COLEMAN, MONTGOMERY & RACHMANINOV 2
Ken-David
Masur CONDUCTOR
JAN 19 | 2:00
JAN 20 | 7:30
The 2024–25 Civic Orchestra season is generously sponsored by Lori Julian for the Julian Family Foundation, which also provides major funding for the Civic Fellowship program.
ONE HUNDRED SIXTH SEASON
CIVIC ORCHESTRA OF CHICAGO
KEN-DAVID MASUR Principal Conductor
The Robert Kohl and Clark Pellett Principal Conductor Chair
Sunday, January 19, 2025, at 2:00 South Shore Cultural Center
Monday, January 20, 2025, at 7:30 Orchestra Hall
Ken-David Masur Conductor
COLEMAN
Fanfare for Uncommon Times
MONTGOMERY Transfigure to Grace
INTERMISSION
RACHMANINOV
Symphony No. 2 in E Minor, Op. 27
Largo—Allegro moderato
Allegro molto
Adagio
Allegro vivace
The 2024–25 Civic Orchestra season is generously sponsored by Lori Julian for the Julian Family Foundation, which also provides major funding for the Civic Fellowship program.
Major support for the Civic Orchestra of Chicago is also provided by Robert and Joanne Crown Income Charitable Fund; Nancy Dehmlow; Leslie Fund, Inc.; Judy and Scott McCue; Leo and Catherine Miserendino; Barbara and Barre Seid Foundation; the George L. Shields Foundation, Inc.; the Maval Foundation; and Paul and Lisa Wiggin.
This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association acknowledges support from the Illinois Arts Council.
COMMENTS
by
Nicky Swett and Phillip Huscher
VALERIE COLEMAN
Born September 3, 1970; Louisville, Kentucky
Fanfare for Uncommon Times
COMPOSED 2021
FIRST PERFORMANCE
June 27, 2021; Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts; Katonah, New York
INSTRUMENTATION
4 horns, 3 trumpets, 2 trombones and bass trombone, tuba, timpani, percussion (triangle, vibraphone, crash cymbal, marimba, large ride cymbal, suspended cymbal, bass drum)
APPROXIMATE PERFORMANCE TIME
6 minutes
Aaron Copland wrote his Fanfare for the Common Man in 1942 for the Cincinnati Symphony. The orchestra’s conductor, Eugene Goossens, wanted to mark America’s entry into World War II by starting concerts with patriotic numbers. Copland did not explicitly dedicate his composition to the war effort but rather to the “common man,” whose tax dollars and attempts to sustain the life of the country during a time of terrible conflict seemed worth acknowledging.
In 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic and after a sustained period
of protests against racism and police brutality, the orchestra of St. Luke’s asked Valerie Coleman, composer and flutist of the wind quintet Imani Winds, to write a new work that could pair with Copland’s famous fanfare. She responded with Fanfare for Uncommon Times for brass and percussion, music, which, in her words, expresses “the trauma but also the celebration that we’re getting through it. It acknowledges that we are living in uncommon times; . . . it talks about the racial unrest; it talks about the pandemic; it talks about the grit that we need to survive.”
Fanfare for Uncommon Times opens with an ominous buzz in the percussion and dissonant swells in the other instruments. Two horns and two trombones enter with an ascending mellow line, “sung like a spiritual,” to which the trumpets eventually respond with a wide-open, Coplandesque call. The opening fanfare builds to a soaring climax, but then Coleman uses a soulful trumpet solo to depart dramatically from her model. An ascending figure in the horns marks “A People’s Rise & Demand for Justice,” and the music takes off in a protest dance inflected with Caribbean rhythms occasionally disturbed by repeated notes that
this page: Valerie Coleman, photo by Kia Caldwell | opposite page: Jessie Montgomery, photo by Todd Rosenberg
have the quality of machine-gun fire. Wild virtuosic turns for trumpets and timpani lead to a raucous, jubilant conclusion.
Coleman started writing music at a young age, and she has always seen performance and composition as complementary activities. She created many arrangements and new works for her wind quintet, stating that her voice as a composer has been shaped by her experiences writing for those instruments. In all her works, she builds phrases that give natural space for breath, those little gaps in melodies that allow the player and the listener to latch onto another voice, to feel the texture
of the accompaniment, or to embrace a moment of silence.
Her compositional style draws on a wide range of musical traditions and influences. This tendency reflects her general perspective on what classical music ought to do: connect to people directly in their everyday lives. “Classical music to me is holistic, [together with] R&B, jazz, soul,” she said in an interview ahead of the premiere of Fanfare. “It’s about the message that is sent to the person walking down the street. It’s really about how it changes people. That’s my priority.”
