Guest Artist Biographies
the 2019.20 season, he joined the San Francisco Symphony for a one-year appointment as percussionist.
Klieger holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Southern Methodist University, where he studied with Douglas Howard and Kalman Cherry. He later completed postgraduate work at the Cleveland Institute of Music, studying with Richard Weiner and Paul Yancich. In addition to his work as a performer, he has also participated in the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and various summer festivals such as the Aspen Music Festival, the Verbier Festival, and the Center for World Music Workshop and Festival in Bali, Indonesia. In his free time, he enjoys building things, solving problems, traveling, and trying new local cuisines.
CHRIS RIGGS
A native of Edmond, Oklahoma, Chris Riggs joined the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in 2017. Prior to starting in Milwaukee, he was a fellow at the New World Symphony from 2012 to 2015, and began freelancing with various orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, and Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
As an educator, Riggs was an adjunct percussion professor at Sam Houston State University, where he taught on topics including percussion methods, percussion composition and arranging, music therapy, and percussion’s role in the orchestra. He has also worked with various high schools and universities as a drumline instructor and arranger.
Riggs earned his master’s degree in percussion performance and literature from Northwestern University and a bachelor’s degree in percussion performance and a minor in philosophy from the University of Oklahoma. His principal teachers were Lance Drege, Michael Burritt, She-e Wu, and James Ross.
Outside of performing, Riggs enjoys spending time with his family and always looks for an excuse to get to the mountains.
MILWAUKEE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 19
Program notes
by J. Mark Baker
TAN DUN
Born 18 August 1957; Changsha, China
Water Concerto for Water Percussion and Orchestra
Composed: 1998-99
First performance: 3 June 1999; New York, New York
Last MSO Performance: October 2011; Edo de Waart, conductor; Yuri Yamashita, percussion
Instrumentation: 2 piccolos; 2 oboes; clarinet; bass clarinet; bassoon; contrabassoon; 2 horns; 2 trumpets; 2 trombones; tuba; timpani; percussion (agogo bells, bass bows, slapsticks, water basins, water cup drums, water gongs, waterphones, water tubes); harp; strings
Approximate duration: 30 minutes
The Chinese-born American composer and conductor Tan Dun has been based in New York City since 1993, having received a doctorate from Columbia University. His music draws its inspiration from both Western and Chinese influences. The recipient of numerous awards, his catalogue includes operas, orchestral music, vocal works, solo and chamber music, a passion oratorio, and film music. From the latter category, movie-goers may remember his scoring of Ang Lee’s film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), which garnered both an Academy Award and a Grammy. Tan Dun’s fascinating Water Concerto was written in memory of his fellow composer Tōru Takemitsu. (For more information on Takemitsu, please see page 39.) Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic commissioned it for that orchestra’s principal percussionist, Christopher Lamb, who will be performing the work with the Milwaukee Symphony this evening. It is as much a piece of theatre as a piece of music. “What I want to present,” the composer said, “is music that is for listening in a visual way, and watching in an [aural] way. I want it to be intoxicating. And I hope some people will listen and rediscover life’s elements, things that are around us, but we don’t notice.”
Set in four continuous sections, Water Concerto explores how the sounds of H2O itself can be audibly manipulated – patting, pounding, dribbling, swirling, pouring, splashing. Simple water drips are heard as pitch bends, which then go into the orchestra, and vice versa. Implements dipped in water and used percussively – chutes, plastic cups, wooden bowls, African agogo bells, gongs – demonstrate their kaleidoscope of timbral possibilities. Likewise, instruments that contain water or evoke water sounds, including a Slinky (!), are exploited.
As the soloist presents a tour de force of tone colors, the orchestra provides both imitation and contrast. The strings can sing a melody, act as percussion, or underpin with tremolandos and glissandos. The winds both blare and whine. Detached mouthpieces squawk and buzz. The whole experience is hypnotic, both visually and aurally. Following the premiere, The New York Times declared the concerto “a grand and entertaining circus of a piece.” (Performances are available on DVD and YouTube; it’s hard to imagine experiencing only the audio portion.)
