CIVIC ORCHESTRA OF CHICAGO
NOV 8
E T FA W O N S R E U Q N O C
Thomas Wilkins conductor
The 2021–22 Civic Orchestra of Chicago season is generously sponsored by
The Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation.
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ONE HUNDRED THIRD SE ASON
CIVIC ORCHESTRA OF CHICAGO
Ken-David Masur Principal Conductor The Robert Kohl and Clark Pellett Principal Conductor Chair Monday, November 8, 2021, at 8:00
Thomas Wilkins Conductor simon
Fate Now Conquers
hailstork
An American Port of Call
schuman
still
New England Triptych
Be Glad Then, America When Jesus Wept Chester
Symphony No. 1 (Afro-American)
Longing: Moderato assai Sorrow: Adagio Humor: Animato Aspiration: Lento, con risoluzione—Vivace
There will be no intermission.
The 2021–22 Civic Orchestra of Chicago season is generously sponsored by The Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation. This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency. C SO.ORG/INSTITUTE 3
comments by richard e. rodda carlos simon
Born April 13, 1986; Atlanta, Georgia
Fate Now Conquers Carlos Simon was named the Kennedy Center’s composer-in-residence in April 2021, and will serve in that position for three years. During his residency, Simon will compose and present music for the National Symphony Orchestra and Washington National Opera; act as an ambassador for new music; and participate in educational, social impact, community engagement, and major institutional initiatives. His music was first heard at the Kennedy Center in April 2018, when then resident composer Mason Bates included his string quartet An Elegy: A Cry from the Grave (2015)—honoring the lives of shooting victims Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner—in his JFK Jukebox series. The following year, Washington National Opera, as part of its American Opera Initiative, commissioned his one-act opera Night Trip, to a libretto by Sandra Seaton. It received its premiere on January 10, 2020. Carlos Simon, born in Atlanta in 1986, grew up playing organ at his father’s church. He immersed himself in music in high school and later earned degrees from Georgia State University and Morehouse College, completing his doctorate at the University of Michigan, where he studied with Evan Chambers and Grammy Award–winning composer Michael Daugherty. Simon also studied in Baden, Austria, and at the Hollywood Music Workshop and New York University’s Film Scoring Summer Workshop. Simon taught at Spelman College and Morehouse College in Atlanta before being appointed in 2019 to the faculty of Georgetown University, where his projects include a new composition dedicated to the slaves who helped build the school. In addition to his recent opera, Simon has composed works for orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo voice, chorus, concert band, and film and received several commissions from noted organizations such as the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Opera, and Philadelphia Orchestra. His gospel-influenced Amen! (2017) was commissioned by the University of Michigan Band in celebration of the university’s 200th anniversary.
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composed 2020 f i rst p e rf o rm a n c e October 8, 2020, by the Philadelphia Orchestra. Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting i n st ru m e n tat i o n piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, strings
a bove: Carlos Simon, photo by Terrance Ragland
COMMENTS
Carlos Simon has also performed as keyboardist with the Boston Pops, Jackson Symphony, and St. Louis Symphony orchestras. In 2018, he toured Japan under the sponsorship of the United States Embassy in Tokyo and United States–Japan Foundation performing in some of the country’s most sacred temples and important concert venues, served as music director and keyboardist for Grammy Award winner Jennifer Holliday, and appeared internationally with Grammy-nominated soul artist Angie Stone. Simon received the 2021 Medal of Excellence of the Sphinx Organization, which is dedicated to promoting and recognizing Black and Latinx classical music and musicians. His additional honors include the Marvin Hamlisch Film Scoring Award, Theodore Presser Foundation Award, ASCAP’s Morton Gould Young Composer Award, fellowships from the Sundance Institute and Cabrillo Festival for Contemporary Music, and a residency at the 2021 Ojai Music Festival.
F
ate Now Conquers was commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra to pair with a performance of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony on a concert in March 2020. That concert was postponed due to the pandemic, and the work was premiered, digitally, on October 8, 2020, under the direction of Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
Carlos Simon on Fate Now Conquers
F
ate Now Conquers was inspired by a journal entry from Ludwig van Beethoven’s notebook written in 1815:
Iliad. The Twenty-Second Book But Fate now conquers; I am hers; and yet not she shall share In my renown; that life is left to every noble spirit And that some great deed shall beget that all lives shall inherit. Using the beautifully fluid harmonic structure of the second movement of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, I have composed musical gestures that are representative of the unpredictable ways of fate —jolting stabs, coupled with an agitated groove with every persona; frenzied arpeggios in the strings that morph into an ambiguous cloud of free-flowing running passages depicting the uncertainty of life that hovers over us. We know that Beethoven strived to overcome many obstacles in his life and documented his aspirations to prevail, despite his ailments. Whatever the specific reason for including this particularly profound passage from the Iliad, in the end it seems that Beethoven relinquished himself to fate. Fate now conquers. —Carlos Simon
C SO.ORG/INSTITUTE 5
COMMENTS
adolphus hailstork
Born April 17, 1941; Rochester, New York
