Masterworks Program Book by Palm Beach Symphony

What’s your

why?

I W A N T T H E A R T S T O I N S P I R E E V E R Y G E N E R A T I O N .

We all have a different “why” for being here. For us, it’s to celebrate the irreplaceable role that the performing arts play in enhancing and enriching the life of our community. That’s why we’re committed to playing our part in helping the show go on.

We’re proud to support Palm Beach Symphony and all of the inspiration you bring.

Let’s talk about your why.

Contact Kelly Wathen, Sr. Vice President, Market Leader, at 561-803-9539 or kelly.wathen@pnc.com, or visit pnc.com/privatebank.

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AND ESTATE

| WEALTH

November

December 10

January 13 Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano

Shaham, violin

March 2

Ohlsson, piano

2024-25

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

Young Friends Season Kick-Off Cocktail Party

Tuesday, October 15, 2024, 5:00pm Meat Market

Pre-Holly Jolly Gift Gathering Party

Thursday, October 24, 2024 at 5:15pm CIBC Financial Center, Palm Beach

Dale A. McNulty Children’s Concert Series: Cinderella and The Orchestra

Saturday, October 26, 2024 at 3:00pm Eissey Campus Theatre, Palm Beach State College

Season Kickoff Party

Monday, November 4, 2024 at 6:00pm Club Colette, Palm Beach

Young Friends Instrument Donation Drive

Thursday, November 7, 2024 at 6:00pm Amrit Ocean Resort & Residencies

Masterworks Concert #1

Sunday, November 10, 2024 at 3:00pm Kravis Center for the Performing Arts

Music, Maestros & Masters:

The Art, Science, & Magnificence of Movement

Wednesday, November 20, 2024 at 7:00pm

Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Florida Atlantic University, Jupiter

Masterworks Concert #2

Tuesday, December 10, 2024 at 7:30pm Kravis Center for the Performing Arts

Eighth Annual Holly Jolly Symphony Fête

Monday, December 16, 2024 at 10:30am Cohen Pavilion, Kravis Center for the Performing Arts

23rd Annual Gala Kick-Off Reception (Invitation Only)

Friday, January 3, 2025 at 6:00pm Findlay Galleries

Masterworks Concert #3

Monday, January 13, 2025 at 7:30pm

Kravis Center for the Performing Arts

Prelude Society Event: Curated Classics

Thursday, January 23, 2025 at 6:00pm

The Ben, Autograph Collection

Masterworks Concert #4

Thursday, February 6, 2025 at 7:30pm

Kravis Center for the Performing Arts

Young Friends Seaside Social Cocktail Party (Invitation Only)

Saturday, February 8, 2025 at 6:00pm

Private residence in West Palm Beach

23rd Annual Gala, A Standing Ovation

Monday, February 17, 2025 at 6:00pm

The Breakers Palm Beach

Orchestra Outreach: An Evening of Divertimentos and Dressage for Brooke USA

Thursday, February 20, 2025 at 7:00pm

Kyle Elgarten, guest conductor

Prelude Society & Young Friends Benzaiten Event

Wednesday, February 27, 2025 at 6:00pm

The Benzaiten Center for Creative Arts

Orchestra Outreach: Lady in Red/Life Gala

Sunday, March 2, 2025 at 6:00pm

Matthew Cooperman, guest conductor

Masterworks Concert #5

Sunday, March 2, 2025 at 3:00pm

Kravis Center for the Performing Arts

Swings for Strings Golf Invitational

Friday, March 21, 2025 at 11:00am

Wellington National Golf Club

4th Annual Impresario Society Dinner

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

(Impresario Society Only)

Presented by Lugano Diamonds

Wednesday, April 2, 2025 at 6:00pm Private home in Palm Beach

Masterworks Concert #6

Tuesday, April 8, 2025 at 7:00pm Kravis Center for the Performing Arts

Pre-Holly Jolly Gift Gathering Party

Friday, April 11, 2025 at 5:30pm Palm Beach Symphony Offices

Sunset Dinner Cruise (Invitation Only)

Wednesday, April 16, 2025 at 6:45pm Riviera Beach Marina

The Encore

Monday, May 19, 2025 at 7:30pm Kravis Center for the Performing Arts

LUNCH AND LEARN SERIES

Center for Philanthropy: Home of Palm Beach Symphony 700 S. Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach, FL 33401

Thursday, November 7, 12-1:30pm Alberto Bade, assistant conductor

Thursday, December 5, 12-1:30pm Gerard Schwarz, music director

Thursday, January 9, 12-1:30pm

Claudio Jaffé, principal cello

Thursday, January 30, 12-1:30pm

Claudio Jaffé, principal cello

Thursday, February 27, 12-1:30pm Matthew Cooperman, guest conductor

Thursday, April 3, 12-1:30pm Gerard Schwarz, music director

Thursday, May 15, 12-1:30pm Gerard Schwarz, music director

CANDLELIGHT CHAMBER CONCERTS

The Boca Raton: 501 East Camino Real, Boca Raton, FL 33432

CONCERT 1: A Winter Solstice

Saturday, December 21, 2024 at 7:00pm

Curator/Host: Matthew Cooperman, guest conductor

CONCERT 2: American Spirit

Friday, March 28, 2025 at 7:00 pm

Curator/Host: Yun Xuan Cao, assistant conductor

CONCERT 3: Love is in the Aire

Sunday, February 23, 2025 at 7:00 pm

Curator/Host: Matthew Cooperman, guest conductor

CONCERT 4: Lunar Festival

Friday, March 28, 2025 at 7:00 pm

Curator/Host: Yun Xuan Cao, assistant conductor

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

DIRECTORS

John D. Herrick Treasurer

Todd Dahlstrom

Amy Collins

Nannette Cassidy

James R. Borynack Chair

Cathleen Black

Laurie Bay

Marietta Muiña McNulty

Karen Rogers

Carol S. Hays

Richard Brekus Vice Chair

Paul Goldner

Don Thompson Secretary

CHAIR’S WELCOME

It is my great pleasure to welcome you to Palm Beach Symphony’s 2024-2025 Masterworks Season. Following the celebration of our 50th Anniversary, we are delighted to continue bringing the joy of classical music to our community. I am enthusiastic about the season ahead, and I hope you are as well. It will be another stellar season under the direction of our magnificent internationally acclaimed Maestro Gerard Schwarz.

This season, we are pleased to present an inspiring lineup of concerts that will feature masterpieces from some of the world’s most beloved composers, as well as performances by world-renowned soloists. From Mahler’s breathtaking Symphony No. 1 to Mussorgsky’s powerful Pictures at an Exhibition, each concert will be an extraordinary journey through the beauty and power of orchestral music. With a mix of classical favorites and contemporary works, we aim to create powerful and engaging experiences for all who join us. Our talented and world-class musicians bring these compositions to life with passion and skill, ensuring each performance resonates deeply with the audience.

As always, we are committed to educating and engaging our community, especially with aspiring student musicians in our schools. Our extensive educational programs and children’s concerts, including the Dale A. McNulty Children’s Concert Series, have been an inspiration to tens of thousands of students. In addition, our ability to place donated instruments in the hands of local students enables them to make their musical dreams a reality.

It is thanks to you, our patrons, donors, and sponsors, that we continue to have a positive impact on our community.

On behalf of the board of directors, thank you for joining us in engaging, educating, and entertaining audiences. We appreciate your passion, dedication, and support.

Please enjoy this season’s performances.

James R. Borynack Chair

MESSAGE FROM GERARD SCHWARZ

Welcome to the new season of our wonderful orchestra! Last year we celebrated our anniversary with great joy; we now continue our journey of classical music excellence. We’re proud to be part of the vibrant arts community in Palm Beach. When crafting our programs, we strive to select works that we know our audience will enjoy, focusing on the timeless symphonic repertoire. This season, we will perform major works by Dvorak, Mussorgsky, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Ravel, Debussy, Beethoven, Mahler, Rachmaninoff, and Chopin— masterpieces that I cherish and I know you will love, too.

We also bring to our stage outstanding soloists, many of whom you know well, and some new faces, all at the highest artistic level. A personal highlight for me is opening the season with my son, Julian, one of the finest cellists of our time, performing Dvorak’s great cello concerto.

As a 21st-century American orchestra, we are deeply committed to contemporary American music. This season, we will perform works by living composers like Ellen Zwilich, Christopher Theofanidis, and Jennifer Higdon, as well as symphonic classics from the 20th century by Creston, Hanson, and Still.

I am excited to share this magnificent music with you, performed by our exceptional orchestra at the Kravis Center. I’ve always believed that you, the audience, are just as vital to the success of a concert as the music itself. Thank you for being part of the Palm Beach Symphony family!

Gerard Schwarz Music Director

MUSIC DIRECTOR GERARD SCHWARZ

The GRAMMY®-nominated American conductor Gerard Schwarz is internationally recognized for his moving performances, innovative programming, extensive catalog of recordings, and a lifelong dedication to music education. He is Music Director of the All-Star Orchestra, Eastern Music Festival, Palm Beach Symphony, and the Frost Symphony Orchestra. He is also Conductor Laureate of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and Conductor Emeritus of the Mostly Mozart Festival. Schwarz is the Distinguished Professor of Music; Conducting and Orchestral Studies of the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami.

The 2024-25 season is Schwarz’s sixth as Music Director of the Palm Beach Symphony, during which he will continue to support great American composers of the past and present. To celebrate the orchestra’s 50th anniversary in 2024, Schwarz commissioned and premiered works by

MUSIC DIRECTOR

Joseph Schwantner, Ellen Zwilich, Aaron Kernis, and Bright Sheng, and his own Sinfonietta.

With the Frost Symphony Orchestra, Schwarz will begin a commissioning project celebrating the 100th anniversary of the University of Miami and the Frost School of Music. His recording of a new artistic version of Pictures at An Exhibition is presently airing on PBS nationwide; Schwarz’s latest TV program, celebrating the 200th anniversary of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, will begin airing on New Year’s Eve.

The All-Star Orchestra educational series, in conjunction with the Khan Academy, has already reached over 7 million students. All the programs of the All-Star Orchestra have been released by Naxos on DVD, and have received nine Emmy Awards and the Deems Taylor Television Broadcast Award from ASCAP.

Schwarz began his professional career as co-principal trumpet of the New York Philharmonic and has held Music Director positions with the Mostly Mozart Festival, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and New York Chamber Symphony. As a guest conductor, he has worked with many of the world’s finest orchestras and has led the San Francisco Opera, Washington National Opera, and Seattle Opera on many occasions.

In more than five decades, Schwarz has received hundreds of honors and accolades, including nine Emmy Awards, 14 GRAMMY® nominations, eight ASCAP Awards, and numerous Stereo Review and Ovation Awards. He holds the Ditson Conductor’s Award from Columbia University and was the first American named Conductor of the Year by Musical America. He has received several honorary doctorates, including from The Juilliard School, his alma mater. His memoir, Behind the Baton: An American Icon Talks Music, was published in 2017. He has been married to Jody for 40 years, has four children, and lives in Florida.

ASSISTANT CONDUCTORS

Yun Cao Appointed assistant conductor of the Palm Beach Symphony starting the 2022/23 Season, Chinese-American conductor and pianist Yun Cao is recognized for his musical versatility, energetic presence, and compelling musicianship. From classical concerts to opera and musical theater productions, his diverse musical palette has led him to Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Severance Hall, Chicago Symphony Hall, the Lincoln Center, and major concert halls in Asia and Europe.

A strong advocate for music education, Yun is the Resident Conductor of the Aurora School of Music. He has also served in active conducting roles with university orchestras across Florida and Ohio. As pianist, he has played keyboards with the Cleveland Orchestra, solos in concerto performances across the nation, conducts from the harpsichord, and is an avid chamber musician. Yun has received mentorship from renowned conductors including Gerard Schwarz, Larry Rachleff, Don Schleicher, and Miguel Harth-Bedoya.This is some text inside of a div block.

Alberto Bade Maestro Alberto Bade has established an outstanding reputation nationally and internationally in recent years. His charismatic stage presence and powerful interpretations of a wide repertoire have elevated him to a place of privilege within the musical community. Recognized for his dynamic style, drive, and musical passion, Maestro Bade continues to attract international attention as one of the most outstanding young conductors working in the United States today.

Maestro Bade currently works as Professor and Orchestral Director at Miami Dade College (MDC) where he serves as director of the MDC Symphony Orchestra. A dedicated advocate of music education, Bade is regularly a guest conductor for local and international youth orchestras,

ASSISTANT CONDUCTORS

as well as the founder of the MDC Honors Festival. As an international performer, Maestro Bade has been a frequent guest conductor in orchestras in Madrid, Berlin, Munich, Prague, Bucharest, and St. Petersburg, Russia. Born in West New York, New Jersey, Alberto Bade developed his interest in music at a very young age. Although primarily captured by the orchestral language; jazz and other styles were equally prevalent in his musical development. Alberto Bade obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Studio Music and Jazz at the University of Miami as well as a Master of Music Degree from the same institution before moving to New York to begin graduate studies at the Juilliard School. Maestro Bade has had the opportunity to study with some of the most acclaimed conducting educators in the world, such as Vincent La Selva, Kenneth Keisler and the legendary Jorma Panula.

Without being limited to one style or tradition, Maestro Bade provides interpretative vision that takes root beyond the conTines of the traditional classical music spectrum. His diverse approach has led him to work with artists from both the classical and jazz world including Pinchas Zukerman, Ed Calle, Jose Negroni and Federico Britos.

Maestro Bade has been awarded many prizes, including the Educational Outreach Award and the Miami Dade County Mayor’s Maestro Award for his performances and educational contributions to the city of Miami. Maestro Bade has also won nine Regional Emmy Awards for his televised orchestral performances with the Miami Dade College Symphony Orchestra.

Nine time Emmy Award winning Alberto Bade continues to enthuse and inspire audiences everywhere as he moves forward passionately with his calling: to share the profound and transformative power of music with the world.

HISTORY & MISSION

Palm Beach Symphony is South Florida’s premier orchestra known for its diverse repertoire and commitment to the community. Founded in 1974, this 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts organization adheres to a mission of engaging, educating, and entertaining the greater community of the Palm Beaches through live performances of inspiring orchestral music. The orchestra, led by its Music Director and internationally recognized conductor Gerard Schwarz, is celebrated for delivering spirited performances by first-rate musicians and distinguished guest artists. Recognized by The Cultural Council for Palm Beach County with a 2020 Muse Award for Outstanding Community Engagement, Palm Beach Symphony continues to expand its education and community outreach programs with children’s concerts, student coaching sessions, masterclasses, instrument donations and free public concerts that have reached more than 75,000 students in recent years.

History: In our earliest days, the orchestra performed only a few concerts a year with a part-time conductor and a volunteer staff. It was not until Mrs. Ethel S. Stone became the Symphony’s board chair, a position she held for 23 years, that the Palm Beach Symphony orchestra began establishing itself as a cultural force in the community. A visionary leader, Mrs. Stone inherited her love of music from her family and generously shared it with the community she loved. During her tenure, a number of well-known

musicians served in leadership roles including Karl Karapetian, John Iuele, Kenneth Schermerhorn, Stewart Kershaw, David Gray, Ulf Bjorlin, and John Covelli. Upon Mrs. Stone’s death on August 6, 1996, John and Joan Tighe stepped in to continue her legacy. They established a stable board of directors, a dedicated administrative staff, and a small endowment fund to ensure the Symphony’s continued growth. Musicians who led the orchestra during the Tighes’ tenure were Alan Kogosowski, Vladimir Ponkin, Sergiu Schwartz, Ray Robinson, and Donald Oglesby.

Mission: The mission of Palm Beach Symphony is to engage, educate, and entertain the greater community of the Palm Beaches through live performances of inspiring orchestral music.

Today: From our humble beginnings, Palm Beach Symphony has grown to become a cultural pillar in the Palm Beach community. Now a key cultural force in the area, we attract members who enjoy pairing quality concerts with fine dining experiences and social events, and who value and support the symphony’s music education and community outreach programs.

In 2019, as the Symphony entered its 45th season, we moved our operations across the bridge from Palm Beach (where we’d operated since 1974) to West Palm Beach, allowing us space to realize our full potential by expanding our mission and reaching even more corners of the community with orchestral music. By integrating with the rich fabric of the Downtown West Palm Beach business district, we’re able to align with countless economic development and tourism assets to enrich the lives of families, businesses, residents, students, and tourists.

Through important collaborations with our valued community partners – the Palm Beach School District, the Related Group, the Cultural Council, the Downtown Development Authority, and the West Palm Beach Arts and Entertainment District, to name just a few – we’re continuing to grow our mission and expand our reach in Palm Beach County and beyond, bringing classical music to people of all ages, backgrounds, and life experiences.

In its 50th season, the Symphony continues its strong momentum of growth under the leadership of Chief Executive Officer David McClymont. Music Director Gerard Schwarz is leading spirited performances of Masterworks concerts with an orchestra that reaches 90 players, the mark of a major symphony orchestra. Children’s concerts, student coaching sessions, masterclasses, instrument donations, and free public concerts have reached more than 81,000 students in recent years. In addition to conducting the Masterworks concerts, Maestro Schwarz is also conducting the Children’s Concert Series, and the orchestra is recording it for television through a partnership with South Florida PBS.

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER’S LETTER

This year marks my 10th anniversary with Palm Beach Symphony. Over the past decade, we have celebrated countless milestones together. Staying true to our three pillars—engaging, educating, and entertaining our community—we’ve introduced the beauty of classical music to a new generation. I am proud to say that this dedication has enhanced our presence within Palm Beach County and beyond, contributing to audience growth and increasing ticket sales year after year. We have expanded our programming and grown into a respected cultural institution in the region.

It is humbling to reflect on the early days, when we had only one parttime employee. Today, we have a full-time staff dedicated to community outreach, education, patron relations, ticketing, marketing, and more. Working alongside our board, sponsors, donors, patrons, and volunteers, we’ve been able to fulfill our mission and bring our core values to life. It’s through your passion and support that we’ve been able to touch so many lives through music.

We couldn’t be more excited for our 2024-2025 season. Maestro Gerard Schwarz continues to bring extraordinary guest artists and talented musicians from around the world to perform with Palm Beach Symphony for your enjoyment. Due to popular demand, and thanks to the generosity of Park Foundation, we are thrilled to add “The Encore,” a seventh bonus performance to conclude our Masterworks Season.

This year, we are excited to reintroduce Symphony Sessions: Lunch & Learns, offering in-depth conversations about the music and composers. We hope you’ll join us for these enriching experiences.

Lastly, I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to each of you and offer a standing ovation for your unwavering support. Thank you for opening your ears and hearts to orchestral music. Enjoy the season!

David McClymont Chief Executive Officer

PLANNED GIVING LEAVE A MUSICAL LEGACY

Palm Beach Symphony is deeply grateful to those who remember us through bequests or planned gifts. There are many ways to make a planned gift to the Symphony. Depending on your age, your income and assets and your vision of giving, you may wish to consider:

• Beneficiary Designations under Retirement Plan Assets [401(k), 403(b), IRA]

• Bequests via Will or Living Trust

• Cash

• Charitable Lead Trusts

• Charitable Remainder Trusts

• Gift Annuities

• Life Insurance

• Pledges

Your planned gift will help ensure the Symphony’s bright future by:

• Keeping classical music thriving by supporting our world-class musicians and critically acclaimed conductor.

• Allowing thousands of local students to be instructed and inspired by our concerts and education programs.

The Dora Bak Society

• Building a cultural community by helping us make classical music accessible to all through free outreach events.

The Dora Bak Society recognizes the dedication and generosity of music patrons who choose to include Palm Beach Symphony in their bequests or other long-range charitable giving plans. The Society offers a wonderful way to help sustain the Symphony’s mission for generations to come. Dora Bak Society members are acknowledged in a variety of ways, including presence on all printed donor lists and other naming opportunities that will carry the donor’s name into perpetuity.

Contact Us

When you’re ready to learn more about bequest opportunities that benefit Palm Beach Symphony, please contact David McClymont at 561-655-2657.