—Nicky Swett
JESSIE MONTGOMERY
Born December 8, 1981, New York City
Transfigure
to Grace,
Suite for Orchestra
COMPOSED 2023
FIRST PERFORMANCE
May 11, 2023; Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Riccardo Muti conducting
INSTRUMENTATION
2 flutes with piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, timpani, percussion (bass drum, congas, glockenspiel, piatti, snare drum, suspended cymbal, tambourine, tam-tam, triangle, xylophone), strings
APPROXIMATE PERFORMANCE TIME 15 minutes
“They say our people were born on the water.” These are the words of Nicole Hannah-Jones, who won a Pulitzer Prize for her writing on the 1619 Project, which “aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.” Hannah-Jones’s line is, in a sense, where Jessie Montgomery’s orchestral work Transfigure to Grace began.
Transfigure to Grace started life as Passage, a chamber-music score choreographed by Claudia Schreier and designed to be danced by the Dance Theatre of Harlem, to commemorate the four-hundredth anniversary of the arrival of enslaved Africans on our shores. Hannah-Jones writes,
In August 1619, just twelve years after the English settled Jamestown, Virginia, one year before the Puritans landed at Plymouth Rock, and some 157 years before the English colonists even decided they wanted to form their own country, the Jamestown colonists bought twenty to thirty enslaved Africans from English pirates. . . . Those men and women who came ashore on that August day were the beginning of American slavery.
In the end, nearly two million did not survive the journey across the Atlantic, known as the Middle Passage.
For Montgomery, water was the source material for Passage: “all of the mystery, all of the struggle, the movement, the unknowing lives in that imagery,” she said at the time. “For me, that water is the story.” Passage was first performed and danced in May 2019 in Norfolk, Virginia. The premiere came a full year before the murder of George Floyd and the transformative conversations on race that followed. The ideas that had generated Passage continued to stir Montgomery’s thinking. Divided, a concerto for cello and orchestra from
2020, was an immediate response to the social and political unrest of the time—“specifically the sense of helplessness that people seem to feel amidst a world that seems to be in constant crisis, whether it is over racial injustice, sexual or religious discrimination, greed and poverty, or climate.” Two years ago, she returned to Passage, originally scored for flute, clarinet, horn, and string quintet, and rewrote it for full orchestra. (Montgomery, an accomplished violinist, had played in the premiere of the chamber version, which was conducted by Tania León.) Then she reimagined the work entirely as Transfigure to Grace, a suite for orchestra inspired by themes from Passage, for Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, which she served as Mead-Composer-in-Residence. (Montgomery recently moved to Chicago, where she is a leading voice in the city’s vibrant new-music scene.)
Montgomery’s art is firmly set in the present, which is commonplace in theater or fiction today but stands out in the world of classical music that has for so long lived largely in the European past.
A native of the Lower East Side of New York City, Montgomery started violin lessons at the Third Street Music School Settlement and now holds degrees from the Juilliard School (in violin) and New York University (a master’s in composition for film and multimedia) and is completing her doctorate from Princeton University. In 2020 Montgomery was one of three Black composers named to the Metropolitan
Opera/ Lincoln Center Theater New Works commissioning program. She was named the Chicago Symphony’s Mead Composer-in-Residence in 2021, becoming the eleventh composer and the sixth woman to hold the post over the past thirty years. Transfigure to Grace is the second of three works she has been commissioned to write for the Orchestra. Riccardo Muti conducted the first, Hymn for Everyone, in April 2022. The third, Procession, a percussion concerto, received its world premiere on May 30, 2024, under Manfred Honeck.
Despite Montgomery’s currency in the music world today and the bracing topicality of her compositions, it is unfair and limiting to view her work purely as a snapshot of today’s cultural climate. The eclectic, embracing style of her output points toward a new kind of musical language in the future. And, as a work like Transfigure to Grace demonstrates, her music is always governed by a keen awareness of our deep past. As she has said: “We have to take into account that we’re carrying a history inside of our beings and in the work that we do.”
—Phillip Huscher
above: Montgomery takes a bow after the CSO’s premiere of Transfigure to Grace, conducted by Riccardo Muti on May 11, 2023.
