MARCH 2 019
the magazine of the
Oregon Symphony
Pablo Villegas FE ATURED CONCER T S Mendelssohn’s “Italian” Pablo Villegas Coraline in Concert Unforgettable: 100 Years of Nat and Natalie Cole
WE’VE SEEN THE FUTURE OF HEALTH CARE. AND THEN WE BUILT IT.
C E N T E R F O R H E A LT H & H E A L I N G BUILDING 2 The new Center for Health & Healing Building 2 is reinventing how we heal. Here, some of the world’s newest and most advanced medicine is practiced in an environment built around the people we serve. Research, medicine and healing have finally come together in one place. At OHSU South Waterfront. ohsu.edu/sowa
A stunning new piece about a transgender woman named Hannah, and her journey into adulthood.
A CHAMBER OPERA FOR TWO VOICES AND STRING QUARTET
Photo by Kathleen Behnke, Anchorage Opera
MARCH 22–30 | NEWMARK THEATRE
MUSIC & CONCEPT BY LAURA KAMINSKY
LIBRETTO BY MARK CAMPBELL & KIMBERLY REED FILM BY KIMBERLY REED
Up Next
A Special Concert
BIG NIGHT MAY 2019
Rossini
THE BARBER OF SEVILLE JUNE 2019
Mozart
LA FINTA GIARDINIERA JULY 2019
TICKETS START AT $35 | PORTLANDOPERA.ORG | 503.241.1802
Glass
IN THE PENAL COLONY JULY / AUG 2019
CONTENTS MARCH 2019 12
Feature
Feature
14
about us LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT 7 CONDUCTORS 9 ORCHESTRA, STAFF & BOARD 10 RECOMMENDED RECORDINGS 33 OUR SUPPORTERS 34
Emanuel Ax
2019/20 Season Announcement
16
24
featured EMANUEL AX 12 MUSIC DIRECTOR CARLOS KALMAR PREVIEWS THE 2019/20 SEASON 14 NINA DECESARE 40 THE MAN BEHIND THE MUSIC 42 OREGON ZOO 45
Mendelssohn’s “Italian”
Pablo Villegas
28
30
performances MENDELSSOHN’S “ITALIAN” 16 S ATURDAY, MARCH 9, 7:30 PM SUNDAY, MARCH 10, 2 PM M ONDAY, MARCH 11, 7:30 PM PABLO VILLEGAS 24 S ATURDAY, MARCH 16, 7:30 PM SUNDAY, MARCH 17, 7:30 PM M ONDAY, MARCH 18, 7:30 PM
Unforgettable: 100 Years of Nat and Natalie Cole
Coraline in Concert
40
Feature
Nina DeCesare
Feature
The Man Behind the Music
42
CORALINE IN CONCERT 28 FRIDAY, MARCH 22, 7:30 PM UNFORGETTABLE: 100 YEARS OF NAT AND NATALIE COLE 30 S ATURDAY, MARCH 23, 7:30 PM SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2 PM Oregon Symphony programs are supported in part by grants from the Oregon Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, and by the Regional Arts & Culture Council and Work for Art, including support from the City of Portland, Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington Counties, and Metro.
on the cover: Pablo Sáinz Villegas
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LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT Dear Friends, This month, your Oregon Symphony welcomes spring with concerts that celebrate imagination, inspiration, and fun. Our Classical Series features the world premiere of American composer Christopher Theofanidis’ Drum Circles, cocommissioned by the Oregon Symphony, on a program that includes Mendelssohn’s “Italian” Symphony and our own Concertmaster Sarah Kwak performing Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending (March 9–11). On March 16–18, classical guitarist Pablo Sáinz Villegas returns to Portland performing a concerto inspired by the music of Spanish virtuoso Isaac Albéniz. Then, on March 22, Oregon Symphony joins LAIKA Studios in a 10th-anniversary screening of its awardwinning animated film Coraline, with the Oregon Symphony orchestra performing the soundtrack live. The month closes with a Pops program of timeless hits from legendary father/daughter duo Nat King Cole and Natalie Cole (March 23–24). Along with the stories onstage at the concert hall, musicians are busy on Saturdays in March sharing Symphony Storytimes with children ages 2–5 at Happy Valley Library. You can learn more and watch our video “Symphony Storytime with Claire and Marilyn,” featuring actress Claire Coffee and Symphony cellist Marilyn de Oliveira, at orsymphony.org.
SHARE YOUR STORY WITH #SOUNDSTORIES As part of this season’s theme of SoundStories, we’re collecting stories from you, our audience, about how music has impacted your life. We want to know about the first time you heard the Oregon Symphony, about your favorite musical memories from your childhood, and more. Share your story using the hashtag #SoundStories. @OregonSymphony
March is also the time to renew your subscriptions for the 2019/20 Season. In 2019/20, we expand our Classical Series to 18 concerts, bringing you world-class artists like Joshua Bell, Yefim Bronfman, and Garrick Ohlsson. We reinvent our critically acclaimed SoundSights series, featuring three new concerts with stunning visual productions from audience favorites Michael Curry and Rose Bond. We showcase four blockbuster movie titles in our Popcorn Package, offer five festive Pops programs, and bring you Special Concerts with legends like Itzhak Perlman and Chick Corea. Read Maestro Kalmar’s take on the new season on page 14, explore all of the offerings online, and take advantage of preferred seating, priority access to special concerts, and season-long value by renewing or ordering your subscriptions by April 1. Thank you for joining us here today. Enjoy the music.
Scott Showalter president & ceo
orsymphony.org | 503-228-1353
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Great concerts in April Pink Martini with Meow Meow: Hotel Amour APRIL 1 Norman Huynh, conductor Pink Martini with Meow Meow
Cécile McLorin Salvant
Emanuel Ax
Peter and the Wolf
International chanteuse extraordinaire Meow Meow joins forces with the Oregon Symphony, Thomas Lauderdale, China Forbes, and Pink Martini for an evening of subversive wit and sublime performance, featuring a set of Pink Martini favorites alongside new songs from the just-released Meow Meow and Thomas Lauderdale album, Hotel Amour.
2018/19 Emanuel Ax APRIL 6, 7 & 8 Carlos Kalmar, conductor • Emanuel Ax, piano Auber: Fra Diavolo Overture • Stravinsky: Capriccio • Haydn: Piano Concerto in D Major John Corigliano: Symphony No. 1, “Of Rage and Remembrance” The consummate Emanuel Ax brings his extraordinary musicianship to the Oregon Symphony to perform two hallmarks of the repertoire: Haydn’s best-known piano concerto and Stravinsky’s charming Capriccio.
Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour
Peter and the Wolf
APRIL 2
Norman Huynh, conductor Pam Mahon, narrator Dance West
Cécile McLorin Salvant, vocals Bria Skonberg, trumpet Melissa Aldana, tenor saxophone Christian Sands, piano and music director Yasushi Nakamura, bass Jamison Ross, drums Join us for the 60th-anniversary celebration of the Monterey Jazz Festival with a roster of diverse and international talent representing the leaders of jazz’s future including Cécile McLorin Salvant, one of the most acclaimed vocalists of her generation. The Oregon Symphony does not perform.
KIDS!
APRIL 14
Will young Peter and his menagerie be able to outsmart the Big Bad Wolf? Join in the adventure as Prokofiev’s classic fairy tale introduces listeners to the instruments of the orchestra!
Sci-Fi at the Pops APRIL 27 & 28 Jeff Tyzik, conductor Journey to the Final Frontier through the music of Star Trek, Star Wars, E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and more.
Sci-Fi at the Pops
orsymphony.org 503-228-1353 your official source for symphony tickets MOVING MUSIC FORWARD horizon_April.indd 1
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CONDUCTORS Carlos Kalmar Jean Vollum music director chair
Carlos Kalmar is in his 16th 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, 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; and Haydn Symphonies. 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 6. 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
Now in his third season as Oregon Symphony associate conductor, Norman Huynh was selected from a field of over 100 candidates from around the world for his exceptional conducting technique, his passion for a wide-ranging repertoire, and his unique ability to communicate with an audience. The recipient of the 2015 Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Scholarship, he previously conducted the St. Louis, City of Birmingham (uk), Baltimore, Toledo, Charlotte, and Virginia symphonies, and the Peabody Symphony Orchestra. He made his international conducting debut with the Princess Galyani Vadhana Youth Orchestra in Bangkok, Thailand, and has also conducted the Leipzig Symphony. He previously served as assistant conductor for the Spoleto Festival usa, the Portland Symphony Orchestra in Maine, Opera Carolina, the Lyric Opera of Baltimore, the Peabody Opera Theatre, and The Peabody Singers. Huynh co-founded the Occasional Symphony, an organization that presents innovative programs that resonate with eclectic venues throughout the city of Baltimore. He studied orchestral conducting at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, working with Gustav Meier, Markand Thakar, and Marin Alsop. For backstage stories, follow Huynh 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 25th season as principal pops conductor of the Rochester Philharmonic, Tyzik is also in his 12th 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
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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 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 Jonathan Dubay ENGLI S H H O RN Gregory Ewer Kyle Mustain Daniel Ge Feng Lynne Finch CL AR INE T Shin-young Kwon James Shields, principal Ryan Lee Todd Kuhns, assistant principal Samuel Park Mark Dubac Searmi Park Vali Phillips B A S S CL AR INE T Deborah Singer Todd Kuhns VIOLA B A S S O ON Joël Belgique, Maybelle Clark Macdonald Fund principal viola chair** Carin Miller Packwood, principal Evan Kuhlmann, assistant principal** Charles Noble, principal* Adam Trussell Brian Quincey, assistant principal* Jennifer Arnold Silu Fei Leah Ilem Ningning Jin Kim Mai Nguyen* Viorel Russo Martha Warrington
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CONTR AB A S S O ON Evan Kuhlmann**
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 * Acting position ** Leave of absence
Administration Rene Contakos, gift officer Scott Showalter, president and ceo Ella Rathman, development associate Diane M. Bush, executive assistant Leslie Simmons, events coordinator Susan Franklin, assistant to the Courtney Trezise, foundation music director and corporate giving officer Ellen Bussing, vice president Nik Walton, annual giving manager for development Charles Calmer, vice president MAR KE TING , for artistic planning COMMUNI C ATI ONS & S ALE S Natasha Kautsky, vice president of Ethan Allred, marketing and marketing and strategic engagement web content manager Janet Plummer, chief financial Liz Brown, marketing partnership and operations officer and group sales manager Steve Wenig, vice president Katherine Eulensen, audience and general manager development manager John Kroninger, front of house manager B U S INE S S O PE R ATI ONS Lisa McGowen, patron Allison Bagnell, senior graphic designer communications manager David Fuller, tessitura applications Rebekah Phillips, director of marketing, administrator communications, and sales Tom Fuller, database administrator Julie Haberman, finance and administration associate Randy Maurer, production manager Peter Rockwell, graphic designer Lynette Soares, finance and administration assistant D E VE LO PMENT Meagan Bataran, annual fund director Hilary Blakemore, senior director of development
TI CKE T O FFI CE
Rachel Allred, patron services representative Adam Cifarelli, teleservices manager Karin Cravotta, patron services representative Alison Elliot, patron services representative Ethan jh Evans, patron services representative Rebecca Van Halder, patron services representative Emily Johnstone, patron services representative Chris Kim, patron services representative Cleo Knickerbocker, patron services representative Nils Knudsen, assistant ticket office manager Christy McGrew, ticket office manager O PE R ATI ONS Carol Minchin, patron services Jacob Blaser, director of operations representative Monica Hayes, education and community Amanda Preston, patron services engagement program director representative Susan Nielsen, director of popular Robert Trujillo, patron services programming and presentations representative Steve Stratman, orchestra manager Ashley Weatherspoon, patron services Lori Trephibio, stage manager representative Jacob Wade, manager, operations and Frances Yu, lead patron services artistic administration representative
Board of Directors O FFI CE R S Robert Harrison, chair Walter E. Weyler, vice chair Nancy Hales, secretary Tige Harris, treasurer LIFE MEMB E R S William B. Early Gerald R. Hulsman Walter E. Weyler MEMB E R S Rich Baek Janet Blount Christopher M. Brooks Eve Callahan
Cliff Deveney Dan Drinkward Greg Ewer Lauren D. Fox Robyn Gastineau Suzanne Geary Ralph C. Hamm III Jeff Heatherington J. Clayton Hering Rick Hinkes RenĂŠe Holzman Sue Horn-Caskey Judy Hummelt Grady Jurrens Gerri Karetsky
Kristen Kern Thomas M. Lauderdale Martha Long Priscilla Wold Longfield Roscoe C. Nelson III Dan Rasay James Shields Larry Vollum Derald Walker Jack Wilborn E X- O FFI CI O MEMB E R S Scott Showalter, Oregon Symphony Association Jo Ann Young, Oregon Symphony Association in Salem
orsymphony.org | 503-228-1353 11
F E AT U R E D A R T I C L E
EMANUEL AX When Emanuel A x sits down at the piano, a warm sense of anticipatory pleasure ripples through the audience. Whether he presents a work full of meaning and emotion or more lighthearted fare intended to delight the ear, Ax’s consummate artistry, honed over a lifetime of practice and performance, combined with his chameleonic ability to disappear into whatever he plays, invariably results in a thoroughly satisfying experience. ver his career of more than 40 years, Ax O has won numerous honors, along with seven Grammy Awards for chamber and solo recordings. Few musicians are held in higher esteem by their colleagues, which is a more meaningful assessment of Ax’s standing in the classical music world. When all is said and done, however, Ax continues to perform for the simplest and purest of reasons: music brings him an enduring joy, which he shares freely with his audience. layfulness and humor abound in the P music Ax performs with the Oregon Symphony on April 6, 7, and 8. As he did in his 2014 appearance with the orchestra, Ax pairs works from two composers writing in different centuries: Joseph Haydn’s Piano Concerto in D Major and Igor Stravinsky’s Capriccio. “Haydn and Stravinsky seem to get paired a lot,” says Ax. “I think one reason is that they both had an extremely high iq. They were brilliant people, and both had unusual, scintillating ideas. The Haydn is a showpiece for its time. The Stravinsky is more of an ensemble piece: there’s a string quintet that plays solo lines, and a lot of wind players also have solos. It’s very difficult to put together. “The role of the solo piano in these two pieces is quite marked,” Ax continues. “In the Haydn, you are both soloist and chamber musician, and the piano part
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sounds more integrated in the overall sound. Haydn didn’t write virtuoso concertos in general, unlike Mozart. The Stravinsky is just the opposite – the piano is the undisputed star.” Poet Ezra Pound heard the Stravinsky differently, describing the piano and orchestra in Capriccio as “two shells of a walnut.” Ax, who says Pound’s description is “very well put,” describes Capriccio as “a mosaic; it’s very tightly connected. The piece altogether is
by Elizabeth Schwartz
a kind of circus, like the Ringling Bros. You have a clown, a lion tamer, somebody on stilts, people doing somersaults, and it’s all done for fun. When the clown has a sad face, it’s sort of happy-sad at the same time.” Several choreographers, most notably George Balanchine, made ballets with Capriccio. Balanchine’s 1967 triptych, Jewels, features Capriccio in the Rubies movement, which illuminates the playful, fiery qualities of both music and gemstone.
