InSymphony October 2019

OC TOBER 2 019

the magazine of the

Oregon Symphony

Stravinsky’s Firebird FE ATURED CONCER T S Batman in Concert | Oct. 4–6 Stravinsky’s Firebird | Oct. 12–14 Beethoven v. Coldplay | Oct. 17 Dancing in the Streets | Oct. 19–20 Beethoven’s Fifth | Oct. 26–28

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CONTENTS OCTOBER 2019 14

Feature

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about us LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT 9 CONDUCTORS 11 ORCHESTRA, STAFF & BOARD 12 RECOMMENDED RECORDINGS 37 OUR SUPPORTERS 38

Stephen Hough

featured

Batman in Concert

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STEPHEN HOUGH 14 FASCINATING FACTOIDS: BEETHOVEN 45 IN THE SPOTLIGHT: STEVE HACKMAN 46 ON A HIGH NOTE: JEFFREY WORK 48 THE ART OF COCKTAILS: FIREBIRD RISING 51 ASK URSULA THE USHER 53 #ARTSLANDIAWASHERE 54

Stravinsky’s Firebird

performances

Beethoven v. Coldplay

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BATMAN IN CONCERT 16 FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 7:30 PM SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5, 7:30 PM SUNDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2 PM STRAVINSKY’S FIREBIRD 20 SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12, 7:30 PM SUNDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2 PM MONDAY, OCTOBER 14, 7:30 PM BEETHOVEN V. COLDPLAY 28 THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 7:30 PM

Beethoven’s Fifth

Dancing in the Streets

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Feature

Feature

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DANCING IN THE STREETS 32 SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 7:30 PM SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2 PM BEETHOVEN’S FIFTH 34 SATURDAY, OCTOBER 26, 7:30 PM SUNDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2 PM MONDAY, OCTOBER 28, 7:30 PM

Boyz Men In the IISpotlight: Steve Hackman

Zach Galatis Jeffrey Work

Oregon Symphony programs are supported in part by the Oregon Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts – a federal agency – and by the Regional Arts & Culture Council, which includes support from the Arts Education and Access Fund; Arts Investment Fund; the City of Portland; Multnomah, Clackamas, and Washington Counties; and Metro.

on the cover: Stravinsky’s Firebird

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LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT Dear Friends, Oregon Symphony believes music has the power to unite, to educate, to inspire, and to heal. This is true for concerts onstage, but perhaps even more evident in the education and community engagement events we offer throughout the region. In October, our Artist-in-Residence program presents a special opportunity to foster long-term connections between our performers and our audiences.

At the end of the month, cellist Johannes Moser returns to Oregon Symphony for his second of three years as Artist-in-Residence. During his week with us, Moser will help create access to classical music in the places where we work, gather, study, and live. He will perform a recital for our partner, Maybelle Community Singers, at the Maybelle Center for Community in Old Town. He will help encourage the next generation of musicians by conducting master classes at Portland State University and Willamette University. He will help demonstrate the healing power of music by accompanying a guided meditation session at the Walters Art Center in Hillsboro and cultivate inspiration for the youth at St. Mary’s Home for Boys. These events are in addition to his appearance in our Classical Series, October 26–28, when he will perform Lutosławski’s Cello Concerto.

Moser is our third Artist-in-Residence. His predecessor, Colin Currie, also returns to Portland, October 12–14 for the world premiere of Andy Akiho’s Percussion Concerto, an Oregon Symphony commission, which appears on the program with Stravinsky’s Firebird.

I hope you find joy and inspiration in your Oregon Symphony’s musical innovations this month, whether in an original commission, a surprising pairing, or a vibrant new production of classic repertoire. Thank you for joining us.”

Scott Showalter president & ceo orsymphony.org | 503-228-1353

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NOVEMBER CONCERTS Stephen Hough Plays Mendelssohn

Kid’s Concert: Castles and Wizards

NOVEMBER 2–4 Clemens Schuldt, conductor • Stephen Hough, piano

NOVEMBER 10 Make sure to grab your wand and don your finest wizarding robes for this magical performance! Music from Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and more will enchant concert-goers of all ages.

L. Boulanger: Of a Sad Evening L. Boulanger: Of a Spring Morning • Mendelssohn: Piano Concerto No. 1 Schumann: Symphony No. 1, “Spring” The “Genius” grant winner returns to perform Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto, a hidden gem full of fire and drama.

Chick Corea NOVEMBER 7 Chick Corea’s career as one of the most creative minds in jazz spans more than five decades. We can’t wait to hear what he’ll do with Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, the piece that introduced jazz into the classical repertoire.

Holiday Swing NOVEMBER 30–DECEMBER 1 Jeff Tyzik, conductor Byron Stripling, trumpet and vocals

Byron Stripling lights up the stage with his infectious yuletide joy, blazing trumpet virtuosity, engaging vocals, and your favorite seasonal tunes.

Mahler’s Sixth NOVEMBER 16–18 Carlos Kalmar, conductor • Alexi Kenney, violin • Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 3 Mahler: Symphony No. 6, “Tragic” Experience the passion and vast dramatic scope of Mahler’s Sixth Symphony.

Sibelius’ The Tempest NOVEMBER 23–25 Carlos Kalmar, conductor Mary Birnbaum, stage director PSU Chamber Choir Cast, tba Sibelius: The Tempest

Sibelius meets Shakespeare, as a live theatrical cast brings drama to the Finnish composer’s moving incidental music.

Buy tickets to any of these concerts in the lobby of the Schnitz during intermission!

Mahler’s Sixth, November 16–18

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

CONDUCTORS Carlos Kalmar Jean Vollum music director chair

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

In May 2011, he made his New York debut at Carnegie Hall with the Oregon Symphony as part of the inaugural Spring for Music festival. Both his imaginative program, Music for a Time of War, and the performance itself were hailed by critics in The New York Times, 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.

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

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, or, and enjoys skiing, board games, and riding his motorcycle. You can follow him on Instagram @normanconductor.

Jeff Tyzik principal pops conductor

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

Tyzik is also highly sought after as a guest conductor across North America. He holds Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from the Eastman School of Music. He lives in Rochester, New York, with his wife, Jill. orsymphony.org | 503-228-1353 11

O R C H E S T R A , S TA F F & B O A R D Orchestra MU S I C D IR E C TO R

CE LLO

H O RN

Carlos Kalmar Jean Vollum music director chair

Nancy Ives, Mr. & Mrs. Edmund Hayes, Jr. principal cello chair Marilyn de Oliveira, assistant principal Seth Biagini Kenneth Finch Trevor Fitzpatrick Antoinette Gan Kevin Kunkel

John Cox, principal Joseph Berger, associate principal Graham Kingsbury, assistant principal Matthew Berliner* Mary Grant** Alicia Michele Waite

A S S O CIATE COND U C TO R Norman Huynh Harold and Arlene Schnitzer associate conductor chair PR IN CIPAL P O P S COND U C TO R Jeff Tyzik VI O LIN

BASS Colin Corner, principal Braizahn Jones, assistant principal Nina DeCesare Donald Hermanns Jeffrey Johnson Jason Schooler

Sarah Kwak, Janet & Richard Geary concertmaster chair Peter Frajola, Del M. Smith & Maria Stanley Smith associate

concertmaster chair FLU TE Erin Furbee, Harold & Jane Pollin Martha Long, Bruce & Judy Thesenga assistant concertmaster chair principal flute chair Chien Tan, Truman Collins, Sr. principal Alicia DiDonato Paulsen, second violin chair Inés Voglar Belgique, assistant principal assistant principal Zachariah Galatis second violin Fumino Ando PI CCO LO Keiko Araki Zachariah Galatis Clarisse Atcherson Ron Blessinger OBOE Lisbeth Carreno Martin Hébert, Harold J. Schnitzer Ruby Chen principal oboe chair Emily Cole Karen Wagner, assistant principal Julie Coleman Kyle Mustain** Eileen Deiss Jason Sudduth* Jonathan Dubay Gregory Ewer ENGLI S H H O RN Daniel Ge Feng Kyle Mustain** Lynne Finch Jason Sudduth* Shin-young Kwon Ryan Lee CL AR INE T Yuqi Li James Shields, principal Samuel Park Todd Kuhns, assistant principal Searmi Park Mark Dubac Vali Phillips Shanshan Zeng B A S S CL AR INE T VIOLA Todd Kuhns Joël Belgique, Maybelle Clark Macdonald Fund principal viola chair Charles Noble, assistant principal Jennifer Arnold** Kenji Bunch* Silu Fei Leah Ilem Ningning Jin Brian Quincey Viorel Russo Martha Warrington

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B A S S O ON Carin Miller Packwood, principal Evan Kuhlmann, assistant principal** Nicole Haywood, assistant principal* Adam Trussell ** Steve Vacchi*

TR UMPE T Jeffrey Work, principal David Bamonte, assistant principal, Musicians of the Oregon Symphony Richard Thornburg trumpet chair Doug Reneau TR OMB ONE Casey Jones, principal Robert Taylor, assistant principal Charles Reneau B A S S TR OMB ONE Charles Reneau TUBA JáTtik Clark, principal TIMPANI Jonathan Greeney, principal Sergio Carreno, assistant principal PE R CU S S I ON Niel DePonte, principal Michael Roberts, assistant principal Sergio Carreno HAR P Jennifer Craig, principal LIB R ARY Joy Fabos, principal Kathryn Thompson, associate Sara Pyne, assistant O R CHE S TR A PE R S ONNE L MANAGE R Leah Ilem AR TI S T- IN - R E S ID EN CE Johannes Moser Artist-in-Residence program is sponsored

by Drs. Cliff and Karen Deveney

CR E ATIVE CHAIR Gabriel Kahane

CONTR AB A S S O ON Evan Kuhlmann** Steve Vacchi*

* Acting position ** Leave of absence

Administration MAR KE TING , Scott Showalter, president and ceo COMMUNI C ATI ONS & S ALE S Diane M. Bush, executive assistant Ethan Allred, marketing and Susan Franklin, assistant to the web content manager music director Ellen Bussing, vice president Liz Brown, marketing partnership and group sales manager for development Katherine Eulensen, audience Charles Calmer, vice president

development manager for artistic planning

John Kroninger, front of house manager Natasha Kautsky, vice president of Lisa McGowen, marketing marketing and strategic engagement Janet Plummer, chief financial operations manager John Zinn, director of marketing

and operations officer and sales Steve Wenig, vice president and general manager O PE R ATI ONS B U S INE S S O PE R ATI ONS Jacob Blaser, director of operations Ryan Brothers, assistant stage manager Allison Bagnell, senior graphic designer Monica Hayes, Hank Swigert director, David Fuller, tessitura applications learning and community

administrator engagement programs Tom Fuller, database administrator Susan Nielsen, project manager, Julie Haberman, finance and Gospel Christmas administration associate Darcie Kozlowski, director of Randy Maurer, production manager popular programming Peter Rockwell, graphic designer Steve Stratman, orchestra manager D E VE LO PMENT Lori Trephibio, stage manager Meagan Bataran, annual fund director Jacob Wade, manager, operations and Hilary Blakemore, senior director artistic administration of development TI CKE T O FFI CE Kerry Kavalo, annual giving manager Ella Rathman, development associate Adam Cifarelli, teleservices manager Leslie Simmons, director of events Karin Cravotta, patron services Courtney Trezise, foundation

representative and corporate giving officer

Ethan J H Evans, patron services representative Rebecca Van Halder, lead patron service, teleservices Danielle Jagelski, patron services representative Emily Johnstone, lead patron services, ticket office Chris Kim, patron services representative Nils Knudsen, ticket office manager Christy McGrew, director of patron services Carol Minchin, patron services representative Amanda Preston, patron services representative Tyler Trepanier, patron services representative Robert Trujillo, patron services representative

S ALEM Laura AgĂźero, director of

Oregon Symphony in Salem programs L. Beth Yockey Jones, operations manager

Board of Directors O FFI CE R S

D IR E C TO R S

Robert Harrison, chair Dan Drinkward, vice chair Tige Harris, vice chair & treasurer Rick Hinkes, vice chair Nancy Hales, secretary

Courtney Angeli Rich Baek Janet Blount Christopher M. Brooks Eve Callahan Cliff Deveney

Lauren D. Fox Robyn Gastineau Jeff Heatherington J. Clayton Hering Sue Horn-Caskey Judy Hummelt Braizahn Jones

LIFE TIME D IR E C TO R S William B. Early RenĂŠe Holzman Gerald R. Hulsman Walter E. Weyler Jack Wilborn

Grady Jurrens Gerri Karetsky Kristen Kern Thomas M. Lauderdale Martha Long Priscilla Wold Longfield Peggy Miller Roscoe C. Nelson III Dan Rasay Lane Shetterly Scott Showalter, ex-officio James Shields Amanda Tucker Chabre Vickers Derald Walker

orsymphony.org | 503-228-1353 13

by Elizabeth Schwartz

S TEPHEN HOUGH

F E AT U R E D A R T I C L E

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Talking with pianist Stephen Hough is surprisingly easy; he is warm, engaging, and genuinely interested in conversation. He is one of the finest musical artists performing today – “A virtuoso who begins where others leave off,” in the words of the Washington Post – and also a true Renaissance man. In addition to performance, Hough composes music, writes poetry, blogs about culture, and paints. In 2009, The Economist included Hough in its list of “20 Living Polymaths,” an apt appellation, even though he gently refutes the idea. “I try not to think about describing myself as a polymath, or as anything else. I enjoy doing a lot of different things that are essential to my creative well-being.”

