S U M M E R
H O M E
O F
THE CLEVEL AND ORCHESTR A
2 O1 5
BLOSSOM MUSIC FESTIVAL P R E S E N T E D
BY
sunday August 2
BROADWAY DIVAS The Cleveland Orchestra Jack Everly, conductor with Christina Bianco N’Kenge Kristen Plumley Mandy Gonzalez
DIVAS
2O15
BLOSSOM MUSIC FESTIVAL
Sunday evening, August 2, 2015, at 7:00 p.m.
THE CLEVEL AND ORCHESTRA JAC K E V E R LY , conductor
B ROA DWAY D I VA S featuring Christina Bianco, N’Kenge, Kristen Plumley, and Mandy Gonzalez
Overture: Broadway Divas Prelude arranged by Jack Everly and Fred Barton orchestra
“I Could Have Danced All Night” from My Fair Lady lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, music by Frederick Loewe; arranged by Phil Lang ms. plumley
“I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Misérables
music by Claude-Michel Schönberg, original French lyrics by Alain Boubill and Jean-Marc Natel, English lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer, music arranged by Bob Krogstad ms. gonzalez
“Summertime” from Porgy and Bess
lyrics by Ira Gershwin, music by George Gershwin; arranged by Robert Russell Bennett ms. n’kenge
Suite from Chicago
music by John Kander, arranged by Michael Gibson orchestra
Medley: “Neverland” from Finding Neverland lyrics and music by Gary Barlow “Defying Gravity” from Wicked lyrics and music by Stephen Schwartz arranged by Fred Barton ms. bianco and ms. gonzalez
“Can’t Help Lovin’ That Man” from Showboat
lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein 2d, music by Jerome Kern; arranged by Bob Krogstad four divas
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Concert Program: August 2
2015 Blossom Festival
INTERMISSION
Overture from Gypsy music by Jule Styne orchestra
“And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” from Dreamgirls lyrics by Tom Eyen, music by Henry Krieger; music arranged by Wayne Barker ms. n’kenge
“Love Is Where You Find It” from The Kissing Bandit lyrics by Earl Brent, music by Nacio Herb Brown arranged by Michael Runyan ms. plumley
“A Boy Like That / I Have a Love” from West Side Story music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim ms. plumley and ms. gonzalez
Come to the Cabaret: “Mein Herr” — “Maybe This Time” — “Cabaret” from Cabaret lyrics by Fred Ebb, music by Fred Kander ms. n’kenge ms. gonzalez four divas
“If He Walked into My Life” from Mame music and lyrics by Jerry Herman; arranged by Wayne Barker ms. bianco
“Let It Go” from Frozen
by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez; arranged by Ted Ricketts four divas
This concert is dedicated to The Ralph and Lucy Schey Foundation in recognition of their extraordinary generosity in support of The Cleveland Orchestra’s 2014-15 Annual Fund. With this concert, The Cleveland Orchestra gratefully honors FirstEnergy Foundation for its generous support. Media Partners: Northeast Ohio Media Group and WCLV Classical 104.9 FM ideastream®
The 2015 Blossom Music Festival is presented by The J.M. Smucker Company. The Cleveland Orchestra
Concert Program: August 2
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Christina Bianco
N’Kenge
Christina Bianco has become a worldwide YouTube sensation with her diva impression videos gaining over 20 million views and leading to appearances performing on The Ellen Degeneres Show, Queen Latifah Show, and The Today Show. She recently starred Off-Broadway in the one-woman, multi-character comedy Application Pending. Other Off-Broadway credits include Newsical the Musical and Forbidden Broadway: Goes To Rehab (for which she received a Drama Desk Award Nomination for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical). Last year, Christina made her London West End debut starring in the Menier Chocolate Factory’s production of Forbidden Broadway. She previously originated the role of Dora in the long-running National Tour of Dora The Explorer Live. As a cabaret artist, Christina has performed her celebrated solo show, Diva Moments, to standing room only crowds at Birdland in NYC, across the US, and on international luxury cruise ships. She also frequently performs as a soloist with symphony orchestras across North America. On television, Christina plays the recurring role of Bianca on the new sitcom Impress Me on POPTV. For more information, visit www.christinabianco.com.
