Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, February 2025

ASO | IN TUNE

DEAR FRIENDS:

Welcome to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra! There’s a lot going on in the month of February, including the continuation of a few of our key themes for this season.

The highlight is the continuation of our Beethoven Project with Nathalie Stutzmann leading the brilliant musicians of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in his 6th and 8th symphonies. The Sixth, known as the Pastoral Symphony, is unusual in that is paints a clear picture; Beethoven intended most of his works to be taken at face value with no specific story behind them, but the Pastoral paints a series of tableaux of Beethoven’s beloved countryside. His 8th Symphony is, by contrast, lighthearted and classical in form. This is one of the most intriguing aspects of Beethoven's work: his symphonies provide contrasts that are clear when you hear them paired off against each other.

This month we also visit two composers we have heard from earlier this year: an allHaydn program is led by Matthew Halls; and a rare chance to hear William Walton’s behemoth choral work, Belshazzar’s Feast, featuring the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus—one of the most revered choruses in the world. ASO truly flexes all of its artistic muscles in the great choral/orchestral works.

I encourage you to read the story by Jimmy Paulk (page 12) about the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s historic collaboration with Ebenezer Baptist Church to celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The January 4th performance is available for streaming on-demand at ASO.org. The performing forces, led by conductor Jonathan Taylor Rush, included jazz star Gregory Porter, works by Atlanta’s own Carlos Simon and Joel Thompson, and a performance that brought down by house by Ebenezer Director of Worship and the Arts, Dr. Patrice E. Turner. It was a true coming together of the Beloved Community to celebrate Dr. King and the movement he embodied, which changed the world.

Thank you for your love and support of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra!

With gratitude,

Jennifer Barlament, Executive Director

P.S. You can learn more about the history of the ASO as we celebrate our 80th anniversary with an exhibit in the lobby. Our chorus, our beginnings as a youth orchestra and the talents of the countless musicians who have graced our stage all deserve a moment of appreciation and reflection, and we thank you for being a part of those 80 years.

TODD HALL

ASO | NATHALIE STUTZMANN

Nathalie Stutzmann is the Music Director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the second woman in history to lead a major American orchestra. She was Principal Guest Conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra from 2021 to 2024.

Nathalie made big news in the opera pit in 2023 with her debut at the Bayreuth Festival with Wagner's Tannhäuser. The performances resulted in her being named 'Best Conductor' of the year in the 2024 Oper! Awards. She returned to Bayreuth in 2024 for a revival of Tannhäuser and will be back in 2026 to mark the 150th anniversary of the Festival, conducting a new production of Rienzi.

Her opera debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 2023 was declared by The New York Times as “the coup of the year.”

The 24-25 season with the Atlanta Symphony features key pillars of the romantic repertoire including a complete Beethoven Symphony cycle and Missa solemnis. With several notable debuts including the Czech Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich and her conducting debut at the Musikverein with Wiener Symphoniker; her season also includes returns to the New York Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, and Philadelphia Orchestra. In June 2025 she will return to Bruxelles La Monnaie to conduct Carmen.

Nathalie Stutzmann has signed an exclusive recording contract with Warner Classics/Erato and her first symphonic recording for the label of Dvořák's Symphony No. 9 and American Suite with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra was released in

Awarded the 2023 Opus Klassik “Concerto Recording of the Year” for her recording of Glière and Mosolov Harp concertos with Xavier de Maistre and WDR Sinfonieorchester, 2022 also saw the release of complete Beethoven Piano Concertos recorded with Haochen Zhang and The Philadelphia Orchestra. Gramophone praised it as “a brilliant collaboration that I urge you to

Nathalie started her studies at a very young age in piano, bassoon, cello and studied conducting with the legendary Finnish teacher Jorma Panula.

As one of today’s most esteemed contraltos, she has made more than 80 recordings and received the most prestigious awards. Recognized for her significant contribution to the arts, Nathalie was named “Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur”, France’s highest honor; and “Commandeur dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres” by the French government.

AUDRA

MELTON

ASO | LEADERSHIP | 2024/25 Board of Directors

OFFICERS

Patrick Viguerie chair

Janine Brown immediate past chair

Bert Mills treasurer

Angela Evans secretary

DIRECTORS

Phyllis Abramson

Keith Adams

Juliet M. Allan

Susan Antinori

Rona Gomel Ashe

Andrew Bailey

Jennifer Barlament*

Keith Barnett

Paul Blackney

Janine Brown

Betsy Camp

Lisa Chang

Susan Clare

Russell Currey

Sheila Lee Davies

Carlos del Rio, M.D. FIDSA

Lisa DiFrancesco, M.D.

Lynn Eden

Yelena Epova

Angela Evans

Craig Frankel

Sally Bogle Gable

Anne Game

Rod Garcia-Escudero

Sally Frost George

Robert Glustrom

Julie Goosman

Bonnie B. Harris

Charles Harrison

Michael Hoffman

Tad Hutcheson, Jr.

Roya Irvani

Joia M. Johnson

Chris Kopecky

Carrie Kurlander

Scott Lampert

James H. Landon

Daniel Laufer*

Donna Lee

Susan Antinori vice chair

Lynn Eden vice chair

Grace Lee, M.D.

Sukai Liu

Kevin Lyman

Deborah Marlowe

Shelley McGehee

Arthur Mills IV

Bert Mills

Molly Minnear

Hala Moddelmog*

Caroline Moïse

Anne Morgan

Terence L. Neal

Galen Lee Oelkers

Dr. John Paddock

Margie Painter

Howard D. Palefsky

Cathleen Quigley

Doug Reid

James Rubright

Ravi Saligram

BOARD OF COUNSELORS

Neil Berman

Benjamin Q. Brunt

John W. Cooledge, M.D.

John R. Donnell, Jr.

Jere A. Drummond

Carla Fackler

Charles B. Ginden

John T. Glover

Dona Humphreys

Aaron J. Johnson, Jr.

James F. Kelley

Patricia Leake

Karole F. Lloyd

Meghan H. Magruder

LIFE DIRECTORS

Howell E. Adams, Jr.

John B. White, Jr.

* Ex-Officio Board Member

^ On Sabbatical

James Rubright vice chair

William Schultz

V Scott

Charles Sharbaugh

Fahim Siddiqui

W. Ross Singletary, II

John Sparrow

Elliott Tapp

Brett Tarver^

Valerie Thadhani, M.D.

Yannik Thomas

Maria Todorova

Ben Touchette

S. Patrick Viguerie

Kathy Waller

Chris Webber

Richard S. White, Jr.

Mack Wilbourn

Kevin E. Woods, M.D., M.P.H.

Penelope McPhee

Patricia H. Reid

Joyce Schwob

John A Sibley, III

H. Hamilton Smith

G. Kimbrough Taylor, Jr.

Michael W. Trapp

Connie Calhoun Azira G. Hill

Ray Uttenhove

Chilton Varner

Adair M. White

Sue Sigmon Williams

Ben F. Johnson, III

2024/25 Musician Roster

FIRST VIOLIN

David Coucheron concertmaster

The Mr. & Mrs. Howard R. Peevy Chair

Justin Bruns

associate concertmaster

The Charles McKenzie Taylor Chair

Lauren Roth

assistant concertmaster

Jun-Ching Lin

assistant concertmaster

Anastasia Agapova

Kevin Chen

Carolyn Toll Hancock

The Wells Fargo Chair

John Meisner

Christopher Pulgram

Juan R. Ramírez Hernández

Olga Shpitko

Kenn Wagner

Lisa Wiedman Yancich

Sissi Yuqing Zhang

SECTION VIOLIN ‡

Judith Cox

Raymond Leung

The Carolyn McClatchey Chair

SECOND VIOLIN

Sou-Chun Su

acting / associate principal

The Atlanta Symphony Associates Chair

The Frances Cheney Boggs Chair

Jay Christy

acting associate / assistant principal

Rachel Ostler

acting assistant principal

Dae Hee Ahn*

Robert Anemone

Noriko Konno Clift

Paolo Dara

David Dillard

Paul Halberstadt

Eun Young Jung

Eleanor Kosek

Yaxin Tan

VIOLA

Zhenwei Shi

principal

The Edus H. & Harriet H.

Warren Chair

Paul Murphy

associate principal

The Mary & Lawrence Gellerstedt Chair

Catherine Lynn

assistant principal

Marian Kent

Yang-Yoon Kim

Yiyin Li

Lachlan McBane

Jessica Oudin

Madeline Sharp

CELLO

Daniel Laufer

acting / associate principal

The Miriam & John Conant Chair

Karen Freer

acting associate / assistant principal

The Livingston Foundation Chair

Thomas Carpenter

Joel Dallow

The UPS Foundation Chair

Ray Kim

Isabel Kwon

Nathan Mo

Brad Ritchie

Denielle Wilson

Nathalie Stutzmann

music director

The Robert Reid Topping Chair

BASS

Joseph McFadden

principal

The Marcia & John Donnell Chair

Gloria Jones Allgood

associate principal

The Lucy R. & Gary Lee Jr. Chair

Karl Fenner

Michael Kurth

The Jane Little Chair

Jungsu Lee

Nicholas Scholefield

Daniel Tosky

FLUTE

Christina Smith principal

The Jill Hertz Chair

The Mabel Dorn Reeder

Honorary Chair

Robert Cronin

associate principal

C. Todd Skitch

Gina Hughes

PICCOLO

Gina Hughes

OBOE

Elizabeth Koch Tiscione

principal

The George M. & Corrie Hoyt Brown Chair

Zachary Boeding

associate principal

The Kendeda Fund Chair

Jonathan Gentry

Emily Brebach

ENGLISH HORN

Emily Brebach

William R. Langley

resident conductor & atlanta symphony youth

orchestra music director

The Zeist Foundation Chair

CLARINET

Jesse McCandless

principal

The Robert Shaw Chair

Ted Gurch*

associate principal

Ivan Valbuena

associate principal

Julianna Darby

Marci Gurnow*

Alcides Rodriguez

E-FLAT CLARINET

Ted Gurch*

Ivan Valbuena

BASS CLARINET

Alcides Rodriguez

BASSOON

Cameron Bonner principal

The Abraham J. & Phyllis Katz Foundation Chair

Anthony Georgeson

associate principal

Laura Najarian

Juan de Gomar

CONTRABASSOON

Juan de Gomar

HORN

Ryan Little principal

The Betty Sands Fuller Chair

Andrew Burhans

associate principal

Kimberly Gilman

Bruce Kenney

Norman Mackenzie

director of choruses

The Frannie & Bill Graves Chair

TRUMPET

Michael Tiscione

acting / associate principal

Finan Jones conducting fellow

The Madeline & Howell Adams Chair

Mark Maliniak

acting associate principal

William Cooper

Ian Mertes

TROMBONE

Nathan Zgonc

acting / associate principal

The Terence L. Neal Chair, Honoring his dedication & service to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

The Home Depot Veterans Chair

Jason Patrick Robins

BASS TROMBONE

Vacant

Jordan Milek Johnson fellow

TUBA

Michael Moore principal

The Delta Air Lines Chair

Joshua Williams fellow

Zeist Foundation ASO Fellowship Chair

TIMPANI

Michael Stubbart

acting / assistant principal

The Walter H. Bunzl Chair

PERCUSSION

Joseph Petrasek

principal

The Julie & Arthur

Montgomery Chair

Michael Jarrett

assistant principal

The William A. Schwartz Chair

Michael Stubbart

The Connie & Merrell

Calhoun Chair

HARP

Elisabeth Remy Johnson

principal

The Sally & Carl Gable Chair

KEYBOARD

The Hugh & Jessie Hodgson

Memorial Chair

Sharon Berenson †

LIBRARY

Joshua Luty principal

The Marianna & Solon

Patterson Chair

Sara Baguyos

associate principal

James Nelson

GUEST CONDUCTOR

Neil and Sue Williams Chair

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Advisory Council is a group of passionate and engaged individuals who act as both ambassadors & resources for the ASO Board and staff. The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra extends heartfelt gratitude to the members listed on this page.

