Emmylou Harris • Yomo Toro • The Red Clay Ramblers • The Dirty Dozen Brass Band • Erick Hawkins • Parsons Dance Company • Miami City Ballet •
Béla Fleck
• Benny Green
• Dawn Upshaw • Andre-Michel Schub •
Garrick Ohlsson • Natalie MacMaster
Canadian Brass
Lily Tomlin • Leahy • Russell Malone
• • Robin and Linda Williams
Simone Dinnerstein
• Andre Watts • The Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra • Garth Fagan • Willie Nelson • Grace Bumbry • Hal Holbrook • Mary Chapin Carpenter • Bruce Molsky • Pinchas Zukerman • Duke Ellington Orchestra • Arlo Guthrie • Juilliard Dance Ensemble
• Peter Schickele
• Peter Serkin •
• Ladysmith Black Mambazo • Marcus Belgrave
• Beausoleil • Noche Flamenca • Mingus Big Band • Bill Charlap • • Harry Allen
• Pilobolus
• The Sam Bush Band • John Jorgenson • Arlo Guthrie • Buckwheat Zydeco • John Michael Montgomery • Shen Wei • Ellis & Delfeayo Marsalis
Show • Bruce Hornsby • Wynonna Judd • Ricky Skaggs • BETTY • Phoebe Snow • Doug Varone
• Melissa Manchester
• Mark Morris • Lavey Smith • The Old Crow Medicine
Brad Paisley
• Sophie B. Hawkins • Joan Baez • Kenny Loggins • Janis Ian • Amy Sedaris
• Barry Douglas • Lar Lubovitch • Patti LuPone • John Pizzarelli • Ralph
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS
Stanley • Cherryholmes • Susan Graham • Chita Rivera • Ben Vereen • Nadja Solerno-Sonnenberg
• k.d. lang • Dierks Bentley • The Manhattan Transfer • Bill Cosby • Clyde Edgerton • Alexander Toradze • Linda Eder • The Travelin’ McCourys • Sierra Hull • The Band Perry • Joseph Bathanti •
• Suzanne Vega • Julian Schwarz • Little Big Town
Weicholz Global Film Series Summer Exhibition Celebration
Idina Menzel • Eric Carle • Boz Skaggs • Lyle Lovett • Shawn Colvin
Michael McDonald • James Galway • Matthew Morrison •
Nickel Creek • Sheryl Crow • Kacey Musgraves • • Brian Stokes Mitchell • David Grisman • The Beach Boys • • Lisa Fischer •
Norm Lewis
Scott Bradlee • The Avett Brothers • Jerry Douglas • Trombone Shorty • Pink Martini • Marco Nunez • • Bill McKibben • Kelli O'Hara • The Hit Men • Sutton
St. Paul & The Broken Bones
Foster • • Jennifer Nettles • Chris Botti • Bruce Hornsby • YES • Todd Rundgren • Carl Palmer • Kool & The Gang • Michael Feinstein • Storm Large • Rhiannon Giddens •
Watchhouse • Ben Folds • • Patti LaBelle • Punch Brothers • The Temptations • Darius Rucker Neil Giraldo • Melissa Etheridge
June 29-July 27, 2024
WELCOME
to An Appalachian Summer Festival
Welcome to the 40th Anniversary season of An Appalachian Summer Festival. I am honored and grateful to be joining the High Country to celebrate this momentous year recognizing legacy and longevity.
In the last 40 years, we have experienced the arts not only as entertainment but as a mirror reflecting our collective joys, struggles, and aspirations. In a rapidly changing world, it provides solace, inspiration, and brings people together in shared moments of beauty and truth. This curated season brings new faces to our stages as well as artists from previous seasons to share their talents in shared experiences. What better way to reflect on the continued success of this festival than to look towards its future as we inspire the next generation of artists, audiences, innovators, and leaders.
Whether this is your home, summer home, or you are visiting the mountains during the festival, thank you for being with us and supporting the arts.
With Gratitude,
Elizabeth Auer Executive Director
ADVISORY COUNCIL
An Appalachian Summer Festival
The Festival Advisory Council provides important leadership for An Appalachian Summer Festival by offering overall guidance, fundraising assistance, programming ideas and long-term direction for the festival. Advisory Council members are representative of the festival audience and community — providing valuable feedback to the staff, and serving as advocates and community ambassadors for the university and the festival.
CAROL BERNS Chair
JOE LOGAN Vice Chair
IRA ABRAMS
CAROL BLUMBERG
STEVEN BROOKS
PENN BROYHILL
SUE CHASE
LORRAINE CHILDERS
JEANNINE UNDERDOWN COLLINS
LYNN EISENBERG
ADRIENNE FINKEL
ELLEN HARRELL
BEN HENDERSON
WENDY KULUNAS
BABETTE MCAULIFFE
PETER PETSCHAUER
Ex-officio Members:
CHRISTINE PETTI
TRACI D. ROYSTER
LINDA RUSSELL
ELIZABETH SALTER
NANCY SCHAFFEL
SANDI FINCI SOLOMON
LIZ NEISLER SUMNER
NANCY TAFEEN
WRIGHT TILLEY
Interim Vice Chancellor for University Advancement WILL SEARS Vice Chancellor and Chief of Staff HANK FOREMAN
Dean, Hayes School of Music DR. JAMES DOUTHIT
Executive Director, Arts Engagement & Cultural Resources
ELIZABETH AUER
Director of Development, Arts Engagement & Cultural Resources
MELINDA FRIDDELL
Immediate Past Chair
JENNY MILLER
A BLOCKBUSTER SEASON FOUR LINEUP!
september 11, 2024
PEYTON MANNING
The NFL’s only five-time MVP, Hall of Fame QB and two-time Super Bowl Champion, he supports various organizations including the PeyBack Foundation and the Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital. In 2020, he founded the Emmy Award-winning company, Omaha Productions.
LJVM Coliseum
november 21, 2024
ANDERSON COOPER
A CNN anchor and correspondent for CBS’s “60 Minutes,” he has received 20 Emmy Awards and authored four books—all of which topped the New York Times Bestseller List.
Wait Chapel
december 5, 2024
JESMYN WARD
An American novelist, she is one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People and a MacArthur Genius Grant recipient. Presented in partnership with the Program for Leadership and Character.
Wait Chapel
february 27, 2025
DAVID BROOKS
A bestselling author, op-ed columnist at the New York Times, and commentator on “PBS NewsHour,” he is a keen observer of politics and people with a gift of humor and quiet passion.
Wait Chapel
april 8, 2025
JOHN LEGEND
A critically acclaimed, multiplatinum singer-songwriter and the first African American man to earn an EGOT, he leverages his influential position in the entertainment industry to advocate for ending mass incarceration and advancing community equity.
LJVM Coliseum
Guarantee your seat!
SUBSCRIPTIONS ON SALE NOW. SINGLE TICKETS ON SALE AUGUST 1.
facetoface.wfu.edu
AN APPALACHIAN SUMMER FESTIVAL
The origins of An Appalachian Summer Festival date to the early 1980s. While Appalachian State University had an excellent program of academic, cultural and athletic activities during the academic year, there was an interest in further expanding and strengthening the university’s summer programs and role in the broader community. By developing a quality arts and cultural program, a stronger partnership with the local community would result, and the campus could begin to attract visitors from outside the immediate community.
Chancellor John Thomas and Vice Chancellor Bob Snead were key university leaders who led this effort. During this same period, summer residents Arnold and Muriel Rosen were addressing the need for diverse cultural activities from a different angle. As a board member of the Chopin Foundation, Arnold Rosen was involved through the Miami chapter in the staging of various competitions and concerts, featuring foundation-sponsored musicians. He and Robert Chumbley, the foundation’s director in Florida, began to discuss the formation of a North Carolina chapter, and made arrangements for a group of musicians to come to Boone for a series of recitals. The concept for the festival was now beginning to emerge, and by 1984, the idea had come to fruition with the staging of a series of cultural activities that also included a residency by the North Carolina Symphony, in conjunction with the Cannon Music Camp.
Initially, the festival complemented its name in the truest sense, with events scheduled from May through August. By the summer of 1985, “An Appalachian Summer” began to establish itself as a permanent fixture on the High Country’s summer scene. In addition to the vision they provided, the Rosens generously responded to the university’s request for the first major financial contribution to the program. Support from Paul and Faye Broyhill, the Broyhill Family Foundation, Robert G. and Mariam Cannon Hayes, the Cannon Foundation, Martin and Doris Rosen, Satie Hunt Broyhill, James and Louise Broyhill, Robert and Allene Broyhill Heilman, Willard and Bettie Gortner, Eileen Lackey Sharpe, and Bernard and Shirley Spector was also critical during this period.
The Chopin Foundation musicians became established as the Appalachian Chamber Ensemble in 1985, and with a generous gift from the Broyhill family, the group was renamed the Broyhill Chamber Ensemble. Also featured during these early years were performances by the North
40 years of unforgettable performances
40 years of memories
Carolina Symphony, North Carolina Dance Theatre, Cannon Music Camp concerts, the Acting Company directed by John Houseman, and the Smithsonian Lecture Series. Internationally renowned sculptor Richard Hunt played a key role in the development of the visual arts component of the festival, which was initiated with the support and sponsorship of Martin and Doris Rosen.
As the desire to present the finest in the performing and visual arts evolved, so did the need to concentrate these events into a shorter time period. The festival eventually dropped its summer-long time frame in favor of a more condensed schedule. In 1989, management of the festival was transferred from the Appalachian State University Foundation office to the newly established Office of Cultural Affairs. The artistic leadership of Chumbley, and later Gil Morgenstern, played a key role in developing the festival’s artistic identity and establishing standards of artistic excellence. In the years to follow, the festival made major strides in expanding the scope of its artistic programming, strengthening and diversifying its audience base, and building a strong and loyal base of private supporters and corporate sponsors who sustain the festival and invest in its growth and development. Throughout its 40-year history, the festival has maintained its commitment to the values upon which it was founded: artistic excellence, innovation, and audience-building, leading to national prominence. With recognition in The New York Times, Southern Living, US Airways Magazine and on regional National Public Radio stations, as well as designation as one of the “Top 20 Events in the Southeast” by the Southeast Tourism Society, An Appalachian Summer Festival is no longer the “best kept secret” in the High Country.
WE ARE an annual arts festival presenting a diverse and dynamic variety of music, theatre, dance, film and visual arts programming. The festival forges a unique national identity through artistic excellence, innovative programming, educational opportunities, and by bringing the most accomplished and respected creative and performing artists from around the world to the Appalachian State University community. Founded on the principle of promoting young American artists, the festival supports the overall university mission, enhances the cultural life of the Appalachian community through affordable access to its programs, serves as an important gateway onto the campus, and promotes the economic development of our region.
•The North Carolina Symphony • Gordon McRae • Wayne Clawson • Mark Twain • Appalachian
James Ogle • Roberta Peters • Doc Severinsen • Robert Goulet • Loonis McGlohan • Marlene VerPlanck
Walker • The Duke’s Men • Audra McDonald • Clarence Darrow • Robert Merrill • Gerhardt Zimmerman of New York City Ballet • Judy Collins • Rita Moreno • Banu Gibson • The Louisville Orchestra • Loonis Taylor Dance Company • Massenkoff Russian Folk Festival • American Indian Dance Theatre •
Harris • Jerry Uelsmann • Yomo Toro • The Red Clay Ramblers • The Dirty Dozen Brass Band • Caribbean City Ballet • Allen Kindt • Rodney Hazelton • Scott Foppiano • The Mike Longo Trio • Douglas James Claire Bloom • Romulus Linney • Andre Watts • The Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra • Garth Fagan • David
• Neena Freelon • Mary Chapin Carpenter • Bruce Molsky • John Safer • Pinchas Zukerman • Duke
A. Gora • Nicholas Basbanes • Lee Ann Womack • Peter Schickele • Andre Watts • Peter Serkin •
The Sam Bush Band • John Jorgenson • Arlo Guthrie • Buckwheat Zydeco • John Michael Montgomery
Show • Bruce Hornsby • Wynonna Judd • Ricky Skaggs • BETTY • Phoebe Snow • Doug Varone
• Barry Douglas • Tianwa Yang • Lar Lubovitch • Patti LuPone • John Pizzarelli • Ralph Stanley • Cherryholmes
• Dierks Bentley • Tony Rice • The Manhattan Transfer • Bill Cosby • Clyde Edgerton • Alexander
Idina Menzel • Eric Carle • Boz Skaggs • Lyle Lovett • Shawn Colvin • Suzanne Vega • Julian Schwarz
Sheryl Crow • Nick Shaham • Kacey Musgraves • Brian Stokes Mitchell • David Grisman • The Beach
• Carlota Santana
• Ohio Ballet
Townsend • Scott Pope • Trombone Shorty • Pink Martini • Marco Nunez • Bill McKibben • Kelli O'Hara
• Lucinda Childs
gren • Carl Palmer • Kool & The Gang • Michael Feinstein • Storm Large • Rhiannon Giddens • Kristin
Brothers • The Temptations • Awadagin Pratt • Pat Benatar • Neil Giraldo • Melissa Etheridge.The North Ensemble • Noyes Capehart Long • Smithsonian Institution • The Acting Company • James Ogle
• Music from China
• Erick Hawkins • Landis & Company
• Emmylou Harris
• Parsons Dance Company
Carolina Dance Theatre • Tennessee Williams • Doc Watson • Crystal Gayle • Gary Walker • The Cross • Arianna Goldina • Remy Loumbrozo • Shirley Jones • William Warfield • Stars of New York hon • The Dallas Brass • Chet Atkins • John Hartford • Robin & Linda Williams • Paul Taylor Dance Company
• Willie Nelson
• Laura Boosinger
• Claire Bloom
• Jerry Uelsmann pany
• Miami City Ballet • Allen Taylor • The Brubeck Brothers • Dave McKenna • Timmy Abell
• Grace Bumbry
• Hal Holbrook
• Neena Freelon
• McCutcheon • Betty Bivins Edwards
Orchestra • Arlo Guthrie • Juilliard Dance Ensemble • Benny Green • Wolf Kahn • Kenny Rogers • Flamenca • Mingus Big Band • Bill Charlap • Harry Allen • Francis T. Borkowski • William A. Gora
• Nicholas
• Leahy • Russell Malone • Ladysmith Black Mambazo • Marcus Belgrave • Pilobolus • The Sam Bush Shen Wei • Ellis & Delfeayo Marsalis • Mark Morris
• Lavey Smith • The Old Crow Medicine Show • Manchester • Sophie B. Hawkins • Joan Baez • Kenny Loggins • Janis Ian • Amy Sedaris • Barry holmes • Susan Graham • Chita Rivera • Ben Vereen • Nadja Solerno-Sonnenberg • k.d. lang • Dierks • Linda Eder • The Travelin’ McCourys • Sierra Hull • The Band Perry • Joseph Bathanti • Idina Menzel Big Town • Michael McDonald • James Galway • Matthew Morrison • Nickel Creek • Sheryl Crow • Fischer • Scott Bradlee • The Avett Brothers
Jerry Douglas
Chris Arvidson
Julie Townsend • Men • Sutton Foster • Jennifer Nettles
Appalachian Chamber Ensemble • Noyes Capehart Long • Smithsonian Institution • The Acting Company • VerPlanck • North Carolina Dance Theatre • Tennessee Williams • Doc Watson • Crystal Gayle • Gary Zimmerman • Mike Cross • Arianna Goldina • Remy Loumbrozo • Shirley Jones • William Warfield • Stars
Loonis McGlohon • The Dallas Brass • Chet Atkins • John Hartford • Robin & Linda Williams • Paul Poncho Sanchez • Carlota Santana • Ohio Ballet • Lucinda Childs • Music from China • Emmylou
Caribbean Dance Company • Erick Hawkins • Landis & Company • Parsons Dance Company • Miami
2006 NC Symphony
James • Livingston Taylor • The Brubeck Brothers • Dave McKenna • Timmy Abell • Laura Boosinger • David Holt • John McCutcheon • Betty Bivins Edwards • Willie Nelson • Grace Bumbry • Hal Holbrook
Duke Ellington Orchestra • Arlo Guthrie • Juilliard Dance Ensemble • Benny Green • Wolf Kahn • Kenny
Beausoleil • Noche Flamenca • Mingus Big Band • Bill Charlap • Harry Allen • Francis T. Borkowski • William
• Lily Tomlin • Leahy • Russell Malone • Ladysmith Black Mambazo • Marcus Belgrave • Pilobolus • Montgomery • Shen Wei • Ellis & Delfeayo Marsalis • Mark Morris • Lavey Smith • The Old Crow Medicine
• Melissa Manchester • Sophie B. Hawkins • Joan Baez • Kenny Loggins • Janis Ian • Amy Sedaris
Cherryholmes • Susan Graham • Chita Rivera • Ben Vereen • Nadja Solerno-Sonnenberg • k.d. lang
Toradze • Linda Eder • The Travelin’ McCourys • Sierra Hull • The Band Perry • Joseph Bathanti •
Schwarz • Little Big Town • Michael McDonald • James Galway • Matthew Morrison • Nickel Creek •
Beach Boys • Lisa Fischer • Scott Bradlee • The Avett Brothers • Jerry Douglas • Chris Arvidson • Julie
O'Hara • The Hit Men • Sutton Foster • Jennifer Nettles • Chris Botti • Bruce Hornsby • YES • Todd Rund
Nicholas Basbanes • Lee Ann Womack • Peter Schickele • Andre Watts • Peter Serkin • Lily Tomlin
Bush Band • John Jorgenson • Arlo Guthrie • Buckwheat Zydeco • John Michael Montgomery • Bruce Hornsby • Wynonna Judd • Ricky Skaggs • BETTY • Phoebe Snow • Doug Varone • Melissa
Barry Douglas • Tianwa Yang • Lar Lubovitch • Patti LuPone • John Pizzarelli • Ralph Stanley • Cherry-
Dierks Bentley • Tony Rice • The Manhattan Transfer • Bill Cosby • Clyde Edgerton • Alexander Toradze
Menzel • Eric Carle • Boz Skaggs • Lyle Lovett • Shawn Colvin • Suzanne Vega • Julian Schwarz
• Little
• Nick Shaham • Kacey Musgraves • Brian Stokes Mitchell • David Grisman • The Beach Boys • Lisa Scott Pope • Trombone Shorty • Pink Martini • Marco Nunez • Bill McKibben • Kelli O'Hara • The Hit
Carl Palmer • Kool & The Gang • Michael Feinstein • Storm Large • Rhiannon Giddens • Kristin Che Brothers • The Temptations • Awadagin Pratt • Pat Benatar • Neil Giraldo • Melissa Etheridge.The North Car
Ensemble • Noyes Capehart Long • Smithsonian Institution • The Acting Company • James Ogle • Rober
Carolina Dance Theatre • Tennessee Williams • Doc Watson • Crystal Gayle • Gary Walker • The Duke’s • Arianna Goldina • Remy Loumbrozo • Shirley Jones • William Warfield • Stars of New York City
The Dallas Brass • Chet Atkins • John Hartford • Robin & Linda Williams • Paul Taylor Dance Compa-
Carlota Santana • Ohio Ballet • Lucinda Childs • Music from China • Emmylou Harris • Jerry Uelsmann
CELEBRATING LEGACY & LONGEVITY
Reflections from a few of App Summer’s long-standing supporters
WHAT MAKES YOU A PROUD PARTNER?
“The generosity of spirit and spirit of generosity in this community overwhelms me. A cornerstone to the festival is the generosity of the sponsors and donors...ensures that many of us have an opportunity to be a part of this environment.”
BARBARA WATKINS DAYE supporter since 1988
“For many years, App Summer has helped firstgeneration students and women see themselves in art making, and at college. App Summer and other university arts offerings allow students to see themselves and experience arts and culture that is new and different.”
JOHN & BETTIE BOND supporters since 1987
WHY SHOULD SOMEONE INVEST IN THE FESTIVAL?
“If you are passionate about the arts, this is your place. You have a responsibility to become an advocate and join the long parade of arts patrons. You can touch the future here, and leave a legacy. Art has accompanied us for all history, and by investing in this you can ensure that art continues to teach us about our human experience.
Art is personal, but a good artist will reflect society and create a conversation to say: ‘We were here and this is who we are.’”
PETER & JONI PETSCHAUER supporters since 1987
WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE MEMORIES?
“Seeing Boz Scaggs was a very full circle moment, because I have been a big fan since I was a kid. And the Trombone Shorty performance in 2016 was very memorable. The band was many hours late due to flight delays, and I was the one that went on stage to let the audience know! I thought the audience would throw tomatoes at me. It was still a great show and great audience.”
WRIGHT TILLEY
Executive Director of Explore Boone Watauga County Tourism Development Authority supporter since 1989
“The most magical night was when the first class of Founders Society members were recognized on stage at the Schaefer Center during a performance. They received a standing ovation from the audience. It was so important for the audience to see the impact of philanthropy in the arts that night. Afterwards, I spoke to a young couple that said that moment inspired them to become arts patrons as well, and it just gave me chills.”
SUSIE GREEN supporter since 1987
Wright Tilley with Patti LaBelle, 2019
Barbara Watkins Daye (left) with Elizabeth Auer, Executive Director, Office of Arts Engagement & Cultural Resources
Susie Green (right) with Elizabeth Auer
WHY DO YOU SUPPORT APP SUMMER?
“Having parents that valued the arts was a legacy passed on to us. An Appalachian Summer Festival was the result of their commitment to ensure that music, dance, theatre, film and visual arts are available to our community. We both continue the work they started as it has become a part of who we are.”
—NANCY & NEIL SCHAFFEL
proudly continuing the legacy begun by Nancy’s parents, Arnold and Muriel Rosen, who helped found the festival in 1984.
FAN FAVORITES
Parsons Dance, Lea Salonga,
Rhiannon Giddens –Peter & Joni Petschauer
Chris Botti, Leslie Odom, Jr.
–Barbara Watkins Daye
Boz Scaggs , Keb’ Mo’ & Taj Mahal –Wright Tilley
Paul Taylor Dance Company
–John & Bettie Bond
WHAT MAKES APP SUMMER SO SPECIAL?
“You can be a good university without the arts, but if you want to be GREAT, then you have to pay attention to the arts. The arts are the soul of a university and add another facet to what the university ought to be.”
HARVEY & SUSAN DURHAM supporters since 1987
“This festival of the arts, ALL of them, brings the best of the best to Boone and makes great music, film, sculpture, art, and theatre accessible to everyone in the High Country. We are SO lucky to be here!”
LARRY & NANCI TOLBERT NANCE supporters since 1989
Back row (l-r): Hannah Bennett, Karen Trefz, Jim West, Barbara Watkins Daye, Elizabeth Auer, John Cooper, and John James Front row (l-r): Wright Tilley, Jenson Weaver, Addison Martin, Susie Greene, Faye Cooper, Joni Petschauer, Peter Petschauer, and Melinda Friddell
Nancy & Neil Schaffel with Lily Tomlin, 2019
Harvey Durham, AASF 1993
T O N H O T E L
B O O N E ' S O R I G I N A L
B O U T I Q U E H O T E L
FOUNDER’S SOCIETY
CHARTER MEMBERS
THE BROYHILL FAMILY FOUNDATION:
J. EDGAR and SATIE H. BROYHILL
JAMES T. and LOUISE R. BROYHILL
PAUL H. and FAYE A. BROYHILL
WILLARD A. and BETTIE B. GORTNER
ROBERT E. and ALLENE B. HEILMAN
ROBERT G. and MARIAM CANNON HAYES
ARMFIELD and RACHEL RIVERS COFFEY
BERGE H. and MELINÉ A. MARKARIAN
BUDD and NANETTE MAYER
ARNOLD P. and MURIEL S. ROSEN
MARTIN L. and DORIS B. ROSEN
ROBERT and MINNIE SNEAD
J. BERNARD and SHIRLEY S. SPECTOR
ROBERT L. and LILLIAN A. TURCHIN
2002 MEMBERS
JOHN E. and FAYE B. COOPER
BUDDY and CHARLOTTE HALPERT
FLORENCE R. HECHT
D. GRADY MORETZ JR. and REBA SMITH MORETZ
PETER and JONI WEBB PETSCHAUER
2013 MEMBERS
CONNIE ADAMS
BONNIE and JAMIE SCHAEFER
2015 MEMBERS
FRANK and KAY BORKOWSKI
DOUG and TERESA JOHNSON
RALPH and VENDA LERCH
RALPH GLASER, JR. and JOHN A. PFEIFER
NEIL and NANCY SCHAFFEL
MARK and NANCY TAFEEN
2019 MEMBERS
EXPLORE BOONE (Wright Tilley)
WENDY and MIKE BRENNER
SUE and STEVE CHASE
CHETOLA RESORT (Kent and Shelley Tarbutton)
On July 22, 2000, the university created a Founders Society to recognize the supporters whose generosity and hard work helped build An Appalachian Summer Festival. The festival owes its success in large part to these extraordinary individuals.
CREEKSIDE ELECTRONICS (Lane Robinson)
SUSAN and HARVEY DURHAM
LYNN and BARRY EISENBERG
ADRIENNE FINKEL
BARBARA and LARRY FREIMAN
MARY and NICK FRIEDMAN
GOODNIGHT BROTHERS (Jim Goodnight and Bill Goodnight)
SUSIE GREENE
RALPH GRIER
SANDY and MARC KADYK
HELEN and ROGER MICHELSON
NANCI TOLBERT NANCE and LARRY NANCE
PEABODY’S WINE & BEER MERCHANTS (Jeff Collins)
EDIE PEISER
TINA and GARY SILVERSTEIN
SKYBEST COMMUNICATIONS (Edward Hinson and Karen Powell)
SANDI FINCI SOLOMON
LETTY and KEITH STONEMAN
CYN D WEAVER
HELENE and STEPHEN WEICHOLZ
2024 MEMBERS
BILL BARBOUR
BETTIE & JOHN BOND
LAINEY & STEVEN BROOKS
NATALIE & PENN BROYHILL
BROYHILL CHAMBER ENSEMBLE
BARBARA WATKINS DAYE
JANA DUKE
CHUCK & ANNA EYLER
ELLEN HARRELL
MARY UNDERWOOD & BEN HENDERSON
ANNE C. & DR. MYRON LIPTZIN
JENNY & WAYNE MILLER
CARMEN PATELLA
CHRISTINE PETTI
SUSAN PETTYJOHN
DENISE RINGLER
PAM WALKER
IN MEMORIAM
This past year, An Appalachian Summer Festival lost special members of its family, whose leadership, support, and generosity nurtured the growth and development of the summer festival. The memory of these beloved friends lives on in our hearts.
DR. KENNETH PEACOCK
For 31 years, Dr. Kenneth Peacock was a beloved fixture at Appalachian State University, where he served as the University’s seventh Chancellor from 2004 until his retirement in 2014. During his distinguished career at Appalachian, he championed “students first, quality in all” as a focus of engagement and commitment to the overall student experience and to further cement the educational, economic and civic impact of the University. In addition to his campus activities, Dr. Peacock and his family were active volunteers at church, school, and civic functions in the Boone community, always willing to lend a voice of mentorship and encouragement to many over the years. “Ken always had a smile on his face and that matched his compassion for helping students,” said Rosanne Peacock, wife of 48 years. “He loved calling students by name as he saw them walking across campus and he was committed to always helping them be at their very best in the classroom and in life. … Ken was a devoted family man, and loved his role as a husband, father, and grandfather. He taught Sunday School for 40 years and could play the piano and organ by ear. His sincere belief in Appalachian State University drove him professionally, and he cherished the opportunity he had to take the campus community into the future.”
KENT TARBUTTON
Kent Tarbutton was the ultimate cheerleader: of his family, friends, community and charitable endeavors. For 26 years, Kent dedicated his life to creating unforgettable memories for guests staying at his cherished Chetola Resort, which he purchased in 1997. Kent was selflessly active in local communities and served on many non-profit boards in Blowing Rock and Boone. He also contributed Chetola Resort services in support of many local non-profit organizations, of which An Appalachian Summer Festival was a beneficiary for many years. Kent served tirelessly on the App Summer Advisory Board as both a member and its chairperson, forever championing the festival and its staff. Kent will be remembered as a devoted and loving husband, father, brother and son, as well as a mentor to many. He was a leader who loved his work family. He was a writer and public speaker who touched the hearts of those who read or heard his words. He was a true selfless friend to those who needed a hand up, or a wise or encouraging word. He was an inspiration to have fun, create laughter, travel to distant lands, savor relationships, and love deeply.