Stravinsky’s ability to write technically demanding music that also captivates the audience makes him, in Ax’s words, “a total genius.” Ax continues, “For the performer, if a piece is challenging it’s fun to work on, but it should also be fun for the audience. It’s hard to write music that challenges the performer – something you have to practice for years and years – and also reaches the audience on a first hearing. Stravinsky is always like that. He’s the Mozart or Haydn of the 20th century.” Haydn’s D major concerto, published in 1784, quickly became one of the composer’s most popular works, and was performed numerous times during Haydn’s lifetime. For Ax, the Haydn is pure pleasure, both to play and hear. “I think the slow movement is incredibly romantic and beautiful, and the last movement is a lot of fun.” When he’s away from the piano, Ax enjoys learning how to use the latest technological gadgets, with help from his grandchildren. He is not an early adopter, acknowledging ruefully that he’s about three years behind current technology. Like many performers today, he uses an iPad rather than a printed score when he practices. The iPad’s storage capacity makes it easy to travel with multiple scores, and it takes up far less space in a suitcase when Ax is on tour.
x has a gentle, approachable manner, A which comes across in his teaching – he works with advanced students at Juilliard – as well as in casual conversation. He belies the stereotype of the virtuoso musician with an outsized ego and genuinely prefers listening to talking. “If I go to a reception after a concert, I like to get people to talk about what their field is. I prefer that to talking about what I do every day.” You get the sense when talking to Ax that he wants to put you at ease, particularly in the context of attending a performance. “I’d like people to relax and not feel they have to know anything at all [when they come to the concert hall],” he says.
The ideal listener is someone who comes with an open mind, is happy to be there, is attentive to the performance, and doesn’t care about what happens before or after. I’d love people to come and not worry about whether they’ve heard it before or whether they like or don’t like Stravinsky.” The classical music world is often perceived by newcomers as encrusted in tradition and etiquette that can seem both impenetrable and intimidating.
“There are so many trappings to concerts and so much stuff around it, like people clapping,” Ax explains. “I think applauding between movements is actually far more historically accurate than not applauding.” (Ax is correct; before the late 19th century, clapping between movements was commonplace and indicated appreciation, not uncouth behavior.) “I think we lose the feeling that ‘I’m here to have a good time,’” Ax continues. “With some music I’d like people to feel that it means something: that they were moved in some way, whether to laughter or to sadness, or they discovered a story in the piece that’s their particular story.” Other music, says Ax, exists for sheer fun and delight, like the Haydn and Stravinsky. What matters most to Ax is the wonderful alchemy that occurs when musicians and audiences come together in real time for live performances. “Every concert should be like the Super Bowl: you can watch it on tv and get a much better picture of what’s going on, but people still want to go because they want to be a part of it as it’s happening.” Emanuel Ax performs Haydn’s Piano Concerto in D Major and Stravinsky’s Capriccio on April 6, 7, and 8 at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Find tickets and more at orsymphony.org. orsymphony.org | 503-228-1353 13
F E AT U R E D A R T I C L E
MUSIC DIRECTOR CARLOS KALMAR PREVIEWS THE 2019/20 SEASON by Elizabeth Schwartz
2019/20 season subscriptions are now on sale Highlights from our expanded season of 18 Classical Concerts include Beethoven’s Fifth, Pictures at an Exhibition, Ravel’s Boléro, and the return of SoundSights, as well as guest appearances by Joshua Bell, Leila Josefowicz, Garrick Ohlsson, Stephen Hough, and more. Plus, subscribers get exclusive access to these Special Concerts for a limited time only: Itzhak Perlman Plays Beethoven, Mannheim Steamroller Christmas, and Chick Corea. Renew or order your subscription today: orsymphony.org | 503-228-1353
Music Director Carlos Kalmar describes the programs for the Oregon Symphony’s 2019/20 Season as a combination of “heavy hitters” and “big pieces we don’t often perform.” The orchestra also continues moving music forward: the Classical Series has expanded from 16 to 18 programs, which feature the most diverse group of composers ever programmed in the course of the orchestra’s 123-year history.
SoundSights’ production of Persephone.
SoundSights, the orchestra’s groundbreaking three-concert series, returns for more innovative visual and musical collaborations. Media artist Rose Bond, whose projected animations for Olivier Messiaen’s Turangalîla Symphony stood out as a highlight of the 2016/17 Season, will bring her distinctive visual palette to Luciano Berio’s 1968 Sinfonia, a tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr. This large-scale orchestral work features eight voices used in both sung and spoken roles, and its multilayered textures will furnish Bond with a range of musical and literary possibilities. Production designer Michael Curry also returns, using his uniquely inventive theatrical imagination to dramatize Silvestre Revueltas’ film score for The Night of the Mayas. Revueltas’ music for this 1939 film is widely considered some of his finest work and makes use of indigenous percussion and wind instruments to depict the richness of Mayan culture. “Ever since we first worked with Rose and Michael – they both blew the audience away with their grasp of fantasy – we’ve had quite a few conversations with them about what music would be attractive to them artistically. I’m really happy with that,” says Kalmar. “We made suggestions: ‘Listen to this, it made me think of you.’ And then the artist listens – or perhaps already knows the piece – and says yes or no. Revueltas’ score opens 14 artslandia.com
the door even wider than last time for Michael, because it’s not a defined story. The music is very colorful and requires a big orchestra, and then all of a sudden you have 11 percussionists playing solos and everything goes slightly nuts. I think the combination of this music with Michael’s ideas is a win-win. “In terms of great things coming together, Berio’s Sinfonia is very hard to pull off because it utilizes eight singers in the middle of the orchestra in a very unusual way. We approached the Grammy Award-winning avant-garde vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth about performing with us, and since we got them, I thought it would be phenomenal to have them work with Berio and Rose Bond. Also, they specialize in 21stcentury music. They’ll be performing Caroline Shaw’s Partita for 8 Voices in addition to the Berio. I think everybody should hear that Partita; it’s so far removed from everyday music, and it’s something very unique.” As for the third piece on the SoundSights Series, Jean Sibelius’ incidental music to Shakespeare’s The Tempest? Kalmar is keeping his cards close to his vest. “Trust me,” he teases. “It will be great.”
almar’s other planned “heavy hitters” K include Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, Beethoven’s Fifth and Ninth symphonies, Stravinsky’s Firebird, Ravel’s Boléro, and Smetana’s tribute to the River Moldau. “The season is full of standards that need to be revisited from time to time, like Pictures and Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra,” he explains. “But then, there are pieces the orchestra has never done, like Lutosławski’s Cello Concerto – which we’ll present with our Artist-in-Residence Johannes Moser. The Cello Concerto sounds like the struggle of the individual against the masses: cello vs. orchestra. Another unknown gem is Schumann’s Violin Concerto. It’s not glitzy, but over the past 15 years violinists have begun to revisit it. Schumann is very meticulous; he’s one of the greatest composers in the German orchestral culture. With Schumann, you have to do a little tweaking [as a conductor] – not in the sense of correcting – because Schumann uses the orchestra in a different way than, say, Brahms. In Schumann, you have such a beautiful lyricism because he was an accomplished composer of art song.” f course, an orchestra cannot live solely O in the past; it must also present music written by living composers as part of its mandate to support and nurture new music. Kalmar remains committed to programming new works by an exciting group of up-and-coming composers, including Gabriel Kahane, Texu Kim, Gabriella Smith, Andy Akiho, Caroline Shaw, and Oscar Bettison. Kalmar feels a confidence growing between the audience and the orchestra in this regard. “There is, I believe, a great deal of trust established in what we are doing,” he explains. “Looking at the programs we are presenting, the great news is that we have gotten more audacious over time, which also speaks volumes about the trust the audience has in us. It is sometimes a harder sell, so you have to program really well. We have a diverse audience; some people tell me they love that I present music that’s unknown to them. Others want music they’re familiar with. One audience member said to me,
‘I actually didn’t like the piece, but I was happy I was there.’ I thought that was great, because music is an art form, and it’s not possible to like everything, but you should be happy that you are actually witnessing something new. Of all the pieces we play, the likelihood we’ll play the new ones again in the next 15 years is slim, so it’s good for people to witness it. I’m encouraged by the audience’s willingness to expose themselves to music they don’t already know.”
Music Director Carlos Kalmar.