2024/25 CHAIRS

Jane Morrison

advisory council chair

Justin Im

internal connections task force co-chair

Robert Lewis, Jr.

internal connections task force co-chair

Frances A. Root patron experience task force chair

Eleina Raines

community connections & education task force co-chair

Tiffany Rosetti

community connections & education task force co-chair

Otis Threatt

community connections & education task force co-chair

MEMBERS

Dr. Marshall & Stephanie Abes

Krystal Ahn

Kristi & Aadu Allpere

Logan Anderson & Ian Morey

Evelyn Babey

Asad & Sakina Bashey

Herschel Beazley

Meredith W. Bell

John Blatz

Jane Blount

Carol Brantley & David Webster

Johanna Brookner

Stacey Chavis

Mrs. Amy B. Cheng & Dr. Chad A. Hume, Ph.D

Kate Cook

Daniel I. DeBonis

Donald & Barbara Defoe

Paul & Susan Dimmick

Bernadette Drankoski

John & Catherine Fare Dyer

Jerry H. Evans

Mary Ann Flinn

Bruce & Avery Flower

Annie Frazer

John D. Fuller

Alex Garcias

Dr. Paul Gilreath

Mary Elizabeth Gump

Elizabeth Hendrick

Mia Frieder Hilley

Caroline Hofland

Justin Im

Dr. Lillian Ivansco

Frank & Janice

Johnston

Baxter Jones & Jiong Yan

Lana Jordan

Rosthema Kastin

Andrea Kauffman

Brian & Ann Kimsey

Jason & Michelle Kroh

Dr. Fulton Lewis III & Mr. Neal Rhoney

Robert Lewis, Jr.

Eunice Luke

Erin Marshall

Alfredo Martin

Belinda Massafra

Doug & Kathrin Mattox

Ed & Linda McGinn

Erica McVicker

Berthe & Shapour Mobasser

Bert Mobley

Sue Morgan

Bill Morrison & Beth Clark-Morrison

Jane Morrison

Gary Noble

Regina Olchowski

Bethani Oppenheimer

Ralph Paulk

Suzanne Redmon Paulk

Ann & Fay Pearce

Jonathan & Lori Peterson

Dr. John B. Pugh

Eliza Quigley

Eleina Raines

Joseph Rapanotti

Leonard Reed

Dr. Jay & Kimberley Rhee

Vicki Riedel

Felicia Rives

David Rock

Frances A. Root

Tiffany & Rich Rosetti

Noelle Ross

Thomas & Lynne Saylor

Beverly & Milton Shlapak

Suzanne Shull

Baker Smith

Cindy Smith

Victoria Smith

Peter & Kristi

Stathopoulos

Tom & Ani Steele

Beth & Edward Sugarman

Stephen & Sonia Swartz

George & Amy Taylor

Bob & Dede Thompson

Otis Threatt Jr.

Cathy Toren

Roxanne Varzi

Robert & Amy Vassey

Juliana Vincenzino

Emily C. Ward

Nanette Wenger

Kiki Wilson

Taylor Winn

Camille Yow

For more information about becoming an Advisory Council member, please contact Beth Freeman at beth.freeman@atlantasymphony.org or 404.733.4532.

The King Celebration: A Historic Return

By James L. Paulk

One of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s most cherished events was revived in January with the return of the King Celebration, on January 4th at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church.

It all began in 1993 with a vocal concert in Symphony Hall featuring renowned soprano Jessye Norman as a tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Coretta Scott King and members of the King family were in attendance. It became an annual event, and over the next few years, the Orchestra became a part of the program, which soon moved to the King Chapel at Morehouse College, and the Glee Clubs of Morehouse and Spelman College began to participate.

An important element, added in the early years, is that the concerts, which took place prior to the King Holiday, were recorded for broadcast nationally over National Public Radio (and later on American Public Media) as part of its Performance Today series, for an audience that ultimately grew to more than 2.5 million listeners.

Over the years, the composers featured in the King concerts have comprised a virtual Who’s Who of African-American composers: William Dawson, William Grant Still, George Walker, and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor were heard, among many others.

Atlanta’s own Black composers were spotlighted at King Celebration programs, including Alvin Singleton and T. J. Anderson, who had been appointed as the ASO’s first composer-in-residence in 1969 at the invitation of Robert Shaw (Anderson was the first AfricanAmerican to hold such a position at a major American orchestra).

In 2010, the concert featured a performance of Blues Symphony, a major new work by Wynton Marsalis commissioned by the ASO together with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. And in 2012, beloved cellist Yo-Yo Ma performed as part of the Celebration.

The ASO was invited to perform at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King was a longtime minister, by the Honorable Reverend

Senator Raphael G. Warnock, pastor, and Dr. Patrice Turner, Ebenezer’s Director of Worship and the Arts. The Orchestra was joined by members of the ASO Chorus and Chamber Chorus, and the Ebenezer Baptist Church Choir, and the program included remarks by Dr. Bernice King, daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King and chair of the King Center.

Dr. Turner commented: “The 2025 King Celebration Concert has been the realization of a dream. Ebenezer is known for offering an array of quality music from all sacred genres. It made sense to imagine a concert with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in the Horizon Sanctuary. And the icing on the cake was that we featured Gregory Porter!”

Porter, one of the best-known jazz singers of our era, performed two of his own compositions, "1960 What?" and "Take Me to the Alley". Gospel recording artist Tamika Patton-Watkins sang a moving rendition of "Take My Hand, Precious Lord". Tenor Timothy Miller sang "If I Can Help Somebody", and Dr. Turner sang a soulful arrangement of "For Every Mountain".

In her remarks, Dr. Bernice King spoke of the early music education of her mother, Coretta Scott King, who became an accomplished soprano and performed at the King Celebration during some of its early years. She drew a parallel between her mother’s own experience and that of gifted young violinist, Waverly Alexander, who is a junior at Milton High School, and in her sixth year of the ASO’s iconic Talent Development Program. Waverly performed as a soloist with the ASO in Adoration, a work by Florence Price, the first African-American woman to have her work programmed by a major American orchestra.

In addition to Price, this concert honored a new generation of Atlanta’s Black composers as works by Carlos Simon and Joel Thompson were performed. Gospel works by Thomas A. Dorsey and Kurt Carr were also featured.

Conducting the concert was Jonathan Taylor Rush, a fastrising young Black conductor who is currently Associate Conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. In the past few years, Rush has made notable debuts including with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and Washington National Opera.

In 1999, which would have been Dr. King’s 70th birthday, the ASO commissioned a stirring arrangement of "We Shall Overcome", the anthem of the civil rights movement, by Atlanta composer and Morehouse professor Dr. Uzee Brown, Jr. It became the King Celebration finale each year, and this year it was the encore, with the audience joining in for a moving conclusion to the evening.

This historic concert was recorded for broadcast on radio and television and will be made available nationally. This performance was sponsored by Bank of America.

WATCH + LISTEN to the concert

WABE FM 90.1 and Georgia Public Broadcasting recorded the concert. You can stream the concert on demand through the end of February at GPB.org, EbenezerATL.org, and ASO.org.

It was distributed to American Public Media affiliated stations, many of which broadcast it on the weekend of the King Holiday.

We are deeply grateful to the following leadership donors whose generous support has made the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's season possible.

The 4,124th and 4,125th concerts of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

Thursday, February 13, 2025 at 8:00 PM

Saturday, February 15, 2025 at 8:00 PM

Atlanta Symphony Hall

VASILY PETRENKO, conductor

NATHAN BERG, bass-baritone

The use of cameras or recording devices during the concert is strictly prohibited. Please be kind to those around you and silence your mobile phone and other hand-held devices.

JEAN SIBELIUS (1865-1957)

Symphony No. 1 in E minor, Op. 39 (1899)

39 MINS

I. Andante, ma non troppo. Allegro energico

II. Andante (ma non troppo lento)

III. Scherzo: Allegro

IV. Finale (Quasi una fantasia): Andante

INTERMISSION

WILLIAM WALTON (1902-1983)

Belshazzar’s Feast (1931)

Thus spake Isaiah

If I forget thee, O Jerusalem Babylon was a great city

In Babylon Belshazzar the King Praise ye the god of gold

Thus in Babylon, the mighty city

And in that same hour

20 MINS

39 MINS

Then sing aloud to God our strength (No. 1)

The trumpeters and pipers are silent

Then sing aloud to God our strength (No. 2)

Nathan Berg, bass-baritone

Thursday's concert is dedicated to CHRISTINA & PAUL BLACKNEY in honor of their generous support of the 2023/24 Annual Fund.

Performances of this concert were made possible by a grant from the BARNEY M. FRANKLIN AND HUGH W. BURKE CHARITABLE FUND.

by Noel Morris Program Annotator

Notes to know:

1. Jean Sibelius became associated with the Finnish struggle for independence. Today, Finns fly their flag on December 8, Sibelius’s birthday. Also, his face appeared on Finnish currency until the advent of the Euro.

2. Belshazzar’s Feast is based on the Bible story that gave rise to the aphorism, “Read the handwriting on the wall.”

3. William Walton folded his love of jazz and other types of popular music into Belshazzar’s Feast

4. Sadly, Sibelius stopped composing after 1926, although he lived until 1957.

SIBELIUS Symphony No. 1

Since the Napoleonic era, the Finnish people have had an 830-mile problem—their border with Russia. In 1809, they fell under the tsar’s thumb. Initially, the Russian monarch permitted the Finns some measure of autonomy. That changed in 1899 when Nicholas II instituted a policy of Russification. With that, the Russian military began drafting Finns into service and forcing the people to adopt the Russian language. The Finns pushed back just as Sibelius emerged as an important composer.

Often, Sibelius’s music conjures associations with the boreal forests of Scandinavia—bone-chilling and impenetrable but with a smoldering passion. Although he grew up in a Swedish-speaking household, his romance with Aino Järnefelt, the daughter of a prominent general and patriot, caused him to rethink his identity.

First ASO performance: December 15, 1953

Henry Sopkin, conductor

Most recent ASO performance: February 16, 2019

Stephen Mulligan, conductor

Well into the 19th century, Finnish speakers were treated like second-class citizens.  Gradually, Finns had a patriotic awakening and embraced their language. Under the influence of his future father-in-law, the composer switched tongues and began writing music inspired by Finnish folklore.

Before long, Jean Sibelius became a potent symbol of resistance, causing the Russians to ban the performance of his anthem, "Finlandia".

Sibelius’s first attempt at a symphony (Kullervo) included a chorus and vocal soloists. He based his material on the Kalevala, an epic tale from Finnish folklore that branded him a figure in the nationalistic movement. The piece we think of as Symphony No. 1 came along seven years later, just as the Russian tsar issued his February Manifesto to strip the Finns of their autonomy and call them up for military service.

With his First Symphony, Sibelius makes a nod to early influences, including Tchaikovsky, who’d completed his last symphony only five years before, and Anton Bruckner, whose spirit hovers over the scherzo (Sibelius encountered Bruckner symphonies while a student in Vienna). But the brooding, bracing voice of Finland’s hero-composer comes to the fore. He conducted the premiere in Helsinki in 1899 and took it on tour around Scandinavia. In 1900, he conducted the First Symphony and other works at the Paris Exposition and became a potent musical force in the 20th century.