BETH SUGGS CARRIN
Beth Suggs Carrin was a long-time volunteer with An Appalachian Summer Festival, her commitment spanning almost 30 years. She was a retired teacher from Parkway Elementary School, and a member of the Watauga County Unit of the North Carolina Retired School Personnel. Beth was extremely active in the community through the ASU Women’s Club, Senior Games, the Boone Golf Club and Ladies Golf Association, and much more, as well as being a devoted member of the Deerfield Methodist Church. Beth will be remembered for her gentle, kind, and loving approach to life. She will be greatly missed by her family, friends, fellow volunteers, and all those who had the privilege of meeting her.
FRIENDS
of An Appalachian Summer Festival
VOLUNTEER
COORDINATOR
CHLOE ZWILLING
SUPERVISORS
BILL BARBOUR
ANINDITA DAS
JENNIFER DOTSON
JANA DUKE
DIANA LATENDRESSE
JACKIE MCINTURFF
CARMEN PATELLA
PAM WALKER
VOLUNTEERS
BEN ALEXANDER-EITZMAN
JUDY ALEXANDER-EITZMAN
BETTY ARMISTEAD
FRANCINE BARR
KYNDY BOYLE
MARGOT BROWN HAMPTON
ELIZABETH BUCHANAN
JUDITH CARLSON
BETH CARRIN
KERRY CLARK
MATT COOK
CARL CORDINI
RUTH DAGGETT
ROSA DARGAN-POWERS
SANDY DAVIS
BARBARA DAYE
ANN DILLON
SANDRA FOLTS
DODIE GLOWA
CANDACE HALL
SUSAN HAZLEWOOD
BEN HENDERSON
TUNEY HENSON
BARBARA HUNSUCKER
ROBIN HUNT
REBECCA KAENZIG
HUTCHINS
AVIVA KAHN
KEVIN KENNEDY
MEG KENNEDY
DALE KIRKLEY
ANITA LAYMON
BETH LYONS
AMBER MELLON
RAY MORETZ
SALLY ORR
SANDRA PERRY
JUDITH PHOENIX
PHOEBE POLLITT
JOANNE PULIATTI
TERI REDDICK
KIM REESE
LINDA RIGELL
KITTY ROMINGER
TRACI ROYSTER
MARY RUPP
SHARON SHEW
JOANIE SHIRLEY
ROBERT SHIRLEY
DEANNE SMITH
INEKE THOMAS
CAROL THOMPSON
NANCI TOLBERT NANCE
JEANNIE TYGIELSKI
MARY UNDERWOOD
MARY WHISENANT
BARBARA WOODROW
JIM ZELLNER
JOYCE ZELLNER
STAFF
An Appalachian Summer Festival is presented by the Office of the Chancellor
OFFICE OF THE CHANCELLOR
Interim Chancellor
HEATHER NORRIS
Vice Chancellor and Chief of Staff
HANK FOREMAN
Executive Director of Arts Engagement and Cultural Resources
ELIZABETH AUER
SCHAEFER CENTER
FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS
Budget Services
KAREN TREFZ
Director of Arts Education and Outreach
CHRISTY CHENAUSKY
Director of Development
MELINDA FRIDDELL
Leadership Annual Gifts Officer
HANNAH BENNETT
Director of Booking and Artist Relations
LAURA KAUFMAN
Director of Operations
SCOTT HAYNES
Technical Director
CONOR MCKENZIE
Lead Technician
CHRIS POPE
Director of Audience Services
MAURA MCKENZIE
Box Office and Volunteer Coordinator
CHLOE ZWILLING
Director of Marketing & Public Relations
ALLISON WEST
Marketing Assistant
MADISON CLARK
TURCHIN CENTER
FOR THE VISUAL ARTS
Budget Manager
LISA ANDREWS
Associate Curator for Academic Engagement
SHAUNA CALDWELL
Preparator
BELLA SOLLOSI
Director of Arts Education and Outreach
CHRISTY CHENAUSKY
Director of Development
MELINDA FRIDDELL
Leadership Annual Gifts Officer
HANNAH BENNETT
Director of Visitor Services
CRISOL CAMPOS
Director of External & Public Relations
LINDSAY MILLER
Senior Curator
MARY ANNE REDDING
Collections Manager
MOLLY SCHWANZ
Curatorial Assistant
SETH PERRY
Graphic Design Intern
KATIE RANDALL
(GRAPHIC DESIGN, 2024)
Graphic Design Services
ASHLEY BOSTIAN
STUDENT EMPLOYEES
Artist Relations Assistant
KATE LESSIN
Box Office Staff
ISABELLA BRUMFIELD
(Theatre Performance, Minor in Dance, 2024)
RIAN HUGHES
(Graphic Communication Management with a concentration in Cross Media Production, Minor in Studio Art, 2026)
LAUREN HUNEYCUTT
(Theatre Education, Minor in Dance, 2026)
WINIFRED RHEA-UNRUH
(Sustainable Development with a concentration in Environmental Studies, 2025)
Backstage Crew
HUGH BETTINI
(Music Industry Studies with a concentration in Recording and Production, 2026)
BRYCE BREWER
(Business Management, 2027)
RAQUEL CHRISTIANSEN
(Theatre Design/Technology, 2024)
LINDSAY J. DOUGLASS
(Theatre Arts, with a concentration in Design and Technology, focus in Stage Management; Minor in Leadership Studies, 2024)
JAKE GORMAN
(Music Industry Studies with a concentration in Marketing and Promotion, 2025)
ALI GOTELLI
(Music Industry Studies, 2026)
RORY GREENE
(Drama Design & Technical Production, Minor in Anthropology, 2026)
MARSHALL HADSALL
(Theatre Arts, with a concentration in Theatre Design/Technology, 2025)
TYLER D. MCCARTY
(Music Industry Studie, with a concentration in Recording & Production, 2026)
ABBEY MCGRAW
(Music Industry Studie, with a concentration in Recording & Production, 2026)
RANSOM VANCE
(Music Industries Studies with a concentration in Recording and Production, 2025)
Turchin Gallery Ambassador Advisor CAMDEN McCANAMY (BA in Art History with Studio Art and Anthropology minors, 2024)
Turchin Front Desk Assistant
SAMANTHA DeJOHN (BS in Psychology, Social Science CONC. with Sociology Minor, 2024)
KAYLA RAMEYY
(BA in Creative Writing with History Minor, 2024)
JAKE REID (Social Work, 2025)
JILLIAN SEVERSKY (Art Education K-12, 2025)
Gallery Ambassadors HOPE CANTON (BFA in Commercial Photography, 2024)
SARA DIAZ (Anthropology, 2026)
ISABELLA/GABRIEL
DOBBS (Studio Art, 2025)
BUG GALLIMORE (Studio Art, 2025)
GABRIELLE GRIFFIN (Art & Visual Culture, 2025)
SARA MARSHBURN (History, 2025)
GRACE SCHNEIDER (BA in Anthropology with English Minor, 2024)
ROSE TALLENT
(Apparel Design & Merchandising, 2025)
Outreach Workshop Facilitator
MANDY BASS
(Studio Art - Sculpture, B.F.A.; Art and Visual Culture - Art Management, B.A.; Nonprofit Organizations Minor, 2025)
Appalachian State University acknowledges the Indigenous peoples who are the original inhabitants of the lands on which our campus is located. The Cherokee, Catawba and other Indigenous peoples left their mark as hunters, healers, traders, travelers, farmers and villagers long before the university was established. We understand the historical connection our university has with these Indigenous communities and commit to creating spaces for collaboration and strengthening support structures to build a more equitable future together.
2024 SPECIAL EVENTS
Day Out With Thomas™
June 7-10 & 13-16
Fireworks Extravaganza
Thursday, July 4
Park open until 9 pm, Fireworks at 9:30 pm
K9s In Flight Frisbee® Dogs
July 20-22 & 25-28
Shows at 11 am, 1 pm & 3 pm; Saturday evening show at 5 pm
Riders In The Sky
August 10 & 11
Performances at Noon & 3 pm
Railroad Heritage Weekend
August 24 - 25
Ghost Train®
September 20 - October 26
Every Friday & Saturday Evening Park opens at 7:30 pm
Since the festival’s inception in 1984, many individuals, corporations and foundations have made significant contributions to the creation and growth of An Appalachian Summer Festival. This list recognizes their cumulative commitments.
Arnold & Muriel Rosen / Rosen-Schaffel Endowment for Classical Music Programming
Barbara & Lawrence Freiman
Neil & Nancy Schaffel
Bonnie & Jamie Schaefer / Westglow Resort and Spa
The Martin & Doris Rosen Giving Fund / Debbie Rosen Davidson & David Rosen
Hanes & Lida Boren / Footsloggers Outdoor & Travel Outfitters
Boone Ford-Lincoln
Sen. & Mrs. James T. Broyhill
Mr. & Mrs. Keith Cloyed
Armfield & Rachel Coffey
Susan & Harvey Durham
Lynn & Barry Eisenberg
A.J. Fletcher Foundation
The Friedman Family: Ingrid, Mary & Nick
Susie Greene
Ralph S. Grier
Dr. & Mrs. Brent Hall
Mr. & Mrs. Sol Halpert
Dieter & Karyn Herterich
Dr. & Mrs. Berge Markarian
Anne C. & Myron B. Liptzin
Bob & Minnie Snead
Kent & Shelley Tarbutton / Chetola Resort
Mr. J. Wallace Wrightson
Mr. & Mrs. Arthur Yergey
$25,000–$49,999
Appalachian Ski Mountain / The Moretz Family
Drs. William & Sally Atkins
Joan & Albert Benbasat
Frank & Kay Borkowski
Natalie & Penn Broyhill
Kathleen Price Bryan Family Fund
Sue & Steve Chase
Mr. & Mrs. Arthur Courshon
Creekside Electronics / Lane & Joan Robinson
Byrdie & Ed Denison
Dewoolfson Down Products
Chuck & Anna Eyler / Highstreet Insurance Partners
Mr. Jim Furman – Wendy’s of Boone
Dr. & Mrs. Lowell Furman
Mr. & Mrs. Robert F. Gilley
Ralph Glaser, Jr. & John A. Pfeifer
Sonya Rabin Greenfield
The Bruce J. Heim Foundation
Holiday Inn Express
Billy & Ray Howell
Mr. & Mrs. Harry F. Jacobs
Ethel & George Kennedy Family Foundation
Anonymous
Laurelmor - A Ginn Company Resort
Edgar & Nan Lawton
Lexington Furniture Industries
Morris & Katia Lioz
Linville Ridge Country Club
Mr. & Mrs. James T. Lynagh
Hospitality Mints, Inc.
Karen P. Minges
Daniel & Harlene Mitchum
Rosanne & Ken Peacock
Edith S. Peiser
Betty & Jesse Pike
Perfection Equipment Company
Drs. Raymond & Judith Pulley
John & Joy Safer
Mr. & Mrs. Lawrence Singer
Sandi Finci Solomon
T.G. Solomon
Marshall Stein & Denise Grohs
David & Ginny Stevens
Ms. HelenTaulman
Park Terrell / Nationwide Insurance Agency
Mr. & Mrs. Dolph von Arx
Cindy Wallace & Allen Moseley
Wells Fargo Bank
Mr. & Mrs. Samuel Whalen
$10,000–$24,999
Brenda & Ira Abrams
Sheldon E. Anderson
Homer & Margie Barrett
William & Linda Blanton
Blue Ridge Mountain Club
Kathryne & Howard Brafman
Jack Branch
Peter & Susan Brockway Catsman Foundation
Charter Communications, Inc.
Cheap Joe’s Art Stuff, Inc.
Helen Clabough Foundation
Alan & Sally Cone
Courtyard by Marriott
Crestwood Resort & Spa
Dr. Pamelia S. Cromer
Deer Valley Racquet Club
Dianne Davant Interiors
Merle & Louis Feinberg
Foundation of Jewish Philanthropies
The Alfred B. & Josette L. Glover Family Foundation
Mr. & Mrs. Julian Good
Molle Grad
Mr. & Mrs. Harold Granoff
Robert Grier
Mr. & Mrs. Ronald G. Hester
Kenneth Hubbard
Rebecca Hutchins
Michael & Sara Mayhew
Pam & Mike McKay
Larry & Nanci Tolbert Nance
The Nesor Foundation
Panoramic Hospitality
Linda Larson and Bill Pelto
Joseph P. Logan
Old World Galleries
Edmund F. Perls
PNC Bank
Anonymous
Ron Redmon & Tom Normand
Fred & Priscilla Robinette
Sally & Russell Robinson
Mr. & Mrs. Frank Ross, Jr.
Gerard & Judith Rothschild
Sazingg Jewelers
Steven Weischoff & Marla Schaefer
The Sesame Foundation
The Shane Family Foundation
Kim Shepherd
Gus & Frances Stavros
Tarheel Capital
Charles Gordon Travis
Tweetsie Railroad
Mary Underwood & Ben Henderson
United Technologies Corp. US Airways
Mr. & Mrs. Alberto Vadia
Mr. Edward Vincz
Betty E. Yount
Jeffrey & Cher Zavik
Sam Tallman & Mike Zuravel
2024 FESTIVAL SUPPORTERS
An Appalachian Summer Festival deeply appreciates the support of its contributors. This list reflects contributions and pledges made solely to An Appalachian Summer Festival’s Annual Appeal from October 1, 2023 through May 17, 2024.
PREMIER SPONSORS
$100,000–ABOVE
Bonnie & Jamie Schaefer
FESTIVAL SPONSORS
$25,000–$99,999
Lainey & Steven Brooks
Neil & Nancy Schaffel
DIRECTOR
$10,000–$24,000
App State Campus Store
Appalachian Home Care / Ellen Harrell
Peter & Susan Brockway
Broyhill Family Foundation, Inc.
Catsman Foundation
Lynn & Barry Eisenberg
Explore Boone
Goodnight Brothers
Ralph S. Grier
Highstreet Insurance Partners / Chuck & Anna Eyler
Anonymous
Venda Lerch
Anne C. and Myron B. Liptzin
Morris & Katia Lioz
Mast General Store / John, Faye, & Lisa Cooper
Gary Silverstein
(in memory of Tina Silverstein)
SkyBest Communications, Inc.
Circle S Foundation / Keith & Letty Stoneman
Nancy Tafeen
(in memory of Mark Tafeen)
Helene & Stephen Weicholz
ARTIST
$6,000–$9,999
Wendy & Mike Brenner
Joni & Peter Petschauer
Creekside Electronics / Lane & Joan Robinson
Peabody’s Wine & Beer Merchant / Jeff Collins
AMBASSADOR
$3,000–$5,999
Albert & Joan Benbasat
Carol & Morty Blumberg
Kathryne & Howard Brafman
Frank & Kay Borkowski
Natalie & Penn Broyhill
Sue & Steve Chase
Courtyard by Marriott
Adrienne Finkel
Merle & Louis Feinberg
Barbara F. Freiman
(in memory of Larry Freiman)
Susie Greene
Hampton Inn & Suites
Holiday Inn Express
Sandy & Marc Kadyk
Suzanne Lasky Gerard & Bill Liebman
Joseph P. Logan
Michael & Sarah Matthews
Mike & Pam McKay / The Art Cellar
Janet P. Pepin & Francesca K. Field
Premier Sotheby’s International Realty
R. Y. & Eileen L. Sharpe Foundation
Sandi Finci Solomon
BENEFACTOR
$1,200–$2,999
Jonathan & Marisue Beloff
Carol Berns & Ted Silver
Hanes & Lida Boren
Matthew Connolly
Barbara Watkins Daye
Susan & Harvey Durham
(in honor of Minnie & Bob Snead, and in memory of Muriel & Arnold Rosen)
The Bruce J. Heim Foundation
Jenny & Wayne Miller
Mark & Barbara Moskowitz
Melissa Norman
Bill Pelto & Linda Larson
Julie & Gary Simon
Alex Sink
Dolph & Liz Sumner
Tracy & Wright Tilley
PATRON
$600–$1,199
Brenda & Ira Abrams
Diane & Joe Bastian
James & Dianne Goldenberg
Molle Grad
(in honor of Denise Ringler)
Marilyn Green
Kristina Groover & Marian Peters
(in memory of Dr. Rosemary Horowitz)
Megan Hayes & Michael Kitchell
(in honor of Kaaren & Lowell Hayes)
Mary & Nick Friedman
Annette Paden
Susan Pettyjohn
(in memory of Bruce Pettyjohn & Ken Peacock)
Susan & Barry Podolsky
Traci D. Royster
Larry & Nanci Tolbert Nance
Dottie & Charlie Sykes
Julie & Tom Trueman
Sam Tallman & Mike Zuravel
Mary Underwood & Ben Henderson
Claudia Van Essen
Todd Wright
CONTRIBUTOR
$300–$599
Anonymous
Henry & Denise Amat
Elizabeth Auer & John James
Craig & Rose Bridgeman
John & Bettie Bond
Anonymous
Lorraine Childers
Alan & Nancy Cress
Gigi & William Egge
Melinda Friddell & Shawn Vestey
Hank Foreman & John Baynor
Anna Gaugert & Thomas Martin
Dan Gaugert & Terry Harper
(in honor of Anna Gaugert)
Tim & Nancy Lorenzen
(in memory of Keith & Leota Cloyed)
Stephen & Karen Mawn
Donald & Mary Miller
Carol Quintero & Laurie Weiner
Denise Ringler
Edward & Barbara Rosasco
Dr. Morris & Margery Segall
Rebecca Shankland
Eleni & Steven Sonenreich
Barbara & Fred Webb
FRIEND
$1–$299
Michael & Joan Bell
Amanda & Scott Bennett
Hannah C. Bennett
Christy & Brad Chenausky
Jeannine Underdown Collins
Dyan & George Cutter
Charles R. Duke
Karen Ewen
Sali Gill-Johnson
Jeff Handler
Laura & Kenny Kaufman
Susan Klein
Jane Lonon
Sally Gray Lovejoy
Gregg & Bonnie Marland
Tamara Michael
Doug & Susan Morton
Carol D. Parent
Tish & Tom Rokoske
(in memory of Marion Dettbarn)
Mary Rupp
(in memory of Richard “Dick” Rupp)
Jane Saunders
Patrick K. Setzer
Marilyn Seward
Jim & Sandy Sheatsley
Joanie & Robert Shirley
Reta & Ralph Slade
Helen Sirett & Ken Hendrix
Marlene Walter
(in honor of Nancy & Neil Schaffel, and in memory of Muriel & Arnold Rosen)
Allison West & Rick Suyao
Judith Wylie
CREATIVITY TAKES COMMUNITY
OUR REWARDS ARE MEASURED IN IMPACT. BECAUSE OF YOUR GENEROSITY, WE REMAIN COMMITTED TO…
· Affordable ticket prices and free events, ensuring arts access for all
· Seeing the arts grow and flourish while building the next generation of arts lovers
· Programming that emphasizes education and enrichment as well as entertainment
· Artistic excellence that celebrates both established and emerging artists
· Events that foster conversation, bridge communities, and strengthen social ties
BECOME A FESTIVAL SUPPORTER!
Artistic excellence, accessibility, and audience engagement make An Appalachian Summer Festival unique. Because the festival is committed to affordable ticket prices, revenues from ticket sales cover only about 43% of its annual costs. Private support from festival donors must fill the gap in order to ensure a continued commitment to both quality programming and affordable ticket pricing.
WAYS YOU CAN HELP
· Attend festival events and share the power of the arts with friends and family.
· Become a festival supporter and enjoy benefits that include complimentary tickets, parking privileges, and special events.
· Consider making an outright gift or a planned gift. Gifts may be targeted to specific programming and designated in honor of the donor or in recognition of friends or family.
Your support will make it possible to build the audiences of tomorrow, showcase rising artists, raise national visibility of the festival, and continue to present the “best of the best” in artistic programming.
Become a supporter and a
SEAT NAMER
Grab your seat and watch the arts come to life!
BECOME A PERMANENT PART OF THE SCHAEFER CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS
For $2,500, place your name, that of a loved one, or your business on one or more of the theatre seats in the Schaefer Center. An elegantly engraved brass plaque with your specified copy will be prominently displayed on the back of the seat(s) you select.
This gift is tax-deductible and considered a charitable donation to the Schaefer Center Presents series, granting early ticket buying privileges for your lifetime. Seat naming allows the donor first right of refusal to tickets for their named seats for events in the Schaefer Center that are part of both the Schaefer Center Presents series and An Appalachian Summer Festival.
SEAT NAMING IS A GREAT WAY TO:
· Pay tribute to your years of enjoyment at the Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts
· Give a unique gift
· Honor a loved one
· Commemorate a special occasion
· Celebrate the arrival of a child or grandchild
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Maura McKenzie Director of Audience Services mckenziemc1@appstate.edu 828.262.2248
by Lynn Donovan
Photography
HIGH COUNTRY
COURTYARD BY MARRIOTT 1050 NC-105, Boone, NC 828.265.7676 | www.marriott.com/hkybn
GRAYSTONE LODGE, ASCEND HOTEL COLLECTION
2419 Hwy 105 S., Boone, NC 28607
828.264.4133 graystonelodge.com
HAMPTON INN & SUITES BOONE
1252 US Hwy 421 S. Boone, NC
828.386.6464 www.hilton.com
Special Rate Code: 003350757
HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS
1943 Blowing Rock Road, Boone, NC 828.264.2451
expressboone.com 10% OFF for Festival Patrons: Rate Code IXNM9
ARTS ENGAGEMENT & CULTURAL RESOURCES
THE SCHAEFER CENTER PRESENTS SERIES
Presented during the academic year (Sept-April), this series supports the teaching mission of the university by presenting a diverse array of music, dance and theatre events designed to enrich the cultural, educational and economic landscape of the campus and surrounding region. By creating memorable performance experiences, the series promotes the power and excitement of a live performance, provides a “window on the world” through the artistry and culture of nationally and internationally renowned artists, and showcases some of the finest artists around the globe.
TheSchaeferCenter.org
Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts
733 Rivers St., Boone
APPLAUSE! K-12 PERFORMING ARTS SERIES
Appalachian State University’s arts education and outreach program strives to broaden and deepen arts experiences for audiences of all ages, while ensuring access to the arts for young audiences, building future audiences for the arts, and inspiring a love of learning through the arts.
TURCHIN CENTER FOR THE VISUAL ARTS
Located on King Street in the heart of downtown Boone, at the crossroads between campus and community, the center’s exhibitions focus on a blend of new and historically important artwork, featuring works by local, regional, national and internationally renowned artists across six galleries. With its multifaceted education and outreach programs, the center is a dynamic, living, breathing presence in the Appalachian community, creating opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds to experience the power and excitement of the visual arts.
TCVA.org
423 W. King St., Boone
ABOUT NATALIE MERCHANT
Over her 40-year career Natalie Merchant has attained a place among America’s most respected recording artists. She has earned a reputation for being a songwriter of quality and a captivating stage performer and has distinguished herself as a social justice and environmental activist. Merchant began her musical career as the lead vocalist and lyricist of the pop music band 10,000 Maniacs and released one platinum, two double-platinum, and one triple-platinum records with the group: The Wishing Chair (1985), In My Tribe (1987), Blind Man’s Zoo (1989), Hope Chest (1990), Our Time in Eden (1992), and 10,000 Maniacs MTV Unplugged (1993). Merchant left the group in 1994 and has subsequently released nine albums as a solo artist with combined sales of seven million copies: Tigerlily (1995), Ophelia (1998), Natalie Merchant Live (1999), Motherland (2001), The House Carpenter’s Daughter (2003), Leave Your Sleep (2010), Natalie Merchant (2014), Paradise Is There (2015), Butterfly (2017), and Keep Your Courage (2023).
Merchant has collaborated with a wide range of artists, including Billy Bragg, Gavin Bryars, David Byrne, The Chieftains, Cowboy Junkies, Philip Glass, Kronos Quartet, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Mavis Staples, REM, and Wilco. She served on the New York State Council on the
Arts from 2007–2011 at the appointment of Governor Elliot Spitzer and was recently appointed to the Board of Trustees of the Library of Congress’ American Folklife Center by New York State Senator and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. Merchant’s awards include: The Library Lion Award from the New York Public Library (2011), The American Society of Authors Composers & Publishers (ASCAP) Champion Award, and The John Lennon Real Love Award. More information about Merchant’s career and philanthropic work may be found at NatalieMerchant. com.
About Keep Your Courage
On her beguiling ninth studio album, Keep Your Courage, Natalie Merchant examines love in all its guises. While the award-winning and multi-platinum-selling singersongwriter has hardly eschewed love songs in the past, she has never been this immersed in them. By Merchant’s count she mentions love twenty-six times across Keep Your Courage. “I think the pandemic was a great period of solitude and longing,” she says by way of one possible explanation for her fixation on matters of the heart. “I craved and savored human connection; it was the only thing that really mattered.”
Keep Your Courage is a sonically disparate and musically sumptuous collection produced by Merchant and recorded
in Vermont with trusted collaborators and new friends. Whether it’s delicate chamber pop (“The Feast of Saint Valentine”), horn-driven soul (“Tower of Babel”), Celtic balladry (“Eye of the Storm”), or instantly infectious pop (“Come on, Aphrodite”), the album is anchored by Merchant’s unmistakable voice, whip-smart wordplay, and emotional delivery.
Though this is her first album of all new, original material in nine years, Merchant has been anything but idle in that time. In addition to raising her daughter, the singersongwriter has tackled several projects in the last decade, among them: rearranging her songs for string quintet and acoustic instruments for the CD and documentary Paradise Is There, directing Shelter, a documentary on domestic violence, curating the 10-disc box set The Natalie Merchant Collection, and somehow, for two years, finding time four days a week to work with children as an artist-in-residence with a local non-profit preschool. She explains, “I felt like it was part of my job as a mother to be an example of someone who’s engaged in the community.” In November 2022, Merchant was appointed to a six-year term on the board of trustees for the American Folklife Center at The Library of Congress by Senate majority leader Charles Schumer.
JAMES BAGWELL
With performances described as “triumphant” (Tulsa World) and “galvanizing” (New York Classical Review), James Bagwell maintains an active schedule as a conductor of choral, orchestral, and opera repertoire. He is Professor of Music and music program director at Bard College, and Director of Performance Studies in the Bard College Conservatory of Music. He serves as Co-Director of the Bard Conservatory Graduate Program in Conducting.
From 2009-2015, he served as music director of The Collegiate Chorale. Highlights with the Chorale included conducting rarely performed operas at Carnegie Hall, including Bellini’s Beatrice di Tenda, Rossini’s Möise et Pharaon, and Boito’s Mefistofele. He conducted the New York premiere of Philip Glass’s Toltec Symphony and Osvaldo Golijov’s Oceana at Carnegie Hall. His performance of Kurt Weill’s Knickerbocker Holiday at Alice Tully Hall was recorded live for Gaslight Records and is the only complete recording of the work. Bagwell prepared the Chorale for numerous concerts at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland and for programs with the Israel Philharmonic in Israel and the Salzburg Festival.
Bagwell has trained choruses for other American and international orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Mostly Mozart Orchestra, NHK Symphony (Japan), St. Petersburg Symphony, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, and Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Since 2003, he has been director of choruses for the Bard Music Festival, conducting and preparing choral works during the summer festival at The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College. With singer Natalie Merchant, he has appeared with The National Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, and San Francisco Symphony, among others. He has been a regular guest conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony and Tulsa Symphony. In 2015, Bagwell was named associate conductor of The Orchestra Now (TON), and in 2009 he was appointed principal guest conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra. He has led both ensembles in concerts at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center.
ABOUT WESTERN PIEDMONT SYMPHONY
Western Piedmont Symphony (WPS) is the professional orchestra of the western foothills of North Carolina, based in Hickory. For 60 years, WPS has enriched and engaged the communities of western North Carolina through high-quality symphonic music with creative, relevant performances, and educational opportunities for all ages. Each season, the Symphony presents an inspiring classical Masterworks series, a fun and entertaining Foothills Pops series, a variety of small music ensembles in the Crossroads series, family-friendly Discovery Family Concerts, plus education and community engagement programs in the Catawba Valley, all under the artistic direction of Maestro Matthew Troy. Experience the power of live music in concert with WPS.
Western Piedmont Symphony is supported by the North Carolina Arts Council and is a funded affiliate of the United Arts Council of Catawba County. WPS is a proud member of the League of American Orchestras.