An American Port of Call “I don’t write esoteric, ivory tower works to be performed by a few people in a loft for an audience of a few people,” says Adolphus Hailstork. “My music is tonal, lyrical, and very rhythmic, like Aaron Copland. I’m not of the experimental school. That’s just not me. I’m a populist, but so was Verdi.” Hailstork was born in Rochester, New York, on April 17, 1941, and grew up in Albany, where he learned to play violin, piano, and organ, and sang in the school choirs. He started to compose before enrolling at Howard University in Washington, D.C., in 1959 as a student of Mark Fax. Upon his graduation from Howard in 1963, he won a Lucy E. Moten Travel Fellowship that enabled him to study with the celebrated pedagogue Nadia Boulanger at the American Academy in Fontainebleau, France. He then earned a second bachelor’s degree (1965) and a master’s degree (1966) from the Manhattan School of Music, where his teachers included Nicolas Flagello, Vittorio Giannini, and David Diamond. He completed his doctoral studies in 1971 at Michigan State University (MSU), studying principally with H. Owen Reed. Hailstork taught at MSU and Youngstown State University before joining the faculty of Norfolk State University in Virginia in 1977. Since 1999, he has served on the faculty of Old Dominion University in Norfolk, where he is now an Eminent Scholar and professor of music. Hailstork has written with much success in a variety of musical genres: opera (a 1994 work inspired by the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar composed on a commission from the Dayton Opera Association as well as Rise for Freedom, premiered by Cincinnati Opera in October 2007), symphony, concerto (his Piano Concerto of 1992 was commissioned by a consortium of five orchestras for soloist Leon Bates), band, chamber, piano, song, and chorus. Hailstork’s prominence in American musical life has been recognized with such distinctions as the Ernest Bloch Award, a Fulbright Fellowship (for study in Guyana), Virginia Governor’s Award for the Arts, a residency with the Albany (Georgia) Symphony Orchestra, an honorary doctorate from the College of William and Mary, a Distinguished Alumni Award from the Manhattan School of Music, and the Strong Men and Strong Women Award from Dominion Energy
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composed 1984 f i rst p e rf o rm a n c e February 1985; Norfolk, Virginia, Richard Williams conducting i n st ru m e n tat i o n piccolo, three flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, piano, strings
a bove: Adolphus Hailstork
COMMENTS
of Virginia (“to provide our youth with positive role models, African American men and women whose accomplishments and determination demonstrate true excellence in leadership”); in 1992, he was named a Cultural Laureate of the State of Virginia.
Adolphus Hailstork on An American Port of Call
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n American Port of Call was written as a result of a phone call from Richard Williams, conductor of the Virginia Symphony in Norfolk, who wanted to open his February 1985 concerts with my music. I offered to write a new piece that would fit the time slot available—about seven minutes—and would be dynamic, colorful and generally positive in mood. Even with such preliminary specifications, for me a musical composition is “about” its own material, in this case, the interval of a major seventh [i.e., one half step smaller than an octave] and the cascading, syncopated theme that grew out of it. All the events in the piece are variations of this core theme heard in the trumpets
and horns early in the work. Even theme 2 in this sonata form is a lyrical transformation of the original idea. After a general tossing around in the development section, the contrasting variations all run into each other at an intersection that is both the high point of the development and the beginning of the recapitulation. The subsequent transition section with piano, piccolo, and pizzicato strings leads back to an expanded presentation of theme 2 before the coda, yet another variant of the core theme, winds it all up. A word about the title, An American Port of Call. I had completed some drafts of the piece before searching for a title. The standard ones such as “Overture for Orchestra” seemed a bit stuffy to me. So I decided to wait until some scene, image or idea jumped into my mind and linked up with the music I had written. I had such a response on the day that celebrates the relationship between the special geography of the Norfolk area and its destiny—Harborfest [Norfolk’s annual celebration of its nautical and cultural heritage]. —Adolphus Hailstork
william schuman
Born August 4, 1910; New York City Died February 15, 1992; New York City
New England Triptych, Three Pieces after William Billings William Schuman, born in New York City in 1910, was one of America’s most distinguished composers and educators. As a teenager, his interest was in jazz and popular music, but he turned to concert music before leaving high school. Following studies at Columbia University and with Roy Harris, he joined the faculty of Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, in 1935. The American Festival Overture of 1939 was the earliest of his works to gain popular notice, and he became
composed 1956 f i rst p e rf o rm a n c e October 28, 1956, University of Miami Orchestra. André Kostelanetz conducting i n st ru m e n tat i o n piccolo, three flutes, two oboes, english horn, E-flat clarinet, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, strings
lef t: William Schuman, photo courtesy of Yale University
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COMMENTS
one of the leading artistic figures of his generation during the ensuing five years, receiving the first Pulitzer Prize in Music, in 1943, for A Free Song. In 1945, he left Sarah Lawrence to assume the dual responsibilities of director of publications for G. Schirmer, Inc., and president of the Juilliard School of Music in New York City. At Juilliard, where he remained for eighteen years, his tenure was notable for the establishment of the renowned Juilliard Quartet and for the thorough overhaul of the teaching of theory. This latter achievement arose from his philosophy of basing instruction directly on the experiences of listening and creating music rather than on any rigid pedagogical system, and it influenced the curricula of music schools throughout the country. From 1962 to 1969, Schuman served as president of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, a period that saw the virtual completion of that influential complex. William Schuman was among this country’s most prominent spokesmen and advisors for the arts as consultant to, among many others, CBS, the Rockefeller Foundation, Broadcast Music, Inc., and the MacDowell Colony, while remaining active as a composer. Thanks to a strict and methodical work schedule, he produced an enormous amount of music for a man of so many parts: ten symphonies; concerted works for piano, violin, horn, cello, and viola; five ballets and an opera; several independent pieces for concert band and for orchestra; two dozen choral works; and numerous chamber music scores. Schuman had a strong attraction to the works of William Billings, the musician of the American Revolutionary War period who is generally regarded as this country’s earliest composer of note. Before he wrote the New England Triptych on themes of Billings on a commission from André Kostelanetz in 1956, Schuman had utilized the music of that composer in the William Billings Overture for orchestra in 1943 and Chester for concert band in 1956. The critic Arthur Cohn wrote, Schuman’s kinship with Billings seems to extend only to the latter’s melodies; yet,
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paradoxically, it goes further. He retained Billings’s style by synchronizing present-day techniques with the traditional past. It is as if Billings were alive and composing music, having had Schuman’s training and experience.