First ASO performance: April 1, 1963

Robert Mann, conductor

Most recent ASO performance: October 20, 2012

Rober Spano, conductor

WALTON Belshazzar’s Feast

“King Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in front of the thousand... Then they brought in the golden vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall.” (Daniel 5:1, 3-5, ESV)

William Walton was ten years old when he auditioned for a spot in the choir at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, and won. This meant boarding school, music lessons, and daily church services.

The school put a violin in his hands and sat him at the piano,

but his fingers didn’t cooperate. Billy Walton knew his voice would change, and he’d need to distinguish himself if he wanted to stay at Oxford. So, he sat down and wrote a choral piece, his Litany “Drop, Drop, Slow Tears.” Today, the Litany is standard repertoire for church choirs. Walton was only fourteen when he wrote it.

At sixteen, he entered Oxford University with a full scholarship, the youngest undergraduate since Henry VIII.

At Oxford, Walton fell in with the Sitwells, a family of poets and literary figures who took him under their wing. Moving into their attic, he thrived in a community of creative intellectuals. In 1922, they launched his debut with an avant-garde piece called Façade. The event drew a fashionable set, including Virginia Woolf and Noël Coward (Coward reportedly stormed out). The concert scandalized the establishment and put young Walton on the map.

The BBC commissioned Belshazzar’s Feast in 1929, specifying a piece for small choir, a soloist, and no more than fifteen musicians (the ensemble had to fit into the BBC studio). Walton blew it. His score swelled to a full symphony orchestra with double choir, solo baritone, a battery of percussion instruments, saxophone, piano, and pipe organ. The BBC had to back out of the performance. Luckily, organizers of the 1931 Leeds Festival picked up the piece, prompting conductor Thomas Beecham to quip, “Why not throw in a couple brass bands?”

Getting Belshazzar’s Feast off the ground was not without controversy. Gramophone magazine’s Andrew Mellor mused, “If Belshazzar can appear wicked, raucous, barbaric and outlandishly exuberant to us now, what must it have sounded like to polite singers and audiences in Leeds schooled in the smooth oratorios of the Victorian era?”

In fact, the chorus women objected to singing the word ‘concubine.’ The awkward leaps, syncopated rhythms, and complex harmonies proved almost impossible for the singers.

And despite librettist Osbert Sitwell’s close adherence to the Bible (using the books of Isaiah, Daniel, and Revelation), the Church of England deemed Belshazzar inappropriate for cathedrals. Following suit, the hallowed Three Choirs Festival banned the piece until 1957. Today, many consider Belshazzar’s Feast a 20th-century masterpiece.

VASILY PETRENKO, conductor

Vasily Petrenko is Music Director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, a position he took on in 2021, becoming Conductor Laureate of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra following his hugely acclaimed fifteen-year tenure as their Chief Conductor from 2006-2021. He is the Associate Conductor of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León and served as Chief Conductor of the European Union Youth Orchestra (2015-2024), Chief Conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra (2013-2020), and Principal Conductor of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain (2009–2013).

Highlights of the 24/25 season include his debut with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, returns to the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Sydney, Montreal, Singapore, Berlin Radio and Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestras, and the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington DC. He also toured with the Royal Philharmonic to Germany and major European summer festivals.

In 2024, Vasily launched a new academy for young conductors, co-organized by the Primavera Foundation Armenia and the Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra.

NATHAN BERG, bass-baritone

Canadian bass-baritone Nathan Berg’s career has spanned a vast range of repertoire on the concert and operatic stage. In the 2024-2025 season, Mr. Berg will return to Theater Basel for Wagner’s Siegfried and full Ring Cycles. With Opéra de Montréal, he will sing in Thomas’ Hamlet, and Don Carlo with the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra.

In the 2023-2024 season, Nathan Berg performed in Wagner’s Ring cycle, and Roméo and Juliette at the Metropolitan Opera.

As a Grammy, Juno, and Echo Award-winning recording artist, Mr. Berg has performed on over 30 recordings of works ranging from the 17th to 20th century with period to modern orchestras. Born in Saskatchewan, Nathan Berg studied in Canada, the United States, Paris, and at the Guildhall School of Music, London, where he won the prestigious Gold Medal for Singers.

ATLANTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA CHORUS

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus, founded in 1970 by former Music Director, Robert Shaw, is an all-volunteer, auditioned ensemble that performs on a regular basis with the Orchestra and is featured on many of its recordings. Led by Director of Choruses, Norman Mackenzie, the chorus is known for its precision and expressive singing quality. Its recordings have garnered 14 Grammy® Awards (nine for Best Choral Performance; four for Best Classical Recording and one for Best Opera Recording). In addition, the Chorus has been involved in the creation and shaping of numerous worldpremiere commissioned works.

NORMAN MACKENZIE, DIRECTOR OF CHORUSES

Norman Mackenzie’s abilities as musical collaborator, conductor and concert organist have brought him international recognition. As Director of Chorus for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO) since 2000, he was chosen to help carry forward the creative vision of legendary founding conductor Robert Shaw. During his tenure, the Chorus has made numerous tours and garnered several Grammy® awards, including Best Classical Album and Best Choral Performance.

At the ASO, he prepares the Choruses for all concerts and recordings, works closely with Nathalie Stutzmann on the commissioning and realization of new choral-orchestral works and conducts holiday concerts. In his 14-year association with Mr. Shaw, he was keyboardist for the ASO, principal accompanist for the ASO Choruses and ultimately assistant choral conductor. In addition, he was musical assistant and accompanist for the Robert Shaw Chamber Singers, the Robert Shaw Institute Summer Choral Festivals in France and the United States and the famed Shaw/ Carnegie Hall Choral Workshops.

He prepared the ASO Chorus for its acclaimed 2003 debut and successive 2008 and 2009 performances in Berlin with the Berlin Philharmonic, in Britten’s War Requiem, Berlioz’s Grande Messe des Morts and Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem, respectively, conducted by ASO Principal Guest Conductor Donald Runnicles.

ATLANTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA CHORUS

Norman Mackenzie

director of choruses

The Frannie & Bill Graves

Chair

Marcia Chandler

interim chorus

administrator

Dock Anderson

series accompanist

SOPRANO 1

Juliana Bolaño

Liz Dean

Laura Foster

Michelle Griffin

Erin Harris

Erin Jones

Arietha Lockhart

Mindy Margolis

Katie O’Brien

Joneen Padgett

Rachel Paul

Mary Martha Penner

Susan Ray

Samaria Rodriguez

Georgia Sackler

Emily Salmond

Kristian Samuel

Lydia Sharp

Susie Shepardson

Chelsea Toledo

Brianne Turgeon

Rebecca Van Rooyen

Wanda Yang Temko

SOPRANO 2

Debbie Ashton

Sloan Atwood

Jessica Barber

Tierney Breedlove

Maggie Carpenter

Martha Craft

Gina Deaton

Saskia den Boon

Mary Goodwin

Heidi Hayward

Amy Lea

Melissa Mack

Tramaine Quarterman

Kate Roberts

Marianna Schuck

Anne-Marie Spalinger

Tommie Storer

Emily Tallant

Cheryl Thrash

Caroline Todd

Caroline Wendt

Lacy Wilder

ALTO 1

June Abbott

Pamela Amy-Cupp

Emily Campbell

Donna Carter-Wood

Jessica Crowe

Patti Dinkins-

Matthews

Katherine Fisher

Unita Harris

Beverly Hueter

Janet Johnson

Kathleen KellyGeorge

Virginia Little

Alina Luke

Fran McDowell

Sara McKlin

Natalie Pierce

Kathleen Poe Ross

Elizabeth Qian

Anna Ree

Noelle Ross

Rachel Schiffer

Camilla Springfield

Rachel Stewart

ALTO 2

Angelica BlackmanKeim

Elizabeth Borland

Emily Boyer

Marcia Chandler

Carol Comstock

Meaghan Curry

Michele Diament

Cynthia GoeltzDeBold

Luanne Harms

Joia Johnson

Sally Kann

Nicole Khoury

Katie MacKenzie

Lynda Martin

Lalla McGee

Rachel Meyer

Laura Rappold

Caroline Roberts

Duhi Park Schneider

Sharon Simons

Virginia Thompson

Kiki Wilson

Diane Woodard

TENOR 1

Christian Bigliani

David Blalock

LaRue Bowman

Jack Caldwell

Daniel Cameron

Daniel Compton

Justin Cornelius

Clifford Edge

Steven Farrow

Matthew Gavilanez

Leif Gilbert-Hansen

James Jarrell

Keith Langston

John Henry Monti

David Moore

Christopher Patton

Mark Warden

TENOR 2

Brian Bishop

Matthew Borkowski

Steve Brailsford

Caleb Cole

Steven Dykes

Stephen Eick

David Ellis

Sean Fletcher

Thomas Foust

John Harr

David Ingham

David Kinrade

Tyler Lane

Michael Parker

Marshall Peterson

Matthew Sellers

Thomas Slusher

Scott Stephens

Zachary Temin

BASS

Dock Anderson

Noah Boonin

Russell Cason

Jeremy Christensen

Joshua Clark

Trey Clegg

Rick Cobb

Michael Cranford

Thomas Elston

Noah Horton

Nick Jones #

Rodney S. Jones

Sims Kuester

Jason Maynard

Jackson McCarthy

Joss Nichols

Brian Smith

Will Stephens

Thomas Stow

John Terry

Edgie Wallace Jr.

BASS 2

William Borland

John King Carter

Terrence Connors

Joel Craft

Paul Fletcher

Timothy Gunter

David Hansen

Dylan Johnson

Philip Jones

Daniel Lane

Wesley Lanter

Jason Manley

Brandon Mozingo

Michael Nedvidek

Philip Rogers

John Ruff

John Smith

Jonathan Smith

George Sustman

Benjamin Temko

Gregory Whitmire

#Charter Member

The 4,126th and 4,127th concerts of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

Thursday, February 20, 2025 at 8:00 PM

Saturday, February 22, 2025 at 8:00 PM

Atlanta Symphony Hall

MATTHEW HALLS, conductor

STERLING ELLIOTT, cello

The use of cameras or recording devices during the concert is strictly prohibited. Please be kind to those around you and silence your mobile phone and other hand-held devices.

FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN (1732-1809)

Overture to L’isola disabitata, Hob. 28/9 (The Desert Island) (1779) 9 MINS

FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN (1732-1809)

Concerto No. 2 in D major for Violoncello and Orchestra, Hob. 7b/2 (1783) 25 MINS

I. Allegro moderato

II. Adagio

III. Rondo: Allegro

Sterling Elliott, cello

INTERMISSION 20 MINS

FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN (1732-1809)

Symphony No. 101, "The Clock" (1793-1794) 29 MINS

I. Adagio - Presto

II. Andante

III. Menuet: Allegretto

IV. Vivace

Sterling Elliott's appearance with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra is made possible by the JEAN BRUMLEY GUEST ARTIST FUND, established through a generous gift from

by Noel Morris Program Annotator

Notes to Know

1. Franz Joseph Haydn left home at age 6 to study music and soon became a member of the famous Vienna Boys’ Choir

2. King George III tried to persuade Haydn to settle in London and even offered him a flat at Windsor Castle

3. Haydn wrote 15 full-scale operas but didn’t perform any in London. King George III and the Prince of Wales sponsored rival opera companies. The Prince tried to stage Haydn’s Orfeo, but the King refused to grant a license.

4. Sterling Elliott’s mother and older siblings are violinists. When baby Sterling was in utero, his mother bought a cello so that they could form a family string quartet.

HAYDN

L’isola disabitata Overture

1761 saw the beginning of one of music’s great marriages between genius and circumstance: Franz Joseph Haydn, the “father of the symphony,” entered the service of the opulent Esterházy family. Working primarily for Nicholas I, he donned a servant’s uniform and followed his prince from palace to palace around the Holy Roman Empire.

