2014 Blossom Music Festival July 13

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sunday July 13

SCI-FI SPECTACULAR! The Cleveland Orchestra Jack Everly, conductor George Takei, narrator Kristen Plumley, soprano Blossom Festival Chorus

Jack Everly Jack Everly is one of North America’s leading symphonic pops conductors and serves as principal pops conductor of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. He is also principal pops conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Naples Philharmonic in Florida, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Ottawa, Canada. In addition, he serves as music director of the National Memorial Day Concert and A Capitol Fourth on PBS. Mr. Everly made his Cleveland Orchestra debut at Blossom in 2009 and most recently appeared as part of the 2013 Blossom Music Festival.

In addition to the ensembles he directs each season, Mr. Everly’s recent and upcoming symphonic engagements include appearances as a guest conductor with the orchestras of Atlanta, Nashville, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Toronto, and Washington D.C. He was conductor and music director for fourteen seasons with the American Ballet Theatre, where he was first appointed by Mikhail Baryshnikov.

In addition, he teamed with Marvin Hamlisch for a number of Broadway shows, including The Goodbye Girl, They’re Playing Our Song, and A Chorus Line. He conducted Carol Channing hundreds of times, in two separate Broadway productions of Hello, Dolly!

Leading the Indianpolis Symphony Orchestra’s holiday celebration concerts each December, Mr. Everly conducted the ISO’s first pops recording, Yuletide Celebration, which featured some of his own orchestrations. His other recordings include In the Presence with the Czech Philharmonic and tenor Daniel Rodriguez, Sandi Patty’s Broadway Stories, and Everything’s Coming Up Roses: The Complete Overtures of Broadway’s Jule Styne. He has also been music director on many Broadway cast recordings.

In television and film, Jack Everly has appeared on In Performance at the White House and conducted the songs for Disney’s animated classic The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

In 1998, Jack Everly created the Symphonic Pops Consortium with the Indianapolis Symphony and four partnering orchestras. The Consortium is dedicated to providing superior quality artistic pops programs through collaboration, innovation, celebration, and perspiration. When not on the podium or arranging, Jack enjoys home life with his family, which includes the dog Max.

This evening’s concert features Michael Runyan on keyboards.

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Conductor

Blossom Music Festival

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BLOSSOM MUSIC FESTIVAL

Sunday evening, July 13, 2014, at 7:00 p.m.

THE CLEVEL AND ORCHESTRA JAC K E V E R LY , conductor

SCI-FI SPECTACULAR! GEORGE TAKEI, narrator KRISTEN PLUMLEY, soprano

Members of the BLOSSOM FESTIVAL CHORUS prepared by Lisa Wong

Main Title from Star Wars by john

williams (b. 1932)

Lost in Syndication arranged by Jack Everly CHORUSďż˝

Adventures on Earth from E.T. (The Extra-Terrestrial) by john

williams

Somewhere in Time by john

barry (1933-2011) CHORUS

Superman March from Superman by john williams CHORUS

Star Trek Through the Years arranged by Calvin Custer NARRATOR AND SOPRANO

PROGRAM LISTING CONTINUES

Blossom Music Festival

Program: July 13

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PROGRAM CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3

INTERMISSION

Theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey (Also sprach Zarathustra) by richard

strauss (1864-1949)

Close Encounters of the Third Kind by john

williams

Music from Star Trek 2009

by michael giacchino (b. 1967) CHORUS

The Day the Earth Stood Still by bernard herrmann (1911-1975) NARRATOR AND SOPRANO

Duel of the Fates from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace by john williams CHORUS

The Throne Room and End Title from Star Wars by john williams CHORUS

Media Partner: The Plain Dealer

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Program: July 13

Blossom Music Festival

George Takei Actor, author, and social justice activist George Takei is best known for his portrayal of Mr. Sulu in the acclaimed television and film series Star Trek. He also has more than 40 feature films and hundreds of television guest-starring roles to his credit. To Be Takei, a documentary on George’s life and career directed by Jennifer M. Kroot, was premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2014 and is being released theatrically this summer. Widely acknowledged for his vocal talents, Mr. Takei has appeared as narrator with dozens of orchestras from Honolulu to Long Island. He made his Cleveland Orchestra debut during the 2009 Blossom Music Festival.

Recognized worldwide as a member of the original Star Trek cast, Mr. Takei received a star on Hollywood Boulevard’s Walk of Fame in 1986 and placed his signature and hand print at Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood in 1991.

Mr. Takei’s voice can be heard on The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, a sixepisode series directed by Ken Burns and written and co-produced by Dayton Duncan, which was premiered on PBS in 2009. His voice has also been featured in Fox Television’s The Simpsons and in many other voice-overs and narrations.

George Takei was born in Los Angeles, California. With the outbreak of World War II, he and his family together with 120,000 other Japanese-Americans were placed behind the barbed-wire enclosures of United States internment camps. There George spent much of his childhood, at Camp Rohwer in the swamps of Arkansas and at wind-swept Camp Tule Lake in northern California.

In 2006, George and actor-comedian Margaret Cho served as co-hosts and provided the narration for the Peabody Award-winning Crossing East, a radio documentary produced by Dmae Roberts that traced the history of Asian American immigration to the United States. George serves as chair of the council of governors of East West Players, the nation’s foremost Asian Pacific American theater.

He is also chairman emeritus of the board of trustees of the Japanese American National Museum and a past member of the advisory committee of the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program. He was appointed by President Clinton to the board of the Japan-United States Friendship Commission, where he served two terms.

