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Transformational Support
The DSO is grateful to the donors who have made extraordinary multi-year, comprehensive gifts to support general operations, endowment, capital improvements, named chairs, ensembles, or programs. These generous commitments establish a solid foundation for the future of the DSO.
FOUNDING FAMILIES
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Julie & Peter Cummings The Davidson-Gerson Family and the William Davidson Foundation The Richard C. Devereaux Foundation The Fisher Family and the Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation Stanley & Judy Frankel and the Samuel & Jean Frankel Foundation Danialle & Peter Karmanos, Jr. Linda Dresner & Ed Levy, Jr. James B. & Ann V. Nicholson and PVS Chemicals, Inc. Clyde & Helen Wu◊
Penny & Harold Blumenstein Mr. & Mrs. Phillip Wm. Fisher
Shari & Craig Morgan Mrs. Richard C. Van Dusen
VISIONARIES
CHAMPIONS
Mr. & Mrs. Richard L. Alonzo Mandell & Madeleine Berman Foundation Mr. & Mrs. Raymond M. Cracchiolo Joanne Danto & Arnold Weingarden Vera and Joseph Dresner Foundation DTE Energy Foundation The Fred A. & Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation Ford Motor Company Fund Mr. & Mrs. Morton E. Harris◊ John S. & James L. Kinght Foundation The Kresge Foundation Mrs. Bonnie Larson The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Ms. Deborah Miesel Dr. William F. Pickard The Polk Family Bernard & Eleanor Robertson Stephen M. Ross Family of Dr. Clyde and Helen Wu
LEADERS
Applebaum Family Philanthropy Charlotte Arkin Estate Mr. & Mrs. Lee Barthel Marvin & Betty Danto Family Foundation Adel & Walter Dissett Herman & Sharon Frankel Ruth & Al◊ Glancy Mary Ann & Robert Gorlin Ronald M. & Carol◊ Horwitz Richard H. & Carola Huttenlocher John C. Leyhan Estate Bud & Nancy Liebler Richard & Jane Manoogian Foundation David & Valerie McCammon Mr. & Mrs. Eugene A. Miller Pat & Hank◊ Nickol Jack & Aviva Robinson◊ Martie & Bob Sachs Mr. & Mrs.◊ Alan E. Schwartz Drs. Doris Tong & Teck Soo Paul & Terese Zlotoff
BENEFACTORS
Mr.◊ & Mrs. Robert A. Allesee W. Harold & Chacona W. Baugh Robert & Lucinda Clement Lois & Avern Cohn Mary Rita Cuddohy Estate Margie Dunn & Mark Davidoff DSO Musicians Bette Dyer Estate Marjorie S. Fisher Fund Dr. Marjorie M. Fisher & Mr. Roy Furman Barbara Frankel & Ronald Michalak Victor◊ & Gale Girolami Fund Herbert & Dorothy Graebner◊ Richard Sonenklar & Gregory Haynes Mr. & Mrs. David Jaffa Renato & Elizabeth Jamett Ann & Norman◊ Katz Dr. Melvin A. Lester◊ Florine Mark Michigan Council for Arts & Cultural Affairs Dr. Glenda D. Price Ruth Rattner Mr. & Mrs.◊ Lloyd E. Reuss Mr. & Mrs. Fred Secrest◊ Jane & Larry Sherman Cindy McTee & Leonard Slatkin Marilyn Snodgrass Estate Mr. James G. Vella
INTENTIONAL COMMUNITY
In 2017, the DSO launched its Social Progress Initiative, affirming a commitment to continuous dialogue and action that leverages the power of music to improve the quality of life for the people of Detroit and beyond. Building on the foundations of the past, we recently expanded this vision into the Detroit Strategy—one pillar of which is the Detroit Neighborhood Initiative.
The core of Neighborhood Initiative work in 2021 has been community partnership-building and listening. “We began by reaching out to organizations in the neighborhoods of Chandler Park and Southwest and asking them if they would partner with us and introduce us to their residents in community listening sessions. We have now met 63 community organizations,” says Karisa Antonio, DSO
Director of Social Innovation. The goal of meeting residents, listening, and learning about each neighborhood’s vibrant culture is to build sustainable relationships and co-create celebratory musical experiences with the people who live, work, and grow in each neighborhood.
After twelve listening sessions, the DSO planned four neighborhood-driven Musical Experiences for summer 2021, including the first annual Chandler Park Community Arts and Music Festival on Detroit’s east side in collaboration with 27 community partners.
By the time the festival came around in July, it had been over a year since students from the Civic Youth Ensembles Dresner Allegro Ensemble had performed before a live audience. With the encouragement of their CYE director Leslie DeShazor—beaming with pride—they took to the stage and performed for an attentive audience as eager to hear as they were to play.
The festival also featured performances blending classical and urban music, spoken word poetry, and West African music and dance. Ceramics artists from the Pewabic Pottery street team demonstrated baking pottery, and community members tried violins with Sphinx, danced with Crescendo Detroit, and completed a musical scavenger hunt with the DSO. Of the 400 Detroiters in attendance at the event, more than half had never attended a performance by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra before.
Sustainability is a critical foundation of the Detroit Neighborhood Initiative, so next summer will see the expansion to one additional neighborhood, allowing for continual engagement with residents met this year. Join us next summer to hear DSO musicians, celebrate community artists, meet local organizations, and get connected with musical resources for everyone in the family. Read more at dso.org/stories.
The Detroit Neighborhood Initiative is supported by General Motors and The Stone Foundation of Michigan. PwC provided support for the July 10 Chandler Park event.
—Karisa Antonio, DSO Director of Social Innovation
A COMMUNITY-SUP JADERPORTED ORCHESTRAJADER BIGNAMINI, Music Director BIGNAMINI MUSIC DIRECTOR
Music Directorship endowed by the Kresge Foundation
JEFF TYZIK
Principal Pops Conductor TERENCE BLANCHARD
Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Jazz Creative Director Chair LEONARD SLATKIN
Music Director Laureate NEEME JÄRVI
Music Director Emeritus
PVS CLASSICAL SERIES
Title Sponsor:
DAWSON & BEETHOVEN
Friday, December 10, 2021 at 10:45 a.m. Saturday, December 11, 2021 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, December 12, 2021 at 3 p.m. at Orchestra Hall
THOMAS WILKINS, conductor VADIM GLUZMAN, violin
William Levi Dawson Negro Folk Symphony (1899 - 1990) I. The Bond of Africa II. Hope in the Night III. O, Le’ Me Shine, Shine Like a Morning Star!
