Brantley Manderson brantley@encoremagazine.com
Kelli Dill kelli@encoremagazine.com
Hila Johnson hila@encoremagazine.com EDITOR
Robert Viagas robert@encoremagazine.com
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Tamara Hooks tamara@encoremagazine.com DIGITAL MEDIA DIRECTOR Jennifer Nelson jennifer@encoremagazine.com
As you entered the Memorial Arts Building this evening, you may have noticed we’re celebrating a milestone the 80th anniversary of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Our “Oak” anniversary represents the strength and growth of this phenomenal organization. This is not just a celebration of the past, but a testament to the enduring legacy of music and community nurtured by this Orchestra since its founding in 1945.
From our beginnings as the “In and Around Atlanta” Orchestra, a small ensemble of eager young musicians, to our current place as one of the nation’s leading orchestras, there is no canopy without a firm foundation, and in the canopy, branches of stories and new life.
I invite you to experience this history up close. Many thanks to our archivist Bob Scarr, volunteers Marcia Watt and Linda Matthews, and our Marketing team who have created an exhibit of historical information and memorabilia in the Azadi Galleria. You’ll see everything from photos of our 1990s European tour to Robert Shaw’s cufflinks and metronome—each piece offering a glimpse into the rich legacy we have all built together. I also encourage you to read Bob Scarr’s article in this Encore book (page 14), which provides insight into the creation of the timeline and exhibit.
I especially enjoy seeing those early photos of our founding musicians— their excitement and passion is evident in every frame. As I watched our own Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra rehearse earlier this month, my mind wandered to imagining how it must have felt for those performers in 1945, as they took the stage for the very first time. It’s a reminder of all that can grow from our musicians and our community.
As always, none of this would be possible without your support and love of the ASO. Many of you have been stalwart fans for many years. In this anniversary season, we encourage you to share your favorite memories with us at asopr@atlantasymphony.com. There would be no ASO without you— you are an instrumental part of our story.
With gratitude,
Jennifer Barlament, Executive Director
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.”
With several notable debuts including the Czech Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich and her conducting debut at the Musikverein with Wiener Symphoniker; her current 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 August 2024.
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.
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. 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.
In March, Nathalie will conduct the Orchestrè de Paris in her interpretation of The Ring Without Words, which was heard in Atlanta in June 2024. Her commitment to Beethoven this season (in his Fourth Piano Concerto with Emanuel Ax) is also a part of that engagement. She will also perform Shostakovich and Schumann in Philadelphia with cellist Edgar Moreau, who appeared with the ASO in September. Since Nathalie was last in Atlanta, she made her debut with the Boston Symphony featuring works that closed last season here in Atlanta— violinist Veronika Eberle performing Beethoven's Violin Concerto with Stravinsky's Firebird.
Patrick Viguerie chair
Janine Brown immediate past chair
Bert Mills treasurer
Angela Evans secretary
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
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
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
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
Keyeriah Miles
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.
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
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
Neil and Sue Williams Chair
When John White was in the 6th grade in Chipley, GA (now Pine Mountain), he went with friends to the Springer Opera House in nearby Columbus for a concert by the Philadelphia Orchestra, led by Eugene Ormandy. It made such an impression that many years later, when John funded and produced the recording “Robert Spano: A Retrospective” for the ASO, he made sure it included Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, which had opened that concert in Columbus.
Later, at LaGrange College John sang in an a capella chorus (which often used Robert Shaw’s arrangements), and his musical interest led to a record program at the local radio station, where he was also News Director, winning four AP documentary awards. He worked in television, for a wire service, and for a couple of magazines before working at Coca-Cola, where he would spend the rest of his career, eventually managing the company’s media, industry and community relations. He served as Executive Assistant to the President and as Assistant Vice President for Government Relations.
Ann Marie White, who married John in 1968 after they met on a blind date, was born in Portland, OR, and went to Guilford College in North Carolina, where she was recruited to teach 4th grade in Dekalb County. Like John she was a singer: “I was always in choirs.”
The Whites began attending ASO concerts in 1967 when Shaw arrived as Music Director and the Orchestra moved to its new home, the Memorial Arts Center (now the Woodruff Arts Center). In the years that followed, John would become a friend and confidant to Shaw and each of his successors. His background in broadcasting and technology and his fabled knowledge of classical recordings made him a unique resource. He has been the guiding force in establishing the ASO Archives, personally funding the preservation of a vast treasure trove of historic recordings from the 1950s.
John joined the ASO Board in 2005 and has served continuously since that time, often in leadership roles on various committees, including the search committee that chose Nathalie Stutzmann as Music Director. Then, last year, he was made a Life Director, recognizing his long service to the Orchestra. He and Ann Marie continue to advocate for the Orchestra.
John has served on a variety of civic and industry boards. He served for more than 30 years on the parent board of WABE radio and television. He
was appointed by Governor Deal to the Georgia Council for the Arts. Two years ago, he returned to his radio broadcasting roots when he became the host of WABE’s “Atlanta Music Scene,” a weekly series of concert performances from venues around metro Atlanta.
John and Ann Marie have two children and three grandchildren. They live at Lenbrook Senior Community, where John recently served as president of the Resident’s Association and is very active in Friends of the Arts.
John remembered that Robert Shaw made introductory remarks before his final ASO performance of Bach’s Mass in B minor: “He spoke about the glorious work of Bach and then, looking around, he said ‘someone in the audience is hearing this for the first time, and someone is hearing it for the last time.’ And that,” said John, “is one reason we contribute: so there will always be a last time for someone to hear this music.”
The Whites are also members of the Sopkin Circle, having made a planned gift. Ann Marie added, “Johnny Appleseed planted apple trees that he would never see, for the next generation. We contribute because we want to make sure the symphony is there for future generations.”
By Bob Scarr, Archivist
This year marks a significant milestone in the cultural fabric of Atlanta: the 80th anniversary of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO). To commemorate this remarkable journey, a special exhibition is on display in the lobby of the Memorial Arts Building throughout the first part of March. The exhibition follows a timeline highlighting key milestones in the ASO’s history. The 80th is known as the “Oak” anniversary and this exhibition draws a parallel between the strength and longevity of the oak tree and the enduring legacy of the ASO, which has firmly rooted itself in the cultural landscape of Atlanta and beyond.
One of the more compelling aspects of the exhibition is the focus on telling the ASO story with numbers. Here are just a few notable highlights:
• The Orchestra has performed in 8 different countries and 21 international cities. This global engagement serves as a reminder of music’s universal language, transcending geographical boundaries.