I n the “big pieces we don’t often perform” category, Kalmar includes Ralph Vaughan Williams’ massive A Sea Symphony. “I have done A Sea Symphony a couple of times, and I certainly believe our audience needs to hear it,” he declares. “It’s such a masterwork. It’s very poetic, and it has the best beginning of a symphony that you can imagine. It’s everything you want to have in a piece of music. People aren’t likely to know it, but I think it speaks to everyone.” Oregonians, justifiably proud of our beautiful coastline, are already disposed to fall in love with a symphony that venerates the ocean. Kalmar, referring to the Oregon Symphony’s triumphal performance at Carnegie Hall in 2011, continues, “We got famous with Vaughan Williams’ Fourth Symphony, which is not a pretty piece of music; instead, it’s very angry. In contrast, A Sea Symphony is extremely majestic, bold, and big, using a large orchestra and a big chorus. You
also have poetry by Walt Whitman. I think a piece that marries literature with music is important.”
almar also credits the orchestra’s K first-rate musicianship as part of the Symphony’s success in presenting new music:
Our orchestra can play anything at a very, very high level. If you program something that might be a tougher sell for the audience, you need to play it really well, and behind every piece we play, the orchestra is rock solid.” orsymphony.org | 503-228-1353 15
MENDELSSOHN’S “ITALIAN” SATURDAY, MARCH 9, 2019, 7:30 PM SUNDAY, MARCH 10, 2019, 2 PM MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2019, 7:30 PM SPONSORED BY JEFF HEATHERINGTON
Carlos Kalmar, conductor The Percussion Collective Robert Van Sice Ji Hye Jung Matthew Keown Svet Stoyanov Sam Um Sarah Kwak, violin Richard Wagner Christopher Theofanidis
The Flying Dutchman Overture Drum Circles (World premiere commission) Rivers and anthems Sparks and chants How can you smile when you’re deep in thought? Spirits and drums Three chords and truth The Percussion Collective Robert Van Sice
INTERMISSION Ralph Vaughan Williams
Felix Mendelssohn
The Lark Ascending Sarah Kwak Symphony No. 4 in A Major, “Italian” Allegro vivace Andante con moto Con moto moderato Saltarello: Presto
ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL
CONCERT CONVERSATION Conducted one hour before each performance, the Concert Conversation will feature Music Director Carlos Kalmar and Robert McBride, host at 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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Join us April 13 as we celebrate the Oregon Symphony – a landmark institution and the oldest orchestra in the western U.S. Through food, drink, art, and music of the Americas under the direction of Music Director Carlos Kalmar we celebrate the Symphony’s history and future in one unforgettable evening.
saturday, april 13 portland art museum event chairs Dan & Kathleen Drinkward
4:30 pm 6 pm 7 pm
Tige & Peggy Harris
Rick & Veronica Hinkes
cocktail reception concert: music of the americas dinner & program ~ Black-Tie ~
reserve your table or tickets now gala2019@orsymphony.org | 503-416-6344
Ancient history
FOR THE MODERN WORLD
MENDELSSOHN’S “ITALIAN” Biographies
Sarah Kwak DIAMONDS SET IN 24K GOLD AND OXIDIZED STERLING SILVER
503.636.4025 DYKEVANDENBURGH.COM 27 A AVENUE, LAKE OSWEGO TUESDAY–FRIDAY 10:00–5:30, SATURDAY 10:00–4:00
Sarah Kwak last appeared as a soloist with the Oregon Symphony on April 23, 2018, when she performed Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto with conductor Sascha Goetzel. 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 soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Houston Symphony, and Curtis Chamber Orchestra, and she has toured internationally with the Casa Verde Trio, including a three-anda-half-week tour of China. She was a founding member of the Rosalyra String Quartet, which made its New York debut in 1996 and was awarded a McKnight Artist Fellowship in 2000. The first artist ever to capture all three memorial awards at the Washington International
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M E N D E L S S O H N ’ S “ I TA L I A N ” 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 MyungWhun 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 non-profit organization whose mission is to present free chamber music concerts in neighborhoods around the metro area and to make classical music accessible to all.
The Percussion Collective Robert van Sice With this concert, The Percussion Collective Robert van Sice makes their debut with the Oregon Symphony. At the pinnacle of his legendary career, performer and pedagogue Robert van Sice has assembled a stunning collection
of young artists who are reinventing the concert experience. The Percussion Collective transcends the medium of percussion through uncommon performance experiences that surprise and engage audiences at a profound emotional level. The hallmarks of van Sice’s musical approach – precise execution, sonic refinement, and dynamic onstage communication – are all on display in the most vivid manner to date. Drawing from an incomparably rich bouquet of talent, The Percussion Collective flexes in size offering exquisitely curated programs for an array of venues and settings. The fabulously successful 10-concert inaugural tour of the United States in the spring of 2018 featured the first performances of the newly commissioned Seaborne, an immersive multimedia work by Emmy Award-winning composer Garth Neustadter and videographer Kjell van Sice that celebrates the beauty of our world’s oceans. The 2018/19 Season began with the group’s first tour to China, featuring a performance of Seaborne in the new Shanghai Symphony Hall. Other highlights will include performances of the first orchestral showcase for The Collective, Drum Circles by Christopher Theofanidis. The work was commissioned by a consortium including the Aspen Music Festival, Baltimore Symphony, Colorado Symphony, and the Oregon Symphony. The Percussion Collective will also be presented by the Yellow Barn Music Festival in Dallas, performing Martin Bresnick’s Caprichos Enfaticos, based on Francisco Goya’s etchings depicting the horrors of war. The roster of The Percussion Collective includes some of the world’s most esteemed and dynamic young voices in the art form. Featuring players from Europe, Asia, and the u.s., this new generation of virtuosi represent the leading edge of innovation in concert conception and performance.
Program Notes RICHARD WAGNER 1813–83
The Flying Dutchman Overture composed: 1841 most recent oregon symphony performance: November 6, 1973; Lawrence Smith, conductor instrumentation: piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, harp, and strings estimated duration: 10 minutes The Flying Dutchman marks a transition between Richard Wagner’s earlier works and his epic music dramas, like the Ring Cycle. Wagner himself recognized the importance of The Flying Dutchman in his 1851 A Message to My Friends, when he wrote, “From here begins my career as poet, and my farewell to the mere concoctor of opera-texts.” In Dutchman, Wagner developed the concept that became his compositional signature: the designation of a leitmotif (short musical theme) to represent individual characters. Narratively, The Flying Dutchman also charted new territory for Wagner: the beginning of his lifelong fascination with the idea of redemption through love. Although notoriously and openly anti-Semitic, Wagner had no problem borrowing ideas from the Jewish poet Heinrich Heine, whose satirical 1833 Memoirs of Herr von Schnabelewopski provides the basis of The Flying Dutchman’s plot. Heine’s original tale describes a play about a ship’s captain who, having uttered blasphemy, is cursed to sail the ocean forever as punishment. Wagner also took inspiration from the ocean crossing he made from Riga to London in the summer of 1839; terrible weather and dangerously high seas turned this voyage of a few days into a three-week nightmare for Wagner and his wife, Minna. Wagner combined
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M E N D E L S S O H N ’ S “ I TA L I A N ” the high-stakes drama of the stormy crossing with Heine’s sunny, ironic story, transforming both into an epic tale of damnation and salvation. The overture showcases the leitmotifs of the Dutchman and his love interest, Senta. The Dutchman’s theme opens the overture with dramatic horn calls that conjure up the raging seas and high winds. Senta, who pledges her fidelity to the Dutchman, appears as a subdued English horn and winds. Through the full orchestra and tremolo strings, the overture also evokes an ocean lashed into fury by gale-force winds.
CHRISTOPHER THEOFANIDIS b. 1967
Drum Circles (World premiere, cocommissioned by the Oregon Symphony)
composed: 2008 world premiere performance: co-commissioned by the Aspen Music Festival, Baltimore Symphony, Colorado Symphony, and Oregon Symphony instrumentation: Orchestra: 2 flutes (1 doubling piccolo), 2 oboes (1 doubling English horn), 2 clarinets (1 doubling bass clarinet), 2 bassoons (1 doubling contrabassoon), 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 2 trombones, bass trombone, tuba, timpani, 2 bass drums, bongos, Chinese cymbal, crash cymbals, double-headed toms, guiro, spring coil, 2 suspended cymbals, piano, harp, and strings 4 Percussion soloists: I: double-headed toms, claves, maracas, marimba, ratchet, typewriter, and vibraphone II: bongos, claves, egg shaker, marimba, ride cymbal, vibraphone, and xylophone III:claves, chimes, congas, cowbell, sizzle cymbal, spring coil, triangle, and vibraphone (shared with player I) IV: brake drum, claves, congas, crotales, egg shaker, glockenspiel, triangle, vibraphone (shared with player II), and vibraslap estimated duration: 25 minutes
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One of the most acclaimed American composers of his generation, Christopher Theofanidis’ music spans almost every genre: ballet, opera, orchestral music (with and without soloists), chamber, and solo works. Theofanidis’ work has also earned a number of awards, including several Grammy nominations, the International Masterprize, the Rome Prize, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Tanglewood Institute, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Formerly on the faculty at Juilliard and the Peabody Conservatory, Theofanidis currently teaches at Yale University. He is also composer-in-residence and co-director of the composition program at the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado. heofanidis’ eclectic, expansive sound T begins with the directional, horizontal nature of a melodic line. “When I compose, the through-line of my work is the voice; melody and lyricism are both basic to my work,” Theofanidis said in a recent interview. “I think about melody as a conversation, which implies some give and take. I think of music as going forward, and that comes from the voice.” heofanidis’ longtime friend and T colleague Robert van Sice – “a marimba guru,” according to Theofanidis – recently created The Percussion Collective, a roster of outstanding percussionists from renowned music programs around the country. “Bob wanted me to write a concerto for his [percussion] quartet for some time,” says Theofanidis. “There are a lot of percussion concertos but not so many quartet concertos.” Drum Circles features four Percussion Collective soloists, plus two percussionists and one timpanist from the orchestra. Each of Drum Circles’ five movements embodies a clearly delineated character or musical personality. “I like the idea of definition of personality characteristics – the specific character of the music – threading through each movement,” Theofanidis explains. “Each movement’s personality determines all the musical decisions I made, from timbre to rhythm to phrasing to melodic line.”
Rivers and anthems opens with “a big bash” of pitched percussion instruments. “It’s a flood of bright clangorous chimes, bells, crotales, vibraphone, xylophone; they’re playing ‘super melodies’ on top of these cascades of rivers.” The primary melody, which Theofanidis calls an anthem, threads through the movement as a vivid sound ribbon. In contrast, Sparks and chants features marimbas in “a brittle environment created by dry instruments: slats, woodblocks, and claves, while the orchestra focuses on strings.” The central section, How can you smile when you’re deep in thought?, provides a palate-cleansing three minutes of “bright, punchy sound, like something from the 1940s,” featuring different types of cymbals and mallet instruments. For Spirits and drums, Theofanidis moves in a “shockingly different” direction: “It’s ritualistic – all the soloists are playing drums. The sound is somewhat threatening, with a lot of low sonorities. The orchestra’s strong statements are punctuated by silence and space.” In the closing Three chords and truth, Theofanidis presents his version of a folk ballad. “It’s like contemporary country western music and also blues, which can say a lot with a very restricted number of chords played in different voicings.” This is the most intimate of the movements, highlighting lyricism rather than “going out with a bang.”
RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS 1872–1958
The Lark Ascending composed: 1914 most recent oregon symphony performance: March 26, 2000; Murry Sidlin, conductor instrumentation: solo violin, 2 flutes, oboe, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, triangle, and strings estimated duration: 15 minutes In November 1905, Ralph Vaughan Williams and his wife, Adeline, bought a large house in the London neighborhood of Chelsea, 13 Cheyne Walk. Since the first
MENDELSSOHN’S “ITALIAN” houses on Cheyne Walk were constructed, in the mid-18th century, many notable people have made this famous street their home, including Prime Minister Lloyd George, philosopher Bertrand Russell, guitarist Keith Richards, American billionaires Michael Bloomberg and John Paul Getty Jr., painter James Whistler, and actress Elizabeth Taylor, among others. Vaughan Williams and Adeline spent more than 20 years in No. 13, and it was there he composed his earliest works, including Variations on a Theme of Thomas Tallis and The Lark Ascending. aughan Williams worked during the V most tumultuous years of the 20th century, and his music reflects the irrevocable changes he witnessed. His early works express the Englishness of his homeland, particularly the serene beauty of the countryside, through the use of English folk songs and hymns. By 1935, when Vaughan Williams premiered his searing Symphony No. 4, which the Oregon Symphony performed at Carnegie Hall and recorded in 2011 for the cd Music for a Time of War, no trace of the Lark’s wistful gentleness remained. Vaughan Williams wrote a piano-violin version of The Lark Ascending in 1914, before the outbreak of WWI. When the war began, the 41-year-old composer enlisted as a private and drove ambulances for the Royal Army Medical Corps. After three years, Vaughan Williams was promoted to lieutenant and served as an artilleryman in France for the last eight months of the war. He lost many friends in combat and seldom talked about his war experiences, but Vaughan Williams never forgot the horrors he witnessed. In 1920, Vaughan Williams returned to Lark and created the orchestral version most often heard today. The music remains firmly rooted in the pastoral Englishness of Vaughan Williams’ pre-war style. Vaughan Williams disliked talking about his work; in 1920 he was quoted saying, “… if my music doesn’t make itself understood as music without any tributary explanation – well, it’s a failure as music, and there’s nothing more to
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M E N D E L S S O H N ’ S “ I TA L I A N ”
Schuback be said.” experiencing the physical, Schuback:Class_Millenium NEW.qxd 9/3/09After 8:41 A psychic, and spiritual devastation of war, is Violin Shop it any surprise that the music of Lark soars above such painful memories?
he work’s title comes from the poem T of the same name by George Meredith. Vaughan Williams chose 12 of the poem’s 122 lines as a preface to his score, and they serve equally well as a programmatic description:
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To lift us with him as he goes Till lost on his aerial rings In light, and then the fancy sings. oncertmaster Sarah Kwak last performed C The Lark Ascending 25 years ago, when she was a member of the Minnesota Orchestra. “I was asked to play it right after my son was born, so it holds a special place in my heart because I always associate it with his birth,” she says. “It’s beautiful, uplifting, pastoral, peaceful music that fit perfectly with my mood at the time, because I was enthralled with my son.”
