. Brian Ganz Ms. Rebecca Gatwood Mr. Bernard Gelb Ms. Frances Gipson Mr. Tom Gira Ms. Jacqueline Havener Ms. Lisa Helms Ms. Nina Helmsen Mr. Robert Henry Dr. & Mrs. Donald Henson Mr. J. Terrell Hoffeld Mr. Robert Hoffman Mr. & Mrs. Nelson Hsing Mrs. Deborah Iwig * Mr. & Mrs. Donald Jansky * Ms. Katharine Cox Jones Dr. Elke Jordan Ms. Elizabeth King Mrs. Rosalie King Mr. & Mrs. Allan Kirkpatrick Mr. Mark A. Knepper Ms. Marge Koblinsky Ms. Cherie Krug Mr. Dale Krumviede Ms. S. Victoria Krusiewski Ms. Andrea Leahy-Fucheck Ms. Michelle Lee Dr. David Lockwood Ms. Sharon F. Majchrzak * Mr. & Mrs. Forbes Maner Mr. and Mrs. James Mason Mrs. Nancy C. May Mr. Alan Mayers * Mr. Steven Mazer Mr. Michael McClellan Mr. & Mrs. Robert McGuire Mr. Michael Merchlinsky Mr. & Mrs. David Miller Mr. Edward Mills Ms. Stephanie Murphy National Philharmonic Chorale, in honor of Kenneth Oldham, Jr. Mrs. Gillian Nave Mr. Leif Neve *, includes match by Aquilent Dr. Ruth S. Newhouse Mr. & Mrs. Kenneth Oldham Mr. Thomas Pappas Dr. & Mrs. David Pawel Dolly Perkins & Larry Novak Evelyn & Peter Philipps Mr. Charles A. O’Connor & Ms. Susan F. Plaeger Mr. & Mrs. Paul Plotz Dr. Morris Pulliam Drs. Dena & Jerome Puskin Mr. Drew Riggs Mr. Sydney Schneider Ms. Katherine Schnorrenberg * Mr. and Mrs. John Schnorrenberg Ms. Bessie Shay Dr. Alan Sheff

National Philharmonic Singers after their performance at Black Rock Center for the Arts

Mr. Charles Short Dr. & Mrs. Paul Silverman Ms. Rita Sloan Mr. Carey Smith * Mr. Charles Sturrock * Dr. & Mrs. Szymon Suckewer Ms. Sarah Thomas Ms. Renee Tietjen * Ms. Virginia W. Van Brunt * Mr. Sid Verner Mr. Gerald Vogel

Ms. Anastasia Walsh Mr. David B. Ward Mr. Raymond Watts Ms. Joan Wikstrom Mr. Robert E. Williams Dr. Nicholas Zill * Chorale members

Chorale Sustainers Circle Fred and Helen Altman Ms. Sybil Amitay Mrs. William F. Baker, Jr. Elizabeth Bishop & Darrin Gemoets Dr. Ronald Cappelletti Ms. Anne Claysmith Ms. Nancy Coleman Mr. Dale Collinson Drs. Eileen and Paul DeMarco Dr. Lawrence Deyton & Dr. Jeffrey Levi Dr. Maria A. Friedman Dr. & Mrs. Bill Gadzuk Dr. Robert Gerard & Ms. Carol Goldberg Ms. Sarah Gilchrist

Mr. & Mrs. David Hendersen Dr. Stacey Henning Mr. Larry Maloney Mr. & Mrs. Carl McIntire Dr. Wayne Meyer Mr. & Mrs. Kent Mikkelsen Mr. & Mrs. James E. Murray Mr. Thomas Nessinger Ms. Martha Newman Ms. Aida Sanchez Mrs. Jan Schiavone Ms. Carol A. Stern Dr. & Mrs. Robert Temple Ms. Ellen van Valkenburgh Mr. & Mrs. Robert Vocke

Heritage Society The Heritage Society at the National Philharmonic gratefully recognizes those dedicated individuals who strive to perpetuate the National Philharmonic through the provision of a bequest in their wills or through other estate gifts.

For more information about the National Philharmonic’s Heritage Society, please call Ken Oldham at 301-493-9283, ext. 112.

Mr. David Abraham* Mrs. Rachel Abraham Mr. Joel Alper Ms. Ruth Berman Ms. Anne Claysmith Mr. Todd Eskelsen Mrs. Wendy Hoffman, in honor of Leslie Silverfine Ms. Dieneke Johnson

Mr. & Mrs. Albert Lampert Mrs. Margaret Makris Mr. Robert Misbin Mr. Kenneth A. Oldham, Jr. Mr. W. Larz Pearson Ms. Carol A. Stern Mr. Mark Williams *Deceased

National Philharmonic Staff Piotr Gajewski, Music Director & Conductor Stan Engebretson, Artistic Director, National Philharmonic Chorale Victoria Gau, Associate Conductor Kenneth A. Oldham, Jr., President Filbert Hong, Director of Artistic Operations Deborah Birnbaum, Director of Marketing & PR

Leanne Ferfolia, Director of Development Dan Abbott, Manager of Development Operations Auxiliary Staff Amy Salsbury, Graphic Designer Lauren Aycock, Graphic Designer

