PROUDLY PRESENTS
Anthony McGill, Clarinet, Susanna Phillips, Soprano, & Myra Huang, Piano CHRISTENSEN PERFORMANCE HALL on The Madeline Janis Courter Stage
JANUARY 25, 2024 7:30PM 2204 Classical Circle Producing Sponsors Virginia and Ed Stringer 2024 Classical Circle Leadership Supporters David Huggin & Ken Nees
Anthony McGill, Clarinet, Susanna Phillips, Soprano, & Myra Huang, Piano
Metropolitan Opera star and New York Philharmonic clarinet and piano virtuosos will dazzle and delight us with their artistry. This concert showcases this rare and gorgeous combination of musical voices.
Clarinetist Anthony McGill enjoys a dynamic international solo and chamber music career and is principal clarinet of the New York Philharmonic — the first African-American principal player in the organization's history. He is the recipient of the 2020 Avery Fisher Prize, one of classical music’s most significant awards.
“…a captivating virtuoso on the stage, and a longtime advocate for social change extending beyond it.” – THE NEW YORK TIMES
Soprano Susanna Phillips’ career highlights include The Metropolitan Opera in more than 11 roles, premiering Rose/Awakenings at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and performing the role of Stella/A Streetcar Named Desire opposite Renée Fleming.
“…the purity and bloom of a Mozart lyric soprano. Yet her voice can lift phrases with penetrating sound and deep richness.” – THE NEW YORK TIMES
Pianist Myra Huang is invited to perform around the world, with tours including regular appearances at Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, The Mostly Mozart Festival, The Walt Disney Concert Hall, The Kennedy Center, and The 92nd Street Y.
Acclaimed by Opera News “…as being among the top accompanists of her generation,” MYRA HUANG is “…a coloristic tour de force.” – THE NEW YORK TIMES
PROGRAM NOTES DR. RICHARD E. RODDA “Parto, parto” from La Clemenza di Tito for Soprano and Piano, K. 621 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Born January 27, 1756 in Salzburg. Died December 5, 1791 in Vienna. Composed in 1791. Premiered on September 6, 1791 in Prague. Vitellia, proud daughter of the deposed Roman Emperor Vitellius, loves the new Emperor, Titus (Tito), but is furious that he has chosen Berenice, daughter of the King of Judaea, as his consort instead of her. She tries to persuade her admirer Sextus to join her in an assassination plot on Titus’ life. Sextus, a close friend of the new Emperor, is at first loath to participate in such a monstrous undertaking, but his love for Vitellia proves irresistible, and he agrees to initiate her plan. In the aria Parto, parto, Sextus (originally written for a castrato soprano) sings that he will do anything to win Vitellia’s love. The murderous adventure goes forward, but proves unsuccessful, and Titus grants the conspirators clemency in the final scene. Parto, parto, ma tu, ben mio, meco ritorna in pace: sarò qual più ti piace, quel che vorrai farò. Guardami, e tutto obblio, e a vendicarti io volo. A questo sguardo solo da me si penserà. Parto, ma tu … Ah qual poter, o dei! Donaste alla beltà!
I go, I go, but you, my love, look kindly upon me again: I shall be whatever pleases you, do whatever you wish. Look at me, and, oblivious to all else, I shall hasten to avenge you. I shall think of nothing but that glance. I go, but you … Ah, what power you gave, o gods, to beauty!