FELIX MENDELSSOHN 1809–47
Symphony No. 4 in A Major, Op. 90, “Italian” composed: 1833, rev. 1834 most recent oregon symphony performance: September 24, 2006; Carlos Kalmar, conductor instrumentation: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, and strings estimated duration: 27 minutes From 1830–31, Felix Mendelssohn traveled in Italy, spending most of his time in Rome. While in Italy, Mendelssohn wrote several of his best-known works, including the aptly
named “Italian” Symphony. Although widely considered the finest example of Mendelssohn’s compositional genius, the “Italian” Symphony did not please its creator. After Mendelssohn conducted the premiere on May 13, 1833, with the Philharmonic Society in London, he made major revisions to it but was still not satisfied with the result. Mendelssohn, apparently frustrated at being unable to achieve his artistic vision of the work, never performed it again and refused to have it published, although he did leave behind a detailed outline of revisions to the first three movements. (The “Italian” Symphony was eventually published in 1851, four years after Mendelssohn’s death; the published version does not include Mendelssohn’s revisions.) Years later, recalling his trip to Italy, Mendelssohn said, “The whole country had such a festive air that I felt as if I were a young prince making his entry.” The Allegro vivace reflects the relaxed confidence of a young man on the brink of new adventures, as well as the warmth of the Italian sun, the blueness of the sky, and the sunny temperament of the Italian people. The mood of the second movement Andante con moto is more introspective. The melody, in a minor key, is supported by pizzicato strings, which provide a walking bass line suggestive of footsteps. Mendelssohn observed a number of Church rituals during his stay in Rome, and this processional quality suggests the solemn rites of a religious ceremony. With the third movement Con moto moderato, Mendelssohn returns to the warmth of the first. The exuberance of the first movement is gentled into a graceful minuet, accompanied by a trio of winds and brasses. Mendelssohn called the final movement Saltarello, after an energetic Italian dance. The rapidfire theme skips nimbly and without pause through the orchestra, first in the winds, then the strings and brasses. The perpetual-motion quality of this music is more suggestive of another Italian dance, the tarantella, named for the mistaken Italian belief that immediate exertion would save the victim of a tarantula’s bite from its deadly poison. © 2019 Elizabeth Schwartz
We’re just another bank… like this is just another band. What makes the Oregon Symphony and Umpqua Bank unique? Innovative ideas and our commitment to the communities we serve. Whether we’re volunteering in classrooms to teach the next generation about music and managing money, or reimagining the way we invest in our neighborhoods, the goal is to invest wisely in our future. Umpqua Bank is a proud sponsor of the Oregon Symphony. Together, we’re building a stronger community, one note at a time.
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PABLO VILLEGAS SATURDAY, MARCH 16, 2019, 7:30 PM SUNDAY, MARCH 17, 2019, 7:30 PM MONDAY, MARCH 18, 2019, 7:30 PM SPONSORED BY RICH & RACHEL BAEK
Carlos Kalmar, conductor Pablo Sáinz Villegas, guitar Johannes Brahms
Serenade No. 1 Allegro molto Scherzo: Allegro non troppo—Trio: Poco più moto Adagio non troppo Menuetto I—II Scherzo: Allegro Rondo: Allegro
INTERMISSION Stephen Goss
The Albéniz Concerto The Albaicín Catalonia Evocation—Cadenza Aragón Pablo Sáinz Villegas
Joaquín Turina
Danzas fantásticas Exaltation Reverie Orgy This concert is being recorded for future broadcast. We ask our audience to be as quiet as possible during the performance.
ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL
CONCERT CONVERSATION Conducted one hour before each performance, the Concert Conversation will feature Music Director Carlos Kalmar and Brandi Parisi, host at 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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Biography
Pablo Sáinz Villegas Pablo Sáinz Villegas last appeared with the Oregon Symphony on September 12, 2015, when he performed Corigliano’s Troubadours and Rodrigo’s Fantasía para un gentilhombre with conductor Carlos Kalmar. Praised as “the soul of the Spanish guitar,” Pablo Sáinz Villegas has become a worldwide sensation known as this generation’s great guitarist. With his “virtuosic playing characterized by irresistible exuberance,” as described by The New York Times, his interpretations conjure the passion, playfulness, and drama of the rich musical heritage of his homeland, Rioja. He is known for his passionate, emotive and open-hearted playing, whether he is performing at intimate recital halls, or playing with beloved tenor Plácido Domingo to an audience of over 85,000 at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid, where maestro Domingo hailed him as “the master of the guitar.” Sáinz Villegas has continued to thrive over the past year, connecting in new ways with his audience. He was one of the few selected artists to participate at the 2018 Grammy Awards classical event at Carnegie Hall, and he recorded an anticipated duo album together with tenor Plácido Domingo. Highlights of his recent collaborations with Domingo include a performance on a floating stage on the Amazon River streamed worldwide to millions, as well as a special anniversary concert at Chile’s National Stadium. Last season, Sáinz Villegas also made his debut at Chicago’s Grant Park Music Festival under the baton of Carlos Kalmar at the Millennium Park to an audience of 11,000 people and accomplished summer tours with the
P A R K I N G G E N E R O U S LY D O N AT E D B Y :
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PABLO VILLEGA S Amsterdam Sinfonietta and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. He also gave the world premiere of Rounds, the first composition for guitar by five-time Academy Award-winner John Williams. Routinely drawing comparisons with legendary exponents of his instrument such as Andrés Segovia, Sáinz Villegas has already appeared on some of the world’s most prestigious stages including Carnegie Hall, the Philharmonie in Berlin, and the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing. Known for a sound so rich and full that it does not need amplification, his concerto performances regularly inspire new invitations and re-engagements in more than 30 countries. Sáinz Villegas continuously searches for ways to communicate with young audiences and to inspire them with music. A born communicator, the guitarist explains: “Music is among things we cannot touch, and that is what makes it most powerful.” His efforts have granted him invitations to play for the Spanish Royal Family and the Dalai Lama. An active recording artist, Sáinz Villegas is now an exclusive sony Classical recording artist. His most recent album with Plácido Domingo was released in 2018. Billboard named him “the global ambassador of Spanish guitar” after his latest solo album, Americano, which quickly made its debut to the top 15 on their charts under the pias | Harmonia Mundi usa label. Born in La Rioja in Northern Spain, Sáinz Villegas was inspired to take guitar lessons at age 6 and gave his first public performance at just 7 years old. Over the years, he amassed an impressive collection of over 30 international awards, including the Segovia award – which he won at age 15 – and the coveted gold medal at the Inaugural Parkening International Guitar Competition. Sáinz Villegas lives in New York City.
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Program Notes JOHANNES BRAHMS 1833–97
Serenade No. 1 in D Major, Op. 11 composed: 1857–59 most recent oregon symphony performance: March 1, 1978; Lawrence Smith, conductor instrumentation: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, and strings estimated duration: 45 minutes In 1857, Johannes Brahms accepted an invitation to the tiny court of LippeDetmold. His duties included giving piano lessons to Princess Frederike, accompanying Prince Leopold II, leading the court choir, and giving concerts. From 1857–60, Brahms spent each October through December at Detmold, where his relatively light work schedule allowed plenty of time to work on his own music. At this point in his career, Brahms had written chamber music and solo piano works but nothing for full orchestra. Four years earlier, Robert Schumann had praised Brahms, then a 20-year-old unknown from Hamburg, as the heir to Beethoven’s musical legacy. Schumann wrote, “If [Brahms] directs his magic wand where the massed power in chorus and orchestra might lend him their strength, we can look forward to even more wondrous glimpses into the secret world of the spirits.” The article brought Brahms to the attention of the musical world, but it also dropped a crushing weight of expectation onto his young shoulders. “I shall never write a symphony!” he famously lamented. “You have no idea how it feels to hear behind you the tramp of a giant like Beethoven.” For his first orchestral work, Brahms sidestepped the daunting prospect of a symphony with an ingenious alternative: an orchestral serenade. Serenades, with their bucolic nature, multiple movements, and emphasis on lyrical, lighthearted melodies, provided an excellent opportunity to explore the sonic
possibilities of a full orchestra without all the weighty compositional expectations attached to the writing of a symphony. When Brahms began writing Opus 11, he scored it for a nine-piece chamber ensemble of winds and strings. He then rewrote it for small orchestra; neither of these early versions survives. On March 28, 1859, Brahms’ good friend and colleague Joseph Joachim conducted the premiere of the chamber orchestra version in Hamburg. Later that year, Brahms finally enlarged Opus 11 for full orchestra. Joachim also led the first performance of this version, on March 3, 1860, in Hanover. Throughout the Serenade’s six movements, Brahms juxtaposes ebullience with melancholy: a jaunty opening Allegro and its emphatic horn solo contrast sharply with the whispery eddying currents of the first Scherzo. The Adagio’s stately dotted rhythm has a regal quality, in the manner of a grand procession. Throughout this section, the anchor for the whole of Opus 11, Brahms shows off his unmatched melodic skill with a series of lyrical phrases. Solo instruments or pairs of winds dialogue with the full orchestra. Brahms continues the contrast of sun and shade with the two minuets in G major and G minor. The first begins as a demure G major trio for clarinets with a bobbling bassoon, while the second features graceful strings in G minor. The second Scherzo, half the duration of the first, again showcases solo horn; the concluding Rondo’s main theme reprises the dotted rhythm of the Adagio, now speeded up to create breathless anticipation. Short interludes alternate with this primary dotted theme, which returns at the finish with an enthusiastic burst. On hearing a performance of Opus 11 in 1862, critic Eduard Hanslick, who would become a lifelong champion of Brahms’ music, wrote, “We regard the serenade, whose construction can assume the most multifarious forms, as the playground of idyllic dreams, of beloved thoughts, of lightness and gaiety. It is the symphony of tranquility.”
