CSO POPS Fanfare Cincinnati - April/May 2023

MUSIC FOR ALL

Together we’ll celebrate Louis Langrée’s final season as CSO Music Director, featuring bold international collaborations and tributes to special moments from his tenure, plus the music of America as the Pops bring us hits from Broadway, Hollywood and the Great American Songbook.

CONTENTS

4 Directors & Advisors

8 Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra “We Believe”

9 Welcome from the President & CEO

10 CSO Feature: Revisiting Old Landmarks and Making New Discoveries

16 Pops Feature: A Homecoming of Music: Ragtime with the Cincinnati Pops

19 Spotlight: Honoring Retiring Orchestra Musicians

23 Spotlight: The Shared Room: Embracing the Classical Roots Community Choir Concert Experience

26 Spotlight: Why We Give, Part II

27 Summer Concerts: Join the CSO and Pops in Neighborhoods Around the City This Summer

28 Orchestra Roster

29 Artistic Leadership: Louis Langrée, John Morris Russell, Matthias Pintscher, Damon Gupton, Samuel Lee and Daniel Wiley

41 Concerts and CSO Program Notes:

Apr. 14: Classical Roots | Apr. 15–16: Pictures at an Exhibition | Apr. 21–22: Mahler Symphony No. 7 |

Apr. 21: CSO Chamber Players | Apr. 23: CSO/CSYO Sideby-Side | Apr. 25: Ben Folds | Apr. 28–30: Ragtime in Concert | May 5–7: Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony |

May 12-13: An American in Paris | May 12: CSO Chamber Players | May 14: CSYO Spring Concerts 89

APRIL/ MAY 2023

10 Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra performances in April and May include two world premieres, a Saxophone Concerto for Steven Banks by Billy Childs, and a Piano Concerto to be performed by the composer, Courtney Bryan. Read about these works and the many others to be performed in the coming weeks on pp. 10–15.

16

Cincinnati Pops concerts in April and May reflect a “Homecoming of Music,” with performances by artists with Cincinnati connections, especially for Ragtime in Concert. Also, Ben Folds returns to Music Hall for the first time since his sold-out 2017 performance. Learn more on pp. 16-18.

23

ON THE COVER: Music Director Louis Langrée, Cincinnati Pops

Conductor John Morris Russell, Nouveau Program coach Marion Peraza and Assistant Conductors Samuel Lee and Daniel Wiley, with members of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra, Diversity Fellowship and Nouveau Program. Credit: Claudia Hershner

All contents © 2022–23. Contents cannot be reproduced in any manner, whole or in part, without written permission from the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops.

The CSO’s Classical Roots concert, featuring the Classical Roots Community Choir and special guest artist Donald Lawrence, is set for Friday, Apr. 14. Dr. Davia J. Crutchfield’s insights into the Community Choir experience are found on pp. 23–25.

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BOARD OF DIRECTORS DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION (DE&I) COMMITTEE and COMMUNITY ADVISORY COUNCIL

In May 2020 the realities of systemic inequity, injustice and racism in America were once again laid bare by the murder of George Floyd. That summer, the CSO created a 10-point DEI Action Plan to prioritize the Orchestra’s work to better represent and serve the entirety of the Cincinnati community. Action items included the continued amplification of BIPOC artists on stage and in education programs; a review of hiring and compensation practices; organization-wide implicit bias training; increased mentorship opportunities; and the creation of a standing CSO Community Advisory Council (CAC) to strengthen ties to the community. We thank our many partners on the CAC and on our standing DE&I committee who are helping us with this important work.

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Lisa Kelly

David Kirk*

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Jack Rouse

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*Community Volunteer

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WE BELIEVE

music lives within us all

regardless of who we are or where we come from. We believe that music is a pathway to igniting our passions, discovering what moves us, deepening our curiosity and connecting us to our worldand to each other.

Representation and visibility matter. As we strive to be the most relevant orchestra in America, we begin with these statements that recognize historical problems in our Organization and industry and define our hopes for the future.

We are committed to diversity, equity and inclusion

Our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion is catalyzed by systemic injustice and inequality perpetuated by individuals and institutions. We believe that reflecting our community and the world around us at every level—on stage, behind-the-scenes, and in neighborhoods throughout the region—is essential to the CSO’s present and future.

We honor the land and Indigenous peoples

We acknowledge that Cincinnati Music Hall occupies land that has been the traditional land of the Hopewell, Adena, Myaamia (Miami), Shawandasse Tula (Shawanwaki/Shawnee), and Wahzhazhe Manzhan (Osage) peoples, who have continuously lived upon this land since time immemorial. We honor past, present and future Indigenous peoples.

Posed “behind the scenes” at Music Hall, on the cover, are our 7- to 8-year-old students alongside our professional orchestra members and artistic leaders, a testament that music really is for all.

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops! We are glad you are here with us.

Posed “behind the scenes” at Music Hall, on the cover, are our 7- to 8-year-old students alongside our professional orchestra members and artistic leaders, a testament that music really is for all. The stories in this issue of Fanfare Magazine continue the vision of the cover by bringing each of our musical ensembles center stage—Nouveau Program, Classical Roots Community Choir, Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestras and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra—and show the full breadth and depth of what we do.

In this issue, we take a look behind the scenes of our April and May concerts, beginning with Classical Roots on April 14. Dr. Davia J. Crutchfield, a cultural researcher as well as the co-creator and co-founder of BL&CK (pronounced “and Black”), an online community that celebrates the diversity of Blackness, unveils the story behind this year’s Classical Roots concert featuring internationally renowned gospel music trailblazer Donald Lawrence. Ken Smith speaks with Louis Langrée, Matthias Pintscher, saxophonist Steven Banks, composer Billy Childs, and pianist and composer Courtney Bryan in the CSO story that highlights the new music we have in store for you. Erica Reid talks to John Morris Russell and Alton Fitzgerald White to uncover the Cincinnati connections in our upcoming Ragtime production.

This issue also features our youth programs and applauds the hundreds of young musicians who participate in the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra (CSYO) program. This spring, the young players from the CSYO will perform in two concerts, including a concert alongside their professional counterparts in the annual CSYO/CSO Side-by-Side on April 23. It is always an inspiring sight to witness the potential we have on the Music Hall stage. A special congratulations to our two CSYO Concerto Competition winners, cellist Ari Peraza-Webb and violinist Vivian Chang. These young musicians are our future, and we are proud to cultivate that talent and leadership here at the CSO.

Finally, it is always a bittersweet moment at the end of each season when we say farewell to our retiring musicians: Daniel Culnan, Michelle Edgar Dugan, James Lambert, Sylvia Mitchell, Peter Norton, Steven Pride and Robert Sullivan have devoted a combined 246 years of service to our Orchestra. Five of the retirees spoke with Wajeeh Khan to share highlights of their CSO careers and plans for the next chapter. Without a doubt, our Orchestra has been forever changed by each of these musicians who shared their time and talents with us, and we are grateful. We wish them all the best in their future endeavors.

As this season comes to an end, we begin to look to the 2023–24 season—Louis Langrée’s final season as Music Director. Next season will be a season for celebrating Louis’ legacy, the special memories we have created together, and the next chapter of his artistic career. He is a remarkable musician with an extraordinary legacy in Cincinnati, and we invite you to join the celebration next season.

With gratitude, Jonathan Martin

©Roger Mastroianni

Revisiting Old Landmarks and Making New Discoveries

by KEN SMITH

Those who shuttle back and forth from one point to another often find it rewarding to vary the route. For Louis Langrée, who ends his tenure as Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Music Director next season, the commute between Paris and the United States still yields new discoveries, especially when passing the old landmarks from different directions.

Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No. 3, last performed in Music Hall before the renovation, became a cornerstone of the CSO’s 2017 Asian tour. “We may hear the piece a lot on the radio, but it doesn’t get performed very often in the concert hall,” Langrée laments. Much of the reason, he says, is due to the bulky solo instrument of its subtitle: the organ. The distinctive sonorities bring to mind a church service in the middle of a secular gathering.

“The 19th century was full of composers asking, how is it possible to write a symphony after Beethoven’s Ninth?” he explains. “Berlioz went the narrative route with Symphonie fantastique. Franck and Bruckner went into ritual-like, almost liturgical celebration. Saint-Saëns took the more ambiguous direction of mixing the two. Is his Organ Symphony a Mass or a concert? To be honest, the truly great symphonies blur such distinctions. They all start with their version of a Kyrie, full of anxiety and doubt, and little by little arrive at full light by the end.”

For Louis Langrée… the commute between Paris and the United States still yields new discoveries, especially when passing the old landmarks from different directions.

March 2017 performance led by Music Director Louis Langrée at the Hong Kong Arts Festival as part of the CSO’s 2017 Asian Tour.

Credit: Keith Hiro

“I

So when the Organ Symphony returns to Music Hall May 5–7, the obvious question is what else do you put on the program? “At some point, Saint-Saëns distorts the Dies Irae to the point of caricature, almost like a gargoyle.” Langrée says. The first thing to cross his mind was Symphonie fantastique, which similarly tweaks the same melodic theme. That piece was too long, but, fortunately, Berlioz’s Overture to Les francs-juges (“The Judges of the Secret Court”)—his rarely performed first orchestra piece from a discarded opera—was just the right length.

“You don’t need to know the story,” Langrée says, “you can feel the terror and rage and aggression in the music. You hear the music that later became the Scaffold March in the Symphonie. Berlioz at this age had no technique, so he was forced to invent new ways to say everything. It’s quite weird, and you can either say, ‘Oh, that’s weird…whatever,’ or ‘Oh, that’s weird…how extraordinary!’ because you can already see the seeds of the genius.”

Much of Saint-Saëns’ charm lies in the range of expression, and to accentuate his music’s

delicate side, Langrée veers in the opposite direction with Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major, performed by soloist Víkingur Ólafsson. “Countering Berlioz, whose musical world is big and savage and cruel, we have the super-sophisticated Ravel, whose concerto is really more like chamber music,” Langrée explains. “Saint-Saëns had dedicated his Organ Symphony to Franz Liszt, the archetypical womanizing priest, so you can see how already there were really two worlds being evoked here. And Ravel himself said that in writing his concerto he was thinking about two composers, Mozart and Saint-Saëns, so it all comes together and makes perfect sense.”

By contrast, no such question of musical pairing entered the mind of CSO Creative Partner Matthias Pintscher, who will be conducting only one piece on his April 21 and 22 program: Mahler’s Symphony No. 7. “I have a very particular vision of how to present Mahler’s Seventh, one that wouldn’t be appropriate with any of his other symphonies,” says Pintscher, who is returning to the piece

have a very particular vision of how to present Mahler’s Seventh…. There’s an eminent, omnipresent orchestral structure, but it often strives and longs for a more transparent chamber-music aspect.”

—Matthias Pintscher

CSO Creative Partner Matthias Pintscher conducts a rehearsal for CSO Proof: Sun Dogs in October 2022. Credit: Charlie Balcom

for the seventh time in the past decade. “There’s an eminent, omnipresent orchestral structure, but it often strives and longs for a more transparent chamber-music aspect. I believe it really foreshadows not just what happens in his Das Lied von der Erde [“The Song of the Earth”] but also the works of Anton Webern.”

Performing Mahler’s 80-minute symphony as a stand-alone piece was not Pintscher’s initial impulse. Rather, that decision came after his search for a companion piece yielded no curtain-raisers that seemed suitable in proportion. “It’s actually become my dream to commission a composer to write a third Nachtmusik [“Night Music”] that relates to Mahler’s music and insert it somewhere in the Seventh Symphony,” he says. “Is that almost sacrilege? Maybe, but since we’re all talking these days about reinventing the concert format, maybe not.”

and French music influenced by Americans,” he says. His “Frenchman in America” portion opens with Darius Milhaud’s La création du monde (“The Creation of the World”), which Langrée calls “the first jazz homage” in the concert world.

The main event of the evening is the world premiere of Courtney Bryan’s Piano Concerto, House of Pianos, with the composer herself at the keyboard.

The main event of the evening is the world premiere of Courtney Bryan’s Piano Concerto, House of Pianos, with the composer herself at the keyboard. Bryan, a jazz pianist and composer whose music draws heavily on jazz and gospel traditions, grew up in New Orleans, where her earliest musical memories came from the church.

To bring the current season to a close, Langrée has fashioned a program for May 12 and 13 that could be named not just for one of its works—An American in Paris—but also its inverse. “I wanted to finish the season with both American music

“My church was Saint Luke’s Episcopal,” she recalls, “an Anglican church where the people were mostly Caribbean and some West African. And this cultural mix was reflected in the music. Along with really traditional English hymns and Gregorian chant, we’d have spirituals and occasionally some African drumming and different Caribbean rhythms. And I got very used to this.”

Studying piano from age five, Bryan found that her teachers not only indulged her penchant for “making things up” at the keyboard, but also

Composer and pianist Courtney Bryan. Credit: Taylor Hunter

taught her how to write them down. “My teacher also told me to start using the word ‘compose,’ which meant that, even though it was fun, it was something to take seriously.”

Bryan’s sense of musical collaboration grew steadily, from her high school days at the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts, where she first started writing music for other instruments than the piano, to her undergraduate years at Oberlin, where she had access to dancers and a much broader range of collaborative artists. She furthered her music education at Rutgers and Columbia universities, where her advisor was the composer and trombonist George Lewis.

Bryan’s efforts at performing and writing music for others, after years of following roughly parallel tracks, finally converged again on a bigger scale. Finding herself in separate discussions with the CSO and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Bryan negotiated a cocommission for a piano concerto with a chambersized orchestration for Los Angeles and a full orchestration for Cincinnati.

With a loose deadline and plenty of time to contemplate the commission during the pandemic lockdown, Bryan decided to turn the piece into a tribute to the pianists who shaped her musical life, starting with Scott Joplin and Frederick Chopin and continuing through stride players like James P. Johnson, Fats Waller and Jelly Roll Morton, whose music she played less frequently. On the classical side there was Sergei Rachmaninoff, Maurice Ravel and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who offered examples of a basic concerto structure.

“So, on the classical front, my influences range from Mozart up to the early 20th century; on the soloist front, from the late 19th century, like Joplin, to the 21st, like Vijay Iyer,” she says. “When the time came to create, I was able to take all that stuff I packed away—different styles, different time periods—and structure the piece in different

movements. It was fun to create this dream space where Mary Lou Williams and Bud Powell and Cecil Taylor would just meet and hang out.”

For his part, Langrée has been looking at the two remaining works on the program, Gershwin’s An American in Paris and Duke Ellington’s Night Creature, with fresh eyes. In the case of Gershwin, Langrée discusses the piece in almost periodinstrument terms, starting with the composer’s original orchestration and recordings of the composer’s own performance style.

“Like many people, I first heard this piece in Leonard Bernstein’s recording, where swing was really crucial to the performance,” says Langrée. “But when we first played the original version, we realized that swing didn’t exist at that time. Listening to Gershwin’s performance, it’s more like ragtime. So as seductive as Bernstein’s version is—and I still love it—I think we should respect what Gershwin actually wrote.”

With Ellington, too, he takes a similarly counterintuitive approach. “Duke Ellington was not just a composer, he was a brilliant tone-poet,” Langrée explains. “Night Creature is incredibly sophisticated music, but when I conducted it with the CSO, the musicians played it in a very pops way, with lots of brassy sonorities. I find this music very poetic, shimmering, mysterious. This time I want to play it like we are painting a wall, putting on a second coat to reinforce the color.”

George Gershwin (left); James Rosenberg, percussionist for Cincinnati Symphony (center); and tenor Richard Crooks (right), pose with taxi horns from An American in Paris on February 28, 1929. Photo courtesy of the Ira & Leonore Gershwin Trusts.

May 19-27 • Music Hall

Featuring:

Dett’s The Ordering of Moses Mozart’s Mahler’s Symphony of a Thousand Bach’s Magnificat

And the following world premieres:

James Lee III’s Breaths ofUniversal Longing

James MacMillan’s Timotheus, Bacchus and Cecilia

Julia Adolphe

+ More

Childs,

inspiration

by KEN SMITH

Forget for a moment that the saxophone was invented in the mid-1850s for the symphony orchestra, or that Berlioz included the instrument in his Treatise on Orchestration (and more importantly, in several of his scores). Whenever saxophonist Steven Banks appears on the concert stage, audiences still often feel a sense of displacement. “I could be up there playing Bach and people will still think it’s jazz just because I’m holding a saxophone,” he says. “Some people have no other frame of reference.” Although he did minor in jazz studies as an undergraduate, Banks had already been introduced to the instrument’s classical potential as a high school junior at the North Carolina School for the Arts, where he studied with Taimur Sullivan of the PRISM Quartet. “I love the spontaneity of jazz, but I also love being able to create that spontaneity through careful planning,” he says with a laugh.

A case in point is Banks’ debut commissioning project, initiated

by Young Concert Artists (YCA) shortly after he won the YCA auditions in 2019. “Saxophonists do have a wide range of repertoire, but it’s mostly stuff people don’t know, by composers people don’t play,” he says. “To have any relevance, you need to commission new works.”

Banks tapped Billy Childs, who first came to prominence as a jazz pianist with Freddie Hubbard in the late 1970s. Childs, though, had studied composition at USC with Robert Linn, a student of Milhaud, putting him well within the European classical tradition. Banks’ introduction to Childs’ music, in fact, had been a recording of his string quartets. “I felt a real synergy between Billy’s career and the saxophone, both

starting in the classical world but getting known through jazz,” he says.

“I’ve written extensively for saxophone in smallgroup settings but never an extended piece,” says Childs, who agreed to the collaboration after seeing Banks’ YouTube videos and TED Talk.

“For a Black saxophonist to commission a Black composer for a concerto is pretty unusual.”

That also helped dictate the subject matter. “I didn’t want to direct Billy too much because, as a composer myself, I know the biggest source of writer’s block is having to write something specific,” says Banks. “But we started with the idea that poetry could inspire each movement.”

“In my mind, Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit is one of the best things ever written, with three poems, each setting the stage for a movement,” Childs adds. “Then I started thinking about Samuel Barber’s First Symphony, how he interweaves many motives into a seamless whole.”

Childs’ Concerto for Saxophone and Orchestra, which Ramón Tebar conducts with the CSO on April 15 and 16, rather splits the difference, fusing three diverse poetic voices—Nayyirah Waheed’s “Africa’s Lament,” Claude McKay’s “If We Must Die”and Maya Angelou’s “And Still I Rise”—into a storyline recounting the Black experience in America, from the slave trade through the civil rights movement.

Banks will be touring with Childs’ concerto for another two years, for performances with the work’s 10 commissioning partners. “I want to cement the saxophone’s classical future with music written by the composers at the center of today’s classical music,” he says. “But because Billy is so well known as a jazz figure, a lot of people from that world might come into the concert hall and have their eyes opened.”

Banks bring the saxophone to center stage, with a dose of poetic

Left: Dr. Maya Angelou with Music Director Louis Langrée after the November 2013 performance of Aaron Copland’s Lincoln Portait (Cred. Mark Lyons).

Above: Composer Billy Childs (cred. Raj Naik) and saxophonist Steven Banks (cred. Chris Lee)

A Homecoming of Music: Ragtime with the Cincinnati Pops

by ERICA REID

April 28–30, the Cincinnati Pops unveils an incredible symphonic concert version of Broadway’s Ragtime, which took home 1998 Tony Awards for Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score. Based on E. L. Doctorow’s 1975 novel of the same name, Ragtime follows three American stories— those of Eastern European immigrants, Harlem’s African American community, and upper-class white families of New Rochelle—that collide and converge to tell a complex tale of turn-of-the-century America.

“As these stories grow, they intersect, and we see all of the tragedy and triumph,” says Pops Conductor John Morris Russell. “[Ragtime] is looking into the 20th century and all of the social challenges that we have in the United States, as well as the opportunities, and it uses the music of ragtime to underscore the whole thing.” He adds, “It is a paean to the American mosaic.”

As much as Ragtime is an expansive story of America, the Cincinnati Pops’ production is a tribute to the Queen City as well. “It is a homecoming of talent, of music,” says Russell. “This is as much of a celebration of the form of musical theater as it is a celebration of Cincinnati.” Russell is referring in part to the casting, which is replete with connections to Cincinnati. “The fact is that all of our leads are major Broadway players,

“This [Ragtime performance] is as much of a celebration of the form of musical theater as it is a celebration of Cincinnati.”

—John Morris Russell

Cincinnati Pops Conductor John Morris Russell leading the Pops in JMR’s Greatest Hits, April 2022. Credit: JP Leong

and they’re all coming back home,” he says. University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) graduate Nikki Renée Daniels (Company, The Book of Mormon, the Chicago company of Hamilton, and more) plays Sarah, the tragic love interest of Coalhouse Walker Jr. And Ashley Brown (Mary Poppins), who plays Mother, attended CCM as well. Opposite Brown as Father is Cincinnati native and former School for Creative and Performing Arts student Ron Bohmer (The Scarlet Pimpernel, Les Misérables, Fiddler on the Roof, and more). Current CCM students will perform the many supporting and chorus roles throughout the production. In fact, Ragtime composer Stephen Flaherty is himself a CCM alumnus!

And then there is Alton Fitzgerald White, whom Russell calls “the consummate Cincinnati success story,” performing the dual roles of Ragtime protagonist Coalhouse Walker Jr. and director of this robust production. White was born and raised in Walnut Hills, attended Douglass Elementary and Walter Peoples Junior High in Hyde Park (“which changed my life,” says White), and eventually attended the School for Creative and Performing Arts—by the skin of his teeth, he says, after waiting until the last possible minute to pluck up the courage to audition. White recalls requesting an audition on his final day of junior high and his mother dropping him off for a specially arranged tryout. “She said, ‘This is your dream. If this is what you want, you go make it happen,’” White remembers. “She dropped me off, and I made it happen.”

From there, White’s trajectory is the stuff of legends. He studied musical theater at CCM until a performance at Cincinnati’s Kings Island amusement park landed him in a USO tour. He booked a role in the original company of Miss Saigon, understudying his hero Hinton Battle and eventually taking over the role once Battle moved on. White continued through the rock musical The Who’s Tommy and the original London company of Smokey Joe’s Cafe, after which he took over for Brian Stokes Mitchell as Coalhouse Walker Jr. in Ragtime. Following another handful of touring shows and opportunities in Las Vegas, he won the role he would become best known for: Mufasa in Broadway’s The Lion King, where he roared through a record-setting 4,308 performances.

Despite this staggering career, White has never forgotten where he came from, and some of his fondest memories are homecoming moments. “I’ve had the wonderful blessing of performing all over the world, but when I came through Cincinnati with The Lion King, it was like every childhood dream,” he says. “I mean, there’s no place like home. There’s just nothing like it.”

The Cincinnati Pops’ concert production of Ragtime will also be White’s directorial debut. When asked how he will approach directing the many moving parts of Ragtime, White said he will keep the focus on the rich material provided by the musical. “I’m going to say to [the cast], ‘We know this material is magnificent. We know that you are a magnificent talent. Tell the story.’” His goal is to work with the production team and cast of “phenomenal performers” to create as simple and as clear a story as possible, and let the magic of Ragtime—which includes the iconic song “Wheels of a Dream”—do the rest.

With the Pops, “simple and clear” never means “without spectacle.” For instance, this production involves three choruses, which represent Ragtime’s Black, white and European immigrant communities. (Lexington’s acclaimed American Spiritual Ensemble, directed by Dr. Everett McCorvey, takes the stage as the African American chorus.) “For our Holiday Pops concerts, we developed this new riser system for the chorus, which puts them way above the orchestra,” explains Russell, adding that simple costumes and intentional lighting will also be used to shift the

Alton Fitzgerald White performing with conductor John Morris Russell and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra for the 2022 Classical Roots program. Credit: JP Leong

focus between the various stories. “What we want to do is put the focus on the music,” he says.

It seems even the music is having a homecoming during Ragtime. In Russell’s words, “The early form of ragtime was being played in Music Hall in the Ballroom, and also in Mechanical Hall, when it was turned into this place called ‘Dance Land’ at the turn of the century.” He continues, “The same music and the same stories that we’re listening to in Ragtime are the same stories that were being played out on the floor in Music Hall.” He laughs. “It is so ridiculously relevant. The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

When asked how he would like audiences to feel after seeing Ragtime, White responds, “I want them to be proud to be Americans.” He adds, “I want the audience to see the bounty that already exists in this country, to be reminded of it.” He also says that certain shows, such as The Lion King and Ragtime, simply must be experienced live. “It’s a transforming experience that you didn’t know you needed until you got it. And you must have it.”

Just before Ragtime opens, Cincinnati Pops audiences will enjoy a one-night-only opportunity to experience Ben Folds in concert (April 25), for the first time since his sold-out performance in

2017. Known for his clever, unexpected lyrics and the careful craftsmanship of his music, Ben Folds is an iconic musician of the American soundscape. He is also a musician with a great respect for the power of the orchestra. “When it comes to choosing the most obvious symbol of civilization, Ben Folds ranks the symphony orchestra above all else,” says The Cincinnati Enquirer in an interview with Folds, which also quotes him as saying, “It took 400 years for us to get to where we are in the symphony orchestra. It’s an incredible type of ensemble. Even if you’re a hiphop act, what you learn from that kind of orchestration, coloration and production is invaluable. It should stick around.”

Music Hall with Dance Land sign on North Hall, c. 1917–1927. Courtesy of the Kenton County Public Library and Friends of Music Hall

Ben Folds returns to the Music Hall stage for the first time since his sold-out performance in 2017.

Honoring Retiring Orchestra Musicians

by WAJEEH KHAN

As the 2022–23 season comes to a close, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra congratulates and honors seven musicians on their retirements—violinists Michelle Edgar Dugan and Sylvia Mitchell, cellist Daniel Culnan, bassist James Lambert, trumpeters Robert Sullivan and Steven Pride, and bass trombonist Peter Norton. Together, they have served within the Orchestra for a combined 246 years, performing in countless concerts, tours and recordings. Five of these soon-to-be retirees offered memories of their time with the Orchestra and discussed their plans for the next chapter.

Daniel Culnan Associate Principal Cello

Ona Hixson Dater Chair

Since joining the CSO in 1982 (coincidentally winning his audition on the same day as Michelle Dugan), cellist Dan Culnan has had an extensive musical career. A section cellist for the first ten years of his CSO career, Dan earned the role of Associate Principal Cellist in 1992, a position that he has held ever since.

Some of his favorite career highlights include the time when he was a piano soloist for the CSO’s “Carnival of the Animals” concert, being able to take his family on tour with him when the CSO toured Japan in 1990 and, most notably, meeting his wife, Rebecca (the CSO’s long-time Associate Concertmaster, who retired in 2016–17), the same year that he joined the CSO.

Dan looks forward to all of the new opportunities that retirement will provide, which include being able to play more tennis, create pottery and play the piano, which is an instrument that has always been second nature to Dan. Most importantly, though, Dan is ecstatic to spend more time in Chicago with his family and his new grandson.

What Dan appreciates the most about his time with the CSO are the numerous meaningful relationships he has made. “Looking back, I’ve been really lucky to have so many talented people to learn from, admire and know,” reflected Dan. “I’ll especially remember the lessons I learned from the great CSO principal cellists Peter Wiley, John Sharp, Desmond Hoebig, Eric Kim and Ilya Finkelshteyn. It’s truly been an honor and privilege to have learned and grown so much from those around me, and to have performed with them to bring such great music to the community.”

Daniel Culnan, Associate Principal Cello, Ona Hixson Dater Chair

Michelle Edgar Dugan Violin

Donald and Margaret Robinson Chair

Michelle Dugan joined the CSO in June of 1982, after having played with the Kansas City Philharmonic and Denver Symphony. Michelle’s 41-year career with the CSO started in the Violin II section. Her most fond memory was of her first promotion audition in 1983. Michelle was convinced that she totally messed up the initial audition; therefore, she proceeded to have a few drinks, only to be recalled to reaudition later that day. The result? She was promoted to the Violin I section and has served in that section in the sixth chair for 23 years. Needless to say, it was a successful audition.

In retirement she plans to travel with her husband and take up other artistic pursuits. “I will miss the unique camaraderie of playing in a symphony. The orchestra breathes as an organism, pulsing and breathing together. I can’t imagine any substitute. I have been in professional orchestras since I was 15. It will be fun to learn new things.”

James Lambert Associate Principal Bass

Thomas Vanden Eynden Chair

Initially playing as a substitute during the 1983–84 season, longtime bassist James Lambert officially joined the CSO during the May Festival of 1987, playing Handel’s Messiah under James Conlon. For James Lambert, the opportunity to join the CSO was especially meaningful, as he had been quite familiar with the Orchestra from attending numerous concerts as a student at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

Throughout his vast career, James has enjoyed a wide variety of successes and meaningful moments. Some of his favorite performances as a member of the CSO include the series of Wagner operas with Jesús López Cobos, the Nielsen symphonies with Paavo Järvi, the Pelléas series with Louis Langrée, and a very special Brahms Second Symphony with Max Rudolf. Notably, James also soloed with the CSO in 1997, playing Johann Baptist Vanhal’s Concerto for Double Bass and Orchestra.

“My wife and I plan on remaining in Cincinnati, taking advantage of what our adopted hometown has to offer,” said James. “I hope to continue playing, but on a more reduced schedule, for as long as I am able. There are also so many books to read, movies to watch, dogs to walk, and still, many things to learn. I can assure you that I won’t be bored!”

Although James has mixed feelings about retiring, since playing double bass in an orchestra is all he has ever really wanted to do, James is still extremely grateful for the time he has spent with the CSO. “It will be hard to leave the musical and social environment of the CSO, but

Above: Michelle Edgar Dugan, violin, Donald and Margaret Robinson Chair. James Lambert, Associate Principal Bass, Thomas Vanden Eynden Chair.

I will still get to experience it from the other side,” reflected James. “I will really miss that moment in the concert when the downbeat is given and we set off on a journey through some great music—and I will miss performing with my fantastic colleagues, who have been a source of continual inspiration to me.”

Steven Pride Trumpet Otto M. Budig Family Foundation Chair

Having joined the CSO in 1980, longstanding second trumpeter Steve Pride has enjoyed a vast and diverse career. On top of performing countless concerts and multiple tours with the Orchestra, Steve has also played on more than 150 CSO recordings with maestros Michael Gielen, Jesús López Cobos, Paavo Järvi, Louis Langrée, Erich Kunzel and John Morris Russell.

For Steve, his time with the CSO has truly come full circle. “My first concert after winning my audition was Mahler’s Second Symphony with Maestro Michael Gielen, during which I played the off-stage trumpet solo,” recalls Steve. “Fast-forward to this season, we’re playing the same piece, and my son, Alex, is playing the same trumpet solo—on the exact same part of the stage where I played all those years ago. For me, that was a perfect bookend to my time here. With it being my final season and probably the last time I’ll ever play that piece, getting to witness my son play the same solo I did all those years ago was truly special.”

