FEBRUARY 2 02 0
the magazine of the
Oregon Symphony
Tituss Burgess in Concert FE ATURED CONCER T S Game ON! | Feb. 1 Pictures at an Exhibition | Feb. 8–10 Casablanca in Concert | Feb. 14 The Music of John Williams | Feb. 15–16 Shostakovich’s Eleventh | Feb. 22–24 Tituss Burgess in Concert | Feb. 25 Lyle Lovett and his Acoustic Group | Feb. 26 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire™ in Concert | Feb. 28–Mar. 1
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The world is my tap. The Symphony is my source.
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ALEX GANUM “Brahms said, ‘Without craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere reed shaken in the wind.’ Through failure and success, I strive to master my craft and continue the legacy set by those before me.”
The 2019/20 Classical Series ignites now.
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CONTENTS FEBRUARY 2020 14
Feature
16
about us LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT 9 CONDUCTORS 11 ORCHESTRA, STAFF & BOARD 12 RECOMMENDED RECORDINGS 33 OUR SUPPORTERS 42
Rose Bond
featured
Game ON!
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ROSE BOND 14 IN THE SPOTLIGHT: MONDAY MUSICAL CLUB OF PORTLAND 48 FASCINATING FACTOIDS: THE WORLD OF JOHN WILLIAMS 51 ON A HIGH NOTE: DOUG RENEAU 52 ASK URSULA THE USHER 54
performances Pictures at an Exhibition
Casablanca in Concert
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GAME ON! 16 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 7:30 PM PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION 20 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 7:30 PM SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2 PM MONDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 7:30 PM CASABLANCA IN CONCERT 26 FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 7:30 PM
The Music of John Williams
Shostakovich’s Eleventh
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THE MUSIC OF JOHN WILLIAMS 28 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 7:30 PM SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2 PM SHOSTAKOVICH’S ELEVENTH 30 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 7:30 PM SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2 PM MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 7:30 PM TITUSS BURGESS IN CONCERT 34 TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 7:30 PM
Tituss Burgess in Concert
Lyle Lovett and his Acoustic Group
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Harry Potter and the Goblet Boyz II Men of Fire™ in Concert
Feature
Zach Galatis On a High Note: Emily Cole Doug Reneau
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LYLE LOVETT AND HIS ACOUSTIC GROUP 36 WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 7:30 PM HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE™ IN CONCERT 38 FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 7:30 PM SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2 & 7:30 PM SUNDAY, MARCH 1, 2 PM Oregon Symphony programs are supported in part by the Oregon Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts – a federal agency – and by the Regional Arts & Culture Council, which includes support from the Arts Education and Access Fund; Arts Investment Fund; the City of Portland; Multnomah, Clackamas, and Washington Counties; and Metro.
on the cover: Tituss Burgess in Concert
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LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT Dear Friends, In February, your Oregon Symphony offers you eight concerts that spring from sources as diverse as video games, show tunes, country music, movies, and the Romantic era. First this month, Game ON! premieres soundtracks from blockbuster video games (February 1). Pictures at an Exhibition (February 8–10) layers contemporary pieces, including a World premiere commission, with 19th-century Romanticism. Casablanca in Concert (February 14) is a Valentine’s Day treat for couples, while The Music of John Williams offers film lovers some of his most memorable cinematic scores. Next, the program for Shostakovich’s Eleventh (February 22–24) includes Oregon Symphony Concertmaster Sarah Kwak as soloist. We round out the month with special presentations of Tituss Burgess in Concert (February 25), Lyle Lovett and his Acoustic Group (February 26), and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire™ in Concert (February 28–March 1), our final Popcorn feature of the season. The weekend of February 8, we announce Oregon Symphony’s 2020/21 Season. Beginning then, you can view the entire season at orsymphony.org, or pick up a brochure in our Ticket Office. Renew your subscriptions in February for the best seat selection and early access to exclusive Special Concerts.
As always, we thank you, our donors and patrons, for the support that makes our work possible. We are honored you are here with us tonight. Enjoy your show.”
Scott Showalter president & ceo
orsymphony.org | 503-228-1353
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MARCH CONCERTS Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire™ in Concert FEBRUARY 28–MARCH 1 (fourth concert added!) Justin Freer, conductor
Get ready to fight a dragon, swim with merpeople, and find out just who put Harry’s name in the Goblet of Fire™! For the first time ever, audiences can rediscover the magic of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire™ while the Oregon Symphony performs Patrick Doyle’s unforgettable score. harry potter characters, names and related indicia are © & ™ Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. Harry Potter Publishing Rights © jkr. (s20)
Dance Party! MARCH 8 Norman Huynh, conductor Pam Mahon, narrator Dance West Pacific Youth Choir
The best dance parties are brought to you by a full orchestra! With “Mambo” from West Side Story and Leroy Anderson’s Sandpaper Ballet, we’ve got a line-up sure to get you off your feet and dancing in your seat.
Buy tickets to any of these concerts in the lobby of the Schnitz during intermission!
Berio’s Sinfonia by Rose Bond
Nas: Illmatic – 25th Anniversary
MARCH 14–16 Carlos Kalmar, conductor • Rose Bond, animator * Roomful of Teeth, vocal ensemble
MARCH 19 Norman Huynh, conductor
Wagner: Overture and Venusberg Music from Tannhäuser * Caroline Shaw: Partita for 8 Voices •* Berio: Sinfonia
A musico-cultural portrait of New York life in the late 1960s, Luciano Berio’s monumental Sinfonia is a bubbling crucible of sounds, styles, ideas, texts, and moods. Portland’s own award-winning media artist Rose Bond, whose previous collaboration with the Oregon Symphony packed the hall, returns to craft eye-popping animation to illuminate this epic music.
Hip hop icon Nas teams up with the Oregon Symphony to celebrate the 25th anniversary of his critically acclaimed debut album, Illmatic. Experience one of the defining records of 90s hip hop showcasing the rapper’s meticulous rhymes and cutting social commentary in this unforgettable symphonic rendition.
Prohibition Party MARCH 21–22 Jeff Tyzik, conductor
Relive the 1920s in all its decadence! We’ll take you through the dark cabarets and speakeasies of New York, Paris, Berlin, London, and Atlantic City, featuring the top hits of the decade, from Rudy Vallée to Josephine Baker, and from Kurt Weill to King Oliver. This concert will feature vintage imagery and video from the period.
Berio’s Sinfonia by Rose Bond March 14–16
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CONDUCTORS Carlos Kalmar Jean Vollum music director chair
Carlos Kalmar is in his 17th season as music director of the Oregon Symphony. He is also the artistic director and principal conductor of the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago. In May 2011, he made his New York debut at Carnegie Hall with the Oregon Symphony as part of the inaugural Spring for Music festival. Both his imaginative program, Music for a Time of War, and the performance itself were hailed by critics in The New York Times, The New Yorker magazine, and Musical America, and the concert was recorded and released on the Pentatone label, subsequently earning two Grammy nominations (Best Orchestral Performance and Best Engineered). Under Kalmar’s guidance the orchestra has recorded subsequent cds on the Pentatone label – This England, featuring works by Britten, Vaughan Williams, and Elgar; The Spirit of the American Range, with works by Copland, Piston, and Antheil, which received another Best Orchestral Performance Grammy nomination; Haydn Symphonies; and Aspects of America. The New Yorker magazine critic Alex Ross called the Oregon Symphony’s Carnegie Hall performance under Kalmar “the highlight of the festival and one of the most gripping events of the current season.” That verdict was echoed by Sedgwick Clark, writing for Musical America, who described the performance of Vaughan Williams’ Fourth Symphony as “positively searing… with fearless edge-of-seat tempos… breathtakingly negotiated by all…” A regular guest conductor with major orchestras in America, Europe, and Asia, Kalmar recently made his subscription series debuts with three of America’s most prestigious orchestras: those of Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco. Past engagements have seen him on the podium with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Minnesota Orchestra, and the New World Symphony, as well as the orchestras of Baltimore, Cincinnati, Dallas, Houston, Milwaukee, Nashville, Seattle, and St. Louis. Kalmar, born in Uruguay to Austrian parents, showed an early interest in music and began violin studies at the age of six. By the time he was 15, his musical promise was such that his family moved back to Austria in order for him to study conducting with Karl Osterreicher at the Vienna Academy of Music. He has previously served as the chief conductor and artistic director of the Spanish Radio/Television Orchestra and Choir in Madrid as well as the music director for the Hamburg Symphony, the Stuttgart Philharmonic, Vienna’s Tonnkunsterorchester, and the Anhaltisches Theater in Dessau, Germany. He lives in Portland with his wife, Raffaela, and sons, Luca and Claudio.
Norman Huynh Harold and Arlene Schnitzer associate conductor chair
Norman Huynh has established himself as a conductor with an ability to captivate an audience through a multitude of musical genres. This season, Huynh continues to showcase his versatility in concerts featuring Itzhak Perlman, hip hop artists Nas and Wyclef Jean, and vocal superstar Storm Large. Born in 1988, Huynh is a first generation Asian American and the first in his family to pursue classical music as a career. Upcoming and recent engagements include the St. Louis Symphony, Detroit Symphony, and Grant Park Music Festival. He has served as a cover conductor for the New York Philharmonic and Los Angeles Philharmonic with John Williams. Huynh has been at the forefront of moving orchestral music out of the traditional concert hall. In 2011, he co-founded the Occasional Symphony in Baltimore to celebrate holidays by performing innovative concerts in distinct venues throughout the inner-city. The orchestra performed on Dr. Seuss’ birthday at Port Discovery Children’s Museum, Halloween in a burnt church turned concert venue, and Cinco de Mayo in the basement bar of a Mexican restaurant. Huynh currently resides in Portland and enjoys skiing, board games, and riding his motorcycle. You can follow him on Instagram @normanconductor. Jeff Tyzik principal pops conductor
Jeff Tyzik has earned a reputation as one of America’s foremost pops conductors and is recognized for his brilliant arrangements, original programming, and rapport with audiences. Now in his 26th season as principal pops conductor of the Rochester Philharmonic, Tyzik is also in his 13th season as the Oregon Symphony’s principal pops conductor and continues to serve in the same role with the Seattle Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Florida Orchestra, and Canada’s Vancouver Symphony. Tyzik is also highly sought after as a guest conductor across North America. He holds Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from the Eastman School of Music. He lives in Rochester, New York, with his wife, Jill. orsymphony.org | 503-228-1353 11
O R C H E S T R A , S TA F F & B O A R D Orchestra MU S I C D IR E C TO R
CE LLO
H O RN
Carlos Kalmar Jean Vollum music director chair
Nancy Ives, Mr. & Mrs. Edmund Hayes, Jr. principal cello chair Marilyn de Oliveira, assistant principal Seth Biagini Kenneth Finch Trevor Fitzpatrick Antoinette Gan Kevin Kunkel
John Cox, principal Joseph Berger, associate principal Graham Kingsbury, assistant principal Matthew Berliner* Mary Grant** Alicia Michele Waite
A S S O CIATE COND U C TO R Norman Huynh Harold and Arlene Schnitzer associate conductor chair PR IN CIPAL P O P S COND U C TO R Jeff Tyzik VI O LIN
BASS Colin Corner, principal Braizahn Jones, assistant principal Nina DeCesare Donald Hermanns Jeffrey Johnson Jason Schooler
Sarah Kwak, Janet & Richard Geary concertmaster chair Peter Frajola, Del M. Smith & Maria Stanley Smith associate concertmaster chair FLU TE Erin Furbee, Harold & Jane Pollin Martha Long, Bruce & Judy Thesenga assistant concertmaster chair principal flute chair Chien Tan, Truman Collins, Sr. principal Alicia DiDonato Paulsen, second violin chair Inés Voglar Belgique, assistant principal assistant principal Zachariah Galatis second violin Fumino Ando PI CCO LO Keiko Araki Zachariah Galatis Clarisse Atcherson Ron Blessinger OBOE Lisbeth Carreno Martin Hébert, Harold J. Schnitzer Ruby Chen principal oboe chair Emily Cole Karen Wagner, assistant principal Julie Coleman Kyle Mustain** Eileen Deiss Jason Sudduth* Jonathan Dubay Gregory Ewer ENGLI S H H O RN Daniel Ge Feng Kyle Mustain** Lynne Finch Jason Sudduth* Shin-young Kwon Ryan Lee CL AR INE T Yuqi Li James Shields, principal Samuel Park Todd Kuhns, assistant principal Searmi Park Mark Dubac Vali Phillips Shanshan Zeng B A S S CL AR INE T VIOLA Todd Kuhns Joël Belgique, Maybelle Clark Macdonald Fund principal viola chair Charles Noble, assistant principal Jennifer Arnold** Kenji Bunch* Silu Fei Leah Ilem Ningning Jin Brian Quincey Viorel Russo Martha Warrington
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TR UMPE T Jeffrey Work, principal David Bamonte, assistant principal, Musicians of the Oregon Symphony Richard Thornburg trumpet chair Doug Reneau TR OMB ONE Casey Jones, principal Robert Taylor, assistant principal Charles Reneau B A S S TR OMB ONE Charles Reneau TUBA JáTtik Clark, principal TIMPANI Jonathan Greeney, principal Sergio Carreno, assistant principal PE R CU S S I ON Niel DePonte, principal Michael Roberts, assistant principal Sergio Carreno HAR P Jennifer Craig, principal LIB R ARY Joy Fabos, principal Kathryn Thompson, associate Sara Pyne, assistant O R CHE S TR A PE R S ONNE L MANAGE R Leah Ilem AR TI S T- IN - R E S ID EN CE
B A S S O ON
Johannes Moser
Carin Miller Packwood, principal Evan Kuhlmann, assistant principal** Nicole Haywood, assistant principal* Adam Trussell ** Steve Vacchi*
Artist-in-Residence program is sponsored by Drs. Cliff and Karen Deveney
CR E ATIVE CHAIR Gabriel Kahane
CONTR AB A S S O ON
Creative Chair is sponsored by Michael, Kristen, and Andrew Kern, and Anna Sanford
Evan Kuhlmann** Steve Vacchi*
* Acting position ** Leave of absence
Administration Ethan J H Evans, patron services representative Rebecca Van Halder, lead patron service, teleservices Danielle Jagelski, patron services representative Emily Johnstone, lead patron services, ticket office Chris Kim, patron services representative Nils Knudsen, ticket office manager Christy McGrew, director of patron services Jen McIntosh, patron services representative Elliot Menard, patron services representative O PE R ATI ONS Carol Minchin, patron Jacob Blaser, director of operations services representative Ryan Brothers, assistant stage manager Amanda Preston, patron Monica Hayes, Hank Swigert director, services representative learning and community Tyler Trepanier, patron engagement programs services representative Darcie Kozlowski, director of Robert Trujillo, patron services popular programming representative Steve Stratman, orchestra manager S ALEM Lori Trephibio, stage manager Jacob Wade, manager, operations and Laura AgĂźero, director of artistic administration Oregon Symphony