George and his husband, Brad Takei, are residents of Los Angeles. In October 2009, George and Brad made television history when they became the first gay couple to be invited to appear on the long-running Newlywed Game. They won, earning a $10,000 donation for the Japanese American National Museum.

For more information, visit www.georgetakei.com.

Blossom Festival 2014

Guest Artist

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Kristen Plumley Connecticut native Kristen Plumley has appeared with opera companies and orchestras throughout the United States, as well as in leading roles in musical theater productions. She made her Cleveland Orchestra debut at Blossom in 2009.

Ms. Plumley has appeared in a broad range of operatic roles. Her engagements have included performances with Chautauqua Opera, Greensboro Opera Company, Lyric Opera of Cleveland, Nevada Opera, Opera Festival of New Jersey, L’Opéra Français de New York, Opera Memphis, New York City Opera, and the Opera Theatre of Connecticut — singing roles that include Despina in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Gilda in Verdi’s Rigoletto, and Zerlina in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, as well as in works by Donizetti, Puccini, Gounod, Massenet, Gluck, and Johann Strauss Jr. In concert, she has sung with the symphony orchestras of Baltimore, Indianapolis, Minnesota, St. Louis, and Seattle, among others. Her musical theater credits include Laurey in Oklahoma!, Maria in West Side Story, Anna in A Little Night Music, and Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance.

Ms. Plumley received an artist diploma in opera from the Hartt School of Music and a bachelor of arts in psychology and music from Holy Cross College.

Twice a winner in the Connecticut Opera Guild Scholarship Competition, she is also a recipient of the Richard F. Gold Career Grant (Shoshana Foundation). For more information, visit www.kristenplumley.com.

BANDWAGON GIFT SHOP Music is in the air! Take advantage of the moment and browse our large selection of musical gifts and Cleveland Orchestra signature items. Open before each Blossom Music Festival concert, at intermissions, and for post-concert purchases, too! We have a selection of new summertime merchandise — and a special bargain table every night. Plus CDs and DVDs of artists and music being presented this summer. Stop in, and take the music home!

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Guest Artist

2014 Blossom Festival

Blossom Festival Chorus Robert Porco, Director Lisa Wong, Assistant Director

The Blossom Festival Chorus was created in 1968 for the inaugural set of concerts opening Blossom with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (“Choral”). Members of this volunteer chorus are selected each spring from the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus and through open auditions of singers from throughout Northeast Ohio. The Blossom Festival Chorus has been featured in nearly 150 concerts at Blossom in addition to select other summertime performances with The Cleveland Orchestra.

Members of the Blossom Festival Chorus prepared by Lisa Wong Craig Astler Jack Blazey Julie Cajigas Brent Chamberlin Peter B. Clausen Merissa Coleman Susan Cucuzza Chris Dewald

Danielle Greenway Jenna C. Hall Rebecca S. Hall Lisa Hrusovsky Betty Huber Sarah N. Hutchins Shannon R. Jakubczak Sarah Jones

Sam Kitzler Tod Lawrence Steve Lawson Kate Macy Daniel May, Jr. James May Danielle S. McDonald Karla McMullen

Glenn Obergefell Sarah Osburn Matthew Rizer Cassandra E. Rondinella Jarod Shamp Martha Cochran Truby Chester Willey

Alicja Basinska, Accompanist Jill Harbaugh, Manager of Choruses

Lisa Wong

Assistant Director of Choruses

Lisa Wong became assistant director of choruses for The Cleveland Orchestra with the 2010-11 season. In this capacity, she assists in preparing the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus and Blossom Festival Chorus for performances each year. With the 2012-13 season, she took on the added position of director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus. In addition to her duties at Severance Hall, Ms. Wong is a faculty member at the College of Wooster, where she conducts the Wooster Chorus and the Wooster Singers and teaches courses in conducting and music education. She previously taught in public and private schools in New York, Pennsylvania, and Indiana, where she worked with the choral department of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music (including directing the Chamber Choir of the Indiana University Children’s Choir). Active as a clinician, guest conductor, and adjudicator, Ms. Wong holds a bachelor’s degree in music education from West Chester University and master’s and doctoral degrees in choral conducting from Indiana University.

Blossom Festival 2014

Chorus

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EXPERIENCE BLOSSOM!

See a full listing of 2014 Blossom Music Festival concerts on pages 36-37of the Festival Book.

July 27 Sunday

Broadway Standing Ovations A “ WIC KE D” GOOD E VE NING .

Come to Blossom for a concert of Broadway showstoppers, including selections from Phantom of the Opera, Rent, Les Misérables, and more. And featuring the comedic Christina Bianco in excerpts from her Diva Moments solo show, bringing down the house with her celebrity impressions of Julie Andrews, Barbra Streisand, Judy Garland, and more.

August 3 Sunday

Hollywood Under the Stars THE GRE AT FILM SCORE S of our time. Hollywood maestro Richard Kaufman leads a blockbuster tribute to some of Hollywood’s most memorable film music, with selections from Lawrence of Arabia, Lincoln, Gone with the Wind, The Godfather, The Magnificent Seven, The Right Stuff, and more.

August 30 Saturday

Family FunFest fun for the whole family! Bring the kids and share the magical experience of Blossom and live symphonic music. A fun-filled concert featuring tunes from The Little Mermaid, The Wizard of Oz, Frozen, and more. Featuring great familyfriendly activities and a post-concert fireworks show!

L ABOR DAY WE E KE ND