Five Songs Alma Mahler Born August 31, 1879 in Vienna. Died December 11, 1964 in New York City. Composed around 1900. Alma Mahler was a cultural force on two continents during the early 20th century. She was born in 1879 into the family of a highly respected Viennese painter, well educated, trained in music, and came to be regarded as one of the most beautiful women in the city. Alma married three of her generation’s most influential artists — composer and conductor Gustav Mahler, architect Walter Gropius (founder of the Bauhaus School) and writer Franz Werfel (whose novel The Song of Bernadette was made into an Oscar-winning film in 1943) — and had affairs with composer Alexander von Zemlinsky, artist Oskar Kokoschka and (perhaps) Secessionist painter Gustav Klimt. Alma and Werfel, whom she married in 1929 (she thereafter preferred the surname Mahler–Werfel), were leading figures in Viennese cultural and social life until the Nazi Anschluss in 1938 drove them to France and then to America, where they settled in Los Angeles. Alma resumed her role as a hostess, providing companionship, contacts and support for such expatriate artists as Arnold Schoenberg, Igor Stravinsky, Thomas Mann and many others. Gropius died in 1945, Alma became a United States citizen in 1946, and several years later she moved to New York City, where she remained an important cultural figure. (Leonard Bernstein, a champion of the music of Gustav Mahler, who had also been a Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, said she attended his rehearsals.) The remarkable life of Alma Mahler-Werfel ended in New York on December 11, 1964. Her remains were taken home and she was buried in the Grinzing Cemetery in Vienna in the same grave as her daughter Manon Gropius and a few steps away from that of Gustav Mahler. Mahler met Alma in November 1901, when she was 22 and he was 41. Romance blossomed, they were married in March, and were parents by November. Alma had evinced an ability as a composer and written a number of fine songs, but as a condition of their marriage, Mahler demanded that she abandon creative work and present herself principally as his wife. The demand was painful for her but she complied, though not without lingering resentment. Her needs, some intimate, some social, she left unspoken, realizing how much Mahler depended on her for support. In her memoirs, published years later, she wrote, “I knew that my marriage was no marriage and that my own life was utterly unfulfilled. I concealed all this from him, and although he knew it as well as I did, we played out the comedy to the end.” In 1910, she began her affair with Walter Gropius. Mahler found out about the situation and demanded that Alma choose between them. She could not leave her husband and daughter, but the
scene brought to the surface some of the frustrations of her life with Mahler, most painfully the loss of her identity to the demands of his career. Mahler was swept with guilt. In August he went to Leiden, Holland, to receive the counsel of Sigmund Freud, whom he had persistently declined to meet on earlier occasions, and a great admiration sprang up between those two explorers of the soul. When Mahler returned home, he took out some of Alma’s songs, played through them, with tears in his eyes, and then offered to edit five of them (Die stille Stadt, In meines Vaters Garten, Laue Sommernacht, Bei dir ist es traut, lch wandle unter Blumen) for publication by Universal Edition, his own publisher. Another nine songs were issued in 1915 (with a cover illustration by Kokoschka) and 1924, and three more discovered posthumously. Alma Mahler-Werfel is not known to have composed any other works. Die stille Stadt (“The Quiet Town”) Text: Richard Dehmel Liegt eine Stadt im Tale, ein blasser Tag vergeht, es wird nicht lang mehr dauern, bis weder Mond noch Sterne, nur Nacht am Himmel steht. Von allen Bergen drücken Nebel auf die Stadt, es dringt kein Dach noch Hof noch Haus, kein Laut aus ihrem Rauch heraus, kaum Türme nach und Brücken. Doch als dem Wandrer graute, da ging ein Lichtlein auf im Grund und aus dem Rauch und Nebel begann ein Lobgesang aus Kindermund.
There’s a town in the valley; a pale day fades away, and it won’t be much longer until neither moon nor stars are in the sky, but only night. Fog covers the town, from the hills; neither roof nor house nor home, no sound rises from its thick mist, hardly a tower or a bridge. But when the wanderer started, a little light flashed down below, and a song of praise from children’s lips was heard from the fog and mist
In meines Vaters Garten (“In My Father’s Garden”) Text: Otto Erich Hartleben In meines Vaters Garten blühe, mein Herz, blüh’ auf in meines Vaters Garten stand ein schattender Apfelbaum. Süsser Traum, süsser Traum! Stand ein schattender Apfelbaum. Drei blonde Königstöchter blühe, mein Herz, blüh’ auf drei wunderschöne Mädchen schliefen unter dem Apfelbaum süsser Traum, süsser Traum, süsser Traum! schliefen unter dem Apfelbaum.