Intermission
Ludwig van Beethoven Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (1770 - 1827) in D major, Op. 61 I. Allegro ma non troppo II. Larghetto III. Rondo: Allegro Vadim Gluzman, violin
Saturday’s performance will be webcast via our exclusive Live From Orchestra Hall series, presented by Ford Motor Company Fund and made possible by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Fanfare on “Amazing Grace”
ADOLPHUS HAILSTORK
B. April 17, 1941, Rochester, New York Scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, and strings. (Approx. 3 minutes)
Adolphus Hailstork received his doctorate in composition from Michigan State University, where he was a student of H. Owen Reed. He had previously studied at the Manhattan School of Music, under Vittorio Giannini and David Diamond, at the American Institute at Fontainebleau with Nadia Boulanger, and at Howard University with Mark Fax.
Hailstork has written numerous works for chorus, solo voice, piano, organ, various chamber ensembles, band, orchestra, and opera. His pieces have been conducted by major orchestras and leading conductors including James de Priest, Paul Freeman, Daniel Barenboim, Kurt Masur, Lorin Maezel, Jo Ann Falletta, David Lockington, and Thomas Wilkins.
Hailstork has received the Alli Award for lifetime achievement from the Cultural Alliance of Greater Hampton Roads, the Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, and the Charles O. and Elisabeth C. Burgess Award for Faculty Research and Creativity from Old Dominion University’s College of Arts and Letters.
In 2011, Fanfare on “Amazing Grace” was published and subsequently recorded by the Virginia Symphony—appropriately enough, since Hailstork has served as professor of music and Composer-inResidence at both Virginia’s Norfolk State and Old Dominion Universities, and in 1992 was named a Cultural Laureate of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Hailstork’s Fanfare on “Amazing Grace” was performed by “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band as the second piece of the prelude during the inauguration of United States President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in January 2021.
This performance marks the DSO premiere of Adolphus Hailstork’s Fanfare on “Amazing Grace.”
Negro Folk Symphony
Composed 1934 | Premiered November 1934 | Revised 1952
WILLIAM LEVI DAWSON
B. September 23, 1899, Anniston, Alabama D. May 2, 1990, Montgomery, Alabama Scored for 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, E-flat clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, and strings. (Approx. 29 minutes)
Anyone who has sung in a chorus— amateur or professional, has surely relished the arrangements of spirituals by William Levi Dawson: idiomatic settings that make full use of the resources of the human voice. Indeed, much of his career was devoted to building up the choir of the Tuskegee Institute, where he founded the music school. Through its tours, the Tuskegee choir won a wide audience, and Dawson’s choral arrangements have remained in print over the decades.
Dawson began work on the Negro Folk Symphony while in Chicago. While on tour with the Tuskegee choir in New York, he showed the manuscript to the conductor, Leopold Stokowski, who made suggestions for its expansion. In this form, comprising three movements, it was first performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1934. The critic for the New York World-Telegram was at the premiere, and he praised the symphony’s “imagination, warmth, drama … [and] sumptuous orchestration.” In its overall shape, and especially in its orchestration, the symphony falls into the lateRomantic tradition. After a trip to West
Africa in 1952, however, the composer revised it to embody authentic African rhythmic patterns, and it was in this form that Stokowski recorded it, and that is inevitably played today.
The symphony can be appreciated purely as a musical work, without knowledge of the melodies or feelings that form its background. There are strong programmatic elements in the piece, however, as the composer’s own remarks, written for the world premiere, make clear:
“This Symphony is based entirely upon Negro folk music. The themes are taken from what are popularly known as Negro spirituals, and the practiced ear will recognize the recurrence of characteristic themes throughout the composition. In this composition the composer has employed three themes taken from typical melodies over which he has brooded since childhood, having learned them at his mother’s knee.”
Though many of the melodies Dawson used were those of his people, the method of symphonic development and the techniques of orchestration are those “used by the composers of the (European) Romantic nationalist school,” he said. It is not surprising, then, to hear echoes of the style of Dvorˇák and Tchaikovsky. Starting from the same point as Glinka did with Russian folk material, Dawson came up with a quite different result.
The last movement has two principal themes, which are taken from African American melodies. The first, with which the movement begins, and which returns in triumph at the end, is the spiritual “O Le’ Me Shine.” The second, sprightlier still, is “Hallelujah, Lord, I Been Down Into the Sea.” “Throughout the symphony,” writes Eileen Southern in The Music of Black Americans, “Dawson handles his musical materials in such a manner as to achieve a programmatic effect—suggesting such scenes as the shout, toiling in the fields, a burial, and the day of freedom.”
The DSO most recently performed Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony in March 2015, conducted by Thomas Wilkins. The DSO first performed the piece in March 1980, conducted by Everett Lee.
Composed 1806 | Premiered December 1806
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
B. December 1770, Bonn, Germany D. March 26, 1827, Vienna, Austria Scored for solo violin, flute, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, and strings. (Approx. 42 minutes)
Ludwig van Beethoven’s Violin Concerto contains one of the most remarkable beginnings of any concerto to date: five quiet strokes on the timpani, overlapped by a woodwind melody with a steady stride. All the succeeding themes seem to belong to the same well-bred clan, except a noisy one in the minor key which breaks out intermittently in the orchestra, but never upsets the calm of the soloist.
The progress of the first movement is orderly, with the solo violin distinguishing itself from the orchestra chiefly by range—the notes above the staff belong mainly to the soloist—and by speed. Even as the solo violin spins its filigree, the underlying harmonies remain slow-moving, often giving the effect, to borrow a phrase from the British writer Scott Goddard, of “a fountain caught intermittently by the wind.”
So trimly built is the first movement that one hears it through, hardly realizing that nearly half the concerto’s length has already passed. What follows—a slow movement linked without pause to the finale—set a precedent for later composers. Mendelssohn was one of the next to join the middle and last movements in his Violin Concerto, and Schumann did so in his concertos for piano and for violin.
Formally, the slow movement is an
asymmetrical set of double variations; the first theme, introduced by the orchestral strings, carrying more weight than the second one, first sounded by the solo violin. Otherwise, the soloist’s role is almost entirely decorative, the plain theme being sounded by various orchestral instruments against an ornate version above. The key is restful— G major, set between two movements in D major—and Beethoven never loses sight of the tonic chord. All the more startling, then, is the sudden jolt back to the key of the finale, the violin mitigating the shock only slightly with its cadenza.