PABLO VILLEGA S STEVEN GOSS b. 1964
The Albéniz Concerto composed: 2009 first oregon symphony performance instrumentation: solo guitar, piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, castanets, cymbals, snare drum, tambourine, triangle, tubular bell, and strings estimated duration: 28 minutes Stephen Goss has made a name for himself as a composer, guitarist, and professor. His works have been commissioned and performed by orchestras around the world, including the Russian National Orchestra, the China National Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, among others. The International Record Review has praised Goss’ “eminently listenable music,” and his “brilliantly integrated” musical language, which seamlessly combines disparate influences “from Beethoven’s late piano music to the films of former Python Terry Gilliam.” “The music of Isaac Albéniz often evokes the sound of the guitar, so it comes as a surprise to most people that he never wrote a single note for the instrument,” writes Goss in his notes for The Albéniz Concerto. “Today, paradoxically, it is through the myriad guitar transcriptions of his piano works that Albéniz’s music is mostly widely performed and known. To celebrate the 150th anniversary of Albéniz’s birth, I was commissioned by [record label] emi to arrange some of his music for guitar and orchestra for a forthcoming recording by Xuefei Yang and the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra… I decided to write a full-blown romantic guitar concerto based on four specific piano pieces. Each of these pieces has been transformed into a concerto-style movement; the overall movement plan of the concerto attempts to give the impression of an integrated piece, rather than a selection of arrangements… “The choice of which Albéniz pieces to use for the concerto was crucial… I was
searching for pieces that had thematic similarities, in order for the movements to appear interconnected. For example, the theme from the second slow episode in Aragón is almost identical to the second theme in Evocation. “The concerto starts with The Albaicín (from Iberia Book 3, 1906), Albéniz’ stunning portrayal of the Gypsy quarter in Granada: flamenco influences suffuse the score… Debussy was a great admirer of [Albéniz’ original] piece, and his orchestrational style is suggested in this new version. After this intense and emotional first movement, Catalonia (from Suite española, Op. 47) is something of a palate cleanser… one of very few pieces that depict Albéniz’ native Catalonia. Evocation (from Iberia Book 1, 1905) the concerto’s slow movement, [begins with] a dark, melancholic Andalusian melody… first heard on English horn, that eventually gives way to a more sunny second theme… on the cellos and horns… The extended cadenza between the third and fourth movements incorporates musical material from all the other movements and leads directly to Aragón (from Suite española, Op. 47). The last movement is a virtuosic tour de force for both soloist and orchestra – a fast, rhythmic jota [dance] is twice interrupted by slower copla [song] sections, before a sparkling coda brings the work to a frenetic conclusion.”
JOAQUÍN TURINA 1882–1949
Danzas fantásticas, Op. 22 composed: 1919 first oregon symphony performance instrumentation: 3 flutes and piccolo, 2 oboes and English horn, 2 clarinets and bass clarinet, 2 bassoons and contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, bell, cymbals, drum, glockenspiel, triangle, harp, and strings estimated duration: 16 minutes In 1905, following in the path of his countrymen Manuel de Falla and Isaac Albéniz, 23-year-old Joaquín Turina arrived in Paris to study music at the Schola Cantorum. Musical nationalism, a signature component of 19th-century
Romantic music, came late to Spain, and Turina initially had little interest in including idiomatic Spanish sounds in his works. Instead, he strove to make music that reflected what was au courant, specifically the colorful impressionistic tendencies pioneered by Debussy. Over time, however, Turina also began to explore the diverse musical traditions of his native Spain. “Joaquín Turina is a musical impressionist of fine sensibility, both spiritually and musically,” wrote composer Leigh Henry in The Musical Times in 1919. “He tends towards the rather literary type of expression exemplified in Albéniz’ ‘Iberia’ Suite or in the ‘Images’ of Debussy… he writes concisely, and without musical ostentation, and his work reveals a fine sense of tone-colour.” In 1919, Turina wrote Danzas fantásticas, a work that combined his cosmopolitan European style with Spanish idioms. As Henry noted, Turina often found inspiration in literature; in the case of Danzas, Turina turned to an obscure Spanish novel, La orgía (The Orgy) by the Sevillian José Más y Laglera. Turina matched quotes from the novel to each of Danzas’ three movements. Exaltation: “It seemed as though the figures in that incomparable picture were moving inside the calyx of a flower.” The music unfolds with a shimmer of strings. Soon the lively Aragonese triple-meter jota emerges, and the movement becomes a jubilant celebration. The ethereal beginning returns as a seamless segue into Reverie: “The guitar’s strings sounded the lament of a soul helpless under the weight of bitterness.” This movement, a zortzico in 5/8 from the Basque region, showcases a lilting melody for duets of winds and builds to a full-voiced expression of yearning. Orgy: “The perfume of flowers mingles with the odor of manzanilla, and the bouquet of tall chalices is filled with matchless wine. Like incense, from this the dance rises.” In Turina’s interpretation, the orgy referred to is sonic rather than carnal. This movement is the most recognizably Spanish of the three, with its bold flamenco rhythms and the distinctive quality of Andalusian cante jondo (deep song). © 2019 Elizabeth Schwartz orsymphony.org | 503-228-1353 27
CORALINE IN CONCERT FRIDAY, MARCH 22, 2019, 7:30 PM Norman Huynh, conductor LAIKA Presents A LAIKA Production In Association with Pandemonium Coraline Starring: Dakota Fanning Teri Hatcher Jennifer Saunders Dawn French Ian Mcshane Music by Bruno Coulais Edited by Christopher Murrie and Ronald Sanders, a.c.e. Director of photography Pete Kozachik, asc Produced by Bill Mechanic, Claire Jennings, Henry Selick, and Mary Sandell Based on the book by Neil Gaiman Written for the screen and directed by Henry Selick
ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL
Biography
Bruno Coulais Bruno Coulais has been honored three times with the César Award (France’s equivalent of the Oscar) for his scores 28 artslandia.com
to Eric Valli’s Himalaya – l’enfance d’un chef, Claude Nuridsany and Marie Pérennou’s Microcosmos, and Christophe Barratier’s Les choristes. The latter film also brought him an Academy Award nomination in the Best Original Song category. He was also a bafta Award nominee for scoring Les choristes; a César Award nominee for scoring Mathieu Kassovitz’ Crimson Rivers and Jacques Perrin’s Winged Migration; and an Emmy Award nominee for scoring Raoul Peck’s Sometimes in April. Coulais began his musical education on the violin and piano. His entrée into film scores came via director François Reichenbach, who asked him to write the soundtrack for the documentary
México mágico. Subsequently, the first full-length feature he scored was Sébastien Grall’s La femme secrète. In addition to Coraline, his other feature film scores include Christine Pascal’s Le petit prince a dit; Agnès Merlet’s The Son of the Shark; Jacques Weber’s Don Juan; Elie Chouraqui’s Harrison’s Flowers; Pitof ’s Vidocq; Frédéric Schoendoerffer’s Agents secrets; James Huth’s Brice de Nice, and upcoming Lucky Luke. Coulais has composed several operas, including children’s operas. In 2005, he wrote and conducted his Stabat Mater in Saint Denis Cathedral with the participation of English musician Robert Wyatt.
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UNFORGETTABLE: 100 YEARS OF NAT AND NATALIE COLE SATURDAY, MARCH 23, 2019, 7:30 PM SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019, 2 PM SPONSORED BY THE ANDRIANOFF FAMILY CONCERT SPONSOR
Gerald Steichen, conductor Dee Daniels and Denzal Sinclaire, vocals Day In, Day Out Walking My Baby Back Home Mona Lisa Don’t Get Around Much Anymore The Very Thought of You Quizás, Quizás, Quizás Smile Paper Moon Route 66 L.O.V.E.
INTERMISSION To the Ends of the Earth Nature Boy Straighten Up and Fly Right Inseparable I’ve Got Love on My Mind When I Fall in Love Almost Like Being in Love No Plans for the Future This Will Be Unforgettable ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL
THE ANDRIANOFF FAMILY CONCERT A Visionary’s Tradition Lives On In 1997 Fred Andrianoff, a 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 Unforgettable as the continuation of Mr. 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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Michael Allen Harrison presents The 19th Annual
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U N F O R G E T TA B L E : 1 0 0 Y E A R S O F N AT A N D N ATA L I E C O L E Biographies
Originally from Tonkawa, Oklahoma, Steichen holds degrees from Northern Oklahoma College, Oklahoma City University, and the University of Southern California. He currently resides in New York City.
Gerald Steichen
including the 2009 premiere of New York choreographer Twyla Tharp’s musical Come Fly Away, and as an inspirational speaker, with a keynote address being delivered at the 2009 Women’s ceo & Senior Management Summit in Toronto. Her international career includes performances in 12 African countries, Australia, South America, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Japan, throughout North America, and many countries within Europe. Daniels has several cds as a leader to her credit, in addition to being a guest artist on cds of other artists.
Gerald Steichen last appeared with the Oregon Symphony on October 18, 2015, when he conducted “Broadway Classics.” With a career that ranges from symphony to opera and from Broadway to chamber music, Maestro Steichen has established himself as one of America’s most versatile conductors. He is currently music director of the Ridgefield Symphony (Connecticut), and he completed 12 seasons as principal pops conductor of the Utah Symphony, as well as 15 seasons as principal pops conductor of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra. Steichen is a frequent guest conductor for the Boston Pops and the New Jersey Symphony. International appearances include the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo City Symphony, the ndr Philharmonie Hannover at the Braunschweig Festival, and numerous appearances with the Norwegian Radio Symphony. During 10 seasons with the New York City Opera, Steichen led performances including La bohème, L’elisir d’amore, Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking, and Rachel Portman’s The Little Prince. A gifted pianist, he performed onstage for the New York City Opera’s acclaimed productions of Porgy and Bess and Carmina Burana. Steichen toured nationally as the associate conductor of The Phantom of the Opera, The Secret Garden, and Peter Pan, and conducted Cats in New York for two years. He has also appeared on Broadway, portraying Manny, the Accompanist, in the Tony Award-winning Master Class. 32 artslandia.com
Dee Daniels Dee Daniels last appeared with the Oregon Symphony on January 26, 2014, when she performed in “Red Hot Blues.” Whether accompanying herself at the piano or fronting a trio, big band, or symphony, Daniels’ musical career is as varied as her four-octave vocal range is thrilling. She is a unique talent who transcends musical borders when she brings her jazz styling, infused with gospel and blues flavoring, to the stage. One critic says, “Daniels’ voice has a hypnotic quality, delivering an impressive range that gives the romantic songs and verse of 50 years ago new life and raw emotion.” Though Daniels has a bachelor’s degree in art education and taught high school art for a year in Seattle, she quickly realized that her true calling was music. Her vocal style was born in her stepfather’s church choir in Oakland, California, refined through the R&B era, polished during a five-year stay in the Netherlands and Belgium from 1982 to 1987, and brought to full fruition upon her return to North America. From those years to the present, she has performed and/or recorded with many legends of jazz including Benny Green, Houston Person, John Clayton, Russell Malone, Wycliffe Gordon, Cyrus Chestnut, Helen Sung, Christian McBride, and David Young – to mention a few. Daniels has cultivated a diverse career that has also seen her on theater stages,
Denzal Sinclaire With this concert, Denzal Sinclaire makes his debut with the Oregon Symphony. Sinclaire is one of Canada’s most popular jazz vocalists and is ranked among the finest jazz singers of his generation. A graduate of McGill University’s Jazz Performance program (Montreal, Canada), he possesses that rare ability to achieve, from the moment he steps onstage, a profound emotional interaction with his audience. His passionate and sincere delivery caresses every song he sings. Sinclaire is a Juno Award (Canada’s Grammy Award) nominee, a recipient of the 2004 National Jazz Award for Best Album, a four-time consecutive recipient of the Jazz Report Award for Male Jazz Vocalist, and a recipient of the 2007 Choc Jazzman Award (France). His admirers include Grammy Award-winning artists Diana Krall (“Denzal Sinclaire embodies the tradition of the great singers I love like Nat Cole yet definitely has his own voice. He is one of my favorite
U N F O R G E T TA B L E : 1 0 0 Y E A R S O F N AT A N D N ATA L I E C O L E singers...”), Wynton Marsalis and the jalc Orchestra, Dianne Reeves, Michael Feinstein, and Michael Bublé as well as growing legions of jazz fans in his native Canada and abroad. From his early days as a canny interpreter of Nat “King” Cole’s mentholated crooning, he’s grown into one of the most distinctive and individualistic singers anywhere. Equally at home in the theater, film and television arenas, Sinclaire has delighted audiences with his critically acclaimed performance in Unforgettable, a musical based on the life and music of Nat King Cole; Tapestry: The Music of Carole King (Arts Club Theatre); and William Saroyan’s award-winning The Time of Your Life (Soul Pepper Theatre Company). His tv and film credits include appearances in the new Battlestar Galactica and Being Julia, starring Annette Bening and Jeremy Irons.