Scott Showalter, president and ceo Courtney Trezise, foundation and corporate giving officer Diane M. Bush, executive assistant Susan Franklin, assistant to Victoria Wolfe, assistant director the music director of development Hilary Blakemore, vice president MAR KE TING , for development COMMUNI C ATI ONS & S ALE S Ellen Bussing, Ethan Allred, marketing and senior director for campaigns web content manager Charles Calmer, vice president Liz Brown, marketing partnership for artistic planning and group sales manager Russell Kelban, vice president Katherine Eulensen, audience for marketing and development manager strategic engagement John Kroninger, front of house manager Janet Plummer, chief financial Lisa McGowen, marketing and operations officer operations manager Steve Wenig, vice president John Zinn, director of marketing and sales and general manager B U S INE S S O PE R ATI ONS Allison Bagnell, art director David Fuller, tessitura applications administrator Tom Fuller, database administrator Julie Haberman, finance and administration associate Randy Maurer, creative services and publications manager Peter Rockwell, graphic designer D E VE LO PMENT Meagan Bataran, director of development Kerry Kavalo, annual giving manager Leslie Simmons, director of events
TI CKE T O FFI CE Adam Cifarelli, teleservices manager Alison Elliott, patron services representative
in Salem programs L. Beth Yockey Jones, operations manager
Board of Directors O FFI CE R S
D IR E C TO R S
Robert Harrison, chair Dan Drinkward, vice chair Tige Harris, vice chair & treasurer Rick Hinkes, vice chair Nancy Hales, secretary
Courtney Angeli Rich Baek Janet Blount Christopher M. Brooks Cantor Ida Rae Cahana Eve Callahan Cliff Deveney Lauren D. Fox Robyn Gastineau Jeff Heatherington J. Clayton Hering Sue Horn-Caskey Judy Hummelt Braizahn Jones
LIFE TIME D IR E C TO R S William B. Early RenĂŠe Holzman Gerald R. Hulsman Walter E. Weyler Jack Wilborn
Grady Jurrens Gerri Karetsky Kristen Kern Thomas M. Lauderdale Martha Long Priscilla Wold Longfield Peggy Miller Roscoe C. Nelson III Dan Rasay Lane Shetterly, ex-officio Scott Showalter James Shields Amanda Tucker Chabre Vickers Derald Walker
orsymphony.org | 503-228-1353 13
F E AT U R E D A R T I C L E
Rose Bond
BRINGING ANIMATION MAGIC TO BERIO’S SINFONIA by Elizabeth Schwartz Animator and media artist Rose Bond has a singularly intense gaze, a useful tool in her line of work. She sees beyond surfaces and first impressions, penetrating beneath the outermost layers of any given subject with the focus of a laser, until the images that lie buried underneath are revealed. This unique way of seeing makes Bond particularly well suited to craft a visual complement to Italian avantgarde composer Luciano Berio’s Sinfonia, which the Oregon Symphony will perform March 14–16 as part of our SoundSights Series. Composed in 1968–69, on commission from the New York Philharmonic for orchestra and eight amplified voices, Sinfonia evokes the chaotic time and place of its genesis over the course of five densely textured movements that combine shifting layers of music and text – sometimes sung, sometimes spoken. Sinfonia is Bond’s second SoundSights project; she first wowed Symphony audiences in December 2016 with her stunning interpretation of Olivier Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie. For this season’s collaboration, Bond was drawn to Berio’s expansive musical palette. “He was open to mixing it up,” she explains. Bond was also intrigued by Berio’s title, Sinfonia, and the composer’s explanation, which he provided in his own program notes. “Berio talks about [the term ‘Sinfonia’] bearing no relationship to the classical form,” says Bond. “‘Sinfonia’ must be understood in its etymological sense of the ‘sounding together’ of eight
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voices and instruments or, in a larger sense, the ‘sounding together’ of different things, situations, and meanings,” Berio wrote. Bond views her animation as an additional component – in Berio’s terms, an additional layer of meaning – to the music. “What I’m adding at this point with the visuals is not just another sense – sounding and seeing together,” she explains. Describing her role in this project as “a dance partner,” Bond’s animation brings a dynamic, kinetic element, full of images that shift, evolve, and transform before our eyes. “I’m doing this work in 2019, and I’m so aware of the emergence of screens and how ubiquitous they are in our lives. What can the moving image be in our lives now?” Berio’s collage of sounds, timbres, and texts fired Bond’s imagination and activated her synesthesia, a neurological phenomenon in which the experience of one sense, like hearing, triggers involuntary associations with other senses, like sight. Most people with synesthesia see colors when they hear music, although there are less common,
more exotic forms of the phenomenon, like tasting colors or smelling numbers. Bond’s synesthesia emerges as kinetic moving images in her mind’s eye when she hears music. Many of these images have made their way into her work on Sinfonia. The visual depiction of a nonlinear work like Sinfonia – or Turangalîla, for that matter – creates certain challenges at the outset. “These are difficult pieces,” Bond acknowledges. “Most people, when you say visual meaning, they expect a narrative, like a movie with a plot. Music appeals on a much more abstract or suggestive or emotive level, and I think moving images can do that too. What Berio did was bring together seemingly unconnected quotations of music and literature in this piece. There are direct passages from [French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss’ book] The Raw and the Cooked, Samuel Beckett’s The Unnamable, and the Scherzo from Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony; it’s a big jambalaya. I think today we would call that sampling. My approach to Sinfonia is to respect that form.”
The second movement, O King, is a memorial to Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated during the time Berio worked on Sinfonia. “I’m using visual sampling to suggest iconic images, especially photos we might remember, to sound together with the music and the vocals,” says Bond. “[With regard to] King – Berio was situating that event in the moment of 1968 but also taking note of music of the past. My goal is to take notice of the culmination of these art forms from the perspective of 2019. To me, there’s a kind of time shifting going on. I can’t do just this historic thing. If I’m going to be true to the nature of the piece, I have to be in my present as well.” As she did for Turangalîla, Bond’s images cover a wide spectrum, from the simplest abstract lines in black and white to wild explosions of color and movement. In O King, she also animates a few iconic images of the slain civil rights leader; these emerge gradually, as if welling upwards from murky depths until they emerge as the pictures that have come to define King, his death, and his legacy. Berio understood his decision to layer sounds and texts meant listeners would not hear Sinfonia in a straightforward or linear way.
Perception and understanding of the text are never taken for granted but are integral parts of the work. The different degrees of understanding, even the experience of ‘not quite hearing,’ are to be regarded as essential to the nature of the musical process.” Bond agrees and has tailored her animations with this aesthetic in mind. “A lot of people hearing this piece will be puzzled,” she acknowledges. “You can just enjoy the puzzle. The fragments are chosen so you can find satisfaction in putting them together in different meanings. The audience will feel a range of emotions, like they’ve been through something. It’s the combination and the multiplicity of feelings that makes for a full, memorable experience.”
The Oregon Symphony performs Berio’s Sinfonia with Rose Bond’s animations March 14, 15, and 16. Find tickets and more at orsymphony.org.
orsymphony.org | 503-228-1353 15
GAME ON! SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2020, 7:30 PM sponsored by
Andy Brick, conductor and executive producer PSU Chamber Choir Ethan Sperry, artistic director Program will be announced from the stage.
ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL
Biographies
Warhammer, Mafia, Little Mermaid II, Lady & The Tramp II, and Sinbad. He has conducted and orchestrated both live concert and recorded soundtracks for Super Mario Bros., Halo, Final Fantasy, Mafia, and the Civilization V and VI series.
Game ON! is a mesmerizing celebration of symphonic video game music. Featuring concert premieres from 14 blockbuster video games, including World of Warcraft, Assassin’s Creed, Bioshock, Overwatch, and more, Game ON! combines unrivaled, world-class symphonic arrangements with stunning in-game hd videos and never-before-seen concept art. Game ON! will delight audiences with a breathtaking concert experience that focuses on the artistry of the orchestra while cultivating the passion and excitement of the nextgeneration symphony audience.
In 2003, Brick set a historic milestone conducting the Czech National Symphony Orchestra at the Gewandhaus Concert Hall in the world’s first symphonic video game music concert outside of Japan. Andy wrote the fanfare to this historic concert event and served as the principal conductor and music director of the ensuing concert series from 2003–2008. In 2009, Brick was appointed principal conductor and music director of the highly celebrated Play! A Video Game Symphony. As a champion of symphonic game music, Brick has conducted a multitude of game soundtracks with orchestras including the Seattle Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, Czech National Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Omaha Symphony, and others, and has been featured in The New York Times, Billboard Magazine, and Symphony Magazine.
Andy Brick
Brick is a graduate of the University of Michigan. He studied conducting with Maestro Paul Lustig Dunkel of the American Composers Orchestra and studied orchestration with famed Disney orchestrator Danny Troob. He currently serves as professor of music at Stevens Institute of Technology.
Game ON!
Andy Brick is an award winning composer and conductor of music for film, video games, and live concerts, including such productions as The Sims, Civilization, 16 artslandia.com
Portland State University Chamber Choir Classics Today calls The Portland State Chamber Choir “amongst the finest choirs in the world.” Since its founding in 1975, the Chamber Choir has performed and competed in venues across the country and around the world, earning over 30 medals and awards in international choir competitions including being the only American choir to have won the Seghizzi International Competition for Choral Singing in Italy in 2013 and the Bali International Choral Festival in Indonesia in 2017. The Chamber Choir has performed multiple times at national and divisional conferences of the American Choral Director’s Association and The National Association for Music Education, and in 2014, hosted the national conference of the National Collegiate Choral Organization. In the summer of 2020, they will represent the United States at the World Symposium on Choral Music in Auckland, New Zealand. In February 2011, the Chamber Choir collaborated with Portland-born composer Morten Lauridsen, who described their singing as “an absolutely top-notch superb
PORTLAND’5 PRESENTS
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GAME ON!
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ON A WIRE March 13 OREGON FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA BEETHOVEN MISSA SOLEMNIS March 22 PORTLAND SYMPHONIC CHOIR
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display of choral artistry.” The Chamber Choir’s 2012 cd A Drop in the Ocean was favorably reviewed and featured in both Fanfare and Stereophile magazines and was a finalist for the 2012 American Prize in Choral Music. Their 2014 recording Into Unknown Worlds was named a Recording to Die For by Stereophile magazine. It was the first-ever student recording to receive this distinction and was a finalist for the 2014 cara Award for Best Classical Album. Their latest album, The Doors of Heaven – Music of Eriks Esenvalds, was released by Naxos. It debuted at #1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical Chart (a first for a university choir) and was also a #1 seller on Amazon and iTunes. Apple Music added the album to its “A-List Classical Playlist.” Since 2013, the Portland State Chamber Choir has performed regularly with the Oregon Symphony in works as diverse as Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy and Symphony No. 9, Handel’s Messiah, Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, and Stravinsky’s Persephone in a fully staged production direction by Michael Curry, whose credits include The Lion King and Cirque du Soleil. In 2014, they presented the Portland premiere performances of both David Lang’s Little Match Girl Passion and Samuel Barber’s The Lovers. PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY CHAMBER CHOIR ROSTER Olivia Alfson Aimee Altamirano Shayla Bailey Rachel Bard Rex Bennett Emily Bevard Racheal Bingold Garrett Bond Briargate Curry Hannah Delgado Reid Duhrkoop Jeff Evans Elli Fagliano Jessie Flasschoen André Flynn Zach Frunk Abigail Graves Madisen Hallberg Mercy Hallman Elizabeth Harper Brandon Hilsabeck Spencer Hughes
Natalie Hurley Andrew Lucht Avesta Mirashrafi Isabella Moore Bryan Morris-Brand Jorden Moss Nicholas Nipp Daniel Nyounai-Herrera Lydia O’Brien Eric Olson Rebecca Parsons Alyssa Paulson Luis Ortiz-Rodriguez Hannah Schacht Chase Shoemaker Maeve Stier Ruth Taziyeva John Yang Ulises Zavaleta Vanessa Zmolek
Celebrate Giving WINEMAKER DINNERS WINTER: February 25, 26 & 27 & March 1, 2020 SPRING: April 28, 29 & 30, 2020 SUMMER (new!): Dates TBD Held at select Portland-area restaurants, these memorable culinary experiences feature esteemed Pacific Northwest winemakers partnered with local chefs.
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THE 36TH ANNUAL CLASSIC WINES AUCTION Saturday, March 7, 2020 Oregon Convention Center Classic Wines Auction is one of the longest-running charity wine auctions in the U.S., ranking in the Top 10 of U.S. Charity Wine Auctions by Wine Spectator Magazine. It has raised nearly $50 over the past 35 years for local nonprofits.
CORKS + FORKS Thursday, June 4, 2020 The Redd on Salmon Street Corks + Forks is a wine and food tasting event where guests nibble on delicious bites from Portland’s hottest restaurants and sip from the area’s best wineries while enjoying music, games and a live demonstration kitchen.
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Join us for our year-round series of wine + food events
ClassicWinesAuction.com Benefiting children and families in our community
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PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2020, 7:30 PM SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2020, 2 PM MONDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2020, 7:30 PM
Gabriella Smith Niccolò Paganini
Carlos Kalmar, conductor Augustin Hadelich, violin Bioluminescence Chaconne Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major Allegro maestoso Adagio Rondo: Allegro spiritoso Augustin Hadelich
INTERMISSION Missy Mazzoli Modest Mussorgsky/ Arr. Ravel
Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres) Pictures at an Exhibition Promenade Gnomus Promenade The Old Castle Promenade Tuileries (Dispute Between Children at Play) Bydlo (Cattle) Promenade Ballet of the Chicks in Their Shells “Samuel” Goldenberg and “Schmuÿle” Limoges – The Market (The Big News) Catacombs: Roman sepulcher—Cum mortuis in lingua mortua (With the dead in a dead language) The Hut on Fowl’s Legs The Great Gate of Kiev
ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL
CONCERT CONVERSATION Conducted one hour before each performance, the Concert Conversation will feature Music Director Carlos Kalmar, composer Gabriella Smith, and Brandi Parisi, host of All Classical Portland. You can also enjoy the Concert Conversation in the comfort of your own home. Visit orsymphony.org/conversations to watch the video on demand.