In his next chapter, Steve is excited to dedicate more time to his hobbies, which include fishing, hiking, running, barbecuing and practically anything else related to the outdoors. Steve is also very much looking forward to traveling throughout the U.S. and to Europe again with his wife, with Germany being at the top of his list.

“The people are what I will miss the most,” said Steve. “I’ve made so many friends during my time with the Orchestra, and I’ve had too many notable moments to count. The world’s greatest music was written for the symphony orchestra, and I will really miss being able to play it with such wonderful people.”

Robert Sullivan

Principal Trumpet Rawson Chair

Trumpeter Robert Sullivan first joined the CSO in the fall of 2008 under Music Director Paavo Järvi. After an event-filled five years, Robert departed the CSO in 2013 to teach full time at Northwestern University. Although Robert greatly enjoyed his time there, fate had other plans.

“While I was at Northwestern, the CSO principal trumpet chair opened again,” said Robert. “I missed the Orchestra so much that, after five years away, I re-auditioned and was fortunate to be offered the position again.

Above: Steven Pride, trumpet, Otto M. Budig Family Foundation Chair. Robert Sullivan, Principal Trumpet, Rawson Chair.

I always thought it was a bit ironic that I served on the Music Director search committee that led to Louis Langrée’s appointment, and years later he was the Music Director who hired me!”

Some of Robert’s favorite moments as a member of the CSO include his first touring concert in Tokyo, his first performances of the principal trumpet parts of Mahler’s 3rd and 5th symphonies, Stravinsky’s Petrushka, and Strauss’s Alpine Symphony, and Louis Langrée’s performance of Brahms’ Second Symphony with the CSO prior to his appointment as Music Director.

For Robert, retirement is more of a transition period. He isn’t fully retiring just yet; in fact, Robert has just begun his first year as Professor of Trumpet at his alma mater, the University of Michigan. Coincidentally, Robert will be teaching in the same room where he once had his own lessons with his teacher and mentor Armando Ghitalla. When he isn’t teaching, though, Robert plans to spend the majority of his downtime on the beaches and golf courses of Hilton Head Island, where he plans to enjoy his time with his six children and their families—which includes three grandchildren.

“I’ll really miss my colleagues,” lamented Robert. “There is nothing like being one player among 100 all working together for the same goal of communicating great music to an audience. The CSO has an incredibly committed team both on and off the stage, and it’s always fun to come to work. I’ll continue to play after I retire from the Orchestra, but I’ll miss my friends at Music Hall.”

Sylvia Mitchell

Violin

Joann & Paul Ward Chair

Sylvia joined the Orchestra in 1983. The CSO is grateful to Sylvia for her 40 years of service.

Peter Norton

Bass Trombone

The CSO is grateful to Peter for his 34 years of service.

SPOTLIGHT: Retiring Musicians

Above: Sylvia Mitchell, violin, Joann & Paul Ward Chair. Peter Norton, bass trombone.

The Shared Room: Embracing the Classical Roots Community Choir Concert Experience

by DAVIA J. CRUTCHFIELD, Ph.D.

The Classical Roots Community Choir remains a staple of Cincinnati’s arts and educational experiences. Through carefully curated programming, each year’s concert embarks on collaborative expressions of Black cultural music and pays tribute to the historical contributions of Black artists and composers. Similarly, this year’s presentation explores traditional and contemporary expressions of gospel music, honoring genre icon Donald Lawrence, at its center. Additionally, this year’s presentation notes the versatility of gospel music by including the contributions of opera maestro George Shirley, composer Rosephanye Powell, and the contemporary spiritual expressions of Adolphus Hailstork.

At the helm of Black cultural influences and artistic contributions is the importance of Black communal respect and appreciation. This year, the Classical Roots Community Choir demonstrates their personal and professional commitment to this initiative in their dedication to creating a harmonious experience set to transcend the walls of Music Hall. The objective is clear: in order to ensure that the expansion of art and the inclusivity of artist contributions continue

Donald Lawrence

John Morris Russell led the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Classical Roots Community Choir in the 2022 Classical Roots program. Credit: JP Leong

for generations to come, the future of Cincinnati arts and artistic communities must incorporate culturally relevant practices and programs. Chorus interim director Jason Alexander Holmes shared that the reciprocal respect of one’s cultural knowledge, heritage and life experiences became the rubric for the performers’ preparation and baseline for the audience’s experience.

The Classical Roots Community Choir is a response to the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s pledge to cultivate a symbiotic relationship between itself and Cincinnati’s cross-cultural communities. In kind, program organizers consulted with Donald Lawrence to maximize a welcoming and impactful experience. His return to Cincinnati signaled a homecoming for many Cincinnatians familiar with both his local history and career catalogue. This year’s concert is designed to honor his career commitment to amplifying gospel music as a multi-genre art form and the historical influences that contributed to his creative lens.

The chorus and orchestral ensemble also reflect an amalgamation. This ensemble displays varied learning styles and practices that collectively work toward the goal of spiritual and musical

elevation. This combination centers themes of education and community, using both to pull together a program intersecting the impressions of classical music, spiritual traditions and contemporary applications. It is this juxtaposition of education and community that amplifies the ensemble’s perforative repertoire and serves as the Sankofa* experience for future practices and programmatic opportunities.

Orchestral conductor John Morris Russell champions this sentiment, noting his experiences teaching in Ohio public schools and international symphonic directorships. The shared outcome of working with artists at any level rests on their communication dynamics and willingness to approach each rehearsal with their absolute best. The “fantastic zone”—as he calls it—is the apex of harmony, only created when artists ascend to higher levels of cohesive performance.

Classical Roots Community Choir member and veteran community chorus participant Ciara Harper describes this as an intergenerational, multicultural cohesion. She notes this collaboration “is the coming together of different people with [a] common goal...showcasing it to people who want to be exposed. We don’t all look the same, but [this] collaboration requires all of us.”

This conjoined building of sound, understanding of the music’s message and the embrace of the project’s goal translates across artistic styles and worship experiences. The internal community produced within this ensemble reflects those who enjoy their respective crafts and believe in equality. The ongoing success of the Classical Roots Community Choir and Classical Roots concert includes participant and executive support, the Multicultural Awareness Council, chorus volunteers, and various arts activists working in tandem to make the orchestral experience relevant and remarkable.

This year’s participant numbers resemble pre-pandemic attendance. Their unified hope to revitalize the Classical Roots Community Choir will rebuild this extended family and further create deeper, meaningful content. After several weeks of rehearsals, there is a shared mutual investment in providing an outstanding show experience. There is also the mutual investment in protecting the energy created by their collective; the collective gives the feelings of home. The ensemble’s cohesive expression is not just the process of presenting a song; it is the accurate expression of the heart behind

SPOTLIGHT: Classical Roots

Ciara Harper

George Shirley

the message. Donald Lawrence upholds this as the pinnacle in his teaching; under his tutelage he stresses the importance of delivering the song’s message with the weight and conviction of its author. He conveys the effect as “speaking to the listener;” a practice that upholds the musical and spiritual integrity of the pieces. This responsibility is characteristic of Black music, and gospel music especially.

Lawrence and interim Choir director Holmes regard the Black Church as an important teaching vehicle, with Lawrence observing the institution as “a non-accredited conservatory.” He equated its teaching to that of a year-intensive, including ear training, music theory and vocal pedagogy. He stated this staple of American Black culture has “given us the greatest singers in the world,” and gospel music deserved the same appreciation as opera and jazz. Lawrence’s determination to present gospel music as art increased its interdisciplinary reach.

Choir member Harper further upheld this sentiment. Her active participation in community concert spaces provided significant opportunities to share vocal instrumentation and gospel expressions outside traditional church environments. These opportunities created a common ground within the arts; it is at this common ground that Lawrence hoped the

audience would appreciate gospel’s complexity and richness.

The long-term impact of the Classical Roots Community Choir and Concert is an intergenerational, collective appreciation for various styles of music, and the contributions of Black composers and artists. The Symphony Orchestra’s desire to raise the city’s consciousness through music requires the continuation of culturally inclusive programming. Consensus has been reached: the shared room created by this concert experience transforms the artists, directors and the audience. As the excitement for the concert builds, the future of the Classical Roots Community Choir also builds. As Holmes stated, “I feel about [the concert series] the way I feel about Black history—it is our history, American history, global history. Cincinnati has so much rich, Black, arts history that we could celebrate every month and not get bored.”

*The spirit of Sankofa, a word from the Twi language of Ghana that means “go back and get it,” encompasses taking from the past what is good and bringing it into the present to make progress in the future. Sankofa is symbolized by a bird with its feet facing forward and its head looking back.

The Classical Roots Community Choir in a workshop with Donald Lawrence, in preparation for this year’s Classical Roots program.

Credit: Tyler Secor

Why We Give, Part II

by TYLER M. SECOR

From full concerts at Music Hall to small pop-up performances in local neighborhoods and everything in between, our generous and dedicated donors, sponsors and concertgoers make it all possible. This series shares the special stories behind why our donors give to the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops. As you will read, each reason is different, but their passion for this Orchestra is a constant. Our donors and their inspiring stories will ensure that the unique sound of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops will always resound.

You can join our family of donors online at cincinnatisymphony.org/donate or by contacting the Philanthropy Department at 513.744.3271.

JOE AND TRISH BAKER

Longtime CSO donors Joe and Trish Baker first met while they were both enrolled in undergraduate programs at Purdue University, with Joe being a Cincinnati native and Trish being from Chicago, Illinois. Since meeting in university, Joe and Trish have lived together in Cincinnati

for over 40 years, with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra being a consistent element of their time spent here.

Joe first saw the CSO when he was in grade school. “I was in elementary school, going on the bus as a part of a school trip. As soon as we stepped off of the bus, I remember being absolutely awestruck by the grand beauty of Music Hall—it’s such a magnificent building,” said Joe. “It was also my first time seeing a musical production of orchestral nature. It was very memorable, to say the least.”

Even though Joe’s first time at Music Hall was very impactful and noteworthy, Joe didn’t really have a change in his experience of classical music until he was a young adult.

“My father was such a big fan of the Symphony, and he loved orchestral music,” reflected Joe. “In my late 30s, I became strongly influenced by my father to really pay attention to classical music, and subsequently, what the CSO was doing. Mom and dad were regular subscribers, and seeing how much they enjoyed the CSO together set the stage for Trish and I doing the same.”

Trish echoed this sentiment, as she had a similar experience of being deeply moved by the experience the CSO offers, after not having much initial awareness.

Joe and Trish Baker

“Initially, when we went, I didn’t really listen to or care for classical music at all,” said Trish. “But after a few concerts, I learned to enjoy and appreciate the unbelievable and fantastic musicians and conductors, and the whole experience that the CSO had to offer.”

Over time, Joe and Trish began attending more concerts, eventually culminating in both of them becoming regular season subscribers. For both of them, there were a plethora of reasons that kept them coming back.

“The music and the musicians, first and foremost, are the main attraction,” revealed Trish. “They are all so talented—and when you combine the wonderful music with the professionalism, the conductors, the special guests and, of course, the experience of having a night out—all of that keeps us coming back. It’s a lot of fun to dress up a bit,

go out to dinner, and to have some friends come and experience some great art with you.”

As Joe and Trish kept coming back to see the CSO, they developed the desire to try and share that experience with other members of the community, prompting them to take their relationship with the Orchestra to the next level.

“Gradually, as we kept coming back to Music Hall, we realized the importance of everything that took place here. All of the great local musicians, the absolutely wonderful music, and the artistic experience as a whole really inspired us,” said Joe. “It’s very important to try and push the experience as a whole out to as many people as possible—Music Hall is a staple of Cincinnati, and the community should be encouraged to go and experience that. So, by giving to the CSO, we felt that we were truly giving back to our community.”

Join the CSO and Pops in Neighborhoods Around the City This Summer

Thursday, June 8, 7pm:

Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Brass Institute

Part of the Uptown Summer Music Series

Location: Uptown Park, Downtown Oxford, OH

Sunday, June 11, 6pm:

Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Brass Institute

Part of Cincinnati Opera Gala’s Pre-Concert

Performance

Location: Washington Park

Sunday, June 18, 7pm: West End Neighborhood

Location: Ezzard Charles Park (formerly Laurel Park)

Community Partner: Seven Hills

Neighborhood Houses

Late June: Pride Month Concert

Tuesday, July 4, 8pm: Red, White and BOOM!

Location: Riverbend Music Center

Sunday, July 9, 7:30pm:

Price Hill Neighborhood

Location: Dunham Recreation Center

Community Partner: Cincinnati Recreation Commission

Saturday, July 15, 7:30pm:

Evanston and East Walnut Hills Neighborhood

Location: Owl’s Nest (Fairfax Road)

Community Partner: Evanston and East Walnut Hills Community Councils

Wednesday, July 26, 7pm: Bond Hill, Roselawn and Paddock Hills

Neighborhoods

Location: Corinthian Baptist Church

Community Partner: Learning Through Art/ Jazz Alive

For the most up-to-date information, visit cincinnatisymphony.org

Audience members at the Price Hill Brady Neighborhood Concert in June 2022. Credit: Mark Lyons

FIRST VIOLINS

Stefani Matsuo

Concertmaster

Anna Sinton Taft Chair

Felicity James

Associate Concertmaster

Tom & Dee Stegman Chair

Philip Marten

First Assistant Concertmaster

James M. Ewell Chair++

Eric Bates

Second Assistant Concertmaster

Serge Shababian Chair

Kathryn Woolley

Nicholas Tsimaras–

Peter G. Courlas Chair++

Anna Reider

Dianne & J. David Rosenberg Chair

Mauricio Aguiar§

Anne G. & Robert W. Dorsey Chair

Minyoung Baik

James Braid

Marc Bohlke Chair given by Katrin & Manfred Bohlke

Michelle Edgar Dugan

Donald & Margaret Robinson Chair

Rebecca Kruger Fryxell

Clifford J. Goosmann & Andrea M. Wilson Chair

Gerald Itzkoff

Jean Ten Have Chair

Sylvia Mitchell

Jo Ann & Paul Ward Chair

Charles Morey†

Luo-Jia Wu

SECOND VIOLINS

Gabriel Pegis

Principal

Al Levinson Chair

Yang Liu*

Harold B. & Betty Justice Chair

Scott Mozlin**

Henry Meyer Chair

Kun Dong

Cheryl Benedict

Evin Blomberg§

Rachel Charbel

Ida Ringling North Chair

Chika Kinderman

Hyesun Park

Paul Patterson

Charles Gausmann Chair++

Stacey Woolley

Brenda & Ralph Taylor Chair++

VIOLAS

Christian Colberg

Principal

Louise D. & Louis Nippert Chair

Christopher Fischer

Acting Associate Principal

Grace M. Allen Chair

Julian Wilkison**

Rebecca Barnes§

Emilio Carlo†

Stephen Fryxell

Melinda & Irwin Simon Chair

Caterina Longhi

Gabriel Napoli

Denisse Rodriguez-Rivera

Dan Wang

Joanne Wojtowicz

LOUIS LANGRÉE, Music Director

Louise Dieterle Nippert & Louis Nippert Chair

JOHN MORRIS RUSSELL, Cincinnati Pops Conductor

Louise Dieterle Nippert & Louis Nippert Chair

Matthias Pintscher, CSO Creative Partner

Damon Gupton, Pops Principal Guest Conductor

Samuel Lee, Assistant Conductor

Ashley and Barbara Ford Chair

Daniel Wiley, Assistant Conductor

Ashley and Barbara Ford Chair

CELLOS

Ilya Finkelshteyn

Principal

Irene & John J. Emery Chair

Daniel Culnan*

Ona Hixson Dater Chair

Norman Johns**

Karl & Roberta Schlachter

Family Chair

Daniel Kaler§

Marvin Kolodzik & Linda S. Gallaher

Chair for Cello

Isabel Kwon†

Hiro Matsuo

Laura Kimble McLellan Chair++

Theodore Nelson

Peter G. Courlas–

Nicholas Tsimaras Chair++

Alan Rafferty

Ruth F. Rosevear Chair

BASSES

Owen Lee

Principal

Mary Alice Heekin Burke Chair++

James Lambert*

Thomas Vanden Eynden Chair

Stephen Jones**

Trish & Rick Bryan Chair

Boris Astafiev§

Luis Arturo Celis Avila

Gerald Torres

Rick Vizachero

HARP

Gillian Benet Sella

Principal

Cynthia & Frank Stewart Chair

FLUTES

Randolph Bowman

Principal

Charles Frederic Goss Chair

Henrik Heide*†

Haley Bangs

Jane & David Ellis Chair

PICCOLO

Rebecca Tutunick

Patricia Gross Linnemann Chair

OBOES

Dwight Parry

Principal

Josephine I. & David J. Joseph, Jr. Chair

Lon Bussell*

Stephen P. McKean Chair

Emily Beare

ENGLISH HORN

Christopher Philpotts

Principal

Alberta & Dr. Maurice Marsh

Chair++

CLARINETS

Christopher Pell

Principal

Emma Margaret & Irving D.

Goldman Chair

Joseph Morris*

Associate Principal and E-flat Clarinet

Robert E. & Fay Boeh Chair++

Ixi Chen

Vicky & Rick Reynolds Chair in honor of William A. Friedlander

BASS CLARINET

Ronald Aufmann

BASSOONS

Christopher Sales

Principal

Emalee Schavel Chair++

Martin Garcia*

Hugh Michie

CONTRABASSOON

Jennifer Monroe

FRENCH HORNS

Elizabeth Freimuth

Principal

Mary M. & Charles F. Yeiser Chair [OPEN]*

Ellen A. & Richard C. Berghamer Chair

Molly Norcross**

Acting Associate Principal

Sweeney Family Chair in memory of Donald C. Sweeney

Lisa Conway

Susanne & Philip O. Geier, Jr. Chair

Duane Dugger

Mary & Joseph S. Stern, Jr. Chair

Charles Bell

TRUMPETS

Robert Sullivan

Principal Rawson Chair

Douglas Lindsay*

Jackie & Roy Sweeney Family Chair

Steven Pride

Otto M. Budig Family Foundation Chair++

Christopher Kiradjieff

TROMBONES

Cristian Ganicenco

Principal

Dorothy & John Hermanies Chair

Joseph Rodriguez**

Second/Assistant Principal Trombone

BASS TROMBONE [OPEN]

TUBA

Christopher Olka

Principal

Ashley & Barbara Ford Chair

TIMPANI

Patrick Schleker

Principal

Matthew & Peg Woodside Chair

Joseph Bricker*

Morleen & Jack Rouse Chair

PERCUSSION

David Fishlock

Principal

Susan S. & William A. Friedlander Chair

Michael Culligan*

Joseph Bricker *

Morleen & Jack Rouse Chair

Marc Wolfley+

KEYBOARDS

Michael Chertock

James P. Thornton Chair

Julie Spangler+

James P. Thornton Chair

CSO/CCM

FELLOWS

DIVERSITY

Tyler McKisson, viola

Luis Parra, cello

Samantha Powell, cello

LIBRARIANS

Christina Eaton

Principal Librarian

Lois Klein Jolson Chair

Elizabeth Dunning

Acting Associate Principal Librarian

Cara Benner Interim Assistant Librarian

STAGE MANAGERS

Brian P. Schott

Phillip T. Sheridan

Daniel Schultz

Andrew Sheridan

§ Begins the alphabetical listing of players who participate in a system of rotated seating within the string section.

* Associate Principal

** Assistant Principal

† One-year appointment

+ Cincinnati Pops rhythm section

++ CSO endowment only

~ Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

LOUIS LANGRÉE, Music Director

Louise Dieterle Nippert & Louis Nippert Chair

Louis Langrée has been Music Director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra since 2013, Music Director of the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center since 2003, and was appointed Director of Théâtre national de l’Opéra Comique in Paris in November 2021. Two of his Cincinnati recordings were Grammy nominated for Best Orchestral Performance: Transatlantic, with works by Varèse, Gershwin and Stravinsky; and Concertos for Orchestra, featuring world premieres by Sebastian Currier, Thierry Escaich and Zhou Tian. On stage, his Pelléas et Mélisande trilogy contrasted settings by Fauré, Debussy and Schoenberg. A multi-season Beethoven [R]evolution cycle has paired the symphonies with world premieres, as well as recreation of the legendary 1808 Akademie. During the Covid pandemic, Langrée was a catalyst for the Orchestra’s return to the stage in the fall of 2020 with a series of digitally streamed concerts.

Between the start of his tenure and the conclusion of the CSO’s 2022–23 season, Langrée and the CSO will have commissioned 42 new orchestral works and he will have conducted 32 premieres from a wide range of composers, including Julia Adolphe, Daníel Bjarnason, Jennifer Higdon, Jonathan Bailey Holland, Kinds of Kings, David Lang, Missy Mazzoli, Nico Muhly, André Previn, Caroline Shaw and Julia Wolfe, and the world premiere of Christopher Rouse’s Symphony No. 6, Rouse’s final opus.

He has guest conducted the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Budapest Festival Orchestra, NHK Symphony, Orchestre National de France and Leipzig Gewandhaus, as well as Orchestre des Champs-Elysées and Freiburg Baroque. He frequently conducts at the leading opera houses, including Vienna Staatsoper, Teatro alla Scala, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Lyric Opera of Chicago and Bavarian Staatsoper, and at festivals including Glyndebourne, Aix-enProvence, BBC Proms, Edinburgh International and Hong Kong Arts.

A native of Alsace, France, he is an Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur and Officier des Arts et des Lettres, and he is an Honorary Member of the Confrérie Saint-Étienne d’Alsace, an Alsatian winemakers’ brotherhood dating to the 14th century.

JOHN MORRIS RUSSELL Cincinnati Pops Conductor

Louise Dieterle Nippert & Louis Nippert Chair

A master of American musical style, Grammynominated conductor John Morris Russell, a.k.a. “JMR,” has devoted himself to redefining the American orchestral experience. In his 11th year as conductor of the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, Russell continues to reinvigorate the musical scene throughout Cincinnati and across the continent with the wide range and diversity of his work as a conductor, collaborator and educator. As Music Director of the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra in South Carolina Russell leads the prestigious Hilton Head International Piano Competition, and as Principal Pops Conductor of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra he follows in the footsteps of Marvin Hamlisch and Doc Severinsen. Guest conducting engagements have included many of the most distinguished orchestras in North America: the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Boston Pops, National Symphony, and the orchestras of Toronto, Vancouver, Dallas, Detroit and Pittsburgh.

With the Cincinnati Pops, Russell leads sold-out performances at Music Hall, concerts throughout the region, and domestic and international tours— including Florida in 2014 and China/Taiwan in 2017. His visionary leadership at the Pops created the “American Originals Project,” which has garnered both critical and popular acclaim in two landmark recordings: American Originals (the music of Stephen Foster) as well as American Originals: 1918. In 2020 the American Originals Project: The Cincinnati Sound, featuring Late Night with David Letterman musical director Paul Shaffer, celebrated the beginnings of bluegrass, country, rockabilly, soul and funk immortalized in recordings produced in the Queen City. Russell’s other recordings with The Pops include Home for the Holidays, Superheroes, Carnival of the Animals and Voyage Recent collaborations with artists around the world include Aretha Franklin, Emanuel Ax, Amy Grant and Vince Gill, Common, Garrick Ohlsson, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Jon Kimura Parker, Ann Hampton Callaway, Michael McDonald, Cho-Liang Lin, Sutton Foster, George Takei, Megan Hilty, Ranky Tanky, Steve Martin, Katharine McPhee, Brian Wilson, Cynthia Erivo and Leslie Odom, Jr.

©Chris Lee 2021

MATTHIAS PINTSCHER

CSO Creative Partner

The 2022–23 season is Matthias Pintscher’s final season as Music Director of the Ensemble intercontemporain

(EIC), the world’s leading contemporary music ensemble founded in 1980 by Pierre Boulez. In his decade-long artistic leadership of the EIC, Pintscher has continued and expanded the cultivation of new works by emerging composers of the 21st century, alongside performances of iconic works from the avant-garde of the 20th century. In the 2020–21 season, Pintscher was announced as Creative Partner of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (CSO).

As a conductor, Pintscher maintains relationships with several of the world’s most distinguished orchestras. In 2022–23, as guest conductor in Europe, he debuts with the Wiener Symphoniker and Gürzenich Orchester Cologne and returns to the Royal Concertgebouw, BRSO, BBC Scottish Symphony, Barcelona Symphony and the Boulez Ensemble. In North America, he debuts with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Kansas City Symphony, in addition to regular visits to the CSO as Creative Partner and return engagements with the Detroit Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic and New World Symphony. Pintscher has also conducted several opera productions for Berliner Staatsoper (Beat Furrer’s Violetter Schnee, Wagner’s Lohengrin), Wiener Staatsoper (Olga Neuwirth’s Orlando), and Théatre du Châtelet in Paris. He returns to Berliner Staatsoper in 2023 for Die Fliegende

Holländer

Known equally as one of today’s foremost composers, recent highlights include the premiere of his Cello Concerto Un Despertar by Alisa Weilerstein and the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the premiere of his new work for baritone, chorus and orchestra, performed by Georg Nigl and the Chorus and Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks at their Musica Viva festival. In 2022, Pintscher’s third violin concerto, Assonanza II, was premiered by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra with Leila Josefowicz. 2021–22 also saw the world premiere of Neharot, a co-commission of Suntory Hall, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Staatskapelle Dresden, where he was named Capell-Compositeur. Pintscher is also professor at The Julliard School since 2014 and is published by Bärenreiter-Verlag. matthiaspintscher.com

DAMON GUPTON Pops Principal Guest Conductor

Damon Gupton is the first-ever Principal Guest Conductor of the Cincinnati Pops. A native of Detroit, he served as American Conducting Fellow of the Houston Symphony and held the post of assistant conductor of the Kansas City Symphony. His conducting appearances include the

Boston Pops, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Detroit Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, Toledo Symphony, Fort Worth Symphony, Florida Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Long Beach Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Princeton Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, NHK Orchestra of Tokyo, Orquesta Filarmonica de UNAM, Charlottesville Symphony, Brass Band of Battle Creek, New York University Steinhardt Orchestra, Kinhaven Music School Orchestra, Vermont Music Festival Orchestra, Michigan Youth Arts Festival Honors Orchestra, Brevard Sinfonia, and Sphinx Symphony as part of the 12th annual Sphinx Competition. He led the Sphinx Chamber Orchestra on two national tours with performances at Carnegie Hall and conducted the finals of the Seventh Cliburn International Amateur Piano Competition and the 2021 Classic FM Live at Royal Albert Hall with Chineke!.

Gupton received his Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of Michigan, where he delivered the commencement address to the School of Music, Theatre and Dance in 2015. He studied conducting with David Zinman and Murry Sidlin at the Aspen Music Festival and with Leonard Slatkin at the National Conducting Institute in Washington, D.C. Awards include the Robert J. Harth Conducting Prize and The Aspen Conducting Prize. He is the inaugural recipient of the Emerging Artist Award from the University of Michigan School of Music and Alumni Society and a winner of the Third International Eduardo Mata Conducting Competition.

An accomplished actor and graduate of the Drama Division of the Juilliard School, Gupton has had roles in television, film and on stage, most recently in series regular roles on the upcoming The Big Door Prize for Apple TV, as well as The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey starring Samuel L. Jackson. damongupton.com

©Franck Ferville ©Damu Malik

SAMUEL LEE Assistant Conductor

Samuel Lee, first prize winner of the BMI International Conducting Competition in Bucharest and the International Conducting Competition in Taipei, has recently been appointed Assistant Conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, beginning in the 2022–23 season.

In addition to several recent guest conducting engagements throughout Europe and Asia, Lee was also a Conducting Fellow with the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in 2021 and 2022, where he worked with conductors Cristian Măcelaru, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Octavio MásArocas and Marin Alsop.

Since 2016 Samuel Lee has been the chief conductor of the C.P.E. Bach Musikgymnasium orchestra Berlin. He and the orchestra have been regularly invited to the Berlin Philharmonie and Konzerthaus Berlin for subscription concerts. He also served as a viola professor at Hochschule für Musik und Theater “Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy” in Leipzig, Germany until 2022.

As a violist, Lee was invited to perform with orchestras throughout Europe and Asia. From 2009 until 2017, he was the violist of Novus String Quartet, and he was the second prize winner of the 61st International Music Competition of ARD Munich and first prize winner of the Salzburg International Mozart Competition.

Lee is an alumnus of Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” Berlin, where he studied viola with Prof. Tabea Zimmermann (BM, MM, Konzertexamen), and orchestral conducting with Prof. Christian Ehwald (BM, MM). Lee completed Konzertexamen in orchestral conducting from Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg (Prof. Ulrich Windfuhr).

DANIEL WILEY Assistant Conductor

Daniel Wiley has quickly become a notable young conductor on the rise, having made guest appearances with ensembles throughout North America, as well as the University of North Florida’s Opera Department. Beginning with the 2022–23 season, Wiley joined the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra as an Assistant Conductor.

Prior to his tenure in Cincinnati, he held numerous conducting posts, including Assistant Conductor of the Jacksonville Symphony, Music Director of the Jacksonville Symphony Youth Orchestras, Associate Conductor of the Windsor Symphony Orchestra, Music Director of the Windsor Symphony Youth Orchestras, Music Director of the Windsor Symphony Community Orchestra, Wind Ensemble Conductor at the School of Creative Arts at the University of Windsor, Education Conductor/Consultant for London Symphonia, Conductor for the Windsor Abridged Opera Company, Music Director of Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science Youth Orchestra, and Assistant Conductor for the Meridian Symphony Orchestra.

In 2019, Wiley was the second prize recipient of both the Smoky Mountain International Conducting Institute and Competition and the Los Angeles International Conducting Competition. He also has spent time conducting new music ensembles, including for the Musicbed Music and Film Corporation based in Fort Worth, Texas, as well as participating in the Composing in the Wilderness program as part of the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival in Alaska.

As a former public school music teacher, Wiley has a unique passion for music education, and he frequently donates his time as a guest clinician to support students and teachers in music programs across North America.

For full-length biographies of the CSO and Pops Artistic Leadership, visit cincinnatisymphony.org/about/artistic-leadership

CSO APR 14: Classical Roots

DONALD LAWRENCE, featured guest artist

“The man who wears many musical colors.”

Those seven words eloquently capture the multifaceted essence of Donald Lawrence. Songwriter. Producer. Composer. Music/choir director. Recording artist. The guiding force behind such No. 1 hits as “Encourage Yourself,” “Back II Eden” and “The Blessing of Abraham.” Lawrence has also been the producing force behind No. 1 songs like “Blessed and Highly Favored” by the Clark Sisters, and “Lift Him Up,” “Souled Out” and “Every Praise” by Bishop Hezekiah Walker.