In those years, the palace of Esterháza served as a destination for Europe’s most influential people and a veritable laboratory for music. The prince provided Haydn with singers, an orchestra, an opera house, and a puppet theater, and Haydn created. He wrote hundreds of works—dozens of symphonies, chamber pieces, and many operas. As per the service contract, the Esterházys required him to write a new opera every year. In 1779, he produced The Desert Island, a tale of two shipwrecked sisters, a pirate abduction, and a rescue and joyful reunion.

This is the first ASO performance.

First ASO performance: May 4, 1947

Henry Sopkin, conductor

George Sopkin, cellist

Most recent ASO performance: October 11-14, 2020

Donald Runnicles, conductor

Rainer Eudeikis, cellist

HAYDN Cello Concerto No. 2

Franz Joseph Haydn’s D major Cello Concerto has taken a wild ride through history. At one time, would-be sleuths attributed the piece to Anton Kraft, a cellist who played for Haydn at Esterháza. Some, believing Kraft to be a lesser composer, even poohpoohed the piece. But the joke was on them; the autographed score surfaced in 1951 after being in private hands. It confirmed Haydn as the composer.

A violinmaker named William Forster opened a publishing house in London and approached the British ambassador to Vienna for help networking with Haydn. The relationship paid off; Forster earned the English publishing rights to over a hundred works by Haydn, including 82 symphonies. Haydn’s income grew beyond his servant’s pay, and he became exceedingly popular in a kingdom he’d never visited.

Inside the score

Setting aside questions about the composer’s identity, cello virtuosos have loved this concerto and kept it before the public since the late 19th century. In those days, they took liberties with the piece, beefing up the orchestration with flutes, clarinets, and bassoons, which only created a problem widely acknowledged by composers of cello concertos: the instruments of the orchestra can easily drown out the rich, mellow tones of a solo cello. In the original score, Haydn avoids this problem by using a leaner accompaniment and pushing through the cello’s upper register.

Traditionally, upper-class Brits lived mainly in the country but returned to London each year for “the Season,” lasting from late January until the end of June. It provided opportunities for “the ton” to parade around in floofy clothes and host dinner parties, balls, and charitable events. (Queen Charlotte’s Ball has been an annual highlight since 1788.) Because the Church of England required theaters and opera houses to close during Lent, the spring became primetime for concerts.

In anticipation of the 1784 London Season,

Willoughby Bertie, 4th Earl of Abingdon, commissioned a new set of works for concerts at Hanover Square. On March 24, 1784, the newspapers announced, “A new Concerto, Violoncello, Mr Cervetto, composed by Haydn.” Cellist and blogger Brinton Smith said, “reviews of the concerto’s 1784 debut emphasize how Haydn’s score was ideally matched to Cervetto’s strengths, particularly his expressive cantabile lyricism and florid virtuosity.”

HAYDN Symphony No. 101 The Clock

By the end of 1789, Franz Joseph Haydn was among the most celebrated composers in the world. After having spent a joyous Christmas season in Vienna where he hustled between concerts, quartet parties, and holiday festivities, he bemoaned his return to Esterháza.

First ASO performance: March 17, 1964

Arthur Fiedler, conductor

Most recent ASO performance: April 13, 1991

Yoel Levi, conductor

“Well, here I sit in my wilderness,” he wrote, “forsaken, like some poor orphan, almost without human society, melancholy, dwelling on the memory of past glorious days ... all those delightful musical evenings that can only be remembered and not described?”

Now, after 24 years, Haydn’s time at the opulent palace was about to end. On September 28, Prince Nicholas I died, leaving his title and estate to Paul Anton II, a man who felt indifferent toward music. The new prince released the composer and his orchestra. With a decent pension in his pocket, Haydn packed up his music and went home a free man.

Haydn’s celebrity was not limited to

Inside the score

The Esterházys filled their palaces with lavish decor, including a sizeable collection of clocks. Two of the timepieces are musical clocks that play tunes composed by Haydn. One of the tunes played by the clock became the Minuet movement of Symphony No. 101. Pizzicato strings (plucked) and bassoons create the sound of the ticking clock in the second movement of the Symphony. Given that Haydn wrote his last six symphonies for the larger London orchestras, he added pairs of flutes, clarinets, and timpani.

the Austrian capital. Just three months after the death of Nicholas, the impresario Johann Peter Salomon lured Haydn to London where he stepped into one of the happiest chapters of his life.

“Hardly a concert did not feature a work by him,” wrote biographer Georg Griesinger. Between 1791 and 1795, Haydn took two trips and wrote twelve symphonies for Salomon. The “Clock” Symphony gets its name from the second movement. Written for the spring concert season in 1795, it shows a 63-year-old composer at the height of his powers.

MATTHEW HALLS, conductor

Matthew has been Chief Conductor of the Tampere Philharmonic in Finland since August 2023. The 2024/25 season sees Matthew guest conduct SWR Symphonieorchester, Kammerakademie Potsdam, Tonkünstler-Orchester, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Orchestre national de Belgique and Warsaw Philharmonic in repertoire ranging from Handel and Rameau to Bruckner and Sibelius.

Highlights of the previous two seasons have included returns to Finish Radio Symphony, Wiener Symphoniker, Houston Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony and Estonian National Symphony, alongside debuts with Minnesota Orchestra, Orchestre de chambre de Paris, and Antwerp Symphony.

With a background in period performance, Matthew has conducted baroque and classical programs with the Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Seattle Symphony among many others. His discography includes Bach’s Harpsichord Concertos directed from the keyboard, the premiere recording of Handel’s Parnasso in Festa and Bach’s Easter and Ascension oratorios.

STERLING ELIOTT, cello

Acclaimed for his stellar stage presence and joyous musicianship, cellist Sterling Elliott is a 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient and the winner of the Senior Division of the 2019 National Sphinx Competition. He has appeared with major orchestras such as the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Detroit Symphony and the Dallas Symphony.

This season, Elliott debuts with the Minnesota Orchestra, Grand Rapids Symphony, Charlotte Symphony, Pacific Symphony, San Antonio Symphony and New Jersey Symphony. He performs the world premiere of a new orchestral version of John Corigliano’s Phantasmagoria and makes his UK recital debut at Wigmore Hall in February.

Sterling is pursuing an Artist Diploma at the Juilliard School, following completion of his Master of Music and undergraduate degrees at Juilliard. He is an ambassador of the Young Strings of America, a string sponsorship operated by Shar Music.

The 4,128th and 4,129th concerts of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

Thursday, February 27, 2025 at 8:00 PM

Saturday, March 1, 2025 at 8:00 PM

Atlanta Symphony Hall

NATHALIE

STUTZMANN, conductor

The use of cameras or recording devices during the concert is strictly prohibited. Please be kind to those around you and silence your mobile phone and other hand-held devices.

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)

Symphony No. 8 in F major, Op. 93 (1812) 26 MINS

I. Allegro vivace e con brio

II. Allegretto scherzando

III. Tempo di menuetto

IV. Allegro vivace

INTERMISSION

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)

Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68 (“Pastorale”) (1808)

20 MINS

39 MINS

I. Awakening of cheerful feelings upon arrival in the country

II. Scene by the brook

III. Merry gathering of country folk

IV. Thunderstorm

V. Shepherd’s Song - Glad and grateful feelings after the storm

Presented with generous support from

by Noel Morris Program Annotator

Beyond the deep scowls and wild hair, who was this 19th-century giant?

1. Ludwig van Beethoven had a hearty laugh and smiled a lot (he had good teeth). He loved to play practical jokes, and his music abounds with humor, which sounds good, even when he’s throwing you a wink and a nudge.

2. He could spin mind-blowing architecture from a single musical fragment, yet never learned the multiplication table.

3. The famous bust of Beethoven, seen atop many pianos (including Schroeder’s), is based on a life mask from 1812. To create the image, sculptor Franz Klein stuck straws into Beethoven’s nostrils and applied plaster to his face. Beethoven panicked, as it was difficult to breathe. Many artists use the mask as the basis for Beethoven’s likeness; hence the widely seen image of the composer wearing a tight frown.

4. Beethoven had an abusive, alcoholic father. As a child, young Ludwig shielded his mother from his father’s outbursts and helped raise his brothers. Beethoven grew into an extremely sensitive man, easily hurt and somewhat untrusting. Ironically, he was the slippery one when selling his works.

5. Beethoven worshipped nature. In the summer, he disappeared into the woods for hours—always with pen and paper in his pocket to jot down ideas.

BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 6 “Pastoral”

During the summer of 1803, Ludwig van Beethoven left Vienna for the quiet village of Oberdöbling (today, a train stop on Vienna’s northwest side) that summer, where he famously wrote much of his Eroica Symphony.

Beethoven settled into a house “overlooking the Krottenbach gorge,” wrote biographer Edmund Morris.

First ASO performance: December 7, 1950

Henry Sopkin, conductor

Most recent ASO performance: April 21, 2023

Nathalie Stutzmann, conductor

Inside the score

The Pastoral Symphony’s opening takes you into the joyful calm of Nature. The murmur of a mountain stream in the second movement adds to the ambiance with a languid melody, like a leaf drifting downstream. The songs of the nightingale (flute), the quail (oboe), and the cuckoo (clarinet) punctuate the end of the Andante. In the third movement—the merry assembly of country folk—Beethoven serves up his usual humor with a hapless folk band that can’t quite play together. A summer squall interrupts the festivities; the composer whips up a ferocious tempest with a barrage of notes. He sends sheets of rain beating down with a five-note figure in the cellos set against a fournote figure in the double basses. Four trombones add punch to the storm, but calm and radiant sunshine return at the Symphony’s end.

“It was quiet enough there for him to hear—close up— the undulant trickling of a mountain stream. He tried to transcribe the sound in his sketchbook, noting, ‘The bigger the brook, the deeper the tone.’” That little flight of fancy would not find its way into Eroica but became the first known sketch of the Pastoral Symphony. Curiously, the Sixth had a sister symphony—not the Eroica, but the Fifth.

Beethoven was a musicmaking machine during the first decade of the 19th century. Some of the best-loved works in all classical music came quickly into existence, and he kept up that furious pace by working with opposites. For example, he wrote the monumental Seventh Symphony alongside the cheeky Eighth. The seismic Fifth Symphony came into the world with the serene Sixth. To be sure, he’d filled his head with notions of heroism and overcoming adversity (always with a happy ending). But he also loved a walk in the woods—a foil to the sound and fury of the Fifth.

“My miserable hearing does not trouble me here,” he wrote. “In the country it seems as if every tree said to me: ‘Holy! holy!’ Who can give complete expression to the ecstasy of the woods! O, the sweet stillness of the woods!”

So as not to be misunderstood, Beethoven noted that his Pastoral Symphony is “more an expression of feeling than

tone painting.” And for him, that feeling was one of relaxed contentment.

He premiered the Pastoral Symphony at the same concert as his Fifth Symphony in 1808. The two pieces are fraternal twins, so he initially referred to the Pastoral as the Fifth Symphony. He swapped the numbers to their present designation when he sent the scores to his publisher.

Beethoven Symphony No. 8

E.B. White once said, “Explaining a joke is like dissecting a frog. You understand it better, but the frog dies in the process.”

First ASO performance: February 27, 1949

Henry Sopkin, conductor

Most recent ASO performance: November 10, 2018

With apologies to the frog, it’s helpful to know how Beethoven teased eighteenth-century ears. The Viennese revered Haydn and Mozart, whose works were paragons of neat, balanced phrases, clarity, and harmony. At the dawn of the nineteenth century, when Beethoven started pumping out symphonies, he surprised and delighted audiences with his mastery of the rules and ability to toy with them. With his First Symphony, listeners knew something was up when he added a spitfire tempo and boisterous timpani to a courtly dance like the minuet. It sounded like a joke of a minuet.