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A vibrant and artful evening with the Oregon Symphony SUNDAY, APRIL 19 Portland Art Museum Cocktail Hour Concert Dinner & Special Appeal Reserve your tickets today. orsymphony.org/gala
P I C T U R E S AT A N E X H I B I T I O N Biography
Augustin Hadelich Augustin Hadelich last appeared with the Oregon Symphony on September 25, 2017, when he performed Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with conductor Carlos Kalmar. Hadelich is one of the great violinists of our time. Often referred to by colleagues as a “musician’s musician,” he was named Musical America’s 2018 Instrumentalist of the Year. Hadelich has appeared with over 25 North American orchestras in the 2019/20 Season, including the symphony orchestras of Boston, Cleveland, New York, Montréal, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, Houston,
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Oregon, Seattle, Toronto, and numerous others. International highlights of the season include performances with the Philharmonia Orchestra (London), ndr Elbphilharmonie Orchestra (Hamburg), Danish National Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Orchestra, and the Hong Kong Philharmonic, to name a few. He is also a frequent guest artist with major orchestras in Asia, South America, Mexico, New Zealand, and Australia. Hadelich is the winner of a 2016 Grammy Award for his recording of Dutilleux’s Violin Concerto, L’Arbre des songes, with the Seattle Symphony under Ludovic Morlot (Seattle Symphony media). Recently signed to Warner Classics, his first release on the label – Paganini’s 24 Caprices – was released in January 2018. His second recording for Warner Classics, the Brahms Concerto (with Hadelich’s own cadenza) and the Ligeti Concerto (with a cadenza composed by Thomas Adès) followed in 2019.
Born in Italy, the son of German parents, Hadelich is now an American citizen. He holds an Artist Diploma from The Juilliard School, where he was a student of Joel Smirnoff. After winning the gold medal at the 2006 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, concerto and recital appearances on many of the world’s top stages quickly followed, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Chicago’s Symphony Hall, the Kennedy Center, Wigmore Hall, London, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Other distinctions include an Avery Fisher Career Grant (2009), a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship in the uk (2011), and the inaugural Warner Music Prize (2015), as well as an honorary doctorate from the University of Exeter in the uk (2017). Hadelich plays the 1723 “Ex-Kiesewetter” Stradivari violin, on loan from Clement and Karen Arrison through the Stradivari Society of Chicago.
P I C T U R E S AT A N E X H I B I T I O N Program Notes GABRIELLA SMITH b. 1991
Bioluminescence Chaconne (World premiere) composed: 2019 first oregon symphony performance instrumentation: 3 flutes (1 doubling piccolo), 3 oboes, 3 clarinets, 3 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 2 trombones, bass trombone, tuba, timpani, bass drum, temple bowl, kick drum, toms, crotales, 5 varied metal objects, and strings estimated duration: 13 minutes Composer Gabriella Smith is only 27, but she has already made an international name for herself with her music, hailed by the Philadelphia Inquirer as “high-voltage and wildly imaginative.” Clive Paget, writing for Musical America, declares Smith
possesses “the coolest, most exciting, most inventive new voice I’ve heard in ages.” Smith’s music has been performed throughout the U.S. and internationally by eighth blackbird, Bang on a Can All-Stars, the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, the Nashville Symphony, prism Quartet, Aizuri Quartet, and yMusic, among others. Recent highlights include the World premiere of a new work for Roomful of Teeth and Dover Quartet at Bravo! Vail Music Festival, and performances of her Tumblebird Contrails by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by John Adams. A native of the Bay Area in California, Smith draws inspiration from nature; this lifelong interest is reflected in the titles of many of her works, including tonight’s piece. Smith uses the natural world as a recurring metaphor, and her specific sound world, drawn from minimalism and aleatoric music, uses extended instrumental techniques to propel familiar musical imagery in completely novel ways.
NICCOLÒ PAGANINI 1782–1840
Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major, Op. 6 composed: 1816–18 most recent oregon symphony performance: October 8, 1991; James DePreist, conductor; Sarah Chang, violin instrumentation: solo violin, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons (1 doubling contrabassoon), 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, and strings estimated duration: 35 minutes Nineteenth-century Romanticism gave composers the freedom to create music that reflected their individual experiences. This emphasis on personal expression also gave rise to an entirely new type of performer: the superstar virtuoso. Of all the outstanding instrumentalists who
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P I C T U R E S AT A N E X H I B I T I O N emerged in the 19th century, none could match the sheer technical brilliance or the commanding ego of Niccolò Paganini, the first of this new breed. There were other great violinists before Paganini, but the musical and artistic aesthetics of their time limited their ability for self-expression. Before Paganini, performers, no matter how skilled, played in the service of their music. They were merely the interpreters; it was music that occupied center stage. From his debut at age 11, Paganini exploded the idea that the performer should take a back seat to the music they played. For more than 30 years, Paganini cultivated a new kind of musician: a superstar with a devoted following who came to hear him play, regardless of repertoire. Everything Paganini did in performance – his penchant for performing all in black, his carefully disheveled hair and clothes, and especially his over-the-top stage mannerisms – was deliberately planned so as to achieve a certain effect: the creation of Paganini the Romantic artist. He was one of the first artists to craft a cult of personality and mystery as a complement to his virtuoso technique. Today, superstars are common enough in both music and art, and some trade on their charisma to cover up less-thanfirst-rate skill. Manufactured mystique notwithstanding, Paganini lived up to his own hype. There seemed no limit to his facility on the violin, nothing too difficult or technically unconventional that he could not master. Paganini became known for his left-handed pizzicato notes and a technique he called the “ricochet,” where he bounced the bow quickly across the strings. Most dazzling of all, Paganini executed flawless runs of double-stop harmonics at lightning speed, a skill that left other violinists shaking their heads in admiration. After Paganini exhausted all the suitably virtuoso works in his repertoire – and after a request for a piece by Berlioz resulted in Harold in Italy, which Paganini deemed insufficiently virtuosic
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for his style of playing – Paganini began composing music himself as a vehicle to showcase his skills. The Violin Concerto No. 1, originally written in E-flat major, required the soloist to tune their violin up a half step. The higher pitch allowed for a more brilliant tone, but over time, most musicians and orchestras have chosen to perform it in D major, a more natural key for the violin (and easier to keep in tune). This violin concerto supplies everything a virtuoso needs: plenty of dazzling runs and other lightning-fast tricks, and a clear emphasis on the soloist, with the orchestra providing accompaniment. In the Adagio, Paganini gave himself (and subsequent performers) ample opportunity to demonstrate lyricism and refined tone. Paganini wanted to dazzle his audience, but he also wanted to move them. He succeeded with Schubert, who, having heard Paganini in Vienna, described his playing as “the singing of an angel.”
MISSY MAZZOLI b. 1980
Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres) composed: 2014, rev. 2016 first oregon symphony performance instrumentation: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons (both doubling harmonica), 2 horns (both doubling harmonica), 2 trumpets (both doubling harmonica), 2 trombones (both doubling harmonica), tuba, boombox, glockenspiel, lion’s roar, marimba, melodica, opera gong, snare drum, spring coil, suspended cymbal, vibraphone, piano (doubling synthesizer: organ sound), and strings estimated duration: 12 minutes Grammy-nominated composer Missy Mazzoli was recently hailed as “one of the more consistently inventive, surprising composers now working in New York” (New York Times), and “Brooklyn’s post-millennial Mozart” (Time Out New York). Mazzoli is currently the Mead
Composer-in-Residence at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and her music has been performed all over the world by the Kronos Quartet, pianist Emanuel Ax, Opera Philadelphia, Scottish Opera, la Opera, Cincinnati Opera, New York City Opera, Chicago Fringe Opera, the Detroit Symphony, the la Philharmonic, and the Minnesota Orchestra, among many others. In 2018, Mazzoli made history when she became one of the two first women (along with composer Jeanine Tesori) to be commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera. That year she was also nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Classical Composition for Vespers for Violin, recorded by violinist Olivia De Prato. Mazzoli writes, “Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres) is music in the shape of a solar system, a collection of rococo loops that twist around each other within a larger orbit. The word ‘sinfonia’ refers to Baroque works for chamber orchestra but also to the old Italian term for a hurdygurdy, a medieval stringed instrument with constant, wheezing drones that are cranked out under melodies played on an attached keyboard. It’s a piece that churns and roils, that inches close to the listener only to leap away at breakneck speed, in the process transforming the ensemble turns into a makeshift hurdygurdy, flung recklessly into space.” John Adams led the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the premiere on April 14, 2014. Writing for San Francisco Classical Voice, Tysen Dauer reviewed a 2018 performance of Sinfonia at the Cabrillo Music Festival. “With Mazzoli’s profound ability to create lush textures using her characteristic stacks of unusually juxtaposed triads, these unexpected timbres induced a distancing effect, which, together with a quasi-filmic use of widely spaced drones, made me feel like I was afloat on the music’s orbits. At just under ten minutes, Mazzoli’s piece must be the most concise composition on the theme of the solar system, and it begs for multiple listenings, especially after experiencing Mazzoli’s aweinspiring fade out in the final moments of the piece.”
P I C T U R E S AT A N E X H I B I T I O N MODEST MUSSORGSKY/ ARR. MAURICE RAVEL 1839–81/1875–1937
Pictures at an Exhibition composed: 1874/1922 most recent oregon symphony performance: April 16, 2012; Carlos Miguel Prieto, conductor instrumentation: 3 flutes (1 doubling piccolo), 3 oboes (1 doubling English horn), 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, alto saxophone, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, side drum, bass drum, rattle, cymbals, tam-tam, whip, triangle, xylophone, glockenspiel, bells, celesta, 2 harps, and strings estimated duration: 33 minutes Modest Mussorgsky’s most popular composition owes its reputation to its orchestrator, Maurice Ravel. Before Ravel arranged this obscure piano suite for orchestra in 1922, it was virtually unknown outside piano circles.
The Promenade’s irregular rhythm portrays Mussorgsky, a man of considerable size, ambling through the exhibit, sometimes pausing before a particular picture that caught his interest. It leads directly to the first picture, Gnomus (Gnome), Hartmann’s design for a nutcracker. Unlike the princely nutcracker of Tchaikovsky, however, Hartmann’s nutcracker is a macabre, wizened creature. The return of the Promenade, in shortened form, brings us to The Old Castle, which Stasov says depicts a troubadour singing and
Bydlo (Cattle) portrays plodding oxen drawing a heavy cart. A brief Promenade leads us to the oddly named Ballet of the Chicks in Their Shells. Hartmann’s costume designs for a ballet called Trilby inspired this whimsical music, in which child dancers wear egg costumes with their legs sticking out. In “Samuel” Goldenberg and “Schmuÿle,” Mussorgsky combined two of Hartmann’s pictures of Jews in the Sandomierz ghetto of Poland. Samuel Goldenberg is a rich, self-important man (represented by measured phrases of the strings), while Schmuÿle, (characterized by insistent bleatings of a muted trumpet) is portrayed as a whining, cowering beggar. However, Mussorgsky’s title suggests the two men are really the same person (Samuel is the Germanized form of the Yiddish Schmuÿle), and the movement has been generally viewed as an anti-Semitic stereotype. In Limoges – The Market (The Big News), market-women share the latest gossip. Abruptly, we are plunged into the Catacombs: Roman sepulcher. This watercolor shows Hartmann and several others inspecting the Parisian catacombs by lantern light, which illuminates a cage full of skulls. Mussorgsky wrote of this piece, “The creative genius of Hartmann leads me to the skulls and invokes them; the skulls begin to glow.” Con mortuis in lingua morta (With the dead in a dead language) follows, a mournful, eerie reworking of the Promenade. The ominous music of The Hut on Fowls’ Legs depicts the witch Baba Yaga of Russian folklore, whose house stood on chicken’s feet. In the final movement, Ravel and Mussorgsky capture the grandeur of The Great Gate of Kiev, Hartmann’s design for the reconstruction of the ancient stone gates of Kiev. Although the actual gates were never built, The Great Gate of Kiev stands as a permanent musical tribute to the city and its rich history.
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Pictures at an Exhibition is Mussorgsky’s musical portrayal of a memorial exhibit of artwork by Victor Hartmann, an artist, designer, architect, and close friend. In the spring of 1874, Russian critic Vladimir Stasov organized an exhibition of Hartmann’s work in St. Petersburg, which Mussorgsky attended. By June 22 of that year, Mussorgsky transformed ten of Hartmann’s works into music as a further tribute to his friend. Mussorgsky also inserted his own presence into Pictures via the Promenade, which recurs periodically throughout.
strumming a guitar in front of a medieval castle. Ravel’s mournful saxophone sounds the troubadour’s song. The Promenade returns with the majestic brasses and winds of the opening, but stops abruptly in front of the next picture, Tuileries (Dispute Between Children at Play). Here in the famous Tuileries Gardens in Paris, children attended by nannies sing out the universal childhood taunt, “Nyah-nyah.”
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CASABLANCA IN CONCERT FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2020, 7:30 PM sponsored by the andrianoff family
Norman Huynh, conductor Starring: Humphrey Bogart Ingrid Bergman Paul Henreid Claude Rains Conrad Veidt Sydney Greenstreet Peter Lorre S.K. Sakall Madeleine Lebeau Dooley Wilson Screenplay by Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, and Howard Koch Directed by Michael Curtiz Produced by Hal B. Wallis and Jack L. Warner Music by Max Steiner a symphonic night at the movies production team: John Goberman, producer Patrick Russ, live orchestra adaptation Pat McGillen, technical supervisor Larry Spivack, music preparation The producer wishes to acknowledge the contributions and extraordinary support of John Waxman (Themes & Variations). A Symphonic Night at the Movies is a production of pgm Productions, Inc. (New York) and appears by arrangement with img Artists.
ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL
THE ANDRIANOFF FAMILY CONCERT A Visionary’s Tradition Lives On In 1997, Fred Andrianoff – former member of the Oregon Symphony Foundation’s board of directors – made a significant gift to help attract new audiences through innovative, exciting programs. This year we are proud to present Casablanca in Concert as the continuation of Andrianoff’s vision of an orchestra reflecting, and welcoming, an audience as broad and varied as our entire community. Nothing gives the Oregon Symphony and our wonderful friend Fred Andrianoff greater pleasure than watching new generations of audience members discover the style, wit, and beauty of symphonic music in a unique setting – and knowing that through a concert such as this, new generations are discovering the great pleasure of live symphonic music. Thank you, Fred, for your generosity and your foresight. You are truly making a difference.
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THE MUSIC OF JOHN WILLIAMS SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2020, 7:30 PM SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2020, 2 PM sponsored by
Norman Huynh, conductor Richard A. Whiting/ Arr. Williams
Hooray for Hollywood
John Williams
Flight to Neverland from Hook
John Williams
Dartmoor 1912 from Warhorse
John Williams
Selections from Lincoln The People’s House Getting out the Vote
John Williams
Name That John Williams Tune!
