Program Book - Civic Orchestra of Chicago at Kenwood Academy: Prokofiev 5

ONE HUNDRED FIFTH

SEASON

CIVIC ORCHESTRA OF CHICAGO KEN-DAVID MASUR Principal Conductor

The Robert Kohl and Clark Pellett Principal Conductor Chair

Sunday, April 7, 2024, at 2:00

Kenwood Academy High School

Ken-David Masur Conductor

NEWBOLD Mythos

Jhonatan Roldan-Ramirez, conductor Students from the Kenwood Academy Music Department

MAN Glimpses of Muqam Chebiyat

II. Chebiyat Muqam—Third Dastan

Jhonatan Roldan-Ramirez, conductor Students from the Kenwood Academy Music Department

PROKOFIEV

Symphony No. 5 in B-flat Major, Op. 100

Andante

Allegro moderato

Adagio

Allegro giocoso

The 2023–24 Civic Orchestra season is generously sponsored by Lori Julian for the Julian Family Foundation, which also provides major funding for the Civic Fellowship program.

This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

The Civic Orchestra of Chicago acknowledges support from the Illinois Arts Council.

The 2023–24 Civic Orchestra season is generously sponsored by Lori Julian for the Julian Family Foundation, which also provides major funding for the Civic Fellowship program.

COMMENTS

SOON HEE NEWBOLD

Born November 11, 1974; Seoul, South Korea

Mythos

COMPOSED 2005

FIRST PERFORMANCE

2006, Ohio Music Education Association District 13 Honor Orchestra

INSTRUMENTATION string orchestra

APPROXIMATE PERFORMANCE TIME 3 minutes

Soon Hee Newbold is an internationally acclaimed composer and conductor known for incorporating differing cultural and ethnic styles in her writing, inspired by her experiences and travel. She started studying piano at age five and violin at seven and has performed as a concert artist in professional ensembles around the world. As a composer, Newbold’s works are performed by groups ranging in all levels from professional

symphonies to beginning elementary ensembles in venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Wolf Trap, Disney Hall, Lincoln Center, Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, and many more worldwide stages. In addition, Newbold is frequently sought after as a keynote speaker and guest clinician. She has conducted and worked with orchestras and bands throughout the United States and overseas in the Netherlands, Belgium, Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, and China. As a filmmaker and composer in Hollywood, she makes music that can also be heard in film and other recording projects.

Newbold’s Mythos is inspired by myths, legends, and fairy tales and is filled with unique harmonies and driving melodies. The different sections, performed without pause, include “Once Upon a Time,” “Fantasy,” and “Final Victory.” The work is dedicated to the Ohio Music Education Association District 13 Honor Orchestra and is intended to spark the imagination of young players and listeners.

—Alfred Music

above: Soon Hee Newbold

WU MAN

Born January 2, 1963; Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China

Glimpses of Muqam Chebiyat

COMPOSED 2015

FIRST PERFORMANCE

September 17, 2016; the Kronos Quartet; the Black Box Theater, Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi, UAE

INSTRUMENTATION string orchestra

APPROXIMATE PERFORMANCE TIME 4 minutes

Recognized as the world’s premier pipa virtuoso and leading ambassador of Chinese music, Grammy Award–nominated musician Wu Man has carved out a career as a soloist, educator, and composer, giving her lute-like instrument—which has a history of over 2,000 years in China—a new role in both traditional and contemporary music. Having been brought up in the Pudong School of pipa playing, one of the most prestigious classical styles of imperial China, Wu Man is now recognized as an outstanding exponent of the traditional repertoire as well as a leading interpreter of contemporary pipa music by today’s most prominent

composers. Wu Man’s efforts were recognized when she was named Musical America’s 2013 Instrumentalist of the Year, the first time this prestigious award has been bestowed on a player of a non-Western instrument.

