Audra McDonald In Concert WITH THE DES MOINES SYMPHONY
Saturday, February 21, 2015
Welcome! We are so glad you’re here for Audra McDonald In Concert. In this special, one-night-only concert event, you will experience one of America’s most treasured artists of any era, an artist The New York Times has called “Absolutely thrilling. A defining voice of our time.” Audra McDonald has won a record-breaking six Tony Awards and two Grammy Awards, and was Musical America’s 2014 Musician of the Year. Now, accompanied by the full orchestral force of the Des Moines Symphony, she will perform classic songs by Rodgers & Hammerstein, Kander & Ebb and many other American Songbook favorites like you’ve never heard them before. With her luminous voice and incomparable gift for dramatic story-telling, this will be a night of music-making we will long remember. Des Moines Performing Arts is a national leader in presenting performing arts and engaging with the community and schools through strong educational programs. The Des Moines Symphony is a highly respected and accomplished regional orchestra and one of only four professional orchestras nationwide that also serves its community with a school of music – the Des Moines Symphony Academy. We are collaborating to present this evening’s incredible concert because we believe in the power of high-quality live performances, and the impact they have on the quality of life in Des Moines and beyond. We hope you will be uplifted after this evening’s concert. It is the transformative power of the performing arts which moves audiences. We hope you will return to the Des Moines Civic Center and to Des Moines Symphony events to enjoy performances like this many times in the future. Enjoy the concert!
Jeff Chelesvig
President & CEO Des Moines Performing Arts
Richard L. Early
Executive Director Des Moines Symphony
2
Des Moines Performing Arts and The Des Moines Symphony Present:
AUDRA McDONALD IN CONCERT WITH THE DES MOINES SYMPHONY
Andy Einhorn and Joseph Giunta, Conducting Brian Hertz, Piano Mark Vanderpoel, Bass Gene Lewin, Drums
Lighting Design by Gary C. Echelmeyer
The program will be announced from the stage. There will be one 20-minute intermission. Please be sure the electronic signals and lighted screens on all electronic devices are turned off before the concert begins. Latecomers will be seated at the first appropriate pause in the music. Unauthorized photographic, audio recording and video equipment may not be used during these performances. Thank you for your cooperation and help in keeping this concert free of interruptions.
Saturday, February 21, 2015 · 7:30 p.m.
3
AUDRA McDONALD IN CONCERT
AUDRA McDONALD Audra McDonald is unparalleled in the breadth and versatility of her artistry as both a singer and an actress. A record-breaking six-time Tony Award-winner (Carousel, Master Class, Ragtime, A Raisin in the Sun, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill), she has also appeared on Broadway in The Secret Garden, Marie Christine (Tony nomination), Henry IV and 110 in the Shade (Tony nomination). The Juilliard-trained soprano’s opera credits include La voix humaine and Send at Houston Grand Opera and Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny at the Los Angeles Opera. On television, she was recently seen as the Mother Abbess in NBC’s The Sound of Music Live! and played Dr. Naomi Bennett on ABC’s Private Practice for four seasons. She has received Emmy nominations for Wit, A Raisin in the Sun and her role as official host of PBS’s Live From Lincoln Center. Other TV credits include The Good Wife, Homicide: Life
on the Street, Law & Order: SVU, Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years, The Bedford Diaries, Kidnapped and the 1999 remake of Annie. On film, she has appeared in Seven Servants, The Object of My Affection, Cradle Will Rock, It Runs in the Family, The Best Thief in the World, She Got Problems and Rampart. A twotime Grammy Award-winner and exclusive recording artist for Nonesuch Records, she released her fifth solo album for the label, Go Back Home, in 2013. McDonald also maintains a major career as a concert artist, regularly appearing on the great stages of the world and with leading international orchestras. An ardent proponent of marriage equality and an advocate for at-risk and underprivileged youth, she sits on the boards of Broadway Impact and Covenant House. Of her many roles, her favorites are the ones performed offstage: wife to her husband, actor Will Swenson, and mother to her daughter, Zoe Madeline. For more information, visit http://audramcdonald.net. 4
AUDRA McDONALD IN CONCERT ANDY EINHORN (Music Director and Conductor) boasts Broadway credits for Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella (OBCR), Evita (OBCR), Brief Encounter, The Light in the Piazza and Sondheim on Sondheim (OBCR, Grammy nom.) He most recently served as the music director and conductor for the Broadway production of Woody Allen’s Bullets Over Broadway (OBCR). His tour work includes Sweeney Todd, The Light in the Piazza, Mamma Mia! and The Lion King. Einhorn has worked at Goodspeed Opera House, Signature Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival and PaperMill Playhouse. He was principal vocal coach and pianist for Houston Grand Opera’s An Evening with Audra McDonald, a double-bill of Poulenc’s La voix humaine and LaChiusa’s Send. Einhorn has served as music director and pianist for McDonald since fall 2011, performing alongside her with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, the Los Angeles Opera, and at Avery Fisher Hall and Carnegie Hall. Highlights of his 2014-2015 season engagements with Ms. McDonald include concerts at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Carnegie Hall and Teatro Real in Madrid. He has also served as music director for Barbara Cook at Feinstein’s and Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music. Cast album credits include Stage Door Canteen and McDonald’s newest release, Go Back Home. He served as the music director for HBO’s Peabody Award-winning documentary Six by Sondheim and music supervisor for Great Performances Peabody Award-winning special Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy on PBS. He is an honors graduate of Rice University. 5