ORCHESTRA & STAFF

VIOLIN I

Evija Ozolins, concertmaster

Chair Sponsored by Ronald Rosenfeld

Marina Lenau, assistant concertmaster

Chair Sponsored by Tish Messinger

Glen Basham, associate concertmaster

Avi Nagin

Alexandra Gorski

Michelle Skinner

Yue Yang

Monica Cheveresan

Claudia Cagnassone

Orlando Forte

Dina Bikzhanova

Samvel Arakelyan

Michael Wu

Alfredo Oliva

VIOLIN II

Valentin Mansurov, principal

Svetlana Salminen, assistant principal

Angela Fiedler

Tinca Belinschi

Jana Kaminsky

Eliot Roske

Evgeniya Antonyan

Ericka Venable

Adriana Fernandez

Patrisa Tomassini

Victoria Bramble

Yillian Conception

VIOLA

Chauncey Patterson, principal

Yael Hyken, co-assistant principal

Felicia Besan, co-assistant principal

Ben Freedman

Adrienne Williams

Anna Ivanova

Gabrielle Malaniak

Luis Aguiar

Alex D’Amico

Taylor Shea

Jeanie Hwang

CELLO

Claudio Jaffé, principal

Chair Sponsored by Leslie Rogers Blum

James Calloway, assistant principal

Brent Charran

Aziz Sapaev

Tadeo Hermida

German Marcano

Niloufar Nabikhani

Axel Vallejo

Antonio Innaimo

BASS

Juan Carlos Peña, principal

Brian Myhr

Jeff Adkins

Amy Nickler

Will Penn

Paola Garcia

Santiago Olaguibel

Benjamin Joella FLUTE

Nadine Asin, principal

Joe Monticello

Dmytro Gnativ

PICCOLO

Jarrett May

OBOE

James Riggs, principal Chair Sponsored by Carol and Thomas Bruce

Randell Ellis, guest principal

Liam Boisset, guest principal

Karen Trujillo

Antonio Urrutia

ENGLISH HORN

Antonio Urrutia CLARINET

Ashley Leigh, principal

Julian Santacoloma

BASS CLARINET

Molly Flax BASSOON

Gabriel Beavers, principal

Carlos Felipe Viña

CONTRABASSOON

Melanie Ferrabone

FRENCH HORN

Amber Dean, principal Chair Sponsored by Karen Hunt Rogers

Michelle Haim

Bruce Heim

Mark Trotter

Judeny Lebron

Sylvia Denecke

Taryn Lee

Joseph Lovinsky, assistant

TRUMPET

Craig Morris, principal

Terri Rauschenbach

Marc Reese

PERCUSSION

Scott Crawford, principal

Isaac Fernandez

Jordan Holley

Matt Nichols

Karli Viña

HARP

Laura Sherman, principal

Marti Ann Moreland

PIANO

Valeria Polunina, principal

Chair Sponsored by Hank Dow and Kelly Winter

SAX

Frank Capoferri

ORCHESTRA CONTRACTOR

Alfredo Oliva, Miami Symphonic Entertainment, Inc.

Chair Sponsored by Gerry Gibian and Marjorie Yashar

Principal Chairs

STAFF

David McClymont Chief Executive Officer Jason Barroncini Production Coordinator

Renée LaBonte Community Advancement Coordinator

Sage Lehman Patron Relations Concierge

May Bell Lin Honorary Membership Director

Madison Mirra Marketing & Development Assistant

Alfredo Oliva Orchestra Contractor Miami Symphonic Entertainment, Inc.

Fabiola Parra Development Assistant

Conor Price Marketing and Communications Manager

Felix Rivera Patron Advancement Coordinator

Hulya Selcuk Director of Special Events

Bryce Seliger Education & Programming Associate

Olga M. Vazquez Director of Artistic Operations

PRINCIPAL MUSICIANS

Alfredo Oliva is the Orchestra Contractor for Palm Beach Symphony. A New York City native, he grew up in Hialeah, and his first performances at age 17 included working with Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Bing Crosby, Ray Charles, Barry White, Smoky Robinson and Burt Bacharach. The concertmaster of many Broadway shows, he has played in nearly every major classical ensemble in South Florida. Oliva has collaborated with hundreds of award-winning recording artists, including Gloria Estefan (Grammy® nominated album The Standards), Natalie Cole (Grammy nominated album, Natalie Cole En Español), Barry Gibb (In the Now), Michael Jackson (“Heaven Can Wait” and “Whatever Happens” from Invincible), Placido Domingo, Barbra Streisand, The Bee Gees, Julio Iglesias, Celia Cruz (“Yo Viviré” from Siempre Viviré), Alejandro Sanz (El Alma Al Aire, MTV America Latina), José Feliciano (Señor Bolero), Vic Damone, Jennifer Lopez, Shakira, Jon Secada, Enrique Iglesias, Busta Rhymes with Stevie Wonder (“Been Through the Storm” from The Big Bang), Marc Anthony and Ricky Martin (Ricky Martin MTV Unplugged). Since 2007, Oliva’s orchestras have been performing at the Adrienne Arsht Center and other South Florida concert venues as members of the Florida Grand Opera Orchestra as well as the Palm Beach Symphony and recently performed the incredible movie experience Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets™ in Concert!

Evija Ozolins is the Concertmaster for Palm Beach Symphony and the Florida Grand Opera. She is also a member of the All-Star Orchestra and the acclaimed Bergonzi String Quartet. Born in Riga, Latvia, she is a thirdgeneration musician in a family of professional musicians and began playing the piano at the age of four and violin one year later. After participating in numerous competitions, solo recitals and chamber music performances throughout Latvia and Europe in her teens, she was accepted at the Mannes College of Music in New York City where she studied with renowned violinists Aaron Rosand and David Nadien and played under conductors

Kurt Masur, James Levine, Leonard Slatkin, and Yehudi Menuhin. She has given solo recitals in many U.S. cities, including Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall in Manhattan, as well as in Canada, the Caribbean, and Europe. Ozolins has premiered multiple contemporary chamber music and solo violin works such as Imants Mezaraups Short Suite for violin solo and electronic sound. She has served as Concertmaster for Camerata NY, Jupiter Symphony and the Carnegie Hall concert series of the New England Symphonic Ensemble. She has also served as Principal 2nd Violin with the Binghamton Philharmonic and, for several years, was a member of the Jupiter Symphony under conductor Jens Nygaard. Having recorded as a soloist with Maureen McGovern, Lee Leesack, and Brian Lane Green, her name also appears on movie soundtracks and commercial recordings, including releases with Barry Gibb, Natalie Cole and Gloria Estefan. She performs in numerous Broadway shows, including Motown, Little Mermaid, Camelot, Lion King, My Fair Lady, Color Purple and Phantom of the Opera on Broadway. Recently, she performed Mendelssohn’s E Minor Violin Concerto and the Beethoven Two Romances for violin and orchestra in New York City. Ozolins plays on a 1782 Antonio Gragnani violin.

Valentin Mansurov is Principal Second Violin for Palm Beach Symphony. An award-winning musician who has won multiple competitions in the former U.S.S.R, Canada, and the United States, Mansurov has performed in solo recitals and chamber music concerts throughout Europe, North America and South America. In addition to his Palm Beach Symphony performances, both orchestral and chamber, he performs locally as a member of the Florida Grand Opera Orchestra. In 2015, Mansurov became a member of the critically acclaimed Delray String Quartet, performing in concerts nationwide. He began studying violin at the age of seven at Uspenskiy’s School for Musically Gifted Children in Uzbekistan and has pursued further college degrees in Turkey, France, Canada and the United States.

Chauncey Patterson is Principal Viola for Palm Beach Symphony and Florida Grand Opera, violist for Bergonzi String Quartet at University of Miami, Assistant Principal Violist of The Eastern Music Festival summer program and Associate Professor of Chamber Music at Lynn Conservatory of Music. He has been principal violist of the Denver and Buffalo Symphonies, interim violist of the Fine Arts Quartet and, for 15 years, violist of the renowned and extensively recorded Miami String Quartet. Patterson’s faculty affiliations include: The Cleveland Institute of Music, Blossom School of Music, Kent State University, Hartt School of Music, Encore School for Strings, Eastern Music Festival, University of Charleston (WV), University of Denver, New World School of the Arts, FIU and The University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. He attended The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Cleveland Institute of Music and The Curtis Institute.

Claudio Jaffé launched his solo performance career at the age of 11 with an orchestral debut in his native Brazil. His recitals and guest solo appearances with multiple orchestras have brought him to play in prestigious artistic centers around the world including those in New York City, London, Tokyo, Ottawa, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and Buenos Aires. The New York Times describes Jaffé as “an elegant and accomplished artist” of “taste, technique, musicianship, and a contagious youthful enthusiasm.” He is principal cellist of the Florida Grand Opera and Palm Beach Symphony, and Music Director of the Florida Youth Orchestra.

A prizewinner in numerous national and international competitions, he received four degrees from Yale University including the Doctor of Musical Arts. He served as Dean of the Lynn University Conservatory of Music and created their Preparatory Division, began the Strings Program at Saint Andrew’s School in Boca Raton, has conducted the Florida Youth Orchestra for over 25 years, performed as member of the Delray String Quartet for over 10 seasons, and taught at Palm Beach Atlantic University. Jaffé has conducted, performed, and taught at the Santa Catarina Music Festival (FEMUSC) and performs regularly at the Sunflower and Buzzards Bay Music Festivals.

Juan Carlos Peña is Principal Double Bass for both Palm Beach Symphony and the Florida Grand Opera Orchestra and performs regularly with the Naples Philharmonic Orchestra. Born in Honduras, he studied at the Victoriano Lopez School of Music. In Honduras, he was Artistic/Technical Director for the Victoriano López School of Music and Music Director of the San Pedro Sula. In Colombia, he was director of the Chamber Orchestra of the Antonio Valencia Conservatory, and in Spain, he was Music Director of the Madrigalia Chamber Choir. Other credits include: Principal Double Bass and soloist with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional (Honduras) and Orquesta Sinfónica del Valle (Colombia), co-principal double bass with Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia (Spain), conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of the Escuela Nacional de Música (Honduras), and bass instructor and soloist at Soli Deo Gloria Music Camp (Dominican Republic).

Nadine Asin is Principal Flute for Palm Beach Symphony and maintains a busy career since leaving her full-time position with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra after a 20year tenure. She performs as principal flutist of the Florida Grand Opera Orchestra and with the new All-Star Orchestra (a recent PBS series). Asin has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Great Performers Series of Lincoln Center, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Da Camera Society of Houston, NPR’s Performance Today, Seattle Chamber Music Society, the Norton Museum and the Musimelange series. She commissioned, performed and recorded the world premiere of Augusta Read Thomas’s flute concerto, Enchanted Orbits, and David Schiff’s After Hours for flute and piano, and recorded Aaron Avshalomov’s Flute Concerto on the Naxos label. She serves on the faculty of the Bard College Conservatory of Music and as adjunct faculty at The Juilliard School.

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James Riggs is Principal Oboe for Palm Beach Symphony and the Florida Grand Opera orchestra. As an orchestral musician, he has performed with the Metropolitan Opera, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, was an oboe fellow of the New World Symphony in Miami, and he is the former principal oboist of the Peoria Symphony. As a chamber musician, he was the oboe fellow for Ensemble Connect, a group based at Carnegie Hall, and has played throughout the US and Latin America. Riggs has been featured as guest artist and teacher at colleges and festivals in Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, as well as the US. In his free time, he likes reading and training Gracie jiu-jitsu.

Ashley R Leigh joins the Palm Beach Symphony as Principal Clarinet this year. During her tenure, she served as Assistant Principal, Second, and Eb Clarinet with the Naples Philharmonic for seventeen years. Additionally, Leigh has performed with the Florida Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the National Orchestral Institute, the Round Top Festival Institute, Musica Riva Festival (Italy), and the Tanglewood Festival.

Gabriel Beavers is Principal Bassoon for Palm Beach Symphony and the Associate Professor of Bassoon at the University of Miami Frost School of Music. Prior to joining the faculty at Frost, he served on the faculty of the Louisiana State University School of Music. He is also a member of the Nu-Deco ensemble and serves as 2nd bassoonist in the Music in the Mountains Festival Orchestra in Durango, CO. Formerly a fellow with the New World Symphony, he has also served as Principal Bassoon with the Virginia Symphony, Acting Principal Bassoon with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra and the Jacksonville Symphony and as Acting Second Bassoon with the Milwaukee Symphony for one season. Beavers has also previously held the position of Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Music. In addition to his orchestral activities, he has an active schedule of solo and chamber

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performances. He has appeared as a soloist with the Virginia Symphony, Baton Rouge Symphony, Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra, Greater Miami Symphonic Band and Louisiana Sinfonietta and has given recitals throughout the United States and at international wind and double reed festivals in England, Brazil and Japan. Beavers also has recorded two well-reviewed solo albums, “A Quirky Dream” and “Gordon Jacob: Music for Bassoon” both of which are available on Mark Records.

Amber Dean is Principal Horn of Palm Beach Symphony and Florida Grand Opera, and is Fourth Horn at Eastern Music Festival where she also serves on the faculty. Her previous positions include Fourth Horn of the Sarasota Orchestra, Second Horn of the Orquesta Filarmónica de Jalisco (Guadalajara, Mexico), and Third Horn of the Orquesta Sinfónica Sinaloa de las Artes (Culiacan, Mexico). She has also performed with The Florida Orchestra, Mozart Orchestra of New York, St. Pete Opera, Symphony of the Americas, Atlantic Classical Orchestra, Miami City Ballet, Orchestra Miami, South Florida Symphony, Lancaster Festival, and the Quad City Symphony, among others. Additionally, she is a frequent clinician at Florida youth orchestras and schools.

Dean completed her Bachelor of Music degree at Western Illinois University and her Master of Music degree at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music. Her teachers include Dale Clevenger, Richard Todd, Alice Render Clevenger, and Randall Faust.

Craig Morris is Principal Trumpet for Palm Beach Symphony. He is a Grammy nominated trumpet soloist and a versatile performer comfortable in all genres of music from Baroque to Contemporary. Regarded as a leading proponent for new music and original programming, Morris received a 2019 Grammy Nomination in the Best Classical Instrumental Solo category for his album Three Pieces in the Shape of a Square, released on Bridge Records and featuring the music of Philip Glass. Morris has also been featured as a soloist with ensembles and festivals around the world, including appearances with the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, Palm

Beach Symphony and the Miami Bach Society to name a few. Prior to his work as a soloist, Morris first gained an international reputation by being appointed Principal Trumpet of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra by music director Daniel Barenboim, following the legendary Adolph “Bud” Herseth in that chair. Currently based in Miami, Florida, Craig Morris is the Trumpet Professor at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami. He has been a Yamaha Artist since 2015.

Domingo Pagliuca is Principal Trombone for Palm Beach Symphony and is a Latin Grammy Award-winning trombonist who was born in Venezuela and graduated with honors from the University of Miami with Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Music in Instrumental Performance. His versatility as an instrumentalist in different musical genres has led him to be one of the most in-demand musicians in Venezuela and Latin America for recording sessions and musical productions in the commercial field. He has given master classes in the continental US and all over the world, and also, he has performed as soloist in the US, Latin America and Europe. Currently, Pagliuca plays with the worldrenowned Boston Brass, is a Yamaha Artist, and serves as Principal Trombone of the Florida Grand Opera Orchestra (FGO).

Benjamin Liberti is a freelance musician originally from Orlando, FL. He is currently a DMA Teaching Assistant for the tuba/euphonium studio at the University of Miami, pursuing a graduate degree in tuba performance. At Miami, Liberti studies with Dr. Aaron Tindall, Principal Tuba of the Naples Philharmonic. Prior to this, Ben studied at Rutgers University as a student of Alan Baer, Principal Tuba of the New York Philharmonic. Liberti has performed with The Naples Philharmonic, The Florida Orchestra, and other ensembles in South Florida and was most recently the tuba fellow and recipient of the Fenton Davison Endowed Scholarship at Music Academy of the West. In his spare time away from the studio, he enjoys watching the NBA and college basketball. Liberti performs on equipment by Meinl Weston - Germany.

Lucas Sanchez is Principal Timpani for Palm Beach Symphony and enjoys a multifaceted career as a timpanist, percussionist and teacher. Sanchez currently performs with Florida Grand Opera, Nu Deco Ensemble and the Southwest Michigan Symphony Orchestra. Previously, he has appeared with the Houston Symphony and the Amarillo Symphony. Sanchez maintains a private percussion studio in Coral Gables, is an instructor for the Greater Miami Youth Symphony program and gives masterclasses at high schools and colleges in South Florida. After beginning his studies in Albuquerque with Douglas Cardwell, he received his undergraduate and master’s degrees from Rice University under the tutelage of Richard Brown. Sanchez is currently writing his thesis for a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Miami, studying with Matthew Strauss and Svetoslav Stoyanov. Sanchez is proudly endorsed by Pearl/Adams instruments and performs on Adams Philharmonic Dresden Classic Timpani.

Scott Crawford is Principal Percussion for Palm Beach Symphony. Scott is a freelance percussionist based in Southwest Florida. He has been performing with the Palm Beach Symphony since 2011. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland School of Music, A Masters from Chicago College of Performing Arts and a Performers Certificate from Lynn University in Boca Raton, FL. Crawford currently performs as a Member of The Huntsville Symphony (Huntsville, AL), Palm Beach Symphony and Florida Grand Opera, and as an extra percussionist with the Naples Philharmonic, Sarasota Orchestra and Southwest Florida Symphony. When not performing on stage, he can be found in the pits of The Naples Players and TheatreZone. When not performing, Crawford owns and operates Florida’s premier drum and percussion rental business, Florida Percussion Service, providing instruments to ensembles throughout Florida and the neighboring states.

Laura Sherman is Principal Harp for Palm Beach Symphony. She is a Miami-based harpist with extensive experience in classical, popular and commercial music. Currently the Lecturer of Harp, Music Theory & Chamber Music at the Frost School of Music, University of Miami, Sherman recently relocated from New York City, where she was a popular performer, teacher, writer and editor for thirtyfour years, including fifteen years as the original harpist with the Broadway production of Wicked. She can also be heard on the Hamilton Broadway Cast Recording, as well as on recordings of Barbra Streisand, Meredith Monk, and numerous film scores. Sherman founded Gotham Harp Publishing in 2012, specializes in playing J.S. Bach’s music on the pedal harp, and is a frequent writer and guest editor for a number of harp publications.

Valeria Polunina Pianist and vocal coach Valeria Polunina currently serves as Principal Piano of Palm Beach Symphony and performs as an accompanist in collaboration with prominent artists throughout the United States, Europe, and Russia. A participant in Italy’s Solti Peretti Répétiteurs, Polunina has held positions at the world’s leading organizations, including as Assistant Conductor at The Metropolitan Opera and the Bolshoi Theater Opera’s Young Artist Program, guest vocal coach at the Mariinsky Theater Opera’s Atkins Young Artist Program, Head of Music Staff for Luzerner Theater in Switzerland, Staff Pianist for Oper Köln in Germany, and founder of a prominent recital series in Estonia with Rene Kirspuu. She has appeared on major television and radio stations including Good Morning America, WQXR, and WXEL Radio, and has performed in recital at Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris as well as at Carnegie Hall for the XV International Tchaikovsky Competition First Prize Winners’ Recital hosted by Valeriy Gergiev and the Marilyn Horne Song Celebration Concert. Polunina received her Master of Music in Collaborative Piano at the Juilliard School, and she is a graduate of The Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program.

Young Friends is an active group of young professionals who have an appreciation for classical music and are committed to supporting Palm Beach Symphony’s impactful education and outreach programs.

As a Young Friends member, you are supporting our programs that provide instruments for needy students, support coaching sessions by professional Symphony musicians for the next generation, and offer free concerts for children.

YOUNG FRIENDS MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS

All Members Receive

• Invitation to social events

• Access to special single ticket rate

• Advanced single ticket ordering

• Subscription to text-alert reminders

• Subscription to select email communications

• Access to purchase a discounted gala ticket

All Executive Receive

• All member benefits

• Complimentary champagne at concerts

• A Masterworks Series Subscription

• Access to special subscription rate

• Invitation to Executive VIP events JOIN TODAY

Call (561) 655-2657 or email yfpbs@palmbeachsymphony.org palmbeachsymphony.org/youngfriends

700 S. Dixie Highway, Suite 100, West Palm Beach, FL 33401

PAUL & SANDRA GOLDNER CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC

Each season our music education initiatives are expanded upon to reach more students in Palm Beach County, and in recent years, our efforts have impacted more than 75,000 students. These programs continuously evolve to deepen and extend student learning opportunities with an expansive array of activities that enhance learning and reinforce academic and arts concepts.

Coaching Sessions and Residencies

Student musicians learn technique, tone, posture, proper position, and much more in small group settings with professional Palm Beach Symphony instrument instructors.