In 2001, Hough became the first classical musician to receive a MacArthur Fellowship, commonly known as “the genius grant.” The MacArthur Fellowship may be the highest profile of Hough’s honors since his first-place showing at the 1983 Naumburg Competition, one of the oldest and most renowned performance competitions in the world. “I won the Naumburg at age 21,” says Hough. “I entered the competition on a lark because I was at Juilliard when the first round was taking place.” Well, there’s also that cbe (Commander of the British Empire) the Queen bestowed on him in 2014.

flights in one day, and the piano is terrible, and they haven’t made a reservation at the hotel, and you have food poisoning.”

Gordon Green, Hough’s piano teacher from age 10 to 17, told all his students, “I’m not interested in how you play now; I’m interested in how you’ll play in 10 years.” Hough explains, “He wanted you to develop your own personality, see what you had to offer. He wanted things to take time. It was a very holistic, organic view of teaching.

“It’s terrible when people go to music college and expect to become rich and famous, and if they don’t, they feel their whole life is wasted,” Hough continues. “You also have to resist the pressure to do something too soon – the idea that if you don’t have a career by your late teens, you’ll never amount to anything professionally. It can be very damaging for talented people.”

For Hough, the experience of making music creates a singular moment in time, when players and listeners alike shed their differences and experience the music together.

When we play music for people, it’s terribly important to feel we’re all on a level playing field in that moment. We should all be able to be friends – put politics or class or other divisions aside – during the time of that performance.”

Hough, an only child, came from a non-musical family and showed interest in the piano from an early age. “We had no classical music in my home when I was a kid, not even a record,” he recalls. “My aunt had a piano; I tried to play it and was captivated by the sounds that came out of it.” Hough’s parents, Colin and Netta Hough, encouraged their son by getting him a secondhand piano. “My parents were tremendously supportive. My father had an enormous musical sensitivity. He was a total savant who got an arts degree at the end of his life. My mother was the practical person; she came to my concerts, but she couldn’t tell the difference between Mozart and Schubert.”

Hough will perform Felix Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in G Minor with the Oregon Symphony on Nov. 1–4. This past summer, Hough had the rare opportunity to play this concerto on Queen Victoria’s own piano at the prestigious Proms concert series. “Victoria was passionate about music; she went to the opera and took singing lessons for 20 years,” says Hough.

“She and Prince Albert played duets on this very piano. Mendelssohn was a good friend of theirs, and he arranged duets of his Songs Without Words for them.”

The life of a full-time performer can be strangely isolating. It requires physical and emotional stamina, and is often decidedly unglamorous. “You can’t really prepare for it – it happens, and then you learn on the job,” Hough explains. “In those early years, I had to focus on piano, keeping 14 concertos in my fingers, while dealing with constant travel. It’s not just arriving and playing a concert. Sometimes you have three

The piano, a 19th-century Erard, is gilded with gold paint and artwork. Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret took piano lessons on it, and it resides in the queen’s private living room. “There was a controversy about this piano last Christmas,” Hough says with a chuckle, “because it was seen on tv when the Queen gave her Christmas message. People thought it was actually made of gold, and she was criticized for her extravagance.”

When he plays this concerto, Hough is particularly appreciative of Mendelssohn’s musicianship. “He was a fine pianist and wrote well for the instrument; the great skill is writing music that sounds difficult but isn’t difficult to play. You don’t want to see the labor of the composer or the player in a performance.

“The concerto is beautifully constructed as well,” Hough continues. “Knowing how to build a piece gives it both strength and brilliance. Often, people aren’t aware of that aspect of composition; we don’t want to see the structure; we want to see the building. There’s a marvelous fiery Mendelssohn quality in first movement. The second movement is another song without words, and the third movement is bouncy, joyful, virtuosic, and full of good humor. It’s a joy to play.”

Last year, Hough published his first novel, The Final Retreat. “The idea was to write a book that incorporated something of my own beliefs and doubts about Catholicism,” said Hough in an interview with the Financial Times. “I particularly wanted to look at those people who set themselves up as being helpers in the community and then fail in themselves. That seems to me a very interesting dynamic.”

Hough, who is openly gay, has wrestled with Catholicism for most of his life. Regarding the Church’s position on homosexuality, Hough admits, “In some ways, the Church is behind the times, [but] in the end, Catholicism will have to change.

Both Jewish and Christian traditions value the act of creation and see creation as good. If homosexuality is in nature, than it has to be good. I think the Church is going to take a long time to catch up, and when it does, it will have some wonderful insights into human relationships, like the gift of giving yourself entirely to your spouse so that you’ll both be enriched and blessed by that relationship.

“My faith has good seasons and bad seasons, and sometimes it feels like it’s died, but I don’t want to give it up,” Hough continues. “It gives me a foundation. I haven’t found another way of looking at life that I would find more compelling.

My faith is a reminder that everyone is of equal importance and dignity, whether in the cradle or the nursing home. To me, it’s a good reminder to me to love your enemies, to turn the other cheek, to give your coat. These aren’t things that come naturally to me, and I think it‘s good to have an external force to remind me of that way of living.”

Stephen Hough performs Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1 on November 1 in Salem and November 2, 3, and 4 in Portland. Find tickets and more at orsymphony.org. orsymphony.org | 503-228-1353 15

BATMAN IN CONCERT FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2019, 7:30 PM SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2019, 7:30 PM SUNDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2019, 2 PM Erik Ochsner, conductor Oregon Chorale Jason Sabino, artistic director Warner Bros. Pictures Presents: Batman (1989) Live in Concert Directed by Tim Burton Screenplay by Sam Hamm and Waren Skaaren Story by Sam Hamm Batman characters by Bob Kane Music by Danny Elfman ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL

Biographies

Erik Ochsner Finnish-American conductor Erik Ochsner’s versatility as a conductor has stretched across a broad range of repertoire: from conducting as few as five performers in contemporary and modern works to leading 300 performers across 14 different films using the Live in Concert format. In 2017, Ochsner was invited to become principal touring conductor for La La Land Live in Concert, which has taken him around the globe.

From Montreal to Melbourne and Moscow, audiences and critics alike have praised Ochsner’s energy, attention to detail, and precise synchronization.

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Equally comfortable on the concert stage or leading opera, oratorio, and multimedia performances, he has performed in cities including Athens, Beijing, Dallas, Detroit, Hiroshima, Jakarta, Melbourne, México City, Montreal, Moscow, New York, San Francisco, Stockholm, Sydney, and Vancouver.

Ochsner is music director of sonos Chamber Orchestra, which recently performed Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring in an arrangement for four pianos and two percussionists. The New York Times said, “All the hallmarks of a great ‘Rite’ were here.”

Ochsner attended The Pierre Monteux School and is a graduate of Dartmouth College. His mentors and teachers included Robert Spano, Charles Bruck, Erich Kunzel, Marin Alsop, and Helmuth Rilling. He lives in New York City, and he loves travelling, wine, and collecting requiem recordings.

Tim Burton Tim Burton, widely regarded as one of cinema’s most imaginative filmmakers, has enjoyed great success in both the live-action and animation arenas. Most recently Burton directed Big Eyes and the critically acclaimed Frankenweenie, which was a 2012 Academy Award® nominee for Best Animated Picture.

Earlier, in 2012, Burton directed Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter, and Eva Green in the gothic thriller Dark Shadows, based on the cult favorite television show. He also produced the fantasy horror Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, which was directed by Timur Behmambetov.

BATMAN IN CONCERT In 2010, he directed Alice in Wonderland, an epic fantasy based on the classic story

by Lewis Carroll and starring Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, and Mia Wasikowska in the title role. The film earned more than a billion dollars at the worldwide box office, making it the second-highest-grossing release of 2010. Alice in Wonderland also received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Picture – Musical or Comedy and won two Academy Awards® for Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design.

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Reservations are required, and can be made by calling Headwaters at 503-790-7752 or online at Resy.com.

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OS Program Book: 1/3 Square (4.812 x 4.812) Runs: October Artist: Headwaters at the Heathman

Burton began his film career in animation, and in 1982, directed the stop-motion animated short Vincent, narrated by Vincent Price, which was an award winner on the film festival circuit.

He made his feature film directorial debut in 1985 with the hit comedy Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.

In 1988, Burton helmed the inventive comedy hit Beetlejuice, starring Michael Keaton as the title character. He then reteamed with Keaton on the action blockbusters Batman, which became the top-grossing film of 1989 and starred Jack Nicholson as the Joker, and Batman Returns, also starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Danny DeVito.

In 1990, Burton directed, co-wrote, and produced the romantic fantasy Edward Scissorhands, which was acclaimed by both critics and audiences. The film also marked the start of his successful cinematic partnership with Johnny Depp, who delivered a poignant performance in the title role. Their subsequent collaboration include the Burton-directed films Ed Wood, also starring Martin Landau in an Oscar®winning portrayal of Bela Lugosi; Sleepy Hollow, adapted from the classic tale by Washington Irving; and the 2005 worldwide smash Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which was based on Roald Dahl’s beloved book and grossed more than $470 million worldwide.

Burton also conceived and produced the stop-motion animated feature The Nightmare Before Christmas, which remains an enduring holiday favorite.

B AT M A N I N C O N C E R T

Danny Elfman For over 30 years, four-time Oscar® nominee Danny Elfman has established himself as one of the most versatile and accomplished film composers in the industry. He has collaborated with directors such as Tim Burton, Gus Van Sant, Sam Raimi, Peter Jackson, Ang Lee, Rob Minkoff, Guillermo del Toro, Brian De Palma, James Ponsoldt, and David O. Russell. Beginning with his first score on Tim Burton’s Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, Elfman has scored over 100 films, including Milk (Oscar® nominated), Good Will Hunting (Oscar® nominated), Big Fish (Oscar® nominated), Men in Black (Oscar® nominated), Edward Scissorhands, Batman, To Die For, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Alice in Wonderland, Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Spiderman, A Simple Plan, Midnight Run, Sommersby, Dolores Claiborne, and the Errol Morris documentaries The Unknown Known and Standard Operating Procedure.

Most recently, he has provided the music for Warner Bros.’ Justice League, Gus Van Sant’s Don’t Worry He Won’t Get Far on Foot, the Tim Burton film Dumbo for Disney, and The Grinch for Universal.

A native of Los Angeles, Elfman grew up loving film music. He travelled the world as a young man, absorbing its musical diversity. He helped found the band Oingo Boingo and came to the attention of a young Tim Burton, who asked him to write the score for Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.

Thirty-four years later, the two have forged one of the most fruitful composer-director collaborations in film history. In addition to his film work, Elfman wrote the iconic theme music for the television series The Simpsons and Desperate Housewives.

Elfman has expanded his writing to composing orchestral concert works which include Serenada Schizophrana, a

symphony commissioned by the American Composer’s Orchestra that premiered at Carnegie Hall in 2005; Rabbit and Rogue, for the American Ballet Theater choreographed by Twyla Tharp, performed at The Metropolitan Opera house in 2008; and iris for Cirque du Soleil, directed by French choreographer Philippe Decouflé.

In 2011, Danny Elfman’s Music from the Films of Tim Burton, a live orchestral concert, premiered at Royal Albert Hall, and has since toured around the world and won two Emmys®.

In 2017, Elfman premiered his First Violin Concerto, which was performed by the Czech National Orchestra, in Prague. In 2018, his First Piano Quartet, commissioned by the Berlin Philharmonic Piano Quartet, premiered in the United States. “I need to push myself into new territory with fresh challenges as much as I can and whenever I can. I am told I have a recognizable style, but my greatest pleasure is when I can surprise the audience with my music.”