Applause at Strathmore • March/April 2013 91

Board of directors Reginald Van Lee, Chairman* (c) James J. Sandman, Vice Chair* (c) Christina Co Mather, Secretary* (c) Steven Kaplan, Esq. Treasurer* (c) Burton J. Fishman, Esq., General Counsel* + Neale Perl, President and CEO* Douglas H. Wheeler, President Emeritus Patrick Hayes, Founder † Gina F. Adams* Katherine M. Anderson Alison Arnold-Simmons Arturo E. Brillembourg* Hans Bruland (c) Rima Calderon Charlotte Cameron* Karen I. Campbell* Yolanda Caraway Lee Christopher Eric D. Collins Josephine S. Cooper Debbie Dingell Pamela Farr Robert Feinberg* Norma Lee Funger Bruce Gates* Olivier Goudet Felecia Love Greer, Esq. Jay M. Hammer* (c) Maria J. Hankerson Brian Hardie Grace Hobelman (c) Jake Jones David Kamenetzky* Jerome B. Libin, Esq. (c) Rachel Tinsley Pearson* (c) Joseph M. Rigby

Irene Roth Yvonne Sabine Charlotte Schlosberg Samuel A. Schreiber John Sedmak Irene F. Simpkins Ruth Sorenson* (c) Wendy Thompson-Marquez Mary Jo Veverka* Gladys Watkins* Carol W. Wilner

Honorary Directors Nancy G. Barnum Roselyn Payne Epps, M.D. Michelle Cross Fenty Sophie P. Fleming Eric R. Fox Peter Ladd Gilsey † Barbara W. Gordon France K. Graage James M. Harkless, Esq. ViCurtis G. Hinton † Sherman E. Katz Marvin C. Korengold, M.D. Peter L. Kreeger Robert G. Liberatore Dennis G. Lyons Gilbert D. Mead † Gerson Nordlinger † John F. Olson, Esq. (c) Susan Porter Frank H. Rich Albert H. Small Shirley Small The Honorable James W. Symington Stefan F. Tucker, Esq. (c) Paul Martin Wolff

PAST CHAIRS

Todd Duncan †, Past Chairman Laureate William N. Cafritz Aldus H. Chapin † Kenneth M. Crosby † Jean Head Sisco †

Kent T. Cushenberry † Harry M. Linowes Edward A. Fox Hugh H. Smith Alexine Clement Jackson Lydia Micheaux Marshall Stephen W. Porter, Esq. Elliott S. Hall Lena Ingegerd Scott (c) James F. Lafond Bruce E. Rosenblum Daniel L. Korengold Susan B. Hepner Jay M. Hammer

WOMEN’S COMMITTEE OFFICERS

* Executive Committee + Ex Officio † Deceased (c) Committee Chair As of Oct. 1, 2012

$7,500-$9,999

LAWYERS’ COMMITTEE CO-CHAIRS

Jerome B. Libin, Esq. James J. Sandman, Esq.

WPAS gratefully acknowledges the contributions of the following individuals, corporations, foundations and government sources whose generosity supports our artistic and education programming throughout the National Capital area. Friends who contribute $500 or more annually are listed below with our thanks. (As of Oct. 1, 2012)

Altria Group, Inc. Booz Allen Hamilton Ms. Christina Co Mather and Dr. Gary Mather Betsy and Robert Feinberg Mars, Incorporated Ms. Jacqueline Badger Mars The Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation National Capital Arts and Cultural Affairs Program/The US Commission of Fine Arts Mr. Reginald Van Lee

$50,000-$99,999 Daimler Dallas Morse Coors Foundation for the Performing Arts FedEx Corporation

Mr. and Mrs. Joseph F. Horning The Horning Family Fund MVM, Inc. Park Foundation, Inc. Mr. Bruce Rosenblum and Ms. Lori Laitman Dr. Paul G. Stern Wells Fargo Bank

$35,000-$49,999 DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Carl D. † and Grace P. Hobelman Ms. Marcia MacArthur

$25,000-$34,999 Anonymous Abramson Family Foundation Bank of America BB&T Private Financial Services

92 Applause at Strathmore • March/April 2013

$10,000-$14,999 Avid Partners, LLC BET Networks DCI Group Ernst and Young George Wasserman Family Foundation, Inc. Ms. Carolyn Guthrie Mr. Jake Jones and Ms. Veronica Nyhan-Jones Robert P. and Arlene R. Kogod Family Foundation Mr. and Mrs. Peter L. Kreeger Mr. and Mrs. Steve Lans Macy’s The Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation, Inc. The Honorable Bonnie McElveenHunter Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Milstein John F. Olson, Esq. (L) Prince Charitable Trusts QinetiQ North America, Inc. Sid Stolz and David Hatfield Ms. Wendy Thompson-Marquez Mr. Marvin F. Weissberg and Ms. Judith Morris Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Young

Gladys Manigault Watkins, President Annette A. Morchower, First Vice President Lorraine P. Adams, Second Vice President Cynthea M. Warman, Recording Secretary Ruth R. Hodges, Assistant Recording Secretary Ernestine Arnold, Corresponding Secretary Anna Faith Jones, Treasurer Glendonia McKinney, Assistant Treasurer Charlotte Cameron, Immediate Past President Barbara Mackenzie Gordon, Founder