VIOLIN I
Charley Shafer, Concertmaster
Ryan Keith
Erica Cooper
Jorge Rodriquez Ochoa
Julian Smart
Ruth Kelley
VIOLIN II
Molly Barrett
Mary Ellen Watson
Sierra Smith
Sophie Anderson
Enshi Li
VIOLA
Logan Strawn
Maria Kindt
David Phillips
Eric Koontz
CELLO
Elijah White
Daniel Lail
Jim Lestock
Sophie Lyman
BASS
Aaron Craven
Earl Anderson
Tonya Steward
FLUTE
Laura Stevens OBOE
Anna Morris
CLARINET
David Allen
SAXOPHONE
Avery Bumgarner
BASSOON
Paige West-Smith
HORN
Chris Griffin
Mary Boudreault
Elizabeth Richard
TRUMPET
Luke Boudreault
Mark Hibshman
TROMBONE
Joe Brown
Dandrick Glenn TUBA
Avery Greene
PERCUSSION
Charles Smith
HARP
Helen Rifas
BROYHILL CLASSIC CONCERT SERIES
with special guest
Béla Fleck Eastern Music Festival Orchestra
Gerard Schwarz, conductor and music director
Béla Fleck, banjo
Carter Doolittle, alto saxophone (2023 Rosen-Schaffel Competition Winner)
Sunday, June 30 at 7pm
PROGRAM
Celebration Ellen Taffe Zwilich
Rhapsody for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra, L. 98
Carter Doolittle, alto saxophone
Claude Debussy
Rhapsody in Blue Gershwin/trans. Fleck
Béla Fleck, banjo ~Intermission~
Symphony No. 5 in Pyotr IlyichTchaikovsky E minor, Op. 64
Andante; Allegro con anima
Andante cantabile, con alcuna licenza
Valse: Allegro moderato
Finale: Andante maestoso; Allegro vivace
2024 marks GERARD SCHWARZ’ 20th year with Eastern Music Festival (EMF). He joined EMF as Music Advisor in 2005, became Principal Conductor in 2006, and music director in 2008.
Internationally recognized for his moving performances, innovative programming and extensive catalogue of recordings, American conductor Gerard Schwarz serves as Music Director of the All-Star Orchestra, Eastern Music Festival, Palm Beach Symphony, and Mozart Orchestra of New York and is Conductor Laureate of the Seattle Symphony and Conductor Emeritus of the Mostly Mozart Festival. He holds the position of Distinguished Professor of Music; Conducting and Orchestral Studies of the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami and Music Director of the Frost Symphony Orchestra. Schwarz is a renowned interpreter of 19th century German, Austrian, and Russian repertoire, in addition to his noted work with contemporary American composers.
The All-Star Orchestra is an ensemble of top musicians from America’s leading orchestras featured in sixteen programs that have aired throughout the United States on public television, worldwide by internet streaming, and is the basis for their Khan Academy education platform that has already reached over 6 million students. Gerard Schwarz has also collaborated with the United States Marine Band adding three more programs. All the programs are released by Naxos on DVD and have been awarded nine Emmy Awards and the Deems Taylor
Television Broadcast Award from ASCAP.
Eastern Music Festival in North Carolina is among the country’s most important summer educational institutions bringing together world-renowned artists and exceptionally gifted young musicians from across the United States and beyond. With more than 300 world premieres to his credit, Schwarz has always felt strongly about commissioning and performing new music. As Music Director at EMF, he initiated the Bonnie McElveen-Hunter Commissioning Project that has thus far commissioned works by John Corigliano, Richard Danielpour, André Previn, HyeKyung Lee, and Lowell Liebermann. In all, Ms. McElveen-Hunter has committed to ten new works from American composers.
A prolific recording artist, Schwarz’s total discography numbers over 350 on labels such as Naxos, Delos, EMI, Koch, Artek, New World, Nonesuch, Reference Recording, RLPO Live, Columbia/Sony, and RCA. In November 2017, The Gerard Schwarz Collection, a 30CD box set of previously unreleased and limited release works spanning his entire recording career was released by Naxos. His vast repertoire includes major twentiethcentury ballets by composers Stravinsky, Strauss, Bartók, Ravel, and Prokofiev, as well as multi-disc cycles of works by Schumann, Strauss, Wagner, and Stravinsky. Schwarz’s dedication to the promotion of American music is also represented with his pioneering cycles of 26 American symphonists such as William Schuman, David Diamond, Walter Piston, Paul Creston, Peter Mennin, Alan Hovhaness, and Howard Hanson. The Howard Hanson cycle, first released on Delos, was a mainstay on Billboard’s classical music best-selling list for 41 weeks, earned GRAMMY nominations and was named 1989 Record of the Year by Stereo Review. The new Russian series on Naxos has been acclaimed as “a high point in the extensive Schwarz/Seattle discography” (Classics Today), “very fine” (The Guardian) and “a powerhouse in Russian Romantic repertoire” (MusicWeb International). He released Rimsky-Korsakov’s 1st and 3rd Symphonies with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra in 2016. In addition to his numerous recordings with the Seattle Symphony, he has also recorded with the Czech Philharmonic, English Chamber Orchestra, Juilliard Orchestra, London Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Symphony, New York Chamber Symphony, Orchestre National de France, Philadelphia Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Tokyo Philharmonic, and Eastern Music Festival. A gifted composer and arranger, Schwarz has expanded his compositional activities in recent years. His Trio for Violin, Horn and Piano, recently released on Good Child Recordings, was called a work of “sophistication and intelligence” (Seattle Post- Intelligencer). Earlier works
include In Memoriam and Rudolf and Jeanette (dedicated to the memory of his grandparents who perished in the Holocaust) – both recorded by Naxos; Human Spirit, a composition for choir and orchestra, and his duos for violin and cello were called “redolent of the gentle humanism central to much of the music Schwarz loves to conduct” by The Seattle Times. His arrangements of suites from Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier, Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, and Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, as well as many orchestral works, are programmed in concerts worldwide. A Journey, a large-scale orchestral tone poem, received its world premiere at Eastern Music Festival in July 2012. Schwarz’s work for concert band, Above and Beyond, was premiered by The United States Marine Band in 2013 and is now available on Naxos and recently recorded by the Marine Band for broadcast on PBS in November 2018. His newest work for that ensemble, a new version of Rudolf and Jeannette, was premiered in February 2016. His orchestral work, A Poem, was given its first performance by the Hartford Symphony. His Triptych for violin and cello was premiered at Bargemusic in 2018 and his work for euphonium and band, based on In Memoriam, was premiered in Korea also in 2018, as was his Rhapsody for Cello and Orchestra. Adagio, based on Webern’s Langsamer Satz, premiered at Eastern Music Festival in July 2019.
Schwarz is also known for his operatic performances in addition to his concert work, having appeared with the Juilliard Opera, Kirov Opera, Mostly Mozart Festival, San Francisco Opera, Seattle Opera – where he has led 21 productions – and Washington National Opera conducting the operas of Wagner, Janáček, Strauss, Mozart, Bizet, Weber, Debussy, Bartók, Stravinsky, Beethoven, Hagen, and Gluck.
Born in America to Viennese parents, Schwarz began studying piano at the age of five and soon focused on the trumpet. A graduate of both New York City’s High School of Performing Arts and The Juilliard School, he joined the New York Philharmonic in 1972 as co-principal trumpet, a position he held until 1977. Schwarz’s numerous previous positions include Music Director of New York’s Mostly Mozart Festival (1982-2001), where he presided over soldout houses, developed the orchestra’s international touring, maintained a nine-year residency in Tokyo, considerably expanded its Mozart repertoire and lead numerous televised Live from Lincoln Center appearances. His tenure as Music Director of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (2001-2006) initiated the long-standing partnership between the orchestra and Classic FM, expanded recordings on the RLPO Live label, initiated a new partnership with Avie records, created the enormously popular Sunday matinee Musically Speaking concert series, led highly acclaimed tours to Spain and Prague and
brought the orchestra to National Television in BBC Proms broadcasts. As Music Director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (1978-1985) and New York Chamber Symphony (1977-2001) he expanded concert series and audiences, made award-winning recordings and championed new works. In addition, he served as Artistic Advisor to the Tokyo Philharmonic.
Gerard Schwarz completed his final season as music director of the Seattle Symphony in 2011 after an acclaimed 26 years. During his leadership, Schwarz was instrumental in the building of Benaroya Hall, spearheading efforts that resulted in the acoustically superb new home for the Seattle Symphony. The many legacies of his extraordinary leadership include a critically acclaimed discography of more than 140 recordings; numerous television programs and concert broadcasts resulting in two Emmy Awards; major strides in music education programs including new series and the successful Soundbridge Seattle Symphony Music Discovery Center; regular programming of innovatively themed festival weeks; in addition to dramatically increased audience attendance and classical subscription weeks. Schwarz’s final season in Seattle was emblematic of the conductor’s passionate dedication and support for contemporary music, with a total of 22 world premieres, 18 of these premieres being a part of the Gund/Simonyi Farewell Commissions, an unprecedented
commissioning initiative celebrating his farewell season as music director.
In his nearly five decades as a respected classical musician and conductor, Schwarz has received hundreds of honors and accolades. Over the years, he has received seven Emmy Awards, 14 Grammy nominations, eight ASCAP Awards, and numerous Stereo Review and Ovation Awards. He holds the Ditson Conductor’s Award from Columbia University, was the first American named Conductor of the Year by Musical America and has received numerous honorary doctorates, including from his alma mater, The Juilliard School. In 2002, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers honored Schwarz with its Concert Music Award and in 2003 the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences gave Schwarz its first “IMPACT” lifetime achievement award. Active in music advocacy on a national and state level, he served on the National Council of the Arts and is Honorary Chairman of the Board of Young Musicians Excelling, an organization in Washington State which supports music education in the Pacific Northwest. The City of Seattle recognized his outstanding achievements by naming the street alongside the Benaroya Hall “Gerard Schwarz Place” and the State of Washington gave him the honorary title of “General” for his extraordinary contributions as an artist and citizen. Gerard Schwarz’s much-anticipated memoir,
LIFE BRIMS WITH POSSIBILITIES
One minute, you’re dreaming of weekend getaways, and the next you’re entranced in faraway cultures. PBS North Carolina is right there with you, offering captivating experiences about travel, food, art and more, right at your fingertips. Discover your next adventure at pbsnc.org.
Gerard Schwarz: Behind the Baton, was published by Hal Leonard Performing Arts Publishing Group in March 2017. He has been married to Jody for 39 years, has four children, and lives Florida.
BÉLA FLECK
(photo credit: Jeremy Cowart)
Just in case you aren’t familiar with Béla Fleck, there are many who say he’s the premiere banjo player in the world. Others claim that Fleck has virtually reinvented the image and the sound of the banjo through a remarkable performing and recording career that has taken him all over the musical map and on a range of solo projects and collaborations. If you are familiar with Fleck, you know that he just loves to play the banjo, and put it into unique settings. A 16-time Grammy Award winner, Fleck has the virtuosic, jazz-to-classical ingenuity of an iconic instrumentalist and composer with bluegrass roots. His collaborations range from his ground-breaking standard-setting ensemble Béla Fleck and the Flecktones to a staggeringly broad array of musical experiments. His most recent release and 2022 Grammy Award-winning album, My Bluegrass Heart, was Fleck’s return to bluegrass and spotlighted a multigenerational gamut of the best of bluegrass players. From writing concertos for full symphony orchestra, exploring the banjo’s African roots, and collaborating with Indian musical royalty Zakir Hussain and Rakesh Chaurasia with Edgar Meyer, to performing as a folk duo with wife Abigail Washburn, and jazz duos with Chick Corea, many tout that Béla Fleck is the world’s premier banjo player. As Jon Pareles wrote for The New York Times, “That’s a lot of territory for five strings.” The Solo Concert will bring together all of Fleck’s diverse influences to create a flowing musical statement. Striving to illuminate the possibilities of the five-string banjo, Fleck will use its unique properties to create new music for solo banjo, while reprising music from his 40+ years of performing.
CARTER DOOLITTLE
Carter Doolittle is a third-year undergraduate saxophonist at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts under the instruction of Dr. Robert Young. Since beginning his saxophone studies as a middle schooler in his home state of South Carolina, Carter has accumulated a number of awards including top prizes in the 2021-2023 National MTNA Solo Competitions, 2nd place Cleveland International Music Competition, runnerup in the UNCSA Concerto Competition, 1st prize in the Euterpe Solo Competition, and 1st prize in the 2023 Rosen-Schaffel Competition. Carter has had the privilege
of attending masterclasses with many esteemed musicians, including Joe Lulloff, Karen Hill, Timothy McAllister, Taimur Sullivan, and Steven Banks. Carter’s passion for the performing arts has always extended past his classical saxophone studies which brought him to audition in 2023 for the world-class competitive drum and bugle corps, Carolina Crown, in which he won a position to tour and compete internationally for audiences as large as 15,000 people. Carter is an advocate for contemporary music and music by composers from underrepresented communities. Throughout his career, he hopes to help further bring classical saxophone into premier concert halls across the world.
EASTERN MUSIC FESTIVAL
Mission: For more than six decades, Eastern Music Festival (EMF), a nationally recognized summer educational program and classical music festival, has been produced on the campus of Guilford College and other venues in Greensboro, North Carolina. EMF is distinguished by its accomplished faculty, exhilarating repertoire, and world-renowned visiting artists under the artistic direction of Gerard Schwarz. A powerful teaching institution, EMF provides encouragement and guidance to over 270 young musicians from across the country and around the globe as they take pivotal steps towards careers in the performing arts.
Over the course of the five-week festival, EMF produces more than 65 enriching events, performances, and concerts. We achieve our mission by producing the annual five-week festival, educating 270+ enrolled students, and engaging with over 12,000 community members. Students receive hands on training through public performance opportunities. They are also engaged in chamber music rehearsals, performances, private lessons, career development seminars, and more. EMF is a pivotal experience for students and serves as a pivotal steppingstone for musicians in their early careers. Many of EMF’s former students are playing in major symphony orchestras, pursuing conducting careers, and serving on college and university faculties.
FACULTYROSTER
VIOLIN I
Giora Schmidt, Concertmaster
John Fadial, Assoc. CM
Scott Flavin, 1st Asst. CM
Avi Nagin, 2nd Asst. CM
Courtney LeBauer ##
Fabian López **
Uli Speth
Misha Vitenson
VIOLIN II
Randall Weiss, Principal
Jenny Grégoire, Asst. Principal
Cathy Cary
Daniel Skidmore **
Ko Sugiyama
Erin Zehngut
VIOLIN FELLOWS
Angela Fiedler (Fellow) ##
Sarah-Anne Fried (Fellow)
Amir Kademani Gonzalez (Fellow)
Savannah Kari (Fellow)
Michael Wu (Fellow)
Yue Yang (Fellow) ##
VIOLA
Dan Reinker, Principal
Chauncey Patterson, Assoc. Princ. ##
Chi Lee, Asst. Prin.
Jamie Hofman
Diane Phoenix-Neal ##
Naomi Graf ##
Christopher Gokelman (Fellow)
Hyemin Lee (Fellow) ##
Rosa Ortega Iannelli (Fellow) ##
CELLO
Allan Steele, Asst. Principal
Marta Simidtchieva
Beth Vanderborgh
Victoria Lin (Fellow)
Niloufar Mirzanabi Khani (Fellow) ##
Frederic Renaud (Fellow)
BASS
Leonid Finkelshteyn, Principal **
Joel Braun, Asst. Principal
Marc Facci
Meredith Johnson
Rick Ostrovsky
Peter Savage (Fellow) ##
FLUTE
Jake Fridkis, Principal ##
Ann Choomack, Flute/Piccolo
OBOE
Randall Ellis, Principal
Karen Birch Blundell, English Horn/ Assoc. Principal Oboe ##
CLARINET
Shannon Scott, Principal
Natalie Hoe
Matthew Svec (Fellow) ##
BASS CLARINET
Matthew Svec (Fellow) ##
BASSOON
Gabriel Beavers, Principal
Francisco Joubert Bernard
Samuel James (Fellow)
CONTRABASSOON
Samuel James (Fellow)
Principal
Joy Hodges
Kelly Hofman
Amber Dean
TRUMPET
Chris Gekker, Co-Principal
Alex Wilborn, Co-Principal ##
TROMBONE
James Justin Kent, Principal
Liam Glendening, (Fellow) 2nd Trombone
Chris Davis, Bass Trombone
TUBA
Seth Horner, Principal
TIMPANI
Meagan Gillis, Principal
PERCUSSION
John Shaw, Principal
Alison Chorn ##
HARP
Anna Kate Mackle, Principal ##
PIANO/CELESTE
Nicole Ying (Fellow)
ON LEAVE
Amy Frost Baumgarten
Eric Schweikert
Anthony Taylor
Dima Dimitrova-Davis
*Section strings (including Fellows) are listed alphabetically and seated in rotation*
** NC ARTIST ## ALUMNI
ELLEN TAAFFE ZWILICH
Zwilich was born in Miami, Florida in 1939.
Celebration for Orchestra
At a time when the musical offerings of the world are more varied than ever before, few composers have emerged with the unique personality of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. Her music is widely known because it is performed, recorded, broadcast, and – above all – listened to and liked by all sorts of audiences the world over. Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians [8th edition] states: “There are not many composers in the modern world who possess the lucky combination of writing music of substance and at the same time exercising an immediate appeal to mixed audiences. Zwilich offers this happy combination of purely technical excellence and a distinct power of communication.”
A prolific composer in virtually all media, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s works have been performed by most of the leading American orchestras and by major ensembles abroad. Her works include five Symphonies and a string of concertos commissioned and performed over the past two decades by the nation’s top orchestras. Zwilich is the recipient of numerous prizes and honors, including the 1983 Pulitzer Prize in Music (the first woman ever to receive this coveted award), the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Chamber Music Prize, the Arturo Toscanini Music Critics Award, the Ernst von Dohnányi Citation, an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim Fellowship, four Grammy nominations, the Alfred I. Dupont Award, Miami Performing Arts Center Award, the Medaglia d’oro in the G.B. Viotti Competition, and the NPR and WNYC Gotham Award for her contributions to the musical life of New York City. Among other distinctions, Ms. Zwilich has been elected to the American Classical Music Hall of Fame, the Florida Artists Hall of Fame, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1995, she was named to the first Composer’s Chair in the history of Carnegie Hall, and she was designated Musical America’s Composer of the Year for 1999.
Celebration was written for the Indianapolis Symphony in 1984 to celebrate the opening of the Symphony’s new concert hall, the Circle Theater. When describing Celebration, Zwilich said, “I was motivated by three complementary goals. First, I wanted to celebrate a joyous and historic occasion with all its inspiring symbolism of beginning and renewal. My second goal was to write a kind of “toccata” or test piece for the new Circle Theater. Finally, I wanted to celebrate the orchestra itself, which is, after all, the centerpiece of the occasion. Thus Celebration is like a mini-concerto for orchestra.” Zwilich dedicated Celebration to John Nelson, music director of the Indianapolis Symphony. Following the premiere performance on October 12, 1984, Corbin Patrick of the Indianapolis Start wrote, “The brightness and clarity of
[the hall’s] new acoustics were established early in Ms. Zwilich’s Celebration, which begins with bells and timpani in a variety of timbres and then utilizes other instrumental voices and choirs in a festival mood. It does this with lovely humor and musical feeling, without seeming like deliberate sound effects.”
CLAUDE DEBUSSY
Debussy was born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France on August 22, 1862, and died in Paris on March 25, 1918.
Rhapsodie pour orchestre et saxophone, L.98
Debussy was born into a poor but hard-working family living in the suburbs of Paris, and was sent along with one of his three siblings to live with an aunt. His parents pushed for their first-born son to become a sailor, following his father’s footsteps into the Navy, but his aunt recognized Debussy’s fascination with music as something bearing potential, and arranged for him to study piano with Madame Mauté de Fleurville. Mme. Fleurville had studied with Chopin and was the mother-in-law of Verlaine, the Symbolist poet whose influence had a tremendous impact in the development of Debussy’s musical style. At the age of eleven, Debussy was accepted into the Paris Conservatoire, and stories of his excellence as a brilliant musician and of his witty rebellions against tradition achieved legendary status amongst the Conservatory’s professors and students. That he would be labeled as an “Impressionist” composer irked Debussy throughout his lifetime, and perhaps the better moniker would be “Symbolist.” Debussy was influenced by the literary movement known as Symbolism, and the writings of Verlaine, Mallarmé, Baudelaire, and Maeterlinck. Musicologist Glenn Watkins succinctly states the difference between Impressionism and Symbolism in regards to Debussy’s music by saying, “the term Symbolism offered a more reasonable parallel with music based on the premise that painting, the main area of the Impressionists, was not only static but visual, while literature, the initial provenance of Symbolism, unfolded in a time space with a syntax based on a movement that was sonic.” By the late 1880s, Debussy began synthesizing the artistic world around him into his compositions, culminating in his first truly revolutionary symphonic work in 1894, the orchestral tone poem Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (“Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun”).
At this same time another quiet revolution was incubating, not in Paris but in Boston, Massachusetts. Elise Hall (who was born in Paris in 1853 with the name Elizabeth Boyer Swett Coolidge) began learning how to play a comparatively new and novel instrument for Boston’s symphony society: the saxophone. In 1897, Hall’s husband passed away, leaving her with a sizable estate and plenty of free time to put it to good use. Hall was devoted to musical life in Boston, running the Boston Orchestral Club for a few years and also presenting public performances with other amateur musicians in the club under the guidance of Georges Longy, oboist with the Boston Symphony. Elise
Hall was dismayed at the lack of symphonic repertoire that included the saxophone, and not merely solo works but also orchestral works with the saxophone used as a featured member of the traditional woodwind section. In an effort to remedy this, Hall began commissioning new works featuring the saxophone by prominent French composers, including Claude Debussy. She commissioned what would become the Rhapsodie for Saxophone and Orchestra in 1901, with Debussy completing the work 1908. It was originally for saxophone and piano accompaniment, and was later orchestrated for saxophone and orchestra in 1919 (following Debussy’s death) by French composer Jean Roger-Ducasse.
Pierre Boulez perfectly summarizes Debussy’s lifetime of work by saying, “he retains a power of seduction that is mysterious and spellbinding; his situation at the beginning of the contemporary movement is that of a spearhead, but solitary… We cannot forget that the time of Debussy is also that of Cézanne and Mallarmé: a triple conjunction, at the root, perhaps, of all modernity… [Debussy] had to dream his revolution no less than build it.” To this quote, composer and musicologist Jan Swafford adds, “[Debussy] is one of the few Modernists inviting to approach, who may often be mysterious but rarely is intentionally mystifying. He learned the traditions of the past thoroughly and then taught himself to forget them, remaking music as his ear and intuition guided him; and therefore his music was written to be heard, to lie well in the ear. The goal was not to attain the profundity of Beethoven but rather to ravish the mind and senses with the perfumes of mystery and dream.”
GEORGE GERSHWIN
Gershwin was born in Brooklyn, New York on September 26, 1898, and died in Hollywood on July 11, 1937.
Rhapsody in Blue
George Gershwin composed his first Broadway musical score at the age of twenty-one for La La Lucille, which opened on May 26, 1919. In the following years George Gershwin and his brother Ira would become one of the
most formidable duos in the history of American musical theatre. But it was a happenstance proposal that would propel Gershwin into immediate fame and secure his place in the history of American symphonic music. George and Ira, along with fellow songwriter Buddy De Sylva, were hanging around a pool hall in New York on January 3, 1924 when Ira came across an unexpected announcement in the New York Tribune. Bandleader Paul Whiteman was to present a concert representing the evolution of jazz that he titled “An Experiment in Modern Music.” In the article Whiteman declared that, “George Gershwin is at work on a jazz concerto, Irving Berlin is writing a syncopated tone poem, and Victor Herbert is working on an American suite.” Ira was not aware that his brother was writing a jazz concerto, and neither was George! After a phone call with Whiteman the following day, the situation was revealed that he was forced into announcing his plans far sooner than anticipated (another bandleader was proposing a similar concept and Whiteman had to get there first) and Gershwin somewhat reluctantly agreed to the commission.
Worried about the short time frame in which he had to complete the work, Gershwin convinced Whiteman to accept a single movement, free-form work – a rhapsody – for piano and orchestra rather than the standard three movement concerto form. He was also concerned about orchestrating the work, afterall, as a Broadway composer he was accustomed to writing a song at the piano and then having an orchestrator produce the full arrangement. Whiteman quickly solved this problem by providing Gershwin with his phenomenal orchestrator Ferde Grofé. After visiting an exhibit with paintings by James Abbot McNeill Whistler, famous for his abstract painting titles, Ira conceived the name Rhapsody in Blue, and within a month the composition was complete. Gershwin performed the piano solo with Paul Whiteman’s band on February 12, 1924 in New York’s Aeolian Hall, dazzling everyone in attendance with his remarkable skill as a pianist and his pure blend of popular and classical music styles. Rhapsody in Blue opens with the most recognizable clarinet solo in all of American music, a smoldering glissando leading into a sophisticated, bluesy melody that sets the tone for the entire Rhapsody. Gershwin’s main themes masterfully alternate with one another, from the boldly driving march-like tune
to the sweeping beauty of the strings lyrical melody, but are never far removed from the syncopation and harmonic progressions of Gershwin’s delightful popular music. Following the success of the premiere, Grofé reorchestrated Rhapsody in Blue in 1926 for piano and orchestra, and it is this version that has been frequently performed in the 100 years between the premiere and today.
On February 12, 2024, the centennial of Rhapsody in Blue’s premiere, banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck released his newest album, also titled Rhapsody in Blue, featuring new versions of the now century-old masterwork. In a wonderful interview with Alison Stewart for WNYC radio, Fleck recalls the first time he ever heard Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, at the age of seven when his uncle took him to see the film Rhapsody in Blue at the Thalia Movie Theater in NYC. Long before Fleck began playing the banjo or even had ideas of becoming a musician, Gershwin’s music had captivated his imagination. Fleck described his history with the work, saying, “Even after I left New York and started trying to make a career playing banjo music, I would occasionally check in with that piece, and listen to it, and go, ‘Yes, it’s still great. I still love that piece.’ Then fast forward to pandemic times, and I had a lot of time on my hands, and I started exploring, ‘What would it be like to try to actually play the piano part?’ which was clearly going to be impossible, and is impossible because a pianist has 10 fingers they can play with at the same time, and I’ve got three that pluck. They have the whole piano to play. There’s just a lot of things
that are just impossible to play on the banjo, the way you could play it on the piano, but there are things you can play and ways to make it work. I always liked to try to figure out how to make things work.”
There is also a long history of artists creating various arrangements and altogether different versions of Rhapsody in Blue over the century of its existence, a testament to the way it captured the imaginations of listeners from the outset. Gershwin himself enjoyed hearing a harmonica version of the work by Larry Adler. The precedence was there for Fleck to use his imagination and skill to create his own versions of Rhapsody in Blue: one with his band members (Michael Cleveland, fiddle, Sierra Hull, mandolin, Justin Moses, redo-guitar, Mark Schatz, bass, and Bryan Sutton, guitar) that he calls Rhapsody in Blue(grass), one following Ferde Grofé’s arrangement for piano and orchestra but with Fleck playing the piano solo on the banjo, and a third version he calls Rhapsody in Blue(s) with a strong blues influence. Fleck described his creative process by saying, “When I started out, I was really trying to play the piece. I wanted to play with an orchestra, and play the piano part, and play what was written, what was created by George Gershwin. I didn’t want it to be a bluegrass-orchestra thing. Once that was done, with the bluegrass version and the blues version, I felt a lot of freedom to try stuff, and explore, and mess with it. I’m glad that happened because otherwise if I had done, for instance, another classical work or even written a concerto to go with it, I wouldn’t have explored the piece as much as I got it.” In 1924, Rhapsody in Blue enthralled audiences with its originality, and now a century later we experience that same excitement with Fleck’s mesmerizing adaptation, ensuring Gershwin’s genius continues to reach new audiences through live performances for another century.
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
Tchaikovsky was born in Kamsko-Votkinsk, Russia on May 7, 1840, and died in St. Petersburg on November 6, 1893.
Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64
Tchaikovsky spent many years traveling with no true home place to return to until finally renting a house near the town of Kiln, just outside Moscow, in February of 1885. Here he found the area that would become his home for the remainder of his life. He reluctantly agreed to accept the directorship of the Moscow branch of the Russian Musical Society following the death of Nikolay Rubinstein, and was reinstated at the Moscow Conservatory, though this time not as a professor but as an administrator. In the decade since completing the Fourth Symphony, Tchaikovsky’s international reputation soared, boosted by the completion of Eugene Onegin, the Violin Concerto, the Second Piano Concerto, and the Serenade for Strings among other masterworks. But by the time he settled in Kiln, he was in the midst of a period of rather low compositional productivity. Despite
increasing recognition for his work, Tchaikovsky continued to be plagued by self-doubt, and in the spring of 1888 he wrote, “I am dreadfully anxious to prove not only to others, but also to myself, that I am not yet played out as a composer.” After arriving to his vacation home in Frolovskoe, also near Moscow, in the summer of 1888 he started work on The Fifth Symphony, work that he told his patroness Nadezhda von Meck had begun slowly. Once Tchaikovsky reawakened his muse, however, he completed the symphony in four months, writing as he reached its conclusion that “it seems to me that I have not blundered, that it has turned out well.”