John Williams
Excerpts from Close Encounters of the Third Kind
INTERMISSION John Williams
The Raiders March from Raiders of the Lost Ark
Leo Arnaud/ John Williams
Bugler’s Dream and Olympic Fanfare and Theme
John Williams
The Olympic Spirit
John Williams
Across the Stars from Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones
John Williams
Cantina Band from Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope
John Williams
Jedi Steps and Finale from Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens
ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL
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Biography
John Williams In a career spanning more than five decades, John Williams has become one of the United States’ most accomplished and successful composers for film and for the concert stage, and he remains one of our nation’s most distinguished and contributive musical voices. He has composed the music and served as music director for more than 100 films, including all eight Star Wars films, the first three Harry Potter films, Superman, jfk, Born on the Fourth of July, Memoirs of a Geisha, Far and Away, The Accidental Tourist, Home Alone, and The Book Thief. His 45year artistic partnership with director Steven Spielberg has resulted in many of Hollywood’s most acclaimed and successful films, including Schindler’s List, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Jaws, Jurassic Park, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the Indiana Jones films, Munich, Saving Private Ryan, The Adventures of Tintin, War Horse, Lincoln, The bfg, and The Post. His contributions to television music include scores for more than 200 television films for the groundbreaking early anthology series Alcoa Theatre, Kraft Television Theatre, Chrysler Theatre, and Playhouse 90, as well as themes for nbc Nightly News (“The Mission”), nbc’s Meet the Press, and the pbs arts showcase Great Performances. He also composed themes for the 1984, 1988, and 1996 Summer Olympic Games, as well as the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. He has received five Academy Awards® and 51 Oscar® nominations, making him the Academy’s most-nominated living person and the second-most
nominated person in the history of the Oscars. He has received seven British Academy Awards (bafta), 24 Grammys, four Golden Globes, three Emmys, and numerous gold and platinum records. In 2003, he received the Olympic Order (the ioc’s highest honor) for his contributions to the Olympic movement. He received the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors in December of 2004. In 2009, Williams was inducted into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and he received the National Medal of Arts, the highest award given to artists by the U.S. government. In 2016, he received the 44th Life Achievement Award from the American Film Institute – the first time in their history that this honor was bestowed upon a composer. In January 1980, Williams was named 19th music director of the Boston Pops Orchestra, succeeding the legendary Arthur Fiedler. He currently holds the title of Boston Pops Laureate Conductor, which he assumed following his retirement in December 1993 after 14 highly successful seasons. He also holds the title of artist-in-residence at Tanglewood. Williams has composed numerous works for the concert stage, among them two symphonies and concertos commissioned by several of the world’s leading orchestras, including a cello concerto for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a bassoon concerto for the New York Philharmonic, a trumpet concerto for the Cleveland Orchestra, and a horn concerto for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In 2009, Williams composed and arranged Air and Simple Gifts especially for the first inaugural ceremony of President Barack Obama, and in September 2009, the Boston Symphony premiered a new concerto for harp and orchestra entitled On Willows and Birches.
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SHOSTAKOVICH’S ELEVENTH SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2020, 7:30 PM SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2020, 2 PM MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2020, 7:30 PM
George Walker Gian Carlo Menotti
Robert Trevino, conductor Sarah Kwak, violin Icarus in Orbit Violin Concerto in A Minor Allegro moderato Adagio ma non troppo Allegro vivace Sarah Kwak
INTERMISSION Dmitri Shostakovich
Symphony No. 11 in G Minor, “The Year 1905” The Palace Square: Adagio January the Ninth: Allegro Eternal Memory: Adagio The Tocsin: Allegro non troppo—Allegro ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL
CONCERT CONVERSATION Conducted one hour before each performance, the Concert Conversation will feature conductor Robert Trevino and Warren Black, host of All Classical Portland. You can also enjoy the Concert Conversation in the comfort of your own home. Visit orsymphony.org/conversations to watch the video on demand.
Biographies
Robert Trevino With this concert, Robert Trevino makes his debut with the Oregon Symphony. Born in 1984, Trevino’s star has risen rapidly among American conductors. The past three years have seen his appointments as music director of the Basque National Orchestra and chief conductor of the Malmo Symphony Orchestra. He recently signed a multiyear, exclusive recording contract with leading 30 artslandia.com
classical label Ondine, to encompass both of his orchestras. Trevino burst into the international spotlight at the Bolshoi Theater in December 2013, leading a new production of Verdi’s Don Carlo. He was nominated for a Golden Mask award, and one reviewer wrote, “There has not been an American success of this magnitude in Moscow since Van Cliburn.” As a young musician, he had caught the eye of David Zinman, with whom he studied as a conducting fellow at the Aspen Music Festival, and was awarded the James Conlon Prize. Immediately afterward, in 2011, he was the Seiji Ozawa conducting fellow at Tanglewood. He was also invited to study with Michael Tilson Thomas and to assist Leif Segerstam at the Helsinki Philharmonic.
Recent seasons have seen an ever-growing number of major debuts – among them the London Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Sao Paulo Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Dresden Philharmonic, nhk Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Vienna Symphony, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Helsinki Philharmonic, and recordings for Decca and cpo. The 2019/20 Season sees Trevino lead European tours with the Basque National Orchestra, Malmo Symphony Orchestra, and Antwerp Symphony Orchestra. Return appearances include the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Sao Paulo Symphony, Vienna Symphony, and rai Torino.
On the opera front, he follows the previous season’s Eugene Onegin in Washington, D.C., with a muchanticipated Carmen in Zurich. Trevino has commissioned, premiered, and worked closely with many leading composers, among them Augusta Read Thomas, Sir André Previn, Jennifer Higdon, Phillip Glass, Shulamit Ran, and John Zorn. Says Trevino, “When I’m with an orchestra who are right there with me, loving the music, that’s when you know that a life in music is a pretty amazing life.” When one encounters Trevino, one has no doubt what he means.
Sarah Kwak Concertmaster Sarah Kwak last appeared as soloist with the Oregon Symphony on March 11, 2019, when she performed Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending with conductor Carlos Kalmar. The Oregon Symphony welcomed Concertmaster Kwak to the orchestra in August 2012, when she performed as soloist on Carlos Gardel’s Tango on the annual Waterfront Park Bowl concert program. Since then, she has performed to critical acclaim throughout Oregon. Hailed as a “world-class soloist,” Kwak is renowned for her “lyrical depth, thoughtful phrasing, myriad shadings of tone, and easy technical prowess.” After her concerto debut with the Oregon Symphony, The Oregonian said she “tore it up in a performance as dazzling as any recent star guest soloist.” Kwak joined the Oregon Symphony after serving as first associate concertmaster in the Minnesota Orchestra from 1988 to 2012 and as that orchestra’s acting concertmaster from January 2010 to September 2011. Kwak, a 2008 McKnight Artist Fellowship winner, has been a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Houston Symphony, and Curtis Chamber Orchestra, and she has toured internationally with the Casa Verde Trio, including a three-and-a-halfweek tour of China. The first artist to
capture all three memorial awards at the Washington International Competition, Kwak also won the 1989 wamso Young Artist Competition. She has served on the faculty of Princeton University and at the University of Nevada at Reno. She has participated in the Marlboro Music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest Winter Festival, Portland Piano International Summer Festival, Pensacola Festival, Pittsburgh Summerfest, Bargemusic of New York, Festival Mozart in France, and the Siletz Bay and Astoria festivals. She is the concertmaster of the Oregon Bach Festival and has toured with Asia Philharmonic Orchestra under Myung-Whun Chung. In addition, she has served as guest concertmaster with the Utah Symphony. Born in Boston and raised in Lawrence, Kansas, Kwak entered Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute at 12, studied briefly at the Vienna Hochschule für Musik, and graduated from Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music in 1983. Among her teachers were Joseph Sivo, Ivan Galamian, and Szymon Goldberg. Kwak is a founding member of Classical Up Close, a nonprofit organization with the mission to present free chamber music concerts in neighborhoods around the metro area and to make classical music accessible to all.
Program Notes GEORGE WALKER 1922–2018
Icarus in Orbit composed: 2003 first oregon symphony performance instrumentation: piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 3 horns, 3 trumpets, 2 trombones, tuba, timpani, celesta, marimba, bass drum, chimes, glass chimes, glockenspiel, maracas, snare drum, suspended cymbal, tam-tam, tambourine, temple block, timbales, triangle, vibraphone, wood block, xylophone, harp, and strings estimated duration: 4 minutes
George Theophilus Walker pursued successful careers in performance, composition, and teaching. After graduating from Oberlin Conservatory, he attended the Curtis Institute, becoming the first African American student to earn an artist’s diploma in piano and composition. At Curtis, Walker studied piano with Rudolf Serkin and composition with Gian Carlo Menotti. Walker continued his education at the Eastman School of Music, where he earned a D.M.A. in composition, the first African American to do so. In the 1950s, Walker studied composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. Walker’s lifelong list of accomplishments includes many more firsts: he was the first black instrumentalist to play a recital in New York’s Town Hall, the first black soloist to perform with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy, and the first black instrumentalist to obtain major concert management, with National Concert Artists. In 1996, Walker became the first African American composer to win the Pulitzer Prize in Music for Lilacs, a setting of Walt Whitman’s poem “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d.” In 2000, Walker was elected to the American Classical Music Hall of Fame, the first living composer so honored. Throughout his decades-long career, Walker’s music reflected whatever preoccupied him at the moment of its creation, and he consistently rejected any attempt to pigeonhole or otherwise define his sound. Icarus in Orbit is a short, vivid musical illustration of the Icarus story from Greek mythology. Icarus and his father, Daedalus, flee the island of Crete on homemade wings made of bird feathers and beeswax. Daedalus warns his son to maintain a middle course between sun and ocean, but Icarus, full of youthful hubris, defies his father and flies too high. The sun melts the beeswax, causing Icarus to plunge into the sea and drown. Walker’s tautly constructed music opens with a chorus of winds. Strings, brass, and percussion vie for dominance; at the close, a solo descending flute captures Icarus’ fatal descent.
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S H O S TA K O V I C H ’ S E L E V E N T H GIAN CARLO MENOTTI 1911–2007
Violin Concerto in A Minor composed: 1951–52 first oregon symphony performance instrumentation: solo violin, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, bass drum, Indian drum, tambourine, triangle, snare drum, suspended cymbal, harp, and strings estimated duration: 24 minutes Gian Carlo Menotti’s Violin Concerto reflects two important aspects of the Italian-born American composer’s career: his lifelong affinity for lyricism, and his 30-year career as a professor of composition at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Menotti is best known for his operas, which gained popularity in the 1940s and ’50s, particularly Amahl and the Night Visitors, the first opera written for American television. Menotti’s experience composing for voices served him equally well in his Violin Concerto, written for violinist Efrem Zimbalist, who also taught at Curtis. Menotti and Zimbalist collaborated on the concerto while vacationing in Maine during the summer of 1951. “[This] doubtless has to do with the violinist character of the solo part, uncommonly practicable and idiomatic for the stringed instrument,” reviewer Olin Downes observed. Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra gave the first performance with Zimbalist on December 5, 1952, at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia. “A new violin concerto introduced a new Efrem Zimbalist to a Carnegie Hall audience last night,” wrote Louis Biancolli for the New York Telegram & Sun, reviewing the concerto’s New York premiere a few days later. “The occasion was one of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s visits to New York… Both the concerto and Mr. Zimbalist sounded terrifically young last night. It is a fresh and vigorous piece of music, overflowing with energy and melody...”
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Despite the positive initial reviews, Menotti’s Violin Concerto has taken a long time to enter the standard repertoire. Several Curtis alumni, including Zimbalist’s student Joseph Silverstein, Jennifer Koh, and Oregon Symphony Concertmaster Sarah Kwak, have advocated for and performed the concerto over the decades. Beginning in 2000, the concerto gained wider attention as a number of young violinists began performing and recording it. In a 2003 interview, Koh remarked, “One of the great things about this piece is it’s so lyrical… It has a beautiful kind of simplicity and yet a beautiful kind of sophistication to the sound within the orchestra.”
“Shostakovich didn’t care for talking about music. Music meant composing, playing, listening, and remembering… [H]e was unimpressed by musicians who aired their opinions in public.” – Gerard McBurney
Menotti’s Violin Concerto reminds Kwak of early Shostakovich or Prokofiev. “It has a certain playfulness, and I think people will enjoy it. The first tune in the opening Allegro moderato is something people will come away humming.” In the Adagio, the solo violin exchanges phrases with different wind soloists in the manner of a desultory conversation; this eventually gives way to a dancing solo cadenza. The closing Allegro vivace builds on the cadenza with a tune that sounds like it came straight out of a vaudeville show, accompanied by an Indian drum. This odd combination creates a lighthearted, whimsical mood that leads to a humorous finish.
Anyone unfamiliar with Shostakovich’s music, or the politically precarious realities of life in the Soviet Union, might reasonably take this statement at face value. However, everything Shostakovich wrote contains a variety of different meanings. Shostakovich’s actual intentions regarding any given work were almost always a matter of intense speculation among friends and colleagues, as the composer carefully avoided any overt explanations. For Shostakovich, who had to tread the Communist Party’s aesthetic tightrope with extreme care or face brutal punishment – including the very real possibility of imprisonment or death – any descriptions of his work had to be vague and patriotic enough to mollify Soviet cultural authorities. At the same time, to preserve his artistic integrity, Shostakovich often hinted at other interpretations hidden just below the surface, for anyone, in Shostakovich’s own words, “who had ears to listen.”
DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH 1906–75
Symphony No. 11, Op. 103, “The Year 1905” composed: 1956–57 most recent oregon symphony performance: January 20, 2003; James DePreist, conductor instrumentation: piccolo, 3 flutes, 3 oboes, English horn, 3 clarinets, bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, bells, celesta, cymbals, snare drum, tam-tam, triangle, xylophone, 2 harps, and strings estimated duration: 70 minutes
To mark Dmitri Shostakovich’s 50th birthday on September 25, 1956, the journal Sovetskaya muzïka published a biographical retrospective of the composer’s life and work to date. In the article, Shostakovich declared, “I am currently working on my Eleventh Symphony, which, undoubtedly, will be ready by the winter. The theme of this symphony is the Revolution of 1905. I love this period in the history of our Motherland, which found clear expression in workers’ revolutionary songs.”