WPAS Annual Fund

$100,000+

Dimick Foundation Ms. Pamela Farr Mr. and Mrs. Morton Funger Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Gates Mr. and Mrs. Jay M. Hammer The Hay-Adams Hotel Mr. and Mrs. Terry Jones Mr. and Mrs. Steven Kaplan Mrs. Elizabeth Keffer Kiplinger Foundation Inc. KPMG LLP Judith A. Lee, Esq. (L) June and Jerry Libin (L) Mr. and Mrs. John Marshall Dan Cameron Family Foundation, Inc. Nancy Peery Marriott Foundation, Inc. Mr. James J. Sandman and Ms. Elizabeth D. Mullin (L) Roger and Vicki Sant Mr. and Mrs. Hubert M. Schlosberg (L) (W) Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Simpkins Verizon Washington, DC Ms. Mary Jo Veverka Washington Gas Light Company Wells Fargo Bank

Billy Rose Foundation Mrs. Ryna Cohen Mark and Terry McLeod National Endowment for the Arts PEPCO PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP The Rocksprings Foundation NoraLee and Jon Sedmak Ruth and Arne Sorenson Mr. and Mrs. Stefan F. Tucker (L)

$15,000-$24,999 Anonymous Ambassador and Mrs. Tom Anderson Arcana Foundation Ms. Adrienne Arsht Diane and Norman Bernstein Mr. and Mrs. Arturo E. Brillembourg

AT&T Foundation Geico The Meredith Foundation The Hon. Mary V. Mochary and Dr. Philip E. Wine Ourisman Automotive of VA Ms. Aileen Richards and Mr. Russell Jones Dr. Irene Roth Sutherland Asbill & Brennan

$5,000-$7,499 Dr. and Mrs. Clement C. Alpert Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Brodecki Capitol Tax Partners Ms. Dolly Chapin Bob and Jennifer Feinstein Mr. and Mrs. Robert S. Giles Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Graham Mr. and Mrs. Carlos Gutierrez Mr. and Mrs. Brian J. Hardie Ms. Sandy Lerner Mr. and Mrs. David O. Maxwell Dr. Robert Misbin Mr. and Mrs. Glenn A. Mitchell Ms. Rachel Tinsley Pearson Ms. Diane Tachmindji

Mr. and Mrs. John V. Thomas Venable Foundation The Washington Post Company

$2,500-$4,999 Anonymous (3) Mr. and Mrs. Ricardo Andrade Mr. and Mrs. Barry Barbash Mr. Joseph Brandt Mr. and Mrs. Boris Brevnov Ms. Beverly J. Burke Mr. and Mrs. William N. Cafritz The Charles Delmar Foundation Dr. and Mrs. Abe Cherrick Ms. Nadine Cohodas Mr. and Mrs. J. Bradley Davis Mr. and Mrs. James Davis Dr. Morgan Delaney and Mr. Osborne P. Mackie Mr. and Mrs. Guy O. Dove III Mr. and Mrs. Melvin Eagle (L) Linda R. Fannin, Esq. (L) Mr. and Mrs. Burton J. Fishman Mr. Gregory I. Flowers Mr. and Mrs. David Frederick Mr. and Mrs. Wayne Gibbens Dr. and Mrs. Michael S. Gold James R. Golden Mr. and Mrs. Rolf Graage Dr. Maria J. Hankerson, Systems Assessment & Research Ms. Dena Henry and Mr. John Ahrem Mr. and Mrs. Allen Izadpanah Alexine and Aaron# Jackson (W) Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Jacobs Mr. and Mrs. Merritt Jones Ms. Danielle Kazmier and Mr. Ronald M. Bradley Mr. and Mrs. David T. Kenney Arleen and Edward Kessler (W) Mr. Daniel L. Korengold and Ms. Martha Dippell Mrs. Stephen K. Kwass Mr. and Mrs. Harry M. Linowes James M. Loots, Esq. and Barbara Dougherty, Esq. (L) Mr. and Mrs. Christoph E. Mahle (W) The Honorable and Mrs. Rafat Mahmood Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Manaker Marshall B. Coyne Foundation Mrs. Joan McAvoy Mr. Robert Meyerhoff and Ms. Rheda Becker Mr. Larry L. Mitchell Mr. and Mrs. Robert Monk Dr. William Mullins and Dr. Patricia Petrick Ms. Catherine Nelson Mrs. Muriel Miller Pear# Jerry and Carol Perone Ms. Nicky Perry and Mr. Andrew Stifler Mr. Trevor Potter and Mr. Dana Westring Adam Clayton Powell III Mr. and Mrs. Robert Ramsay Dr. and Mrs. Douglas Rathbun Mrs. Lynn Rhomberg Mr. and Mrs. Peter Rich Mr. and Mrs. David Roux Ms. Christine C. Ryan and Mr. Tom Graham Mr. Claude Schoch Mr. and Mrs. Samuel A. Schreiber Lena Ingegerd Scott and Lennart Lundh Mr. and Mrs. Albert H. Small Mr. Eric Steiner Ms. Mary Sturtevant Mr. and Mrs. George R. Thompson Jr. Mr. and Mrs. R. Moses Thompson Mr. Richard M. Tuckerman