Robert Abbado, conductor

In the Second Symphony, Beethoven dispensed with the minuet and replaced it with a scherzo (Italian for joke). Six symphonies later, the entire Eighth Symphony is like one big scherzo. It explodes like a Pegasus rising through the clouds and immediately fizzles, winding down to a pair of “misplaced” bassoon notes.   All joking aside, it was a rough time for Beethoven. He’d been sick for much of the winter of 1811-1812. His hearing was so bad he ceded the premiere of his Fifth Piano Concerto to Carl Czerny—who bungled it. And someone stole his heart: After Beethoven’s death, survivors discovered a passionate letter in his hand addressed to the “Immortal Beloved.” It seems she loved him but wasn’t available (married?). Scholars have spent lifetimes trying to uncover

the woman’s identity but haven’t reached a consensus.  Nevertheless, Beethoven’s daily existence rarely colored his music. In 1812, he finished his Seventh and Eighth Symphonies and premiered both. The Allegretto movement of the Seventh became an instant hit, with people clamoring for arrangements to play at home.

Czerny asked Beethoven why he thought the Eighth Symphony was less popular than the Seventh. Beethoven laughed and said, “Because it is so much better.”

The Evolution of Beethoven

Early Beethoven

December 16, 1770 - Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn. His grandfather Ludwig was the much-loved Kapellmeister at court (master of music). Beethoven’s brute father, Johann, was a tenor and a lesser talent, although he was popular at the local pub. He beat music into young Ludwig, starting with piano and adding violin and viola.

Young Ludwig started earning his keep at fourteen, playing for the court. He helped care for his brothers and ran interference for the family, scooping up his drunken dad before the authorities could arrest him.

At sixteen, Ludwig received a grant from the Elector of Bonn to study music in Vienna. He arrived eighteen days later and presented himself to Mozart. Little is known about that meeting, but an urgent message quashed Beethoven’s hopes: his mother lay on her deathbed, and he had to hurry home.

“You shall receive Mozart’s spirit through Haydn’s hands.”   —Count Waldstein

Mozart died before Beethoven could make it back to Vienna. The younger composer bided his time in Bonn, growing into a monster pianist and improviser. After five years, Count Waldstein bankrolled a return trip, sending Beethoven to study with Franz Joseph Haydn. Sadly, the two composers

didn’t mesh; their personalities clashed. Beethoven snuck lessons from other teachers and jumped into the fast lane, cranking out piano music to match his dazzling virtuosity. Hopping from palace to palace, he wowed the Viennese elite and became a local celebrity.

In truth, Beethoven owed a great debt to Haydn (and Mozart). He absorbed their legacy and took up the mantle, writing chamber works, concertos, solo piano pieces, and his first two symphonies. Emphasizing clarity and restraint, he demonstrated full command of the Classical style.

The Middle “Heroic” Period

“Without suffering, there is no struggle; without struggle, no victory; without victory, no crown.”

Beethoven biographer Jan Swafford attributed those words to Maria Magdalena van Beethoven, the composer’s mother. For her, it was a motto, but it reads like prophecy to us. Where Classicists treated struggle with a delicate hand, middle-period Beethoven seized it by the throat and turned it into art.

In his mid-twenties, Beethoven began to experience tinnitus in his left ear—a disastrous condition for a busy pianist. In 1802, a doctor recommended he take the waters in Heiligenstadt, a spa town nestled among vineyards and the Vienna Woods. Beethoven spent six months there, taking day hikes and writing music. Needless to say, the mineral baths did nothing for his hearing, but he did begin to come to terms with it. He described his condition in a letter to his brothers—a portrait of desperation, despair, and grit.

“I would have ended my life—it was only my art that held me back,” he wrote. Through that letter, we learn about the maelstrom in Beethoven’s head and his struggle to see a way forward. “Ah, it seemed to me impossible to leave the world until I had brought forth all that I felt was within me.” He never sent the letter but always kept it with him.

From that moment, Beethoven threw his energy into

composition. Ideas poured from his brain, and he scribbled them out, amassing many sketches that would later become symphonies, concertos, and chamber works. While his first decade in Vienna centered around the private homes of the elite, his second put him before the public. Haydn and Mozart’s lean, gentile aesthetic no longer aligned with his spirit.

During his “Heroic” decade, he ripped the polite veneer off music to express tragedy, adversity, heroism, and victory. First up, he wrote his Bonaparte Symphony, the piece we’d come to know as Eroica. He followed with the Symphonies Nos. 4-8, three piano concertos, his Violin Concerto, and his opera Fidelio. His music shocked the Viennese with its tempestuousness and scale and lit the way for the Romantics.

Revolution and Upheaval

• In 1792, Francis II became Holy Roman Emperor. He convulsed at the very mention of revolution (French Revolutionaries guillotined his aunt Marie Antoinette in 1793). Francis blanketed Vienna with censors, spies, and secret police. He prohibited talk of liberal ideals. Amid the crackdown, 22-yearold Beethoven left Bonn, crossed through Napoleon’s army, and settled in the Austrian police state.

• As a child of the Enlightenment, Beethoven fervently believed in liberty, equality, brotherhood, science, and the power of reason to solve problems. In government, his ideals aligned with the (then) popular notion of enlightened despotism—an absolute ruler must act in the interest of his people, support education, the arts, freedom, and the separation of church and state.

• In Vienna, you could scarcely swing a powdered wig without hitting a musician. Nevertheless, the city had no standing orchestra for public concerts. Stability for a professional musician meant working as a servant. Members of the high nobility kept orchestras in-house and devoted hours to mastering their instruments. The dawn of the 19th century brought change: Beethoven saw a rapid decline in private

orchestras as nobles ran out of money. A rising middle class offered an eager and promising alternative. And Beethoven broke with the convention of trying to serve; he wrote music to follow his muse and worried about profit later.

• Napoleon invaded Vienna twice, in 1805 and 1809. In 1806, he broke the nearly 1,000-year stronghold of the Holy Roman Empire and forced its dissolution. The diminished Francis II became the first Austrian Emperor, Francis I. As all this went down, Beethoven wrote music in a nearby flat, working on his Violin Concerto, the Appassionata Sonata, the Fourth Piano Concerto, the Razumovsky Quartets, and the Fourth and Fifth Symphonies.

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra has begun an ambitious campaign to generate new endowment funding. Our Campaign for the Next Era will allow the ASO to achieve its vision while maintaining its financial health and ensuring long-term sustainability.

This Campaign will create sustainable funding to:

• Enable the ASO to continue to attract and retain the finest musicians in the world,

• Maintain and expand our community-wide education programs, and

• Fully fund our nationally-recognized Talent Development Program

Investments in the Campaign for the Next Era will help the ASO continue to enrich our beloved community with brilliant performances and music education for decades to come.

CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTORS

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra is grateful to the following donors and volunteers who have supported our Campaign for the Next Era Endowment Campaign.

CAMPAIGN CHAIRS:

Kathy Waller

John B. White, Jr.

$1,000,000+

A Friend of the Symphony (3)

Mr. Eric Bressner

The Zeist Foundation, Inc.

$500,000+

A Friend of the Symphony Emerald Gate Charitable Trust

Kathy Waller & Kenneth Goggins

$250,000+

Ms. Joia M. Johnson

Mr. & Mrs. Mark A. Kauffman

Anne Morgan & Jim Kelley

Mary & Jim Rubright

Patrick and Susie Viguerie

$100,000+

Janine Brown & Alex J. Simmons, Jr.

$100,000+ continued

Mr. & Mrs. Paul J. Blackney

Ms. Elizabeth W. Camp

Sheila Lee Davies & Jon Davies

Marcia & John Donnell

Cari K. Dawson & John M. Sparrow

Ms. Angela L. Evans

Dick & Anne Game

Mr. Fahim Siddiqui & Ms. Shazia Fahim

Ann Marie & John B. White, Jr.

$50,000+

The Antinori Foundation

Jeannette Guarner, MD & Carlos del Rio, MD

Bonnie & Jay Harris

James H. Landon

Ms. Molly Minnear

Bert & Carmen Mills

Patty & Doug Reid

CAMPAIGN CABINET:

Bert Mills

Anne Morgan

Jim Rubright

Ross Singletary

Ray Uttenhove

Patrick Viguerie

$50,000+ continued Ross & Sally Singletary Slumgullion Charitable Fund

John & Ray Uttenhove

Up to $50,000

A Friend of the Symphony (2)

Mr. Keith Adams & Ms. Kerry Heyward

Juliet & John Allan

Mr. & Mrs. Andrew Bailey Wright** & Alison Caughman

Ms. Lisa V. Chang

Lisa DiFrancesco, MD & Darlene Nicosia

The Gable Foundation Florencia & Rodrigo Garcia Escudero

Up to $50,000 continued

Sally & Walter George

Georgia Power Company

Pam & Robert Glustrom

Mr. & Mrs. Charles B. Harrison

Brian & Carrie Kurlander

Donna Lee & Howard Ehni

Dr. Jennifer Lyman & Mr. Kevin Lyman

Massey Charitable Trust

Mr. & Mrs. Arthur Mills IV

Lynn & Galen Oelkers

Victoria & Howard Palefsky

Bill & Rachel Schultz

Joyce & Henry Schwob

Charlie & Donna Sharbaugh

Elliott & Elaine Tapp

For more information about the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s Campaign for the Next Era, please contact Grace Sipusic, Vice President of Development at grace.sipusic@atlantasymphony.org or 404.733.5061.

ASO | SUPPORT

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra continues to prosper thanks to the support of our generous patrons. The list below recognizes the donors who have made contributions since June 1, 2023. Their extraordinary generosity provides the foundation for this worldclass institution.

$1,000,000+

A Friend of the Symphony

$100,000+

Sheila Lee Davies & Jon Davies

Barney M. Franklin & Hugh W. Burke Charitable Fund

$50,000+

The Antinori Foundation

Ms. Lynn Eden

Ms. Angela L. Evans∞

John D. Fuller

The Gable Foundation

Robert & Roberta** Setzer

Ann Marie & John B. White, Jr.°∞

$35,000+

Cari K. Dawson & John M. Sparrow

Sally & Walter George

Sally & Pete Parsonson ∞

Patty & Doug Reid

Mary & Jim Rubright

June & John Scott∞

Slumgullion Charitable Fund

Kathy Waller & Kenneth Goggins

Patrick & Susie Viguerie

$25,000+

John & Juliet Allan

Mr. & Mrs. Paul J. Blackney

Janine Brown & Alex J. Simmons, Jr.

Connie & Merrell** Calhoun

John W. Cooledge

Sally** & Larry Davis

Mr. Richard H. Delay & Dr. Francine D. Dykes∞

Paulette Eastman & Becky Pryor Anderson**

Jeannette Guarner, MD & Carlos del Rio, MD∞

Bonnie & Jay Harris

Mr. & Mrs. Charles B. Harrison

Donna Lee & Howard Ehni

John & Linda Matthews∞

John R. Paddock, Ph.D. & Karen M. Schwartz, Ph.D.

