Program Notes: How the Grinch Stole Christmas & Drums of the World
MOVIES AT THE SYMPHONY 2024/25
HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS IN CONCERT PERFORMED BY YOUR COLORADO SYMPHONY
SCOTT TERRELL, conductor
Friday, November 29, 2024 at 7:30pm
Saturday, November 30, 2024 at 7:30pm
Boettcher Concert Hall
DISCOVER THE MAGIC OF THE MEAN ONE THIS HOLIDAY SEASON.
Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas is a celebration of the holiday spirit no home should be without! Why is the Grinch such a grouch? No one seems to know, until little Cindy Lou Who takes matters into her own hands and turns both Whoville and the Grinch’s world upside down, inside out and funny side up in her search for the true meaning of Christmas.
CONCERT RUN TIME IS APPROXIMATELY 2 HOURS AND 5 MINUTES. INCLUDING A 20 MINUTE INTERMISSION.
Friday’s concert is sponsored by bonFils-stanton Foundation saturday’s concert is sponsored by lamar advertising
PROUDLY SUPPORTED BY
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SCOTT TERRELL, conductor
American conductor Scott Terrell has built a major conducting career through imaginative programs, an engaging presence, and a determined passion for artistic excellence, teaching, and viability. An ardent champion of new music and diversity of repertoire, he was a visionary leader with a keen intellect for bringing context to the concert hall. Maestro Terrell was named to the Virginia Martin Howard Chair of Orchestral Studies at Louisiana State University School of Music in November 2020. With this appointment, Mr. Terrell will lead and shape LSU’s storied orchestras and instruct the graduate conducting students.
In great demand as a guest conductor, Mr. Terrell’s 2021-2022 engagements include the Rochester Philharmonic, Atlanta Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Rockford Symphony, Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, and the Mostly Modern Festival. Recent engagements have included Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Columbia, San Diego Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá (Colombia), Fort Worth Symphony and re-engagements with Arizona Opera and the Aspen Music Festival. Maestro Terrell debuted with the Philadelphia Orchestra in an all-Gershwin program in 2017 and has been on the cover conductor staff of the Philadelphia Orchestra since 2012, leading their pre-concert lectures.
Maestro Terrell has led many prestigious international organizations including the St. Louis Symphony, Houston Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra Opera Colorado, Opera Hong Kong, Colorado Symphony, Arizona Opera, Hamilton Philharmonic, Minnesota Opera, Minnesota Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Milwaukee Symphony, Spoleto Festival, Naples Philharmonic, Eugene Symphony, Richmond Symphony, South Dakota Symphony, Kalamazoo Symphony, Wheeling Symphony, Amarillo Symphony, and El Paso Opera. He has been a regular guest conductor and teacher at the Aspen Music Festival since 2001, leading various concert programs as well mentoring and teaching conducting students.
Having a strong affinity for vocal and operatic repertoire, Maestro Terrell has led a wealth of projects abroad. Collaborations with Kentucky Opera have included Stephen Paulus’ oratorio To be Certain of the Dawn, Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti, Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel and Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar. Operatic engagements have included Opera Hong Kong gala concerts of Bernstein, and Arizona Opera’s production of The Magic Flute. He conducted Piazzolla’s Maria de Buenos Aires at Fort Worth Opera, Aspen Music Festival and Arizona Opera as well as Aspen’s concert productions of Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti and Missy Mazzoli’s groundbreaking work, Proving up.
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Mr. Terrell was Music Director of the Lexington Philharmonic for a transformative decade (2009-2019) in the organization’s history. He re-invigorated and raised the artistic level of the ensemble, diversified programming, expanded collaborations, and increased community support. He created and endowed both a Composer-in-Residence and an Artist-in-Residence chair. Composers commissioned have included Daniel Thomas-Davis, Daniel Kellogg, Adam Schoenberg, Avner Dorman, and Chris Brubeck. The orchestra was awarded numerous Copland Awards, highlighting his ongoing commitment to contemporary American composers such as Missy Mazzoli, Jennifer Higdon, Gabriela Lena Franck, Joan Tower, Christopher Rouse, John Adams, Michael Gandolfi, Philip Glass, Mason Bates, Roberto Sierra, Christopher Theofanidis, Osvaldo Golijov, and Chris Brubeck. The orchestra was also broadcast on NPR’s Performance. Today for the first time in its history during his tenure.