BRIAN HERTZ (Piano) has played regularly for numerous Broadway shows, including Aladdin, Les Miserables, Newsies, Cinderella, Ghost, Sister Act, Porgy & Bess, The Little Mermaid, Avenue Q, Legally Blonde and Shrek. He is also a pianist for the annual Radio City Christmas Spectacular starring the Rockettes. Brian collaborates regularly with Audra McDonald, with performances at the White House, Tanglewood with the Boston Pops, Atlanta Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Dayton Philharmonic and on her most recent album, Go Back Home. Brian serves as musical director and pianist for Sierra Boggess, and his arrangements can be heard on her album Awakening: Live at 54 Below. Other recent performances include Feinstein’s at the Nikko and the Venetian Room at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. Brian was the Associate Conductor for the American Repertory Theater’s production of Porgy & Bess, and the Associate Music Director for the national tours of Legally Blonde and Wonderful Town. Brian is from Long Island and is a graduate of Ithaca College. MARK VANDERPOEL (Bass) is a native of San Diego. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of California, San Diego, where he studied with Bertram Turetzky, and a Master’s Degree from the California Institute of the Arts. Mr. Vanderpoel is a former member of the San Diego Symphony, as well as various
AUDRA McDONALD IN CONCERT other chamber groups from the area, in addition to ensembles based in the Baja California region of Mexico. His extensive theater credits include Legally Blonde, Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella, See What I Wanna See, Guys and Dolls, the PBS special A Broadway Celebration on In Performance at the White House, Jane Eyre, Bullets Over Broadway and many others. Mr. Vanderpoel’s stage and sideman credits include Audra McDonald, Kristin Chenoweth, Kelli O’Hara, Nancy Sinatra, Victoria Clark, Shirley Jones, Sir Cliff Richard, Deborah Voigt, Sandra Bernhard, Clay Aiken, Taylor Hicks, David Johansen, Sigur Rós, Jeff Beck and Andrea Bocelli. Passions include surfing and using his Vitamix.
vocalist Jay Leonhart and many others. Originally an engineering major at Princeton University, Gene soon changed paths and returned to school to receive a master’s degree in 1991 from the Manhattan School of Music. He sends love to wife Suzanne and sons Elias and Jacob.
PERFORMANCE SPONSORS The Des Moines Symphony and Des Moines Performing Arts thank our sponsors who have helped to make this performance possible.
GENE LEWIN (Drums) appears on 34 CDs, with several more soon to be released. His eclectic discography ranges from the modern jazz of Fundementia to the electric-violin pop of GrooveLily. Several straight-ahead jazz projects and singersongwriter efforts round out the list.
Jim Bruno and Marta Codina Bruno Jon and Faith Garnaas Randall H. Hamilton and Bruce L. Hughes Nixon and Virginia Lauridsen Randy E. McMullin Dr. Harlan and Audrey Rosenberg and one Anonymous Sponsor
Gene drums, sings and composes for GrooveLily, a trio that has been together for 16 years and has toured extensively in the U.S. and Canada. While they have morphed through many different musical scenes (and hairstyles), they are now focused on creating hybrid musical theater – performances that feel both like concert and story. Gene is also active in New York City’s jazz scene, performing and recording with many wellrespected singers and instrumentalists. He has appeared on CDs with bassists John Patitucci and Scott Colley, guitarists Ben Monder and Steve Cardenas, jazz legend tenor saxophonist George Coleman, bassist/
Thank You! 6
ABOUT THE DES MOINES SYMPHONY The Des Moines Symphony Orchestra, now celebrating its 77th season, is Central Iowa’s largest and most active year-round professional performing arts producing organization. Led by Music Director Joseph Giunta for the past 26 years, the Orchestra has established an outstanding national reputation as one of the country’s leading regional orchestras, performing a regular series of Masterworks, Pops, Family and Education concerts, as well as performing for special events. With the establishment in 2003 of the Des Moines Symphony Academy,
the organization is one of only four of American orchestras to sponsor an Academy of Music – the Des Moines Symphony Academy – as an integral part of its core mission. The Symphony & Academy together are now the largest employer of professional artists in Iowa. Performances at the Des Moines Civic Center on its regular season of seven pairs of Masterworks concerts have included the major works of the orchestral repertoire and collaborations with some of the music world’s most prominent soloists including John Browning, Van Cliburn, Alicia De Larrocha, Simon Estes and Yo-Yo Ma among many others. The Orchestra has offered a well-received, highly creative and diverse mix of programming and has commissioned and given the world premieres of 19 new works during the last 21 years.
ABOUT MAESTRO JOSEPH GIUNTA One of America’s most distinguished, versatile and dynamic conductors, Joseph Giunta is a musician of international acclaim. He is recognized as an important American conductor for his innovative programming and for his compelling interpretations of traditional and new music. His musical depth, boundless energy and contagious enthusiasm make him one of the most respected and successful orchestra leaders in the U.S.
of the world including the Chicago Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, the London Philharmonic and the Philharmonia Orchestra of London. He continues to value his life-long goal of introducing as many people as possible to great classical music at all age levels. He inaugurated the Des Moines Symphony’s Yankee Doodle Pops, which is now, after 21 years, the largest single day concert event in Iowa, attended by more than 100,000 people each July. In 2003, he also developed and launched the Des Moines Symphony Academy. The Symphony Academy currently has more than 450 students enrolled. He has received many honors and distinctions, including the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) Award for adventurous programming and commitment to new American music.
This season is Giunta’s 26th Season as Music Director & Conductor of the Des Moines Symphony, and he has transformed the Orchestra into one of the finest regional orchestras in America. He has guest conducted many of the great orchestras 7