Encapsulating his use of water in several works, including the Water Passion According to St. Matthew (2020), Tan Dun has written:
So many cultures use water as an essential metaphor – there is the symbolism of baptism; it is associated with birth, creation, and re-creation. If you think of the water cycle, where it comes down to the earth and returns to the atmosphere, only to return – that is a symbol of resurrection. I think of resurrection not only as a return to life, but as a metaphor for hope, the birth of a new world, a better life.
BEDŘICH SMETANA
Born 2 March 1824; Litomyšl, Bohemia Died 12 May 1884; Prague, Bohemia
“Vltava” [The Moldau] from Má vlast [My Fatherland] Composed: 1874
First performance: 1875 (“Vltava”); 5 November 1882 (Má vlast); Prague, Bohemia
Last MSO performance: November 1991; Zdeněk Mácal, conductor Instrumentation: 2 flutes; piccolo; 2 oboes; 2 clarinets; 2 bassoons; 4 horns; 2 trumpets; 3 trombones; tuba; timpani; percussion (bass drum, cymbals, suspended cymbals, triangle); harp; strings Approximate duration: 12 minutes
The Czech composer Bedřich Smetana – in his eight operas and most of his tone poems – drew on his country’s legends, history, characters, scenery, and ideas. His technical expertise and originality in handling national subjects instilled in his people both self-confidence and a new musical identity. He is rightly regarded as the first major nationalist composer of Bohemia. Má vlast [My Fatherland], a cycle of six symphonic poems composed c1872-79, is a paean of praise to the land he loved so deeply. Composed shortly after Tchaikovsky and Saint-Saëns had started to experiment with new possibilities in programmatic music, it is, according to scholar John Clapham, “the most heroic instrumental work since Beethoven, and extended the scope and purpose of the symphonic poem beyond the aims of any later composer.”
Vltava [The Moldau] is the second piece in the cycle, and by far the best-known. Smetana described the work as follows:
This composition follows the course of the Vltava. We hear the sounds of its two sources of origin, the “warm” and the “cold” water streams that are united and flow through meadows and groves, and on through places where country folk are celebrating their festivals. Water nymphs perform their dances in the silvery moonlight; we float past proud fortresses, fine castles, and noble ruins, overgrown like the craggy rocks on which they stand. The Vltava froths and eddies over the rapids of St. Johann, then streams on in a broad torrent toward Prague, with the castle of Vyšehrad coming into sight on its bank. The Vltava surges majestically onward, disappearing from view and finally flowing into the Elbe.
ADOLPHUS HAILSTORK
Born 17 April 1941; Rochester, New York
An American Port of Call Composed: 1985
First performance: Autumn 1985; Norfolk, Virginia
Last MSO performance: MSO premiere Instrumentation: 3 flutes (3rd doubling on piccolo); 2 oboes; 2 clarinets; 3 bassoons (3rd doubling on contrabassoon); 4 horns; 3 trumpets; 2 trombones; bass trombone; tuba; timpani; percussion (bass drum, cymbals, glockenspiel, gong, snare drum, suspended cymbals, tam tam, tenor drum, triangle, whip, woodblock, xylophone); piano; strings Approximate duration: 10 minutes
The catalogue of Adolphus Hailstork includes major works in a variety of genres, from musical comedy to piano solo to choral music. His compositions have been performed by major orchestras, including the Chicago, Baltimore, and Detroit symphonies. Dr. Hailstork grew up in Albany, New York, where he took lessons in singing, violin, piano, and organ. He studied composition at Howard University and the Manhattan School of Music, and in France with Nadia Boulanger. Following a stint in the military, he pursued his doctorate at Michigan State University. Dr. Hailstork is emeritus professor of music and Eminent Scholar at Old Dominion University in Norfolk.
An American Port of Call was composed for the Virginia Symphony, who gave its premiere in 1985. Its bustling vitality brings to mind William Walton’s Portsmouth Point overture (1925). Dr. Hailstork offered this summary of the piece: “The concert overture, in sonata-allegro form, captures the strident (and occasionally tender and even mysterious) energy of a busy American port city. The great port of Norfolk, Virginia, where I live, was the direct inspiration.”