COMMENTS
Jessie Montgomery on Transfigure to Grace
In 2019 I composed a work for ballet, choreographed by Claudia Schreier, in collaboration with the Dance Theatre of Harlem and the Virginia Arts Festival to commemorate the 1619 Project, which acknowledged the arrival of the first enslaved Africans brought to the United States. In the years that followed, significant movements in my own life, and in society at large, reminded me of the necessity of that commemoration and the importance of exploring this music further. As a result, elements of that composition
SERGEI RACHMANINOV
Born April 1, 1873; Semyonovo, Russia
have since flowed through other pieces I’ve written, incorporating themes of self-reflection and the natural world— perhaps as a way to regain a connection to self and purpose.
This episodic suite recalls some of the essential themes of water and transformation from the ballet, with the french horn playing a primary role as it leads the major transitions between sections of the suite. The music begins with vivid imagery of water evolving into a dynamic surge; it is meant to evoke an unfinished chapter in our journey toward equality and grace of humankind.
Died March 28, 1943; Beverly Hills, California
Symphony No. 2 in E Minor, Op. 27
COMPOSED
October 1906–April 1907
FIRST PERFORMANCE
January 26, 1908; Saint Petersburg, Russia. The composer conducting
INSTRUMENTATION
3 flutes with piccolo, 3 oboes with english horn, 2 clarinets and bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, glockenspiel, bass drum, snare drum, cymbals, strings
APPROXIMATE PERFORMANCE TIME
56 minutes
It is astonishing that Rachmaninov ever wrote a second symphony. He was so shattered by the disastrous, ill-received premiere of his first symphony in 1897— “the most agonizing hour of my life,” as he later put it—that, for the next three years, he suffered from chronic depression and struggled day after day with a composer’s worst fear—the inability to write a page of
music worth saving. Sketches for a new symphony were abandoned, and work on an opera, Francesca da Rimini, was shelved. Rachmaninov visited Leo Tolstoy, hoping that contact with the great, larger-than-life novelist would stimulate his creativity, but their conversations discouraged him even more.
Finally, at his friends’ insistence, in 1900 he went to see Dr. Nikolai Dahl, a psychiatrist noted for treating alcoholism through hypnosis. (Dahl also was an amateur violinist and a great music lover.) After four months of Dahl’s hypnosis—“You will work with great facility” was one of the doctor’s often-repeated leitmotifs— Rachmaninov suddenly recovered. He not only began to compose again—and with great facility—but he also soon finished the score that became his most popular work—the Second Piano Concerto, which he dedicated to Dahl. Rachmaninov played the piano solo at the triumphant premiere of the concerto in 1901, proving to the public that he had left his difficulties behind with the old century.
The writer’s block had been overcome, but if the piano concerto marked the turning point, it was his second symphony that proved his ultimate victory, as well as his vindication. After the success of the concerto, Rachmaninov returned to composition on a regular basis (although he still made time for concert appearances both as pianist and conductor—a new role he had taken up during his creative crisis). He now wrote steadily—piano pieces, songs, a cello sonata, and two operas, including the shelved Francesca da Rimini. By the fall of 1906, Rachmaninov was such a celebrity in his native land that in order to escape the public eye, he moved, with his wife and infant daughter, to Dresden, chosen with no more reason than the memory of a fine performance of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg he had attended there. (He also liked being
opposite page: Sergei Rachmaninov, portrait, early 1900s | this page: Ivanovka, early 1900s, family home of Rachmaninov’s relatives, the Satins, and his summer residence between 1897 and 1917. Destroyed during the Russian Revolution, the estate was later reconstructed, and now includes a museum dedicated to the composer’s life and works.
near Leipzig, the home of his favorite conductor, Arthur Nikisch, and the celebrated Gewandhaus Orchestra.)
In Dresden, where he once again became a full-time composer, Rachmaninov at last began to sketch a new symphony, with sudden difficulty and in total secrecy—obviously, he had not banished the painful memories of his first. Finally, in February 1907, when word of his newest project leaked out in the German press, he confessed to a friend, “I have composed a symphony. It’s true! . . . I finished it a month ago and immediately put it aside. It was a severe worry to me, and I am not going to think about it anymore.” But by the summer, he was back at work, polishing the symphony for its public unveiling. Rachmaninov conducted the work at the Saint Petersburg premiere in January 1908 with great, reassuring success. The symphony won the Glinka Prize of 1,000 rubles that year and quickly made the rounds of the major orchestras of the world (It was performed in Chicago for the first time in 1911).