• The ASO’s impressive record of over 4,000 concert performances. This number is based on Subscription and Special concerts performed at our three home venues: Atlanta Municipal Auditorium, Tower Theatre and our current home at Symphony Hall.
• The ASO has performed in 475 venues in 30 states in various settings, from grand concert halls to intimate community spaces.
• The strength and longevity of the ASO can also be attributed to its artistic leadership. Over the past 80 years, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra has collaborated with 5 Music Directors and 518 guest conductors, each bringing unique perspectives and interpretations to the Orchestra. The variety of artistic voices has enriched the ASO’s musical identity, allowing it to flourish and remain relevant.
• The ASO’s dedication to excellence has not gone unnoticed, as evidenced by its remarkable achievement of 27 Grammy Awards. Each Grammy recognition reflects the hard work and passion of the Musicians, the ASO Chorus, the Music Directors and the Recording Engineers. Such recognition has certainly elevated the orchestra’s status within the classical music community.
Condensing 80 years of music, magic, and milestones into two panels was no easy task, but we’ve highlighted some of the most impactful moments in the ASO’s history by looking at each era.
We begin with Planting the Seeds (1939-1961): The Early Years – From Youth Orchestra to The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Under the direction of Music Director Henry Sopkin, the ASO grew from a youth orchestra into a full-time orchestra. Notable early guests included Igor Stravinsky and singers from the Metropolitan Opera.
In the second section, Putting Down Roots – A Home for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (1962-1968), we welcome Music Director Robert Shaw and look forward to the move to what is now the Memorial Arts Building of the Woodruff Arts Center. From 1968-1978, The ASO Branches Out—the ASO Chorus is born, and the ASO celebrates a new era in Atlanta Symphony Hall.
In the next section, The ASO Grows the Canopy Worldwide (19791996), we highlight significant milestones that helped establish the ASO’s international reputation. This era also marked the end of Robert Shaw’s tenure as Music Director and the welcoming of Yoel Levi, as the ASO’s third music director. From 1994-2008, we celebrate Offshoots in Innovation, solidifying our position as a forward-thinking leader in the classical music world. This period includes the appointments of Robert Spano as the orchestra’s fourth music director and Donald Runnicles as principal guest conductor.
Finally, A New Era (2009-present) showcases resilience and growth during a period of both adversity and achievement. This era includes the appointment of the ASO’s fifth music director, Nathalie Stutzmann.
Our exhibition celebrating the 80th anniversary of the ASO is a tribute to the past, present, and future of our beloved institution. It encapsulates the spirit of a community united through music and honors the contributions of countless musicians, conductors and guest artists. We hope you take a moment to stop by and reflect. For more information about the history of the ASO, visit: www.aso.org/ gsu-special-collections or www.aso.org/aso-historical-timeline
We are deeply grateful to the following leadership donors whose generous support has made the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's season possible.
The 4,129th, 4,130th and 4,131st concerts of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Thursday, March 6, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Saturday, March 8, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Sunday, March 9, 2025 at 3:00 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. 4 in B-flat major, Op. 60 (1806) 35 MINS
I. Adagio. Allegro vivace
II. Adagio
III. Minuetto: Allegro vivace. Trio: Un poco meno Allegro
IV. Allegro ma non troppo
INTERMISSION
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
20 MINS
Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92 (1811-1812) 38 MINS
I. Poco sostenuto. Vivace
II. Allegretto
III. Scherzo: Presto
IV. Allegro con brio
Presented with generous support from
Sunday's concert is dedicated to JIM AND MARY RUBRIGHT in honor of their extraordinary support of the 2023/24 Annual Fund.
by Noel Morris Program Annotator
Notes to know:
• Since its premiere in 1813, the Allegretto movement of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony has engendered arrangements for a stream of musicians, including recorder ensemble, harp, piano, accordion duet, electric violin, 10string guitar, electric guitar, brass choir, flute duet, harmonica, and midi bluegrass band.
• Composer Robert Schumann had great affection for Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony and commented that it didn’t get its due because of the neighboring Third and Fifth Symphonies. It’s but “a slender Greek maiden between two Norse giants.”
• Beethoven could be charitable. He conducted the premiere of his Seventh Symphony in 1813 at a benefit concert for soldiers wounded at the Battle of Hanau.
Beethoven and Disability
Ludwig van Beethoven was 26 when he first noticed ringing in his ear. In the coming years, the problem grew worse. Eventually, he lost his ability to perceive higher frequencies and, by the 1824 premiere of the Ninth Symphony, stood unaware of the thundering ovation erupting behind him. Nevertheless, as late as 1825 (two years before his death), an eye-witness commented, “He can hear a little if you halloo quite close to his left ear.”
Today, the Beethoven-Haus Bonn displays a collection of assistive listening devices used by the composer, including copper ear trumpets made for him in 1813 by inventor Johann Nepomuk Maelzel. In addition, the museum owns an 1825 instrument built by piano maker Conrad Graf with a second soundboard and ear-trumpet attachment. Beethoven also used a modified piano with a rod attached to the soundboard—when he bit down on the rod, the vibrations traveled through his jawbone to the inner ear.
During his last decade, Beethoven carried a blank notebook so people could write messages to him. Today, the conversation
books serve as a precious window into the composer’s life and mind.
First ASO performance: November 27, 1951
Henry Sopkin, conductor
Most recent ASO performance: March 21, 2021
Donald Runnicles, conductor
1806 was a fraught year for Beethoven; it was a wondrous year for music lovers. He wrote his violin concerto, his fourth piano concerto, his Razumovsky Quartets, and his fourth symphony and began the piece we know as “Beethoven’s Fifth.”
In November of 1805, he was trying to launch his career as an opera composer and having a bitter time. He tangled with friends, singers, and the Emperor’s censors. And then, incredibly, Napoleon seized Vienna a week before opening night.
The French occupation lasted just long enough to drive Beethoven’s audience away. In truth, it masked a bigger problem with the new opera: it didn’t work in the theater. He made several revisions and launched Leonore (later called Fidelio) a second time in March 1806, only to withdraw the piece for more revisions.
Beethoven’s private life caused further headaches. He suffered hearing loss and quarreled with his brother. Toward the end of the summer, his friend Prince Lichnowsky suggested a country getaway. With the promise of a private room and a piano, Beethoven packed up his scores, including the unfinished C minor Symphony (the Fifth), and boarded a carriage to Upper Silesia in what is now the Czech Republic.