RECOMMENDED RECORDINGS FROM MENDELSSOHN’S “ITALIAN” Wagner: The Flying Dutchman Overture Otto Klemperer – Philharmonia Orchestra 5-emi/Warner Classics 484682 Theofanidis: Drum Circles World premiere – not yet recorded Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending Iona Brown, violin Sir Neville Marriner – Academy of St Martin in the Fields Decca 414595 Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 4, “Italian” John Eliot Gardiner – London Symphony Orchestra lso Live 0769
FROM PABLO SÁINZ VILLEGAS Brahms: Serenade No. 1 Sir Adrian Boult – London Philharmonic Orchestra emi/Warner Classics 65229 Goss: The Albéniz Concerto John Williams, guitar Paul Daniel – Royal Philharmonic Orchestra JCW Recordings 5060190000025 Turina: Danzas fantásticas Antonio de Almeida – Bamberg Symphony Orchestra Newton Classics 8802178 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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OUR SUPPORTERS The Oregon Symphony thanks these individuals for their generous contributions received from December 1, 2017, to January 26, 2019. We apologize for any omissions or misspellings. Please notify us of any adjustments. TRANSFORMATIONAL: $100,000–ABOVE Anonymous (4) Rich* & Rachel Baek Karen & Bill* Early Robert* & Janis Harrison Michael & Kristen* Kern Lynn & Jack Loacker Stephanie McDougal+ Estate of Minerva T. Nolte, M.D.+ Harold & Arlene Schnitzer care Foundation Arlene Schnitzer & Jordan Schnitzer Ann & Bill Swindells Charitable Trust
VIRTUOSO SO CIETY: $50,000–$99,999
Anonymous (1) The William K. Blount Family Fund of ocf Duncan & Cindy Campbell of The Campbell Foundation Drs. Cliff* & Karen Deveney Elizabeth N. Gray Fund of ocf Tige* & Peggy Harris Jeff Heatherington* Hedinger Family Foundation Rick* & Veronica Hinkes The Mary Dooly and Thomas W. Holman Fund of ocf Holzman Foundation/ Renée* & Irwin Holzman Beth & Jerry* Hulsman Carlos§ & Raffaela Kalmar Laura S. Meier James and Shirley Rippey Family Foundation The Leonard & Lois Schnitzer Fund of the ojcf Hank Swigert Nancy & Walter* Weyler Jack* & Ginny Wilborn The Jay & Diane Zidell Charitable Foundation Pat Zimmerman & Paul Dinu
OPUS SO CIETY: $25,000–$49,999
Anonymous (2) Ken Austin Judith M. Erickson Richard & Janet Geary Foundation Suzanne Geary* Dr. Thomas & Alix Goodman The Keller Foundation Priscilla Wold Longfield* Ann Olsen Harold & Jane Pollin Richard Rauch Eleanor & Georges St. Laurent Swigert Warren Foundation Dan G. Wieden & Priscilla Bernard Wieden
MOZART SO CIETY: $10,000–$24,999 Anonymous (5) A&E Tax Service, Inc. Peter & Missy Bechen Robert & Jean Bennett Susan & Larry Black Mr. & Mrs. Thomas Boklund Evona Brim
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Mr. & Mrs. Peter Brix William M. Brod Fund of the ocf Richard Louis Brown & Thomas Mark Cascadia Foundation Rick Caskey & Sue Horn-Caskey Chocosphere The Coit Family Foundation Truman Collins, Jr. Mark & Georgette Copeland Cecil & Sally Drinkward Fund of ocf Daniel* & Kathleen Drinkward Wayne & Julie Drinkward John S. Ettelson Fund of the ocf Robyn* & John Gastineau Barbara & Jerry Giesy Frank & Mary Gill Jonathan‡ & Yoko Greeney Charles & Nancy* Hales Jim & Karen Halliday Mr. & Mrs. Stephen J. Harder Bonnie Haslett & Terry Strom Mr. & Mrs. J. Clayton* Hering Robert & Marilyn Hodson Hank & Judy Hummelt Gerri Karetsky* & Larry Naughton Lamb Family Foundation (wa) Richard & Delight Leonard Mr. and Mrs. Robert McCall Michael & Susan Mueller Roscoe* & Debra Nelson An Advised Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation The Outlander Private Foundation Charles & Jennifer Putney Dan Rasay* & Katherine FitzGibbon Rutherford Investment Management & William D. Rutherford Daniel Sanford & Anna Kern Sanford Scott Showalter§ The Nancy & Richard Silverman Charitable Foundation Bill+ & Anne Swindells Victoria Taylor Don & Marian Vollum Jean Vollum Fund Dr. Derald Walker* & Charles Weisser Walters Family Foundation Gary Whitted Dr. & Mrs. Michael Wrinn
SILVER BATON: $6,000–$9,999
Anonymous (4) Anonymous Fund #16 of the ocf Richard & Judith Audley The Breunsbach Family Kay Bristow Deanna Cochener Jane & Evan Dudik Bruce & Terri Fuller Robert L. Ladehoff Michele Mass & Jim Edwards Ronald & Phyllis Maynard Jill McDonald Gil & Peggy Miller Millicent Naito Janice Phillips Travers & Vasek Polak Bonnie & Peter Reagan John+ & Charlene Rogers Rod & Cheryl Rogers Rebecca Rooks
John Runyan R. Kent Squires Ann Ulum & Robert Nickerson Richard H. & Linda F. Ward Dean E. & Patricia A. Werth Nancy & Herb Zachow Jason Zidell
BRONZE BATON: $4,000–$5,999
Anonymous (3) Ajitahrydaya Gift Fund Kirby & Amy Allen David E. & Mary C. Becker Fund of ocf John & Yvonne Branchflower Eve Callahan* & Scott Taylor Margery Cohn & Marvin Richmond Terry & Peggy Crawford Dr. & Mrs. David Cutler J. M. Deeney, M.D. Robert & Carol Dodge Mr. & Mrs. Dale Dvorak Ericksen Foundation Susan & Andrew Franklin Friends of the Oregon Symphony Dr. Steve Grover Chuck & CreeAnn Henderson Hibler Franke Foundation Marsh Hieronimus Carrie Hooten & David Giramma William H. Hunt Oregon Symphony Association Fund Jeff & Krissy Johnson Lance & Carey Killian Fernando Leon, M.D. & Dolores Leon, M.D. Terence McCarthy & Ed Valencia June McLean Violet & Robert+ Metzler Hester H. Nau Larry & Caron Ogg Michael & Janice Opton Barbara Page Jane Partridge Franklin & Dorothy Piacentini Charitable Trust Reynolds Potter & Sharon Mueller Pat Reser Rosemarie Rosenfeld Holly & Don Schoenbeck John & June Schumann Bill Scott & Kate Thompson Jo Shapland & Douglas Browning Mrs. & Mr. Francine Shetterly Sue & Drew Snyder George & Molly Spencer Mr. & Mrs. W. T. C. Stevens N. Robert & Barre Stoll Patricia Struckman Jeffrey Yandle & Molly Moran-Yandle
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Anonymous (6) Julie E. Adams Trudy Allen & Bob Varitz Meredith & Robert Amon Estate of Betty Amundson+ An Advised Fund of ocf
Patti & Lloyd+ Babler David & Jacqueline Backman Anne M. Barbey Ed & Becky Bard Tabitha & Patrick Becker Michael and Barbara Besand in Memory of Lillian (Lee) Besand David Blumhagen Josh & Wendie Bratt Gregory & Susan Buhr Ellen E. Bussing§ Mrs. Robert G. Cameron Peter & Eileen Carey Joan Childs & Jerry Zeret Nicholas & Jamie Denler Allen L. Dobbins Richard B. Dobrow, M.D. Leigh & Leslie Dolin Sterling Dorman David & Erin Drinkward Stephen & Nancy Dudley Family Fund of ocf Dr. Pamela Edwards & Mr. Thomas Clark Donald & Katharine Epstein Kenneth & Carol Fransen Y. Fukuta Richard Gallagher Robert & Carolyn Gelpke Daniel Gibbs & Lois Seed Frank And Mary Gill Foundation Don Hagge & Vicki Lewis Robert & Dorothy Haley Drs. James & Linda Hamilton Kirk & Erin Hanawalt Sonja L. Haugen Dennis & Judy Hedberg Diane M. Herrmann Susan, Diane & Richard Hohl Dan & Pat Holmquist Brad Houle Dennis Johnson & Steven Smith Kathy & Steve Johnson Barbara Kahl & Roger Johnston Estate of David Karr+ Susan D. Keil David & Virginia Kingsbury Drs. Arnold & Elizabeth Klein Lakshman Krishnamurthy & Rasha Esmat Mary Lago Paul W. Leavens Dorothy Lemelson Cary & Dorothy Lewis Jerome Magill Dana & Susan Marble M. & L. Marks Family Fund of ocf Nancie S. McGraw Bonnie McLellan Chris & Betsy Meier Jean & Walter Meihoff Mia Hall Miller & Matthew Miller Anne K Millis Fund of ocf Dolores & Michael Moore Lindley Morton & Corrine Oishi John & Nancy Murakami Bill & Kathy Murray Ward & Pamela Nelson John & Ginger Niemeyer George & Deborah Olsen Susan Olson & Bill Nelson Thomas Pak Janet C. Plummer§ & Donald S. Rushmer Charles & Ruth Poindexter
Lawrence Powlesland & James Russell Drs. Emilia & Jon Samuel Susan Schnitzer Diana & Hal Scoggins Peter Shinbach Jaymi & F. Sladen Ms. Barbara A. Sloop Annetta & Ed St. Clair David Staehely Jack & Crystal Steffen Mrs. James G. Stevens Cheryl & Harvey Storey Eustacia Su Drs. John & Betty Thompson Robert Trotman & William Hetzelson Charles & Alice Valentino Erica Van Baalen & David Hicks David & Christine Vernier Drs. Bastian & Barbara Wagner Wells Family Foundation John & Traci Wheeler Elaine M. Whiteley+ Robert & Margaret Wiesenthal Davida & Slate Wilson Zephyr Charitable Foundation Inc. Charlene Zidell
CONCERTO SO CIETY: $1,000–$2,499
Anonymous (12) Anonymous Fund #26 of ocf Markus Albert Carole Alexander Keiko Amakawa & Dr. Harvey Fishman Christopher Amling Jonathan & Deanne Ater Arthur & Joann Bailey Steve & Mary Baker Charles G. Barany Karin & Brian Barber Keith & Sharon Barnes David Barrett & Michelle Lowry James & Kathryn Bash Steven Bass Alan & Sherry Bennett Dr. & Mrs. Robert Berselli Broughton & Mary Bishop Family Advised Fund of cfsww Paul Black Lynne & Frank Bocarde Henry Bodzin Benjamin & Sandra Bole Fred & Diane Born Christopher Brooks* & Brittney Clark Craig & Karen Butler Barry & Barbara Caplan Rhett & Tiffanie Carlile Barbara & Robb Cason Carlos Castro-Pareja Audrey & Stephen Cheng Charles Clarkson Classical Up Close‡ Cynthia & Stanley Cohan Maurice Comeau, M.D. Jeffrey G. Condit James & E. Anne Crumpacker Estate of Joyle Dahl
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OUR SUPPORTERS Gregg McCarty & Karen Henell Sir James & Lady McDonald Designated Fund of the ocf Carolyn McMurchie Karen McNamee Greg & Sonya Morgansen Drs. Beth & Seth Morton Jonathan Nagar Chris & Tom Neilsen Ralph & Susan Nelson Libby Noyes Wanda & George Osgood Marianne Ott Barbara & Art Palmer Parsons Family Fund of the ocf Duane & Corinne Paulson Richard & Helen Phillips Fedor G. Pikus Tod Pitstick Diane Plumridge David+ & Marian Poindexter Wally & Bettsy Preble William Pressly & Carole Douglass Ronald & Lee Ragen Brian Ramsay Charles & Selene Robinowitz Dr. Lynne Diane Roe Charles & Katherine Rood Jeff & Kathleen Rubin Robert & Ann Sacks April Sanderson Brian & Sue Schebler Steven & Karen Schoenbrun Anna Roe & Ken Schriver Dr. & Mrs. George Sebastian Gregory Shields Joseph Sillay & Laila Raad-Sillay Al Solheim Jack & Charlene Stephenson Anne Stevenson Zachary & Vasiliki Stoumbos Barbara J. & Jon R. Stroud Sandra Suran Drs. Donald & Roslyn Elms Sutherland Erik Szeto & Anita Chan David Thompson Mike & Priscilla Thompson Angelo Turner Tony & Bianca Urdes Ann Van Fleet Bill & Janet Wagner Charles & Cherie Walker Kevin & Sharon Wei David & Leigh Wilson Loring & Margaret Winthrop Bing Wong Jane Work Lawrence & Jo Ann Young
SONATA SO CIETY: $600–$999
Anonymous (8) Maria Agoston Carole Asbury Michael Axley & Kim Malek Tom Bard Robert & Sharon Bennett Homer & La Donna Berry Jonathan Betlinski Robert & Gail Black Alice Pasel Blatt Virginia V. Burgess Maryann Burningham Mary Bywater Cross Martin & Truddy Cable Gerald Calbaum & Jan Marie Fortier-Calbaum Cecile Carpenter Frank & Val Castle