William Schuman on New England Triptych
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s an introduction to the published score, Schuman wrote the following note and requested that it appear in the program booklet for performances of the New England Triptych: William Billings (1746–1800) is a major figure in the history of American music. The works of this dynamic composer capture the sinewy ruggedness, deep religiosity, and patriotic fervor that we associate with the Revolutionary period. Despite the undeniable crudities and technical shortcomings of his music, its appeal, even today, is forceful and moving. I am not alone among American composers who feel an identity with Billings, and it is this sense of identity that accounts for my use of his music as a point of departure. These pieces do not constitute a ‘fantasy’ on themes of Billings, nor ‘variations’ on his themes, but rather a fusion of styles and musical language.
Be Glad Then, America Billings’s text for this anthem includes the following lines: Yea, the Lord will answer And say unto his people—Behold! I will send you corn and wine and oil And ye shall be satisfied therewith. Be glad then, America, Fear not O land, Be glad and rejoice. Hallelujah!
COMMENTS
A solo timpani begins the short introduction, which is developed predominantly in the strings. This music is suggestive of the “Hallelujah” heard at the end of the piece. Trombones and trumpets begin the main section, a free and varied setting of the words “Be Glad Then, America, Shout and Rejoice.” The timpani, again solo, leads to a middle fugal section stemming from the words “And Ye Shall Be Satisfied.” The music gains momentum, and the combined themes lead to a climax. There follows a free adaptation of the “Hallelujah” music with which Billings concludes his original choral piece and a final reference to the “Shout and Rejoice” music.
When Jesus Wept When Jesus wept the falling tear In mercy flowed beyond all bound; When Jesus groaned, a trembling fear Seized all the guilty world around. The setting of the above text is in the form of a round [i.e., several voices in imitation all using the same melody, like “Row, Row, Row
Your Boat”]. Here, Billings’s music is used in its original form, as well as in new settings with contrapuntal embellishments and melodic extensions.
Chester This music, composed as a church hymn, was subsequently adopted by the Continental Army as a marching song and enjoyed great popularity. The orchestral piece derives from the spirit of both the hymn and the marching song. The original words, with one of the verses especially written for its use by the Continental Army, follow: Let tyrants shake their iron rods, And slavery clank her galling chains, We fear them not, we trust in God, New England’s God forever reigns. The foe comes on with haughty stride, Our troops advance with martial noise, Their vet’rans flee before our youth, And gen’rals yield to beardless boys. —William Schuman
william grant still
Born May 11, 1895; Woodville, Mississippi Died December 3, 1978; Los Angeles, California
Symphony No. 1 (Afro-American Symphony) William Grant Still, whom Nicolas Slonimsky in his authoritative Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians called “The Dean of Afro-American Composers,” was born in Woodville, Mississippi, on May 11, 1895. His father, the town bandmaster and a music teacher at Alabama A&M, died when the boy was an infant, and the family moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, where his mother, a graduate of Atlanta University, taught high school. In Little Rock, she married an opera buff, and he introduced
composed 1930 f i rst p e rf o rm a n c e October 29, 1931; Rochester, New York. Howard Hanson conducting i n st ru m e n tat i o n three flutes and piccolo, two oboes, english horn, three clarinets and bass clarinet, two bassoons and contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, celesta, harp, banjo, strings
lef t: William Grant Still, photo by Carl Van Vechten
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young William to the great voices of the day on records and encouraged his interest in playing the violin. At sixteen, Still matriculated as a medical student at Wilberforce University in Ohio, but he soon switched to music. He taught himself to play the reed instruments, and left school to perform in dance bands in the Columbus area and work for a brief period as an arranger for the great blues writer W.C. Handy. He returned to Wilberforce, graduated in 1915, married later that year, and resumed playing in dance and theater orchestras. In 1917, Still entered Oberlin College, but he interrupted his studies the following year to serve in the navy during World War I, first as a mess attendant and later as a violinist in officers’ clubs. He went back to Oberlin after his service duty and stayed there until 1921, when he moved to New York to join the orchestra of the Noble Sissle–Eubie Blake revue Shuffle Along as an oboist. While on tour in Boston with the show, Still studied with George Chadwick, then president of the New England Conservatory, who was so impressed with his talent that he provided his lessons free of charge. Back in New York, Still studied with Edgard Varèse and ran the Black Swan Recording Company for a period in the mid-1920s. He tried composing in Varèse’s modernistic idiom, but soon abandoned that dissonant style in favor of a more traditional manner. Still’s work was recognized as early as 1928, when he received the Harmon Award for the most significant contribution to Black culture in America. His Afro-American Symphony of 1930 was premiered by Howard Hanson and the Rochester Philharmonic (the first such work by a Black composer played by a leading American orchestra) and heard thereafter in performances in Europe and South America. Unable to make a living from his concert compositions, however, Still worked as an arranger and orchestrator for radio and Broadway shows, and for Paul Whiteman, Artie Shaw, and other popular bandleaders. A 1934 Guggenheim Fellowship allowed him to cut back on his commercial activities and write his first opera, Blue Steel, which incorporated jazz and spirituals. He continued