Shostakovich was so good at hiding his true intent that his own colleagues disagreed as to his motivations. We can hear the Eleventh Symphony simply as a straightforward homage to the heroes and martyrs of the 1905 Revolution, as Shostakovich suggested. However, we can also experience the music as a commentary on the Soviets’ brutal suppression of the Hungarian
S H O S TA K O V I C H ’ S E L E V E N T H uprising of 1956, which was taking place as Shostakovich composed the Eleventh Symphony. Cellist/conductor Mstislav Rostropovich, who knew Shostakovich well, took a more universal approach when he said the Eleventh is “a symphony written in blood, a truly tragic work. It is unremittingly tragic and not so much about 1905 or 1956, perhaps, as about the persistently tragic pattern in human events. All revolutions, after all, are tragic events.” Shostakovich gave each of the Eleventh’s four movements a title. The Palace Square opens before dawn on January 9, 1905, in central Saint Petersburg. Gerard McBurney, a noted Shostakovich scholar, writes, “We hear the frozen stillness of the river Neva in the darkness, the distant sounds of military bugles calling ‘Reveille’ in the barracks, and the equally distant chanting of the Russian Orthodox prayer for the dead, the Kontakion.” A crowd of thousands – men, women, and children – gathered to petition Tsar Nicholas II for a list of societal reforms. The Cossack soldiers in the square, on orders from Nicholas, ordered the crowd to disperse; hemmed in by the square, the tightly packed crowd could not comply before the soldiers opened fire. Hundreds died. All the songs Shostakovich quotes in the Eleventh would be instantly recognized by a Russian audience. “Listen!”, a tune popular among political prisoners, describes an inmate hearing a “dead man walking” – the footsteps of a fellow prisoner on the way to his own execution. Two flutes intone the melody in a melancholy duet. Later, cellos and basses play “The Arrested Man,” a dialogue between a prisoner and a sympathetic guard. In January the Ninth, Shostakovich quotes from his own 1951 choral setting of the eponymous poem by Arkady Kotz: “Bare your heads!/Bare your heads!/On this bitter day the shadow of a long night trembled over the earth/Hey you, father Tsar!/Look around you/We have nothing to live on/your servants give us no help.”
The orchestra cries out the phrase “Bare your heads!” again and again, rising to an unbearable intensity. Towards the end of the movement, “Listen!” returns, along with the prayer for the dead. Eternal Memory, the Russian name for the Kontakion, or prayer for the dead, begins with a dirge, “You fell as a victim.” “You fell as a victim in the fateful struggle/Of selfless love for the people. You gave everything that you could for them/For their lives, their honor, and their freedom… Your merciless sentence/ Had already been decided for you by the executioner-judges…” Shostakovich follows this with a marching song comprising two popular melodies: “Bravely, comrades, step forward!… We are the children of working families/ Brotherly union and freedom/This is the slogan that takes us into battle.” The Tocsin (The Alarm) opens with the brasses issuing a blazing call to action: “Rage, you tyrants, and mock at us/ Threaten us with prison and with chains/ We are stronger than you in spirit, though you trampled on our bodies/ Shame! Shame! Shame on you, you tyrants!” Shostakovich saves the “Warsaw Song,” the most famous revolutionary tune, for last: “Malevolent whirlwinds blow around us/Dark forces press down on us with hate/We have engaged in the fateful struggle with our enemies, The fate that awaits us is still unknown/But with pride and courage we will raise/The battle standard of the workers’ cause/ The standard of the great struggle of all peoples/For a better world, for holy freedom!/To the bloody battle, Holy and true/March, march onwards/You working people!” The words describe an organized uprising, but the unfettered ferocity of the music is contained only by Shostakovich’s unmatched mastery of his massive orchestral forces. The Eleventh ends with the repeated exhortation, “Bow your heads! Bow your heads!” the opening lines of Kotz’ poem, shouted at top volume by the full orchestra. © 2020 Elizabeth Schwartz
RECOMMENDED RECORDINGS FROM PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION
Gabriella Smith: Bioluminescence Chaconne No recording available Paganini: Violin Concerto No. 1 Salvatore Accardo, violin Charles Dutoit – London Philharmonic Orchestra Deutsche Grammophon 415378 Missy Mazzoli: Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres) No recording available
Mussorgsky/Ravel: Pictures at an Exhibition Fritz Reiner – Chicago Symphony Orchestra rca Victor Living Stereo 61394 FROM SHOSTAKOVICH’S ELEVENTH
Walker: Icarus in Orbit Ian Hobson – Sinfonia da Camera Albany 1334 Menotti: Violin Concerto Jennifer Koh, violin Richard Hickox – Spoleto Festival Orchestra Chandos 9979
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 11 James DePreist – Oregon Symphony Orchestra Delos 3080 or Vasily Petrenko – Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Naxos 8572082
Recordings selected by Michael Parsons, who studied music at Lewis & Clark College and has worked professionally with classical recordings for several decades. Select recordings will also be available for purchase in the Grand Lobby.
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TITUSS BURGESS IN CONCERT TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2020, 7:30 PM
Program will be announced from the stage.
The Oregon Symphony does not perform.
ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL
AN EVENING WITH REGINA CARTER David Schiff’s Concerto ‘4 Sisters’
A CONCERT FOR
MYS Symphony Orchestra | Raúl Gómez, Conductor
Jazz Selections & PJCE Young Composer World Premiere MYS Jazz Ensemble | Ryan Meagher, Director
SUNDAY, MARCH 8 @ 7:30 PM
ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL
HOPE
March 13 & 15, 2020 Becau
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cer blo
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With renowned trumpeter, survivor, and research advocate Ryan Anthony. VIVALDI Concerto for 2 Trumpets STEPHENSON Concerto for Hope DVORÁK Symphony No. 8
pcsymphony.org 503-234-4077
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Tickets start at $25
playmys.org | 503-239-4566
“Ms. Carter [is] jazz’s leading mainstream violinist” -The New York Times
Biography
iconic pimp named Dolemite during the 1970s. Burgess previously appeared in the Netflix romantic comedy Set It Up alongside Taye Diggs, Lucy Liu, Glen Powell, and Zoey Deutch. Burgess also lent his voice to two major studio films: The Angry Birds Movie and Smurfs: The Lost Village.
Tituss Burgess Emmy- and sag-nominated actor, musician, and writer Tituss Burgess is quickly emerging as one of the entertainment industry’s most versatile and dynamic performers, with his work in television and theater generating both critical and commercial acclaim. Burgess most recently appears in Netflix’s Dolemite Is My Name, alongside Eddie Murphy, Keegan Michael Key, Mike Epps, and Craig Robinson. The film tells the story of performer Rudy Ray Moore, who assumed the role of an
Most notably, Burgess starred as Titus Andromedon in the Emmy-nominated comedy series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt opposite Ellie Kemper. For the actor’s scene-stealing performance on the series’ four seasons, Burgess was nominated for four Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series, a sag Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series, and two Critics’ Choice tv Awards for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. He was also awarded Best Actor at the 2015 Webby Awards and Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy at the 2015 Gold Derby tv Awards. The actor was first introduced to television audiences in Tina Fey’s
Emmy-winning nbc series 30 Rock, where he played the scene-stealing D’Fwan, a vivacious hairdresser and the sidekick of Angie Jordan (Sherri Shepherd). Burgess quickly became a breakout star in the series’ fifth and sixth seasons. His other television credits include A Gifted Man, Blue Bloods, and Royal Pains. A veteran of the stage, Burgess made his Broadway debut in 2005 as Eddie in Good Vibrations. Since then, he has held many memorable roles on the Broadway stage, including Hal Miller in Jersey Boys, Sebastian the Crab in The Little Mermaid, and Nicely-Nicely Johnson in the 2009 revival of Guys and Dolls. Burgess recently acquired the rights to the beloved film The Preacher’s Wife. The movie-turned-Broadway-musical will include an original score and lyrics by Burgess and a book by Azie Dungey. Burgess recently debuted his third album, Saint Tituss, on July 26, 2019. In its opening week, it was #16 on the Billboard Top 100 album sales chart.
June 26 & 27 at Headwaters Chef Vitaly Paley welcomes nationally recognized sustainability champions from around the country for the second annual Sustainable Seafood PDX. Join Chef Rick Bayless and many others for a weekend of sustainable seafood and conversation surrounding the health of our oceans—all set against the backdrop of delicious food and drinks. 1001 SW BROADWAY | TICKETS & INFO AVAILABLE AT HEADWATERSPDX.COM
OS Program Book: 1/3 Square (4.812 x 4.812) Runs: Feb Artist: Headwaters at the Heathman
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LYLE LOVETT AND HIS ACOUSTIC GROUP WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2020, 7:30 PM Raúl Gómez-Rojas, conductor Program will be announced from the stage.
ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL
Biographies
Raúl Gómez-Rojas Raúl Gómez-Rojas is in his fifth season as music director of the Metropolitan Youth Symphony (mys), where he enjoys working with a vibrant community of conductors, coaches, staff, families, and over 500 students in 14 orchestra, band, and jazz ensembles. Gómez-Rojas was recently selected as one of six conductors to be featured in the League of American Orchestra’s 2018 Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview, after competing for the honor with nearly 150 applicants from around the world. Conductors were selected for their “experience, talent, leadership, and commitment to a career in service to American orchestras.” A sought-after guest conductor for professional ensembles, Gómez-Rojas’ recent and upcoming engagements include multiple appearances with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, the Oregon Symphony, the Chamber Orchestra of San Antonio, Acadiana Symphony Orchestra, Asia/America New Music Institute, and Sinfonietta Belo Horizonte, as well as engagements in Mexico, Brazil, and Costa Rica.
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Gómez-Rojas has previously served in artistic and musical leadership positions with the Orchestra of the Americas, Mississippi Youth Symphony Orchestra, Premier Orchestral Institute, and Louisiana Sinfonietta and Kids’ Orchestra (Baton Rouge, Louisiana). A native of Costa Rica, Gómez-Rojas holds master’s and doctoral degrees from Louisiana State University, where he studied with Carlos Riazuelo (conducting), Kevork Mardirossian, and Espen Lilleslåtten (violin/viola). Additional conducting training includes a fellowship at the Aspen Music Festival and numerous masterclasses with leading conductors. A passionate advocate for equity and access, Gómez-Rojas has led the recent expansion of several mys programs, including the creation of new beginning strings classes and ensembles in Hillsboro, Oregon, responding to fast-paced demographic changes in the area. He enjoys speaking publicly about the transformative power of music education. His ted talk “El Concierto Inolvidable” was an audience favorite in tedxPuraVida 2014. Gómez-Rojas lives in Portland, Oregon, with his wife, theater and screen actor Sarah Ellis Smith. They enjoy giving back to the community by supporting local performing arts organizations and advocacy groups.
Lyle Lovett A singer, composer, and actor, Lyle Lovett has broadened the definition of American music in a career that spans 14 albums. Coupled with his gift for storytelling, the Texas-based musician fuses elements of country, swing, jazz, folk, gospel, and blues in a convention-defying manner that breaks down barriers. Whether touring as a duo or with his “Acoustic Group” or his “Large Band,” Lovett’s live performances show not only the breadth of this Texas legend’s deep talents but also the diversity of his influences, making him one of the most compelling and captivating musicians in popular music. Since his self-titled debut in 1986, Lovett has evolved into one of music’s most vibrant and iconic performers. Among his many accolades, beside four Grammy Awards, he was given the Americana Music Association’s inaugural Trailblazer Award and was named Texas State Musician. His works, rich and eclectic, are some of the most beloved of any artist working today.
DREAM·DESIGN·BUILD
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(503) 251-9900
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HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE™ IN CONCERT FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2020, 7:30 PM SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2020, 2 PM SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2020, 7:30 PM SUNDAY, MARCH 1, 2020, 2 PM Justin Freer, conductor
Directed by Mike Newell Produced by David Heyman Written by Steve Kloves Based on Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling Starring: Daniel Radcliffe Rupert Grint Emma Watson Robbie Coltrane Warwick Davis Ralph Fiennes Michael Gambon Brendan Gleeson
Jason Isaacs Gary Oldman Alan Rickman Maggie Smith Timothy Spall David Thewlis Frances de la Tour
Music by Patrick Doyle Cinematography by Roger Pratt Edited by Mick Audsley Produced by Heyday Films, Patalex IV Productions Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures
ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL
Warner Bros. Consumer Products, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, is one of the leading licensing and retail merchandising organizations in the world. HARRY POTTER characters, names and related indicia are © & ™ Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. Harry Potter Publishing Rights © JKR. (s20)
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CINE CON CE R T S Justin Freer, president/founder/ producer Brady Beaubien, co-founder/ producer Jeffery Sells, managing director Andrew Alderete, head of publicity and communications Mike Ranger, director of visual media Ma’ayan Kaplan, special projects director Brittany Fonseca, senior marketing manager Si Peng, senior social media manager Gabe Cheng, project management
T H E P O RT L A N D S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y C H O I R S P R E S E N T
ERIC WHITACRE STORMS PORTLAND SUNDAY, MARCH 1, 2020 4:00 PM
THE WORLD’S BEST-KNOWN CHORAL COMPOSER COMES TO PORTLAND
THE PSU VIKING PAVILION TICKETS: $25 AND UP PSUCHOIR.COM OR 503.725.3307
wme Entertainment, worldwide representation JoAnn Kane Music Service, music preparation Ed Kalnins, music editing iMusicImage, playback operation and synthesizer production Justin Moshkevich, Igloo Music Studios, sound remixing Merchandise by FireBrand
The Arts Card gets you 2-for-1 tickets to hundreds of performances & events.
Learn more at artsimpactfund.racc.org Photo on card by Casey Campbell Photography for Peter/Wendy at Bag&Baggage Productions
orsymphony.org | 503-228-1353 39
HARRY POT TER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE™ IN CONCERT Biographies
Justin Freer American composer/conductor Justin Freer was born and raised in Huntington Beach, California. He has established himself as one of the West Coast’s most exciting musical voices and is a highly sought-after conductor and producer of film music concerts around the world. Freer began his formal studies on trumpet but quickly turned to piano and composition, composing his first work at 11 and giving his professional conducting debut at 16.
exploration in musical sound evoke moments of highly charged drama, alarming strife, and serene reflection.” Freer has been recognized with numerous grants and awards from organizations including ascap, bmi, the Society of Composers and Lyricists, and the Henry Mancini Estate. He is the founder and president of CineConcerts, a company dedicated to the preservation and concert presentation of film, curating and conducting hundreds of full-length music score performances live with film for such wide ranging titles as Rudy, Gladiator, The Godfather, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, It’s A Wonderful Life, and the entire Harry Potter film franchise. Freer earned both his B.A. and M.A. degrees in music composition from ucla, where his principal composition teachers included Paul Chihara and Ian Krouse. In addition, he was mentored by legendary composer/conductor Jerry Goldsmith.