The final rondo is so regular that Beethoven indicated its repetitions with signs in his manuscript, leaving the copyist to write them out in full. The mood here is rustic and pastoral, and the humor, very delicate. It is a matter for smiles, not belly laughs, for example, when the solo violin introduces the rondo theme in a preternaturally low register, then reassumes its natural voice for the repeat.
Just as subtle is the link with the first episode, the solo violin springing up out of the orchestra, half-hidden at first. A turn to G minor in another solo section darkens the mood only slightly, and the key is soon gently steered to B-flat, the relative major. One hopes for an understated cadenza here, for the section following it is magical—the oboe proposing an excursion into a remote A-flat, but the solo violin navigating back to the home key, marking the arrival with four slow notes that hint at the slow movement without making the connection baldly explicit.
The DSO last performed Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in September 2016, conducted by Leonard Slatkin and featuring violinist Hilary Hahn. The DSO first performed the piece in November 1923, conducted by Ossip Gabrilowitsch and featuring violinist Ilya Schkolnik.
For tickets call 734.764.2538 or visit ums.org
UMS January Highlights
Requiem: Fire in the Air of the Earth
A new work by Kyle Abraham and Jlin | A.I.M
Fri-Sat Jan 7-8 // 8:00 pm // Power Center
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black
Lives Matter protests, choreographer Kyle Abraham
and EDM artist Jlin reimagine Mozart’s Requiem from
an explicitly Black perspective.
Sphinx Symphony Orchestra and EXIGENCE
Sun Jan 30 // 4:00 pm // Hill Auditorium
Top Black and Latinx professional musicians from
around the country come together for The Sphinx
Symphony Orchestra and EXIGENCE concert tour
celebrating BIPOC composers and artistry.
THOMAS WILKINS
Thomas Wilkins is Principal Conductor of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Artistic Advisor, Education and Community Engagement, Principal Guest Conductor of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, and holds Indiana University’s Henry A. Upper Chair of Orchestral Conducting, established by the late Barbara and David Jacobs as a part of the university’s “Matching the Promise Campaign.” He completed his long and successful tenure as Music Director of the Omaha Symphony Orchestra at the close of the 2020–2021 season. Other past positions have included resident conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and The Florida Orchestra, and associate conductor of the Richmond Symphony. He also has served on the music faculties of North Park University in Chicago, the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga, and Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.
Devoted to promoting a lifelong enthusiasm for music, Wilkins brings energy and commitment to audiences of all ages. He is hailed as a master at communicating and connecting with audiences. Following his highly successful first season with the Boston Symphony Orchesta, The Boston Globe named him among the “Best People and Ideas of 2011.” In 2014, Wilkins received the prestigious “Outstanding Artist” award at the Nebraska Governor’s Arts Awards for his significant contribution to music in the state. In 2018, he received the Leonard Bernstein Lifetime Achievement Award for the Elevation of Music in Society conferred by Boston’s Longy School of Music. In 2019, the Virginia Symphony Orchestra bestowed Wilkins with their annual Dreamer Award.
During his conducting career, he has led orchestras throughout the United States, including the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and the National Symphony Orchestra. Additionally, he has guest conducted the Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras, the symphonies of Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Baltimore, San Diego, and Utah, and the Buffalo and Rochester Philharmonics, as well as at the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago.
A native of Norfolk, Virginia, Thomas Wilkins is a graduate of the Shenandoah Conservatory of Music and the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. He and his wife Sheri-Lee are the proud parents of twin daughters, Erica and Nicole.
VADIM GLUZMAN
Universally recognized among today’s top performing artists, Israeli violinist Vadim Gluzman is acclaimed for his appearances with the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Riccardo Chailly, Christoph von Dohnányi, Tugan Sokhiev, Michael Tilson Thomas, and other leading conductors.
Gluzman has introduced the public to new works by Sofia Gubaidulina, Giya Kancheli, Moritz Eggert, Elena Firsova, Lera Auerbach and Perˇteris Vasks, and is planning premiere performances of concertos by Erkki-Sven Tüür and Joshua Roman.
Accolades for Gluzman’s striking catalogue of recordings for the BIS Records label include the Diapason d’Or of the Year, Gramophone’s Editor’s Choice, Classica magazine’s Choc de Classica award, and Disc of the Month by The Strad, BBC Music Magazine, and ClassicFM.
Distinguished Artist in Residence at The Peabody Conservatory, Gluzman performs on the extraordinary 1690 “ex-Leopold Auer” Stradivari, on loan through the Stradivari Society of Chicago.
A COMMUNITY-SUP JADERPORTED ORCHESTRAJADER BIGNAMINI, Music Director BIGNAMINI MUSIC DIRECTOR
Music Directorship endowed by the Kresge Foundation
JEFF TYZIK
Principal Pops Conductor TERENCE BLANCHARD
Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Jazz Creative Director Chair LEONARD SLATKIN
Music Director Laureate NEEME JÄRVI
Music Director Emeritus
DSO PRESENTS HOME ALONE IN CONCERT WITH THE DSO
Wednesday, December 15, 2021 at 7:30 p.m. at Orchestra Hall
SCOTT TERRELL, conductor
TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX Presents A JOHN HUGHES Production A CHRIS COLUMBUS Film
HOME ALONE
MACAULAY CULKIN JOE PESCI DANIEL STERN JOHN HEARD and CATHERINE O’HARA
Music by JOHN WILLIAMS
Film Editor RAJA GOSNELL
Production Designer JOHN MUTO
Director of Photography JULIO MACAT
Executive Producers MARK LEVINSON & SCOTT ROSENFELT and TARQUIN GOTCH
Written and Produced by JOHN HUGHES
Directed by CHRIS COLUMBUS
Soundtrack Album Available on CBS Records
Color by DELUXE®
Tonight’s program is a presentation of the complete film Home Alone with a live performance of the film’s entire score, including music played by the orchestra during the end credits. Out of respect for the musicians and your fellow audience members, please remain seated until the conclusion of the credits. Film screening of Home Alone courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox. © 1990 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
SCOTT TERRELL
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 is a visionary leader with a keen intellect for bringing context to the concert hall. 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, Terrell leads and shapes LSU’s storied orchestras and instructs graduate conducting students.
