Program Notes: MMC & Peter and the Wolf

IMAGINATION ARTIST SERIES 2023/24

CALIFORNIA DREAMIN’: THE MUSIC OF LAUREL CANYON WITH MARY-MITCHELL CAMPBELL AND THE COLORADO SYMPHONY

MARY-MITCHELL CAMPBELL, conductor

JESSICA VOSK , vocalist

ASHLEY BLANCHET, vocalist

ABIGAIL SPARROW, vocalist

MOLLY STILLIENS, vocalist

Friday, March 15, 2024 at 7:30pm

Saturday, March 16, 2024 at 7:30pm

Boettcher Concert Hall

Program to be announced from stage.

CONCERT RUN TIME IS APPROXIMATELY 2 HOURS WITH A 20 MINUTE INTERMISSION

FIRST TIME TO THE SYMPHONY? SEE PAGE 19 OF THIS PROGRAM FOR FAQ’S TO MAKE YOUR EXPERIENCE GREAT!

IMAGINATION BIOGRAPHIES

MARY-MITCHELL CAMPBELL, conductor

Mary-Mitchell Campbell is a Grammy award winning musician and currently the Musical Director for the acclaimed Encores! series at City Center in New York City. She has been the Music Supervisor or Music Director for multiple Broadway shows including: Some Like it Hot, Mean Girls, The Prom, Tuck Everlasting, Finding Neverland, Big Fish, The Addams Family, Company, and Sweeney Todd. She has conducted the Chicago Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony, the Dallas Symphony, the Nashville Symphony, and is an Imagination Artist with the Colorado Symphony. She tours regularly with Kristin Chenoweth and Jessica Vosk in concerts. Mary-Mitchell is passionate about arts education and access to arts education for marginalized communities. She is the Founder of Arts Ignite (artsignite.org) which recruits and trains high-level artists to teach young people health education and life skills through the arts. She is very active in Maestra (maestramusic.org) and MUSE - Musicians United for Social Equity. Museonline.org

JESSICA VOSK, vocalist

Jessica Vosk is a celebrated singer and actress known for electrifying roles on musical theater and concert stages. She made her Carnegie Hall debut in November 2021 in a sold-out solo show titled My Golden Age and a triumphant return to Carnegie Hall in 2022 to headline Get Happy: A Judy Garland Centennial Celebration. Other recent highlights include debuts at London’s Cadogan Hall, and at Symphony Hall with Celebrity Series of Boston and Washington Performing Arts as part of a 20-city solo concert tour. In summer 2023, she debuted a new show on the Lyrics & Lyricists series at the 92nd Street Y entitled California Dreamin’ featuring the music of singer-songwriters of Laurel Canyon as well as starred as Florence Vassy in a stunning new production of Chess at The Muny in St. Louis.

Best known for her star turn as Elphaba in the musical Wicked—first on tour and then joining the show’s 15th anniversary on Broadway—Vosk played the green witch for two years and was featured performing “Defying Gravity” in the PBS Great Performances 50th Anniversary Concert. Vosk starred as the narrator in Lincoln Center’s 50th anniversary performance of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, reprising the role in 2022 at The Muny in St. Louis. Other recent theatrical highlights include joining the Atlantic Theater Company as Beth Ann in its production of Sarah Silverman’s The Bedwetter; creating the role of Aunt Val in the world premiere of Becoming Nancy at Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, directed and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell; and becoming the first singer to star onstage with the New York City Ballet in Something to Dance About, the company’s tribute to Jerome Robbins directed by Warren Carlyle. Vosk’s other Broadway credits include Fruma Sarah in the most recent revival of Fiddler on the Roof, Finding Neverland, and The Bridges of Madison County.