Todd Barron Instrument Donation Fund

The Todd Barron Instrument Donation Fund plays a vital role in supporting our mission by providing the resources needed to repair instruments received through our donation program, ensuring they are in

excellent condition for deserving students. Additionally, this fund allows us to purchase and donate brand-new instruments to schools and individual students and helps us sustain the Lisa Bruna B-Major Award program that provides new, high-quality instruments to talented high school seniors, enabling them to pursue higher education studies and launch successful musical careers.

Lecture Demonstrations and In-School Concerts

Presented in a variety of small ensemble combinations, PBS Symphony musicians perform selected works, discuss the music, the composer, their instruments, and their backgrounds and professional careers. These in-school concerts are a highly sought-after program that provides students with the opportunity to ask questions and speak with musicians in an intimate and more personal setting. The program is offered directly to school sites, free of charge to Title I elementary, middle and high schools.

Instrumental Music Teacher of the Year

We pay tribute to one special band or orchestra K-12 music teacher in Palm Beach County as the Instrumental Music Teacher of the Year with an award that includes coaching sessions by Palm Beach Symphony musicians, a classroom visit by Music Director Gerard Schwarz, Symphony concert tickets for the winner’s classes, and a basket-full of personal indulgences.

Open Rehearsals

Select supporting Members of the community have the opportunity to watch a rehearsal during the year. Open Rehearsals are a behind-the-scenes look into how the final product is pieced together by our Maestro and orchestra musicians in tandem with our featured soloist.

Masterclasses

A masterclass is an individual coaching session by a master musician in front of an audience, a class, or in public. Student musicians will perform a prepared piece for a master musician or Palm Beach Symphony guest artist for expert feedback on areas for improvement, including musical technique, style, interpretative qualities, presentation, and overall musicality.

DALE A. MCNULTY CHILDREN’S CONCERT SERIES

A never-before-told story as it comes to life with art illustrations by Renata Rodrigues and the enchanting music of “The Birds” (Gli uccelli) by Italian composer Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936) performed by Palm Beach Symphony and Music Director Gerard Schwarz with an original story and script by Jody Schwarz.

FIELD TRIP FOR STUDENTS

Tuesday, October 15, 2024, 9:30am

Dolly Hand Cultural Arts Center

Tuesday, October 15, 2024, 11:15am

Dolly Hand Cultural Arts Center

Wednesday, October 16, 2024, 10:30am The Kravis Center for the Performing Arts

Friday, October 25, 2024, 10:30am Duncan Theater at Palm Beach State College

FAMILY CONCERT

Saturday, October 26, 2024, 3:00pm Eissey Campus Theater

We graciously acknowledge the following contributors to these performances as a part of Palm Beach Symphony’s Paul and Sandra Goldner Conservatory of Music

$50,000+ THE PRINCE’S BATON

Ray and Jacqueline Farris to fund student attendance at all “Cinderella and the Orchestra” performances

Paul and Sandra Goldner Conservatory of Music to assist in funding the production

$25,000+ THE PALACE ORCHESTRA

Herbert H. and Barbara C. Dow Foundation to assist in funding the production for Public Television

Charles Frederick Schmidt to fund the Duncan Theater Performance

$15,000+ ROYAL MASQUERADE CONCERT AND BALL

Lois Pope to assist with orchestra costs for all performances

$10,000+ PRINCE MAESTRO GASPARD

James R. Borynack and Adolfo Zaralegui / FINDLAY Galleries to assist with production costs for all performances

Eric Friedheim Foundation to assist with production costs for all performances

McNulty Charitable Foundation to assist with production costs for all performances

$ 5,000+ THE KING

James H. and Marta T. Batmasian Family Foundation

Josephine DuPont Bayard

Harry T. Mangurian, Jr. Foundation

John Dadakis ~ The Komansky Foundation

Alfred Zucaro to fund venue costs for children’s concert recording

$1,000+ KING’S MESSINGER

Carla Crowley

Carole Gigliotti

Hampton Family Foundation of Oregon Community Foundation

Rachel CW Gwinn Private Foundation

Ronnie and William Potter

THE CARNIVAL OF more ANIMALS

Eudora’s Fable:

The Shoe Bird

Learn more about our Emmy Nominated children’s concert performances by scanning the QR code:

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

Palm Beach Symphony provides impactful outreach programs that allow us to reach beyond our concert venue to engage members of the community. Our community outreach events serve as the cornerstone of our efforts to reach Palm Beach County’s broad and diverse community which together with our educational initiatives enabled us to be recognized by The Cultural Council for Palm Beach County with a 2020 Muse Award for Outstanding Community Engagement.

Randolph A. Frank Prize

The mission of the Randolph A. Frank Prize for the Performing Arts is to recognize and reward individual performing artists and dedicated educators who enrich the quality of the performing arts in Palm Beach County, Florida. Categories include Performing Artist, Performing Arts Educator, and Emerging Artist.

Lisa Bruna B-Major Award

Through an annual audition process, Palm Beach Symphony awards one to three high school seniors with an advanced level instrument or major accessory such as a bow or headjoint. Students must reside in Palm Beach County, intend to major in music, and pursue their undergraduate studies at a university, college, or conservatory. This award was renamed in the second year of the program in honor of Lisa Bruna for her talents as a writer, her passion for helping others, and her significant contributions to the Palm Beach Symphony.

Chamber Chats

Palm Beach Symphony presents lively chamber music concerts enhanced by enlightening narration by local musicians, historians, and scholars. These informative and engaging chamber music programs provide both entertainment and learning experiences for audiences of all ages.

Nurturing Notes

Palm Beach Symphony connects with all corners of the community through music. Through Nurturing Notes, our Symphony musicians work with vulnerable and often times isolated populations including but not limited to seniors residing in assisted living and memory care communities, at-risk children, veterans and Holocaust survivors with PTSD, and those receiving inpatient care for medical or mental health needs.

Middle Bridge Trio

The Middle Bridge Trio comprised of Palm Beach Symphony musicians performs a unique and intoxicating blend of music that merges the genres of American fiddle music with classical styles.

Musical Masterpieces

Through our Musical Masterpieces project, we work with diverse populations throughout the community, from children and adults, to turn decommissioned instruments into works of art. Palm Beach Symphony has partnered with aZul and local artist Craig McInnis from The Peach to help individuals with disabilities to create imaginative works of art. Numerous professional artists at Zero Empty Spaces Artist Studios in Palm Beach Gardens turn these instruments into unique, one-of-a-kind beautiful works of art that can be purchased at their studio.

Cox Science Center and Aquarium Partnership

Palm Beach Symphony continues to partner with the Cox Science Center and Aquarium located in West Palm Beach. Symphony musicians will present short STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) lessons and work with children on fun and engaging activities centered around the intersection of science and music. We will provide performances and several STEAM sessions throughout the 2024-25 season.

Members of the Impresario Society play a pivotal role in bringing Palm Beach Symphony’s Masterworks concerts to life, featuring the finest musicians in South Florida and distinguished world-class guest artists. We are deeply grateful for their generous support in making this season’s performances possible.

Grand Impresarios

($100,000 and above)

James R. Borynack and Adolfo Zaralegui / FINDLAY Galleries

Leonard and Norma Klorfine / The Klorfine Foundation

Patrick and Milly Park

Impresarios

($75,000-$99,999)

Patricia Lambrecht / The Lambrecht Family Foundation

Lugano Diamonds & Jewelry Inc.

Associate Impresarios

($50,000 - $74,999)

Mrs. James N. Bay

Bill and Kem Frick / The Frick Foundation, Inc.

Thomas E. Harvey and Cathleen P. Black

John D. Herrick

Charles and Ann Johnson / The C and A Johnson Family Foundation

Gary and Linda Lachman / The Lachman Family Foundation

The Honorable Ronald Rosenfeld

David K. Schafer

Contributing Impresarios

($25,000 - $49,999)

Cynthia Anderson and Jerome Canty

Kathy Lee Bickham and John Bickham

Amy and John Collins

Suzanne Mott Dansby

Willard Dow and Kelly Winter

Gerald Gibian and Marjorie Yashar

Walter Harper

GLH Hines Family Philanthropy Fund / George and Lisa Hines

McNulty Charitable Foundation

Tish Messinger

Lois Pope

Ari Rifkin / The Len-Ari Foundation

Dr. Martha Rodriguez and Dr. Jesus Perez-Mendez

Karen Hunt Rogers

Kimberly Strauss

Don and Mary Thompson

Sieglinde Wikstrom

Assistant Impresarios

($15,000 - $24,999)

JoAnne Berkow

Leslie Rogers Blum

Tina and Jeffrey Bolton Family Fund

Carol and Thomas Bruce

Jerome J. Claeys

Mary and Will Demory

Michelle DuBois and James Roiter

Diane and Dr. Richard Farber

Jacqueline and Ray Farris

Jo and Douglas E. Gressette

Irwin and Janet Gusman

Dr. Aban and Dr. Percy Kavasmaneck

Elaine Kay

David Moscow and Linda Klein

Oxford Financial Group, Ltd.

Nancy and Ellis J. Parker

Robin B. Smith

Carol and Jerome Trautschold

November 10, 2024, 3:00 pm

Dreyfoos Hall

The Kravis Center for the Performing Arts

Julian Schwarz, cello

Celebration for Orchestra

Cello Concerto in B Minor, Op. 104, B. 191

I. Allegro

II. Adagio ma non troppo

III. Finale: Allegro moderato

Pictures at an Exhibition Promenade

I. Gnomus (The Gnome) Promenade

Julian Schwarz, cello

INTERMISSION

II. Il vecchio castello (The Old Castle) Promenade

III. Tuileries

IV. Bydlo (Cattle) Promenade

V. Ballet des Poussins dans leurs Cogues (Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks)

VI. Samuel Goldenberg und Schmuÿle

VII. Limoges. Le marché (The Market)

1

Ellen Taaffe Zwilich (b. 1939)

Antonin Dvořák (1841-1904)

Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881)

orch. Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

VIII. Catacombæ (Sepulcrum romanum) Catacombs (Roman Tomb)

Con mortuis in lingua mortua (With the Dead in a Dead Language)

IX. La Cabane sur des Pattes de Poules (Baba Yaga) The Hut on Hen’s Legs (Baba Yaga)

X. La Grande Porte de Kiev (The Great Gate of Kiev)

This evening was generously underwritten by the Leonard and Norma Klorfine Foundation

ARTIST PROFILE

JULIAN SCHWARZ

Coming from a dynasty of revered classical musicians, cellist Julian Schwarz will grace the stage with his father and our Music Director, Gerard Schwarz, performing one of the greatest cello concertos of all time composed by Dvořák. The program builds to the ultimate Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky that was later orchestrated by Ravel, a symphonic homage and musical depiction of Mussorgsky’s dear friend Victor Hartmann’s artwork.

Julian Schwarz was born to a multigenerational musical family in 1991. Heralded from a young age as a cellist destined to rank among the greatest of the 21st century, Julian’s powerful tone, effort less virtuosity, and extraordinarily large color palate are hallmarks of his style.

After making his concerto debut at the age of 11 with the Seattle Symphony and his father Gerard Schwarz on the podium, he made his US touring debut with the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra in 2010. Since being awarded first prize at the inaugural Schoenfeld International String Competition in 2013, he has led an active career as soloist, performing with the symphony orchestras of Annapolis, Boise, Buffalo, Charlotte, Columbus, Delaware, Des Moines, Hartford, Jacksonville, Louisville, Memphis, Modesto, Omaha, Puerto Rico, Richmond, Rochester, San Antonio, San Jose, Sarasota, Syracuse, Toledo, Tucson, Virginia, West Virginia, Wichita, and Winston - Salem, among many others. Internationally, he made his Australian debut with the Queensland Symphony, his Mexican debuts

with the Boca del Rio Philharmonic in Veracruz and the Mexico City Philharmonic with frequent collaborator Jorge Mester, and his Hong Kong debut at the Intimacy of Creativity Festival. He has also appeared at the Salzburg Mozarteum, and the Verbier festival in Switzerland.

As a chamber musician, Mr. Schwarz performs extensively in recital with Marika Bournaki. In 2016 Schwarz & Bournaki were awarded first prize at the inaugural Boulder International Chamber Music Competition’s “The Art of Duo”, and subsequently embarked on an extensive 10-recital tour of China in March 2017. In fall 2023, the duo will give the World Premiere of a Double Concerto by Marcus Norris. Mr. Schwarz is a founding member of the New York based Frisson Ensemble (a mixed nonet of winds and strings), and the Mile-End Trio with violinist Jeff Multer and Ms. Bournaki. He performs frequently at Bargemusic in Brooklyn with violinist Mark Peskanov, on the Frankly Music Series in Milwaukee with violinist Frank Almond, as a member of the Palladium Chamber Players in St Petersburg FL, and has appeared at the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, and the Seattle Chamber Music Festival. In addition, he runs programming for the Tuesday evening chamber music series at the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, NC.

Julian Schwarz is an ardent supporter of new music, and has premiered concertos by Richard Danielpour and Samuel Jones (recorded with the All Star Orchestra for public television in 2012, subsequently released as a DVD on Naxos). In the 17-18 season, he gave the world premiere of Lowell Liebermann’s first Cello Concerto with a consortium of six orchestras. Other premieres include recital works by Paul Frucht, Scott Ordway, Jonathan Cziner, Gavin Fraser, Alex Weiser, Ofer Ben-Amots, chamber music by Adolphus Hailstork, Henri Lazarof, Bright Sheng, and the US Premiere of Dobrinka Tabakova’s Cello Concerto. Of special note is Mr. Schwarz’s ongoing commitment to the music ofJewish experience, including projects with the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research (music of Joachim Stutschewsky and his circle), the Defiant Requiem Foundation (music of Holocaust composers and their influence) Central Synagogue (yearly feature on Jewish Broadcasting), and the Milken Archive of American Jewish Music—for which he has recorded the complete cello/ piano works of Ernest Bloch.

Julian Schwarz appears by arrangement with Christina Daysog Concert Artists.

NOTES ON THE PROGRAM

By Aaron Grad

Celebration for Orchestra (1984)

ELLEN TAAFFE ZWILICH

Born April 30, 1939 Miami, Florida

Currently resides in New York and Florida

Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, once an orchestral violinist herself, composed this Celebration for Orchestra in 1984, the year after she became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in Music. The piece was commissioned by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra for their debut concerts in a new hall, which led Zwilich to be “motivated by three complementary goals,” she wrote in a program note. “First, I wanted to celebrate a joyous and historic occasion with all its inspiring symbolism of beginning and renewal. The celebratory image that consistently came to me was the ringing of bells, so I allowed the work to issue from this image. Sometimes there is a very clear musical image of ringing bells, as in the beginning (in the trumpets, strings and percussion). Often, however, the association is more abstract as in the theme (that first appears in the cellos, violas and bassoon) which seems to arise from the striking of great low-sounding bells and rises to the harmonies that build from simple to complex through the overlapping of sonorities, to phrases and instrumentation that approximate the amorphous ending of a bell-sound.”

Zwilich’s second goal was to write a “test piece for the new Circle Theatre” inspired by the tradition of the toccata, an old form of keyboard music that was designed to show off a performer’s deft touch. In that vein, the Celebration for Orchestra “offers a wide variety of sounds, in this case from very, very soft to very, very loud (and many shades in-between) and from very low to very high, and from legato to staccato.”

Lastly, Zwilich “wanted to celebrate the orchestra itself, which is, after all, the centerpiece of the occasion. Thus the Celebration for Orchestra is like a mini-concerto for orchestra, featuring some of the outstanding soloists in the ensemble, highlighting the various sections, and calling for the highest degree of virtuosity and artistry from the entire ensemble.”

Cello Concerto in B Minor, Op. 104 (1895)

ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK

Born September 8, 1841 near Prague, Bohemia

Died May 1, 1904 in Prague, Bohemia

Antonín Dvořák came from a small Bohemian village, where his zitherplaying father was the local butcher and innkeeper. Dvořák’s first big hit was a set of Slavonic Dances that drew upon Czech folk music, and even a steady stream of masterful symphonies and chamber music scores in the Beethoven-Brahms tradition hardly dispelled the notion that he was a provincial composer. While his embrace of that local cultural identity cost him credibility within the German-speaking world, he found appreciative audiences further afield. In the 1880s, a series of visits to London made him a local hero, and in the next decade he made an even bigger impact in the New World.

The job that lured Dvořák away from his beloved Czech homeland was an offer to direct the National Conservatory in New York. When he accepted in 1892, he understood that his position involved more than running a music school. He wrote to a friend, “The Americans expect great things of me. I am to show them the way into the Promised Land, the realm of a new, independent art, in short a national style of music!” Besides teaching at the conservatory, Dvořák composed some of his most celebrated scores while in the United States, including the Symphony No. 9 (“From the New World”) and the String Quartet No. 12 (“American”).

Trouble began for Dvořák in his third year in New York. The financial panic of 1893 had brought the conservatory’s main patron to the edge of bankruptcy, and the school could not keep up with salary payments. By November of 1894, when Dvořák began a new concerto for the Czech cellist Hanuš Wihan, he was longing to return to his native Bohemia, especially the idyllic life at his country house in Vysoká, where he had done much of his composing. He completed the Cello Concerto in New York in February of 1895, and then in April he and his wife returned home.

One possible clue to the deep feeling behind this concerto is Dvořák’s relationship to his sister-in-law, Josefina Čermakova, who was gravely ill at the time, and whose favorite song appears in the intense and passionate slow movement. She had been Dvořák’s student, and he developed affections for her that turned out to be unrequited. She ended up marrying another man, while Dvořák married her younger sister, Anna. If homesickness was one font of inspiration for this brooding concerto, another might have been Dvořák’s conflicted feelings of love and loss as Josefina slipped toward death. It takes tremendous facility as an orchestrator to utilize the full power of a symphony orchestra without subsuming a solo cello, and Dvořák

brought to his concerto all the orchestral knowledge accumulated over the course of nine symphonies, as well as earlier concertos for piano and violin. The cello contributes virtuosic filigree and soaring lyricism throughout, yet the overall impression is of a shared contribution to an all-encompassing statement, something grander than one musician’s star turn. There are ample references to Dvořák’s Slavic roots in the musical language, especially in the dramatic minor-key passages, while other elements have just a hint of American flavor, such as the first movement’s sweet contrasting theme introduced by the horn. The slow movement, with its humble melodies and quotations from one of Dvořák’s earlier Czech songs, is particularly intimate and personal.

The finale begins with an ominous march, but it does not proceed along the expected course to a loud, blustery climax. Taking a poignant turn in the final minutes, the music flashes back to the first two movements and then recedes to the brink of dissolution. Only then does the orchestra surge to a blinding finish.

Pictures at an Exhibition (1874)

MODEST MUSSORGSKY

Born September 9, 1839 in Karevo, Russia

Died March 16, 1881 in Saint Petersburg, Russia

Modest Mussorgsky was a military cadet with a knack for the piano when, at age 19, he dedicated himself to composition and took his first serious lessons. The highpoint of his short career came in 1874, with the successful premiere of his opera Boris Godunov. That same year, a memorial retrospective of paintings by Viktor Hartmann, who had recently died from an aneurysm at age 39, inspired his good friend Mussorgsky to compose Pictures at an Exhibition. The suite for solo piano adopted a novel form in which a recurring promenade represents the composer strolling through the exhibit, linking the movements inspired by specific images.

Five years after Mussorgsky’s alcohol-fueled death at the age of 41, his friend and fellow composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov arranged for a posthumous publication of the original piano version of Pictures at an Exhibition, and one of his students soon made the first symphonic adaptation. The music is best known through the orchestral version heard here, created in 1922 by Maurice Ravel.

The iconic Promenade struts to an irregular gait, grouped into five- and six-beat segments. This theme represents the ambling composer, and the slightly imbalanced heft of the music seems a good match for the outsized Mussorgsky. The next movement, Gnomus, celebrates Hartmann’s design

for a gnome-shamed nutcracker, depicted with halting phrases and brittle ensemble effects.

A gentle restatement of the promenade prepares The Old Castle, evoking an image of a troubadour singing before a medieval castle, represented by the dreamy buzz of a solo alto saxophone. Another fragment of promenade ushers in Tuileries (Dispute between Children at Play), based on Hartmann’s painting of children in the Tuileries Garden in Paris. The recurring motive of a descending minor third captures the universal musical gesture with which children tease and call each other.

Cattle recalls a painting of an ox-drawn cart, casting the tuba’s sullen melody over plodding accompaniment. An interlude of promenade material links into the Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks, inspired by Hartmann’s sketch for a costume in which only the dancer’s head, arms and legs emerge from an eggshell. The music uses flitting grace notes and bright treble instruments to maximize the chirping playfulness.

Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuÿle represents two separate portraits of Jewish men, one rich and one poor. The first theme in octaves rings with Semitic intervals and inflections, while a second chorale-like passage, peppered with muted trumpet, offsets the initial incantation.

The Market at Limoges (The Great News) transports the animated chatter of female shoppers engaged in frenetic crosstalk. At the climax, it breaks off into the deep, slow resonance of The Catacombs, drawn from a self-portrait of Hartmann in the depths of Paris.

The next section, With the Dead in a Dead Language, brings the composer into the picture through a spectral recollection of the promenade theme. As Mussorgsky wrote in the margin of his score, “The creative spirit of the dead Hartmann leads me towards the skulls, invokes them; the skulls begin to glow softly from within.”

From that most hallowed place, the exhibition proceeds to the most outlandish movement, The Hut on Fowl’s Legs (Baba-Yagá). Hartmann’s design for a clock modeled after the bird-legged house of the witch BabaYagá inspired Mussorgsky to depict another component of the folk tale, where the witch flies around in the mortar she uses to grind up the human bones she eats. That whirlwind music pivots in an instant to the most grand and majestic passage in the piece, The Great Gate of Kiev, reflecting Hartmann’s winning design for a ceremonial gate for the Ukrainian capital.

SAVE THE DATE

PALM BEACH SYMPHONY EIGHTH ANNUAL HOLIDAY LUNCHEON

MONDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2024, 10:30 AM

COHEN PAVILION

The Kravis Center for the Performing Arts 701 Okeechobee Boulevard, West Palm Beach, Florida

Premier venue, champagne and cocktails, expansive in-person silent auction, glorious music, fine food, as well as presentations of donated instruments to Palm Beach County school children and the 2024 award for

PALM BEACH SYMPHONY INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC TEACHER OF THE YEAR

HONORARY CHAIRS

Sheryne and Richard Brekus

CHAIRS

Carol and Thomas Bruce

VICE-CHAIRS

Mary and Will Demory

AUCTION CHAIR

Marietta Muiña McNulty

LIZ QUIRANTES, CBS 12 NEWS ANCHOR MISTRESS OF CEREMONIES MUSIC BY PALM BEACH SYMPHONY BRASS QUINTET His People Vocal Ensemble from The King’s Academy Student Chamber Ensemble from Lake Worth Community High School

This festive luncheon supports the symphony’s educational initiatives and instrument donation program, benefiting underserved music students in palm beach county. all proceeds contribute to palm beach symphony’s mission to provide world-class music, community outreach, and music education programs throughout the palm beaches.

EVENT INFORMATION www.palmbeachsymphony.org I 561.568.0265 hselcuk@palmbeachsymphony.org Sponsorship & Underwriting Opportunities Available

December 10, 2024, 7:30 pm

Dreyfoos Hall

The Kravis Center for the Performing Arts

Leonidas Kavakos, violin

The Star-Spangled Banner

Stewart Mott Dansby, guest conductor*

Francis Scott Key (1779-1843)

Rainbow Body

Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77

I. Allegro non troppo

II. Adagio

III. Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace

– Poco più presto

Leonidas Kavakos, violin

INTERMISSION

Symphony No. 7 in D Minor, Op. 70, B. 141

I. Allegro maestoso

II. Poco adagio

III. Scherzo: Vivace

IV. Finale: Allegro

Christopher Theofanidis (b. 1967)

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Antonin Dvořák (1841-1904)

The opportunity to conduct Palm Beach Symphony was an auction item won at Palm Beach Symphony’s annual gala This evening was generously underwritten by Patricia Lambrecht / The Lambrecht Family Foundation

ARTIST PROFILE

LEONIDAS KAVAKOS

Loosely based on a chant by the Renaissance visionary Hildegard von Bingen as well as a Tibetan Buddhist ideal, the awe-inspiring Rainbow Body by American living composer Christopher Theofanidis captures a halo around the melody, creating a wet acoustic by emphasizing the lingering reverberations one might hear in an old cathedral. Violin sensation Leonidas Kavakos, acclaimed for his matchless technique, captivating artistry, and superb musicianship, promises to enrapture us as he performs Brahms’ impassioned Violin Concerto. Said to be inspired by Brahms’ compositional style, Dvořák’s profoundly intimate Seventh Symphony comes after experiencing the deaths of his daughter and mother in which he examines the meanderings of his soul and the search for answers to elementary issues of human existence.

Leonidas Kavakos is recognized across the world as a violinist and artist of rare quality, acclaimed for his matchless technique, his captivating artistry and his superb musicianship, and the integrity of his playing. He works regularly with the world’s greatest orchestras and conductors and plays as recitalist in the world’s premier halls and festivals.

Kavakos has developed close relationships with major orchestras such as the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Berliner Philharmoniker, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra and Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. Kavakos also works closely with the Dresden Staatskapelle, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Munich Philharmonic and Budapest

Festival orchestras, Orchestre de Paris, Academia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala.

In recent years, Kavakos has succeeded in building a strong profile as a conductor and has conducted the New York Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Gürzenich Orchester, Vienna Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Filarmonica Teatro La Fenice, and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra. Most recently he had a great success conducting the Israel Philharmonic.

In the 23/24 season, Kavakos is honored as guest soloist at Carnegie Hall’s Opening Night Gala with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Riccardo Muti, as well as soloist at the CSO’s own Symphony Ball during its opening week. He will join the orchestra again for Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto No. 2 in November. Other US engagements include performances with the Boston Symphony and San Francisco Symphony, and a series of recitals with his regular partners Emanuel Ax and Yo-Yo Ma. Kavakos will perform a number of concerts throughout Europe including with the Wiener Symphoniker, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Staatskapelle Berlin, Luxembourg Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony; and will play-conduct the Philharmonia Orchestra at Royal Festival Hall and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. He will also conduct the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.

Kavakos is an exclusive recording artist with Sony Classics. Recent releases include Bach: Sei Solo and the re-release of his 2007 recording of the complete Beethoven Sonatas with Enrico Pace, for which he was named Echo Klassik Instrumentalist of the year. In 2022 Kavakos released Beethoven for Three: Symphonies Nos. 2 and 5 arranged for trio, with Emanuel Ax and Yo-Yo Ma. The second album from this series included Symphony No. 6, “Pastoral” and was released in November 2022, with further recordings planned for the 23-24season.

Born and brought up in a musical family in Athens, Kavakos curates an annual violin and chamber music masterclass in Athens, which attracts violinists and ensembles from all over the world. He plays the ‘Willemotte’ Stradivarius violin of 1734.

Leonidas Kavakos appears by arrangement with Opus 3 Artists

NOTES ON THE PROGRAM

By Aaron Grad

Rainbow Body (2000)

CHRISTOPHER THEOFANIDIS

Born December 18, 1967 in Dallas, Texas

Currently resides in New Haven, Connecticut

Christopher Theofanidis composed Rainbow Body in 2000 for the Houston Symphony and conductor Robert Spano, who later led the Atlanta Symphony in a recording of the work. Since winning the Masterprize International Competition in 2003, Rainbow Body has been one of the most performed compositions by any living composer. Theofanidis wrote the following description. In the past few years I have been listening to the music of medieval mystic Hildegard von Bingen a great deal, and as simple and direct as this music is, I am constantly amazed by its staying power. Hildegard’s melodies have very memorable contours which set them apart from other chants of the period. They are wonderfully sensual and set up a very intimate communication with the divine. This work is based on one of her chants, “Ave Maria, o auctrix vite” (“Hail Mary, source of life”).

Rainbow Body begins in an understated, mysterious manner, calling attention to some of the key intervals and motives of the piece. When the primary melody enters for the first time about a minute into the work, I present it very directly in the strings without accompaniment. In the orchestration, I try to capture a halo around this melody, creating a wet acoustic by emphasizing the lingering reverberations one might hear in an old cathedral.

Although the piece is built essentially around fragments of the melody, I also return to the tune in its entirety several times throughout the work, as a kind of plateau of stability and peace within an otherwise turbulent environment. Rainbow Body has a very different sensibility from the Hildegard chant, with a structure that is dramatic and developmental, but I hope that it conveys at least a little of my love for the beauty and grace of her work.

—Christopher Theofanidis

Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77 (1878)

JOHANNES BRAHMS

Born May 7, 1833 in Hamburg, Germany

Died April 3, 1897 in Vienna, Austria

Brahms was at the impressionable age of 15 when a revolution in Hungary sent refugees fleeing to the United States, many of them embarking from Brahms’ native Hamburg. Brahms fell in love with the Hungarian music that flooded his city, brought by the likes of violinist Ede Reményi, and so it was both a tremendous honor and a lucky career break when that same musician returned five years later and hired the 20-year-old Brahms to accompany him on the piano during a tour through Germany. During that tour, Brahms met another Hungarian violinist, Joseph Joachim, who at 22 was already at the start of an impressive career. Joachim’s first great kindness to Brahms was to introduce him to Robert Schumann, sparking the brief mentorship that helped Brahms foster his passion for the formal models perfected by Mozart, Beethoven and Mendelssohn.

Brahms and Joachim remained friends for most of their lives (apart from a falling out surrounding Joachim’s divorce), and the one and only Violin Concerto that Brahms composed in 1878 stands as a testament to their strong working relationship. Brahms mailed drafts to Joachim to consult on the solo part, and the violinist ended up supplying the enormous cadenza for the first movement that many performers still use. They debuted the work together in Leipzig on January 1, 1879, with Brahms conducting the Gewandhaus Orchestra.

On that same program, Joachim also performed the Violin Concerto by Beethoven, about whom Brahms once wrote, “You can’t have any idea what it’s like always to hear such a giant marching behind you!” Once Brahms hit his stride with orchestral music in his forties, he did not shy away from writing works that paralleled those of his idol, and he even seemed to embrace the implicit comparison at times, like when the solo violin enters his concerto over an exposed timpani roll, recalling the prominent timpani strikes that begin Beethoven’s concerto. Brahms also followed Beethoven’s lead in how the first movement’s solo cadenza releases into music of great delicacy and beauty, instead of a loud and blustery conclusion.

The central Adagio movement presents one of Brahms’ loveliest melodies, which ironically comes from a solo oboe, not the violin soloist. (This shared spotlight prompted the violinist Pablo de Sarasate to quip, “Would I stand there, violin in hand, while the oboe plays the only melody in the whole work?”) The violin does take up a version of the theme, but it migrates from F-major to the stormier key of F-sharp-minor. By the time it returns for a closing passage in F-major, only wisps of the original melody remain.

The concerto concludes with a rowdy finale built from a theme with a Hungarian flavor. That motive, voiced in thirds and following a rising and following contour, sounds quite similar to the main theme from the finale of Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1, composed ten years earlier, and also edited and premiered by Joachim.

Symphony No. 7 in D Minor, Op. 70 (1885)

ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK

Born September 8, 1841 near Prague, Bohemia

Died May 1, 1904 in Prague, Bohemia

Throughout his career, Antonín Dvořák followed the example of his mentor Brahms and grappled with the old, established forms mastered by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. At the same time, Dvořák’s biggest moneymakers were his smaller works created for the publishing market, like the Slavonic Dances that celebrated his Czech musical roots—the kind of music that could be enjoyed at home by amateurs. Eventually Dvořák’s devotion to his native Bohemia would be seen as a defining virtue, but for years he battled prejudice that he was not an “international” composer— that is to say, one who worked squarely within the German-Austrian musical language.

Dvořák shattered that narrative through a series of appearances that made him a hero in England, starting with the acclaimed London premiere of Stabat Mater in 1883. An English-language cantata, The Spectre’s Bride, followed in 1884, and another major vocal work for English audiences premiered in 1886, the oratorio St. Ludmila. Between those two offerings, Dvořák had the opportunity to compose a new symphony for the Royal Philharmonic Society, who had named him an honorary member. To be asked to compose for the same group that had commissioned such symphonies as Beethoven’s Ninth and Mendelssohn’s “Italian” was a tremendous honor, and it marked a turning point in Dvořák’s professional career. When his publishing agent Simrock offered a scant 3,000 marks for the symphony, Dvořák convinced them to double the rate on the basis of his newfound fame and interest from competing publishers. The work first appeared as Symphony No. 2 based on order of publication, but it was actually the seventh symphony that Dvořák wrote.

Working in the symphonic mold of Beethoven and Brahms, Dvořák shaped the Symphony No. 7 into one his most cohesive and structurally integrated compositions. The first movement leans on characteristic fragments of the themes and hammers at them insistently (a classic Beethoven strategy), set in a triplet meter that adds to the kinetic intensity

(a la Brahms). The second movement beings with a chorale treatment of a beguiling tune in F-major, but then the harmony strays into the darker territory of F-minor and back again throughout the form.

The Scherzo returns to the home key of D-minor, although the flowing, waltz-tinged music is more devilish than tragic. As in the first movement, a triplet meter provides a launch pad for energizing syncopations. The finale progresses in a state of heightened tension, exploiting long pedal tones and more of that Beethoven-like obsession with granular motives, until it finally resolves to D-major, blasting through lingering echoes of the earlier angst.

January 13, 2025, 7:30 pm

Dreyfoos Hall

The Kravis Center for the Performing Arts

Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano

blue cathedral

Piano Concerto in G Major

I. Allegramente

II. Adagio assai

III. Presto

Jennifer Higdon (b. 1962)

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano

INTERMISSION

Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, Op. 74, TH 30 “Pathétique”

I. Adagio – Allegro non troppo

II. Allegro con grazia

III. Allegro molto vivace

IV. Finale: Adagio lamentoso

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

This evening was generously underwritten by the Impresario Society

Pulitzer Prize and three-time GRAMMY winning living American composer Jennifer Higdon’s music is described as,“…traditionally rooted, yet imbued with integrity and freshness.” Her evocative orchestral work blue cathedral was composed soon after the passing of her brother, AndrewBlue. Higdon notes, “As I was writing this piece, I found myself imagining a journey through a glass cathedral in the sky….This piece represents the expression of the individual and the group...our inner travels and the places our souls carry us, the lessons we learn, and the growth we experience.” French pianist extraordinaire Jean-Yves Thibaudet will perform Ravel’s Piano Concerto in GMajor. Chicago Classical noted, “Few keyboard artists embody Ravel’s blend of supple elegance and unbridled bravura so naturally and effortlessly.” Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony has an overwhelmingly uplifting, enthusiastic spirit that is steeped in wartime patriotism. Prokofiev indicated this work is, “…very important not only for the musical material that went into it, but also because I was returning to the symphonic form after a break of 16 years. The Fifth Symphony is the culmination of an entire period in my work. I conceived of it as a symphony on the greatness of the human soul.”

Through elegant musicality and an insightful approach to both contemporary and established repertoire, Jean-Yves Thibaudet has earned a reputation as one of the world’s finest pianists. He is especially known for his diverse interests beyond the classical world; in addition to his many forays

ARTIST PROFILE

JEAN-YVES THIBAUDET

into jazz and opera including works which he transcribed himself for the piano Thibaudet has forged profound friendships around the globe, leading to fruitful collaborations in film, fashion, and visual art. A recording powerhouse, Thibaudet appears on more than 70 albums and six film scores. He is a devoted educator and is the first-ever Artist-in-Residence at the Colburn School, which awards several scholarships in his name.

Thibaudet begins the season with a tour of Europe with Boston Symphony Orchestra, performing two of his signature works: Gershwin’s Concerto in F and Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concerto No.5. He goes on to play the Gershwin concerto in season-opening engagements with Toronto and Baltimore symphony orchestras, as well as concerts with Nashville and Indianapolis symphony orchestras; further performances of the Saint-Saëns concerto include dates with North Carolina Symphony, and Pittsburgh and Chicago symphony orchestras.

Thibaudet joins Gustavo Dudamel and Los Angeles Philharmonic for Khachaturian’s Piano Concerto in November, which will be recorded for future release on Decca. He then performs Ravel’s Concerto in Gwith Houston Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Bern Symphony Orchestra, New World Symphony, and San Diego Symphony. A renowned interpreter of Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie, Thibaudet performs the piece with Montreal Symphony Orchestra in December. Thibaudet joins Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Orchestrede Paris in Debussy’s Fantaisie; he and Salonen reunite in San Francisco for a synesthetic performance of Scriabin’s Prometheus: The Poem of Fire—a piece he also performs with Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra.

Mr. Thibaudet’s worldwide representation: HarrisonParrott.

Mr. Thibaudet records exclusively for Decca Classics.

COMPOSER PROFILE

JENNIFER HIGDON

Jennifer Higdon is one of America’s most acclaimed figures in contemporary classical music, receiving the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in Music for her Violin Concerto, a 2010 Grammy for her Percussion Concerto, a 2018 Grammy for her Viola Concerto and a 2020 Grammy for her Harp Concerto. In 2018, Higdon received the prestigious Nemmers Prize, awarded to contemporary classical composers of exceptional achievement who have significantly influenced the field of composition. Most recently, she was inducted into the American

Academy of Arts and Letters. Higdon enjoys several hundred performances a year of her works, and blue cathedral is today’s most performed contemporary orchestral work, with more than 700 performances worldwide. Her works have been recorded on more than sixty CDs. Higdon’s first opera, Cold Mountain, won the International Opera Award for Best World Premiere and the opera recording was nominated for 2 Grammy awards. Her music is published exclusively by Lawdon Press.

NOTES ON THE PROGRAM

By Aaron Grad

blue cathedral

JENNIFER

HIGDON

Born December 31, 1962 in Brooklyn, New York Currently resides in Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Among living American composers, Jennifer Higdon stands out for the uncommon beauty and vitality of her orchestral music. She had an unlikely start for a musician of her stature: after picking up the flute at the age of 15, she enrolled as a flute performance major at Bowling Green State University, where she received her first formal training. It was there, at the age of 21, that she composed her first piece.

In between her bachelor’s degree from Bowling Green and the master’s and doctorate she earned at the University of Pennsylvania, Higdon received an artist diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music. In 1994, Curtis invited her back to join the composition faculty, and the school also commissioned an orchestral piece from her to commemorate its 75th anniversary.

The piece she ended up writing was a highly personal response to the death in 1998 of her 33-year-old younger brother, Andrew Blue Higdon, from an aggressive form of skin cancer. She framed blue cathedral as a reflection on “the amazing journeys that we all make in our lives, crossing paths with so many individuals singularly and collectively, learning and growing each step of the way. This piece represents the expression of the individual and the group—our inner travels and the places our souls carry us, the lessons we learn, and the growth we experience.”

Her program note also gives a window into the meaning of the title:

Blue…like the sky. Where all possibilities soar. Cathedrals…a place of thought, growth, spiritual expression…serving as a symbolic doorway in to and out of this world. Blue represents all potential and the progression of journeys. Cathedrals represent a place of beginnings, endings, solitude, fellowship, contemplation, knowledge and growth. As I was writing this piece, I found myself imagining a journey through a glass cathedral in the sky. Because the walls would be transparent, I saw the image of clouds and blueness permeating from the outside of this church. In my mind’s eye the listener would enter from the back of the sanctuary, floating along the corridor amongst giant crystal pillars, moving in a contemplative stance. The stained glass windows’ figures would start moving with song, singing a heavenly music. The listener would float down the aisle, slowly moving upward at first and then progressing at a quicker pace, rising towards an immense ceiling which would open to the sky…as this journey progressed, the speed of the traveler would increase, rushing forward and upward.

The solo flute in blue cathedral represents Higdon herself. The clarinet was Andrew’s instrument, which in the end “continues on in the upward progressing journey.”

MAURICE RAVEL

Born March 7, 1875 in Ciboure, France

Died December 28, 1937 in Paris, France

Maurice Ravel, working outside of the French establishment and spending much of his career in the shadow of his older colleague Claude Debussy, carved out a niche as an unrivaled orchestrator, working in many cases from his earlier piano music. He was also quite imaginative with old “classical” forms like the sonata and string quartet, but he never attempted a symphony, and he only approached concertos at the very end of his career. The first was the single-movement piano concerto for left hand only, commissioned by a pianist maimed during World War I. He followed soon after with this Piano Concerto in G Major. He had ambitions to perform it himself and jumpstart a career as a touring pianist that had long eluded him, but by the time of the premiere he was already suffering the effects of the degenerative brain disease that would take his life in another

Piano Concerto in G Major (1931)

six years, so he had to settle for conducting it instead.