In great demand as a guest conductor, Terrell’s 2021–2022 engagements nclude the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Toronto, Detroit, Rockford, and Baltimore, and the Mostly Modern Festival. Recent engagements include Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Columbia, San Diego Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá (Colombia), Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, and return engagements with Arizona Opera and the Aspen Music Festival and School. Terrell debuted with the Philadelphia Orchestra in an allGershwin program in 2017 and has been on the cover conductor staff of the Philadelphia Orchestra since 2012, leading their pre-concert lectures.
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 and School since 2001, leading various concert programs as well mentoring and teaching conducting students.
Having a strong affinity for vocal and operatic repertoire, Terrell has led a wealth of projects of such nature. Collaborations with Kentucky Opera have included Stephen Paulus’s oratorio, To Be Certain of the Dawn, Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti, Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, and Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar. Operatic engagements include Opera Hong Kong gala concerts of Bernstein, and Arizona Opera’s production of The Magic Flute. He conducted Piazzolla’s María 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.
Terrell was Music Director of the Lexington Philharmonic for a transformative decade (2009–2019) in the organization’s history. He reinvigorated and raised the artistic level of the ensemble, diversified programming, expanded collaborations, and increased community support. He created and endowed both a Composerin-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 National Public Radio’s Performance Today for the first time in
its history during his tenure.
Previously, Terrell served as resident conductor and director of education for the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, and prior to that was assistant conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra. A native of Michigan, 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.
PRODUCTION CREDITS
Home Alone in Concert produced by Film Concerts Live!, a joint venture of IMG Artists, LLC and The Gorfaine/Schwartz Agency, Inc.
Producers: Steven A. Linder and Jamie Richardson Director of Operations: Rob Stogsdill Production Manager: Sophie Greaves Production Assistant: Elise Peate Worldwide Representation: IMG Artists, LLC Technical Director: Mike Runice
Music Composed by John Williams
Music Preparation: Jo Ann Kane Music Service Film Preparation for Concert Performance: Ramiro Belgardt Technical Consultant: Laura Gibson Sound Remixing for Concert Performance: Chace Audio by Deluxe The score for Home Alone has been adapted for live concert performance.
With special thanks to: Twentieth Century Fox, Chris Columbus, David Newman, John Kulback, Julian Levin, Mark Graham and the musicians and staff of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
WYNTON MARSALIS RETURNS TO ORCHESTRA HALL IN MARCH
PARADISE JAZZ SERIES
Fri., Mar. 4 at 8 p.m.
MADE POSSIBLE WITH SUPPORT FROM
Buy tickets at dso.org or call 313.576.5111
PVS CLASSICAL SERIES
CLASSICAL ROOTS
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis William Eddins, conductor Wynton Marsalis, composer (Sat. Only) Fri. Mar. 4 at 10:45 a.m.* Sat. Mar. 5 at 8 p.m.
Classical Roots honors and celebrates African American composers, musicians, educators, and cultural and civic leaders. This 44th celebration features Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis alongside the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, who take the stage to perform Marsalis’s own Swing Symphony.
For information on the Classical Roots Celebration, contact Ali Huber at ahuber@dso.org or 313.576.5449
*Please note: The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis does not appear in the Friday Coffee Concert performance.
A COMMUNITY-SUP JADERPORTED ORCHESTRAJADER BIGNAMINI, Music Director BIGNAMINI MUSIC DIRECTOR
Music Directorship endowed by the Kresge Foundation
JEFF TYZIK
Principal Pops Conductor TERENCE BLANCHARD
Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Jazz Creative Director Chair LEONARD SLATKIN
Music Director Laureate NEEME JÄRVI
Music Director Emeritus
TITLE SPONSOR:
HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS
Friday, December 17, 2021 at 10:45 a.m. & 8 p.m. Saturday, December 18, 2021 at 3:00 p.m. & 8 p.m. Sunday, December 19, 2021 at 3 p.m. in Orchestra Hall STUART CHAFETZ, conductor • MICHAEL PREACELY, vocalist*
Dmytrovich Mykola Leontovich Carol of the Bells
& Peter Wilhousky arr. Richard Hayman
Victor Herbert “March of the Toys” from Babes in Toyland
trans. F. Campbell Watson
Sammy Cahn Let It Snow*
arr. Michael Zavoski
Robert Wells & Mel Torme The Christmas Song*
arr. Daryl McKenzie
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Suite No. 1 from The Nutcracker, Op. 71a March Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy Russian Dance arr. Bruce Healey Three Chanukah Songs Albert Hague & Dr. Seuss You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch*
arr./orch. Johnie Dean
J. Fred Coots & Haven Gillespie Santa Claus is Coming to Town*
arr. Daryl McKenzie
Intermission arr. David Hamilton Angels We Have Heard On High George Frideric Handel “The Trumpet Shall Sound” from Messiah, HWV 56* arr. Daryl McKenzie O Little Town of Bethlehem* John Henry Hopkins, Jr. We Three Kings arr. and orch. Matt Riley Hai-Xin Wu, violin Buddy Greene & Mark Lowry Mary, Did You Know*
arr. Jack Schrader & Don Hart
Walter Kent & Kim Gannon I’ll Be Home For Christmas*
arr. Fred Barton
Adolphe-Charles Adam & Tom Kubis Oh Holy Night
orch. Paul Murtha
arr. & orch. Johnie Dean Children Go Where I Send Thee* Leroy Anderson Sleigh Ride
STUART CHAFETZ
Stuart Chafetz is the Principal Pops Conductor of the Columbus Symphony and the newly appointed Principal Pops Conductor of the Chautauqua and Marin Symphonies. Chafetz is celebrated for his dynamic and engaging podium presence and is increasingly in demand with orchestras across the continent. This season, Chafetz will be on the podium in Detroit, Houston, Milwaukee, Naples, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, San Diego, and Winnipeg. He enjoys a special relationship with the Phoenix Symphony where he leads multiple programs annually.
He has had the privilege of working with renowned artists including Chris Botti, 2 Cellos, Hanson, Rick Springfield, Michael Bolton, Kool & The Gang, Jefferson Starship, America, Little River Band, Brian McKnight, Roberta Flack, George Benson, Richard Chamberlain, The Chieftains, Jennifer Holliday, John Denver, Marvin Hamlisch, Thomas Hampson, Wynonna Judd, Jim Nabors, Randy Newman, Jon Kimura Parker, and Bernadette Peters.
He previously held posts as resident conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and associate conductor of the Louisville Orchestra. As principal timpanist of the Honolulu Symphony for twenty years, Chafetz also conducted annual performances of The Nutcracker with Ballet Hawaii and principals from the American Ballet Theatre. It was during that time that Chafetz led numerous concerts with the Maui Symphony and Maui Pops Orchestra. He has led numerous spring ballet productions at the world-renowned Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University.