Wu Man was born in Hangzhou, China, and studied at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, where she became the first recipient of a master’s degree in pipa. She was accepted into the conservatory at thirteen, and her audition was covered by national newspapers. She was hailed as a child prodigy, becoming a nationally recognized role model for young pipa players. In 1985 she made her first visit to the United States as a member of the China Youth Arts Troupe. Wu Man moved to this country in 1990 and currently resides with her husband and son in California.

Wu Man on Glimpses of Muqam Chebiyat

Glimpses of Muqam Chebiyat is a two-movement suite that, taken with Two Chinese Paintings, resembles a set of portraits of traditional cultures from around China. In Chinese traditional music, instrumental pieces often have poetic titles to express their content and style. I decided to continue this tradition with above: Wu Man

this collection. The inspiration for these suites came from styles of traditional music in China familiar to me, including Uyghur Maqam of Xinjiang province, a pipa scale from the ninth century, and the Silk-and-Bamboo music, or teahouse music, from my hometown of Hangzhou.

Glimpses of Muqam Chebiyat is adapted from the Uyghur Muqam Chebiyat. In 2010, thanks to the Aga Khan music initiative, I had the opportunity to learn these pieces directly from the Uyghur musicians Abdullah Majnun and Sanubar Tursun.

I feel quite grateful to be able to bring these old styles of traditional

music—Uyghur Muqam, Jiangnan Silkand-Bamboo music, and ancient pipa music—into the repertoire of Western string ensembles. The left-hand portamento, or sliding, technique called for here is quite distinct from the types of expression found in Western music. I hope that audiences will come to better understand the richness and diversity of music from China through these stories.

Glimpses of Muqam Chebiyat was commissioned as part of Kronos Fifty for the Future, made possible by a group of adventurous partners, including Carnegie Hall and many others.

—Courtesy of 50 for the Future: The Kronos Learning Repertoire

SERGEI PROKOFIEV

Born April 23, 1891; Sontsovka, Ukraine

Died March 5, 1953; Nikolina Gora, near Moscow, Russia

Symphony No. 5 in B-flat

Major, Op. 100

COMPOSED

1944

FIRST PERFORMANCE

January 13, 1945; Moscow, Russia. The composer conducting

INSTRUMENTATION

two flutes and piccolo, two oboes and english horn, two clarinets, E-flat clarinet and bass clarinet, two bassoons and contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, piano, harp, timpani, triangle, cymbals, tambourine, snare drum, woodblock, bass drum, tam-tam, strings

APPROXIMATE PERFORMANCE TIME

46 minutes

Sergei Prokofiev spent the summer of 1944 at a large country estate provided by the Union of Soviet Composers as a refuge from the war and as a kind of think tank. Prokofiev arrived early in the summer and found that his colleagues included Glière, Shostakovich, Kabalevsky, Khachaturian, and Miaskovsky—summer camp for the most distinguished Soviet composers of the time.

Although Ivanovo, as the retreat was called, often was referred to as a rest home, there was little leisure once Prokofiev moved in. He maintained a rigorous daily schedule—as he had all his life—and began to impose it on the others as well. “The regularity with which he worked amazed us all,” Khachaturian later recalled. Prokofiev ate breakfast, marched to his studio to compose, and scheduled his walks and tennis games by the clock. In the evening, he insisted the composers all get together to compare notes, literally. Prokofiev was delighted, and clearly not surprised, that he usually had the most to show for his day’s work.

It was a particularly productive summer for Prokofiev—he composed both his Eighth Piano Sonata and the Fifth Symphony before he returned to Moscow. The sonata is prime Prokofiev and often played, but the symphony is perhaps the best known and most regularly performed of all his works. It had been fifteen years since Prokofiev’s last symphony, and both that symphony and the one preceding it had been by-products of theater pieces: the Third Symphony is musically related to the opera The Flaming Angel, and the Fourth to the ballet The Prodigal Son Not since his Second Symphony, completed in 1925, had Prokofiev composed

above: Sergei Prokofiev, in a portrait by Pyotr Konchalovsky (1876–1956), 1934

a purely abstract symphony or one that he began from scratch.