Where the Fourth Symphony symbolized triumph over Fate, the Fifth is a work about Fate itself. Each of the four movements are connected by a recurring theme referred to as the “motto theme” which represents the idea of Fate. With this motto theme, Tchaikovsky referenced the musical phrase accompanying the text “turn not into sorrow” from Glinka’s A Life for the Tsar, labeling this theme in his sketchbook as “complete resignation before Fate.” The symphony’s Andante first movement begins with the clarinets stating the motto theme in their chalumeau register, a dark and brooding depiction of Fate that closes with a feeling of suspense – this theme will certainly reappear, but when, and how will it evolve? Unlike his triumphant brass fanfare representing Fate to open the Fourth Symphony, it is clear from the very beginning that this symphony will unfold a different, but no less dramatic, perspective on Fate. A second theme appears in the violins then gradually expands to engulf the full orchestra, and the real journey begins. Through the course of the symphony Tchaikovsky weaves one thematic idea into the next, sometimes referring to the harmonic structure of the motto theme or to its memorable rhythmic pattern, spinning out new ideas that are repeatedly interrupted by Fate.
Tchaikovsky starts the Andante second movement with a mesmerizing melancholy in the strings, setting the foundation for a solo horn to proclaim one of the most passionate melodies Tchaikovsky composed. When the clarinet and oboe enter with their eloquent countermelodies, the symphony reaches a point of sublime poignance. Just when the emotional energy becomes almost overwhelming, a series of repeated woodwind solos offers a moment of respite before building into a powerful statement of the motto theme by the brass, propelled forward by an intensely dramatic timpani roll. The lyrical melody and supporting countermelody return again, this time more joyous than melancholy, only to be savagely interrupted by Fate once more. Fragments of the melody attempt to recover from the disruption, but gently fade away instead. In the third movement Tchaikovsky replaces the traditional scherzo with a waltz, alternating its graceful theme with lively interludes and a spectral appearance of Fate as the motto theme creeps into the texture just before the waltz draws to a close. With the sonata form finale mirroring the first movement, the motto theme once again appears as the introduction, but this time in a rich yet subdued E major chorale. After the trumpets signal
that change is approaching, another powerful timpani roll propels us into the Allegro vivace where a new theme filled with furious energy takes over. The new major key version of the motto theme reappears periodically throughout the remainder of the finale as Tchaikovsky takes us on a whirlwind climb to the final manifestation of Fate. The great Russian master who feared he was out of ideas upon starting his Fifth Symphony had fully awakened his muse by its completion. Now well into what would become his final and most remarkable period of writing, Tchaikovsky began his masterpiece for the stage, Sleeping Beauty, only a few weeks after sealing Fate with his Fifth Symphony.
Fallen Leaves
In Finnish with English subtitles Finland, German / not rated / Directed by Aki Kaurismäki / 2023 / Drama / 81 minutes
2
Tuesday, July 2 at 7pm
Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts
Post-film Q&A with Dale Pollock
HELENE & STEPHEN WEICHOLZ GLOBAL FILM SERIES
FALLEN LEAVES
Award-winning filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki (Le Havre, The Other Side of Hope) makes a masterful return with Fallen Leaves, a timeless, hopeful and satisfying love story that won the Jury Prize at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Set in modern-day Helsinki, the film tells the story of Ansa (Alma Pöysti) and Holappa (Jussi Vatanen), two lonely souls whose chance meeting at a local karaoke bar is beset by numerous hurdles. From lost phone numbers to mistaken addresses, alcoholism and a charming stray dog, the pair’s path to happiness is as bittersweet as it is ultimately delightful.
Shot through with Kaurismäki’s typically playful, idiosyncratic style and deadpan sense of humor, this tender romantic tragicomedy is both a loving tribute to the filmmaker’s beloved contemporaries and a timely reminder of the potency of movie-going from one of cinema’s living legends.
POST-SHOW
Following the film screening, join film curator, Dale Pollock, for a Q&A.
ABOUT DALE POLLOCK
Dale M. Pollock, a writer, film producer, filmmaker and author, has served as head film critic for Daily Variety, chief entertainment correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, Dean of the School of Filmmaking at the (then) North Carolina School of the Arts, and Professor of Cinema Studies at NCSA, among other illustrious roles. He was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in the early 1980s, wrote Skywalking: The Life and Films of George Lucas, and his first work of fiction, Chopped: A Novel, was published in March 2023. Pollock is currently at work on his next historical novel, set in Winston-Salem, NC, at the end of World War I.
THE PATH TO HAPPINESS
“In our fractious and contentious world, we all seek different ways of finding happiness. Sometimes we find it in love, other times in the pleasures of the senses, and even in the simplicity of daily tasks. Our series will focus on three poignant and satisfying international films that explore the many paths to happiness.”
—Film curator Dale Pollock
ARTIST SHOWCASE SERIES
As we celebrate AASF’s 40th anniversary, this series offers behind-thescenes discussions with artists from the music, dance, and visual arts worlds that center around a common theme of legacy and longevity.
TURCHIN CENTER EXHIBITIONS OVERVIEW
Tuesday, July 2 | 2PM | Turchin Center Lecture Hall
Building on the legacy of the Turchin Center’s commitment to engage visitors with dynamic and accessible contemporary art, TCVA’s Senior Curator, Mary Anne Redding, offers an overview of upcoming and current exhibitions featured in the galleries of the Turchin, as well as a survey of its public art programs.
ON LEGACY, WITH CANADIAN BRASS MEMBERS CHUCK DAELLENBACH AND JOE BURGSTALLER
Tuesday, July 9 | 2PM | Turchin Center Lecture Hall
Tuba player and Canadian Brass founding member Charles “Chuck” Daellenbach shares thoughts with fellow member and long-time trumpeter Joe Burgstaller about the rich history of Canadian Brass and what has led to the group’s 50-plus years of success.
FACULTY BIENNIAL EXHIBITION
Tuesday, July 16 | 2PM | Turchin Center Lecture Hall
(in partnership with the Department of Art at Appalachian State University) Turchin Center Senior Curator Mary Anne Redding moderates a panel discussion with Appalachian State University Art Department faculty members featured in the current biennial exhibition. Learn about the work and practice of App State’s esteemed artists and professors, with an opportunity to ask questions and view the galleries.
ON LONGEVITY, WITH PAUL TAYLOR DANCE COMPANY
Tuesday, July 23 | 2PM | Turchin Center Lecture Hall
Michael Novack, Artistic Director of Paul Taylor Dance Company, and other company members provide a “behind-the-curtain” look at touring over the years with one of the most famous and dynamic dance companies of our time.
Special thanks to...THE FAMILY OF TINA SILVERSTEIN TINA SILVERSTEIN ENDOWMENT OPPORTUNITY FUND
After retiring to the High Country, Tina and her husband Gary quickly immersed themselves in the cultural life of the region, supporting both the performing and visual arts. Tina, who passed away in 2021, had a special place in her heart for university students pursuing careers in the arts. Her family has established a generous fund in her memory that supports the programs Tina was passionate about: learning opportunities for students who will become the future artists and arts educators of tomorrow.
FACULTY BIENNIAL EXHIBITION PANEL
ANDREW BAILEY AREND explores relationships between body, action, material, and ecology. His work generally takes form as sculpture and touches on performance, drawing, and photography. Arend’s work is exhibited nationally; he has been awarded residencies and fellowships including Lighthouse Works, The Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts and the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology. Arend received his MFA from Alfred University in 2016. He is currently a Lecturer and DigiLab Operations Manager for the Art Department at Appalachian State University.
ERIN ETHRIDGE is an interdisciplinary artist and educator. Born and raised in Texas and living in North Carolina, Ethridge’s work is in dialogue with the culture and landscape of the South. She received her MFA in Sculpture/ Dimensional Studies from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University and her BFA from the University of Texas at Tyler. Ethridge is Assistant Professor and Foundations Coordinator at Appalachian State University, where she teaches in sculpture, foundations, and general education.
JOE NIELANDER has been blowing glass for over 35 years and has had his own studio in Spruce Pine for 25 years. Nielander was Penland School’s Studio Coordinator for five years. He received his MFA with Joel Philip Myers at Illinois State University, where he taught all levels of glass. As an apprentice, Nielander worked with Richard Ritter, Rob Levin, and Stephen Dee Edwards.
JODY SERVON received an MFA in New Genre from The University of Arizona and a BFA in Visual Art from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. Servon’s collaborative work, Saved: Objects of the Dead, with Lorene Delany-Ullman was published as a monograph in 2023 by Artsuite. She has curated numerous exhibitions focused on contemporary art. Currently, Servon is a professor and coordinator of the art management program at Appalachian State University.
VINEEL GARISA MAHAL*, MATTHEW MAZZOLA, ANDREW VAN ALLSBURG – tenor
ANDY BERRY*, JARED GRAVELEY, MATTHEW KNICKMAN – baritone and bass
TIM KEELER – Music Director
O Virgo virginum†
Vigilate
I
Josquin des Prez (c. 1450–1521)
William Byrd (c. 1540–1623)
II
Sing Joyfully
Byrd Haec Dies Byrd
III
Shenandoah†
Washing of the Water†
Traditional American Folk Song
arr. Marshall Bartholomew and James Erb
Peter Gabriel (b. 1950) arr. Mason Bates
arrangement commissioned by Chanticleer in 2013
IV
Straight Street†
J.W. Alexander (1916-1996)
Jesse Whitakre (1920-2006) arr. Joseph Jennings
Dúlamán†
Lullaby† from Paradise
Michael McGlynn (b. 1964)
V
Shawn Crouch (b. 1977)
commissioned by Chanticleer with a Chorus America Award through the Dale Warland Singers Fund for New Choral Music at the American Composer’s Forum
III. All night† from The Lotus Lovers
Stephen Paulus (1949–2014)
commissioned for Chanticleer in 2011 by Mary Rodgers and Hank Guettel
VI
Both Sides Now† Joni Mitchell (b. 1943) arr. Vince Peterson
arrangement commissioned by Chanticleer in 2013
Stardust Hoagy Carmichael (1899-1981) arr. Jared Graveley
VII
Calling my children home†
Willow Weep for Me†
Doyle Lawson (b.1944)
Charles Waller (1935–2004)
Robert Yates (1936–2015) arr. Jennings
Ann Ronell (1905-1993) arr. Jennings
Blue Skies† Irving Berlin (1888-1989) arr. Jennings
†These pieces have been recorded by Chanticleer.
*Andy Berry occupies The Eric Alatorre Chair given by Peggy Skornia. Vineel Garisa Mahal occupies The Tenor Chair, given by an Anonymous Donor. Gerrod Pagenkopf occupies The Ning G. Mercer Chair for the Preservation of the Chanticleer Legacy, given by Ning and Stephen Mercer.
The Grammy Award-winning vocal ensemble Chanticleer is known around the world as “an orchestra of voices” for its wide-ranging repertoire and dazzling virtuosity. Founded in San Francisco in 1978 by singer and musicologist Louis Botto, Chanticleer quickly took its place as one of the most prolific recording and touring ensembles in the world, selling more than one million recordings and performing thousands of live concerts to audiences around the globe.
Rooted in the Renaissance, Chanticleer’s repertoire has been expanded to include a wide range of classical, gospel, jazz and popular music and to reflect a deep commitment to the commissioning of new compositions and arrangements. The ensemble has dedicated much of its vast recording catalogue to these commissions, garnering Grammy Awards for its recordings of Sir John Tavener’s Lamentations and Praises and the ambitious collection of commissioned works, Colors of Love Chanticleer is the recipient of Chorus America’s Dale Warland Commissioning Award and the Chorus America/ ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming. During his tenure with Chanticleer, its Music Director Emeritus Joseph H. Jennings received the Brazeal Wayne Dennard Award for his contribution to the African American choral tradition.
Named for the “clear-singing” rooster in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Chanticleer continues to maintain ambitious programming in its hometown of San Francisco, including a large education and outreach program, and an annual concert series that includes its legendary holiday tradition, A Chanticleer Christmas
ANDY BERRY (bass) believes that vocal music is vital because it testifies to the power of collaboration, the importance of the present moment, and the beauty of our shared humanity. He has performed as a soloist with the Santa Fe Opera, the Pittsburgh Opera, the Vietnam National Ballet and Opera Orchestra, and Singapore’s Metropolitan Festival Orchestra. His favorite past roles include the title character in Massenet’s Don Quichotte, Isacio in the second U.S. performance of Handel’s Riccardo Primo, and Kōbun Otogawa (cover) in the Grammy-winning world premiere of Mason Bates’ The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs. Andy earned his M.M. in voice/opera from the Yale School of Music and a B.S. in psychology/neuroscience cum laude from Yale College. In 2016, he won second place in the Metropolitan Opera National Council’s Northeast Regional Final. As an undergraduate, Andy directed the Yale Whiffenpoofs and served as an assistant conductor to the Yale Glee Club. He was born and raised in Cabin John, MD, just outside of Washington, D.C., and he now celebrates his (half) Japanese heritage living in Japantown, San Francisco.
Andy is proud to return to Chanticleer for his sixth season.
Andy Berry occupies The Eric Alatorre Chair given by Peggy Skornia
TAVIAN COX (countertenor) is so excited to be joining Chanticleer for his first season! He majored in Interdisciplinary Studies, combining Music Education, Social Work, and Psychology into one degree at the University of North Florida. During his tenure at UNF, he performed as a soloist numerous times in works such as Handel’s Messiah, Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610, and Vivaldi’s Gloria, as well as singing the role of Don Alfonso in Mozart’s Cosí fan tutte with the UNF Opera Theater. Tavian has also been professionally associated with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra and Voces8. In the 2021 holiday season, Tavian performed in a project licensed by Sony and Extreme Music called A Cappella Nativity, a modern retelling of the birth of Christ. In addition to his love for performing, Tavian is also a conductor who made his conducting debut at the 2019 Florida American Choral Director’s Association President’s Concert with the Don’t Miss a Beat All-Stars led by Grammy Award-winning drummer Ulysses Owens Jr. In his free time, Tavian enjoys playing video games with friends and watching reality TV. Tavian would like to thank his family, friends, and music educators that have forever changed his life.
JARED GRAVELEY (bass-baritone) is so incredibly excited to begin his first season with Chanticleer! Originally from West Hartford, Connecticut, Jared studied voice at the University of Connecticut, and during collegiate summers, sang with and directed Hyannis Sound. The past five years have been spent as a freelance choral musician, vocal arranger, jazz artist, and director in New York City. Highlights include singing with the Schola Cantorum of St. Vincent Ferrer, the Choral Chameleon Ensemble, and directing vocal jazz ensemble Uncommon Chord. Now, he welcomes an exciting move to the West Coast and the opportunity to travel frequently singing at the highest level. In addition to choral chamber music, Jared has a strong passion for jazz performance, and is the proud founder of vocal quintet Highline Vocal Jazz. Jared is also a Barbershop Harmony enthusiast, competing at the 2022 International Contest with The Brooklynaires. For fun, he’s a jazz harmony nerd, upright bass player, video game lover, chess player, avocational food critic, and cat dad.
MATTHEW KNICKMAN (baritone) is proud to be in his 13th season with Chanticleer. Born in Korea, he started singing as a soprano at St. Stephen’s Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He holds degrees in vocal performance and pedagogy from Westminster Choir College. As a member of the critically acclaimed Westminster Choir and Westminster Kantorei, he performed
with the New York Philharmonic, Dresden Philharmonic, and New Jersey Symphony, and was led by celebrated conductors, including Alan Gilbert, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Harry Bicket, Charles Dutoit, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Richard Hickox, Neeme Järvi, Bernard Labadie, Nicholas McGegan, Julius Rudel, Bruno Weil, Stefan Parkman, Joseph Flummerfelt, and Andrew Megill. He has also performed with Les Violons du Roy et La Chapelle de Québec, Early Music New York, Choir of Trinity Wall Street, Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys, The Clarion Choir, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Opera Theatre of Weston, and Spoleto Festival U.S.A. He has been a soloist in numerous oratorios and Bach cantatas, including the St. John and St. Matthew Passions with early music organizations such as Fuma Sacra, Philadelphia Bach Festival, and Carmel Bach Festival. Matthew serves on the board of Sing Aphasia, whose mission includes helping people with aphasia and their families build confidence, make connections, and find their voice through song. When not singing, Matthew enjoys strawberry ice cream, is an exercise and nutritional science enthusiast, and revels in eating comfort foods from around the world. Buen Camino!
VINEEL GARISA MAHAL (tenor) is delighted to be joining Chanticleer for his second season. An IndianAmerican, Texas-raised singer, he has served as adjunct voice faculty at New York University, where he received his Post-Graduate Advanced Certificate in Vocal Pedagogy.
He received his B.M. from Southern Methodist University and his M.M. from University of North Texas, both in vocal performance. He has performed with Fort Worth Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Casa Mañana, and made his Kennedy Center debut in collaboration with Grammynominated artist Chandrika Tandon. He has been featured in works by prominent living composers and originated the role of Roderick in Kamala Sankaram’s The Emperor and the Queen. Some of his favorite past credits include the title character in Britten’s Albert Herring, Fakir in Lucy Simon’s The Secret Garden, and El Gato in Frank Wildhorn’s Wonderland. In the 2021-2022 holiday season, he was a Christmas vocalist at Hong Kong Disneyland. Under the alias “Elaichi,” he has released original music, which is available for streaming and purchase on most major music sites. In his free time, Vineel loves cooking, playing guitar, reading manga, and being a general nerd.
Vineel Garisa Mahal occupies the Tenor Chair, given by an Anonymous Donor.
MATTHEW MAZZOLA (tenor) is thrilled to return for his seventh season with Chanticleer. Matthew received his Bachelor in Music Education from the University of Houston. During his undergraduate tenure, he sang with the Moores School of Music’s Concert Chorale under the direction of Betsy Cook Weber. He participated with the select group that won first prize ex aequo at the 2013
Marktoberdorf International Chamber Choir Competition, and received three gold medals at the 2015 Grand Prix of Nations competition in Magdeburg, Germany. After finishing his degree, Matthew taught elementary music, and sang professionally with Cantare Houston, Houston Bach Society and Houston Chamber Choir. In his free time, Matthew is an avid gamer, foodie and sports fan.
CORTEZ MITCHELL (countertenor) is a native of Detroit, MI. He graduated from Morgan State University with a B.A. in music and a B.S. in mathematics and holds an M.M. in voice from the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music. As Minnesota Opera’s first resident artist countertenor, he performed the role of Cherubino in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro and covered Nicklausse in Offenbach’s Les Contes de Hoffman. With Urban Opera, he performed the role of 1st Witch in Purcell’s Dido and Aneas. Most recently, he returned to Minnesota Opera as the Refugee in Jonathan Dove’s Flight and made his European Opera debut at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich as Narisco in Handel’s Agrippina. As a concert artist, he has appeared in solo performances of Purcell’s Come Ye Sons of Art with Symphony Silicon Valley, J.S Bach’s Cantata 147 Herz und Mund und Tod und Leben with the Dayton Philharmonic, R. Nathaniel Dett’s The Ordering of Moses and Adolphus Hailstork’s Done Made My Vow with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Rachmaninov’s Vespers in St. Petersburg, Russia, and Wynton Marsallis’ All Rise with the Lincoln Center Jazz Ensemble. Cortez has received awards from the National Opera Association, The Washington International competition and the Houston Grand Opera Eleanor McCollum competition. Cortez is in his 17th season with Chanticleer.
GERROD PAGENKOPF (countertenor and Assistant Music Director) returns for his ninth season with Chanticleer. A native of rural Northeast Wisconsin, Gerrod received his Bachelor’s of music education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and also holds a Master’s degree in vocal performance from the University of Houston, where he was a graduate fellow under Katherine Ciesinski. A long-time lover of ensemble singing, Gerrod has performed with many ensembles throughout Boston and Houston, including Ars Lyrica Houston, the Houston Chamber Choir, the Handel and Haydn Society, Blue Heron Renaissance Choir, and the prestigious Church of the Advent in Boston’s Beacon Hill. In his spare time, Gerrod enjoys exploring San Francisco with a cold brew coffee in hand, maintaining his 2,500+ daily streak on Duolingo (Spanish and French), and doing the daily New York Times crossword puzzle — in pen!
Gerrod Pagenkopf holds The Ning G. Mercer Chair for the Preservation of the Chanticleer Legacy, given by Ning and Stephen Mercer.
BRADLEY SHARPE (countertenor) is delighted to be returning for his third season, driven by his deep passion for eclectic musical genres, collaborative projects, and travel. As a native of Southern California, he is proud to be employed in his home state. Bradley earned an M.M. in Oratorio, Chamber Music and Art Song from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music and a B.M. in vocal performance from the California State University, Fullerton School of Music. Several of his most memorable musical experiences took place while he sang internationally with Yale’s Schola Cantorum and Voxtet, including performances at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, across India and along the Camino de Santiago. Bradley also enjoys working as a church musician, most recently being employed at St. Thomas the Apostle, Hollywood. In his free time, Bradley enjoys taking food and wine adventures, camping, and spending time with loved ones.
LOGAN S. SHIELDS (countertenor) is elated to begin his eighth season with Chanticleer. Logan studied vocal performance in tenor voice at Western Michigan University, and Grand Valley State University. Other interests include craft beer, absurdism, freestyle rap, pugs, and spending time with his partner, Gabrielle.
ANDREW VAN ALLSBURG (tenor) is thrilled to be in his eighth season with Chanticleer. Originally from Holland, Michigan, Andrew received his Bachelor’s in Music Education from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, MI, where he studied classical, music theater, and jazz voice, conducted the school’s early music ensemble Collegium Musicum, and won a downbeat award for his work with the vocal jazz ensemble Gold Company. A versatile musician, Andrew has performed, musicdirected, and/or arranged music globally for various cruise lines, production companies, contemporary a cappella groups, and musicals. He has also made TV appearances on the Oprah Winfrey Show and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. Andrew was selected to represent the USA in the World Youth Choir in Cyprus and recorded Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 with the Miami-based professional choir Seraphic Fire. In New York City, Andrew sang with Schola Dominicana at the Church of Saint Catherine of Siena in New York City, directed by James Wetzel, and was a featured singer at Radio City Music Hall in the Christmas Spectacular starring the Rockettes, under the musical direction of Kevin Stites. In his down time, Andrew enjoys traveling, spending time with friends and family, and tearing it up on the drums.
ADAM BRETT WARD (countertenor) is originally from Tecumseh, Oklahoma. At a very early age, Adam became fascinated with Janie Fricke and Patsy Cline. As a child he made a number of local TV appearances singing their songs. Mr. Ward discovered singing countertenor while
studying French horn performance at Yale School of Music. There he was also a founding member of the Yale Schola Cantorum under the direction of Simon Carrington. He has since performed as soloist with the International Contemporary Ensemble and was a member of the Choir of St. Mary the Virgin in midtown Manhattan. As a horn player, Adam was a member of the Verbier Festival Orchestra, winner of the concerto competitions at Yale and Stony Brook Universities, and was a top prizewinner at the Coleman, Fischoff and Yellow Springs national chamber music competitions. Adam is founding member of the International Pride Orchestra in San Francisco. He was recently composer-in-residence for the New York City-based Choral Chameleon, directed by Vince Peterson, and the Sacramento-based Vox Musica, directed by Daniel Paulson. He is also a singer-songwriter and can be found on SoundCloud as Adam Brett Ward. Adam holds a B.M. from Manhattan School of Music, M.M. from Yale School of Music, and additional years of study at the Hartt School, Royal College of Music (London), and Stony Brook University. Adam is still really into Janie Fricke and Patsy Cline and is overjoyed to be in his 18th season with Chanticleer!
Chanticleer is a non-profit organization, governed by a volunteer Board of Trustees, administered by a professional staff with a full-time professional ensemble. In addition to the many individual contributors to Chanticleer, the Board of Trustees thanks the following Foundations, Corporations and Government Agencies for their exceptional support:
Alphadyne Foundation | The Goatie Foundation
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation | McNabb Foundation
The Bernard Osher Foundation | The Bob Ross Foundation San Francisco Grants for the Arts
CHANTICLEER STAFF
PHILIP WILDER, President & General Director
ZACHARY BURGESS, Director of Development
BRIAN HINMAN, Director of Operations & Touring
BRIAN BAUMAN, Director of Finance
LISA SEISCHAB, Development Advisor
COLBY SMITH, Patron Services Manager/ Development & Marketing Associate
MATTHEW KNICKMAN, Road Manager
CORTEZ MITCHELL, Merchandise Manager
TIM KEELER, Music Director
GERROD PAGENKOPF, Assistant Music Director & Education Coordinator
AYANNA WOODS, Composer-in-Residence
Artist Management: Opus 3 Artists, Ltd.
Founder: Louis Botto (1951 – 1997)
Music Director Emeritus: Joseph H. Jennings
Lo calC overage
ART DEPARTMENT FACULTY BIENNIAL
June 7–November 2 | Gallery A, Petti/Peiser Gallery
The Department of Art Faculty Biennial showcases the work of Appalachian State University’s talented multidisciplinary faculty and initiates critical dialogue about the nature of contemporary art. This non-juried exhibition offers students, faculty, staff and the extended Boone community a chance to engage with the creative ideas and art practices being explored and taught within the university.
FLOWSTONES: CORINNE JONES
June 7–November 2 | Mayer Gallery
A flowstone is created by mineral deposits laid down by water, slowly, quietly, in one place, over time. Flowstone grows approximately one inch every 100 years. In 100 years, how many societal changes have occurred in one place? Flowstones is a site-specific installation consisting of sound, sandbags, paintings, window works, and a text piece.
LOOMING IN THE SHADOWS OF ŁÓDŹ:
LESLIE STAROBIN, TAMAR SEGEV AND ORI SEGEV
July 5–December 7 | Hodges Gallery
On the 75th anniversary of their relatives’ deportation from the Lodz Ghetto to Auschwitz-Birkenau, a family of artists travels to Poland to uncover their roots. Through their respective mediums — photography, painting, and filmmaking — the three image-makers respond to the experiences of the first and second generation of PolishJewish and Israeli Holocaust survivors in their family. Employing narrative and visual storytelling, representation and abstraction, still and mediated imagery, these American artists aspire to preserve their family’s multi-continental migration and wartime legacy.
SUMMER EXHIBITION CELEBRATION
Engage with visiting artists, mingle with fellow arts advocates, enjoy live music and refreshments, and discover the exciting contemporary exhibitions showcased across six galleries by local, regional, national and international artists.
Friday, July 5, 5–9pm
CONGREGATIONS: SARINA ANGELL
July 5–December 7 | Community Gallery
Beauty is a powerful ally in an unjustly damaged world; it invites a visceral response, wonder, and awe. Sarina Angell gently guides us to look closely at her delicate artwork and take that attention to detail into the world, finding beauty in places we often overlook and using it to supersede the devastating events that can otherwise consume our thoughts.
A LONG AND SLOW SURRENDER: WENDY YOUNG
July 5–December 7 |
Bickers Gallery
Wendy Young has never met a stranger; in fact, most people she meets invite her into their spaces and welcome her into their worlds. They share stories and take photos. Sometimes those worlds clash with one another, illustrating how we can cross borders and listen to one another in ways that are not polarizing, even when we disagree.
The Turchin Center expresses its gratitude to the generous corporate sponsors who have provided support for its programming, including The Bickers Consulting Group, Chetola Resort, The Art Cellar Gallery & Framemakers, and Mast General Store.
Look No Further
ROSENSCHAFFEL COMPETITION
for Young & Emerging Artists
ABOUT THE COMPETITION
This year’s competition, now in its 13th year, accepted entries by undergraduate and graduate collegiate musicians from North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida. Finalists were selected this past spring via a blind adjudication process by esteemed musicians and collegiate educators. In this final live round of the competition, a panel of distinguished conductors will choose a First, Second, and Third Place winner for cash prizes and the opportunity for a future showcase performance. Audience members will also select an Audience Choice winner.
Last year’s winner, Carter Doolittle (alto saxophone), performs with Eastern Festival Orchestra on June 30 (see page 30).
FIRST PLACE: $2,500
SECOND PLACE: $2,000
THIRD PLACE: $1,500
AUDIENCE CHOICE: $1,000
Nancy and Neil Schaffel with last year’s Rosen-Schaffel Competition winner, Carter Doolittle.
This performance is supported by the Rosen-Schaffel Endowment for Classical Music Programming. Created by Nancy and Neil Schaffel, the endowment honors the legacy of Nancy’s parents, Arnold and Muriel Rosen, and their lifelong commitment to the fine arts, as well as their important role in the founding of An Appalachian Summer Festival. The 2023 Rosen-Schaffel Young Artist Competition has also received generous support from the Bruce J. Heim Foundation and Mark and Nancy Tafeen. These gifts have enabled the program to increase the amount of its cash awards to the competition’s winners.