MICHAEL PREACELY
American baritone Michael Preacely is a rising star on the operatic stage known for a versatile singing ability and style that allows him to cross between genres from classical repertoire to pop, contemporary, and Broadway. He has received critical acclaim for many of his performances, including Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera, Scarpia in Tosca, Ford in Falstaff, Marcello in La bohème, the High Priest in Samson and Delilah, and Porgy and Jake in Porgy and Bess. Preacely has performed with many major and regional opera houses and orchestras in the United States and abroad. Recently, Preacely completed a European tour of Porgy and Bess where he received great reviews for his performance of both Porgy and Jake. He also toured Russia in a concert series with New York based Opera Noire, debuted with Opera Memphis in the role of Marullo with a Rigoletto Cover, and Opéra de Montréal in the role of Jake. Preacely has performed with Cincinnati Opera, Opera Company Philadelphia, Opera Memphis, Kentucky Opera, Cleveland Opera, Lyric Opera Cleveland, and Bohème Opera of New Jersey.
Preacely’s success on the concert stage has blossomed with some of the nation’s leading orchestras, including the Oakland East Bay Symphony, the Memphis Symphony, the HamiltonFairfield Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Cleveland Pops, the Cincinnati Pops, the Greater Trenton Choral Society, and the American Spiritual Ensemble.
Preacely has received numerous accolades. He was invited under scholarship to participate in the International Vocal Arts Institute with Joan Dornemann and the VOIC Experience with Sherrill Milnes and Friends. He was the First Place Graduate Winner in the Alltech Vocal Scholarship Competition at the University of Kentucky and the recipient of awards in various competitions such as the National Opera Association Vocal Competition Artist Division, the Fritz and Jensen Vocal Competition, and the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.
The DSO welcomes three new full-time musicians
In fall 2021, the DSO held auditions for the first time in nearly two years, resulting in the hiring of three new full-time musicians. See below for more on cellist Cole Randolph and violinists Elizabeth Furuta and Daniel Kim.
“Orchestra auditions are highly competitive and to earn a position with an orchestra as great as the DSO shows that you are at the peak of the field and have demonstrated tremendous artistry and dedication to your craft,” said DSO Music Director Jader Bignamini. “All three of our winners played with great insight and beauty, and I look forward to working with them!”
ELIZABETH FURUTA
Elizabeth Furuta won the violin section audition held October 4-5, along with Daniel Kim, out of 106 candidates. Elizabeth began playing violin at the age of four, inspired by seeing the Tokyo String Quartet on Sesame Street. She currently plays with the Cincinnati Symphony and was previously second associate concertmaster of the Omaha Symphony. Elizabeth holds bachelor and master’s degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where her primary teachers included William Preucil and David Updegraff. She will join the DSO full-time in fall 2022.
DANIEL KIM
Daniel Kim won the violin section audition held October 4-5, along with Elizabeth Furuta, out of 106 candidates. Daniel is currently a secondyear master’s student at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, where he serves as associate instructor and studies with Alexander Kerr, concertmaster of the Dallas Symphony. He has performed in masterclasses for Ida Kavafian, Kyoko Takezawa, Glenn Dicterow, and Frank Huang and has appeared on NPR’s From the Top and WFMT-Chicago. Daniel will join the DSO full-time in fall 2022.
COLE RANDOLPH
Cole Randolph was the only finalist out of 103 candidates at the cello section audition held November 8-9. You may recognize Cole already: he has performed with the DSO as one of its two African American Orchestra Fellows since fall 2020. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison with degrees in mathematics, music performance, and economics. Born and raised in Washington, DC, Cole began playing the cello at the age of five and has performed at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The White House. He studied cello under Uri Vardi and has performed in masterclasses for various artists including Alban Gerhardt, Clive Greensmith, and Timothy Eddy. Cole took up his new full-time role with the DSO in December 2021.
A COMMUNITY-SUP JADERPORTED ORCHESTRAJADER BIGNAMINI, Music Director BIGNAMINI MUSIC DIRECTOR
Music Directorship endowed by the Kresge Foundation
JEFF TYZIK
Principal Pops Conductor TERENCE BLANCHARD
Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Jazz Creative Director Chair LEONARD SLATKIN
Music Director Laureate NEEME JÄRVI
Music Director Emeritus
TITLE SPONSOR:
THE MUSIC OF BILLY JOEL FEATURING MICHAEL CAVANAUGH
Friday, January 7 at 10:45 a.m. Saturday, January 8 at 8 p.m. Sunday, January 9 at 3 p.m. at Orchestra Hall
ENRICO LOPEZ-YAÑEZ, conductor MICHAEL CAVANAUGH, piano & lead vocals JOHNNY FEDEVICH, drums JOHN SCARPULLA, saxophone JAMIE HOSMER, keyboards WILLIAM VENDITTI, bass DENNIS DELGAUDIO, guitar
Program to be annouced from stage
ENRICO LOPEZ-YAÑEZ
Enrico Lopez-Yañez is the Principal Pops Conductor of the Nashville Symphony where he leads the Symphony’s Pops Series and Family Series. Lopez-Yañez is quickly establishing himself as one of the nation’s leading conductors of popular music and becoming known for his unique style of audience engagement. Also an active composer and arranger, Lopez-Yañez has been commissioned to write for the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra and the Houston Symphony, and has had his works performed by orchestras including the Detroit Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Ft. Worth Symphony, Utah Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Columbus Symphony, and Florida Orchestra.
Since working with the Nashville Symphony, Lopez-Yañez has conducted concerts with a broad spectrum of artists including Patti LaBelle, Kenny Loggins, Richard Marx, Toby Keith, Trisha Yearwood, Kellie Pickler, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Megan Hilty, Hanson, and more. Additionally, he leads many of the films in concert on the symphony’s Movie Series including Beauty and the Beast, Coco, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Home Alone, among others. LopezYañez also conducts the annual Let Freedom Sing! Music City July 4th fireworks show, which was first televised on CMT in 2019, reaching millions of viewers across the nation.