But Rachmaninov’s vindication was a qualified one, for wherever the symphony was performed, except under the composer’s own baton, it was so extensively cut that this almost hourlong symphony was sometimes reduced to a mere forty-five minutes. Few other major works of orchestral music, including Bruckner’s most misunderstood symphonies, were regularly presented to the public in such a savagely butchered state. These traditional cuts (the New York Philharmonic has kept a list of
twenty-nine cuts supposedly approved by the composer) range from tiny, but still disfiguring snips—a measure or two of introductory accompaniment, for example—to major surgery, such as the removal of the main theme from the recapitulation of the Adagio. The true stature of Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony was largely unsuspected. Ironically, a score that was routinely cut because its material was considered too insubstantial to sustain its length ended up sounding even more inconsequential, with its balance skewed and its forward sweep blunted. Only in recent years, when conductors have begun to play the piece in its entirety, has Rachmaninov’s true achievement as a composer been revealed. Throughout Rachmaninov’s life, it was fashionable—if not in fact, honorable in progressive music circles—to disparage his music. Rachmaninov had always worried that by splitting his time between playing the piano, conducting, and composing, he had spread himself too thin. “I have chased three hares,” he once said. “Can I be certain that I have captured one?” For many years, Rachmaninov’s stature as a pianist was undisputed. (He regularly performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, beginning in 1909, when he played his Second Piano Concerto here during his first American tour; he appeared with the Orchestra for the last time in 1943, just six weeks before his death, as the soloist in Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto and his own Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.)
But by the time of his death in 1943, he had been written off as an old-fashioned composer—hopelessly sentimental, out-of-touch, and irrelevant. As Virgil Thomson told the young playwright Edward Albee in 1948, “It is really extraordinary, after all, that a composer so famous should have enjoyed so little the esteem of his fellow composers.” (Rachmaninov’s great Russian contemporary, Igor Stravinsky, for example, never could stomach the music or the man, even when they were neighbors in Los Angeles. “A six-foot scowl,” was his summation of his famously grim-faced colleague.)
The sacrosanct Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, in its fifth edition, concluded its dismal appraisal of his output: “The enormous popular
success some few of Rachmaninov’s works had in his lifetime is not likely to last, and musicians never regarded it with much favor.” But in the past few years, his star has been on the rise. Now, as Rachmaninov always hoped, it is his music and not his piano playing that keeps his name alive.
—Phillip Huscher
Cellist, writer, and music researcher Nicky Swett is a PhD candidate and Gates Scholar at the University of Cambridge. From 2016 to 2018, he was a section member and community engagement fellow in the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.
Phillip Huscher is the program annotator for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.
PROFILES
Ken-David Masur Conductor
Ken-David Masur is celebrating his sixth season as music director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and principal conductor of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.
Masur’s tenure in Milwaukee has been notable for innovative thematic programming, including a festival celebrating the music of the 1930s, when the Bradley Symphony Center was built; the Water Festival, which highlighted local community partners whose work centers on water conservation and education; and last season’s inaugural citywide Bach Festival. He has also instituted a multi-season artist-inresidence program and led highly acclaimed performances of major choral works, including a semi-staged production of Ibsen’s Peer Gynt featuring music by Grieg. This season, which celebrates the eternal interplay between words and music, he continues an artist residency with bass-baritone Dashon Burton and conducts Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. In Chicago, Masur leads the Civic Orchestra, the premiere training orchestra of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, in a variety of programs.
In the summer of 2024, Masur made his debut at the Oregon Bach Festival and returned to the Tanglewood Festival. This season also features return appearances with the Louisville Orchestra, the Colorado Symphony,
and the Omaha Symphony. He made his subscription-series debut with the New York Philharmonic in September.
Masur has conducted distinguished orchestras around the world, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic; the Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, National, and San Francisco symphony orchestras; the Orchestre National de France; Minnesota Orchestra; Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra; Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra in Norway; and the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony in Tokyo. He has also made regular appearances at the Ravinia, Tanglewood, Hollywood Bowl, and Grant Park festivals, in addition to international festivals, including Verbier. Masur formerly was associate conductor of the Boston Symphony, principal guest conductor of the Munich Symphony Orchestra, associate conductor of the San Diego Symphony, and resident conductor of the San Antonio Symphony.
Passionate about contemporary music, Ken-David Masur has conducted and commissioned dozens of new works, many of which have premiered at the Chelsea Music Festival, an annual summer festival in New York City founded and directed by Masur and his wife, pianist Melinda Lee Masur, which celebrated its fifteenth anniversary in 2024.
Masur and his family are proud to call Milwaukee their home and enjoy exploring all the riches of the Third Coast.