PROGRAM
Rhapsody-Concerto H 337 Bohuslav Martinů
Moderato
Molto adagio – Poco allegro –Andante molto tranquillo
Annette Gregoire, viola
Dr. Mi-Jin Kim, piano
Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77 Johannes Brahms
Allegro non troppo
Jayon Felizarta, violin
Inara Zandmane, piano
Ballade Henri Tomasi
Samuel Soliz, alto saxophone
Dr. Mi-Jin Kim, piano
Walton Viola Concerto
Andante comodo
Vivo con molto preciso
Allegro moderato
Joshua Forbes, Viola Allison Gagnon, piano
Concerto Pour Flute et Orchestre
Allegro Andante
William Walton
Jacques Ibert
Christine Holley, flute Jerilyn Paolini, piano
Concerto for Guitar Heitor Villa-Lobos and Small Orchestra
Allegro Preciso
Andantino e Andante
Cadenza
Allegro non troppo
Tomas Zibetti Haushahn, guitar
Erica Sipes, piano
Saturday, July 6 at 2pm
JAYON FELIZARTA is a FilipinoAmerican violinist studying under Dr. Fabian Lopez at UNCG. As a North Carolina native, he has been closely involved with the local musical community since his youth, performing with the NC Triangle Youth Symphony, Duke String School symphony, and Triangle Youth Philharmonic Quartet. Jayon has been awarded top prizes for the North Carolina Symphony Youth Concerto Competition in 2017, the King’s Peak International Music Competition in 2021, and most recently the UNCG Student Concerto Competition this year. He was a laureate of the Peter Perret youth talent search, and has performed as soloist for the Winston-Salem Symphony. An active orchestral performer, Jayon has had a seat as a first violinist of the Fayetteville Symphony since 2021, and concertmaster of the UNCG University Symphony Orchestra. He has also performed with the Wilmington Symphony and performs as violinist for the JAW Trio at UNCG.
INĀRA ZANDMANE (piano collaborator) is one of the leading collaborative pianists of North Carolina. She has performed with artists such as Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Augustin Hadelich, Ray Chen, Sergei Antonov, Yura Lee, Martin Storey, Paul Coletti, Ian Clarke, and Branford Marsalis, in addition to regularly performing with Blue Mountain Ensemble and in duos with saxophonist Susan Fancher and violinist Fabián López. In 2008, Ināra teamed up with Latvian violinist Vineta Sareika on a tour leading them to Boston, Cleveland, and Toronto, before culminating in an invitationonly performance at the Kennedy Center arranged by the Latvian Embassy in the United States.
JOSHUA
FORBES was raised in Durham, NC. As a child, he was always interested in music, and by age seven was a singer at Cinitapp, a music school in Raleigh, NC. His true passion for the viola began in middle school at Durham School of the Arts, where he was introduced to the viola by a music teacher, Boyd Gibson, and fell in love with music. In 2017, Joshua decided to pursue music as a career and began studying under Simon Ertz. In 2018, Joshua took a leap of faith and attended UNCSA for high school, where he studied viola with Ulrich Eichenauer. Joshua is currently an undergraduate violist at UNCSA, studying with renowned soloist and chamber musician Jordan Bak. Joshua is pursuing his dream of becoming a soloist and professional chamber musician, collaborating with world-class musicians and making lifelong connections. He currently serves as a member of UNCSA’s Outreach Program Artist Corps, where he often goes to elementary, middle, and high schools to teach viola. Joshua has attended summer intensives across the United States: Northern Lights Chamber music festival, Green Mountain chamber music festival, Landeskakademie für musizierende, and the Josef Gingold Chamber music festival of Miami. When not performing, Joshua spends his free time making tea and sight reading.
ALLISON GAGNON (piano collaborator)
directs the Collaborative Piano Program at the UNC School of the Arts and concertizes with both and instrumental colleagues. Before joining UNCSA in 1998, she was affiliated with both Queen’s University and McGill University in Canada. She was a member of the piano staff at the Meadowmount School of Music in New York for almost 20 years and currently is Artist-Faculty
at Music at Port Milford in Canada. Dr. Gagnon has twice received the UNCSA Excellence in Teaching Award. Graduates of the collaborative piano program she launched 22 years ago are active professionally across the US and abroad. Since 2019, she has served as faculty mentor for the Music Between Us initiative of UNCSA’s ArtistCorps, providing interactive music making in dementia care. Dr. Gagnon completed her DMA with Anne Epperson at the Cleveland Institute of Music.
ANNETTE GREGOIRE graduated from Appalachian State University with her Bachelor’s in Viola Performance in 2023, and is currently in the first year of her Master’s. She grew up in Hendersonville, NC, where she started playing the viola in her school orchestra at age 11. Annette is an alumna of Brevard Music Center and, since 2022, has played with the Johnson City Symphony Orchestra and Symphony of the Mountains. Her chamber group, the High Country String Quartet, plays for various weddings and events in the region. When she’s not playing viola, she is an amateur cook and a dabbler in the banjo.
DR. MI-JIN KIM (piano collaborator) started taking piano lessons at age six, in her native Incheon, Republic of Korea. She received recognition and awards from numerous competitions in Korea, Bulgaria and Los Angeles, among others. She has appeared as soloist with the Sejong University Symphony Orchestra and Good Classic Music Festival Orchestra in Korea, and with the Philharmonica Bulgaria in Bulgaria. In 2015, she was invited to perform at the American Liszt Society Festival “Liszt and Damnation,” at the University of North Texas. Dr. Kim holds a double master’s degree in piano
performance and collaborative piano from Michigan State University, and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano performance from the University of North Texas. Dr. Kim has held full-time faculty positions at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Arkansas Tech University in Russellville, and Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, and in Fall 2023, Dr. Kim joined the Hayes School of Music at App State as a fulltime staff pianist.
TOMAS ZIBETTI
HAUSHAHN is a Brazilian guitarist and began his guitar studies at the Montenegro Municipal Arts Foundation (FUNDARTE). He is currently a student of the Master’s program at Radford University and holds the position of Graduate Teaching Assistant under orientation of Dr. Robert Trent. In
2021 he was awarded 1st place in the X Fred Schneiter National Guitar Competition, which led to him premiering “Study No 1” by Brazilian composer Vicente Paschoal. In 2023 he graduated with academic honors at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) under Dr. Daniel Wolff’s supervision. During his undergraduate degree, he also worked in the organization of the UFRGS International Guitar Festival, where he had the opportunity to participate in Masterclasses with Fabio Zanon, Thomas Patterson, Karol Samuelcik and others.
ERICA SIPES (piano collaborator), pianist, received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in piano performance from the Eastman School of Music. She is the staff pianist and resident practice coach at Radford University and has freelanced as a piano collaborator across the United States. She is a founding member and pianist of the Alma Ensemble, a trio based
in Roanoke, VA that is dedicated to featuring music composed by women. She has also launched a YouTube channel with Canadian colleague Sandra Mogensen called Piano Music She Wrote with the same aim. She regularly appears as the pianist for the Roanoke Symphony, Amici Musicorum, and Opera Roanoke.
CHRISTINE HOLLEY is a rising college sophomore at East Tennessee State University and a graduate of Science Hill High School. She has played flute for 13 years (doing Suzuki Flute) and is continuing to play her flute in college as a music major. She participated in events such as East Tennessee School Band & Orchestra Association (ETSBOA) and Tennessee Music Education Association (TMEA) throughout high school, playing in the TMEA band and orchestra, as well as
the ETSBOA band and orchestra.
JERILYN PAOLINI (piano collaborator)
is an adjunct professor of piano at East Tennessee State University, where she teaches applied and class piano. She serves as accompanist for the ETSU Opera Workshop and BucsWorth men’s choir. Paolini directed the ETSU Summer Piano Camp from 2005-2017, and currently teaches piano in the ETSU Community Music School. She served as president of the Tennessee Music Teachers Association from 2017-2019, and served two biennia as president of the Appalachian Music Teachers Association, having been awarded AMTA’s Teacher of the Year in 2001. Prior to coming to East Tennessee, Paolini was a staff accompanist at The Juilliard School and The Mannes School of Music. The New York Times reviewed her performance at Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall as “a splendid pianist, capable of creating an indelible mood with just a couple of chords.”
SAMUEL SOLIZ, alto saxophone, is a senior with one semester remaining at UCF, majoring in Music Performance. Samuel attended Lake Worth High School in Lake Worth, Florida. Samuel has also competed in other national competitions such as MTNA and the Ocala and UCF concerto competition. Samuel intends to pursue a master’s degree starting in the fall of 2025 with the goal of becoming a professor.
Dr. Mi-Jin Kim (piano collaborator) see bio above
JUDGES
Emerging American conductor CHRISTOPHER
JAMES LEES brings passionate and nuanced
orchestral performances to the stage, a fierce commitment to contemporary music, and a natural charisma to audiences all around the world. In 2018, Mr. Lees began an appointment as Resident Conductor of the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra and Principal Conductor of the Charlotte Symphony Youth Orchestra. In addition to the more than 50 annual concert appearances with the CSO, he has annually stepped in to conduct Subscription Classical performances on five occasions, including two gala concerts with legendary artists and Grammy Award winners Branford Marsalis and Rhiannon Giddens, respectively.
An active guest conductor, Mr. Lees has returned for performances with the Los Angeles and Rochester Philharmonics, the Houston, Detroit, Milwaukee, North Carolina, Portland, and Flint Symphonies, and conducted debuts with the New York Philharmonic, and New World, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Toledo, and Vermont Symphonies. Additional engagements have taken him to the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Orchestra de Chambre de Paris, Aspen Philharmonic Orchestra, Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, and at the Music in the Mountains Festival & Festival Internacional de Inverno de Campos do Jordão in Brazil. Only the second American Gustavo Dudamel Conducting Fellow with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Mr. Lees made his debut with the orchestra in April 2013 and returned for concerts in February 2015.
With the New York Philharmonic and St. Louis and Atlanta symphonies, among others, Mr. Lees has served as an assistant conductor for the world’s leading conductors, including Gustavo Dudamel, Paavo Järvi, Herbert Blomstedt, Leonard Slatkin, David Robertson, Robert Spano, Marin Alsop, Pablo Heras-Casado, Stéphane Denève, Susanna Mälkki, and Nicholas McGegan.
After two summers of study with Robert Spano at the Aspen Music Festival, Mr. Lees was named winner of both the 2011 James Conlon Conducting Prize and the 2012 Aspen Conducting Prizes, respectively. In 2013, Mr. Lees returned for a third summer as assistant conductor for the Aspen Music Festival and School.
An active pianist and equally comfortable in the opera pit, Mr. Lees has served as Music Director or Assistant Conductor for a wide array of operas: Aida (Atlanta Symphony), Peter Grimes and John Harbison’s The Great Gatsby (Aspen Opera Theatre Center), Louis Andriessen’s De Materie, Philip Glass’ the CIVIL warS (Los Angeles Philharmonic), Don Giovanni and Mark Adamo’s Little Women, (University of Michigan Opera Theatre), and Nino Rota’s Il Capello di paglia di Firenze (AJ Fletcher Opera Institute). A recipient of a Career Assistance Grant from the Solti Foundation US, Mr. Lees was also chosen for showcase on the Bruno Walter Memorial Foundation National Conductor Preview, hosted by the League of American Orchestras and Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra.
A dedicated advocate for music of our time, Mr. Lees has premiered more than 150 new works by a diverse range of composers, and collaborated closely with Pulitzer Prize winners John Adams, William Bolcom, John Corigliano, Jennifer Higdon, Joseph Schwantner, Steven Stucky, Caroline Shaw, Roger Reynolds, and Julia Wolfe. An equally passionate advocate for music education, Mr. Lees has brought inspirational energy to student orchestras across the country, from the Colburn School to the Shepherd School at Rice University and the New England Conservatory.
A native of Washington, D.C., Mr. Lees holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Michigan, and has studied conducting
with Larry Rachleff and Robert Spano, as well as having participated in masterclasses with Lorin Maazel, Michael Tilson Thomas, Gustav Meier, and Jorma Panula. When not performing, Mr. Lees can be found riding roller coasters with his eightyear-old son, reading the stack of books on his nightstand, or recovering from the 2024 Boston Marathon.
CORNELIA LAEMMLI ORTH
is in her 17th season as Music Director of Symphony of the Mountains. In addition to Masterworks Series, she has developed new series of Summer Outdoor, Family, Young People, Pops, Patriotic and Cross-Over concerts, which led to Symphony of the Mountains being the first Tennessee orchestra to travel abroad for a European tour with the Kruger Brothers.
World-renowned soloists are regular guests with her orchestras. As an advocate for Contemporary Music, Cornelia brings a variety of new music to the concert hall. In 2022 Cornelia launched a new outreach program called “Paths to Dignity,” bringing live music to people who are unsheltered and raising awareness for the problems of individuals and families who are unhoused. Her concert lectures, involvement with area schools, colleges and universities, speeches for civic organizations, regular TV and radio appearances, and collaborations with regional art organizations have made her a vital part of the communities.
From 2016-2022 Cornelia served as Music Director of the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra in Ithaca, NY. In September 2019, she had her debut with Opera Ithaca in several performances of La Bohème, and in February 2020 she appeared as guest conductor of the Kansas
Intercollegiate Orchestra at the Wesleyan University in Salina, KS. In October 2017, she appeared as guest conductor with the Brevard Philharmonic in Brevard, NC.
From 2010-2012, she held the position of interim music director for the Appalachian Philharmonic and the Appalachian State University Opera Program in Boone, NC. She resumed these responsibilities for the 20152016 season and serves now on the advisory board for App State’s Hayes School of Music. During the 20142015 Season, Cornelia had her debut as guest conductor with the Asheville Lyric Opera in Asheville, NC.
Prior to her engagement with Symphony of the Mountains, Cornelia held the position of music director and conductor of the Oak Ridge Symphony and Choir. She served as Associate Conductor and later Principal Guest Conductor of the Knoxville Symphony from 2002-2008 and since then has had several appearances with this orchestra. In Europe, she was music director of the Operetta Theatre in Möriken, Switzerland, guest assistant conductor under Philippe Jordan at La Scala in Milano, Italy, worked with the Bohuslav Orchestra in the Czech Republic, and conducted many concerts with choirs and ad hoc orchestras with musicians from the Zurich Opera House and the Tonhalle Orchestra.
Cornelia received her Lehrdiplom in piano from the Conservatory at Winterhur and graduated from the Conservatory and University in Zurich with her master’s in music education. She obtained her Masters in Orchestra Conducting from Northwestern University, where she studied under Victor Yampolsky. In a variety of workshops, she studied under Larry Rachleff, Marin Alsop, Joann Falletta, Robert Spano, Kirk Trevor, Tsung Yeh, Milen Nachev and Johannes Schlaefli.
Cornelia convincingly combines the classical-romantic tradition of her
old-world origins with the unique American flavor that her international background and extensive working experience in her adopted country have provided. She is a sought-after guest conductor in the U.S. and in Europe.
Spanish native JOSÉ-LUIS NOVO is currently artistic director and conductor of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra (ASO) in Maryland. From 2003 to 2016 he held an impressive 13-year tenure as Music Director and Conductor of the Binghamton Philharmonic in New York state. Prior to these appointments, he served as Assistant Conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra under both former Music Director Paavo Järvi and the late Music Director Emeritus Jesús López-Cobos, and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra under the late Erich Kunzel. He has been on the conducting faculty at the Eastern Music Festival since 1999.
Highlights of Novo’s tenure with the ASO include numerous appearances at the Music Center at Strathmore with violinists James Ehnes, Anne Akiko Meyers, Leticia Moreno, Chee-Yun and Esther Yoo; pianists Awadagin Pratt, Olga Kern and Jon Nakamatsu; cellists Steven Isserlis and the late Lynn Harrell; guitarist Manuel Barrueco; pipa virtuoso Wu Man and the Naval Academy Glee Club. Also remarkable are a 2012 return appearance at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center with mezzosoprano Denyce Graves, national broadcasts on NPR’s Performance Today, debut TV broadcasts on Washington’s WETA Metro PBS, the launching of the ASO’s award-winning streaming platform Symphony+, the creation of the Annapolis Symphony Academy and the ASO’s first commercial CD commemorating the 300th anniversary of the signing of the City of Annapolis’ Royal Charter. In
July 2022, Maestro Novo and the ASO stunned audiences on both sides of the Atlantic in a debut international tour to Spain with guitar virtuoso Pepe Romero as guest soloist.
Recent and upcoming guest conducting engagements include debut appearances with the Rochester Philharmonic, the Austin, Grand Rapids, Hilton Head, Palm Beach, Alexandria and South Bend Symphony Orchestras, and return appearances with the Baltimore Symphony, the Fresno Philharmonic, Symphoria, and a Kimmel Center debut in Philadelphia conducting the Curtis Institute Orchestra. After a successful debut with the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra (TPO) for the Thailand International Composition Festival in 2015, Maestro Novo has been invited back regularly to guest conduct the TPO on several occasions. Other guest conducting engagements have included appearances with the Symphony San José; the
Minnesota Orchestra; the Syracuse, Modesto, Windsor, Stamford, Tulsa, and Tallahassee symphonies; the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra; the Cleveland and Abilene philharmonics, and most of the major Spanish orchestras.
Novo has also fostered a reputation as a keen educator of young musicians. He has held conducting positions with the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra, Miami University Symphony Orchestra, National Repertory Orchestra, National Youth Orchestra of Spain and the Yale Symphony Orchestra, and from 2017 to 2019 he was Interim Director of Orchestral Activities at the University of Maryland School of Music, College Park. In addition, he has conducted many noteworthy college and youth orchestras such as the Curtis Institute Orchestra, the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra, the Bard Conservatory Orchestra, the Ithaca College Symphony Orchestra, and
the Portuguesa State Youth Orchestra of the Venezuelan El Sistema. More recently and under the auspices of the Annapolis Symphony Academy, he presided over the debut of its Orion Youth Orchestra, conducting the inaugural concert in June 2022.
Novo was featured in the League of American Orchestra’s Symphony magazine in “Podium Powers,” an article about emerging Hispanic conductors in the United States. He holds music degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music, Yale University and the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels, and is the recipient of a 2010 Annie Award in Performing Arts from the Arts Council of Anne Arundel County, a 2008 American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers Adventurous Programming Award, and a 2005 Broome County Arts Council Heart of the Arts Award.
9 July
Tuesday, July 9 at 7pm Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts Post-film Q&A with Dale Pollock
The Taste of Things
In French with English subtitles France / Rated PG-13 / Directed by Anh Hung Tran / 2023 / Drama, History, Romance / 135 minute
HELENE & STEPHEN WEICHOLZ GLOBAL FILM SERIES
THE TASTE OF THINGS
Set in France in 1889, the film follows the life of Dodin Bouffant (Benoît Magimel) as a chef living with his personal cook and lover Eugénie (Juliette Binoche). They share a long history of gastronomy and love but Eugénie refuses to marry Dodin, so the food lover decides to do something he has never done before: cook for her.
ABOUT DALE POLLOCK
Dale M. Pollock, a writer, film producer, filmmaker and author, has served as head film critic for Daily Variety, chief entertainment correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, Dean of the School of Filmmaking at the (then) North Carolina School of the Arts, and Professor of Cinema Studies at NCSA, among other illustrious roles. He was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in the early 1980s,
wrote Skywalking: The Life and Films of George Lucas, and his first work of fiction, Chopped: A Novel, was published in March 2023. Pollock is currently at work on his next historical novel, set in Winston-Salem, NC, at the end of World War I.
THE PATH TO HAPPINESS
“In our fractious and contentious world, we all seek different ways of finding happiness. Sometimes we find it in love, other times in the pleasures of the senses, and even in the simplicity of daily tasks. Our series will focus on three poignant and satisfying international films that explore the many paths to happiness.”
—Film curator Dale Pollock
.calm
89.9 FM / WDAV.ORG / MOBILE APP / SMART SPEAKER
The Classical Oasis For Your Mind, Body, and Soul
ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE TOUR 2024
Joe Burgstaller and Fábio Brum, trumpets
Achilles Liarmakopoulos, trombone
Jeff Nelsen, horn
Chuck Daellenbach, tuba
(Program subject to change,
Overture to The Magic Flute K620
Concerto in D Major BWV 972
Beatles Songbook
Carnival of Venice
Viva la Vida
Suite Mozart
W.A. Mozart, arr. Fen Watkin
J.S. Bach – A. Vivaldi, arr. Joe Burgstaller
J. Lennon – P. McCartney, arr. Christopher Dedrick
Traditional, arr. Howard Cable
- Intermission -
Coldplay, arr. Brandon Ridenour
W.A. Mozart, arr. Frederic Mills and Arthur Frackenpohl
Tangos Nuevos A. Piazzolla, arr. Joe Burgstaller
Quintet Michael Kamen
Thoughts of Love
Scheherazade
A. Pryor, arr. Gordon Cherry
N. Rimsky-Korsakov, arr. Brandon Ridenour
GROUP
May 25 - July 15
EXHIBITION: July 27 - September 15
EXHIBITION: November 15 WORkS
29 - April 30
RECIPE FOR 50 YEARS OF SUCCESSES
The original challenge was to develop an audience for an ensemble of brass players that, at the time, had no standing in the concert world. What set Canadian Brass apart from all other performing artists in 1970 was the relentless search for repertoire that was both loved by its performers and embraced by a growing brass audience.
The musical experiences of the members along with the interests and wishes of audiences informed the programs that the group created ranging from Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Joplin, Gershwin and Ellington, to ballet, opera and Schickele. The ensemble never ignored an opportunity to relate to its audience which brought the Brass to international attention. They were at first criticized for talking to audiences and now take pride in seeing the entire concert world embracing engagement as a fundamental element of performance.
The Brass has averaged two-and-a-half full-length recordings per year of its 52 years of existence for a total of 138 recordings. They have received a combined total of 24 Grammy and Juno nominations and won the German Echo Award for Goldberg Variations. A North American group taking Bach back to Europe and winning approval at the highest level was a crowning achievement! Most recently during the Covid era, the Brass created another award-winning recording, Canadiana. The album features unique arrangements of many Canadian superstars including Joni Mitchell, k.d. lang, Bruce Cockburn, Drake, and DeadMau5.
Education continues to be at the forefront of Canadian Brass’ yearly activities. There are over one million Canadian Brass quintet repertoire books in the hands of students in every country with a strong brass tradition. Between Hal Leonard Music Publishing distributing its 800 unique individual brass titles and SmartMusic now making available some 76 titles for mixed ensemble use, the Brass continues to shape the future of chamber music ventures.
For a comprehensive Canadian Brass biography, blend together the complete history of any random five musician ensemble and it will yield a year in the world of Canadian Brass. “We’ve created ballets, played Carnegie Hall, toured China during its 1977 reopening, and performed in front of five prime ministers, but most importantly performed for more than ten million friends, family and audiences worldwide so far. We did all this so we could play Bach,” says tubaist & founder Chuck Daellenbach.
“Experiences as an African American Liberator of the Camps,” Ambassador John Withers
“Purity, Eugenics and Lethal Medicine,” Tom White
“To Hope and Back: The Journey of the St. Louis,” Kathy Kacer
“America’s Response to the Holocaust: A Moral Challenge for Every Generation,” Rafael MedoM
“The Critical Rise of Antisemitism Today,” Michael Berenbaum
JOE BURGSTALLER, TRUMPET
Called “a superstar of the trumpet” by conductor JoAnn Falletta, Joe Burgstaller is a long-time trumpeter and arranger with Canadian Brass. Now Professor of Trumpet at Arizona State University, Joe also spent years as an international soloist and a clinician, including his Change Your Mind, Change Your Playing® seminars. Prior to ASU, he was for 11 years at The Peabody Institute, having been named in 2008 a Distinguished Visiting Artist. His formidable online presence includes the world’s most viewed version of La Virgen de la Macarena (4.6 million YouTube views) and his popular Trumpet Warmup Show, livestreamed weekly on Facebook with upwards of 25,000 viewers in 30+ countries. Joe first joined the Brass at the age of 30. Prior to the Brass, he was a full-time soloist performing 60 solo concerts every season with his Rafael Méndez Project and was a member of the acclaimed Meridian Arts Ensemble.
FÁBIO BRUM, TRUMPET
Brazilian born Fábio Brum is an international trumpet artist and the principal trumpet with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Fábio is a former member of the internationally acclaimed Canadian Brass. He has lived and studied in five different countries and appeared in more than 30 countries around the world as a soloist, orchestral performer and teacher. He grew up in a family with two major passions: soccer and music. After his parents first tried in vain to turn him into a football player, his grandfather decided to train him as a musician. He dedicated his first solo CD EGREGORE + to his grandfather, to whom he is very grateful. Fábio was Principal Trumpet of the Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira (Brazil) for nine seasons and of the Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla (Spain) for two seasons. He is a graduate of the University of Louisville (USA) and of the Hochschule für Musik, Karlsruhe (Germany).
JEFF NELSEN, HORN
The instrument formerly known as French Horn stands at the center of a brass quintet. There is not a concert performed by Canadian Brass anywhere in the world where Jeff Nelsen is not surrounded by professional horn colleagues and former students. He was recently President of the International Horn Society. There is no better-informed Hornist than Jeff; he has played in just about all of the major symphonies in North America, performed in the
music of computer games, toured with John Legend, and played in the Broadway pits in New York.
ACHILLES LIARMAKOPOULOS, TROMBONE
Definitely not Canadian (yet!) Achilles Liarmakopoulos is the historian of Canadian Brass. He can recite every piece recorded by Canadian Brass, when it was recorded, and its differences and similarities to repeated recordings of the same work. The Greek Freak of trombone has three prestigious classical music degrees but spends his spare time investigating, performing, and filming Latin music.
DR. CONRAD CHARLES (CHUCK) DAELLENBACH,
O.C., DMA (hon.), Doctor Litterarium (hon.), Doctor of Music (hon.), PhD (paid in full), TUBA
Every social organization needs a bookkeeper, manager, spokesperson, humorist, and critic, so while Canadian Brass has been looking for these people through the years, founder Chuck Daellenbach has been filling in. Growing up in a musical family tradition Chuck had to sing in choirs, play cello (only one year unfortunately), and take up the tuba to help his dad fill all the positions in his band. Since these musical activities had taken up all his time there was little left for higher math and physics — off to music school! It was at the Eastman where he learned the art of taking every opportunity that knocks, the tiger’s roar on tuba and, after forgetting to leave upon graduation, went on to earn a doctorate at age 25. It was then off to Toronto to head up the brass department (two of us) and meet Eugene Watts, forming one of the most impressive entertainment teams since the Marx Brothers.
Photo credit: Bo Huang
ABOUT BUDDY GUY
At age 87, Buddy Guy is a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, a major influence on rock titans like Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and Stevie Ray Vaughan, a pioneer of Chicago’s fabled West Side sound, and a living link to the city’s halcyon days of electric blues. Buddy Guy has received eight Grammy Awards, a 2015 Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award, 38 Blues Music Awards (the most any artist has received), the Billboard Magazine Century Award for distinguished artistic achievement, a Kennedy Center Honor, and the Presidential National Medal of Arts. Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him #23 in its “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.” In 2019, Buddy Guy won his eighth and most recent Grammy Award for his 18th solo LP, The Blues Is Alive and Well
In July of 2021, in honor of Buddy Guy’s 85th birthday, PBS American Masters released Buddy Guy: The Blues Chase the Blues Away, a documentary following his rise from a childhood spent picking cotton in Louisiana to
becoming one of the most influential guitar players of all time. The documentary features interviews with Buddy Guy, Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton, John Mayer, Gary Clark Jr, and more, and is available to stream at pbs.org.
Though Buddy Guy will forever be associated with Chicago, his story actually begins in Louisiana. One of five children, he was born in 1936 to a sharecropper’s family and raised on a plantation near the small town of Lettsworth, located some 140 miles northwest of New Orleans. Buddy was just seven years old when he fashioned his first makeshift “guitar” — a two-string contraption attached to a piece of wood and secured with his mother’s hairpins.
In 1957, he took his guitar to Chicago, where he would permanently alter the direction of the instrument, first on numerous sessions for Chess Records playing alongside Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, and the rest of the label’s legendary roster, and then on recordings of his own. His incendiary style left its mark on guitarists from Jimmy Page to John Mayer. “He was for me what Elvis was probably like for other people,” said Eric Clapton at Guy’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2005. “My course was set, and he was my pilot.”
Seven years later, July 2012 proved to be one of Buddy Guy’s most remarkable years ever. He was awarded the 2012 Kennedy Center Honor for his lifetime contribution to American culture; earlier in the year, at a performance at the White House, he even persuaded President Obama to join him on a chorus of “Sweet Home Chicago.” Also in 2012, he published his long-awaited memoir, When I Left Home
These many years later, Buddy Guy remains a genuine American treasure and one of the final surviving connections to an historic era in the country’s musical evolution.