OREGON CHORALE ROSTER Soprano Danielle Anderson Jenn Binkley-Sabino Malderine Birmingham Nan Dahlquist Whitney Diffenderfer Zoie Harpole Lindsey Lefler Mandee Light Maggie Patterson Jane Romig Karen Stratton Ann Woods

Nancy Upton Michelle Valko Ashley Wheeler Tenor Carl Dahlquist Kevin Lay Andrew Lucht Paul Minor Kyle Patterson Jeremiah Quinteros Richard Scher Rawdon Taylor

Alto Alana Bertram LaKisha Clark Nancy Culolias Juliette Hallberg Mele Howland Silverna Scott Lucy Tait Aurea Taylor

Bass Laurence Cox Daniel Gibbs Tom Hamann Joseph Johnson Kenan Koenig Tom Licata Bruce Marsland Jacob Mott John Rakestraw Kent Upton

Personalized instruction

Oregon Chorale The Oregon Chorale is a 70-voice symphonic choir directed by Jason Sabino.

Founded by Bernie Kuehn and based in Hillsboro, Oregon, the Oregon Chorale has been delighting audiences since 1985, performing choral music from around the world and combining it with provocative, emotional, and communitybased programming. The auditioned choir is made up of community members from all walks of life, from doctors to engineers to teachers. The Chorale has collaborated with the Oregon Symphony, Oregon Ballet Theatre, and the Beaverton Symphony.

Through its Emerging Voices program, the Chorale provides educational outreach and supports local young musicians, offering high school internships that include singing in the Chorale, free voice lessons, and mentorship.

Reflection, collaboration, and craftsmanship Academics integrating art, design, science, and engineering

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STRAVINSKY’S FIREBIRD SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2019, 7:30 PM SUNDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2019, 2 PM MONDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2019, 7:30 PM David Danzmayr, conductor Colin Currie, percussion

Charles Ives

Three Places in New England The Saint-Gaudens in Boston Common (Colonel Shaw and his Colored Regiment) Putnam’s Camp, Redding, Connecticut The Housatonic at Stockbridge

Andy Akiho

Percussion Concerto (World premiere) commissioned by the Oregon Symphony with special support from Dr. Tom and Alix Goodman Movement I: Ceramic Movement II: Rosewood Interlude: Hammers Movement III: Steel Colin Currie

INTERMISSION Igor Stravinsky

The Firebird Suite (1945 version) Introduction Prelude and Dance of the Firebird Variations (Firebird) Pantomime 1 Pas de deux (Firebird and Ivan Tsarevich) Pantomime 2 Scherzo (Dance of the Princesses) Pantomime 3 Rondo (Khorovod) Infernal Dance Lullaby (Firebird) Final Hymn

ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL

CONCERT CONVERSATION Conducted one hour before each performance, the Concert Conversation will feature conductor David Danzmayr and Christa Wessel, host of All Classical Portland. You can also enjoy the Concert Conversation in the comfort of your own home.

Visit orsymphony.org/conversations to watch the video on demand.

20 artslandia.com

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Biographies Danzmayr is chief conductor of the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, the first to hold this title in seven years.

He and his orchestra have toured to the Salzburg Festspielhaus, where they received standing ovations at the prestigious New Year’s concert, and to the Vienna Musikverein.

David Danzmayr David Danzmayr last appeared with the Oregon Symphony on January 29, 2018. The program included Glanert’s Concertgeblaas, Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5, and Brahms’ Symphony No. 1.

Described by The Herald as “extremely good, concise, clear, incisive, and expressive,” Danzmayr is widely regarded as one of the most talented and exciting European conductors of his generation.

Previously, Danzmayr served as music director of the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra in Chicago, where he was lauded regularly by both the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Classical Review.

He has won prizes at some of the world’s most prestigious conducting competitions, including second prize at the International Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition and prizes at the International Malko Conducting Competition.

Danzmayr has quickly become a sought-after guest conductor for orchestras around the globe, including the symphonies of Detroit, Colorado, Milwaukee, and New Jersey, and

in Europe, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Bamberg Symphony, Basel Symphony Orchestra, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, and the radio symphony orchestras of Vienna and Stuttgart, to name a few.

Danzmayr received his musical training at the University Mozarteum in Salzburg where, after initially studying piano, he went on to study conducting in the class of Dennis Russell Davies. He was strongly influenced by Pierre Boulez and Claudio Abbado in his time as conducting stipendiate of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra and by Leif Segerstam in the conducting class of the Sibelius Academy. Subsequently, he gained significant experience as assistant to Neeme Järvi, Carlos Kalmar, Sir Andrew Davis, and Pierre Boulez, who entrusted Danzmayr with the preparatory rehearsals for his own music.

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Colin Currie Colin Currie last appeared with the Oregon Symphony on April 9, 2018, when he performed Corigliano’s Conjurer with conductor Carlos Kalmar.

Hailed as “the world’s finest and most daring percussionist” (Spectator), Currie is a solo and chamber artist at the peak of his powers. Championing new music at the highest level, Currie is the soloist of choice for many of today’s foremost composers, and he performs regularly with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors.

A dynamic and adventurous soloist, Currie’s commitment to commissioning and creating new music was recognized in 2015 by the Royal Philharmonic Society, who awarded him the Instrumentalist Award. Currie has premiered works by composers such as Steve Reich, Elliott Carter, Louis Andriessen, HK Gruber, Mark-Anthony Turnage, James MacMillan, Brett Dean, Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Jennifer Higdon, Julia Wolfe, and Nico Muhly.

In October 2017, Currie launched Colin Currie Records, in conjunction with lso Live, as a platform for recording his diverse projects, celebrating the extraordinary developments for percussion music in recent times.

In October 2018, Currie released the second disc in this catalogue, The Scene of The Crime, which is a collection of works performed by Currie and Håkan Hardenberger in their duo recital.

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Highlights of the 2018/19 Season included the world premiere of Helen Grime’s Percussion Concerto with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Marin Alsop in January 2019. The season was marked by a number of orsymphony.org | 503-228-1353 23

S TR AV IN S K Y ’ S FIR E B IR D other premieres, including new works for string quartet and percussion by Simon Holt and Suzanne Farrin with the jack Quartet at the bbc Proms and the U.S. premiere of Turnage’s Martland Memorial with the Minnesota Orchestra and Osmo Vänskä.

Currie’s dynamic ensemble the Colin Currie Group was formed in 2006 to celebrate the music of Steve Reich and made its five-star debut at the bbc Proms. Since then, with Reich’s personal endorsement, Currie and his ensemble have taken on the role of ambassadors of Drumming, which they have performed at many venues and festivals internationally.

Currie served as Oregon Symphony’s Artist-in-Residence from 2015–18.

Program Notes CHARLES IVES 1874–1954

Three Places in New England Artslandia ad 2019_Layout 1 9/26/19 5:46 PM Pagecomposed: 1903–11, rev. c. 1929, 1933–5

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most recent oregon symphony performance: December 7, 2009; Carlos Kalmar, conductor

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November 23&24 Pure Space in the Pearl wildartsfestival.org/2019 24 artslandia.com

In a manner uniquely American in its origins, Ives’ Three Places in New England is impressionistic, but not in a way that evokes the French aesthetics of Impressionism à la Claude Debussy.

Rather, Three Places consists of Ives’ apparently stream-of-consciousness impressions of three specific places, which the composer transformed into music. Ives’ musical vocabulary includes seemingly unrelated components: quotes from church hymns and marching band music, impenetrably dense bunches of notes known as tone clusters, and the aural confusion produced by familiar melodies played simultaneously in dissonant key areas. For Ives, this collage approach to composition best captured his musical experiences of the world.

In the mid-1940s, Aaron Copland wrote, “It will be a long time before we take the full measure of Charles Ives.” Copland’s prescient assessment of Ives still holds; more than 60 years after his death, Ives’ music continues to challenge and astonish.

Boston Common features fragments of three familiar songs of Ives’ day: Stephen Foster’s “Old Black Joe” and the Civil War songs “Marching through Georgia” and “The Battle Cry of Freedom.” Ives also wrote a poem to accompany his musical commemoration of sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ memorial to Civil War Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts 54th, the first all-Black regiment in the Union army (their story was dramatized in the 1989 film Glory).

Saint-Gaudens’ massive bronze bas-relief stands at the top of Boston Common, facing the Massachusetts State House.

Ives’ inimitable style, which combines bursts of vivid colors and rhythms with gentler passages, layered with fragments of recognizable tunes but rarely a conventional melody, shocked friends and colleagues. One day in 1912, Ives played Boston Common and Putnam’s Camp for Max Smith, music critic for the New York Press. When Ives finished, Smith exclaimed, “These were awful! How can you like horrible sounds like that?”

In introducing Putnam’s Camp, Ives wrote, “Near Redding Center, Conn., is a small park preserved as a Revolutionary Memorial; for here General Israel Putnam’s soldiers had their winter quarters in 1778–79.” He describes an imaginary Fourth of July celebration at the historic campground, as seen and heard through the eyes and ears of a young boy. Children’s laughter, hot summer sun, and scattered

instrumentation: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, clarinet, bassoon, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, gong, snare drum, piano, and strings estimated duration: 31 minutes

pahl

Conductor Nicolas Slonimsky, however, appreciated Ives’ unique approach.

In his autobiography Perfect Pitch, Slonimsky described his first reaction to Three Places: “As I looked over the score, I experienced a strange, but unmistakable, feeling that I was looking at a work of genius.”

S TR AV IN S K Y ’ S FIR E B IR D picnickers give way to a cacophonous “Battle of the Bands”: two marching bands playing different marches at the same time.

Ives included the following words in an early draft of The Housatonic at Stockbridge: “In this music, inspired by a poem by Robert Underwood Johnson, I captured a memory of a Sunday morning walk that Mrs. Ives and I took the summer we were married [1908], in the meadows along the [Housatonic] river, and heard the distant singing from the church. The mist had not entirely left the river bed, and the colors, the running water, the banks, and the elm trees are something that one would always remember.”

The water murmurs throughout, over, under, through, and around melodies from several well-known hymns.

The Housatonic’s quiet eddies and deceptively still surface reveal moments of sparkling iridescence in between the river’s shaded banks.

ANDY AKIHO b. 1979

Percussion Concerto (World premiere) commissioned by the Oregon Symphony with special support from Dr. Tom and Alix Goodman composed: 2018–19 first oregon symphony performance instrumentation: Soloist: Movement I: 13 ceramic bowls, 2 metal bowls, and 4 chopsticks Movement II: marimba Interlude: toy piano and drinking glass with chopstick Movement III: glockenspiel, kick drum, snare drum, and brake drum Orchestra: piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, tuba, timpani, brake drum, chimes, concert bass drum, crotales, glass bottle, glockenspiel,

marimba, propane tank, ratchet, slap stick, snare drum, triangle, vibraphone, woodblocks, harp, and strings estimated duration: 32 minutes Music critics often use the word “eclectic” to describe composer Andy Akiho, and for good reason. Akiho’s music embodies the diverse sound world of his percussion experiences: high school marching bands, elite-level drum corps, West African marimba ensembles, Trinidadian steel pan music, and the contemporary classical music scene of New York City.

When the Oregon Symphony approached Akiho for a new work for former Artist-inResidence Colin Currie, Akiho was “blown away” by the opportunity to collaborate with the renowned percussionist. “I first met Colin in 2011 at the Aspen Music Festival,” says Akiho. “He was performing a concerto by Christopher Rouse, and I was inspired by Colin’s energy. I saw how

orsymphony.org | 503-228-1353 25

STRAVINSKY’S FIREBIRD

2019-2020 Downtown Series BEETHOVEN 7 | Symphony Orchestra

NOV. 10, 2019 7:30 PM

ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL

“I love writing for specific performers – it’s the Duke Ellington approach,” Akiho continues. “I enjoy getting to know them and the things they love, and I also like to challenge them in new directions. Colin is so innovative and open to all types of composers’ voices, and he loves to take risks. He enjoys learning how to play new instruments, or new combinations of instruments, that not everybody would have the time or interest to learn.”

Joan Tower

For the Uncommon Woman

Matthew Kaminski

Hidden Voices, World Premiere (part of The Authentic Voice program)*

Henryk Wieniawski

Violin Concerto No. 2 (movement 1), Kevin Tsai Concerto Competition Winner

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26 artslandia.com

he pulls in the audience – both through conversations and explanations, and also through his incredible virtuosity.”