Working in such a traditional form as a piano concerto didn’t in any way blunt Ravel’s longstanding habit of flouting conventional wisdom. In this case, that meant sidestepping the heroic showmanship that had dominated concertos for a century. As he told an interviewer, “A concerto can be gay and brilliant and need not try to be profound or strive after dramatic effects. It has been said of some of the great classical composers that their concertos were written not for but against the piano, and I think this is perfectly correct.”

Spurred on by an initial crack of the whip (the actual name of the percussion instrument made of two long boards), the concerto opens with the pianist functioning as an integral part of the orchestra, its flowing filigree decorating a call to action from the piccolo and trumpet. Ravel was one of many European composers who flirted with jazz in the 1920s, and he was especially struck by the jazz bands he heard while touring North America in 1928. For the slower, contrasting material of the concerto’s opening movement, he devised a five-note motive that leans on the lowered third tone of the scale, a classic “blue” note.

The slow movement is exquisitely understated, flowing in a songlike manner that, as Ravel acknowledged, takes after Mozart. The piano plays in solitude for the first third of the movement, as if the orchestra, the audience, and the entire world are just distant, half-remembered visions in a dream. When the piano and orchestra go on to develop the ideas together, slightly mismatched harmonies and rhythmic groupings preserve the sense that the pianist is still adrift in a private reverie.

The Presto finale echoes the concerto’s opening by launching in with a percussive burst (this time a drum roll) and using the piano’s restless figures as a platform for feisty contributions from solo voices within the orchestra. Even when the music takes on a marching, militaristic character, it never loses the youthful exuberance that was central to Ravel’s personality, like a child delighting in an imaginary scene acted out by his toys.

PYOTR IL’YICH TCHAIKOVSKY

Born May 7, 1840 in Kamsko-Votkinsk, Russia

Died November 6, 1893 in Saint Petersburg, Russia

In 1892, Tchaikovsky endeavored to write a “grand symphony” and nearly completed one in the key of E-flat before scrapping it that December and redirecting some of the material to the Third Piano Concerto. He then started fresh in February 1893 with what became the Symphony No. 6 in B Minor. Addressing his nephew, Tchaikovsky explained that “the form of this

Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, Op. 74 (“Pathétique”) (1893)

symphony will have much that is new, and by the way, the finale will not be a noisy allegro, but on the contrary, a long drawn-out adagio.”

Tchaikovsky died just nine days after he conducted the premiere of his Sixth Symphony. In that interval, he wrote to his friend and publisher Petr Jurgensen that the symphony “produced some bewilderment” among the audience, and he thought it would help to add the subtitle “Pathétique,” suggested by his brother Modest. That French word—the same descriptor Beethoven applied to his Eighth Piano Sonata—suggests music of deep feeling and pathos, without the stinging connotations of the English word “pathetic.” The second performance, staged weeks later at a memorial service, garnered a very different response, as listeners began to project onto the music a tragic personal narrative in the wake of the composer’s abrupt and mysterious death at the age of 53.

The Sixth Symphony begins ominously, with a slow introduction featuring bassoon and low strings. Their rising and falling motive morphs into the main theme of the fast body of the movement, and later, with the motive’s contours flipped to fall first and then rise to a state of equilibrium, it elongates into the contrasting theme, providing an island of repose within this unsettled movement.

The Allegro con grazia second movement features the irregular time signature of 5/4 (five quarter-notes per measure). This “limping waltz” flows with surprising smoothness and grace considering the irregular meter, attesting to Tchaikovsky’s special knack for dance music that served him so well in his ballets and operas.

The third movement spins through a dizzy introduction to reach a jolly march tune that starts in the clarinets, setting a course that culminates in a bombastic conclusion. Had this marked the end of the symphony, it would have put it in a class with Tchaikovsky’s Fourth and Fifth, which both progressed from fateful minor keys to valedictory major keys along the lines of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. But the Sixth Symphony charts a very different path, reaching its emotional crest in a slow and mournful finale. The first poignant chords re-establish the brooding mood from the symphony’s initial introduction, making that link explicit by returning to a texture of bassoon and strings. The melody attempts a long climb into a more optimistic resolution in D-major, only to snap back into B-minor, and then the low brass instruments intone a mournful knell. One last gasp of the descending melody follows, fading to a whisper from the cellos and basses. It’s no wonder that audiences have clung to the idea that Tchaikovsky was foreshadowing his death with this symphony, since he couldn’t have written a more impactful swansong.

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February 6, 2025, 7:30 pm

Dreyfoos Hall

The Kravis Center for the Performing Arts

Gil Shaham, violin

Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61

I. Allegro ma non troppo

II. Larghetto

III. Rondo: Allegro

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Gil Shaham, violin

INTERMISSION

Symphony No. 1 in D Major “Titan”

I. Langsam, Schleppend, Im Anfang sehr gemächlich

II. Kräftig bewegt, doch nicht zu schnell, Recht gemächlich – a Ländler

III. Feierlich und gemessen, ohne zu schleppen, Sehr einfach und schlicht wie eine Volksweise, and Wieder etwas bewegter, wie im Anfang

IV. Stürmisch bewegt – Energisch

This evening’s Guest Artist was generously co-sponsored by: Ari Rifkin / The Len-Ari Foundation

The Honorable Ronald A. Rosenfeld

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)

ARTIST PROFILE

GIL SHAHAM

Composed during a revelatory and prolific time in Beethoven’s life between 1804 to 1806 while simultaneously experiencing profound deafness, Beethoven’s sole Violin Concerto is transformative in form, style, and virtuosity. Steeped inEnlightenment ideals, Beethoven was compelled to push his art form to new heights. From the very opening measure of the solo violin, one can hear that he is launching us into the new era of the Romantic period with vastly new treatment in how concerti allow soloists to dazzle with greater depth and brilliance. Bringing this remarkable concerto to life is American phenom Gil Shaham, one of the foremost violinists of our time who embodies flawless technique combined with inimitable warmth and generosity of spirit who is sought after throughout the world for concerto appearance with leading orchestras and conductors. Bohemian composer Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 is one of the most original First Symphony’s in music history. Greatly influenced primarily by his childhood experiences including exposure to authors of books, philosophy, and poetry, this work has many programmatic elements. His obsession with existentialism is ever present in “Titan.” Mahler himself conducted its premiere with the Budapest Philharmonic in 1889, having spent his career mostly composing during the summers and conducting the best orchestras and opera companies in the world during artistic seasons. This program highlights how Mahler was radically impacted by Beethoven. While the timing of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto

marks the birth of the Romantic period, Mahler’s First Symphony comes at the height of it in which you will experience the sheer magnitude of greatness an orchestra can achieve through its expansive evolution.

Gil Shaham is one of the foremost violinists of our time; his flawless technique combined with his inimitable warmth and generosity of spirit has solidified his renown as an American master. The Grammy Award-winner, also named Musical America’s “Instrumentalist of the Year,” is sought after throughout the world for concerto appearances with leading orchestras and conductors, and regularly gives recitals and appears with ensembles on the world’s great concert stages and at the most prestigious festivals.

Highlights of recent years include the acclaimed recording and performances of J.S. Bach’s complete sonatas and partitas for solo violin. In addition to championing these solo works, he frequently joins his long-time duo partner pianist, Akira Eguchi in recitals throughout North America, Europe, and Asia.

Appearances with orchestra regularly include the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, and San Francisco Symphony as well as multi-year residencies with the Orchestras of Montreal, Stuttgart and Singapore. With orchestra, Mr. Shaham continues his exploration of “Violin Concertos of the 1930s,” including the works of Barber, Bartok, Berg, Korngold, Prokofiev, among many others.

Mr. Shaham has more than two dozen concerto and solo CDs to his name, earning multiple GRAMMYS, a Grand Prix du Disque, Diapason d’Or, and Gramophone Editor’s Choice. Many of these recordings appear on Canary Classics, the label he founded in 2004. His CDs include 1930s Violin Concertos, Virtuoso Violin Works, Elgar’s Violin Concerto, Hebrew Melodies, The Butterfly Lovers and many more. His most recent recording in the series 1930s Violin Concertos Vol. 2, including Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto and Bartok’s Violin Concerto No.2, was nominated for a GRAMMY Award. His latest recording of Beethoven and Brahms Concertos with The Knights was released in 2021 and also nominated for a GRAMMY.

Mr. Shaham was born in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, in 1971. He moved with his parents to Israel, where he began violin studies with Samuel Bernstein of the Rubin Academy of Music at the age of 7, receiving annual scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation. In 1981, he made debuts with the Jerusalem Symphony and the Israel Philharmonic, and the following year, took the first prize in Israel’s Claremont Competition. He then became a scholarship student at Juilliard, and also studied at Columbia University.

Gil Shaham was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1990, and in 2008 he received the coveted Avery Fisher Prize. In 2012, he was named “Instrumentalist of the Year” by Musical America. He plays the1699

“Countess Polignac” Stradivarius and performs on an Antonio Stradivari violin, Cremona c1719, with the assistance of Rare Violins In Consortium, Artists and Benefactors Collaborative. He lives in New York City with his wife, violinist Adele Anthony, and their three children.

Gil Shaham appears by arrangement with Opus 3 Artists

NOTES ON THE PROGRAM

By Aaron Grad

Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61 (1806)

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN

Born December 1770 in Bonn, Germany

Died March 26, 1827 in Vienna, Austria

For musicians in Beethoven’s Vienna, one of the more effective ways to make a living was to produce concerts for their own benefit. Mozart had specialized in those during his peak Viennese years (often debuting his new piano concertos there), and Beethoven followed suit, even after his encroaching deafness began to interfere with his performing career. When Beethoven’s friend Franz Clement asked for a concerto to play on his own benefit concert, the composer felt obliged to come through for the violinist who had introduced Beethoven’s Third Symphony on an earlier benefit concert, and who had been instrumental in getting the opera Fidelio produced.

Beethoven threw together an entire Violin Concerto with uncharacteristic speed, cutting it so close that the soloist supposedly had to sight-read the highly challenging part. Perhaps it was that lack of preparation time that left the public unmoved, sending the concerto into a dormant state. It didn’t catch on until Felix Mendelssohn brought the concerto back to life in an astonishing collaboration with a 12-year-old wunderkind, the violinist Joseph Joachim.

The Violin Concerto starts with a quintessential Beethoven theme: a single note, D, struck five consecutive times by the timpanist. This modest tapping motive proves to be the backbone of the substantial first movement, an outcome typical of Beethoven’s “middle period,” when he mastered the art of distilling musical ingredients down to their purest essence. One exceptionally refined moment comes just after the first

movement cadenza, when the violin offers a guileless melody over a naked accompaniment of plucked strings.

The slow movement continues the rarified mood with a stately theme and variations accompanied only by the lower winds and muted strings. The Rondo finale, reached without pause through a solo cadenza, supplies the concerto with a more extroverted conclusion. Taking a page from Haydn, who loved to introduce a theme softly and then hammer it hard the second time, Beethoven goes a step farther by delaying the impact until after two melodic cycles, the second voiced even more delicately than the first.

Symphony No. 1 in D Major (1884-88, revised 1893-99)

GUSTAV MAHLER

Born July 7, 1860 in Kalischt, Bohemia

Died May 18, 1911 in Vienna, Austria

Gustav Mahler was born into a German-speaking, upwardly mobile Jewish family in what is now the Czech Republic. Although he focused on composition as a student at the Vienna Conservatory, his meteoric rise as a conductor soon crowded out his composing, leaving him only limited time to explore the two genres he was most attracted to in his own music: songs and symphonies.

Mahler’s First Symphony went through a particularly long gestation, beginning in 1884, when he was working in Kassel, Germany. Having become infatuated with a soprano in the choir he led, Mahler wrote her love poems, and he set some to music in the song cycle Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer), including melodies he later folded into the First Symphony. The piece remained unfinished during Mahler’s brief tenure in Prague, and it progressed as far as a piano score by early 1888, when he resigned from an even more prominent position in Leipzig. The 28-year-old went on to head the Royal Hungarian Opera in Budapest, and before year’s end he had completed the orchestration of his symphonic debut.

Mahler conducted the first performance of the “Symphonic Poem in Two Parts” (as he initially titled it) in Budapest in 1889. It confounded critics, especially the second part with its mix of grotesque parody and raw power, leading Mahler to shelve the score temporarily. After moving on to yet another conducting job in Hamburg, he brought the symphony back for a second performance in 1893, with an expanded wind section and a new title: Titan, a Tone Poem in Symphony Form. Further revisions added more woodwinds and eliminated the slow Blumine movement, bringing the score to the form in which it was published in 1899 as the Symphony No. 1. The symphony begins with the mystical resonance of the note “A” spread

across the full range of the strings, joined by a slow motive of descending intervals based in D minor. Mahler’s 1893 program described this movement as “the awakening of Nature from the long sleep of winter,” an association supported by pastoral birdcalls and distant fanfares, as if from a hunting party. Besides the naturalistic tone painting, Mahler’s opening pays homage to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, which likewise starts with a sustained “A” and motives based on similar descending intervals.

The second movement is a Ländler, an exuberant peasant dance in triple meter—music “with full sails,” as Mahler characterized it in his program note.

An emotionally ambiguous Funeral March follows, building from a minor-key rendition of the round-tune Bruder Martin (also known as Frère Jacques). Mahler described the inspiration as coming from “The Huntsman’s Funeral, from an old children’s book: the animals of the forest accompany the dead huntsman’s bier to the grave; hares escort the little troop, in front of them marches a group of Bohemian musicians, accompanied by playing cats, toads, crows etc. Stags, deer, foxes and other four-legged and feathered animals follow the procession in comic attitudes. In this passage the piece is intended to have now an ironically merry, now a mysteriously brooding mood.”

The finale, in Mahler’s design, is meant to enter “like the suddenly erupting cry of a heart wounded to its depths.” Upon reaching a terrifying climax, the music breaks off into a hushed recollection of the naturalistic scene from the from the symphony’s opening. When the movement reaches its ultimate peak, seven horns and four trumpets pushed to a fortississimo (fff) dynamic leave no doubt as to this symphony’s redemption, their bright fanfare in D-major cleansing away any doubts planted long ago in the symphony’s D-minor arrival.

March 2, 2025, 3:00 pm

Dreyfoos Hall

The Kravis Center for the Performing Arts

Garrick Ohlsson, piano

Invocation and Dance, Op. 58

Symphony No. 2, Op. 30, W45 “Romantic”

I. Adagio – Allegro moderato

II. Andante con tenerezza

III. Allegro con brio

INTERMISSION

Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18

I. Vivace

II. Andante

III. Allegro vivace

Garrick Ohlsson, piano

Paul Creston (1906-1985)

Howard Hanson (1896-1981)

This evening was generously underwritten by Thomas Harvey & Cathleen Black

Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)

ARTIST PROFILE

GARRICK OHLSSON

Back by popular demand, American pianist Garrick Ohlsson is known worldwide as a musician of magisterial interpretive and technical prowess. Join us for what promises to be a masterful performance of Rachmaninoff’s most celebrated, intensely impassioned Second Piano Concerto composed during the turn of the century. “Melody is the music and the foundation of all music,” said Rachmaninoff. During one of his tours in the United States, he noted what still holds true today, “These Americans cannot get enough of it.”

Howard Hanson’s Second Symphony “Romantic,”his most famous work, was composed on commission from Serge Koussevitzky for the 50th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1930. Born in Nebraska of Scandinavian heritage andas an adult lived in Rochester, NY while serving as the first director of the Eastman School of Music, Hanson drew inspiration from the music of Jean Sibelius as well as from his American surroundings. Hanson noted, “The [Second] Symphony for me represents my escape from the rather bitter type of modern musical realism. I do not believe that music is primarily a matter of the intellect, but rather a manifestation of the emotions. I have, therefore, aimed in this Symphony to create a work that was young in spirit, lyrical and romantic in temperament, and simple and direct in expression.” In keeping with his tradition to elevate the work of great American composers, Maestro Schwarz performed and recorded this work for Naxos with the Seattle Symphony to great acclaim. Since his triumph as winner of the 1970 Chopin International Piano Competition, pianist Garrick Ohlsson has established himself worldwide as a musician of magisterial interpretive and technical prowess. Although long

regarded as one of the world’s leading exponents of the music of Frédéric Chopin, Mr. Ohlsson commands an enormous repertoire, which ranges over the entire piano literature. A student of the late Claudio Arrau, Mr. Ohlsson has come to be noted for his masterly performances of the works of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, as well as the Romantic repertoire. To date he has at his command more than 80 concertos, ranging from Haydn and Mozart to works of the 21st century, the most recent being “Oceans Apart” by Justin Dello Joio commissioned for him by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and now available on Bridge Recordings. Also just released on Reference Recordings is the complete Beethoven concerti with Sir Donald Runnicles and the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra.

A frequent guest with the orchestras in New Zealand and Australia, Mr. Ohlsson returned for a nine-city recital tour across Australia in June 2023 and will open the Nashville Symphony’s season in September, followed during the season by appearances with orchestras in Atlanta, Sarasota, Rhode Island, Singapore, Prague, Warsaw, Lyon and Oxford (UK). With recital programs including works from Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin to Brahms and Scriabin he can be heard in New York, Seattle, Baltimore, Prague, Katowice, Krakow and Wrocław.

An avid chamber musician, Mr. Ohlsson has collaborated with the Cleveland, Emerson, Tokyo and Takacs string quartets. His recording with latter of the Amy Beach and Elgar quintets released by Hyperion in June 2020 received great press attention. Passionate about singing and singers, Mr.Ohlsson has appeared in recital with such legendary artists as Magda Olivero, Jessye Norman, and Ewa Podleś.

Mr. Ohlsson can be heard on the Arabesque, RCA Victor Red Seal, Angel, BMG, Delos, Hänssler, Nonesuch, Telarc, Hyperion and Virgin Classics labels. His ten-disc set of the complete Beethoven Sonatas, for Bridge Records, has garnered critical acclaim, including a GRAMMY® for Vol. 3. His recording of Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No. 3, with the Atlanta Symphony and Robert Spano, was released in 2011. In the fall of 2008 the English label Hyperion re-released his 16-disc set of the Complete Works of Chopin followed in 2010 by all the Brahms piano variations, “Goyescas” by Enrique Granados, and music of Charles Tomlinson Griffes. Most recently on that label are Scriabin’s Complete Poèmes, Smetana Czech Dances, and ètudes by Debussy, Bartok and Prokofiev. The latest CDs in his ongoing association with Bridge Records aret he Complete Scriabin Sonatas, “Close Connections,” a recital of 20th-Century pieces, and two CDs of works by Liszt. In recognition of the Chopin bicentenary in 2010, Mr. Ohlsson was featured in a documentary “The Art of Chopin” co-produced by Polish, French, British and Chinese television stations. Most recently, both Brahms concerti and Tchaikovsky’s second piano concerto were released on live performance recordings with the Melbourne and Sydney Symphonies on

their own recording labels, and Mr. Ohlsson was featured on Dvorak’s piano concerto in the Czech Philharmonic’s recordings of the composer’s complete symphonies & concertos, released July of 2014 on the Decca label.

A native of White Plains, N.Y., Garrick Ohlsson began his piano studies at the age of 8, at the Westchester Conservatory of Music; at 13 he entered The Juilliard School, in New York City. His musical development has been influenced in completely different ways by a succession of distinguished teachers, most notably Claudio Arrau, Olga Barabini, Tom Lishman, Sascha Gorodnitzki, Rosina Lhévinne and Irma Wolpe. Although he won First Prizes at the 1966 Busoni Competition in Italy and the 1968 Montréal Piano Competition, it was his 1970 triumph at the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw, where he won the Gold Medal (and remains the single American to have done so), that brought him worldwide recognition as one of the finest pianists of his generation. Since then he has made nearly a dozen tours of Poland, where he retains immense personal popularity. Mr. Ohlsson was awarded the Avery Fisher Prize in 1994 and received the 1998 University Musical Society Distinguished Artist Award in Ann Arbor, MI. He is the 2014 recipient of the Jean Gimbel LanePrize in Piano Performance from the Northwestern University Bienen School of Music, and in August 2018 the Polish Deputy Culture Minister awarded him with the Gloria Artis Gold Medal for cultural merit. He is a Steinway Artist and makes his home in San Francisco.

Garrick Ohlsson appears by arrangement with Opus 3 Artists

NOTES ON THE PROGRAM

By Aaron Grad

Invocation and Dance (1953)

PAUL CRESTON

Born October 10, 1906 in New York, New York

Died August 24, 1985 in San Diego, California

Paul Creston, a self-taught composer from a poor family of Sicilian immigrants, managed to lift himself into the upper echelon of American music in the 1940s, on the strength of works such as his Second Symphony, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic. When the Louisville Orchestra embarked on an ambitious commissioning program featuring top composers from around the world, Creston was one of their early picks, and

their recording of his Invocation and Dance from 1953 helped spread his music even further.