Although it was written at the height of the war, Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony isn’t a wartime symphony in the traditional sense—not in the vivid and descriptive manner of Shostakovich’s Seventh, composed during the siege of Leningrad and written, in Carl Sandburg’s words, “with the heart’s blood”—or his Eighth, which coolly contemplates the horrors of war. (Those two scores date from 1941 and 1943, shortly before Prokofiev began this work.) Prokofiev’s Symphony no. 5 is intended to glorify the human spirit, “praising the free and happy man—his strength, his generosity, and the purity of his soul.” In its own way, this outlook makes it an even greater product of the war because it was designed to uplift and console the Soviet people. “I cannot say I chose this theme,” Prokofiev wrote. “It was born in me and had to express itself.” Nonetheless, such optimistic and victorious music cheered the Russian authorities; it might well have been made to order. In his 1946 autobiography, Prokofiev writes: “It is the duty of the composer, like the poet, the sculptor, or the painter, to serve the rest of humanity, to beautify human life, and to point the way to a radiant future. Such is the immutable code of art as I see it.” It also was the code of art Soviet composers were expected to embrace during the war, but Prokofiev couldn’t have written a work as powerful and convincing as his Fifth Symphony if he didn’t truly believe those words.

The Fifth Symphony would inevitably be known as a victory celebration. Just before the first performance, which Prokofiev conducted, word reached Moscow that the Russian army had scored a decisive victory on the Vistula River. As Prokofiev raised his baton, the sound of cannon was heard from the distance. Buoyed by both the news and the triumphant tone of the music, the premiere was a great success. It was the last time Prokofiev conducted in public. Three weeks later, he had a mild heart attack, fell down the stairs in his apartment, and suffered a slight concussion. Although he recovered his spirits—and eventually his strength and creative powers as well—Prokofiev continued to feel the effects of the accident for the remaining eight years of his life.

The first movement of the Fifth Symphony is intense and dramatic but neither aggressive nor violent, like much of the music written at the time. It is moderately paced (Prokofiev writes andante) and broadly lyrical throughout. The scherzo, in contrast, is quick and insistent, touched by a sense of humor that sometimes reveals a sharp, cutting edge. The third movement is lyrical and brooding, like much of Prokofiev’s finest slow music. After a brief and sober introduction, the finale points decisively toward a radiant future.

—Phillip Huscher

Phillip Huscher is the program annotator for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

PROFILES

Ken-David Masur Conductor

Ken-David Masur celebrates his fifth season as music director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and principal conductor of the Chicago Symphony’s Civic Orchestra. He has conducted distinguished orchestras around the world, including the Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Orchestre National de France, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony, National Philharmonic of Russia, and other orchestras throughout the United States, France, Germany, Korea, Japan, and Scandinavia.

Masur’s tenure in Milwaukee has been marked by innovative thematic programming, including a festival celebrating the music of the 1930s, when the Bradley Symphony Center was built, and the Water Festival, which highlighted local community partners whose work centers on water conservation and education. He also instituted a multi-season artist-in-residence program and led highly acclaimed performances of major choral works, including a semistaged production of Peer Gynt.

This season, he begins a residency with bass-baritone Dashon Burton and leads the MSO in an inaugural citywide Bach festival, celebrating the diverse and universal appeal of J.S. Bach’s music in an ever-changing world.

Last season, Masur made his New York Philharmonic debut in a gala

program featuring John Williams and Steven Spielberg. He also debuted at the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan, and at Classical Tahoe in three programs broadcast on PBS. He led the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Branford Marsalis, and James Taylor at Tanglewood in a ninetieth birthday concert for John Williams. Summer 2023 marked Masur’s debuts with the Grant Park Festival and the National Repertory Orchestra; later this season, he returns to the Baltimore Symphony and the Kristiansand Symphony.

