LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

APRIL CONCERTS

Beethoven’s Ninth

APRIL 4–6

Jonathon Heyward, conductor • Oregon Repertory Singers • Alexandria Shiner, soprano • Siena Licht Miller, mezzo-soprano • Kyle van Schoonhoven, tenor • Reginald Smith, Jr., baritone

Stravinsky: Agon Beethoven: Symphony No. 9, “Choral”

Oregon Repertory Singers join the orchestra and four soloists for a full-throated celebration of Beethoven’s final masterpiece.

The Flaming Lips with the Oregon Symphony

APRIL 13

Norman Huynh, conductor Reed College Chorus The Flaming Lips will perform their iconic 1999 masterpiece The Soft Bulletin in its entirety, joined by the Oregon Symphony.

Kristin Chenoweth in Concert – For The Girls

APRIL 16

Mary-Mitchell Campbell, conductor The star of Broadway, film, and tv joins the Oregon Symphony for a spectacular evening featuring songs from her latest album, For The Girls. Celebrated for originating the role of Glinda the Good Witch in the Broadway hit Wicked, the Emmy and Tony awardwinning actress will pay tribute to remarkable women singers, including Dolly Parton, Ariana Grande, and Jennifer Hudson.

Revueltas’ Night of the Mayas by Michael Curry

APRIL 25–27

Carlos Kalmar, conductor • Michael Curry, stage designer/director

Villa-Lobos: Uirapurú Dvořák: The Golden Spinning Wheel • Revueltas: La noche de los mayas (The Night of the Mayas)

Award-winning designer Michael Curry – whose 2017 imagining of Stravinsky’s Persephone dazzled three sold-out halls – returns to the Oregon Symphony, drawing from ancient Mayan tradition to create a mysterious, supernatural setting for Revueltas’ 1939 film score La noche de los mayas.

Revueltas’ Night of the Mayas by Michael Curry April 25–27

orsymphony.org 503-228-1353 your official source for symphony tickets

Carlos Kalmar Jean Vollum music director chair

Norman Huynh Harold and Arlene Schnitzer associate conductor chair

Carlos Kalmar is in his 17th season as music director of the Oregon Symphony. He is also the artistic director and principal conductor of the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago.

In May 2011, he made his New York debut at Carnegie Hall with the Oregon Symphony as part of the inaugural Spring for Music festival. Both his imaginative program, Music for a Time of War, and the performance itself were hailed by critics in The New York Times, The New Yorker magazine, and Musical America, and the concert was recorded and released on the Pentatone label, subsequently earning two Grammy nominations (Best Orchestral Performance and Best Engineered). Under Kalmar’s guidance the orchestra has recorded subsequent cds on the Pentatone label – This England, featuring works by Britten, Vaughan Williams, and Elgar; The Spirit of the American Range, with works by Copland, Piston, and Antheil, which received another Best Orchestral Performance Grammy nomination; Haydn Symphonies; and Aspects of America.

The New Yorker magazine critic Alex Ross called the Oregon Symphony’s Carnegie Hall performance under Kalmar “the highlight of the festival and one of the most gripping events of the current season.” That verdict was echoed by Sedgwick Clark, writing for Musical America, who described the performance of Vaughan Williams’ Fourth Symphony as “positively searing… with fearless edge-of-seat tempos… breathtakingly negotiated by all…”

A regular guest conductor with major orchestras in America, Europe, and Asia, Kalmar recently made his subscription series debuts with three of America’s most prestigious orchestras: those of Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco. Past engagements have seen him on the podium with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Minnesota Orchestra, and the New World Symphony, as well as the orchestras of Baltimore, Cincinnati, Dallas, Houston, Milwaukee, Nashville, Seattle, and St. Louis.

Kalmar, born in Uruguay to Austrian parents, showed an early interest in music and began violin studies at the age of six. By the time he was 15, his musical promise was such that his family moved back to Austria in order for him to study conducting with Karl Osterreicher at the Vienna Academy of Music. He has previously served as the chief conductor and artistic director of the Spanish Radio/Television Orchestra and Choir in Madrid as well as the music director for the Hamburg Symphony, the Stuttgart Philharmonic, Vienna’s Tonnkunsterorchester, and the Anhaltisches Theater in Dessau, Germany. He lives in Portland with his wife, Raffaela, and sons, Luca and Claudio. Norman Huynh has established himself as a conductor with an ability to captivate an audience through a multitude of musical genres. This season, Huynh continues to showcase his versatility in concerts featuring Itzhak Perlman, hip hop artists Nas and Wyclef Jean, and vocal superstar Storm Large.

Born in 1988, Huynh is a first generation Asian American and the first in his family to pursue classical music as a career. Upcoming and recent engagements include the St. Louis Symphony, Detroit Symphony, and Grant Park Music Festival. He has served as a cover conductor for the New York Philharmonic and Los Angeles Philharmonic with John Williams.

Huynh has been at the forefront of moving orchestral music out of the traditional concert hall. In 2011, he co-founded the Occasional Symphony in Baltimore to celebrate holidays by performing innovative concerts in distinct venues throughout the inner-city. The orchestra performed on Dr. Seuss’ birthday at Port Discovery Children’s Museum, Halloween in a burnt church turned concert venue, and Cinco de Mayo in the basement bar of a Mexican restaurant.

Huynh currently resides in Portland and enjoys skiing, board games, and riding his motorcycle. You can follow him on Instagram @normanconductor.

Jeff Tyzik principal pops conductor

Jeff Tyzik has earned a reputation as one of America’s foremost pops conductors and is recognized for his brilliant arrangements, original programming, and rapport with audiences. Now in his 26th season as principal pops conductor of the Rochester Philharmonic, Tyzik is also in his 13th season as the Oregon Symphony’s principal pops conductor and continues to serve in the same role with the Seattle Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Florida Orchestra, and Canada’s Vancouver Symphony.

Tyzik is also highly sought after as a guest conductor across North America. He holds Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from the Eastman School of Music. He lives in Rochester, New York, with his wife, Jill.