Dr. and Mrs. Herbert D. Weintraub Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Weiss Dr. Sidney Werkman and Ms. Nancy Folger Mr. and Mrs. James J. Wilson Dr. and Mrs. William B. Wolf Mr. Bruce Wolff and Ms. Linda Miller Mr. and Mrs. Paul A. Young, NOVA Research Company

$1,500-$2,499 Anonymous (4) Ms. Lisa Abeel Mrs. Rachel Abraham Mrs. Arthur Arundel Dr. and Mrs. James Baugh Robert and Arlene Bein Mr. and Mrs. Robert S. Bennett Jane C. Bergner, Esq. (L) Mr. and Mrs. Josiah Bunting Mr. Peter Buscemi and Ms. Judith Miller Dr. C. Wayne Callaway and Ms. Jackie Chalkley Ms. Karen I. Campbell Dr. and Mrs. Purnell W. Choppin Drs. Judith and Thomas Chused Dr. Mark Cinnamon and Ms. Doreen Kelly Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Cook Mr. Paul D. Cronin Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Dickstein Ms. Lisa Egbuonu-Davis Mrs. Sophie P. Fleming Friday Morning Music Club, Inc. Ms. Wendy Frieman and Dr. David E. Johnson Mrs. Paula Seigle Goldman (W) Mrs. Barbara Goldmuntz Mrs. Barbara W. Gordon (W) James McConnell Harkless, Esq. Ms. Gail Harmon Dr. and Mrs. Joseph E. Harris (W) Ms. Leslie Hazel Ms. Gertraud Hechl Mr. and Mrs. Carl F. Hicks, Jr. Mrs. Enid T. Johnson (W) Dr. and Mrs. Elliott Kagan Mr. E. Scott Kasprowicz Mr. and Mrs. Sherman E. Katz (L) Stephen and Mary Kitchen (L) Ms. Betsy Scott Kleeblatt Mr. and Mrs. Steven Lamb Mr. and Mrs. Richard F. Larkin Dr. and Mrs. Lee V. Leak (W) Mr. James Lynch Mr. and Mrs. Michael Marshall Howard T. and Linda R. Martin Mr. Scott Martin Mrs. Gail Matheson Ms. Katherine G. McLeod Ms. Kristine Morris Lt. Gen. and Mrs. Michael A. Nelson Ms. Michelle Newberry The Nora Roberts Foundation Dr. Michael Olding Mr. and Mrs. Jack H. Olender Mr. and Mrs. Gerald W. Padwe Dr. and Mrs. Ron Paul Ms. Jean Perin Mr. Sydney Polakoff The Honorable and Mrs. Stephen Porter Mr. James Rich Mr. and Mrs. Martin Ritter Mrs. Norman W. Scharpf Ms. Mary B. Schwab Dr. Deborah J. Sherrill Mrs. Nadia Stanfield Cita and Irwin Stelzer Mr. Richard Strother Ms. Loki van Roijen Ms. Viviane Warren A. Duncan Whitaker, Esq. (L) CDR and Mrs. Otto A. Zipf

$1,000-$1,499 Anonymous Ruth and Henry Aaron Mr. John B. Adams Mr. and Mrs. James B. Adler Mr. and Mrs. Dave Aldrich Ms. Carolyn S. Alper Ms. Carol A. Bogash Mr. A Scott Bolden Ms. Ossie Borosh S. Kann Sons Company Fdn. Inc. Amelie and Bernei Burgunder, Directors Mr. and Mrs. Calvin Cafritz Mr. Arthur Cirulnick Mr. Jules Cohen Ms. Josephine S. Cooper Dr. Ronald M. Costell and Ms. Marsha E. Swiss Mr. David D’Alessio Dr. and Mrs. Joseph H. Danks Mr. and Mrs. Gregory Davis Edison W. Dick, Esq. (L) Mr. Anthony E. DiResta (L) Ms. Nancy Ruyle Dodge Dyal Compass Mr. Stanley Ebner and Ms. Toni Sidley Ms. Lynda Ellis Mrs. John G. Esswein Marietta Ethier, Esq. (L) Dr. Irene Farkas-Conn James A. Feldman and Natalie Wexler Fierce, Isakowitz & Blalock, LLC Ms. Gloria Garcia Mr. Donald and Mrs. Irene Gavin The Hon. Ruth Bader Ginsburg Mr. and Mrs. William L. Goldman (W) Mr. Michael Hager Mr. and Mrs. James Harris, Jr. Mr. Charles E. Hoyt and Ms. Deborah Weinberger (L) Drs. Frederick Jacobsen and Lillian Comas-Diaz Mr. Michael Johnson Ms. Anna F. Jones (W) Mr. and Mrs. John E. Kilcarr Ms. Elizabeth L. Klee Dr. Marvin C. Korengold Simeon M. Kriesberg and Martha L. Kahn Sandra and James Lafond Mr. and Mrs. Eugene I. Lambert (L) Mr. and Mrs. Gene Lange (L) Mr. Lance Mangum Miss Shirley Marcus Allen Ms. Patricia Marvil Master Print, Inc. John C. McCoy, Esq. (L) Carol and Douglas Melamed Dr. Jeanne-Marie A. Miller Mr. and Mrs. Adrian L. Morchower (W) Mr. Richard Moxley Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Mulcahy Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Muscarella Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence C. Nussdorf Mr. and Mrs. John Oberdorfer Mrs. Elsie O’Grady (W) Tom and Thea Papoian, with Mr. Smoochy Mr. and Mrs. Neale Perl Dr. Gerald Perman Mr. and Mrs. Arnold Polinger Reznick Group Mr. and Mrs. Robert Rosenfeld Mr. Lincoln Ross and Changamire (W) Mr. and Mrs. Michael Rowan Steven and Gretchen Seiler Mr. and Mrs. Arman Simone Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Strong Chris Syllaba The Manny & Ruthy Cohen