For this concerto, Akiho set himself a daunting task: write music that showcases Currie’s stellar technique and musicianship, and also engages the audience – musicians and non-musicians alike. “I want to hide the technique inside the music and make the piece sound like the easiest thing in the world,” says Akiho.

Each of the concerto’s three primary movements showcases a different sound world of the instruments or percussion “pods” Currie plays as he moves around the stage. “The first pod, a set of tuned ceramic bowls, is about innocence and intuition, pre-thought,” says Akiho. “It’s in a mobile, shape-shifting form with quirky orchestral conversations.” The second movement features the five-octave marimba in a warmer atmosphere of lyricism and counterpoint with strings and harp. In the final movement, Akiho features what he calls “a melodic drum set”: a pod with glockenspiel, snare drum, brake drum, and kick drum. “My goal is to create a hybrid-instrument by allowing the minimalistic melodies of the glockenspiel to idiomatically replace the cymbals and hi-hats of a traditional drum set.”

S TR AV IN S K Y ’ S FIR E B IR D IGOR STRAVINSKY 1882–1971

The Firebird Suite (1945 version) composed: 1909–10 most recent oregon symphony performance: May 19, 2014; Carlos Kalmar, conductor instrumentation: 2 flutes (1 doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, snare drum, tambourine, triangle, xylophone, piano, harp, and strings estimated duration: 28 minutes The Firebird was the first of several ground-breaking collaborations between Igor Stravinsky and Serge Diaghilev, head of the Ballets Russes. It also became the young and then unknown composer’s letter of introduction to the musical world. Before contacting Stravinsky, Diaghilev had approached five other composers about writing music for The Firebird, including the notoriously lazy Anatoly Liadov, who couldn’t (or didn’t) finish the music in time for Diaghilev to rehearse the dancers. Desperate, Diaghilev turned to Stravinsky, who jumped at the opportunity to work with the renowned Russian impresario and his equally famous ballet troupe.

Stravinsky completed the music relatively quickly, during the winter and spring of 1909–10. The Firebird was an instant success for both impresario and composer from the moment it premiered on June 25, 1910, in Paris. The orchestral suites Stravinsky later created have remained equally popular with symphony audiences. The 1945 suite performed in this concert was even re-choreographed

by George Balanchine in 1949 for the New York City Ballet.

Stravinsky’s inventive, virtuosic use of orchestral colors and abrupt, repetitive rhythms took audiences on a sound journey unlike any they had previously experienced. The music, combined with Michel Fokine’s innovative choreography

and the dazzling sets and costumes of Alexander Golovin, made The Firebird a unified creation, not simply a ballet with interesting music and costumes.

It had been Diaghilev’s aim to present a work that synthesized all its elements, and critics were duly impressed. Henri Ghéon thought the work “the most exquisite marvel of equilibrium that we have ever imagined between sounds, movements, and forms.”

The Firebird is a patchwork tale, whose story and characters are drawn from several sources in Russian folklore.

In the Introduction, Prince Ivan, while hunting, discovers an enchanted garden, wherein dwells the magical Firebird, and captures her. The murky opening notes, intoned by strings, low winds, and brasses, establish the mythic nature of the story. In exchange for her freedom, the Firebird gives Ivan one of her magic feathers in the Dance of the Firebird (agitated strings alternating with pensive winds). Ivan continues his hunt and finds the castle in which the evil King Kashchei is holding 13 princesses captive. To amuse themselves, the princesses dance in the castle courtyard to a lyrical oboe solo while playing with golden apples.

The princesses tell Ivan that the greenclawed Kashchei (in some versions a sorcerer-king, in others a terrifying ogre) turns people into stone. Ivan, protected by the Firebird’s magic feather, provokes Kashchei. Suddenly the Firebird appears and enchants Kashchei and his hideous ogres, causing them to dance themselves into exhaustion in the Infernal Dance.

After they collapse, the Firebird’s gentle Lullaby, an ethereal bassoon melody, lulls them to an eternal sleep. The princesses and all of Kaschchei’s stone victims are freed, and the Final Hymn captures their joy with dazzling, triumphant chords. © 2019 Elizabeth Schwartz

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BEETHOVEN v. COLDPLAY THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2019, 7:30 PM Steve Hackman, conductor Malia Civetz, Ben Jones, and Will Post, vocals

Ludwig van Beethoven

Allegro con brio from Symphony No. 5 in C Minor

Coldplay/Arr. Hackman

“Yellow”

Coldplay/Arr. Hackman

“Something Just Like This”

Steve Hackman

“Vertigo”

INTERMISSION Ludwig van Beethoven/ Coldplay/Arr. Hackman

Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, “Eroica” Allegro con brio Clocks 42 Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall Marcia funebre The Scientist Princess in China Scherzo Paradise Interlude: Sparks Finale Viva La Vida Fix You

Note: Neither Beethoven nor Coldplay will perform on this concert.

ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL

28 artslandia.com

GIACOMO PUCCINI

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One of the most powerful operas of all time.

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B E E T H O V E N V. C O L D P L AY Biographies

Hackman is active on social media under the handle @stevehackmanmusic, and many of the pieces referred to here can be watched in their entirety on YouTube via the @stereohideout channel.

Steve Hackman A musical visionary of incomparable gifts, Steve Hackman is a daring voice leading the charge among a new generation of classical musicians intent on redefining the genre. Equally adept in classical and popular forms, his breadth of musical fluency and technique is uncanny – he is at once a composer, conductor, producer, dj, arranger, songwriter, singer, pianist, and even rapper. He uses those wideranging abilities to create ingenious hybrid compositions that blur the lines between high and pop art and challenge our very definitions thereof.

Hackman’s unique style of musical metamorphosis sees modern musical techniques applied to the classical repertoire and vice versa. The result is evocative hybrid works that are derivative yet wholly original. He synthesizes Brahms and Radiohead, Bartók and Björk, and Tchaikovsky and Drake into epic orchestral tone-poems.

His performances of these pieces have surprised and thrilled diverse sellout audiences across the country, including with the orchestras of Seattle, Pittsburgh, the Boston Pops, Nashville, Oregon, Indianapolis, Grand Rapids, Columbus, Charlotte, Florida, Alabama, and the Colorado Music Festival.

Successful as a composer and arranger, Hackman’s work includes pieces for ensembles and artists as diverse as the string trio Time for Three, violinist Joshua Bell, and choral ensembles Chanticleer and The Tallis Scholars. His orchestrations for artists like Time for Three, The Five Browns, Michael Cavanaugh, My Brightest Diamond, Arlo Guthrie, Aoife O’Donovan, and Joshua Radin have been performed by nearly all the major orchestras in America.

Hackman is a frequent contributor to From the Top. 30 artslandia.com

Obama at 16, and performing in Barry Manilow’s show at Paris Las Vegas at 17.

Ben Jones Malia Civetz In addition to Beethoven v. Coldplay, Malia Civetz has performed as a featured vocalist in four world premieres of Steve Hackman’s symphonic mashups including Tchaikovsky v. Drake, Bartók v. Björk, Stravinsky’s Firebird Remix-Response, and Mashupalooza.

Civetz, a Los Angeles-based vocalist and songwriter, recently released her third single, “Just A Little Crush,” as a followup to her single “Little Victories,” which was released earlier this year and reached over 2 million streams in a few weeks. In October 2017, she debuted her first single, “Champagne Clouds,” on the Los Angeles kiis-fm radio segment of On Air with Ryan Seacrest. The single was officially released on all streaming platforms and crossed over the 20 million combined streams mark in just a few months, making Taylor Swift’s “Favorite Songs” playlists on both Apple Music and Spotify.

The 2016 graduate of the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music’s Popular Music Program, Civetz was named “Outstanding Blues/Pop/Rock Vocal Soloist” in DownBeat magazine’s 2015 and 2016 College Student Music Awards. Civetz was a member and soloist of the 2015 International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella’s winning group, The SoCal VoCals, who had the honor of performing at the White House for President Obama, the First Lady, and their staff in December 2015.

Her musical accomplishments span over a decade with early highlights that include performing as a “Star of Tomorrow” at the Apollo Theater in New York at age 13, having the privilege to sing for President

Hailed as “first-rate” by the San Francisco Chronicle and “show-stopping” by San Francisco Classical Voice, Ben Jones has appeared as soloist on the stages of the Vienna Musikverein, Royal Concertgebouw, State Opera of Prague, Mariinsky, Edinburgh International Festival, Walt Disney Concert Hall, and Shanghai Concert Hall.

In the theater, Jones has shown a vast range, appearing in L’enfant et les sortilèges with the San Francisco Symphony (La Théière, Le Petit Vieillard, La Rainette), Boris Godunov with the San Francisco Symphony (Missail), Candide with the San Francisco Symphony (Governor, Vanderdendur), Guys and Dolls (Sky), Follies (Buddy), Show Boat (Ravenal), Thoroughly Modern Millie (Jimmy), Cats (Munkustrap/Quaxo), Sweeney Todd (Tobias), The Last Five Years (Jamie), and Chicago (Mary Sunshine). He is proud to have spent a year skewering pop culture figures such as Michael Jackson, George W. Bush, John Travolta, Bill Clinton, and Michael Phelps in the San Francisco revue Beach Blanket Babylon.

Jones has also appeared with great American orchestras including the San Francisco, Seattle, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Columbus, and Oakland East Bay symphonies, sharing the spotlight with the likes of Michael Tilson Thomas, Frederica von Stade, Nathan Gunn, Isabel Leonard, Rita Moreno, Helmuth Rilling, Michael Morgan, Val Diamond, and the Bang on a Can All-Stars.

His versatile voice has been featured on recordings on the Albany, Naxos, and Delos labels; on A Prairie Home Companion; on the soundtracks for the best-selling video game franchises Halo and Civilization; and on commercials for Coors Light and Meow Mix. Jones is a member of sag, aftra, and agma.

B E E T H O V E N V. C O L D P L AY Program Notes Would Beethoven have appreciated the music of Coldplay?

Will Post Known for his soaring vocals, beautiful compositions, and out-of-this-world projection mapped live shows, Will Post is a true musical tour-de-force.

Post has been writing and performing music since he was six years old, and through the decades, he has honed his taste and talents in nearly every way, from orchestras to a cappella groups, from Warped Tour to Carnegie Hall, and everywhere in between.

Post creates mind-bending live shows using projection mapped visuals that feel like a modern day Fantasia – taking audiences through a fully immersive visual and sonic journey of the soul.

The genesis album for this concept, Panthenon, won the Independent Music Award’s first prize in the Concept Album category in 2015.

As a highly in-demand performer, Post has had the honor of being a featured soloist with some of the top orchestras in the us, including the symphonies of San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Nashville, and Oregon.

He also is a prolific composer, collaborator, and award-winning arranger. His instrumental compositions can be heard in movies, tv shows, and trailers all over the world. As a producer and performer, he was a founding member of the chip tune-based rock band I Fight Dragons and has mixed songs for many artists over a wide spectrum of genres, including Chance the Rapper, I Fight Dragons, Dana Williams, Elijah Noll, Roy English, and many others.

Post feels most at home when combining his classical sensibilities with the ethos of the current moment, creating work that serves the now and launches itself into the future, toward eternity. Follow him on Instagram @willpostmusic.

A ridiculous notion, I know. But just follow me here for a moment. Pretend Beethoven was your very same age, and he was seated next to you at this concert.

Pretend you were able to strike up a conversation with him.

I ask you to engage in this exercise because that is where my thinking took me when writing Beethoven v.

Coldplay, for I realized shortly after beginning that I was the exact same age Beethoven was when he wrote the “Eroica” Symphony. This had a startling and ultimately revelatory effect on me.

As I was rewriting the very same notes he had written – at the very same point in our lives – I found myself thinking of him as an actual person. This closeness went far beyond any biographical study I had done before. So I began to wonder: What if I knew him? What would he be like? Could we possibly have had anything in common?

And eventually, of course: What would he have thought of Coldplay?

Beethoven confronted broad, universal, and humanist themes in his music; would he have found affinity with a band that did the same? His music was deeply personal; he connected his emotional state directly and without encumbrance to the notes he wrote. Is there any doubt, when listening to Chris Martin sing and play the piano, that he does the same?

The “Eroica” Symphony is now mentioned among only a handful of pieces that changed the course of music forever, and Beethoven was certain of its brilliance; yet the premiere was met with ambivalence, with some critics calling it “unintelligible.” Would Beethoven have felt empathy with the Coldplay line, “Nobody said it was easy… no one ever said it would be this hard”?

