Playbill Issue 6: Feb-Mar 2011

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Mondavi

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Bill Frisell Trio and John Scofield Trio

Program

New Century Chamber Orchestra with Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg

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La Rondine

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Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

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tango fire Tango inferno

yefim bronfman, piano

alexander string quartet

san francisco symphony and Chorus

Issue 6: feb-mar 2011


Before the show

Before the Curtain Rises, Please Play Your Part

Photo: Lynn Goldsmith

• As a courtesy to others, please turn off all electronic devices. • If you have any hard candy, please unwrap it before the lights dim.

a message from

Don Roth, Ph.D. Executive Director Mondavi Center

• Please remember that the taking of photographs or the use of any type of audio or video recording equipment is strictly prohibited.

A

t the Mondavi Center, we are perfectly situated to share with our audiences a large sampling of the artistic riches of the neighboring Bay Area. Our wonderful colleagues at the San Francisco Symphony opened Jackson Hall in October 2002 and have returned virtually every season since then. Yes, the SFS is “local,” but it is also is recognized worldwide as “international” in stature. This season we have begun an expanded partnership with the SFS to bring the orchestra several times each season—and to invite members of the Symphony to work in sectionals and master classes with our UC Davis Symphony Orchestra and local high schools. In addition, for the very first time, the Symphony is bringing its outstanding chorus, this month in a performance of the Bach B Minor Mass, the greatest Catholic mass ever written by a Lutheran (and indeed the greatest mass ever). Other examples of Bay Area colleagues are the Alexander String Quartet, which has brought its polish, finesse, and musicianship to the Vanderhoef Studio Theatre in every Mondavi Center season, this year bringing us the third installment of Beethoven Quartets, the “late” quartets, among the most complex and rewarding pieces of music ever written. We continue our work with the great SF Opera, second in size only to the Met, with a screening of their gorgeous Puccini Rondine with Angela Gheorgiu, a stunning presence vocally and visually. (Opera lovers should check out the Music Department’s production of Bluebeard’s Castle, Bartok’s only and rarely performed opera, on February 25 and 27).

• Please look around and locate the exit nearest you. That exit may be behind you, to the side, or in front of you. In the unlikely event of a fire alarm or other emergency please leave the building through that exit. • As a courtesy to all our patrons and for your safety, anyone leaving his or her seat during the performance may not be re-admitted to his/her ticketed seat while the performance is in progress.

info Accommodations for Patrons with Disabilities 530.754.2787 • TDD: 530.754.5402 In the event of an emergency, patrons requiring physical assistance on the Orchestra Terrace, Grand Tier, and Upper Tier levels please proceed to the elevator alcove refuge where this sign appears. Please let us know ahead of time for any special seating requests or accommodations. See p. 63 for more information.

Membership 530.754.5436 Member contributions to the Mondavi Center presenting program help to offset the costs of the annual season of performances and lectures, and provide a variety of arts education and outreach programs to the community.

Finally, the exquisite New Century Chamber Orchestra, under its new leader Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg brings a wonderful program that ranges from Bartok to Piazzolla to Tchaikovsky. (Interesting to have Piazzolla’s tango-based Four Seasons and the great Tango Fire dance program in the same few weeks). How fortunate we are in the Sacramento region to have the acoustic and aesthetic perfection of the Mondavi Center and such talented neighbors to perform here.

Friends of Mondavi Center 530.754.5000 Contributors to the Mondavi Center are eligible to join the Friends of Mondavi Center, a volunteer support group that assists with educational programs and audience development.

Before closing, I must share with you my special excitement about three events during the run of this playbill. The double-bill of Bill Frisell and John Scofield is a perfect example of “only at the Mondavi.” My colleague Jeremy Ganter and I love the way both these guitar giants play, and so we asked their managers if they would share a billing. They agreed, and so the first time these two magnificent musicians are performing on the same program here in Jackson Hall.

Volunteers 530.754.1000 Mondavi Center volunteers assist with numerous functions, including house ushering and the activities of the Friends of Mondavi Center and the Arts and Lectures Administrative Advisory Committee.

In Aspen, I was very fortunate to get to know Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., as a fellow member of the Aspen Institute Board. He is one of the great public intellectuals of our day, and an inspiring speaker. I am glad we could join with the Davis Humanities Institute to bring him to Davis. Also, during my tenure as President of the Aspen Music Festival and School, I came to know well the breadth and power of Yefim Bronfman’s playing. He is truly a “monster” player (the John Scofield of classical piano?) and not to be missed in his first appearance at the MC.

Tours 530.754.5399 One-hour guided tours of the Mondavi Center’s Jackson Hall, Vanderhoef Studio Theatre, and Yocha Dehe Grand Lobby are given regularly by the Friends of Mondavi Center. Reservations are required.

Lost and Found Hotline 530.752.8580 Recycle We reuse our playbills! Thank you for returning your recycled playbill in the bin located by the main exit on your way out.

Don Roth Executive Director Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 6: Feb-Mar 2011 |

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Robert and Margrit Mondavi

Center for the Performing Arts

| UC Davis

Photo of John Scofield by Nick Suttle

Photo of Bill Frisell by Michael Wilson

Presents

Bill Frisell Trio and John Scofield Trio A Capital Public Radio Jackson Hall Jazz Series Event Friday, February 11, 2011 • 8PM Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center, UC Davis Sponsored by

Pre-Performance Talk John Scofield and Bill Frisell in conversation with Jeremy Ganter, Associate Executive Director and Director of Programming, Mondavi Center, UC Davis Friday, February 11, 2011 • 7PM Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center, UC Davis

The artists and your fellow audience members appreciate silence during the performance. Please be sure that you have switched off all electronic devices. Videotaping, photographing, and audio recording are strictly forbidden. Violators are subject to removal.

Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 6: Feb-Mar 2011 |

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Bill Frisell Trio and John Scofield Trio

Bill Frisell In a career spanning more than 25 years and more than 200 recordings, including 25 albums of his own, guitarist, composer, and bandleader Bill Frisell is now firmly established as a visionary presence in American music. He has collaborated with a wide range of artists, filmmakers, and legendary musicians. But it is his work as a leader that has garnered increasing attention and accolades. The New York Times described Frisell’s music this way: “It’s hard to find a more fruitful meditation on American music than in the compositions of guitarist Bill Frisell. Mixing rock and country with jazz and blues, he’s found what connects them: improvisation and a sense of play. Unlike other pastichists, who tend to duck passion, Mr. Frisell plays up the pleasure in the music and also takes on another often-avoided subject, tenderness.” Frisell’s recordings over the last decades span a wide range of musical influences. His catalog, including more than 20 recordings for Nonesuch, has been cited by Downbeat as “the best recorded output of the decade.” It includes original Buster Keaton film scores to arrangements of music for extended ensemble with horns (This Land, Blues Dream); adaptations of his compositions originally written as soundtracks to Gary Larson cartoons (Quartet); interpretations of work by classic and contemporary American composers (Have a Little Faith); and collaborations with the acclaimed rhythm section of bassist Viktor Krauss and drummer Jim Keltner (Gone, Just Like a Train, Good Dog, Happy Man). Other releases include an album with Nashville musicians (Nashville); the solo album Ghost Town; an album of his arrangements of songs by Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach (The Sweetest Punch); a trio album with jazz legends Dave Holland and Elvin Jones; and a collection of American traditional songs and original compositions inspired by them entitled The Willies. The Intercontinentals, nominated for a Grammy in 2004, is an album that combines Frisell’s own brand of American roots music and unmistakable improvisational style with the influences of Brazilian, Greek, and Malian sounds. His 2004 release, entitled Unspeakable, produced by Hal Wilner, won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Jazz Album. East/West is a two-CD set featuring his two working trios recorded in concert on both coasts. Bill Frisell, Ron Carter, Paul Motian features two jazz legends that Bill considers among his mentors and musical inspirations. His collaborative project Floratone (Blue Note) with drummer Matt Chamberlain and producers Lee Townsend & Tucker Martine, was described by All About Jazz as “a modern masterpiece.” History, Mystery, nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Jazz Album, features an octet of strings, horns, and rhythm section with some of his closest music collaborators exploring a fuller palette of compositional colors and timbres than any he has previously written for. “The whole album stands as yet another testament to the man’s place at the very epicenter of modern American music” (BBC). His album Disfarmer, inspired by the photographer Mike Disfarmer, was described by the Houston Chronicle as follows: “Frisell’s pacing is magnificent, and the album sweeps along with purpose like a gorgeous, spacious epic. It is full of sounds that suggest settings and characters, including the mysterious eccentric who inspired the recording.” Frisell’s recent album Beautiful Dreamers launched his new relationship with the Savoy Jazz label and features Eyvind Kang (viola) and Rudy Royston (drums). “This record doesn’t really sound much like jazz as much as compelling, emotionally reso4

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nant, genre-free music. Sure, it swings in places, and there’s some fiery improvisation. But after decades of trodding such a brave and singular path, maybe Frisell deserves his own genre. How about ‘friz’?” (Financial Times, London). Frisell has two new albums planned for release in early 2011: a collaboration with the Brazilian singer-songwriter Vinicius Cantuaria and Frisell working with his 858 Quartet featuring Jenny Scheinman (violin), Eyvind Kang (viola), and Hank Roberts (cello). Beginning in 2008, a trilogy of Frisell’s music DVDs was released. First was Solos, shot in Toronto in high definition. Following in 2009 were the long-awaited Films of Buster Keaton, Music By Bill Frisell, featuring Frisell’s original trio of Kermit Driscoll on bass and Joey Baron on drums; and Live From Montreal, shot at the Montreal Jazz Festival in 2002 and featuring Matt Chamberlain on drums, Billy Drewes on alto saxophone, Curtis Fowlkes on trombone, Ron Miles on cornet, and Greg Leisz on steel guitars. It showcases the music of Frisell’s celebrated album Blues Dream. In 2006, Frisell was named a USA Rasmuson Fellow and became a recipient of a grant offered by United States Artists, a privately funded organization dedicated to the support of America’s finest living artists. Bill Frisell’s Beautiful Dreamers featuring Eyvind Kang & Rudy Royston: “I’ve been playing with Eyvind Kang and Rudy Royston since the early 90s. More recently we’ve begun playing as a trio, and I’m so excited by the possibilities. Each time we get together the music feels new…and old. Backwards and forwards. Up and down. Anything is possible. I can’t wait to hear what happens next. I feel very fortunate having the chance to play music with these guys and to have an audience willing to follow along on this latest adventure.” Eyvind Kang Violist Eyvind Kang has worked extensively with Bill Frisell and Laurie Anderson and has written arrangements for Sunn O))), Blonde Redhead, and many others. He has also released many acclaimed albums of original music, including the choral piece Athlantis (2007), The Yelm Sessions (2007), and Virginal Co-ordinates (2004). His teachers have included legendary jazz violinist Michael White, Dr. N. Rajam, and Dr. Hossein Omoumi. Rudy Royston A native of Fort Worth, Texas, Rudy Royston was raised in Denver. He studied classical percussion at the University of Denver. While in college, Rudy began playing with trumpeter Ron Miles, whom Rudy deems his greatest teacher and music mentor. It was on Ron Miles’s recording Woman’s Day that Rudy first played with Bill Frisell. A major figure in the Denver music scene, Rudy performed with artists such as Dotsero, Leslie Drayton, Joe Keel, and Nelson Rangell. He began teaching music in public schools before relocating to the east coast. In 2006, he moved to New Jersey to pursue graduate studies in music at Rutgers University, studying jazz percussion with Victor Lewis. Since moving, Rudy has been performing steadily with Bill Frisell in quartet and trio settings. He quickly integrated into the New York music scene, performing with Javon Jackson, Les McCann, JD Allen, Sean Jones, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Jennifer Holiday, Ralph Bowen, Bruce Barth, Don Byron, Jason Moran, and Jenny Scheinman, to name a few. A lover of all genres of music, Rudy continues to expand his horizons as he gains increasing recognition in the world of Jazz.


Scofield began recording as a leader in the late 1970s, establishing himself as an influential and innovative player and composer. His recordings—many already classics—include collaborations with contemporary favorites like Pat Metheny, Medeski, Martin & Wood, Bill Frisell, Government Mule, and Joe Lovano. Through it all, the guitarist has kept an open musical mind. Signing with Verve Records in 1995, Scofield released Quiet in 1996, A Go Go in 1997, Bump in 1999, and Works for Me in 2000. With the help of bandmates Avi Bortnick (guitar), Jesse Murphy (bass), and Adam Deitch (drums), Sco adds überjam to his varied discography.

Autobiography by John Scofield How I Got From There to Here in 704 Easy Words When I first got into jazz, around 1969, I came from playing R&B and soul in high school. Jazz-rock was in its infancy stage and I was lucky enough to be around to experience the Golden Age of both rock and soul and see jazz embrace that movement while I was trying to learn how to play straight-ahead jazz. A lot of my early chances to actually gig were in various jazz/rock idioms. I got to play “real” jazz with Gary Burton and Gerry Mulligan but my real first “big time” gig was with the Billy Cobham/George Duke band. We got to play in gigantic concert halls and rock venues for excited people who were not necessarily jazz aficionados, but loved the music.

Bill Frisell Trio and John Scofield Trio

John Scofield Born in Ohio and raised in suburban Connecticut, Scofield took up the guitar at age 11, inspired by both rock and blues players. A local teacher introduced him to Wes Montgomery, Jim Hall, and Pat Martino, which sparked a life-long love of jazz. Sco attended the Berklee College of Music, later moving into the public eye with a wide variety of bandleaders and musicians including Charles Mingus, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Joe Henderson, Billy Cobham/George Duke, Gerry Mulligan, McCoy Tyner, Jim Hall, and Gary Burton. In 1982, he began a three-and-a-half-year stint touring with Miles Davis. Scofield’s compositions and inimitable guitar work appear on three of Davis’s albums.

When I signed with Blue Note Records in 1989, I decided to explore more “swinging” avenues. I got together with my old Berklee school buddy, genius saxophonist Joe Lovano. We had a group and made three albums for Blue Note—four counting a bootleg from Europe—that are probably my very best “jazz” endeavors. Part of that can also be attributed to the magnificent drumming of Bill Stewart, who is as good a musician as I’ve ever met. Then I felt the urge to get into a soul-jazz thing. I’d been really influenced by the music of Eddie Harris and Les McCann from the sixties. I invited Eddie to guest on the album Hand Jive. This was about the same time that Larry Goldings entered my music on Hammond organ. With the collective possibilities of these musicians, I began to allow jazz to blend with New Orleans-type rhythms to make the music groove. Around this period, I also worked and recorded some with Pat Metheny—one of the great guitarists. He and Bill Frisell are my favorite guitar players to play with and listen to. But then there’s also Jim Hall and Mike Stern and Jim Hall and John Abercrombie and Jim Hall and Kurt Rosenwinckle and Jim Hall and Peter Bernstein…not to mention Jim Hall. And then there’s also Albert King and Carlos Santana and Tom Morello and all the other ones I can’t summon the names of right at the moment. When I heard Medeski, Martin, & Wood’s record Shack Man, I knew I had to play with them. They played those swampy grooves and had a free jazz attitude. These guys are serious conceptualists and are able to take the music to beautiful and strange places. I love what they did on A Go Go. In the last couple of years, I’ve heard some great young players that remind me often of what it is that I like so much about the music of sixties R&B. Now I’m able to take that music and mix it with jazz all over again. I’m having more fun playing now than I ever have, and I feel like I can finally really learn to play the guitar. Now, after having the chance to play with many of my musical idols, I’m getting inspiration from younger musicians. I’m as excited about writing and playing music as I ever have been.

After that band ended, I stayed home in NYC and worked on playing acoustic jazz with my own groups and people like Dave Liebman. I also started an ongoing musical relationship with bassist Steve Swallow that continues to this day. As a jazz bassist and real songwriter (not just a composer) Swallow has influenced me as much as anyone. In 1982, I joined the Miles Davis Band, answering the call of funky jazz once again. My stint with Miles made me sure that there really was a kind of music that was both funky and improvised at the same time. After playing with Miles for over three years and making a few more records of my own, I hooked up with ex-P-Funk drummer Dennis Chambers, and we made a group that really utilized funk rhythms. Dennis and bassist Gary Grainger were masters of that “James Brown/Earth Wind and Fire/70s thing.” It was great having that underneath my tunes.

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MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 6: Feb-Mar 2011 |

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Robert and Margrit Mondavi

Center for the Performing Arts

| UC Davis

Presents

New Century Chamber Orchestra with Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg A Classical Favorites: Seasons Series Event Saturday, February 12 • 8PM Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center, UC Davis There will be one intermission.

further listening see p. 10

The artists and your fellow audience members appreciate silence during the performance. Please be sure that you have switched off all electronic devices. Videotaping, photographing, and audio recording are strictly forbidden. Violators are subject to removal.

Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 6: Feb-Mar 2011 |

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Tony Bennett Sun, May 25 | 8PM

tickets on sale feb 14!

The world’s most boyish octogenarian, Tony Bennett is a vital musical legend at the peak of his prodigious powers.

Call for Tickets! 866.754.2787 (toll-free) Media Clips & More Info:

MondaviArts.org

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MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 6: Feb-Mar 2011 |

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new century chamber orchestra

Opus 3 Artists Presents

New Century Chamber Orchestra Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg Music Director Italian Serenade (1887)

Wolf arr. by Lucas Drew

Romanian Folk Dances (1917) I. Jocul Cu Bâta II. Brâul III. Pe Loc IV. Buciumeana V. Poarga Româneasca VI. Maruntel

Bartók

The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires I. Primavera Porteña (Spring in Buenos Aires) II. Verano Porteño (Summer in Buenos Aires) III. Invierno Porteño (Winter in Buenos Aires) IV. Otoño Porteño (Autumn in Buenos Aires)

Piazzolla arr. by Leonid Desyatnikov

Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, violin Intermission Serenade for Strings in C Major, Op. 48 I. Pezzo in forma di Sonatina Andante non troppo: Allegro Moderato II. Waltz - Moderato Tempo di Valse III. Elégie - Larghetto elegiaco IV. Finale (Tema Russo) - Andante - Allegro con spirito

Tchaikovsky

The New Century Chamber Orchestra’s 2010-11 season is made possible in part by generous ongoing support from Gordon P. and Ann G. Getty. The New Century Chamber Orchestra’s February 2011 tour is underwritten in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. New Century records for NSS Music. www.ncco.org Exclusive Management for the New Century Chamber Orchestra and Ms. Salerno-Sonnenberg: OPUS 3 ARTISTS 470 Park Avenue South, 9th Fl North New York, NY 10016 www.opus3artists.com

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MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 6: Feb-Mar 2011 |

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new century chamber orchestra

further listening

by jeff hudson

Tonight’s concert by the New Century Chamber Orchestra is the final stop on a February tour— the first concert was at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco, and other stops included cities in the Midwest and Southern California. Although many people think of this consciously conductor-less ensemble as a relatively “new” group, they actually formed in 1992, and have been recording for more than 15 years. Here are some highlights: • Live: Barber Strauss Mahler. This is the New Century Chamber Orchestra’s most recent disc, on Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg’s NSS Music label. This project started taking shape when Nadja SalernoSonnenberg listened to the group’s live recording of “Metamorphosen for 23 Solo Strings” by Richard Strauss, and decided to make it the centerpiece of an album. She decided to flank the Strauss with two exceedingly famous string orchestra standards: The Adagietto from Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 (most recently performed at the Mondavi Center last December by the UC Davis Symphony), and Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings (last heard at the Mondavi Center in March 2010 in the original string quartet version, performed by the Curtis on Tour chamber ensemble – incidentally, Curtis on Tour is coming back on March 17-20, 2011). • Together. Release in 2009 on the NSS Music label, this wide-ranging disc includes two works on tonight’s program—Astor Piazzolla’s “The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires” and Béla Bartók’s “Romanian Folk Dances”—along with George Gershwin’s “Bess, You Is My Woman Now,” and the premiere recording of Clarice Assad’s “Impressions: Suite for Chamber Orchestra (a piece that generated considerable audience enthusiasm at New Century Chamber Orchestra concerts).

• Oculus: Kurt Rohde. Mondavi Center audiences are primarily familiar with Rohde through his ongoing association with the Empyrean Ensemble, which performs at the Mondavi Center regularly. Rohde is currently Empyrean’s co-director (and you can check out the group when they perform in the Vanderhoef Studio Theater on April 17). Oculus dates from 2005, a year before Rohde joined the UC Davis music faculty, and three years before Rohde won the Rome Prize in musical composition, a plum sought by almost every young composer. And oh yes, if you glance at the New Century Chamber Orchestra’s viola section, you’ll notice that Rohde is a regular member of this group. • Written with the Heart’s Blood. This 1997 release features the Chamber Symphony for Strings by Shostakovich (an orchestration of his famously grim String Quartet No. 8, dedicated “to the memory of the victims of fascism and war”). Recorded when Stuart Canin was the New Chamber Symphony Orchestra’s music director, this disc was a Grammy nominee. The disc’s title draws on poet Carl Sandburg’s characterization of the music of Shostakovich as “written with the heart’s blood.” Nadja Salerno-Sonnenburg also has an extensive discography of her own as a solo artist, with several recent albums on her NSS Music Label (including projects with such noted figures as conductor Marin Alsop and the guitar-playing Assad Brothers), and more than 20 earlier albums on the EMI and Nonesuch labels.

Jeff Hudson contributes coverage of the performing arts to Capital Public Radio, the Davis Enterprise, and Sacramento News and Review.

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Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg Music Director

First Violin Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Music Director and Concertmaster Dawn Harms, Associate Concertmaster Iris Stone Robin Mayforth Karen Shinozaki Sor Second Violin Candace Guirao, Principal 2nd Violin Deborah Tien Price Erin Benim Michelle Maruyama Evan Price Violas Cassandra Lynne Richburg, Acting Principal Jenny Douglass Emily Onderdonk Elizabeth Prior Cellos Susan Babini, Principal Joanne Lin Robin Bonnell Michael Graham Bass Anthony Manzo, Principal

new century chamber orchestra

New Century Chamber Orchestra

New Century Chamber Orchestra The New Century Chamber Orchestra, founded in 1992, looks for fresh, exciting ways to present classical music in the San Francisco Bay Area and across the country by combining performances of extraordinary quality with innovative programming. World-renowned violin soloist, chamber musician, and recording artist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg joined the ensemble as Music Director and Concertmaster in January 2008, bringing “a new sense of vitality and determination, as well as an audacious swagger that is an unmistakable fingerprint of its leader,” according to Gramophone Magazine. New Century, comprised of local musicians and those who travel from across the U.S. and Europe to perform in the Bay Area together, performs without a conductor. Musical decisions are made collaboratively, resulting in an enhanced level of commitment on the part of the musicians to concerts of remarkable precision, passion, and power. In addition to performing classic pieces of chamber orchestra repertoire, New Century commissions important new works, breathes life into rarely heard jewels of the past, performs world premieres, and brings pieces from other genres such as jazz and rock into the chamber orchestra setting. The New Century Chamber Orchestra Featured Composer Program commissions composers to write new works, with Music Director Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg as concertmaster, soloist, and muse. Nadja and the orchestra established this program to expand the chamber orchestra repertoire. During Nadja’s first three seasons, the Featured Composers have been Clarice Assad, William Bolcom, and Mark O’Connor. New Century is committed to educational outreach in the communities where it performs. The orchestra provides musical education to 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students in an intensive program at schools in Marin City and San Rafael’s Canal District. In addition to several annual classroom visits by a string quartet, selected students are offered free instrumental music instruction. For more information on New Century, please visit www.ncco.org.