Foundation, Inc. Mr. and Mrs. Tom Tinsley Mr. and Mrs. Aaron Tomares Mr. J. Rock Tonkel, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Sami Totah G. Duane Vieth, Esq. (L) Mr. John Warren McGarry (L) Drs. Anthony and Gladys Watkins (W) Drs. Irene and John White Mr. and Mrs. Robert H. Winter Christopher Wolf, Esq. (L) Mr. and Mrs. Dennis R. Wraase

$500-$999 Anonymous (4) Mr. Andrew Adair Ms. and Mrs. Edward Adams (W) Mr. Donald R. Allen Mr. Jerome Andersen and June Hajjar Argy, Wiltse & Robinson, P.C. Ms. Amy Ballard Hon. and Mrs. John W. Barnum Miss Lucile E. Beaver Dr. and Mrs. Devaughn Belton (W) Mrs. Joan S. Benesch Ms. Patricia N. Bonds (W) Mr. and Mrs. Charles Both Mrs. Elsie Bryant (W) Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Burka Mr. Robert Busler Mrs. Gloria Butland (W) Mr. and Mrs. Jordan Casteel Ms. Claire Cherry Ms. Deborah Clements and Mr. Jon Moore Dr. Warren Coats, Jr. Compass Point Research and Trading, LLC Mr. John W. Cook Mr. and Mrs. Doug Cowart (W) Mr. John Dassoulas Dr. and Mrs. Chester W. De Long Mr. and Mrs. James B. Deerin (W) Mr. and Mrs. Carlos Del Toro Mrs. Rita Donaldson Mr. and Mrs. Marc Duber Ms. Sayre E. Dykes Mrs. Yoko Eguchi Mr. and Mrs. Harold Finger Dr. and Mrs. Robert Gagosian (W) Dr. Melvin Gaskins Jack E. Hairston Jr. Dr. and Mrs. Harry Handelsman (W) Jack and Janis Hanson Mrs. Robert A. Harper Mr. Lloyd Haugh Mr. and Mrs. Louis Hering Mr. and Mrs. Franklin Hodges (W) Mr. and Mrs. Laszlo Hogye Mr. and Mrs. James K. Holman Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Drew Jarvis Ralph N. Johanson, Jr., Esq. (L) Mr. and Mrs. Charles Jones Mrs. Carol Kaplan Ms. Janet Kaufman (W) Mr. Daniel Kazzaz and Mrs. Audrey Corson Dr. Rebecca Klemm, Ph.D. Mr. and Mrs. John Koskinen Mr. and Mrs. Nick Kotz Ms. Debra Ladwig Ms. Albertina D. Lane (W) Mr. William Lascelle and Blanche Johnson Dr. J. Martin Lebowitz Mr. and Mrs. Christopher Lerner Jack L. Lipson, Esq. (L) The Honorable and Mrs. Jan Lodal Mr. and Mrs. David Maginnes (W) Shaila Manyam Rear Adm. and Mrs. Daniel P. March Ms. Hope McGowan Mr. and Mrs. Rufus W. McKinney (W)

Ms. Cheryl C. McQueen (W) Dr. and Mrs. Larry Medsker Mrs. G. William Miller Mr. and Mrs. Bruce D. Moreton Ms. Dee Dodson Morris Mr. Charles Naftalin Mr. and Mrs. David Neal Mr. John Osborne Ms. Christine Pieper Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Posner Ms. Susan Rao and Mr. Firoze Rao (W) Ms. Nicola Renison Mr. and Mrs. Dave Riggs Ms. Elaine Rose Mr. Burton Rothleder Dr. and Mrs. Jerome Sandler Mr. and Mrs. Michael Schultz In memory of Mr. H. Marc Moyens Mrs. Zelda Segal (W) Dr. Deborah Sewell (W) Mr. Peter Shields Daniel and Sybil Silver Mr. and Mrs. Robert Silverman Mr. and Mrs. John Slaybaugh Virginia Sloss (W) Mr. and Mrs. L. Bradley Stanford Dana B. Stebbins Dr. and Mrs. Moises N. Steren Mr. and Mrs. David Stern Sternbach Family Fund Mr. Daniel Tarullo Ms. Julie Vass (W) Mr. Craig Williams and Ms. Kimberly Schenck Mr. and Mrs. James D. Wilson (W) Ms. Christina Witsberger Ms. Bette Davis Wooden (W)