Donald Lawrence is one of the most influential figures in modern gospel music. He has had an impressive career in the gospel industry that has spanned more than 25 years, during which he resurrected and led the Tri-City singers, who were noted as one of the best choirs in the world, and has found individual success as a solo artist with multiple No. 1 Billboard hits and albums. He has also worked on numerous films and television programs, providing his musical services.

On top of more than 30 Stellar Award wins and four Dove Award wins, Lawrence has been nominated for 18 Grammy Awards over the course of his career, including a Grammy win in 2008. Lawrence has also served as the face of Verizon’s How Sweet the Sound national tour, the musical director and headlining act for the McDonald’s Inspirational Gospel Tour, and also the music supervisor for BeBe Winans’ hit theatrical production Born for This.

In 2019, Lawrence and the Tri-City Singers released their 25-year anniversary project titled Goshen. It earned a Grammy nomination for “Best Gospel Album,” and the album’s hit single, “Deliver Me. This is My Exodus,” went to No. 1 on the Billboard charts and was named Billboard’s “most played Gospel song of 2019.” Furthermore, Goshen won five Stellar Awards, including the Song of the Year award for “Deliver Me. This is My Exodus.”

Lawrence looks forward to expanding on the success of the Goshen album and continuing to produce original, unique music and creative content in the future.

CLASSICAL ROOTS COMMUNITY CHOIR

Jason Alexander Holmes, interim resident conductor

Jason Alexander Holmes is a music educator and performer from Ridgeway, Virginia, and currently serves as the Artistic Director of the Cincinnati Boychoir, the director of Cincinnati’s MLK Chorale, and the Associate Musician for Children and Youth at Christ Church Cathedral in Cincinnati. Before coming to Cincinnati, he was Director of Educational Programming at the Boston Children’s Chorus. Prior to his time in Boston, Jason taught music at the elementary and secondary levels. He also led the University of Rochester Gospel Choir and the Eastman Young Children’s Chorus. Jason holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music and Ithaca College, where his mentors and teachers included Drs. Susan Wharton Conkling, William Weinert and Susan Avery.

Choirs under Jason’s direction are consistently praised for their energetic, unified tone and engaging performances. He is known for innovative programming that celebrates the cultural context while encouraging singers and audiences alike to stretch their awareness by living in many different musical worlds. Pedagogically, Jason is committed to implementing culturally responsive practices in music education. He has given workshops and conference sessions on this topic at professional development seminars, schools and conferences.

At the core of Jason’s teaching and performing is the belief that we are all expressive and musical beings who deserve to witness and participate regularly in moments of truth and beauty.

Classical Roots Community Choir. For two decades, Classical Roots has been a Cincinnati community staple, and what started as a small concert series in 2001 has grown into a diverse community of music lovers, united in celebration of the rich legacy of African American music and the African American experience. At its center is the all-volunteer Classical Roots Community Choir, led by Interim Resident Conductor Jason Alexander Holmes and made up of singers from more than 50 churches who perform in concerts and other collaborations throughout the year.

Community Choir Leaders this season are Jason Alexander Holmes, Interim Resident

Conductor; Geneva Woode, Quinn Chapel AME Church; Marcellene Winfrey, Allen Temple AME

CLASSICAL ROOTS COMMUNITY CHOIR

George Akins

Theresa Alexander

Anita Anderson

Archie Armstrong

Clemmie Armstrong

Karen Arnold

Patty Bachman

Benjamin Barkdoll

Kylie Barkdoll

David Barner

Wesley Barnfield

Peggy Bell-Lohr

Steve Bester

Pam Bettner

Cornelia Binford

Donita Binford

Tonya Bishop-Gable

Alice Bledsoe

Odessa Bledsoe

Yvonne Brantley

David Brentley

Virginia Brewster

Carol A. Brown

Deanna Brown

Ricky Brown

Coeany Bryant

David Burns

Ann Byrd

Shirley Byrd

Janet Carter

Lenora Castleberry

Robert Chess

Brenda Clark

Francis Collins

Betty Connors

Barbara Cooper

Joyce Cooper

Carol Dantley

Chuck Darling

Mary Darner

Diane Davis

Robyn Davis

S. Glenn Davis

Diane DeGaetani

Carol DeGreg

Racquel Dudget

June Eddings

Keith Edmondson

Praise Ekeng

Jameria Evans

P. Ann Everson-Price

Hope Finney

Cassandra Fowler

Mary Franklin

Bernadine FranklinStokes

Joanne Freeman

Marqueta Freeman

Joy Gazaway

Jermaine Gentry

Linda Gentry

Janette Gibson

Vee Gibson

Hannah Gittens

Barbara Gomes

Kerry Gordon

Amber Greer

Andrea Hall

Ciara Harper

Jeannette Harrison

Natalie Hayes

Princess Hearn

Deborah Hill

Jennifer Hill

Beth Hofferber

Steve Hofferber

Ron Hoffman

Ava Jackson

Beverly Jackson

Dawann Jackson

Samantha Jackson

Trudy Jackson

Yvette Jackson

Jeanine Jason

Quinton Jefferson

Carol Johnson

Cassandra Johnson

Iva Johnson

Jacqueline A. Johnson

Jerome Johnson

Church; David Fowler, Church of the Resurrection

Catholic Church; Adrian Cunningham, New Jerusalem Baptist Church; and Ron Logan, Lincoln Heights Missionary Baptist Church.

Joyce Johnson

Nadine Johnson

Dante Keeling

Lawanda Kenny

Thomas Knipper

Dan Larkin, Jr.

Kai Lattimore

Hattie Lawson

Lillian Lee

Kathye Lewis-Norman

Robert Lomax

Nicole Mack

Trina Madry

Hycinthe Marshall

Tiffany Martin

Tonya Mason

Christina Mayrhofer

Tahnya McCloud

Mark McDougald

D McGruder

Barbara McMullen

Brenda McMullen

Kimberly McMullen

Jamaal McMullen

Christina Miller

Karen Mills

Sharon Monroe

Marjorie Moseley

Dawn Mundy

Jacqueline Nixon

Carolyn O’Bryant

Margaret O’Leary

Tim Oliver

Shari Palmer

Gloria Parker-Martin

LaShaun Patton

Lyda Phillips

Tiffany Poole

Kourtney Porter

Bridalveil Powell

Katrina Powell

Kimberly Price

Nancy Provine-Turner

Angela Randolph

Brian Reilly

Betty Richardson

Bonnie Richardson

Deborah Riley

Joy Rolland

Stacey J. Roper

Alicia Royal

Anna Russell

Laverne Rutledge

Sherry Scott

Vera Scott-Johnson

Mia Sears

Bethany Shropshire

Calvin Singleton

Camille Smith

Eric Smith

Nakia Smith

Janene Sonnega

Mildred Stallworth

Brett Stover

Lesa Stricken

Muriel Suttles

Nikita Taggart

Sonya Tang Girdwood

William Taylor

Marchelle Tubbs

Ramon Tubbs

Miriam Valley

Darwin Walker-Denson

Carroll Wallace

Noel Walton

Yvonne Watkins

Yvonne Watson

Kimberly Watts

Charmaine Webster

Jan Weiler

Donna Welch

Tracy West

Ebony Williams

Gary Williams

Tina Williams

Sherri Willis

Lisa Wilson

Carla Winfrey

as of March 6, 2023

Classical Roots Community Choir singers represent the following area churches and choirs:

Abundant Life Apostolic Church

Allen Temple AME Church

Bethel AME Church

Bible Way Church of God and Christ

Brown Chapel AME Church

Calvary Missionary Baptist Church

Christ Emmanuel Christian Fellowship

Church of the Resurrection

Cincinnati United Choir

City Gate Church

Clifton United Methodist Church

College Hill Presbyterian Church

Compass Community Church

Crossroads Church

Dominion Center Cincinnati

Episcopal Church of the Redeemer

Fleming Rd. United Church of Christ

Greater Cincinnati Choral Union

Greater Liberty Baptist Church

Heirs Covenant Church

Higher Ground Ministries

House of Joy Christian Ministries

Lee Chapel Church

Light of the World Church

Lincoln Heights Missionary Baptist Church

Loretta C. Mangrum Chorale

Memorial Baptist Church

Mother of Christ Catholic Church

Mt Zion Missionary Baptist Church—Glendale

Mt. Hebron Fellowship

MUSE

New Evergreen Ministries

New Jerusalem Baptist Church

New Life Missionary Baptist Church

New Nazarene Baptist Church

New Prospect Baptist Church

New Thought Unity Center

New Vision United Methodist Church

Omega Baptist Church

Quinn Chapel AME Church

Revelation Baptist Church

Rocklife Church

Rose Chapel

Southern Baptist Church

St. James Episcopal Church

St. Johns Unitarian Universalist Church

St. Joseph Catholic Church

Tabernacle of Love Ministries

Union Baptist Church

Willing Spirit Baptist Church

Word Alive Christian Fellowship

World Outreach Christian Church

Zion Bethel Christian Fellowship

Zion Baptist Church

GEORGE SHIRLEY, vocalist

One of America’s most versatile tenors and enlightened musicians, George Shirley remains in demand nationally and internationally as performer, teacher and lecturer.

He has won

international acclaim for his performances with The Metropolitan Opera, and with major opera houses and festivals in England, Germany, Austria, Argentina, the Netherlands, Monte Carlo, Scotland, Italy, Japan, Chicago, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Santa Fe and Detroit, among others.

Mr. Shirley has recorded for the RCA, Columbia, DECCA, Angel, Vanguard, C.R.I, Capriccio, Philips and Albany labels; he received a Grammy Award in 1968 for his role (Ferrando) in the prize-winning RCA recording of Mozart’s Così fan tutte. He has performed more than 80 operatic roles over the span of his 64-year career, as well as oratorio and concert literature with some of the world’s most renowned orchestras (e.g., London Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, London Symphony, and the major orchestras of New York City, Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Detroit, Chicago, San Francisco, Cleveland, Los Angeles and Boston) and conductors (Solti, Stravinsky, Leinsdorf, Ormandy, Klemperer, Bernstein, Maazel, Colin Davis, von Karajan, Schippers, Steinberg, Ozawa, et al.). As recitalist, he has collaborated with William Bolcom, Charles Wadsworth, Philip Eisenberg, Martin Isepp, Jonathan Brice, John Wustman, Kelly Wyatt, George Posell and Martin Katz, to name but a few.

He was the first Black tenor and the second African American male to sing leading roles with The Metropolitan Opera, where he remained for 11 years as a leading artist. He was the first Black high school vocal music teacher in the Detroit Public Schools and the first Black member of the United States Army Chorus in Washington, D.C. The Opera News January 2004 issue featured a retrospective of Mr. Shirley’s career, “Reunion: George Shirley” by Eric Myers. A new article, “Talking with a Legend,” written by Kenneth Overton and published in the Opera News February 24, 2022 issue, again focused on the tenor’s 63-year presence on the lyric stage.

George Shirley is The Joseph Edgar Maddy Distinguished University Emeritus Professor of Music at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance. In 2015, he received the National Medal of Arts from President Barack

Obama and, in 2022, Opera America inducted him into its new Hall of Fame.

THE NOUVEAU PROGRAM

Marion

Peraza,

Artistic Advisor and Coach

The Nouveau Program supports increased participation in classical music by African American and Latine student musicians by providing equitable opportunities for music study and performance. The Nouveau Program includes several groups, and students must audition to participate. Nouveau members receive weekly chamber coaching, perform throughout the season, and participate in ageappropriate workshops and activities. Nouveau ensembles include Novice, Apprentice, Chamber Players and Winds. The Nouveau Program is supported by the D’Addario Foundation; the CSO’s Multicultural Awareness Council; Queen City (OH) Chapter of The Links, Incorporated; PricewaterhouseCoopers; and The Wohlgemuth Herschede Foundation

Violinist and Nouveau Program coach Marion

Peraza began her musical career as a member of Venezuela’s Youth Orchestra System, El Sistema. As a member of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, she toured Japan, France, Spain, Mexico, Colombia and Brazil, among others, and performed on seven recordings. She owns the Peraza Music Workshop (PMW), where she teaches private violin lessons, coaches award-winning chamber ensembles and offers theory classes. The PMW is a Founding School of the Carnegie Hall Royal Conservatory Achievement Program. As a guest teacher/clinician, she has taught at the Western Springs Suzuki Talent Education and Elmhurst College in Chicago, the University of Vermont, University of Louisville, University of Southern Maine, Bermuda Music School, Conservatorio de Bogotá and Simón Bolívar Conservatory in Venezuela. Peraza is also the director and founder of the Encore Advanced Chamber Orchestra, a summer program at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Her principal teachers are José Francisco Del Castillo (Simón Bolívar Conservatory), Margaret Pardee (Juilliard School), the Tokyo Quartet and the Vermeer Quartet. Peraza will join the string faculty at Miami University in 2023 teaching violin and viola.

MEMBERS OF THE NOUVEAU PROGRAM

Voice

Ella Vaughn

Violin I

Alyssa Lehmann

Nicole Heinz-Urgilez

Sarah Perpignan

Violin II

Julia Lancman

Cecilia Lehmann

Carmen DeAtley-Rosales

Grace Oyediran

Violin III

Evaluna Bast

David Lancman

Maya Pero

Nyla Smith

Joshua Taylor

Ella Rose Vonderschmidt

Viola

Gabriel Caal

Christina Lehmann

Lela Walker

Madison Meredith

Cello

Ari Peraza-Webb

Nathan Lehmann

Shaylin King

Dominic Lehmann

Caleb Griffin

Baylen Sofranec-Smith

Bass

Kindall Benjamin

Matteo Meli

CSO APR 15–16: Pictures at an Exhibition

RAMÓN TEBAR, conductor

Spanish Conductor

Ramón Tebar is currently Principal Conductor in Association with the Orquesta de Valencia, as well as Artistic Director of Opera Naples. He was previously Artistic Director of the Florida Grand Opera and Principal Guest Conductor of Valencia’s Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia.

Alongside his work in Valencia, the 2022–23 season will see Ramón Tebar make his debuts with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Calgary Philharmonic, Copenhagen Philharmonic, Norrlandsoperans symfoniorkester and the Würth Philharmoniker, as well as at Frankfurt Opera with a new production of Saverio Mercadante’s Francesca da Rimini. This season, he will also return to the Teatro Colón to conduct Bizet’s Les pêcheurs de perles, and to the Szczecin Philharmonic and the Basque National Orchestra in Bilbao for concerts.

In addition to his operatic career and his role as Music Director of the Orquestra de València, Tebar is sought after as a guest conductor with orchestras around the world. He has conducted the Spanish National Orchestra several times, and he further guested with many of Spain’s other orchestras. Beyond Spain, Tebar has guest conducted such orchestras as the Philharmonia in London, Prague Philharmonia, Het Gelders Orkest, Malaysian Philharmonic, Armenian Philharmonic, Orchestre de l’Opéra de Rouen Normandie, Szczecin Philharmonic, St. Petersburg Symphony, San Antonio Symphony and the Orquestra

Sinfónica Nacional de Perú. Tebar was also previously Artistic Director of the Santo Domingo Music Festival in Puerto Rico.

Tebar’s work can also be heard on recordings with Joseph Calleja and the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana on the DECCA label, and with Gregory Kunde and the Orquesta Sinfonica de Navarra on Universal. ramon-tebar.com

STEVEN BANKS, saxophone

As a performer and composer, saxophonist Steven Banks is striving to bring his instrument to the heart of the classical music world. He is driven to program and write music that directly addresses aspects of the human experience and is an active and intentional supporter of diverse voices in the future of concert music.

Banks is establishing himself as a compelling and charismatic soloist, and, in 2022, he was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant and was a chosen artist for WQXR’s Artist Propulsion Lab. He was the first saxophonist to be awarded First Prize at the Young Concert Artists Susan Wadsworth International Auditions.

Banks has appeared with several U.S. orchestras and renowned conductors, and in recital he has appeared across the U.S. at the San Francisco Symphony’s Spotlight Series at Davies Hall, Merkin Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Kravis Center and Festival Napa Valley with his collaborative partner, pianist Xak Bjerken. A keen chamber musician, Banks will be the first artistin-residence of the Skaneateles Festival in the 2023–24 season. He is a founding member of the Kenari Quartet, an all-saxophone ensemble with which he won First Prize at the inaugural M-Prize Chamber Arts Competition and two silver medals from the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. Their album, French Saxophone Quartets, was released in 2016 (Naxos).

In 2023 and 2024 Banks will premiere and tour with a commissioned concerto from Grammywinning composer Billy Childs, including April 15–16 performances with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, one of the commissioning orchestras.

As a composer, Banks has been commissioned by such organizations as Young Concert Artists, WQXR’s Artist Propulsion Lab, Latitude 49, Yale University’s Project 14 Initiative and Northwestern

©Chris Lee

University’s Saxophone Ensemble. His Cries, Sighs and Dreams was premiered in May 2022 at Carnegie Hall; his Fantasy on Recurring Daydreams will be premiered by Zhu Wang in April 2023 (Murphy Music Press).

Banks is a visiting faculty member at the Cleveland Institute of Music and holds the Jackie McLean Fellowship at the University of Hartford. He was previously Assistant Professor of Saxophone at Ithaca College and the Baldwin Wallace Conservatory. He is an endorsing artist for Conn-Selmer instruments, D’Addario Woodwinds, lefreQue Sound Solutions and Key Leaves. steven-banks.com

CSO APR 21–22: Mahler Symphony No. 7

MATTHIAS PINTSCHER, conductor

Turn to p. 30 for a biography of conductor and CSO Creative Partner Matthias Pintscher.

CSYO/CSO SIDE-BY-SIDE, APR 23

MATTHIAS PINTSCHER, conductor

SAMUEL LEE, conductor

DANIEL WILEY, conductor

Turn to p. 30–31 for biographies of CSO Creative Partner Matthias Pintscher and CSO Assistant Conductors Samuel Lee and Daniel Wiley.

ARI PERAZA-WEBB, cello

CSYO Philharmonic Concerto Competition Winner

Ari Peraza-Webb, age 17, is a Venezuelan American cellist from Cincinnati. He made his solo debut at Carnegie Hall after winning the AFA International String Competition at age 6 and the American Protégé International String Competition at age 8. He also performed at the Stern Auditorium in Carnegie Hall in 2017 as part of the Peraza Music Workshop Ensemble.

A 2022 YoungArts Winner, Ari is the first chair of the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra (CSYO) and of the Wyoming High School Philharmonia Orchestra. He is also part of the CSO Nouveau Chamber Players and the Peraza Music Workshop Ensemble.

Ari made his orchestra solo debut at age 12 with the Blue Ash-Montgomery Symphony Orchestra, under maestro Michael Chertock, and

his international solo debut in April 2019 at the Amphithéatre Philharmonie in Paris after winning first place at the International Music Competition “Grand Prize Virtuoso.”

He is also the 2019 State of Ohio winner of the Music Teachers National Association–Yamaha Orchestral Strings Junior Competition and the National Mary Alice Cox Award, Senior Division. Ari also was the winner of the 2018 Ohio Federation of Music Clubs Marilyn Walter State Competition. In 2021, Ari won the State of Ohio Buckeye Auditions and was selected to perform on NPR’s From the Top. Most recently, Ari performed the Dvořák Concerto with the New Albany Symphony Orchestra, won the 2022 Overture Awards Competition, and won the 2022 Matinée Musicale Scholarship. In October of 2022, Ari attended the Kronberg Academy Cello Masterclasses as an Active Participant, performing for Gary Hoffman.

Ari has studied with renowned teachers such as Laurence Lesser (New England Conservatory), Hans Jørgen Jensen (Northwestern University), Steven Doane (Eastman School of Music), Joel Krosnick (Juilliard), Richard Aaron (Juilliard) and Clara Kim (Juilliard), among others.

Ari Peraza-Webb began playing the cello at age 3 with Helen Ford at Indiana University. He studies with Alan Rafferty and Sarah Kim. Ari loves to play chamber music and the piano, as well as video games with his brother, Eli, and his friends.

CSYO PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

Turn to p. 87 for a roster of the CSYO Philharmonic Orchestra.

POPS APR 25: Ben Folds

BEN FOLDS, guest artist

Born and raised in North Carolina, Ben Folds first rose to fame in the mid-1990s with Ben Folds Five, whose acerbic, genre-bending take on piano pop helped define an entire era of alternative rock. After scoring multiple hit singles and a gold record with the band, Folds launched his solo career in 2001, releasing a series of similarly acclaimed albums that would firmly establish him as one of the most ambitious and versatile songwriters of his generation. In 2010, Folds

teamed up with celebrated author Nick Hornby on a collaborative record titled Lonely Avenue; in 2014, he composed his first piano concerto; in 2015, he recorded an album with the classical ensemble yMusic; in 2017, he became the artistic advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, where he began curating a series of performances marrying contemporary artists with symphonic orchestration; in 2019, he released his New York Times best-selling memoir, A Dream About Lightning Bugs; and in 2021, he launched the Lightning Bugs podcast, an interview series on creativity and process with guests as diverse as Jon Batiste, Sara Bareilles, Bob Saget and Rainn Wilson. As if that wasn’t enough to keep him busy, Folds also revealed himself to be a prolific photographer with gallery shows in the U.S. and Europe, appeared onscreen in films and television (most recently playing himself in three episodes of the hit Amazon Prime series The Wilds), composed music for a 25-minute stage adaptation of Mo Willem’s Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs (which premiered at the Kennedy Center), and serves on the boards of the Arts Action Fund, the Nashville Symphony and Planet Word, a new immersive museum in Washington, D.C., dedicated to celebrating the power of language.

His latest album is What Matters Most. “More than anything, I wanted to make an album that was generous, that was useful,” says Folds. “I want you to finish this record with something you didn’t have when you started.” benfolds.com

LUCAS WALDIN, conductor

Lucas Waldin is a dynamic and versatile conductor and orchestrator whose performances have delighted audiences across North America. He has collaborated with some of today’s most exciting artists, including Carly Rae Jepsen, The Barenaked Ladies, Crash Test Dummies, Ben Folds, Buffy Sainte-Marie and The Canadian Brass, in addition to conducting presentations such as Disney in Concert, The Princess Bride, Blue Planet Live, Cirque de la Symphonie, and the groundbreaking symphonic debut of R&B duo Dvsn as part of the global Red Bull Music Festival.

Waldin has been a guest conductor for numerous major orchestras in the U.S. and

Canada, such as the Cleveland Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Dallas Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Grant Park Festival Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic and Toronto Symphony.

A native of Toronto, Canada, Waldin holds degrees in flute and conducting from the Cleveland Institute of Music. lucaswaldin.ca

POPS APR 28–30: Ragtime in Concert

Biographies for the Ragtime in Concert cast will appear in an insert available at the Apr. 28–30 concerts.

CSO MAY 5–7: Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony

VÍKINGUR ÓLAFSSON, piano

Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson has made a profound impact with his remarkable combination of highest level musicianship and visionary programs. His recordings for Deutsche Grammophon— Philip Glass Piano Works (2017), Johann Sebastian Bach (2018), Debussy Rameau (2020) and Mozart & Contemporaries (2021)—captured the public and critical imagination and have led to career streams of over 400 million. His latest album, From Afar, was released in October 2022.

Now one of the most sought-after artists of today, Ólafsson has earned multiple awards, including the Rolf Schock Prize for music (2022), Gramophone magazine Artist of the Year, Opus Klassik Solo Recording Instrumental (twice) and Album of the Year at the BBC Music Magazine Awards.

Ólafsson continues to perform as artist-inresidence at the world’s top orchestras, concert halls and festivals and to work with today’s greatest composers. In the 2022–23 season he performs with orchestras including Philharmonia Orchestra, Concertgebouworkest, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Berliner Philharmoniker, The Cleveland Orchestra, the London and Bergen philharmonic orchestras, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and Orchestre symphonique de Montréal.

©Ari Magg

A captivating communicator both on and off stage, Ólafsson also extends his significant talent to broadcast, having presented several of his own series for television and radio. He was Artist-inResidence for three months on BBC Radio 4’s flagship arts program, Front Row—broadcasting live during lockdown from an empty Harpa concert hall in Reykjavík, he reached millions of listeners around the world. vikingurolafsson.com

CSO MAY 12–13: An American in Paris

COURTNEY BRYAN, piano and composer

A native of New Orleans, Courtney Bryan’s music is in conversation with various musical genres, including jazz and other types of experimental music, as well as traditional gospel, spirituals and hymns. Focusing on bridging the sacred and the secular, Bryan’s compositions explore human emotions through sound,

confronting the challenge of notating the feeling of improvisation. Bryan has academic degrees from Oberlin Conservatory (BM), Rutgers University (MM) and Columbia University (DMA) with advisor George Lewis, and completed postdoctoral studies in the Department of African American Studies at Princeton University. Bryan is the Albert and Linda Mintz Professor of Music at Newcomb College in the School of Liberal Arts at Tulane University and a Creative Partner with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra. She was the 2018 music recipient of the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts, a 2018 Hermitage Fellow, a 2019 Bard College Freehand Fellow, a 2019–20 recipient of the Samuel Barber Rome Prize in Music Composition, a 2020 United States Artists Fellow, and a 2020–21 Civitella Ranieri Fellow.

To learn more about Courtney Bryan’s compositions, turn to p. 77 for the program note for her CSO co-commissioned work, House of Pianos

Bryan has given music workshops at various universities, including Princeton University, Columbia University, Harvard University, Berklee College of Music, The California Institute of the Arts, The University of South Carolina, Brown University, University of California—San

To learn more, scan:

Diego, DePaul University and Xavier University of Louisiana, and she has participated in and helped design programs that guide young people to improvise, compose and work with music technology, including programs through Columbia University, the Jacksonville Symphony, Carnegie Hall, and other artistic collaborations. courtneybryan.com

CSYO MAY 14: Spring Concerts DANIEL WILEY, conductor

Turn to p. 31 for a biography of Assistant Conductor Daniel Wiley.

FELIPE MORALES-TORRES

CSYO Concert Orchestra Conductor

Felipe Morales-Torres is an award-winning conductor and educator with a passion for inspiring the next generation of musicians. In addition to his role as Conductor of the CSYO Concert Orchestra, as well as coach for the CSYO’s Nouveau Apprentice Group, Morales is the Orchestra Director for Anderson High School and previously served as Director of Orchestras for Winton Woods City Schools. He is also an active guest conductor and clinician for student orchestras in the U.S. and Latin America, traveling to Costa Rica each summer to teach and conduct for the Foundation for the Advancement of Strings Education (FASE). He was a recent guest of the National Symphony Orchestra of Chile, where he conducted and studied alongside its director, Leonid Grin.

As a Latin-American teaching artist, Morales is driven to engage diverse student musicians and to make quality opportunities accessible to them. He has played a part in several community music programs, including the Louisville Youth Orchestra and the Dayton Philharmonic’s Q The Music, an El Sistema-inspired outreach program. Morales started his musical life as a violist, and later pursued bassoon studies as an undergraduate at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. In 2019, he completed a master’s degree in Music Education and Orchestral Conducting, earning the University’s Excellence in Teaching Award for his work with undergraduate music education majors.

VIVIAN CHANG, violin

Vivian Chang, age 16, is a sophomore at Mason High School. She has been studying violin with Hong Cheng since age 4. Vivian has served in leadership roles in the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestras, in her school orchestra and in OMEA’s regional and all-state orchestras. Her wins in young artist competitions and concerto competitions have earned performance opportunities as a featured soloist in public concerts with the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, the Louisville Orchestra, the Blue Ash and Montgomery Symphony Orchestra, and the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra. She is also a two-time State winner of the OMTA Buckeye Auditions, winner of the Maestro of Tomorrow Competition by Cincinnati Public Radio, and winner of the Young Talent Search by the Dayton Public Radio Discover Classical, appearing on radio, web sites and newspapers with her music and interviews.

Vivian loves the stage. She has had a great time performing as a soloist or orchestra member at Carnegie Hall, Chicago Symphony Center, Sydney Opera House, the Sydney Harbour, Cincinnati Music Hall, Chicago’s Field Museum and conservatory recital halls. She also enjoys playing on the streets as an invited soloist for beloved cultural or social events in the Tri-State area.

Vivian is extremely passionate about sharing music with the community and is a Gold Medalist of the President’s Volunteer Service Award.

CSYO PHILHARMONIC ORCESTRA AND CSYO CONCERT ORCHESTRA

Turn to p. 87 for rosters of both the CSYO Philharmonic Orchestra and CSYO Concert Orchestra.

Fifth Third Foundation proudly supports

Classical Roots 2023

Featuring the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, members of the Classical Roots Community Choir, and special guest Donald Lawrence.

CLASSICAL ROOTS | 2022–23 SEASON

JOHN MORRIS RUSSELL, conductor

JASON ALEXANDER HOLMES, conductor

DONALD LAWRENCE, featured guest artist

GEORGE SHIRLEY, tenor

MEMBERS OF THE NOUVEAU PROGRAM, Marion Peraza de Webb, artistic advisor and coach

CLASSICAL ROOTS COMMUNITY CHOIR, Jason Alexander Holmes, interim resident conductor

FRI APR 14, 7:30 pm

“Dance” from Othello Suite Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing (Text on p. 43) James Weldon Johnson

“Every Time I Feel the Spirit” from Three Spirituals for Orchestra Adolphus Hailstork

We Shall Walk Through the Valley in Peace

Deep River

Undine Smith Moore

Traditional, arr. Sonia Morales-Matos

Oh, Freedom Traditional, arr. Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson

“Hallelujah!” from The Cry of Jeremiah Rosephanye Powell

INTERMISSION

Selections by Donald Lawrence (subject to change):

The Blessing of Abraham

The Best is Yet to Come

Encourage Yourself

Healed

Matthew 28

When the Saints Go to Worship

Jehovah Sabaoth (God of Angel Armies)

Program subject to change

The CSO is grateful to Community Sponsors Fifth Third Foundation and Jeffrey & Jody Lazarow andJanie & Peter Schwartz Family Fund of The Greater Cincinnati Foundation, Presenting Sponsor Taft Law and Show Sponsor JRH Consultants

The Classical Roots concert was made possible in part by support from the National Endowment for the Arts

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra is grateful for the support of the Louise Dieterle Nippert Musical Arts Fund of the Greenacres Foundation and the Nina Browne Parker Trust, and for the thousands of people who give generously to the ArtsWave Community Campaign. This project was supported in part by the Ohio Arts Council, which receives support from the State of Ohio and the National Endowment for the Arts

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in-orchestra Steinway piano is made possible in part by the Jacob G. Schmidlapp Trust

Steinway Pianos, courtesy of Willis Music, is the official piano of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops.