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Susan & Mark Cooksey Thomas & Cara Crowder Edward & Karen Demko Fred Duckwall & Nancy Krieg Barbara Edwards JoAnn Ferguson The Flesher Family Fund of InFaith Community Foundation Peter*‡ & Laurie Frajola Thomas & Rosemary Franz Ted Gaty Willis & Liz Gill Susannah Goff Goldy Family Designated Fund of ocf Elvin Gudmundsen Rachel Hadiashar Louis & Judy Halvorsen Frances F. Hicks Jimmy Hicks Kenneth Holford & Harry Hum Maryanne & David Holman Laurence & Janis Huff Nancy Ives‡ Douglas Jenkins & Michael Boyles Drs. Susan & Jeffrey Johnson Harlan Jones Katherine Joseph Aase S. Kendall Andrew Kern Foster Kimble James & Lois King Paul & Marijke Kirsten Sheldon Klapper & Sue Hickey Moshin & Christina Lee Mike & Bonnie Leiser Robert & Nancy Leon Phyllis J. Leonard Ralph & Merrill Maiano Jim & Midge Main Gail & Jim Manary Linda & Ken Mantel Micah Martin Rick & Sharon Meyer Jeffrey Morgan Jane & John Morris Alfred & Eileen Ono William O’Shea Helen Parker Lance Peebles Sandford B. Plant Morgan & Constance Pope Douglas Postlewaite H. Roger Qualman Richard & Susan Radke Kim & Roger Reynolds Lee A. Rodegerdts Jane Rowley Debora Roy Hubert & Ludmila Schlesinger Fund of the ocf Nathan Schultz Douglas & Ella Seely Leslie & Dorothy Sherman Fund of the ocf The Shulevitz Family P. J. Smith, Jr. & Steve Cox Sara Stamey Robert Staver Michael & Judy Stoner Kunal Taravade Herman Taylor & Leslye Epstein Brian Thomas & Susan Morgan Matt & Bethany Thomas Mike & Diana Thomas Richard & Larie Thomas Linda & Stephen VanHaverbeke Louise Varley Jon Vorderstrasse Roberta Lee White Gordon D. Wogan & Patricia Hatfield
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TR IB U TE Tribute gifts December 1, 2017–January 26, 2019 In Honor of Robert H. Armour Jean A. Major In Honor of Leonora Carrasco Robert & Gloria Mighell In Honor of Karen and Bill Early Mr. & Mrs. W. T. C. Stevens In Honor of Bob and Janis Harrison Mr. & Mrs. Richard G. Reiten In Honor of Jane Hirt Marissa Hirt In Honor of Beth and Jerry Hulsman Tracy & Melody Boyce Patricia Norris
Gregory Mast Andrew & Joan McKenna Joseph & Tracy Merrill In Memory of Isabel and A. Sheridan Grass Isabel Sheridan In Memory of Mary Rose Guimond Travel Portland In Memory of Robert Hamm Paula Hamm In Memory of Mike Hertz Anonymous
In Honor of Sarah Kwak and the Oregon Symphony Kay Bristow
In Memory of Marjorie Gray Hindman Charles & Meg Allen Anne Black Nicole Dunn Don Miles Frank & Bonnie Nusser The Redd Family Karen Spangler
In Honor of Dylan Lawrence Dan & Lesle Witham
In Memory of Arthur Warren Ingalls Warren Black
In Honor of Sarah Showalter Scott Showalter§
In Memory of Arnetta Turner Ingamells Sam Schmidt Barbara Stefani Mary Tuck Eleanore Turner
In Honor of Robyn Johnson Kermit Mccarthy & Maria Hein
In Honor of Maria Stanley Smith Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas Stanley In Honor of Doris Cecilia Storms Storms Family Foundation In Honor of Walt Weyler Peter & Penny Serrurier In Honor of Eileen Wingard Harriet Wingard In Memory of Gottfried Albert Markus Albert In Memory of Dr. Michael Baird Marta Malinow In Memory of Frances “Tannie” Brett Nicky & Blayde Fry Michael & Nancy Stockwell Vicki & Jerry Wright In Memory of Alice Lok Cahana Michael & Ida Rae Cahana
In Memory of Helen Katagiri Valerie & Doug Katagiri In Memory of Norine Matthews Laura Matthews In Memory of Margaret Maves Diane M. Herrmann In Memory of Alissa Marie McCrann Tom & Marilyn Fink In Memory of Prue Miller Dan & Sarah Dutton Susan Koe Barbara Millikan In Memory of Christine Nolan Dan Spencer & Laurie Louden In Memory of Richard Oliverio Les Vuylsteke
In Memory of Maurie Dooly The Mary Dooly and Thomas W. Holman Fund of OCF
In Memory of Madelon Adler Petroff Vic Petroff
In Memory of Dick Ebert Carol Kieg
In Memory of Gregory Pikus, Irma Lapis, and Alexander Lapis Fedor G. Pikus
In Memory of Harold Englet Molly Cochran & Sam Ellingson Monica Hayes§ & Bill Slater Christine Liu & Justin Smith Sue Morgan Janet C. Plummer§ & Donald S. Rushmer In Memory of Katherine Forrest Althea Jordan In Memory of Janet Gadsby Ellen Prendergast In Memory of Lynn Getz-Riley Julie & Wayne Anderson Catherine Bentley Fran & Fritz Bloemker Don Carson Tom & Maggie Churchill Chase & Lynne Curtis Julie Firestone David Grainger Robert Lynn
In Memory of Don Rader Pat Morris-Rader In Memory of John Rogers John & Sherry Dudrey In Memory of Carol Ann Sampson Frank Sampson In Memory of Mayer D. Schwartz Anonymous In Memory of Suryakant and Meera Thakkar Shreekant & Kit Thakkar In Memory of Julie Underwood Jean Cauthorn In Memory of Patty Vemer Randall Vemer & Mary Frances Byrne In Memory of Anne Willer Margaret Willer
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 (14) Markus Albert Kirby & Amy Allen Margaret A. Apel Margaret & Scott Arighi 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 Bill* & Karen Early Judith M. Erickson The John S. Ettelson Fund of OCF George Fabel Louise P. Feldman Beulah Felt+ Bill Findlay+ Harry & Gladys Flesher 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 Karen & Keith Johnson Dennis Johnson & Steven Smith Richard Kaiser & Virginia Shipman Richard & Ruth Keller Helen Kirkpatrick+ Georgia A Koehler Sally & Tom Kuhns Kyle & Marcia Lambert Wayne & Carolyn Landsverk Barbara A. Lee Fernando & Dolores Leon 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 Bruce F. Miller Mia Hall Miller Hannelore Mitchell-Schicht Richard Patrick Mitchell Carol N. Morgan Christi R. Newton Ann H. Nicholas Minerva T. Nolte, M.D. + 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 William L. & Lucille Reagan+ Ed Reeves & Bill Fish Mary & Mike Riley Sherry Robinson & Steve Shanklin Peter Rodda & Vincenza Scarpaci Betty Roren Walt Rose Betsy Russell William C. Scott Sara Seitz 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 + in memorium
DIRECTOR’S CHOICE
April 11-14, 2019 | Newmark Theatre PERFORMANCE INCLUDES: BringingOutsideIn Gioconda Barbuto / Owen Belton, Sarah Neufeld, Gabriel Prokofiev & Peter Gregson
Presto
Nicolo Fonte / Ezio Bosso
Jardí Tancat
Nacho Duato / Maria del Mar Bonet
Giants Before Us Nicolo Fonte / Franz Liszt & Franz Schubert Featuring pianist Hunter Noack
Tickets start at $29
503.222.5538 OBT.ORG
Chauncey Parsons Photo by Blaine Truitt Covert
Portland Columbia SymPhony Steven ByeSS, MuSic Director The Three Bs
March 15 & 17, 2019 BARBER | BRITTEN BEETHOVEN: Violin Concerto Tomás Cotik, violin
Slavic Spectacular May 3 & 5, 2019 LISZT | DVORÁK | BARTÓK KODÁLY: Suite from Háry János columbiasymphony.org | 503.234.4077
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OUR SUPPORTERS Corporate Partners The Oregon Symphony thanks these corporations for their generous contributions received from December 1, 2017, to January 26, 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
ESCO FOUNDATION
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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ALASKA/HORIZON AIRLINES INC. ALL CLASSICAL PORTLAND AMAZON.COM ANDANTE VINEYARDS ARGYLE WINERY ART OF CATERING THE AV DEPARTMENT BADASS CATERING CROWLEY WINES D.A. DAVIDSON & CO. JASON DESOMER PHOTOGRAPHY DOCUMART COPIES & PRINTING DOMAINE SERENE FREELAND SPIRITS
GENIUS LOCI GERANIUM LAKE FLOWERS RACHEL HADISHAR PHOTOGRAPHY HEADWATERS AT THE HEATHMAN HENRY’S TAVERN HORST & GRABEN WEALTH MANAGEMENT INICI GROUP, INC. KLARQUIST SPARKMAN, LLP KROGER MAGAURN VIDEO MEDIA MONDAY MUSICAL CLUB OF PORTLAND JONATHAN NAGAR
NEL CENTRO ONPOINT COMMUNITY CREDIT UNION PORTLAND ART MUSEUM POSTER GARDEN PREMIERE VALET RAMPANT CREATIVE, INC. RAVEN & ROSE ROCHE BOBOIS ROCKWELL COLLINS CHARITABLE FOUNDATION SINEANN WINERY VIDON VINEYARD
OUR SUPPORTERS Foundation and Government Support The Oregon Symphony thanks these organizations for their generous contributions received from December 1, 2017, to January 26, 2019. TR ANS FO RMATI ONAL $10 0 , 0 0 0 A ND A B OV E
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
WILLIAM AND FLORA HEWLETT FOUNDATION
HAMPTOM FAMILY FOUNDATION OF OCF
O P U S S O CIE T Y $ 2 5 , 0 0 0 – $ 49,9 9 9
ANN AND BILL SWINDELLS CHARITABLE TRUST
THE JAY AND DIANE ZIDELL CHARITABLE FOUNDATION
MAYBELLE CLARK MACDONALD FUND
ROSE E. TUCKER CHARITABLE TRUST
RESER FAMILY FOUNDATION
M OZ AR T S O CIE T Y $10 , 0 0 0 – $ 24 ,9 9 9
ANONYMOUS (1)
ROBERT & MERCEDES EICHHOLZ FOUNDATION
JACKSON FOUNDATION
LAMB FAMILY FOUNDATION
HERBERT A. TEMPLETON
WALTERS FAMILY FOUNDATION
THE WOLLENBERG FOUNDATION
S ILVE R B ATON $ 6 , 0 0 0 – $ 9,9 9 9
JUAN YOUNG TRUST
B R ONZ E B ATON $ 4 , 0 0 0 – $5 ,9 9 9
SCHLESINGER FAMILY FOUNDATION
COND U C TO R ’ S CIR CLE $ 2 , 5 0 0 – $ 3 ,9 9 9
AUTZEN FOUNDATION
CON CE R TO $1, 0 0 0 – $ 2 , 49 9
H.W. & D.C. IRWIN FOUNDATION
KINDER MORGAN FOUNDATION
DAVID & LOA MASON CHARITABLE TRUST
WHEELER FOUNDATION (WA)
WINTZ FAMILY FOUNDATION
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ON A HIGH NOTE Double bassist Nina DeCesare is making history as the Oregon Symphony’s f irst female bass player. After beginning her path to a professional musician at age 8 on a quarter-size bass, DeCesare went on to study with Paul Ellison at Rice University and with François Rabbath in Paris. She represented Rice’s Shepherd School of Music with a solo at the Kennedy Center in 2014 and won her seat with the Oregon Symphony later that same year. Her hands are exactly the right size to play the bass, and no, she does not need help carrying such a big instrument. How did you come to play the bass? What’s your first experience of being drawn to it? My mom played the flute, so naturally, I wanted to be like her. When I was in third grade, she told me that my hands were too small for flute, that I should learn a string instrument for a year at school first. I chose the largest one to prove that my hands weren’t too small! In all seriousness, though, I loved the deep sound of the bass at my older brother’s spring concert and never looked back. What draws you to working with young musicians? I love seeing the moments of pure joy or surprise that come along with learning, especially with the really young bassists, and watching their transition from not understanding or thinking something is too hard to their excitement and pride at being able to do it, finally. When I was younger, I never had any female bass teachers and rarely even met female professional bassists, so I am particularly drawn to mentoring girls.