Creston’s relatable and rhythmically vibrant musical style clashed with the cerebral trends that overtook the musical elite in the 1960s and beyond, and his music sank into obscurity. Fortunately one of his former students— our very own Maestro Gerard Schwarz—kept the flame alive, including a recording of this piece he conducted with the Seattle Symphony. After an atmospheric invocation filled with hovering chords and pensive woodwind solos that evoke French music from earlier in the century, the dancing gets going with a propulsive groove that feels something like the love child of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Gershwin’s An American in Paris.

Symphony No. 2, Op. 30 (“Romantic”) (1930)

HOWARD HANSON

Born October 28, 1896 in Wahoo, Nebraska

Died February 26, 1981 in Rochester, New York

When Howard Hanson became first American composer to be awarded the Rome Prize in 1921, he used his three-year residency in Italy to study under Respighi, a master of lush orchestral color and Romantic grandeur. Hanson returned to the United States to become the director of a conservatory recently founded by the philanthropist George Eastman (the inventor of roll film and the Kodak camera), and over the next 40 years Hanson built the Eastman School of Music into one of the finest training grounds in the world. Besides continuing to compose his own music in a neo-Romantic vein, Hanson’s advocacy as a teacher and conductor made him a trendsetter for the entire field of American composition.

In 1930, when Hanson composed his Symphony No. 2 for the 50th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, he wrote, “The Symphony for me represents my escape from the rather bitter type of modern musical realism [that] occupies so large a place in contemporary thought. Much contemporary music seems to me to be showing a tendency to become entirely too cerebral. I do not believe that music is primarily a matter of the intellect, but rather a manifestation of the emotions. I have, therefore, aimed in this Symphony to create a work that was young in spirit, lyrical and romantic in temperament, and simple and direct in expression.”

The Second Symphony has long been Hanson’s most recognizable calling card, and a number of recordings (including a luscious rendition with Maestro Schwarz leading the Seattle Symphony) have kept this American gem from slipping out of the repertoire. Hanson’s “simple and direct” intentions come through in music constructed from small, distinctive

motives that get recirculated and transformed, taking a page from the Beethoven-Brahms lineage of formal technique, along with a healthy dose of Sibelius, a primary inspiration for Hanson. In the first movement’s lyrical second theme, and again in the slow movement that forms the center of the three-part structure, Hanson displays his exceptional talent for tender, singing melodies. The finale unifies the symphony’ cyclical journey by bringing back earlier themes, and it caps the emotional trajectory with a coda that basks in its sweet, unhurried resolution.

Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 18 (1900-01)

SERGEI RACHMANINOFF

Born April 1, 1873 in Oneg, Russia

Died March 28, 1943 in Beverly Hills, California

Following the disastrous premiere of his First Symphony in 1897, Rachmaninoff barely composed for three years. He finally sought help from a psychiatrist in 1900, and after months of hypnotherapy he regained his confidence. Rachmaninoff started sketching the Second Piano Concerto that summer in Italy, and by December he had the second and third movements ready for a trial performance. After completing the first movement in 1901, Rachmaninoff dedicated the hard-earned concerto to his therapist.

Rachmaninoff described this concerto as “a symphony with a strain of piano solo.” The first movement begins with the piano alone in a humble prelude, but as soon as the strings enter with their long-lined melody, the soloist assumes the role of accompanist, coloring the lush statement with vivid arpeggios. After some exploratory exchanges, the piano returns to the foreground to introduce a wistful new theme.

The lyricism that distinguishes this concerto’s first movement carries over into the Adagio sostenuto movement that follows. A hushed transitional passage bridges the harmonic distance from C-minor to the distant new key of E-major, and then the piano enters with the movement’s characteristic undulating rhythm, derived from a Romance that Rachmaninoff originally composed in 1890 for three daughters in a family of distant relatives. Playing triplets grouped into sets of four, the piano seems to float in its own tempo while the orchestra elaborates a haunting theme.

The Allegro scherzando finale breaks the spell with a playful orchestral leadin and piano cadenza, again starting with the final chord of the preceding movement and modulating to the movement’s home key of C-minor. This finale continues the concerto’s embrace of its lyrical and rhapsodic side, with the focus placed on a contrasting theme that ultimately leads the way to a rapturous conclusion in C-major.

April 8, 2025, 7:00 pm

Dreyfoos Hall

The Kravis Center for the Performing Arts

Anne-Marie McDermott, piano

Threnody: In Memory of Jean Sibelius

Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 15

I. Allegro con brio

II. Largo

III. Rondo: Allegro scherzando

Anne-Marie McDermott, piano

INTERMISSION

La mer

I. De l’aube à midi sur la mer (From Dawn to Noon on the Sea)

II. Jeux des vagues (Play of the Waves)

III. Dialogue du vent et de la mer (Dialogue of Wind and the Sea)

Daphnis et Chloé Suite No. 2, M.57b

I. Lever du jour (Daybreak)

II. Pantomime (Les amours de Pan et Syrinx)

III. Danse générale (Bacchanale)

William Grant Still (1895-1978)

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

This evening was generously underwritten by the Impresario Society

ARTIST PROFILE

ANNE-MARIE MCDERMOTT

One of the most versatile, highly respected, and best-reviewed artists of her generation, pianist Anne-Marie McDermott, known especially for her brilliant interpretations of Classical and early Romantic repertoire, will be our featured soloist in Beethoven’s sublime First Piano Concerto. Music critics shower her with praise, one noting, “Anne-Marie McDermott plays with both technical virtuosity and evident joy. The music comes alive under her fingers.”

French Impressionist composers Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy were contemporaries who masterfully used the vehicle of an orchestra to create visionary soundscapes. Both composers were ever resistant to the confines of normal harmonic practice. Part symphony and part tone poem, Debussy’s innovative La mer (The Sea) is a rich and evocative depiction of the ocean. It is one of the most influential and imaginative works of in the symphonic literature that has remained an audience favorite since its premiere in 1905. Ravel’s rhapsodic masterpiece Daphnis et Chloé Suite No. 2 is extracted for concert use from his “Choreographic Symphony in Three Parts” conceived for Ballet Russes with the most famous choreographer of the time, Sergei Diaghilev, who was also renowned for choreographing Stravinsky’s three famed Ballet Russes from this same era. Daphnis et Chloé, composed and revised from 1909-1912, employing the largest sized orchestra he would ever require. Ravel called it, “…a great choreographic symphony... a vast musical fresco.” This powerful season-ending program is not to be missed!

For over 25 years, Anne-Marie McDermott has played concertos, recitals and chamber music in hundreds of cities throughout the United States, Europe and Asia and has become one of the most versatile, respected, and best-reviewed artists of her generation. In addition to several highly successful Artistic Directorships of important festivals and series, AnneMarie McDermott continues her tenure as Music and Artistic Director of the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, which hosts world-renowned artists and orchestras from around the world.

The breadth of Ms. McDermott’s repertoire reaches from Bach, Haydn and Beethoven to Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev and Scriabin, to works by today’s most influential composers. She has recorded the complete Prokofiev Piano Sonatas, solo works by Chopin, Bach’s English Suites and Partitas (Editor’s Choice, Gramophone Magazine), and Gershwin’s Complete Works for Piano and Orchestra with the Dallas Symphony (also Editor’s Choice, Gramophone Magazine). In 2013, she released a disc of Mozart Concerti with the Calder Quartet which was called “exceptional on every count” by Gramophone. She has recorded five Haydn piano sonatas and two Haydn Concertos with the Odense Philharmonic in Denmark including two cadenzas written by Charles Wuorinen. Ms. McDermott is currently in discussion to record the complete Beethoven Concerti.

In recent years, Ms. McDermott participated in the New Century Chamber Orchestra’s Silver Jubilee All Gershwin Program and embarked on a cycle of Beethoven Concertos at Santa Fe Pro Musica. She also premiered and recorded a new concerto by Poul Ruders with the Vancouver Symphony, alongside Rachmaninoff’s Paganini Variations, and returned to play Gershwin with the New York Philharmonic at the Bravo! Vail Festival. Other recent highlights include performing the Mozart Concerto, K. 595 with the Philadelphia Orchestra led by Sir Donald Runnicles, the Bach D minor concerto with members of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 with the New York City-based Le Train Bleu. Anne-Marie McDermott began the 23/24 season with successful performances with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, both resulting in immediate re-engagements, and played Mozart with the New York Philharmonic at the McKnight Center in Stillwater, OK. Recent international highlights include recitals in France at the famed Toulouse Piano aux Jacobins, performing with The Sao Paolo Symphony at the Cartegena Festival, and an all-Haydn recital tour of China. Ms. McDermott will make her subscription debut with the Dallas Symphony in Fall 2024.

Ms. McDermott has and continues to perform with many leading orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, League of American Composers, Hong Kong Philharmonic, National Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and the symphonies of Dallas,

Seattle, Houston, Colorado, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Atlanta, San Diego, New Jersey, Columbus, and Baltimore. She has also toured with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and the Moscow Virtuosi.

Ms. McDermott was a longtime member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center with whom she still collaborates and performs. Highlights with CMS include the complete Prokofiev piano sonatas and a three-concert series of chamber music by Shostakovich. She studied at the Manhattan School of Music and was winner of the Mortimer Levitt Career Development Award for Women, the Young Concert Artists auditions, and an Avery Fisher Career Grant. Anne-Marie McDermott lives in New York City with her husband, Michael.

Anne-Marie McDermott appears by arrangement with Opus 3 Artists

NOTES ON THE PROGRAM

By Aaron Grad

Threnody in Memory of Jean Sibelius (1965)

WILLIAM GRANT STILL

Born May 11, 1895 in Woodville, Mississippi

Died December 3, 1978 in Los Angeles, California

After studying at a historical Black college in Ohio, William Grant Still got his professional start arranging songs for the bandleader W. C. Handy, i.e. “The Father of the Blues.” Still went back to school at Oberlin College to refine his skills in theory and counterpoint, and he kept seeking out mentors for private composition lessons even as his career in music theater progressed admirably. Having earned a spot as the oboe player for the show Shuffle Along—the first Black musical to play in white theaters—Still used the production’s long run in Boston to study with George Chadwick, an esteemed composer and the director of the New England Conservatory. (Still, incidentally, had picked up oboe on his own, on top of playing piano, violin and cello.)

In the early 1920s, while scraping by from gig to gig arranging scores for short-lived Broadway shows, Still found his most important teacher in Edgard Varèse, an avant-garde French composer based in New York who “taught me to be independent,” as Still recounted in a biographical note. Varèse also used his platform as the founder of the International Composers’

Guild to promote Still’s early experiments with concert music.

In 1931, Still became the first Black composer to have a symphony performed by a major orchestra, and he went on to write five major symphonies plus a number of suites and smaller orchestral works.

Still’s musical style held steady amidst a sea change in tastes, as can be heard in one of his last orchestral pieces, the Threnody in Memory of Jean Sibelius from 1965. Commissioned to honor the centennial of Sibelius’ birth (just eight years after the Finnish legend died), Still revisited similar terrain to the Afro-American Symphony that put him on the map in the 1930s—a work that Sibelius himself held in high regard. The intervals and cadences of spirituals are infused into Still’s language, and there is a naked authenticity to the score that is perhaps the best tribute to Sibelius, who likewise stayed true to himself to the end.

Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 15 (1795, rev. 1800)

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN

Born December 1770 in Bonn, Germany

Died March 26, 1827 in Vienna, Austria

When Beethoven left his hometown of Bonn for Vienna at the age of 21, his patron, Count Ferdinand von Waldstein, sent him with this blessing: “May you receive Mozart’s spirit from the hands of Haydn.” Mozart had died a year earlier, but his spirit certainly still pervaded Vienna, especially for Beethoven, who entered the freelance scene as a keyboard virtuoso, just like Mozart had a decade earlier. Beethoven did get a chance to take some lessons from Haydn (who was back in Vienna briefly between his visits to London), and in his early symphonies Beethoven used Haydn as his clear model. For piano concertos, the line of inspiration went straight to Mozart, whose 27 examples set the standard for generations to come.

Despite its numbering, the Piano Concerto in C Major was not Beethoven’s first. After an early attempt failed to reach fruition, his first real concerto was the one in B-flat (now known as No. 2), initiated in 1788 and completed in 1795. This C-major concerto followed later that year, and Beethoven introduced it in December at a concert in Vienna presented by Haydn. It was probably this same concerto, in its new revised version, that appeared on Beethoven’s breakout concert in 1800 at the Burgtheater, the same venue where Mozart made history with his piano concertos in the 1780s. After undertaking that revision, Beethoven sent the C-major concerto to his publisher, followed a few months later by its older B-flat sibling, which is how their catalog sequence came to be reversed.

One sign of Beethoven’s distinctive voice is the first movement’s embrace

of a unifying motive, recognizable by its rhythmic pattern of long-shortshort-long. This approach points the way toward some of Beethoven’s most memorable orchestral constructions, like the Fifth Symphony’s pervasive “fate” motive.

The central Largo opens with a slow variant of that same long-shortshort-long rhythm in the accompaniment, establishing continuity across the movements—another Beethoven hallmark. The orchestration excludes the brighter tones of flute, oboes, trumpets and timpani, and instead features prominent clarinet lines to play off the sweet, melodious phrases from the piano.

The tempo marking of Allegro scherzando indicates a joking, playful aspect to the fast finale. The rondo structure incorporates colorful antics (including mischievous detours to minor-key harmonies) between returns of the perky main theme.

La mer (1903-05, revised 1909)

CLAUDE DEBUSSY

Born August 22, 1862 in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France

Died March 25, 1918 in Paris, France

Claude Debussy had a typical start for a French composer, attending the Paris Conservatory and dabbling in the modern sounds of Richard Wagner, but his outlook expanded dramatically in the 1890s, setting him on a course to reshape the sound of concert music. Influenced by what he heard at the 1889 World’s Fair in Paris (especially gamelan ensembles from Indonesia), and drawing on friendships with poets and painters, Debussy filtered his emerging ideas into a new musical language, one in which sounds were celebrated purely for their sensory appeal.

Those qualities are on display in the three “symphonic sketches” that Debussy fashioned into La mer (The Sea) between 1903 and 1905. The opening movement, From dawn to noon on the sea, suggests a sense of awakening, and it reaches a gloriously sunny state by the end, suffused by rich brass and percussion. Play of the waves, with its whole-tone melodies and puckish character, recalls the mischief and mystery of Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, Debussy’s breakout piece from a decade earlier. Dialogue of the wind and the sea uses vertiginous themes and surging orchestral effects to evoke the full power of the sea churned by a brisk wind.

IN MEMORY OF

DALE ARCHER MCNULTY

1941-2021

With love, Marietta and sons

Daphnis et Chloé Suite No. 2 (1913)

MAURICE RAVEL

Born March 7, 1875 in Ciboure, France

Died December 28, 1937 in Paris, France

The Russian impresario Serge Diaghilev took Paris by storm in 1909 with his new endeavor, the Ballets Russes, featuring elite Russian dancers and choreographers. He began commissioning new music for the troupe’s innovative productions, including a gamble on the young and untested Igor Stravinsky, who became a household name thanks to The Firebird in 1910.

Diaghilev’s first commission outside of his Russian circle went to Maurice Ravel. Diaghilev and his choreographer, Michel Fokine, suggested the scenario: the romantic tale of Daphnis and Chloé, as recorded by Longus, a Greek writer believed to have lived on the island of Lesbos in the second century A.D.

Ravel’s work on Daphnis et Chloé progressed slowly. One obstacle was that he had to reconcile fundamental disagreements with the choreographer over the aesthetic framework of the ballet; Fokine wanted a ritualistic atmosphere inspired by pagan Greece (just as The Firebird had mined traditions of pre-Christian Russia), while Ravel imagined “the Greece of my dreams,” a vision colored by the gentle, idealized Greek scenes popular with nineteenthcentury French artists.

Ravel labored to create a score with musical integrity from start to finish, crafting what he called a “choreographic symphony.” He did not finish Daphnis et Chloé until 1912, by which time Stravinsky had followed up The Firebird with an even greater success, the puppet-themed ballet Petrushka. Then, the week before the debut of Daphnis et Chloé, the Ballets Russes premiered a new dance set to an older Debussy score, Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun. The choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky, who also performed the role of the faun, caused an uproar with its “vile movements of erotic bestiality and gestures of heavy shamelessness,” as described by one critic. Even with the electrifying Nijinsky starring as Daphnis, Ravel’s refined and luxurious score failed to deliver the kind of sensationalistic splash audiences had come to expect from the Ballets Russes, and Daphnis et Chloé never caught on as a ballet. It has instead become a concert favorite, particularly through the two orchestral suites Ravel extracted. The Second Daphnis et Chloé Suite begins with the sun rising on the ballet’s final scene, colored with the gentle shimmer of harps and birdlike chirps that lead into tender melodies for the reunited lovers. The middle section represents the courtship of Pan (the pipe-playing god of the shepherds) and Syrinx (a nymph), beginning hesitantly and building to a spry and flirtatious pursuit. The final section depicts a group celebration, with smeared chromatic phrases and an asymmetrical five-beat meter suggesting a general tipsiness.

THE ENCORE

May 19, 2025, 7:30 pm Dreyfoos Hall

The Kravis Center for the Performing Arts

Kevin Kenner, piano

Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80

Special Guests from the Community

Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Minor, Op. 21

I. Maestoso

II. Larghetto

III. Allegro vivace

Kevin Kenner, piano

INTERMISSION

Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67

I. Allegro con brio

II. Andante con moto

III. Scherzo: Allegro

IV. Allegro – Presto

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

This evening was generously underwritten by Park Foundation

ARTIST PROFILE KEVIN KENNER

Pianist Kevin Kenner joins Music Director Gerard Schwarz for The Encore at The Kravis Center for the Performing Arts. The evening begins with Brahms’ lively “Academic Festival Overture,” setting the tone with a side-by-side orchestral experience. Kenner will then showcase his exceptional skills in Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Minor, a piece renowned for its lyrical beauty and technical brilliance. The concert will culminate with Beethoven’s iconic Symphony No. 5, a powerful and triumphant work that has resonated through the ages.

At the age of 17, American pianist Kevin Kenner participated in the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw and was awarded the 10th prize and a special prize from the jury for his promising talent. Ten years later, in 1990 he returned to Warsaw to win the top prize, the People’s Prize and the Polonaise Prize. Earlier that year he won the bronze medal at the International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow, together with a special prize for his interpretation of Russian music. Other awards include the International Terence Judd Award (London, 1990), the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition (Fort Worth, 1989) and the Gina Bachauer International Competition (Salt Lake City, 1988).

Kevin Kenner has since performed as soloist with world-class orchestras including the Hallé Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the Warsaw Philharmonic, The Czech Philharmonic, the Belgian Radio and Television Philharmonic Brussels, the NHK Symphony of Japan, and in the US with the principal orchestras of San Francisco, San Diego, Salt Lake City, Kansas City, New Jersey, Rochester, Baltimore, St. Paul and many others. He has been invited to work with many renowned conductors, including Sir Charles Groves, Andrew Davis, Hans Vonk, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Kazimierz Kord, Jiri Belohlavek and Antoni Wit.

His achievements have won him critical acclaim from all over the world. He has been praised as “one of the finest American pianists to come along in years” (Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune), “...fulfilling a criterion which one only knows from great Chopinists such as Rubinstein, BenedettiMichelangeli and Dinu Lipatti” (Winfried Wild, Schwaebische Zeitung, Germany). Adrian Jack of London’s Independent describes one of Kenner’s recitals as “...the best performance I have ever heard in the concert hall of all four of Chopin’s Ballades. The Financial Times in London described Kenner as a “player of grace, subtle variety and strength, with a mature grasp of dramatic structure and proportion: in short, a grown-up musician nearing his peak.” And the Washington Post proclaimed him “a major talent… an artist whose intellect, imagination and pianism speak powerfully and eloquently.” The conductor Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, who recorded with pianists such as Artur Rubinstein claimed Kenner’s Chopin interpretations to be the most sensitive and beautiful he remembered.