Dr. Saul Yanovich Mr. James Yap Paul Yarowsky and Kathryn Grumbach

IN-KIND DONORS Arnold & Porter LLP The Beacon Hotel Booz Allen Hamilton Ms. Ossie Borosh Mr. and Mrs. Charles Both The Capital Grille Chevy Chase Embassy of Mexico Embassy of Spain JamalFelder Music Productions LLC The Hay-Adams Hotel Mr. Daniel L. Korengold and Ms. Martha Dippell Dr. and Mrs. Marc E. Leland Ms. Sandy Lerner The Honorable and Mrs. Jan Lodal Lord & Taylor Mars, Incorporated Ms. Jacqueline Badger Mars Mr. Neale Perl Dr. Irene Roth Mr. Claude Schoch St. Gregory Luxury Hotels & Suites Mr. Anthony Williams Kathe and Ed Williamson Mr. John C. Wohlstetter Elizabeth and Bill Wolf Key: (W) Women’s Committee (L) Lawyers’ Committee # Deceased

Washington Performing Arts Society Staff Neale Perl President Douglas H. Wheeler President Emeritus Development Murray Horwitz Director of Development Meiyu Tsung Assistant Director of Development/Director of Major Gifts Daren Thomas Director of Leadership and Institutional Gifts Michael Syphax Director of Foundation and Government Relations Rebecca Talisman Donor Records and Database Coordinator Helen Aberger Membership Coordinator and Tessitura Applications Specialist Kathleen McCoy Development Intern Education Michelle Hoffmann Director of Education Katheryn R. Brewington Assistant Director of Education/ Director of Gospel Programs Megan Merchant Education Program Coordinator Koto Maesaka Education Associate Chase Maggiano Education and Development Associate Leah Manning Education Intern

Finance and Administration Allen Lassinger Director of Finance Lorna Mulvaney Accounting Associate Robert Ferguson Database Administrator Marketing and Communications Jonathan Kerr Director of Marketing and Communications Hannah Grove-DeJarnett Associate Director of Marketing and Communications Scott Thureen Creative Media and Analytics Manager Corinne Baker Audience Engagement Manager Celia Anderson Graphic Designer Brenda Kean Tabor Publicist Sara Amiden Marketing Intern Programming Samantha Pollack Director of Programming Torrey Butler Production Manager Wynsor Taylor Programming Manager Stanley J. Thurston Artistic Director, WPAS Gospel Choirs Ticket Services Office Folashade Oyegbola Ticket Services Manager Cara Clark Ticket Services Coordinator Edward Kerrick Group Sales Coordinator

Applause at Strathmore • March/April 2013 93

Audra McDonald with WPAS board member Beverly Burke and guests

WPAS Legacy Society Legacy Society members appreciate the vital role the performing arts play in the community, as well as in their own lives. By remembering WPAS in their will or estate plans, members enhance our endowment fund and help make it possible for the next generations to enjoy the same quality and diversity of presentations both on stages and in our schools.

Mrs. Shirley and Mr. Albert H. Small, Honorary Chairs Mr. Stefan F. Tucker, Chair Anonymous (6) Mr. David G.† and Mrs. Rachel Abraham Dr. and Mrs. Clement C. Alpert Mr. and Mrs. George A. Avery Mr. James H. Berkson † Ms. Lorna Bridenstine † Ms. Christina Co Mather Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Cook Mr. and Mrs. F. Robert Cook Ms. Josephine Cooper Mr. and Mrs. James Deerin Mrs. Luna E. Diamond † Mr. Edison W. Dick and Mrs. Sally N. Dick Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Dickstein

Ms. Carol M. Dreher Mr. and Mrs. Melvin Eagle Ms. Eve Epstein † Mr. and Mrs. Burton Fishman Mrs. Charlotte G. Frank † Mr. Ezra Glaser † Dr. and Mrs. Michael L. Gold Ms. Paula Goldman Mrs. Barbara Gordon Mr. James Harkless Ms. Susan B. Hepner Mr. Carl Hobelman † and Mrs. Grace Hobelman Mr. Craig M. Hosmer and Ms. Daryl Reinke Charles E. Hoyt Josephine Huang, Ph.D. Dr. † and Mrs. Aaron Jackson Mrs. Enid Tucker Johnson Mr. and Mrs. Charles Jones

S’WONDERFUL S’MARVELOUS

strathmore 2013 SPRING GALA AT

Mr. Sherman E. Katz Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Kimble Mr. Daniel L. Korengold Dr. Marvin C. Korengold Mr. and Mrs. James Lafond Ms. Evelyn Lear † and Mr. Thomas Stewart† Mrs. Marion Lewis † Mr. Herbert Lindow † Mr. and Mrs. Harry Linowes Mr. and Mrs. David Maginnes Ms. Doris McClory † Mrs. Carol Melamed Robert I. Misbin Mr. Glenn A. Mitchell Ms. Viola Musher Mr. Jeffrey T. Neal The Alessandro Niccoli Scholarship Award The Pola Nirenska Memorial Award Mr. Gerson Nordlinger † Mrs. Linda Parisi and Mr. J.J. Finkelstein Mr. and Mrs. Neale Perl Dr. W. Stephen and Mrs. Diane Piper Mrs. Mildred Poretsky † The Hon. and Mrs. Stephen Porter Mrs. Betryce Prosterman †