Word spread of his arrival. Count Franz von Oppersdorff, a neighboring nobleman, had them over to his castle and entertained them with a performance of Beethoven’s Second Symphony.
Beethoven and the Count became friends and negotiated plans for a new piece. Setting aside the manuscript that would become the Fifth Symphony, the composer started a spirited symphony in B-flat. To accommodate the Count’s more modest-sized orchestra, Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony
uses a leaner orchestra (more like his Second Symphony than his Third).
Unfortunately for him, the aggravations of 1806 continued to mount. When French army officers dropped in on the Lichnowsky estate, the Prince urged Beethoven to sit at the piano and play for them—not a good idea. Beethoven couldn't stand to be treated like a lapdog and flatly refused. The two friends fell into a shouting match. In some versions of the story, Oppersdorff had to block Beethoven from beating the Prince with a chair. That night, the composer packed up his things and left, walking for miles in the rain to catch a ride back to Vienna. Indeed, the original manuscript of the Appassionata Sonata has water stains.
Back home, Beethoven smashed his bust of Lichnowsky. In a letter, he wrote: "There are and there will be thousands of princes. There is only one Beethoven.” With that, he lost a friend and a valuable stipend.
The composer’s new friend, Count Oppersdorff, enjoyed a period of exclusive use of “his” Beethoven Symphony before the first public performance in 1808.
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 7
Not one for understatement, Richard Wagner wrote, “All tumult, all yearning and storming of the heart, become here the blissful insolence of joy, which carries us away with bacchanalian power through the roomy space of nature, through all the streams and seas of life . . . ” Wagner goes on like that—gushing about Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony.
He's not alone. Beethoven is and has been a colossus among composers. His devotees include Franz Schubert, Hector Berlioz, Felix Mendelsson, Robert and Clara Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Franz Liszt, Gustav Mahler, George Martin, John Adams, John Corigliano, Billy Joel, Alicia Keyes, Jon Batiste, and so on.
The Seventh Symphony, a piece Wagner called “the
First ASO performance: October 26, 1947
Henry Sopkin, conductor
Most recent ASO performance: February 9, 2019
Robert Spano, conductor
apotheosis of the dance,” is miraculous in its bundling of seemingly unlike things: It sounds rustic yet filled with grandeur. It has an arresting yet lively, propulsive quality. It spins a magnificent tapestry out of tiny musical fragments. And its “slow” movement (it’s actually marked “Allegretto,” so it’s not that slow) is a positively haunting piece nestled within an otherwise joyful symphony.
Beethoven had a raft of problems when he wrote the Seventh Symphony. The Napoleonic Wars spawned runaway inflation. He suffered from financial troubles, hearing loss, fevers, a foot infection, and gastrointestinal distress. He also fell into an affair of the heart, which led to heartbreak. But that isn't the whole story.
A friend at the time wrote: “I made the acquaintance of Beethoven and found this reputedly savage and unsociable man to be the most magnificent artist with a heart of gold, a glorious spirit, and a friendly disposition. What he has refused to princes he granted to us at first sight: he played on the fortepiano.”
Beethoven worked on the Seventh Symphony between the fall of 1811 and the spring of 1812. Soon after, his inventorfriend Johann Nepomuk Maelzel commissioned music for a gadget called the panharmonicon (a mechanical orchestra/ organ) to celebrate the beginning of the end for Napoleon. The orchestral version of the resulting piece, Wellington’s Victory, premiered alongside the Seventh Symphony during the Congress of Vienna in 1813. The audience went wild. Wellington’s Victory kicked Beethoven to the height of fame, but the searing Allegretto movement of the Seventh Symphony served as runner-up. After what the newspaper described as “a general pleasure that rose to ecstasy,” the orchestra encored the Allegretto. Publishers quickly issued chamber versions for various instruments to be played at home.
During the 1820s, Beethoven’s popularity surged again with a revival of his opera Fidelio. And he remains a defining figure to this day.
The 4,132nd concert of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Tuesday, March 11, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Atlanta Symphony Hall
DAVID COUCHERON, violin and director
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.
Serenade in E major for String Orchestra, Op. 22, B. 52 (1875) 27 MINS
I. Moderato
II. Tempo di valse
III. Scherzo: Vivace
IV. Larghetto
V. Finale: Allegro vivace
INTERMISSION
20 MINS
The Coca-Cola Holiday Concerts are presented by Holiday concerts are made possible through an endowment from the Livingston Foundation in memory of Leslie Livingston Kellar.
Le quattro stagioni for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 8 (The Four Seasons) (P 1725) 37 MINS
I. Concerto in E major, RV 269, "La primavera" (Spring)
Allegro
Largo
Allegro
II. Concerto in G minor, RV 315, "L'estate" (Summer)
Allegro
Adagio
Presto
III. Concerto in F major, RV 293, "L'autunno" (Autumn)
Allegro
Adagio
Allegro
IV. Concerto in F minor, RV 297, "L'inverno" (Winter)
Allegro
Largo
Allegro
by Noel Morris Program Annotator
Notes to Know:
• In the early 20th century, American poet Ezra Pound had a hand in launching a Vivaldi revival. Until that time, the composer had been all but forgotten.
• Antonín Dvořák’s father slated his son to be a butcher, like himself. Young Dvořák proved to be a slippery apprentice and always found local villagers who could teach him music.
• The Four Seasons comes with poems describing rural scenes at various times of the year. Vivaldi uses his music to paint pictures of nature, people, and animals, including birdsongs and thunderstorms.
At sixteen, Antonín Dvořák left his village and set off for the Prague Organ School; he quickly outgrew his teachers. Turning to the likes of Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Schumann, he learned from them by studying their scores. Meanwhile, Dvořák taught, played church organ, and played viola in a theater orchestra. He worked long hours, but lived in poverty. Staying mainly with family, he continued to study while he turned out songs, symphonies, operas, and quartets—much of which sat on a shelf.
First performance of this piece.
Maybe he was optimistic about his latest opera— or maybe it was the unplanned pregnancy—but Dvořák proposed marriage to his 19-year-old student Anna Čermáková in 1873. Now, with a growing family, Dvořák’s optimism was not unfounded. That summer, the Ministry of Education announced the Austrian State Stipendium for poor, talented, young artists. Dvořák submitted his entry, putting his work before the famous critic Eduard Hanslick and composer Johannes Brahms. The Minister filed the following report:
“Anton Dwořák of Prague, 33 years old, music teacher, completely without means. He has submitted fifteen compositions, among them symphonies and overtures for full orchestra which display an undoubted talent, but in a way
which as yet remains formless and unbridled... The applicant, who has never yet been able to acquire a piano of his own, deserves a grant to ease his straitened circumstances.”