Beethoven had a coarse and unpleasant personality and therefore found sanctuary from the outside world in his music. Would he have appreciated the

lyric, “I turn my music up... I shut the world outside... I hear my heart start beating to my favorite song…”?

Or, “When you love someone and it goes to waste, could it be worse?” Would those lines have meant something to the composer who struggled at romance and was often tortured by unrequited love?

And can you imagine the 34-year-old composer – who had recently battled depression to the extent of considering suicide owing to the realization that he was irreversibly going deaf – not being overcome by the lyric, “Tears stream down your face… when you lose something you cannot replace… and I will try to fix you”?

I chose to pair Beethoven and Coldplay because of their shared universality – that feeling they evoke that this is what music should sound like. Only upon finishing the piece did I begin thinking of all these serendipitous connections. At first they startled me. How was I so lucky? How is it possible that these lyrics could relate so much to Beethoven’s life?

But then I realized – we love Coldplay because we feel they are speaking just to us – their songs seem to tell our own stories. So why shouldn’t they tell Beethoven’s? If he was once a person the same age as us, desperate for recognition of his genius, battling his health and depression, longing for love, and “dreaming of paradise,” who is to say he wouldn’t have found escape in a song of Coldplay? Or a moment of peace knowing that someone had been through exactly what he was going through and had found a way to perfectly articulate it through song?

So what is the point of an exercise of this sort? Will changing the lens through which we view these artists and composers provide a new perspective?

Will finding connections between them offer a new context? Isn’t it just a little too far-fetched to even think that Beethoven would EVER have listened to Coldplay?

And even if he had, what is the point in combining his music with theirs?

I know my answer. You’re about to hear it. © Steve Hackman, October 2015 orsymphony.org | 503-228-1353 31

DANCING IN THE STREETS SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2019, 7:30 PM SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2019, 2 PM SPONSORED BY

Jeff Tyzik, conductor Chester Gregory, Michael Lynche, and Shayna Steele, vocals Marvin Gaye/Ivy George Hunter/William Stevenson Smokey Robinson James Brown/Betty Jean Newsome/Dwight Grant Holland, Dozier, and Holland Michael Masser/ Ronald Norman Miller

Dancing in the Street (As recorded by Martha Reeves) You Really Got a Hold on Me (As recorded by The Miracles) Man’s World (As recorded by James Brown) Reach Out (I’ll Be There) (As recorded by the Four Tops) Touch Me in the Morning (As recorded by Diana Ross)

Jimmy George/Louis Pardini

Just to See Her (As recorded by Smokey Robinson)

Holland, Dozier and Holland

How Sweet It Is (As recorded by Marvin Gaye)

Nick Ashford/Valerie Simpson

Ain’t No Mountain High Enough (As recorded by Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson)

Leon Russell Stevie Wonder

Song for You (As recorded by Donny Hathaway) Superstition (As recorded by Stevie Wonder)

INTERMISSION Maurice White/ Wayne Lee Vaughn James Brown Smokey Robinson Smokey Robinson/Ronald White Lionel Richie Melvin Steals/Mervin Steals Kenneth Gamble/Leon Huff/ Cary Gilbert Gary Jackson/Raynard Miner/ Carl William Smith

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Let’s Groove Tonight (As recorded by Earth, Wind & Fire)

I Feel Good (As recorded by James Brown) My Guy (As recorded by Mary Wells) My Girl (As recorded by The Temptations) Endless Love (As recorded by Lionel Richie and Diana Ross) Could It Be I’m Falling in Love (As recorded by The Spinners)

Don’t Leave Me This Way (As recorded by Thelma Houston) Higher and Higher (As recorded by Jackie Wilson)

Lionel Richie Lionel Richie/Stevie Wonder/ Lee Garrett/Lula Mae Hardaway/ Syreeta Wright

All Night Long (As recorded by Lionel Richie) Signed Sealed Delivered (As recorded by Stevie Wonder) A Schirmer Theatrical/Greenberg Artists co-production All arrangements by Jeff Tyzik ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL

Biographies

Chester Gregory Chester Gregory is an award-winning singer and actor. He was last seen starring in Motown: The Musical as Berry Gordy. Broadway credits include Tarzan, Cry-Baby, and Sister Act. Other credits include August Wilson’s Fences and Two Trains Running. He has toured nationally with Dreamgirls, Sister Act, as well as his one-man show The Eve of Jackie Wilson. Gregory has received many awards, including the Jeff Award and an naacp Theatre Award, and has been presented the key to the city of his hometown of Gary, Indiana, and East Chicago. He has also been chosen as an honorary state representative of Indiana and has received an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, Columbia College Chicago. He is currently producing several projects and recordings. Add him on social media @ChesterGregory.

Michael Lynche American Idol Michael Lynche is a new breed of soul singer with completely classic influences. Traces of Donny Hathaway, Al Green, Luther Vandross, Sam Cooke, and James Brown all seem to flash in this uniquely talented

performer. “Big Mike” – as he was known while winning over the hearts of a nation during his stint on American Idol – has talent so versatile he’s played intimate jazz and blues clubs, 20,000 seat arenas, and opera halls with 100-piece orchestras backing him.

Through it all, Big Mike has always had one singular goal: to spread a message of love wherever he goes.

A New York City resident for the last 10 years, this Florida native rose from obscurity as a finalist on season 9 of the hit phenomenon, American Idol.

After wowing millions of fans with his comforting and powerful voice and performing throughout the United States as part of the American Idol LIVE! tour, Big Mike has released two studio albums and toured as an opening act for Boyz II Men, Lalah Hathaway, Faith Evans, and Lyfe Jennings.

Since 2012, Big Mike has been a frequent featured guest vocalist with Maestro Jeff Tyzik. Tyzik has been an incredible mentor for Lynche over the years, recognizing a passion and drive in the big man that has made his own career successful. The two have spent the last two-and-a-half years collaborating on a new, sensational soul revue entitled r&b Legends. Truly a lifetime in the making, r&b Legends follows Big Mike’s journey and coming of age through soul music, with songs of some of the most iconic r&b and soul singers of all time.

Shayna Steele Her colleagues praise her ability, her dedication and drive to perfecting her craft as a professional singer and knockout performer. Onstage and in the studio, New York City-based vocalist and songwriter Shayna Steele proves she is a vocal force to be reckoned with.

After appearing on Broadway in Rent, Jesus Christ Superstar, and the original cast of Hairspray, Steele started writing music with partner David Cook in 2002. The two quickly developed a creative synergy, collaborating on Steele’s eponymous debut ep in 2004. Though self-released, the album’s breakout soul-funk single “High Yella” achieved the attention she needed to raise her solo profile. She has since shared the stage with luminaries like Ledisi and opened for George Clinton and the Sugar Hill Gang. Steele is a vocalist with the Grammy-nominated Broadway Inspirational Voices and has worked as a sideman with Lizz Wright, Bette Midler, Natasha Bedingfield, John Legend, Matthew Morrison, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Queen Latifah, Dolly Parton, Rihanna, and Kelly Clarkson.

Her voice has remained high in demand, appearing in the film Hairspray, The Bourne Legacy, Sex and the City 2, nbc’s Smash, and hbo’s The Sopranos. In December, Steele reprised her role with the “Dynamites” in nbc’s Hairspray Live.

Steele’s sophomore album, rise (Ropeadope Records) has received rave reviews from both critics and fans alike and reached #4 on the U.S. iTunes jazz charts. orsymphony.org | 503-228-1353 33

BEETHOVEN’S FIFTH SATURDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2019, 7:30 PM SUNDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2019, 2 PM MONDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2019, 7:30 PM Carlos Kalmar, conductor Johannes Moser, cello Gabriela Lena Frank

Witold Lutosławski

Walkabout: Concerto for Orchestra Soliloquio Serrano (Mountain Soliloquy) Huaracas (Slingshots) Haillí (Prayer) Tarqueada Cello Concerto Introduction Four Episodes Cantilena Finale Johannes Moser

INTERMISSION Ludwig van Beethoven

Symphony No. 5 in C Minor Allegro con brio Andante con moto Allegro Allegro This concert is being recorded for future broadcast.

We ask our audience to be as quiet as possible during the performance.

Johannes Moser’s Artist-in-Residence is sponsored

by Drs. Cliff and Karen Deveney.

ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL

CONCERT CONVERSATION Conducted one hour before each performance, the Concert Conversation will feature Music Director Carlos Kalmar, composer Gabriela Lena Frank, and host Robert McBride. You can also enjoy the Concert Conversation in the comfort of your own home. Visit orsymphony.org/conversations to watch the video on demand.

34 artslandia.com

Biography

Johannes Moser Johannes Moser last appeared with the Oregon Symphony on January 14, 2019, when he performed Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1 with conductor Carlos Kalmar.

German-Canadian cellist Moser has performed with the world’s leading orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, bbc Philharmonic at the Proms, London Symphony, Tokyo nhk Symphony, and the Philadelphia and Cleveland orchestras with conductors of the highest level.

Moser’s discography with his exclusive label pentatone has won multiple awards, and November 2018 saw the release of his most recent disc featuring the Lutosławski and Dutilleux concertos.

In the 2018/19 Season, Moser was Artistin-Residence with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Oregon Symphony, undertaking a diverse range of projects including concerto and solo performances, education and outreach activities, and a chamber orchestra tour directed from the cello.

Other highlights of last season include Moser’s debut with the Vienna Philharmonic and Oslo Philharmonic orchestras, the World and European premieres of Andrew Norman’s Cello Concerto, and two trips to Australasia including a tour with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra followed later in the season by concerts at the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and in recital at the Sydney Opera House.

A dedicated chamber musician, Moser is a regular at festivals including the Verbier, Schleswig-Holstein, Gstaad Kissinger, Colorado, Seattle, and Brevard music festivals.

Renowned for his efforts to expand the reach of the classical genre, as well as his passionate focus on new music, Moser has recently been heavily involved in commissioning works by Julia Wolfe, Ellen Reid, Thomas Agerfeld Olesen, Johannes Kalitzke, Jelena Firsowa, and Andrew Norman.

Throughout his career, Moser has been committed to reaching out to all audiences, from kindergarten to college and beyond. He combines most of his concert engagements with masterclasses, school visits, and preconcert lectures.

Moser plays on an Andrea Guarneri cello from 1694 from a private collection.

In his second of three years as the Oregon Symphony’s Artistin-Residence, Johannes Moser will work closely with youth and community organizations to bring meaningful music to the region.

These programs are made possible by generous support from Drs. Cliff and Karen Deveney.

Program Notes GABRIELA LENA FRANK b. 1972

Walkabout: Concerto for Orchestra composed: 2016 first oregon symphony performance instrumentation: 3 flutes (1 doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, English horn, 3 clarinets (1 doubling bass clarinet), 3 bassoons, 2 horns, 3 trumpets, 2 trombones, timpani, bass drum, 2 marimbas, 2 piatti, 2 police or parade whistles, snare drum, slapstick, 2 suspended cymbals, tam-tam, thunder sheet, 3 triangles, xylophone, piano, harp, and strings

Identity has always been central to Gabriela Lena Frank’s music. Her mother’s forbears are both Peruvian and Chinese, while her father is of Lithuanian/Jewish descent. Through this multicultural lens, Frank explores the rich legacies of her ancestry in her music.

In 2017, the Washington Post included Frank on its list of the 35 most significant women composers in recorded history.

From 2000–17, Frank served as composer-in-residence with the Houston and Detroit symphony orchestras.

On February 17, 2017, the Detroit Symphony, led by Michelle Merrill, gave the world premiere of Frank’s Walkabout: Concerto for Orchestra.

“Walkabout: Concerto for Orchestra is inspired by my travels in Perú, my mother’s homeland,” Frank writes in her program note. “Born in the States, I did not begin these fateful trips until my time as a graduate student at the University of Michigan. There my teachers encouraged me to answer questions of identity that long persisted for me: What does it mean to be American born, yet with such a motley crew of forbears hailing from Lithuania, China, and Andean South America? For more than 20 years I’ve been answering this question, with each piece raising yet more [questions] to address.

“In four movements, Walkabout uses both musical and extra-musical influences. The first movement, Soliloquio Serrano, features the principal strings prominently in an introspective yet lyrical ‘mountain soliloquy.’ The second movement is lively and bold, a portrait of Huaracas, the slingshot weapons favored by the soldiers employed in the Inca Empire during the 16th century. Haillí, the Quechua word for ‘prayer,’ is … both lyrical and passionate. After a mysterious opening, the last movement, Tarqueada, portrays one of my favorite scenes of Perú: A great parade of ‘tarka’ [wooden flute] players...