In the upcoming season, Lopez-Yañez will collaborate with artists including Nas, Leslie Odom Jr., Stewart Copeland of The Police, Ben Folds, Jennifer Nettles, Boz Scaggs, and more. LopezYañez will appear with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, National Symphony, Pacific Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, San Diego Symphony, and will make return appearances with the Detroit Symphony, Florida Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic, Sarasota Orchestra, and Toledo Symphony. Previously, LopezYañez has appeared with orchestras throughout North America including the Aguascalientes Symphony, Edmonton Symphony, Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Omaha Symphony, and Utah Symphony, among others.
As Artistic Director and Co-Founder of Symphonica Productions, LLC, Lopez-Yañez curates and leads programs designed to cultivate new audiences. An enthusiastic proponent of innovating the education concert experience, his exciting concerts “breathe new, exuberant life into classical programming for kids and families” (Nashville Parent Magazine). Symphonica’s productions have been described as “incredibly special — and something that needs to become the new norm in educational programing” (Lima Symphony).
As a producer, composer, and arranger, Lopez-Yañez’s work can be heard on numerous albums including the UNESCO benefit album Action Moves People United and children’s music albums including The Spaceship that Fell in My Backyard. Lopez-Yañez has won the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, Hollywood Music and Media Awards, Family Choice Awards, a Global Media Award, and a Parents’ Choice Award.
MICHAEL CAVANAUGH
Michael Cavanaugh is the new voice of the American Rock and Roll Songbook and a charismatic performer and musician made famous for his piano playing and lead vocals in the Broadway musical Movin’ Out. Handpicked by Billy Joel to star in Movin’ Out, Cavanaugh evokes a style rivaling the Piano Man. He appeared in the show for three years with over 1,200 performances and received multiple accolades.
Cavanaugh began playing at age seven, when his parents bought their first
piano. Encouraged by family and friends, and inspired by his hero Billy Joel, Cavanaugh formed his first band at age 10 and began playing local functions, fine-tuning the craft that would become his chosen career. His first full-time gig as a musician was an extended engagement in Orlando, Florida, at a piano bar called Blazing Pianos. In January of 1999, Cavanaugh received an offer that would unknowingly change his life: an opportunity to play Las Vegas at the famed New York, New York Hotel and Casino. It was there that Billy Joel spotted Cavanaugh and joined him on stage one fateful night of February 2001. It only took two songs before Billy was convinced that he had found his new Piano Man: Michael Cavanaugh. Cavanaugh closed shop at New York, New York and moved to New York City to work alongside Billy Joel and Twyla Tharp to shape the Broadway Musical that would be called Movin’ Out. In the lead role, he received both Tony and Grammy nominations.
With the close of Movin’ Out at the end of 2005, Cavanaugh began touring in his own right, creating a show that reinterprets the modern pop/rock songbook. Cavanaugh soon became one of the hottest artists in the private events market, and he continues to perform worldwide for company and charity events as well as sporting events including many PGA Tour events, the Super Bowl, and the Indianapolis 500. His interpretation of the modern rock/ pop songbook led to Billboard calling him “The New Voice of the American Rock and Roll Songbook,” and he was recognized by Reuters as Entertainer of the Year for the private events market.
It wasn’t long before symphony orchestras discovered Cavanaugh’s talents and audience appeal. He accepted his first orchestral booking, “Michael Cavanaugh — The Songs of Billy Joel and More,” which debuted in April 2008 with the Indianapolis Symphony and continues to tour today. In October 2008, he signed with Warner Music Group’s Alternative Distribution Alliance to distribute his first CD, In Color. In June 2010, Cavanaugh debuted his second symphony show in the Generations of Rock series titled “Michael Cavanaugh: The Songs of Elton John and More” and then debuted his third symphony show, “Singers and Songwriters: the Music of Paul Simon, Neil Diamond and James Taylor,” in 2012. In 2015, he debuted his fourth symphony show: “Rockin’ Christmas with the Pops.” He continues to tour all four symphony productions along with performing with his band in performing arts centers and other public venues.
“The Way I Hear It”, his second commercial album, was released in April 2017, and it debuted at #17 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart.
In 2020, Michael Cavanaugh reached the Pollstar LIVE75 chart, marking him among the top 75 active touring acts in the country.
This January, join the DSO and Music Director Jader Bignamini for their historic first tour together. The weeklong tour will take place January 15-20, 2022, with stops in Miami, West Palm Beach, Gainesville, and Sarasota.
Acclaimed American cellist Joshua Roman joins the tour for performances of Dvorˇák’s Cello Concerto. Additional repertoire to be performed includes Jessie Montgomery’s Banner, Bedrˇich Smetana’s The Moldau, Florence Price’s Third Symphony, Johannes Brahms’s Second Symphony, and Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. Ravel).
Jan 12 — Orchestra Hall DETROIT Jan 15 — Kravis Center WEST PALM BEACH Jan 16 — New World Center MIAMI Jan 17 — Kravis Center WEST PALM BEACH Jan 18 — Phillips Center GAINESVILLE Jan 20 — Van Wezel SARASOTA
For more on how you can join us in Florida, including tour Super Patron Packages, visit dso.org/florida.
THANK YOU TO OUR GENEROUS SPONSORS:
Penny & Harold Blumenstein Burns & Wilcox Ltd. The Clinton Family Fund Joanne Danto & Arnold Weingarden The William Davidson Foundation The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation PNC Bank PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP Bernard & Eleanor Robertson Arn & Nancy Tellem Martie & Bob Sachs
DETROIT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
A COMMUNITY-SUP JADERPORTED ORCHESTRAJADER BIGNAMINI, Music Director BIGNAMINI MUSIC DIRECTOR
Music Directorship endowed by the Kresge Foundation
JEFF TYZIK
Principal Pops Conductor TERENCE BLANCHARD
Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Jazz Creative Director Chair LEONARD SLATKIN
Music Director Laureate NEEME JÄRVI
Music Director Emeritus
PVS CLASSICAL SERIES
Title Sponsor:
PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION
The 2022 Florida Tour Send-Off Concert
Wednesday, January 12, 2022 at 7:30 p.m. at Orchestra Hall
JADER BIGNAMINI, conductor JOSHUA ROMAN, cello
Gioachino Rossini Overture to Guillaume Tell (William Tell) (1792 - 1868)
Antonín Dvorˇák Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in B minor, (1841 - 1904) Op. 104 I. Allegro II. Adagio ma non troppo III. Finale: Allegro moderato Joshua Roman, cello
Intermission
Modest Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition (1839 - 1881) Introduction: Promenade Orch. Maurice Ravel I. Gnomus (1875 - 1937) II. Il vecchio castello III. Tulleries IV. Bydlo V. Ballet of Little Chicks in their Shells VI. Two Polish Jews VII. Limoges VIII. Catacombae - Cum mortius in lingua mortua IX. Baba-Yaga - The Hut on Hen’s Legs X. The Great Gate of Kiev
Please note: this concert was previously announced as taking place on January 13.