Jeffrey & Jody Lazarow and Janie & Peter Schwartz Family Fund of The Greater Cincinnati Foundation JRH Consultants

LIFT EV’RY VOICE AND SING

Lift ev’ry voice and sing, ‘Til earth and heaven ring, Ring with the harmonies of Liberty; Let our rejoicing rise High as the listening skies, Let it resound loud as the rolling sea. Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us, Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us; Facing the rising sun of our new day begun, Let us march on ‘til victory is won.

Bradley J. Hunkler Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Western & Southern Financial Group, CSO Board Member

Kate C. Brown, CFP® Managing Director, Fort Washington, CSO Board Member

John F. Barrett Chairman, President & CEO, Western & Southern Financial Group

Maribeth S. Rahe President & CEO, Fort Washington

Tracey M. Stofa Managing Director, Head of Private Client Group, Fort Washington

PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION | 2022–23 SEASON

SAT APR 15, 7:30 pm

SUN APR 16, 2 pm

Music Hall

RAMÓN TEBAR, conductor STEVEN BANKS, saxophone

Nikolai Russian EasterOverture, Op. 36 RIMSKY-KORSAKOV (1844–1908)

Billy CHILDS

Saxophone Concerto CSO CO-COMMISSION (b. 1957)

Part I: Motherland

Part II: If We Must Die

Part III: And Still I Rise

INTERMISSION

Modest MUSSORGSKY Pictures at an Exhibition (1839–1881)

orch. Ravel

Introduction: Promenade

I. Gnomus

Promenade

II. Il Vecchio Castello (“The Old Castle”)

Promenade

III. Tuileries

IV. Bydło

Promenade

V. Ballet des poussin dans leurs coques (“Ballet of Little Chicks in Their Shells”)

VI. Samuel Goldenberg und Schmuÿle

VII. Limoges

VIII. Catacombs

Cum mortuis in lingua mortua (“With the Dead in a Dead Language”)

IX. La Cabane sur des pattes de poule (“The Hut on Fowl’s Legs”) (Baba Yaga)

X. La grande porte de Kiev (“The Great Gate of Kiev”)

These performances are approximately 110 minutes long, including intermission.

The CSO is grateful to CSO Season Sponsor Western & Southern Financial Group

The CSO co-commission of Billy Childs’ Saxophone Concerto is made possible by a generous gift from Kelly Dehan and Rick Staudigel

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra is grateful for the support of the Louise Dieterle Nippert Musical Arts Fund of the Greenacres Foundation and the Nina Browne Parker Trust, and for the thousands of people who give generously to the ArtsWave Community Campaign. This project was supported in part by the Ohio Arts Council, which receives support from the State of Ohio and the National Endowment for the Arts

Pre-Concert Talks are made possible by an endowed gift from Melody Sawyer Richardson

WGUC is the Media Partner for these concerts.

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in-orchestra Steinway piano is made possible in part by the Jacob G. Schmidlapp Trust

Steinway Pianos, courtesy of Willis Music, is the official piano of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops.

Listen to this program on 90.9 WGUC June 4, 2023 at 8 pm, followed by 30 days of streaming at cincinnatisymphony.org/replay.

Composed: 1888

Premiere: December 15, 1888, St. Petersburg, conducted by the composer

Instrumentation: 3 flutes (incl. piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, crash cymbals, glockenspiel, suspended cymbals, tam-tam, triangle, harp, strings

CSO notable performances: First CSO Performance: November 1925, Fritz Reiner conducting. Most Recent Performances: (CSO subscription) October 2013, Rafael Payare conducting; (CSO/CSYO Side-by-Side concert) April 2015, John Morris Russell conducting

Duration: approx. 15 minutes

NIKOLAI RIMSKY-KORSAKOV

Born: March 18, 1844, Tikhvin, near Novgorod

Died: June 21, 1908, St. Petersburg, Russia

Russian Easter Overture, Op. 36

Rimsky-Korsakov loved the old ways. Born and raised in Tikhvin, a city some hundred miles east of St. Petersburg that was known for its monastery, he often recalled later in life the sound of the monastery bells tolling over the town and the tales of the traditional peasant life that his grandmothers—one a serf, the other a priest’s daughter—told him as a boy. It is not surprising, therefore, that he turned to perhaps the greatest annual event in 19th-century Russia as a subject for one of his colorful orchestral compositions—“The Bright Holiday,” Easter. Early in 1888 in St. Petersburg, shortly after the Capriccio espagnol had been premiered, he began an overture based on themes associated with the Easter celebration from the Obikhod, a collection of the best-known canticles of the Orthodox Church. He completed the score that summer during a country retreat at Nezhgovitsi, near Luga, when he was also finishing Scheherazade. He led the premiere of the Russian Easter Overture in St. Petersburg’s Club of Nobility on December 15th, in the middle of Advent.

Rimsky-Korsakov wrote, “The rather lengthy, slow introduction to the Overture, on the theme ‘Let God Arise!’ alternating with the ecclesiastical theme ‘An Angel Wailed,’ appeared to me, in its beginning, as it were, the ancient Isaiah’s prophecy concerning the Resurrection of Christ. The gloomy colors seemed to depict the Holy Sepulcher before it had been filled with ineffable light at the moment of Resurrection. The beginning of the Allegro, based on ‘Let Them That Hate Him Flee Before Him,’ suggested the holiday mood of the Greek Orthodox Church service on Christ’s matins; the solemn trumpet voice of the Archangel was replaced by a tonal reproduction of the joyous, almost dance-like bell tolling, alternating now with the sexton’s rapid reading and now with the conventional chant of the priest’s reading the glad tidings of the Evangel. The ‘Obikhod’ theme ‘Christ is Arisen,’ which forms a sort of subsidiary part of the Overture, appears amid the trumpet blasts and the bell tolling, constituting also a triumphant coda.”

—Dr. Richard E. Rodda

BILLY CHILDS

Born: 1957, Los Angeles, California

Saxophone Concerto CSO CO-COMMISSION

Billy Childs has emerged as one of the foremost American composers of his era. A native of Los Angeles, Childs grew up immersed in jazz, classical and popular music influences. A prodigious talent at the piano earned him public performances by age six and, at 16, he was admitted to the USC Community School of the Performing Arts, going on to earn a Bachelor of Music degree in Composition under the tutelage of Robert Linn and Morten Lauridsen.

By the time of his graduation from USC, Childs was already an indemand performer in the L.A. jazz scene. Soon thereafter, he was discovered by trumpet legend Freddie Hubbard, with whom he embarked on a successful performing and recording tour. He recorded and performed with a number of other influential jazz musicians before landing a record deal with Windham Hill Records in 1988. Several other albums followed, earning him two of his Grammy Awards and five nominations.

Simultaneously with his recording career, Childs has occupied a parallel niche as an in-demand composer. His orchestral and chamber commission credits include Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic,

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

the Detroit Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Leonard Slatkin and the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Kronos Quartet, Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, American Brass Quintet, Ying Quartet and Dorian Wind Quintet. Thus far in his career, Childs has garnered 16 Grammy nominations and five awards. In 2006, Childs was awarded a Chamber Music America Composer’s Grant, and in 2009 he was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. He received the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award in 2013 and the Music Award from The American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2015.

Childs’ Saxophone Concerto was co-commissioned by a consortium of 10 partners, including Kansas City Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival, Chautauqua Institution, New World Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, San Diego Symphony and Young Concert Artists. Of his Saxophone Concerto, Billy Childs says:

Concerto for Saxophone and Orchestra is a symphonic poem which strives to chronicle the paradigm of the forced Black American diaspora, as sifted through the prism of my own experience as a Black man in America. When Steven Banks approached me about the piece, the first thing we discussed was the narrative: What particular story would the piece tell? How would it unfold? We decided that, much in the same way that Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit illustrates three poems by Aloysius Bertrand in three separate movements, so would this concerto do with poems by Black poets. But then I started thinking of the elegantly succinct and fluent structure of Barber’s Symphony No. 1, where, in one multi-sectioned suite, he brilliantly ties together a handful of thematic materials into a seamless and organic whole. So, I started to compose from the vantage point that the poems Steven and I settled on (“Africa’s Lament” by Nayyirah Waheed, “If We Must Die” by Claude McKay, and “And Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou) would be guideposts that inspired the direction of a three-part storyline: Motherland, If We Must Die and And Still I Rise. Also, I wanted to tie the piece together thematically with various melodies and motifs treated in different ways (inverted, augmented, contrapuntally treated, reharmonized, etc.), like a loosely structured theme and variations—except there are several themes used. Motherland. The program of the composition starts out on a positive note; the first theme played solo by the soprano saxophone, and later joined by an uplifting scherzo accompaniment from the orchestra, is meant to evoke a sense of well-being and security as Africans are living in the motherland (Motherland being the name of the first section). Of course, it is understood that within the confines of Africa itself, there were tribal wars, treachery and misery—even slavery; it’s not a utopia I’m trying to illustrate here. Rather, I want to depict a sense of purity—a purity arising from having been thus far unobstructed by the outside destructive forces that would later determine our fate. So, the movement starts with a soprano sax melody that begins as a diatonic motif (accompanied by marimba and pizzicato cello), but then quickly becomes chromatic, modulating to several remote tonalities. After this, a 16th-note pattern in the strings transitions the listener into a sense of foreboding, signaling trouble on the horizon. As the harmonies of the string patterns continue to shift toward a more ominous shade, the soprano saxophone takes on a more urgent tone, playing short bursts of melodic fragments. Then a battle ensues, a battle between the slave traders and the future slaves, as signaled by the triplet figures in the soprano sax, accompanied by triplet patterns in the orchestra, and climaxing in an orchestral tutti section bolstered by a brass fanfare. After a dissonant orchestral hit, the soprano sax utters a melancholy theme as the slaves are being led to the slave ship. This takes us to the first saxophone cadenza, which, to my mind, represents a moment of

Composed: 2022, CSO co-commission

Premiere: February 2023, Kansas City Symphony Orchestra, Ruth Reinhardt conducting.

Instrumentation: solo saxophone (alto and soprano), 2 flutes (incl. piccolo, alto flute), oboe, English horn, 2 clarinets, bassoon, contrabassoon, 3 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, timpani, bass drum, brake drum, chime tree, cowbell, crash cymbals, marimba, snare drum, suspended cymbals, tam-tam, tambour de Basque, triangle, tubular bells, vibraphone, wood block, xylophone, harp, celeste, piano, strings CSO notable performances: These are the work’s CSO premiere.

Duration: approx. 20 minutes

Billy Childs, ©Raj Naik

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painful reflection about being captured like a wild animal and led to a ship, the destination of which is to a future hell.

If We Must Die. Part two of the journey, If We Must Die (inspired by the powerful Claude McKay poem of the same name), begins with the first vision of the slave ship. This is illustrated by a loud tutti blast in the orchestra, following a slow six-measure buildup. The alto saxophone is now the voice of the piece, introducing a rapid 12-tone theme that turns out to be a constant phrase weaving in and out of the entire piece at various moments (the theme made its first appearance back in the first part, during the battle between the African natives and the slave traders). The slaves are boarded onto the ships and the Middle Passage journey to America begins; sweeping rapid scales in the lower strings, woodwinds and harp describe the back and forth movement of the waves. This section develops and reaches a high point with a jarring multiphonic pair of notes in the saxophone followed by a forearm piano cluster; we now see America for the first time, from the point of view of the slaves. A percussion section and saxophone exchange—followed by an antiphonal, almost pointillistic push and pull between the alto saxophone and the orchestra—aims to represent the confusion, rage and terror of the slave trade, where families are ripped apart as humans are bought and sold like cattle. The subsequent section is a mournful lament of despair, meant to outline the psychological depression caused by the sheer brutality of this new slavery paradigm. The melodic theme here, played by the alto sax, is in its original version, whereas the melancholy soprano sax theme near the end of the first movement is the inversion of this melody. Meanwhile, a background pattern played by vibraphone and celesta depicts a slowly and steadily growing anger; this figure gets faster and faster until it overtakes the foreground and brings us into the next scherzolike section. This section is marked by an interplay between the alto sax and the orchestra and is describing resistance, anger and rebellion against being subjected to subhuman treatment over the course of centuries. After the apex of this segment occurs—characterized by five orchestral stabs—the alto saxophone plays a short and tender cadenza that signifies the resilience of Black Americans and introduces the idea of self-love, self-worth and self-determination.

And Still I Rise. This final section of the concerto/tone poem is about Black empowerment. The church has always been a cultural focal point in the Black community, a sanctuary providing psychological and emotional relief from the particular hardships of Black life in America. It is also a place to worship, pray and wrestle with the larger spiritual and existential questions that concern all of humankind. And beyond that (or perhaps because of that), the church is historically a central hub of Black political and cultural activism in America. This is the ethos that the last section of the concerto is reflecting. So, this final chapter of the piece starts out with a hymn-like passage, a variation of the opening folk-like melody at the very beginning of the concerto. It is a plaintive reading orchestrated for just alto saxophone and piano, as though the solo saxophonist were a singer accompanied by a piano during a Sunday church service. Soon, the melodic theme in the alto sax is treated with a lush accompaniment, as a healing self-awareness and love becomes more palpable. This is followed by a march-like ostinato that symbolizes steely determination in the midst of great and formidable obstacles, as the alto sax plays rapidly above the orchestral momentum, until we finally reach the victorious fanfare at the conclusion of the piece. Maya Angelou’s shining poem reminds us (and America) that Black people cannot and will not be held to a position of second-class citizenship—we will still rise.

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MODEST MUSSORGSKY, arr. Ravel

Born: March 21, 1839, Karevo, Pskov District, Russia

Died: March 28, 1881, St. Petersburg, Russia

Pictures at an Exhibition

In the years around 1850, with the spirit of nationalism sweeping through Europe, several young Russian artists banded together to rid their native art of foreign influences in order to establish a distinctive character for their works. At the front of this movement was a group of composers known as “The Five,” whose members included Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin, César Cui and Mily Balakirev. Among the allies that The Five found in other fields was the artist and architect Victor Hartmann, with whom Mussorgsky became close personal friends. Hartmann’s premature death at 39 stunned the composer and the entire Russian artistic community. The noted critic Vladimir Stasov organized a memorial exhibit of Hartmann’s work in February 1874, and it was under the inspiration of that showing of his late friend’s works that Mussorgsky conceived his Pictures at an Exhibition for piano. Maurice Ravel made his orchestration of the score for Sergei Koussevitzky’s Paris concerts in 1923. Promenade. According to Stasov, this recurring section depicts Mussorgsky “roving through the exhibition, now leisurely, now briskly, and, at times sadly, thinking of his friend.” Gnomus. Hartmann’s drawing is for a fantastic wooden nutcracker representing a gnome who gives off savage shrieks while he waddles about. Promenade—The Old Castle. A troubadour sings a doleful lament before a foreboding, ruined ancient fortress. Promenade—Tuileries. Hartmann’s picture shows a corner of the famous Parisian garden filled with nursemaids and their youthful charges. Bydło. Hartmann’s painting depicts a rugged wagon drawn by oxen. The peasant driver sings a plaintive melody (solo tuba) heard first from afar, then close-by, before the cart passes away into the distance. Promenade— Ballet of Little Chicks in Their Shells. Hartmann’s costume design for the 1871 fantasy ballet Trilby shows dancers enclosed in enormous egg shells. Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuÿle. [Ed. Richard Taruskin, in Musorgsky: Eight Essays and an Epilogue, correctly transcribes the title as “ ‘Samuel’ Goldenburg und ‘Schmuÿle.’ ”

“The use of quotation marks points up the fact that the two zhidy (an antisemitic slur for diaspora Jews) have the same first name: one Germanized, the other in the original Yiddish. They are in fact one zhid, not two. The portrayal is a brazen insult: no matter how dignified or sophisticated or Europeanized a zhid’s exterior, on the inside he is a jabbering, pestering little ‘Schmuÿle.’” This movement’s longstanding title of “Two Jews: Rich and Poor” was invented by Stasov for his 1881 obituary of Mussorgsky. —Tyler M. Secor] Limoges. A lively sketch of a bustling market. Catacombs, Roman Tombs | Cum Mortuis in Lingua Mortua. Hartmann’s drawing shows him being led by a guide with a lantern through cavernous underground tombs. The movement’s second section, titled “With the Dead in a Dead Language,” is a mysterious transformation of the “Promenade” theme. The Hut on Fowl’s Legs. Hartmann’s sketch is a design for an elaborate clock suggested by Baba Yaga, a fearsome witch of Russian folklore who flies through the air. Mussorgsky’s music suggests a wild, midnight ride. The Great Gate of Kiev was inspired by Hartmann’s plan for a gateway for the city of Kiev in the massive old Russian style, crowned with a cupola in the shape of a Slavic warrior’s helmet. The majestic music suggests both the imposing bulk of the edifice (never built, incidentally) and a brilliant procession passing through its arches.

—Dr. Richard E. Rodda

Composed: 1874, orchestrated by Ravel in 1923

Premiere: Orchestral version premiered May 3, 1923 in Paris, conducted by Sergei Koussevitzky

Instrumentation: 2 flutes (incl. piccolo), piccolo, 3 oboes (incl. English horn), 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, alto saxophone, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, bell in E-flat, crash cymbals, glockenspiel, ratchet, snare drum, suspended cymbals, tam-tam, triangle, whip, xylophone, 2 harps, celeste, strings

CSO notable performances: First CSO

Performance: December 1929, Fritz Reiner conducting. Most Recent: December 2017, Andrey Boreyko conducting.

Recording: Pictures at an Exhibition (1970, Decca), Erich Kunzel conducting the CSO; and Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition (2008, Telarc), Paavo Järvi conducting the CSO— Grammy winner for Best Surround Sound Album, 51st Annual Grammy Awards.

Duration: approx. 33 minutes

Modest Mussorgsky

FRI APR 21, 11 am

SAT APR 22, 7:30 pm

Music Hall

MATTHIAS PINTSCHER, conductor

Gustav MAHLER Symphony No. 7 in E Minor (1860–1911)

Langsam—Allegro

Nachtmusik

Scherzo: Schattenhaft (Fliessend, aber nicht schnell)

Nachtmusik II

Rondo—Finale

These performances are approximately 80 minutes long. There is no intermission.

The CSO is grateful to CSO Season Sponsor Western & Southern Financial Group and Concert Sponsor Peter Landgren and Judith Schonbach Landgren

This concert is lovingly donated to the memory of Laura Gamble Thomson from the estate of the Thomson family.

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra is grateful for the support of the Louise Dieterle Nippert Musical Arts Fund of the Greenacres Foundation and the Nina Browne Parker Trust, and for the thousands of people who give generously to the ArtsWave Community Campaign. This project was supported in part by the Ohio Arts Council, which receives support from the State of Ohio and the National Endowment for the Arts

Pre-Concert Talks are made possible by an endowed gift from Melody Sawyer Richardson

WGUC is the Media Partner for these concerts.

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in-orchestra Steinway piano is made possible in part by the Jacob G. Schmidlapp Trust

Steinway Pianos, courtesy of Willis Music, is the official piano of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops.

Listen to this program on 90.9 WGUC June 25, 2023 at 8 pm, followed by 30 days of streaming at cincinnatisymphony.org/replay.

Peter Landgren and Judith Schonbach Landgren

GUSTAV MAHLER

Born: July 7, 1860, Kalischt Bohemia

Died: May 18, 1911, Vienna

Symphony No. 7 in E Minor

The Seventh Symphony was a product of the happiest years Gustav Mahler knew. His career as director of the Vienna Opera was at its apex (in 1904 and 1905, he introduced his highly regarded version of Fidelio, conducted an important production of Don Giovanni with decor by Alfred Roller, and prepared for revivals of Così fan tutte and The Abduction from the Seraglio), his life with Alma was satisfying, his family had grown to include two healthy daughters, and his music was gaining recognition. Just as the Sixth Symphony was being completed in September 1904, he quickly wrote the two Andantes that were to become the “night music” movements of the Symphony No. 7. His hectic performance and administrative schedule in Vienna during the winter months precluded further work on the new piece. When he returned to his lakeside summer home the following May, however, “Not a note would come,” he recalled. “I plagued myself for two weeks until I sank into gloom.... then I tore off to the Dolomites. There I was led the same dance, and at last gave up and returned home.... I got into the boat to be rowed across. At the first stroke, the theme (or rather the rhythm and character) of the introduction to the first movement came into my head—and in four weeks, the first, third and fifth movements were done.” The Symphony was completed in short score before Mahler returned to Vienna in the autumn and finished early in 1906. It was to be the last work of that halcyon period in Mahler’s life.

Between the completion of the Seventh Symphony in 1906 and its premiere in Prague under the composer’s direction on September 19, 1908, Mahler’s life was turned upside-down. In 1907, three separate shocks befell him that crushed his happiness and hastened his early death at the age of 50: in March, against the continuing background of budgetary distress, hide-bound conservatism, and muted but pervasive anti-Semitism, Mahler began to feel that his tenure at the Court Opera had been a failure, and resigned; three months later, Dr. Friedrich Kovacs of Vienna diagnosed a serious heart condition, and advised Mahler that he would have to cease all strenuous activity and limit his professional responsibilities if the disease were not to prove rapidly fatal; and in July, the composer’s beloved four-year-old daughter, Maria, died of scarlet fever and diphtheria. The man who conducted the premiere of the Seventh Symphony was much changed from the man who composed it. Alma recorded that he worked incessantly on revising the score’s orchestration during the long series of rehearsals, and that his stamina and self-confidence seemed particularly taxed by preparations for the performance. Although the Prague orchestra won Mahler’s approval, and the event generated considerable excitement, Alma reported that the piece had only a “succès d’estime.... The Seventh was scarcely understood by the public.” The work was heard again during Mahler’s lifetime in Hamburg, Munich, Amsterdam and Vienna, but it failed to achieve wide acceptance and came early in its history to be regarded as something of a step-child among the symphonies; it was not heard in the United States until Frederick Stock conducted it in Chicago in 1921.

The first movement, amply endowed with such forward-looking harmonic devices as superimposed fourths and incipient polytonality, is a vast sonata design prefaced by a stern introduction (led by the tenor tuba) containing motivic germs from which several later themes grow.

Composed: 1904–05

Premiere: September 19, 1908 in Prague, conducted by the composer

Instrumentation: 4 flutes (incl. piccolo), piccolo, 3 oboes, English horn, 3 clarinets, bass clarinet, E-flat clarinet, 3 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tenor tuba, tuba, timpani, bass drum, bass drum with attached cymbal, cowbell, crash cymbals, deep bells, glockenspiel, herdbells, rute, small bells, snare drum, suspended cymbals, tam-tam, tambourine, triangle, 2 harps, guitar, mandolin, strings

CSO notable performances: First Performance: March 1931, Fritz Reiner conducting. Most Recent Performance: February 2011, Paavo Järvi conducting.

Duration: approx. 80 minutes

Gustav Mahler

BOLD MOVES FESTIVAL

SAMANTHA RIESTER, DANIEL WAGNER | PHOTOGRAPHY: AARON M. CONWAY

An embryonic version of the main theme is given by unison trombones, only to be interrupted by another somber proclamation from the tenor tuba. The horns then take over the trombones’ theme to launch the main body of the movement. A sentimental melody, very Viennese in manner, is given by the violins to provide contrast. The center of the movement is occupied by development of motives from the introduction and main theme. Solos in the bass and tenor trombones and the tenor tuba lead to the recapitulation.

The Symphony’s three central movements (Nachtmusik I—Scherzo— Nachtmusik II) are grouped together within the massive bulwark of the opening movement and the Rondo-Finale. The Nachtmusik (“Night Music”) I, in an unsettled C major-minor tonality, is one of Mahler’s most fantastic inspirations. Burnett James found here “a sense of tattered ghostly armies marching by night, of bugle calls and responses as well as those of birds and beasts; not so much barbarous armies that clash by night, as of remnants of those which have clashed.” Bright dawn does not immediately follow this musical night, however, since the ensuing Scherzo is among the most haunted, spectral and disquieting movements in the symphonic literature. “A spook-like, nocturnal piece,” Mahler’s friend and protégé Bruno Walter called it; Ronald Kinloch Anderson allowed that if the surrounding movements are “night” music, this Scherzo might well be “nightmare” music. “A glimpse of darkness, of the skull beneath the skin with its mocking grimace, of the essential horror,” wrote James. This devil’s waltz of a movement is followed by the delicate Nachtmusik II, whose simplicity, quietude and gentle guitar and mandolin sounds serve to quell the apprehension of the Scherzo and to prepare for the sunburst of the Symphony’s close.

The Rondo-Finale has, with justification, been criticized for a lack of coherence and an uninhibited boisterousness sometimes bordering on the banal. In the context of the Seventh Symphony, however, the finale is an appropriate emotional and stylistic closure to the expressive and formal progression circumscribed by the earlier movements, achieving a mood that Paul Stefan said is “on top of a mountain.”

—Dr. Richard E. Rodda

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CSO CHAMBER PLAYERS | 2022–2023 SEASON

FRI APR 21, 7:30 pm

Harry T. Wilks Studio, Music Hall

String Quartet No. 3 in A Major, Op. 41 (1810–1856) Andante espressivo—Allegro molto moderato

Robert SCHUMANN

Assai agitato

Adagio molto

Finale: Allegro molto vivace

Rebecca Kruger Fryxell, violin

Rachel Charbel, violin

Christopher Fischer, viola

Isabel Kwon, cello

INTERMISSION

Octet in F Major, D. 803 (1797–1828) Adagio—Allegro—Più allegro

Franz SCHUBERT

Adagio

Scherzo

Andante—Variations. Un poco più mosso—Più lento Menuetto Andante molto—Allegro—Andante molto—Allegro molto

Stefani Matsuo, violin

Philip Marten, violin

Rebecca Barnes, viola

Hiro Matsuo, cello

Boris Astafiev, bass

Benjamin Freimuth, clarinet

Martin Garcia, bassoon

Elizabeth Freimuth, horn

This performance is approximately 120 minutes long, including intermission.

YOU’RE INVITED to greet the musicians after the concert.

The CSO Chamber Players series has been endowed in perpetuity by the ELEANORA C.U. ALMS TRUST, Fifth Third Bank, Trustee

Steinway Pianos, courtesy of Willis Music, is the official piano of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops.

ROBERT SCHUMANN

Born: June 8, 1810, Zwickau, Germany

Died: July 29, 1856, Endenich, Germany

String Quartet No. 3 in A Major, Op. 41

Nineteenth-century composer Robert Schumann was a sprinter rather than a long-distance runner: he tended to create in brief, concentrated bursts of productivity, energized and fixated on the project at hand. In the year 1842, it was chamber music that possessed him as he produced his Piano Quintet in E-flat, Op. 44, and the Piano Quartet in E-flat, Op. 47. He crafted his three string quartets, Op. 41, over a period of five weeks, dashing off the third over the span of several days. Before setting quill to paper, he had prepared methodically by studying the quartets of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, as well as those of lesser-known musicians whose works appeared in Schumann’s reviews in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. Once the creative process was finished, he polished the final draft and dedicated the set of three quartets to his friend and colleague Felix Mendelssohn.

From the very first phrase of the third quartet, Mozart and Haydn are already present. The expansiveness and sweeping romanticism of Schumann’s piano works are gone, replaced with an economy of gesture and concision of form. Yet the intentionality and commitment to every line of melody are the unambiguous musical fingerprints of Schumann the Romantic.

The work opens with an undefined tonality, meandering through a progression of chromatic harmonies, briefly settling into the home key of A major before moving on to more remote tonalities. A descending perfect fifth, the two-note “sigh” motive that opens the work, defines the form as the movement progresses, marking the beginning of each of the major sections of Schumann’s sonata-form movement. Two main themes unfold, bridged with sequential passages. A stormy development follows, based on the juxtaposition of the elements that constitute the first theme: the falling fifth motive and the quick eighth-note motive. This same “sigh” motive punctuates the last moment as the falling fifth fully resolves in the cello.

In place of the expected scherzo, the composer substitutes a theme with variations that opens with a rhythmically ambiguous motive. The following variations employ a range of strategies to maintain interest: imitation and counterpoint contrast with lyric chromaticism as the movement evolves, moving into tension and agitation, then into a canon between violin and viola before finally finding peace in the unexpected key of F-sharp major.

The Adagio is the most extended movement of the work. An obsessive rhythmic figure in the second violin moves the movement forward. Angst lies immediately below the surface, only calmed by the reappearance of the first theme. As the movement closes, the voicing of the final chord betrays the uneasiness—assuaged but not fully resolved.

This same rhythmic figure launches the final movement, a rondo form in which several independent sections alternate, rhythmically displaced in a way that keeps the listener off balance. An expansive coda sweeps the quartet to a satisfying conclusion. It is with this rousing finish and the finality of its A-major cadence that Schumann not only crowns his set of string quartets, but has the last word in the genre until his friend, Johannes Brahms writes his own string quartets in 1873.

—Dr. Scot Bozza

Composed: 1842

Premiere: January 18, 1848 at the Leipzig Gewandhaus

Duration: approx. 30 minutes

Robert Schumann, 1839

Composed: March 1824, on commission from clarinetist Ferdinand Troyer

Premiere: Fall of 1827

Duration: approx. 63 minutes

FRANZ SCHUBERT

Born: January 31, 1797, Vienna, Austria

Died: November 19, 1828, Vienna, Austria

Octet in F Major, D. 803

Nineteen-year-old Franz Schubert, in his diary entry for June 16, 1816, declared his independence from Beethoven and decried what he saw as an inappropriate marriage of tragedy with humor: “…the eccentricity that is common among most composers nowadays, and is due almost entirely to one of our greatest German artists—that eccentricity which combines and confuses the tragic and the comic, the agreeable with the repugnant, heroism with howling, and the holiest with mockery, without distinguishing among them.” He concluded, sanctimoniously, that the effect of Beethoven’s music was to “drive people to madness instead of dissolving them in love, provoke them to laughter rather than lifting them up to God.” He reversed that position eight years later, in 1824, when Count Ferdinand Troyer requested a companion piece to Beethoven’s Septet, Op. 20. Schubert obliged with his own Octet, D. 803, emulating not only the tragi-comic character of Beethoven’s work, but also the structure and key relationships.

This about-face is understandable in light of the upheaval in Schubert’s professional and personal life that winter. Many of Schubert’s friends were leaving Vienna for more prestigious opportunities elsewhere. The death of the wife of his patron, Ignaz Sonnleithner, in whose home many of his works had been premiered for a curated list of wealthy dilletantes, had limited the composer’s access to potential patrons. So he threw himself into work on the Octet. As the artist Moritz von Schwind noted at the

Franz Schubert, oil painting by Wilhelm August Rieder, 1875

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those who elevate our community’s vibrant cultural scene.

time, “Schubert has for some time been working on an octet with greatest enthusiasm. If you go to see him during the day, he says, ‘How are you?’ and carries on with writing, at which point you just leave.” Working at lightning speed, Schubert finished the work by March of that year.