These musicians also blow whistles and beat a variety of different drums, creating a sonic effect of controlled chaos that never stops building.”

estimated duration: 30 minutes

orsymphony.org | 503-228-1353 35

BEETHOVEN’S FIF TH WITOLD LUTOSŁAWSKI 1913–94

Cello Concerto composed: 1969–70 first oregon symphony performance instrumentation: solo cello, piccolo, 3 flutes, 3 oboes, 3 clarinets, bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, orchestra bells, small cymbals, snare drum, suspended cymbal, tambourine, tam tam, tenor drum, tom-toms, vibraphone, whip/ clapper, xylophone, celesta, piano, harp, and strings estimated duration: 25 minutes

“I can’t guarantee I will play it well, but I certainly will play it often.” – Mstislav Rostropovich, urging Witold Lutosławski to write him a cello concerto The late cellist/conductor Mstislav Rostropovich did more to expand cello repertoire than any other cellist.

When Rostropovich died in 2007, at the age of 80, his obituary noted more than 100 new works for cello that Rostropovich had inspired, encouraged, and/or commissioned. Many of the 20th century’s greatest composers wrote for Rostropovich, including Dmitri Shostakovich, Benjamin Britten, Sergei Prokofiev, Olivier Messiaen, and Witold Lutosławski.

“I needed more than a year and a half to bring this Concerto to a successful conclusion,” Witold Lutosławski wrote in his program notes for the premiere.

“I sent the pages to Rostropovich bit by bit as they were drafted. I also wrote him a letter explaining the form my concerto was taking, using a vocabulary more literary than musical.

I have done it purposely in order to make certain musical situations in the score clearer and more suggestive. But it does not imply any literary or extramusical meaning…”

36 artslandia.com

Throughout the concerto, Lutosławski presents soloist and orchestra in nearconstant conflict. Many, including Rostropovich, heard the concerto as a struggle between the individual and external oppressive forces, e.g., an artist working under the watchful, censorious eye of the Soviet state. The letter Lutosławski sent to Rostropovich – at Rostropovich’s request – explained the “certain musical situations” with descriptive language meant to help the cellist interpret the music. For his own part, however, Lutosławski rejected Rostropovich’s metaphor about the solo cello. When Lutosławski provided comments for the premiere, he took pains to describe the music in detail, but deliberately avoided any non-musical interpretation of the work. Presumably, Lutosławski wanted listeners to come to their own conclusions and evaluate the concerto on purely musical terms.

“The concerto consists of four movements played without a break: Introduction, Four Episodes, Cantilena, and Finale,” Lutosławski wrote. “In the Introduction, I examine the note D, repeated at one second intervals in an expressionless manner as a moment of complete relaxation, or even absentmindedness… passing on from the state of absentmindedness to that of concentration and the other way round is always abrupt…

The last moment of absentmindedness is slightly different from the previous ones, with dynamic differences, grace-notes, etc.

It is as if the cello, having been forced to perform monotonous, boring repetitions, were trying to diversify them in a naïve, silly way. At this moment, trumpets intervene to stop the cello and shout out an angry phrase.

“After a five-second pause, the cello begins the first Episode, inviting a few instruments to a dialogue… Brasses put an end to it, as they did at the end of the preceding movement. Other Episodes unfold in a similar manner. Their character is always grazioso, scherzando [pretty or joking], or the like. Only the interventions of the brasses are serious and will remain so nearly until the end of the piece.”

In the Cantilena, soloist and orchestra briefly reconcile their musical argument before the full orchestra asserts its overwhelming sonic power. The Finale, wrote Lutosławski, features “a sort of challenge between the cello and the orchestra, after which the cello – playing three very rapid sections – is ‘attacked’ by different small groups of instruments.

Finally the orchestra prevails… after which the cello moans a lamentation… instead of a gloomy disappearing conclusion that one might have expected, a short and fast coda… recalls the beginning of the work, or rather its bright atmosphere…”

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN 1770–1827

Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67 composed: 1804–08 most recent oregon symphony performance: February 23, 2015; Christoph König, conductor instrumentation: piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, and strings estimated duration: 36 minutes “This symphony invariably wields its power over men of every age like those great phenomena of nature…[it] … will be heard in future centuries, as long as music and the world exist.” – Robert Schumann Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is arguably one of the most iconic pieces of classical music ever composed, as well as one of the most iconoclastic. It has also come to represent the very essence of classical music itself. Music lovers know it backwards and forwards, and even those who have never attended an orchestra concert nonetheless recognize the opening notes of Beethoven’s Fifth, as it is informally known, immediately.

Since the Fifth’s premiere on a cold December night in Vienna, it has become a lens through which we have viewed music, society, and culture.

Early audiences heard in its notes an exhortation of victory and triumph,

BEETHOVEN’S FIF TH whether literal or of a more internal, personal kind. As the 19th century progressed, Beethoven’s music, particularly the symphonies, became the standard against which every subsequent composer’s music was measured. During World War II, the Allies used the famous four-note opening as a signal in radio broadcasts of victory over the Axis powers.

The Fifth Symphony also became an unforgettable part of the 1970s with Walter Murphy and the Big Apple Band’s disco version, “A Fifth of Beethoven.”

Beethoven supposedly likened the four opening notes to the hand of Fate knocking at the door. In all likelihood, however, this description was fabricated

by Anton Schindler, one of Beethoven’s early biographers, known both for his poor memory and his penchant for invention.

Whether a representation of Fate or not, these four notes are the rhythmic seed from which the rest of the symphony develops. The short da-da-da-da fragment recurs in each movement, as a unifying device. Beethoven, who left few clues as to his compositional process for the Fifth Symphony, did mention the creation of a theme that “begins in my head the workingout in breadth, height, and depth. Since I am aware of what I want, the fundamental idea never leaves me. It mounts; it grows. I see before my mind the picture in its whole extent, as if in a single grasp.”

Beethoven conducted the Fifth’s premiere on December 22, 1808, as part of a massive concert that also included the Sixth Symphony and the Piano Concerto No. 4. Count Franz von Oppersdorff commissioned the Fifth, as he had the Fourth Symphony, and paid Beethoven a substantial sum for each work. Despite Oppersdorff’s generous benefaction, Beethoven eventually dedicated the Fifth Symphony to Prince Franz Joseph Lobkowitz and Count Andreas Kyrillovitsch Razumovsky, patrons with whom he had a longer, more substantial relationship.

At the premiere, in addition to the two symphonies and the piano concerto, Beethoven also presented his Choral Fantasy, plus the concert aria “Ah, perfido,” and the “Gloria” and “Sanctus”

sections from the Mass in C Major. The resulting four-hour concert challenged the endurance of even the most ardent Beethoven fans. To make matters worse, the orchestra was badly under-rehearsed and the hall spottily heated. Composer Johann Friedrich Reichardt, who attended the premiere, later wrote, “There we sat from 6:30 till 10:30, in the most bitter cold, and found by experience that one might have too much even of a good thing.”

The Fifth Symphony generated little comment at its premiere, but, 18 months later, composer and critic E. T. A. Hoffmann wrote a lengthy review, in which he called it “one of the most important works of the master whose stature as a first-rate instrumental composer probably no one will now dispute… the instrumental music of Beethoven open[s] the realm of the colossal and the immeasurable for us.” © 2019 Elizabeth Schwartz

RECOMMENDED RECORDINGS FROM STRAVINSKY’S FIREBIRD Ives: Three Places in New England Christoph von Dohnanyi – Cleveland Orchestra 2-Decca 466745 Stravinsky: The Firebird Suite (1945 version) Igor Stravinsky – Columbia Symphony Orchestra Sony Classical 544269 FROM BEETHOVEN’S FIFTH Lutosławski: Cello Concerto Johannes Moser, cello Thomas Søndergård – Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra Pentatone 5186689 Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 Carlos Kleiber – Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Deutsche Grammophon Original 447400 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.

SHOW-STOPPING EXPERIENCE Located in the heart of downtown, The Porter Hotel offers a range of carefully considered amenities designed to make your stay unforgettable. Experience a bird’s-eye view of the city from our rooftop bar and restaurant, enjoy an invigorating dip in the indoor saltwater pool or unwind in one of our inviting guest rooms.

1355 SW 2ND AVE. PORTLAND, OREGON 9720 503-306-4800 THEPORTERHOTEL.COM /PORTERHOTEL

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orsymphony.org | 503-228-1353 37

OUR SUPPORTERS The Oregon Symphony thanks these individuals for their generous contributions received in the 2018/19 Season (July 1, 2018–June 30, 2019).

We apologize for any omissions or misspellings. Please notify us of any adjustments.

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Foundation Drs. Cliff* & Karen Deveney Judith Mary Erickson+ Elizabeth N. Gray Fund of ocf Wendy & Paul Greeney Tige* & Peggy Harris Rick* & Veronica Hinkes The Mary Dooly & Thomas W. Holman Fund of ocf Holzman Foundation/

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The Arts Card gets you 2-for-1 tickets to hundreds of performances & events.

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Wells Family Foundation Elaine M. Whiteley+ Robert & Margaret Wiesenthal Davida & Slate Wilson Loring & Margaret Winthrop Jeffrey Yandle & Molly Moran-Yandle Zephyr Charitable

Foundation Inc. Charlene Zidell

CONCERTO SOCIETY: $1,000–$2,499

Anonymous (10) Markus Albert Joseph Allan & Karen Saul Dr. Christopher Amling Jonathan & Deanne Ater Michael Axley & Kim Malek Stephen S. Babson+ Steve & Mary Baker James & Kathryn Bash John & Claudette Beahrs Eric Bell Broughton & Mary Bishop Family Advised Fund of cfsww Paul Black & Greg Eicher Priscilla Blumel Lynne & Frank Bocarde Henry Bodzin Benjamin & Sandra Bole Mrs. Fanny P. Bookout Fred & Diane Born Mr. & Mrs. Peter Brix Christopher Brooks* & Brittney Clark Craig & Karen Butler Martin & Truddy Cable Barbara & Robb Cason Carlos Castro-Pareja Audrey & Stephen Cheng Charles Clarkson Classical Up Close‡ Holly Cohen Maurice Comeau, M.D. Jeffrey G. Condit Susan & Mark Cooksey James & E. Anne Crumpacker Abby & Marvin Dawson

Enrique deCastro Edward & Karen Demko William Dolan & Suzanne Bromschwig Kay Doyle Tom & Roberta Drewes Gerard & Sandra Drummond Charlene Dunning & Donald Runnels Richard & Jill Schnitzer Edelson Douglas Egan & Susan Bach Ray & Nancy Friedman Paul Gehlar David & Kiki Gindler Michael & Gail Gombos Harriet & Mitch Greenlick David & Caroline Greger Dr. & Mrs. Price Gripekoven Jeffrey & Sandy Grubb Louis & Judy Halvorsen Drs. James & Linda Hamilton Howard & Molly Harris Pamela Henderson & Allen Wasserman Jane & Ken Hergenhan Frances F. Hicks Joseph & Bette Hirsch Margaret & Jerry Hoerber Eric & Ronna Hoffman Fund of ocf Joseph Holloway, Sr. Lee & Penney Hoodenpyle Pamela Hooten & Karen Zumwalt Pam Horan Arthur Hung Doug Inglis Jon Jaqua & Kimberly Cooper David Jentz Harlan Jones Bob Kaake Peter & Patricia Kane Carol Brooks Keefer Alexis Kennedy Douglas & Selby Key Fred Kirchhoff & Ron Simonis Sheldon Klapper & Sue Hickey John Kochis Kevin Komos & Bruce Suttmeier

Sarah Kwak‡ & Vali Phillips‡ Frank Langfitt & MJ Steen Thomas M. Lauderdale* Dr. & Mrs. Mark Leavitt Dr. John & Elaine Lemmer, Jr. Phyllis J. Leonard Carol Schnitzer Lewis Fund of ocf Joanne Lilley Patrice Louie & Jeffrey Courion Richard & Diane Lowensohn Jerome Magill Linda & Ken Mantel Gayle & Jerry Marger Bel-Ami & Mark Margoles Dante Marrocco & Julia Marrocco Bob Martindale & Gwyneth Paulson Carolyn McMurchie Karen McNamee Anthony Merrill & Cheryl Thompson-Merrill Eric & Sarah Merten Sherrey & Robert Meyer Mia Hall Miller & Matthew Miller Greg & Sonya Morgansen Drs. Beth & Seth Morton Virginia S. Mullen+ Chris & Tom Neilsen Ralph & Susan Nelson Peter & Cassie Northrup Libby Noyes Marianne Ott Thomas Palmer & Ann Carter Yoona Park & Tom Johnson Duane & Corinne Paulson Richard & Helen Phillips Diane Plumridge Hugh Porter & Jill Soltero Wally & Bettsy Preble William Pressly & Carole Douglass Dr. & Mrs. Kevin Proctor Ronald & Lee Ragen Dr. Gerald & Alene B. Rich Jan Robertson Anna Roe & Ken Schriver Rebecca Rooks

Debora Roy Joshua Sabraw Robert & Ann Sacks Michael Sands & Jane Robinson Steven & Karen Schoenbrun Dr. & Mrs. George Sebastian Chris Sherry Gregory Shields The Shulevitz Family Dr. Rick Simpson Albert Solheim Ben & Jill Souede Jack & Charlene

Stephenson Anne Stevenson Rabbi Ariel Stone & Dr. Joe Thaler Barbara J. & Jon R. Stroud Sandra Suran Drs. Donald & Roslyn Elms Sutherland Matt & Bethany Thomas Richard & Larie Thomas Mike & Priscilla Thompson Laura Tomas & Jason Martin Ann Van Fleet Don & Marian Vollum Bill & Peggy Wagner Bill & Janet Wagner Kevin & Sharon Wei Joan & David Weil Weiss Fund of ocf Cameron J. Wiley & Carey Whitt Wiley Carol S. Witherell Bing Wong Jane Work Darrell & Geneva Wright Dr. Candace Young Lawrence & Jo Ann Young *current board ‡current musician §current staff

Get closer to the music.