In my father’s garden, bloom, my heart, bloom! In my father’s garden there was a shady apple tree, sweet dream, sweet dream! There was a shady apple tree. Three blond king’s daughters, bloom, my heart, bloom! Three wonderfully beautiful girls were sleeping under the apple tree, sweet dream, sweet dream! They were sleeping under the apple tree.
Laue Sommernacht (“Mild Summer’s Night”) Text: Gustav Falke Laue Sommernacht, am Himmel stand kein Stern, im weiten Walde suchten wir und lief im Dunkel, und wir fanden uns. Fanden uns im weiten Walde in der Nacht, der sternenlosen, hielten staunend uns im Arme in der dunklen Nacht. War nicht unser ganzes Leben nur ein Tappen, nur ein Suchen, da in deine Finsternisse, Liebe, fiel dein Licht!
Mild summer’s night, no star in the sky, in the wide woods, we were looking, in the dark, and we found each other. We found each other in the wide woods, in the starless night, and held one another tight in the dark night. Our whole life, was it not only a groping, only a seeking, until you, love, shone in your darkness!
Bei dir ist es traut (“With You It’s Cozy”) Text: Rainer Mario Rilke Bei dir ist es traut, zarte Uhren schlugen wie aus alten Tagen, kann mir ein Liebes sagen, aber nur nicht laut! Ein Tor geht irgendwo draussen im Blütentreiben, der Abend horcht an die Scheiben, lass uns leise bleiben, keiner weiss uns so!
With you it’s cozy, timid clocks struck as in days of old, go ahead, whisper me one little loving word, only not too loud! A gate is heard out in the blossoming world, der Abend horcht an die Scheiben, let’s keep quiet, so no one knows we’re here!
Bei dir ist es traut (“With You It’s Cozy”) Text: Rainer Mario Rilke lch wandle unter Blumen und blühe selber mit, ich wandle wie im Traume und schwanke bei jedem Schritt. O halt mich fest, Geliebte! Vor liebestrunkenheit fall’ ich dir sonst zu Füssen und der Garten ist voller leut!
I strolled among flowers and blossomed with them; I strolled as in a dream and swayed with every step. O hold me, my dear! Otherwise I’ll fall at your feet, drunk with love, and there’s company in the garden!
Grand Duo Concertante for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 48 Carl Maria von Weber Born December 18, 1786 in Eutin, Germany. Died June 5, 1826 in London. Composed in 1815-1816. Premiered on February 10, 1817 in Dresden, by Johann Simon Hermstedt and the composer. Clarinetist Heinrich Bärmann was born in Potsdam in 1784, trained at the School of Military Music there, and served in the band of the Prussian Life Guards. He was captured by the French at Jena, escaped, and made his way to Munich, where he obtained a post as a court musician. He later toured through England, France, Italy and Russia and won wide fame as one of the outstanding clarinet
virtuosos of his day. During a visit to Munich in 1811, Weber wrote for him a one-movement Concertino (Op. 26) that utilized the expanded technical possibilities offered by the ten-key instrument Bärmann had recently acquired. It created such delight at the premiere in April that Bärmann convinced Weber to write full-length concertos for him in both May and June. Four years later, just days after Napoleon was defeated by Wellington at Waterloo on June 18, 1815, Weber was back in Munich, where he was welcomed as a resident guest into Bärmann’s home for the summer. Soon after his arrival, Weber completed the slow movement and finale of an elaborate composition for clarinet and piano and played them in a public concert with Bärmann on August 2nd, in the presence of the Bavarian royal family. Three weeks later Weber presented the virtuoso with a Quintet for Clarinet and Strings (Op. 34). Bärmann was delighted with this new music, but he might have been somewhat miffed had he learned that the clarinet and piano piece was not conceived for him but rather for one of his greatest rivals, Johann Simon Hermstedt, whose brilliant playing had inspired four concertos and several chamber works from Louis Spohr. Weber had met Hermstedt in Prague late the preceding year, and, according to the composer’s diary, Hermstedt had asked him to compose a concerto for his instrument. Weber apparently went to work on the piece immediately, but he ended up with a duo for piano and clarinet rather than a full concerto. Two movements were completed by his Munich visit the next summer and he let Bärmann perform them, but the full work was not finished until the opening Allegro was written in Berlin in November. Hermstedt and Weber performed the completed work twice in Dresden in February 1817. The published score bore no dedication. Of the musical nature of the Grand Duo Concertante, Weber’s biographer John Warrack wrote, “This is not a sonata for clarinet with piano accompaniment, but a full-scale concert work for two virtuosos, and the music is deployed accordingly.” The opening movement (Allegro con fuoco — “Fast, with fire”) is a large and handsome sonata form, with a pleasing balance of themes and an ingenious development section. The Andante begins and ends with a somber melody in C minor whose poignant lyricism is indebted to Weber’s wide experience as an opera composer; the movement’s middle portion is marked by a certain chromatic peregrination. The Grand Duo closes with an expansive and delightfully showy Rondo.