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to compose large-scale orchestral, instrumental, and vocal works in his distinctive idiom during the following years, and after moving to Los Angeles in 1934, he supplemented that activity by arranging music for films (including Frank Capra’s 1937 Lost Horizon) and television (Perry Mason, Gunsmoke). Still continued to hold an important place in American music until his death in Los Angeles in 1978. Still received many awards for his work: seven honorary degrees; commissions from CBS, New York World’s Fair, League of Composers, the Cleveland Orchestra, and other important cultural organizations; the Phi Beta Sigma Award; a citation from ASCAP noting his “extraordinary contributions” to music and his “greatness, both as an artist and as a human being”; and the Freedom Foundation Award. Not only was his music performed by most of the major American orchestras, but he was also the first Black musician to conduct one of those ensembles (Los Angeles Philharmonic, at the Hollywood Bowl in 1936) and a major symphony in a southern state (New Orleans Philharmonic in 1955). In 1945, Leopold Stokowski called William Grant Still “one of our great American composers. He has made a real contribution to music.” Still’s Afro-American Symphony is one of the landmarks of twentieth-century music, though less as a racial artifact—when Howard Hanson conducted the work’s premiere with the Rochester Philharmonic on October 29, 1931, it became the first symphony by a Black composer played by a major American orchestra—than as a masterful piece of music that speaks eloquently of its creator, its era, and its national roots. The Afro-American Symphony is music that could have been written nowhere but in this country during the Jazz Age by a musician perfectly attuned to America’s voice and spirit. “I knew I wanted to write a symphony,” Still explained. I knew that it had to be an American work; and I wanted to demonstrate how the blues, so often considered a lowly expression, could be elevated to the highest musical level. . . . Like so many works that
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are important to their creators, the AfroAmerican Symphony was forming over a period of years. Themes occurred to me, were duly noted, and an overall form was slowly growing. Long before writing this symphony, I had recognized the value of the blues and had decided to use a theme in the blues idiom as the basis for a major symphonic composition. When I was ready to launch this project, I did not want to use a theme some folk singer had already created, but decided to create my own theme in the blues idiom. Still’s theme, rooted in the standard twelvebar blues form, is stated by the muted trumpet after a melancholy introductory soliloquy from the english horn, and recurs, transformed, as a unifying element throughout the symphony. The work follows the standard symphonic plan— large sonata form, adagio, scherzo, uplifting finale—whose moods Still summarized in the movements’ titles: Longing, Sorrow, Humor, and Aspiration. The composer inscribed two further thoughts of his own in the score—“With humble thanks to God, the source of inspiration” and “He who develops his God-given gifts with view to aiding humanity, manifests truth”—and appended evocative verses by the Ohio-born,
African American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872–1906) to each of the four movements: I. All my life long twell de night has pas’ Let de wo’k come ez it will, So dat I fin’ you, my honey, at last, Somewhaih des ovah de hill. II. It’s moughty tiahsome laying’ ’roun’ Dis sorrer-laden earfly groun’, An’ oftentimes I thinks, thinks I ’Twould be a sweet t’ing des to die An’ go ’long home. III. An’ we’ll shout ouah halleluyahs, On dat mighty reck’nin’ day. IV. Be proud, my Race, in mind and soul. Thy name is writ on Glory’s scroll In characters of fire. High mid the clouds of Fame’s bright sky Thy banner’s blazoned folds now fly, And truth shall lift them higher.
Richard E. Rodda, a former faculty member at Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Institute of Music, provides program notes for many American orchestras, concert series, and festivals.
C SO.ORG/INSTITUTE 11
The Spring 2022 Season
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profiles Thomas Wilkins Conductor Thomas Wilkins is principal conductor of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, the Boston Symphony’s artistic adviser for education and community engagement, and principal guest conductor of the Virginia Symphony. He holds Indiana University’s Henry A. Upper Chair of Orchestral Conducting, established by the late Barbara and David Jacobs as a part of that university’s Matching the Promise Campaign. He completed his long and successful tenure as music director of the Omaha Symphony Orchestra at the close of the 2020–21 season. Other past positions have included resident conductor of the Detroit Symphony and Florida Orchestra (Tampa Bay) and associate conductor of the Richmond (Va.) Symphony. He also has served on the music faculties of North Park University (Chicago), the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga, and Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. Devoted to promoting a life-long enthusiasm for music, Wilkins brings energy and commitment to listeners of all ages. He is hailed as a master at communicating and connecting with audiences. Following his highly successful first season with the Boston Symphony, the Boston Globe named him among the Best People and Ideas of 2011. In 2014, Wilkins received the prestigious Outstanding Artist honors at the Nebraska Governor’s Arts Awards for his significant contribution to music in the
P H OTO C O URT E SY O F K AYLO R MANAG EMEN T
state. In 2018, Wilkins received the Leonard Bernstein Lifetime Achievement Award for the Elevation of Music in Society, conferred by Boston’s Longy School of Music. In 2019, the Virginia Symphony bestowed on him its annual Dreamer Award. During his conducting career, he has led orchestras throughout the United States, including the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Cincinnati Symphony, and the National Symphony. Additionally, he has guest conducted the Philadelphia and Cleveland orchestras; the symphonies of Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Baltimore, San Diego, and Utah; the Buffalo and Rochester philharmonics; and at the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago. His commitment to community has been demonstrated by his participation on several boards of directors, including the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, the Charles Drew Health Center (Omaha), the Center Against Spouse Abuse in Tampa Bay, and the Museum of Fine Arts, as well as the Academy Preparatory Center, both in St. Petersburg, Florida. He serves as chairman of the board for the Raymond James Charitable Endowment Fund and as national ambassador for the nonprofit World Pediatric Project, headquartered in Richmond, which provides children throughout Central America and the Caribbean with critical surgical and diagnostic care. A native of Norfolk, Virginia, Thomas Wilkins is a graduate of the Shenandoah Conservatory of Music and the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. He and his wife Sheri-Lee are parents of twin daughters.