Rosen Sculpture Walk
The nationally recognized Rosen Sculpture Competition and Exhibition has showcased contemporary American sculpture in outdoor settings across the university campus for the last 38 years. Join competition juror and sculptor Christopher Meyer on a fascinating outdoor tour of the 10 sculptures selected as finalists for this year’s competition. With a rich background in iron work, Meyer’s work ranges from nonobjective to representational sculptural objects, sculptural installations, and cast-iron performance work, often focusing on the interaction between the viewer and the work. The walking tour will culminate at the Schaefer Center with an awards reception and complimentary boxed lunch.
July
Saturday, July 13 at 10am
Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts
(Participants will gather outdoors at the reception tent adjacent to the Center) FREE
Special thanks to... DEBBIE DAVIDSON, DAVID ROSEN, AND NANCY ROSENBLATT
In 2023, Debbie Davidson, David Rosen, and Nancy Rosenblatt — along with Nancy’s husband Charles — chose to endow the Rosen Outdoor Sculpture Competition and Exhibition in memory of their parents, Martin and Doris Rosen. This transformational gift ensures the future of this beloved competition and exhibition and affirms it as a representation of Appalachian State University’s commitment to art in public spaces on campus. Established in 1987 by Martin and Doris Rosen, The Rosen Outdoor Sculpture Competition and Exhibition is a major point of pride for the university, a source of inspiration for thousands of visitors, area residents and members of the university community who benefit from the opportunity to explore, learn about and experience the fascinating world of contemporary sculpture.
CHRISTOPHER MEYER is a native South Dakotan and Associate Professor of Sculpture at the University of South Dakota, where he received his B.F.A. visual art in sculpture. Meyer earned his M.F.A. emphasizing in sculpture from the University of Montana in Missoula, MT. Meyer’s work ranges from non-objective to representational sculptural objects, sculptural installations, and cast-iron performance work, often focusing on the interaction between the viewer and the work. The work may evoke a tool or a toy but without a stated purpose, or it may simply imply a raw emotional state; his objective is to create work that is humanist in nature. Christopher’s studio practice tends to emphasize material and process and is made from a large variety of materials including cast metals, carved or fabricated wood and steel, fibers, mixed media, or “whatever the piece needs to be.”
Since 2012, Meyer has made a deeper investment in cast iron, building a furnace and equipment necessary to make iron, bringing cast iron to the University of South Dakota, and hosting an annual iron pour event at his home studio in rural South Dakota called the “Little Pour on the Prairie” each spring. He annually travels thousands of miles to cast iron. Meyer currently serves on the board of the Western Cast Iron Art Alliance and in October 2022 he hosted the 7th Biennial Western Cast Iron Art Conference. Meyer’s work has been published in several visual art publications regionally to internationally and he has exhibited in over 100 regional and national exhibitions since joining the University of South Dakota in 2006. He has also been awarded the Belbas-Larson Award for Excellence in Teaching, the highest award given to faculty at the University of South Dakota, as well as the Knutson Distinguished Professor Award for Creative Research, the highest award given in the University of South Dakota’s College of Fine Arts.
DAVID BOYAJIAN “Unfurling with Seeds”
RICHARD JUBRAN “True Blue”
GLENN ZWEYGARDT “Verde Trilogy”
HANNA JUBRAN “Phase #1”
WALTER EARLY “Lookout”
ANDREW LIGHT “The Ecstatic”
BEN PIERCE “Skyward”
ADAM WALLS “Core Revisited”
BEAU LYDAY “Red Astral Plane”
BOB DOSTER “Flight”
This program is made possible by generous support from The Martin and Doris Rosen Giving Fund — courtesy of Debbie Rosen Davidson and David Rosen — and The Charles and Nancy Rosenblatt Foundation. The Rosen Family proudly continues the legacy of Martin and Doris by generously supporting this important program dedicated to sharing the power and joy of public art, creating a fascinating glimpse into the world of contemporary sculpture and building new audiences for the visual arts.
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ABOUT NORM LEWIS
Emmy, Grammy, Tony, and SAG Award nominee Norm Lewis was recently seen onstage starring in the national tour of the Tony Award-winning production of A Soldier’s Play and in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s West End Concert of Love Never Dies. He starred in Spike Lee’s critically acclaimed Da 5 Bloods, and in the groundbreaking FX series Pose. Additionally, Mr. Lewis can be seen starring opposite Hilary Swank in the feature The Good Mother, Amazon Prime’s newest series Swarm, and Hulu’s Up Here. He was also seen as Caiaphas in the award-winning NBC television special Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert!, alongside John Legend, Sara Bareilles, and Alice Cooper.
Mr. Lewis returned to Broadway in the Fall of 2021, starring in Chicken and Biscuits at the Circle in The Square Theatre. He previously appeared in the Broadway revival of Once on This Island and as Sweeney Todd in the Off-Broadway production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street at the Barrow Street Theatre, receiving the AUDELCO Award for his performance. In May of 2014, he made history as The Phantom of the Opera’s first African American Phantom on Broadway.
He has been seen on PBS in the Live From Lincoln Center productions of Showboat with Vanessa Williams,
Norm Lewis: Who Am I?, New Year’s Eve: A Gershwin Celebration with Diane Reeves, American Voices with Renée Fleming, and the PBS Specials First You Dream – The Music of Kander & Ebb and Ella Wishes You A Swingin’ Christmas He can be seen recurring in the VH1 series Daytime Divas, also alongside Vanessa Williams. His additional television credits include Women of the Movement, Law & Order, Dr. Death, Mrs. America, Better Things, The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Bull, Chicago Med, Gotham, The Blacklist, and Blue Bloods, as well as in his recurring role as Senator Edison Davis on the hit drama Scandal.
Mr. Lewis is a proud, founding member of Black Theatre United, an organization that stands together to help protect Black people, Black talent and Black lives of all shapes and orientations in theatre and communities across the country. He received Tony, Drama Desk, Drama League, and Outer Critics Circle award nominations for his performance as Porgy in the Broadway production of The Gershwins’ Porgy & Bess. Other Broadway credits include Sondheim on Sondheim, The Little Mermaid, Les Misérables, Chicago, Amour, The Wild Party, Side Show, Miss Saigon, and The Who’s Tommy. In London’s West End, he has appeared as Javert in Les Misérables and Les Misérables: The 25th Anniversary Concert, which aired on PBS.
Off-Broadway, Mr. Lewis has performed in Dessa Rose (Drama Desk nomination, AUDELCO Award), Shakespeare in the Park’s The Tempest, The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Drama League nomination), Captains Courageous, and A New Brain. His regional credits include Porgy in The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess (A.R.T.), Ragtime, Dreamgirls (with Jennifer Holliday), First You Dream, Sweeney Todd, and The Fantasticks.
His additional film credits include Christmas in Tune (starring opposite Reba McEntire), Magnum Opus, Winter’s Tale, Sex and the City 2, Confidences, and Preaching to the Choir.
Norm’s albums The Norm Lewis Christmas Album and This Is the Life can be found on Amazon.com as well as cdbaby.com.
Perfect Days
with
HELENE & STEPHEN WEICHOLZ GLOBAL FILM SERIES
PERFECT DAYS
Hirayama is content with his life as a toilet cleaner in Tokyo. Outside of his structured routine, he cherishes music on cassette tapes, reading books, and taking photos of trees. Equal parts meditative and melancholy, Perfect Days is a deeply moving and poetic reflection on finding beauty in the everyday world around us. Directed by German master Wim Wenders (Wings of Desire; Paris, Texas) with a luminous performance by acclaimed Japanese actor Koji Yakusho (who took home the top acting prize at Cannes Film Festival).
POST-SHOW
Q&A
Following the film screening, join film curator, Dale Pollock, for a Q&A.
ABOUT DALE POLLOCK
Dale M. Pollock, a writer, film producer, filmmaker and author, has served as head film critic for Daily Variety, chief entertainment correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, Dean of the School of Filmmaking at the (then) North Carolina School of the Arts, and Professor of Cinema Studies at NCSA, among other illustrious roles. He was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in the early 1980s, wrote Skywalking: The Life and Films of George Lucas, and his first work of fiction, Chopped: A Novel, was published in March 2023. Pollock is currently at work on his next historical novel, set in Winston-Salem, NC, at the end of World War I.
THE PATH TO HAPPINESS
“In our fractious and contentious world, we all seek different ways of finding happiness. Sometimes we find it in love, other times in the pleasures of the senses, and even in the simplicity of daily tasks. Our series will focus on three poignant and satisfying international films that explore the many paths to happiness.”
—Film curator Dale Pollock
BROYHILL CLASSIC CONCERT SERIES
Bell-DenkIsserlis Trio
PROGRAM
Cello Sonata
Violin Sonata
Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 120
~Intermission~
Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 49
Claude Debussy
Claude Debussy
Gabriel Fauré
Felix Mendelssohn
Thursday, July 18 at 7pm
Photo credits (l-r): Joshua Bell, Sebastian Madej; Jeremy Denk, Shervin Lainez; Steven Isserlis, Satoshi Aoyagi
Hailed as a “dream team of performers” (Strings Magazine), violinist Joshua Bell, pianist Jeremy Denk, and cellist Steven Isserlis will come together to offer an unparalleled evening of Gabriel Fauré chamber music. This summer marks the trio’s first U.S. appearances since their debut tour in 2019, where they received widespread praise for their “fresh and cohesive sensitivity and superb technical polish” (Boston Classical Review). These three longtime musical collaborators and friends are masters at the top of their crafts, not to be missed.
JOSHUA BELL, VIOLIN
With a career spanning almost four decades, Grammy® Award-winning violinist Joshua Bell is one of the most celebrated artists of his era. Having performed with virtually every major orchestra in the world, Bell continues to maintain engagements as soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, conductor, and Music Director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.
Bell’s highlights in the 2023-24 season include an international tour of his newly-commissioned project, The Elements, featuring works by renowned living composers. The work will receive its premiere performances with the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Hong Kong Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Seattle Symphony Orchestra. Bell released his latest album, Butterfly Lovers, on Sony Classical in summer 2023. Bell is also leading the Academy of St Martin in the Fields on tour in Australia and throughout the United States. He is appearing as artist-inresidence this season with the NDR Elbphilharmonie, and as guest artist with the New Jersey Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, Chamber Orchestra of
Europe, Philadelphia Orchestra, and more.
In summer 2020, PBS presented Joshua Bell: At Home with Music, a nationwide broadcast produced entirely in lockdown, by Tony and Emmy Award-winning director Dori Berinstein. The program included classical repertoire as well as new arrangements of beloved works. The special featured guest artists Larisa Martínez, Jeremy Denk, Peter Dugan, and Kamal Khan. In August 2020, Sony Classical released the companion album to the special, Joshua Bell: At Home with Music.
A DREAM TEAM OF PERFORMERS
–Strings Magazine
In 2011, Bell was named Music Director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, succeeding Sir Neville Marriner, who formed the orchestra in 1959. Bell’s history with the Academy dates to 1986, when he first recorded the Bruch and Mendelssohn concertos with Marriner and the orchestra. Bell has since led the orchestra on several albums, including Beethoven’s Fourth and Seventh Symphonies, an all-Bach album, For the Love of Brahms, and, most recently, Bruch: Scottish Fantasy, which was nominated for a 2019 Grammy® Award.
Bell has performed for three American presidents and the justices of the Supreme Court. Bell also participated in President Barack Obama’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities’ mission to Cuba, performing on an Emmy-nominated PBS Live from Lincoln Center special, Joshua Bell: Seasons of Cuba, celebrating renewed diplomacy between Cuba and the United States.
Born in Bloomington, Indiana, Bell began playing the violin at age four, and at age 12, began studies with his mentor, Josef Gingold. At age 14, Bell debuted with Riccardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and made his Carnegie Hall debut at age 17 with the St. Louis Symphony. At age 18, Bell signed with his first label, London Decca, and received the Avery Fisher Career Grant. In the following decades, Bell has been nominated for six Grammy® Awards, named “Instrumentalist of the Year” by Musical America, a “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum, and received the Avery Fisher Prize. He also received the 2003 Indiana Governor’s Arts Award and, in 2000, was named an “Indiana Living Legend.”
JEREMY DENK, PIANO
Jeremy Denk is one of America’s foremost pianists, proclaimed by The New York Times as “a pianist you want to hear no matter what he performs.” Denk is also a New York Times bestselling author, winner of both the MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship and the Avery Fisher Prize, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
In the 2023-24 season, Denk premieres a new concerto written for him by Anna Clyne, co-commissioned and performed by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra led by Fabio Luisi, the City of Birmingham Symphony led by Kazuki Yamada, and the New Jersey Symphony led by Markus Stenz. He also returns to London’s Wigmore Hall for a three-concert residency, performing Bach’s Solo Partitas, as well as collaborating with the Danish String Quartet, and performing works by Charles Ives with violinist Maria Wloszczowska. He further reunites with Krzysztof Urbański to perform with the Antwerp Symphony and again with the Danish String Quartet in
Copenhagen at their festival Series of Four.
In the U.S., he performs a program focusing on female composers, and continues his exploration of Bach with multiple performances of the Partitas. His collaborations include performances with violinist Maria Wloszczowska in Philadelphia and New York, and, in the summer, returning to perform with his longtime collaborators Steven Isserlis and Joshua Bell. He closes the season with the San Diego Symphony and Rafael Payare with Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4.
Denk is also known for his original and insightful writing on music, which Alex Ross praises for its “arresting sensitivity and wit.” His New York Times bestselling memoir, Every Good Boy Does Fine, was published to universal acclaim by Random House in 2022, with features on CBS Sunday Morning, NPR’s Fresh Air, The New
York Times, and The Guardian. Denk also wrote the libretto for a comic opera presented by Carnegie Hall, Cal Performances, and the Aspen Festival, and his writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New Republic, The Guardian, Süddeutsche Zeitung, and on the front page of The New York Times Book Review
Denk has performed multiple times at Carnegie Hall, and in recent years has worked with such orchestras as Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, and Cleveland Orchestra. Further afield, he has performed multiple times at the BBC Proms and Klavierfestival Ruhr, and appeared in such halls as the Köln Philharmonie, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and Boulez Saal in Berlin. He has also performed extensively across the UK, including recently with the London Philharmonic, Bournemouth
Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and play-directing the Britten Sinfonia. Last season’s highlights include his performance of the Well-Tempered Klavier Book 1 at the Barbican in London, and performances of John Adams’ “Must the Devil Have All the Great Tunes?” with the Cleveland Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, and Seattle Symphony, as well as a return to the San Francisco Symphony to perform Messiaen under Esa Pekka Salonen.
Denk’s latest album of Mozart piano concertos was released in 2021 on Nonesuch Records. The album was deemed “urgent and essential” by BBC Radio 3. His recording of the Goldberg Variations for Nonesuch Records reached No. 1 on the Billboard Classical Charts, and his recording of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata Op. 111 paired with Ligeti’s Études
was named one of the best discs of the year by The New Yorker, NPR, and The Washington Post, while his account of the Beethoven sonata was selected by BBC Radio 3’s Building a Library as the best available version recorded on modern piano.
STEVEN ISSERLIS, CELLO
British cellist
Steven Isserlis CBE enjoys an international career as a soloist, chamber musician, author, educator, and broadcaster. Equally at home in music from baroque to the present day, he performs with the world’s greatest orchestras, including period ensembles, and has given many world premieres, including Sir John Tavener’s The Protecting Veil, Thomas Adès’s Lieux retrouvés, four works for solo cello by György Kurtág, and pieces by Holliger, Widmann, Mustonen, and many others.
His vast award-winning discography includes most of the cello repertoire, including the JS Bach suites (Gramophone Instrumental Album of the Year), Beethoven’s complete works for cello and piano, the Brahms double concerto with Joshua Bell and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and Grammy-nominated recordings of Haydn and Martinů.
As an author, his latest book is a critically-acclaimed companion to the Bach cello suites, while his two books for children about music are among the genre’s most popular and have been translated into many languages. He has also authored a commentary on Schumann’s Advice for Young Musicians. As a broadcaster, he has written and presented in-depth documentaries for BBC Radio, on Robert Schumann and Harpo Marx.
An insightful musical explorer and curator, he has programmed imaginative series for London’s
Wigmore Hall, New York’s 92nd St Y, and the Salzburg Festival. Unusually, he also directs orchestras from the cello, including Luzerner Sinfonieorchester in 2019 with Radu Lupu in his final public performance. He was awarded a CBE by Queen Elizabeth II in 1998, in recognition of his services to music. International recognition includes the Piatigorsky Prize (USA) and the Glashütte Original Music Festival Award (Germany). Since 1997, he has been Artistic Director of the International Musicians Seminar, Prussia Cove, Cornwall.
He plays the 1726 ‘Marquis de Corberon’ Stradivarius, on loan from the Royal Academy of Music.
PROGRAM NOTES
The following program notes are copyright Susan Halpern, 2024.
Sonata for Cello and Piano in D minor …Claude Debussy (Born August 22, 1862, in SaintGermain-en-Laye; died March 25, 1918, in Paris)
The patriotic intensity of Debussy’s work in the final years of his life is much allied to his philosophical position on nationalism. He had great concerns about the future of French music, which he thought had been too long and too much influenced by Wagner. When World War I began, Debussy understood it as Germany’s attempt to dominate the governments of other nations as it had already dominated their music. He took a philosophical position that demonstrated his musical credo and simultaneously spoke for historic French artistic independence in the tradition of his formidable predecessor, Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764). “They say he is boring,” he wrote to a friend about Rameau, “but they don’t dare admit that they don’t know how to play his music any more. Where is French music?
Where are our old harpsichordists in whose work there is so much real music? They had the secrets of profound grace, of emotion without exaggeration, that we have repudiated like ungrateful children.”
To illustrate his position, he decided to write a series of six sonatas for various instruments in the tradition of JeanPhilippe Rameau. He even had a title page designed in the 18th century style for his sonatas, and he signed them, “Claude Debussy, French musician.”
Debussy completed only three sonatas in a projected series of six sonatas for diverse instruments, but he died before he began the fourth, which he had planned for oboe, horn, and harpsichord. In those that he completed, impressionism is less evident than in his earlier works, but classicism is present: this change was a harbinger of a more temperate style which he was tackling.
Debussy quickly composed the Cello Sonata, the first of the three completed sonatas, during 1915, creating a lively, graceful work. Its movements, more like a suite than a sonata, are bound together by the little opening motto. The sonata’s first movement, Prologue, begins slowly and contrasts with a faster subject. Sérénade and Finale, the last two movements, are joined. Sérénade depends mainly on permutations of pizzicato and its melodic possibilities and variations. The Finale, placing greater emphasis on rhythm, has frequent tempo changes. Sonata for Violin and Piano, in G minor, L. 140 …Claude Debussy
This Sonata for Violin and Piano, composed during the winter of 191617, is the third of the six projected sonatas in Debussy’s planned series, and it is the last work he completed before his death from cancer, a year later. It was first performed on May 5, 1917 in Paris by the violinist Gaston Poulet and the composer at a concert given for the benefit of soldiers
blinded in the war.
In a letter he wrote to a friend, Debussy pointed out the inconsistency of the spirit of the times and the sonata’s “joyous tumult.” The music of the Sonata for Violin and Piano highlights the highly personal, introspective style that Debussy was developing during his last years. In his effort to completely escape from what he felt was Germany’s prevailing musical tyranny, he abandoned the regularity and the symmetry of the forms inherited from the Viennese classicists and their North German followers. He searched for new ways to assemble musical creations, which could be made to seem improvisatory or freely rambling rather than rigidly formal and could be multi-thematic or a-thematic. Progress on the sonata caused Debussy a great deal of frustration; in the end, he felt that it never really coalesced in the way he had originally hoped; nevertheless,
the work is a powerful, forwardlooking effort that joins elements of the traditional concert form with an enthusiasm and affinity for gypsy violin playing.
As the musical ideas are articulated, the listener can hear fragmentary suggestions of French folk song, bits of exotic Orientalism, as well as harmony and rhythm of great complexity presented directly and concisely with a great sense of fantasy and with a minimum of repetition. A broadly melodic flavor characterizes the first movement. The extreme legato gestures and the generally long note values seem to prompt the performers to provide a constant undercurrent of urgency. The piano’s arpeggio figurations supply movement, and the music makes its way through several keys before the return of the opening material.
After the opening Allegro vivo
comes an Intermède, fantasque et léger (“Intermezzo, capricious and light”). Of the three movements, this intermezzo is the most capricious, moving with ease between music marked scherzando and that of a more improvisatory nature. A wonderful chromatic melody, marked expressif et sans rigueur, occupies a central place in the movement and is repeated just before the recapitulation of the opening material. The violin has a spurt of energy that quickly dies away as the movement fades into nothing.
Debussy presumably had the most difficulty with the sonata’s final movement. This Finale, Très animé, rounds off the piece, beginning with its quotation of the first movement’s opening, “like a snake swallowing its own tail,” Debussy said. After this introductory material, the body of the finale begins with an explosion of unaccompanied violin virtuosity. Atypically for Debussy, the work
ends with a resolute declaration of the home key. In his last few compositions Debussy began to veer away from the pictorial, sensual music that identified his work for the last fifteen or twenty years. Indeed, this violin and piano sonata gives us a hint of the way that Debussy’s music might have evolved had he lived longer.
Piano Trio D Minor, Op. 120 … Gabriel Fauré
(Born May 12, 1845, in Pamiers, France; died November 4. 1924, in Paris)
During the 70 years of France’s Third Republic from 1871 to 1940, which were the years of Fauré’s greatest achievements, music as well as the other arts flourished, providing a richness of creation unparalleled in French history. During these years, Fauré had his greatest productivity, but it was not until he was about 60 years old that he achieved eminence enough as a composer to be appointed Director of the Paris Conservatory, a post he held until deafness forced his retirement in 1920.
This Piano Trio is one of Fauré’s very late works, composed after he retired, during his last two years of life, 1922 and 1923. During this period of declining health, he remained largely in his room engaged in two activities, creating some of his most effective chamber works and encouraging young musicians. In January 1922, Jacques Durand, his publisher, suggested that Fauré write a trio for piano, violin, and cello, but in March, Fauré wrote to his wife from Nice, “I’m doing absolutely nothing and haven’t thought of two notes worth writing down since I’ve been here. Have I come to the end of my resources?” He began writing a trio several months later, and wrote again, “The trouble is that I can’t work for long at a time. My worst tribulation is perpetual fatigue.” Returning to Paris for the winter, he completed the Trio in early 1923, and later that year it was published.
Along with his songs, chamber music accounted for the most important of Fauré’s compositions. The Piano Trio was first performed privately at the Société Indépendante by Robert Krettly, violin; Jacques Patte, cello; and Tatiana Sanzevitch, piano; these three were part of a group Fauré founded of young dissident musicians who had been evicted from the established Société Nationale de Musique. Alfred Cortot, Jacques Thibaud, and Pablo Casals gave the trio first public performance. The increasing boldness of harmony, polyphony, and economy of expression were exhibited so well in the three movements of this “little piece,” as Fauré described it modestly, that the work helped define his place in 20th century music. This work is very expressive yet it compresses all that it has to say in a very small scale. Arthur Cohn notes that rhythmic emphasis is paramount in Fauré’s construction of the trio and that almost every section of the three movements is organically united by one idea. The succinct opening to the Allegro ma non troppo first movement contains two themes, but the eighth note accompaniment and the syncopation also have significant importance. The first theme has been characterized as resembling both an elegy and a lament; the second presumably contains a childhood memory of distant bells. These both are developed contrapuntally, and then Fauré introduces what sounds more like a new exposition than a recapitulation. The movement concludes with a coda.
The more romantic Andantino center movement is the longest of the three movements, and the one that Fauré composed first. The strings begin lyrically, and the piano answers their theme with its own delicate yet powerfully poignant theme. Although many critics and historians have commented that the beginning of the final Scherzo movement’s string unison theme resembles that of “Ridi,
Pagliaccio” from Leoncavallo’s opera Pagliacci, it is likely that Fauré did not intend to make a reference to the opera. This movement actually introduces an elegant, but nevertheless rustic, accented country-dance.
Piano Trio No. 1, in D minor, Op. 49 Felix Mendelssohn (Born February 3, 1809 in Hamburg; died November 4, 1847, in Leipzig)
The richness and the elegance of Mendelssohn’s melodic invention, the beautifully proportioned extension and development of his musical ideas, his rhythmic vigor, and the brilliance of his writing for the combination of strings and piano make this one of Mendelssohn’s most enthusiastically received chamber works. He wrote the trio when he was at the height of his career as conductor of the orchestra of Leipzig’s Gewandhaus, or “Draper’s Hall,” in 1839. Robert Schumann praised it most highly, saying that the happiest of all music lovers were those who heard its “enchanting freshness” when it was performed with the composer at the keyboard. “It is the masterpiece of our time, as the trios of Beethoven and Schubert were in their day. Mendelssohn is the Mozart of the nineteenth century.”
Most of the writing of this work took place during the summer of 1839, which Mendelssohn spent in Frankfurt with his wife’s family. It was a relaxed time that he described in a letter to a friend as “refreshing. In the mornings I work, then swim or sketch; in the afternoons I play the organ or piano, and afterwards walk in the woods, and then go visiting — or home, where I always find the most charming company.” He completed the score on September 23, 1839 in Leipzig, and on February 1, 1840, he and two of his colleagues from his orchestra, Ferdinand David (for whom he later wrote his Violin Concerto) and Karl Wittmann, gave the first performance in Frankfurt am Main. Robert Schumann called it “the most brilliant
trio of the present day — it will still give pleasure to our grandchildren.”
He based the first movement, Molto allegro ed agitato, in sonata form, on two clearly defined, broad themes, which the cello introduces; these themes seem, ironically, to be both similar and contrasting. Next follows a rapturously lovely movement in three-part form, Andante con moto tranquillo, in the lyrical style of Mendelssohn’s Songs without Words. The third movement, a Scherzo, Leggiero e vivace, has a single theme developed into a fanciful, elfin dance. In the Finale, Allegro assai appassionato, a gypsy dance, which recurs as in a classic rondo form, makes up the main theme.
Village of Blowing Rock
Photo credits (t-b): Joshua Bell, Shervin Lainez; Jeremy Denk, Shervin Lainez; Steven Isserlis, Satoshi Aoyagi
Whether traveling for business or pleasure, your stay at Courtyard is sure to be more
The new state-of-the-art lobby at Courtyard provides greater flexibility and choices for our guests. At the center of it all is The Bistro, that proudly serves Starbucks coffee and is your destination for a great breakfast, or drinks and dinner during the evening. You'll also enjoy inviting, flexible spaces where you can work or relax, free Wi-Fi throughout and easy access to the latest news, weather and airport conditions via our GoBoard technology: Plus, our well-equipped fitness center and indoor pool will help you stay refreshed and energized.
Photo credit: Paige Sara
ABOUT ST. PAUL AND THE BROKEN BONES
Founded in Birmingham, Alabama in 2011, St. Paul & the Broken Bones consists of Paul Janeway (vocals), Jesse Phillips (bass), Browan Lollar (guitar), Kevin Leon (drums), Al Gamble (keyboards), Allen Branstetter (trumpet), Chad Fisher (trombone), and Amari Ansari (saxophone). The eight-piece ensemble burst into the world with their 2014 debut Half the City, establishing a sound that quickly became a calling card and landing the band a slew of major festivals including Lollapalooza, Coachella and Glastonbury. Critical praise from The New York Times, Rolling Stone, SPIN and NPR followed, leading to shared stages with some of the world’s biggest artists — Elton John and The Rolling Stones among them — and launching an impressive run of headlining tours behind what Esquire touted as a “potent live show that knocks audiences on their ass.”
The group has continued to expand their sound with every record, branching out well beyond old-school soul into sleek summertime funk and classic disco on albums like 2018’s Young Sick Camellia. Their most recent LP, Angels in Science Fiction, stretched their limbs further afield, building on the shadowy psychedelia and intricate, experimental R&B of 2022’s The Alien Coast.
BROYHILL CLASSIC CONCERT SERIES
Simone Dinnerstein & Awadagin Pratt
Two Piano
PROGRAM
Castillo Interior
Etude No 6
Pēteris Vasks
Philip Glass
Sonata for Two Pianos in D, K448 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Allegro con spirito Andante Molto Allegro ~Intermission~
Symphony No 6 Ludwig van Beethoven in F Major, Op. 68 (“Pastorale”) /arr. Bagge
$40
Sunday, July 21 at 2pm
$35
Faculty/Staff, $10 Children 12 and younger
Simone DInnerstein, photo by Lisa-Marie Mazzucco Awadagin Pratt, photo by Rob Davidso
SIMONE DINNERSTEIN
Simone Dinnerstein is an American pianist with a distinctive musical voice. The Washington Post has called her “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity.” She first came to wider public attention in 2007 through her recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, reflecting an aesthetic that was both deeply rooted in the score and profoundly idiosyncratic. She is, wrote The New York Times, “a unique voice in the forest of Bach interpretation.”