Chavah’s Daughters Speak for Soprano, Clarinet and Piano James Lee III Born November 26, 1975 in St. Joseph, Michigan. Composed in 2021. Premiered on May 11, 2021 at the 92nd Street Y in New York City by soprano Susan Phillips, clarinetist Anthony McGill and pianist Myra Huang. “I want to compose music,” says James Lee III of the deep spirituality of his creative work, “to reach into the inner soul of listeners and elevate them regardless of race and religious affiliation.” Lee was born in 1975 in St. Joseph, Michigan, on the southern shore of Lake Michigan, and holds bachelor’s (1995), master’s (2001) and doctoral degrees (2005) in piano and composition from the University of Michigan, where his teachers included William Bolcom, Bright Sheng and Michael Daugherty. Lee was also a Seiji Ozawa Composition Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center during the summer of 2002, when he studied composition with Osvaldo Golijov, Michael Gandolfi, Steven Mackey, Kaija Saariaho and Augusta Reed Thomas and conducting with Stefan Asbury. In addition to his fellowship at Tanglewood, he has also received the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Rackham Merit Fellowship from the University of Michigan, and First Prize in the Leigh Morris Chorale Choral Composition Competition. Lee has taught at Marygrove College in Detroit and the Village Music School in Plymouth, Michigan, and since 2005 has been on the faculty of Morgan State University in Baltimore, where he is now Professor of Composition and Theory. From August to December 2014, James Lee III was a Fulbright Scholar and Visiting Professor at the State University of Campinas in Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil, where he taught composition, composed and researched the music of 20th- and 21st-century Brazilian composers. Chavah’s Daughters Speak was inspired by the poems of Sister Lou Ella Hickman of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament in Corpus Christi, Texas. When Sister Lou Ella published her first volume of poetry, titled robed and wordless, in 2015, she said of it, “I wanted to give voice to many of the women of the Bible who were invisible as well as to those who were given only a few words or none. I wanted them to speak for themselves and tell their story on their own terms.” Of his cycle of five songs based on Sister Lou Ella’s verses, James Lee wrote, “Chavah is the Hebrew name for Eve, the mother of humanity according to the book of Genesis. In this work, I wanted to use texts and thoughts that might have been spoken by women from the Bible who were not given an opportunity to have their expressions recorded in the sacred scriptures.