The New York Post called N’Kenge “electrifying” in the role of Mary Wells, which she originated in Broadway’s Motown: The Musical. N’Kenge made her Broadway debut in Sondheim on Sondheim alongside Barbara Cook, Vanessa Williams, Norm Lewis, and Tom Wopat. In London, N’Kenge made her West End debut starring in The Genius of Ray Charles. She was hailed by the New York Times as “a classically trained diva that can stretch from Broadway and Pop Soul to Opera.” N’Kenge starred in the Michael Jackson Tribute Show World Tour and has also been seen as a soloist with the New York Pops Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and Indianapolis Symphony, among other ensembles. For the 2015-16 season, N’Kenge will be seen as the Witch in Big Fish and Matron “Mama” Morton in Chicago with Alpine Music Project Theater and has been cast as Queen Ti in Broadway-bound Akhenaten: The Musical. Nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress by Helen Hayes Awards in D.C. for her performance in 3 Mo’Divas, N’Kenge had the honor to perform for President Obama at the Commander-in-Chief’s Inaugural Ball. For more information, please visit www.nkengemusic.com.
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Guest Artists
Blossom Music Festival
Kristen Plumley
Mandy Gonzalez
Connecticut native Kristen Plumley has performed with many opera companies across the country, including New York City Opera, Virginia Opera, Amarillo Opera, Greensboro Opera, Opera Festival of New Jersey, Chautauqua Opera, Lyric Opera Cleveland, L’Opéra Français de New York, Opera Memphis, and Nevada Opera — in roles from Gilbert & Sullivan to Mozart and Donizetti, from Monteverdi and Gluck to Puccini, Massanet, and Verdi. In 2011, she performed in the North American premiere of Handel’s first opera, Almira, with New York City-based operamission. She has also portrayed many musical theater favorites, including Maria in West Side Story, Fiona in Brigadoon, and Laurey in Oklahoma! On the concert stage, Kristen has performed a broad spectrum of music — in works ranging from Bach, Mozart, and Haydn to Respighi or Gilbert & Sullivan, with orchestras from St. Louis to Richmond and Memphis to Minnesota. She has appeared in Sci-Fi Spectacular hosted by George Takei, with the orchestras of Baltimore, Cleveland, Edmonton, Indianapolis, Ottawa, and Seattle, among others. For more information, visit www. kristenplumley.com.
Mandy Gonzalez is acclaimed for having a powerful and versatile voice. She is best known for her emotional portrayal of Nina Rosario in the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical In the Heights, a role she originally created Off-Broadway at 37 Arts. Most recently, she starred as Elphaba in the Broadway production of Wicked, for which she was given a Broadway.com Award for Best Replacement. Other Broadway roles include Princess Amneris in the Elton John and Tim Rice musical Aida and the Broadway show Lennon, in which she portrayed multiple roles including Beatles’ icon John Lennon. Mandy made her Broadway debut in Jim Steinman’s Dance of the Vampires. Mandy received an Obie Award for her performance in the Off-Broadway production of Eli’s Comin’. Equally at home on the big and small screens, she has appeared in Across the Universe, After, and Man on a Ledge. Television viewers had the pleasure of seeing Mandy guest starring in White Collar, The Good Wife, 666 Park Avenue, One Life to Live, and Third Watch. She can also be heard as the voice of Mei in Disney’s Mulan 2. She is working on her first solo album, with plans for a 2015 release.
Blossom Music Festival
Guest Artists
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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 2014 Blossom Music Festival. He is conducting over 90 concerts this year in twenty cities. In addition to the ensembles he directs each season, Mr. Everly’s engagements have included appearances as a guest conductor with the orchestras of Atlanta, Los Angeles, Nashville, New York Pops, 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 Indianapolis 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, serving as its music director. The Consortium, based in Indianapolis, creates new theatrical pops programs through collaboration, innovation, celebration, and perspiration. Mr. Everly is a graduate of the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. When not on the podium or arranging, Jack enjoys home life with his family, which includes the dog Max.
Broadway Divas
is co-produced with the Symphonic Pops Consortium. JACK EVERLY, music director TY JOHNSON, producer JENNIFER LADNER, stage direction BRANDY RODGERS, production management CLARE M. HENKEL, costume designer
The Symphonic Pops Consortium mission is to conceive, create, and produce high quality, innovative, symphonic pops concerts by uniting a group of symphony orchestras and combining their resources. With the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra as managing partner, the consortium includes the orchestras of Detroit, Milwaukee, Seattle, and Washington D.C.