PHOTO: MICHAEL HULL

IMAGINATION BIOGRAPHIES

She starred as Anita in San Francisco Symphony’s Grammy-nominated production of West Side Story and filmed “The Leonard Bernstein Centennial Celebration at Tanglewood” with Michael Tilson Thomas for PBS’s Great Performances. Her independently produced solo albums Wild and Free (2018) and A Very Coco Christmas (2020) both debuted on the Billboard and iTunes charts, and are available to stream on all platforms. Vosk had an unconventional journey to Broadway, beginning her career on Wall Street before taking the leap of faith to pursue her dreams on stage. Her one-of-a-kind story has been profiled on ABC’s 20/20 and NBC Nightly News. www.jessicavosk.com, Socials: @jessicavosk

ASHLEY BLANCHET, vocalist

Ashley Blanchet was most recently seen as Dawn in Waitress with Sara Bareilles, other Broadway credits include: Frozen, Beautiful, Annie, and Memphis. Select regional: Title roles in Cinderella and The Sound of Music at The Papermill Playhouse, Belle in Beauty and the Beast (St Louis MUNY), Rosemary in How to Succeed… (Houston Under the Stars), and Ado Annie in Oklahoma (Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera). Film/TV: The Good Fight, The Equalizer, "Better Nate Than Ever,” and the voice of Raquelle in the award winning short animated film "Are You Okay?" Instagram: @a_Blanchet.

ABIGAIL SPARROW, vocalist

Abigail is thrilled to be back joining Jessica and California Dreamin! Abigail has appeared in numerous productions across NYC and CA, most recently as a Standby in SIX the Musical, Toronto Company. Other credits include: SIX (Katherine Howard on NCL Breakaway 3.0), Rock of Ages (ACT of CT, The Argyle Theatre), Jersey Boys (WPPAC), Heathers (CSUF). Cal State Fullerton MT 2021. Love to mom, dad, Grace, Max, Kailey, her family and friends, and Beckett. @abigailsparrowofficial

MOLLY STILLIENS, vocalist

Molly Stilliens is from a small town in CA. She attended Cal Lutheran University and earned her BA in Music, Pacific Conservatory for the Performing Arts, and earned her MFA in Acting from Cal State Fullerton. Some of her favorite shows include Beauty and the Beast at the MUNY, Unauthorized Musical Parody of Jurassic Park at Rockwell Table and Stage, and Ragtime at Pasadena Playhouse.

FAMILY 2023/24

PETER AND THE WOLF & THE YOUNG PERSON’S GUIDE TO THE ORCHESTRA WITH YOUR COLORADO SYMPHONY

WILBUR LIN, conductor

CURIOUS THEATRE COMPANY , partner

LAURA CHAVEZ, narrator

ILIANA LUCERO BARRON, ensemble

BRIAN KUSIC, ensemble

Sunday, March 17, 2024 at 2:30pm

Boettcher Concert Hall

PROKOFIEV

Peter and the Wolf, Op. 67

BRITTEN Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, Op. 34 (Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell)

Theme

Variation A: Flutes and Piccolo

Variation B: Oboes

Variation C: Oboes

Variation D: Bassoons

Variation E: Violins

Variation F: Violas

Variation G: Cellos

Variation H: Basses

Variation I: Harp

Variation J: Horns

Variation K: Trumpets

Variation L: Trombones

Variation M: Percussion

Fugue

CONCERT RUN TIME IS APPROXIMATELY 1 HOUR WITH A NO INTERMISSION

PHOTO: LAI YUEH-CHUNG

FAMILY BIOGRAPHIES

WILBUR LIN, conductor

Known for his creative programming and inviting stage presence, Wilbur Lin’s career has taken him to symphony halls and opera theaters across the United States, Europe, Latin America, and Taiwan. Recently appointed Music Director of the Missouri Symphony, Lin also joins the conducting staff of the Colorado Symphony as assistant conductor in 2023.

Lin’s 2022/23 season saw his debuts with the Rochester Philharmonic, Oak Ridge, Ann Arbor, and Elgin symphonies, and a return to Indiana’s Richmond Symphony. His other recent highlights include his debut with the Taipei Symphony Orchestra, opening its 2021/22 season, a new studio recording with pianist Eric Zuber and the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, and conducting and covering the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops where he recently finished his tenure as assistant conductor (2019-2022).