“The first song, after eve ... then what?, serves as a type of prologue. In absalom’s wife, I tried to evoke the emotions a woman whose husband stirred up an armed military rebellion against his father, king of their nation. She was horrified by Absalom’s unfaithfulness to her and during the intensity of one battle, while he was fleeing on his horse, his long hair got tangled in a tree and he ended up being hung from that tree. To his wife, perhaps it was as if he were trapped and entangled in another woman’s arms. “Abishag the shunammite expresses how the young woman Abishag the Shunammite might have felt as she was called to be near the aged King David in the royal palace to keep him warm as he was dying. The music continues with a repeated harmony that suggests the inevitability of the king’s death. “The nameless wife of matthew, a tax collector, recalls how her husband was so busy daily working for the Roman empire and how all that suddenly changed when he heard the words ‘follow me’ from Jesus of Nazareth. “Woman bent with infirmity evokes the joy of a woman who had been physically disabled for much of her life. This last song, in binary form, progresses from darkness to light and joyful celebration.” 1. after eve …then what? like words spoken once then forgotten we lived we lived in the ordinary wives, mothers, sisters ... a world whose honor or shame would lie in what was begotten countless as words in books we, the paradox of the obvious, the mundane words nameless as the dust flaming each sunset and sunrise a thousand years more
2. absalom’s wife perhaps nothing could be said for vanity and yet those glistening curls with the wind brushing his hair black he hung as if trapped by some other woman tangled in her arms
3. abishag the shunammite his skin bruised as easily as lilies his breath was stale death lingered in his lungs so why do weep for him — this warrior with his ten thousands slain each echoed in a fragile pulse beneath the shivering flesh i, too, shivered when they first brought me here to blanket his tallow body with my warmth the king is far away and very old — that was common knowledge in my village yet here i am and so I weep for legends die like other men
4. the wife of matthew soon after the wedding our lives became a ledger a daily counting a mere series of columns and figures he worked hard until i wondered how much would be enough then everything unraveled like a thread from my spindle all because of follow Me
5. woman bent with infirmity unnamed, was less than servant animals voiceless in their grazing or being led to water on the fringes i carried what they would have me be now called daughter of abraham, at last i am faithful and free
Romance for Clarinet and Piano William Grant Still Born May 11, 1895 in Woodville, Mississippi. Died December 3, 1978 in Los Angeles. Composed in 1954.
William Grant Still was born in Woodville, Mississippi, where his father was town bandmaster. At sixteen, Still matriculated as a medical student at Wilberforce University in Ohio, but soon switched to music and graduated in 1915; two years he later entered Oberlin College. In 1921, he moved to New York as oboist with the orchestra of the Noble Sissle–Eubie Blake revue Shuffle Along. There he studied with Varèse, ran Black Swan Records, and in 1928 received the Harmon Award for that year’s most significant contribution to Black culture in America. While continuing to compose large-scale classical pieces, Still also wrote and arranged for radio, Broadway shows and Paul Whiteman, Artie Shaw and other popular bandleaders. After moving to Los Angeles in 1934, he arranged for films (Lost Horizon) and television (Gunsmoke, Perry Mason). Still continued to hold an important place in American music until his death in 1978. Still originally composed his Romance in 1954 for the German saxophonist Sigurd Rascher, whose advocacy did more than that of any other performer to establish his instrument as a solo medium in the concert hall. In addition to Still’s Romance, Rascher coaxed concerted works from Jacques Ibert, Frank Martin, Eric Coates, Alexander Glazunov (both a concerto and a saxophone quartet) and other important 20th-century masters. Still’s atmospheric piece is lyrical in style, subtle in expression, and simple in its three-part form (A–B–A).
Infelice (Wretch!) for Soprano and Piano, Op. 94 Felix Mendelssohn Born February 3, 1809 in Hamburg. Died November 4, 1847 in Leipzig. Composed in 1834, revised in 1843 Premiered on May 19, 1834 by the London Philharmonic Society Orchestra conducted by the composer, with Maria Caradori-Allan as soloist. For an appearance with the London Philharmonic Society Orchestra early 1834, Mendelssohn was asked to write a new work featuring the glamorous and fiery Spanish soprano Maria Malibran, who had recently settled in England. Malibran was famed for both her lyricism and her technique, so to display her talents Mendelssohn created a piece in the manner of an old-fashioned concert aria with a text he cobbled from various librettos by Pietro Metastasio, the dean of 18th-century opera poets, on the subject of the rejected lover. (Mendelssohn called it “the most glorious nonsense.”) To accompany Malibran, he included an elaborate violin part for the French virtuoso Charles-Auguste de Bériot, then her paramour and later her husband. The premiere of Infelice — Wretch! — was set for May 19, 1834 but Malibran was unable to perform, so the celebrated Maria Caradori-Allan, who was singing Italian opera in London that season, substituted. (Caradori-Allan was the soprano soloist in the British premiere of
Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, on March 21, 1825 given by the London Philharmonic Society, which had originally commissioned the work; the world premiere had taken place ten months before in Vienna.) For a performance in 1843 by soprano Sophie Schloss and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, where Mendelssohn was then music director, he revised Infelice but never performed it again. It was published as his Op. 94 in 1851, four years after his death, and has remained a little-known showpiece for virtuoso soprano. RECITATIVE Infelice! già dal mio sguardo si dileguò ... ... Partì. La mia presenza l’iniquo non sostenne. Rammenta al fine i falli, i torti suoi, Risveglia la tua virtù, scordati l’empio traditor! Amante sventurata! ... E l’amo pure ... Così fallace amore, le tue promesse attendi? Tu non mai rendi la rapita quiete? Queste son le speranze e l’ore liete?