Ms. Margaret Painter

Bill & Rachel Schultz°

Mrs. Edus H. Warren

$17,500+

Mr. & Mrs. Andrew Bailey

Jennifer Barlament & Kenneth Potsic∞

Ms. Elizabeth W. Camp

Wright** & Alison Caughman

Ms. Lisa V. Chang

Ms. Yelena Epova & Mr. Neil Chambers

Florencia & Rodrigo Garcia Escudero

Dick & Anne Game°

Pam & Robert Glustrom

Ms. Joia M. Johnson

Dr. & Mrs. Scott I. Lampert

Dr. Jennifer Lyman & Mr. Kevin Lyman

Ms. Deborah A. Marlowe & Dr. Clint Lawrence

Ms. Molly Minnear

Caroline & Phil Moïse

Moore Colson, CPAs & Bert & Carmen Mills

Terence L. & Jeanne Perrine Neal°

Victoria & Howard Palefsky

Martha M. Pentecost

Joyce & Henry Schwob

Mr. Fahim Siddiqui & Ms. Shazia Fahim

Ross & Sally Singletary

Mr. G. Kimbrough Taylor & Ms. Triska Drake

Dr. Ravi & Dr. Valerie Thadhani

John & Ray Uttenhove

Mrs. Sue S. Williams

Drs. Kevin & Kalinda Woods

$15,000+

Phyllis Abramson, Ph. D.

Madeline** & Howell E. Adams, Jr.

Mr. Keith Adams & Ms. Kerry Heyward°

Aadu & Kristi Allpere°

Mr. Neil Ashe & Mrs. Rona Gomel Ashe

Keith Barnett

Mr. David Boatwright

Mr. & Mrs. Benjamin Clare

Russell Currey & Amy Durrell

Mr. & Mrs. Erroll B. Davis, Jr.∞

Lisa DiFrancesco, MD & Darlene Nicosia

Eleanor & Charles Edmondson

Craig Frankel & Jana Eplan

In Memory of Betty Sands

Fuller

Roya & Bahman Irvani

Sarah & Jim Kennedy

Brian & Carrie Kurlander∞

James H. Landon

Mr. Sukai Liu & Dr. Ginger J. Chen

John F.** & Marilyn M. McMullan

Mr. & Mrs. Arthur Mills IV

Anne Morgan & Jim Kelley

Lynn & Galen Oelkers

Ms. Regina Olchowski & Mr. Edward Potter

Barbara & Andrew Paul

Ms. Cathleen Quigley

Mr. and Mrs. Ravi Saligram

V Scott

Beverly & Milton Shlapak

Mr. John A. Sibley, III

Elliott & Elaine Tapp°

Judith & Mark K. Taylor

Mr. Yannik Thomas

Maria Todorova

Carol & Ramon Tomé Family Fund

Mr. Ben Touchette

Adair & Dick White

Mr. Mack Wilbourn

$10,000+

A Friend of the Symphony

Paul & Melody Aldo∞

Mr. & Mrs. Calvin R. Allen

Farideh & Al Azadi Foundation

Estate of Elizabeth Ann Bair

Jack & Helga Beam∞

Mr. & Mrs. Gerald R. Benjamin

Kelley O. & Neil H. Berman

Karen & Rod Bunn

Lisa & Russ Butner∞

Mr. & Mrs. Thomas C. Chubb III

Ms. Tena Clark & Ms. Michelle LeClair

Janet & John Costello

Mr. and Mrs. Warren L. Culpepper

Donald & Barbara Defoe°

Peter & Vivian de Kok

Marcia & John Donnell

Dr. John Dyer & Mrs. Catherine Faré Dyer

Marina Fahim

Dr. & Mrs. Leroy Fass

Dr. V. Alexander Garcias

Dr. Paul Gilreath

Mr. Max M. Gilstrap

The Graves Foundation

The Hertz Family Foundation, Inc.

Azira G. Hill

Mr. & Mrs. Benjamin Hill

Clay & Jane Jackson

Ann A. & Ben F. Johnson III°

James Kieffer

Ann & Brian Kimsey∞

Stephen & Carolyn Knight

Dr. & Mrs. Douglas Mattox

Jane Morrison∞

Gretchen Nagy & Allan Sandlin

Mr. & Mrs. Solon P. Patterson

Margaret H. Petersen

David F. & Maxine A.** Rock

Ms. Frances A. Root

Thomas & Lynne Saylor

Tom & Ani Steele

John & Yee-Wan Stevens

Mr. & Mrs. Edward W. Stroetz, Jr.

Stephen & Sonia Swartz

George & Amy Taylor∞

Carolyn C. Thorsen

Mr. & Mrs. Benny Varzi

Drs. Jonne & Paul Walter

Dr. & Mrs. James O. Wells, Jr.

Camille W. Yow

$7,500+

Dr. Marshall & Stephanie Abes

Carol Brantley & David Webster

Ms. Johanna Brookner

Judith D. Bullock

Patricia & William Buss∞

John Champion & Penelope Malone

Mark Coan & Family

Ms. Diane Durgin

Mr. & Mrs. William A. Flinn

Grace Taylor Ihrig**

Jason & Michelle Kroh

Dr. Fulton D. Lewis III & S. Neal

Rhoney

Mr. Robert M. Lewis, Jr. & G.

Wesley Holt

Elvira & Jay Mannelly

Belinda & Gino Massafra

Ed & Linda McGinn

Berthe & Shapour Mobasser

Mr. Cesar Moreno & Mr. Greg Heathcock

Ms. Eliza Quigley∞

Mr. Ron Raitz

Leonard Reed

Mr. & Mrs. Joel F. Reeves

Hamilton & Mason Smith

Mr. & Mrs. Peter Toren

Kiki Wilson

Mr. David J. Worley & Ms.

Bernadette Drankoski

$5,000+

A Friend of the Symphony (2)

Mr. & Mrs. Louis Alrutz

Mr. Logan Anderson

Dr. Evelyn R. Babey

Lisa & Joe** Bankoff

Asad & Sakina Bashey

Herschel Beazley

Meredith Bell

Mr. John Blatz

Rita & Herschel Bloom

Dr. & Mrs. Jerome B.

Blumenthal

Mrs. Sidney W. Boozer

Ms. Jane F. Boynton

Margo Brinton & Eldon Park

Jacqueline A. & Joseph E. Brown, Jr.

CBH International, Inc

Ms. Stacey Chavis

Mrs. Amy B. Cheng & Dr. Chad

A. Hume, Ph.D

Ned Cone & Nadeen Green

Matt & Kate Cook

Carol Comstock & Jim Davis

Mr. & Mrs. DeBonis

Mr. Christopher J. Decoufle &

Ms. Karen Freer

Mr. & Mrs. Paul H. Dimmick∞

Xavier Duralde & Mary Barrett

Dieter Elsner & Othene Munson

Robert S. Elster Foundation

Jerry H. Evans & Stephen T. Bajjaly

Dr. & Mrs. Carl D. Fackler

Ellen & Howard Feinsand

Bruce W. & Avery C. Flower∞

Mr. David L. Forbes

Annie Frazer & Jen Horvath

Gaby Family Foundation

Charles Ginden

Mr. & Mrs. Richard Goodsell

Mr. & Mrs. David Goosman

Mr. & Mrs. Louis Gump

Sally W. Hawkins

Ms. Elizabeth Hendrick

Hilley & Frieder

Richard & Linda Hubert

Tad & Janin Hutcheson

Mr. Justin Im & Dr. Nakyoung

Nam

Lillian Kim Ivansco & Joey Ivansco

Mr. W. F. & Dr. Janice Johnston

Mr. & Mrs. Baxter Jones

Cecile M. Jones

Lana M. Jordan∞

Dr. Jennifer Kahnweiler & Dr.

William M. Kahnweiler

Paul** & Rosthema Kastin

Mr. & Mrs. Mark A. Kauffman

Mona & Gilbert Kelly°

Mr. Charles R. Kowal

Pat & Nolan Leake

Drs. Joon & Grace Lee

Ms. Cynthia Smith

Ms. Eunice A. Luke

Dr. & Mrs. Ellis L. Malone

Ms. Erin M. Marshall

Beau and Alfredo Martin

Mr. & Mrs. Christopher D. Martin

Ms. Darla B. McBurney

Mr. Suneel Mendiratta

Mr. Bert Mobley∞

Sue Morgan∞

Mr. Charles Morn

Mr. William Morrison & Mrs.

Elizabeth Clark-Morrison

Ms. Bethani Oppenheimer

Ms. Amy H. Page

Ralph Paulk & Suzanne

Redmon Paulk

Ann & Fay Pearce°

Jonathan & Lori Peterson

In Memory of Dr. Frank S. Pittman III

Dr. & Mrs. John P. Pooler

Dr. John B. Pugh

Mr. John Rains

Mr. Joseph Rapanotti

Mrs. Susan H. Reinach

Dr. Jay Rhee & Mrs. Kimberley

Rhee∞

Vicki & Joe Riedel

Ms. Maria Rivera

Ms. Felicia Rives∞

Ms. Noelle Ross and Mr. Tim

Dorr

Tiffany & Rich Rosetti∞

Dr. & Mrs. Rein Saral

Katherine Scott

Suzanne Shull∞

Baker & Debby Smith

Ms. Victoria Smith

Ms. Lara Smith-Sitton

Mr. & Mrs. Peter Stathopoulos

Dr. Steven & Lynne Steindel°

In memory of Elizabeth B. Stephens by Powell, Preston & Sally∞

Beth & Edward Sugarman

Dede & Bob Thompson

Trapp Family

Dr. Brenda G. Turner

Chilton & Morgan** Varner

Amy & Robert Vassey

Ms. Juliana T. Vincenzino

Emily C. Ward

Alan & Marcia Watt

Ruthie Watts

Mr. & Ms. Robert L. Welch

Dr. Nanette K. Wenger

John F. Wieland, Jr.

Suzanne B. Wilner

Mr. & Mrs. M. Beattie Wood

$3,500+

A Friend of the Symphony

Anthony Barbagallo & Kristen

Fowks∞

Drs. Jay & Martin Beard-Coles

Mr. & Mrs. Dennis M. Chorba

Malcolm & Ann Cole

Jean & Jerry Cooper

Mr. David S. Dimling

Mr. Ramsey Fahs

Sandra & John Glover

John** & Martha Head

Barbara M. Hund

Cameron H. Jackson

Ms. Rebecca Jarvis

Mrs. Gail G. Johnson

Wolfgang** & Mariana Laufer

Molly McDonald & Jonathan Gelber

Hala & Steve Moddelmog

Mr. & Mrs. Joseph Owen, Jr.

Ms. Kathy Powell

S.A. Robinson

Gerald & Nancy Silverboard

Ms. Martha Solano

Mrs. Dale L. Thompson

David & Martha West

Ms. Sonia Witkowski

Zaban Foundation, Inc.

$2,000+

A Friend of the Symphony (3)

Mr. James L. Anderson

Dr. & Ms. Bruce Beeber

Dr. & Mrs. Joel E. Berenson

Susan & Jack Bertram

Leon & Joy Borchers

Mr. and Mrs. Sam Boyte

Martha S. Brewer

Harriet Evans Brock

George & Gloria Brooks

Benjamin Q. Brunt

Dr. Aubrey Bush & Dr. Carol Bush

Mr. & Mrs. Walter K. Canipe

Mr. & Mrs. Ricardo Carvalho

Betty Fuller Case

Mr. Jeffery B. Chancellor & Mr. Cameron England

Julie & Jerry Chautin

Mr. James Cobb

Susan S. Cofer

Liz & Charlie Cohn°

Ralph** & Rita Connell

William & Patricia Cook

Dr. & Mrs. John E. Cooke

Mary Carole Cooney & Henry R. Bauer, Jr

R. Carter & Marjorie A. Crittenden Foundation

Claire & Alex Crumbley

Dr. & Mrs. F. Thomas Daly, Jr.