New Century Chamber Orchestra Administration Parker E. Monroe, Executive Director Everett L. Doner, Operations Director Ed Escobar, Finance Director Sarah Riddle, Director of Development and Marketing Margaret Coote, Education and Operations Coordinator Kissa Mercado, Marketing and Development Associate For Opus 3 Artists David V. Foster, President and CEO Patricia A. Winter, Senior Vice President, Manager, Artists & Attractions Leonard Stein, Senior Vice President, Director, Tour Administration Robert Berretta, Vice President, Manager, Artists & Attractions John C. Gilliland III, Associate, Tour Administration Kay McCavic, Company Manager

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Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg Music Director & Solo Violin One of the leading violinists of our time, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg is best known for her exhilarating performances, passionate interpretations, musical depth, and unique charisma. After serving for two highly successful seasons as Music Director of the New Century Chamber Orchestra, Nadja leads this 19-member string orchestra into its third season, which includes a January/February 2011 U.S. tour. New Century’s 2010-11 season includes four subscription series, two of which highlight the 201011 Featured Composer, Mark O’Connor, whose world premiere commission will be performed in May 2011. Uniquely gifted and creative violin virtuoso Nadja SalernoSonnenberg continues to bring joy to audiences whether from the stage, the TV screen, or the internet. Innovative, sharp, and witty,

MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 6: Feb-Mar 2011 |

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Bluebeard’s Castle (Fully Staged)

UC Davis Symphony Orchestra Christian Baldini, music director and conductor Peter Lichtenfels, director Gregory Stapp, bass (Duke Bluebeard) Jessica Medoff, soprano (Judith)

February 25, 2011 8:00 PM Sunday, February 27, 2011 7:00 PM Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center

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An internationally acclaimed soloist and chamber musician for more than 25 years, Salerno-Sonnenberg was named Music Director and Concertmaster of the New Century Chamber Orchestra in January 2008. Nadja’s first two seasons as Music Director were hailed as a tremendous success by audiences and critics alike—“a marriage that works,” in her words—and for renewing enthusiasm for “one of the most burnished and exciting ensembles in the Bay Area,” according to Rich Scheinin of the San Jose Mercury News.

Within Wolf’s oeuvre, the Italian Serenade seems to stand out as an anomaly, given the immense outpouring of Lieder that Wolf produced. He was indeed more comfortable and productive working within the private, intimate, and text-driven realm of song. Of the many attempts Wolf made to complete an opera, the only work premiered was Der Corregidor (The Magistrate), a comic work adapted from the Spanish novella The Three Cornered Hat, with a libretto by peace activist and feminist Rosa Mayreder. Wolf also completed the symphonic poem Penthesilea, inspired by Kleist’s play of the same name. From 1879-84, Wolf completed a string quartet in D minor, which was performed only months before the composer’s death in 1903.

A powerful and innovative presence on the recording scene, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg continues to enrich the collection of her record label NSS Music, which she started in 2005. Last year saw the release of her second CD with New Century, LIVE: Barber, Strauss and Mahler (recorded at San Francisco’s legendary Herbst Theatre), as well as Schubert’s Echo, featuring works by Schubert, Berg, and Webern performed by the American String Quartet. In 2009, NSS Music released Originis, recorded by Nadja and the Assad brothers, Sergio and Odair, and her first CD with the New Century Chamber Orchestra, Together, featuring Astor Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires. An ever-evolving and creative project, NSS Music will continue to bring forth unique performances from many musical genres.

While composing the Serenade, Wolf was setting the poetry of Eichendorff; in fact, echoes from “Der Soldat I,” one of the Eichendorff Lieder, can be heard in the Serenade. Wolf was also immersed in the German Romantic writer’s Italian-themed novella Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts (From the Life of a Good-forNothing). In many respects Wolf’s Serenade captures the mood, atmosphere, and to some listeners, even the events depicted in the book. Taugenichts is a book that resounds with music: the “goodfor-nothing” protagonist fiddles, sings, and poeticizes his way from his German home to sunny Italy after his father sends him out into the world to earn his keep. One of the novella’s episodes depicts a small ensemble playing a serenade, a scene which some say inspired Wolf’s conception of the piece.

Program Notes Italian Serenade Hugo Wolf (Born March 13, 1860, in Windischgrätz, Austria; died February 22, 1903, in Vienna) Arranged by Lucas Drew Having written nearly 300 Lieder during his relatively short and turbulent lifetime, Hugo Wolf ranks as one of the most prolific and distinctive composers of the German art song. As inheritor of the Lied tradition, which had been so firmly established by Schubert and Schumann, Wolf continued to refine the limitless possibilities inherent in combining text and tone. Strongly influenced by Wagner, Wolf employed imaginative chromatic coloring and intricate, idiosyncratic lines to capture subtle complexities of the poetry to which he was so finely attuned. For musicologist Eric Sams, Wolf’s songs represented the culmination of an era of the German Romantic Lied by creating “a complete theatre of the mind, a Gesamtkunstwerk for voice and piano.” Like Schumann, Wolf’s sensitivity to language produced not only a wealth of songs, but also a significant body of music criticism. From 1884-87, Wolf served as music critic for the Salonblatt, a Viennese weekly. While the position earned him a much-needed stable income, his impassioned and often incendiary reviews also earned him an unfavorable reputation as “the wild Wolf.” An ardent Wagnerian working in Vienna, Wolf the music critic undermined Wolf the composer through his merciless attacks on the music of Brahms and numerous others. Such vitriol did not engender goodwill when it came time for his own works to be performed. Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

new century chamber orchestra

she is truly an artist whose impact on the world of classical music is as deep as her love for the art.

The Serenade was composed in the span of three days in 1887. Originally conceived as a suite for string quartet, Wolf referred to the single movement that resulted as his Serenade in G major, or simply Serenade. Five years later in 1892, Wolf transcribed the piece for string orchestra with the name Italienische Serenade; this is the version that is performed this evening. Although the larger work never materialized, most likely due to Wolf’s failing health, he nonetheless continued to work on the orchestration even while hospitalized during the final stages of syphilis. Published only months after his death in 1903, the expanded version calls for a solo viola, strings, flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, and horns. The Serenade is by far Wolf’s most well known instrumental work, having gained a firm place in the standard performing repertoire. One of Wolf’s earliest biographers, Ernest Newman, predicted the piece’s eventual success when he wrote in 1907: “the Italienische Serenade should become popular when it is more fully known.” The Serenade is featured on the disc Bella Italia, which SalernoSonnenberg recorded in 1996 with colleagues from the Aspen Music Festival. Numerous adaptations and arrangements of the work are a further testament to its popularity. The jovial, carefree Serenade, loosely cast in rondo form, opens with the tempo marking “extremely fast,” and indeed the piece lilts by buoyantly and lightheartedly in a matter of minutes. Wolf’s known penchant for finding musical inspiration in narrative sources has prompted many to hear the Serenade as a programmatic piece; such a reading finds in the opening eight bars the sound of a small band tuning up before actually embarking on a serenade itself, in which a suitor (played by the cello in recitative) proclaims his love for the maiden, who responds flirtatiously. —Rosemary Delia

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new century chamber orchestra

Romanian Folk Dances Béla Bartók (Born March 25, 1881, in Nagyszentmiklós, Hungary; died September 26, 1945, in New York City) As a composer, pedagogue, pianist, and ethnomusicologist, Béla Bartók stands as one of the most inventive figures in 20th-century music. Born in a part of Hungary that is now Romania, Bartók brought to his musical occupations a keen sensitivity and intuitive understanding of the uniqueness and authenticity of indigenous music, especially that which originated in the diverse ethnic regions of eastern Europe. He journeyed to the most remote parts of central and eastern Europe, northern Africa, and Turkey to seek out and collect music produced by local inhabitants. Bartók’s lifelong commitment to preserving folk music is reported to have begun during a summer stay in Slovakia in 1904 when he overheard a woman singing a traditional peasant tune. Bartók immediately jotted down what he had heard, capturing what he thought was sure to become a lost cultural form. In the following year Bartók met composer and pioneering musical ethnographer Zoltán Kodály, and the two formed an enduring collaboration that resulted in the preservation of several thousand folk songs, many of which they recorded with the recently invented Edison cylinder phonograph. Bartók and Kodaly traveled to isolated, outlying areas of Hungary and Romania, systematically collecting, documenting, and later analyzing the myriad iterations and variations of the songs and dances they encountered. The melodies found in Romania held special interest for Bartók, as he thought their insularity from external influence represented folk music in its purest, most authentic form. Recent Bartók scholarship has explored the ways in which Bartok’s own musical compositions combine his twin concerns for authenticity, which he found in folk music, and innovation, which he strived for as a 20th-century modernist. Bartók’s music represents a distinctive and completely original path through the wilderness of early 20thcentury musical modernism. Originally composed for piano in 1915, Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances were later arranged for violin and piano, and then for chamber orchestra. Brimming with rhythmic vitality, melodic richness, and harmonic color, the Romanian Folk Dances are among Bartók’s most popular and approachable works and they continue to inspire new transcriptions and arrangements. In August, the New Century Chamber Orchestra led by Salerno-Sonnenberg released a recording of this work on the compact disc Together. The first of the dances, Jocul cu bâta (Bot tánc), has its origins in Mezoszabad, Transylvania. Bartók reportedly heard this tune played by two Romanian Gypsy violinists. Brâul is a type of chain dance performed by inhabitants of Egres in the Torontál area; the dance makes use of a sash, or cloth belt. Pe loc (topogó), also from the Torontál, is a “stamping dance” performed “in one spot,” or in place. It begins with a simple drone followed by a haunting, mysterious melody. Buciumeana (buscumi tánc), from the Torda-Aranyos region in central Romania, features an exotic, languorous melody that builds in intensity and then softens as it closes. Poarga românesca (Román “polka”) hails from the Bihar region. Like life at its most 14

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exuberant, the dance is all-too-brief, moving by swiftly and with abandon, only to come to a sudden close. Immediately, though, we are swept into two final dances, from Bihar and TordaAranyos respectively; both are entitled Maruntel (Aprózó) and played without pause. These final dances express irrepressible, adrenalized vitality, and it is at this level of fever-pitched intensity and joyful abandon that the dances end. —Rosemary Delia The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires (Las Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas) Astor Piazzolla (Born March 11, 1921, in Mar del Plata, Argentina; died July 4, 1992, in Buenos Aires) Arranged by Leonid Desyatnikov A true crossover artist before the term was coined, Astor Piazzolla created the nuevo tango. Before this new art form found acceptance in Piazzolla’s native Argentina, it was wildly successful abroad, in the United States, where the composer had lived as a child, and in Paris, where he made his home from 1974 to 1985. Piazzolla made the transition from bandleader to classical composer when he wrote a cello sonata for Mstislav Rostropovich and, later, Five Tango Sensations for the Kronos Quartet. Thus, while remaining a quintessentially porteño (Buenos Aires) musician, he also became a world figure; paradoxically (since he is not a typical tango composer at all) he is probably the best-known representative of the tango in the world today. Astor Piazzolla was the great modern master and innovator of Argentine tango. A musician steeped in the traditional music of his native country who had a picture of Béla Bartók over his bed, Piazzolla grew up in New York City and later studied composition with Alberto Ginastera in Buenos Aires and Nadia Boulanger in Paris. A virtuoso player on the bandoneon (the special Argentine accordion), Piazzolla infused the tango with modern techniques and harmonies that infuriated traditionalists but eventually won him great success both at home and around the world. He introduced the tango into the symphonic idiom in works like his Bandoneon Concerto and his chamber opera Maria de Buenos Aires. The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires (Las Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas) was written as four distinct works in the years 1965 to 1970 and was not originally intended to pay homage to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons or be performed as a suite. Originally scored for his own quintet (violin, electric guitar, piano, bass, and bandoneon) Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires was re-orchestrated in the 1990s by Leonid Desyatnikov for Russian violinist Gidon Kremer. Kremer says “It is Desyatnikov’s achievement to make Piazzolla speak directly to Vivaldi, and in such a way also Vivaldi to Piazzolla, because using certain quotations of Vivaldi in the context of the score helps to build bridges between these two different geniuses.” Separated by nearly 250 years, the two works are written from the perspective of different hemispheres and cultures, yet share the same colorful, descriptive writing and virtuosic scores. —Peter Laki


Musical Romanticism is always Janus-faced. It moves boldly beyond the past in search of new expres­sive forms and means. At the same time, every Romantic musician had a longing for that very past. Tchaikovsky, for instance, felt a particularly strong nostalgia for the times of Mozart, and he repeatedly tried to recapture that spirit in works such as the Rococo Variations or the Suite No. 4 (“Mo­zartiana”). At first sight, there seems to be a gulf between the gracefulness of these compositions and the stormy passion of, say, the great symphonies or the B-flat minor piano concerto. In reality, the intense dramaticism of the latter and the flight into the dream­world of bygone days in the former are but opposite sides of the same coin. The Serenade for Strings was a work especially dear to Tchaikovsky’s heart. He worked on it concurrently with the Overture “1812,” a commission he prob­ably would have turned down had he been able to. Yet Tchaikovsky made no bones about which of the two projects he really cared about. As he wrote in a letter to his patron, Nadezhda von Meck:

new century chamber orchestra

Serenade for Strings in C Major, Op. 48 Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Born May 7, 1840, in Kamsko-Votkinsk, Russia; died November 6, 1893, in St. Petersburg, Russia)

folk music collection. The second one is a street ditty from the Kolomna district, near Moscow. The two are linked with extreme ingenuity, as the last phrase of the first song is identical to the first phrase of the second (only the tempo is different). The second tune becomes the starting point of a vigorous sonata movement, this time complete with contrasting theme, de­velopment section, even a short fugato. The big surprise is reserved for the end: the introduction of the first movement reappears, and we suddenly realize that this solemn and dignified music consists of the very same notes as the light-hearted street ditty. They differ only in tempo and harmonization. The identity is definitively nailed down as the theme is heard side by side in its slower and faster forms. All four movements of the Serenade share a certain dance-like quality that is reminiscent of the style of Tchaikovsky’s great ballets. It was no coin­cidence that the Serenade itself was choreographed by George Balanchine with great success. For Tchaikovsky, the Serenade always remained a con­cert piece, one he programmed with great frequency at concerts both in Russia and abroad as one of his personal favorites. —Peter Laki

You can imagine, beloved friend, that my muse has been benevolent of late, when I tell you that I have written two long works very rapidly: a festival over­ture and a Serenade in four movements for string orchestra. The overture will be very noisy. I wrote it without much warmth or enthusiasm; and therefore it has no great artistic value. The Ser­enade, on the contrary, I wrote from an inward impulse: I felt it; and I venture to hope that this work is not without artistic qualities. It seems that Tchaikovsky first start­ed sketching melodic ideas without being sure whether they would turn into a symphony or a string quartet. Only later did it become clear that the work would take the form of a suite for string orchestra and Tchaikovsky finally decided to call it Serenade. That name itself shows an intention to evoke the era of Mozart, the greatest master of the serenade. In his letter to Madame von Meck, Tchaikovsky described the first move­ment as a deliberate imitation of Mozart’s manner. The title Pezzo in forma di sonatina (“Piece in sonatina form”) refers to the absence of a development section; this abbreviated sonata form consists only of first theme, second theme (in the dominant), first theme, and second theme (in the tonic). Mo­zart used this form mainly in slow movements; it is also found in many of Rossini’s operatic overtures. In Tchaikovsky’s Serenade, the “sonatina” is preceded by a solemn introduc­tion (Andante non troppo) whose full meaning will be not revealed until the end. The Allegro moderato tempo starts with a lyrical first melody followed by a jauntier second theme. The solemn introduction returns at the end. The second-movement “Waltz” and the third-movement “Elegy” are ex­amples of that special kind of musi­cal sweetness that only Tchaikovsky could provide. The last movement is based on two Russian folksongs. The first of these (in a slower tempo) is a boathauling song from the Volga River, taken from Mily Balakirev’s

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MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 6: Feb-Mar 2011 |

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Robert and Margrit Mondavi

Center for the Performing Arts

| UC Davis

Presents

La Rondine San Francisco Opera Grand Cinema Series A Mondavi Center Special Event Thursday, February 17, 2011 • 8PM Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center, UC Davis

There will be one intermission. Individual support provided by Barbara Jackson

The artists and your fellow audience members appreciate silence during the performance. Please be sure that you have switched off all electronic devices. Videotaping, photographing, and audio recording are strictly forbidden. Violators are subject to removal.

Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 6: Feb-Mar 2011 |

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la rondine

La Rondine San Francisco Opera Grand Cinema Series (Sung in Italian with English supertitles)

Opera in three acts by GIACOMO PUCCINI Text by GIUSEPPE ADAMI after a libretto by A.M. WILLNER and HEINZ REICHERT

CAST (in order of appearance)

Conductor Ion Marin Production Nicolas Joël

Yvette Bianca Prunier Magda de Civry Lisette Suzy Rambaldo Fernandez Gobin Crébillon Périchaud Ruggero Lastouc Four Flower Girls Adolfo Georgette A Student Gabrielle Lolette Rabonier A singer A butler

Director Stephen Barlow Set Designer Ezio Frigerio Costume Designer Franca Squarciapino Lighting Designer Duane Schuler Chorus Director Ian Robertson Choreographer Lawrence Pech Piano John Parr

Rhoslyn Jones Melody Moore Gerard Powers Angela Gheorghiu Anna Christy Katharine Tier Philip Skinner Phillip Pickens Jere Torkelsen David Kekuewa Misha Didyk Kathleeen Bayler Claire Kelm Carole Schaffer Mitzie Wiener Phillip Pickens Dvora Djoraev Richard Walker Mary Finch Virginia Pluth David Kekuewa Ji Young Yang Valery Portnov

Supertitles Cori Ellison courtesy of New York City Opera Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse and Royal Opera, Covent Garden co-production

TIME AND PLACE: Paris and the Riviera in the 1920s Act I: Magda’s house in Paris Act II: The Bullier dance hall, Paris Act III: A hotel on the Riviera This production made possible, in part, by the Corrigan-Walla Foundation and the Thomas Tilton Production Fund. Additional support provided by Tad and Dianne Taube, and Koret Foundation. Cinemacasts are made possible by the Koret-Taube Media Suite

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Lisette rushes in to tell Rambaldo there is a young man outside who has been waiting to see him. The gentlemen retire and Magda, alone with her friends, recalls a youthful escapade at the infamous Bullier dance hall where she had an innocent flirtation with a student. As Prunier demonstrates his palm-reading skills, Lisette ushers in Ruggero Lestouc, the visiting son of an old school friend of Rambaldo’s. Prunier reads Magda’s palm and predicts that, like a swallow, she will fly south to love—yet mystery shrouds her fate. Ruggero, a newcomer to Paris, expresses his excitement at being in the city. Rambaldo asks the others where Ruggero should spend his first night in Paris. Lisette triumphantly suggests Bullier but not before setting off another argument with Prunier. Lisette and the other women flirt with Ruggero and send him on his way. Rambaldo abruptly calls an end to the evening, and as the guests leave, Magda, alone, impulsively decides to go to Bullier, rushing off to change into a simpler dress. Lisette creeps in dressed in Magda’s clothes and is intercepted by Prunier who furtively flirts with her. They steal off together. Magda emerges for an adventure at Bullier’s, her mind full of Prunier’s prophecy and Doretta’s dream. Act II The Bullier dance hall, later that evening Bullier is in full swing, alive with a noisy cross section of Parisiennes including students, flower girls, artists, soldiers, and aristocrats. Ruggero arrives and is set upon by a group of admiring women. Magda enters tentatively and is immediately surrounded by a group of students. She pretends that she is already meeting someone, whom the students mistakenly assume to be Ruggero. Magda apologizes to Ruggero—he does not recognize her—and explains that she will leave once the students are no longer watching. Ruggero encourages her to stay; they chat amicably and begin to dance. Prunier arrives with Lisette. She is eager to show off her borrowed wardrobe, and he cautions her to behave with more dignity.

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la rondine

La Rondine Synopsis Act I A salon in Magda’s house in Paris, late afternoon Magda, mistress of the rich banker Rambaldo, is serving tea to her friends as the poet Prunier lectures Yvette, Bianca, and Suzy about the latest Parisienne fashion for sentimental love. Lisette, Magda’s maid, and the other women mock the idea; only Magda listens to Prunier seriously. The poet illustrates his theory with the story of his latest heroine, Doretta. Prunier is unable to finish the story, but Magda improvises an ending to Doretta’s dream—she rejects riches for the true love of a student. In every heart, Prunier maintains, there lurks the devil of romantic love. Rambaldo claims that he knows how to exorcise it and gives Magda a pearl necklace, but Prunier notices that she appears distracted.

The dance concluded, Magda and Ruggero return to their table. As they exchange names, Magda introduces herself as “Paulette.” Magda is filled with memories of her earlier escapade years before and their mutual attraction intensifies. Lisette returns from the bar and is unsettled by the sight of someone who she thinks is Magda—an observation Prunier pretends to dismiss. Magda maintains her disguise when introduced to Lisette. The two couples toast their love. Suddenly Prunier notices Rambaldo. Magda panics and Prunier tells Lisette to keep Ruggero out of sight. Magda refuses Prunier’s pleas to escape, and Rambaldo confronts her demanding an explanation. As the dance hall empties they argue, and Magda confesses she has fallen in love with Ruggero. As the waiters clear the now empty Bullier, Ruggero returns and comforts a distraught Magda. The two stroll off into the light of a new day. Act III A Hotel on the Riviera, several months later Magda and Ruggero reflect on their current happiness and their first meeting. Ruggero explains that he has written to his father not only asking for money to pay their many debts but also for consent to their marriage. Magda is unsettled; she has not divulged her past life to Ruggero. She suffers as he blissfully imagines their married life together in the country with children. Ruggero leaves to check for a reply to his letter leaving Magda torn between her desire to be completely honest with Ruggero and not wanting to hurt him. She runs off when she hears someone approach. Prunier and a very distressed Lisette arrive. His attempt to transform her into a performer on the stage has backfired. Her debut the night before in Nice was a fiasco, and the whistling of the audience is still ringing in her ears. Magda greets them and gladly agrees to take Lisette back as her maid. Prunier, critical of Magda’s new life, tells her that Rambaldo is ready to save her in every way. Magda refuses to listen. Prunier leaves, but not before arranging a later rendezvous with Lisette. Ruggero returns, joyfully brandishing his mother’s reply. She is delighted that her son has found a virtuous bride who will be worthy of his children. Unable to keep silent any longer, Magda tells a stunned Ruggero that she is “contaminated” and cannot be his wife. He protests and begs Magda not to leave him. Magda, heartbroken, slowly makes her way out of his life.