He has been invited to perform chamber music with such illustrious ensembles as the Belcea Quartet, the Tokyo String Quartet, the Endellion String Quartet, the Vogler String Quartet and the Panocha Quartet among many others. He has recently toured and recorded with the Piazzoforte ensemble performing special arrangements of Astor Piazzolla, Chopin, and Bach. Along with his concert appearances, he has given masterclasses for many years at the International Piano Festival in Krynica, Poland as well as in major centres in Japan and America. For the past 5 years he has been giving classes at the International Summer Music Academy in Krakow, Poland. He has also been invited to adjudicate in some of the most prestigious international piano competitions in Asia, Europe and the US. Since 2001 he has been engaged as a professor of piano at the Royal College of Music, London, and some of his students have gone on to win prizes in international piano competitions and sign contracts with major record labels. Kevin Kenner’s recordings are distributed by Polish label “DUX” and include many discs of Chopin works as well as recordings of Ravel, Schumann, Beethoven and Piazzolla, the last of which was awarded a “Fryderyk” in Poland 2 years ago as best CD of the year under the category

Chamber Music. He has also established himself as a specialist in period instruments and his recent recording of Chopin solo piano works on an 1848 Pleyel for the National Chopin Institute of Poland received a 5 star “superb” rating by the French magazine Diapason. Mr. Kenner has been invited to serve on the jury of the Chopin International Piano Competition in 2010.

NOTES ON THE PROGRAM

By Aaron Grad

Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80 (1880)

JOHANNES BRAHMS

Born May 7, 1833 in Hamburg, Germany

Died April 3, 1897 in Vienna, Austria

Johannes Brahms struggled for decades to find his orchestral voice. He wrote the First Piano Concerto and two Serenades in the late 1850s, but then he stalled for years on his first attempt at a symphony, haunted by the legacy of Beethoven. By the time he finally issued his first work for full orchestra without soloist, the Variations on a Theme of Joseph Haydn, Brahms was 40 and already one of the most esteemed composers of his generation. Having finally overcome his resistance, he issued a torrent of orchestral music in the years to come, including the First and Second Symphonies in 1876 and 1877, the Violin Concerto in 1878, two overtures in 1880, and the Second Piano Concerto in 1881.

Brahms composed the Academic Festival Overture for the University of Breslau, as a way to thank the school for granting him an honorary doctorate. The work that Brahms conducted at a commencement ceremony on January 4, 1881, may not have matched the reverent tone the faculty was hoping for, but it was a definite crowd-pleaser with the students, and it has remained an audience favorite ever since. The overture plays out as a winking medley of student songs, culminating in a triumphant rendition of “Gaudeamus igitur,” in which the Latin lyrics implore, “Les us rejoice, while we are young!”

Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Minor, Op. 21 (1830)

FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN

Born March 1, 1810 near Warsaw, Poland

Died October 17, 1849 in Paris, France

Chopin, at the age of 20, was at a crossroads. A child prodigy on the piano, he had been a published composer since the age of seven; while still in high school in Warsaw, he wrote the music that soon led his peer Schumann to declare him “a genius.” It was clear that Chopin’s talents were bound to take him beyond the small scene in his native Poland (as confirmed by his first concert appearances in Vienna), and so he embarked on the most obvious path available to him and started composing showpieces to play with orchestras.

The problem was that Chopin, a finely-nuanced pianist and an extraordinarily sensitive person, didn’t mesh with the razzle-dazzle that was expected of composer/performers on the touring circuit in that era. Testing that traditional path, he wrote two piano concertos that he performed himself at splashy concerts in Warsaw, composed and premiered in the opposite order from how they were published. When he soon left Warsaw for what was meant to be his first European tour, he ended up lingering in Vienna, and eventually he settled in Paris. Finding his niche in the salons of the upper crust, Chopin forged a whole new kind of career as a pianist, where he rarely performed for the general public. After the twin concertos of 1830, he only followed up with one Polonaise for piano and orchestra completed the next year, and then for the rest of his musical life he managed to avoid doing anything that extroverted again.

Chopin’s Second Piano Concerto leans on the legacy of Mozart and Beethoven, as well as the next generation of composers (including Mozart’s student Hummel) who emphasized the flash and sizzle of concerto writing. In the central slow movement, the piano’s delicate flurries exemplify Chopin’s supple sense of melody, with as many as twenty fleeting tones squeezed into a single beat. The finale adapts its brisk gait from the Mazurka, a Polish folk dance.

Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67 (1808)

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN

Born December 1770 in Bonn, Germany

Died March 26, 1827 in Vienna, Austria

Beethoven made his first sketches for the Fifth Symphony in 1804. He composed the bulk of the symphony in 1807-08 while working concurrently on the Sixth Symphony, and he introduced both works during a four-hour marathon concert in Vienna on December 22, 1808, at which the frigid temperatures and under-rehearsed orchestra made more of an impression than the immortal music heard there for the first time.

The Fifth Symphony comes from the heart of Beethoven’s “middle” period, a phase when his encroaching deafness changed his relationship to composing and performing, and when the crystalline classicism of his early works gave way to a more focused and concentrated manner of writing. Rather than issuing flowing melodies, Beethoven’s quintessential works from this period build highly integrated forms out of compact, elemental materials.

The Fifth Symphony begins with the most famous musical cell from all of Beethoven’s ouevre—perhaps the most recognizable motive ever penned by a composer. Beginning in the tragic key of C-minor, the orchestra delivers four unadorned notes: three short repetitions of G dropping to a sustained E-flat. The legend that Beethoven described this opening motive as “fate knocking on the door” is apocryphal, but the description has stuck as a fitting metaphor for the tense foreboding contained within those four notes. This one motive fuels the entire first movement, and traces of it return later in the symphony.

(As a sidenote, the Fifth Symphony reached what may have been its height of popularity during World War II, when it became associated with the Allied “V for Victory” media campaign. The morse code for the letter V is three dots and a dash, just like Beethoven’s motive, so the BBC adopted the start of the symphony as its call sign for broadcasts to occupied Europe.)

The Andante con moto second movement features a double set of variations, alternating the development of two contrasting themes. Some of the accompanying rhythms echo the short-short-short-long rhythmic pattern from the first movement, contributing to the symphony’s organic cohesion.

The Scherzo retreads the central tonal conflict of the work, juxtaposing a moody first theme in C-minor and a spry fugal section in C-major. A coda builds tension that releases directly into the concluding Allegro, which adds piccolo and trombones to the scoring for extra orchestral brilliance. With this grand finale, Beethoven’s Fifth completes its fateful journey to a triumphant resolution in C-major.

INSTRUMENT DONATION PROGRAM

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Palm Beach Symphony happily accepts donations of professional or amateur quality band and orchestral instruments. We ensure instruments meet performance standards through an evaluation, repair, and sterilization process. They are then donated to underserved schools and individual students in need throughout Southeast Florida.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT www.palmbeachsymphony.org or call 561.655.2657

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LADIES GUILD

The Palm Beach Symphony Ladies Guild was formed to assist the Board of Directors in developing ideas related to Symphony programs and membership. As ambassadors of the Symphony, Ladies Guild members are “friend-raisers” who share their enthusiasm for the organization and work together to invite and encourage membership.

Mrs. James N. Bay

Carol Baxter

Carol Bruce

Sophia Burnichon

Margaret C. Donnelley Sandra Goldner+*

Amy Collins

Nannette Cassidy~ Dr. Alexandra Carpenter Cook

Sheryne Brekus~

Julie Dahlstrom

Mary Demory

+Founding Member

*Honorary Member ~Legacy Member

Dr. Aban Kavasmaneck

Sally Ohrstrom+

Sieglinde Wikstrom+

Ruby Rinker*

Lady Susan Willis-Reickert

Judy Woods

Arlette Gordon+

Karen Rogers

Carol S. Hays

Marietta Muiña McNulty+

Jody Schwarz

Dr. Ann L. Johnson*

Dawn Galvin Meiners*

Sherri Stephenson Mary Thompson+

IN LOVING MEMORY: A TRIBUTE FROM OUR LADIES GUILD FOR THE LIVES WE HAVE LOST THIS PAST YEAR.

Marilyn Macron: Marilyn Macron was a passionate advocate for The Arts, she was a beloved Symphony member, renowned for her deep love of both classical music and literature. Marilyn was actively involved in the Palm Beach Symphony Ladies Guild and served on the Holly Jolly Symphony Host Committee.

Marilyn made a lasting impact on our community, promoting literature and hosting events as “The Literary Chick.” She also shared her love of music by playing the piano and offering lessons to children. Her presence will be greatly missed by all who knew her, especially within the Symphony family.

Dr. Jose Figueroa: Dr. Jose Figueroa was a remarkable man—kind, beloved, and truly special. Along with his dear wife, Lurana Figueroa, he was a long-time symphony member who cherished his connection to the music and community. Dr. Figueroa deeply valued his family, treasured the companionship of his Symphony friends, and found joy in traveling, classical music, and opera. His warm heart and ever-present smile are deeply missed by all who knew him. May he rest in peace.

Margarita I. Muiña: Margarita I. Muiña was the beloved mother of Ladies Guild Chairman Marietta Muiña McNulty and the mother-in-law of our late, beloved Board President Dale A. McNulty. She was a guiding force in her family’s lives and a pillar of strength and love. Margarita had a deep appreciation for music, particularly classical pieces, and was especially fond of the Palm Beach Symphony. Her legacy of kindness, wisdom, and devotion to her family will be cherished and remembered by all who knew her.

Heather McNulty Wyser-Pratte: Heather McNulty

Wyser-Pratte was a beloved Symphony member, a founding and honorary member of the Ladies Guild, as well as a cherished member of our community and a dear friend to many.

Heather’s dedication and commitment to the Palm Beach Symphony Ladies Guild’s endeavors left a lasting impact on the Symphony. Her generosity and warm spirit touched the lives of those around her, and she will be deeply missed. Through the McNulty Charitable Foundation, Heather played a significant role in the growth of the Palm Beach Symphony. She was preceded in death by her beloved brother, Dale A. McNulty, former board chair of the Palm Beach Symphony. Heather was also the sister-in-law of Ladies Guild Chairman Marietta Muiña McNulty and the mother of our member Joelle Wyser-Pratte.

IN LOVING MEMORY

Dora Bak

Helen Alstadler Bernstein

David C. Bigelow

Harry B. Bissell

Dr. Elizabeth M. Bowden

Trudy Brekus

Mercedes Quevedo Cassidy

Barbara Lauman Claeys

Felicia Taylor Gottsegen

Dr. Lucia T. Harvey

Doris L. Hastings

William W. Karatz, Esq.

Helene C. Karp

Patricia B. Lester

Jeannine Merrien

Bernadene Rand Mileti

Sarah Pietrafesa

Steven C. Pinard

Kenneth Rogers

Leslie Rose

Marguerite Rosner

Joan G. Smith

George Robert (Bobby) Spencer

Ethel S. Stone

Sandie Tuschak

Palm Beach Symphony extends sincere appreciation to the businesses and government agencies whose generous partnership allows us to enrich and expand our world-class music, education, and community outreach programs.

SPONSORS AND CORPORATE PARTNERS

GOVERNMENT PARTNERS

PLANNED GIFTS & ENDOWMENT

Palm Beach Symphony is grateful to those who have made the commitment – through a planned gift or bequest – to help ensure the continuation of our world-class orchestra, music education, and outreach programs to enrich the community for generations to come.

Dora Bak Society

Dora Bak*

Stephen Epstein

Doris Hastings*

John Herrick

Gary and Linda Lachman

Philip Reagan

Leslie Rose*

Marguerite Rosner*

George Robert Spencer*

Ray Robinson Endowment

We are grateful to Palm Beach Symphony’s Ladies Guild for their support in establishing the Ray Robinson Endowment Fund.

David Albenda

David C.* and Eunice Bigelow

Leslie Rogers Blum

Trudy B. Brekus*

Margaret C. Donnelley

Jose and Lurana Figueroa

Paul and Sandra Goldner

Carol and Joseph Andrew Hays

JoAnne and Lowell Jaeger

Helene Karp*

Leonard and Norma Klorfine Foundation

Dale* and Marietta McNulty

Barbara Rentschler

Ruth A. Robinson

Marguerite Rosner*

Robin B. Smith

Don and Mary Thompson

INDIVIDUAL DONORS

Palm Beach Symphony gratefully recognizes the individuals listed here for their generous financial support, which makes our season of life-enriching programs for the community possible.

Received as of October 1, 2024

Diamond Grand Benefactor

$1,000,000 and more

Dora Bak*

Golden Baton Society

Patrick and Milly Park, Honorary Chairs

Leonard and Norma Klorfine, The Klorfine Foundation

The McNulty Charitable Foundation

Lois Pope

Leslie Rose*

Grand Impresarios

($100,000+)

James R. Borynack and Adolfo Zaralegui / FINDLAY Galleries

Leonard and Norma Klorfine Foundation

Patrick and Milly Park / Park Foundation

Impresarios

($75,000 - $99,999)

Lugano Diamonds & Jewelry Inc.

Patricia Lambrecht / The Lambrecht Family Foundation

Associate Impresarios

($50,000 - $74,999)

Mrs. James N. Bay

Bill and Kem Frick / The Frick Foundation, Inc.

Thomas E. Harvey and Cathleen P. Black

John D. Herrick

Charles and Ann Johnson / The C and A Johnson Family Foundation

Gary and Linda Lachman / The Lachman Family Foundation

The Honorable Ronald Rosenfeld

David Schafer

Contributing Impresarios

($25,000 - $49,999)

Cynthia and Jerome Canty

Amy and John Collins

Alan Benaroya

Kathy Lee Bickham and John Bickham

Suzanne Mott-Dansby

Walter Harper

George and Lisa Hines

McNulty Charitable Foundation

Hank Dow and Kelly Winter

Tish Messinger

Ari Rifkin / The Len-Ari Foundation

Lois Pope

Dr. Martha Rodriguez and Dr. Jesus Perez-Mendez

Karen Hunt Rogers

Kimberly Strauss

Don and Mary Thompson

Sieglinde Wikstrom

Gerry Gibian and Marjorie Yashar

Assistant Impresarios

($15,000 - $24,999)

JoAnne Berkow

Tina and Jeffrey Bolton Family Fund

Carol and Thomas Bruce

JoAnne Berkow

Leslie Rogers Blum

Jerome Claeys

Mary and Will Demory

Michelle DuBois and James Roiter

Diane and Dr. Richard Farber

Jacqueline and Ray Farris

Oxford Financial Group, Ltd.

Jo and Douglas E. Gressette

Irwin and Janet Gusman

Nancy and Ellis J. Parker

Dr. Aban and Dr. Percy Kavasmaneck

Elaine Kay

David Moscow and Linda Klein

Robin B. Smith

Carol and Jerome Trautschold

Grand Benefactors

$100,000 and more

Anonymous

The Doris Hastings Foundation Board of County Commissioners

Palm Beach County, the Tourist Development Council, and the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County

James R. Borynack and Adolfo Zaralegui / FINDLAY Galleries

Leonard and Norma Klorfine Foundation

The Kovner Foundation

Park Foundation –

Patrick and Milly Park

Benefactors Gifts from $50,000 to $99,999

Cathleen P. Black and Thomas E. Harvey

Mrs. James N. Bay

Bill and Kem Frick / The Frick Foundation, Inc.

Thomas E. Harvey and Cathleen P. Black

Paul and Sandra Goldner

Jacqueline and Ray Farris

Gottsegen Family Foundation

Walter Harper

John D. Herrick

Gary and Linda Lachman / The Lachman Family Foundation

Patricia Lambrecht / The Lambrecht Family Foundation

Lugano Diamonds & Jewelry Inc.

The Honorable Ronald Rosenfeld

David K. Schafer

Don and Mary Thompson

Gifts from $20,000 to $49,999

Cynthia and Jerome Canty

JoAnne Berkow

Kathy Lee Bickham and John Bickham

Leslie Rogers Blum

Yvonne S. Boice Trust

Carol and Thomas Bruce

Jerome J. Claeys

Amy and John Collins

CORPGOV - Mr. & Mrs. John Jannarone

Suzanne Mott Dansby

Herbert H. and Barbara C. Dow Foundation

Gerald Gibian and Marjorie Yashar

Jo and Douglas Gressette

Palm Beach Design Masters

Carol S. and Joseph Andrew Hays

Addison Hines Charitable Trust

GLH Hines Family Philanthropy Fund / George and Lisa Hines

Y. Michele Kang

Michele and Howard Kessler / The Kessler Family Foundation

The Donald C. McGraw Foundation

The David Minkin Foundation

The Honorable Bonnie McElveen-Hunter

McNulty Charitable Foundation

Tish Messinger

Nancy and Ellis J. Parker

PNC Private Bank

Lois Pope

The Annette Urso Rickel Foundation

Ari Rifkin and The Len-Ari Foundation

Dr. Martha Rodriguez and Dr. Jesus Perez-Mendez

Karen Hunt Rogers

Charles Frederick Schmidt

Seth Sprague Foundation / Patricia Dunnington

Charles Frederick Schmidt

Robin Smith

Carol and Jerome Trautschold

Dr. Herbert Wertheim

Sieglinde Wikstrom / The Wikstrom Foundation

Gifts from $10,000 to $19,999

The Rocco A. and Mary Abessinio Foundation, Inc.

Christine and Max Ansbacher

Josephine duPont Bayard

Jon and Pat Baker

Carol and Harold Baxter/Baxter Family Foundation

C. Kenneth and Laura Baxter Foundation, Inc.

Grace Bender/Dorothy G. Bender Foundation

Arthur and Mara Benjamin

Kathy and Gene Bernstein

Mrs. Eunice Bigelow

Richard and Sheryne Brekus

Manny and Sophia Burnchion –

Private Cask Imports

Paul Broder & Kimberly Griffiths

CIBC Wealth Management

Todd and Julie Dahlstrom

Mary and Will Demory

Dr. Richard and Diane Farber

Fox Rothschild LLP

Eric Friedheim Foundation, Inc.

Ann R. Grimm

Michelle DuBois and James Roiter

Irwin and Janet Gusman

Marietta Muiña McNulty

The Marsha and Carl Hewitt Foundation, Inc.

Dr. Peter Heydon/The Mosaic Foundation

Hospital for Special Surgery

The PHF Foundation / Pamela Howard

Dr. Aban and Dr. Percy Kavasmaneck

Elaine Kay

David and Christina Kepner

Syndie Levien

Magellan Jets

Mary Bryant McCourt

David and Linda Moscow Foundation

Norman and Susan Oblon

Oxford Financial

PNC Foundation

William A. and Ronnie N. Potter

Philanthropic Fund

Anne E. and David R. Sauber

Nancy and Dr. William Schneider

Tina and Jeffrey Bolton Family Fund

Sherri Stephenson

The Ann Eden Woodward Foundation / James and Judy Woods, trustees

Al Zucaro

Gifts from $4,000 to $9,999

Berta Alberico

Kathy and Michael Azeez / Azeez Foundation

James H and Marta Batmasian Foundation

C Gordon Beck III

Danny and Talia Bejarano

Lon and Richard Behr

Hans & Barbara Bergstrom

Edith Bjork

Kathleen Bleznak

The Walter & Adi Blum Foundation

Thomas P. Boland

Braman Motorcars

Camille and Anthony Branca

Nancy M. Brown

Nannette Cassidy

Mr. and Mrs. J. Michael Cook

Mr. & Mrs. Howard Cox

Thomas D’Agostino and Danielle Rollins

Scott Diament / Provident Jewelry

Margaret C. Donnelley

Ernest Ellison

Susan Hurley Esson

Susan and Leonard Feinstein

Barbara and Meyer Feldberg

Lurana Figueroa

Raysa Fanjul

Audrey Friedner

David Genser

GGE Foundation, Inc.

Carole Gigliotti

Barbara Gilbert

Arlette Gordon

Michael Gottsegen

Jill Hall and Austin Mehr

Caroline Harless

Priscilla Heublein

Lawrence Kaplan

Komansky Foundation Inc.

Christina and Jason Lamport

Stephanie Lefes

Karen and Paul Levy

Robert M. Lichten

The Lunder Foundation / Peter and Paula Lunder

The Harry T. Mangurian, Jr. Foundation Inc.

Peter May

Doug Marty – Wellington National Golf Club

Metals Mint – Eric Malcolmson

Michael McCafferty

David and Millie McCoy

Dawn Galvin Meiners

Georgia Mouzakis

Kitty and Dudley Omura

Ximena Pacheco-Veliz

Anka Palitz

Jeff and Liz Peek / Peek Family Foundation

Richard C. Pietrafesa, Jr.