Beethoven’s Septet and Schubert’s Octet are both divertimenti, lighthearted 18th-century instrumental works of multiple movements for strings, winds or both. Schubert’s instrumentation follows Beethoven’s model, with violin, viola, cello, double bass, clarinet, horn and bassoon, to which Schubert adds a second violin, thus affording himself the range and color possibilities of the early 18th-century orchestra. Schubert also emulated Beethoven’s six-movement structure, as well as many of its components: the slow introductions of the first and last movements, the juxtaposition of the minuet—already outmoded—with its more fashionable replacement, the scherzo, and the set of variations that stands as the centerpiece of the work.

Schubert integrates the Adagio introduction into the subsequent Allegro by foreshadowing its rhythmic motive, as well as by bringing the opening theme back at its Adagio original speed. This is genius: he doesn’t actually slow the tempo, but rather, he tricks the ear by laying out the music in note values double the original to match the opening. In the tranquil second movement, we see the centrality of the clarinet to the work. This was no coincidence—Troyer, who commissioned it, was himself an excellent clarinetist. The scherzo follows, and then the set of variations. Schubert was unapologetic about incorporating the best tunes from his vocal music into his instrumental works, as he does here, retooling the vocal duet from his unperformed Singspiel, Die Freunde von Salamanka

The fifth movement shows its distinctly Austrian roots in the lilting charm of its trio, a Ländler

Schubert begins the final movement with a brooding Andante in the parallel minor key before launching into a cheerful Allegro, mixing pathos with wit in direct contradiction to his youthful criticism of Beethoven. He brings the work full circle with the reappearance of the introduction from the first movement before leading the work to a spirited finish.

The premiere of the Octet did not take place until 1827, in a performance at the residence of Archduke Randolph that included many of the players who had premiered Beethoven’s Septet. Criticized for its length, the Octet was almost immediately regarded as a footnote to the spectacularly fashionable Septet, which by then had achieved a status that even Beethoven himself found irritating. As was the case with much of Schubert’s music, the complete score only first appeared in print half a century later, when it assumed a place of pride among the most important works for strings and winds of the 19th century.

—Dr. Scot Bozza

2022–23 Season

SUN APR 23, 7:30 pm, Music Hall

MATTHIAS PINTSCHER, conductor SAMUEL LEE, conductor DANIEL WILEY, conductor ARI PERAZA-WEBB, cello

Piotr Ilyich Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasie TCHAIKOVSKY (1840–1893)

Samuel BARBER Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 22 (1910–1981)

I. Allegro moderato

Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 5 in D Minor, Op. 47 (1906–1975)

IV. Allegro non troppo

Support provided by The Charles H. Dater Foundation and The Marge & Charles J. Schott Foundation

The CSO thanks Coney Island for its generous sponsorship of the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestras.

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra is grateful for the support of the Louise Dieterle Nippert Musical Arts Fund of the Greenacres Foundation and for the thousands of people who give generously to the ArtsWave Community Campaign. This project was supported in part by the Ohio Arts Council, which receives support from the State of Ohio and the National Endowment for the Arts

The Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestras is a program of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and receives generous support in the form of rehearsal space from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and Walnut Hills High School.

WGUC is the Media Partner for these concerts.

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in-orchestra Steinway piano is made possible in part by the Jacob G. Schmidlapp Trust

Steinway Pianos, courtesy of Willis Music, is the official piano of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops.

The Charles H. Dater Foundation

The Marge & Charles J. Schott Foundation

This performance is approximately 60 minutes long. There is no intermission.

PIOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY

Born: May 7, 1840 in Kamsko-Votkinsk, Russia

Died: November 6, 1893 in St. Petersburg, Russia

Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasie

Composer Mily Balakirev (1837–1910) was something of a busybody. He was not content simply writing his own music—he wanted a hand in the creation of music by several other composers as well. He was the leader of the group of Russian nationalists known as “The Five.”

Balakirev wrote to Tchaikovsky in the fall of 1869, suggesting the composition of an overture based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet Balakirev included some music he felt appropriate for the opening; he described exact working methods to help Tchaikovsky find inspiration, including prescribing the tonalities for the various sections of the piece. Tchaikovsky went so far as to submit the completed composition to Balakirev for corrections.

Balakirev liked much of the work, but he criticized the first theme. It reminded him of a Haydn quartet whereas he felt it should have the “oldworld catholicism” of a Liszt chorale. He did not like the slow introduction at all, and he did not approve of the ending. Tchaikovsky meekly made the revisions, although he eventually became dissatisfied and worked on further extensive changes of his own.

It is not surprising that Tchaikovsky readily complied with Balakirev’s suggestion for a piece based on Shakespeare’s love-tragedy. The subject was appropriate because the composer himself was at the time involved in a hopeless love. A few months earlier, he had fallen under the spell of singer Désirée Artôt. Tchaikovsky had not yet acknowledged his homosexuality, and he was eager to meet this enticing lady. He did see her frequently, and he began to talk about marriage. But Artôt herself prevented these difficult issues from ever coming up by marrying instead a Spanish baritone named Mariano Padilla y Ramos.

Tchaikovsky had really thought he was in love. Composing Romeo and Juliet must have been a sufficient catharsis, though, as the composer subsequently resumed his life without undue grief.

Balakirev wrote him, upon receiving the finished score, with praise but also a rather unkind irony:

It is simply fascinating. I often play it and should like to hug you for it. In it is the tenderness and longing of love, and much more that ought to go straight to the heart of the immortal Albrecht. When I play this I visualize you wallowing in your bath with Artôt-Padilla herself rubbing your stomach ardently with fragrant soap suds.

Surely Tchaikovsky was pleased with Balakirev’s praise; his reaction to the reference to his non-affair, however, is not recorded.

—Adapted from Jonathan D. Kramer

Composed: 1869

Premiere: March 16, 1870 by the Russian Musical Society conducted by Nikolai Rubinstein, in Moscow

Duration: approx. 21 minutes

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Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Composed: 1945, commissioned by the Boston Symphony and Sergei Koussevitzky

Premiere: April 5, 1946, with Raya Garbousova as the soloist and Sergei Koussevitzky conducting the Boston Symphony

Duration: approx.

7 minutes

SAMUEL BARBER

Born: March 9, 1910 in West Chester, Pennsylvania

Died: January 23, 1981 in New York

Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 22, Movement I: Allegro moderato

Samuel Barber was born into a musical family (his aunt was famed Metropolitan Opera singer Louise Homer) and began his musical training at a young age. At age 14, he entered the young artist program at the newly founded Curtis Conservatory (known today as the Curtis Institute of Music), where he studied voice, piano and composition. After graduating high school, Barber entered the adult professional school at Curtis, where he met people who would influence the rest of his life, including Mary Louise Curtis Bok, who introduced Barber to the Schirmer family (music publishers), and Gian Carlo Menotti, who became his lifelong partner in both life and the music profession. Barber gradated in the spring of 1934, and it wasn’t long thereafter that his career as a composer skyrocketed.

By the time Koussevitzky commissioned Barber to write a cello concerto for his friend and fellow Russian expatriate Raya Garbousova, Barber had already composed several of his soon-to-be famous works, including the Adagio for Strings (premiere conducted by Arturo Toscanini), Symphony in One Movement (the first work written by an American to be played at the Salzburg Festival) and his Violin Concerto (first conducted by Fritz Reiner at Curtis, then given its public premiere with The Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy with violinist Albert Spalding). Koussevitzky had already premiered Barber’s Second Symphony in 1944 and had commissioned a choral-symphonic work in 1942, but the premiere of the latter was delayed until 1954.

The commission for the cello concerto came while Barber was serving in the Army Air Corps. Barber was drafted in 1942, but was allowed to write music while in service. He insisted on hearing Garbousova play so that he could understand her performance style, sound and technical abilities. Barber and Garbousova worked together closely in 1945 until the work was all but finished (it still needed to be orchestrated) in September 1942. The result is a piece that was highly tailored to Garbousova’s playing, with extreme technical demands on the part of the soloist. Garbousova championed this concerto but, after her retirement, the piece languished due in large part to its difficulty. Barber edited the solo cello part before the work was published in 1950, and he intended to edit the cello part further, but illness and other projects prevented him from doing so.

—Tyler M. Secor

Samuel Barber

DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH

Born: September 25, 1906, Saint Petersburg, Russia

Died: August 9, 1975 in Moscow

Symphony No. 5 in D Minor, Op. 47, Movement IV: Allegro non troppo

On January 28, 1936, an editorial in Pravda, the daily paper of the Soviet Communist Party, brutally attacked Shostakovich’s opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, denouncing it as “muddle instead of music.” This condemnation could easily have resulted in the composer’s deportation to Siberia, but in the end, he was spared and granted a comeback. Less than a year later, his Fifth Symphony premiered with resounding success in Leningrad on November 21, 1937.

The symphony is definitely a work of reconciliation; although it doesn’t shy away from portraying tragedy, it still reaches a hard-won victory at the end.

The last movement’s opening march tune is suddenly interrupted, and a slower, more introspective section begins with a haunting horn solo. After this quiet intermezzo, the march tune returns, but played at half its original tempo. Merely a shadow of its former self, the melody is elaborated contrapuntally until it suddenly alights on a bright D-major chord in full orchestral splendor, which then remains unchanged until the end.

—Peter Laki

Composed: 1937

Premiere: November 21, 1937, Evgeny Mravinsky conducting the Leningrad Philharmonic

Duration: approx. 10 minutes

Dmitri Shostakovich

Celebrating the arts and the joy they bring to life every day.

PNC is proud to be the Pops Se Sponsor and to support the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops. Thank you for helping to make the Greater Cincinnati region a beautiful place to call home.

TUES APR 25, 7:30 pm

Music Hall

BEN FOLDS

LUCAS WALDIN, conductor

After a sold-out performance with the Pops in 2017, Ben Folds is back!

Widely regarded as one of the major music influencers of our generation, this genre-bending, multi-platinum-selling artist brings his brilliant lyrics, moving melodies and clever wit for this one-night-only performance.

Selections will be announced from the stage.

The Cincinnati Pops Orchestra is grateful to Pops Season Sponsor PNC

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra is grateful for the support of the Louise Dieterle Nippert Musical Arts Fund of the Greenacres Foundation and the Nina Browne Parker Trust, and for the thousands of people who give generously to the ArtsWave Community Campaign. This project was supported in part by the Ohio Arts Council, which receives support from the State of Ohio and the National Endowment for the Arts

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in-orchestra Steinway piano is made possible in part by the Jacob G. Schmidlapp Trust

Steinway Pianos, courtesy of Willis Music, is the official piano of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops.

FRI APR 28, 7:30 pm SAT APR 29, 7:30 pm SUN APR 30, 2 pm Music Hall

RAGTIME In Concert

JOHN MORRIS RUSSELL, conductor

ALTON FITZGERALD WHITE, director

Book by TERRENCE McNALLY Music by STEPHEN FLAHERTY Lyrics by LYNN AHRENS

Based on the novel Ragtime by E. L. DOCTOROW

CAST

A full cast listing will appear in an insert that will be available on the concert dates.

Original orchestrations by William David Brohn, additional orchestrations by Kim Scharnberg

Ragtime in Concert was created for the Boston Pops, in honor of Keith Lockhart’s 25th Anniversary with support from the Cincinnati Pops and Arts Commons, the Calgary Philharmonic, and Theatre Calgary.

Ragtime In Concert is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI. mtishows.com

Any video and/or audio recording of this production is strictly prohibited.

The Cincinnati Pops Orchestra is grateful to Pops Season Sponsor PNC

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra is grateful for the support of the Louise Dieterle Nippert Musical Arts Fund of the Greenacres Foundation and the Nina Browne Parker Trust, and for the thousands of people who give generously to the ArtsWave Community Campaign. This project was supported in part by the Ohio Arts Council, which receives support from the State of Ohio and the National Endowment for the Arts

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in-orchestra Steinway piano is made possible in part by the Jacob G. Schmidlapp Trust

Steinway Pianos, courtesy of Willis Music, is the official piano of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops.

ACT I

Opening/Ragtime .........................................................................................................................................Full Company Goodbye, My Love .....................................................................................................................................................Mother Journey On ......................................................................................................................................Father, Tateh, Mother

Evelyn’s Introduction

The Crime of the Century............................................Evelyn Nesbit, Mother’s Younger Brother, Ensemble

What Kind of Woman ...............................................................................................................................................Mother A Shtetl Iz Amereke (Ellis Island) ...................................................................Tateh, The Little Girl, Immigrants

Success .................................................................Tateh, The Little Girl, J.P. Morgan, Harry Houdini, Ensemble

His Name Was Coalhouse Walker ...................................................................Coalhouse Walker Jr., Ensemble

The Gettin’ Ready Rag..........................................................................................Coalhouse Walker Jr., Ensemble Henry Ford ........................................................................................Henry Ford, Coalhouse Walker Jr., Ensemble

Nothing Like the City .....................................................................Tateh, Mother, The Little Boy, The Little Girl

Your Daddy’s Son ..........................................................................................................................................................Sarah

New Music ..............................Father, Mother, Younger Brother, Sarah, Coalhouse Walker Jr., Ensemble

The Wheels of a Dream .................................................................................................Coalhouse Walker Jr., Sarah

INTERMISSION

ACT II

Entr’acte

The Night That Goldman Spoke at Union Square ................................................Mother’s Younger Brother, Emma Goldman, Ensemble Gliding .................................................................................................................................................................................Tateh

The Trashing of the Car/President.........................................................................................................................Sarah Till We Reach That Day ..............................................................................................Sarah’s Friend, Full Company

Coalhouse’s Soliloquy ..................................................................................................................Coalhouse Walker Jr.

What a Game ............................................................................................................Father, The Little Boy, Ensemble

Buffalo Nickel Photoplay, Inc...........................................................................................Baron Ashkenazy (Tateh)

Our Children ...........................................................................................................Mother, Baron Ashkenazy (Tateh)

Sarah Brown Eyes............................................................................................................Coalhouse Walker Jr., Sarah

He Wanted to Say ...........Emma Goldman, Younger Brother, Coalhouse Walker Jr., Coalhouse’s Men

Back to Before .......................................................................................................................................Mother, Ensemble

Make Them Hear You ...................................................................................................................Coalhouse Walker Jr.

Epilogue: Ragtime ........................................................................................................................................Full Company

SAINT-SAËNS ORGAN SYMPHONY | 2022–23 SEASON

FRI MAY 5, 7:30 pm SAT MAY 6, 7:30 pm

Music Hall

Friday and Saturday, May 5–6 LOUIS LANGRÉE, conductor VÍKINGUR

ÓLAFSSON,

piano

Hector BERLIOZ Overture to Les francs-juges (1803–1869) (“The Judges of the Secret Court”), Op. 3

Maurice RAVEL Concerto in G Major for Piano and Orchestra (1875–1937)

Allegramente: Andante. Tempo I

Adagio assai

Presto

INTERMISSION

Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 78, Organ (1835–1921)

Camille SAINT-SAËNS

Part I: Adagio. Allegro moderato

Poco adagio

Part II: Allegro moderato. Presto Maestoso. Allegro

These performances are approximately 110 minutes long, including intermission.

The CSO is grateful to CSO Season Sponsor Western & Southern Financial Group

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra is grateful for the support of the Louise Dieterle Nippert Musical Arts Fund of the Greenacres Foundation and the Nina Browne Parker Trust, and for the thousands of people who give generously to the ArtsWave Community Campaign. This project was supported in part by the Ohio Arts Council, which receives support from the State of Ohio and the National Endowment for the Arts

Pre-Concert Talks are made possible by an endowed gift from Melody Sawyer Richardson

WGUC is the Media Partner for these concerts. The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in-orchestra Steinway piano is made possible in part by the Jacob G. Schmidlapp Trust Steinway Pianos, courtesy of Willis Music, is the official piano of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops.

Listen to this program on 90.9 WGUC July 9, 2023 at 8 pm, followed by 30 days of streaming at cincinnatisymphony.org/replay.

SAINT-SAËNS ORGAN SYMPHONY | 2022–23 SEASON

SUN MAY 7, 2 pm

Music Hall

Sunday, May 7

LOUIS LANGRÉE, conductor

Hector BERLIOZ Overture to Les francs-juges (1803–1869) (“The Judges of the Secret Court”), Op. 3

Hector BERLIOZ Marche des Gardes (“March of the Guards”) from Les francs-juges, Op. 3

Camille SAINT-SAËNS Danse macabre (1835–1921)

Camille SAINT-SAËNS Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 78, Organ

Part I: Adagio. Allegro moderato Poco adagio

Part II: Allegro moderato. Presto Maestoso. Allegro

This performance is approximately 75 minutes long. There is no intermission

The CSO is grateful to CSO Season Sponsor Western & Southern Financial Group

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra is grateful for the support of the Louise Dieterle Nippert Musical Arts Fund of the Greenacres Foundation and the Nina Browne Parker Trust, and for the thousands of people who give generously to the ArtsWave Community Campaign. This project was supported in part by the Ohio Arts Council, which receives support from the State of Ohio and the National Endowment for the Arts

Pre-Concert Talks are made possible by an endowed gift from Melody Sawyer Richardson

WGUC is the Media Partner for these concerts.

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in-orchestra Steinway piano is made possible in part by the Jacob G. Schmidlapp Trust

Steinway Pianos, courtesy of Willis Music, is the official piano of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops.

Listen to this program on 90.9 WGUC July 9, 2023 at 8 pm, followed by 30 days of streaming at cincinnatisymphony.org/replay.

HECTOR BERLIOZ

Born: December 11, 1803, La Côte-Saint-André, France

Died: March 8, 1869, Paris

Overture to Les francs-juges (“The Judges of the Secret Court”), Op. 3 (Fri-Sun)

Marche des Gardes (“March of the Guards”) from Les francs-juges, Op. 3 (Sun)

Hector Berlioz left his home province for Paris at the age of 18. Obeying the wishes of his physician father, he began to study medicine, although he knew he wanted to be a composer. Despite strong paternal disapproval, he took up the study of composition as a private student of the then-famous Jean-François Le Sueur. Less than three years later, Berlioz’s first large-scale work, a mass, was given a performance at St. Roch’s church in Paris. It was only after this successful début that Berlioz, in October 1826, enrolled in Le Sueur’s composition class at the Conservatoire. The ambitious young man immediately tackled what was probably the most difficult genre of all—an opera. The somewhat convoluted libretto, written by Berlioz’s friend Humbert Ferrand, had a vaguely medieval flavor, reflecting the way the Romantic generation liked to think about the “dark” Middle Ages. The title Les francs-juges referred to the members of those mysterious secret tribunals that had been introduced into recent European literature by Goethe’s drama

Götz von Berlichingen

We need not dwell too long on the details of the story, replete with usurped thrones, fair maidens forced to marry tyrants, and man-crushing bronze statues lurking in dark caverns. The opera was never performed and survives only in fragmentary form. The overture and five numbers are all that remain—plus the “March of the Guards,” recycled as the famous “March to the Scaffold” in Symphonie fantastique

The overture and two excerpts were performed at the Conservatoire on May 26, 1828. The composer probably played percussion in this performance, as he did again when the overture was reprised the next year. The overture was a huge success and became the first work by Berlioz to be performed outside France.

The slow introduction opens with a soft lyrical melody that is followed by the trombone theme that made such a strong impression on the orchestra musicians. The fast section beings with an agitated string theme, contrasted by a lyrical melody that comes from a quintet for flute and strings that Berlioz had written at the age of 15. Even the stern Dr. Louis Berlioz admitted that this theme had merit. When Hector played it for him on his flute, the father said: “Ah, now that is what I call music!” But that was apparently not sufficient reason for him to accept his son’s musical ambitions.

The central part of the overture is made up of mysterious tremolos and excited accompanying figures in the strings, over which soars a new melody, played by flutes and clarinets and moving in extremely slow note values. It was, as Berlioz later disclosed, the theme of a now-lost prayer aria from the opera. Berlioz specifically noted in the score that the orchestra was here portraying two different characters at the same time: the strings had to be “rude and wild,” while winds had to play in a “soft and melancholic” manner. The lyrical theme returns, to be subjected to a rather adventurous development, at the end of which it is combined with a trombone theme from earlier to create a truly spectacular ending.

—Peter Laki

Composed: 1826

Premiere: The Overture and two excerpts were premiered at the Paris Conservatiore, May 26, 1828.

Instrumentation:

Overture: 2 flutes (incl. 2 piccolos), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, cornet, 3 trombones, 2 ophicleide, timpani, bass drum, crash cymbals, suspended cymbals, strings. Marche des Gardes: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 4 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 cornets, 3 trombones, 2 tubas, 2 timpani, bass drum, crash cymbals, field drum, snare drum, strings

CSO notable performances: (Overture)

First Performance: October 1944, Eugene Goossens conducting. Most Recent: November 1966, Erich Kunzel conducting. (Marche des Gardes) These are the first CSO performances of the March.

Duration: approx. 12 minutes for the Overture, 5 minutes for the March

Hector Berlioz

Composed: 1931

Premiere: January 14, 1932, Ravel conducting, with pianist Marguerite Long and the Lamoureux Orchestra in Paris

Instrumentation: solo piano, flute, piccolo, oboe, English horn, clarinet, E-flat clarinet, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, trumpet, trombone, timpani, bass drum, crash cymbals, slapstick, suspended cymbals, tamtam, tamburo, triangle, wood block, harp, strings

CSO notable performances: First

Performance: October 1932, Eugene Goossens conducting, with Daniel Ericourt, piano. Most

Recent: November 2021, Roderick Cox conducting, with Conrad Tao, piano. Other: March 1997, Carnegie Hall, Jesús López Cobos conducting, with Alicia De Larrocha, piano. November 1945, Leonard Bernstein conducting from the piano.

Duration: approx. 23 minutes

MAURICE RAVEL

Born: March 7, 1875, Ciboure France

Died: December 28, 1937, Paris

Concerto in G Major for Piano and Orchestra (Fri-Sat)

Some of the most original piano music in the first half of the 20th century was written by Maurice Ravel. In the early Jeux d’eau (1901) and the great cycles Miroirs (1904–05) and Gaspard de la nuit (1908), Ravel developed what he himself called “a special type of writing for the piano,” and he defended his priority against critics who tried to compare his style to that of his older contemporary, Debussy.

Himself a highly competent pianist, Ravel was a frequent performer of his own music (his performances survive on record). Thus it is not entirely surprising that he should want to write a concerto; what is surprising is that it took him so long to do so.

Ravel had been toying with the idea of a concerto as early as 1906. He was thinking about basing it on Basque themes, from his native region in the Pyrenees. The projected work even had a title: Zaspiak-Bat, which means “The Seven are One” in the Basque language—an allusion to the unity of the four Spanish and three French Basque provinces. But ZaspiakBat seems never to have progressed beyond the stage of initial sketches; World War I intervened, and Ravel, who had enlisted for military duty, complained in a letter to a friend: “Impossible to continue Zaspiak-Bat, the documents having remained in Paris.” Instead, the composer took up other projects, and the concerto plans remained on the back burner until the late 1920s.

It was in 1928, after his American tour, that he began seriously to think about a concerto again. In the wake of this tour—and the recent, wildly successful premiere of Boléro—Ravel wanted to make the most of his popularity, and decided to return to the concert stage as a pianist, as his friend Igor Stravinsky had done a few years earlier. His work on a piano concerto was interrupted by one-armed pianist Paul Wittgenstein’s commission to write a concerto for the left hand only. Ravel worked on both concertos more or less at the same time.

Ravel emphasized his debt to Mozart and Saint-Saëns in the G-major Concerto, but there are also many signs of jazz influence in the piece, particularly in the first movement. Ravel had been interested in jazz since the early 1920s when it first became the rage in Paris. He had included a “Blues” movement in his Sonata for Violin and Piano, written between 1923 and 1927. His enthusiasm grew considerably, however, after his visit to the United States.

The first movement has many of the trappings of classical sonata form: a succession of contrasting themes, and a clearly recognizable moment at which the recapitulation begins. But the emphasis, as always with Ravel, is not so much on motivic development as on the juxtaposition of self-contained melodies. The first one of these melodies is introduced by the piccolo in a very fast tempo; the piano accompanies it with lively figurations. This theme has been said to suggest a Basque folk melody: it probably contains material from the abandoned Zaspiak-Bat concerto. After this first theme, the tempo slows down, and the high-pitched E-flat clarinet plays the first of several jazz-related motifs. The movement has a magnificent piano cadenza at the end, preceded by two other striking solo passages: one for the harp, and one in which one woodwind instrument after another plays virtuoso flourishes against the sustained melody of the first horn.

The second movement opens with a long, expressive piano solo. It is a single uninterrupted phrase that goes on for more than three minutes;

Maurice Ravel

after a while, the piano is joined by the flute, oboe, and clarinet. There is a middle section where the piano plays in a faster motion against the slowmoving melodies in the orchestra. The initial long phrase then returns, played by the English horn, and accompanied by the crystalline 32nd notes of the piano. Ravel said that he had modelled this movement on the “Larghetto” from Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet (K. 581); the connection is subtle, but can be clearly heard in the softly moving long phrases in 3/4 time and the rich ornamentation of the melodic lines.

The last movement is a lively romp in perpetual motion. Like the first movement, it is a cavalcade of themes including allusions to marches, dances, and folk songs, and containing some jazzy “smears” in the trombones and demanding solos for the woodwinds. The high jinks continue until the timpani and the bass drum put an abrupt end to the music.

As he said in the statement quoted above, Ravel was planning to play the piano part in his concerto himself. Sadly, he was prevented from doing so by the onset of his illness which proved fatal. The G-major Concerto remained Ravel’s penultimate composition, a fact belied by the work’s freshness and youthful vigor. One may understand Ravel’s distress when, in the last year of his life and gravely ill, he burst into tears: “I still have so much music in my head. I have said nothing. I have so much more to say.”

—Peter Laki

CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS

Born: October 9, 1835, Paris

Died: December 16, 1921, Algiers

Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 78, Organ (Fri-Sun)

With his third and last symphony, Camille Saint-Saëns set out to write a masterpiece. At 51, he was—and had long been—one of the most famous musicians in France, equally successful as a composer, conductor, pianist, and organist. (For many years, he served as the organist of the Madeleine, one of the landmark churches in Paris.) His career had started with the ringing endorsement of such luminaries as Berlioz, Liszt, and Gounod, and he had come to be considered a luminary himself.

At the same time, he had reason to feel that some of his best efforts in composition were not sufficiently appreciated. He had won great acclaim for his concertos and other virtuosic concert pieces. However, his symphonic poems, such as Le rouet d’Omphale (“Omphale’s Spinning Wheel”) met with little enthusiasm in Paris, and his opera Samson et Dalila (“Samson and Delilah”), which was particularly dear to his heart, was premiered, thanks only to Liszt’s unflagging support, in Weimar. At home, Saint-Saëns found himself locked in a bitter rivalry with César Franck, his senior by 13 years. Saint-Saëns was antagonized by Franck’s students and was increasingly isolated in the Société Nationale de Musique, which he had founded. This situation led to his resignation as the society’s president soon after the premiere of the Third Symphony.

Saint-Saëns, then, wanted to make a major statement, and the invitation of the London Philharmonic Society to write a symphony provided just the incentive he needed. He conducted the premiere in London on May 19, 1886, to a standing ovation; the symphony was a success in France as well, when it was performed there. The published score was dedicated to the memory of Liszt, who had passed away on July 31, 1886.

In a program note written for the premiere, Saint-Saëns offered a detailed outline of the themes, described the basic structure of the work, and emphasized his innovations in orchestration. Some of these innovations clearly came from the symphonic poems of his mentor Liszt,

Composed: 1886

Premiere: May 19, 1886, Royal Philharmonic Society (then called the Philharmonic Society) in London, conducted by the composer

Instrumentation: 3 flutes (incl. piccolo), 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, crash cymbals, suspended cymbals, triangle, organ, piano four-hands

CSO notable performances: First

Performance: May 1923 on a May Festival performance with Fritz Reiner conducting (CSO was the house orchestra by then) and Charles Heinroth, organ. First CSO

Subscription: January 1939 Eugene Goossens conducting with Parvin Titus, organ. Also, Fritz Reiner conducted this piece on a February 1925 “Pops” Concert with Marcel Dupré, organ. Most Recent: March 2017 for a Tour Preview Concert, Louis Langrée conducting. Other: March 2017 Asian tour, Louis Langrée conducting.

Duration: approx. 36 minutes

Camille Saint-Saëns

PROGRAM NOTES

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who had used the organ in his Hunnenschlacht (“Battle of the Huns”).

Saint-Saëns’s method of motivic transformation is also indebted to Liszt.

The traditional four movements of the symphony are telescoped into two parts, with the opening Allegro and the slow movement constituting Part I, and the scherzo with the finale Part II. Moreover, motivic correspondences permeate all the movements so that the entire work is extremely rich in internal connections.

The main motif on which all four movements are based first appears in the opening Allegro moderato, preceded by a short introduction. The motif is developed extensively, along with a contrasting lyrical idea. It is in the ensuing Poco adagio that we hear the organ for the first time.

In the Allegro moderato that opens Part ll, new variants of the motif emerge. The Trio section, in a faster tempo and in C major as opposed to the scherzo’s C minor, is distinguished by rapid piano scales as a special orchestral color. Both the scherzo and the trio are heard for a second time. Then a short contrapuntal section, based on the main motif, serves as a transition into the finale, which begins with the lush sounds of the organ and the piano (four hands). The main motif is now transformed into a solemn chorale and then into a fugue, where contrapuntal voices imitate one another. The work ends with a magnificent climax.

Saint-Saëns was well aware of the symphony’s significance in his output. He never attempted to write another symphony; instead, he returned to operas, concertos and chamber music. As he wrote about the “Organ Symphony” years later: “I have given all that I had to give. What I have done I shall never do again.”

—Peter Laki

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CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS

Danse Macabre (Sun)

Death is “something that proverbially comes to us all, death is universal and yet universally strange, an object of fascination and of fear… ancient cultures freely personified death… [and] created allegorical figures, like the Grim Reaper…. Death unites us all across the ages,” writes Michael Kerrigan in the introduction to his 2017 book, The History of Death. The living’s fascination with the concept, and the equalizing power of death, certainly extend beyond written history, but the Danse macabre (“Dance of Death”) as an allegorical concept in the arts (drama, music and visual arts) in Western European culture begins to appear during the Middle Ages. The Black Death and the Hundred Years’ war resulted in a cultural obsession with death and the visual depiction of the dead leading all living, regardless of status (king, queen, pope, shopkeeper, musician, etc.), to their graves.