In addition to his positions with the Colorado, Cincinnati, and Missouri symphonies, in recent years, Lin has conducted the Chamber Philharmonic Taipei, Manchester Camerata, Orquesta Sinfónica Juvenil (El Salvador), Taipei Philharmonic, Taipei Symphony, Liverpool Mozart, Academy Orchestra of Taiwan Symphony, Richmond Symphony (IN), and LaPorte Symphony orchestras. As a cover conductor, Lin has worked with, notably, the Taiwan Symphony, Cincinnati Ballet, and Minnesota orchestras. In his role as the assistant conductor of the Colorado Symphony, Lin also serves as the Music Director of the Denver Young Artists Orchestra.

A graduate of Riccardo Muti‘s Italian Opera Academy, Lin’s operatic endeavors include conducting Verdi’s Macbeth at Teatro Alighieri (Ravenna, Italy), Die Zauberflöte and Barber of Seville with the Winter Harbor Music Festival (Winter Harbor, Maine), Menotti’s The Medium and Amelia Goes to the Ball as the conductor of Northern Illinois University (Dekalb, IL), and has coached and performed as a pianist with the Indianapolis Opera, Indiana University Opera Theater, Reimagining Opera for Kids, and the Cincinnati Ballet. In 2022, Lin led a new workshop production of Robeson by Scott Davenport Richards at the Cincinnati Opera.

Lin held the position of Taiwan Symphony Orchestra International Talent Fellow (2019-2021), Weiwuyin Opera (Taiwan) Conducting Fellow (2019-2020), Lord Rhodes Scholar (2013-2014), was a two-time recipient of Mortimer Furber Prize for Conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM), and holds a doctoral degree in orchestral conducting from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Lin has studied with Arthur Fagen and David Effron at Jacobs, Clark Rundell and Mark Heron at the RNCM, and Apo Hsu at the National Taiwan Normal University. He has also received conducting coaching with, notably, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Riccardo Muti, Sir Mark Elder, Helmuth Rilling, and has assisted Louis Langrée, James Gaffigan, and John Morris Russell, among others.

FAMILY BIOGRAPHIES

CURIOUS THEATRE COMPANY, partner

Our tagline “No guts, no story” embodies the spirit of Curious Theatre Company. Established in 1997 Curious brings the best new theatre and playwrights to Denver. We produce thought-provoking performances designed to challenge ideas, stir emotions, and leave audiences thinking and talking for days. Our innovative Lets Get Curious!! Education Programs bring students into the joy of live theatre and build community connections. Learn more at www.curioustheatre.org.

LAURA CHAVEZ, narrator

Laura Chavez was last seen as Patricia in the Theatreworks production of Dream House. Other credits include: Alma (Curious Theatre Company); To the Moon (Creede Repertory Theatre); Recipe (Theatre Artibus, Grapefruit Lab & Emancipation Theatre); Santos y Santos, Botánica, The Beatification of Carmen Miranda (El Centro Su Teatro); Siren Song (Buntport Theatre Company); Unmerciful Good Fortune (Firehouse Theatre Company); The Last Session (Theatre Off Broadway); Nickel & Dimed (Curious Theatre Company); and Marisol (Pangaea Theatre Company). When not on stage, Laura is proud to lead the education programs for Curious Theatre Company.

ILIANA LUCERO BARRON, ensemble

Iliana Lucero Barron is a bilingual, latine performer, director, teaching artist, creative, and advocate based in Denver, Colorado. Graduating from the University of Colorado at Denver in 2016, Iliana became a firstgeneration college graduate. Since then, she has worked in multiple capacities throughout the Colorado theatre community. You may have seen some of her work as a performer: Northside (Su Teatro), ALMA (Curious Theatre Company), The Shakespeare in the Parking Lot Tour (DCPA), Taming of the Shrew (Theatreworks), You Enjoy Myself (Local Theater). You may have also seen her work as a director: The Sojourners Project: Busing (IDEA Stages & Control Group Productions), Frida Kahlo and the Bravest Girl in the World, Amahl and the Night Visitors (Central City Opera), DOT (Vintage Theatre).

BRIAN KUSIC, ensemble

Brian Kusic grew up in Denver and has worked as a performer and teacher for many years. He is happy to have two of his favorite things in the same room, early childhood education and live performance. He is currently working at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and is happy to be in his home. Go Nuggets! You may have seen him in MAD Librarians with BETC or Inside the Orchestra.