Jerome J. Dobson

Mr. & Mrs. Graham Dorian

Gregory & Debra Durden

Mr. Trey Duskin & Ms. Noelle Albano

Mr. & Mrs. Robert G. Edge

Erica Endicott & Chris Heisel

Mr. & Mrs. Paul G. Farnham

Mr. Nigel Ferguson

Karen Foster

Tom and Cecilia Fraschillo

Dr. Elizabeth C. French

Mr. & Mrs. Sebastien Galtier∞

Marty & John Gillin°

Mrs. Janet D. Goldstein

Mr. Robert Golomb

Mr. James N. Grace

Richard & Debbie Griffiths

Mr. & Mrs. George Gundersen

Deedee Hamburger

Phil & Lisa Hartley

Mr. & Mrs. Steve Hauser°

Mr. & Mrs. Charles Hawk

Mr. & Mrs. John Hellriegel∞

Ann J. Herrera & Mary M. Goodwin

Kenneth & Colleen Hey

Sarah & Harvey Hill, Jr.°

Laurie House Hopkins & John D. Hopkins

James & Bridget Horgan°

Mr. & Mrs. Brian Huband

Dona & Bill Humphreys

Silvey James & Rev. Jeanne Simpson

Nancy & John Janet

Sally C. Jobe

Aaron & Joyce Johnson

Coenen-Johnson Foundation

Dr. and Mrs. Eike Jordan

Teresa M. Joyce, Ph.D

Mr. Alfred D. Kennedy & Dr.

William R. Kenny

Mr. & Mrs. Randolph J. Koporc

Dr. & Mrs. William C. Land, Jr.

Lillian Balentine Law

Mr. & Mrs. Chris Le

Mr. & Mrs. Van R. Lear

Elizabeth J. Levine

Mr. and Mrs. J. David Lifsey

Deborah & William Liss°

Mr. & Mrs. Kevin Levingston

Thomas and Marianne Mabry

Barbara & Jim MacGinnitie

Dr. Marcus Marr

Mrs. Sam Massell

In Memory of Pam McAllister

Mr. & Mrs. James McClatchey

Martha & Reynolds McClatchey

Birgit & David McQueen

Anna & Hays Mershon

Mr. & Mrs. Thomas B. Mimms, Jr.

Mr. Jamal Mohammad and Mr. Marcus Dean

Ms. Helen Motamen & Mr. Deepak Shenoy

Janice & Tom Munsterman

Melanie & Allan Nelkin

Agnes V. Nelson

Mr. and Mrs. Denis Ng

Gary R. Noble, MD & Joanne Heckman

Mr. & Mrs. Berk Nowak

Mr. & Mrs. James Pack

Dana & Jon Parness

Mr. Doug F. Powell

Ms. Patricia U. Rich

Mr. & Mrs. Douglas G. Riffey, Jr.

Mr. & Mrs. Kenneth Roberts

Betsy & Lee Robinson

Dr. Judith Rohrer

Ms. Lili Santiago-Silva & Mr. Jim Gray

Drs. Lawrence and Rachel Schonberger

Ms. Donna Schwartz

Dick Schweitzer

Mr. David C. Shih

Alan & Marion Shoenig

Nick & Annie Shreiber

Helga Hazelrig Siegel

Diana Silverman

Ms. Charlotte Skidmore & Maj. Gen. Arnold Fields

Anne-Marie Sparrow

Peggy & Jerry Stapleton

James & Shari Steinberg

Dr. & Mrs. John P. Straetmans

Kay R Summers

Ms. Linda F. Terry

Johnny Thigpen & Clay Martin

Duane P. Truex III

Ms. Cathryn van Namen

Wayne & Lee Harper Vason

Vogel Family Foundation

Dr. James L. Waits

Mr. Charles D. Wattles & Ms.

Rosemary C. Willey

Russell F. Winch & Mark B. Elberfeld

Mrs. Lynne M. Winship

Herbert** & Grace Zwerner

Patron Leadership (PAL) Committee

We give special thanks to this dedicated group of Atlanta Symphony Orchestra donorvolunteers for their commitment to each year’s annual support initiatives:

Linda Matthews chair

Kristi Allpere

Helga Beam

Bill Buss

Pat Buss

Kristen Fowks

Deedee Hamburger

Judy Hellriegel

Belinda Massafra

Sally Parsonson

June Scott

Milt Shlapak

Lara Smith-Sitton

Jonne Walter

Marcia Watt

° = We are grateful to these donors for taking the extra time to acquire matching gifts from their employers.

** = Deceased

∞ = Leadership Council: We salute these extraordinary donors who have signed pledge commitments to continue their support for three years or more.

CORPORATE PARTNERS

$1,000,000+

Boston Consulting Group

Delta Air Lines

$100,000+

1180 Peachtree, LLC

AAA Parking

The Coca-Cola Company

Georgia Power Company

Graphic Packaging International, Inc.∞

The Home Depot Foundation Invesco QQQ

$75,000+

Alston & Bird LLP

Bloomberg Philanthropies

Norfolk Southern Foundation

$50,000+

Accenture∞

BlackRock

KPMG LLP, Partners & Employees

PwC

The Robert W. Woodruff Health Sciences Center of Emory University

$25,000+

AFFAIRS to REMEMBER

Aspire Media

Bank of America Charitable Foundation

BlueLinx Corporation

Cadence Bank∞

Chick-fil-A Foundation | Rhonda & Dan Cathy∞

Eversheds Sutherland

Google

Morris, Manning & Martin, LLP

Northside Hospital

Porsche Cars North America Inc.

Publix Super Markets Charities, Inc.

Troutman Pepper

$15,000+

Cisco

Council for Quality Growth

Deloitte

Georgia-Pacific

Van Dang Fragrances

WABE 90.1 FM

Warner Bros. Discovery

FOUNDATION AND GOVERNMENT SUPPORT

$250,000+

Emerald Gate Charitable Trust

Lettie Pate Evans Foundation∞

Goizueta Foundation∞

The Halle Foundation

$100,000+

Abraham J. & Phyllis Katz Foundation∞

Amy W. Norman Charitable Foundation

Charles Loridans Foundation, Inc.

The Zeist Foundation, Inc.

$75,000+

Paul M. Angell Family Foundation∞

The Molly Blank Fund of The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation∞

$50,000+

City of Atlanta Mayor's Office of Cultural Affairs

Robert and Polly Dunn Foundation, Inc.

National Endowment for the Arts

The Vasser Woolley Foundation, Inc.

$25,000+

The Jim Cox, Jr. Foundation

The Roy and Janet Dorsey Foundation

Fulton County Board of Commissioners

Georgia Council for the Arts

League of American Orchestras∞

The Marcus Foundation, Inc.∞

Massey Charitable Trust

$20,000+

Choate Bridges Foundation

The Ray M. & Mary Elizabeth Lee Foundation, Inc.

The Mark and Evelyn Trammell Foundation

$10,000+

Costco Wholesale

Davis Broadcasting's WJZA Smooth Jazz 101/100

Hamilton Capital Partners, LLC

Jazz 91.9 WCLK

King & Spalding LLP

La Fête du Rosé

WVEE-FM | V-103.3 FM

$5,000+

A Friend of the Symphony Marietta Neonatology

Music Matters

Perkins&Will

The St. Regis Atlanta WhoBody Inc.

Yellow Bird Project Management

$2,000+

Legendary Events

The Piedmont National Family Foundation

$10,000+

The Breman Foundation, Inc.

The Scott Hudgens Family Foundation

The Sartain Lanier Family Foundation∞

$5,000+

Azalea City Chapter of Links

The Fred & Sue McGehee Family Charitable Fund

The Hellen Plummer Charitable Foundation, Inc.

$2,000+

2492 Fund

Paul and Marian Anderson Fund

The Parham Fund

The Alex & Betty Smith DonorAdvised Endowment Fund

TEGNA Foundation

HENRY SOPKIN CIRCLE

Named for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s founding Music Director, the HENRY SOPKIN CIRCLE celebrates cherished individuals and families who have made a planned gift to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. These special donors preserve the Orchestra’s foundation and ensure success for future generations.

A Friend of the Symphony (22)

Madeline* & Howell E. Adams, Jr.

Mr.* & Mrs.* John E. Aderhold

Paul & Melody Aldo

Mr. & Mrs. Ronald R. Antinori

Elizabeth Ann Bair*

Dr. & Mrs. William Bauer

Helga Beam

Mr. Charles D. Belcher*

Neil H. Berman

Susan & Jack Bertram

Mr.* & Mrs.* Karl A. Bevins

The Estate of Donald S. & Joyce Bickers

Ms. Page Bishop*

Mr.* & Mrs.* Sol Blaine

John Blatz

Rita & Herschel Bloom

The Estate of Mrs. Gilbert H. Boggs, Jr.

W. Moses Bond

Mr.* & Mrs. Robert C. Boozer

Elinor A. Breman*

Carol J. Brown

James C. Buggs*

Mr. & Mrs.* Richard H. Burgin

Hugh W. Burke*

Mr. & Mrs. William Buss

Wilber W. Caldwell

Mr. & Mrs. C. Merrell Calhoun

Cynthia & Donald Carson

Mrs. Jane Celler*

Lenore Cicchese*

Margie & Pierce Cline

Dr. & Mrs. Grady S. Clinkscales, Jr.

Suzanne W. Cole Sullivan

Robert Boston Colgin

Mrs. Mary Frances Evans Comstock*

Miriam* & John A.* Conant

Dr. John W. Cooledge

Dr. Janie Cowan

Mr. & Mrs. William R. Cummickel

Bob* & Verdery* Cunningham

Mr. Richard H. Delay & Dr. Francine D. Dykes

John R. Donnell

Dixon W. Driggs*

Pamela Johnson Drummond

Mrs. Kathryn E. Duggleby

Catherine Warren Dukehart*

Ms. Diane Durgin

Arnold & Sylvia Eaves

Mr. & Mrs. Robert G. Edge

Geoffrey G. Eichholz*

Elizabeth Etoll

Mr. Doyle Faler

Brien P. Faucett

Dr. Emile T. Fisher*

Moniqua N Fladger

Mr. & Mrs. Bruce W. Flower

A. D. Frazier, Jr.*

Nola Frink*

Betty* & Drew* Fuller

Sally & Carl Gable

William & Carolyn Gaik

Dr. John W. Gamwell*

Mr.* & Mrs.* L.L. Gellerstedt, Jr.

Ruth Gershon & Sandy Cohn

Micheline & Bob Gerson

Max Gilstrap

Mr. & Mrs. John T. Glover

Mrs. David Goldwasser

Robert Hall Gunn, Jr. Fund

Billie & Sig Guthman

Betty G.* & Joseph* F. Haas

Ms. Alice Ann Hamilton

Dr. Charles H. Hamilton*

Sally & Paul* Hawkins

John* & Martha Head

Ms. Jeannie Hearn*

Barbara & John Henigbaum

Jill* & Jennings* Hertz

Mr. Albert L. Hibbard

Richard E. Hodges

Mr.* & Mrs. Charles K. Holmes, Jr.

Mr.* & Mrs.* Fred A. Hoyt, Jr.

Jim* & Barbara Hund

Clayton F. Jackson

Mary B. James

Nancy Janet

Mr. Calvert Johnson & Mr. Kenneth Dutter

Joia M. Johnson

Deforest F. Jurkiewicz*

Herb* & Hazel Karp

Anne Morgan & Jim Kelley

Bob Kinsey

James W.* & Mary Ellen* Kitchell

Paul Kniepkamp, Jr.

Vivian & Peter de Kok

Miss Florence Kopleff*

Mr. Robert Lamy

James H. Landon

Ouida Hayes Lanier

Lucy Russell Lee* & Gary Lee, Jr.