With the award money, the Dvořák family moved into their own place, and Antonín kicked into high gear. Over the next year, he produced another symphony, a set of duets, a string quintet, a piano trio, a piano quartet, and his much-loved Serenade for Strings. He wrote the Serenade in just twelve days in the spring of 1875. A Prague orchestra gave the world premiere in 1876, and he included the piece in his application for the State Stipendium the following year.
Dvořák went on to win the stipend five years in a row. In 1878, Brahms decided Dvořák was ready for the next level and introduced him to his publisher. The Dvořáks never worried about money again.
First ASO performance: March 11, 1987
Iona Brown, violin and director
Most Recent ASO performance: January 3, 2024, David Coucheron, violin and director
Antonio Vivaldi was the master of the side hustle. He was an ordained priest, a schoolteacher, a touring opera composer, an impresario, and a theater director. During his lifetime, he achieved fame and fortune yet died a pauper and a stranger in a foreign land. He is wildly popular today, although he was almost lost to history. For all these reasons, Vivaldi’s music has been copied, borrowed, and arranged—he has a vast filmography (The Morning Show, Fantastic Four, Six Feet Under, What We Do in the Shadows, Spy Game, Madagascar 2, etc.)—yet there are holes in what we know about his life. For example, we don’t know when he wrote his most famous music, The Four Seasons
Vivaldi was the son of a violinist who worked at St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice. As a working-class boy, he had only one path to higher education: the priesthood. Because he suffered from “tightness of the chest,” young Antonio was allowed to live at home, where he continued to play music with his father. Not long after his ordination in 1703, he became master of violin at Ospedale della Pietà, a school for foundling girls. Because many of the students were illegitimate daughters of the nobility, the school was well-funded, giving Vivaldi all the
resources needed for an excellent orchestra.
Later in life, as his popularity waned, Vivaldi turned his attention to Charles VI, the Holy Roman Emperor. Moving to the Austrian capital in 1740, the composer had hoped to win a royal appointment, but Charles died suddenly. Without income or royal protection, Vivaldi sank into poverty and died alone in 1741. His music was forgotten (apart from the Bach transcriptions) until 1926 when someone discovered a crate of Vivaldi manuscripts at a boarding school in Italy’s Piedmont. Music lovers started scrambling to recover, reconstruct, perform, and publish his music. In 2012, an entire opera surfaced at an Italian library.
The original manuscript of The Four Seasons is missing. The concertos made their way onto 21st-century music stands through a 1725 publication from Amsterdam, part of a set of twelve violin concertos titled “The contest between harmony and invention.” Although we don’t know the year of composition, The Four Seasons came from a golden age for the violin. Just a hundred miles from Venice, violin makers, especially the Amati, Bergonzi, Guarneri, and Stradivari families, made innovations to the instrument’s design. Today, their violins are priceless. The other factor making the eighteenth century a golden age for the violin had to do with Vivaldi himself; his virtuosity as a player caused other composers to reimagine the instrument’s expressive capabilities.
With The Four Seasons, Vivaldi did something that would become popular a hundred years after his death: he used instrumental music to tell a story. The 1725 publication includes a sonnet for each concerto with which Vivaldi painted sound pictures. For example, during the harvest feast (Autumn), the countrymen sink into a drunken stupor. For this effect, Vivaldi uses irregular rhythms to evoke the image of a man staggering off searching for a place to sleep. Some editions of The Four Seasons credit Vivaldi as the author of the sonnets; however, this has never been verified.
In the Spring concerto, Vivaldi gives us birdsong, a spring thunderstorm, a sleeping goatherd, and festive bagpipes. Summer brings scorching heat, more birdsong, cool breezes, bickering neighbors, and a summer squall. The storm hammers the crops with hailstones. The Autumn concerto is about the harvest feast—country folk sing, dance, and drink themselves into a stupor. Vivaldi follows that with a merry hunt with baying hound dogs and guns blazing. The Winter concerto brings “the bitter blast of a horrible wind” and days spent beside a cozy fire, plus a risky walk across the ice. “That’s winter but of a kind to gladden one’s heart.”
The Four Seasons Sonnets attributed to Antonio Vivaldi
SPRING
Allegro
Spring has arrived, and joyfully the birds greet her with glad song, while at Zephyr’s breath the streams flow forth with a sweet murmur. Her chosen heralds, thunder and lightning, come to envelop the air in a black cloak; once they have fallen silent, the little birds return anew to their melodious incantation:
Largo
then on the pleasant, flowerbedecked meadow, to the happy murmur of fronds and plants, the goatherd sleeps next to his trusty dog.
Allegro
To the festive sound of rustic bagpipes nymphs and shepherds dance beneath the beloved sky
at the glorious appearance of spring.
SUMMER
Allegro
In a harsh season burned by the sun, man and flock languish, and the pine tree is scorched; the cuckoo unleashes its voice, and soon we hear the songs of the turtledove and the goldfinch. Sweet Zephyr blows, but Boreas suddenly opens a dispute with his neighbor; and the shepherd laments his fate for he fears a fierce squall is coming.
Adagio
His weary limbs are robbed of rest by his fear of fierce thunder and lightning and by the furious swarm of flies and blowflies.
Presto
Alas, his fears are only too real: the sky fills with thunder and lightning, and hailstones hew off the heads of proud cornstalks.
Allegro
The countryman celebrates with dance and song the sweet pleasure of a good harvest, and many, fired by the liquor of Bacchus, end their enjoyment by falling asleep.
Adagio
Everyone is made to abandon singing and dancing by the temperate air, which gives pleasure, and by the season, which invites so many to enjoy the sweetness of sleep.
Allegro
The huntsmen come out at the crack of dawn with their horns, guns and hounds; the quarry flees and they track it; already terrified and tired out by the great noise of the guns and hounds, the wounded beast makes a feeble effort to flee but dies in agony.