Wretch! already he has departed from my sight ... He has gone. The villain could not bear my presence. He finally remembers his deceit, his wrongs, Your virtue awakens, cast aside the impious traitor! Ill-fated lover! ... And I still love him ... Love so deceitful, do you expect your promises? Will you never give me the peace you have stolen? Are these my hopes and my hours of joy?
ARIA Ah ritorna, età dell’oro alla terra abbandonata, se non fosti immaginata nel sognar felicità. Fu il mondo allor felice che un tenero arboscello, un limpido ruscello le genti alimentó. Ah ritorna, bell’età.
Ah return, season of gold to the abandoned earth, if you have not been imagined in a dream of happiness. The world was happy then that a tender little tree, a clear brook nourished the folk. Ah return, fair season.
D’amor nel regno non v’è content che del tormento non sia minor. Si scorge appena felice speme che nuova pena la turba ancor. Ah ritorna, bell’età
In the kingdom of love there is no content that one’s torment should diminish. No sooner has sweet hope appeared than new pain clouds it again. Ah return, fair season.
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Francie & Larry Schenck Shirley Schlossman Howard & Pam Shaw Frank & Jeanne Speizer Chris & Janis Swain August & Maureen Thoma Nancy Trimbur Ken & Virginia Trudell Thomas & Kathleen Veratti Douglas H. & Priscilla B. Viets John & Beverly Voorhees Ellen Wersan The Buckman Family George C. Witte
FRIEND Don & Betty Abbott Cindy Bixler Borgmann Corrine & Art Addie Dick & Victoria Bourdow Judith Adler Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Susan Ahlcrona Raymond L. Brennan Clare Almack John & Catherine Bridge Amejo Amyot Kathryn Brintnall Judie Anderson Jo & Arthur Brisbane Leslie & Joe Anding Leslie Brunn Susan Andrews Peter & Connie Bukowick Mary S. Arceneaux Rodger & Mary Jo Bunnell Dr. Donald Bachman & Dr. Karen Back Deborah Butler Suzanne & Randy Baker Melissa & Mark Calkin Charles & Ann Balch Richard & Marcy Calkins George & Molly Barbee Mr. & Mrs. John Campbell Dr. Ann Tice & Dr. Joe Barkmeier Ron & Janice Chaddock Richard & Madeline Baron Carl & Mary Ann Chambers Mary & Dan Bell Mrs. Marcia Chauvet & Mr. John Dolan Tom & Laura Bernhardt Leslie Cimino Kathryn Bielefeld Michele Classe Virginia Bisby Janice Udesen Cohen PJ Blankenhorn & Tony Wagner Robin & David Coleman Mark & Doreen Bolhuis & Maureen Corpron-Vel
FRIEND Tom & Barbara Cooley Raymond & Nancy Cooper Carmen & Jim Courter Foundation Julie Cronin Cheryl & Tom D’Altrui Patricia David John & Linda DeFrancisco Laura & Chris Denick Andrea & Daniel Derrington Nicole Dewoolfson Richard & Deborah Donahue Marlene Donaldson Nancy Donaldson Bob & Ellen Dugan Mary Dunnavan Barbara & Jim Egan Angela & Brian Ellacott Kathryn Engle Anonymous John & Judy Evans Anonymous Bill & Virginia Fellows Bev Forslund George Foster Shirley & Byron Frank Raf & Bonnie Frankel John W. Fredericks Barbara Hill Freeman Dorothy C. Fritze Rabbi Stephen & Rabbi Victoria Fuchs Beverly Gaabo Walter & Methel Gale Fred & Barbara George Brenda A. Pommerenke & Larry George Maureen & Andy Ginipro Lisabet & Gertrude Girr Nancy & Clivie Goodwin Ron & Joan Gould Carol Gregg Bill & Shelley Greggs