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PROFILES
Civic Orchestra of Chicago Founded in 1919 by Frederick Stock, second music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), the Civic Orchestra of Chicago prepares emerging professional musicians for lives in music. Civic members participate in rigorous orchestral training, September through June each season, with the Robert Kohl and Clark Pellett Principal Conductor Chair Principal Conductor Ken-David Masur, musicians of the CSO, and some of today’s most luminary conductors including the CSO’s Zell Music Director Riccardo Muti. The importance of the Civic Orchestra’s role in Greater Chicago is underscored by its commitment to present concerts of the highest quality at no charge to the public. In addition to the critically acclaimed live concerts at Symphony Center, Civic Orchestra performances can be heard locally on WFMT (98.7 FM). Civic musicians also expand their creative, professional, and artistic boundaries and reach diverse audiences through educational performances at Chicago Public Schools and a series of chamber concerts at various locations throughout the city including Chicago Park District field houses and the National Museum of Mexican Art.
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To further expand its musician training, the Civic Orchestra launched the Civic Fellowship program in the 2013–14 season. Each year ten to fifteen Civic members are designated as Civic Fellows and participate in intensive leadership training that is designed to build and diversity their creative and professional skills. From 2010 to 2019, Yo-Yo Ma was a leading mentor to Civic musicians and staff in his role as CSO Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant, and the programs and initiatives he established are integral to the Civic Orchestra curriculum today. Civic Orchestra musicians develop as exceptional orchestral players and engaged artists, cultivating their ability to succeed in the rapidly evolving world of music in the twenty-first century. The Civic Orchestra’s long history of presenting full orchestra performances free to the public includes annual concerts at the South Shore Cultural Center (in partnership with the South Shore Advisory Council) as well as numerous Chicago Public Schools. The Civic Orchestra is a signature program of the Negaunee Music Institute at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, which offers a wide range of education and community programs that engage more than 200,000 people of diverse ages, incomes, and backgrounds each year, in Chicago and around the world.
PROFILES
Civic Orchestra of Chicago
Ken-David Masur Principal Conductor The Robert Kohl and Clark Pellett Principal Conductor Chair violins Tabitha Oh Concertmaster Hsuan Chen Assistant Concertmaster Kristian Brusubardis Joshua Burca Joe DeAngelo Diego Diaz Shinhye Dong Dylan Marshall Feldpausch* Valentina Guillen Menesello Robert Herbst Yu-Kun Hsiang Kyoko Inagawa Christopher Sungjoo Kang Jonah Kartman Hee Yeon Kim* Kenichi Kiyama Christina Hojung Lee Liya Ma Nelson Mendoza* Emily Nardo Kina Ono Crystal Qi Owen Ruff+ Heewoo Seo Laura Schafer Subin Shin Holly Wagner Grace Walker Matthew Weinberg Diane Yang
viol as Benjamin Wagner Principal Bethany Pereboom* Assistant Principal Ye Jin Goo Roslyn Green+ Amanda Kellman Larissa Mapua Pedro Mendez Sofia Nikas Seth Pae+ Teddy Schenkman Josephine Stockwell Seth Van Embden cellos Philip Bergman Principal Lindsey Sharpe* Assistant Principal Bailey A. Holbrook Miles Link Francisco Lopez Malespin* Shannon Merciel Abigail Monroe Haley Slaugh Hana Takemoto Charlotte Ullman basses Nicholas Daniel DeLaurentis Principal Isaac Polinsky Assistant Principal Nate Beaver Caleb Edwards Ben Foerster Andrew French Wesley A. Jones Olivia Reyes
flutes Katarina Ignatovich Min Ha Kim Alyssa Primeau* oboes Rodion Belousov James Jihyun Kim Amelia Merriman* cl arinets Irina Chang Nicolas Chona+ Antonio Garrasi Daniel Solowey bassoons Edin Agamenoni Mackenzie Brauns* Liam Jackson horns Abby Black* Jacob Medina Scott Sanders Michael Stevens Nelson Ricardo Yovera Perez trumpets Ismael Cañizares Ortega Michael Leavens John Wagner
trombones Felix Regalado Hugo Saavedra* bass trombone Zhen Lei tuba Ferran Martinez Miquel timpani George Tantchev percussion Joseph Bricker* Taylor Hampton Samuel Johnson-Vrooman keyboard Wenlin Cheng harp Eleanor Kirk banjo Jack Bogard librarian Anna Thompson
* Civic Fellow + Civic Alumni
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negaunee music institute at the cso the board of the negaunee music institute