BENJAMIN BRITTEN
Born 22 November 1913; Lowestoft, England Died 4 December 1976; Aldeburgh, England
“Four Sea Interludes” from Peter Grimes, Opus 33a Composed: 1945
First performance: 7 June 1945; London, England (opera) 13 June 1945; Cheltenham, England (“Four Sea Interludes”)
Last MSO performance: April 2018; Asher Fisch, conductor Instrumentation: 2 flutes (1st and 2nd doubling on piccolo); 2 oboes; 2 clarinets (2nd doubling on Eb clarinet); 2 bassoons; contrabassoon; 4 horns; 2 trumpets; piccolo trumpet; 3 trombones; tuba; timpani; percussion (bass drum, chimes, cymbals, snare drum, tam tam, tambourine, xylophone); harp; strings Approximate duration: 16 minutes
Benjamin Britten has been hailed as “the greatest English composer since Purcell.” His prodigious output includes operas, solo vocal music, chamber music, concertos, symphonic works, film music, and choral music. Britten’s War Requiem (1961) is one of the towering works of the 20th century.
Peter Grimes is a singular masterpiece, a watershed in the history of English opera. Its central character – the first of many roles written for the tenor Peter Pears, Britten’s life partner –
is a misanthrope, a proud fisherman whose boy apprentice has died under “accidental circumstances.” Grimes resolves to “fish the sea dry” and to create a respectable place for himself in the seaside village society by marrying the schoolmarm Ellen Orford.
When a second boy falls to his death while descending from Grimes’s cliffside hut, Peter is demonized by the townsfolk. Pressed to the brink of insanity by the guilt inflicted upon him, he ultimately takes his fishing boat out to sea and sinks it, drowning himself in the process.
Britten’s opera is remarkable for its insightful delineation of character – the principals, the secondary roles, and the sea itself. Its intricately rich score includes six orchestral interludes, four of which comprise the suite heard on today’s concert. In “Dawn,” which acts as a transition between the Prologue and Act 1, we can hear in the flute and violins a thin glint of sunlight breaking through the clouds; harp, violas, and clarinets add glimmering arpeggios; the sonorous brass harmonies call to mind the deep sea below. At opera’s end, after Peter has drowned himself, this music returns to remind us of nature’s endless patterns, indifferent to the quotidian events of humanity.
“Sunday Morning” opens Act 2. Accented notes from the horns evoke large, clanging church bells; woodwinds, strings, and trumpets suggest smaller bells; and a solo flute portrays waking birds. A full-bodied tonal palette emerges as textures are overlaid and actual bells now announce the Lord’s Day. Britten said “Moonlight” – which introduces Act 3 – depicts “summer night, seascape, quiet.” Its unsteady rhythm and restless harmony might evoke the ebb and flow of moonlit waves, but there’s also a sense of foreboding. (Things are not going to go well for Peter Grimes.)
“Storm” links Scenes 1 and 2 in the first act. It vividly portrays not only a gale blowing in from the sea, but also the protagonist’s anxiety-ridden psychological state. An arching melody – with the characteristic interval of an ascending ninth – is heard as the storm subsides a bit; it is to this melody that Peter had sung “What harbor shelters peace, away from tidal waves and storms?” in the foregoing scene. The dream it articulates is drowned by the squall’s turbulent swell.
Reginald Goodall conducted the premiere of Peter Grimes at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London. A few days later, Britten conducted the “Four Sea Interludes” on a concert in Cheltenham.