Lois Gries Buzz & Mary Jo Griffin Kathy & Alan Grundei Richard & Jane Guelich Lyder & Charlene Gulbrandsen John & Betty Gundersdorf Roberta Gutwein George & Audrey Hagerman Ella Hall Miriam Pepper Gloria Hammersley Anonymous Gene & Jo Hardy Anonymous Karen Bush Havrilla Dale & Suzette Heeres Susan Marie Herrmann Linda J. Hooper Libby & Rob Hoops Richard & Stephanie Huddleston Janet Hurley Louise Huyck Don & Stefanie Irwin Andrew & Teresa Jacob John & Lana Jacobs Bob & Amy Johnson Paul & Janet Johnson Norm Johnston Thomas J. Juedes Petra & Wolfgang Kaiser Stanley & Jo Ann Katz Jack Kennedy Mally Khorasantchi John & Wendy Kindig Candy & Steve Klare Carl Knight Mark & Kristen Koelmel Susan Kolson Julian Korn Jack & Cathy Kozik Kathy Kuck
FRIEND Thomas LaFond Dr. Allen & Wendy Pois Melissa Laidlaw & Menashe Ben-David Anonymous Linda Laird Isabella Rasi Virginia & Tim Lattner Marianne Nyhan Ravenna Mr. & Mrs. Paul R. Lawrence Debra & David Ray Annie Layman James Reynolds Ann Lindberg Jan Rice Karen Holder & Randy Lisk Rob & Debbie Rizzo Maryann L. Loh Carlos & Mary Roche Gary & Margot Long Carol & Bill Rosenberg Howard Lorsch & Tracy Dwyer Margaret Ross David & Kelly Lowden Carolyn Ruff David & Jackie Lurio Jolene & Kooroush Saeian Janet MaGirl Di Saggau Marla Manning Mr. & Mrs. Peter Saltz Joan M. Martyn Michael Samet & Elissa Karasin-Samet Pamela M. Mascio Pat Santucci, M.D. John & Jennifer Masters David Scheiber Roy & Judith McCloskey Laurence & Jeanie Schiffer John & Janet McLaughlin John & Lisa Schmidlin Dana Mehlig Craig & Lynn Schneider Michele Messenger Bob & Caren Schoen Sarah Ashton & Jim Metzler Steve & Laurie Schulz Eleanor Miller Walter & Betsy Schuman Rene & Margarethe Miville Michelle Schweber Joseph & Linda Mondelli Debbie Scray Mike & Debbie Morgan Mr. Terry See & Mrs. Theresa Shea-See Mary Beth & Scott Morrison Mr. Juan Serret & Mrs. Karen Serret Drs. John & Gwendolynn Newman Jack & Karen Shaw Randall & Marilyn Niehoff Sally & Dwight Shelton Fred C. Nordstrom Bradford Shingleton Mr. & Mrs. John L.S. Northrop Joseph Shuster & Barbara Bazzone Jim & Barbara O’Hare Karen Shutway Bruce & Catherine Odlaug Cathy Simon Tom & Barbara Olson Dennis & Brooke Simon Carl Ordemann Anonymous Enid Packard Joyce & Joe Sirkin Jim & Nancy Patterson Ellen Smiley & David Bollinger Mica Pennington Jon & Kathryn Sternburg Nathan Perkins Priscilla Stevens Mr. & Mrs. Erich Pfanzelt Betsy Sugerman Dr. Anjanette Stoltz & Mr. Anthony Bango
FRIEND Dennis Sutherland Al & Monica Taylor Kathleen Taylor & Bruno Notari Lynn Thelen Kersti Thompson Mr. & Mrs. Stanley Timson Kay Trainor Karr & Joan Van Nordstrand Janice VanBuskirk Kelli Vestal Gary & Linda Vroegindewey David Waks & Sandra Teger Anne Walter Bob & Roberta Washlow James Weddell
Ina Weissblatt Lyman & Deana Welch Lynne Wesolowski Berta & Carroll Wetzel Helene Weyant Brian & Susan White Patricia Pombo Wilson Elaine & Sanford Winer Linda & Jim Winn J Pamela Weiner & James Wittenberg E. Blake Wood The Dunham Children Nancy Zeedyk Mr. & Mrs. Jeffry Zimmer