The “Dance of Death” concept waned in popularity during the Renaissance, but found a resurgence in 19th-century French Romantic literature, especially the work of the symbolist poets. The inspiration for Saint-Saëns’ Danse macabre is found in the poetry of one such symbolist poet, Henri Cazalis (1840–1909).

Cazalis had a penchant for dark topics, especially death, including his “Égalité, fraternité…” (“Equality, fraternity”), which tells the story of Death playing his violin as skeletons dance on their graves. In 1872, Saint-Saëns wrote an art song version of the poem.

In 1874, Saint-Saëns reworked the art song into a tone poem, with most of the vocal part covered by the solo violin. Saint-Saëns made good use of the many sounds available in an orchestra to illustrate Cazalis’ text. The xylophone depicts the rattling bones of a skeleton. The scordatura (or “out of tune”) violin provides the sinister tune for the skeletons to dance to and employs the tritone interval, which, in the Renaissance, was named “the devil in music” (diabolus in musica) due to its dissonant and unstable sound.

Saint-Saëns also uses the Dies irae, a Gregorian chant from the Requiem Mass (or Mass for the Dead), an oft-quoted chant that represents death or the Last Judgement.

Listen as the harp strikes midnight on Halloween and Death tunes his violin to awaken the dead to dance upon their graves until the cock’s crow at dawn (represented by the oboe), and Death plays a final consoling tune for the dead to return to their graves.

Saint-Saëns included the following fragment from Cazalis’ poem on the front of his manuscript score, which has been translated (anonymously) in English scores as:

Zig, zig, zig, Death in a cadence

Striking with his heel a tomb, Death at midnight plays a dance-tune, Zig, zig, zag, on his violin.

The winter wind blows, and the night is dark; Moans are heard in the linden-trees.

Through the gloom white skeletons pass, Running and leaping in their shrouds.

Zig, zig, zig, each one is frisking; The bones of the dancers are heard to clatter— But Sst! of a sudden they quit the round, They push forward, they fly; the cock has crowed!

—Tyler M. Secor

Composed: 1874

Premiere: January 24, 1875

Instrumentation: 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, chimes, crash cymbals, suspended cymbals, triangle, xylophone, harp, strings CSO notable performances: First Performance: December 1906, Frank Van der Stucken conducting (an all-Saint-Saëns concert for which Saint-Saëns was present). Most Recent Performance: (CSO) November 1949, Thor Johnson conducting; (Pops) October 2018, Damon Gupton conducting. Recording: Chiller (1989, Telarc label), Erich Kunzel conducting the Cincinnati Pops.

Duration: approx. 7 minutes

CSO Music Director Frank van der Stucken (standing) with Camille Saint-Saëns, for the CSO’s all-Saint-Saëns concert (including the Danse Macabre) in December 1906.

FRI MAY 12, 11 am SAT MAY 13, 7:30 pm

Music Hall

LOUIS LANGRÉE, conductor

COURTNEY BRYAN, piano

Darius MILHAUD La création du monde (“The Creation of the World”), Op. 81 (1892–1974)

Courtney BRYAN House of Pianos WORLD PREMIERE, CSO CO-COMMISSION (b. 1982)

I. rent party

II. jam session

III. homecoming

IV. sanctuary

V. praise house

INTERMISSION

Edward K. (“Duke”) Night Creature ELLINGTON Blind Bug (1899–1974) Stalking Monster transcr. Berger Dazzling Creature

George GERSHWIN An American in Paris (1898–1937)

ed. Clague

These performances are approximately 115 minutes long, including intermission.

The CSO is grateful to CSO Season Sponsor Western & Southern Financial Group and Presenting Sponsor HORAN

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra is grateful to Kari and Jon Ullman for their support of the CSO co-commissioned World Premiere of Courtney Bryan’s Piano Concerto.

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra is grateful for the support of the Louise Dieterle Nippert Musical Arts Fund of the Greenacres Foundation and the Nina Browne Parker Trust, and for the thousands of people who give generously to the ArtsWave Community Campaign. This project was supported in part by the Ohio Arts Council, which receives support from the State of Ohio and the National Endowment for the Arts

Pre-Concert Talks are made possible by an endowed gift from Melody Sawyer Richardson

WGUC is the Media Partner for these concerts.

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in-orchestra Steinway piano is made possible in part by the Jacob G. Schmidlapp Trust Steinway Pianos, courtesy of Willis Music, is the official piano of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops.

Listen to program selections on 90.9 WGUC July 16, 2023 at 8 pm, followed by 30 days of streaming at cincinnatisymphony.org/replay.

Composed: 1923

Premiere: October 25, 1923, Paris, by the Swedish Ballet

Instrumentation: 2 flutes (incl. piccolo), oboe, 2 clarinets, alto saxophone, bassoon, horn, 2 trumpets, trombone, timpani, bass drum with pedal, cowbell, crash cymbals, snare drum, tambour de Basque, tambourin Provençal, tenor drum, wood block, piano, strings

CSO notable performances: First

Performance: March 1970, Erich Kunzel conducting. Most Recent: February 2021, Louis Langrée conducting.

Duration: approx. 16 minutes

DARIUS MILHAUD

Born: September 4, 1892, Aix-en-Provence

Died: June 22, 1974, Geneva, Switzerland

La création du monde (“The Creation of the World”), Op. 81

In 1922, Milhaud was on tour to the United States as composer, lecturer and pianist. “When I arrived in New York,” he wrote, “I told the newspaper men interviewing me that European music was being considerably influenced by American music. ‘But whose music?’ they asked me; ‘MacDowell’s or Carpenter’s?’ ‘Neither the one nor the other,’ I answered, ‘I mean jazz.’” Milhaud sought out jazz performances at every opportunity. He heard Leo Reisman’s band (which played, he recorded, with “extreme refinement”) and the famous orchestra of Paul Whiteman (“a sort of RollsRoyce of dance music”), the ensemble that would help Gershwin “make a lady of jazz” (said Walter Damrosch) two years later with the Rhapsody in Blue. Milhaud’s strongest impressions of American jazz, however, were not received in the swank mid-town hotels and night clubs, but further uptown: “Harlem had not yet been discovered by the snobs and aesthetes: we were the only white folks there. The music I heard was absolutely different from anything I had ever heard before and was a revelation to me. Against the beat of the drums melodic lines crisscrossed in a breathless pattern of broken and twisted rhythms.... When I went back to France, I never wearied of playing over and over the Black Swan records I had purchased in a little shop in Harlem.”

“As soon as I came back from the United States,” Milhaud continued, “I got in touch with [the designer] Fernand Léger and [the writer] Blaise Cendrars, with whom I was to work on a new ballet for Rolf de Maré [impresario of the Swedish Ballet]. Cendrars chose for the subject of his scenario the creation of the world, going for his inspiration to African folklore.... Léger wanted to adapt primitive Negro art and paint the dropcurtain and the scenery with African divinities expressive of power and darkness.... At last, in La création du monde, I had the opportunity I had been waiting for to use those elements of jazz to which I had devoted so much study. I adopted the same orchestra as used in Harlem [two flutes, oboe, two clarinets, E-flat saxophone, bassoon, horn, two trumpets, trombone, much percussion, two violins, cello and bass], and I made wholesale use of the jazz style to convey a purely classical feeling.”

Robert Lawrence gave the following synopsis of La création du monde:

The chaos of pre-Creation is seen on a darkened stage as the curtain rises. Three aboriginal deities move among a tangled mass of bodies, muttering incantations. The mass responds to their charms. First a tree rises and lets fall one of its seeds, from which rises still another tree. Now animals appear, every one of them springing—as in the process of evolution—from a more primitive predecessor. Finally, as the three deities pronounce new spells, Man and Woman emerge. They perform a dance of desire, excited by the presence of primeval sorcerers and witch doctors. At last the frenzy of the celebrants subsides; the dancers disperse; and Man and Woman are left alone in a symbolic embrace which assures the fertility of human life.

—Dr. Richard E. Rodda

Darius Milhaud

Below: Scale model showing costume and set designs for La création du monde, by Fernand Léger, artist, costume and set designer, 1923.

COURTNEY BRYAN

Born: 1982, New Orleans, Louisiana

House of Pianos WORLD PREMIERE, CSO CO-COMMISSION

“A pianist and composer of panoramic interests” (The New York Times), Courtney Bryan is currently composer-in-residence with Opera Philadelphia and Creative Partner with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra.

Bryan performed as soloist in the world premiere of the chamber ensemble version of House of Pianos, with the LA Phil New Music Group led by Paolo Bortolameolli, and performs again in this weekend’s premiere of the full orchestra version with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Louis Langrée. Bryan’s Gathering Song, with libretto by Tazewell Thompson, was premiered in March by the New York Philharmonic and bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green, conducted by Leslie B. Dunner. Other recent works include Blessed, commissioned by Opera Philadelphia and produced as a film that weaves together musical recordings and footage from New Orleans, New York and Philadelphia; Syzygy for violin and orchestra, premiered by Jennifer Koh and the Chicago Sinfonietta; and Yet Unheard for soprano, chorus and orchestra, commissioned by The Dream Unfinished and premiered with Helga Davis. Her compositions have been performed by the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, Jacksonville Symphony (Mary Carr Patton Composer-InResidence, 2018–20), London Sinfonietta, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Chicago Sinfonietta, Quince Ensemble as part of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra MusicNOW series, American Composers Orchestra, Colorado Springs Philharmonic, La Jolla Symphony and Chorus, New York Jazzharmonic, Spektral String Quartet and Talea Ensemble.

Bryan’s interest across multiple artforms have led to collaborations with visual artists Tiona Nekkia McClodden, Steffani Jemison, Abigail DeVille, Kara Lynch, Lake Simons, Amy Bryan and Alma Bryan Powell; director Patricia McGregor; writers Sharan Strange, Matthew D. Morrison and Ashon Crawley; and musicians Branford Marsalis, Jennifer Koh, Ryan Speedo Green, Helga Davis, Brandee Younger and Damian Norfleet. Bryan holds a doctorate in composition from Columbia University, where she studied with George Lewis. She also holds degrees from Oberlin Conservatory (BM) and Rutgers University (MM). Bryan completed postdoctoral studies in the Department of African American Studies at Princeton University. She is currently the Albert and Linda Mintz Professor of Music at Newcomb College in the School of Liberal Arts at Tulane University. Recent accolades include the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts (2018), Samuel Barber Rome Prize in Music Composition (2019–20), United States Artists Fellowship (2020), and the Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship (2020–21).

Bryan has released two recordings, Quest for Freedom (2007) and This Little Light of Mine (2010); a third recording is in progress, Sounds of Freedom

Of her Piano Concerto, House of Pianos (co-commissioned by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and LA Philharmonic), Bryan says:

My piano concerto, House of Pianos, is a love letter to the many pianists who have inspired me over the years. It is a dream world where I enter a house full of pianos and journey from room to room witnessing gatherings of legendary pianists from various times and places. I join them in reverence and with thanksgiving and joy.

House of Pianos depicts five “scenes”: “rent party,” “jam session,” “homecoming,” “sanctuary” and “praise house.”

Composed: 2022, CSO co-commission

Premiere: These performances are the world premiere of the version for piano and full orchestra; in February 2023, the LA Philharmonic New Music Group gave the premiere of the version for piano with chamber orchestra.

Instrumentation: solo piano, 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, 2 bass drums, bongo, claves, cowbell, crash cymbals, finger cymbals, flexatone, high hat, rattle, snare drum, tambour de Basque, tomtom, triangle, vibraslap, wind chimes, strings

Duration: approx. 20 minutes

Courtney Bryan, ©Taylor Hunter

EDWARD K. (“DUKE”) ELLINGTON, transcr. Berger

Born: April 29, 1899, Washington, D.C.

Died: May 24, 1974, New York, New York

Night Creature

Duke Ellington’s influence on American music is far-reaching. Not only did he blur the lines that existed between popular and classical music, but Ellington also challenged the cultural hierarchy that devalued Black music. Throughout his nearly five-decade career, Ellington used his music as the platform to promote racial pride, historize the Black experience in America, and advocate for social change and racial understanding. He also had a whimsical side that underscored some of his more experimental works like the opera Queenie Pie and the tone poem Night Creature

In the 1950s, when jazz shifted to an aesthetic centered on smaller ensembles, Ellington continued to chart a course of experimentation that positioned the jazz orchestra as the vehicle for an idiom of American concert music. Along with pianist/arranger Mary Lou Williams, he was instrumental in elevating the jazz suite and tone poem as vehicles for advancing the modern orchestral jazz aesthetic that appeared in the 1940s. Most of Ellington’s compositions in this idiom were written primarily for standard jazz orchestra (big band) instrumentation. However, in 1955, he extended his compositional voice to include the symphony orchestra. Commissioned by Don Gillis for the Symphony of the Air, Night Creature premiered in Carnegie Hall the same year, but was not recorded by Ellington until 1963.

The composition is a three-movement nocturnal fairytale that explores the activities of the insects, monsters and creatures that rule the night. Each movement portrays a different scenario and also different melodic and thematic material.

The first movement, “Blind Bug,” tells the story of “a blind bug who comes out every night to find that because he is king of the night creatures, he must dance. The reason he is king, of course, is that being blind, he lives in night all day, and when night really comes, he sees as well as anyone else, but with the difference that he is accustomed to not seeing. So, he puts out his antennae and goes into his dance, and if his antennae warn him of danger, he pauses, turns in another direction, and continues bugging the jitterbugs.” This movement is pure Ellingtonia and a reminder that he never conformed to conventions that defined the sound of the commercialized jazz idiom that grew in popularity during the 1930s and 1940s. The riffs and rhythms are funky, smooth and sophisticated providing the perfect palette for this nocturnal dance.

The second movement, “Stalking Monster,” is “concerned with that imaginary monster we all fear we shall have to meet some midnight, but when we meet him, I’m sure we shall find that he too does the boogiewoogie.” This movement takes on the identity of a concerto grosso with groupings of instruments scripting small ritornelli that build on the “stalking” motive introduced by the piano and drums at the beginning. This blues-tinged ostinato is developed through the introduction of different riffs that alternate with solos played by violin, trumpet and alto sax. Emblems of Ellington’s style, like growling trumpets and trombones and complex rhythmic and melodic interplay between sections of instruments, are present throughout.

The underpinning of the clave rhythm of Afro-Cuban music as well as the inclusion of bongos, maracas and claves in the third movement, invokes comparisons with Juan Tizol’s “Caravan,” which became a staple in Ellington’s performance repertory. “Dazzling Creature” portrays the culminating event of nocturnal activities—the entrance of the Queen of the Night:

Composed: 1956, on commission from Don Gillis and the Symphony of the Air

Premiere: 1956, Don Gillis and the Symphony of the Air, Carnegie Hall, New York

Instrumentation: 2 flutes (incl. piccolo), oboe (incl. English horn), 2 clarinets (incl. bass clarinet), 2 alto saxophones, 2 tenor saxophones, baritone saxophone, bassoon, 2 horns, 4 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bongo drums, maracas, suspended cymbals, drum set, jazz bass, harp, piano, strings

CSO notable performances: First/Most Recent Performance: April 2021, Louis Langrée conducting.

Duration: approx. 17 minutes

Edward K. (“Duke”) Ellington

Check out our NEW DIGITAL PROGRAM! For even more enriching content including full-length biographies, digital content and more, text PROGRAM to 513.845.3024*, visit cincinnatisymphony. org/digital-program, or point your phone’s camera at the QR code.

Night creatures, unlike stars, do not come out at night—they come on, each thinking that before the night is out, he or she will be the star. They are the restless cool whose exotic or erotic animations, no matter how cool, beg for recognition, mainly from the queen, that dazzling woman who reigns over all night creatures. She is the theme of the third movement. sitting there on her high place and singing, “I want to be acknowledged” (in D major), or “Who but me shall be desired?”

(in A-flat), or “Who has the taste for my choreography?” (in A minor). After having made each of her subjects feel that Her Majesty sings only for him or her, who is individually the coolest or craziest, her high-toned highness rises and snaps her fingers. As they stomp off the handclapping, everybody scrambles to be in place, wailing and winging into the most overindulged form of up-and-outness.

In 1974 Alvin Ailey choreographed a series of dances to this music. Night Creature is one of many Ellington compositions that remains a staple in the famed dance company’s repertory.

—Dr. Tammy L. Kernodle

GEORGE GERSHWIN, ed. Clague

Born: September 26, 1898, Brooklyn, New York

Died: July 12, 1937, Hollywood, California

An American in Paris

In 1928, George Gershwin was not only the toast of Broadway, but of all America, Britain and many spots in Europe, as well: he had produced a string of successful shows (Rosalie and Funny Face were both running on Broadway that spring), composed two of the most popular concert pieces in recent memory (Rhapsody in Blue and the Piano Concerto in

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F), and was leading a life that would have made the most glamorous socialite jealous. The pace-setting Rhapsody in Blue of 1924 had shown a way to bridge the worlds of jazz and serious music, a direction Gershwin followed further in the exuberant yet haunting Piano Concerto in F the following year. He was eager to move further into the concert world, and during a side trip in March 1926 to Paris from London, where he was preparing the English premiere of Lady Be Good, he hit upon an idea, a “walking theme” he called it, that seemed to capture the impression of an American visitor to the city “as he strolls about, listens to the various street noises, and absorbs the French atmosphere.” He worried that “this melody is so complete in itself, I don’t know where to go next,” but the purchase of four Parisian taxi horns on the Avenue de la Grande Armée inspired a second theme for the piece. Late in 1927, a commission for a new orchestral composition from Walter Damrosch, music director of the New York Symphony and conductor of the sensational premiere of the Concerto in F, caused Gershwin to gather up his Parisian sketches, and by January 1928, he was at work on the score: An American in Paris When he returned to New York in late June, he discovered that the New York Symphony had announced the premiere for the upcoming season, so he worked on the piece throughout the autumn and finished the orchestration only a month before the premiere, on December 13, 1928. An American in Paris, though met with a mixed critical reception, proved a great success with the public, and it quickly became clear that Gershwin had scored yet another hit.

For the premiere, Deems Taylor collaborated with the composer to produce the following insouciant description of An American in Paris:

You are to imagine an American visiting Paris, swinging down the Champs-Elysées. He starts off to the tune of The First Walking Theme.

French taxicabs seem to amuse him particularly, a fact that the orchestra points out in brief episodes introducing four real Paris taxi horns. Our American strolls on through the medium of The Second Walking Theme, which is announced by the clarinet in French with a strong American accent.

It may be that he continues down the Champs-Elysées, and that when The Third Walking Theme makes its eventual appearance our American has crossed the Seine and is somewhere on the Left Bank. The end of this section is couched in terms so unmistakably, albeit pleasantly, blurred as to suggest that the American is on a terrasse of a café exploring the mysteries of Anise de Lozo

And now the orchestra introduces an unhallowed episode. Suffice it to say that a solo violin approaches our hero (in the soprano register) and addresses him in the most charming broken English. Of course, one hastens to add, it is possible that the whole episode is simply a musical transition. This may well be true, for otherwise it is difficult to believe what ensues: our hero becomes homesick. He has the blues; and if the behavior of the solo trumpet be any criterion, he has them very thoroughly.

However, nostalgia is not a fatal disease. Just in the nick of time the compassionate orchestra rushes another theme to the rescue, a noisy, cheerful, self-confident Charleston without a drop of Gallic blood in its veins. Walking Theme Number Two enters soon thereafter, enthusiastically abetted by Number Three. The blues return but mitigated by the Second Walking Theme—a happy reminiscence rather than a homesick yearning—and the orchestra, in a riotous finale, decides to make a night of it. It will be great to get home; but meanwhile, this is Paris!

—Dr. Richard E. Rodda

Composed: 1928

Premiere: December 13, 1928, New York, conducted by Walter Damrosch

Instrumentation: 3 flutes (incl. piccolo), 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 3 saxophones doubling on soprano, alto, tenor and baritone sax, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, snare drum, crash cymbals, triangle, xylophone, glockenspiel, ratchet, suspended cymbals, tenor drum, wood block, bass drum, 2 tom-toms, 4 taxi horns of different pitches, celeste, strings

CSO notable performances: First

Performance: March 1929, Fritz Reiner conducting; overseen by George Gershwin. Most Recent: March 2019 Louis Langrée conducting (also, February 2020 Pops concert, John Morris Russell conducting).

Recording: Transatlantic (2019, Fanfare Cincinnati label), Louis Langrée conducting; Grammynominated for Best Orchestral Performance, 62nd Annual Grammy Awards (2019). Other: March 2017 tour to Asia, Louis Langrée conducting; September 2017 European tour, Louis Langrée conducting.

Duration: approx. 20 minutes

George Gershwin

FRI MAY 12, 7:30 pm

Harry T. Wilks Studio, Music Hall

Eugène BOZZA Duettino pour deux bassons (1905–1991)

Allegro moderato

Andantino

Allegro ma non torppo (stretto canonique)

Allegro ma non troppo

Christopher Sales, bassoon Hugh Michie, bassoon

Johannes BRAHMS Trio for Piano, Violin and Horn in E-flat Major, Op. 40 (1833–1897)

Andante Scherzo

Adagio mesto

Allegro con bio

Rachel Charbel, violin Molly Norcross, horn Joshua Nemith, piano

INTERMISSION

Olivier MESSIAEN Quatour pour la fin du temps (1908–1992) (“Quartet for the End of Time”)

I. Liturgie de cristal (“Crystal liturgy”)

II. Vocalise, pour l’Ange qui annonce la fin du temps (“Vocalise, for the Angel who announces the end of time”)

III. Abîme des oiseaux (“Abyss of birds”)

IV. Intermède (“Interlude”)

V. Louange à l’Éternité de Jésus (“Praise to the eternity of Jesus”)

VI. Danse de la fureur, pour les sept trompettes (“Dance of fury, for the seven trumpets”)

VII. Fouillis d’arcs-en-ciel, pour l’Ange qui annonce la fin du temps (“Tangle of rainbows, for the Angel who announces the end of time”)

VIII. Louange à l’immortalité de Jésus (“Praise to the immortality of Jesus”)

Charles Morey, violin

Joseph Morris, clarinet Alan Rafferty, cello Michael Chertock, piano

YOU’RE INVITED to greet the musicians after the concert.

The CSO Chamber Players series has been endowed in perpetuity by the ELEANORA C.U. ALMS TRUST, Fifth Third Bank, Trustee

Steinway Pianos, courtesy of Willis Music, is the official piano of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops.

This performance is approximately 120 minutes long, including intermission.

EUGÈNE BOZZA

Born: April 4, 1905, Nice, France

Died: September 28, 1991, Valenciennes, France

Duettino pour deux bassons

It was for his operas that French composer and conductor Eugène Bozza achieved prominence during his lifetime, but his posthumous recognition centers largely on his more modest works for woodwinds and brass. A good number of them have become favorites for chamber music programs, despite (or perhaps because) the composer tended to favor idiosyncratic combinations of instruments.

Bozza was a stunning young talent who was shaped artistically by Parisian trends between the two world wars. Over his lifetime, his body of work seems to have embraced every -ism of the 20th century: expressionism, futurism, objectivism, serialism, minimalism, maximalism. Yet his characteristic charm, elegance, lyricism and humor are never in short supply.

Bozza’s Duettino pour deux bassons is no exception: its title, a mix of Italian and French (as was the composer himself) presages the mischievousness in the work via Bozza’s choice of the diminutive, Duettino. The 1954 work, written during the composer’s tenure as the director of the conservatory of Valenciennes, reflects the distinctly Parisian pedigree of the bassoon idiom: both Paul Dukas’ The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring are echoed in the work.

The work unfolds in four short movements. The first, Allegro moderato, is structured in three sections. It opens in C major, in common time, with the staccato tune volleyed between the two performers in imitation. The second section shifts the character to one of grace and lyric elegance as the arpeggios of one bassoon accompany the soaring aria of the other. The opening motive then returns, once again seesawing between the two players before coming to rest.

The second movement, Andantino, also opens with imitation. This time it is a cantabile melody that the composer transforms into a dialogue between the two bassoons, first in opposition, then in accord. The movement comes to rest, improbably, on the interval of a major second, elegant in spite of its dissonance.

The composer marks the third movement allegro ma non troppo, with another Italian-French composite: “stretto canonique,” that is, a canon in which the second voice enters before the first voice has finished. Here the bassoons are both persistent and playful, each stepping on the toes of the other as the movement tumbles to its conclusion.

The fourth is the only movement to open with no imitation. Rhythmic displacement and wide leaps in the lower voice accompany a burlesque march tune in the upper. Here is the dry wit of Bozza at his selfdeprecating best, puncturing his final phrases with dissonance lest the listener take his music too seriously.

—Dr. Scot Buzza

JOHANNES BRAHMS

Born: May 7, 1833, Hamburg, Germany

Died: April 3, 1897, Vienna, Austria

Trio for Piano, Violin and Horn in E-flat Major, Op. 40

Johannes Brahms certainly had an affinity for the horn. Brahms’ father, Johann Jakob, played the flute, horn, violin and double bass and taught the young Johannes to play the horn. Prominent horn passages are ubiquitous in Brahms’ orchestral works, showing up in, for example, his

Composed: 1954

Duration: approx. 10 minutes

Eugène Bozza

Composed: 1865 Premiere: November 28, 1865 in Zurich, at the Second Quartet Soiree for the Zurich Orchestra Society

Duration: approx. 30 minutes

symphonies nos. 1 and 2, Piano Concerto No. 2 and First Serenade. But, in his chamber works, Brahms employs the horn only once—in the 1865 Horn Trio, Op. 40.

A central part of Brahms’ life was walking, especially when he needed to think out musical ideas, and he particularly enjoyed walking in nature. In the summers of the 1860s, Brahms visited Lichtental, near the summer “hot spot” and spa town of Baden-Baden and located in the Black Forest. Summers in Baden-Baden were filled with a who’s-who of 19th-century European literature, music, art, science and upper-class nobility. But perhaps it was the draw of Clara Schumann, who in 1862 (six years after her husband Robert’s death) had purchased a home in Lichtental, that kept Brahms returning summer after summer to this spa town.

In the summer of 1865, Brahms rented the attic apartment at Lichtental No. 8 (or Das hübsche Haus auf dem Hügle, “the pretty house on the hill”) from the widow Clara Becker, which would be his summer home for near a decade. Brahms penned several letters describing these lodges and the joy of being able to “look over all the mountains and paths from Lichtental to Baden.”

It was here during the summer of 1865 that Brahms composed his Op. 40 Horn Trio. Albert Dietrich, a friend of Brahms’, recalled a moment while on a walk with Brahms, “near Baden-Baden on the wooded heights between the fir trees,” when Brahms showed Dietrich “where the theme of the first movement of this composition first occurred to him.” September 27, 1865 was the first documented rehearsal of this work, which is presumed to have taken place at Clara Schumann’s Lichtental residence.

The joys of Brahms’ 1865 summer were dimmed by the passing of his mother in February of 1865. His brother, Fritz, sent a telegram stating that their mother, Christiane, had suffered a stroke, and “if you want to see our mother once again, come immediately.” Unfortunately, Brahms arrived in Hamburg too late—Christiane had already passed. Many scholars and biographers believe Op. 40 to be a work to commemorate the life of his wonderful mother.

Brahms expressly wrote this trio for “natural” horn and wrote to the publisher that the instrument “Waldhorn” (i.e. natural horn) be written on the title page: “I ask that you place Waldhorn instead of Horn on the first page. Thus Pianoforte, Violin and Waldhorn (or Violoncello).” In 1884, he wrote to the publisher again to say, “My Horn Trio should actually get a viola part instead of the violoncello part!… It could expressly say on the title page: Horn or Viola!” Brahms’ wishes are still (mostly) honored today by publishers, with the trio being sold with parts for all three possible variants: horn, viola and cello. However, Brahms’ wish for “Waldhorn” to appear on the title page has mostly gone by the wayside.

—Tyler M. Secor

OLIVIER MESSIAEN

Born: December 10, 1908, Avignon, France

Died: April 27, 1992, Paris

In 1939, French composer Olivier Messiaen, serving in the French Army, was captured by German troops and sent to the prisoner-of-war camp in Görlitz, Germany. Living conditions were brutal: nearly 50,000 prisoners huddled in 30 barracks, underfed, and unprotected from the winter cold. The German soldiers considered Messiaen harmless; they permitted him to keep the handful of miniature scores he had arrived with and provided him

Quatour pour la fin du temps (“Quartet for the End of Time”)

Johannes Brahms

with writing supplies. Thus, Olivier Messiaen did what he knew how to do: he set pencil to paper and composed music.

Before the war, Messiaen had already distinguished himself as a musician of impressive talent and imagination. Entering the Paris Conservatory at age 11, he had won first prizes in counterpoint, accompaniment, organ and composition. He later recalled that, at the conservatory, he had been the only student who had studied the scores of Schönberg’s Pierrot lunaire and Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, but that these modernist monuments were not the works that influenced him most strongly. “I was closer to Debussy. I remained loyal to my childhood loves: Debussy, Mozart, Berlioz, Wagner.”

With him in the Stalag were three other musicians: a clarinetist, a violinist and a cellist. Messiaen wrote “an unpretentious little trio,” for them, the Intermède that would eventually become the centerpiece of his Quatour pour la fin du temps. Then he transcribed two of his earlier compositions to append to the trio, and ultimately created the remaining movements that surround it. Each one called for a different combination of instruments, thus the full ensemble of four plays only in the first, second, sixth and seventh movements.

The composer, profoundly religious, chose to pursue the spiritual through his own innovative musical language; indeed, several of his works from the 1930s foreshadowed the religious elements in the musical idiom of his Quatour. He later explained, “This Quatour comprises eight movements. Why? Seven is the perfect number, the six days of Creation, sanctified by the Divine Sabbath; the seven of this rest is prolonged into eternity and becomes the eight of everlasting light, of eternal peace.” Thus, the Quatour represents the complete marriage of the theological with the technical in Messiaen’s view: “Its musical language is essentially immaterial, spiritual and Catholic. Modes which achieve a kind of tonal ubiquity, melodically and harmonically, here draw the listener towards eternity in space or the infinite. Special rhythms, beyond meter, contribute powerfully in dismissing the temporal.”

Each movement of the work corresponds to a passage in chapter 10 of the Book of Revelation, cited by the composer in the preface to the published score:

1 And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire:

2 and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth.