Since that recording, she has had a busy performing career. She has played with orchestras ranging from the New York Philharmonic and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra to the London Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale Rai.
She has performed in venues from Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center to the Berlin Philharmonie, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Seoul Arts Center and the Sydney Opera House.
Simone has made 13 albums, all of which topped the Billboard classical charts, with repertoire ranging from Couperin to Glass. From 2020 to 2022, she released a trilogy of albums recorded at her home in Brooklyn during the pandemic. A Character of Quiet (Orange Mountain Music, 2020), featuring the music of Philip Glass and Schubert, was described by NPR as “music that speaks to a sense of the world slowing down,” and by The New Yorker as “a reminder that quiet can contain multitudes.” Richard Danielpour’s An American Mosaic (Supertrain Records, 2021) surpassed two million streams on Apple Music and was nominated for a 2021 Grammy Award in the category of Best Classical Instrumental Solo. The final installment in the trilogy,
Undersong, was released in January 2022 on Orange Mountain Music.
In recent years, Simone has created projects that express her broad musical interests. She gave the world premiere of The Eye Is the First Circle at Montclair State University, the first multi-media production she conceived, created, and directed, which uses as source materials her father Simon Dinnerstein’s painting The Fulbright Triptych and Charles Ives’s Piano Sonata No. 2. She continues to perform it across the country this season. She premiered Richard Danielpour’s An American Mosaic, a tribute to those affected by the pandemic, in a performance on multiple pianos throughout Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery. Following her recording Mozart in Havana, she brought the Havana Lyceum Orchestra from Cuba to the U.S. for the first time, performing 11 concerts. Philip Glass composed his Piano Concerto No. 3 for her,
co-commissioned by 12 orchestras. Working with Renée Fleming and the Emerson String Quartet, she premiered André Previn and Tom Stoppard’s Penelope at the Tanglewood, Ravinia and Aspen music festivals, and performed it at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and presented by LA Opera. She has also created her own ensemble, Baroklyn, which she directs from the keyboard. This season, Simone presents two series anchored by Bach at Miller Theatre at Columbia University and three performances at the Gogue Center for the Performing Arts at Auburn University, one of which features The Eye Is the First Circle. She makes her final appearance alongside Renée Fleming, Merle Dandridge, and the Emerson String Quartet as the featured pianist, performing André Previn’s Penelope, presented by the Cleveland Orchestra, before the quartet disbands. Additionally this season, she joins Awadagin Pratt for a four-hand piano program presented by Washington Performing Arts at The Kennedy Center, and is the featured soloist for the Chamber Orchestra of New York’s performance at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall.
Simone is committed to giving concerts in non-traditional venues and to audiences who don’t often hear classical music. For the last three decades, she has played concerts throughout the United States for the Piatigorsky Foundation, an organization dedicated to the widespread dissemination of classical music. It was for the Piatigorsky Foundation that she gave the first piano recital in the Louisiana state prison system at the Avoyelles Correctional Center. She has also performed at the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women in a concert organized by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. In 2009, Simone founded Neighborhood Classics, a concert series open to the public and hosted by New York City Public Schools to raise funds for their music
education programs. She also created a program called Bachpacking, during which she brought a digital keyboard to elementary school classrooms, helping young children get close to the music she loves. She is a committed supporter and proud alumna of Philadelphia’s Astral Artists, which supports young performers. Simone is on the piano faculty of the Mannes School of Music and is a guest host/ producer of WQXR’s Young Artists Showcase.
Simone counts herself fortunate to have studied with three unique artists: Solomon Mikowsky, Maria Curcio, and Peter Serkin, very different musicians who shared the belief that playing the piano is a means to something greater. The Washington Post comments that “ultimately, it is Dinnerstein’s unreserved identification with every note she plays that makes her performance so spellbinding.” In a world where music is everywhere, she hopes that it can still be transformative.
www.simonedinnerstein.com
AWADAGIN PRATT
Among his generation of concert artists, pianist Awadagin Pratt is acclaimed for his musical insight and intensely involving performances in recital and with symphony orchestras. Born in Pittsburgh, Awadagin Pratt began studying piano and violin at an early age. At the age of 16, he entered the University of Illinois, where he studied piano, violin, and conducting. He subsequently enrolled at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, where he became the first student in the school’s history to receive diplomas in three performance areas — piano, violin and conducting.
In 1992, Mr. Pratt won the Naumburg International Piano Competition and two years later was awarded an Avery
Fisher Career Grant. Since then, he has played numerous recitals throughout the U.S., including performances at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. His many orchestral performances include appearances with the New York Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra and the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Baltimore, Indianapolis, Atlanta, St. Louis, National and Detroit symphonies, among many others. Summer festival engagements include appearances at Ravinia, Blossom, Wolftrap, Caramoor, Aspen and the Hollywood Bowl.
An experienced conductor, Pratt has conducted programs with the Toledo, New Mexico, Vancouver WA, Winston-Salem and Santa Fe symphonies, the Northwest Sinfonietta, the Concertante di Chicago and several orchestras in Japan. His most recent conducting activities include play/conducting the Chamber Orchestra of Pittsburgh, conducting performances of Porgy and Bess with the Greensboro Opera, and conducting a concert featuring the music of jazz great Ornette Coleman with Bang on a Can at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. In summer 2023, he begins his tenure as the Music Director of the Miami Valley Symphony Orchestra in Ohio.
A great favorite on college and university performing arts series and a strong advocate of music education, Awadagin Pratt participates in numerous residency and outreach activities wherever he appears. He has created a program called Black in America, during which he tells about his encounters with the police, especially while driving, starting when he was a teenager and continuing through his post graduate studies and into his adulthood. His narrative is interspersed with live music performed by Pratt and students, followed by a
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panel discussion regarding the state of race in America today. Michelle Bauer Carpenter produced a documentary about Black in America which aired on 90 PBS stations across the country earlier this year.
Mr. Pratt’s recordings for Angel/EMI include A Long Way from Normal, an all-Beethoven Sonata CD, Live from South Africa, Transformations, and an all-Bach disc with the St. Lawrence String Quartet. His most recent recordings are the Brahms Sonatas for Cello and Piano with Zuill Bailey for Telarc and a recording of the music of Judith Lang Zaimont with the Harlem String Quartet.
Awadagin Pratt is also the founder and Artistic Director of the Art of the Piano and produces a festival every spring featuring performances and conversations with well-known pianists and piano faculty members. This spring, he also organized the first Nina Simone Piano Competition for Black Pianists in collaboration with the Cincinnati Symphony, the University of Cincinnati CollegeConservatory of Music and the Art of the Piano Festival. The competition was made possible by a generous grant from the Sphinx Organization.
Through the Art of the Piano Foundation and inspired by a stanza from T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, Mr. Pratt commissioned seven composers — Jessie Montgomery, Alvin Singleton, Judd Greenstein, Tyshawn Sorey, Jonathan Bailey Holland, Paola Prestini and Peteris Vasks — to compose works for piano and strings or piano, strings and a Roomful of Teeth. Mr. Singleton’s work was premiered with the New World Symphony in April 2021 and during the 21/22, 22/23 and 23/24 seasons, Mr. Pratt has or will have performed the Montgomery concerto with more than 30 U.S. orchestras, including the Boston, Chicago, St. Louis, Atlanta, Baltimore, Indianapolis
and Milwaukee symphonies and The Minnesota Orchestra. All seven works were recorded in summer 2022 with the chamber orchestra A Far Cry for New Amsterdam Records.
In July 2023, Pratt joined the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as a Professor of Piano. He was previously a Professor of Piano and Artist in Residence at the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati for 19 years. In recognition of his achievements in the field of classical music, he received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Johns Hopkins University as well as honorary doctorates from the Berklee College of Music and Illinois Wesleyan and delivered commencement addresses at those institutions as well as at Peabody Conservatory.
Awadagin Pratt is a Yamaha artist. For more information, please visit www. awadagin.com
Castillo Interior (arr. for Awadagin Pratt) …Pēteris Vasks
(Born April 16, 1946 in Aizpute, Latvia)
“Most people today no longer possess beliefs, love and ideals. The spiritual dimension has been lost. My intention is to provide food for the soul and this is what I preach in my works.” (Pēteris Vasks)
Pēteris Vasks began his musical education at a local music school; he subsequently studied double bass in Riga, and then at the Lithuanian Conservatory in Vilnius until 1970, when he was conscripted for military service in the Soviet Army.
He was a member of the Latvian
Philharmonic Orchestra (1966 to 1969), Lithuanian Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra (1969 to 1970), and the Latvian Radio and Television Orchestra (1971 to 1974). He began composing seriously in the 1970s. From 1973 to 1978, he also studied composition at the Latvian Music Academy in Riga after which he taught music in Salacgrīva, Zvejniekciems and Jelgava; since 1989, he has taught composition at the Emīls Dārziņš Music School in Riga. During the Soviet period, his works were suppressed because of his religious and artistic beliefs, but recently, his works have succeeded in achieving much recognition.
Vasks’s generally clear and communicative compositions often incorporate folkloric elements from Latvian music, and they use them in the same works that incorporate the language of contemporary music. Vasks’s website declares, “He has developed from a young, angry and avant-garde author who speaks the language of modernist music, into a remarkable artist who illustrates the eternal duel between good and evil with the so-called new principles of simplicity, as well as universally understandable sound expression.” His spiritual musical “relatives” include such composers as Arvo Pärt and Henryk Górecki.
Vasks was appointed as the Main Composer of the Stockholm New Music Festival in 1996. The same year, he was awarded the Herder Prize from the Alfred Toepfer Foundation and the Baltic Assembly Prize. He received the Latvian Great Music Award on three occasions: in 1993, in 1998, and in 2000. In 2016 he received the State Cultural Award of the Republic of Latvia and, in 2019, the Honorary Diploma of the Latvian President. In 2021, he was honored with the Grand Music Award. In 2022, he was awarded the European Church Music Prize and the Opus Klassik as Composer of the Year.
Vasks named Castillo Interior, his meditative work for violin and cello in honor of the great 16th century mystic and saint, Teresa of Ávila. For this 2013 work for solo piano, which was also inspired by the poet T.S. Eliot, Vasks allows the expression of chronological stasis and religious devotion to merge. The title comes from Teresa of Avila’s 1557 book Dwellings of the Interior Castle in which the saint describes her inner life.
In September 2021, Awadagin Pratt performed a solo-piano version of Castillo Interior that Vasks had transcribed especially for him. The work includes slowly evolving hymnlike passages, with a dynamic range between soft and very, very soft, alternating with loud, broken chords and fast rather aggressive sounding sections. The work’s tempos alternate between slow and fast ending with a slow section. The fast sections contrast strongly with the slow both in dynamics and in length. The piece begins in the minor mode, seriously and fairly somberly, but transitions to major by its conclusion.
This version of Castillo Interior was created as part of Awadagin Pratt’s commissioning project Stillpoint for which he asked six composers to write music taking inspiration from five lines of the poet T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets. Teresa of Avila’s prose created a formidable counterpoint to Eliot’s poetry: both authors challenge readers to reflect on our inner lives and examine how we connect across the expanse of humanity. Vasks chose also to transcribe his Castillo Interior for Violin and Cello. Pratt has declared that the work “serves as a great expression of an aspirational quality of life.”
Etude No. 6 …Philip Glass
(Born January 31, 1937, in Baltimore)
Philip Glass has made an extraordinary and unprecedented impact upon the musical and
intellectual life of our time. He discovered his love for music as a child in his father’s radio repair shop and record store, began flute lessons early at the Peabody Conservatory, and at 15, entered the University of Chicago. After graduation, he went on to the Juilliard School of Music in New York and advanced study with composer Darius Milhaud at Aspen as well as lessons with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. After he had completed this thorough education in Western musical practice, the Indian sitarist Ravi Shankar aroused his interest in non-European music. While in Paris, Glass earned money by transcribing Shankar’s Indian music into Western notation.
Glass traveled in Africa and India before returning to New York to organize the Philip Glass Ensemble to perform music in a new style he was developing. The Philip Glass Ensemble included seven musicians playing keyboards and a variety of woodwinds, amplified and fed through a mixer. Also, upon returning to New York in 1967, he applied the Eastern techniques he learned to his own music.
In the past 25 years, Glass has composed more than 20 operas, 11 symphonies, two piano concertos, and concertos for violin, piano, timpani, and saxophone quartet and orchestra, string quartets, and works for solo piano and organ, as well as film soundtracks. His score for Scorsese’s Kundun and Richard Eyre’s Notes on a Scandal both received Academy Award nominations; his score for The Hours received a Golden Globe, Grammy, and Academy Award nominations, along with a BAFTA. The English National Opera, in conjunction with the Metropolitan Opera, remounted Glass’s Satyagraha, after which Einstein on the Beach toured internationally, culminating with being given an Olivier Award for Best New Opera in 2013. Glass was named the 11th recipient of the Glenn
Gould Prize, a lifetime achievement award given to prominent musicians, in April 2015. He celebrated his 80th birthday on January 31, 2017 with the world premiere of his 11th Symphony.
Since Glass’s music repeats and varies a very small number of basic musical ideas, the term “minimalism” has been applied to his idiosyncratic style, and a number of other composers, who were experimenting along the same lines, helped turn his style into a movement. Glass never approved of the term and preferred to call himself a composer of “music with repetitive structures.” Many enthusiasts have hailed Glass as the man who was revitalizing music, but just as many castigated him for destroying music.
Glass began writing series of relatively short piano pieces, Etudes, in 1994, with the goal of becoming a better pianist and improving his own keyboard technique by honing his skills. Completed nearly two decades later in 2012, the set of 20 diverse and intricately melodic Etudes records the evolution of Glass’s musical voice as a composer and charts his deeply personal connection to the piano and records his evolving style His etudes incorporate an immense range of moods, techniques, melody, and harmony as he explores textures, tempi, and techniques.
Though his first book of etudes primarily emphasized the idea of the piece as an exercise (étude is French for “study”), the second set developed into what he called “an extension of a musical journey undertaken in the last ten years.” The first book was dedicated to pianistic technique, while the second became a series of exercises in what Glass described as “the language of music itself — developing new strategies regarding rhythmic and harmonic movement.” John Rockwell, a music critic who has closely followed Glass’s career, described the etudes as “a genuinely new direction for Glass. They
retain most of his signature stylistic elements; and yet they manage, without descending into pastiche, to summon all manner of ghosts of keyboards past.” Glass’s etudes do, indeed, go beyond their pedagogical origins to become excellent music in their own right, expressive, and memorable.
The original set of six was composed for Dennis Russell Davies on the occasion of his 50th birthday in 1994. Etude No. 6 was commissioned by WNYC for John Schaefer’s new music program under the original title “Now So Long After That Time.” This etude has a fast pace and the principal theme emerges gradually from the opening eighth-notes, which become developed dramatically. The pianist must play an extraordinarily large range of notes, using the extremes of the keyboard.
Glass wrote the following about his Etudes: “Book 1 (Etudes No. 1 through No. 10) had a twin objective — to explore a variety of tempi, textures, and piano techniques. At the same time, it was meant to serve as a pedagogical tool by which I would improve my piano playing. In these two ways, Book 1 succeeded very well. I learned a great deal about the piano and in the course of learning the music, I became a better player.”
Sonata for Two Pianos, in D Major, K. 448 ...Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Born January 27, 1756, in Salzburg; died December 5, 1791, in Vienna)
Mozart composed his Sonata for Two Pianos, K. 448, in November 1781, to be played at a concert given by his pupil Josepha Auernhammer. The young composer boarded with the Auernhammer family in Vienna, but Josepha’s attentions drove him out of the house, and eventually, into the arms of Constanze Weber, whom he married in August 1782. In letters home to Salzburg, Mozart described Josepha as “loathsome, dirty and horrible. If a painter wanted
to portray the devil, he could choose her face. She is fat, perspiring, and goes around scantily dressed as if to say plainly, ‘Look at me!’” It is quite possible that none of this was true. Whatever her personal qualities, the important thing was her skill as a pianist. “The young woman is a fright,” Mozart said, “but she plays enchantingly.” Her concert was an important event for Mozart who was still struggling to establish himself in Vienna. He invited some of his new noble acquaintances to attend because he wanted them to hear both his brilliant piece and his brilliant pupil. He intended the two-piano sonata for public use, rather than as a teaching tool, like his pieces for four hands at a single keyboard. He counted on the event to bring him new commissions and more students who would take lessons in both composition and keyboard performance. Auernhammer played the first piano part in the sonata performance, and Mozart played the second, but this is, of course, not one of those teacherpupil duets in which one part is difficult and the other easy.
Mozart, a formidable virtuoso, wrote two demanding piano parts that require a high level of musicianship and technical prowess from both players, who freely interchange material of equal weight and importance, by turns posing musical questions and answering them. The brilliant yet refined sonata is a light and broadranging work, at once powerful, charming, and elegant with good humor emanating from the grand opening movement in sonata form, which is characterized by effervescence and many brilliant effects, Allegro con spirito, to the beautifully lyrical and tender Andante movement in ternary form with much delicate interplay between the two pianos and a very intricately elaborated theme with a flowing accompaniment and a simple and very affecting coda. The wonderful, infectious comicopera feeling of the witty final rondo, Allegro molto, is full
of good spirits and elegance in rondo form.
The early 20th century musicologist Alfred Einstein, best known as the editor of the first thorough revision of the Köchel catalogue, says of this work: “The art with which the two parts are made completely equal, the play of the dialogue, the delicacy and refinement of the figuration, the feeling for sonority in the combination and exploitation of the registers of the two instruments — all these things exhibit such mastery that this apparently superficial and entertaining work is at the same time one of the most profound and most mature of all Mozart’s compositions.”
Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Op. 68 (“Pastoral Symphony”) …Ludwig van Beethoven (Born December 16, 1770, in Bonn, Germany; died March 26, 1827, in Vienna)
Vienna’s great composers, from Beethoven and Schubert to Brahms and Mahler, spent as much time as possible in the gorgeous, evocative countryside just outside the city and sought to make their music echo with its charms. Beethoven liked to compose in his head while he took long walks there, but representing nature’s beauties in music held challenges and difficulties for him. Mahler, almost a century after, often had a specific descriptive program in mind, but he usually revised and then discarded it, finding that it was more likely to confuse than enlighten his audience. Beethoven had considered the same issue, “The hearer should be allowed to discover the subject himself. Anyone who has an idea of what country life is can make out the intentions of the composer, and without titles, the work will be recognized as a matter of feeling rather than of painting sounds.”
Eventually, Beethoven relaxed his position about what would come to be
called program music. On a violin part used at the premiere of the Pastoral Symphony, a handwritten note, probably quoting the composer’s words, reads, “Recollection of life in the country — more an expression of feeling than a depiction.” Officially Beethoven headed the first movement, Allegro ma non troppo, (“The Awakening of Pleasure on Arriving in the Country”) He suggested that it should be played “cheerfully, but not too fast.” The violins introduce a simple theme, which provides the basis of the movement. The theme is repeated in its entirety as well as in thematic sections. Owen Downes observed, “At one point a tiny five-note figure derived from the second measure is repeated some eighty times without interruption, and yet the whole movement makes an impression of inexhaustibly fertile imagination.” There are subsidiary themes, but they never compete in importance with the initial theme.
The second movement, Andante molto moto, represents a “Scene by the Brook;” at its end, birdcalls specified in the score are those of a nightingale, a cuckoo, and quail. Beethoven’s disciple, Anton Schindler, wrote about revisiting a favorite bit of countryside with the composer: “Crossing a meadow that is traversed by a gently murmuring brook, Beethoven kept stopping and looking about, full of joy in the glorious landscape. He sat on the ground, resting against an elm and asked if I could hear any yellowhammers in the trees. [Beethoven had lost most
Boone’s
of his hearing by this time.] Then he said, ‘I composed the ‘Scene by the Brook’ here; and the yellowhammers up there, the quails, nightingales, and cuckoos all around composed along with me.’”
The third movement, Allegro, represents a “Jolly Gathering of Country Folk” with their countrified songs and dances. It depicts, in part, a scene that especially amused the composer. “Beethoven asked me,” Schindler wrote, “if I had ever observed how village musicians often played while half asleep, occasionally dropped their instruments [and] then waking with a start, vigorously sounded a few random notes — generally in the right key — and then fell asleep again.” The country-dance runs without pause into an Allegro, “Thunderstorm” section, which, in effect, makes up an extra movement. The thunderstorm appears first in the distance beginning gently, then becoming intensified into a full-fledged storm with lightning and thunder. It fades away much as it starts. The final movement, finale, Allegretto, opens with a “Shepherd’s Song,” and then continues with “Happy and Thankful Feelings after the Storm ”
This symphony is dominated by the brightness of its major tonality and airy textures. The themes consist of intervals of simple thirds and sixths like those often used in folksong; the accompaniment, with its drones and other countrified band sounds, underlines the feeling of rusticity. The first two movements are particularly serene and calm, emphasizing woodwinds and strings, with no brass except horns and percussion. The first movement is based almost entirely on one theme, which repeats itself with variations of tonality and instrumental color. In the third movement, the texture brightens with trumpet sounds. Many passages recall the country bands Beethoven heard at peasant taverns, so the intimation of dancing and sounds of foot-stomping highlight the gatherings of country folk Beethoven witnessed. In the fourth movement, as the timpani evoke thunder, the trombone and the piccolo, which, with its high-pitched timbre, helps listeners feel the wind, heighten the thunderstorm’s effectiveness. (Beethoven had never included either instrument until Symphony No. 5.) In the opening of the last movement, the piping of the shepherd’s song of Thanksgiving begins in the solo clarinet and then the solo horn takes it up. The finale becomes a joyous hymn to a pantheistic god of Nature.
Jada Pearman, Jake Vincent, Kristin Draucker, and Company in Paul Taylor’s “Esplanade.”
Photo by Steven Pisano
ERAN BUGGE MADELYN HO KRISTIN DRAUCKER LEE DUVENECK ALEX CLAYTON
DEVON LOUIS JOHN HARNAGE MARIA AMBROSE LISA BORRES
JADA PEARMAN SHAWN LESNIAK JAKE VINCENT JESSICA FERRETTI
AUSTIN KELLY KENNY CORRIGAN GABRIELLE BARNES EMMY WILDERMUTH
Founding Artistic Director
PAUL TAYLOR
Artistic Director
MICHAEL NOVAK
Resident Choreographer
LAUREN LOVETTE
Rehearsal Directors
BETTIE DE JONG
Principal Lighting Designers
JENNIFER TIPTON
JAMES F. INGALLS
CATHY MCCANN
Principal Set & Costume Designers
SANTO LOQUASTO
WILLIAM IVEY LONG
Executive Director
JOHN TOMLINSON
Leadership funding provided by Stephen Kroll Reidy. Lincoln Center Season made possible by Marjorie S. Isaac.
Major support provided by The SHS Foundation, Jody and John Arnhold, the Howard Gilman Foundation, and The Shubert Foundation.
Additional major funding provided by S&P Global, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, and The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation. Support for the creation of new work provided by Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
Paul Taylor Dance Company gratefully acknowledges the estates of Harlan Morse Blake and Mary J. Osborn for their transformational gifts.
ORIGINAL MAST STORE, VALLE CRUCIS, NC
MAST STORE ANNEX, VALLE CRUCIS, NC
MAST STORE BOONE, NC
AIRS
MUSIC by G. F. Handel
Excerpts from Concerti Grossi, opus 3, nos. 2, 3, 4a & 4b, 6; Alcina, Ariodante, Berenice and Solomon
CHOREOGRAPHY by Paul Taylor
COSTUMES by Gene Moore
LIGHTING by Jennifer Tipton (First performed in 1978)
MADELYN HO ALEX CLAYTON
JOHN HARNAGE MARIA AMBROSE JADA PEARMAN
JAKE VINCENT JESSICA FERRETTI
Overture: Concerto in F Major, Op. 3, No. 4a - Allegro
Concerto in B Major, Op.3, No. 2 - Largo.................full cast
Concerto in D Major, Op. 3, No. 6 - Vivace............. full cast
Concerto in G Major, Op. 3 No. 3 - Adagio........Ms. Ferretti
Overture to Ariodante - Alla Gavotta...............Ms. Pearman and Mr. Harnage
Overture to Berenice - Movement III........................full cast
Concerto in F Major, Op. 3, No. 4b Allegro
Ms. Ho and Overture to Alcina - Musette and Mr. Clayton Arrival of the Queen of Sheba...................................full cast Dream Music (Entrée des Songes Agréables)........................
Ms. Ferretti with full cast
Original production made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts. Preservation made possible by Elise Jaffe and Jeffrey Brown. Additional preservation support from the Paul Taylor Repertory Preservation Project with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, Hazel S. Kandall and Donald M. Kleban, Susan and Bob Wei, and the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency.
~Intermission~
SYZYGY
The nearly straight line configuration of three or more celestial bodies in a gravitational system
MUSIC COMPOSED for the Dance by Donald York
CHOREOGRAPHY by Paul Taylor
COSTUMES by Santo Loquasto LIGHTING by Jennifer Tipton (First performed in 1987)
MADELYN HO
ERAN BUGGE KRISTIN DRAUCKER LEE DUVENECK
ALEX CLAYTON DEVON LOUIS JOHN HARNAGE
MARIA AMBROSE LISA BORRES SHAWN LESNIAK
AUSTIN KELLY KENNY CORRIGAN EMMY WILDERMUTH
Original production made possible in part by The Eleanor Naylor Dana Charitable Trust and the National Endowment for the Arts. Preservation made possible by contributions to the Paul Taylor Repertory Preservation Project with support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
~Intermission~
ESPLANADE
MUSIC by Johann Sebastian Bach Violin Concerto in E Major, Double Concerto for Two Violins in D minor (Largo & Allegro)
CHOREOGRAPHY by Paul Taylor COSTUMES by John Rawlings LIGHTING by Jennifer Tipton (First performed in 1975)
ERAN BUGGE MADELYN HO LEE DUVENECK
DEVON LOUIS MARIA AMBROSE LISA BORRES
JADA PEARMAN JAKE VINCENT JESSICA FERRETTI
Original production made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts. Revival made possible by a contribution from Elise Jaffe and Jeffrey Brown. Preservation made possible by contributions to the Paul Taylor Repertory Preservation Project with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Prospect Hill Foundation, and Charles F. and Theresa M. Stone.
Madelyn Ho in Paul Taylor’s “Syzygy.”
Photo by Paul B. Good
PAUL TAYLOR DANCE COMPANY
The genesis of the Paul Taylor Dance Company occurred on May 30, 1954 in Manhattan, when dancemaker Paul Taylor first presented his choreography with five other dancers on the Lower East Side. That performance marked the beginning of 64 years of unrivaled creativity, and in the decades that followed, Mr. Taylor became a cultural icon and one of American history’s most celebrated artists and was part of the pantheon that created American modern dance. Leading the Company that bears his name until his death in 2018, Mr. Taylor molded it into one of the preeminent performing ensembles in the world. Under the artistic direction of Taylor alumnus Michael Novak, the Company continues to bring “America’s most communicative and wildly theatrical modern dance” to audiences and students around the world, with a yearly residency at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
The Company currently resides in the Lower East Side of Manhattan but sustains a global presence through its robust touring programs. Since its first European tour in 1960, the Company has performed in more than 600 cities in 66 countries, representing the United States at arts festivals in more than 40 countries and touring extensively under the aegis of the U.S. Department of State. Dedicated to sharing modern dance with the broadest possible audience, the Company tours annually, both domestically
and internationally, with performances and a variety of educational programs and engagement offerings. Recent tours have brought the Company to Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Ecuador, Germany, Italy, Oman, Peru, Switzerland, Taiwan, and Turkey, as well as scores of cities within the United States.
The hallmark of the Company is its ever-expanding repertory. More than 170 dances exist within the Foundation’s canon, 147 of which were choreographed by Mr. Taylor. The body of Mr. Taylor’s work is titled the Taylor Collection, and is home to dances that cover a breathtaking range of topics, themes, and moods. These dances speak to the natural world and man’s place within it; display love and sexuality in all gender combinations; contemplate iconic moments in American history; and reveal the spectrum of life’s beauties, complexities, and society’s thorniest issues. While some of these dances are termed “dark” and others “light,” the majority are dualistic, mixing elements of both extremes.
In addition to the Collection, the Company commissions dance works from established and emerging choreographers. In 2022, Lauren Lovette was appointed the Company’s first Resident Choreographer, ushering in a new era and demonstrating the Company’s deepened commitment to support dance creation in the 21st century.