Previously, Maestro Terrell served as Resident Conductor and Director of Education for the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, and prior to that was Assistant Conductor of Minnesota Orchestra. A native of Michigan, Maestro Terrell is a graduate of Western Michigan University, and the University of Minnesota in orchestral conducting. In 2000, Terrell was chosen as a fellowship conductor for the inaugural season of the American Academy of Conducting at the Aspen Music Festival under Music Director, David Zinman. He has participated in master classes with such distinguished conductors as Leonard Slatkin, Robert Spano, Jorma Panula, and David Robertson. At Aspen, he was awarded the prestigious Conducting Prize from David Zinman, an award recognizing exemplary musicianship and promise.
DRUMS OF THE WORLD PERCUSSIONISTS OF THE COLORADO SYMPHONY
Sunday, December 1, 2024 at 2:30pm
Boettcher Concert Hall
TRAD Kumpo
ARR. PAULINUS BOWIE
OWEN CLAYTON CONDON Fractalia
CHRIS CROCKARELL Me Tarzan
ERIC SAMMUT Kaleiduoscope
MENKE MANFRED Eine Kleine Tischmusik
STEVE HEARN “Loco Cajon Trio”
ALDWYN ROBERTBS Flag Woman
ARR. LISA RODGERS
JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE, “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” MAX MARTIN AND SHELLBACK
ARR. JOHN WILLMARTH
RICARDO ROMANEIRO Sub Pulse
CONCERT RUN TIME IS APPROXIMATELY 75 MINUTES. WITH NO INTERMISSION.
PROUDLY SUPPORTED BY
FAMILY BIOGRAPHIES
JOHN KINZIE, principal percussion
John Kinzie joined the Colorado Symphony as Principal Percussionist in 1985. He was previously the Principal Percussionist with the Toledo Symphony Orchestra. In 1996, he became the head of the percussion division at the Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver. John Kinzie was born in Pittsburgh and began his musical studies on the piano at the age of five. When band was introduced in the schools, he quickly switched to the drums. He received scholarships to the University of Toledo and the Cleveland Institute of Music where he studied with
Robert Bell, Richard Weiner and Paul Yancich. Prior to joining the Colorado Symphony as Principal Percussionist in 1985, he was Principal Percussionist with the Toledo Symphony Orchestra, a position he won at the age of 19.
John has appeared with Strings in the Mountains, The National Repertory Orchestra, and the Grand Teton music festivals, and has been a featured soloist with the Toledo Symphony, Colorado Music Festival, Yale School of Music, Grand Teton Music Festival, and the Colorado Symphony on numerous occasions. He also performs with the Colorado Symphony chamber group “Once Upon a Time,” a group formed to inspire the imaginations of young schoolchildren and to excite them about music. In 1996, he became the head of the percussion division of the Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver, where he teaches percussion and timpani performance as well as percussion ensemble, master classes, and percussion pedagogy and repertoire. In his spare time, he enjoys golf, skiing, and hanging out with his wife, Colorado Symphony violinist Karen Kinzie, and their four sons, Ryan, Karl, Grant, and Reid.
STEVE HEARN, acting principal timpani
Acting Principal Timpani with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Steve Hearn is also a founding member of the Lumos Percussion Group and the former Principal Timpanist of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music. He has appeared with the Strings in the Mountains, Grand Teton, and Cabrillo music festivals and has been a featured concerto soloist with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Oregon Symphony, Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, among others. He has performed at several Percussive Arts Society International Conventions as a featured soloist and chamber musician. Similarly, he was a percussionist in the Colorado premier of Academy Award-winning composer Tan Dun’s Water Passion after S. Matthew
Hearn previously held the position as Percussionist/Timpanist in the U.S. Army Field Band, Washington, D.C. were he toured the 48 continental states performing concerts with the Concert Band and Chorus. As an orchestral musician, he served as principal timpanist during the Nashville Symphony Orchestra’s national tour with Amy Grant/Vince Gil and has appeared as principal timpanist of the Kamerorkest “Continuo” Rotterdam, Holland, the Las Cruces Symphony Orchestra, and the Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra. He has appeared as principal percussionist
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with the European Mozart Festival Orchestra in Krakow, Poland, and as a percussionist with the Dutch Theater Production of The West Side Story. Similarly, he has performed with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Alabama Symphony Orchestra, Nashville Symphony Orchestra, and the Orchestra of Santa Fe. In addition, he worked in the Music Business Industry where he served for seven years as the Concert/Adams Percussion Marketing Manager at Pearl Drum Corporation.