Miriam Rose † Mr. James J. Sandman and Ms. Elizabeth D. Mullin Mrs. Ann Schein Mr. and Mrs. Hubert (Hank) Schlosberg Ms. Lena Ingegerd Scott Mrs. Zelda Segal Mr. Sidney Seidenman Ms. Jean Head Sisco † Mr. and Mrs. Sanford L. Slavin Mr. and Mrs. Albert H. Small Mr. Robert Smith and Mrs. Natalie Moffett Smith Mrs. Isaac Stern Mr. Leonard Topper Mr. Hector Torres Mr. and Mrs. Stefan Tucker Mr. Ulric † and Mrs. Frederica Weil Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Wheeler Mr. and Mrs. Robert H. Winter Ms. Margaret S. Wu In memory of Y. H. and T. F. Wu For more information, please contact Douglas H. Wheeler at (202) 533-1874, or e-mail dwheeler@wpas.org.

MICHAEL FEINSTEIN:

THE GERSHWINS AND ME SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 2013, 9PM

“Strike Up the Band” because the incomparable Michael Feinstein is coming to Strathmore! Dubbed “Ambassador of the Great American Songbook,” the two time Emmy and five time Grammy Award nominee has collected a “S’Wonderful” evening of music celebrating the legacy of George and Ira Gershwin. Feinstein doesn’t stop there, sharing personal stories from his recent book The Gershwins and Me about his six-year collaboration with Ira that shaped his early career.

To purchase Gala Packages, which include the Gala reception, dinner, premium concert seating and After Party, contact Sorelle Group at (202) 248-1930 or strathmore@sorellegroup.com.

Gilles Toucas

Single tickets to the concert include access to our After Party.

Order at www.strathmore.org or (301) 581-5100 By sponsoring or attending the 2013 Spring Gala at Strathmore, you give children, rising artists, and our community transcendent arts experiences through Strathmore’s education and artistic programming, master classes, in-school outreach, Title I programs, Artist in Residence program, free community events and festivals.

94 Applause at Strathmore • March/April 2013

Music Center at

Strathmore

important information

please contact the Ticket Office for replacements.

patrons. Both main entrances have power- assisted doors.

CHILDREN

GIFT CERTIFICATES Gift certificates may be purchased at the Ticket Office.

GROUP SALES, FUNDRAISERS

For ticketed events, all patrons are required to have a ticket regardless of age. Patrons are urged to use their best judgment when bringing children to a concert that is intended for adults. There are some performances that are more appropriate for children than others.

Some presenters do not allow children under the age of six years to non-family concerts. As always, if any person makes a disruption during a concert, it is appropriate that they step outside to accommodate the comfort and convenience of other concert attendees. Contact the Ticket Office at (301) 581-5100 for additional information.

For information, call (301) 581-5199 or email groups@strathmore.org.

PARKING FACILITIES

5301 Tuckerman Lane North Bethesda, MD 20852-3385 www.strathmore.org Email: tickets@strathmore.org Ticket Office Phone: (301) 581-5100 Ticket Office Fax: (301) 581-5101 Via Maryland Relay Services for MD residents at 711 or out of state at 1(800) 735-2258

TICKET OFFICE HOURS Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Wednesday 10 a.m. – 9 p.m.

Saturday 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Sixty minutes prior to each performance in the Music Center through intermission.

All tickets are prepaid and non-refundable.

Concert parking is located in the Grosvenor-Strathmore Metro garage off Tuckerman Lane. At the end of each ticketed event in the Music Center at Strathmore, the exit gates to the garage will be open for 30 minutes to exit the garage. If you leave before, or up to 90 minutes after this 30-minute period, you must show your ticket stub to the Metro attendant to exit at no cost.

For all non-ticketed events, Monday – Friday, parking in the garage is $4.75 and may be paid using a Metro SmarTrip card or major credit card.

Limited short-term parking also is available at specially marked meters along Tuckerman Lane. To access the Music Center from the GrosvenorStrathmore Metro garage, walk across the glass-enclosed sky bridge located on the 4th level.

WILL CALL

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

Patrons must present the credit card used to purchase tickets or a valid ID to obtain will call tickets.

Strathmore is located immediately adjacent to the Grosvenor-Strathmore Metro station on the Red Line and is served by several Metro and Ride-On bus routes. See www.strathmore. org, or the Guide to the Music Center at Strathmore for detailed directions.

TICKET POLICIES Unlike many venues, Strathmore allows tickets to be exchanged.

Tickets may only be exchanged for shows presented by Strathmore or its resident partner organizations at the Music Center. Exchanges must be for the same presenter within the same season. Ticket exchanges are NOT available for independently produced shows. Please contact the Ticket Office at (301) 581-5100 for details on how to exchange tickets.

If a performance is cancelled or postponed a full refund of the ticket price will be available through the Ticket Office for 30 days after the original scheduled performance date.

TICKET DONATION If you are unable to use your tickets, they may be returned for a tax-deductible donation prior to the performance. Donations can be made by mail, fax or in person by 5 p.m. the day of the performance.