PAUL TAYLOR
Paul Taylor, one of the most accomplished artists this nation has ever produced, helped shape and define America’s homegrown art of modern dance from the earliest days of his career as a choreographer in 1954 until his death in 2018. Having performed with Martha Graham’s company for several years, Mr. Taylor uniquely bridged the legendary founders of modern dance – Isadora Duncan, Ruth St. Denis, Ted Shawn, Doris Humphrey and Ms. Graham – and the dance makers of the 21st century with whom he later worked. Through his initiative at Lincoln Center begun in 2015 – Paul Taylor American Modern Dance – he presented great modern works of the past and outstanding works by today’s leading choreographers alongside his own vast repertoire. He also commissioned the next generation of dance makers to work with his renowned Company, thereby helping to ensure the future of the art form.
Mr. Taylor continued to win public and critical acclaim for the vibrancy, relevance and power of his dances into his 80s, offering cogent observations on life’s complexities while tackling some of society’s thorniest issues. While he often propelled his dancers through space for the sheer beauty of it, he more frequently used them to comment on such profound issues as war, piety, spirituality, sexuality, morality and mortality. If, as George Balanchine said, there are no mothers-in-law in ballet, there certainly are dysfunctional families, disillusioned idealists, imperfect religious leaders, angels and insects in Mr. Taylor’s dances. His repertoire of 147 works covers a breathtaking range of topics, but recurring themes include the natural world and man’s place within it; love and sexuality in all gender combinations; and iconic moments in American history. His poignant looks at soldiers, those who send them into battle and those they leave behind prompted The New York Times to hail him as “among the great war poets” — high praise indeed for an artist in a wordless medium. While some of his dances have been termed “dark” and others “light,” the majority of his works are dualistic, mixing elements of both extremes. And while his work was largely iconoclastic, he also made some of the most purely romantic, most astonishingly athletic, and downright funniest dances ever put on stage.
Paul Taylor was born on July 29, 1930 — exactly nine months after the stock market crash that led into the Great Depression — and grew up in and around Washington, DC. He attended Syracuse University on a swimming scholarship in the late 1940s, until he discovered dance through books at the University library, and then transferred to The Juilliard School. In 1954, he assembled a small company of dancers and began to choreograph. A commanding performer despite his late start in dance, he joined the Martha Graham Dance Company in 1955 for
the first of seven seasons as soloist while continuing to choreograph on his own troupe. In 1959, he was invited to be a guest artist with New York City Ballet, where Balanchine created the Episodes solo for him.
Mr. Taylor first gained notoriety as a dance maker in 1957 with Seven New Dances; its study in non-movement famously earned it a blank newspaper review, and Graham subsequently dubbed him the “naughty boy” of dance. In 1962, with his first major success — the sunny Aureole — he set his trailblazing modern movement not to contemporary music but to baroque works composed two centuries earlier, and then went to the opposite extreme a year later with a view of purgatory in Scudorama, using a commissioned, modern score. He inflamed the establishment in 1965 by lampooning some of America’s most treasured icons in From Sea to Shining Sea, and created more controversy in 1970 by putting incest and spousal abuse center stage in Big Bertha
After retiring as a performer in 1974, Mr. Taylor turned exclusively to choreography, resulting in a flood of masterful creativity. The exuberant Esplanade (1975), one of several Taylor dances set to music by Bach, was dubbed an instant classic, and has come to be regarded as among the greatest dances ever made. In Cloven Kingdom (1976), Mr. Taylor examined the primitive nature that lurks just below man’s veneer of sophistication and gentility. With Arden Court (1981), he depicted relationships both platonic and romantic. He looked at intimacy among men at war in Sunset (1983); pictured Armageddon in Last Look (1985); and peered unflinchingly at religious hypocrisy and marital rape in Speaking in Tongues (1988). In Company B (1991), he used popular songs of the 1940s to juxtapose the high spirits of a nation emerging from the Depression with the sacrifices Americans made during World War II. In Eventide (1997), he portrayed the budding and fading of a romance. In The Word (1998), he railed against religious zealotry and blind conformity to authority. In the first decade of the new millennium, he poked fun at feminism in Dream Girls (2002); condemned American imperialism in Banquet of Vultures (2005); and stared death square in the face in the Walt Whitman-inspired Beloved Renegade (2008). Brief Encounters (2009) examined the inability of many people in contemporary society to form meaningful and lasting relationships. In this decade, he turned a frightening short story into a searing drama in To Make Crops Grow and compared the mating rituals of the insect world to that of humans in the comedic Gossamer Gallants. Mr. Taylor’s final work, Concertiana, made when he was 87, premiered at Lincoln Center in 2018.
Hailed for uncommon musicality and catholic taste, Mr. Taylor set movement to music so memorably that for many people it is impossible to hear certain orchestral works and
popular songs and not think of his dances. He set works to an eclectic mix that includes Medieval masses, Renaissance dances, baroque concertos, classical warhorses, and scores by Debussy, Cage, Feldman, Ligeti and Pärt; Ragtime, Tango, Tin Pan Alley and Barbershop Quartets; Harry Nilsson, The Mamas and The Papas, and Burl Ives; telephone time announcements, loon calls and laughter. Mr. Taylor influenced dozens of men and women who have gone on to choreograph — many on their own troupes — while others have gone on to become respected teachers at colleges and universities. And he worked closely with such outstanding artists as James F. Ingalls, Jasper Johns, Alex Katz, Ellsworth Kelly, William Ivey Long, Santo Loquasto, Gene Moore, Tharon Musser, Robert Rauschenberg, John Rawlings, Thomas Skelton and Jennifer Tipton. Mr. Taylor’s dances are performed by the Paul Taylor Dance Company and companies throughout the world, including the Royal Danish Ballet, Rambert Dance Company, American Ballet Theatre, San Francisco Ballet, Miami City Ballet, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
As the subject of the documentary films Dancemaker and Creative Domain, and author of the autobiography Private Domain and Wall Street Journal essay “Why I Make Dances,” Mr. Taylor shed light on the mysteries of the creative process as few artists have. Dancemaker, which received an Oscar nomination in 1999, was hailed by Time as “perhaps the best dance documentary ever,” while Private Domain, originally published by Alfred A. Knopf, was nominated by the National Book Critics Circle as the most distinguished biography of 1987. A collection of Mr. Taylor’s essays, Facts and Fancies, was published by Delphinium in 2013.
Mr. Taylor received nearly every important honor given to artists in the United States. In 1992, he was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors and received an Emmy Award for Speaking in Tongues, produced by WNET/New York the previous year. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Clinton in 1993. In 1995, he received the Algur H. Meadows Award for Excellence in the Arts and was named one of 50 prominent Americans honored in recognition of their outstanding achievement by the Library of Congress’s Office of Scholarly Programs. He is the recipient of three Guggenheim Fellowships and honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degrees from California Institute of the Arts, Connecticut College, Duke University, The Juilliard School, Skidmore College, the State University of New York at Purchase, Syracuse University and Adelphi University. Awards for lifetime achievement include a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship — often called the “genius award” — and the Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award. Other awards include the New York State Governor’s Arts Award and the New York City Mayor’s Award of Honor for Art and Culture. In 1989, Mr. Taylor was elected one of 10 honorary members
of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Having been elected to knighthood by the French government as Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1969 and elevated to Officier in 1984 and Commandeur in 1990, Mr. Taylor was awarded France’s highest honor, the Légion d’Honneur, in 2000 for exceptional contributions to French culture.
Mr. Taylor died in Manhattan on August 29, 2018, leaving an extraordinary legacy of creativity and vision not only to American modern dance but to the performing arts the world over.
MICHAEL NOVAK became the second Artistic Director in the history of the Paul Taylor Dance Foundation in September 2018, having been selected by Mr. Taylor months earlier to succeed him upon his death. A critically acclaimed dancer of the Company from 2010 to 2019, Novak was nominated for the Clive Barnes Foundation Dance Award for his debut Season. During his career with the Company, he performed 56 roles in 50 Taylor dances, 13 of which were made on him, and new roles in several works by other leading choreographers.
Under Novak’s direction, the Paul Taylor Dance Company continues to be one of the world’s premier dance companies, with robust domestic and international touring; an ever-expanding repertory that includes the Taylor canon, historical masterpieces, and works he commissions; and an annual engagement at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. The New York Times hailed his inaugural season as Artistic Director as “groundbreaking and inspirational.” In 2019, he partnered with Orchestra of St. Luke’s Bach Festival, curating the first presentation in a single engagement of all six of Paul Taylor’s iconic dances set to music by the Baroque composer. In memory of Mr. Taylor, he launched “The Celebration Tour,” a multi-year international touring retrospective of the Taylor repertoire. He co-directed the Company’s first virtual live-streamed benefit, Modern Is Now: Stories of Our Future, hailed by many as the high bar for digital dance benefits. And during the height of the Covid pandemic, he brought the Taylor Company to 16 venues in 11 American cities for a total of 51 performances, earning the designation “Best of Dance 2021” from The Washington Post. His 2021 selection of Taylor alumna and dance educator Carolyn Adams to head the Taylor School underscored his commitment to preparing and cultivating the next generation of professional dancers and dance advocates and broadening the Foundation’s impact in arts education. In 2022, Novak selected former New York City Ballet dancer Lauren Lovette to be the Taylor Company’s first Resident Choreographer.
Raised in Rolling Meadows, Illinois, Novak began studying dance at age 10 and by age 17 was offered a Presidential Scholarship to attend The University of the
Arts in Philadelphia to pursue training in jazz and ballet. The following year he undertook an apprenticeship at the Pennsylvania Academy of Ballet Society. In 2005, Novak was admitted to Columbia University’s School of General Studies, where he was awarded scholarships for academic excellence. He became a member of the Columbia Ballet Collaborative, the University’s critically acclaimed resident company, and was named Artistic Associate responsible for advising on the curation of resident choreographers and directing the group’s branding and promotion. At Columbia, Novak became immersed in the study of dance history, which ignited a passion for modern dance. He developed a keen interest in the work of François Delsarte, the 19th century French movement theorist who codified the system linking emotion and gesture that would inspire the first generation of American modern dancers. At Columbia, he performed Mr. Taylor’s solo in Aureole, which led him to embrace the Taylor repertoire. In a 2009 program celebrating Diaghilev at Columbia’s Miller Theatre, Novak embodied Vaslav Nijinsky’s role in L’Après-midi d’un faune with an authenticity that brought him to the attention of dance critics and scholars. Upon graduation, he received his BA in Dance magna cum laude with Departmental Honors, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. As a distinguished alumnus, he was the Keynote Speaker for the Class of 2020.
THE COMPANY
LAUREN LOVETTE (Resident Choreographer) personifies the intertwining of dance and choreography, moving seamlessly from one to the other. Her work has been commissioned and performed by leading dance companies and festivals, including the New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, the Vail International Dance Festival, American Ballet Theatre Studio Company, the Paul Taylor Dance Company, Nevada Ballet Theatre, as well as a selfproduced evening entirely of her own work in which she also danced, Why It Matters. She began creating dance as a ballet student, for a 2007 choreographic workshop showing at the School of American Ballet (SAB). Another ballet, for the 2008 workshop, was soon followed by her being selected to create a work for the 2009 New York Choreographic Institute. In 2016, Lovette, then a relatively new principal dancer, was asked to choreograph her first piece, that then premiered at the New York City Ballet Fall Fashion Gala. In 2017, she choreographed for the Vail International Dance Festival, the NYCB Fall Season Gala, and the American Ballet Theatre Studio Company. She was awarded the Virginia B. Toulmin Fellowship at the Center for Ballet and the Arts at New York University in fall of 2018, and a year later created a work for the 2019 Fall Fashion Gala at NYCB. Her work at NYCB is noteworthy, forging a path for other female choreographers in an area of dance that has notably been predominantly male. Born in
Thousand Oaks, CA, Lovette began studying ballet at the age of 11 at the Cary Ballet Conservatory in Cary, NC. She enrolled at SAB as a full-time student in 2006. In October 2009, Ms. Lovette became an apprentice with NYCB and joined the Company as a member of the corps de ballet in September 2010. Promoted to soloist in February 2013 and to principal dancer in June 2015, she stepped down from her position at the company in 2021 to embark on a career devoted to dance and choreography in more equal measure. Ms. Lovette received the Clive Barnes Award for dance in December 2012 and was the 2012-2013 recipient of the Janice Levin Award. She was invited to be the first ever Resident Choreographer for the Company in Spring 2022 and creates new work on the Company annually. In 2023, Lovette joined the Nantucket Dance Festival as Co-Artistic Director.
BETTIE DE JONG (Rehearsal Director) was born in Sumatra, Indonesia, and in 1946 moved to Holland, where she continued her early training in dance and mime. Her first professional engagement was with the Netherlands Pantomime Company. After coming to New York City to study at the Martha Graham School, she performed with the Graham Company, the Pearl Lang Company, John Butler and Lucas Hoving, and was seen on CBS-TV with Rudolf Nureyev in a duet choreographed by Paul Taylor. Ms. de Jong joined the Taylor Company in 1962. Noted for her strong stage presence and long line, she was Mr. Taylor’s favorite dancing partner and, as Rehearsal Director, was his surrogate in the studio and on tour for more than 40 years. In 2019, she received the 2019 Balasarawati/Joy Anne Dewey Beinecke Endowed Chair for Distinguished Teaching Award from American Dance Festival for her substantial contributions to the sustainment of the Taylor legacy.
CATHY MCCANN (Rehearsal Director) was a member of the Paul Taylor Dance Company for 13 years. Among the 18 dances Mr. Taylor made on her were Mercuric Tidings, Brandenburgs, Musical Offering and Sunset. She was featured in five Taylor television specials, including the 1991 Emmy Award-winning Speaking in Tongues. In 1991, Mikhail Baryshnikov invited her to join the White Oak Dance Project, where she performed works by Mark Morris and Lar Lubovitch. Ms. McCann has staged Taylor dances for American Ballet Theatre, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, San Francisco Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet and Washington Ballet, among others, and her own choreography has been presented at New York City Center. She has been a faculty member of Adelphi University, Barnard College and Hofstra University, and has taught at the American Dance Festival and Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. She was appointed Director of Taylor 2 by Mr. Novak in March 2019. She became Rehearsal Director in March 2020.
ERAN BUGGE is from Oviedo, Florida, where she began her dance training at the Orlando Ballet School, and went on to study at the Hartt School at the University of Hartford under the direction of Peggy Lyman, graduating Summa Cum Laude with a B.F.A. in Ballet Pedagogy in 2005. She attended The Taylor School and the 2004 and 2005 Taylor Summer Intensives. Ms. Bugge has performed in works by Amy Marshall, Katie Stevinson-Nollet and Jean Grand-Maître. She was also a member of Full Force Dance Theatre and the Adam Miller Dance Project. In 2012, Ms. Bugge was the recipient of the Hartt Alumni Award. In 2018, she danced in the feature film The Chaperone choreographed by John Carrafa. She joined the Paul Taylor Dance Company in Fall 2005.
MADELYN HO, M.D. is from Sugar Land, Texas, where she began dancing at Kinard Dance School with Shirley McMillan and later trained with BalletForte under the artistic direction of Michael Banigan. She graduated from Harvard College with a B.A. in Chemical and Physical Biology. While there, she was awarded the Artist Development Fellowship and attended the Taylor School Winter Intensive. She was a member of Taylor 2 from 2008 to 2012 and left to attend Harvard Medical School, during which time she was a guest artist for Alison Cook Beatty Dance and performed with Urbanity Dance. She joined the Paul Taylor Dance Company in Spring 2015 and completed her Doctorate of Medicine in May 2018.
KRISTIN DRAUCKER was born in Washington D.C. and grew up in York, Pennsylvania. She began her training at the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet under Marcia Dale Weary. In 2005, she was awarded a Fellowship to study Horton and Graham at The Ailey School. Since moving to New York City she has danced with Michael Mao Dance, ArmitageGone!Dance, New Chamber Ballet, and at Bard’s Summerscape in Les Huguenots. In 2009, she joined the 50th Anniversary International Tour of West Side Story and in 2010 performed in Tino Sehgal’s KISS at The Guggenheim Museum. Ms. Draucker began creating dances in 2014 and has shown her work in New York, Philadelphia and as part of the LaMAMA Umbria Festival in Spoleto, Italy. She joined the Paul Taylor Dance Company in Winter 2017.
LEE DUVENECK grew up in Arlington, Texas, where he trained with Anne Oswalt and Gwen Price. In 2010, he earned his B.F.A. in Dance Performance from Southern Methodist University, where he studied with Taylor alumna Ruth Andrien and jazz dance icon Danny Buraczeski. While in New York, he has danced for Annmaria Mazzini, Mari Meade and Jessica Gaynor. Mr. Duveneck joined Taylor 2 in 2012, and joined the Paul Taylor Dance Company in Summer 2017.
ALEX CLAYTON grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, He received his B.F.A. in Dance with a Minor in Visual Arts
from Stephens College in 2013. He was a Graham 2 company member from 2014 to 2015. He also performed with companies including 10 Hairy Legs, Abarukas Project, Curet Performance Project and Performa15. He served as Rehearsal Assistant for Paul Taylor American Modern Dance “Taylor Company Commissions” choreographer Lila York when she created Continuum in 2016. He joined the Paul Taylor Dance Company in Summer 2017.
DEVON LOUIS who hails from Washington, D.C., is a graduate of Duke Ellington School of the Arts. He attended the Ailey School as a recipient of the Oprah Winfrey Scholarship, and furthered his dance education at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival under the direction of Milton Myers. Mr. Louis has performed works by Alvin Ailey, Matthew Rushing, Christopher Huggins, Nathan Trice, Ronald K. Brown and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa. He has also performed as a member of Ballet Hispanico’s junior company, BHdos; The Metropolitan Opera; and Nimbus Dance Works. Mr. Louis joined the Paul Taylor Dance Company in Summer 2018.
JOHN HARNAGE is a native of Miami, Florida, and studied dance at the Miami City Ballet School and New World School of the Arts. He was a Modern Dance Finalist in the 2010 National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts YoungArts competition. In 2014, he graduated from The Juilliard School, where he performed works by Pina
Bausch, Alexander Ekman, Jose Limón, and Lar Lubovitch, among others. He then began working with Jessica Lang Dance, and joined the company in 2015, performing and teaching around the world. He also performed as a principal dancer in Washington National Opera’s 2017 production of Aida at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Mr. Harnage joined the Paul Taylor Dance Company in Fall 2018.
MARIA AMBROSE grew up in Meredith, New Hampshire, and began her dance training at age four under the direction of Sally Downs. She furthered her training with Edra Toth and performed with the Boston Dance Company. She attended George Mason University where she was awarded the Harriet Mattusch Special Recognition in Dance. And graduated magna cum laude with a BFA in Dance Performance in 2011. She has performed with Elisa Monte Dance, The Classical Theatre of Harlem, LEVYdance, AThomasProject, and Earl Mosley’s Diversity of Dance. In 2018, she traveled to China as an ambassador for Parsons Dance to teach dance to young musicians, and then to Japan as part of the Dance International Program. She began studying at The Taylor School in 2012, and joined the Paul Taylor Dance Company in Spring 2019.
LISA BORRES is a native of Staten Island, New York, and a graduate of LaGuardia High School of Music and Art and Performing Arts. At the Hartt School of the University of
Hartford, from which she graduated in 2011, she studied with Stephen Pier and Katie Stevenson-Nollet and danced in works by Martha Graham and Pascal Rioult. She participated in Summer Intensives at the Joffrey Ballet School, Martha Graham Dance Company, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and Parsons Dance, and has taught dance at The Hartt School. Since 2012, Lisa has been part of the selection process for Ballet Tech, Eliot Feld’s tuition-free school that draws its students from the NYC public school system, whose diversity reflects the full American spectrum. She has performed with Amy Marshall Dance Company, Elisa Monte Dance, DAMAGEdance, and Lydia Johnson Dance. She joined the Paul Taylor Dance Company in Spring 2019.
JADA PEARMAN began dancing at the Motion School of Dance in Hamilton, Bermuda, where she trained extensively in all styles of dance. In 2013, Jada attended The Grier School in Pennsylvania, as a pre-professional dancer under the direction of Jocelyn Hrzic. Whilst at The Grier School, she worked with choreographers such as Jon Lehrer, Melissa Rector, Kiki Lucas, Phil Orsano and many more. As a member of Grier Dance, she performed at the Palm Springs Choreography Festival, Steps on Broadway Choreography Festival and Koresh Artists Showcase. She attended summer intensives including Alvin Ailey, Point Park, University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and Hubbard Street. She earned her BFA from the University of Arizona in Spring of 2019, where she performed works by Martha Graham, Larry Keigwin and others. She joined the Paul Taylor Dance Company in Summer 2019.
SHAWN LESNIAK from New Haven, Connecticut, began dancing at the age of seven. For most of his youth, Shawn trained in various dance techniques such as ballet, jazz, modern and tap, and he danced competitively for more than a decade. He continued his training at The Ailey School and Point Park University. He has toured both internationally and domestically as a member of Parsons Dance, and has worked with choreographers such as Trey McIntyre, Matthew Neenan, Matthew Powell and Emery LeCrone. Mr. Lesniak joined the Paul Taylor Dance Company in Winter 2019.
JAKE VINCENT was born in Atlantic City and grew up in Flemington, New Jersey He attended the Taylor School Summer Intensive in 2012, and received a B.F.A. in Dance and Dance Education in 2014 from Montclair State University. He performed with Rioult Dance NY, Von Howard Project, DiMauro Dance, Zullo/Raw Movement, 360Dance Company, Mazzini Dance Collective, 10 Hairy Legs, Douglas Dunn and Dancers and Earl Mosley’s Diversity of Dance. He joined Taylor 2 in summer 2017. He joined the Paul Taylor Dance Company in Winter 2020.
JESSICA FERRETTI, originally from Port Chester, New York, started her dance training at Westchester Dance Academy. She graduated magna cum laude in 2019 from Marymount Manhattan College, where she performed works by Larry Keigwin, Jessica Lang, Michael Thomas, Loni Landon, Nancy Lushington, Pedro Ruiz, Chase Brock and Tito Del Saz. She attended the Paul Taylor Summer Intensives in 2016 and 2018 and the Martha Graham Intensive in 2017. She joined Taylor 2 in fall 2019. She joined the Paul Taylor Dance Company in Summer 2021.
AUSTIN KELLY is from Overland Park, Kansas, where he began dancing at Jody Phillips Dance Company and later studied at the University of Hartford’s The Hartt School where he graduated summa cum laude earning a B.A. in Performing Arts Management with minors in Dance Performance and Business Management in 2021. He has performed works by Paul Taylor, José Limón, August Bournonville, Lar Lubovitch, and Stephen Pier. While earning his degree, he simultaneously studied Paul Taylor’s style through The Taylor School’s winter intensives, summer intensives, and virtual classes held during the Covid-19 pandemic. Austin danced with Alison Cook Beatty Dance after graduating. He joined the Paul Taylor Dance Company in Winter 2021.
KENNY CORRIGAN is originally from Southwick, Massachusetts, and received his BFA from Point Park University. He has performed in Carmen (Houston Grand Opera), as Carnival Boy in Carousel (Riverside Theatre), An American in Paris (First International), Queen of the Night (NYC), Rock the Ballet (Sweetbird Productions), and Rasta Thomas’ Romeo and Juliet (International). He has also been seen on America’s Got Talent (Season 9 semi-finals), Bad Boys of Ballet, MACY’S Thanksgiving Day Parade as Jimmy Fallon’s body double, Saturday Night Live (Harry Styles), and a Swarovski commercial (Karlie Kloss). Kenny joined the Paul Taylor Dance Company in Spring 2022.
GABRIELLE BARNES was born and raised in Tampa, Florida, where she began her dance training at the age of 4 and furthered her studies at Florida State University’s School of Dance, graduating with a BFA in Dance in 2021. She is a dancer and Balanced Body Comprehensively Certified Pilates instructor. She has performed works choreographed by Paul Taylor, Norbert De La Cruz III, Merce Cunningham, Jawole Jo Willa Zollar, Donna Uchizono, David Parsons, Trey McIntyre, Francisco Graciano, David Grenke, and Laura Halzack, to name a few. Gabby has recently performed with The Heraclitus Project, Nanm: A Robenson Mathurin Dance Company, and Laura Halzack. She received a scholarship for the Taylor School in 2022 and joined the Taylor Outreach Ensemble in 2023. Gabby Barnes will make her debut with the Paul Taylor Dance Company in the Summer of 2024.
EMMY WILDERMUTH is originally from Littleton, Colorado, where she began her dance training at the Belliston Academy of Ballet. In 2021, she graduated summa cum laude from the University of Oklahoma with degrees in Modern Dance Performance and Professional Writing. While at OU, Emmy worked under the instruction of Austin Hartel, Roxanne Lyst, and Leslie Kraus and performed works by renowned artists such as Rena Butler, Jiri Kylian, Paul Taylor, and Alejandro Cerrudo. She has performed internationally with programs in Barcelona and Beijing. Throughout her professional career, Emmy has performed as a company member of Kizuna Dance, rogue wave, and NewBrese Dance Project in New York, Atlanta, Connecticut, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Vermont. Emmy has also created a collection of works for stage and film which have been presented at festivals throughout the country under the collective name dance WILD. In 2023, Emmy and her collaborator, Catherine Messina, founded the unKEMpT Dance Festival, with a mission to provide performance opportunities for artists, regardless of background or resources. In conjunction with this festival, the pair runs an affordable class series that provides a platform for New York-based movement artists to teach classes of a variety of styles at an accessible rate.
The Taylor School, established in 1984, is under the direction of Taylor Alumna, Carolyn Adams. As the educational arm of the Paul Taylor Dance Foundation, the School seeks to embrace the rich multicultural history of the dance field while providing innovative educational initiatives to empower, inspire and support the next generation of dancers, dance makers, dance audiences, and dance advocates. Through focused programming, highquality dance education is offered to students of all ages and levels, including introductory and professional level classes, our semester-long Youth/Adult Program, and the touring Taylor Teen Ensemble. Another unique Taylor offering is the Jody and John Arnhold Tier 3 Dance Education and Audience Development Initiative, which offers free dance classes and tickets to the Company’s New York Seasons to K-12 students throughout the state of New York. The Taylor School has achieved distinction by the virtue of outstanding and dedicated faculty members - including current members of the Taylor Company, Taylor alumni and guest artists. The School has become a home base for an increasing number of young dancers in New York City who are not connected or affiliated with universities or conservatories. Students receive individual attention, mentoring, performance opportunities and a generous scholarships program. For more information, visit paultaylordance.org/school
THE TAKING OF PHOTOGRAPHS AND THE USE OF RECORDING DEVICES
ARE STRICTLY PROHIBITED.
Program and casting are subject to change.
Latecomers will be seated only during intermissions.
Please silence all mobile devices during the performance
PAUL TAYLOR DANCE FOUNDATION, INC.
551 Grand Street, New York, New York 10002 | paultaylordance.org
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Founder
PAUL TAYLOR
Artistic Director
MICHAEL NOVAK
Nancy H. Coles, MD, Chair
Richard E. Feldman, Esq., Vice Chair
Douglas L. Peterson, Vice Chair
Stephen Kroll Reidy, Vice Chair
Joseph A. Smith, Treasurer
Elise Jaffe, Secretary
Robert E. Aberlin
Carolyn Adams, Trustee Emeritus
Emad Bibawi
Sally Brayley Bliss, Trustee Emeritus
Deirdre K. Dunn
John Philip Falk
Joshua Jeffery
Jonna Mackin
Adam MacLean
Rosalind Reed
Yvonne Rieber
William A. Shutzer
C.F. Stone III
Max R. Shulman – Counsel
Executive Director JOHN TOMLINSON
BOARD OF ADVISORS
Dr. Robert A. Scott, Chair
Christine Ramsay Covey Secretary
Lisa Brothers Arbisser, MD
Chance Blakeley
Joan C. Bowman
Darcy Gilpin
Dr. John D. Golenski
Maria Kantorowicz
Ambassador Kenton Keith
Roger A. Kluge
Lee Manning-Vogelstein
Meloney Moore
Hal Rubenstein
Madelyn Ho and Alex Clayton in Paul Taylor’s “Airs”
General Manager........................................................Noah Aberlin
Director of Development............................................Jenna Jacobs
Director of Education.............................................Carolyn Adams
Company Manager....................................................Bridget Welty
Director of Tour Engagements.....................................Lisa Conlon
Assistant Director of Development...............................Dorcas Yip
Development Specialist.........................................Michael Apuzzo
Taylor School Manager.....................................Amanda Stevenson
Polaris Project Manager......................................Elisabeth Roberts
Director of Licensing..........................................Richard Chen See Taylor School Administrator.....................................Nadia Hannan
Taylor School Associate........................................Olivia Passarelli
Development Operations Assistant...............................Jules Assue
Production Stage Manager ......................................Maddie Kunert
Wardrobe Supervisors...................Jeffrey Shirbroun, Olivia de Rio
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