Continually composing for various different mediums, he has written music for world-renowned trumpeters Doc Severinsen and Jens Lindemann and continues to be in demand as a composer and conductor for everything from orchestral literature to chamber music around the world. He has served as composer for several independent films and has written motion picture advertising music for some of 20th Century Fox Studios’ biggest campaigns, including Avatar, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and Aliens in the Attic. As a conductor, Freer has appeared with some of the best known orchestras in the world, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, London Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra. He is also one of the only conductors to have ever conducted in both the ancient Colosseum and Circus Maximus in Rome. Renowned wind conductor and Oxford Round Table Scholar Dr. Rikard Hansen has noted that, “In totality, Freer’s 40 artslandia.com
Patrick Doyle Patrick Doyle is a classically trained composer. He graduated from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music in 1975 and was made a Fellow of the rsam in 2001. In 1989, director Sir Kenneth Branagh commissioned Doyle to compose the score for feature film Henry V, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, and they have subsequently collaborated on numerous pictures, including Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet, As You Like It, and Cinderella. Doyle and Branagh’s collaboration within film and theater has continued to this day, with performances worldwide that include Branagh’s 2015 production of The
Winter’s Tale, which ran at the Garrick Theatre in London’s West End. Doyle has been commissioned to score over 50 international feature films, including Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Gosford Park, Sense and Sensibility, Indochine, Carlito’s Way, and A Little Princess. His work has led to collaborations with some of the most acclaimed directors in the world, such as Regis Wargnier, Brian De Palma, Alfonso Cuaròn, Ang Lee, Chen Kaige, Mike Newell, and Robert Altman. Doyle has received two Oscars, two Golden Globes, one bafta, and two Cesar nominations, as well as winning the 1989 Ivor Novello Award for Best Film Theme for Henry V. He has also been honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from The World Soundtrack Awards and Scottish bafta, the Henry Mancini Award from ascap, and the prs Award for Extraordinary Achievement in Music. In 2015, Doyle completed work on the music for Walt Disney’s live action version of Cinderella, directed by Branagh and marking their 11th film collaboration to date. Doyle also completed recording a solo piano album, made up of a collection of his film scores to date, which was released by Varèse Sarabande in July 2015. Recent films include the remake of Scottish classic Whisky Galore and Amma Asante’s A United Kingdom.
MARCH 30 THE NEUROSCIENCE OF PLEASURE
How your brain responds to music, love and chocolate
Newmark Theatre
Brain Awareness Lecture Series 2020
W W W. OHSU.EDU/SYMPHONY
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OUR SUPPORTERS The Oregon Symphony thanks these individuals for their generous contributions received in the 2018/19 Season (July 1, 2018–June 30, 2019). We apologize for any omissions or misspellings. Please notify us of any adjustments. TRANSFORMATIONAL: $100,000–ABOVE
Anonymous (3) Rich* & Rachel Baek Karen & Bill* Early Robert* & Janis Harrison Michael & Kristen* Kern Lynn & Jack Loacker Stephanie McDougal+ Harold & Jane Pollin Arlene Schnitzer & Jordan Schnitzer
VIRTUOSO SOCIETY: $50,000–$99,999
Duncan & Cindy Campbell of The Campbell Foundation Drs. Cliff* & Karen Deveney Judith Mary Erickson+ Elizabeth N. Gray Fund of ocf Wendy & Paul Greeney Tige* & Peggy Harris Rick* & Veronica Hinkes The Mary Dooly & Thomas W. Holman Fund of ocf Holzman Foundation/ Renée* & Irwin Holzman Beth & Jerry* Hulsman Priscilla Wold Longfield* Nancie S. McGraw Laura S. Meier Eleanor & Georges St. Laurent Hank Swigert Nancy & Walter* Weyler Jack* & Ginny Wilborn The Jay & Diane Zidell Charitable Foundation Pat Zimmerman & Paul Dinu
OPUS SOCIETY: $25,000–$49,999
Anonymous (3) Ken Austin+ Rick Caskey & Sue Horn-Caskey* Cecil & Sally Drinkward Fund of ocf Richard & Janet Geary Foundation Suzanne Geary Dr. Thomas & Alix Goodman Ned & Sis Hayes Family Fund of ocf Keller Foundation Gerri Karetsky & Larry Naughton Richard Rauch Dan G. Wieden & Priscilla Bernard Wieden
MOZART SOCIETY: $10,000–$24,999
Anonymous (7) David & Courtney* Angeli In Loving Memory of Lloyd Babler Jr. Alan & Sherry Bennett
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Robert & Jean Bennett Susan & Larry Black Mr.+ & Mrs. Thomas Boklund Evona Brim William M. Brod Fund of the ocf Richard Louis Brown & Thomas Mark Cascadia Foundation Chocosphere Truman Collins, Jr. Mark & Georgette Copeland Michael Davidson Daniel* & Kathleen Drinkward John S. Ettelson Fund of the ocf Lauren Fox* & John Williamson Robyn* & John Gastineau Frank & Mary Gill Jonathan‡ & Yoko Greeney Charles & Nancy* Hales Jim & Karen Halliday Mr. & Mrs. Stephen J. Harder Bonnie Haslett & Terry Strom Jeff Heatherington* Mr. & Mrs. J. Clayton* Hering Robert & Marilyn Hodson Hank & Judy Hummelt Kathy & Steve Johnson Lamb Family Foundation (wa) Richard+ & Delight Leonard Gil & Peggy Miller Michael & Susan Mueller Roscoe* & Debra Nelson Ann Olsen The Outlander Private Foundation Janice Phillips Travers & Vasek Polak Charles & Jennifer Putney Dan Rasay* & Katherine FitzGibbon Rod & Cheryl Rogers Alise Rubin+ & Wolfgang Dempke Rutherford Investment Management & William D. Rutherford The Leonard & Lois Schnitzer Fund of ocf In Memory of Mayer D. Schwartz Scott Showalter§ Victoria Taylor Estate of David Wedge+ Dean E. & Patricia A. Werth Gary Whitted Ken & Karen Wright Dr. & Mrs. Michael Wrinn Zera Foundation
SILVER BATON: $6,000–$9,999
Anonymous (5) Anonymous Fund #16 of ocf The Breunsbach Family Joe Cantrell
Deanna Cochener Jane & Evan Dudik Stephen & Nancy Dudley Family Fund of ocf Bruce & Terri Fuller Andrew Kern Michele Mass & Jim Edwards Ronald & Phyllis Maynard Jill McDonald Millicent Naito Janice Phillips Bonnie & Peter Reagan John+ & Charlene Rogers Carol+ & Frank Sampson R. Kent Squires George & Sue Stonecliffe Jean Vollum Fund Nancy & Herb Zachow Jason Zidell
Reynolds Potter & Sharon Mueller Pat Reser Rosemarie Rosenfeld Fredrick & Joanne L. Ross Holly & Don Schoenbeck John & June Schumann Diana & Hal Scoggins Bill Scott & Kate Thompson Jo Shapland & Douglas Browning Mr. & Mrs. W.T.C. Stevens N. Robert & Barre Stoll Dr. Derald Walker* & Charles Weisser Richard H. & Linda F. Ward Homer & Carol Williams
BRONZE BATON: $4,000–$5,999
Anonymous (6) An Advised Fund of ocf Ajitahrydaya Gift Fund Carole Alexander Kirby & Amy Allen Trudy Allen & Bob Varitz Meredith & Robert Amon David & Jacqueline Backman Bob Ball & Grant Jones Ed & Becky Bard Wayne Bartolet & Susan Remick Michael & Barbara Besand in Memory of Lillian (Lee) Besand Craig Billings David Blumhagen Josh & Wendie Bratt Gregory & Susan Buhr Tom Burke & Axel Brunger Ellen E. Bussing§ Eve Callahan* & Scott Taylor Mrs. Robert G. Cameron Cynthia & Stanley Cohan Mike & Becky DeCesaro Nicholas & Jamie Denler Ginette DePreist Richard B. Dobrow, M.D. Donald & Katharine Epstein Kenneth & Carol Fransen Y. Fukuta Liz Fuller & Brent Barton Richard Gallagher Robert & Carolyn Gelpke Daniel Gibbs & Lois Seed Jamieson & Tiffanie Grabenhorst Don Hagge & Vicki Lewis Paul Hamilton Jamey Hampton & Ashley Roland Kirk & Erin Hanawalt Sonja L. Haugen Dennis & Judy Hedberg Diane M. Herrmann Dan & Pat Holmquist Brad & Bente Houle
Anonymous (1) Anne M. Barbey David E. & Mary C. Becker Fund of ocf John & Yvonne Branchflower Kay Bristow Margery Cohn & Marvin Richmond Terry & Peggy Crawford Dr. & Mrs. David Cutler J. M. Deeney, M.D. Allen L. Dobbins Wayne & Julie Drinkward Mr. & Mrs. Dale Dvorak Mark & Ann Edlen Susan & Andrew Franklin Barbara Giesy Dr. Steve Grover Robert & Dorothy Haley Hibler Franke Foundation Marsh Hieronimus Carrie Hooten & David Giramma William H. Hunt Oregon Symphony Association Fund Jeff & Krissy Johnson Mark & Katherine Kralj Paul Labby Dorothy Lemelson Fernando Leon, M.D. & Dolores Leon, M.D. Mr. & Mrs. Robert McCall June McLean Hannelore Mitchell-Schict+ Hester H. Nau Susan Olson & Bill Nelson Michael & Janice Opton Barbara Page Mark Palmen Parsons Family Fund of the ocf Jane Partridge Franklin & Dorothy Piacentini Charitable Trust Fedor G. Pikus
CONDUCTOR’S CIRCLE: $2,500–$3,999
Dennis Johnson & Steven Smith Penelope Johnstone Barbara Kahl & Roger Johnston Susan D. Keil David & Virginia Kingsbury Drs. Arnold & Elizabeth Klein Lakshman Krishnamurthy & Rasha Esmat Mary Lago Paul W. Leavens Cary & Dorothy Lewis Eric & Hollie Lindauer Peter & Allison Lyneham Dana & Susan Marble M. & L. Marks Family Fund of ocf Sir James & Lady McDonald Designated Fund of ocf Duane & Barbara McDougall Bonnie McLellan Violet & Robert+ Metzler Anne K Millis Fund of ocf Dolores & Michael Moore Lindley Morton & Corrine Oishi John & Nancy Murakami Jon Naviaux & Anne Kilkenny Ward & Pamela Nelson John & Ginger Niemeyer Larry & Caron Ogg George & Deborah Olsen Barbara & Art Palmer Charles & Ruth Poindexter Janet C. Plummer§ & Donald S. Rushmer Katie Poppe & Sam House Lawrence Powlesland & James Russel Vicki Reitenauer & Carol Gabrielli Jeff & Kathleen Rubin Brooks & Wendi Schaener Susan Schnitzer Mrs. & Mr.* Francine Shetterly Peter Shinbach Jaymi & F. Sladen Sue & Drew Snyder George & Molly Spencer Annetta & Ed St. Clair David Staehely Jack & Crystal Steffen Garry & Ardith Stensland Straub Collaborative, Inc. Eustacia Su Drs. John & Betty+ Thompson Robert Trotman & William Hetzelson Charles & Alice Valentino Ravi Vedanayagam & Ursula Lukert David & Christine Vernier Drs. Bastian & Barbara Wagner Wells Family Foundation Elaine M. Whiteley+
Robert & Margaret Wiesenthal Davida & Slate Wilson Loring & Margaret Winthrop Jeffrey Yandle & Molly Moran-Yandle Zephyr Charitable Foundation Inc. Charlene Zidell
CONCERTO SOCIETY: $1,000–$2,499
Anonymous (10) Markus Albert Joseph Allan & Karen Saul Dr. Christopher Amling Jonathan & Deanne Ater Michael Axley & Kim Malek Stephen S. Babson+ Steve & Mary Baker James & Kathryn Bash John & Claudette Beahrs Eric Bell Broughton & Mary Bishop Family Advised Fund of cfsww Paul Black & Greg Eicher Priscilla Blumel Lynne & Frank Bocarde Henry Bodzin Benjamin & Sandra Bole Mrs. Fanny P. Bookout Fred & Diane Born Mr. & Mrs. Peter Brix Christopher Brooks* & Brittney Clark Craig & Karen Butler Martin & Truddy Cable Barbara & Robb Cason Carlos Castro-Pareja
Audrey & Stephen Cheng Charles Clarkson Classical Up Close‡ Holly Cohen Maurice Comeau, M.D. Jeffrey G. Condit Susan & Mark Cooksey James & E. Anne Crumpacker Abby & Marvin Dawson Enrique deCastro Edward & Karen Demko William Dolan & Suzanne Bromschwig Kay Doyle Tom & Roberta Drewes Gerard & Sandra Drummond Charlene Dunning & Donald Runnels Richard & Jill Schnitzer Edelson Douglas Egan & Susan Bach Lee & Robin Feidelson Ray & Nancy Friedman Paul Gehlar David & Kiki Gindler Michael & Gail Gombos Harriet & Mitch Greenlick David & Caroline Greger Dr. & Mrs. Price Gripekoven Jeffrey & Sandy Grubb Louis & Judy Halvorsen Drs. James & Linda Hamilton Howard & Molly Harris Pamela Henderson & Allen Wasserman Jane & Ken Hergenhan Frances F. Hicks Joseph & Bette Hirsch Margaret & Jerry Hoerber
Eric & Ronna Hoffman Fund of ocf Joseph Holloway, Sr. Lee & Penney Hoodenpyle Pamela Hooten & Karen Zumwalt Pam Horan Arthur Hung & James Watkins Doug Inglis Jon Jaqua & Kimberly Cooper David Jentz Harlan Jones Bob Kaake Peter & Patricia Kane Carol Brooks Keefer Alexis Kennedy Douglas & Selby Key Fred Kirchhoff & Ron Simonis Sheldon Klapper & Sue Hickey John Kochis Kevin Komos & Bruce Suttmeier Sarah Kwak‡ & Vali Phillips‡ Frank Langfitt & MJ Steen Thomas M. Lauderdale* Dr. & Mrs. Mark Leavitt Dr. John & Elaine Lemmer, Jr. Phyllis J. Leonard Carol Schnitzer Lewis Fund of ocf Joanne Lilley Patrice Louie & Jeffrey Courion Richard & Diane Lowensohn Jerome Magill Linda & Ken Mantel Gayle & Jerry Marger Bel-Ami & Mark Margoles Dante Marrocco & Julia Marrocco
Bob Martindale & Gwyneth Paulson Carolyn McMurchie Karen McNamee Anthony Merrill & Cheryl Thompson-Merrill Eric & Sarah Merten Sherrey & Robert Meyer Mia Hall Miller & Matthew Miller Greg & Sonya Morgansen Drs. Beth & Seth Morton Virginia S. Mullen+ Chris & Tom Neilsen Ralph & Susan Nelson Peter & Cassie Northrup Libby Noyes Marianne Ott Thomas Palmer & Ann Carter Yoona Park & Tom Johnson Duane & Corinne Paulson Richard & Helen Phillips Diane Plumridge Hugh Porter & Jill Soltero Wally & Bettsy Preble William Pressly & Carole Douglass Dr. & Mrs. Kevin Proctor Ronald & Lee Ragen Dr. Gerald & Alene B. Rich Jan Robertson Anna Roe & Ken Schriver Dr. Lynne Diane Roe Rebecca Rooks Debora Roy Joshua Sabraw Robert & Ann Sacks Michael Sands & Jane Robinson Steven & Karen Schoenbrun
TR IB U TE Tribute gifts November 14–December 14, 2019 In Honor of Julie Adams Peter Walters
In Memory of Mary LaBarre Margaret O’Connell
In Memory of Anne Simpson Dr. Rick Simpson
In Memory of Ken Baldwin Jeanie Baldwin
In Honor of Christine Liu Kay Bristow
In Honor of Ruby Chen Linda White
In Honor of Marta Malinow Anonymous
In Memory of Dorothy Survant David Kaplan & Cerinda Survant
In Memory of Steven J Cool Molly McEwen
In Memory of Caryl Delzell Mangan Faye Sono
In Memory of Michael Dale Thomas & Priscilla Turner In Memory of Sam Dibbins Toni Strutz In Memory of Rhoderic & Wilma Fraser Nancy Fraser In Memory of Patrick Frisbie Anne Byrd
In Honor of Oliver Jennifer Gates In Honor of Carin Miller Packwood, principal bassoon Miriam Eskenasy In Memory of Gregory Pikus Fedor & Galina Pikus
In Memory of Robert L Hamm Paula Hamm
In Honor of Janet Plummer Margaret Cochran & Sam Ellingson
In Honor of Jen Harrison Jacqueline King
In Memory of Earl & Kitty Riddle John & Janet Switzer
In Honor of Beth & Jerry Hulsman Tracy & Melody Boyce
In Memory of Cindi Sanders Rebecca Sanders
Dr. & Mrs. George Sebastian Chris Sherry Gregory Shields The Shulevitz Family Dr. Rick Simpson Albert Solheim Ben & Jill Souede Jack & Charlene Stephenson Anne Stevenson Rabbi Ariel Stone & Dr. Joe Thaler Barbara J. & Jon R. Stroud Sandra Suran Drs. Donald & Roslyn Elms Sutherland Matt & Bethany Thomas Richard & Larie Thomas Mike & Priscilla Thompson Laura Tomas & Jason Martin Ann Van Fleet Don & Marian Vollum Bill & Peggy Wagner Bill & Janet Wagner Kevin & Sharon Wei Joan & David Weil Weiss Fund of ocf Cameron J. Wiley & Carey Whitt Wiley Carol S. Witherell Bing Wong Jane Work Darrell & Geneva Wright Dr. Candace Young Lawrence & Jo Ann Young *current board ‡current musician §current staff
Schuback Schuback:Class_Millenium NEW.qxd Violin Shop
9/3/09
In Honor of Jason Trusley Denise Trusley In Memory of Patricia Vemer Randall Vemer & Mary France Byrne
Appraisals
In Honor of Alan Wild Barbara Wyse & Patrick McLaughlin In Honor of Jeff Work May Lu
Consignments Sales Repairs
Over Over 48 40 years years of of 1255 NW 9th Avenue #11 Portland, Oregon 97209 Sales Supporting Repairs Portland’s Appraisals Fine Musicians (503) 916-‐4430 www.schuback.com
orsymphony.org | 503-228-1353 43
ENCORE SOCIETY ordinary people making extraordinary gifts
Carolyn and Wayne Landsverk “We are always happy to hear the orchestra introduced as ‘your Oregon Symphony’ at the start of each concert. The use of ‘your’ is inclusive and dynamic, something we can all take part in and enjoy. We come to the symphony for inspiration, for consolation, to learn, for a special night out, or a family afternoon with Harry Potter. We are proud that our orchestra reaches out to all sorts of people in all sorts of circumstances, from preschools at Symphony Storytimes to those experiencing homelessness.”