David and Robin Jaye

Lady Susan Willis Reickert and Erick Reickert

Robertson Family Fund –

William Robertson

Kevin Sanford and Mark Samuel

David Sarama

Gudrun Sawerthal

Cathy Solomon

Esther Rosenberg Simon and David Simon

Nathan Frank and Krystian von Speidel

Nancy Stone

Bonnie and Thomas Strauss

Dr. Arthur and Jane Tiger

Bruce Trent

William and Marcia Ulm

James Verrant

Mary Lou Wagner

Judith D. Zerfoss

Gifts from $2,000 to $3,999

Mary and Irwin Ackerman

Louis Addazio & Jennifer Parker

Giselle Albrecht

Norka and Robert Aron

Brenna and Michael Barron

Tortoise Properties

The Boca Raton

Sarmite Bulte and Steven Treiber

William Fortune Butz and Richard Davis

PJ Callahan Foundation

Vanda and Patrick Carbone

Amelia Carter

Cary Stamp & Co.

John and Marianne Castle

Leila Chahine

Vera Chapman

Colin Chimienti and Patricia Flanagan

Citizens Private Bank

Maude Cook

Angela Cortesio

Dale Coudert

Christopher and Susan Cowie

Cox Science Center and Aquarium

Cummings & Lockwood LLC

Elizabeth DeBrule

Janet Ellis

Stephen Epstein

Stephanie Ernst

John and Sandra Failla

Patricia and Edward Falkenberg

The Fanjul Family and Florida Crystals Corporation

Chris Fetes

Gillian Fuller

Susan Gibson

Mae Cadwell Rovensky Foundation

Charles Gradante

Cynthia Hampton / Hampton Family Foundation of Oregon Community Foundation

James N. Hauslein

Marlene Hess and James Zirin

Meredith Hope

Lisa Huertas

Iovino Family Fund / Thomas Iovino

iTHINK Financial

Robert and Ann Jaeder

Dr. William and Peggy Johnson

JP Morgan Private Bank

Dr Gary Robert Johnson and Angela Kenyon

Evan Jones

Kargman Charitable and Education Foundation

Patricia Kennedy

Matthew Kemp & Kerinn Meisenbach

Dr. Marjorie Miller-Kihn

Taniel and Arsine Koushakjian

Sankar and Susan Krishnan

Marilyn and Howard Krone

Renée and James LaBonte

Sanda Lambert

Scott and Monica Laurans

Ellen G. Levy

Rabbi Vicki and Cantor Robert Lieberman

Mark J. Lippman

Sarah MacNamee and Kevin McCaffrey

Michael and Shari Meltzer

Ruth Ann & Michael McGuinnis

Cindy and Ron McMackin

Judy Miller

Modestus Bauer Foundation

Frank and Geri Morrow

Joseph and Sharon Muscarelle

Jennifer Nawrocki

Leonard Olds

Roger Osborne

Judi and Karl Ottosen

Joseph Pacetti

Katherine Pinard

Joseph Pietrafesa II and Dr. Martha Pietrafesa

Risk Strategies Company

Ruby Rinker

Dr. Philip Robinson

Burton, Marlene, and Lawrence Rocks

Lawrence Rosenthal

Joanna and Steven Sanders

Michael Rourke and Michele Schimmel

Bob and Rosellen Schnurr

Martin D. & Jean Shafiroff Foundation

Plimpton Shattuck Fund of the Boston Foundation / Wendy Shattuck

E. A. Sheslow Philanthropic Fund

Drew and Kiki Shilling

RP Simmons Family Foundation

Nancy and Stanley Singer

Edward Strauss

Ryan Swenson

Jessica and Trent Swift

The Waterfall Family Foundation/ Susan Waterfall

Gifts from $1,000 to $1,999

Deborah Adeimy

AKA West Palm Hotel Residences

Michael Athmer

Brenda Axelrod

Barbara Bailey

Kristin Barron

Big Time Restaurant Group

Arlene Blau

Stanley and Roberta Bogen

Charitable Foundation

Matthew Brinzo

Charles and Jane Carroll

Susan S. Connor

Beatty Page Cramer

Carla Crawley

John Dadakis

Philip Dunmire

La Goulue Palm Beach

Lora Drasner

Michael Egren and Cyndi Rosellini

Donald M. Ephraim Family Foundation

First Bank

John K. Garvey

Caroline Geerlings

Ilene and Philip Giaquinta

John and Virginia Gildea

Dan L. Goldwasser

Karmita Gusmano

Michael and Theresa Hammond

Toni Handegard

Harvey Capital Management

The Hopewell Fund

Barbara and Robert Hurwit

Martin and Mary Jacobson

Dale A. Jenkins

Joanna and Joseph Jiampetro

McGriff

John Jovanovic

Louise Kemler Kaufman

Lisa Koeper

Lafayette 148, Inc.

Jane P. Long Fund / Jill Leinbach

Kellie Long

Carolyn Maier

Alexander Mandaro

Sue McConn

Joseph and Max McNamara

Virginia “Ginny” Millner

Constance Murrin

Harold and Elinor Oertell

Sally and Kenneth Ohrstrom

Jeanne H. Olofson

Angela Page

Elaine and Simon Parisier Fund

Martin Payson

Linda Phillips

Betsey and Dale Pinkert

Curtis Polk

Juan and Shanon Pretel

The Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts

Mona and Nina Reed

Julie and Rob Reveley

Joyce Rico

Dr. Marcia Robbins-Wilf & Dr. Perry Robbins

Dr. Lawrence and Lana Rouff

Valerie Salembier

Nash Schott

Barry Schwartz

Gerard and Jody Schwarz

David Schwartz

The Edward and Irma Schwartz Family

Charitable Funds

Eliane Strosberg

Jennifer and Kyle Sullivan

TD Bank

Templeton & Company, LLP

Peter and Debra Tornaben

Veronica Whitlock

Erika and Adam Wolek

Gifts up to $999

ABS National Business Parks

Stanley and Marybeth Adelman

Dan Anderson

Jeanne Marie De Angelis

Wallace Aptman

Barbara and Peter Aschheim

Nadine Asin

Shirley Avakian

Christopher Avery

Diane Avonda

C Stephen Backstrom

Harriett L. Balkind

David Balko

David Bamberger

M Catherine Barre

Rita Barreto

Debra Barron

Dan Bauer

Janice Bayer

Christopher Beach

Bobbi Berlin

Florence Metzger Berney

Eric Bjerke

Margaret Blake

Stacey Greene Black

Louis T Block

Eve Bolton

Rachael and Todd Bonlarron

Jeffrey Bornstein

William Braithwaite

Willard Bristol

Adrienne Broch

Honorable Ann Brown

Ann R. Burchill

Christoper Burnett

Bryan and Christina Garces

Bruce Candlin

Iris Cantor

Philip and Susan Cardinale

Allen L. Carnahan

Polly U. Champ

Constance Chan

Barry Chandler

Sylvia Chilli

William Chohfi

Michael and Nancy Ciani

Coastal Girls Co.

Bryn Roberts Cohen

Maureen Conte

Dr. Alexandra C. Cook

Karen Corcoran

John Corey III

Jan Courte and Ira Brandell

Justis Cousins

Sandra Crawford

Stephanie Dagher

Frank Dagostino

Allen Dalton

Nicholas and Joannie Danielides

Leah Danielle

Stephanie Davis

Greg D’Elia

Franklyn DeMarco, Jr.

Johnathan DeSarro

Dr. & Mrs. Allan Dinnerstein

Christine DiRocco

Leslie Dobbin

Marcia Domaingue

Christa Dombraski

Melissa Dombro and Evan Bell

Amy Dowds

Susan Dyer

Ronald and Maureen Early

Harriet M. Eckstein

Chris Eichmann

Caroline Elliott

Keith and Caroline Epstein

Mary Kathleen Ernst

Greg Etimos

Elizabeth Eugenio

Betsy Evans

Joni Evans

Marion and Burt Fainman

Ann Feiertag

Sue Feldman

Rena Keys

Ann Fensterstock

Kim Fialkow

Marypat Finn

Karen Fischer

Maureen Fitzpatrick

Rachael Flanagan, Esq.

Elizabeth Floyd

Lydia Forbes

Lynley Ford

Eric Forti

Gregory Frantz

Paul Freehling

Elizabeth Fritz-Grant

Sara and Brian Frost

Kathleen Fryer

Richard and Danni Gaff

Michael Ganz

Eduardo Garcia

David Garrett

Jennifer Garrigues

Nancy B Garson

Stephanie Gates

Gracie Gaylord

Charles Gaulkin

Robert Gebbia

Dr. Kurt Gehlsen

Charles Geilich

Claire M. Giannamore

Kelli Gibbons

Carmen Gilley

Robert Glass

Dr. Lillian Glass

Jon and Sarah Glassman

Olivia Gleen

Mia Glickman

Shad Goetsch

Ludmilla Goldberg

Golden Anvil Jewelers

Debra Goldenhersh

Donna Goldstone

Irene Goodkind

Guarantee Insurance Partners

Amy Griggs and Jack Kliger

Frank Grobman

Howard & Jacqueline Groveman

Debra Guerra

Louise Gunderson

Jennifer and Vivek Gupta

Sherry Gysler

Eric Haar

George Halliwell

Nancy Hart

Morton Handel

Adam Handfinger

Denis Hanrahan

Yuliya Harris and Alexander Kappaz

Jill Harris

Stephanie Harrold

Nancy Hart

Deborah Hartman

Doug Hartwell

Lynn Heck

Lillian Heidenberg

Ron Heller

Liz and Ron Herman

Mrs. Betty Hess

Stephanie Hill

Carolay Humphries

Sabra Ingeman

Rosa Insana

Karen Ireland

Donna M. Jacobs

Mary Jansen

Alyssia Jaume

William Jaume

Ingrid Johnson

Jacob Johnson

Brad Johnson

David Johnson

Robin Joseps

Marie Jureit-Beamish

Sheeba Kalathil

Errol Kalayci

Deborah and James Kane

Howard and Karolina Kanner

Robin and Lee Kantor

Christina Karas

Evan Kass

John Keefe

Judith Lavory Keiser

Margie Kelk

Robert Kelly

Lillian Khanna

James and Jennifer Kimenker

Sharon and Brent Kirstein

Lawrence H Kleinberg

Joel Koenig

Lori Kollmeyer

Beatrix Kondor

Herbert Krauss

Hannah & Sarah Kaminer

Andrew H. Krinsky

Michael Kurtzig

Andrew Kwan

Karen Labadie

Terrence Lall

Anneliese Langner

Sandra V Laskody

Marti LaTour and George Elmore

Bothwell Lee

Elizabeth Leeds

Ellen Lehrer

Myriam Leibowitz

Logan Vanessa Lencheski

Howard Levin

Ian & Kia Levine

Sheryl Lieberman

Matt Lincoln and Lara Lincoln

Camryn Del Rio Linton

Damien Lipke

Carolyn Lipman

Kay List

Amanda Locker

Henry Loeb

Susan Londoner

Peter Lowenstein

Andrea Lowrey

Maribel Lozano

William Luby

Susan Lundin

Daniel & Dara Lustig

Sara Lynn

Sanita Macaluso

Robert Francis and Lynn Mackle

Marilyn Macron*

Marlene and Henry Maimon

Sura Malaga

Dennis Manalo

Annette F Mandel

Nancy Mandell

Carla Harrod Mann

Barbara Manning

Michelle K. Manolis

Marjorie Marks

Jennifer Martinez

Zelda Mason

George Matsoukas

George Mayer

Kathy McBride

Peter and Elaine McCombs

John McCullough

John and Barbara McDonald

Terrence and Cynthia McGeever

Matthew McGeever

Susan Mercurio

Chryssi Mikus

Robert Millwee

Cara Mimun

Robyn Mishkin

The Glen and Carmel Mitchell Foundation

Jo Anne Moeller and Michael C. Whelchel

Jordan Montgomery

William Moody

Clementina Morris

Jason Muntner

Xiomi Murray

Alexandra Myrick

Delta Nagele

Greg Naing

Cyndi Napoleone

Hank Narrow

Robert Nass

Lena Nepryntseva

David Nichols

Sam Nihalani

Trish North

Rita Nowak

Mayra Ibarra Nunez

Jean Oberg

Kip O’Brien

Sally O’Connor

Kendra Scott LLC

Linda R. Olsson

AlexAnndra Ontra

Xiomara Ordoñez

Andrew & Julie Oremland

Michael Orr

Bob and Cathy Ostellino

Harriet Overbeck

Palm Beach Yacht Club

Christopher and Meghan Palumbo

Andrew Parmet

Claude Peavy

Patricia Pellegrino

Virginia Pellitieri

Mario Perez

Judy Pesner

Amy & Anthony Pietrafesa

Pamela Pike and Michael Pike

Marissa and Ryan Pilconis

Catalina Pines

Ross and Nicole Pitcoff

Bruce Langmaid and Chuck Poole

Michele Poole

Marjorie Potter-Kolb

Carol Price

Harriet Primack

Rachel C W Gwinn Private Foundation

Karen Rahmany

Maria Raspanti

Veronica Rauch

Daria Reader

Phil Reagan

Nicole Remillard

Karen Restaino

Mary Lynn Rogers

Joann Roemelle

Jane Rose

Neil Rosenblum

Roberta Frost Rosenthal

Shelley Rothstein

Gloria Rothstein

Dina Rubio

Hector Rubio

Pilar Ruiz

Marshall Rulnick

William Ruplinger

Camille Russo

Andrew and Ruby Ryba

Maureen Saab

Michael Sabatello

Hortensa “Tenchy” Salas

JoAnn Sanchez

Jason Sandler

Sandra Scheier

Elsbeth Schuler

April Schink

Donna Schneier

Tracie Elliott Schulman and Eli Wachtel

Sanford Schuman

Susan Schwartz

Diana Schwartz

Denise and Pat Segraves

Florence Seiler

Ronni Selko

Robert Senderoff

Sandra Sexton

Sara Shake, The MRKT Co.

Ellen and Steven Shapiro

Patricia Sheffield

Benjamin Shenkman

Karen Sheres

William Sherman, M.D.

Isora and Steve Sherman

Tyler Shernoff

Eric Shippy

Gail Shube

Alan Shullman

Thomas Shuman

Sanford Shuster

Jeanette Sievers

Valerie Silverman

Jeffrey Silverman

Daniel and Taryn Silverstein

Joan Simpson

Ronnie and Sari Simpson

Richard Siudek

Brandon and Mary Coleman Smith

Walter E. Smith

Richard F Smith

Jenelle Smith

Toni Smith

Pamela Smith

Milly Solomon

Kate Stamm / Bonham

Barbara Stein

Deanna Stepanian

Robert Stepanian

Kirsten Stephenson

Sarah Stimson Karis

Rachel Stockton

Ellen Stone

Alan and Goldie Stopek

Dr. John and Karin Strasswimmer

Steven Sukup

Salomon and Jame Suwalsky

Angela A. Szuch

Sean Tanner

Lynn Telling

Andrea Testa

Sally Thedwall

Priscilla Thomasevich

Lynn P. Tishman Fund

Jason Torey

Dilara Tuncer

Justin Turner

Jason Valentine

Linda Valenty

Annette Vass

Linda Vorhies

Ellen Vaughan

Corry Walsh

Bruce Warshal

Skira Watson

Ellen Wayne

Leslie Weaver

Julie Tavel Weiler

Chris and Kristina Welling

Wellington Regional Medical Center

Alex Welsh

Jennifer Whitaker

Tanner Whitehurst

Nicole Williams

Christine Wolf

Kenneth and Judith Wolosoff

Rachelle and Todd Wolosoff

Aaron and Stella Wormus

Bradley Wright

Lawrence Yaslowitz

Rebecca Young

Janna Zaidspiner

COMMEMORATIVE GIFTS

Gifts of $50 and above contributed in the name of a friend, loved one, program, and colleague are a unique expression of thoughtfulness.

CATHIE BLACK AND TOM HARVEY from Liz and Jeff Peek and their many friends and family

CATHIE BLACK

from Harriett L. Balkind, Nicholas and Joannie Danielides, Amy Griggs, Liz and Jeff Peek and her many friends and family

MRS. JAMES N. BAY from Elizabeth Eugenio, Robin Joseps, Kargman Charitable and Education Foundation/Bob and Margie Kargman, Ruth Ann & Michael McGuinnis, Jeanne H. Olofson, Betsey and Dale Pinkert, Lynn Telling and her many friends and family

TOM BOLAND from Ernest Ellison

SHERYNE AND RICHARD BREKUS from David and Robin Jaye

AMY AND JOHN COLLINS from Anne E. and David R. Sauber

JAMES R. BORYNACK from Michele and Howard Kessler/ The Kessler Family Foundation

DAWN GALVIN MEINERS from Gail Ellis, the GGE Foundation, Marietta Muina McNulty and her many friends and family

MAESTRO GERARD SCHWARZ from Nadine Asin

MAESTRO GERARD SCHWARZ, DR. OLGA M. VAZQUEZ, AND SAGE LEHMAN from Marshall Rulnick

HULYA SELCUK from Polly U. Champ

BRYCE SELIGER from David Styers

RALPH & FLORENCE SHILLER from Jacqueline Groveman

NANCY STONE from Brenda Axelrod

IN MEMORY OF

TODD BARRON

from Debra Barron, Brenna and Michael Barron, Todd Bonlarron, Angela Cortesio, Todd Dahlstrom, Andrea Dill, Christine DiRocco, Keith and Caroline Epstein, Eric Forti, Robin and Lee Kantor, Brent and Sharon Kirstein, Taniel and Arsine Koushakjian, Gary and Linda Lachman, David Nichols, Philip Reagan, Steve and Isora Sherman, Alan and Goldie Stopek, Julie Tavel Weiler, Erika and Adam Wolek, Kenneth and Judith Wolosoff, Rachelle and Todd Wolosoff, Aaron and Stella Wormus and his many friends and family

SYLVIA GREENE from Stacey Greene Black

MARGARITA I. MUIÑA from Margaret Donnelley and her many friends and family

SARAH PIETRAFESA from Amy and Anthony Pietrafesa, Richard C. Pietrafesa, Joseph J. Pietrafesa and her many friends and family

KENNETH ROGERS from JoAnne Berkow, Ronni Selko and his many friends and family

VOLUNTEER

Join the Palm Beach Symphony family and make a difference! Whether you’re helping at concerts, assisting in the office, supporting symphony events, or engaging in education and community outreach, your time and talents help bring the joy of music to life.

Scan below to sign up and start volunteering today!

Learn more by scanning the QR code:

MEMBERSHIP

BECOME A MEMBER OF PALM BEACH SYMPHONY

BENEFITS FOR ALL MEMBERS

Priority seating in premier sections at Masterworks Concerts (select areas in the orchestra and grand tier levels)

Access to Annual Gala

Pre-Concert Dining

Complimentary Valet

Recognition in Program Books

Complimentary Single Ticket Exchanges

Advanced Single Ticket Purchase

Scan to read more about more elevated membership benefits:

Hosted at Center for Philanthropy: Home of Palm Beach Symphony 700 S. Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach, FL 33401

SYMPHONY SESSIONS 1:

Date: Thursday, November 7

Time: 12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.

Featuring: Alberto Bade, Assistant Conductor

SYMPHONY SESSIONS 2:

Date: Thursday, December 5

Time: 12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.

Featuring: Maestro Gerard Schwarz

SYMPHONY SESSIONS 3:

Date: Thursday, January 9

Time: 12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.

Featuring: Claudio Jaffé, Principal Cello

SYMPHONY SESSIONS 4:

Date: Thursday, January 30

Time: 12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.

Featuring: Claudio Jaffé, Principal Cello

SYMPHONY SESSIONS 5:

Date: Thursday, February 27

Time: 12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.

Featuring: Matthew Cooperman, Guest Conductor

SYMPHONY SESSIONS 6:

Date: Thursday, April 3

Time: 12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.

Featuring: Maestro Gerard Schwarz

SYMPHONY SESSIONS 7:

Date: Thursday, May 15

Time: 12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.

Featuring: Maestro Gerard Schwarz

SUPPORT THE PALM BEACH SYMPHONY

When you make a gift, you become a valued member of our donor family, supporting our organization’s mission and facilitating the expansion of our orchestral performances featuring world-class guest artists. Moreover, your contribution extends beyond the stage, enabling us to provide essential music education and community outreach programs. These initiatives are pivotal in fostering collaboration, communication, memory retention, critical thinking, a strong work ethic, and creativity in young minds.

Tucked beneath the palms, discover a members club like no other. A private golden beach, world-class dining, a sublime spa – your home from sunrise to sunset and for generations to come.