For eight years, Masur served as principal guest conductor of the Munich Symphony. He was also associate conductor of the San Diego Symphony and resident conductor of the San Antonio Symphony.

Music education and working with the next generation of young artists are of major importance to Masur. In addition to his work with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, he has conducted Tokyo’s Bunka Kaikan Chamber Orchestra and Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra and led master classes at the University of WisconsinMilwaukee’s Peck School of the Arts, New England Conservatory, Manhattan School of Music, Boston University, Boston Conservatory, and the Juilliard School, where he leads the Juilliard Orchestra this fall.

Masur and his family are proud to call Milwaukee their home and enjoy exploring all the riches of the Third Coast.

PHOTO BY ADAM DETOUR

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 Ken-David Masur, musicians of the CSO, and some of today’s most luminary conductors, including Riccardo Muti, the CSO’s music director emeritus for life.

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 fieldhouses and the National Museum of Mexican Art.

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 diversify 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.

For more on the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and its Principal Conductor Ken-David Masur, please visit cso.org/civic.

PROFILES

Civic

Orchestra of Chicago

Ken-David Masur Principal Conductor

The Robert Kohl and Clark Pellett Principal Conductor Chair

VIOLINS

Ran (Ryan) Huo

Mona Munire Mierxiati

Jonah Kartman

Sheena Lan

Kimberly Bill

Elise Maas

Alec Tonno

Hojung Christina Lee

Darren Carter

Isabelle Chin

Nelson Mendoza

Lina Yamin*

Annie Pham

Danira Rodríguez-Purcell

Janani Sivakumar

Marian Antonette Mayuga*

Heewoo Seo

Hobart Shi

Matthew Weinberg

Matthew Musachio*

Valentina Guillen Menesello

Sean Hsi

J. Andrés Robuschi

Justine Teo

Megan Pollon

Alba Layana Izurieta

VIOLAS

Sanford Whatley

Michael Ayala

Sava Velkoff

Carlos Lozano

Derrick Ware

Justin Pou

Junghyun Ahn

Megan Yeung

Elena Galentas

Santiago Del Castillo

Lucie Boyd

Rebecca Miller

CELLOS

David Caplan

Miles Link

Lidanys Graterol

Buianto Lkhasaranov

J Holzen*

Francisco Lopez Malespin*

Lindsey Sharpe

Niraj Patil

Cameron Slaugh

Chad Polk

BASSES

Ben Foerster*

Hannah Novak

Broner McCoy

James O’Toole

Tiffany Kung

Leo Finan

Daniel W. Meyer

Walker Dean

FLUTES

Aalia Hanif*

Jungah Yoon

Katarina Ignatovich

PICCOLOS

Aalia Hanif*

Jungah Yoon

OBOES

James Kim

Natalie Johnson

ENGLISH HORN

Hannah Fusco

CLARINETS

Elizabeth Kapitaniuk

Amy Hur*

E-FLAT CLARINET

Tyler Baillie

BASS CLARINET

Nathan Vilhena Kock

* Civic Orchestra Fellow

BASSOONS

Ian Arthur Schneiderman

Seo Young (Michelle) Min

CONTRABASSOON

William George

HORNS

Asunción Martínez

Ryan Williamson

Loren Ho

TRUMPETS

Sean-David Whitworth

Kai-Chun Chang

Abner Wong

TROMBONES

Hugo Saavedra*

Jihong Son

BASS TROMBONE

Alexander Mullins

TUBA

Ben Poirot

TIMPANI

Tomas Leivestad

PERCUSSION

Charley Gillette

Alex Chao

Sehee Park

Dominik McDonald

Karel Zambrano

HARP

Janna Young

KEYBOARD

Wenlin Cheng

LIBRARIAN

Benjimen Neal

