Program Book - School Concert: Empowered by Music

WHOISYOUR VILLAGE?

CSO for Kids: Youth Concerts May 8 & 9, 2024

Orchestral music requires an incredible amount of collaboration and cooperation, and lots of practice so the musicians can build a relationship with each other, the conductor and their audiences. Playing in an orchestra can feel like having a second family.

Do you have people in your life who are like a second family to you? When you know what

they’ll do or say before they do it? To whom you can express something without speaking?

Who are the people who support you when you’re down, who hold you up, who encourage you to succeed?

The composers featured in this program all found second families to help them navigate overwhelming challenges so they could find their creative musical ideas.

PERFORMERS

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Lidiya Yankovskaya conductor

Esme Arias-Kim violin

ON THE PROGRAM

MUSSORGSKY (ORCH. RIMSKY-KORSAKOV)

A Night on Bald Mountain

PRICE Ethiopia’s Shadow in America

CHAUSSON Poème for Violin and Orchestra

GARROP There’s a village in my sneakers

GETER Chiaroscuro

OKPEBHOLO Stellar

STRAVINSKY Suite from The Firebird (1919 revision)

Superlatives

Clubs & organizations

Member of The Five, a group of composers united to support one another and create nationalistic music that was distinctly Russian.

Member of the Women’s Club of Music (Chicago) and the National Association of Negro Musicians, which promotes, preserves and supports all genres of music created and/ or performed by Black Americans.

Host of a salon in Paris where the world’s literary and musical notables, as well as artists like Claude Monet, gathered to support one another.

A student of Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, a member of The Five, and one of the favorite composers of the progressive Ballets Russes.

Special Class Projects

Three living composers were commissioned to write short works that explored the question “Who is your village?” Damien Geter, Stacy Garrop and Shawn Okpebholo met with orchestra and band students in three Chicago Public Schools and asked them to respond to this question through drawing artwork, writing poetry and classroom discussions.

Inspired by a drawing by Whitney Young High School student Natalie Chan, Stacy Garrop describes how it informed her composition. “There’s a village in my sneakers begins with a single runner putting on her shoes, then running laps alone around the school track. She is soon joined by a friend who runs alongside her. As she jogs, she thinks about her parents who support her and purchased the sneakers she’s wearing. As more teammates join, she realizes that her village is all around her, from her friends running alongside her to her family that supports her, all embodied by the sneakers on her feet.”

At the beginning of the piece, notice how the single runner is represented by a single clarinet.

Special Class Projects continued

Damien Geter describes his piece in this way: “When talking to the students at Westinghouse College Prep School, I was enthralled by the individuality of each student that forms this community — much like a quilt whose separate patches are held together by thread to form a beautiful tapestry. In the same vein, chiaroscuro employs the use of light and dark to create depth — opposites making one beautiful whole. This piece makes use of opposing music forces and ideas to symbolize this community, and the beauty of individuality which melds into a cohesive body.”

Shawn Okpebholo had an enriching interaction with students at Morgan Park High School that informed his composition. Okpebholo states, “Stellar is a fanfare prelude dedicated to the students of MPHS. The composition is inspired by the remarkable achievements of one of its distinguished alumnae, Dr. Mae Jemison, the trailblazing astronaut and first African American woman to travel to space. The title Stellar embodies both its astronomical connotation — relating to stars — and the notion of excellence. Dr. Jemison, who defied boundaries and ventured into the cosmos, personifies this duality, epitomizing exceptionalism.”

Stellar is a celebratory composition with rocket-like energy, celestial sonorities and a brightness that embodies not only the stars but also the path ahead for the students of MPHS, mirroring the rise of Dr. Jemison.

Russian-American conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya has conducted more than 40 world premieres, including 16 operas, and has guided new perspectives on staged and symphonic repertoire from Carmen and The Queen of Spades to Price and Prokofiev. Her daring performances before and amid the pandemic earned recognition from the Chicago Tribune, which praised her as “the very model of how to survive adversity, and also how to thrive in it,” while naming her 2020 Chicagoan of the Year.

As music director of Chicago Opera Theater, Lidiya is one of only two women to hold that title at a multimillion-dollar opera company in the United States. Lidiya’s experiences as a refugee inspired her to found the Refugee Orchestra Project, which proclaims the cultural and societal relevance of refugees through music, and has brought that message to hundreds of thousands of listeners around the world.

conductor guest artist

Esme Arias-Kim is currently studying at the Colburn Music Academy as a Kohl Scholar, a full room, board and tuition merit scholarship, with Robert Lipsett. She previously studied with Almita Vamos and Betty Haag-Kuhnke. Most recently Esme received a silver medal at the 2023 Stulberg International String Competition and a gold medal at the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s 29th Annual Young Artist Competition. She is also the winner of the 2023 Crain-Maling Foundation Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Young Artists Competition.

Esme made her solo orchestral debut at the age of 10 with the Oistrakh Symphony and has continued to make solo orchestral appearances with orchestras around the world.

Her radio performances include a recital on Chicago’s classical radio station WFMT’s “Introductions” and NPR’s “From the Top” as well as a televised appearance on KGW 8, Portland, Oregon. Outside of music, Esme enjoys listening to true crime podcasts, visual art, cooking and writing.