PHOTO BY SCOTT PAULUS
Civic Orchestra of Chicago
The Civic Orchestra of Chicago is a training program of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Negaunee Music Institute that prepares young professionals for careers in orchestral music. It was founded during the 1919–20 season by Frederick Stock, the CSO’s second music director, as the Civic Music Student Orchestra, and for over a century, its members have gone on to secure positions in orchestras across the world, including over 160 Civic players who have joined the CSO. Each season, Civic members are given numerous performance opportunities and participate in rigorous orchestral training with its principal conductor, Ken-David Masur, distinguished guest conductors, and a faculty of coaches comprised of CSO members. Civic Orchestra musicians develop as exceptional orchestral players and engaged artists, cultivating their ability to succeed in the rapidly evolving music world.
The Civic Orchestra serves the community through its commitment to present free or low-cost concerts of the highest quality at Symphony
Center and in venues across Greater Chicago, including annual concerts at the South Shore Cultural Center and Fourth Presbyterian Church. The Civic Orchestra also performs at the annual Crain-Maling Foundation CSO Young Artists Competition and Chicago Youth in Music Festival. Many Civic concerts can be heard locally on WFMT (98.7 FM), in addition to concert clips and smaller ensemble performances available on CSOtv and YouTube. Civic musicians 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.
To further expand its musician training, the Civic Orchestra launched the Civic Fellowship program in the 2013–14 season. Each year, up to twelve Civic members are designated as Civic Fellows and participate in intensive leadership training designed to build and diversify their creative and professional skills. The program’s curriculum has four modules: artistic planning, music education, social justice, and project management.
A gift to the Civic Orchestra of Chicago supports the rigorous training that members receive throughout the season, which includes coaching from musicians of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and world-class conductors. Your gift today ensures that the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association will continue to enrich, inspire, and transform lives through music.
Civic Orchestra of Chicago
Ken-David Masur Principal Conductor
The Robert Kohl and Clark Pellett Principal Conductor Chair
VIOLINS
Harin Kang
Yebeen Seo
Darren Carter
Carlos Chacon
Jenny Choi
Hojung Christina Lee
Elise Maas
Marian Antonette Mayuga*
Valentina Guillen Menesello+
Tricia Park
Hobart Shi
Yulia Watanabe-Price
Lina Yamin*
Hannah Zhao
Keshav Srinivasan
Herdis Gudmundsdottir
Kimberly Bill
Isaac Champa
Isabelle Chin
Ebedit Fonesca
Sean Hsi
Jason Hurlbut
Jonah Kartman
Munire Mona Mierxiati
Matthew Musachio*
Annie Pham
Megan Pollon
Justine Jing Xin Teo
VIOLAS
Sanford Whatley
Sam Sun
Jason Butler
August DuBeau
Elena Galentas
Judy Yu-Ting Huang
Xiaoxuan Liang
Carlos Lozano
Yat Chun Justin Pou
Mason Spencer*
Josephine Stockwell+
Sava Velkoff*
CELLOS
Lidanys Graterol
David Caplan
Sam Day
J Holzen*
Buianto Lkhasaranov
Francisco Malespin+
Nick Reeves
Andrew Shinn
Santiago Uribe-Cardona
Jocelyn Yeh
BASSES
Broner McCoy
Tiffany Kung
Walker Dean
Daniel W. Meyer
Bennett Norris
Hannah Novak
J.T. O’Toole*
Alexander Wallack
FLUTES
Daniel Fletcher
Cierra Hall
Jungah Yoon
PICCOLO
Cierra Hall
OBOES
Kyungyeon Hong
Jonathan Kronheimer
Will Stevens
ENGLISH HORN
Kyungyeon Hong
CLARINETS
Tyler Baillie
Elizabeth Kapitaniuk
BASS CLARINET
Hae Sol (Amy) Hur*
* Civic Orchestra Fellow + Civic Orchestra Alumni
BASSOONS
Peter Ecklund
William George
Ian Schneiderman
HORNS
Emmett Conway
Asuncion Martinez
Mark Morris
Adam Nelson
Emily Whittaker
TRUMPETS
Hamed Barbarji
Maria Merlo
Abner Wong
TROMBONES
Arlo Hollander
Dustin Nguyen
BASS TROMBONE
Joe Maiocco
TUBA
Nick Collins
TIMPANI
Tomas Leivestad
PERCUSSION
Cameron Marquez*
Jordan Berini
Kevin Tan
LIBRARIAN
Benjimen Neal
NEGAUNEE MUSIC INSTITUTE AT THE CSO
the board of the negaunee music institute
Leslie Burns Chair
Steve Shebik Vice Chair
John Aalbregtse
David Arch
James Borkman
Jacqui Cheng
Ricardo Cifuentes
Richard Colburn
Dunni Cosey Gay
Charles Emmons
Judy Feldman
Lori Julian
Toni-Marie Montgomery
Rumi Morales
Mimi Murley
Margo Oberman
Gerald Pauling
Harper Reed
Melissa Root
Amanda Sonneborn
Eugene Stark
Dan Sullivan
Ex Officio Members
Jeff Alexander
Jonathan McCormick
Vanessa Moss