Grand Opera Cinema Series Drawing Visit: sfopera.com/cinemadrawing Enter for your chance to win two free tickets to an upcoming San Francisco Opera performance, or an HD Radio (courtesy of Bay Area radio station Classical 102.1 KDFC). Restrictions apply; see website for details.

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Lili Received the GIFT of LIFE Born two months early, Lili Jimenez had a difficult start in life. Weighing barely three pounds, Lili suffered a host of ailments, including a life-threatening intestinal disease unique to preemies. With little time to spare, Lili was transferred to the neonatal intensive care unit at UC Davis Children’s Hospital—the region’s only comprehensive children’s hospital. After two complex surgeries, four months of round-the-clock care and lots of TLC, Lili was sent home to a future now in full bloom. At UC Davis Health System, our next medical breakthrough just may have your name on it.

Lili’s care team included neonatologist Mark Underwood, nurse Christa Mu and other specialists in the research and treatment of preterm birth complications.

A gift for advancing health.

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Robert and Margrit Mondavi

Center for the Performing Arts

| UC Davis

Presents

MC

Debut

Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

African American Lives: Genealogy, Genetics, and Black History A Distinguished Speakers Series Event Monday, March 7, 2011 • 8PM Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center, UC Davis

Post-Performance Q&A Moderated by Dr. Patricia A. Turner, UC Davis Vice Provost of Undergraduate Studies; and faculty member of African and African American Studies and American Studies, UC Davis

The artists and your fellow audience members appreciate silence during the performance. Please be sure that you have switched off all electronic devices. Videotaping, photographing, and audio recording are strictly forbidden. Violators are subject to removal.

Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 6: Feb-Mar 2011 |

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Hyatt P lace is a proud sponsor

of The robert and margrit Mondavi Center for the performing arts, UC Davis

Hyatt Place UC Davis 173 Old Davis Road Extension Davis, CA 95616, USA Phone: +1 530 756 9500 Fax: +1 530 297 6900

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In 2006, Professor Gates wrote and produced the PBS documentary African American Lives, the first documentary series to employ genealogy and science to provide an understanding of African American history. In 2007, a follow-up documentary, Oprah’s Roots: An African American Lives Special, aired on PBS, further examining the genealogical and genetic heritage of Oprah Winfrey, who had been featured in the original documentary. Gates also wrote and produced the documentaries Wonders of the African World (2000) and America Beyond the Color Line (2004) for the BBC and PBS, and authored the companion volumes to both series. Gates is the author of several works of literary criticism, including Figures in Black: Words, Signs and the “Racial” Self (1987); and The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism (1988), winner of the American Book Award in 1989. He authenticated and facilitated the publication, in 1983, of Our Nig, or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black (1859) by Harriet Wilson, the first novel published by an African American woman. Two decades later, in 2002, Gates authenticated and published The Bondwoman’s Narrative by Hannah Crafts, dating from the early 1850s and now considered one of the first novels written by an African American woman. He is the co-author, with Cornel West, of The Future of the Race (1996), and the author of a memoir, Colored People (1994), that traces his childhood experiences in a small West Virginia town in the 1950s and 1960s. Among his other books are The Trials of Phillis Wheatley: America’s First Black Poet and Her Encounters with the Founding Fathers (2003); Thirteen Ways of Looking at A Black Man (1997); and Loose Canons: Notes on the Culture Wars (1992). He is completing a book on race and writing in the 18th century, Black Letters and the Enlightenment.

Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr., is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and the Director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University. Gates is Editor-in-Chief of the Oxford African American Studies Center, the first comprehensive scholarly online resource in the field of African American studies and Africana studies. He is co-editor with K. Anthony Appiah of the encyclopedia Encarta Africana, published on CD-ROM by Microsoft, and in book form under the title Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. Oxford University Press published an expanded five-volume edition of the encyclopedia in 2005. He is most recently the author of Finding Oprah’s Roots, Finding Your Own, a meditation on genetics, genealogy, and race. His other recent books are America Behind the Color Line: Dialogues with African Americans (2004), African American Lives, co-edited with Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham (2004), and The Annotated Uncle Tom’s Cabin, edited with Hollis Robbins (2006).

Gates earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in English literature from Clare College at the University of Cambridge and his B.A. summa cum laude in history from Yale University, where he was a Scholar of the House, in 1973. He became a member of Phi Beta Kappa in his junior year at Yale. Before joining the faculty of Harvard in 1991, he taught at Yale, Cornell, and Duke. His honors and grants include a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” (1981), the George Polk Award for Social Commentary (1993), Time’s “25 Most Influential Americans” list (1997), a National Humanities Medal (1998), election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1999), the Jefferson Lecture (2002), a Visiting Fellowship at the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton (2003-04), and the Jay B. Hubbell Award for Lifetime Achievement in American Literary Studies from the Modern Language Association (2006). He has received 44 honorary degrees, from institutions including the University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, New York University, University of Massachusetts-Boston, Williams College, Emory University, University of Toronto, University of Benin, Howard University, University of Vermont, and Berea College. In 2006, he was inducted into the Sons of the American Revolution, after he traced his lineage back to John Redman, a Free Negro who fought in the Revolutionary War. Professor Gates served as Chair of the Department of African and African American Studies at Harvard from 1991 to 2006. He serves on the boards of the New York Public Library, the Whitney Museum, Lincoln Center Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Aspen Institute, Brookings Institution, Studio Museum of Harlem, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford.

Dr. Gates has edited several influential anthologies, including The Norton Anthology of African American Literature (1996); and the Schomburg Library of Nineteenth Century Black Women Writers (1991). He is the editor of numerous essay collections, including Reading Black, Reading Feminist: A Critical Anthology (1990); “Race,” Writing, and Difference (1986); and, with K. Anthony Appiah, volumes on the authors Toni Morrison, Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright, and Langston Hughes. In addition, Gates is publisher of Transition magazine, an international review of African, Caribbean, and African American politics. An influential cultural critic, Gates’s publications include a 1994 cover story for Time, numerous articles for the New Yorker, and a biweekly guest column in The New York Times.

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MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 6: Feb-Mar 2011 |

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BALLET DIRECTOR

RON CUNNINGHAM ISSUE #6

PLAYWRIGHT

GREGG COFFIN ISSUE #7

TONY WINNER

FAITH PRINCE ISSUE #8 ACTOR

COLIN HANKS ISSUE #15

PERFORMANCE ARTIST

DAVID GARIBALDI ISSUE #16

BROADWAY STAR

MARA DAVI ISSUE #19

Available at Raley's, Nugget Markets, Borders and Barnes & Noble.

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Robert and Margrit Mondavi

Center for the Performing Arts

| UC Davis

Presents

Tango Fire Tango Inferno A World Stage: Dance Series Event Thursday, March 10, 2011 • 8PM Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center, UC Davis There will be one intermission.

The artists and your fellow audience members appreciate silence during the performance. Please be sure that you have switched off all electronic devices. Videotaping, photographing, and audio recording are strictly forbidden. Violators are subject to removal.

Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 6: Feb-Mar 2011 |

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tango fire

Tango Fire Director of Choreography Yanina Fajar Assistant Choreographer German Cornejo All group dances are choregraphed by Yanina Fajar, except Oblivion and Canaro en París, which are choreographed by Yanina Fajar & German Cornejo. Solo dances are choreographed by the individual couples. Dancers Mariano Balois & Yanina Fajar German Cornejo & Carolina Giannini Juan Malizia & Florencia Roldan Sebastian Alvarez & Victoria Saudelli Jose Fernandez & Melody Celatti

Tango Inferno Don Juan (Ponzio) Tango The Company Milonga de mis amores (Laurenz) Milonga Dancers: Mariano & Yanina Corralera (Aieta) Milonga Dancers: Mariano & Yanina, German & Carolina, Juan & Florencia, Sebastián & Victoria, Jose & Melody El Dia Que Me Quieras (Gardel/Le Pera) Tango Singer: Jesus Hidalgo Mala Junta (Laurenz/De Caro) Tango Dancers: Juan & Florencia El firulete (Mores) Milonga Dancers: Mariano, German, Juan, Sebastian & Jose

Singer Jesus Hidalgo

La Trampera (Troilo) Milonga Dancers: Mariano, German, Juan, Sebastian & Jose

Orchestra – Quatrotango Gabriel Clenar – Piano Marcelo Rebuffi – Violín Hugo Satorre – Bandoneón Gerardo Scaglione – Double Bass Musical Direction by Quatrotango

Boedo (Julio De Caro) Tango Dancers: Jose & Melody

Production Producers: Andrew Kay & David Vigo Associate Producer: Toni Rudov Lighting Design: Megafun Set Design: Nathan Weyers Touring Credits Company Manager: Toni Rudov Sound Operator: Raymond Rogers Production Manager/Lighting Operator: Bernard Manchee Wardrobe Manager: Lynda Southon

Tango Fire appears by arrangement with IMG Artists, Carnegie Hall Tower, 152 West 57th Street, New York NY 10019

Por Una Cabeza (Gardel/Le Pera) Tango Singer: Jesus Hidalgo 9 de Julio (Padula) Tango Dancers: Mariano & Yanina, German & Carolina, Juan & Florencia, Sebastián & Victoria, Jose & Melody Felicia (Saborido) Tango Dancers: Mariano & Yanina, German & Carolina, Juan & Florencia, Sebastián & Victoria, Jose & Melody Milongueando en el 40 (Pontier) Tango Dancers: German & Carolina Ventarrón (Staffolani/Mafia) Tango Singer: Jesus Hidalgo Amurado (Laurenz) Tango Dancers: Sebastián & Victoria Canaro en París (Scarpino/Cardarella) Tango Dancers: Mariano & Yanina, German & Carolina, Juan & Florencia, Sebastián & Victoria, Jose & Melody Intermission

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Otono Porteno (Piazzolla) Tango - Instrumental Quatrotango Recuerdo (Pugliese) Tango Dancers: Jose & Melody Derecho Viejo (Arolas) Tango Dancers: Sebastián & Victoria, Juan & Florencia Uno (Mores/Discepolo) Tango Singer: Jesus Hidalgo Oblivion (Piazzolla) Tango Dancers: Mariano & Yanina, German & Carolina, Juan & Florencia, Sebastián & Victoria, Jose & Melody La Muerte Del Angel (Piazzolla) Tango - Instrumental Quatrotango Tanguera (Mores) Tango Dancers: Juan & Florencia Gallo Ciego (Bardi) Tango Dancers: Mariano & Yanina Susu (Adrover) Tango Dancers: German & Carolina Libertango (Piazzolla) Tango Dancers: Sebastian & Victoria Adiós Nonino (Piazzolla) Tango - Instrumental Quatrotango Verano Porteño (Piazzolla) Tango Dancers: Mariano & Yanina, German & Carolina, Juan & Florencia, Sebastián & Victoria, Jose & Melody Program subject to change The producer of Tango Fire reserves the right to substitute artists without notification

Biographies Yanina Fajar, Director of Choreography Yanina Vanesa Fajar was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She began her study of dance at the age of six, concentrating on Arabian, Spanish, Argentine folk dancing, and tango. Her teachers included Sandra Bootz and Gabriel Ortega, Silvio Lavia, Nito and Elva García, Pepito Avellaneda, Juan Carlos Copes, and Gloria and Eduardo Arquimbau. In 1994, Yanina graduated from Fracassi Conservatory as a teacher of Arabian, Spanish, and Argentine folkloric dance. She was co-director of her own dance school, the first

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tango fire

La Cumparsita (Matos Rodríguez) Tango Dancers: Mariano & Yanina, German & Carolina, Juan & Florencia, Sebastián & Victoria, Jose & Melody

official ballet dance school in Pergamino, Argentina. From 199697, she performed with Juan Carlos Copes Ballet, and in 1998, Yanina started working with the junior ballet troupe of Gloria and Eduardo Arquimbau. Yanina had a 13-year partnership with tango dancer Nelson Celis. During this time they went on many international tours, including Japanese tours with the Orchestra Sexteto Sur and the singer Graciela Arcelli (1999), Company Tango Bizarro and Los Cosos de Al Lao Orchestra (2001-03), and Tango Dreams and the Orchestra of Cristian Zarate (2002); a tour of Paraguay with the Carlos Galvan and Enrique Dumas Orchestra (1997); performances in San Francisco with Tango and the Roberto Mortiroli Orchestra; and extensive international tours with Tango Fire (2005-09). Yanina has performed in the most important theaters in Buenos Aires, including Opera, Nacional Cervantes, Presidente Alvear, San Fernando, Auditorium Mar del Plata, and Centro Cultural Borges, where she shared the stage with some of the most famous tango artists in Argentina. In 2005, she joined Tango Fire as a dancer and choreographer’s assistant. In 2008, she became the choreographer of the group Tangos. Yanina and Mariano Balois became dance partners in 2009. German Cornejo, Assistant Director of Choreography German Cornejo was born in Zárate, Buenos Aires Province, on May 31, 1986. At the age of 10, he started studying tango. At 15, he obtained a degree from Gatell Conservatory of Dance with the honorable title of Master of Tango. In the following years German studied classical and contemporary ballet, jazz, and acrobatic techniques and qualified as a Master of Choreographic Composition at the National Institute of Arts. German studied under several teachers; however, the most important was Nelida Rodriguez, whom he refers to as his “Artistic Godmother.” She was one of the first ballerinas of the legendary Tango Argentino and a star on Broadway in the 1980s. German won the Gold New Talent prize and the Competition of Gold Dance on the well-known TV show Susana Gimenez. After seven gold medals obtained in a series of Contests for Youth in Buenos Aires Province, and more than 20 first prizes at the national level, German became World Champion of Tango in 2005. He has performed at many famous tango houses in Buenos Aires, including Mambo, Chiquin Buenos Aires, and El Viejo Almacén. German has conducted dance demonstrations at some of the most important milongas in Buenos Aires, including La Viruta, Porteño, Bailarín, Parakultural, and Confitería Ideal. He was a dancer in the production Bien de Tango with the Orchestra El Arranque, Vamos al Tango with Osvaldo Berlingeri (which won four Starfish prizes), Tango por La Igualdad, and Tango Fire and Tango Inferno. In 2006, he traveled to Japan with Buenos Tangos under musical director Fabio Hager, and returned in 2008 with Tango Dance Premium and Fernando Marzán’s Orchestra. In 2008, the show Evocacion paid homage to German at the Coliseum Theatre in his home town of Zárate for his outstanding achievements. German is regarded as one of the best teachers of Show Tango in Buenos Aires, with many of his students reaching top positions in the finals of the Tango World Cup in 2006-09. German has been dancing with his partner Carolina Giannini since 2006.

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ances in Argentina. Their professional life as tango dancers has taken them around the world. Mariano began dancing at the age of five, studying folk dances of Argentina and Latin America, tango, ballet, contemporary dance, and theater. He studied tango with Juan Carlos Copes, Maria Nieves, Gloria and Eduardo Arquimbau, and Carlos Rivarola, among others and has won numerous awards in the most prestigious festivals in Argentina, Chile, and Brazil. He is presently a soloist in Ballet Folklorico Nacional de Argentina, and he joined Tango Fire in 2009. Yanina is an original member of Tango Fire and is a lead dancer and director of choreography of the group Tangos.

José Fernández and Melody Celatti José and Melody first danced together in 2005, when they were studying at the National Academy of Argentinean Tango in Buenos Aires. In the same year they took classes with Mora Godoy and performed with the Ramiro Gallo and Leopoldo Federico Orchestra. They have performed in many tango houses, milongas, and hotels in Buenos Aires, including La Rueda, Filiberto, Madero Tango, Tango Porteño, La Rivera del Tango, Salon Canning, and Salon Sur Milongas. José and Melody were featured in the PanAmerican Olympic Games in 2006 and were World Champions of Stage Tango in 2008. They act as adjudicators, instructors, and exhibition dancers in tango competitions and tango festivals throughout South America and have toured extensively throughout South America and Japan. José and Melody joined Tango Fire in 2010.

Singer: Jesus Hidalgo started singing lessons with Jorge Monaco at the age of 13. He won many solo competitions, which enabled him to tour Europe. He toured extensively with the Walter Rivers Orchestra. He was a soloist with the orchestra of the School of Tango in Buenos Aires and has performed at the Colon Theatre in Buenos Aires. Jesus has toured extensively in Japan, Spain, Brazil, and Italy. In 2008, he was featured on a version of the Argentine national anthem with Mercedes Sosa. In 2010, Jesus was featured as a soloist in the International Festival of Tango in Granada, Spain, and the International Festival of Argentine Tango in Rome. Jesus joined Tango Fire in 2010.

German Cornejo & Carolina Giannini German and Carolina have studied tango from the age of 10 and 14, respectively. They learned classical, contemporary dance, and tango with many of Argentina’s most respected teachers, including Mercedes Serrano, Mónica Fracchia, Cristina Cortés, José Garófalo, Carina Lozano, Guillermina Quiroga, Javier Rodríguez, and Geraldine Rojas. German also studied jazz, ballet, and acrobatics. He has received many awards for dancing tango, most notably Nuevos Talentos de Oro, Concurso de Baile de Oro and World Champion of Tango in 2005. Both German and Carolina have performed at famous tango houses and milongas in Buenos Aires, including Café Tortoni, La Manufactura Papelera, Señor Tango, Boca Tango, Mambo, Chiquin Buenos Aires, El Viejo Almacén, La Viruta, Porteño, Bailarín, Parakultural, and Confitería Ideal. German appeared in Bien de Tango, directed by Osvaldo Berlingeri, and together the couple traveled throughout Japan with Buenos Tangos, directed by Fabio Hager. German is assistant choreographer of the group Tangos. German and Carolina joined Tango Fire in 2006 and are now lead dancers for the company. Mariano Balois & Yanina Fajar Mariano and Yanina have danced together for one year. They are both known in the tango houses of Buenos Aires, performing in many venues including Cambalache, La Ventana, Sabor a Tango, and Galeries Pacifico and have made numerous television appear-

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Dancers: Juan Milizia & Florencia Roldan Juan and Florencia have been dancing tango together for four years, having previously studied contemporary dance, jazz, and ballet. They have studied with many renowned tango dancers, including Robert Herrera, Natacha Poberaj, Claudius Gonzales, and Melina Brufman. The couple appeared in the worldwide television broadcast of the final program of Diego Maradona’s La Noche de 10, performed at the gala night of the Argentinean musical Premios Carlos Gardel a la musica, and the Martin Fierro Awards in 2006. Florencia and Juan have danced in the most prestigious tango houses in Buenos Aires, including Viejo Almacen, Che Tango, and Palace Tango, plus many of Argentina’s most important venues, including Theatre Astral and the Centro Cultural San Martin. They have toured Italy to conduct master classes and to dance in tango exhibitions in cities including Milan, Bologna, Firenze, Ponte Dera, Pisa, and Bari. In 2006, they were runners-up in the world tango championship. Florencia and Juan joined Tango Fire in 2006.

Sebastian Alvarez & Victoria Saudelli Sebastian and Victoria started dancing together in 2000. They have danced in some of the most prestigious tango venues in Buenos Aires, including the Hilton, Dos Meses, and Esquina Carlos Gardel. They have toured together internationally since 2000, performing in Egypt, Spain, the U.S., Russia and throughout Central and South America. They joined Tango Fire in 2008.

Orchestra: Quatrotango was created in 2000 as a bandoneon and piano duet of Gabriel Clenar and Hugo Satorre. In 2002, violin player Marcelo Rebuffi joined the group. The present line-up came together in 2005 when Gerardo Scaglione joined the group on double bass. Quatrotango has worked professionally with tango since the beginning of 2001. Its repertoire includes traditional as well as modern tango with diverse arrangements for male and female singers. The arrangements and adaptations are done by Gabriel Clenar. In 2002, Quatrotango did a European tour with performances in Germany at Bernburg Theater, Wolfen Kulturhaus, Frankfurt Kleistforum, Ludwingslust Stadhalle, Mannheim Forum, Stockach Festhalle, and Karlsruhe Jubez. In 2003, the group toured Australia and New Zealand with a tango company, with performances at the Sydney Opera House, Hamer Concert Hall Melbourne, and as part of the Christchurch International Arts Festival at the Royal Theatre. Since 2002, the group regularly performs at some of Buenos Aires’s most prestigious milongas, including Salon Canning, La Ideal, La Catedral, Cochabamba, and La Calesita. In Argentina, the group also played at the Club del Vino, Nothorious-Gandhi, Radio Nacional, and in the VI Buenos Aires Tango Festival. In 2005, Quatrotango opened the VII Festival Buenos Aires Tango, in the Gran Milonga in front of a crowd of 20,000. They also presented their show in the Fernandez Blanco Museum, Piazzolla Tango, and the National Radio Station of Argentina. Quatrotango has toured exclusively with Tango Fire since 2005.

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Robert and Margrit Mondavi

Center for the Performing Arts

| UC Davis

Presents

MC

Debut

Yefim Bronfman, piano A Concert Series Event Saturday, March 12, 2011 • 8PM Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center, UC Davis There will be one intermission.

further listening see p. 32

The artists and your fellow audience members appreciate silence during the performance. Please be sure that you have switched off all electronic devices. Videotaping, photographing, and audio recording are strictly forbidden. Violators are subject to removal.

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yefim bronfman

further listening

by jeff hudson

Perhaps the most surprising thing about Yefim Bronman’s appearance tonight at the Mondavi Center is that we haven’t heard him performing here earlier. Bronfman has been in the top tier of the world’s pianists for decades -- I remember being bowled over when I heard him play a recital for the Carmel Music Society back in 1993 (and he already had a few albums out at that time). By now, he’s recorded a broad swath of repertoire Here are a few discs that you might want to check out: • Bronfman’s most recent disc (Salonen, Deutsche Grammophon, 2009) features works composed by Esa-Pekka Salonen, including a piano concerto that Bronfman premiered in 2007. Salonen stepped down as conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2009, in order to devote more time to composition. Bronfman and Salonen worked together a number of times during Salonen’s years in LA. This disk was a Grammy nominee. • Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio in A Minor, Op. 50 (Canary Classics, 2008 with violinist Gil Shaham and cellist Truls Mørk). Tchaikovsky’s chamber music never seems to get quite as much attention as his ballet scores and symphonies and that’s a pity, because some of Tchaikovsky’s chamber works are really lovely. Mondavi Center audiences are already acquainted with Gil Shaham (who’s played here several times). If you like this recording, you might also want to look up Bronfman’s recording of the Beethoven Triple Concerto (Arte Nova, 2006) which also features Shaham and Mørk.