Active as an educator, chamber musician and drum set specialist, he was the assistant to Robert van Sice at Rotterdam’s Conservatory of Music and was the Director of Percussion Studies at New Mexico State University. He has performed recitals and chamber music in Holland, Belgium, Illinois, Colorado, New Mexico, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. as well as given master classes in nearly all 50 states. As a drum set specialist, he has performed various styles of jazz and rock throughout the Chicago area with the Ramesdell Jazz Quintet and the pop/rock group The Others.
Hearn received a Bachelor of Music degree in Percussion Performance from the University of New Mexico, a Master of Music degree in Percussion Performance from New Mexico State University, and the prestigious Artist Performing Diploma from Rotterdam’s Conservatory, The Netherlands.
Hearn is an active artist/educator for Adams Musical Instruments, Zildjian Cymbals, Freer Percussion Products, TheBoxKit.com, and Evans Drumheads. www.hearndrum.com
MICHAEL VAN WIRT, percussion
Michael Van Wirt joined the percussion section of the Colorado Symphony in 2015. He has performed with the Houston Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Colorado Music Festival, and was a New World Symphony Fellow. Michael was also a member of Seraphic Fire’s Firebird Chamber Orchestra, serving as timpanist from 2012-2015. He is an alumnus of the Aspen Music Festival, Colorado College Summer Music Festival, and the Alan Abel Summer Percussion Seminar.
Michael holds degrees from the University of Denver and the University of Miami. As an educator, Michael has taught at the Lamont School of Music Summer Academy, the Colorado College Summer Music Festival, and was Artist-in-Residence at the University of Northern Colorado. Michael also participates in the Colorado Symphony’s education and outreach programs, including the Master Mentor, Mini Musica, and Canta y Baila Conmigo programs. He is currently head of the percussion department at the Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver, where he teaches percussion, timpani, and directs the Lamont Percussion Ensemble.
Michael and his wife Elizabeth perform regularly as a percussion duo, including performances at the University of Denver, Regis University, and the Colorado Symphony’s Drums of the World concert. He is a Zildjian performing artist and clinician. In his free time, Michael enjoys skiing and hiking, completing the Colorado Trail in the summer of 2012.
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DANIEL MORRIS, percussion
Daniel Morris (he/him), originally from Cleveland, Ohio, is a Denver-based percussionist. He is thrilled to be joining the Colorado Symphony as acting section percussion this fall. Morris has served as acting associate principal of the Kansas City Symphony and was a New World Symphony fellow. He has also performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Atlanta, Oregon and Seattle Symphonies, and the Colorado Music Festival.
A passionate educator, Morris has taught from the middle school to university level and was honored to participate in the Colorado Symphony’s educational outreach program this past spring at Aurora Central High School. He holds degrees from Manhattan School of Music and Indiana University. His primary teachers include Erik Charlston, Chris Lamb, Duncan Patton, She-e Wu and Michael Werner.
ELIZABETH VAN WIRT, percussion
Elizabeth Van Wirt performs regularly as an orchestral percussionist, chamber musician, and soloist. Recent engagements include the Colorado Symphony, the Dallas Symphony, the Kansas City Symphony, Grand Teton Music Festival, and Colorado Music Festival. Elizabeth was the 3rd prize laureate of the prestigious Universal Marimba Competition 2011 in Belgium. She is recorded as a soloist on Ney Rosauro’s disc Early Mallet Works and featured on the 2016 album Onyx released by the Society of Composers, Inc. In addition to her varied performance career, she has maintained a schedule of teaching private lessons and in classroom settings. Elizabeth currently teaches Applied Percussion at Regis University in Denver. She holds two degrees from the University of Miami Frost School of Music and a Masters Degree from the Manhattan School of Music. Elizabeth lives in Denver, Colorado, and is a proud Yamaha and Vic Firth Artist.