Scheherezade and other Epic Odysseys November 22 & 24, 2019 Brett Deubner, viola

A Concert for Hope March 13 & 15, 2020 Ryan Anthony, trumpet

Beethoven & Tchaikovsky May 1 & 3, 2020 Robert Henry, piano

Sit closer, see better! Discounts available for seniors, students, and listeners under age 35.

Portland Columbia Symphony columbiasymphony.org 503-234-4077

orsymphony.org | 503-228-1353 39

One person. One single, generous person, just like you, can make an impact. And when generous people, just like you, join together, they can make an exponential impact.

We help make this happen.

Whether you are called to donate your time, talent or treasure, Oregon Community Foundation amplifies the impact of your gift across Oregon. Find out where you fit in at oregoncf.org/YOU.

YO U C A N D O N AT E YO U R T I M E (VO LU N T E E R), TA L E N T (S KI L L S) A N D T R E A S U R E (F U N D S) T H R O U G H O C F.

MEET JUSTICE ADRIENNE NELSON, MEMBER OF THE OCF LEADERSHIP COUNCIL, WHICH STEWARDS GRANTS ACROSS THE ENTIRE STATE OF OREGON.

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Encore Society The Oregon Symphony Encore Society was established to thank and recognize those generous individuals who have remembered the Oregon Symphony in their estate plans. For more information, please contact the Development Office at 503-416-6325.

Anonymous (13) Markus Albert Kirby & Amy Allen Margaret A. Apel Margaret & Scott Arighi Laurel Bardelson+ Lynda R. Bell Steve & Patt Bilow Leola J. Bowerman+ Dean Boyd & Susan Wickizer John & Yvonne Branchflower Steve & Kristine Brey 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 Gerard & Sandra Drummond Bill* & Karen Early George Fabel Louise P. Feldman 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 Dennis Johnson & Steven Smith Karen & Keith Johnson Richard & Ruth Keller Richard Kaiser & Virginia Shipman Georgia A. Koehler Sally & Tom Kuhns Kyle & Marcia Lambert Wayne & Carolyn Landsverk Barbara A. Lee Cary & Dorothy Lewis Ardath E. Lilleland A. G. Lindstrand Lynn & Jack Loacker

Michele Mass & Jim Edwards Dr. Louis & Judy McCraw Roger & Pearl McDonald Stephanie McDougal+ Duane & Barbara McDougall Edward+ & June McLean Sheila McMahon Karen McNamee Ruben J. & Elizabeth Menashe Robert+ & Violet Metzler Geri & Bruce F.+ Miller Mia Hall Miller Richard Patrick Mitchell Carol N. Morgan Christi R. Newton Ann H. Nicholas Roger N.+ & Joyce M. Olson Marianne Ott Jane S. Partridge Janice E. Phillips Janet Plummer§ & Don Rushmer Arnold S. Polk Harold & Jane Pollin David Rabin Tom & Norma Rankin Richard & Mary Raub Barbara Perron Reader Ed Reeves & Bill Fish Mary & Mike Riley Sherry Robinson & Steve Shanklin Peter Rodda & Vincenza Scarpaci Betty Roren Walt Rose Betsy Russell William C. Scott Scott Showalter§ V. L. Smith & J. E. Harman George & Molly Spencer Anne Stevenson Hank Swigert Diane Syrcle & Susan Leo Herman Taylor & Leslye Epstein Bruce & Judy Thesenga Mike & Diana Thomas Leslie & Scott Tuomi Linda & Stephen

VanHaverbeke Randall Vemer John & Frances von Schlegell Les Vuylsteke Joella B. Werlin Jack* & Ginny Wilborn Gary Nelson Wilkins Roger & Kathleen Wolcott Nancy Wolff & E. David Booth + in memorium

TR IB U TE Tribute gifts April 13–August 14, 2019 In Memory of Kathy Husted Brenda Farrell

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OUR SUPPORTERS Corporate Partners The Oregon Symphony thanks these corporations for their generous contributions received in the 2018/19 Season (July 1, 2018–June 30, 2019).

TR ANS FO RMATI ONAL $10 0 , 0 0 0 A ND A B OV E

VIR T U O S O S O CIE T Y $5 0 , 0 0 0 – $ 9 9,9 9 9

O P U S S O CIE T Y $ 2 5 , 0 0 0 – $ 49,9 9 9

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HOFFMAN CORPORATION

MACY’S

SAMUEL I NEWHOUSE FOUNDATION

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ALL CLASSICAL PORTLAND AMAZON.COM ANDANTE VINEYARD THE AV DEPARTMENT BLUE STAR BOEING D.A. DAVIDSON & CO. DOMAINE SERENE ESCO FOUNDATION FREELAND SPIRITS FURIOSO VINEYARDS GENIUS LOCI GERANIUM LAKE FLOWERS HEADWATERS AT THE HEATHMAN HENRY’S TAVERN

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PORTLAND ART MUSEUM POSTERGARDEN RACHEL HADISHAR PHOTOGRAPHY RAVEN & ROSE RINGSIDE STEAKHOUSE SINEANN WINERY THE STANDARD TONKIN TORP TIFFANY & CO. VIDON VINEYARDS

Foundation and Government Support The Oregon Symphony thanks these organizations for their generous contributions received in the 2018/19 Season (July 1, 2018–June 30, 2019).

TR ANS FO RMATI ONAL $10 0 , 0 0 0 A ND A B OV E

HEATHERINGTON FOUNDATION FOR INNOVATION & EDUCATION IN HEALTHCARE

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JAMES AND SHIRLEY RIPPEY FAMILY FOUNDATION

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WILLIAM AND FLORA HEWLETT FOUNDATION

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FA S C I N AT I N G FA C T O I D S

BEETHOVEN 1

WHILE THERE IS NO AUTHENTIC RECORD OF BEETHOVEN’S BIRTH DATE, there is a record of his baptism on December 17, 1770. Babies were baptized the day after birth in the Catholic tradition in Bonn. Hence, most scholars agree that December 16, 1770, is Beethoven’s date of birth.

4

BEETHOVEN’S COMPOSITIONAL WORKS CAN BE ROUGHLY DIVIDED INTO THREE PERIODS OF HIS LIFE, tracking the evolution of his skill: Early (c. 1794–1800), Middle (c. 1801–14), and Late (c. 1814–27).

5

KNOWN FOR HIS DISDAIN OF AUTHORITY, BEETHOVEN WAS DEMANDING, MADE ENEMIES OF ARISTOCRATS, AND SOMETIMES CHASTISED AUDIENCES. People criticized Beethoven’s personality and manners.

6

AT THE PREMIERE OF HIS SYMPHONY NO. 9 IN VIENNA IN MAY 1824, BEETHOVEN WAS COMPLETELY DEAF AND CONDUCTED THE PIECE. The musicians were instructed to keep their eyes on Beethoven but to pay no attention to him. The real conductor sat to the side, keeping the correct time.

7

THREE DAYS AFTER THE FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL IN 1989, LEONARD BERNSTEIN CONDUCTED BEETHOVEN’S SYMPHONY NO. 9 WITH MUSICIANS FROM THE EAST AND WEST. To further honor the event, Bernstein changed the word “Freude” (Joy) to “Freiheit” (Freedom) in the choral finale Ode to Joy.

8

BEETHOVEN LEFT SCHOOL AT AGE 11 TO STUDY MUSIC FULL TIME. As a result, he lacked basic math or spelling skills for his entire life.

11

ADOPTED IN 1985, THE INSTRUMENTAL VERSION OF ODE TO JOY IS NOW THE NATIONAL ANTHEM FOR THE EUROPEAN UNION. Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, his last and most famous, was chosen by the eu because it conveys the “European ideals of freedom, peace, and solidarity.”

9

BEETHOVEN WAS BORN IN BONN, GERMANY, the same birthplace as candy company Haribo.

2

HIS GRANDFATHER WAS THE MOST PROMINENT MUSICIAN IN BONN AND BEETHOVEN’S NAMESAKE.

12

10

3

BEETHOVEN WAS KNOWN FOR HIS IMPROVISING ON THE PIANO. By 1793, he was 22 and had established an impressive reputation as a piano virtuoso in salons.

BEETHOVEN COMPLETED FUR ELISE IN 1810, BUT IT WASN’T PUBLISHED UNTIL 40 YEARS AFTER HIS DEATH. The original manuscript was discovered and published by German music scholar Ludwig Nohl and has since been lost.

BEETHOVEN IS CONSIDERED THE WORLD’S FIRST ROCK STAR. With more attention and popularity than any other musician before him, some argue that his success paved the way for how we view artists as celebrities today. .

orsymphony.org | 503-228-1353 45

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

STEVE Your life as a musician began with playing piano by ear. What made you decide to pursue classical training?

Would you urge aspiring musicians to do the same?

I became very involved in choir in high school. When I was 15, I participated in my first All-State Chorus. Our conductor was phenomenal; I’ll never forget those rehearsals. Making music with that many talented singers, under her leadership, left an indelible impression on me. It was then I knew I wanted to pursue music, though at that time, I thought it would be as a high school choir teacher.

I enrolled in the University of Illinois to study choral music education, with piano as my major instrument. My piano teacher called me over the holiday break, following my first jury, and said, “I have good news. You made the freshman honors recital. And I changed your major to piano performance.” From that point forward, I began a headfirst dive into the real world of classical music and training, led by my amazing teacher.

To what do you attribute your boldness to blaze your own trail musically? Were you an audacious kid?

I’d venture to say there’s a handful of teachers and nuns at Saints Peter and Paul Catholic School in Cary, Illinois, who would corroborate that.

Tell us about your newest creation, igor damn stravinsky, in which you synthesize Stravinsky’s ballet Petrushka with Kendrick Lamar’s Pulitzer prizewinning album damn. damn blew me away with its depth, concept, and richness. The more I listened, the more deeply I was drawn to it. What impressed me most was the 46 artslandia.com

narrative arc of the album; therefore, I wanted to find a narrative classical work that could be fused with it. It was my first time attempting this. Stravinsky’s ballets emerged fairly immediately as potential choices, and I was between Petrushka and The Rite of Spring. The former offered some powerful connection points. Petrushka is the story of puppets that feel human emotions; they feel love, lust, pride, and violence. Those, of course, are actual song titles of damn.

Additionally, both Petrushka and damn have a show-within-the-show element.

In the case of the former, there is the “little theater” onstage, where the puppet action transpires. With damn, a gunshot both opens and closes the album, and we are left wondering if what happened in between was real or imaginary.

You’ve spoken prolifically about your process of creation, but would you mind sharing it once more for our readers who aren’t familiar with the how and why of your hybrid creations?

I left the classical world when I was 24 because I did not see a pathway through it that would allow me to be creative, to be myself. When I re-entered three years later, I only did so with the pledge that I would find a way to do that. The fusion works (like Beethoven v. Coldplay [details on page 28]) are the first solution to these ends. They have their origins in concerts I was producing with the Indianapolis Symphony. In the beginning, we would present popular arrangements alongside classical standards; we’d play a Mozart overture and then an arrangement of Kanye West. It was simply juxtaposition.