“We have included the Oregon Symphony in our estate plans because it is ours, to love now and to sustain for future generations.” Please consider including Oregon Symphony in your estate plans. Hilary Blakemore: 503-416-6326 or give@orsymphony.org
THANK YOU TO OUR VOLUNTEERS The Oregon Symphony gratefully acknowledges the work of the volunteers and organizations who give their time and talent to support our work on the stage and in the community. Volunteer Organizations: Friends of the Oregon Symphony | Parties of Note
Individual Volunteers: Hector Agüero Sara Amend Joy Belcourt Rebekah Bellingham Julie Bowker Serena Brophy Joe Cantrell Madeleine Denko Carter Diane Collier Amy Cooper Kat Courtney Susan Cridge Deborah Crueger Fred Davis Charlene Dunning Loris Eastman Elizabeth Eklund
Greg Filardi Laura Fitzpatrick Heidi Fox Susan Franklin Ann Fujii Bill Fujii Jen Fujii Bob Geisler Bryan Gilchrist Jacob Goldberg Asya Gulua John Hanson Cleo Hehn Whitney Henion Lynne Heuberger Lois Hill Allison Howard Teresa Hudkins
Beth Hulsman Joyce Iliff Donna Internicola Sally Jasper Helen Johnson Joan Jozwiak Kristina Kindel Lois King Richard Kolbell Gary Kruger Martha Kruger Suellen Lacey Lauren Le Catherine Levi Tim Lewis Val Liptak Jim Liptak Katherine Lynch
Pam Mahon Phil Mandel Nancy Markin Sylvia Marks Ann Martin Priscilla Maughn Martin McCurdy Cathy Mcmullin Jessica Miller Andrea Misbach Tessa Misbach Pam Mlady Marilee Moore Sue Morgan Belinda Morgan Rebekah Morris Greg Nissl Kemba Olabisi
Interested in getting involved? Contact symphony@orsymphony.org to learn more.
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Christine Pearson Gary Pederson Bonnie Peter Chuck Peter Pat Peterson Bob Phillips Leslie Phillips Jason Plume Michael Powers Josh Prewett Ellen Pullen Dick Raub James Reddan Mary Riley Michael Riley Don Rushmer Kim Sanchez Mari Schay J Elizabeth Seibert Karen Sherman Francine Shetterly
Allison Silverberg Ross Simmons Wendy Simmons Bill Slater Carol Sloan Justin Smith Susan Steele Bill Steele Genevieve StevensJohnson Justin Thorp Elizabeth Tierney Teresa Tse Susan Turnquist Sue Ulbricht Vivian Weber Barbara Wilson Sandra Wiscarson Leslie Wong Jo Ann Young Agnes Zueger
1/17/20 11:17 AM
Program Book: Half (7.3125 x 4.875) Runs: February 2020
Encore Society The Oregon Symphony Encore Society was established to thank and recognize those generous individuals who have remembered the Oregon Symphony in their estate plans. For more information, please contact the Development Office at 503-416-6325. Anonymous (13) Markus Albert Carole Alexander Kirby & Amy Allen Margaret A. Apel Margaret & Scott Arighi Sabine Baer & Manfred Wiesel Laurel Bardelson+ Joy Belcourt Lynda R. Bell Steve & Patt Bilow Leola J. Bowerman+ Dean Boyd & Susan Wickizer John & Yvonne Branchflower Steve & Kristine Brey Elizabeth Burke Ellen E. Bussing§ Craig & Karen Butler Elaine Calder & William J. Bennett Carl & Connie Clark Debi Coleman Terry & Peggy Crawford Dr. Jim Darke Niel B. DePonte‡ Ginette DePreist Jess Dishman Allen L. Dobbins William Dolan & Suzanne Bromschwig Clarke Donelson Kay Doyle Gerard & Sandra Drummond Denise Chantrelle DuBois Bill* & Karen Early George Fabel Louise P. Feldman Harry & Gladys Flesher Kenneth & Carol Fransen Mark Gardiner & Mary Nolan Robyn Gastineau* Jim & Karen Halliday Susan Halton Betsy & Gregory Hatton Diane M. Herrmann Henry M. Hieronimus Rick* & Veronica Hinkes Renée* & Irwin Holzman Donna Howard Beth & Jerry* Hulsman Judy & Hank Hummelt Anne & Charles Jochim Dennis Johnson & Steven Smith Karen & Keith Johnson Richard Kaiser & Virginia Shipman Richard & Ruth Keller Georgia A. Koehler Sally & Tom Kuhns Kyle & Marcia Lambert Wayne & Carolyn Landsverk Barbara A. Lee Fernando Leon, M.D. & Dolores Leon, M.D. Cary & Dorothy Lewis Ardath E. Lilleland A. G. Lindstrand Lynn & Jack Loacker
Linda & Ken Mantel Michele Mass & Jim Edwards Dr. Louis & Judy McCraw Roger & Pearl McDonald Stephanie McDougal+ Duane & Barbara McDougall Edward+ & June McLean Sheila McMahon Karen McNamee Ruben J. & Elizabeth Menashe Robert+ & Violet Metzler Geri & Bruce F.+ Miller Mia Hall Miller Richard Patrick Mitchell Carol N. Morgan Roscoe* & Debra Nelson John Nettleton & Douglas Michael+ Christi R. Newton Ann H. Nicholas Ann Olsen Roger N.+ & Joyce M. Olson Marianne Ott Jane S. Partridge Janice E. Phillips Janet Plummer§ & Don Rushmer Arnold S. Polk Harold & Jane Pollin David Rabin Tom & Norma Rankin Richard & Mary Raub Barbara Perron Reader Ed Reeves & Bill Fish Mary & Mike Riley Sherry Robinson & Steve Shanklin Peter Rodda & Vincenza Scarpaci Betty Roren Walt Rose Betsy Russell Frank Sampson William C. Scott Scott Showalter§ V. L. Smith & J. E. Harman George & Molly Spencer Anne Stevenson Hank Swigert Diane Syrcle & Susan Leo Herman Taylor & Leslye Epstein Bruce & Judy Thesenga Mike & Diana Thomas Leslie & Scott Tuomi Linda & Stephen VanHaverbeke Randall Vemer John & Frances von Schlegell Les Vuylsteke Joella B. Werlin Jack* & Ginny Wilborn Gary Nelson Wilkins Roger & Kathleen Wolcott Nancy Wolff & E. David Booth
V I P P A R K I N G AT T H E F O X T O W E R G E N E R O U S LY D O N AT E D B Y
1920_ad_3rdSq_os-program-bk_TMT_Development.indd 1
8/12/19 3:05 PM
Library of Congress
ohs.org/persisters
Neverthless, They Persisted: The Nineteenth Amendment and Women’s Voting Rights On exhibit Mar. 14 – Nov. 8 • Oregon Historical Society
+ in memorium
orsymphony.org | 503-228-1353 45
OUR SUPPORTERS Corporate Partners The Oregon Symphony thanks these corporations for their generous contributions received in the 2018/19 Season (July 1, 2018–June 30, 2019). TR ANS FO RMATI ONAL $10 0 , 0 0 0 A ND A B OV E
VIR T U O S O S O CIE T Y $5 0 , 0 0 0 – $ 9 9,9 9 9
O P U S S O CIE T Y $ 2 5 , 0 0 0 – $ 49,9 9 9
M OZ AR T S O CIE T Y $10 , 0 0 0 – $ 24 ,9 9 9
HOFFMAN CORPORATION
MACY’S
SAMUEL I NEWHOUSE FOUNDATION
PAR K ING S P ONS O R
ME D IA S P ONS O R
OTHE R S P ONS O R S
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ALL CLASSICAL PORTLAND AMAZON.COM ANDANTE VINEYARD THE AV DEPARTMENT BLUE STAR BOEING D.A. DAVIDSON & CO. DOMAINE SERENE ESCO FOUNDATION FREELAND SPIRITS FURIOSO VINEYARDS GENIUS LOCI GERANIUM LAKE FLOWERS HEADWATERS AT THE HEATHMAN
HORST & GRABEN WEALTH MANAGEMENT INICI GROUP, INC. JACOBSEN SALT CO. JASON DESOMER PHOTOGRAPHY KEY BANK KLARQUIST SPARKMAN, LLP KROGER PAT MCGILLEN, LLC JONATHAN NAGAR MONDAY MUSICAL CLUB OF PORTLAND NEL CENTRO NORDSTROM, INC.
TIMOTHY O’MALLEY PDX ICE PORTLAND ART MUSEUM POSTERGARDEN RACHEL HADISHAR PHOTOGRAPHY RAVEN & ROSE RINGSIDE STEAKHOUSE SINEANN WINERY THE STANDARD TONKIN TORP TIFFANY & CO. VIDON VINEYARDS
Foundation and Government Support The Oregon Symphony thanks these organizations for their generous contributions received in the 2018/19 Season (July 1, 2018–June 30, 2019). TR ANS FO RMATI ONAL $10 0 , 0 0 0 A ND A B OV E
HEATHERINGTON FOUNDATION FOR INNOVATION & EDUCATION IN HEALTHCARE
GLOBE FOUNDATION
JAMES AND SHIRLEY RIPPEY FAMILY FOUNDATION
VIR T U O S O S O CIE T Y $5 0 , 0 0 0 – $ 9 9,9 9 9
O P U S S O CIE T Y $ 2 5 , 0 0 0 – $ 49,9 9 9
M OZ AR T S O CIE T Y $10 , 0 0 0 – $ 24 ,9 9 9
WILLIAM AND FLORA HEWLETT FOUNDATION
THE WOLD FOUNDATION
THE CAMPBELL FOUNDATION
ANONYMOUS (1)
RESER FAMILY FOUNDATION
ROSE E. TUCKER CHARITABLE TRUST
ROBERT & MERCEDES EICHHOLZ FOUNDATION
HAMPTON FAMILY FOUNDATION OF OCF
JACKSON FOUNDATION
LAMB FAMILY FOUNDATION
HERBERT A. TEMPLETON FOUNDATION
WALTERS FAMILY FOUNDATION
WHEELER FOUNDATION (WA)
THE WOLLENBERG FOUNDATION
S ILVE R B ATON $ 6 , 0 0 0 – $ 9,9 9 9
JUAN YOUNG TRUST
JW & HM GOODMAN FOUNDATION
B R ONZ E B ATON $ 4 , 0 0 0 – $5 ,9 9 9
FAYE & LUCILLE STEWART FOUNDATION
WINTZ FAMILY FOUNDATION
CON CE R TO $1, 0 0 0 – $ 2 , 49 9
H.W. & D.C. IRWIN FOUNDATION
MASON CHARITABLE TRUST
orsymphony.org | 503-228-1353 47
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
MONDAY MUSICAL CLUB of PORTLAND by Ned Hayes
Founding officers and directors of Monday Musical Club of Portland. Photo courtesy of the organization.