Wednesday’s performance will be webcast via our exclusive Live From Orchestra Hall series, presented by Ford Motor Company Fund and made possible by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Overture to Guillaume Tell (William Tell)
Composed 1829 | Premiered 1829
GIOACHINO ROSSINI
B. February 29, 1792, Pesaro, Italy D. November 13, 1868, Paris, France Scored for flute, piccolo, 2 oboes (1 doubling on English horn), 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, percussion, and strings. (Approx. 12 minutes)
The last of Rossini’s operas, Guillaume Tell (William Tell) is an apex of the composer’s great talent. Clocking in at four acts performed over six hours, the opera beautifully combines Italian lyricism, French ballet, and large-scale choral and instrumental ensembles. The titular character was a master bowman who shot an apple off his son’s head to earn freedom from arrest; Tell’s legacy beyond this dramatic trick also includes leading the Swiss revolution of the 14th century.
The celebrated overture opens with the depiction of a beautiful Swiss landscape at dawn, painted by a serene cello passage. The pastoral calm is interrupted by a powerful Alpine storm comprising rain from the woodwinds and wind from the strings—but this subsides, and tranquility returns as the English horn marks the Swiss herdsman’s call to his livestock. Finally, the portion we all know and love begins: trumpet fanfare in a galloping, raucous rhythm announces the ride of William Tell and the Swiss Army; or, if you prefer, the Lone Ranger and Tonto.
The DSO most recently performed Rossini’s Overture to Guillaume Tell at Ford House in July 2021, conducted by Stephen Mulligan. The DSO first performed the work in March 1919, conducted by Ossip Gabrilowitsch.
Composed 1894-95 | Premiered 1896
ANTONÍN DVOR ˇ ÁK
B. September 8, 1841, Nelahozeves, Bohemia (now Czech Republic) D. May 1, 1904, Prague, Bohemia (now Czech Republic) Scored for solo cello, 2 flutes (1 doubling on piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 3 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, and strings. (Approx. 40 minutes)
While Antonín Dvorˇák’s cello concerto was written in the late 19th century, it employs a rather classical approach to the concerto form—especially when compared to the fantasy-like concertos written by Franz Liszt and other more “progressive” composers. The piece was immediately successful, and it remains one of the finest, best-known, and mostperformed compositions for the instrument.
The first movement begins with the clarinets presenting a simple tune that is then expanded by the strings and later the whole orchestra. The second group is initiated by a lyrical horn melody with string accompaniment, and this orchestral section closes with considerable fanfare. At this point the patient soloist finally emerges with the opening theme. After some modulating passages with quite a few virtuosic flashes, the solo cello takes up the lyrical theme of the second group. Dvorˇák omits the customary solo cadenza, choosing instead to weave virtuosic passages for the cello into the larger orchestral texture.
The second movement begins with the clarinet again, as it introduces a nostalgic theme that is shortly taken over by the solo cello (these interactions between clarinet and cello continue throughout the movement). The Adagio
also provides stark contrasts between loud bombastic orchestral onslaughts and reserved, small-group interactions, even allowing the soloist brief cadenza-like flourishes. Those familiar with Dvorˇák’s songs might recognize the melody from “Leave Me Alone,” which is played by the cello beginning toward the middle of the piece.
With a menacing repeated low note, the third movement slowly builds up the opening melody in a short orchestral climax, which then subsides to let the cello enter with the main theme. While not a strict rondo, this opening theme will return at various places throughout the movement and in very different characters—from a stately, reserved presentation to a huge orchestral outpouring. As in the first movement, a number of technical passages featuring the soloist replace the traditional cadenza. While based on a bohemian theme, there are a few passages in this last movement that even reflect Dvorˇák’s budding interest in African American musical idioms.
The DSO most recently performed Dvorˇák’s Cello Concerto in July 2019 at the Seligman Performing Arts Center, conducted by Ken-David Masur and featuring cellist Edgar Moreau. The DSO first performed the piece in February 1916 featuring conductor-soloist Beatrice Harrison.
Pictures at an Exhibition
Composed 1874 | Ravel Version Orchestrated 1922
MODEST MUSSORGSKY
B. March 21, 1839, Karevo, Russia D. March 28, 1881, Saint Petersburg, Russia
Orchestrated by MAURICE RAVEL
B. March 7, 1875, Ciboure, France D. December 28, 1937, Paris, France Scored for 3 flutes (2 doubling on piccolo), 3 oboes (1 doubling on English horn), 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba (doubling on tenor tuba), timpani, percussion, 2 harps, celeste, alto saxophone, euphonium, and strings. (Approx. 28 minutes)
Modest Mussorgsky composed Pictures at an Exhibition for solo piano in 1874 as a tribute to his recently deceased friend, the artist Viktor Hartmann. Rendered in the composer’s characteristically idiosyncratic style, the colorful musical depictions of Hartmann’s artwork prompted Mikhail Tushmalov to orchestrate individual movements from the work in 1886. Over the next century and a quarter, many orchestrators and arrangers would follow Tushmalov’s example. Pictures at an Exhibition has been orchestrated approximately 30 different times, notwithstanding various non-orchestral renditions that range from Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s progressive rock version to an arrangement for accordion trio.
But the most famous of these is Maurice Ravel’s 1922 version, which has its roots in a commission from the wealthy conductor Serge Koussevitsky. Ravel, a master orchestrator, uses a huge ensemble in his version and gives the entire work a jolt of Impressionist color. Notably, he tweaks the “Promenade” theme — which comes and goes as the listener “walks” from artwork to artwork — and removes it altogether at various points. Koussevitsky’s commission also gave him sole conducting rights for several years, which contributed to the orchestration craze.
The “Promenade” theme is set in constantly shifting meters and conjures images of the bulky, often disheveled Mussorgsky shambling between the ten artworks. Changes in tonality, tempo, and orchestration reflect the viewer’s changing moods from painting to painting, and the music tends to reflect the contents and themes of each work as well.
I. Gnomus — the drawing that inspired this movement was intended to be used on a Christmas decoration and described in an exhibition catalog as depicting “a kind of nutcracker, a gnome into whose mouth you put a nut to crack.” The music is full of strange harmonies and melodic jumps that depict the erratic behavior of a pint-sized fantasy creature.