civic orchestra artistic leadership
Liisa Thomas Chair Leslie Burns Vice Chair
Coaches from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Robert Chen Concertmaster The Louis C. Sudler Chair, endowed by an anonymous benefactor Baird Dodge Principal Second Violin Li-Kuo Chang Acting Principal Viola The Paul Hindemith Principal Viola Chair, endowed by an anonymous benefactor John Sharp Principal Cello The Eloise W. Martin Chair Richard Hirschl Cello Daniel Katz Cello Brant Taylor Cello Alexander Hanna Principal Bass The David and Mary Winton Green Principal Bass Chair Stefán Ragnar Höskuldsson Principal Flute The Erika and Dietrich M. Gross Principal Flute Chair Emma Gerstein Flute Jennifer Gunn Flute and Piccolo William Welter Principal Oboe The Nancy and Larry Fuller Principal Oboe Chair Scott Hostetler Oboe and English Horn Stephen Williamson Principal Clarinet Keith Buncke Principal Bassoon William Buchman Assistant Principal Bassoon David Cooper Principal Horn Daniel Gingrich Associate Principal Horn Esteban Batallán Principal Trumpet The Adolph Herseth Principal Trumpet Chair, endowed by an anonymous benefactor Mark Ridenour Assistant Principal Trumpet Michael Mulcahy Trombone Charles Vernon Bass Trombone Gene Pokorny Principal Tuba The Arnold Jacobs Principal Tuba Chair, endowed by Christine Querfeld David Herbert Principal Timpani The Clinton Family Fund Chair Vadim Karpinos Assistant Principal Timpani, Percussion Cynthia Yeh Principal Percussion The Dinah Jacobs (Mrs. Donald P. Jacobs) Principal Percussion Chair Mary Sauer Former Principal Keyboard Peter Conover Principal Librarian
John Aalbregtse David Arch Ricardo Ciefuentes Richard Colburn Chuck Emmons Judy Feldman Lori Julian Rumi Morales Mimi Murley Margo Oberman Gerald Pauling Harper Reed Veronica Reyes Steve Shebik Marlon Smith Ex-officio Members Jeff Alexander Jonathan McCormick Vanessa Moss
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negaunee music institute at the cso Jonathan McCormick Director, Education & the Negaunee Music Institute Jon Weber Director, School & Family Programs Molly Walker Orchestra Manager, Civic Orchestra of Chicago Katy Clusen Manager, School & Family Programs Sarah Vander Ploeg Coordinator, School & Community Partnerships Antonio Padilla Denis Operations Coordinator, Civic Orchestra of Chicago Rachael Cohen Programs Assistant Frances Atkins Content Director Kristin Tobin Designer & Print Production Manager
honor roll of donors Negaunee Music Institute at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
The Negaunee Music Institute connects individuals and communities to the extraordinary musical resources of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The following donors are gratefully acknowledged for making a gift in support of these educational and engagement programs. To make a gift or learn more, please contact Dakota Williams, Associate Director, Education and Community Engagement Giving, at williamsd@cso.org or 312-294-3156. $ 1 5 0,0 0 0 A N D A B O V E
The Julian Family Foundation The Negaunee Foundation $ 1 0 0,0 0 0 – $ 1 4 9, 9 9 9
Allstate Insurance Company The Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation The James and Madeleine McMullan Family Foundation $ 75 ,0 0 0 – $ 9 9, 9 9 9
John Hart and Carol Prins Megan and Steve Shebik $ 5 0,0 0 0 – $ 74 , 9 9 9
Robert and Joanne Crown Income Charitable Fund Lloyd A. Fry Foundation JCS Arts, Health and Education Fund of DuPage Foundation and an anonymous donor Judy and Scott McCue Nancy Lauter McDougal and Alfred L. McDougal † Polk Bros. Foundation Barbara and Barre Seid Foundation Shure Charitable Trust Michael and Linda Simon Mr. Irving Stenn, Jr. $ 3 5 ,0 0 0 – $ 4 9, 9 9 9
John and Fran Edwardson Bowman C. Lingle Trust National Endowment for the Arts $ 2 5 ,0 0 0 – $ 3 4 , 9 9 9
Anonymous (2) Abbott Fund Barker Welfare Foundation Crain-Maling Foundation $ 2 0,0 0 0 – $ 2 4 , 9 9 9
Anonymous Richard P. and Susan Kiphart Family
Nancy A. Abshire Mr. † & Mrs. David A. Donovan Halasmani/Davis Family
Mr. James Borkman Mr. Douglas Bragan Mr. & Ms. Keith Clayton Dr. Edward A. Cole and Dr. Christine A. Rydel Mrs. Roslyn K. Flegel William B. Hinchliff Dr. Ronald L. Hullinger Italian Village Restaurants Dr. Leo and Catherine Miserendino Margo and Michael Oberman The Osprey Foundation Mary and Joseph Plauché Mr. & Mrs. † Andrew Porte Benjamin J. Rosenthal Foundation Mr. David Sandfort Jessie Shih and Johnson Ho Mr. Larry Simpson Dr. & Mrs. R. Solaro Mr. & Mrs. Harvey J. Struthers, Jr. Abby and Glen Weisberg
$ 7, 5 0 0 – $ 1 1, 4 9 9