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f you listen to Pink Martini, enjoy music at the Keller Auditorium, or ever took music lessons, you owe a debt of gratitude to a century-old group of music lovers who’ve nurtured the arts in the Portland area for the last 116 years. In 1904, Carrie Heppner organized a group of women in Portland to form the Monday Musical Club with the express purpose of fostering musical appreciation and training in northwest Oregon. In those pre-suffragette days, women generally did not have their own resources, and yet this group of indomitable women proved to have a mighty impact. In the first six years, the group burgeoned to 500 women committed to “the betterment of musical understanding and the development of a community feeling for music. The Monday Musical Club was an expression of women’s love and support for the arts, mainly music,” explained current publishing chairperson Cynthia Marberry. “They saw needs in the community.” 48 artslandia.com
The most significant need that they saw at the time was that Portland did not have a performing arts center. The mmc embarked on a fundraising campaign to purchase land and kick-start construction with donations and proceeds from sales of specially-designed buttons. According to a newspaper clipping pulled from the mmc’s meticulously-kept archives, “The buttons will be ornamental, and upon them will be stamped in colors a picture of the proposed amphitheater. They will be sold for $5 apiece, and each purchaser will be entitled to a life membership in the Portland Auditorium Association, the corporation to be formed to erect the structure… Nearly every woman’s social organization in the city has expressed a desire to collaborate with the Monday Musical Club in the auditorium enterprise.” The endeavor was particularly ambitious in an era where the average wage was $0.22 per hour, and $5 was equivalent to roughly $100 today. Not only that, but laws generally prevented
women from signing contracts or owning a business. Yet despite the odds, the group succeeded in building their dream venue. Municipal Auditorium, the city’s first publicly owned assembly place, opened in 1917. Over the years, the venue hosted many events of note, welcoming everyone from John F. Kennedy to Led Zeppelin to the stage. After multiple updates, including a nearcomplete reconstruction completed in 1968 and the most recent modernization in 2000, the building was renamed the Keller Auditorium to honor philanthropist Robert B. Keller’s donation. The auditorium, now one of the Portland’5 venues, hosts performances by the Portland Opera, Oregon Ballet Theatre, and national tours of Broadway shows, among a diverse lineup. The building of Portland’s first significant venue was only one of the early successes of this seminal women’s cultural club. In the early 1900s, the Portland Arts Tax didn’t exist, and funding for musical training was hard to come by. The mmc filled the gap. They donated musical instruments to children who were taking music lessons, provided financial assistance to study music, and provided a weekly social venue for the women of Portland to enjoy music. “The Monday Musical Club is still very active today,” said Marberry. “But as society changed, the club changed with the times. We’re adding new kinds of performances and more diversity.” Men were added as members in the early 2000s, with their first male President in 2002. The size of the group has diminished to approximately 120 members, but they are actively recruiting new members to carry the torch.
Still, the mmc’s continuing influence on contemporary musical culture in Portland can’t be diminished. Each year, the mmc hosts auditions for students in Oregon and southwest Washington aged 14–22 who wish to study music. The group awarded $21,000 to 13 students in 2019 and has awarded $142,500 to 122 students over the past eight years. Several past award winners are now well-known by Portland’s music aficionados. Gyrid Hyde-Towle, a violinist with the Oregon Symphony for many years, was a scholarship winner in 1950. The funds paid for all of her private music lessons during her freshman year at Lewis & Clark. Current Oregon Symphony violinist Lynne Finch received a $100 award in 1977, and Pink Martini founder Thomas Lauderdale received a $500 award in 1988.
Today, the mmc continues their monthly musical showcases. Along with the annual scholarships, the group also contributes actively to many musical groups in the area, including the Portland Youth Philharmonic, Metropolitan Youth Symphony, Community Music Center, Piano Santa Foundation, Oregon Symphony, and Portland Opera.” . For more information and to join, please visit pdxmmc.org.
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orsymphony.org | 503-228-1353 49
FA S C I N AT I N G FA C T O I D S
THE WORLD OF JOHN WILLIAMS 1
WILLIAMS IS THE COMPOSER AND MUSIC DIRECTOR OF MORE THAN 100 FILMS. His work spans multiple genres, and includes Gidget Goes to Rome (1963), Jaws (1975), Superman (1978), The Witches of Eastwick (1987), Home Alone (1990), jfk (1991), Angela’s Ashes (1999), and The Post (2017).
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AFTER LEARNING TO PLAY THE PIANO AT A YOUNG AGE, WILLIAMS ASPIRED TO BECOME A CONCERT PIANIST. While studying under famed music teacher Rosina Lhevinne, the virtuosity of his competitors like Van Cliburn and John Browning prompted Williams to change course.
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BEFORE HIS CAREER AS A COMPOSER FOR FILM AND TELEVISION, WILLIAMS CONDUCTED, ARRANGED, AND PLAYED MUSIC FOR THE U.S. AIR FORCE BAND DURING HIS THREE YEARS OF CONSCRIPTED MILITARY SERVICE. He went on to study at Juilliard and then worked as a jazz pianist under the name “Little Johnny Love.” After moving to la, he worked as a movie studio pianist.
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WITH 51 NOMINATIONS TO DATE, WILLIAMS IS THE MOST-NOMINATED LIVING PERSON IN ACADEMY AWARD HISTORY. Walt Disney holds the title for the most nominated person ever, with 59 nods.
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IN 2003, WILLIAMS RECEIVED THE IOC’S HIGHEST HONOR – THE OLYMPIC ORDER – FOR HIS CONTRIBUTIONS. The musical themes for the Summer Olympic Games of 1984, 1988, and 1996, the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, and the 1987 International Summer Games of the Special Olympics were all composed by Williams.
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YOU MIGHT SAY THAT MUSIC RUNS IN WILLIAMS’ BLOOD. His father was a jazz musician. One of his brothers, Don, is a conductor, composer, and percussionist, and his other brother, Jerry, is a percussionist as well.
WILLIAMS WRITES MUSIC WITH GOOD OLDFASHIONED PAPER AND PENCIL INSTEAD OF A SYNTHESIZER OR COMPUTER LIKE MANY OF HIS CONTEMPORARIES. These technologies didn’t exist when he was studying and learning music, and he’s been too busy to learn how to use these tools.
“I HAVE TO SAY, WITHOUT QUESTION, JOHN WILLIAMS HAS BEEN THE SINGLE MOST SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTOR TO MY SUCCESS AS A FILMMAKER.” – STEVEN SPIELBERG. Williams met Steven Spielberg in 1972, and the two first worked together on Spielberg’s theatrical feature directorial debut, The Sugarland Express. They’ve since collaborated on nearly all of Spielberg’s films – more than 25 movies.
DUBBED “THE GREATEST AMERICAN FILM COMPOSER OF ALL TIME,” WILLIAMS’ AWARD TALLY INCLUDES 24 GRAMMY AWARDS, SEVEN BRITISH ACADEMY FILM AWARDS, FIVE ACADEMY AWARDS, FOUR GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS, AND THREE EMMY AWARDS. He’s also received the National Medal of Arts and a Kennedy Center Honor.
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WILLIAMS WAS NAMED THE 19TH MUSIC DIRECTOR OF THE BOSTON POPS ORCHESTRA IN 1980. He was named Laureate Conductor when he retired after 14 seasons and is also the Artist-in-Residence at Tanglewood. His orchestral compositions include two symphonies and countless concertos for flute, violin, clarinet, viola, oboe, tuba, harp, and bassoon. .
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ON A HIGH NOTE
Doug Reneau at Ex Novo Brewing Company’s taproom and pizzeria in downtown Beaverton, one of his favorite destinations for a night out. Photo by Christian Rudman.
Doug Reneau Oregon Symphony trumpet
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Doug Reneau joined his brother, Charles, in the brass section of the Oregon Symphony in 2014 as third trumpet. He spent the previous five years as the assistant principal trumpet for the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, while also being chief trumpeter at the famous St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square, a member of a popular Dixieland jazz band, and a prolific accompanist for weddings and traditional New Orleans parades. Educated at umkc Conservatory of Music and Dance and Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, Reneau brings his passion for teaching to Oregon State University, Portland Youth Philharmonic, and the Metropolitan Youth Symphony. He lives in Beaverton with his wife, Claire, and his two stellar stepkids – Max, who is nine, and Eliza, who is eight. When did you first know that you wanted to be a professional musician? I studied piano from kindergarten through fifth grade and then violin for a year before picking up the trumpet at age 12. My mom tells me I picked the trumpet because I knew I would have to carry it home every day, and the case was small. When I was 14, Peter Wood, the new trumpet professor at the small college where my mother taught voice in Iowa, came to our house for dinner with his wife. There was a tornado warning in effect that evening. As the sky turned green, and the wind picked up, we decided to head to the basement to take shelter. But first, Peter ran out to his car and brought his trumpets inside. We played duets for the family while we waited out the storm. That was my first “lesson” with him, and by the end of that school year, I was hopelessly hooked. How often and for how long do you practice? I love practicing. I know many musicians do not, but to me, this is where the magic happens. When people I meet find out I am a musician, they often will say, “Oh! You must be really creative!” When I reflect on the nature of my work, it’s not creative on the surface. I play the notes on the page. I didn’t write the music, so how creative is that? The artistry is in great
practice. Being able to sit alone in a room for hundreds of hours of your life and figuring out how to make the right sound at the right time necessitates creativity. If you play the same thing every day, you will be consistent, but you will not improve. Every player needs to practice different things, depending on their strengths and weaknesses. I practice fundamental skills – sound production, technique, scales, etudes, et cetera – and form, which is using my body in the most efficient manner possible. The better your overall form, the more efficiently you play. Do you get nervous before a performance? Do you have any pre-show rituals? I do get nervous before some performances. Not all the time, but if I have a particularly demanding or exposed piece to play, I get the butterflies. I love to perform, so it’s usually less about being nervous about playing in front of people and more about creating the environment, mentally and physically, in which I can perform at my highest level. I do have several pre-show rituals. One is nap time. As a brass player in an orchestra, I need to achieve my peak performance quality between 7:30 and 10:00 pm. If I have a chance to restart my day with an afternoon nap, my brain is more likely to be rested and fresh. I get to the ’Schnitz at least an hour before every concert starts, so I have time to prepare to play my best. Most people I know try to get calmed down before they take the stage, but I need a little stimulation to get me into a state of high positive energy to perform. To that end, I have a double shot of espresso before every concert. What advice do you have for someone wanting to follow in your footsteps? Being an orchestral trumpet player is an extremely niche occupation. If you only include orchestras that play and pay full time, there are around 180 jobs for trumpet players in America. There might be five to 10 opportunities each year to audition for one of these positions. Taking time off from work and traveling to the auditions can cost more than $1,000 each time. There can be up to 150–200 players trying for any one
of these vacancies. Anyone who wants to do this job must run headlong into these facts with full understanding that it might not work out. Beyond that, practice and train like your life depends on it. Study with everyone great. Play hundreds of mock auditions. Record your practice sessions every day. And never, ever give up! What is the greatest challenge you’ve had to overcome so far, and how did it change you? I have experienced mental illness most of my life. adhd and depression often go hand-in-hand, and this has been the case for me. I was diagnosed with adhd at the age of 10 and have had depression, to varying degrees, since I was about 15. I have been treated for both, and since beginning medication for depression only a few years ago, I have been in a much better headspace than ever, with periodic relapses. Mental illness is rampant in society in general, but I have seen firsthand how prevalent it is with artists and musicians. It can be debilitating. I have made a concerted effort to talk openly with other musicians about my mental illnesses because this is the first step toward getting better. I started a weekly “Mental Health Monday” post on my Facebook page to encourage people to “check in” and let me and others know how they are doing. The isolation of mental illness is one of the worst parts, and since I started doing this, I have had countless people reach out to me privately or publicly to ask what they can do to get help. The reward of helping friends and colleagues feel a little less alone has been deeply gratifying. Artslandia’s theme for the 2019–20 Season is A Night Out. Describe for your readers your perfect night out. My perfect night out is different now that I have kids, but I love to see scary movies with my wife and get a nice dinner somewhere. Ex Novo, which recently opened a new location in Beaverton, is a favorite local hang. They have something different on tap just about every time we’re there, and the pizza is outstanding. Plus, I love that they donate all of their profits to charitable causes. I also enjoy staying in and crafting homemade cocktails. . orsymphony.org | 503-228-1353 53
ASK URSULA THE USHER She’s not the sweetest usher in town (for which competition is fierce), but she knows her stuff.
Greetings, Artslandians. I’m Portland’s foremost and award-winning expert in propriety, crowd management, security, and patron services administration. I’m Ursula the Usher. Yes, that’s right. What’d you think? That ushers just stand around handing out the playbills and pointing to seats? You don’t even know the things we do to keep you safe and comfortable. Ushers are the unsung heroes of the performing arts. . Email your questions to ursula@artslandia.com.
Q
have studied this. I also say it’s true,
behavior – staying seated, listening,
which is enough in itself. Children must
saving questions for later. In my
be taught to appreciate art, and that
experience, many adults could do well
begins with exposure. Bravo.
with a refresher.
recent gifts to him was a pair of tickets
Surely, you’ve done your research and
Depending on the child’s age, you might
for us to use together. The more I learn
checked on any age restrictions and
share some of the strategies you use
about the benefits of performing arts
the recommended age before you
when you get antsy. Teach that boredom
exposure for children, the more I am
selected your nephew’s first show.
is not an emergency. It’s an opportunity.
determined to bring the arts into his
There is no shortage of “family-friendly”
life. I’m not sure which of us is more
productions, including children’s
excited, but my anticipation comes
theater and the Oregon Symphony’s
with a tinge of nerves about taking
Kids Concerts. The programming of
a kid to a show. It will be the kiddo’s
these types of shows is explicitly geared
first live performance experience. He’s
toward children, as is the length of
a good kid, but his interpretation of
the performance. The Symphony, for
“whisper” is a breathy shout. Sitting
example, recommends their kid-friendly
still isn’t exactly his strong suit. What
shows for those ages 5–10. For children
can I do to help prepare him? Any
under age three, there are Symphony
advice on how to handle challenging
Storytimes with musicians playing live
behavior in the moment?
to read-aloud stories. My five children,
DEAR URSULA,
Attending live performance art is one of the great joys of my life. Another is my nephew, which is why one of my
14 grandchildren, and seven great-
– Don’t Want To Be that Person A
DEAR DON’T WANT TO BE THAT PERSON,
grandchildren adore these, each in their
own turn. Like appreciation, propriety is learned
Be sure to arrive 30 minutes early to get situated in your seats and borrow a booster seat from the coat check room if needed. Make a last trip to the restroom just before the show begins. Model good manners yourself as you turn off your cell phone for goodness sake! While an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, don’t expect that every attempted exposure to live art will be smooth. If sitting reasonably still and remaining reasonably quiet becomes unmanageable, it’s acceptable to step out of a kid-friendly performance. If patience and restraint have run out, it’s ok to leave. These virtues will build
You, my good reader, you get a gold
behavior. No matter one’s age, a little
star for noting the merits of the
preparation goes a long way for first-
performing arts for our young people.
timers. Talk to your nephew about the
I oft take to my soapbox on this topic,
upcoming production. If it’s an adaption
but my resolution for the new year was
of a storybook, read the story. If it’s a
to digress less. I’ll say just this: being
concert, listen to similar music. Explain
among the audience of performing
that the theater or concert hall is a
arts is an unparalleled, immersive
special place that comes with particular
particulars is half the battle.
educational experience. Brilliant people
behavior. Talk through the expected
– Ursula the Usher
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by degrees. In my vast experience with humankind, the concern about being that person rarely becomes a reality. The first step toward propriety is good sense. Simply being aware that a situation involves
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