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Klaus Mäkelä Zell Music Director Designate • Riccardo Muti Music Director Emeritus for Life

Jessie Montgomery Mead Composer-in-Residence • Hilary Hahn Artist-in-Residence

violins

Robert Chen Concertmaster

The Louis C. Sudler Chair, endowed  by an anonymous benefactor

Stephanie Jeong Associate Concertmaster

The Cathy and Bill Osborn Chair

David Taylor Assistant Concertmaster*

The Ling Z. and Michael C. Markovitz Chair

Yuan-Qing Yu Assistant Concertmaster ‡

So Young Bae

Cornelius Chiu

Gina DiBello

Kozue Funakoshi

Russell Hershow

Qing Hou

Matous Michal

Simon Michal

Sando Shia

Susan Synnestvedt

Rong-Yan Tang

Baird Dodge Principal

Danny Yehun Jin Assistant Principal

Lei Hou

Ni Mei

Hermine Gagné

Rachel Goldstein

Mihaela Ionescu

Sylvia Kim Kilcullen

Melanie Kupchynsky

Wendy Koons Meir

Joyce Noh

Nancy Park

Ronald Satkiewicz

Florence Schwartz

violas

Catherine Brubaker

Youming Chen

Sunghee Choi

Wei-Ting Kuo

Danny Lai

Weijing Michal

Diane Mues

Lawrence Neuman

Max Raimi

cellos

John Sharp Principal

The Eloise W. Martin Chair

Kenneth Olsen Assistant Principal §

The Adele Gidwitz Chair

Karen Basrak

The Joseph A. and Cecile

Renaud Gorno Chair

Loren Brown ‡

Richard Hirschl

Daniel Katz

Katinka Kleijn

Brant Taylor

basses

Alexander Hanna Principal

The David and Mary Winton

Green Principal Bass Chair

Alexander Horton Assistant Principal

Daniel Carson

Ian Hallas

Robert Kassinger

Mark Kraemer

Stephen Lester

Bradley Opland

Andrew Sommer

harp

Lynne Turner

flutes

Stefán Ragnar Höskuldsson Principal

The Erika and Dietrich M.

Gross Principal Flute Chair

Yevgeny Faniuk Assistant Principal

Emma Gerstein

Jennifer Gunn

piccolo

Jennifer Gunn

The Dora and John Aalbregtse

Piccolo Chair

oboes

William Welter Principal

The Nancy and Larry Fuller

Principal Oboe Chair

Lora Schaefer Assistant Principal

Scott Hostetler

english horn

Scott Hostetler

clarinets

Stephen Williamson Principal

John Bruce Yeh Assistant Principal

Gregory Smith

e-flat clarinet

John Bruce Yeh

bassoons

Keith Buncke Principal

William Buchman Assistant Principal

Miles Maner

horns

Mark Almond Principal

James Smelser

David Griffin

Oto Carrillo

Susanna Gaunt

Daniel Gingrich

* Assistant concertmasters are listed by seniority. ‡ On sabbatical § On leave

The CSO’s music director position is endowed in perpetuity by a generous gift from the Zell Family Foundation.

The Paul Hindemith Principal Viola, Gilchrist Foundation, and Louise H. Benton Wagner chairs currently are unoccupied.

Support for Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association programming for children and families is provided by Abbott Fund, John D. and Leslie Henner Burns, John Hart and Carol Prins, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Kinder Morgan, The Negaunee Foundation, PNC, Courtney Shea, Megan and Steve Shebik, Michael and Linda Simon, the Walter and Caroline Sueske Charitable Trust and an anonymous family foundation.

trumpets

Esteban Batallán Principal

The Adolph Herseth Principal Trumpet Chair, endowed by an anonymous benefactor

Mark Ridenour Assistant Principal

John Hagstrom

The Bleck Family Chair

Tage Larsen

The Pritzker Military Museum & Library Chair

trombones

Jay Friedman Principal

The Lisa and Paul Wiggin

Principal Trombone Chair

Michael Mulcahy

Charles Vernon

bass trombone

Charles Vernon

tuba

Gene Pokorny Principal

The Arnold Jacobs Principal Tuba Chair, endowed by Christine Querfeld

timpani

David Herbert Principal

The Clinton Family Fund Chair

Vadim Karpinos Assistant Principal

percussion

Cynthia Yeh Principal

Patricia Dash

Vadim Karpinos

James Ross

librarians

Justin Vibbard Principal

Carole Keller

Mark Swanson

cso fellows

Gabriela Lara Violin

The Michael and Kathleen Elliott Fellow

Jesús Linárez Violin

Olivia Reyes Bass

orchestra personnel

John Deverman Director

Anne MacQuarrie Manager, CSO Auditions and Orchestra Personnel

stage technicians

Christopher Lewis Stage Manager

Blair Carlson

Paul Christopher

Ryan Hartge

Peter Landry

Joshua Mondie

Todd Snick

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra string sections utilize revolving seating. Players behind the first desk (first two desks in the violins) change seats systematically every two weeks and are listed alphabetically. Section percussionists also are listed alphabetically.

Youth Education Program Sponsor

CSO for Kids concerts and CPS Partnerships Corporate Sponsor