negaunee music institute administration
Jonathan McCormick Managing Director
Katy Clusen Associate Director, CSO for Kids
Katherine Eaton Coordinator, School Partnerships
Carol Kelleher Assistant, CSO for Kids
Anna Perkins Orchestra Manager, Civic Orchestra of Chicago
Zhiqian Wu Operations Coordinator, Civic Orchestra of Chicago
Rachael Cohen Program Manager
Charles Jones Program Assistant
Frances Atkins Content Director
Kristin Tobin Designer & Print Production Manager
Petya Kaltchev Editor
civic orchestra artistic leadership
Ken-David Masur Principal Conductor
The Robert Kohl and Clark Pellett Principal Conductor 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
Teng Li Principal Viola
The Paul Hindemith Principal Viola Chair
Brant Taylor Cello
The Blickensderfer Family Chair
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
William Welter Principal Oboe
Stephen Williamson Principal Clarinet
Keith Buncke Principal Bassoon
William Buchman Assistant Principal Bassoon
Mark Almond Principal Horn
Esteban Batallán Principal Trumpet
The Adolph Herseth Principal Trumpet Chair, endowed by an anonymous benefactor
John Hagstrom Trumpet
The Bleck Family Chair
Tage Larsen 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
Justin Vibbard Principal Librarian
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 Kevin Gupana, Associate Director of Giving, Educational and Engagement Programs, 312-294-3156.
$150,000 AND ABOVE
Lori Julian for The Julian Family Foundation
The Negaunee Foundation
$100,000–$149,999
Abbott Fund
Allstate Insurance Company
Megan and Steve Shebik
$75,000–$99,999
John Hart and Carol Prins
Barbara and Barre Seid Foundation
$50,000–$74,999
Anonymous
BMO
Robert and Joanne Crown Income Charitable Fund
Lloyd A. Fry Foundation
Judy and Scott McCue
Ms. Deborah K. McNeil
Polk Bros. Foundation
Michael and Linda Simon
Lisa and Paul Wiggin
$35,000–$49,999
Bowman C. Lingle Trust
National Endowment for the Arts
$25,000–$34,999
Anonymous
Carey and Brett August
Crain-Maling Foundation
Nancy Dehmlow
Kinder Morgan
The Maval Foundation
Margo and Michael Oberman
Ms. Cecelia Samans
Shure Charitable Trust
Gene and Jean Stark
$20,000–$24,999
Anonymous
Mary and Lionel Go
Halasyamani/Davis Family
Illinois Arts Council Agency
Richard P. and Susan Kiphart Family
Mr. Philip Lumpkin
PNC
D. Elizabeth Price
Charles and M. R. Shapiro Foundation
The George L. Shields Foundation, Inc.
Dr. Marylou Witz
$15,000–$19,999
Nancy A. Abshire
Robert and Isabelle Bass Foundation, Inc.
Sue and Jim Colletti
Dr. Leo and Catherine Miserendino
Sandra and Earl Rusnak, Jr. †
$11,500–$14,999
Barker Welfare Foundation
Mr. † & Mrs. David A. Donovan
Nancy and Bernard Dunkel
Benjamin J. Rosenthal Foundation
Ksenia A. and Peter Turula
$7,500–$11,499
Anonymous
Robert H. Baum and MaryBeth Kretz
Fred and Phoebe Boelter
The Buchanan Family Foundation
John D. and Leslie Henner Burns
Mr. Lawrence Corry
Mrs. Carol Evans, in memory of Henry Evans
Ellen and Paul Gignilliat
Mr. & Mrs. Joseph B. Glossberg
Chet Gougis and Shelley Ochab
Mary Winton Green
The League of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association
Mr. Glen Madeja and Ms. Janet Steidl
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Mary and Joseph Plauché
Ms. Liisa M. Thomas and Mr. Stephen L. Pratt
Theodore and Elisabeth Wachs
$4,500–$7,499
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CIBC
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The Osprey Foundation
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Dr. Scholl Foundation
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$3,500–$4,499
Anonymous (2)
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Charles and Carol Emmons
Judith E. Feldman
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$2,500–$3,499
Anonymous
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Adam Bossov
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Lisa Chessare
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Patricia A. Clickener
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Gerald and Barbara Schultz
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Carol S. Sonnenschein
Mr. † & Mrs. Hugo Sonnenschein
Ms. Joanne C. Tremulis
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$1,500–$2,499
John Albrecht
Mrs. Susan Alm
Mr. Edward Amrein, Jr. and Mrs. Sara Jones-Amrein
Ms. Marlene Bach
Ms. Barbara Barzansky
Mr. & Mrs. William E. Bible
Cassandra L. Book
Mr. James Borkman
Mr. Donald Bouseman
Mr. Lee M. Brown and Ms. Pixie Newman
Darren Cahr
Ms. Sharon Eiseman
Mr. Conrad Fischer
Ms. Lola Flamm
Arthur L. Frank, M.D.