Allegro
To shiver, frozen, amid icy snow in the bitter blast of a horrible wind; to run, constantly stamping one’s feet; and to feel one’s teeth chatter on account of the excessive cold;
Largo
To spend restful, happy days at the fireside while the rain outside drenches a good hundred [people];
Allegro
to walk on the ice, and with slow steps to move about cautiously for fear of falling; to go fast, to slip and fall down; to go on the ice again and run fast until the ice cracks and opens up; to hear coming out of the iron gates Sirocco, Boreas and all the winds at war: that’s winter, but of a kind to gladden one’s heart.
DAVID COUCHERON, violin + director
David Coucheron joined the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra as Concertmaster in September 2010. At the time, he was the youngest concertmaster in any major U.S. orchestra. He has performed as soloist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Sendai Symphony Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra.
Coucheron has given solo recitals at Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, the Kennedy Center and the Olympic Winter Games (Salt Lake City, Utah), as well as in Beograd, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Serbia, Singapore and Shanghai. His chamber music performances have included appearances at Suntory Hall, Wigmore Hall and Alice Tully Hall. Coucheron serves as the Artistic Director for the Kon Tiki Chamber Music Festival in his hometown of Oslo, Norway. He is on the artist-faculty for the Aspen Music Festival and Brevard Music Festival.
An active recording artist, recordings with sister and pianist Julie Coucheron include “David and Julie” (Naxos/Mudi) and “Debut” (Naxos). He is the featured soloist on the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s recording of Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending, which was released in Fall 2014.
Coucheron began playing the violin at age three. He earned his Bachelor of Music degree from The Curtis Institute of Music, his Master of Music from The Juilliard School and his Master of Musical Performance from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, studying with teachers Igor Ozim, Aaron Rosand, Lewis Kaplan and David Takeno. Coucheron plays a 1725 Stradivarius, on kind loan from Anders Sveaas Charitable Trust.
The 4,133rd and 4,134th concerts of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Thursday, March 20, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Saturday, March 22, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Atlanta Symphony Hall
ROBERT SPANO, conductor
ELISABETH REMY JOHNSON, harp
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.
AARON COPLAND (1900-1990)
Suite from Appalachian Spring (for Full Orchestra) (1943-1944) 25 MINS
JENNIFER HIGDON (b. 1962)
Concerto for Harp (2018) 22 MINS
First Light
Joy Ride
Lullaby
Rap Knock
Elisabeth Remy Johnson, harp
INTERMISSION 20 MINS
RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872-1958)
Symphony No. 5 in D major (1938-1943) 39 MINS
I. Preludio
II. Scherzo
III. Romanza
IV. Passacaglia
This weekend’s concerts are dedicated to RON AND SUSAN ANTINORI in honor of their generous support of the 2023/24 Annual Fund.
by Noel Morris Program Annotator
Notes to Know:
• Aaron Copland was born and raised in Brooklyn. As the child of Russian Jewish immigrants, he might seem an unlikely guy to write the famous “cowboy ballets” Billy the Kid (1938), Rodeo (1942), and Appalachian Spring (1944). But he so convincingly captured the spirit of the American frontier that composers have been copying his sound ever since.
• This year marks 100 years of free concerts in the Coolidge Auditorium at the Library of Congress. The Coolidge takes its name from Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, who funded the hall’s construction and an endowment to fill it with music. She sponsored Appalachian Spring, which premiered there in 1944.
• Composer Jennifer Higdon won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize and three Grammy® Awards for Best Contemporary Classical Composition. She’s made five recordings with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
• Ralph Vaughan Williams was a late bloomer. At 35, he studied orchestration with the younger composer Maurice Ravel. He finished his Fifth Symphony at age 70 and went on to write four more.
• On his mother’s side, Ralph Vaughan Williams was the great-nephew of naturalist Charles Darwin and the greatgreat-grandson of Josiah Wedgewood, maker of fine china. Despite his advanced age (42) and advantaged upbringing, Vaughan Williams enlisted as a private in the Royal Army during World War I.
COPLAND Appalachian Spring
“I am making this request for your consideration because a woman I believe in... is one of the great creative artists in America. Martha Graham needs help.”
—Erick Hawkins, 1942
In 1998, TIME magazine named Martha Graham “Dancer of the Century.” Born in 1894, she performed her last dance in 1970 at age 76 and created 181 ballets. Graham revolutionized human expression through dance by
First ASO performance: November 29, 1955
Henry Sopkin, conductor
Most recent ASO performance: November 23, 2019
Robert Spano, conductor
leaning into the dynamic between contraction and release, restraint and freedom.
Appalachian Spring started with inspiration during the throes of World War II—a vision of an earlier age when American settlers faced dangers and hardship in the name of hope. To realize this new ballet, dancer Erick Hawkins wrote to philanthropist Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, who had financed a concert hall at the Library of Congress.
“Martha Graham needs help,” he wrote. Mrs. Coolidge happily wrote the check and sent composer Aaron Copland a note suggesting thematic ideas for the ballet: a doorway, a front porch, and a rocking chair.
“I was really putting Martha Graham to music,” Copland countered. “I had seen her dancing so many times, and I had a sense of her personality.” He titled his piece “Ballet for Martha.”
When Copland finished the score, he sent a piano recording to Graham. With that, she lifted the ballet’s title from a Hart Crane poem and crafted a scenario around a pioneer wedding. With a skeletal set by sculptor Isamu Noguchi, Appalachian Spring explores themes of hope, religious zeal, grit, remoteness, and separation from creature comforts—a curious parallel for Noguchi, who’d lived in an Arizona Japanese internment camp.
Initially, Copland scored the piece for thirteen instruments to accommodate the tiny orchestra pit at the Library’s Coolidge Auditorium. He famously anchored the piece around variations on the traditional Shaker tune “Simple Gifts.” Martha Graham danced the role of the Bride, Erick Hawkins danced the Husbandman, and Merce Cunningham danced the Revivalist.
Copland confessed he got a kick out of reactions to his portrait of Graham.
“People come up to me . . . and say, ‘Mr. Copland, when I see that ballet and when I hear your music, I can just see the Appalachians,” he grinned. “I’ve begun to see the
Appalachians myself a little bit.”
Appalachian Spring won the 1945 Pulitzer Prize. Martha Graham and Erick Hawkins married in 1948.
A Note from the Composer:
Ilove writing concerti because it gives me a chance to not only explore the different instruments' qualities but also because I get to experience the joy of the performer in displaying those qualities. Yolanda Kondonassis’ enthusiasm for her instrument is infectious. In order to show off the wonderful aspects of this grand instrument, I have created a four-movement work:
This is the first ASO performance.