MISPLACED TICKETS If you have misplaced your tickets to any performance at Strathmore,

DROP-OFF There is a patron drop-off circle off Tuckerman Lane that brings patrons to the Discovery Channel Grand Foyer via elevator. No parking is allowed in the circle, cars must be moved to the Metro garage after dropping off

COAT CHECK Located in the Promenade across from the Ticket Office. As weather requires, the coat check will be available as a complimentary service to our patrons. If you would like to keep your coat or other belongings with you, please place them under your seat. Coats may not be placed over seats or railings.

THE PRELUDE CAFÉ The Prelude Café in the Promenade of the Music Center at Strathmore, operated by Restaurant Associates, features a wide variety of snacks, sandwiches, entrees, beverages and desserts. It is open for lunch and dinner and seats up to 134 patrons.

CONCESSIONS The Interlude intermission bars offer beverages and snacks on all levels before the show and during intermission. There are permanent bars on the Orchestra, Promenade and Grand Tier levels.

LOST AND FOUND During a show, please see an usher.

All other times, please call (301) 581-5100.

LOUNGES AND RESTROOMS Located on all seating levels, except in the Upper Tier.

PUBLIC TELEPHONES Courtesy telephones for local calls are located around the corner from the Ticket Office, in the Plaza Level Lobby, and at the Promenade Right Boxes.

ACCESSIBLE SEATING Accessible seating is available on all levels. Elevators, ramps, specially designed and designated seating, designated parking and many other features make the Music Center at Strathmore accessible to patrons with disabilities. For further information or for special seating requests in the Concert Hall, please call the Ticket Office at (301) 581-5100.

ASSISTIVE LISTENING

The Music Center at Strathmore is equipped with a Radio Frequency Assistive Listening System for patrons who are hard of hearing. Patrons can pick up assistive listening devices at no charge on a first-come, firstserved basis prior to the performance at the coatroom when open, or at the ticket taking location as you enter the Concert Hall with a driver’s license or other acceptable photo ID. For other accessibility requests, please call (301) 581-5100.

ELEVATOR SERVICE There is elevator service for all levels of the Music Center at Strathmore.

EMERGENCY CALLS If there is an urgent need to contact a patron attending a Music Center concert, please call (301) 581-5112 and give the patron’s name and exact seating location, and telephone number for a return call. The patron will be contacted by the ushering staff and the message relayed left with Head Usher.

LATECOMER POLICY Latecomers will be seated at the first appropriate break in the performance as not to disturb the performers or audience members. The decision as to when patrons will be seated is set by the presenting organization for that night.

FIRE NOTICE The exit sign nearest to your seat is the shortest route to the street. In the event of fire or other emergency, please WALK to that exit. Do not run.

In the case of fire, use the stairs, not the elevators.

WARNINGS The use of any recording device, either audio or video, and the taking of photographs, either with or without flash, is strictly prohibited by law. Violators are subject to removal from the Music Center without a refund, and must surrender the recording media. Smoking is prohibited in the building.

Please set to silent, or turn off your cell phones, pagers, PDAs, and beeping watches prior to the beginning of the performance.

Applause at Strathmore • March/April 2013 95

encore

by Sandy Fleishman Q. Did your family play a role in your career choice?

Before becoming a teacher, my mother sang in opera companies in New York. My aunt used to work at the Kennedy Center, so whenever we visited, she’d take me to a show and I’d get to go backstage. My uncle is a special-effects designer for Broadway. Another uncle is a classical pianist. You could say show business is in our family.

Q. What led you to Strathmore?

I’ve always been involved in the arts—I studied ballet for 10 years and cello and piano at UNC-Chapel Hill. … I interned at Cat’s Cradle, a premiere music venue in North Carolina, and at Strathmore after junior year. That Strathmore internship set the stage for me to be called in for an interview as marketing assistant in 2004 and I’ve worked my way up.

Georgina Javor

G

eorgina Javor oversees the Mansion’s programs, the Free Summer Outdoor Concert Series, Backyard Theater for Children, Friday Night Eclectic and annual campus-wide Discover Strathmore events. She helps with main stage programming as well, and works some nights backstage assisting performers. As if she weren’t already busy enough, Javor recently earned her MBA at Georgetown, all done at night. “You have to love it,” she says. “If you didn’t enjoy challenges, you’d be miserable.”

96 applause at Strathmore • March/april 2013

Q. Do presenters have bidding wars for performers?

There can be a bidding war. But it can also come down to date availability—either from the artist or from the venue. Like many places, Strathmore has to be mindful of our resident partners and rentals that might be using space in the Music Center or Mansion; coordinating our calendar is an involved logistical process. Artists’ tour schedules are tight and getting the date can be one of the more challenging pieces of the puzzle.

MICHAEL VENTURA

Director of Programming, The Music Center at Strathmore

Q. How do you come up with performers?

Mansion concerts are incredibly diverse— they feature local and national artists; they’re multi disciplinary; they’re multi genre—so striking a balance is important.

Going to local concerts, gallery openings and arts events, keeping current with what’s happening in D.C., is incredibly important when I’m programming for the Mansion.

When considering artists on a more national level, I attend big arts marketplaces like the Association of Performing Arts Presenters and Chamber Music America conferences in New York, or the Performing Arts Exchange in Miami.

Image Copyright inxti, 2013 Used under license from Shutterstock.com

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