Camillo and Arlene Ghiron
Merle L. Jacob
Mariko Kaneda-Niwa
Mr. & Mrs. Norman Koglin
Dona Le Blanc
Dr. Toni-Marie Montgomery
Mr. & Mrs. Robert S. Murley
Dianne M. and Robert J. Patterson, Jr.
Susan Rabe
Dr. Edward Riley
Kathleen and Anthony Schaeffer
Mrs. Rebecca Schewe
Drs. Deborah and Lawrence Segil
Jane A. Shapiro
Mr. Larry Simpson
Mr. Thomas Simpson
Mrs. Julie Stagliano
Michael and Salme Steinberg
Walter and Caroline Sueske
Charitable Trust
Ayana Tomeka
Ms. Betty Vandenbosch
Dr. Douglas Vaughan
Ms. Mary Walsh
Mr. & Mrs. Richard Waxman
Abby and Glen Weisberg
Irene Ziaya and Paul Chaitkin
$1,000–$1,499
Anonymous (3)
In memory of Martha and Bernie Adelson
Ms. Rochelle Allen
Altair Advisers LLC
Ms. Margaret Amato
Allen and Laura Ashley
Howard and Donna Bass
Paul Becker and Nancy Becker
Ann Blickensderfer
Dr. Martin Burke
Ms. Gwendolyn Butler
Mr. Mark Carroll
Mr. Rowland Chang
Dr. Cherise L. Cokley and Mr. Pascal Nyobuya
Dr. Edward A. Cole and Dr. Christine A. Rydel
Mr. & Mrs. Bill Cottle
Alan R. Cravitz
Claudia Dean
Tom Draski
DS&P Insurance Services, Inc.
Mr. & Mrs. Robert Dulski
Mr. Edward & Nancy Eichelberger
Neil Fackler
Mr. & Mrs. Roger Gallentine
Ms. Nancy Garfien
Alan and Nancy Goldberg
Mike and Mary Grady
Dr. Fred Halloran
Mrs. Susan Hammond
Dr. Dominic Harris
Dr. Robert A. Harris
Dr. Dane Hassani
Holy Trinity High School
Mr. Ray Jones
Charles Katzenmeyer
Randolph T. Kohler & Scott Gordon
Howard Korey and Sharon Pomerantz
Ms. Michele Kurlander
The Lee Family
Mr. † & Mrs. Gerald F. Loftus
Timothy Lubenow
Sharon L. Manuel
Jacqueline Mardell
Rosa and Peter McCullagh
Stephen W. and Kathleen J. Miller
Geoffrey R. Morgan
Mrs. MaryLouise Morrison
Ms. Sylvette Nicolini
Edward and Gayla Nieminen
Ms. Kathy Nordmeyer
Mr. † & Mrs. James Norr
Mr. & Mrs. Julian Oettinger
Ms. Joan Pantsios
Ms. Dona Perry
Ms. Loretta Peterson
Christine and Michael Pope
Quinlan and Fabish Music Company
Mr. George quinlan
Dr. Hilda Richards
Mr. & Mrs. Richard Rosenberg
Mr. David Samson
Mr. & Mrs. Steve Schuette
Stephen A. and Marilyn Scott
Christina Shaver
Dr. Rebecca Sherrick
Dr. Sabine Sobek
Ms. Adena Staben
Ms. Denise Stauder
Mrs. Pamela Stepansky
Sharon Swanson
Ms. Pamela Crutchfield
Ms. Cynthia Vahlkamp and Mr. Robert Kenyon
Mr. David J. Varnerin
Mrs. William White
Mr. Eric Wicks † and Ms. Linda Baker
Jennifer D. Williams
Joni Williams
Jane Stroud Wright
Ms. Patricia Zeglen
ENDOWED FUNDS
Anonymous (5)
Dr. & Mrs. Bernard H. Adelson Fund
Marjorie Blum-Kovler Youth Concert Fund
Civic Orchestra Chamber Access Fund
The Davee Foundation
Frank Family Fund
Kelli Gardner Youth Education Endowment Fund
Jennifer Amler Goldstein Fund, in memory of Thomas M. Goldstein
Mary Winton Green
John Hart and Carol Prins Fund for Access
William Randolph Hearst Foundation Fund
Richard A. Heise
Julian Family Foundation Fund
The Kapnick Family
Lester B. Knight Charitable Trust
Robert Kohl and Clark Pellett Chair Fund
The Malott Family School Concerts Fund
Eloise W. Martin Endowed Funds
Murley Family Fund
The Negaunee Foundation
Margo and Michael Oberman Community Access Fund
Nancy Ranney and Family and Friends
Helen Regenstein Guest Conductor Fund
Edward F. Schmidt Family Fund
Shebik Community Engagement Programs Fund
The Wallace Foundation
Zell Family Foundation
CIVIC ORCHESTRA 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 helped to support these stipends for the 2024–25 season.