LEGACY SOCIETY Jack T. Bailey Jerry Churchill K. Ann Dempsey Elizabeth Eagleton Ruth F. Frank Roni Freer
Deborah & John La Gorce Kenneth L. Nees Don & Joyce Rice John Schork Penny Wilkinson & Dick Boehning
GIFTS IN HONOR OF Chuck Bonser Donna Leahy The Dunham Family Kris Gurall Patrick Harder David and Ann Hedges George & Susan Heisler Ken Nees
Dan & Gerri Perkins Jim & Gaye Pigott Carol Rosenberg Elmer Stilbert Janet M. Strickland, P.A. Monica Taylor Ellen Whitten
GIFTS IN MEMORY OF Henry Foltz Suzanne Crawford Suzanne Crawford Dave Havrilla Blake Devitt Bea Pappas Blake Devitt Beth Murphy Beth Murphy
Dr. Laurence Oberhill Tom Pick Paul Powers Blake Devitt Karen Shaw Davis Thurber Ronald Glenn Wallace Pat Whitaker
IN-KIND DONORS Landgraphics Sanibel-Captiva David M. Platt, PA DONOR LIST AS OF DECEMBER 31, 2023
Become a Supporter
Gifts can be made in many forms. For information on how to support BIG ARTS and all its programs, Contact Michelle Schweber, Director of Development mschweber@bigarts.org | 239.395.0900 ext. 308
Meet Our Staff
Lena Baranova - Staff Accountant Denise Dillon - Events Assistant Marina Dowling - Office Manager Barbara Freeman - Executive Assistant Meghan Govoni - Marketing Manager Melody Hampton - Database and Information Manager Lee Ellen Harder - Executive Director Charlotte Hardt - Customer Service Associate Wendy Harriman - House Manager Aimee Harrison - Workshops Manager Richard Jones - Technical Director David Kolson - Chief Financial Officer Greg LeBlanc - Facilities and Maintenance Supervisor Kelly Lowden - Customer Service Associate Wilson McCray - Gallery Director Michelle Schweber - Development Director Olga Semreen - Staff Accountant
Meet Our Board Chair - Rene Savarise Vice Chair - Bob Wiesemann Treasurer/Secretary - David Lowden Past Chair - Don Rice Gustav Christensen Scot Congress Mike Wood
Great communities create great organizations – not the other way around. In 1979, BIG ARTS was created, by, and for the community, and owes its rich history to a small band of dedicated artists who drew inspiration from each other and from the breathtaking island beauty that infused their work with grace and authenticity. They set out to create a special gathering place where artistic and educational experiences were accessible to all. Today that vision is alive and well. With the help of our loyal donors and supporters, BIG ARTS will carry that vision forward – providing joy, inspiration and a sense of community for generations to come.
Vision
To create great arts, entertainment and learning experiences that always inspire, enrich and delight.
Mission
Provide an array of quality entertainment, arts and education programs that enrich and nurture the lives of Sanibel and Captiva residents and visitors through: • professionally led arts and enrichment classes and workshops for students of all ages • stimulating and informative lectures and group discussions with renowned national thought leaders and educators • dynamic visual and performing arts presentations of the highest caliber
TICKETS:
IN PERSON: 900 Dunlop Road, Sanibel, Florida 33957 BY PHONE: 239.395.0900 ONLINE: BIGARTS.org