5 And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven,

6 And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever... that there should be time no longer:

7 But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished. [KJV]

The premiere performance of the Quatour pour la fin du temps took place in the camp on the evening of January 15, 1941. For many in the audience it was the first chamber music they had ever heard. For those prisoners for whom Görlitz was just a layover en route to the death camps, it was unquestionably the last. It may well be on behalf of those thousands that Messiaen intended the published dedication, “In homage to the Angel of the Apocalypse, who raises a hand toward Heaven saying: ‘There shall be time no longer.’”

—Dr. Scot Buzza

Olivier

Composed: 1941

Premiere: January 15, 1941, in the prisoner-of-war camp in Görlitz, Germany

Duration: approx. 52 minutes

Messiaen

2022–23 SEASON

CSYO CONCERT ORCHESTRA

SUN MAY 14, 2 pm, Music Hall VARIATIONS ON A DREAM

FELIPE MORALES-TORRES, conductor

Ebun OGUNTOLA Five (from Interval) (b. 2005)

Charles IVES “The Alcotts” from Piano Sonata No. 2 (1874–1954)

arr. John Boyd

Michael DAUGHERTY Strut for String Orchestra (b. 1954)

Margaret Allison BONDS The Montgomery Variations (1913–1972)

arr. J. Michael Cooper

Alan LAWSON Legacy (b. 1993)

James COCKERHAM Fantasia on Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing (b. 1948)

CSYO PHILHARMONIC

SUN MAY 14, 7 pm, Music Hall REMEMBRANCE

DANIEL WILEY, conductor VIVIAN CHANG, violin

Omar THOMAS Of Our New Day Begun (b. 1984)

Jean SIBELIUS Concerto in D Minor for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 47 (1865–1957)

Allegro moderato

INTERMISSION

Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 5 in D Minor, Op. 47 (1906–1975) Moderato. Allegro non troppo. Largamente. Moderato Allegretto

Largo

Allegro non troppo. Allegro

Program notes for these concerts will appear in an insert to be available on May 14.

The CSO thanks Coney Island for its generous sponsorship of the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestras. Support provided by The Charles H. Dater Foundation and The Marge & Charles J. Schott Foundation

The Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestras is a program of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and receives generous support in the form of rehearsal space from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and Walnut Hills High School.

CSYO CONCERT ORCHESTRA ROSTER 2022–23

FIRST VIOLIN

Angela Tang, Concertmaster

Marley Feng, Assistant Concertmaster

Andrew Cheng+

Ishanvi Karthikeyan

Paul Ku

Sophia Li

Sophina Li

Cattleya Meyers

Kenneth Wu

Raina Yang

Ethan Yao

Irene Zhang

Emily Zhao

SECOND VIOLIN

Anna Christos, Principal

Arjuna Verma, Assistant Principal

Lara Goodall+

Sophia Hamel

Allyson Kim

Evelyn Kunkel

Julia Li

Sarah Perpignan

Ben Truong

Kevin Wen

Angela Zhang

Alisa Zhao

VIOLA

Noah Huber, Principal

Benjamin Zhou, Assistant

Principal

Adhithya Arasu+

Alexandra Kirk

Wendy Lin

Adah Muck

Madeline Murray

Lainie Stautberg

Trinity Thrasher

CELLO

Matthew Hruska, Principal

Anish Patil, Assistant Principal

Amelia Cecilio+

Andrew Chung

Lorelai Gartside

Dianna Hester

Kevin Kim

Autumn Rinaldi

Jayden Thrasher

Kate Wells

Vivian Xu

William Yeoh

BASS

Loki Wirman, Principal

Owen Lutz, Assistant Principal

Josiah Ericksen

Aaron Scott

FLUTE/PICCOLO

Katelyn Cheng

Maya Hansen

Alejandra Saavedra

Lance Zhang

OBOE/ENGLISH HORN

Emma Hull

Simon Huth

Arjuna Lee

CLARINET

Morgan Cloud

Meredith Hall

Richa Jha

BASSOON

Jackson Hatfield

Angylynn Kiss

Marian Rose

HORN

Joyce Chan

Charles Healy

Josh Knehans

Eden Proctor

TRUMPET

Mason Hignite

Katie Koziel

CSYO PHILHARMONIC ROSTER 2022–23

FIRST VIOLIN

Christy Kim, Concertmaster

Vivian Chang, Assistant Concertmaster

Angelina Chen+

Johan DeMessie

Nicholas Donnellan

Madeline Dugan

Yuhan Gu

Annie Li

Edward Li

Leo Luo

Mara Seppala

Ian Shang

Isabelle Tardivon

Maggie Vonderschmidt

Jieun Woo

Jillian Wu

SECOND VIOLIN

Erica Nam, Principal Second

Stephen Dorsey, Assistant Principal Second

Hollis Chan+

Grace Chi

Evelyn Gao

Monica Geiman

Joshua Koo

Shelby Li

Anuj Mantha

Norika Oya

Caden Schroeder

Alex Tran

Kyle Wang

Yeming You

Alina Zhang

VIOLA

Maeve Henderson, Principal

Christina Shiomitsu, Assistant Principal

James Bingcang+

Gabriel Caal

Benedict Cecilio

Cuong Diep

Seth Israel

Christina Lehmann

Broderick Merz

Ben Wells

Grace Yu

Julia Zhu

CELLO

Ari Peraza-Webb, Principal

Paul Orth, Assistant Principal

Samvit Das+

Jayden Lu

Krish Subramanian

Owen Summers

Claron Wang

Shin-yi Wang

Howard Weng

Jihye Woo

BASS

Sophia Troyer, Principal

Kindall Benjamin

Nora O’Donnell

FLUTE/PICCOLO

Marissa Hull

Grace Kim 3

Lauren Simon

Mingjia Zhang 1,2

OBOE/ENGLISH HORN

Julia Bradley

Joseph Mitchell 2,3

Zoe Schnadower

Isaac Scott

CLARINET

Kotaro Fujiwara 1,2

Samuel Langer

Kylie Quinn 3

Zachary Ramsey

BASSOON

Liam Ferguson 1,2

Emma Laude 3

Ella Sweeney

HORN

Brayden Adamisin 1,2

Jayce Mullins

Alex Riley 3

Lily Wheatley

TROMBONE

Tvasta Gajjar

Eshaan Gandhi

Aaron Haas

Ayden Mygatt

TUBA

Wilaini Alicea

HARP

Cody Banschbach

Abel Mooney-Bullock

PERCUSSION

Adolphus McCullom II

Justin Melvin

Jason Nguyen

+Begins the alphabetical listing of players who participate in a system of rotated seating within a string section.

All wind players are considered principals and rotate between pieces.

TRUMPET

Shelby Gault

Stephen Stricker 1,2

Thomas Stricker 3

Trent Stricker

TROMBONE

Karna Gajjar

Sean LaRoy 3

Hamlin Monday 1 2

TUBA

Matthew Lyons

HARP

Karma Fecher

Veronika Stanichar

PERCUSSION

Brooke Hube

Jonathan Kaseff

+Begins the alphabetical listing of players who participate in a system of rotated seating within a string section.

1 principal, Thomas

2 principal, Sibelius

3 principal, Shostakovich

INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT

Local and national foundations, businesses, and government agencies are integral to the Orchestra’s vibrant performances, community engagement work, and education activities. We are proud to partner with the following funders.

SERIES SPONSORS

PLATINUM BATON CIRCLE ($50,000+)

ArtsWave

Charles H. Dater Foundation

The Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile, Jr. Foundation

Hamilton County

David C. Herriman Fund of Greater Cincinnati Foundation

Carl Jacobs Foundation

H.B., E.W., F.R. Luther Charitable Foundation

The Mellon Foundation

Dr. John & Louise Mulford Fund for the CSO

National Endowment for the Arts

Louise Dieterle Nippert Musical Arts Fund of the Greenacres Foundation

Ohio Arts Council

PNC Bank

Margaret McWilliams Rentschler Fund of Greater Cincinnati Foundation

Nina Browne Parker Trust

Harold C. Schott Foundation / Francie and Tom Hiltz, Trustees

Marge and Charles J. Schott Foundation

The Louise Taft Semple Foundation

Skyler Foundation

US Small Business Administration

Western & Southern Financial Group

Anonymous

GOLD BATON CIRCLE ($25,000–$49,999)

City Of Cincinnati

Coney Island

The Cincinnati Symphony Club

Fifth Third Bank Foundation

Jeffrey & Jody Lazarow and Janie & Peter Schwartz Family Fund of Greater Cincinnati Foundation

George and Margaret McLane Foundation

The Ladislas & Vilma Segoe Family Foundation

United Dairy Farmers & Homemade Brand Ice Cream

The Wohlgemuth Herschede Foundation

SILVER BATON CIRCLE ($15,000–$24,999)

Drive Media House

HORAN

The Jewish Federation of Cincinnati

The Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati

Jewish Cincinnati Bicentennial

Johnson Investment Counsel

League Of American Orchestras

The Rendigs Foundation

2022 ARTSWAVE PARTNERS

Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP

Scott and Charla Weiss Wodecroft Foundation

CONDUCTOR’S CIRCLE ($10,000–$14,999)

Bartlett Wealth Management

Chemed Corporation

The Crosset Family Fund of Greater Cincinnati Foundation

Kelly Dehan and Rick Staudigel

Graeter’s Ice Cream

Peter E. Landgren and Judith Schonbach Landgren

Mariner Wealth Advisors

Messer Construction Co.

Ohio National Financial Services

Oliver Family Foundation

The Daniel & Susan Pfau Foundation

The Procter & Gamble Company

CONCERTMASTER’S CIRCLE ($5,000–$9,999)

JRH Consultants

Levin Family Foundation

Metro

The Willard & Jean Mulford Charitable Fund

Pyro-Technical Investigations, Inc.

Queen City (OH) Chapter of The Links, Incorporated

Thompson Hine LLP

ARTIST’S CIRCLE ($2,500–$4,999)

d.e. Foxx and Associates, Inc.

Keating Muething & Klekamp

Mayerson Jewish Community Center

Charles Scott Riley III Foundation

BUSINESS & FOUNDATION PARTNERS (up to $2,499)

African American Chamber of Commerce

Visit Cincy

Classics for Kids Foundation

Albert B. Cord Charitable Foundation

D’Addario Foundation

Earthward Bound Foundation

Susan Friedlander

Hixson Architecture Engineering Interiors

Integrity Development

Journey Steel

Robert A. & Marian K. Kennedy Charitable Trust

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

The Voice of Your Customer

Toi and Jay Wagstaff

Join this distinguished group!

Contact Sean Baker at 513.744.3363 or sbaker@cincinnatisymphony.org to learn how you can become a supporter of the CSO and Pops. This list is updated quarterly.

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops acknowledge the following partner companies, foundations and their employees who generously participate in the Annual ArtsWave Community Campaign at the $100,000+ level.

$2 million+ P&G

$1 million to $1,999,999

Fifth Third Bank and the Fifth Third Foundation

$500,000 to $999,999

GE

$300,000 to 499,999

altafiber

Western & Southern Financial Group

$100,000–$299,999

Cincinnati Business Courier

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center

The Cincinnati Insurance Companies

Cincinnati Reds

The E.W. Scripps Company and Scripps Howard Foundation

The Enquirer | Cincinnati.com

Great American Insurance Group

The H.B., E.W. and F.R. Luther Charitable Foundation, Fifth Third Bank, N.A., Trustee

The Kroger Co.

Messer Construction Co.

Ohio National Financial Services

PNC

U.S. Bank

Duke Energy

PERMANENT ENDOWMENTS

Endowment gifts perpetuate your values and create a sustainable future for the Orchestra. We extend our deep gratitude to the donors who have provided permanent endowments in support of our programs that are important to them. For more information about endowment gifts, contact Kate Farinacci, Director of Special Campaigns & Legacy Giving, at 513.744.3202.

ENDOWED CHAIRS

Grace M. Allen Chair

Ellen A. & Richard C. Berghamer Chair

Robert E. & Fay Boeh Chair

The Marc Bohlke Chair Given by Katrin & Manfred Bohlke

Trish & Rick Bryan Chair

Otto M Budig Chair Family Foundation Chair

Mary Alice Heekin Burke Chair

Peter G. Courlas–Nicholas Tsimaras Chair

Ona Hixon Dater Chair

The Anne G. & Robert W. Dorsey Chair+

Jane & David Ellis Chair

Irene & John J. Emery Chair

James M. Ewell Chair

Ashley & Barbara Ford Chair for Assistant Conductor

Ashley & Barbara Ford Chair for Assistant Conductor

Ashley & Barbara Ford Chair for Principal Tuba

Susan S. & William A. Friedlander Chair+

Charles Gausmann Chair

Susanne & Philip O. Geier, Jr. Chair+

Emma Margaret & Irving D. Goldman Chair

Clifford J. Goosmann and Andrea M. Wilson Chair for First Violin

Charles Frederic Goss Chair

Jean Ten Have Chair

Dorothy & John Hermanies Chair

Lois Klein Jolson Chair

Michael L. Cioffi & Rachael Rowe— the Honorable Nathaniel R. Jones Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer

Josephine I. & David J. Joseph, Jr. Chair

Harold B. & Betty Justice Chair

Marvin Kolodzik and Linda S. Gallaher Chair for Cello+

Al Levinson Chair

Patricia Gross Linnemann Chair+

Alberta & Dr. Maurice Marsh Chair

Stephen P. McKean Chair

Laura Kimble McLellan Chair

The Henry Meyer Chair

Louise Dieterle Nippert & Louis Nippert Chairs

Ida Ringling North Chair Rawson Chair

The Vicky & Rick Reynolds Chair in honor of William A. Friedlander+

Donald & Margaret Robinson Chair

Dianne & J. David Rosenberg Chair+

Ruth F. Rosevear Chair

The Morleen & Jack Rouse Chair+

Emalee Schavel Chair

Karl & Roberta Schlachter Family Chair

Serge Shababian Chair

Melinda & Irwin Simon Chair+

Anna Sinton Taft Chair

Tom & Dee Stegman Chair+

Mary & Joseph S. Stern, Jr. Chair+

Cynthia & Frank Stewart Chair

The Jackie & Roy Sweeney

Family Chair

The Sweeney Family Chair in memory of Donald C. Sweeney

Brenda & Ralph Taylor Chair

James P. Thornton Chair

Nicholas Tsimaras–Peter G. Courlas Chair

Thomas Vanden Eynden Chair

Jo Ann & Paul Ward Chair

Matthew & Peg Woodside Chair

Mary M. & Charles F. Yeiser Chair

ENDOWED PERFORMANCES & PROJECTS

Eleanora C. U. Alms Trust, Fifth Third Bank, Trustee

Rosemary and Frank Bloom

Endowment Fund*+

Cincinnati Bell Foundation Inc.

Mr. & Mrs. Val Cook

Nancy & Steve Donovan*

Sue and Bill Friedlander

Endowment Fund*+

Mrs. Charles Wm Anness*, Mrs. Frederick D. Haffner, Mrs. Gerald Skidmore and the La Vaughn Scholl Garrison Fund

Fred L. & Katherine H. Groll Fund for Musical Excellence

Fred L. & Katherine H. Groll Fund for Great Artists

Fred L. & Katherine H. Groll Trust

Pianist Fund

The Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile, Jr. Foundation Endowment Fund

Anne Heldman Endowment Fund**

Mr. and Mrs. Lorrence T. Kellar+

Lawrence A. & Anne J. Leser*

Mr. & Mrs. Carl H. Lindner**

PNC Financial Services Group

The Procter & Gamble Fund

Vicky & Rick Reynolds Fund for Diverse Artists+

Melody Sawyer Richardson*

Rosemary and Mark Schlachter

Endowment Fund*+

The Harold C. Schott Foundation, Francie and Tom Hiltz

Endowment Fund+

Peggy Selonick Fund for Great Artists

Dee and Tom Stegman

Endowment Fund*+

Mr. & Mrs. Joseph S. Stern, Jr. Fund for Great Artists

U. S. Bank Foundation*

Sallie and Randolph Wadsworth Endowment Fund+

Educational Concerts

Rosemary & Frank Bloom *

Cincinnati Financial Corporation & The Cincinnati Insurance Companies

The Margaret Embshoff

Educational Fund

Kate Foreman Young Peoples Fund

George & Anne Heldman+

Macy’s Foundation

Vicky & Rick Reynolds*+

William R. Schott Family**

Western-Southern Foundation, Inc.

Anonymous (3)+

OTHER NAMED FUNDS

Ruth Meacham Bell Memorial Fund

Frank & Mary Bergstein Fund for Musical Excellence+

Jean K. Bloch Music Library Fund

Cora Dow Endowment Fund

Corbett Educational Endowment**

Belmon U. Duvall Fund

Ewell Fund for Riverbend Maintenance

Linda & Harry Fath

Endowment Fund

Ford Foundation Fund

Natalie Wurlitzer & William Ernest Griess Cello Fund

Fred L. & Katherine H. Groll Trust

Music Director Fund for Excellence

William Hurford and Lesley Gilbertson Family Fund for Guest Pianists

The Mary Ellyn Hutton Fund for Excellence in Music Education

Josephine I. & David J. Joseph, Jr. Scholarship Fund

Richard & Jean Jubelirer & Family Fund*

Elma Margaret Lapp Trust

Jésus López-Cobos Fund for Excellence

Mellon Foundation Fund

Nina Browne Parker Trust

Dorothy Robb Perin & Harold F. Poe Trust

Rieveschl Fund

Thomas Schippers Fund

Martha, Max & Alfred M. Stern

Ticket Fund

Mr. & Mrs. John R. Strauss

Student Ticket Fund

Anna Sinton & Charles P. Taft Fund

Lucien Wulsin Fund

Wurlitzer Season Ticket Fund

CSO Pooled Income Fund

CSO Musicians Emergency Fund

*Denotes support for Annual Music Program Fund

**Denotes support for the 2nd Century Campaign

+Denotes support for the Fund for Musical Excellence

HONOR ROLL OF CONTRIBUTORS

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops are grateful to the following individuals that support our efforts by making a gift to the Orchestra Fund. We extend our heartfelt thanks to each and every one and pay tribute to them here. You can join our family of donors online at cincinnatisymphony.org/donate or by contacting the Philanthropy Department at 513.744.3271.

PLATINUM BATON CIRCLE

Gifts of $50,000 and above

Mr. and Mrs. Frederick E. Bryan, III §

Michael L. Cioffi & Rachael Rowe

Sheila and Christopher C. Cole

Susan Friedlander §

Healey Liddle Family Foundation, Mel & Bruce Healey

Patti and Fred Heldman

Harold C. Schott Foundation, Francie & Tom Hiltz

Dr. Lesley Gilbertson and Dr. William Hurford

Florence Koetters

Mr. and Mrs. Robert W. McDonald

Jo Anne and Joe Orndorff

Marilyn J. and Jack D. Osborn §

In Memory of Laura Gamble Thompson

Vicky and Rick Reynolds

Dianne and J. David Rosenberg

Mike and Digi Schueler

Irwin and Melinda Simon

Tom and Dee Stegman

Jackie and Roy Sweeney Family Fund*

Mr. Randolph L. Wadsworth Jr. §

Scott and Charla Weiss

Anonymous (1)

GOLD BATON CIRCLE

Gifts of $25,000–$49,999

Dr. and Mrs. Carl G. Fischer

Ashley and Bobbie Ford §

Karlee L. Hilliard §

Edyth B. Lindner

Calvin and Patricia Linnemann

Mr. and Mrs. Timothy Maloney

Mrs. Susan M. McPartlin

G. Franklin Miller and Carolyn Baker Miller

Moe and Jack Rouse §

Ann and Harry Santen §

Mrs. Theodore Striker

Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Ullman

Nancy C. Wagner and Patricia M. Wagner §

Anonymous (1)

SILVER BATON CIRCLE

Gifts of $15,000–$24,999

Michael P Bergan and Tiffany Hanisch

Dr. and Mrs. John and Suzanne Bossert §

Mr. and Mrs. Larry Brueshaber

Mr. Gregory D. Buckley and Ms. Susan Berry-Buckley

Ms. Melanie M. Chavez

Robert and Debra Chavez

Stephen J Daush

Dianne Dunkelman and Clever Crazes for Kids

Mrs. John C. Dupree

Mrs. Charles Fleischmann

L. Timothy Giglio

Tom and Jan Hardy §

Mr. and Mrs. Joseph W. Hirschhorn §

Mr. and Mrs. Paul Isaacs

Patrick and Mary Kirk

Marvin P. Kolodzik §

Mrs. Erich Kunzel

Peter E. Landgren and Judith Schonbach Landgren

John and Ramsey Lanni

Alan Margulies and Gale Snoddy

Joseph A. and Susan E. Pichler Fund*

Elizabeth Schulenberg

Kelly Dehan and Rick Staudigel

Sarah Thorburn

Dale Uetrecht

DeeDee and Gary West §

Mrs. James W. Wilson, Jr.

Mr. and Mrs. James M. Zimmerman §

CONDUCTOR’S CIRCLE

Gifts of $10,000–$14,999

Mr. and Mrs. Lars C. Anderson, Sr.

Martha G. Anness §

Robert D. Bergstein

Mrs. Thomas E. Davidson §

Dr. and Mrs. Alberto Espay

Mr. and Mrs. Tom Evans

CCI Design, Molly and Tom Garber

Anne E. Mulder and Rebecca M. Gibbs

Mr. and Mrs. Scott Gruner

Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Hone

Will and Lee Lindner

Whitney and Phillip Long

Mark and Tia Luegering

Holly and Louis Mazzocca

In memory of Bettie Rehfeld

Mr. Bradford Phillips III

Mr. Michael E. Phillips

David and Jenny Powell

Bill and Lisa Sampson

Mark S. and Rosemary K. Schlachter §

Mr. Dennis Schoff and Ms. Nina Sorensen

Mr. Lawrence Schumacher

In memory of Mary and Joseph S. Stern, Jr

Ralph C. Taylor §

Tomcinoh Fund*

Mr. and Mrs. David R. Valz

Mr. and Mrs. JD Vance

Anonymous (1)

CONCERTMASTER’S CIRCLE

Gifts of $5,000–$9,999

Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Akers

Drs. Frank and Mary Albers

Heather Apple and Mary Kay Koehler

Thomas P. Atkins

Mrs. Thomas B. Avril

Joe and Patricia Baker

Kathleen and Michael Ball

Robert and Janet Banks

Louis D. Bilionis and Ann Hubbard

Mr. Henry Boehmer

Robert L. Bogenschutz

Dr. Ralph P. Brown

The Otto M. Budig Family Foundation

Gordon Christenson

Sally and Rick Coomes

K.M. Davis

Dennis W. and Cathy Dern

Laura Doerger-Roberts & Peter Roberts

Jean and Rick Donaldson

Nancy and Steve Donovan

Connie and Buzz Dow

Mrs. Diana T. Dwight

In Loving Memory of Diane Zent

Mr. and Mrs. James T. Fitzgerald

Marlena and Walter Frank

Dr. and Mrs. Harry F. Fry

Kathy Grote in loving memory of Robert Howes §

Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Hamby

John B. and Judith O. Hansen

Ms. Delores Hargrove-Young

William and Jo Ann Harvey

Dr. James and Mrs. Susan Herman

Mr. Marshall C. Hunt, Jr.

Mr. and Mrs. Geoffrey Keenan

Mr. and Mrs. Lorrence T. Kellar

Michael and Marilyn Kremzar

Richard and Susan Lauf

Mrs. Jean E. Lemon §

Adele Lippert

Mrs. Robert Lippert

Elizabeth and Brian Mannion

David L. Martin

Mr. Jonathan Martin

Mandare Foundation

Barbara and Kim McCracken §

Mr. Gerron McKnight

Linda and James Miller

James and Margo Minutolo

George and Sarah Morrison III

Mr. and Mrs. David W. Motch

David and Beth Muskopf

Mr. Arthur Norman and Mrs. Lisa Lennon Norman

Dr. Manisha Patel and Dr. Michael Curran

Ms. Thienthanh Pham

Drs. Marcia Kaplan and Michael Privitera

Mr. Aftab Pureval

Terry and Marvin Quin

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas H. Quinn, Jr.

Melody Sawyer Richardson §

Ellen Rieveschl §

Elizabeth and Karl Ronn §

James and Mary Russell

Dr. E. Don Nelson and Ms. Julia Sawyer-Nelson

Martha and Lee Schimberg

Brent & Valerie Sheppard

Sue and Glenn Showers §

Rennie and David Siebenhar

Elizabeth C. B. Sittenfeld §

Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Skidmore §

Michael and Donnalyn Smith

Dr. Jean and Mrs. Anne Steichen

Nancy Steman Dierckes §

Brett Stover §

Christopher and Nancy Virgulak

Dr. Barbara R. Voelkel

Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Wachter

Mrs. Ronald F. Walker

Mrs. Paul H. Ward §

Jonathan and Janet Weaver

Donna A. Welsch

Cathy S. Willis

Andrea K. Wiot

Irene A. Zigoris

Anonymous (3)

ARTIST’S CIRCLE

Gifts of $3,000–$4,999

Dr. Charles Abbottsmith

Mr. and Mrs. Richard N. Adams

William Albertson

Mr. Nicholas Apanius

Mr. and Mrs. Gérard Baillely

Ms. Marianna Bettman

Glenn and Donna Boutilier

Thomas A. Braun, III §

Peter and Kate Brown

Janet and Bruce Byrnes

Susan and Burton Closson

Dr. Thomas and Geneva Cook

Peter G. Courlas §

Mr. and Mrs. John Cover

Marjorie Craft

Mr. and Mrs. James Dealy

George Deepe and Kris Orsborn

Bedouin and Randall Dennison

Jim and Elizabeth Dodd

Mrs. Jack E. Drake

Patricia Dudsic

Dr. and Mrs. Stewart B. Dunsker

David and Kari Ellis Fund*

Ann A. Ellison

Hardy and Barbara Eshbaugh

Mr. and Mrs. Richard Fencl

Yan Fridman

Frank and Tara Gardner

Naomi Gerwin

Dr. and Mrs. Ralph A. Giannella

Thomas W. Gougeon

Lesha and Samuel Greengus

Dr. and Mrs. Jack Hahn

Dr. Donald and Laura Harrison

Mr. and Mrs. Robert R. Heidenreich

Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Hicks

Ruth C. Holthaus

In Memory of Benjamin C. Hubbard §

Mr. and Mrs. Michael C. Hughes

Mr. and Mrs. Bradley G. Hughes

Karolyn Johnsen

Dr. Richard and Lisa Kagan

Dr. Robert W. Keith and Ms. Kathleen Thornton

Don and Kathy King

Lynn Keniston Klahm

Jeff and Mary Ann Knoop

Marie and Sam Kocoshis

Mr. Frank P. Kromer

Mr. Shannon Lawson

Dr. and Mrs. Lynn Y. Lin

Merlanne Louney

Mr. and Mrs. Donald Marshall

Glen and Lynn Mayfield

Allen-McCarren

Ms. Amy McDiffett

Mary Ann Meanwell

Ms. Sue Miller

Mrs. Patricia Misrach

Mr. and Mrs. David E. Moccia §

Jennifer Morales and Ben Glassman

Ms. Mary Lou Motl

Phyllis Myers and Danny Gray

Mr. and Mrs. John Niehaus

Dr. and Mrs. Richard Park §

Anna Isaacs, Louis Langrée, Vicky Motch and Judith Schonbach Landgren at the Peer Gynt cast party. Credit: Claudia Hershner

Poul D. and JoAnne Pedersen

Alice Perlman

Alice and David Phillips

Mark and Kim Pomeroy

Michael and Katherine Rademacher

Beverly and Dan Reigle

Sandra Rivers

James Rubenstein and Bernadette Unger

Mr. & Mrs. Peter A. Schmid

Rev. Dr. David V. Schwab

Sandra and David Seiwert

Mr. Rick Sherrer and Dr. Lisa D. Kelly

William A. and Jane Smith

Elizabeth A. Stone

Margaret and Steven Story

Mr. and Mrs. J. Dwight Thompson

Mr. and Mrs. Ronald Tinklenberg

Neil Tollas and Janet Moore

Dr. and Mrs. Galen R. Warren

Jim and George Ann Wesner

Jo Ann Wieghaus

Sheila Williams

Ronna and James Willis

Matt and Lindsay Willmann

Steve and Katie Wolnitzek

Carol and Don Wuebbling Anonymous (2)

SYMPHONY CIRCLE

Gifts of $1,500–$2,999

Jeff and Keiko Alexander §

Dr. Rob and Ashley Altenau

Beth and Bob Baer

Mrs. Gail Bain

William and Barbara Banks

Mr. Randi Bellner and U.S. Bank

David and Elaine Billmire

Mr. and Mrs. Rodd Bixler

Dorothy Anne Blatt

Towne Properties

Dr. and Mrs. William Bramlage

Mrs. Jo Ann C. Brown

Ms. Jaqui Brumm

Rachelle Bruno and Stephen Bondurant

Chris and Tom Buchert

Dr. Leanne Budde

Ms. Deborah Campbell §

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Carothers

Tom Carpenter and Lynne Lancaster

Dr. Alan Chambers

Catharine W. Chapman §

James Clasper and Cheryl Albrecht

Carol C. Cole §

Dr. George I. Colombel

Randy K. and Nancy R. Cooper

Ms. Andrea Costa

Mr. and Mrs. Charles E. Curran, III §

Mr. Louis M. Dauner and Ms. Geraldine N. Wu

Mrs. Shirley Duff

Mr. and Mrs. John G. Earls §

Barry and Judy Evans

Gail F. Forberg §

Dr. Charles E. Frank and Ms. Jan Goldstein

Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Fricke

Linda P. Fulton §

Kathleen Gibboney

Mrs. Jay N. Gibbs

Donn Goebel and Cathy McLeod

Dr. and Mrs. Glenn S. Gollobin

Drew Gores and George Warrington

Mr. and Mrs. Gary Greenberg

Jim and Jann Greenberg

Bill and Christy Griesser

John and Elizabeth Grover

Esther B. Grubbs §

Mr. and Mrs. Byron Gustin

Mrs. Jackie Havenstein

Donald and Susan Henson

Mr. Fred Heyse

Mr. Joe Hoskins

Mr. Bradley Hunkler

Heidi Jark and Steve Kenat

Barbara M. Johnson

Ms. Sylvia Johnson

Holly H. Keeler

Mr. and Mrs. Woodrow Keown, Jr.

John and Molly Kerman

Bill and Penny Kincaid

Juri Kolts

Mr. and Mrs. Richard Kovarsky

Carol Louise Kruse

Mrs. John H. Kuhn §

Jo Ann and George Kurz

Evelyn and Fred Lang

Charles and Jean Lauterbach

Mary Mc and Kevin Lawson

Dr. Carol P. Leslie

Mr. Peter F. Levin §

Elizabeth Lilly*

Drs. Douglas Linz and Ann Middaugh

Mrs. Marianne Locke

Mr. and Mrs. Clement H. Luken, Jr.