• Any of Bronfman’s recordings from the 1990s featuring the music of Prokofiev (and there are several). These were the discs that initially put Bronfman on the map, and they are powerful. To quote Philip Roth, from his book The Human Stain (in which a character hears Bronfman in recital): “Then Bronfman appears. Bronfman the brontosaur! Mr. Fortisimo. Enter Brofman to play Prokofiev at such a pace and with such bravado as to knock my morbidity clear out of the ring. He is conspicuously massive through the upper torso, a force of nature camouflaged in a sweatshirt, somebody who has strolled into the Music Shed out of a circus where is the strongman and who takes on the piano as a ridiculous challenge to the gargantuan strength he revels in. Yefim Bronfman looks less like the person who is going to play the piano than like the guy who should be moving it. I had never before seen anybody go at a piano like this sturdy little barrel of an unshaven Russian Jew. When he’s finished, I thought, they’ll have to throw the thing out. He crushes it. He doesn’t let that piano conceal a thing. Whatever’s in there is going to come out, and come out with its hands in the air. And when it does, everything there out in the open, the last of the last pulsation, he himself gets up and goes, leaving behind him our redemption. With a jaunty wave, he is suddenly gone, and though he takes all his fire off with him like no less a force than Prometheus, our own lives now seem inextinguishable. Nobody is dying, nobody - not if Bronfman has anything to say about it.”

• Bronfman’s recording of the three Bartók Piano Concertos (Sony, 1996) with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. A Grammy winner in 1997.

Jeff Hudson contributes coverage of the performing arts to Capital Public Radio, the Davis Enterprise, and Sacramento News and Review.

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yefim bronfman

Opus 3 Artists Presents

Yefim Bronfman, piano

Sonata in C Major, Hoboken XVI:50 Allegro Adagio Allegro molto

Haydn

Humoreske

Salonen

Humoreske, Op. 20 Schumann Einfach — Sehr rasch und leicht — Hastig — Einfach und zart — Innig — Sehr lebhaft — Mit einigem Pomp — Zum Beschluss

Intermission Twelve Études, Op. 10 Chopin No. 1 in C major: Allegro No. 2 in A minor: Allegro No. 3 in E major: Lento ma non troppo No. 4 in C-sharp minor: Presto No. 5 in G-flat major: Vivace (“Black Key”) No. 6 in E-flat minor: Andante No. 7 in C major: Vivace No. 8 in F major: Allegro No. 9 in F minor: Allegro molto agitato No. 10 in A-flat major: Vivace assai No. 11 in E-flat major: Allegretto No. 12 in C minor: Allegro con fuoco (“Revolutionary”)

Mr. Bronfman is a Steinway Artist. He has recorded for Sony Classical, Deutsche Grammophon, BMG/Arte Nova, EMI, and Canary Classics.

Exclusive Management: Opus 3 Artists 470 Park Avenue South, 9th Floor North New York, NY 10016 www.opus3artists.com

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Y

efim Bronfman is widely regarded as one of the most talented virtuoso pianists performing today. His commanding technique and exceptional lyrical gifts have won him consistent critical acclaim and enthusiastic audiences worldwide, whether for his solo recitals, prestigious orchestral engagements, or his rapidly growing catalog of recordings. Bronfman’s 2010–11 U.S. season highlights include recitals in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and at Carnegie Hall as well as performances of Tchaikovsky’s first piano concerto with the orchestras of Houston, Cincinnati, and Saint Louis and Brahms’ second with the orchestras of Atlanta, New York, and Los Angeles. He will also make return concerto appearances in Seattle, New Jersey, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Toronto, Montreal and Washington. With long-time friend and collaborator Pinchas Zukerman, he will appear in duo recital in Princeton, Kansas City, Chicago, Boston, and at Carnegie Hall. In Europe he will tour with the Vienna Philharmonic playing the concerto written for him by Esa-Pekka Salonen, who will also conduct; and with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London, also with Salonen, he will begin a two-season project of the three Bartók concerti in London and on tour in Europe. In partnership with Berlin’s Staatskapelle and Daniel Barenboim, all three Bartók concerti will again be featured in programs in Berlin, Vienna, and Paris. Return engagements in Europe include the Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, Israel Philharmonic, London Symphony, Frankfurt Radio, Santa Cecilia Rome, and Munich Philharmonic. Orchestral highlights of his 2009–10 season included two performances at the Tanglewood Festival with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under James Levine and Michael Tilson Thomas and the New York Philharmonic’s first European tour with Music Director Alan Gilbert. As “Artiste Etoile” in residence at the Lucerne Festival, he appeared with a wide range of repertoire in recital, chamber music, and with the London Philharmonia under EsaPekka Salonen, the Lucerne Academy Orchestra and Pierre Boulez, and the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Zubin Mehta. In summer 2009, he was the featured soloist at the Berlin Philharmonic’s annual Waldbühne concert conducted by Sir Simon Rattle and televised live throughout Europe. Similarly, in summer 2010, he soloed with the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Franz WelserMöst at their televised outdoor concert from Schönbrunn Palace. Both performances are now available on commercial DVDs. Bronfman works regularly with an illustrious group of conductors, including Daniel Barenboim, Herbert Blomstedt, Christoph von Dohnányi, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Valery Gergiev, Mariss Jansons, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta, EsaPekka Salonen, Yuri Temirkanov, Franz Welser-Möst, and David Zinman. Summer engagements have regularly taken him to the major festivals of Europe and the U.S. He has also given numerous solo recitals in the leading halls of North America, Europe, and Asia, including acclaimed debuts at Carnegie Hall in 1989 and Avery Fisher Hall in 1993. In 1991, he gave a series of joint recitals with Isaac Stern in Russia, marking Bronfman’s first public performances there since his emigration to Israel at age 15. That

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yefim bronfman

Yefim Bronfman

same year, he was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize, one of the highest honors given to American instrumentalists. In 2010, he was honored as the recipient of the Jean Gimbel Lane prize in piano performance from Northwestern University. Widely praised for his solo, chamber, and orchestral recordings he was awarded a Grammy Award in 1997 for his recording of the three Bartók Piano Concerti with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. His discography also includes the complete Prokofiev Piano Sonatas; all five of the Prokofiev Piano Concerti, nominated for both Grammy and Gramophone Awards; and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concertos Nos. 2 and 3. His most recent releases are Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1 with Mariss Jansons and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks; a recital disc, Perspectives, to complement Bronfman’s designation as a Carnegie Hall “Perspectives” artist for the 2007-08 season; and recordings of all the Beethoven piano concerti as well as the Triple Concerto together with violinist Gil Shaham, cellist Truls Mørk, and the Tönhalle Orchestra Zürich under David Zinman for the Arte Nova/BMG label. His recordings with Isaac Stern include the Brahms Violin Sonatas from their aforementioned Russian tour, a cycle of the Mozart Sonatas for Violin and Piano, and the Bartók Violin Sonatas. Coinciding with the release of the Fantasia 2000 soundtrack, Bronfman was featured on his own Shostakovich album, performing the two Piano Concerti with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting and the Piano Quintet. In 2002, Sony Classical released his two-piano recital (with Emanuel Ax) of works by Rachmaninoff, which was followed in 2005 by their second recording of works by Brahms. In 2008, he released an album of the Tchaikovsky Trio in A minor with partners Gil Shaham and Truls Mørk and a Schubert/Mozart disc with the Zukerman Chamber Players. A devoted chamber music performer, Bronfman has collaborated with the Emerson, Cleveland, Guarneri, and Juilliard quartets, as well as the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He has also played chamber music with Yo-Yo Ma, Joshua Bell, Lynn Harrell, Shlomo Mintz, Jean-Pierre Rampal, and Pinchas Zukerman and tours regularly in a duo with Emanuel Ax. Yefim Bronfman immigrated to Israel with his family in 1973, and made his international debut two years later with Zubin Mehta and the Montreal Symphony. He made his New York Philharmonic debut in l978, his Washington recital debut in l98l at the Kennedy Center, and his New York recital debut in 1982 at the 92nd Street Y. Yefim Bronfman was born in Tashkent, in the Soviet Union, on April 10, 1958. In Israel he studied with pianist Arie Vardi, head of the Rubin Academy of Music at Tel Aviv University. In the United States, he studied at the Juilliard School, Marlboro, and the Curtis Institute, and with Rudolf Firkusny, Leon Fleisher, and Rudolf Serkin. Bronfman became an American citizen in July 1989.

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Program Notes Sonata in C Major, Hoboken XVI:50 (1794–95) Joseph Haydn (Born March 31, 1732, in Rohrau, Lower Austria; died May 31, 1809, in Vienna) Haydn’s final set of three keyboard sonatas (H. XVI:50-52) was written in London in 1794 or 1795 for the gifted pianist Therese Bartolozzi (née Jansen), a native of Aachen, Germany, who had settled in London to study with Clementi. She became one of the city’s most sought-after performers and piano teachers, and both Clementi and Dussek dedicated important sonatas to her. Haydn met Therese early in his second London sojourn, and he became friendly enough with her to serve as a witness at her wedding on May 16, 1795 to Gaetano Bartolozzi, son of the well-known engraver Francesco Bartolozzi. Haydn later also wrote for her three piano trios (H. XV:27-29). The C major Sonata (H. XVI:50) begins with a splendid movement, a boundlessly inventive fantasia in sonata form grown from a single thematic kernel, which the eminent Haydn authority Jens Peter Larsen called “perhaps the finest expression of the composer’s own creative power. It is a marvelous example of his structural mastery, developing a short and rather formal opening theme into a varied but consistently unified piece.” The Adagio is delicate and graceful, finely shading its sun-dappled principal tonality with moments of harmonic melancholy. Such a movement speaks eloquently of the influence of Wolfgang Mozart, dead only three years, on the music of Haydn’s late maturity. The compact finale is a sparkling sonatina-form essay that is almost a scherzo. Humoreske (2011) Esa-Pekka Salonen (Born June 30, 1958, in Helsinki, Findland) Conducting is tough, composing probably even harder, but some of the most brilliant musicians—Busoni, Mahler, Bernstein, Boulez, Previn—have pursued parallel careers in both fields that enriched all the facets of their creative personalities. To this select company must now be added the Finnish composer-conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen. Born in Helsinki on June 30, 1958, Salonen majored in horn at the Sibelius Conservatory, where he founded a “collective” called Ears Open for promoting and performing new music with Jouni Kaipainen, Magnus Lindberg, and Kaija Saariaho, now all major musical figures in Finland. After graduating in 1977, Salonen studied composition privately with Einojuhani Rautavaara and conducting with Jorma Panula, and attended conducting courses in Siena and Darmstadt; he also studied composition with Niccolò Castiglioni and Franco Donatoni in Italy. In 1979, Salonen made his professional conducting debut with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and he was soon engaged as a guest conductor across Scandinavia. Successful appearances conducting Wozzeck at the Swedish Royal Opera and the Mahler Symphony No. 3 with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London led to his appointment as conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra in 1985, a post he held until 1995. He was principal guest conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic from 1984-89, and of the London Philharmonia from 1985-94; he has also held positions with the New Stockholm Chamber Orchestra, Avanti! Chamber Orchestra, Helsinki Festival, and London Sinfonietta. 36

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Salonen made his American debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1984, and was that orchestra’s music director from 1992 until 2009; he was named the ensemble’s Conductor Laureate in April 2009. Since 2008, he has been Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of London’s Philharmonia Orchestra. He also continues to guest conduct concerts and opera throughout the world and to serve as artistic director of the Baltic Sea Festival, which he co-founded in 2003. Esa-Pekka Salonen is the recipient of several major awards, including the Siena Prize from the Accademia Chigiana (the first conductor ever to receive that distinction), the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Opera Award and Conductor Award, honorary doctorates from the Sibelius Academy and the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, and the Helsinki Medal. In 1998, he was awarded the rank of Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government. Musical America named him its “2006 Musician of the Year.” Though his widest recognition has been as a conductor, Salonen is also an accomplished composer. (“I actually think of myself more as a composer than a conductor,” he said in 1998.) His early compositions, including a Saxophone Concerto, an orchestral piece titled Giro, and a few works for solo instruments and unconventional chamber groupings, are rooted in the avant-garde enthusiasms of his student days, but since his LA Variations of 1996, written for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, his work has been more immediate and easily approachable. Among his recent orchestral compositions is the Piano Concerto No. 1, premiered in 2007 under his direction by Yefim Bronfman and the New York Philharmonic. Humoreske was written in 2011 for Bronfman. Humoreske, Op. 20 (1839) Robert Schumann (Born June 8, 1810, in Zwickau, Germany; died July 29, 1856, in Endenich, near Bonn) By the middle of 1838, Robert Schumann’s parallel passions for music, writing, and Clara Wieck had brought the 28-year-old composer to a crucial point in his life. Denied by the adamant intervention of Clara’s father from having her hand in marriage, resigned to never becoming the piano virtuoso that he had dreamed since childhood, and seeking a more vibrant musical milieu than Leipzig as the base for the journal Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (New Journal for Music), which he had edited since its inception in 1833, Schumann decided that a move to Vienna might improve his fortunes. By Christmas, it had become clear to Schumann that his Viennese venture would fail—he could find no significant way in which to advance his career, there was no promising situation for the Zeitschrift, and he missed Clara terribly, all the more since the Viennese adored her playing and continually interrogated him to learn more about her. He lingered in the imperial city until March 30, 1839, and then returned to Leipzig, where, after six more months of waiting to outlast Wieck’s intransigence and legal obstacles, he finally married his beloved Clara on September 12, the eve of her 21st birthday. Though Schumann did not realize his most immediate goals during his Viennese incursion, the enterprise was not without value. He brought home with him two important souvenirs—a steel pen that he found on the grave of Beethoven, with which he wrote his First Symphony in 1841; and the score for the late Franz Schubert’s never-performed Ninth Symphony, unearthed


As with his other cycles, the Humoreske embraces a wide variety of strongly contrasted moods, whose extremes Schumann himself personified as the fictional characters Florestan (“impetuous and mercurial”) and Eusebius (“dreamy and romantic”). Though the individual episodes do not have any immediately discernible formal tissue linking them, their foundation in the pervasive tonality of B-flat and their natural growth from one section to the next suggest not so much an amorphous series of independent movements as a set of free variations in search of a theme. The Humoreske, like the other piano masterworks that Schumann created from the seething cauldron of his emotions during the years of his early maturity, is music of rich and intense expression, inventive formal design, and a superb sense of the keyboard’s most sumptuous sonorities.

yefim bronfman

from the piles of manuscripts preserved by that composer’s brother Ferdinand and heard for the first time, at Schumann’s insistence, at Felix Mendelssohn’s Leipzig Gewandhaus concert of December 12, 1839. In addition, Schumann composed several piano works in Vienna, including the finale of the G minor Sonata (Op. 22), Arabesque (Op. 18), Blumenstück (Op. 19), Humoreske (Op. 20), Nachtstücke (Op. 23), the opening sections of the Faschingsschwank aus Wien (Carnival Jest from Vienna, Op. 26) and a number of smaller pieces. Of the Humoreske, written at the beginning of 1839, he wrote to Clara, “All week I have scarcely left my piano, composing and laughing and crying, all at once. My Humoreske is the result, and you will find all of these things in there.” Schumann told a Belgian acquaintance, Simonin de Sire, that the title was intended to convey “a happy combination of Gemütlichkeit [i.e., genial, cozy feelings] and wit.” Though its name implies something diminutive, the Humoreske is comparable in scale and form to the large piano cycles, those peerless collections of aphoristic character pieces that had occupied Schumann since his Papillons (“Butterflies”) of 1832.

The Étude No. 1 of Op. 10 (C major), a virtuoso exercise in continuous right-hand arpeggios, bursts with joyous triumph. No. 2 (A minor) is a gossamer scherzo enclosed within a study in glistening chromatic scales. The lyricism of the slow third movement (E major), “conceivably the most beautiful étude ever composed,” according to Herbert Weinstock, lent itself to adaptation as a popular song in the early days of Tin Pan Alley. The Étude No. 4 (C-sharp minor) is driven and tempestuous. In No. 5 (G-flat major), the sparkling “Black-Key Étude,” the fingers of the right hand never leave the keyboard’s black keys; the piece was a favorite of Clara Schumann, who often included it in her recitals. No. 6 (E-flat minor) presents a morose melody entwined with a ceaseless accompanimental figuration in the middle voice. No. 7 (C major) is lilting and airy. The Étude No. 8 (F major) is based upon sweeping broken chords which are balanced by a curious fragmented melody in the left hand. No. 9 (F minor) is haunted and agitated. The celebrated 19th-century pianist and conductor Hans von Bülow said of the moto perpetuo Étude No. 10 (A-flat major) that any performer who can play it in a polished manner “may congratulate himself on having climbed to the highest point of the pianist’s Parnassus.” No. 11 (E-flat major) is a study in euphonious rolled chords. The closing number of the Op. 10 set (C minor) is the fiery “Revolutionary” Étude, written in 1831, when Chopin learned during a stop in Stuttgart that the independence movement in Warsaw had brutally been put down by the occupation troops of imperial Russia. ©2011 Dr. Richard E. Rodda

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Twelve Études, Op. 10 (ca. 1830-1831) Frédéric Chopin (Born February 22, 1810, in Zelazowa-Wola, Poland; died October 17, 1849, in Paris) Chopin’s first set of Twelve Études was published as his Op. 10 in 1833 (with a dedication to Franz Liszt), though the individual pieces had been written two and three years earlier, around the time that the young composer left Warsaw for Vienna and Paris. The étude originally grew from the need for study pieces focusing on one aspect of keyboard technique, but Chopin’s examples lifted the genre from that of a simple pedagogical vehicle to a richly expressive concert form with a single, sustained mood. The Études are the first works in which Chopin’s fully formed genius is evident. His second set of Études, Op. 25, appeared in 1837, with a dedication to the Countess Marie d’Agoult, Liszt’s mistress and mother of Cosima, later Richard Wagner’s second wife. The English pianist and writer on music Robert Collet explained why the Études are among the most characteristic and perfect of Chopin’s creations: “Here, Chopin’s more obvious limitations, his lack of sense of the monumental, either seem to be unimportant or to be positive virtues; in these works, he never attempts anything basically unsuited to his natural genius. They are in some ways the most universal of his works; to an unusual degree, they transcend barriers of time and nationality…It is difficult to think of any music of the decade around 1830 that has dated less.”

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MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 6: Feb-Mar 2011 |

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Robert and Margrit Mondavi

Center for the Performing Arts

| UC Davis

Presents

Alexander String Quartet Zakarias Grafilo & Frederick Lifsitz, violins Paul Yarbrough, viola Sandy Wilson, cello An Alexander String Quartet Series Event Sunday, March 13, 2011 • 2PM & 7PM Vanderhoef Studio Theatre, Mondavi Center, UC Davis Lecturer: Robert Greenberg (2PM concert only) Post-performance Q&A following the 7PM show.

The artists and your fellow audience members appreciate silence during the performance. Please be sure that you have switched off all electronic devices. Videotaping, photographing, and audio recording are strictly forbidden. Violators are subject to removal. 38

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alexander string quartet

Program 2PM:

String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp Minor, Op. 131 Adagio ma non troppo e molto espressivo Allegro molto vivace Allegro moderato Andante ma non troppo e molto cantabile Presto Adagio quasi un poco andante Allegro

Beethoven

7PM:

String Quartet No. 14 in G Major, K. 387 Allegro vivace assai Menuetto: Allegro Andante cantabile Molto allegro

W.A. Mozart

String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp Minor, Op. 131 Adagio ma non troppo e molto espressivo Allegro molto vivace Allegro moderato Andante ma non troppo e molto cantabile Presto Adagio quasi un poco andante Allegro

Beethoven

Program Notes String Quartet No. 14 in G Major, K. 387 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Born January 27, 1756, in Salzburg; died December 5, 1791, in Vienna) Soon after his arrival in Vienna in 1781, Mozart fell under the spell of Haydn’s quartets, and when Haydn published the six quartets of his Op. 33 the following year, the younger composer saw new expressive possibilities in the form. He set about writing a cycle of six quartets of his own, and these new works—his first quartets in nine years—would be far different from his divertimento‑like early essays in that form. We normally think of Mozart as a fast worker, but he worked for three years on these quartets, revising and refining until he had them just the way he wanted. In his rather flowery dedication of them to Haydn, Mozart conceded that they were indeed “the fruit of long and laborious toil.” Yet this music hardly sounds labored. It flows with consummate ease, and these six quartets are among Mozart’s finest works. He completed the first of the set, in G major, on December 31, 1782. There is nothing remarkable formally about the first three movements—a sonata‑form opening movement, a minuet‑and‑trio, and a slow movement—but what distinguishes this music is the glorious writing for string quartet. The Allegro is built around a lyric opening idea (note how Mozart dovetails fragments of that theme into the line even as the theme is still being announced) and a bouncy second subject presented by the second violin. The graceful development of these ideas is full of chromatic writing, and the movement drives to a quiet close. Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

The minuet movement is massive, both in duration (surprisingly, this minuet is the longest movement in the quartet) and in scope. It features off‑the‑beat accents and themes built on long chromatic slides; its powerful trio, in G minor, leaps across unexpected intervals. The elegant Andante cantabile does indeed sing, its graceful opening idea growing more ornate as it develops. Most remarkable by far is the finale, which—while not strictly a fugue—is built on fugal material. It opens with the four‑note tag that would later form the fugal opening of the finale of the “Jupiter” Symphony. Almost before this contrapuntal complexity is underway, Mozart introduces a second fugue subject, and then— just as a dazzling display of composing virtuosity—he combines the two fugue themes. The movement is actually in sonata‑form, using fugal ideas as the contrasted material, and Mozart works out the movement with breathtaking ease. The very end may well be the most striking moment of all: the music races to what sounds like a cadence, but it is a false ending, and now Mozart produces the true conclusion, a simple restatement of the opening fugue subject, presented very quietly and—at the end—harmonized. Mozart may have been impressed by Haydn’s string quartets, but now it was the older composer’s turn to repay the compliment, and he did that with the utmost sincerity. After hearing three of the quartets that Mozart dedicated to him performed at a garden party in Vienna in 1785, Haydn turned to Mozart’s father and exclaimed: “Before God and as an honest man, I tell you that your son is the greatest composer known to me either in person or by name. He has taste and, what is more, the most profound knowledge of composition.”