But that wasn’t terribly interesting, and we wanted to push much further.

The idea emerged of truly synthesizing the music and channeling the popular material through a classical filter.

This way, the orchestral players were utilized to the fullest extent of their talents the entire time, and the audience experienced a true reimagination of the music they loved while being introduced to stunning classical repertoire.

How do you choose which music to combine?

I choose music I love and that I think is essential for people to hear.

What does your mentor, Dr. Ford Lallerstedt from Curtis Institute of Music, have to say about the way you’ve redefined classical music?

I always joke with him that this is all his fault… Truth be told, the first advice he gave me was to go make my own music.

He took me out of all my musical studies classes and taught me individually. His approach to music and its underlying language of counterpoint unlocked things in a way for me that I could have never imagined. We did more counterpoint in a month than what I would have done in four years of classes. But he never ceased encouraging me to create my own music and pursue my own voice. That was always the goal we were working toward.

And to this day, he tells me that though the fusions are interesting, what he wants to hear is my music.

Speaking of your music, what is next for your Stereo Hideout project?

Earlier this year, at the end of February, I went through a bit of a creative crisis.

I became paranoid that I was spending

I love discovering new art of all kinds and sharing ideas with the passionate and talented people that make it. I love connecting with people that live creatively and are true individuals.”

too much time writing derivative music (exactly what I was just discussing).

During March and April, I wrote like crazy – at least two albums worth of material. This summer, I had some consecutive weeks with no concerts, and I pledged to myself to get this album recorded, no matter what it took. I just knew I needed to get this thing out of me. It is almost there – we recorded saxophones just today, and in two weeks we’ll record a 70-piece orchestra in la, at the Warner Brothers soundstage. The album is entitled The Revival, and it is about being true to one’s own creativity.

You spoke at TEDxPittsburgh and described feeling the “buzz” that comes from experiences like “being in a club when the dj drops a floor-killer.” What beside music gives you that buzz?

I love the mountains – hiking and biking through them. And the ocean and body surfing. I love discovering new art of all kinds and sharing ideas with the passionate and talented people that make it. I love connecting with people that live creatively and are true individuals. . orsymphony.org | 503-228-1353 47

ON A HIGH NOTE Jeffrey Work stands among the masterpieces at Portland Art Museum’s Rental Sales Gallery. The rsg promotes regional artists with a collection of over 1,500 original pieces by 250 Oregon and Washington artists.

Museum members can rent art for up to six months per selection and then trade for something new or apply rental charges to the purchase price.

The Rental Sales Gallery is a proud supporter of the arts in Portland. rentalsalesgallery.com

Jeffrey Work Oregon Symphony principal trumpet

48 artslandia.com

Lucky for us, Jeffrey Work’s father had a penchant for calling attention to the sounds of the trumpet in the music played on the family’s record player. When Work’s school in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, introduced instruments to students of the fourth grade, he picked up a trumpet of his own and never looked back. After 13 busy years as a freelance musician in Boston, Work joined the Oregon Symphony as principal trumpet in 2006. He has also served as principal trumpet of the Colorado Music Festival in Boulder since 1999 and performs concerto and chamber repertoire locally.

Work’s virtuosity graces the Oregon Symphony’s cd Music for a Time of War, as well as the Boston Philharmonic’s recordings of Stravinsky’s Petrushka and Mahler’s Symphony No. 6. Among his prolific solo credits are renowned concerto appearances with Mstislav Rostropovich at the Rencontres Musicales d’Évian in Evian, France, and the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. When did you first know you wanted to be a professional musician?

I attended the National Music Camp at the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan after my sophomore year in high school. That summer surrounded me, for the first time, with people I could really relate to. We musicians are of a kind. I was thrilled by that chance to be immersed in studying my instrument, to play in a fantastic orchestra, and to hear great artists. Perhaps the real treat, though, was to be making friends with people who got me and who I felt I understood as well. Because the quality level at Interlochen was so high, it also gave me confidence that I might be able to compete successfully someday. It’s easy for a kid to be a big fish in their home pond, but it’s a great feeling to realize you’re at least a good-sized fish in one of the Great Lakes!

What advice do you have for someone wanting to follow in your footsteps?

Merely wanting a career as a performing musician is not enough. It must be not only a want but a need. If that describes you, and if you can dedicate your whole being to the pursuit, then I say, “Go for

it.” Persistence, beyond talent and hard work, is required. Be ready to get knocked down (and you most certainly will, repeatedly), but more importantly, be able and willing to get back up, having learned from the fall. Improving on a musical instrument and gaining a career playing one are both a long game. To me, at least, the rewards are well worth the effort.

life lessons: persistence, creative problem solving, patience, acceptance of failure, work ethic, collaboration, teamwork. Of course, there’s also the self-expressive side of studying music – learning to connect with an audience and learning how to interpret the creative self-expression of another artist, the composer. All of these things make the case quite strong!

Is the symphony orchestra still relevant, or is it a museum?

How do you feel the musical landscape has changed since you were a student?

This question comes up a lot and always makes me squirm a bit. Of course, the symphony orchestra is still relevant, and when did “museum” become such a dirty word? It’s like asking if oil on canvas is still relevant, or if we should still be writing plays now that we have the internet. The symphony orchestra per se is an artistic medium. When the language of music is spoken, especially without the use of words, I can think of few more colorful, more communicative, or more exciting mediums than ours.

As with any time in history, people are creating music that will stand the test of time and music that will not. Since we perform a great deal of the former, some may find the symphony orchestra akin to a museum. I embrace that. It thrills me to bring Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, or Mahler’s Ninth, or even The Stars and Stripes Forever to life for our audiences.

Their experiences are always relevant.

Why, after all, do symphony orchestras seem to be nearby in moments of great sorrow and great celebration? When the twin towers fell, musicians played for first responders, and when the Berlin Wall fell, the world sang Ode to Joy – with symphony orchestra accompaniment.

When I was studying, symphony orchestras did a lot more classical and a lot less everything else. My career is far more musically schizophrenic than I ever imagined. Our 18 weeks of classical concerts have mixed throughout an incredible variety of different styles – rock shows, movie soundtracks, traditional pops, children’s concerts, and the list goes on. That’s terrific for our community, but it can be difficult to turn on a musical dime so frequently.

If we agree to define “classical training” in music as an “extended study and mastery of a complete system of techniques, pedagogy, musical knowledge, and repertoire,” make a case for this approach in our multimedia, digitally driven world.

Don’t we modern human beings need relief from our “multimedia, digitally driven world?” So few things engage so much of our brains as trying to steadily, perhaps endlessly, improve on a musical instrument. Doing so teaches valuable

What’s the biggest challenge you’ve had to overcome so far, and how did it change you?

In recent years, I’ve lost a lot of weight (intentionally, I’m happy to say). I’m twothirds of the man I used to be! How could something so extraordinarily positive possibly have an unforeseen negative?

Musicians are athletes – athletes of the small muscles. When you lose a third of yourself, your whole body changes in ways that are hard to anticipate. Playing the trumpet changed just as much.

The struggle to find what I call “my new optimum” has been frightening, challenging, and humbling. I’m working tirelessly to regain strength, range, endurance, and the confidence that comes with them. And, all the while, I hope my new optimum might be better than ever.

Artslandia’s theme for the 2019/20 Season is A Night Out. Describe for our readers your perfect night out.

A homebody like me has some difficulty answering this question. We musicians, after all, provide perfect nights out for others (or we try to). I guess, for me, gallery hopping on First Thursday followed by a nice meal, a decadent dessert, and a walk along the Willamette with my girlfriend would be hard to beat. . orsymphony.org | 503-228-1353 49

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T H E A R T O F C O C K TA I L S

fir ebir d r isi ng Inspired by Stravinsky ’s Firebird

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Garnish with lemon slice and maraschino cherries.

I

n case you haven’t heard, as with the local makers of coffee, beer, and wine who’ve come before, Oregon’s craft distillers are smashing records, winning awards, and grabbing the spirit industry by the big, square ice cubes. In celebration of their artistry, Artslandia asked our state’s most honored distilleries to create signature cocktail recipes inspired by Portland’s performing arts season.

From Crescendo Spirits, we bring you Firebird Rising. Mix up this bespoke and incredibly tasty cocktail before you head out to Oregon Symphony’s production of Stravinsky’s Firebird. And, if you have yet to behold this season’s Annual Issue from Portland’s most fervent arts elevators (yours truly, Artslandia), make haste to Powell’s City of Books to pick up your copy. Cheers! . orsymphony.org | 503-228-1353 51

ASK URSULA THE USHER She’s not the sweetest usher in town (for which competition is fierce), but she knows her stuff.

Greetings, Artslandians.

I’m Portland’s foremost and award-winning expert in propriety, crowd management, security, and patron services administration.

I’m Ursula the Usher. Yes, that’s right. What’d you think? That ushers just stand around handing out the playbills and pointing to seats? You don’t even know the things we do to keep you safe and comfortable. Ushers are the unsung heroes of the performing arts. .

Email your questions to ursula@artslandia.com.

Q

during the performance of classical music. If it were up to me, symphony halls would have those illuminated signs that read “APPLAUSE” and flash brightly at customary moments for audible accolades. If it were up to me, Artslandia would direct patrons away from willy nilly clapping by including in the program notes of their gorgeous playbills when to applaud and, more importantly in my mind, when to refrain.

pleasing. They point out (as if I don’t know already) that this notion of silence between movements emerged in opposition to the practice of hired clappers in the 19th century. Claques, they were called (which, of course, I know). Do you know what I have to say to this? In Beethoven’s day, throwing potatoes stageward was the standard in the event of displeasure! Surely, we’ve moved past that sort of unsavoriness!

I know that you know that convention calls for such behavior when a conductor or guest artist walks onto the stage, but that said behavior should cease as soon as said conductor’s arms raise. Said behavior should not resume until said conductor’s arms rest at said conductor’s sides. All of my 5 children, 14 grandchildren, and 7 greatgrandchildren know this. And so do you, Mr. Carpenter.

There is a point in this parlay, however, that gives me pause. The Oregon Symphony’s First Timer’s Guide on the computer anticipates this clapping conundrum and offers the following guidance: “Clapping is a great way to show your appreciation for the performers. It’s part of what fuels us when we play! If you aren’t sure when to clap, don’t worry – you can easily join in once the applause has begun.”

Don’t worry, indeed! I’m worried, Mr. Carpenter. I’m very worried. My fellow ushers insist that bygone are the days of disapproving frowns and shushing.

In the present day, they tell me, true classical music aficionados welcome one and all. Education is favored over haughtiness. Outreach rules the day.

DEAR WILL CARPENTER,

In my mind, which is unfailingly correct, the movements of a classical music piece are to be enjoyed as a whole, without interruption. The role of silence is as vital to the emotional experience of the music as the drumbeats. For this usher, errant clapping is not embarrassing or irksome but does break the mood and is, therefore, improper.

I have two words for you on this topic: faux pas!

Well! This is a contentious issue, especially for the ushers among us like yours truly who value rules, order, and tradition above all else. I’m delighted to know that you, Mr. Carpenter, know the appropriate moments for applause

And yet, Mr. Carpenter, the truth is that most ushers fall on the other side of the aisle of this debate. They point to the historical fact that in Beethoven’s day, applause at will was the standard when audiences found a performance

DEAR URSULA,

Those of us who regularly attend classical music concerts have learned to withhold our applause between movements in a long piece and only applaud when the piece is finished.

We are sometimes embarrassed by audience members who apparently do not know, for example, that a symphony has four movements. Some performers seem irked by mistimed applause and others seem to enjoy it. However, I understand that European audiences are more liberal with their applause and clap for solos or arias or movements that they particularly enjoyed, so our preference for holding the applause to the end of the piece may emphasize our status as the American “rubes” of the cultural world.

But more importantly than how the audience feels, or even what the performing artists prefer, is the burning question: Which practice do ushers prefer? Any words of wisdom you can share on this contentious issue would be much appreciated!

P.S. I have been unable to locate your account on Facebook.

– Will Carpenter, Who Knows the Appropriate Time to Clap A

Sigh. The next thing you know the Oregon Symphony will be playing superhero movie soundtracks and Motown hits. Scandalous, if you ask me.

Spectacular, if you ask most ushers.

P.S. About the Facebook, you can message me on the Artslandia page.

– Ursula the Usher orsymphony.org | 503-228-1353 53

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