“First Light” seemed an appropriate title for the first musical glimpse of the harp. Lyrical and stunningly elegant in its solitary quiet, the music moves through musical conversations with various soloists and sections of the orchestra.
“Joy Ride” is a romp through rollicking moods that shift constantly, carrying the soloist through dialogues with first the string section, then the wind section, followed by the percussion, and then brass. This movement is all about joy.
The “Lullaby” movement is designed as a chamber work; no orchestral sections play in this movement, only soloists. The first collaborating instruments are the flute and viola, in honor of the first piece where I really became aware of the harp, the Debussy Trio. This movement was inspired by Yolanda’s tender enthusiasm for the wonderful relationship with her daughter.
The final movement, “Rap Knock,” is named for the opening sounds played by the harpist. Most people associate the harp with having a “lyrical/heavenly” quality, but I wanted to also allow the enthusiastic rhythmic color of this instrument to emerge.
The “Harp Concerto” was written for and is dedicated to Yolanda Kondonassis. Commissioned by the Rochester Philharmonic (who gave the world premiere), the Baton Rouge Symphony, the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony, the Harrisburg Symphony, the Lansing Symphony, and the Oklahoma City Philharmonic.
Jennifer Higdon is one of America’s most acclaimed figures in contemporary classical music, receiving the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in Music for her Violin Concerto, a 2010 Grammy for her Percussion Concerto, a 2018 Grammy for her Viola Concerto and, most recently, a 2020 Grammy for her Harp Concerto. Higdon’s first opera, Cold Mountain, won the International Opera Award for Best World Premiere and the opera recording was nominated for two Grammy® awards. In 2018, Higdon received the prestigious Nemmers Prize from Northwestern University, awarded to contemporary classical composers of exceptional achievement who have significantly influenced the field of composition. Most recently, she was invited to become a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Higdon enjoys several hundred performances a year of her works and her works have been recorded on more than seventy CDs.
First ASO performance: December 4, 1986
William Fred Scott, conductor
Most recent ASO performance: February 8, 2020
Robert Spano, conductor
When King George V declared war on Germany in 1914, English youths flooded recruitment offices. Word on the street was that the war would be over by Christmas—the message being, “Hurry up and enlist, or you’ll miss the action.”
One veteran recalled having to polish his brass buttons before mounting a hill. “So in that sunshine we must have been a beautiful target, mustn’t we?” he mused. “They were laughing and singing and joking, all the lot of them. And in the twinkle of an eye, I was the only one left alive out of 400.”
What started with dreams of glory became a bloodbath. The war did not end by Christmas, and on New Year's Eve 1914, the famous British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams enlisted. He was 42 and served as a private in the Royal Army Medical Corps Territorial Force, carrying stretchers away from the front lines. Later, he served as an artillery officer, which wrecked his hearing.
Vaughan Williams well knew the folly of war when he wrote
his symphonic lamentation, a Pastoral Symphony (1922). Then, his tone shifted amid the ghastly turbulence of 1930s Europe as he crafted his jarring Fourth Symphony (1935). In 1936, he made a plea for peace by adapting battlefield poems by Walt Whitman for the cantata Dona nobis pacem.
By 1938, the 66-year-old composer shifted tone again, daring to imagine a better world. He started work on a serene symphony using material from his (then) abandoned opera The Pilgrim’s Progress. As England tumbled into war, he worked on the piece. At the same time, he helped pianist Myra Hess organize daily concerts at the National Gallery (some took place during air raids). He also chaired a committee for the Release of Interned Alien Musicians and advocated for Jewish refugees. In 1941, Queen’s Hall, where he’d premiered the Fourth Symphony, fell to German bombs. Many musicians of the London Philharmonic Orchestra lost their instruments (a BBC instrument drive got them playing again).
The LPO premiered Vaughan Williams’s Fifth Symphony, a hymn of consolation, at the Royal Albert Hall in 1943. He dedicated the symphony “without permission” to fellow composer Jean Sibelius.
Robert Spano, conductor, pianist, composer, and teacher, is known worldwide for the intensity of his artistry and distinctive communicative abilities, creating a sense of inclusion and warmth among musicians and audiences that is unique among American orchestras. Spano has been Music Director of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra since August 2022 and will continue there through the 2027-2028 season; this follows his tenure as Principal Guest Conductor with FWSO, which began in 2019. In February 2024, Spano was appointed Music Director of the Washington National Opera, beginning in the 2025–2026 season, for a three-year term; he is currently the WNO's Music Director Designate. As Music Director of the Aspen Music Festival and School since 2011, he oversees the programming of more than 300 events and educational programs for 630 students and young
performers; he also directs the Aspen Conducting Academy, which offers participants unparalleled training and valuable podium experience. After twenty seasons as Music Director with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, he now serves as Music Director Laureate. He was appointed Principal Conductor of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra & Music School in 2024, and will transition to Principal Guest Conductor in 2025-2026 following the appointment of their new Music Director.
With a discography of critically acclaimed recordings for Telarc, Deutsche Grammophon, and ASO Media, Robert Spano has garnered four Grammy™ Awards and eight nominations with the Atlanta Symphony. Spano is on faculty at Oberlin Conservatory and has received honorary doctorates from Bowling Green State University, the Curtis Institute of Music, Emory University, and Oberlin. Maestro Spano is a recipient of the Georgia Governor's Award for the Arts and Humanities and is one of two classical musicians inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.
Principal harpist of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra since 1995, Elisabeth Remy Johnson performs nationally and internationally in solo and chamber music recitals. An avid recording artist, her recent solo album, “Quest,” spotlights works by women, and has been acclaimed internationally, Gramophone calling it “an exquisite demonstration of the harpist’s art laid out in virtuoso swirls of colour, pearls of elegant nuance and audiophile sound.” She performs as principal harpist with the Grand Teton Music Festival, and teaches at Emory University and Georgia State University. She has performed as guest principal harpist with the orchestras of Baltimore, Boston, Houston and Milwaukee.
Ms. Remy Johnson is a graduate of Harvard University, Phi Beta Kappa, where she majored in Music and French. Winner of first-place awards in competitions of the American Harp Society and the American String Teachers Association, she was an NFAA/ARTS awardee.