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alexander string quartet

String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp Minor, Op. 131 Ludwig Van Beethoven (Born December 16, 1770, in Bonn; died March 26, 1827, in Vienna) Beethoven had been commissioned in 1822 by Prince Nikolas Galitzin of St. Petersburg to write three string quartets, but he had to delay them until after he finished the Missa Solemnis and the Ninth Symphony. He completed the three quartets for Galitzin in 1825, but immediately began another. Begun at the end of 1825, the Quartet in C‑sharp Minor was not done until July 1826. This is an astonishing work in every respect. Its form alone is remarkable: seven continuous movements lasting a total of 40 minutes. But its content is just as remarkable, for this quartet is an unbroken arc of music that sustains a level of heartfelt intensity and intellectual power through every instant of its journey. It is no surprise to learn that this was Beethoven’s favorite among his quartets. On the manuscript he sent the publisher, the composer scrawled: “zusammengestohlen aus Verschiedenem diesem und jenem” (“Stolen and patched together from various bits and pieces”). The alarmed publishers were worried that he might be trying to palm off some old pieces he had lying around, and Beethoven had to explain that his remark was a joke. But it is at once a joke and a profound truth: a joke because this quartet is one of the most carefully unified pieces ever written, and a truth because it is made up of “bits and pieces”: fugue, theme and variations, scherzo, and sonata form among them. The opening movement is a long, slow fugue, the haunting main subject laid out immediately by the first violin. There is something rapt about the movement (and perhaps the entire quartet), as if the music almost comes from a different world. In a sense, it did. Beethoven had been completely deaf for a decade when he wrote this quartet, and now—less than a year from his death—he was writing from the lonely power of his own musical imagination. Molto espressivo, he demands in the score, and if ever there has been expressive music, this is it. The fugue reaches a point of repose, then modulates up half a step to D major for the Allegro molto vivace. Rocking along easily on a 6/8 meter, this flowing movement brings relaxation—and emotional relief—after the intense fugue. The Allegro moderato opens with two sharp chords and seems on the verge of developing entirely new ideas when Beethoven suddenly cuts it off with a soaring cadenza for first violin and proceeds to the next movement; the Allegro moderato seems to pass as the briefest flash of contrast—the entire movement lasts only 11 measures. The longest movement in the quartet, the Allegro ma non troppo e molto cantabile is one of its glories. Beethoven presents a simple theme, gracefully shared by the two violins, and then writes six variations on it. At times the variations grow so complex that the original theme almost disappears; Beethoven brings it back, exotically decorated by first violin trills, at the very end of the movement. Out of this quiet close explodes the Presto, the quartet’s scherzo, which rushes along on a steady pulse of quarter notes; this powerful music flows easily, almost gaily. Beethoven makes use of sharp pizzicato accents and at the very end asks the performers to play sul ponticello, producing an eerie, grating sound by bowing directly on the tops of their bridges. There follows a heartfelt Adagio, its main idea introduced by the viola. Beethoven distills stunning emotional power into the briefest of spans here: this movement lasts only 28 measures before the 40

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concluding Allegro bursts to life with a unison attack three octaves deep. In sonata form, this furiously energetic movement brings back fragments of the fugue subject from the first movement. It is an exuberant conclusion to so intense a journey, and at the very end the music almost leaps upward to the three massive chords that bring the quartet to its close. —Eric Bromberger The Alexander String Quartet has performed in the major music capitals of five continents, securing its standing among the world’s premier ensembles over nearly three decades. Widely admired for its interpretations of Beethoven, Mozart, and Shostakovich, the quartet has also established itself as an important ad­vocate of new music through more than 25 commissions and numerous premiere performances. At home in San Francisco, the members of the Alexander String Quartet are a major artistic pres­ence, serving as directors of the Morrison Chamber Music Center at the School of Music and Dance in the College of Creative Arts at San Francisco State University and Ensemble-inResidence of San Francisco Performances. Over the past decade the Alexander String Quartet has added considerably to its distinguished and wide-ranging discography. Currently recording exclusively for the FoghornClassics label, the Alexander’s most recent release (June 2009) is a complete Beethoven cycle. Music Web International has described the performances on this new Beethoven set as “uncompromising in their power, intensity, and spiritual depth,” while Strings Magazine described the set as “a landmark journey through the greatest of all quartet cycles.” FoghornClassics released a three-CD set (Homage) of the Mozart quartets dedicated to Haydn in 2004. Foghorn released a six-CD album (Fragments) of the complete Shostakovich quartets in 2006 and 2007, and a recording of the complete quartets of Pulitzer Prize-winning San Francisco composer Wayne Peterson was released in 2008. BMG Classics released the quartet’s first recording of the Beethoven cycle on its Arte Nova label to tremendous critical acclaim in 1999. The Alexander String Quartet’s annual calendar of concerts includes engagements at major halls throughout North America and Europe. The quartet has appeared at Lincoln Center, the 92nd Street Y, and the Metropolitan Museum in New York City; Jordan Hall in Boston; the Library of Congress and Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D. C.; and chamber music societies and universities across North America. Recent overseas tours have included the U.K., the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, France, Greece, the Republic of Georgia, and the Philippines. The many distin­guished artists to collaborate with the Alexander String Quartet include pianists Menahem Pressler, Gary Graffman, Roger Woodward, Jeremy Menuhin, and Joyce Yang; clarinetists Eli Eban, Charles Neidich, Joan Enric Lluna, and Richard Stoltzman; cellists Lynn Harrell, Sadao Harada, and David Requiro; violist Toby Appel; soprano Elly Ameling; and saxophonists Branford Marsalis, David Sánchez, and Andrew Speight. The Alexander String Quartet’s 25th anniversary was also the 20th anniversary of its association with New York City’s Baruch College as Ensemble-in-Residence. This landmark was celebrated through a performance by the ensemble of the Shostakovich string quartet cycle at Engelman Recital Hall in the Baruch Performing Art Center. Of these performances, The New York Times wrote, “The


Highlights of the 2010–11 season include two multiple-concert series for San Francisco Performances, one presenting the complete quartets of Bartók and Kodály and the other, music of Dvořák; the conclusion of a Beethoven cycle for Mondavi Center; and a continuing annual series at Baruch College in New York City. The quartet also performs an all-Beethoven program at the Lied Center of Kansas, two tours of Spain (including the inaugural performances of a new festival in Godella), and a second tour of Argentina. They also continue their annual residencies at Allegheny College, Lewis & Clark College, and St. Lawrence University. The Alexander String Quartet was formed in New York City in 1981, and the following year became the first string quartet to win the Concert Artists Guild Competition. In 1985, the quartet captured international attention as the first American quartet to win the London International String Quartet Competition, receiving both the jury’s highest award and the Audience Prize. In 1995, Allegheny College awarded Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degrees to the members of the quartet in recognition of their unique contribution to the arts. Honorary degrees were conferred on the ensemble by St. Lawrence University in 2000. In celebration of the Alexander String Quartet’s forthcoming 30th anniversary, San Francisco Performances has commissioned a new work for string quartet and mezzo-soprano from Jake Heggie; the work will be premiered in a performance in collaboration with Joyce DiDonato in February 2012 at the Herbst Theater. Other recent Alexander premieres include Rise Chanting by Augusta Read Thomas, commissioned for the Alexander by the Krannert Center and premiered there and simulcast by WFMT radio in Chicago. The quartet has also premiered String Quartets Nos. 2 and 3 by Wayne Peterson and works by Ross Bauer (commissioned by Stanford University), Richard Festinger, David Sheinfeld, Hi Kyung Kim, and a Koussevitzky commission by Robert Greenberg. Robert Greenberg Robert Greenberg was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1954, and has lived in the San Francisco Bay area since 1978. Greenberg received a B.A. in music, magna cum laude, from Princeton University in 1976. In 1984, Greenberg received a Ph.D. in music composition, with distinction, from the University of California, Berkeley.

Composer Grants. Recent commissions have been received from the Koussevitzky Foundation in the Library of Congress, the Alexander String Quartet, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, the Strata Ensemble, San Francisco Performances, and the XTET ensemble. Greenberg is a board member and an artistic director of Composers, Inc., a composers’ collective/production organization based in San Francisco. Greenberg has performed, taught, and lectured extensively across North America and Europe. He is currently music historian-inresidence with San Francisco Performances, where he has lectured and performed since 1994, and a faculty member of the Advanced Management Program at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. He has served on the faculties of the University of California, Berkeley; California State University, East Bay; and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he chaired the Department of Music History and Literature from 1989-2001 and served as the Director of the Adult Extension Division from 1991–96. Greenberg has lectured for some of the most prestigious musical and arts organizations in the United States, including the San Francisco Symphony (where for 10 years he was host and lecturer for the Symphony’s nationally acclaimed “Discovery Series”), the Ravinia Festival, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Van Cliburn Foundation, the Chautauqua Institute (where he was the Everett Scholar in Residence for the summer of 2006), the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, and Music@Menlo. Greenberg has been profiled in The Wall Street Journal, the Times of London, Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, and San Francisco Chronicle. For many years Greenberg was the resident composer and music historian to National Public Radio’s Weekend All Things Considered, and presently plays that role on Weekend Edition, Sunday with Liane Hansen. In 1993, Greenberg recorded a 48-lecture course, How to Listen to and Understand Great Music for the Teaching Company/SuperStar Teachers Program, the preeminent producer of college level courses-on-media in the United States. Twelve further courses— Concert Masterworks, Bach and the High Baroque, The Symphonies of Beethoven, How to Listen to and Understand Opera, Great Masters, The Operas of Mozart, The Life and Operas of Verdi, The Symphony, The Chamber Music of Mozart, The Piano Sonatas of Beethoven, The Concerto and The Fundamentals of Music—have been recorded since, totaling more than 500 lectures. In 2003, the Bangor (Maine) Daily News referred to Greenberg as “the Elvis of music history and appreciation,” an appraisal that has given him more pleasure than any other. Dr. Greenberg is currently writing a book on opera and its impact on Western culture, to be published by Oxford University Press.

Greenberg has composed more than 45 works for a wide variety of instrumental and vocal ensembles. Recent performances of his works have taken place in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, England, Ireland, Greece, Italy, and the Netherlands, where his Child’s Play for String Quartet was performed at the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam.

The Alexander String Quartet is represented by BesenArts LLC 508 First Street, Suite 4W Hoboken, NJ 07030-7823 www.BesenArts.com The Alexander String Quartet records for FoghornClassics www.asq4.com

Greenberg has received numerous honors, including three Nicola de Lorenzo Composition Prizes and three Meet-The-

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alexander string quartet

intimacy of the music came through with enhanced power and poignancy in the Alexander Quartet’s vibrant, probing, assured and aptly volatile performances…Seldom have these anguished, playful, ironic and masterly works seemed so profoundly personal.” The Alexander String Quartet was also awarded Presidential Medals in honor of its longstanding commitment to the arts and education and in celebration of two decades of service to Baruch College.

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Robert and Margrit Mondavi

Center for the Performing Arts

| UC Davis

Presents

San Francisco Symphony and chorus Michael Tilson Thomas, Music Director Ragnar Bohlin conducting Ingela Bohlin, soprano Abigail Nims, soprano Kelley O’Connor, mezzo-soprano Nicholas Phan, tenor Shenyang, bass-baritone San Francisco Symphony Chorus Ragnar Bohlin, Director

A Western Health Advantage Orchestra Series Event Thursday, March 17, 2011 • 8PM Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center, UC Davis

With individual support from Barbara K. Jackson

There will be one intermission. Pre-performance Talk Speaker: Susan Key, Program Director, Keeping Score Education, San Francisco Symphony Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center • 7PM The artists and your fellow audience members appreciate silence during the performance. Please be sure that you have switched off all electronic devices. Videotaping, photographing, and audio recording are strictly forbidden. Violators are subject to removal.

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MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 6: Feb-Mar 2011 |

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Voted “Best Place to Eat Before a Mondavi Center Performance.” —Sacramento Magazine (2010) Offering Private INDOOR & OUTDOOR Dining Rooms

Perfect for your next:  Cocktail Reception  Company Mixer  Family Reunion  Retirement Party  or Special Occasion 102 F Street, Davis | (530) 750-1801 www.seasonsdavis.com

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san francisco symphony and CHORUS

San Francisco Symphony and chorus Michael Tilson Thomas, Music Director Ragnar Bohlin conducting

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH MASS IN B MINOR, BWV 232

Kyrie eleison Gloria in excelsis Deo Intermission Credo in unum Deum Sanctus Osanna in excelsis Benedictus Agnus Dei Dona nobis pacem

Ingela Bohlin, soprano Abigail Nims, mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor, mezzo-soprano Nicholas Phan, tenor Shenyang, bass-baritone San Francisco Symphony Chorus Ragnar Bohlin, Director

Ingela Bohlin’s appearance is supported by a grant from the Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation.

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MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 6: Feb-Mar 2011 |

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san francisco symphony and CHORUS

San Francisco Symphony Michael Tilson Thomas Music Director & Conductor Donato Cabrera Resident Conductor Herbert Blomstedt Conductor Laureate Ragnar Bohlin Chorus Director Vance George Chorus Director Emeritus First Violins Alexander Barantschik Concertmaster Naoum Blinder Chair Nadya Tichman Associate Concertmaster San Francisco Symphony Foundation Chair Mark Volkert Assistant Concertmaster 75th Anniversary Chair Jeremy Constant Assistant Concertmaster Mariko Smiley Paula & John Gambs Second Century Chair Melissa Kleinbart Katharine Hanrahan Chair Yun Chu Sharon Grebanier Naomi Kazama Hull Yukiko Kurakata Catherine A. Mueller Chair Suzanne Leon Leor Maltinski Diane Nicholeris Sarn Oliver Florin Parvulescu Victor Romasevich Catherine Van Hoesen* In Sun Jang† Second Violins Dan Nobuhiko Smiley Principal Dinner & Swig Families Chair Dan Carlson Associate Principal Audrey Avis Aasen-Hull Chair Paul Brancato* Assistant Principal Kum Mo Kim The Eucalyptus Foundation Second Century Chair Raushan Akhmedyarova David Chernyavsky John Chisholm Cathryn Down Darlene Gray Amy Hiraga Frances Jeffrey Chunming Mo Kelly Leon-Pearce Polina Sedukh Isaac Stern Chair Robert Zelnick Chen Zhao

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Violas Jonathan Vinocour Principal Yun Jie Liu Associate Principal Katie Kadarauch Assistant Principal John Schoening Joanne E. Harrington & Lorry I. Lokey Second Century Chair Nancy Ellis Gina Feinauer David Gaudry David Kim Christina King Wayne Roden Nanci Severance Adam Smyla* Cellos Michael Grebanier Principal Philip S. Boone Chair Peter Wyrick Associate Principal Peter & Jacqueline Hoefer Chair Amos Yang Assistant Principal Margaret Tait Lyman & Carol Casey Second Century Chair Barbara Andres The Stanley S. Langendorf Foundation Second Century Chair Barbara Bogatin Jill Rachuy Brindel Gary & Kathleen Heidenreich Second Century Chair Sébastien Gingras David Goldblatt Christine & Pierre Lamond Second Century Chair Carolyn McIntosh Anne Pinsker

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Basses Scott Pingel Principal Larry Epstein Associate Principal Stephen Tramontozzi Assistant Principal Richard & Rhoda Goldman Chair S. Mark Wright Charles Chandler Lee Ann Crocker Chris Gilbert Brian Marcus William Ritchen Flutes Tim Day Principal Caroline H. Hume Chair Robin McKee Associate Principal Catherine & Russell Clark Chair Linda Lukas Alfred S. & Dede Wilsey Chair Catherine Payne Piccolo Oboes William Bennett Principal Edo de Waart Chair Jonathan Fischer Associate Principal Pamela Smith Dr. William D. Clinite Chair Russ deLuna English Horn Joseph & Pauline Scafidi Chair Clarinets Carey Bell Principal William R. & Gretchen B. Kimball Chair Luis Baez Associate Principal E-flat Clarinet David Neuman Jerome Simas† Bass Clarinet Bassoons Stephen Paulson Principal Steven Dibner Associate Principal Rob Weir Steven Braunstein Contrabassoon

Horns Robert Ward Principal Jeannik Méquet Littlefield Chair Nicole Cash Associate Principal Bruce Roberts Assistant Principal Jonathan Ring Jessica Valeri Kimberly Wright* Trumpets Mark Inouye Principal William G. Irwin Charity Foundation Chair Glenn Fischthal Associate Principal Peter Pastreich Chair Michael Tiscione Ann L. & Charles B. Johnson Chair Jeff Biancalana† Trombones Timothy Higgins Principal Robert L. Samter Chair Paul Welcomer John Engelkes Bass Trombone Tuba Jeffrey Anderson Principal James Irvine Chair Harp Douglas Rioth Principal Timpani David Herbert Principal Marcia & John Goldman Chair Percussion Jack Van Geem Principal Carol Franc Buck Foundation Chair Raymond Froehlich Tom Hemphill James Lee Wyatt III Keyboard Robin Sutherland Jean & Bill Lane Chair

John D. Goldman President Brent Assink Executive Director John Kieser General Manager Gregg Gleasner Director of Artistic Planning Nan Keeton Director of Marketing, Communications and External Affairs Oliver Theil Director of Public Relations Rebecca Blum Orchestra Personnel Manager John G. Van Winkle Principal Librarian Nancy & Charles Geschke Chair Joyce Cron Wessling Manager, Tours and Media Production Tim Carless Production Manager Vance DeVost Stage Manager Dennis DeVost Stage Technician Rob Doherty Stage Technician Roni Jules Stage Technician * On leave † Acting member of the San Francisco Symphony

Donato Cabrera has been named Bruno Walter Resident Conductor for the 2010-11 season, a post made possible by a grant from the Bruno Walter Memorial Foundation. Mr. Cabrera’s appointment as Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra is generously supported by the Paul L. and Phyllis Wattis Endowment Fund. The San Francisco Symphony string section utilizes revolving seating on a systematic basis. Players listed in alphabetical order change seats periodically.


For RCA Red Seal, Michael Tilson Thomas and the SFS have recorded music from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, Mahler’s Das klagende Lied, Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, two Copland collections, a Gershwin collection, Stravinsky ballets (Le Sacre du printemps, The Firebird, and Perséphone), and Charles Ives: An American Journey. Their cycle of Mahler symphonies has received seven Grammys and is available on the Symphony’s own label, SFS Media, for which they have also recorded an album of the composer’s orchestral songs. Some of the most important conductors of the past have been guests on the SFS podium, among them Bruno Walter, Leopold Stokowski, Leonard Bernstein, and Sir Georg Solti, and the list of composers who have led the orchestra includes Stravinsky, Ravel, Copland, and John Adams. The SFS Youth Orchestra, founded in 1980, has become known around the world, as has the SFS Chorus, heard on recordings and on the soundtracks of such films as Amadeus and Godfather III. For two decades, the SFS Adventures in Music program has brought music to every child in grades 1-5 in San Francisco’s public schools. SFS radio broadcasts, the first in the U.S. to feature symphonic music when they began in 1926, today carry the orchestra’s concerts across the country. In a multimedia program designed to make classical music accessible to people of all ages and backgrounds, the SFS has launched Keeping Score on PBS, DVD, radio (The MTT Files), and at the website www.keepingscore.org. San Francisco Symphony recordings are available at www.shopsfsymphony.org.

san francisco symphony and CHORUS

The San Francisco Symphony gave its first concerts in 1911 and has grown in acclaim under a succession of music directors: Henry Hadley, Alfred Hertz, Basil Cameron, Issay Dobrowen, Pierre Monteux, Enrique Jordá, Josef Krips, Seiji Ozawa, Edo de Waart, Herbert Blomstedt, and, since 1995, Michael Tilson Thomas. The SFS has won such recording awards as France’s Grand Prix du Disque, Britain’s Gramophone Award, and the Grammy in the U.S.

The San Francisco Symphony Chorus was established in 1972 at the request of Seiji Ozawa, then the Symphony’s Music Director; the 142-member Chorus today gives a minimum of 26 performances each season. Louis Magor served as the Chorus’s director during its first decade. In 1982, Margaret Hillis, director of the Chicago Symphony Chorus, assumed the ensemble’s leadership, and the following year Vance George was named Chorus Director, serving through 2005-06. Ragnar Bohlin assumed the position of Chorus Director in 2007.

The Chorus can be heard on many acclaimed recordings, including Mahler’s symphonies 2, 3, and 8 (with Michael Tilson Thomas conducting), choral works of Brahms, Mahler’s Das klagende Lied, Stravinsky’s Perséphone, selections from Berlioz’s Lélio, and John Adams’s Harmonium. The ensemble has received Grammy awards for Best Performance of a Choral Work (for Orff ’s Carmina burana, Brahms’s German Requiem, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 8) and Best Classical Album (for a collection of Stravinsky’s music including Perséphone, The Firebird, and Le Sacre du printemps, and for Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 and Symphony No. 8). The current ensemble is made up of 30 professional and 112 volunteer singers. San Francisco Symphony and Chorus Ragnar Bohlin, Director Vance George, Chorus Director Emeritus Matthew Edwards, Choral Accompanist Sopranos Radoslava Biancalana Megan Bless Elizabeth L. Blodgett Brenda Bonhomme* Arlene Boyd Stacy Cullison Melodi Dalton* Anne H. Janzer Phoebe Jevtovic* Kaileen Erin Miller* Debra Niles* Pamela Sebastian* Cindy Wyvill* Datevig Yaralian* Altos Terry Alvord* Karen Carle* Ruth Escher* Trisha Leavitt* Peg Lisi* Maria Metcalf Meyer* Gail Nakano Gayle Sakowski Yuri Sebata-Dempster Dianne M. Terp* Merilyn Telle Vaughn* Heidi L. Waterman* Suellen Winegar

Tenors Paul Angelo Howard Baltazar* Joel Jay Baluyot* Todd Bradley Seth Brenzel* Nick Burdick Kevin Gibbs* David Martinez David Meissner* Keith Perry* James C. Pintner Thomas Teel David J. Xiques* Basses John Bischoff* Jim Cowing Micah Epps* Malcolm Gaines Bradley Irving Erik Malmquist Jay Moorhead* Jefferson Packer Steven Rogino* William W. Skaff Chung-Wai Soong* Joseph Tambornino Michael Taylor* David Varnum* Shawn Ying

*Member of the American Guild of Musical Artists Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

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Ragnar Bohlin began his tenure as Chorus Director of the San Francisco Symphony in 2007. Born in 1965, he served as choirmaster of Stockholm’s Maria Magdalena Church and holds a master’s degree in organ and conducting and a postgraduate degree in conducting from the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm. Bohlin studied with renowned choir director Eric Ericson and has studied orchestra conducting with Jorma Panula. On a British Council scholarship he studied piano with Peter Feuchtwanger in London, and through a Sweden-America Foundation scholarship, he visited choruses throughout the U.S. He has studied singing with the great Swedish tenor Nicolai Gedda and has also appeared as an oratory tenor. With Stockholm’s KFUM Chamber Choir, the Maria Magdalena Motet Choir, and the Maria Vocal Ensemble, Bohlin has toured internationally and won numerous prizes in international competitions. He has appeared regularly on Swedish radio with the Swedish Radio Choir, the Maria Vocal Ensemble, and the Maria Magdalena Motet Choir, and he has worked with the Ericson Chamber Choir, Royal Philharmonic Choir, and the Royal Opera Choir of Stockholm. Currently teaching at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, he has also taught at the Royal Academy in Stockholm and has been a visiting professor at Indiana and Michigan. Bohlin has made numerous recordings, among them Visions and non-thoughts with trombonist-composer-conductor Christian Lindberg and the Swedish Radio Choir in 2008. In 2010, Bohlin conducted the Swedish Radio Choir on a U.S. tour, including performances in Chicago, Minneapolis, Ann Arbor, and Berkeley. He also made his Carnegie Hall debut conducting Brahms’s German Requiem and, in summer of 2011, he will appear as guest conductor of the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. He has received the Johannes Norrby Medallion for expanding the frontiers of the Swedish choral scene, and he prepared the San Francisco Symphony Chorus for the recording of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas’s direction, a recording awarded a Grammy for Best Choral Performance. American mezzo-soprano Abigail Nims, who makes her San Francisco Symphony debut this week, has a repertory that ranges from Bach, Handel, and Mozart to Crumb, Ligeti, and contemporary works. Among her highlights this season is her Wexford Festival Opera debut as Veruca Salt in the European premiere of Peter Ash’s The Golden Ticket. She joins the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra as soloist in Haydn’s Harmoniemesse and sings Despina in Così fan tutte with Palm Beach Opera. Last season she made her New York City Opera debut as Lazuli in Chabrier’s L’Étoile and joined the New York Philharmonic in Ligeti’s Le grand macabre. She was featured in Martin Bresnick’s song cycle Falling, included on the composer’s compilation album Every Thing Music Go, released last May on Albany Records.