II. Il vecchio castello (The old castle)
— Hartmann sketched two castles while traveling in France. One of the most celebrated aspects of Ravel’s orchestration is his use of the alto saxophone to give out the melody, which reminds one of a folksy bard.
III. Tuileries — a sketch of Paris’s Tuileries Garden, which stretches more than half a mile in front of the Louvre. The music suggests the playing and squealing of children and the nannies attempting to corral them.
IV. Bydlo — the word bydlo is Polish for “cattle” and is sometimes used to refer to a cart pulled by oxen. Mussorgsky’s original piano version begins fortissimo, but several orchestrators — including Ravel — choose to begin and end the movement softly to create the illusion that the cart is approaching and then driving away.
V. Ballet of Little Chicks in their
Shells — Hartmann’s sketch here is actually a design for an opera, Trilby, which includes a scene in which young students at a theater school scamper about in canary costumes.
VI. Two Polish Jews (a.k.a. Samuel
Goldenberg and Schmuyle) — a drawing of two Jewish men, one rich and one poor. The music suggests Jewish melodies and a bouncing conversation between the two subjects, marked most notably by a whiny trumpet representing the poor man.
VII. Limoges — named for the French city of Limoges, especially its market hall. Hartmann completed more than 150 watercolors of the market, most of which are humorous slice-of-life portraits. In the one Mussorgsky set to music we can hear the fracas of two women fighting with each other.
VIII. Catacombae — Cum mortius in
lingua mortua — a trip to the Parisian catacombs, where skulls are stacked high in passageways under the city streets. Mussorgsky wrote Cum mortius in lingua mortua (With the dead a dead language) in the manuscript, signaling a macabre rendition of the “Promenade” theme.
IX. Baba-Yaga — The Hut on Hen’s
Legs — the Hartmann sketch is of a clock representing the home of the child-eating Russian witch Baba-Yaga, which is a squat hut atop long chicken legs. The creepy music swirls about violently.
X. The Great Gate of Kiev — Hartmann’s sketch was actually an entry into a public contest to design a triumphal gate honoring the Russian emperor Alexander II. The music is heroic and characteristically Russian, aided by Ravel’s choice to inflect dark woodwind tones into a section inspired by Orthodox chants.
The DSO most recently performed Ravel’s orchestration of Pictures at an Exhibition in November 2019, arranged and conducted by Leonard Slatkin. The DSO first performed Ravel’s version in December 1927, conducted by Victor Kolar.
Jader Bignamini biography, see page 6.
JOSHUA ROMAN
Joshua Roman is a cellist, accomplished composer, and curator whose performances embrace musical styles from Bach to Radiohead. Before setting off on his unique path as a soloist, Roman was the Seattle Symphony’s principal cellist, a job he began at just 22 years of age and left only two years later. He has since become renowned for his genre-bending repertoire and wide-ranging collaborations. Roman was named a TED Senior Fellow in 2015. His live performance of the complete Six Suites for Solo Cello by J.S. Bach on TED’s Facebook page garnered 1.8 million live viewers, with millions more for his Main Stage TED Talks/Performances, including an improvisational performance with Tony Award-winner and MacArthur Genius Grant recipient Bill T. Jones and East African vocalist Somi.
A Gramophone review of his 2017 recording of Aaron Jay Kernis’s Cello Concerto (written for Roman) proclaimed that “Roman’s outstanding performance of the cello concerto is the disc’s highlight... Roman’s extraordinary performance combines the expressive control of Casals with the creative individuality and virtuoso flair of Hendrix himself.” Recent highlights include performing standard and new concertos with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (on the William Davidson Neighborhood Concert Series), and the Colorado, Jacksonville, Milwaukee, and San Francisco Symphonies. In addition to orchestral appearances, Roman has collaborated with the JACK, St. Lawrence, and Verona Quartets and brings the same fresh approach to chamber music projects as well as his own series, Town Music at Town Hall Seattle.
Roman’s adventurous spirit has led to collaborations with artists outside the music community, including creating “On Grace” with Tony-nominated actor Anna Deavere Smith. His compositions are inspired by sources such as the poetry of Pulitzer Prize-winner Tracy K. Smith, as well as the musicians he writes for, which have included the JACK Quartet, violinist Vadim Gluzman, and conductor David Danzmayr. Roman’s outreach endeavors have taken him to Uganda with his violin-playing siblings, where they played chamber music in schools, HIV/AIDS centers, and displacement camps.
Celebrating DSO Cello Jeremy Crosmer, recipient of the Ford Musician Award for Excellence in Community Service
In June 2021, we celebrated the selection of DSO Cello Jeremy Crosmer as one of just five orchestra musicians from across the U.S. to receive a Ford Musician Award for Excellence in Community Service from the League of American Orchestras.
Crosmer received this award for his work on the DSO’s partnership with the Creative Expressions Program at Kadima, an Oakland County nonprofit that provides comprehensive residential, therapeutic, social, and enrichment services to adults with mental health needs. Supported by Ford Motor Company Fund, the awards recognize professional musicians’ deeply impactful work outside the concert hall, much of it virtual this year due to the pandemic. Crosmer was recognized along with four other musicians from across the country at the 2021 League Conference Online, June 7-17, 2021.
The 2021 awardees worked with both adults and children in a rich variety of community settings, using music as a therapeutic tool for adults with severe and persistent mental health challenges; providing pop-up concerts during food bank distributions; bringing orchestra musicians to a regional hospital and the many constituents it serves; organizing front-porch private violin lessons and schoolyard group classes during the pandemic to breach the digital divide; and bringing the joy of music to toddlers and their families.
Crosmer is a leader in community engagement for the DSO, building meaningful partner relationships on a foundation of respect and trust. While engaging in the musical aspects of Kadima’s Creative Expressions Program, Crosmer also connects with participants on a personal level, taking interest in their unique interests and desires. “Jeremy deserves this award not only for his dedication to this program, but also for embodying what we strive to do with all our community partners—listening and
working together to create programming that is relevant to our community,” said DSO Manager of Community Engagement Clare Valenti.
Of the partnership, Crosmer said, “I am blessed to be able to serve the mental health community. We foster a positive atmosphere by accessing participants at their level in the comfort of their facility or homes, and we also elevate them through collaboration and showcasing at our concert hall and online.”
Visit dso.org/stories to learn more about Jeremy’s work with Kadima and read other DSO blog posts.