$ 1,0 0 0 – $ 2 , 4 9 9
Leslie Fund, Inc. PNC Charles and M. R. Shapiro Foundation The George L. Shields Foundation, Inc. $ 1 5 ,0 0 0 – $ 1 9, 9 9 9
Bruce and Martha Clinton for The Clinton Family Fund Ellen and Paul Gignilliat Illinois Arts Council Agency Robert Kohl and Clark Pellett Mr. Philip Lumpkin D. Elizabeth Price Sandra and Earl Rusnak, Jr. Lisa and Paul Wiggin Dr. Marylou Witz $ 1 1, 5 0 0 – $ 1 4 , 9 9 9
Archer Daniels Midland Company Robert and Isabelle Bass Foundation, Inc. Robert H. Baum and MaryBeth Kretz The Buchanan Family Foundation Sue and Jim Colletti Mr. Lawrence Corry Mr. & Mrs. † Allan Drebin Mrs. Carol Evans, in memory of Henry Evans Mr. & Mrs. Joseph B. Glossberg Richard and Alice Godfrey Chet Gougis and Shelley Ochab Mr. Glen Madeja and Ms. Janet Steidl Ms. Susan Norvich Robert E. † and Cynthia M. Sargent Mrs. Carol S. Sonnenschein Ms. Liisa M. Thomas and Mr. Stephen L. Pratt Penny and John Van Horn Dr. Nanajan Yakoub $ 4 , 5 0 0 – $ 7, 4 9 9
John D. and Leslie Henner Burns Ms. Marion A. Cameron Ann and Richard Carr Harry F. and Elaine Chaddick Foundation Mr. & Mrs. Bernard Dunkel Dr. June Koizumi Anne E. Leibowitz Fund Mr. Robert Middleton Dr. Scholl Foundation Segal Consulting $2,500–$ 4,499
Anonymous Ms. Patti Acurio Charles H. and Bertha L. Boothroyd Foundation
Anonymous (5) Dora J. and R. John Aalbregtse John Albrecht Dr. Diane Altkorn Mr. Edward Amrein, Jr. and Mrs. Sara Jones-Amrein Dr. & Mrs. Robert Arensman Ms. Marlene Bach Mr. Peter Barrett Howard and Donna Bass Ms. Elaine Baumann Mr. & Mrs. William E. Bible Ann Blickensderfer Mr. Thomas Bookey Adam Bossov Mr. Donald Bouseman Mr. & Mrs. Donald Bowey, Jr. Mr. Lee M. Brown and Ms. Pixie Newman Jack M. Bulmash The Chicago Community Foundation Patricia A. Clickener Mr. Howard Conant Matt and Carrie Cotter William and Janice Cutler Robert Allen Daugherty Mr. Adam Davis Mr. Robert Deoliveira Ms. Amy Dickinson and Mr. James Futransky Mrs. Susan F. Dickman Dr. Thomas Durica and Sue Jacob Lori Eich Edward and Nancy Eichelberger Elk Grove Graphics Charles and Carol Emmons Judith E. Feldman Ms. Lola Flamm Mr. David Fox
† Deceased Italics indicate individual or family involvement as part of the Trustees or Governing Members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association. Gifts listed as of July 1, 2021
C SO.ORG/INSTITUTE 17
HONOR ROLL OF DONORS
Lee Francis and Michelle Gittler Jerry Freedman and Elizabeth Sacks Ms. Elizabeth Friedgut James and Rebecca Gaebe Peter Gallanis Camillo and Arlene Ghiron Dr. & Mrs. Paul B. Glickman Goodman Law Group Chicago Gregory Grobarcik George F. and Catherine S. Haber Mrs. Zahraa Hajjiri Mr. & Mrs. John Hales Charlotte Hampton Ms. Dawn E. Helwig Mr. Felipe Hillard Dr. & Mrs. James Holland Ms. Sharon Flynn Hollander Michael and Leigh Huston Ms. Kasey Jackson Egill and Ruth Jacobsen Thomas and Reseda Kalowski Cantor Aviva Katzman and Dr. Morris Mauer Dr. Jay and Georgianna Kleiman Mr. & Mrs. LeRoy Klemt Mr. & Mrs. Norman Koglin Mr. John Lansing Dr. & Mrs. Stuart Levin Mr. Jerrold Levine Mr. † & Mrs. Gerald F. Loftus Robert Losik Mr. Daniel Macken and Mr. Merlyn Harbold Sharon L. Manuel Ms. Mirjana Martich and Mr. Zoran Lazarevic Marilyn and Myron Maurer Mr. & Mrs. William McDowell, Jr. Marilyn Mitchell Catherine Mouly and LeRoy T. Carlson, Jr. Phyllis and Zane Muhl Mr. & Mrs. Robert S. Murley Edward and Gayla Nieminen Mr. & Mrs. Delano O’Banion Mr. Bruce Oltman Ms. Joan Pantsios Ms. Audrey Paton Dianne M. and Robert J. Patterson, Jr. Kirsten Bedway and Simon Peebler Dorothy V. Ramm Ms. Carol Rech Ruth Anne Rehfeldt Dr. Hilda Richards Mary K. Ring Cristina Romero Mr. Nicholas Russell Mr. Laurence Saviers Mr. & Mrs. Eric Scheyer Gerald and Barbara Schultz Mr. & Mrs. Thomas Scorza
Stephen A. and Marilyn Scott Xiaokui Katie Shan Dr. & Mrs. Richard Snow Dr. Sabine Sobek Mr. George Speck Joel and Beth Spenadel Mrs. Julie Stagliano Ms. Denise Stauder Mr. & Mrs. Ronald Stepansky Dr. & Mrs. Ralph Stoll Walter and Caroline Sueske Charitable Trust Sharon Swanson Ms. Deborah Tate Terry Taylor Mrs. Florence and Ron Testa Ayana Tomeka Dr. Joyce Van Cura Henrietta Vepstas Dr. Pietro Veronesi Mrs. Hempstead Washburne David E. and Kerstin Wellbery Jamie Wigglesworth AIA Ms. Christine Wilson Mr. Robert Winn ENDOWED FUNDS