In 2018, she founded The Merian Ensemble, a chamber group
dedicated to performing and commissioning chamber music composed by women. The Merian Ensemble has received a travel grant from Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation USArtists International; commissions have been funded by grants from the American Harp Society, the PRS Foundation, Agnes Scott College’s Kirk Fund, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and individual donors. Their 2023-2024 season was supported by New Music USA’s Organization Fund. Their debut album, “The Book of Spells” on the Navona label, presents their commissioned works and was released in August 2024.
Ms. Remy Johnson was co-founder and artistic director (2000-2010) of the Urban Youth Harp Ensemble, serving students from the Atlanta Public Schools. She was a 2022 awardee of New Music USA’s Creator Development Fund for her project Solais with composer Clarice Assad, exploring the roles of women in the fields of astronomy and astrophysics. From 2022-2024, she served as Governor for the Recording Academy’s Atlanta Chapter.
The 4,135th and 4,136th concerts of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Thursday, March 27, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Saturday, March 29, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Atlanta Symphony Hall
ROBERT SPANO, conductor
JAE HONG PARK, piano
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)
Tapiola, Op. 112 (1926) 18 MINS
ALEXANDER SCRIABIN (1872-1915)
Concerto for Piano in F-sharp minor, Op. 20 (1896) 28 MINS
I. Allegro
II. Theme and Variations
III. Allegro moderato
Jae Hong Park, piano
INTERMISSION
NIKOLAI RIMSKY-KORSAKOV (1844-1908)
20 MINS
Scheherazade, Op. 35 (1888) 48 MINS
I. The Sea and Sinbad's Ship
II. The Tale of Prince Kalendar
III. The Young Prince and the Princess
IV. The Festival at Bagdad; The Sea; The Ship Goes to Pieces on a Rock
Thursday's concert is dedicated to MR. RICHARD H. DELAY & DR. FRANCINE D. DYKES in honor of their extraordinary support of the 2023/24 Annual Fund.
by Noel Morris Program Annotator
Notes to Know:
• Alexander Scriabin and Sergei Rachmaninoff met as piano students and became lifelong friends. Music promoters and critics tried to paint them as rivals until Rachmaninoff (a prominent conductor) ended the rumors by hiring Scriabin as a soloist.
• The Sibelius tone poem Tapiola received its premiere the day after Christmas in 1926. Sibelius lived another three decades but wrote virtually nothing after that.
• Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov was a naval officer who went to sea from 1862 to 1865. When he returned to St. Petersburg, he became a teacher at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He supervised military bands and remained in uniform until 1873.
• In some circles in Russia, being an amateur composer free from Western conservatory influence was considered a badge of honor. Rimsky-Korsakov disagreed and became a highly skilled, self-taught composer and orchestrator.
• Alexander Scriabin is best known to pianists. He wrote most of his music for his career as a concert pianist.
By the end of the 19th century, the Finnish people had the Russian tsar breathing down their necks and seemingly lacked the national unity to mount a resistance. That changed as patriots embraced their native culture—Elias Lönnrot and Jean Sibelius among them.
Many middle-class Finns spoke Swedish. When Tsar Nicholas II stripped them of their rights, they switched to Finnish as an act of patriotism. Elias Lönnrot paved the way by compiling the first Finnish-Swedish dictionary. He also offered a shared identity through his epic compilation of Finnish folklore, the Kalevala.
As things heated up, Jean Sibelius mined the Kalevala for material, and the Finns took note. He became a central
figure of the resistance. The forest spirit Tapio appears throughout the Kalevala. Sibelius included the following verse with the published score:
“In Pohjola there are thick, dark forests that dream wild dreams, forever secret. Tapio’s eerie dwellings are there and half-glimpsed spirits, and the voices of twilight.”
Sibelius wrote his last tone poem, Tapiola, for the New York Philharmonic (then the New York Symphonic Society) in 1926. It premiered the day after Christmas in a concert featuring George Gershwin on piano.
Scriabin came from an age when many Russian people sought answers beyond the Orthodox Church. The occult occupied a prominent place. Tsar Nicholas II fell under the spell of healer and mystic Grigori Rasputin. Beyond the palace walls, people consulted mediums and participated in séances. Scriabin was a seeker. He embraced theosophy and tirelessly pursued connection to something beyond our realm, eventually believing his art could take us there.
He had a primal connection to the piano. His mother was a famous piano virtuoso and played a recital just five days before giving birth to him. (Sadly, she died of tuberculosis after his first birthday.) Raised by a doting aunt, he grew into a piano whizz and formed a lifelong friendship with fellow piano student Sergei Rachmaninoff. At 20, Scriabin over-practiced and injured his right hand, which only sharpened his left-hand technique.
At age 24, he sketched his Piano Concerto in just a few days. As this was his first major orchestral work, the scoring took several months. The piece owes a debt to his hero, Frederic Chopin. Written to give Scriabin a leg-up as a touring pianist, it features a string of left-handed gymnastic leaps, syncopations, and polyrhythms. He played the premiere in 1897.
Scriabin died of septicemia at age 43, leaving behind sketches for a mammoth, interactive multimedia composition to be performed in the foothills of the Himalayas. A London critic wrote that Scriabin had delighted “his listeners by the delicacy and poetic imaginativeness of his interpretations. His sense of nuance was so remarkable that it is scarcely to be hoped that his piano works can ever again be heard under such perfect conditions.”
Throughout the 19th century, “Orientalism” was the rage in Europe and Russia. It fueled a market for goods from distant lands. People decorated their homes with Persian rugs and clamored for novels about swarthy men with scimitars and flowing robes—usually written by people who’d never traveled to those places. As an artistic movement, authenticity took a back seat to one’s imagination. But it spawned some great cultural touchstones.
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s symphonic poem
Scheherazade came with a narrative taken from the story collection 1001 Arabian Nights. In it, King Shahryar can’t bear the thought of becoming a cuckold, so he executes his bride after their first night. Marrying and murdering, he repeats the cycle until one girl inspires a change of heart. On her wedding night, the maiden Scheherazade entertains him with a tale, keeping him spellbound until dawn—without finishing the story. Eager to hear the conclusion, he spares her life for a day.
First ASO performance: November 23, 1949
Henry Sopkin, conductor
Most recent ASO performance: April 2, 2022
Robert Spano, conductor
The next night, she finishes the story but starts another. Again, she ends with a cliffhanger and lives another day. For nearly three years, Scheherazade mollifies Shahryar with her stories. After 1,001 Arabian nights, he lifts the death sentence.