Ten 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 Lori Julian for the Julian Family Foundation
Nancy A. Abshire
Mason Spencer,* viola
Dr. & Mrs. Bernard H.
Adelson Fund
Elena Galentas, viola
Fred and Phoebe Boelter
Daniel W. Meyer, bass
Rosalind Britton^
Sam Day, cello
John and Leslie Burns**
Layan Atieh, horn
Will Stevens, oboe
Robert and Joanne Crown
Income Charitable Fund
Charley Gillette, percussion
Kyungyeon Hong, oboe
Buianto Lkhasaranov, cello
Matthew Musachio,* violin
Sam Sun, viola
Mr. † & Mrs. David Donovan
Bennett Norris, bass
Charles and Carol Emmons^
Will Stevens, oboe
David and Janet Fox^
Carlos Lozano Sanchez, viola
Ellen and Paul Gignilliat
Tiffany Kung, bass
Mr. & Mrs. Joseph B. Glossberg
Hannah Novak, bass
Richard and Alice Godfrey
Darren Carter, violin
Jennifer Amler Goldstein Fund, in memory of Thomas M. Goldstein
Alex Chao, percussion
Chet Gougis and Shelley Ochab
Nick Reeves, cello
Mary Winton Green
Walker Dean, bass
Jane Redmond Haliday Chair
Munire Mona Mierxiati, violin
Lori Julian for the Julian Family Foundation
David Caplan, cello
Lina Yamin,* violin
League of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association
Kari Novilla, harp
Leslie Fund, Inc.
Cameron Marquez,* percussion
Lester B. Knight Charitable Trust
Daniel Fletcher, flute
Elise Maas, violin
Tricia Park, violin
Jocelyn Yeh, cello
Brandon Xu, cello
Mr. Philip Lumpkin
JT O’Toole,* bass
Mr. Glen Madeja and Ms. Janet Steidl
Herdis Gudmundsdottir, violin
Maval Foundation
Mark Morris, horn
Dustin Nguyen, trombone
Sean Whitworth, trumpet
Judy and Scott McCue
Cierra Hall, flute
Dr. Leo and Catherine Miserendino^
Lidanys Graterol, cello
Elizabeth Kapitaniuk, clarinet
Sava Velkoff,* viola
Ms. Susan Norvich
Nick Collins, tuba
Benjamin Poirot, tuba
Margo and Michael Oberman
Hamed Barbarji, trumpet
Bruce Oltman and Bonnie McGrath^
Alexander Wallack, bass
Sandra and Earl Rusnak, Jr. †
Loren Ho, horn
Barbara and Barre Seid Foundation
Alex Ertl, trombone
Joe Maiocco, bass trombone
The George L. Shields Foundation, Inc.
Asuncion Martinez, horn
Keshav Srinisvan, violin
Derrick Ware, viola
Dr. & Mrs. R. Solaro^
Sanford Whatley, viola
David W. and Lucille G. Stotter Chair
Ran Huo, violin
Ruth Miner Swislow Charitable Fund
Kimberly Bill, violin
Ksenia A. and Peter Turula
Abner Wong, trumpet
Lois and James Vrhel Endowment Fund
Broner McCoy, bass
Dr. Marylou Witz
Marian Mayuga,* violin
Theodore and Elisabeth Wachs^
Amy Hur,* clarinet
Paul and Lisa Wiggin
Layan Atieh, horn
Tomas Leivestad, timpani
Anonymous Hojung Lee, violin
Anonymous J Holzen,* cello
Anonymous^
Carlos Chacon, violin