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In recent seasons Nims has appeared with such ensembles as the Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra (in Messiah), Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (in Crumb’s Night of the Four Moons), and with the Carmel Bach Festival as an Adams Fellow. She was a soloist in Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 at the Teatro Municipal in Santiago, Chile, in George Benjamin’s Upon Silence and Vivaldi’s Stabat Mater with the New England String Ensemble, and in Bach’s Magnificat with the New Jersey Bach Festival. Nims’s many honors include second prize in the 2007 Fritz and Lavinia Jensen Foundation Competition, the Anna Case MacKay Memorial Award from Santa Fe Opera, the 2007 Dean’s Prize from Yale School of Music, and an honorable mention in the 2006 Bach Choir of Bethlehem Competition. She was a finalist in both the Licia AlbanesePuccini Foundation and the Philadelphia Orchestra Greenfield competitions. She holds degrees from the Yale School of Music, Westminster Choir College, and Ohio Wesleyan University. In 2007 and 2008, she was an Apprentice Artist at Santa Fe Opera, and in 2005, she was a Young Artist with Opera North. Born in Lund, Sweden, soprano Ingela Bohlin graduated from the University College of Opera in Stockholm in 2002 and that same year made her Chicago Opera Theater debut singing Fiordiligi in a new production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte. She was featured in Wolf, a staging of Mozart excerpts by choreographer Alain Platel that toured throughout Europe and culminated in performances at the Paris Opera. She appeared as Anne Truelove in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress at Gothenburg Opera; as Hanako in the world premiere of Hosokawa’s Hanjo at the Aix-en-Provence Festival and at La Monnaie in Brussels; and will appear in a new George Benjamin opera for Netherlands Opera in 2012. Recent appearances have included Drusilla in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea at the Theater an der Wien; Susanna in Figaro at La Monnaie; the title role in Poppea at Drottningholm’s Slottsteater; Iole in Hercules at the Paris Opera, Wiener Festwochen, Netherlands Opera, and in New York; Ismene in Mitridate at the Salzburg Festival; and the soprano arias in a staged production of Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion at the Glyndebourne Festival. Bohlin has worked extensively throughout Europe and Sweden. She has appeared with Les Talens Lyriques, has sung Mozart’s orchestration of Messiah at the Salzburg Whitsun Festival, Mozart’s Mass in C Minor with the Mozarteum Orchestra at the Salzburg Summer Festival, and Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Zürich Tonhalle Orchestra. She also took part in a concert tour and recording of Bruckner’s Mass in F with the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées and Philippe Herreweghe. This week, she makes her debut with the San Francisco Symphony under the direction of her brother, SFS Chorus Director Ragnar Bohlin.


O’Connor collaborates frequently with the Cleveland Orchestra, with which she has appeared as soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, staged performances of Falstaff (in Cleveland and at the Lucerne Festival), and Stravinsky’s Requiem Canticles. This season her engagements include performances of Berio’s Folk Songs with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Berlin Festival, excerpts from Roussel’s Padmâvatî with the National Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Shanghai Symphony, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, Saint Louis Symphony, and Milwaukee Symphony. She returns to the New York Philharmonic for staged performances of Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen and joins the Los Angeles Philharmonic on an international tour in Leonard Bernstein’s Jeremiah Symphony. At the Lyric Opera of Chicago she debuts as Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Last season she was featured in Lieberson’s Neruda Songs with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, as well as on an international tour with the Budapest Festival Orchestra. O’Connor made her San Francisco Symphony debut in 2008, in Haydn’s Mass in Time of War, and appeared most recently in Schubert’s Mass No. 6. Nicholas Phan, tenor, made his professional operatic debut in the Young American Artist Program at Glimmerglass Opera, where his roles included Beppe in Pagliacci and Licone in Orlando Paladino. He was also a member of the Wolf Trap Opera, playing Count Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia and Nemorino in L’Elisir d’amore. This season, Phan performs works by Purcell with Music of the Baroque and returns to Carnegie Hall for Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Oratorio Society of New York. He makes his debut with the Seattle Opera as Count Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia, and tours with Alan Curtis and Il Complesso Barocco in performances of Ariodante. Phan has appeared with the Chicago and Saint Louis symphony orchestras; and at the Edinburgh, Ravinia, Rheingau, and Marlboro music festivals; the New York City Opera, Houston Grand Opera, and Frankfurt Opera. He was presented in recital in the Marilyn Horne Foundation’s On Wings of Song series and recently debuted at the BBC Proms and the Bard Music Festival. Phan’s recording of Stravinsky’s Pulcinella with Pierre Boulez and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra was recently released on CSO Resound. His world premiere recording of Evan Chambers’s orchestral song cycle The Old Burying Ground was released last July. Phan studied at the University of Michigan, Manhattan School of Music, and the Aspen Music Festival and School, and he received a 2006 Sullivan Foundation Award. He first performed with the SFS in 2009, in the Schubert Mass No. 6, and appeared most recently as a soloist in Carmina burana. Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

san francisco symphony and CHORUS

Mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor, a California native, earned a bachelor of music degree from the University of Southern California and a master’s degree from UCLA. She received international attention for her performances as Federico García Lorca in Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar, creating the role for the world premiere at Tanglewood. She can be heard as Lorca on the Deutsche Grammophon recording Ainadamar: Fountain of Tears, which won a 2007 Grammy. This season O’Connor makes her debut with the Berlin Philharmonic in Peter Lieberson’s Neruda Songs and is a soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Highlights of past seasons have included performances of Ravel’s L’Enfant et les sortilèges with Lorin Maazel and the New York Philharmonic, Berio’s Laborintus II with EsaPekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and a gala celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Santa Fe Opera.

Bass-baritone Shenyang, who makes his San Francisco Symphony debut this week, was the winner of the 2007 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition, a 2008 winner of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, and a 2010 winner of the Montblanc New Voices at Stars of the White Nights Festival. He has won first prize at the International Opera Competition in Verona, the 2007 Verona Orfeo Singing Competition, and the 2005 Verona Don Giovanni Singing Competition. Born in Tianjin, China, Shenyang studied at the Shanghai Conservatory. He is an alumnus of the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and of the Juilliard School Opera Center. This season he tours internationally with Edo de Waart and the Hong Kong Philharmonic in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and selections from Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn. He also returns to the Metropolitan Opera to reprise his portrayal of Colline in La bohème. Recent engagements included a Metropolitan Opera debut as Masetto in Don Giovanni; performances of Haydn’s The Seasons at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing; solo lieder recitals in Cardiff, the Hong Kong Arts Festival, the Shanghai Grand Theatre, and at Lincoln Center; a Young Singers Concert at the Salzburg Festival; and Brahms’s Liebeslieder Waltzes with James Levine and Daniel Barenboim at Carnegie Hall. During the 200910 season, he made his New York Philharmonic debut in Messiah, sang the title role of Mendelssohn’s Elijah in his Boston Symphony Orchestra debut (in Boston and at Carnegie Hall), and gave a concert of arias conducted by Valery Gergiev at the White Nights Festival. His recording of Schubert’s Winterreise has been released by Feng Lin Records.

San Francisco Symphony and Chorus Members of the American Guild of Musical Artists Sopranos Brenda Bonhomme Melodi Dalton Phoebe Jevtovic Kaileen Erin Miller Debra Niles Pamela Sebastian Cindy Wyvill Datevig Yaralian Altos Terry Alvord Karen Carle Trisha Leavitt Peg Lisi Maria Metcalf Meyer Dianne M. Terp Merilyn Telle Vaughn Heidi L.Waterman

Tenors Howard Baltazar Joel Jay Baluyot Seth Brenzel Kevin Gibbs David Meissner Keith Perry David J. Xiques Basses John Bischoff Micah Epps Jay Moorhead Steven Rogino Chung-Wai Soong Michael Taylor David Varnum

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J.S. BACH MASS IN B MINOR KYRIE Chorus Kyrie eleison.

Lord, have mercy. Duet (Soprano I and II)

Christe eleison.

Christ, have mercy. Chorus

Kyrie eleison.

Lord, have mercy.

GLORIA Chorus Gloria in excelsis Deo.

Glory to God in the highest. Chorus

Et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis.

And on earth peace to men of good will.

Aria (Soprano II) Laudamus te, benedicimus te, adoramus te, glorificamus te.

We praise you, we bless you, we worship you, we glorify you. Chorus

Gratias agimus tibi propter magnam gloriam tuam.

We give you thanks for your great glory.

Duet (Soprano I and Tenor) Domine Deus, Rex coelestis Deus pater omnipotens. Domine Fili unigenite Jesu Christe, Domine Deus, agnus Dei, Filius Patris.

Lord God, heavenly King, God the Father almighty. The only-begotten Son, Lord Jesus Christ, Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father. Chorus

Qui tollis peccata mundi: miserere nobis; qui tollis peccata mundi: suscipe deprecationem nostram.

You take away the sin of the world: have mercy on us; you take away the sin of the world: receive our prayer.

Aria (Mezzo-soprano) Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris: miserere nobis.

You are seated at the right hand of the Father: have mercy on us. Aria (Bass)

Quoniam tu solus sanctus, tu solus Dominus, tu solus altissimus, Jesu Christe.

For you alone are the Holy One, you alone are the Lord, you alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ. Chorus

Cum sancto spiritu, in gloria Dei Patris. Amen.

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With the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the Father. Amen.


san francisco symphony and CHORUS

CREDO Chorus Credo in unum Deum.

We believe in one God. Chorus

Patrem omnipotentem, factorem coeli et terrae, visibilium omnium et invisibilium.

The Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.

Duet (Soprano I and Mezzo-soprano) Et in unum Dominum, Jesum Christum, Filium Dei unigenitum, et ex patre natum ante omnia saecula. Deum de Deo, lumen de lumine, Deum verum de Deo vero. Genitum, non factum, consubstantialem Patri, Per quem omnia facta sunt. Qui propter nos homines et propter nostram salutem descendit de coelis.

And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven.

Chorus Et incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria virgine, et homo factus est.

By the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man. Chorus

Crucifixus etiam pro nobis, sub Pontio Pilato passus, et sepultus est.

For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. Chorus

Et resurrexit tertia die secundum scripturas; et ascendit in coelum sedet ad dexteram Patris. Et iterum venturus est cum gloria judicare vivos et mortuos, cujus regni non erit finis.

On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

Aria (Bass) Et in Spiritum Sanctum, Dominum et vivificantem, qui ex Patre Filioque procedit Qui cum Patre et Filio simul adoratur et conglorificatur. Qui locutus est per Prophetas. Et unum sanctam catholicam et apostolicam ecclesiam.

And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets. And in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. Chorus

Confiteor unum baptisma in remissionem peccatorum.

We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. Chorus

Et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum, et vitam venturi seculi. Amen. Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

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SANCTUS Chorus Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus Dominus, Deus Sabaoth, pleni sunt coeli et terra gloria tua ejus.

Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory.

OSANNA, BENEDICTUS, AGNUS DEI and DONA NOBIS PACEM Chorus Osanna in excelsis.

Hosanna in the highest. Aria (Tenor)

Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Chorus

Osanna in excelsis.

Hosanna in the highest. Aria (Mezzo-Soprano)

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi: miserere nobis.

Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world: have mercy on us.

Chorus Dona nobis pacem.

Mass in B Minor, BWV 232 (1733, 1747-1748) Johann Sebastian Bach (Born March 21, 1685, in Eisenach, Germany; died July 28, 1750, in Leipzig) Martin Luther published the text for his “German Mass” in 1526 with a certain reluctance. As strong as were his schismatic theological views, Luther still revered the old traditional Latin language of worship, and he was not eager to replace it with the vernacular. He did so for the simple reason that few worshipers understood Latin. He realized that for his revolutionary religious movement to gain converts, it was necessary that it appeal to a wide audience—a largely uneducated audience in 16th-century Germany—and it could only do so in their native tongue. However, Luther, himself a composer who supplied music for the early Protestant services, allowed some Latin to remain in the new liturgy, partly to relieve the sting of breaking with the old ways, partly out of necessity. “On festival days,” he wrote, “like Christmas, Michaelmas, Purification, etc., it must go on as hitherto, in Latin, until we have enough German songs, because this work is in its early beginnings; therefore, everything that belongs to it is not yet ready.” Certain Lutheran service items remained stubbornly in Latin for years. When Bach arrived in Leipzig in 1723, it was customary for the great Protestant churches of that city to include in the order

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Grant us peace.

of worship polyphonic settings of the Kyrie on the first Sunday of Advent and the Gloria at Christmas, and plainchant settings of those texts much more frequently. In addition, polyphonic settings of those and other remnants of the Catholic Mass found their way into several of the most important services and celebrations of the church and civic year. Since before the turn of the 18th century, the Leipzig town council had tried to supplant these items with ones in German, but had had little success because they lacked strong support from the local congregations, whose leaders were trained in Latin through their associations with Leipzig University and enjoyed the occasional venture into the old monkish tongue. Bach had no complaint against the practice of Latin in the Lutheran service. Not only was he interested in Latin church music (he copied and arranged sacred works by Palestrina, Pergolesi, Lotti, Caldara, and others) but his talent easily allowed him to produce whatever kind of music was required: instrumental, orchestral, or vocal; Latin or German; religious or secular. In the 1730s, he wrote four “Short” Masses, which were probably heard in Leipzig but seem to have been intended primarily for the Catholic court of Count Franz Anton von Sporck in Lissa, Bohemia. These Masses, mostly arrangements of earlier cantata movements fitted with the appropriate Latin text, consisted of only a Kyrie and a Gloria, the two items that would have been most useful for a Lutheran musician, and lack the other Mass sections. In 1733, Bach had the opportunity to compose another “Short”


Though Bach’s religious and civic motivations cannot be discounted when considering this Kyrie and Gloria—the nucleus of the B minor Mass—he had another, more practical reason for their composition. In Bach’s time, one of the chief means for a musician to strengthen his public and professional positions was through the granting of an honorary appointment to a royal court. Such awards were not unlike the recognition given today, for example, to suppliers to the British royal houses, who are allowed to display the prestigious seal noting that they are a “Purveyor to the Crown.” Most of the appointments of Bach’s time were von Haus aus (“not part of the household”), and required that the composer supply such music as was demanded and that he attend at court if ordered. Bach had a fortunate run of such distinctions. He came to Leipzig in 1723 as honorary Kapellmeister to his previous employer, Prince Leopold of Cöthen. Upon Leopold’s death in 1728, Bach was awarded a similar position with the Duke of Weissenfels, which continued until 1736. In 1733, with the accession of Friedrich August, Bach made a bid for the most coveted appointment of all, that of Court Composer to the KingElector of Saxony. To this end, he sent the new Kyrie and Gloria— this “trifling example of my skill” as he called it—to Friedrich in Dresden on July 27, 1733. It is uncertain if the Kyrie or Gloria was performed there, though it is possible that Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, the oldest son of Johann Sebastian, who was appointed organist only the month before at the local Sophienkirche, may have produced the work. At any rate, Bach heard nothing about his request for the next three years, not least because the Elector was busy dealing with demonstrations in Poland against his rule. It was not until November 1736 that Count von Keyserling, the Russian ambassador at the Saxon court and an admirer of the composer, encouraged the Elector to name Bach Hofkomponist— “Court Composer.” Bach paid his respects by giving a two-hour recital on the newly installed Silbermann organ in Dresden’s Frauenkirche on December 1. The Mass remained a torso, consisting of only the first two sections, until around 1747, when Bach gathered together some of his existing German-language movements to complete the collection by fitting them with the remaining Latin Mass texts. It was the German custom at that time for men of great learning to gather up their thoughts on a lifetime of work as they approached their last years, compiling a sort of autobiography of their contribution to their discipline. Bach, in his sixties and beginning to have trouble with his eyesight, was not immune to this need for summing-up, and A Musical Offering, the Schübler Chorales, and The Art of Fugue were meant as demonstration exercises showing the highest technical skill attainable in the field of musical composition rather than as scores for public performance. The work now known as the Mass in B minor is another that recent Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

san francisco symphony and CHORUS

Mass. The death of Friedrich August I, Elector of Saxony, on February 1 began a period of mourning during which polyphonic music was forbidden in the churches. Plans were immediately begun for the installation of his son as successor, and, as part of the celebration, Friedrich August II was to receive the homage of the city of Leipzig in April. Bach, taking advantage of the time opened up by the lessening of his duties during the mourning weeks, composed grand new settings of the Kyrie and Gloria that would be appropriate to the solemnity of the upcoming occasion. These works were probably performed on April 21, 1733, in the Thomaskirche as part of the official ceremonies, but the Elector, a Catholic, would not have entered the Lutheran church to hear them sung.

research shows must be added to this group. Bach considered this work a compendium of the various ways in which Mass texts could be composed rather than as a single, monolithic span of music. “Bach’s aim,” wrote Christoff Wolff in the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, “seems to have been to bring together a collection of large-scale Mass movements to serve as models rather than to create a single, multi-movement work on an unprecedented scale.” Charles Sanford Terry found additional motivations behind the compilation of this Mass: “Two reasons, themselves complementary, moved Bach to expand his original idea. In the first place, the Mass is neither Roman nor Lutheran in intention and outlook, but the expression of a catholic Christianity. In the second place, Bach’s genius was Teutonic in its inclination to complete a design. If another reason is sought, it is found in the compulsion to express himself in an artform which he had studied deeply.” To the Kyrie and Gloria composed in 1733, Bach added a Sanctus that was originally written for Christmas in 1724, and performed at least three times in subsequent years. The Osanna, Benedictus, Agnus Dei, and Dona nobis pacem were all based on the music of earlier cantatas and vocal works fitted with the appropriate Latin text, a process known as “parody.” Only the Credo and Confiteor sections were composed anew in 1747-48. The resulting “Mass in B minor” is far too large for practical liturgical use (half again as long as Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis), has twice as many movements in the key of D major as in B minor, and encompasses a wide variety of musical styles and techniques. Bach might well have been surprised at the modern practice of performing the work at a single sitting (or, perhaps, of performing it at all), and some modern scholars do not suffer this situation gratefully, any more than they do an integrated performance of The Art of Fugue. However, Bach did make some attempt to unify portions of the Mass by recalling music from the Kyrie and the Gloria in the closing Dona nobis pacem. Terry noted the work achieved musical integrity because it is “the design of a superb architect, perfect in proportion and balance. Even in their adaptation, the borrowed movements reveal his creative genius, while a collation of them with their originals exposes the sensitiveness of his judgment and selfcriticism.” Whatever scholarly exegesis washes up against the Mass, there remains, first and last, the music, and there is no argument for the performance of this magnificent work that can be made in words that is any stronger than that Bach makes for himself with his notes. Much of the greatness of this music lies in its synthesis of contrasting elements: of monumental choruses beside delicate solos; of blazing full orchestral sonorities beside intimate chamber ensembles; of the sweeping, transcendent grandeur of the eternal words coupled to music of the greatest personal expression. All listeners find in this work a renewal of their faith, whether it be in the power of a religious belief or in the power of music to sing with a profound beauty across the ages. Wrote Karl Geiringer, “The Mass in B minor is an abstract composition of monumental dimensions, a gigantic edifice conceived by the composer as the crowning glory of his life-work in the field of sacred music.” Hans Georg Nägeli, the Swiss publisher who made the first printed edition of the Mass in 1812, was completely robbed of any adverse comment in the face of such sublime music. He called the Mass in B minor, simply, “The greatest musical work of art of all ages and all peoples.” ©2011 Dr. Richard E. Rodda

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in our lobby The Mondavi Center display will preview pieces from:

American Gothic: Regionalist Portraiture from the Collection January 15-March 13, 2011 Opening January 15, 11am-5pm

One of the inaugural exhibitions at the Nelson Gallery’s new home in the University Club. Guest curator: Lee Plested American Gothic: Regionalist Portraiture from the Collection presents a survey of portraiture over the past 100 years. Through this centennial review, a genealogy of stylistic development emerges with a special focus on artists and activities in and around UC Davis and northern California. The strength of the UC Davis collection allows for a vivid trip through American art history, a colorful story of independent thought and the ongoing fight for liberty and equality. Taking its name from arguably the most famous painting of Americans (American Gothic, Grant Wood), American Gothic investigates how artists have chosen to picture themselves and their neighbors through the 20th and 21st century. Informed by and yet rejecting European academic traditions, American artists pioneered new methods and styles that reflected the attitudes and social ideas of their times. The ideals of early modernism gave birth to a complex self-reflexivity and artists turned a critical eye to their communities, picturing the evolving complexity of their contemporary life. From Whistler through Warhol, this exhibition will include significant presentations of major artists with a special focus on the Davis 5 (de Forest, Thiebaud, Arneson, Neri, and Wiley). Also presented are important works by Mark Tobey, Nathan Olivera, Deborah Butterfield, Bruce Connor, Bruce Nauman, Nancy Holt, Anthony Hernandez, Chris Johanson, and many more.