Ione & John Lee

Mr. Larry M. LeMaster

Mr.* & Mrs.* William C. Lester

Liz & Jay* Levine

Robert M. Lewis, Jr.

Carroll & Ruth Liller

Ms. Joanne Lincoln*

Jane Little*

Mrs. J. Erskine Love, Jr.*

Nell Galt & Will D. Magruder

K Maier

John W. Markham*

Mrs. Ann B. Martin

Linda & John Matthews

Mr. Michael A. McDowell, Jr.

Dr. Michael S. McGarry

Richard & Shirley McGinnis

John & Clodagh Miller

Ms. Vera Milner

Mrs. Gene Morse*

Hal Matthew Mueller* and Constance Lombardo

Ms. Janice Murphy*

Mr. & Mrs. Bertil D. Nordin

Mrs. Amy W. Norman*

Galen Oelkers

Roger B. Orloff

Barbara D. Orloff

Dr. Bernard* & Sandra Palay

Sally & Pete Parsonson

James L. Paulk

Ralph & Kay* Paulk

Dan R. Payne

Bill Perkins

Mrs. Lela May Perry*

Mr.* & Mrs. Rezin E. Pidgeon, Jr.

Janet M. Pierce*

Reverend Neal P. Ponder, Jr.

Dr. John B. Pugh

William L.* & Lucia Fairlie*

Pulgram

Ms. Judy L. Reed*

Carl J. Reith*

Mr. Philip A. Rhodes

Vicki J. & Joe A. Riedel

Helen & John Rieser

Dr. Shirley E. Rivers*

David F. & Maxine A.* Rock

Glen Rogerson*

Tiffany & Richard Rosetti

Mr.* & Mrs.* Martin H. Sauser

Bob & Mary Martha Scarr

Mr. Paul S. Scharff & Ms. Polly G. Fraser

Dr. Barbara S. Schlefman

Bill & Rachel Schultz

Mrs. Joan C. Schweitzer

June & John Scott

Edward G. Scruggs*

Dr. & Mrs. George P. Sessions

Mr. W. G. Shaefer, Jr.

Charles H. Siegel*

Mr. & Mrs. H. Hamilton Smith

Mrs. Lessie B. Smithgall*

Ms. Margo Sommers

Elliott Sopkin

Elizabeth Morgan Spiegel

Mr. Daniel D. Stanley

Gail & Loren Starr

Peter James Stelling*

Ms. Barbara Stewart

Beth & Edward Sugarman

C. Mack* & Mary Rose* Taylor

Isabel Thomson*

Jennings Thompson IV

Margaret* & Randolph* Thrower

Kenneth & Kathleen Tice

Mr. H. Burton Trimble, Jr.*

Mr. Steven R. Tunnell

Mr. & Mrs. John B. Uttenhove

Mary E. Van Valkenburgh

Mrs. Anise C. Wallace

Diane Woodard & Bruce Wardrep

Mr. Robert Wardle, Jr.

Mr. & Mrs. John B. White, Jr.

Adair & Dick White

Mr. Hubert H. Whitlow, Jr.*

Sue & Neil* Williams

Mrs. Frank L. Wilson, Jr.

Mrs. Elin M. Winn

Ms. Joni Winston

George & Camille Wright

Mr.* & Mrs.* Charles R. Yates

ASO | STAFF

EXECUTIVE

Jennifer Barlament executive director

Lizzy Clements executive assistant, senior management

Alvinetta Cooksey executive & finance assistant

ARTISTIC

Gaetan Le Divelec vice president, artistic planning

Kelly Edwards director of operations

RaSheed Lemon

artistic coordinator

EDUCATION & COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Sarah Grant vice president of education & community engagement

Ryan Walks

atlanta symphony youth orchestra & teen programs manager

Elena Gagon Dunn family programs & community engagement manager

Michael Kralik manager of school engagement

Jadonna Brewton

interim talent development program manager

OPERATIONS

Emily Liao Master vice president & general manager

Paul Barrett director of production

Richard Carvlin senior stage manager

Ebner Sobalvarro interim orchestra personnel manager

Jeremy Tusz

audio recording engineer & producer

Marcia Chandler chorus administrator

Joshua Luty principal librarian

Sara Baguyos associate principal librarian

James Nelson assistant librarian

MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS

Ashley Mirakian vice president, marketing & communications

Camille McClain director of marketing & communications

Matt Dykeman director of digital content

Adam Fenton director of multimedia technology

Delle Beganie content & production manager

Mia Jones-Walker marketing manager

Whitney Hendrix creative services manager, aso

Amy Godwin communications manager

Sean David video editor

Bob Scarr archivist & research coordinator

SALES & REVENUE MANAGEMENT

Russell Wheeler

vice president, sales & revenue management

Nancy James front of house supervisor

Erin Jones

senior director of sales & audience development

Jesse Pace senior manager of ticketing & patron experience

Dennis Quinlan manager, business insights & analytics

Robin Smith guest services coordinator

Jake Van Valkenburg group sales & audience development supervisor

Milo McGehee guest services coordinator

Anna Caldwell guest services associate

ATLANTA SYMPHONY HALL LIVE

Nicole Panunti

vice president, atlanta symphony hall live

Will Strawn director of marketing

Christine Lawrence director of ticketing & parking

Lisa Eng creative services manager

Caitlin Buckers marketing manager

Dan Nesspor ticketing manager, atlanta symphony hall live

Liza Palmer event manager

Jessi Lestelle event manager

Nicole Jurovics booking & contract manager

Meredith Chapple marketing coordinator, live

Shamon Newsome booking & contract associate

FINANCE & ADMINISTRATION

Susan Ambo

executive vice president & cfo

Kimberly Hielsberg vice president of finance

April Satterfield controller

Brandi Reed staff accountant

DEVELOPMENT

Grace Sipusic vice president of development

William Keene director of annual giving

James Paulk

senior annual giving officer

Renee Contreras director of foundation & corporate relations

Dana Parness manager of individual giving & prospect research

Beth Freeman senior manager of major gifts

Sharveace Cameron senior development associate

Rachel Bender manager of donor stewardship and events

Sarah Wilson manager of development operations

Jenny Ricke foundation & corporate giving associate

ASO | CORPORATE & GOVERNMENT SUPPORT

The Woodruff Arts Center’s unprecedented $67 million capital campaign will bring new life to our campus, expand access to our proven educational programming, and secure our place as Atlanta’s center for the arts. Scan the QR code to learn more about Experience Atlanta, Experience Woodruff.

$1,000,000+

Anonymous

Delta Air Lines

James M. Cox Foundation

Norfolk Southern Foundation

Patricia and Douglas Reid* PNC

Robert W. Woodruff Foundation

The Goizueta Foundation

$500,000 - $999,999

Acuity Brands Anonymous

Georgia Power Foundation

$250,000 - $499,999

Abraham J. & Phyllis Katz Foundation

Bank of America Charitable Foundation

Chick-fil-A Foundation | Rhonda & Dan Cathy Fraser-Parker Foundation

$100,000 - $249,999

A friend of the Woodruff Arts Center

Ann & Jeff Cramer*

Courts Foundation

Emerald Gate Charitable Trust

$10,000 - $99,999

Alfredo Martin

Annie Adams

Barry & Jean Ann McCarthy*

Candace Steele Flippin

Chuck and Kathie Palmer

Cousins Properties

D. Richard Williams & Janet Lavine

Dave Stockert & Cammie Ives

David, Helen, and Marian Woodward Fund

Edelman Public Relations

Worldwide

Galen & Lynn Oelkers

John H. and Wilhelmina D. Harland Foundation

Joia Johnson

Kathy Waller & Kenny Goggins*

The Hertz Family Foundation, Inc.*

The Home Depot Foundation

The Imlay Foundation

J. Bulow Campbell Foundation

Phil and Jenny Jacobs

Robert & Margaret Reiser*

The Marcus Foundation

The Tomé Foundation

The Zeist Foundation

H. Ross & Claire Arnold

Hala & Steve Moddelmog*

Kavita & Ashish Mistry

Kenneth Neighbors & Valdoreas May

Kent & Talena Moegerle

KPMG

Janine Brown & Alex Simmons

John & Ellen Yates

John F. McMullan

John Scott

Julia Houston

Lauren & Andrew Schlossberg

Stephanie Blank*

The Hearst Foundations, Inc.

The Sartain Lanier Family Foundation, Inc.

Kelin Foundation

The Fay S. & W. Barrett Howell Family Foundation

Thomas & Aimee Chubb

Truist Charitable Fund

Mark & Jennifer Pighini

Michael & Mindy Egan

Patrick & Susan Viguerie

Patrick Gunning & Elizabeth Pelypenko

Philip Harrison & Susan Stainback

Rand & Seth Hagen

Richard & Wimberly McPhail

Robin & Hilton Howell

Rockdale Foundation

Sally Westmoreland

Sara Giles Moore Foundation

Southface Energy Institute

Experience Atlanta, Experience Woodruff is supported in part by Georgia Council for the Arts through appropriations of the Georgia General Assembly and support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Terrance Hahn

The Dennis Lockhart and Mary Rose Taylor

Memorial Fund

The Mark & Evelyn

Trammell Foundation

Tony Conway, Legendary Events

Tull Charitable Foundation

Vasser Woolley Foundation

Vicki Escarra

Warren Culpepper

*Denotes additional support for the Alliance Theatre’s Imagine Campaign

THE WOODRUFF CIRCLE

We are grateful to our dedicated Annual Fund donors for ensuring that everyone in Atlanta can experience the power of the arts. Their gifts support the arts and education work of the Alliance Theatre, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and High Museum of Art.

$1,000,000+

A Friend of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

$500,000 - $999,999

A Friend of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Anonymous

$250,000 - $499,999

Accenture

Art Bridges Foundation

Farideh and Al Azadi Foundation

Mr. Joseph H. Boland, Jr.

Thalia and Michael C. Carlos Advised Fund

Chick-fil-A Foundation |

Rhonda and Dan Cathy

Sheila Lee Davies and Jon Davies

$100,000 - $249,999

1180 Peachtree

A Friend of the High Museum of Art

Alston and Bird

AT&T Foundation

Atlantic Station

Bank of America Charitable Foundation

Helen Gurley Brown Foundation

Cadence Bank Foundation

City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs

The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta

Cousins Foundation

Forward Arts Foundation

Art Bridges

Emerald Gate Charitable Trust

Georgia Power Company

Sara Giles Moore Foundation

The Home Depot Foundation

Google

The Halle Foundation

Invesco QQQ

Sarah and Jim Kennedy

Ms. Anne H. Morgan and Mr. James F. Kelley

Norfolk Southern Foundation

Novelis, Inc.

The Rich’s Foundation

The Shubert Foundation

Alfred A Thornton Venable Trust

Truist Trusteed Foundations: The Greene-Sawtell Foundation, Guy Woolford Charitable Trust, and Walter H. and Majory M. Rich Memorial Fund

UPS

Smurfit Westrock

Barney M. Franklin and Hugh W. Burke

Charitable Fund

Fulton County Board of Commissioners

Dick and Anne Game

Georgia Council for the Arts

Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning

Georgia-Pacific

Graphic Packaging International, Inc.

John H. and Wilhelmina D. Harland

Charitable Foundation

The Hertz Family Foundation, Inc.

Karen and Jeb Hughes

Institute of Museum and Library Services

Abraham J. & Phyllis Katz Foundation

King and Spalding, Partners & Employees

KPMG LLP, Partners & Employees

Charles Loridans Foundation, Inc

The Marcus Foundation, Inc.

Northside Hospital

PNC

Patty and Doug Reid

Southern Company Gas

Carol and Ramon Tomé Family Fund

Warner Bros. Discovery

Kelly and Rod Westmoreland

wish Foundation