Students from the Kenwood Academy Music Department

VIOLINS

Justin Coleman

Jahel Crowder

Frida-Sofia Gallick

Lamont St Clair Haygood

Owen Johnson

Lena Owens

Brooke Vercher

Makaila Bonsu

Christian Copeland

Lahna Davis

T’Anna Lomack

Andre Madison

Lydia Popova

Gayle Sancho

Maya Wells

Anthony Owens

Christopher Richards

Warren Sims

Layla Wells

Patricia Washington

VIOLAS

Lauren Butler

Davon Davis

Laila Johnson

Jehreal Webster

Adele Jennings

Gabrielle Barbosa

Arion Sharegh

Elliot Swanson

BASSES

C’Maria Thurman

Khamari Hall

Jeremiah Davis

Brianne Gee-Simpson

David Nyam

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.

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 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 2023–24 season.

Eleven 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

Amanda Kellman, viola

Dr. & Mrs. Bernard H. Adelson Fund

Megan Yeung, viola

Sue and Jim Colletti

Nina Laube,* bassoon

Lawrence Corry

Jonah Kartman, violin

Robert and Joanne Crown Income Charitable Fund

Charley Gillette, percussion

James Kim, oboe

Buianto Lkhasaranov, cello

Daniel W. Meyer, bass

Subin Shin, violin Abner Wong, trumpet

Mr. † & Mrs. David A. Donovan

Jacob Medina, horn

Mr. & Mrs. Paul C. Gignilliat

Janani Sivakumar, violin

Mr. & Mrs. Joseph B. Glossberg

Hannah Novak, bass

Richard and Alice Godfrey

Matthew Weinberg, violin

Jennifer Amler Goldstein

Fund, in memory of Thomas M. Goldstein

Alex Chao, percussion

Chet Gougis and Shelley Ochab

Tomas Leivestad, timpani

Mary Winton Green

Victor Stahoviak, bass

Jane Redmond Haliday Chair

Mona Munire Mierxiati, violin

Lori Julian for the Julian Family Foundation

Nelson Mendoza, violin

Lina Yamin, violin

Lester B. Knight Charitable Trust

Valentina Guillen Menesello, violin

Elizabeth Kapitaniuk, clarinet

Elise Maas, violin

Ryan Williamson, horn

Brandon Xu, cello

League of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association

Lindsey Sharpe, cello

Leslie Fund Inc.

Francisco Lopez Malespin,* cello

Phil Lumpkin

Matthew Musachio,* violin

Glenn Madeja and Janet Steidl Abigail Monroe, cello

The Maval Foundation

Mark Morris, horn Felix Regalado, trombone

Judy and Scott McCue and the Leslie Fund Inc.

Aalia Hanif,* flute

† Deceased * Civic Orchestra Fellow + Partial Sponsor

Gifts listed as of February 2024

Dr. Leo and Catherine

Miserendino

Sean-David Whitworth, trumpet

Ms. Susan Norvich

Nick Collins,* tuba

Ben Poirot, tuba

Margo and Mike Oberman

Ben Foerster,* bass

Sandra and Earl J. Rusnak, Jr. †

Quincy Erickson, trumpet

Barbara and Barre Seid Foundation

Alexander Mullins, bass trombone

Hugo Saavedra,* trombone

The George L. Shields Foundation, Inc.

Hsuan Chen, violin

Carlos Lozano, viola

Cameron Slaugh, cello

David W. and Lucille G. Stotter Chair

Ran (Ryan) Huo, violin

Ruth Miner Swislow Charitable Fund

Kimberly Bill, violin

Lois and James Vrhel

Endowment Fund

Broner McCoy, bass

Theodore and Elisabeth Wachs

Hae Sol (Amy) Hur,+ clarinet

Dr. Marylou Witz

Marian Antonette Mayuga, violin

Anonymous

Jesús Linárez, violin

Anonymous

Gabriela Lara, violin

Anonymous

Hojung Christina Lee, violin

Anonymous

J Holzen,* cello

For complete donor listings, please visit the Richard and Helen Thomas Donor Gallery at cso.org/donorgallery.