Traditionally, Scheherazade’s quiet act of defiance frames each telling of an Arabian Nights tale. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov follows this formula, giving her hypnotic voice to the solo violin. Scheherazade’s music is perfumed, and seductive, like the girl it represents.
Rimsky-Korsakov had a brother who was 22 years his senior, a navy man who kept a lively correspondence from distant ports of call. His letters captivated little “Nika.” Hemmed in by forests and farmland, Nika built model ships and proudly recited nautical terms. At age 12, he entered the Naval College in St. Petersburg.
When Russia’s first conservatory opened in 1862, it seemed young Nikolai would be a navy man like his brother. He embarked upon a 32-month voyage that took him to ports in the Americas.
Russia had come late to the game of schooling musicians. Upon his return to St. Petersburg, Rimsky-Korsakov hit the textbooks to make up for his deficits in musical training and took it upon himself to edit works by others. When his friend Alexander Borodin died in 1887, he vowed to complete the project that had occupied the last 18 years of Borodin’s life: the opera Prince Igor.
For Prince Igor, Borodin borrowed Arabian melodies from a book. With Borodin’s score still in his ears, Rimsky-Korsakov took his family to a country house in the summer of 1888. In less than a month, he wrote his own Arabian essay, the stunning showpiece Scheherazade.
“My orchestration had attained a considerable degree of virtuosity,” he noted. Indeed. Between 1887 and 1888, he wrote his three most popular works, all for symphony orchestra: Capriccio espagnol, Scheherazade, and Russian Easter Overture. After that short burst of orchestral brilliance, he turned a corner and wrote operas for the rest of his life.
JAE HONG PARK, piano
Pianist Jae Hong Park is praised for his mesmerizing virtuosity and astounding stage presence. Described as “fearless” and “meticulous” artist, Jae Hong has emerged as one of the most sought-after pianists of his generation with his triumph from 2021 Feruccio Busoni International Piano Competition, where he not only received the first prize but also four special prizes.
Also winner of the Gina Bachauer and the Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists, he has won top prizes at the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Masters Competition, Ettlingen International Competition and many others.
Jae Hong has performed with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Utah Symphony Orchestra, ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali, Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, European Union Youth Orchestra to name a few.
Mr. Park has performed at the Grafenegg Festival, Bolzano Festival Bozen, Incontri in Terra di Siena, Lingotto Musica (Torino), Musica Insieme (Bologna), Tongyeong International Music Festival and many other leading festivals and performed in leading concert halls, such as Gewandhaus (Leipzig), Wigmore Hall (London), Suntory Hall (Tokyo), Teatro Politeama (Pallermo), Teatro Comunale (Ferrara) and many other venues.
SEE PAGE 37-38 FOR ROBERT SPANO'S FULL BIOGRAPHY
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
• 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.
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+
A Friend of the Symphony
Mr. & Mrs. Mark A. Kauffman
Anne Morgan & Jim Kelley
Mary & Jim Rubright
Patrick & Susie Viguerie
$100,000+
Janine Brown & Alex J. Simmons, Jr.
Mr. & Mrs. Paul J. Blackney
Ms. Elizabeth W. Camp
CAMPAIGN CABINET:
Bert Mills
Anne Morgan
Jim Rubright
$100,000+ continued
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+
A Friend of the Symphony
The Antinori Foundation
Jeannette Guarner, MD & Carlos del Rio, MD
Bonnie & Jay Harris
James H. Landon
Ms. Molly Minnear
Bert & Carmen Mills
John R. Paddock, Ph.D. & Karen M. Schwartz
Patty & Doug Reid
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
Ross Singletary
Ray Uttenhove
Patrick Viguerie
Up to $50,000 continued
Tad & Janin Hutcheson
Brian & Carrie Kurlander
Donna Lee & Howard Ehni
Mr. & Mrs. Andrew Bailey
Wright* & Alison Caughman
Ms. Lisa V. Chang
Lisa DiFrancesco, MD & Darlene Nicosia
The Gable Foundation
Craig Frankel & Jana Eplan
Florencia & Rodrigo Garcia Escudero
Sally & Walter George
Georgia Power Company
Pam & Robert Glustrom
Mr. & Mrs. Charles B. Harrison
Dr. Jennifer Lyman & Mr. Kevin Lyman
Ms. Deborah A. Marlowe & Dr. Clint Lawrence
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
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
Mr. & Mrs. David Goosman
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
Jane & Greg Blount
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
Malcolm & Ann Cole
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. 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
Ms. Keyeriah Miles
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
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
Dr. & Mrs. Ralph Edgar
Mr. & Mrs. Robert G. Edge
Erica Endicott & Chris Heisel
Mr. & Mrs. Paul G. Farnham
Mr. Nigel Ferguson
Karen Foster
Dr. Donald & Janet Filip
Tom & 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°
Mrs. Nicole L. House
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. & 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
Kay Summers
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.
$1,000,000+
Boston Consulting Group
Delta Air Lines
$100,000+
1180 Peachtree, LLC
AAA Parking
Bloomberg Philanthropies
The Coca-Cola Company
Georgia Power Company
Graphic Packaging International, Inc.∞
The Home Depot Foundation Invesco QQQ
$75,000+
Alston & Bird LLP
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
$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+
Choate Bridges Foundation
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+
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 Chickadee Photo Booth
Marietta Neonatology
Music Matters
Parker Poe
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
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 *Deceased
Jennifer Barlament executive director
Lizzy Clements executive assistant, senior management
Alvinetta Cooksey executive & finance assistant
Gaetan Le Divelec vice president, artistic planning
Kelly Edwards director of operations
RaSheed Lemon
artistic coordinator
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
Justin Richardson manager of production administration
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
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
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
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
Susan Ambo
executive vice president & cfo
Kimberly Hielsberg vice president of finance
April Satterfield controller
Brandi Reed staff accountant
Grace Sipusic vice president of development
William Keene senior director of development
James Paulk senior annual giving officer
Renee Contreras director of development, institutional giving
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
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 & Douglas Reid* PNC
Sarah & Jim Kennedy
Robert W. Woodruff Foundation
$500,000 - $999,999
Acuity Brands Anonymous
The Goizueta Foundation
The Hertz Family Foundation, Inc.*
The Home Depot Foundation
Georgia Power Foundation J. Bulow Campbell 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*
Phil and Jenny Jacobs
Robert & Margaret Reiser*
The Imlay Foundation
The Marcus Foundation
The Tomé Foundation
The Zeist Foundation
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
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
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
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
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