Gordon Cook: Out There January 15-March 13, 2011 Opening January 15, 11am-5pm

One of the inaugural exhibitions at the Nelson Gallery’s new home in the University Club. Guest curator: Bill Berkson Out There, a selection of 20 paintings, drawings, and lithographs by the San Francisco artist Gordon Cook (1927-85), will be one of two exhibitions inaugurating the new quarters of the Richard Nelson Gallery at UC Davis. Opening on January 15, 2011, and continuing until March, the Cook show focuses on Cook’s fascination with water views—including many sites in the Sacramento Delta—at the same time giving a strong sense of the wide range of his work. A native of Chicago, Cook moved to San Francisco in 1951 and soon became an integral part of the artistic circle that included such Bay Area notables as Wayne Thiebaud, Joan Brown, Robert Arneson, and Elmer Bischoff. He was a master printer, a member of the Dolphin Swim and Boating Club, and he taught printmaking during the 1960s at the San Francisco Art Institute, Sacramento State College (now California State University, Sacramento), UC Davis, the Academy of Art College, and Mills College. In 1987, two years after his untimely death, Cook was honored by a fullscale retrospective of his work at the Oakland Museum. His estate is represented by the George Krevsky Gallery, San Francisco. Beside Cook’s waterscapes, the exhibition includes a number of still-life paintings, vertiginous etchings of the shorelines of the San Francisco headlands, and one example of the ingenious freestanding painted cutout constructions Cook liked to make for his friends and family.

Guest curator Lee Plested, originally from Vancouver, Canada, holds an M.A. in Curatorial Practice from San Francisco College of the Arts, and has selected more than 100 pieces from the collection, including several new acquisitions never before seen.

At the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, we are deeply interested in the visual arts and the ways in which painting, photography, and other forms may enhance the experience of the performing artists we present. Located at the north end of the Yocha Dehe Grand Lobby, the art display case is a collaboration among the Mondavi Center, the Design Museum, the C. N. Gorman Museum, and the Richard L. Nelson Gallery & Fine Arts Collection.

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dance

Mondavi Center Arts Education 2 0 1 0 2 0 1 1

for Parkinson’s

TARGET school matinee Series Mondavi Center Arts Education encourages all K-12 teachers to bring their students to Mondavi Center, UC Davis this season for at least one school matinee performance. Especially designed for students, the School Matinee program is curriculum based and focuses on the cultural authenticity and international exchange possible only through live performance.

The Mondavi Center and the Mark Morris Dance Group proudly announce the launch of Dance for Parkinson’s, a partnership with the Pamela Trokanski Dance Theatre and the Parkinson Association of Northern California. The program offers weekly dance classes to people with Parkinson’s Disease and their caregivers.

Curtis On Tour Thursday, March 17, 2011 Dan Zanes and Friends Monday, March 21, 2011

Following an initial class on February 1 taught by members of the Mark Morris Dance Group, classes will be taught by local dance teachers who have received training in the company’s program. The class is being held in Davis with the possibility of expanding to Sacramento in the future.

Alvin Ailey american dance theater Tuesday, April 5, 2011 All shows at 11AM

For more information, or to enroll in the class, contact Mondavi Center Artist Engagement Coordinator Ruth Rosenberg, (530) 752-6113 or rrosenberg@ucdavis.edu.

sign High School Arts & De for helping the Dixon ain ag u yo nk tha to ! d s week “Just wante the mariachi show thi s this year. We LOVED Academy access the art transportation. that we could afford the so ve dri to ts ren pa 10 our drivers We were able to get sicians, about seven of Mexican-American mu ed tur fea w Thank you for sho s t. thi jec Since st in the sub with a particular intere nts de stu rs for ino Lat of ts were paren s together with teache brought parents and kid t tha w sho nt have eva y rel the offering a truly s the first time of our parents, this wa e som For at. tre us ay nity for all of to a festive, pre-holid What a great opportu m. oo ssr cla the in ing volunteered for someth the trip happen.” work together to make s & Design Academy r, Dixon High School Art — Lisa Krebs, Teache

Robert and Margrit

Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts

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Mondavi Center support

mondavi center

corporate support

DONORS

Platinum

Our generous donors allow us to bring world-class artists and speakers to the region’s doorstep, and energize and inspire tens of thousands of school children and teachers through our nationally recognized Arts Education programs. gold

In thanks for their generous gifts, donors receive a host of benefits including: Office of Campus Community Relations

· Priority Seating · Access to Donor-Only Events · Advance ticket sales for Just Added shows · Meet the artists · Much, much more… Remember: Ticket sales cover only 40% of our costs.

silver

Help support the art you love: Donate today! For more information, visit us at MondaviArts.org/supportus or contact our Development Staff at 530.754.5436

bronze

Mondavi Center Grantors and arts education sponsors

Friends of Mondavi Center

Event & Additional Support Partners Boeger Winery Ciocolat

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Seasons Restaurant Watermelon Music


Individual Supporters MondaviCenter InnerCircle Inner Circle donors are dedicated arts patrons whose leadership gifts to the Mondavi Center are a testament to the value of the performing arts in our lives. Mondavi Center is deeply grateful for the generous contributions of the dedicated patrons who give annual financial support to our organization. These donations are an important source of revenue for our program, as income from ticket sales covers less than half of the actual cost of our performance season. Their gifts to the Mondavi Center strengthen and sustain our efforts, enabling us not only to bring memorable performances by worldclass artists to audiences in the capital region each year, but also to introduce new generations to the experience of live performance through our Arts Education Program, which provides arts education and enrichment activities to more than 35,000 K-12 students annually. For more information on supporting the Mondavi Center, visit MondaviArts.org or call 530.754.5437.

† Mondavi Center Advisory Board Member * Friends of Mondavi Center

Mondavi Center support

mondavi center

Impresario Circle $25,000 and up

John and Lois Crowe †* Barbara K. Jackson †* Grant and Grace Noda* virtuoso Circle $15,000 - $24,999

Joyce and Ken Adamson Friends of Mondavi Center* In memory of Alison S. and Richard D. Cramer Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation Anne Gray † Benjamin and Lynette Hart †* William and Nancy Roe †* Lawrence and Nancy Shepard † Joe and Betty Tupin † Shipley and Dick Walters* Maestro Circle $10,000 - $14,999

Oren and Eunice Adair-Christensen* Wayne and Jacque Bartholomew †*

Dolly and David Fiddyment † Samia and Scott Foster † Mary B. Horton* M. A. Morris* Tony and Joan Stone † Benefactors Circle $6,000 - $9,999 Michael Alexander California Statewide Certified Development Corporation Camille Chan † Patti Donlon † First Northern Bank † Bonnie and Ed Green †* Dee and Joe Hartzog † The One and Only Watson Margaret Hoyt* Sarah and Dan Hrdy William and Jane Koenig Greiner Heat, Air, and Solar Garry Maisel † Stephen Meyer and Mary Lou Flint † Grace and John Rosenquist Raymond and Jeanette Seamans Ellen Sherman Della Aichwalder Thompson Larry and Rosalie Vanderhoef †* And one donor who prefers to remain anonymous

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Mondavi Center support

Producers Circle $3,000 - $5,999

Neil and Carla Andrews Hans Apel and Pamela Burton Cordelia S. Birrell Neil and Joanne Bodine Barry and Valerie Boone Brian Tarkington and Katrina Boratynski Ralph and Clairelee Leiser Bulkley* Cantor & Company, A Law Corporation Michael and Betty Chapman Robert and Wendy Chason Chris and Sandy Chong* Michele Clark and Paul Simmons Tony and Ellie Cobarrubia* Claudia Coleman Eric and Michael Conn DLMC Foundation Nancy DuBois Catherine and Charles Farman Mr. and Mrs. Domenic Favero Donald and Sylvia Fillman Judith and Andrew Gabor Kay Gist Kathleen and Robert Grey Judith and William Hardardt* Lorena Herrig* Dr. Ronald and Lesley Hsu Debra Johnson, M.D. and Mario Gutierrez Gerald and Virginia Jostes Teresa and Jerry Kaneko* Dean and Karen Karnopp* Nancy Lawrence, Gordon Klein, and Linda Lawrence Drs. Richard Latchaw and Sheri Alders Ginger and Jeffrey Leacox Robert and Barbara Leidigh John T. Lescroart and Lisa Sawyer Nelson Lewallyn and Marion Pace-Lewallyn Betty J. Lewis Dr. and Mrs. Ashley T. Lipshutz Paul and Diane Makley* In memory of Jerry Marr Janet Mayhew* Robert and Helga Medearis Verne Mendel* Derry Ann Moritz Richard and Mary Ann Murray Charles and Joan Partain Gavin Payne Suzanne and Brad Poling Lois and Dr. Barry Ramer Roger and Ann Romani Melodie Rufer Hal and Carol Sconyers* Tom and Meg Stallard* Tom and Judy Stevenson* Donine Hedrick and David Studer Jerome Suran and Helen Singer Suran* Nathan and Johanna Trueblood Ken Verosub and Irina Delusina 58

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In loving memory of John Max Vogel, M.D. Claudette Von Rusten John Walker and Marie Lopez Elizabeth F. and Charles E. Wilts Bob and Joyce Wisner* Richard and Judy Wydick And five donors who prefer to remain anonymous Directors Circle $1,100 - $2,999 Beulah and Ezra Amsterdam Russell and Elizabeth Austin Murry and Laura Baria* Lydia Baskin* Paul and Connie Batterson Virginia and Michael Biggs Kay and Joyce Blacker* Jo Anne Boorkman* Clyde and Ruth Bowman Edwin Bradley Linda Brandenburger Robert Burgerman and Linda Ramatowski Davis and Jan Campbell David J. Converse, ESQ. Gail and John Cooluris Jim and Kathy Coulter* John and Celeste Cron* Terry and Jay Davison Jim and Carolyn DeHayes Cecilia Delury and Vince Jacobs Mike and Cheryl Demas Bruce and Marilyn Dewey Martha Dickman* Dotty Dixon* Richard and Joy Dorf* Merrilee and Simon Engel Thomas and Phyllis Farver* Tom Forrester and Shelly Faura Nancy McRae Fisher Pam Gill-Fisher and Ron Fisher* Dr. Andy and Wendy Huang Frank Joseph George and Elaine LaMotta Karl Gerdes and Pamela Rohrich Henry and Dorothy Gietzen Fredic and Pamela Gorin John and Patty Goss* Florence and Jack Grosskettler* Diane Gunsul-Hicks Charles and Ann Halsted Paul and Kathleen Hart In memory of William F. McCoy Timothy and Karen Hefler Charles and Eva Hess Sharna and Mike Hoffman Suzanne and Chris Horsley* Claudia Hulbe Ruth W. Jackson Clarence and Barbara Kado Barbara Katz* Robert Kingsley and Melissa Thorme Cheryl and Matthew Kurowski Hansen Kwok Brian and Dorothy Landsberg Mary Jane Large and Marc Levinson

Edward and Sally Larkin* Claudia and Allan Leavitt Hyunok Lee and Daniel Sumner Yvonne LeMaitre* Linda and Peter Lindert Spencer Lockson and Thomas Lange Angelique Louie Natalie and Malcolm MacKenzie* Dennis H. Mangers and Michael Sestak Susan Mann Judith and Mark Mannis Marilyn Mansfield Michael and Maxine Mantell Yvonne L. Marsh Robert Ono and Betty Masuoka Shirley Maus* Kenneth McKinstry Steve and Sonja Memering Joy Mench and Clive Watson Fred and Linda Meyers* John Meyer and Karen Moore Eldridge and Judith Moores Patricia and Surl Nielsen Dr. James Nordin and Linda Orrante Philip and Miep Palmer Prewoznik Foundation Linda and Lawrence Raber* Larry and Celia Rabinowitz Kay Resler* Alessa Johns and Christopher Reynolds Thomas Roehr Don Roth and Jolán Friedhoff Liisa A. Russell Beverly “Babs” Sandeen and Marty Swingle Ed and Karen Schelegle The Schenker Family Neil and Carrie Schore Jeff and Bonnie Smith Wilson and Kathryn Smith Ronald and Rosie Soohoo* Richard L. Sprague and Stephen C. Ott Maril Revette Stratton and Patrick Stratton Karmen Streng Tony and Beth Tanke George and Rosemary Tchobanoglous Dr. Haluk and Ayse Tezcan Brandt Schraner and Jennifer Thornton Claude and Barbara Van Marter Louise and Larry Walker Janda J. Waraas Bruce and Patrice White Dale and Jane Wierman Paul Wyman Elizabeth and Yin Yeh And five donors who prefer to remain anonymous


Donors Encore Circle

$600 - $1,099 Gregg T. Atkins and Ardith Allread Michael and Tootie Beeman Drs. Noa and David Bell Susan and Kent Calfee Donald and Dolores Chakerian Gale and Jack Chapman William and Susan Chen John and Cathie Duniway Nell Farr and Anna Melvin Doris and Earl Flint Murray and Audrey Fowler Carole Franti* Paul J. and Dolores L. Fry Charitable Fund Gatmon-Sandrock Family Craig Gladen Paul N. and E. F. “Pat” Goldstene David and Mae Gundlach Robin Hansen Roy and Miriam Hatamiya Katherine Hess Barbara and Robert Jones Kent and Judy Kjelstrom Paula Kubo Anesiades Leonard Stanley and Donna Levin Maria Manoliu Frances Mara Gary C. and Jane L. Matteson Barbara Moriel James Morris Hedlin Family Don and Sue Murchison Robert Murphy Richard and Kathleen Nelson Alice Oi John Pascoe Jerry L. Plummer Ann and Jerry Powell* J and K Redenbaugh John Reitan Heather and Jeep Roemer Jeannie and Bill Spangler Lenore and Henry Spoto Sherman and Hannah Stein Les and Mary Stephens Dewall Lynn Taylor and Mont Hubbard Roseanna Torretto* Henry and Lynda Trowbridge* Robert and Helen Twiss Steven and Andrea Weiss Denise and Alan Williams Kandi Williams and Dr. Frank Jahnke Karl and Lynn Zender And four donors who prefer to remain anonymous

Sean and Sabine McCarthy Del and Doug McColm Julie and Craig McNamara Don and Lou McNary Glen And Nancy Michel Robert and Susan Munn* William and Nancy Myers Anna Rita and Bill Neuman Forrest Odle John and Carol Oster Sally Ozonoff and Tom Richey Frank Pajerski Jack and Sue Palmer Dr. John and Barbara Parker Bonnie A. Plummer* Deborah Nichols Poulos and Prof. John W. Poulos Harriet Prato Edward and Jane Rabin J. David Ramsey Rosemary Reynolds Guy and Eva Richards Ronald and Sara Ringen John and Marie Rundle Bob and Tamra Ruxin Tom and Joan Sallee Dwight E. and Donna L. Sanders Mark and Ita Sanders* Howard and Eileen Sarasohn Jerry and Kay Schimke Mervyn Schnaidt Maralyn Scott Mark E. Ellis and Lynn Shapiro Nancy Sheehan and Rich Simpson In memory of Charles R.S. Shepard Kathie Shigaki Elizabeth Smithwick Al and Sandy Sokolow Edward and Sharon Speegle Curtis and Judy Spencer Elizabeth St Goar Tim and Julie Stephens Pieter and Jodie Stroeve, and Diane Barrett Kristia Suutala Nancy Teichert Cap and Helen Thomson Butch and Virginia Thresh Dennis and Judy Tsuboi Ann-Catrin Van Ph.D. Robert Vassar and Nanci Manceau George and Denise Gridley Donald Walk, M.D. Geoffrey and Gretel Wandesford-Smith Norma and Richard Watson Dr. Fred and Betsy Weiland Daniel Weiss and Elena Friedman-Weiss Chuck White Lisa Yamauchi and Michael O’Brien Iris Yang and G. Richard Brown Wesley Yates Ronald M. Yoshiyama Hanni and George Zweifel

Orchestra Circle

$300 - $599 Michelle Adams Mitzi S. Aguirre Susan Ahlquist Paul and Nancy Aikin Steven Albrecht and Jessica Friedman Drs. Ralph and Teresa Aldredge Thomas and Patricia Allen Al and Pat Arthur Michael and Shirley Auman* Robert and Joan P. Ball Robert Hollingsworth and Carol Beckham Don and Kathy Bers* Elizabeth Bradford Paul Braun Rosa Marquez and Richard Breedon Joan Brenchley and Kevin Jackson Irving and Karen Broido* In Memory of Rose Marie Wheeler John and Christine Bruhn Manuel Calderon De La Barca Sanchez Jackie Caplan Michael and Louise Caplan Michael and Susan Carl Richard Carlsen Doreen T. Chan Amy Chen and Raj Amirtharajah Dorothy Chikasawa* Charles and Mary Anne Cooper James and Patricia Cothern Catherine Coupal* Larry Dashiell and Peggy Siddons Thomas B. and Eina C. Dutton Micki Eagle Sheila and Steve Epler Janet Feil David and Kerstin Feldman Susan Flynn Tom and Barbara Frankel Sevgi and Edwin Friedrich* Dr. Deborah and Brook Gale Marnelle Gleason and Louis J. Fox* Marvin and Joyce Goldman S.D. Gray Donald Green William Green and Martin Palomar Stephen and Deirdre Greenholz Marilyn and Alexander Groth Judy Guiraud Gwen and Darrow Haagensen Sharon and Don Hallberg David and Donna Harris Stephen and Joanne Hatchett Cynthia Hearden Len and Marilyn Herrmann Fred Taugher and Paula Higashi Frederick and Tieu-Bich Hodges Frederick and B.J. Hoyt Pat and Jim Hutchinson* Don and Diane Johnston Weldon and Colleen Jordan Mary Ann and Victor Jung David Kalb and Nancy Gelbard Edith Kanoff Charles Kelso and Mary Reed Ruth Ann Kinsella* Richard and Rosie Kirkland Joseph Kiskis Peter Klavins and Susan Kauzlarich Norma Klein Charlene R. Kunitz Allan and Norma Lammers Darnell Lawrence Katie Thomas and Richard Lawrence Ruth Lawrence Frances and Arthur Lawyer* Carol and Robert Ledbetter Michael and Sheila Lewis* David and Ruth Lindgren Bill and Harriet Lovitt Helen Ma Bunkie Mangum Pat Martin* Robert Mazalewski and Yvonne Clinton

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And 10 donors who prefer to remain anonymous

Mainstage Circle $100 - $299

Leal Abbott Thomas and Betty Adams Mary Aften Jill Aguiar Suzanne and David Allen David and Penny Anderson Valeriejeanne Anderson Elinor Anklin and George Harsch Janice and Alex Ardans Clemens Ford Arrasmith Debbie Arrington Fred Arth and Pat Schneider Jerry and Barbara August George and Irma Baldwin Charlotte Ballard Beverly and Clay Ballard Charlie and Diane Bamforth* Elizabeth Banks Michele Barefoot and Luis Perez-Grau

Lupie and Richard Barton Cynthia Bates Paul and Linda Baumann Lynn Baysinger* Delee and Jerry Beavers Claire and Marion Becker* Mark and Betty Belafsky Lorna Belden Merry Benard Carol L. Benedetti William and Marie Benisek Robert C. and Jane D. Bennett Márta Battha Béres Bevowitz Family Boyd and Lucille Bevington Ernst and Hannah Biberstein John and Katy Bill Andrea Bjorklund and Sean Duggan Lewis J. and Caroline S. Bledsoe Fred and Mary Bliss Marchia Bond Brooke Bourland* Mary and Jill Bowers Adney and Steve Bowker Alf and Kristin Brandt Robert Braude and Maxine Moser Dan and Millie Braunstein* Pat and Bob Breckenfeld Margaret Brockhouse Don and Liz Brodeur David and Valerie Brown Linda Clevenger and Seth Brunner Martha Bryant* Mike and Marian Burnham Margaret Burns and Roy W. Bellhorn Victor and Meredith Burns William and Karolee Bush Robert and Lynn Campbell Robert Canary John and Nancy Capitanio James and Patty Carey Anne and Gary Carlson Jan Carmikle, ‘90 John Carroll Bruce and Mary Alice Carswell* Jan B. and Barbara J. Carter* Caroline Chantry and James Malot Frank Chisholm Michael and Paula Chulada Arthur Chung and Karen Roberts Betty M. Clark Gail Clark L. Edward and Jacqueline Clemens Bill and Linda Cline Barbara Cody Stephan Cohen Sheri and Ron Cole Harold and Marj Collins Steve and Janet Collins Patricia Conrad and Ann Brice Jan and Gayle Conroy Judith Cook Pauline Cook Mr. and Mrs. Terry Cook Victor Cozzalio and Lisa Heilman-Cozzalio Bill and Myra Cusick Elizabeth Dahlstrom-Bushnell* John W. and Joanne M. Daniels Dena Davidson Johanna Davies Mary Hanf Dawson Jody Deaderick Ed and Debby Dillon Joel and Linda Dobris Richard Epstein and Gwendolyn Doebbert Val Dolcini and Solveig Monson Val and Marge Dolcini* Gordon Douglas Sue Drake* Ray Dudonis Anne Duffey Leslie Dunsworth Marjean Dupree Victoria Dye and Douglas Kelt J. Terry and Susan Eager Harold and Anne Eisenberg Eliane Eisner Brian Ely and Robert Hoffman Allen Enders Adrian and Tamara Engel Sid England Carol Erickson and David Phillips M. Richard and Gloria M. Eriksson