KEN-DAVID MASUR
Music Director
Polly and Bill Van Dyke Music Director Chair
EDO DE WAART
Music Director Laureate
YANIV DINUR
Resident Conductor
CHERYL FRAZES HILL
Chorus Director
Margaret Hawkins Chorus Director Chair
TIMOTHY J. BENSON Assistant Chorus Director
FIRST VIOLINS
Ilana Setapen, Acting Concertmaster, Charles and Marie Caestecker Concertmaster Chair
Jeanyi Kim, Acting Associate Concertmaster (2nd Chair)
Alexander Ayers Yuka Kadota
Ji-Yeon Lee**
Dylana Leung Allison Lovera Lijia Phang Margot Schwartz Alexandra Switala**
SECOND VIOLINS
Jennifer Startt, Principal, Andrea and Woodrow Leung Second Violin Chair
Timothy Klabunde, Assistant Principal John Bian, Assistant Principal (3rd Chair)
Glenn Asch
Lisa Johnson Fuller
Paul Hauer Hyewon Kim Shengnan Li* Laurie Shawger
Mary Terranova
VIOLAS
Robert Levine, Principal, Richard O. and Judith A. Wagner Family Principal Viola Chair
Samantha Rodriguez, Acting Assistant Principal, Friends of Janet F. Ruggeri Viola Chair
Alejandro Duque, Acting Assistant Principal (3rd Chair)
Elizabeth Breslin
Nathan Hackett
Erin H. Pipal Helen Reich
CELLOS
Susan Babini, Principal, Dorothea C. Mayer Cello Chair
Nicholas Mariscal, Assistant Principal
Scott Tisdel, Associate Principal Emeritus Madeleine Kabat
Peter Szczepanek Peter J. Thomas Adrien Zitoun
BASSES
Jon McCullough-Benner, Principal, Donald B. Abert Bass Chair
Andrew Raciti, Associate Principal Nash Tomey, Assistant Principal (3rd Chair) Brittany Conrad Peter Hatch Paris Myers
HARP
Julia Coronelli, Principal, Walter Schroeder Harp Chair
FLUTES
Sonora Slocum, Principal, Margaret and Roy Butter Flute Chair
Heather Zinninger, Assistant Principal Jennifer Bouton Schaub
PICCOLO
Jennifer Bouton Schaub
OBOES
Katherine Young Steele, Principal, Milwaukee Symphony League Oboe Chair
Kevin Pearl, Assistant Principal Margaret Butler
ENGLISH HORN
Margaret Butler, Philip and Beatrice Blank English Horn Chair in memoriam to John Martin
CLARINETS
Todd Levy, Principal, Franklyn Esenberg Clarinet Chair Benjamin Adler, Assistant Principal, Donald and Ruth P. Taylor Assistant Principal Clarinet Chair
Taylor Eiffert
E FLAT CLARINET
Benjamin Adler
BASS CLARINET
Taylor Eiffert
BASSOONS
Catherine Van Handel, Principal, Muriel C. and John D. Silbar Family Bassoon Chair
Rudi Heinrich, Assistant Principal Beth W. Giacobassi
CONTRABASSOON
Beth W. Giacobassi
HORNS
Matthew Annin, Principal, Krause Family French Horn Chair
Krystof Pipal, Associate Principal Dietrich Hemann, Andy Nunemaker French Horn Chair Darcy Hamlin Kelsey Williams**
TRUMPETS
Matthew Ernst, Principal, Walter L. Robb Family Trumpet Chair
David Cohen, Associate Principal, Martin J. Krebs Associate Principal Trumpet Chair Alan Campbell, Fred Fuller Trumpet Chair
TROMBONES
Megumi Kanda, Principal, Marjorie Tiefenthaler Trombone Chair Kirk Ferguson, Assistant Principal
BASS TROMBONE
John Thevenet, Richard M. Kimball Bass Trombone Chair
TUBA
Robyn Black, Principal TIMPANI Dean Borghesani, Principal Chris Riggs, Assistant Principal
PERCUSSION
Robert Klieger, Principal Chris Riggs
PIANO Melitta S. Pick Endowed Piano Chair
PERSONNEL MANAGERS
Françoise Moquin, Director of Orchestra Personnel Constance Aguocha, Assistant Personnel Manager
LIBRARIAN
Paul Beck, Principal Librarian, Anonymous Donor, Principal Librarian Chair
PRODUCTION
Tristan Wallace, Technical Manager & Live Audio Supervisor Paolo Scarabel, Stage Technician & Deck Supervisor
* Leave of Absence 2022.23 Season
** Acting member of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra 2022.23 Season
2022.23 SEASON