Anonymous (3) Cyrus H. Adams Memorial Youth Concert Fund Dr. & Mrs. Bernard H. Adelson Fund Marjorie Blum-Kovler Youth Concert Fund CNA The Davee Foundation Kelli Gardner Youth Education Endowment Fund Mary Winton Green William Randolph Hearst Foundation Fund for Community Engagement Richard A. Heise Peter Paul Herbert Endowment Fund The Kapnick Family Lester B. Knight Charitable Trust The Malott Family Very Special Promenades Fund The Eloise W. Martin Endowed Fund in support of the Negaunee Music Institute at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra The Negaunee Foundation Nancy Ranney and Family and Friends Toyota Endowed Fund Virginia C. Vale† The Wallace Foundation Zell Family Foundation
CIVIC ORCHESTR A OF CHICAGO SCHOLARSHIPS
Members of the Civic Orchestra receive an annual stipend to help offset some of their living expenses during their training in Civic. The following donors have generously underwritten a Civic musician(s) for the 2021–22 season. Thirteen Civic members participate in the Civic Fellowship program, a rigorous artistic and professional development curriculum that supplements their membership in the full orchestra. Major funding for this program is generously provided by The Julian Family Foundation. The 2021–22 Civic season is sponsored by the Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation. To learn more, please contact Dakota Williams, Associate Director, Education and Community Engagement Giving, at williamsd@cso.org or 312-294-3156. Nancy A. Abshire Shannon Merciel, cello Dr. † & Mrs. † Bernard H. Adelson Rachel Mostek, viola Sue and Jim Colletti Bethany Pereboom,** viola Lawrence Corry Wesley Jones bass Robert and Joanne Crown Income Charitable Fund Edin Agamenoni, bassoon Irina Chang, clarinet James Jihyun Kim, oboe Jacob Medina, horn Sofia Nikas, viola Charlotte Ullman, cello Mr. † & Mrs. David A. Donovan Alyssa Primeau,** flute Mr. & Mrs. † Allan Drebin and The Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation Benjamin Foerster, bass Mr. & Mrs. Paul C. Gignilliat Ye Jin Goo, viola Benjamin Wagner, viola
† Deceased ** Fellow § Partial sponsor Italics indicate individual or family involvement as part of the Trustees or Governing Members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association. Gifts listed as of July 1, 2021
18 ONE HUNDRED THIRD SEASON
HONOR ROLL OF DONORS
Mr. & Mrs. Joseph B. Glossberg Michael Leavens, trumpet Richard and Alice Godfrey Robbie Herbst, violin Chet Gougis and Shelley Ochab Liam Jackson, bassoon Mary Winton Green Isaac Polinsky, bass Jane Redmond Haliday Chair Hana Takemoto, cello The Julian Family Foundation Taylor Hampton, percussion Nelson Mendoza,** violin Lester B. Knight Charitable Trust Miles Link, cello Crystal Qi, violin Daniel Solowey, clarinet Holly Wagner, violin John Wagner, trumpet Robert Kohl and Clark Pellett John Heffernan, violin
League of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association Lindsey Sharpe,** cello
Barbara and Barre Seid Foundation Jarrett McCourt, tuba Nelson Ricardo Yovera Perez, horn
Leslie Fund Inc. Joseph Bricker,** percussion Tabitha Oh, violin
The George L. Shields Foundation Inc. Phillip Bergman, cello Laura Schafer, violin Seth Van Embden, viola
Phillip G. Lumpkin Dylan Feldpusch,** violin Mr. Glen Madeja and Ms. Janet Steidl Abigail Monroe, cello Judy and Scott McCue and The Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation Luke Lentini,** violin Nancy Lauter McDougal and Alfred L. McDougal † Diego Diaz, violin
The David W. and Lucille G. Stotter Chair Joshua Burca, violin Ruth Miner Swislow Charitable Fund Nick DeLaurentis, bass Lois and James Vrhel Endowment Fund Caleb Edwards, bass Dr. Marylou Witz Hee Yeon Kim,** violin
Dr. Leo and Catherine Miserendino Olivia Reyes, bass
Anonymous Hugo Saavedra,** trombone
Ms. Susan Norvich Eleanor Kirk, harp
Anonymous Francisco Malespin,** cello Rannveig Sarc, violin
Sandra and Earl J. Rusnak Jr Teddy Schenkman, viola
† Deceased ** Fellow § Partial sponsor Italics indicate individual or family involvement as part of the Trustees or Governing Members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association. Gifts listed as of July 1, 2021
C SO.ORG/INSTITUTE 19
2021/22 CIVIC ORCHESTRA OF CHICAGO KEN-DAVID MASUR principal conductor The Robert Kohl and Clark Pellett Principal Conductor Chair
DECEMBER 6
BACH MARATHON FINALE Ken-David Masur
conductor
Fourth Presbyterian Church | 126 E. Chestnut St.
JANUARY 18
RESILIENCE AND DEFIANCE Rossen Milanov
conductor
FEBRUARY 14
IN TIMES OF WAR Ken-David Masur
conductor
MAY 2
NATURE'S REALM Ken-David Masur
conductor
JUNE 6
CIVIC & RYAN OPERA CENTER Johannes Debus
Reserve your free tickets today!*
conductor
CSO.ORG/CIVIC | 312-294-3000 The 2021/22 Civic Orchestra of Chicago season is generously sponsored by The Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation
*A $5 per ticket service fee applies.