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Mondavi Center support

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Mondavi Center support

Jeff Ersig Christine Facciotti Adrian Farley and Greg Smith Andrew D. and Eleanor E. Farrand* Elizabeth Fassler Elizabeth and Timothy Fenton Steven and Susan Ferronato Martin Filet and Mary McDonald Margery Findlay Kieran and Martha Fitzpatrick Judy Fleenor* Manfred Fleischer David and Donna Fletcher Glenn Fortini Marion Franck and Bob Lew Frank Brown Barbara and Edwin Frankel Anthony and Jorgina Freese Joel Friedman Kerim and Josina Friedrich Joan M. Futscher Myra A. Gable Lillian Gabriel Charles and Joanne Gamble Claude and Nadja Garrod Xiaojia Ge and Ronghua Li* Ivan Gennis Peggy Gerick Gerald Gibbons and Sibilla Hershey Mary Lou and Robert Gillis Eleanor Glassburner Roberta R. Gleeson Burton Goldfine Robert and Pat Gonzalez* Robert and Velma Goodlin Michael Goodman Susan Goodrich Victor Graf Tom Graham Jacqueline Gray* Kathleen and Thomas Green Paul and Carol Grench Cindy and Henry Guerrero June and Paul Gulyassy Wesley and Ida Hackett* Jim and Jane Hagedorn Frank and Rosalind Hamilton William and Sherry Hamre Jim and Laurie Hanschu Marylee and John Hardie Richard and Vera Harris Cathy Brorby and Jim Harritt Sally H. Harvey Marjorie Heineke Donald and Lesley Heller Paul and Nancy Helman Martin Helmke and Joan Frye Williams Rand and Mary Herbert Eric Herrgesell, DVM Roger and Rosanne Heym Elizabeth and Larry Hill Alouise Hillier Calvin Hirsch and Deborah Francis Michael and Peggy Hoffman Jan and Herb Hoover Steve and Nancy Hopkins Allie Huberty David and Gail Hulse Deborah Hunter Eva Peters Hunting Lorraine J. Hwang Gabriel Isakson William Jackson Kathryn Jaramillo Dr. and Mrs. Ronald C. Jensen Pamela R. Jessup Carole and Phil Johnson John and Jane Johnson Steve and Naomi Johnson Michelle Johnston Warren and Donna Johnston In memory of Betty and Joseph Baria Andrew and Merry Joslin Martin and JoAnn Joye* John and Nancy Jungerman Fred and Selma Kapatkin Shari and Timothy Karpin Jean and Stephen Karr Anthony and Beth Katsaris Yasuo Kawamura Phyllis and Scott Keilholtz* Gary Kieser Dave and Gay Kent Michael Kent and Karl Jandrey Cathryn Kerr

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Pat and John Kessler Larry Kimble and Louise Bettner Ken and Susan Kirby Dorothy Klishevich Paulette Keller Knox Muriel Knudsen Winston and Katy Ko Paul and Pamela Kramer Dave and Nina Krebs Marcia and Kurt Kreith Sandra Kristensen Elizabeth and C.R. Kuehner Nate Kupperman Leslie Kurtz Cecilia Kwan Donald and Yoshie Kyhos Ray and Marianne Kyono Terri Labriola Bonnie and Kit Lam* Marsha M. Lang Lawrence and Ingrid Lapin Bruce and Susan Larock Kathleen Larson Leon E. Laymon C and J Learned Marceline Lee and Philip Smith Nancy P. Lee The Hartwig-Lee Family Nancy and Steve Lege The Lenk-Sloane Family Edward N. Lester Evelyn A. Lewis Melvyn and Rita Libman Guille Levin Libresco Jim and Jami Long Kim Longworth Mary Lowry Henry Luckie Paul and Linnae Luehrs Diana Lynch Maryanne Lynch Ed and Sue MacDonald Leslie Macdonald and Gary Francis Julin Maloof and Stacey Harmer Sandra Mansfield Joseph and Mary Alice Marino Pam Marrone and Mick Rogers Donald and Mary Martin Garth and Linda Martin J. A. Martin Mr. and Mrs. William R. Mason Bob and Vel Matthews Leslie Maulhardt Katherine F. Mawdsley* Karen McCluskey* John McCoy Nora McGuinness* Donna and Dick McIlvaine Tim and Linda McKenna Blanche McNaughton* Richard and Virginia McRostie Martin A. Medina and Laurie Perry Wener Paul Harder III DeAna Melilli Barry Melton and Barbara Langer Sharon Menke The Merchant Family Roland Meyer Leslie Michaels and Susan Katt Lisa Miller Phyllis Miller Sue and Rex Miller Douglas Minnis Steve and Kathy Miura* Kei and Barbara Miyano Sydney Moberg Vicki and Paul Moering Joanne K. Moldenhauer Amy Moore Debra Moore Hallie Morrow Marcie Mortensson Tony and Linda Mras Robert and Janet Mukai The Muller Family Terry and Judith Murphy Steve Abramowitz and Dr. Alberta Nassi Joni Neibert M.A. Nelson Margaret Neu* Cathy Neuhauser and Jack Holmes Robert and Donna Curley Nevraumont* Keri Mistler and Dana Newell Kan Ching Ng Malvina Nisman

Nancy Nolte and James Little John Chendo and Esther Novak Patricia O’Brien* Kay Ogasawara Dana Olson James Oltjen Marvin O’Rear David and Debra Oshige Bob and Beth Owens Carlene and Mike Ozonoff* Michael Pach Joan S. Packard Thomas Pavlakovich and Kathryn Demakopoulos Bob and Marlene Perkins Lee/Michael Perrone Ann Peterson and Marc Hoeschele Pat Piper Vicki and Bob Plutchok Ralph and Jane Pomeroy* Bea and Jerry Pressler Ann Preston John Provost Evelyn and Otto Raabe Jan and Anne-Louise Radimsky Kathryn Radtkey-Gaither Lawrence and Norma Rappaport Evelyn and Dewey Raski Olga Raveling Sandi Redenbach* Mrs. John Reese, Jr. Martha Rehrman* Michael A. Reinhart and Dorothy Yerxa Eugene and Elizabeth Renkin Judy, David, and Hannah Reuben Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Rice Bill Rich John Richards Fred and Bernadeen Richardson Joyce Rietz Ralph and Judy Riggs* Caroline and Stephen Roberts Warren G. Roberts David and Kathy Robertson Tracy Rodgers Richard and Evelyne Rominger Mary F. Rosa Sharon and Elliott Rose Jean and George Rosenfeld Barbara and Alan Roth David and Catherine Rowen Paul and Ida Ruffin Hugh Safford Terry Sandbek and Sharon Billings* Kathleen and David Sanders Fred and Polly Schack John and Joyce Schaeuble Tyler Schilling Leon Schimmel and Annette Cody Fred and Colene Schlaepfer Janis J. Schroeder and Carrie L. Markel Jean Schwarzkopf Robert and Jenifer Segar Brian Sehnert and Janet McDonald Dan Shadoan and Ann Lincoln Jay and Jill Shepherd Ruth and Robert Shumway Dr. and Mrs. R.L. Siegler Sandra and Clay Sigg Andrew Sih and Caitlin McGaw Mark Berman and Lynn Simon Michael and Elizabeth Singer Joy Skalbeck Barbara Slemmons Judith Smith Jean Snyder Roger and Freda Sornsen Greg and Pam Sparks Joseph and Dolores Spencer Marguerite Spencer Miriam Steinberg Harriet Steiner and Miles Stern John and Johanna Stek Judith Stern Raymond Stewart Deb and Jeff Stromberg Patricia Sturdevant Becky and James Sullivan Thomas Swift Joyce Takahashi Stewart and Ann Teal Pouneh Tehrani Francie Teitelbaum Jeanne Shealor and George Thelen Julie Theriault, PA-C

Virginia Thigpen Janet Thome Robert Thorpe Brian Toole Robert and Victoria Tousignant Katharine Traci Michael and Heidi Trauner Gary and Jan Truesdail Barbara and Jim Tutt Chris Van Kessel Bart and Barbara Vaughn* Marian and Paul Ver Wey Richard and Maria Vielbig Merna and Don Villarejo Charles and Terry Vines Evelyn Matteucci and Richard Vorpe Carolyn Waggoner* M. Therese Wagnon Maxine Wakefield and William Reichert Marny and Rick Wasserman Caroline and Royce Waters Marya Welch* Dan and Ellie Wendin Martha West Robert and Leslie Westergaard* Susan Wheeler Regina White Linda K. Whitney Kristin Wiese Phillip and JoAnne Wile Ward Willats Mrs. Jane L. Williams Suzanne and Keith Williams Janet Winterer The Wolf Family Jennifer Woo Linda Yassinger Timothy and Vicki Yearnshaw Norman and Manda Yeung Phillip and Iva Yoshimura Heather M. Young and Peter B. Quinby Larry Young and Nancy Lee Phyllis Young Melanie and Medardo Zavala Drs. Matthew and Meghan Zavod Phyllis and Darrel Zerger* Timothy Zindel Karen Ziskind Mark and Wendy Zlotlow And 55 donors who prefer to remain anonymous

CORPORATE MATCHING GIFTS American Express Foundation Gift Matching Program Bank of America Matching Gifts Program Chevron/Texaco Matching Gift Fund ExxonMobil Foundation McGraw-Hill Company Merrill Lynch & Co. Foundation Monsanto Company The Sacramento Bee Wachovia Foundation Matching Gifts Program Wells Fargo Foundation We appreciate the many Members who participate in their employers’ matching gift program. Please contact your Human Resources department to find out about your company’s matching gift program. Note: We are pleased to recognize the Members of Mondavi Center for their generous support of our program. We apologize if we inadvertently listed your name incorrectly; please contact the Development Office at 530.754.5436 to inform us of corrections.


Friends celebrates 20 years! of Mondavi Center

The 2010-11 season marks the 20th anniversary of the Friends of Mondavi Center. Twenty years ago, a small, energetic, creative group of volunteers saw a need and began what was then Friends of UC Davis Presents. When the Mondavi Center opened in 2002, the group became the Friends of Mondavi Center. With an ever growing roster of 180 members, during the 2009-10 season enthusiastic Friends of Mondavi Center logged more than 9000 volunteer hours supporting Arts Education programs! The Friends of Mondavi Center volunteer opportunities include managing and staffing the Gift Shop, whose profits benefit Arts Education, and planning social events and fundraisers that support the School Matinee Ticket Program. During the 2009 -2010 season, the School Matinee Ticket Program provided school matinee tickets free of charge to schools and programs in the region that otherwise would not have been able to attend. Friends also are docents who present short talks to students in preparation for them attending school matinees. Docents use materials that are researched and written by other Friends. Friends also act as ushers for the school matinee performances.

The Friends of Mondavi Center is an active donor-based volunteer organization that supports activities of the Mondavi Center’s presenting program. Deeply committed to arts education, Friends volunteer their time and financial support for learning opportunities

Other activities of the Friends of Mondavi Center include the Adult Education Committee, which staffs pre- and post-performance lectures and the Spotlight Series, Mondavi Center Tours, and the Ad Hoc Committee, providing support as needed to the Arts Education Program.

related to Mondavi Center performances. When you join the Friends of Mondavi Center, you are able to choose from a variety of activities and work with other Friends who share your interests.

For information on becoming a Friend of Mondavi Center, email Jennifer Mast at jmmast@ucdavis.edu or call 530.754.5430.

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Mondavi Center staff

Mondavi Center staff DON ROTH, Ph.D. Executive Director Jeremy Ganter Associate Executive Director

PROGRAMMING Jeremy Ganter Director of Programming Erin Palmer Programming Manager Ruth Rosenberg Artist Engagement Coordinator Lara Downes Curator: Young Artists Program

AUDIENCE SERVICES Emily Taggart Audience Services Manager/ Artist Liaison Coordinator Yuri Rodriguez Events Manager Natalia Deardorff Assistant Events Manager Nancy Temple Assistant Public Events Manager

BUSINESS SERVICES Debbie Armstrong Senior Director of Support Services

ARTS EDUCATION Joyce Donaldson Associate to the Executive Director for Arts Educaton and Strategic Projects

Carolyn Warfield Human Resources Analyst

Jennifer Mast Arts Education Coordinator

Russ Postlethwaite Billing System Administrator

Mandy Jarvis Financial Analyst

DEVELOPMENT Debbie Armstrong Senior Director of Development

MARKETING Rob Tocalino Director of Marketing

production Christopher Oca Stage Manager

Elisha Findley Donor Relations Manager

Will Crockett Marketing Manager

Christi-Anne Sokolewicz Stage Manager

Erin Kelley Senior Graphic Artist

Jenna Bell Production Coordinator

Morissa Rubin Senior Graphic Artist

Zak Stelly-Riggs Master Carpenter

Amanda Caraway Public Relations Coordinator

Daniel Goldin Master Electrician

FACILITIES Steve McFerron Director of Facilities Greg Bailey Lead Building Maintenance Worker

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Darren Marks Programmer/Designer

TICKET OFFICE Sarah Herrera Ticket Office Manager

Mark J. Johnston Lead Application Developer Tim Kendall Programmer

Steve David Ticket Office Supervisor Russell St. Clair Ticket Agent

Michael Hayes Head Sound Technician Adrian Galindo Scene Technician Kathy Glaubach Scene Technician Daniel Thompson Scene Technician Head Ushers Huguette Albrecht George Edwards Linda Gregory Donna Horgan Mike Tracy Susie Valentin Janellyn Whittier

Dena Gilday Payroll and Travel Assistant

Mondavi Center advisory Board The Mondavi Center Advisory Board is a university support group whose primary purpose is to provide assistance to the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, UC Davis, and its resident users, the academic departments of Music and Theatre and Dance, and the presenting program of the Mondavi Center, through fundraising, public outreach, and other support for the mission of UC Davis and the Mondavi Center. 10-11 Season Board Officers John Crowe, Chair Lynette Hart, Vice-Chair Joe Tupin, Vice-Chair Dee Hartzog, Patrons Relations Co-Chair Lor Shepard, Patrons Relations Co-Chair Garry P. Maisel, Corporate Relations Co-Chair Camille Chan, Corporate Relations Co-Chair

Ex Officio

Members Wayne Bartholomew Camille Chan John Crowe Lois Crowe Patti Donlon David Fiddyment Dolly Fiddyment Mary Lou Flint Samia Foster Scott Foster

Anne Gray Bonnie Green Ed Green Benjamin Hart Lynette Hart Dee Hartzog Joe Hartzog Barbara K. Jackson Garry P. Maisel Stephen Meyer Randy Reynoso

Nancy Roe William Roe Lawrence Shepard Nancy Shepard Joan Stone Tony Stone Joe Tupin Larry Vanderhoef Rosalie Vanderhoef

Linda Katehi, Chancellor, UC Davis Enrique Lavernia, Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor, UC Davis Jessie Ann Owens, Dean, Division of Humanities, Arts & Cultural Studies, College of Letters & Sciences, UC Davis Margaret Neu, President, Friends of Mondavi Center Sally Ryen, Chair, Arts & Lectures Administrative Advisory Committee Don Roth, Executive Director, Mondavi Center

Arts & Lectures Administrative Advisory Committee

friends of mondavi center

The Arts & Lectures Administrative Advisory Committee is made up of interested students, faculty, and staff who attend performances, review programming opportunities, and meet monthly with the director of the Mondavi Center. They provide advice and feedback for the Mondavi Center staff throughout the performance season.

10-11 Executive Board Margaret Neu, President Laura Baria, Vice President/Membership Francie Lawyer, Secretary Jo Anne Boorkman, Adult Education Sandra Chong, K-12 Education John Cron, Mondavi Center Tours Phyllis Zerger, Outreach Martha Rehrman, School Matinee Ticket Program Fundraising Eunice Adair Christensen, Gift Shop Manager, Ex Officio Joyce Donaldson, Director of Arts Education, Ex Officio

10-11 Committee Members Sally Ryen, Chair Prabhakara Choudary Adrian Crabtree Susan Franck Kelley Gove Holly Keefer

62

Sandra Lopez Danielle McManus Bella Merlin Lee Miller Bettina Ng’weno Rei Okamoto

| mondaviarts.org

Hearne Pardee Isabel Raab Kayla Rouse Erin Schlemmer Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie


Ticket Exchange Policy • Once a season ticket request is processed, there are no refunds. • If you exchange for a higher priced ticket, you will be charged the difference. The difference between a higher and lower priced exchanged ticket is not refundable. • Tickets must be exchanged at least one business day prior to the performance. • Tickets may not be exchanged after your performance date. • Gift certificates will not be issued for returned tickets. Parking You may purchase parking passes for individual Mondavi Center events for $6 for each event at the parking lot or with your ticket order. Rates are subject to change. Parking passes that have been lost or stolen will not be replaced. Group Discounts Entertain friends, family, classmates, or business associates and save money. Groups of 20 or more qualify for a 10% discount. Payment must be made in a single check or credit card transaction. Please call 530.754.2787 or 866.754.2787. Student Tickets (50% off the full single ticket price*) Eligibility: Full-time students age 12 & over enrolled for the current academic year at an accredited institution and matriculating towards a diploma or a degree. (Continuing education enrollees are not eligible). Proof Requirements: School ID for the current academic year OR photocopy of your transcript/report card/tuition bill receipt for the current academic year. Children For events other than the family series it is recommended that children under the age of 5 not be brought to the performance for the enjoyment of all patrons. A ticket is required of all children regardless of age; any child attending a performance should be able to sit quietly throughout the performance. Privacy Policy Mondavi Center collects information from patrons solely for the purpose of gaining necessary information to conduct business and serve our patrons more efficiently. We also sometimes share names and addresses with other not-for-profit arts organizations. If you do not wish to be included in our e-mail communications or postal mailings, or if you do not want us to share your name, please notify us via e-mail, U.S. mail, or telephone. Full Privacy Policy at www.MondaviArts.org.

POlicies

POlicies and information

Accommodations for Patrons with Disabilities Mondavi Center is proud to be a state-of-the-art public facility that meets or exceeds all state and federal ADA requirements and is fully accessible to patrons with disabilities. Parking for patrons with DMV placards is available on the street level (mid-level) of the nearby parking structure, and on the surface lots near the covered walkway. There is also a short-term drop-off area directly in front of the entrance. Patrons with disabilities or special seating needs should notify the Mondavi Center Ticket Office of those needs at the time of ticket purchase. Requests for sign language interpreting, real-time captioning, Braille programs, and other reasonable accommodations should be made with at least two weeks notice. Mondavi Center may not be able to accommodate special needs brought to our attention at the performance. Seating spaces for wheelchair users and their companions are located at all levels and prices for all performances. Ushers are available at the doors to Jackson Hall and the Vanderhoef Studio Theatre. Please explain to the usher how best to assist you, if needed. Special Seating Mondavi Center offers special seating arrangements for our patrons with disabilities. Please call the Ticket Office at 530.754.2787 [TDD 530.754.5402]. Listening Enhancement Devices Listening Infrared Systems are installed in both Jackson Hall and the Vanderhoef Studio Theatre. Receivers that can be used with or without hearing aids are available for patrons who have difficulty understanding dialogue or song lyrics. They may be checked out at no charge from the Patron Services Desk near the lobby elevators. Elevators Mondavi Center has two passenger elevators serving all levels. They are located at the north end of the Rumsey Rancheria Grand Lobby, near the restrooms and Patron Services Desk.

Service Animals Mondavi Center welcomes working service animals that are necessary to assist patrons with disabilities. Service animals must remain on a leash or harness at all times. Please contact the Mondavi Center Ticket Office if you intend to bring a service animal to an event so that appropriate seating can be reserved for you.

Restrooms All public restrooms are equipped with accessible sinks, stalls, baby-changing stations, and amenities. There are six public restrooms in the building: two on the Orchestra level; two on the Orchestra Terrace level; and two on the Grand Tier level. *Only one discount per ticket.

Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill for reuse.

MONDAVI CENTER PROGRAM Issue 6: Feb-Mar 2011 |

63


September 2010

Imago, ZooZoo sun, nov 7

march 2011

Madeleine Albright

Delfeayo Marsalis Group

mon, mar 7

Wed, Sep 29

San Francisco Symphony

Center

Thur, Sep 30

Christopher O’Riley, piano sat-sun, nov 13-14

october 2010

Paul Taylor Dance Company

Bayanihan, National Folk Dance Company of the Philippines

Tous les Matins du Monde

sat, nov 13

fri, Oct 1

thu, nov 18

Dianne Reeves

Ornette Coleman

sat, Oct 2

sat, nov 20

Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers

Jeanine De Bique, soprano

sun, Oct 3

Rising Stars of Opera

Mondavi 2 0 1 0 2 0 1 1

wed-fri, nov 10-12

sat-sun, nov 20-21

december 2010

Los Lobos

Tord Gustavsen and Solveig Slettahjell

Dresden Staatskapelle

Alexander String Quartet

Gamelan Çudamani

Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano

Stew and The Negro Problem

Kronos Quartet

Jonah Lehrer

Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum

Music and Madness Festival

Lara Downes Family Concert

sat, Oct 9

wed, Oct 13 sat, Oct 23

sun, Oct 24

tue-wed, Oct 26-27 wed, Oct 27

thu-sun, Oct 28-31

wed-sat, dec 1-4 sun, dec 5 sun, dec 5 thu, dec 9

fri, dec 10

sun, dec 12

American Bach Soloists, Messiah

Tango Fire: Tango Inferno thu, mar 10

Yefim Bronfman, piano sat, mar 12

Alexander String Quartet sun, mar 13

San Francisco Symphony and Chorus thu, mar 17

Curtis On Tour

sat-sun, mar 19-20

Dan Zanes and Friends sun, mar 20

St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra sat, mar 26

Young Artists Competition Winners sun, mar 27

april 2011 Branford Marsalis & Terence Blanchard fri, apr 1

Takács Quartet, with Nobuyuki Tsujii, piano sat, apr 2

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater tue-wed, apr 5-6

The Silk Road Ensemble with Yo-Yo Ma fri, apr 8

sat, dec 18

Lara Downes with David Sanford

Venice Baroque Orchestra with Robert McDuffie, violin

january 2011

Sarah Silverman

Delfeayo Marsalis Octet

sat-sun, jan 15-16

Buika

thu, jan 20

Alexander String Quartet

sat, jan 22

november 2010 wed, nov 3

wed-sat, nov 3-6 sat, nov 6 sun, nov 7

Kenric Tam

Mark O’Connor and Julian Lage Itzhak Perlman, violin Daniel Handler wed, jan 26

25th Hour

thu, jan 27

MOMIX, Botanica

sat-sun, jan 29-30

Simone Dinnerstein and Tift Merritt sat-sun, jan 29-30

february 2011 Mark Morris Dance Group wed, feb 2

Vijay Iyer

wed-sat, feb 2-5

Joshua Bell, violin wed, feb 9

Bill Frisell Trio John Scofield Trio

| mondaviarts.org

sat-sun, apr 9-10 sun, apr 10

China Philharmonic Orchestra tue, apr 12

Max Raabe and Palast Orchester wed, apr 13

Béla Fleck, Zakir Hussain, & Edgar Meyer thu, apr 14

Der Untergang (Downfall) thu, apr 21

Buddy Guy

fri, apr 22

David Sedaris thu, apr 28

Pablo Ziegler, Beyond Tango fri, apr 29

may 2011 Lucinda Childs, DANCE tue, may 3

Roby Lakatos Ensemble thu, may 5

Tony Bennett

sun, may 25

fri, feb 11

june 2011

New Century Chamber Orchestra with Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg

Alexander String Quartet

La Rondine

MondaviArts.org

sat, feb 12

64

Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

thu, feb 17

sun, june 5

530.754.2787

866.754.2787 (toll-free)


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