Oregon Symphony double bass
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Photo: Christine Dong, Artslandia.
Nina DeCesare
I enjoy working through all of the challenges and triumphs with my students. I know how important it can be to have a mentor for bass playing and also just for life itself, so I like filling that role. It’s satisfying to be able to help my students progress technically, but it’s especially important to me that they also learn things like self-confidence, perseverance, hard work, and how to use the bass as a tool for emotional expression. What advice do you give to aspiring professional musicians, and bassists, in particular? The practical advice I most often give is to focus on time management. I think it’s incredibly important to figure out which time of day is most productive for practicing. For some people, that’s nighttime or afternoon. Some people focus better in small chunks throughout the day, others one long session. For me, I concentrate best in the morning, so I used to schedule my classes and the rest of my life around a three-hour window of practice each morning. It’s easy to end up busy and stressed throughout college, but if
The more Yoda answer is not to sell yourself short. Confidence can be a goal. It’s good to be hard on yourself to a degree because it will help you continue to progress and grow, but you have to know your worth and not let selfcriticism take over. Which musicians inspire and influence the way you play? Bassists who inspire me are François Rabbath, Edgar Meyer, and Renaud Garcia-Fons. Non-bassists who inspire me recently are Kendrick Lamar, TuneYards, and Vulfpeck. I love a funky bass line just as much as any classical piece. What’s the most rewarding part of your job? Looking around while we’re playing and knowing that we’re all feeling the same thing. During our recent Pops concert, the strings section performed Barber’s Adagio for Strings, and the emotion among my colleagues was apparent. In day-to-day life, it often seems like we’re trying to temper and conceal our feelings, so for 76 people to get onstage and play something powerful together is incredible. It’s like being part of a big team that’s committed to expressing the human experience. I’m always hoping that our audience can feel it, too. What’s the most unexpected thing about you? Last summer, I took a month off from playing to hike 220 miles of the John Muir Trail in the High Sierras in California. For three weeks, I ate out of a bag, didn’t shower, and averaged about 15 miles a day going up and down over mountain passes. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done but also absolutely incredible.
Literary Arts’ annual celebration of remarkable literature created right here in Oregon.
2019 Oregon Book
Awards Ceremony EG
ON
AP
BOOK AW AR
DS
When I first started playing, I was obsessed and immediately began practicing as much as I could. I was a pretty shy kid, but I always felt completely comfortable when I was playing. It was a way to express myself. I was also lucky to have teachers who both inspired me and gave me a solid technical foundation. However, I had a hard time when I arrived at Rice University because the pressure of supporting myself as a musician after college became very real. The excessive practicing and stress caught up to me, and I ended up with a severe nerve injury that sidelined me for an entire year. Looking back, I’m thankful that it happened because I was able to spend that time breaking old habits and growing as a musician beyond playing the bass. I re-learned how to play in the most relaxed, efficient way possible.
the goal is to win an orchestra job, practicing should be a top priority, with the understanding that the quality of practice time is more important than quantity. Also, days off are incredibly important, mentally and physically!
OR
How was the process of learning the bass for you? What is it like to usher students through that process as a private teacher?
RIL 3 0, 201
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April 22 at 7:30 p.m. Gerding Theater at the Armory Tickets start at $12 BrownPaperTickets.com
The 2019 Oregon Book Awards celebrates the state’s most accomplished writers in the genres of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, young readers, and drama. The evening will be hosted by Cheryl Strayed, author of the #1 New York Times best selling memoir Wild, New York Times best sellers Tiny Beautiful Things and Brave Enough, and the novel Torch.
®
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IN THE SPOTLIGHT
You’ve read the biography of Pablo Sáinz Villegas earlier in this issue of InSymphony. Now enjoy the artist himself, brought to you by Artslandia.
®
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What inspired you to pick up the guitar when you were 6 years old? I watched Andrés Segovia on a blackand-white tv. A year later, I went onstage during a school recital for the first time, and I unexpectedly felt the powerful magic of music when sharing it with an audience. I felt a pure light that connected me with something greater than myself, and this experience changed my life forever.
What’s a pleasure of your place of origin – La Rioja, Spain – that you’ve not found elsewhere in all your travels? There is nothing like the first nest: the connection with your roots and your voice ingrained in the past. My roots are my truth; it’s where I come from. The feeling of going back home and spending time with my family is a great inspiration for me. I love the lasting philosophical conversations with my dad, and there’s also nothing like my mom’s family recipes that light up my heart and soul in a special way.
What drove you to create your nonprofit, Music Without Borders Legacy, and to direct your philanthropic efforts toward at-risk children and youth? After my first concert, I was so mesmerized by the experience onstage that I told my mom that I wanted to play again. She came up with the idea to visit nursing homes in my hometown, and I loved it!
I can still remember the big smiles on the faces of the elderly people that we visited. I realized then how simple it can be to bring happiness to people by sharing music with them.” Many years later, after finishing my studies, I was yearning to find ways to bring music to people. In 2006, I met Richard Kiy, the President of the International Community Foundation in San Diego, who became my mentor and guided me to make it happen. That year, I founded the Music without Borders Legacy with the purpose of creating bridges of hope in the border region of the United States and Mexico. Children on both sides of the border live complex family and social situations, and music offers them a way to channel their emotions and connect.
Collaborating with Plácido is simply a dream come true. The making of this recording is one of the most beautiful gifts and highlights of my life and career. Beyond being one of the most beloved voices of our time, Plácido is a human being full of light, passion, and inspiration who has made me a better human being simply by spending time with him. I am grateful to have received his invitation to share this journey, to make music together, and to bring poetry into the air. The New York Times commented on your “irresistible exuberance,” and we’ve also read about your charisma and gregariousness. Have you always possessed such spirit, or is it something you’ve cultivated over the course of your life? The joy I feel when sharing my music with people, whether a small or large audience, infuses my drive. People I play for and meet around the world constantly inspire me to give the best of myself and to push my own boundaries in creating the best possible experience. I do what I do because of my audience, and I feel music belongs to them. I believe that every human being can fulfill their dream if they nurture it every day of their lives with enough passion and determination to make it happen. I hope to inspire through music as much as my audience has inspired me. I do what I do to share the magic of believing in yourself, following your dreams, and sharing joy with others.
Since then, as my international calendar grew, I have expanded my activities by using any free slots in my professional agenda to do outreach activities in schools and community centers. It fills me with joy to have reached more than 32,000 children through initiatives all over the world. Will you share with a favorite outreach experience? One of my favorite experiences we’ve created and developed is a Community Serenade (“Serenata a tus Valores” in Spanish) where hundreds of people of all ages are invited to participate. A person of the local community whose life story and values are admirable is chosen confidentially. Then, with the help of local collaborators and media, we lead people with their instruments and voices in serenading that special someone. It’s a memorable and very emotional experience to unite hundreds of voices and harmonies in honoring people whose generosity and values are an inspiration for everyone. We’ve done several editions in Spain, and I am excited that we will soon also make it happen in San Diego through an Artist-inResidence with the La Jolla Music Society Summer Festival. How did your latest album, Volver, with Plácido Domingo come to be? It happened magically, and I’d say very casually. It all started with a phone call from Plácido Domingo the day after our very first concert together at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium (in front of 85,000 people!). I picked up the phone, and there was Maestro Domingo telling me he had enjoyed our performance so much that he would like to record an album with me. It all started from there.
What are your plans for your downtime on this visit to Portland? I love Portland because it brings together some of my favorite things in the world: wonderful people, breathtaking nature, and delicious food. My wife and I plan to visit with friends, discover new local restaurants, visit the Portland Art Museum, and enjoy long walks in some of the many parks the city features.
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PORTLAND’5 PRESENTS
MONDAY, APRIL 1 | 7:30PM
“Ranky Tanky, from Charleston, S.C., sings old Gullah songs—some of them sly moral lessons—in arrangements that connect their beat to a New Orleans lilt.” —New York Times
INFO & TICKETS: PORTLAND5.COM | PH: 800.273.1530 | PORTLAND’5 BOX OFFICE | TICKETSWEST OUTLETS
PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY OPERA PRESENTS
BY W.A. MOZART
April 19-28 LINCOLN PERFORMANCE HALL
FAKE GARDENER.
LA
Tickets: $15-$30 pdx.edu/boxoffice or 503.725.3307
REAL LOVE. ALL MADNESS!
FINTA
GIARDINIERA (THE PRETEND GARDENER)
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THEN AND NOW
Oregon Zoo
Past & Present 1935
The bear den in City Park (now Washington Park), circa 1935, Wesley Andrews, OrHi 017629.
2019
Takoda is one of four American black bears that live in Black Bear Ridge at the Oregon Zoo. The habitat mimics the bear’s natural environment with steep slopes, towering Douglas Fir trees, and two bobcats. Photo courtesy of Oregon Zoo.
In 1882, Englishman Richard Knight opened a pharmacy near the docks along the Willamette River that became known as a willing repository for animals that sailors brought home from their travels. When his menagerie came to include two bears that became too much to manage, Knight offered to sell the bears to the city of Portland to attract visitors to City Park (now Washington Park). City officials offered him, instead, two circus cages on the park grounds near one of the Zoo’s current entrances at nw 24th Place and w Burnside with the caveat that he continued to feed and care for the bears. Five months into this arrangement, Knight donated one bear to the city outright, and the Portland Zoo (now Oregon Zoo) was born. The fate of the other bear is unknown. In the 131 years since, the facility has expanded to 64 acres and is home to over 2,500 animals representing more than 215 species, including those that are endangered and threatened. The Zoo stands among our city’s most-loved institutions, with voters supporting the Zoo’s animal welfare, education, and sustainability programs many times over the years and attendance topping 1.7 million visits for the fiscal year ending June 2018.
Historic photographs for this series are provided by the Oregon Historical Society, a museum, research library, archive, and scholarly asset located in the heart of Portland’s Cultural District. View more photos of historic Portland on the new ohs Digital Collections website at digitalcollections.ohs.org/ portland-cityscapes.
Have an anecdote or old school photograph of you posing at the Oregon Zoo? Post it! Don’t forget to tag #Artslandia and #ThenAndNow.
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SEEN ON THE SCENE
Barbi Riggs, Principal of Hawthorne Elementary in Sweet Home, with Monte Riggs.
David & Jenna Powers with Lovely Laban of Skin by Lovely & her husband, Jake.
Princess Nora & Princess Hannah.
The young princesses of Kairospdx.
Caydence & Kayla Decaro.
Mini Cinderella.
Peek-a-boo!
The show was a delight for people of all ages.
Not everyone loves a red carpet!
OREGON BALLET THEATRE’S CINDERELLA
Magic was in the air at the opening of Oregon Ballet Theatre’s one-week run of Cinderella. Xuan Cheng was brilliant in the role of Cinderella, and her transformation upon saying yes to the dress left the audience breathless. Brian Simcoe’s performance as the Prince was charming, indeed. The obt Orchestra, which contributed a vibrant, live performance of Prokofiev’s score, was so magnificient that the emotion was visceral. The company premiered the work in 2015 to packed houses and rave reviews, and the redux was no less spetacular.
PHOTO CREDIT: Max McDermott, Artslandia.
Don’t forget to tag #Artslandia and #ArtslandiaWasHere on your event photos for the chance to be featured!
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RANGE ROVER VELAR
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