Edmund D. Lyon

Stephanie and Arthur McMahon

Stephanie McNeill

Becky Miars

John and Roberta Michelman

Mr. and Mrs. David A. Millett

Terence G. Milligan

Dr. Stanley R. Milstein §

Ms. Laura Mitchell

Mrs. Sally A. More

Susan E. Noelcke

Nan L. Oscherwitz

Rick Pescovitz and Kelly Mahan

Sandy Pike §

James W. Rauth §

Drs. Christopher and Blanca Riemann

Stephen and Betty Robinson

Ms. Jeanne C. Rolfes

Nancy and Raymond Rolwing

Jens G Rosenkrantz

Marianne Rowe §

Nancy Ruchhoft

Dr. and Mrs. Michael Scheffler

George Palmer Schober

Tim and Jeannie Schoonover

James P. Schubert

Jacqueline M. Mack and Dr. Edward B. Silberstein

Stephanie A. Smith

Stephen and Lyle Smith

Albert and Liza Smitherman

Bill and Lee Steenken

Christopher and Meghan Stevens

Mrs. Donald C. Stouffer

Mr. and Mrs. Richard Stradling, Jr.

Rich and Nancy Tereba

Linda and Nate Tetrick

Susan and John Tew

Janet Todd

Mr. William Trach

Barbie Wagner

Dr. and Mrs. Matthew and Diana Wallace

Michael L. Walton, Esq

Ted and Mary Ann Weiss

David F. and Sara K. Weston Fund

Virginia Wilhelm

Rev. Anne Warrington Wilson

Robert and Judy Wilson

David and Sharon Youmans

Andi Levenson Young and Scott Young

Mr. and Mrs. Dan Zavon

Mr. and Mrs. Robert L. Zierolf

Ms. Nancy Zimpher

Anonymous (12)

CONCERTO CLUB

Gifts of $500–$1,499

Christine O. Adams

Judith Adams

Romola N. Allen §

In memory of Carol Allgood & Ester Stevens

Lisa Allgood

Mr. Thomas Alloy & Dr. Evaline Alessandrini

Paul and Dolores Anderson

Mr. and Mrs. Frank Andress

Dr. Victor and Dolores Angel

Nancy J. Apfel

Mr. and Mrs. Keith Apple

Judy Aronoff and Marshall Ruchman

Ms. Laura E. Atkinson

Mr. David H. Axt and Ms. Susan L. Wilkinson

Ms. Patricia Baas

Dr. Diane S. Babcock §

Nate and Greta Bachhuber

Mrs. Mary M. Baer

Jerry and Martha Bain

Mr. and Mrs. Carroll R. Baker

Mr. Sean D. Baker

Jack and Diane Baldwin

Peggy Barrett §

Mrs. Polly M. Bassett

Ms. Glenda Bates

Michael and Amy Battoclette

Ms. Shirley Bear

Ms. Bianca Gallagher

Dr. and Mrs. Thomas E. Bell

Mr. Oliver Benes

Ms. Doris Bergen

Fred Berger

Dr. Allen W. Bernard

Dr. David and Cheryl Bernstein

Glenda and Malcolm Bernstein

Sharon Ann Kerns and Mike Birck

Randal and Peter Bloch

Dr. and Mrs. Jeffrey Bloomer

Ava Jo Bohl

Ms. Sandra Bolek

Ron and Betty Bollinger

Clay and Emily Bond

Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Borisch

Dr. Carol Brandon

Marilyn and John Braun

Briggs Creative Services, LLC

Robert and Joan Broersma

Marian H. Brown

Mr. and Mrs. Robert S. Brown

Jacklyn and Gary Bryson

Bob and Angela Buechner

Alvin W. Bunis, Jr.

Donald L. and Kathleen Field Burns

Daniel A. Burr

Jack and Marti Butz

John J Byczkowski

Ms. Cindy Callicoat

Mr. and Mrs. Christopher Canarie

Susan L. Carson

Dr. Julia H. Carter

Mike and Shirley Chaney

Dee and Frank Cianciolo Fund*

James Civille

Bob and Tisha Clary

Mr. David Clodfelter

Beverly Kinney and Edward Cloughessy

Mr. Robert Cohen and Ms. Amy J. Katz

Fred W. Colucci

Dr. Pearl J. Compaan

Marilyn Cones

Dr. Margaret Conradi

Janet Conway

Jack and Janice Cook §

Robin Cotton and Cindi Fitton

Dennis and Patricia Coyne

Martha Crafts

Bev and Bob Croskery

Tim and Katie Crowley

Susan and John Cummings

Jacqueline Cutshall

Mr. and Mrs. Henry F. Dabek, Jr.

Mr. Joseph and Mrs. Lori Dattilo

Diane and Wayne Dawson

Loren and Polly DeFilippo

Stephen and Cynthia DeHoff

Robert B. Dick, Ph.D.

Ms. Rhonda Dickerscheid

John and Maureen Doellman

Drs. Gerald Dorn and Deborah Hauger

Robert W. Dorsey §

George Dostie

Jack and Diane Douglass

Meredith and Chuck Downton

Mr. James Doyle

Jim and Karen Draut

Emilie and David Dressler

Ms. Andrea Dubroff

Tom and Leslie Ducey

Tom and Dale Due

David and Linda Dugan

Mr. Corwin R. Dunn

Michael D. and Carolyn Camillo Eagen

Joseph and Kristi Echler

Mr. and Mrs. Dale Elifrits

Mr. Daniel Epstein

Dave and Denise DiMartino and Western & Southern guests meet conductor Thomas Søndergård and violinist Augustin Hadelich after the January 7 concert. Credit: CSO Staff

Rick and Vicky Reynolds and guests meet Louis Langrée and violinist Randall Goosby after the January 21 concert. Credit: CSO Staff

Barbara Esposito-Ilacqua

Walter & Mary Ann Feige

Ms. Barbara A. Feldmann

Mrs. Michelle Finch

Richard and Elizabeth Findlay

Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Fischer

Michael and Bonnie Fishel

Anne and Alan Fleischer

Ms. Nancy B. Forbriger

Janice and Dr. Tom Forte

Mr. and Ms. Bernard Foster

Susan L. Fremont

Mr. Gregrick A. Frey

In memory of Eugene and Cavell Frey

Mr. and Mrs. Fred Friedman

Michael and Katherine Frisco

Mr. and Mrs. James Fryman

Marjorie Fryxell

Dudley Fulton

Christophe Galopin

Mrs. James R. Gardner

Melanie Garner and Michael Berry

Ms. Jane Garvey

Mark S. Gay

Drs. Michael and Janelle J. Gelfand

David J. Gilner

Dr. and Mrs. Charles J. Glueck

Mr. Ken Goldhoff

Mr. and Mrs. Jim Goldschmidt

Ms. Arlene Golembiewski

Robert and Cynthia Gray

Carl and Joyce Greber

Dr. Anthony and Ann Guanciale

Dr. Janet C. Haartz and Kenneth V. Smith

Alison and Charles Haas

Mrs. R. C. Haberstroh

Mary and Phil Hagner

Peter Hames

Ham and Ellie Hamilton

Walter and Karen Hand

In memory of Dr. Stuart Handwerger

James and Sally Harper

Catherine K. Hart

Mariana Belvedere and Samer Hasan

Mr. John A. Headley

Amy and Dennis Healy

Kenneth and Rachel Heberling

Mrs. Betty H. Heldman §

Howard D. and Mary W. Helms

Mrs. E. J. Hengelbrok, Jr.

Michelle and Don Hershey

Janet & Craig Higgins

Kyle and Robert Hodgkins

Ms. Leslie M. Hoggatt

Mr. and Mrs. Sam R. Hollingsworth

Richard and Marcia Holmes

Stanley A. Hooker, III

Ms. Sandra L. Houck

Sean and Katie Hubbard

Melissa Huber

Deanna and Henry Huber

Mrs. Carol H. Huether

Dr. G. Edward & Sarah Hughes

Mr. Gordon Hullar

Dr. Maralyn M. Itzkowitz

Mrs. Charles H. Jackson, Jr.

Mark and Caitlin Jeanmougin

Marcia Jelus

Linda Busken and Andrew M. Jergens §

David & Penny Jester

Mr. and Mrs. Paul H. Johnson

Mrs. Marilyn P. Johnston

Elizabeth A. Jones

Scott and Patricia Joseph

Lois and Kenneth Jostworth

Jay and Shirley Joyce

Mr. and Mrs. Robert Judd

Dr. Jerald Kay

Dr. James Kaya and Debra Grauel

Arleene Keller

Dr. and Mrs. Richard Kerstine

Mr. and Mrs. Dave Kitzmiller

Georgianne and Tom Koch

Paul and Carita Kollman

Carol and Scott Kosarko

Mr. Robert Kraus

Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Kregor

Kathleen B. and Michael C. Krug Fund*

Matt & Diane Krumanaker

Mark & Elisabeth Kuhlman

Patricia Lambeck

Everett and Barbara Landen

Asher Lanier

Karen Larsen

Ms. Sally L. Larson

Mrs. Julie Laskey

Mr. and Mrs. John C. Layne

Mr. Alvin R. Lee

Mrs. Judith A. Leege in memory of Philip B. Leege

Betsy Leigh and David Holliday

Patricia E. Leo

Mr. and Mrs. Lance A. Lewis

Mrs. Maxine F. Lewis

Iris Libby

Ms. Presley Lindemann

Mr. Arthur Lindsay

Paula and Nick Link

Mr. Ajene Lomax

Mr. Steven Kent Loveless

Dr. and Mrs. Robert R. Lukin

Timothy and Jill Lynch

Mrs. Mary Reed Lyon

Marshall and Nancy Macks

Mr. and Mrs. Julian A. Magnus

Jenea Malarik

Dr. and Ms. Mark Mandell-Brown

Ms. Cheryl Manning

Andrew and Jean Martin

Ms. Cynthia Mason

David Mason §

Mr. and Mrs. Dean Matz

Tim and Trish McDonald

Robert and Heather McGrath

Mr. Bernard McKay

Mark McKillip and Amira Beer

Mrs. Karin McLennan

Charles and JoAnn Mead

Ms. Carol M. Meibers

Ms. Nancy Menne

Dr. and Mrs. Richard A. Meyer

Michael V. and Marcia L. Middleton

Rachel and Charlie Miller

Mr. Roger Miller

Sonia R. Milrod

Mr. Steven Monder

Eileen W. and James R. Moon

Regeana and Al Morgan

Vivian Kay Morgan

Mrs. Ivan Morse

Mr. Scott Muhlhauser

Miami University College of Creative Arts

Mrs. and Mr. Katie Murry

Kevin and Lane Muth

Alan Flaherty and Patti Myers §

Mr. William Naumann

Mr. and Mrs. Norman Neal

Mr. Ted Nelson and Ms. Ixi Chen

Ms. Helen Neumann

Mr. Gerald Newfarmer

Jim and Sharon Nichols

Jane Oberschmidt §

Maureen Kelly and Andrew O’Driscoll

Mr. Gerardo Orta

Elizabeth Osterburg

Ms. Sylvia Osterday

John A. Pape

Eric Paternoster

Don and Margie Paulsen

The Pavelka Family

John and Francie Pepper *

Mr. Mark Phillips

Ann and Marty Pinales

Patsy & Larry Plum

Mr. and Mrs. Richard Post

Mrs. Stewart Proctor

Mr. Robert Przygoda

Dr. Aik Khai Pung

Marjorie and Louis Rauh

Ms. Mary Redington

Mrs. Angela M. Reed

Dr. and Mrs. Robert Reed

Mrs. Hera Reines

Dr. Robert Rhoad and Kitsa Tassian Rhoad

Stephanie Richardson

Mr. David Robertson

Laurie and Dan Roche

Mr. and Mrs. Samuel A. Rodner

Mr. and Mrs. Ian Rodway

Dr. Anna Roetker

Stanley & Shannon Romanstein

Bob and Mary Ann Roncker

Catherine Calko

Dr. and Mrs. Gary Roselle

Amy and John Rosenberg

Mr. and Mrs. G. Roger Ross

Patricia Rouster

Dr. Deborah K. Rufner

J. Gregory and Judith B. Rust

Dr. Richard S. Sarason and Ms. Anne S. Arenstein

Mr. Christian J. Schaefer

Mr. Joseph A. Schilling

Ms. Carol Schleker

Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Schleker

Jane and Wayne Schleutker

Dr. and Mrs. Michael Schmerler

Frederick R. Schneider

Glenda C. Schorr Fund*

Carol J. Schroeder §

Mary D. Schweitzer

Joe Segal and Debbie Friedman

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas P. Semancik

Drs. Mick and Nancy Shaughnessy

The Shepherd Chemical Company

Michael Shepherd

Hal and Sandy Shevers

Alfred and Carol Shikany

Ms. Joycee Simendinger

Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Skirtz

Ms. Martha Slager

Susan and David Smith

Ms. Margaret Smith

Mark M. Smith (In memory of Terri C. Smith)

Phillip and Karen Sparkes

Mrs. John A. Spiess

Paula Spitzmiller

Marian P. Stapleton

Mr. and Mrs. Timothy Stautberg

Ms. Ruth M. Stechschulte

Susan M. and Joseph Eric Stevens

Mr. Jason V. Stitt

Stephanie and Joseph Stitt

Nancy and Gary Strassel

Ms. Susan R. Strick

Mr. George Stricker, Jr.

Mr. Mark Stroud

Patricia Strunk §

Ms. Judi Sturwold

Mr. and Mrs. Robert J. Sullivan

Dr. Alan and Shelley Tarshis

Mr. Fred Tegarden

Carlos and Roberta Teran

Dr. Rachel Thienprayoon

George and Pamela Thomas

Pamela and Paul Thompson

Dr. Ilse van der Bent

Mr. D. R. Van Lokeren

William and Bonnie VanEe

Dr. Judith Vermillion

Ms. Barbara Wagner

Mary and Jack Wagner §

Mr. and Mrs. James L. Wainscott

Jane A. Walker

Sarella Walton

Herman & Margaret Wasserman Music Fund*

Mrs. Louise Watts

Mr. Gerald V. Weigle, Jr.

Mr. and Mrs. Frank Welsh

Maryhelen West

Ms. Bonnie White

Mr. Donald White

Ms. Elizabeth White

Janice T. Wieland

Ms. Desiree Willis

Mr. Dean Windgassen and Ms. Susan Stanton Windgassen §

Craig and Barbara Wolf

Mrs. Ann Wolford

Don and Karen Wolnik

Rebecca Seeman and David Wood

Mr. and Mrs. Robert Wylly III

Mr. John M. Yacher

Jeff Yang

Mrs. Darleen Young

Judy and Martin Young

Mr. David Youngblood and Ms. Ellen Rosenman

David A. and Martha R. Yutzey

Dr. and Mrs. Daryl Zeigler

Meg Zeller and Alan Weinstein

Ms. Joan Zellner

Moritz and Barbara Ziegler

Thomas and Joyce Zigler

Mr. Richard K. Zinicola and Ms. Linda R. Holthaus

David and Cynthia Zink

John and Mary Ann Zorio

Ms. Jayne Zuberbuhler

Anonymous (19)

GIFTS IN-KIND

Anonymous

Ms. Melanie M. Chavez

Drive Media House

William & Anna Fluke

Graeter’s Ice Cream

Harris Media Co.

Jones Day

The Voice of Your Customer Wegman Company, Inc.

List as of February 22, 2023

* Denotes a fund of The Greater Cincinnati Foundation.

§ Denotes members of The Thomas Schippers Legacy Society. Individuals who have made a planned gift to the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Pops Orchestra are eligible for membership in the Society. For more information, please contact Kate Farinacci at 513.744.3202.

THE THOMAS SCHIPPERS LEGACY SOCIETY

Thomas Schippers was Music Director from 1970 to 1977. He left not only wonderful musical memories, but also a financial legacy with a personal bequest to the Orchestra. The Thomas Schippers Legacy Society recognizes those who contribute to the Orchestra with a planned gift. We thank these members for their foresight and generosity. For more information on leaving your own legacy, contact Kate Farinacci at 513.744.3202.

Vincent C. Hand & Ann E. Hagerman

Tom & Jan Hardy

William L. Harmon

Bill Harnish* & John Harnish

Irene & Daniel Randolph

James W. Rauth

Barbara S. Reckseit

Melody Sawyer Richardson

Ellen Rieveschl

Mr. & Mrs. James R. Adams

Jeff & Keiko Alexander

Mrs. Robert H. Allen

Paul R. Anderson

Mrs. Charles William Anness*

Carole J. Arend

Donald C. Auberger, Jr.

Dr. Diane Schwemlein Babcock

Henrietta Barlag

Peggy Barrett

Jane* & Ed Bavaria

Dava Lynn Biehl*

David & Elaine Billmire

Walter Blair

Lucille* & Dutro Blocksom

Rosemary & Frank Bloom

Dr. John & Suzanne Bossert

Dr. Mollie H. Bowers-Hollon

Ronald Bozicevich

Thomas A. Braun, III

Joseph Brinkmeyer

Mr. & Mrs. Frederick Bryan, III

Harold & Dorothy Byers

Deborah Campbell & Eunice M. Wolf

Myra Chabut

Catharine W. Chapman

Michael L. Cioffi & Rachael Rowe

Mrs. Jackson L. Clagett III

Norma L. Clark*

Lois & Phil* Cohen

Leland M.* & Carol C. Cole

Grace A. Cook

Jack & Janice Cook

Mr. & Mrs. Charles Cordes

Andrea D. Costa

Peter G. Courlas & Nick Tsimaras*

Mr. & Mrs. Charles E Curran III

Amy & Scott Darrah, Meredith & Will Darrah & children

Caroline H. Davidson

Harrison R.T. Davis

Ms. Kelly M. Dehan

Amy & Trey Devey

Robert W. Dorsey

Jon & Susan Doucleff

Mr. & Mrs. John Earls

Barry & Judy Evans

Linda & Harry Fath

Alan Flaherty

Mrs. Richard A. Forberg

Ashley & Barbara Ford

Guy & Marilyn Frederick

Rich Freshwater & Family

Susan Friedlander

Mr. Nicholas L. Fry

Linda P. Fulton

H. Jane Gavin

Mrs. Philip O. Geier*

Kenneth A. Goode

Clifford J. Goosmann & Andrea M. Wilson

Mrs. Madeleine H. Gordon

J. Frederick & Cynthia Gossman

Kathy Grote

Esther Grubbs, Marci Bein & Mindi Hamby

William Hackman

Dr. & Mrs. Morton L. Harshman

Mary J. Healy

Frank G. Heitker

Anne P. Heldman

Betty & John* Heldman

Ms. Roberta Hermesch

Karlee L. Hilliard

Michael H. Hirsch

Mr. & Mrs. Joseph W. Hirschhorn

Daniel J. Hoffheimer

Kenneth L. Holford

Mr. George R. Hood

Mr. & Mrs. Terence L. Horan

Mrs. Benjamin C. Hubbard

Susan & Tom Hughes

Carolyn R. Hunt

Dr. William Hurford & Dr. Lesley Gilbertson

Mr. and Mrs. Paul Isaacs

Julia M. F. B. Jackson

Michael & Kathleen Janson

Andrew MacAoidh Jergens

Jean C. Jett

Frank Jordan*

Margaret H. Jung

Mace C. Justice

Karen Kapella

Dr. & Mrs.* Steven Katkin

Rachel Kirley & Joseph Jaquette

Carolyn Koehl

Marvin Kolodzik

Randolph & Patricia Krumm

Theresa M. Kuhn

Warren & Patricia Lambeck

Owen and Cici Lee

Steve Lee

M. Drue Lehmann

Mrs. Jean E. Lemon

Mr. Peter F. Levin

George & Barbara Lott

Janice* and Gary Lubin

Mr.* & Mrs. Ronald Lyons

Marilyn J. Maag

Margot Marples

David L. Martin

Allen* & Judy Martin

David Mason

Mrs. Barbara Witte McCracken

Laura Kimble McLellan

Dr. Stanley R. Milstein

Mrs. William K. Minor

Mr. & Mrs. D. E. Moccia

Kristin & Stephen Mullin

Christopher & Susan Muth

Patti Myers

Susan & Kenneth Newmark

Dr. & Mrs. Theodore Nicholas

Patricia Grignet Nott*

Jane Oberschmidt

Marja-Liisa Ogden

Julie & Dick* Okenfuss

Jack & Marilyn* Osborn

Dr. & Mrs. Richard E. Park, MD

Mr. & Mrs. Charles H. Pease

Poul D. & JoAnne Pedersen

Sandy & Larry* Pike

Mrs. Harold F. Poe

Anne M. Pohl

Elizabeth & Karl Ronn

Moe & Jack Rouse

Marianne Rowe

Ann & Harry Santen

Rosemary & Mark Schlachter

Carol J. Schroeder

Mrs. William R. Seaman

Dr. Brian Sebastian

Mrs. Mildred J. Selonick

Mrs. Robert B. Shott

Sue & Glenn Showers

Irwin and Melinda Simon

Betsy & Paul* Sittenfeld

Sarah Garrison Skidmore

Adrienne A. Smith

David & Sonja* Snyder

Marie Speziale

Mr. & Mrs. Christopher L. Sprenkle

Michael M. Spresser

Barry & Sharlyn Stare

Cynthia Starr

Bill & Lee Steenken

Tom & Dee Stegman

Barry Steinberg

Nancy M. Steman

John and Helen Stevenson

Mary* & Bob Stewart

Brett Stover

Dr. Robert & Jill Strub

Patricia M. Strunk

Ralph & Brenda* Taylor

Conrad F. Thiede

Minda F. Thompson

Carrie & Peter Throm

Dr. & Mrs. Thomas Todd

Nydia Tranter

Dick & Jane Tuten

Thomas Vanden Eynden and Judith Beiting

Mr. & Mrs. Robert Varley

Mr. & Mrs. James K. Votaw

Mr. & Mrs.* Randolph L. Wadsworth Jr.

Jack K. & Mary V. Wagner

Nancy C. Wagner

Patricia M. Wagner

Mr.* & Mrs. Paul Ward

Jo Anne & Fred Warren

Mr. Scott Weiss & Dr. Charla Weiss

Anne M. Werner

Gary & Diane West

Charles A. Wilkinson

Susan Stanton Windgassen

Mrs. Joan R. Wood

Alison & Jim Zimmerman

* Deceased

New Schippers members are in bold

GIFT OF MUSIC: January 1–March 1, 2023

The following people provided gifts to the Gift of Music Fund to celebrate an occasion, to mark a life of service to the Orchestra, or to commemorate a special date. Their contributions are added to the Orchestra’s endowment. For more information on how to contribute to this fund, please call 513.744.3271.

In Honor of Malcolm Bernstein’s 90th Birthday

Mr. and Mrs. John J. Frank Jr.

In Honor of Barbara Stern’s 100th Birthday

Mr. and Mrs. David W. Ellis, III

In Honor of Dr. Brian Mannion

Bruce and Vickie Ellis

In Memory of Dick Fouse

Frank and Nancy Bick Clark

Classical Roots: Apr 14

Argus Club

Baldwin Grove

Cincinnati Boychoir

In Memory of Sue Friedlander

Mrs. Anna K. Carey

Ms. Linda K. Heines

Mrs. Bernard Reckseit

Mark and Rosemary Schlachter

Ms. Alberta Schneider

Mrs. Elizabeth C. Sittenfeld

Mr. and Mrs. Donald J. Stone

In Memory of Lou Gaudin

Mrs. Rosemarie T. Broxon

In Memory of John W. and Olivia F. Kegg

Anonymous

In Memory of John Kiradjieff

Joann Cox

Ms. Barbara Weisbrod

Mr. Dan Woellert

In Memory of Jeffrey Lee Knoop

Anonymous

Mr. Dennis Bacon

Jeffrey Boswell

Judith Hayes

Mr. and Mrs. Fred Heyse

Leslie and John Ketchum

Allen Kohlhepp

Brooke Whistine

Mr. and Ms. John Woeste

In Memory of Renata Scanio

Anita L Freeman

In Memory of Ted Striker

Ms. Linda K. Heines

Maple Knoll Village

Otterbein Retirement Community

The Kenwood by Senior Star

The Knolls of Oxford

Friends and Family of Alvenia Norris

Friends and Family of Andrea Hall

Friends and Family of Jerome Johnson

Friends and Family of Lenora Castleberry

Friends and Family of Ms. Thelma Thomas

Friends and Family of Ryan DuPree

Greater New Hope Missionary Baptist Church

Lincoln Heights Missionary Baptist Church

MUSE Cincinnati Women’s Choir

New Jerusalem Baptist Church

New Vision United Methodist Church

The Links Inc. Queen City Chapter

CSO Pictures at an Exhibition: Apr. 15–16

Beyond the Classroom Tours

Fine Arts Travel

Friends and Family of Kelly Dehan and Rick Staudigel

Moeller High School

Prochaska Bassoon Studio

Western Kentucky University

CSO Mahler Symphony No. 7: Apr. 21–22

Barrington of Oakley

Christian Village at Mason

Ludlow High School

Twin Lakes at Montgomery

Pops Ben Folds: Apr. 25

Howard Financial

Pops Ragtime in Concert: Apr. 28–30

Downtown Residents’ Council

Fort Recovery Middle School

Friends and Family of Daniel Kroger

Ken Anderson Alliance

Little Miami Middle School

Seasons Retirement Community

CSO Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony: May 5–7

Alice Drive Middle School

CSO An American in Paris: May 12–13

Barrington of Oakley

Christian Village at Mason

HORAN

Maple Knoll Village

Music Travel Consultants

North Laurel High School

Otterbein Retirement Community

The Kenwood by Senior Star

The Knolls of Oxford

Twin Lakes at Montgomery

ADMINISTRATION

OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT &

CEO

Jonathan Martin President & CEO

Andrea Maisonpierre Hessel Executive Assistant to President and CEO

ARTISTIC PLANNING & PRODUCTION

Robert McGrath

Chief Operating Officer

Shannon Faith Assistant to the Chief Operating Officer

Artistic Planning

Nate Bachhuber

Vice President of Artistic Planning

Anthony Paggett

Director of Artistic Planning

Laura Ruple

Assistant to the Music Director and Artistic Planning

Nick Minion Artist Liaison

Sam Strater

Senior Advisor for Cincinnati Pops Planning

Shuta Maeno

Artistic Planning Intern

Production

Brenda Tullos

Director of Orchestra Personnel

Naomi Sarchet

Orchestra Personnel & Operations Manager

Laura Bordner Adams Director of Operations

Alex Magg Production Manager, CSO & May Festival

Carlos Javier Production Manager, Pops

Digital Content & Innovation

KC Commander

Director of Digital Content & Innovation

Lee Snow

Digital Content Technology Manager

Corinne Wiseman

Digital Content Manager

Kaitlyn Driesen

Digital Production Manager

Learning

Carol Dary Dunevant Director of Learning

Kyle Lamb

Learning Programs Manager

Hollie Greenwood Learning Coordinator

Ian McIntyre Sound Discoveries Teaching Artist

Emily Jordan Sound Discoveries

Teaching Assistant

Jaysean Johnson Education Programs Intern

Elizabeth Reyna CCM Arts Administration Graduate Assistant

COMMUNICATIONS

Felecia Tchen Kanney Vice President of Communications

Tyler Secor Director of Publications & Content Development

Charlie Balcom Social Media Manager

Wajeeh Khan Communications Intern

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT | DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION

Harold Brown

The Honorable Nathaniel R. Jones Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer

Tiffany Cooper Director of Community Engagement and Diversity

Amanda Franklin Community Engagement Manager

Pamela Jayne Volunteer and Community Engagement Coordinator

Nicole Ortiz Community Engagement Intern

PHILANTHROPY

Mary McFadden Lawson, CAP® Chief Philanthropy Officer

Sean Baker Director of Institutional Giving

Bhavya Nayna Channan Corporate Giving Manager

Kristin Hill Institutional Giving Coordinator

Leslie Hoggatt, CFRE Director of Individual Giving and Donor Services

Catherine Hann, CFRE Assistant Director of Individual Giving

Jenna Montes Individual Giving Manager

Emma Steward Donor Engagement Coordinator

Penny Hamilton Philanthropy Assistant

Kate Farinacci

Director of Special Campaigns and Legacy Giving

Ashley Coffey

Foundation and Grants Manager

D’Anté McNeal Special Projects Coordinator

Quinton Jefferson Research and Grants Administrator

FINANCE & DATA SERVICES

Richard Freshwater

Vice President & Chief Financial Officer

Finance

Kristina Pfeiffer

Director of Finance, CSO

Elizabeth Engwall

Accounting Manager, CSO

Judy Mosely Accounting Clerk, CSO

Laura Van Pelt Accounting Clerk, CSO

Judy Simpson Director of Finance, MEMI

Marijane Klug Accounting Manager, MEMI

Deborah Benjamin Accounting Clerk, MEMI

Matthew Grady

Accounting Manager, MEMI

Sydney Mucha Accounting Clerk, MEMI

Data Services

Sharon D. Grayton Data Services Manager

Tara Williams Data Services Manager

Kathleen Curry Data Entry Clerk

HUMAN RESOURCES

Kyle Wynk-Sivashankar Vice President of Human Resources

Jenny Ryan

Human Resources Manager

Megan Inderbitzin-Tsai Payroll Manager

Natalia Lerzundi Payroll Specialist

MARKETING

Michael Frisco

Vice President of Marketing

Michelle Lewandowski

Director of Marketing

Leon Barton Website Manager

Jon Dellinger

Copywriter/Marketing Manager

Alexis Shambley

Marketing & Audience Insight Coordinator

Carmen Granger

Subscriptions Marketing Manager

Stephanie Lazorchak

Graphic Designer

Amber Ostaszewski

Director of Audience Engagement

Abigail Karr Audience Engagement Manager

Tina Marshall Director of Ticketing & Audience Services

Nic Bizub Group Sales Manager

Elaine Hudson

Assistant Box Office Manager

Hannah Kaiser Assistant Box Office Manager

Djenaba Adams

Marketing Intern

PATRON SERVICES REPRESENTATIVES

Rebecca Ammerman, Lead

Ellisen Blair, Lead

Drew Dolan, Lead

Wendy Marshall, Lead

Erik Nordstrom, Lead

Benjamin Connelly

Craig Doolin

Mary Duplantier

Ebony Jackson

Grace Kim

Gracie Lustenberg

Hayley Maloney

Marian Mayen

CINCINNATI SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA & CINCINNATI POPS

Music Hall, 1241 Elm Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202

Administrative Offices: 513.621.1919 | hello@cincinnatisymphony.org