OKCPHIL program edition 3 for the 22-23 season by OKC Phil Program Magazine

CLASSICS

Nordic Soundscapes

JAN 7, 2023

Hilá Plitmann, soprano PG. 25

POPS

Disney In Concert Magical Music from the Movies

JAN 27-28, 2023

David Andrews Rogers, conductor PG. 33

CLASSICS

Rite of Spring

FEB 4, 2023

Daniel Hsu, piano PG. 39

POPS

An Evening with Kelli O’Hara

FEB 24-25, 2023

Kelli O’Hara PG. 47

FOR

SEE PAGE 23.

HOUSE NOTES

JANE JAYROE GAMBLE, President Oklahoma Philharmonic Society, Inc.

Welcome to this time of magnificent music by The Oklahoma City Philharmonic Orchestra. As we begin this thirty-fourth season, it is with enormous gratitude to each of you for sharing the music, for supporting our musicians, and for applauding our extra efforts to educate as well as perform. For decades, you have said this type of artistic excellence makes a difference. It not only provides high quality entertainment but it helps define a great city—our city.

It is my greatest privilege to serve as President of the OKCPHIL board this season. Our leadership team is strong, our musicians are extraordinary, and our board is dedicated. The past few years have been an enormous challenge to everyone, leaving scars and divisions, as well as losses. Music is one way back to wholeness –individually and as a community. Let’s not miss a beat, as the Philharmonic presents a stunning season under the creative direction of Maestro Alexander Mickelthwate with some of the nation’s most outstanding artists. Executive Director Agnieszka Rakhmatullaev and her dedicated team will assure successful programming and continual growth and service in our community. Also, thanks to the Orchestra League and the Associate Board for their volunteer efforts. We’re all a dedicated and musical family!

This is the season to be a part of something grand that is yours to claim and enjoy. Be proud, OKC, we have so much to celebrate together. Hallelujah!

DEBRA KOS, President

Oklahoma City Orchestra League

The Oklahoma City Orchestra League is honored to welcome you to the 34th season of the OKC Philharmonic. We are excited about the lineup presented by our wonderful Maestro, Alexander Mickelthwate, and our talented OKCPHIL musicians!

This year, it is my privilege to serve as President of the Orchestra League, and we will continue with our mission to educate, enrich, and inspire our community by supporting orchestral music and promoting volunteerism. Our social activities and fundraising efforts provide support to the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, and our educational programs and instrumental competitions promote inspiration and inclusion to our community at large. As always, we look forward to welcoming you to our annual Symphony Show House and other special events.

If music is the universal language of mankind, uniting us all by providing connection and inspiration, then we say “let the music play”!

DESIREE

SINGER, President Associate Board

On behalf of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic Associate Board, it is my privilege to welcome you to the 2022-2023 season! This season is brimming with dynamic and diverse programming that will resonate with everyone. From works that graced the Silver Screen, to an evening in Vienna, to a one-of-a-kind work commissioned by your OKC Philharmonic honoring the 100th birthday of the great Civil Rights icon and native Oklahoman, Clara Luper , this season is sure to excite.

The mission of the Associate Board is to provide an environment for young professionals to cultivate a love for the orchestral arts and connections with others who value what the arts add to our beautiful city. To do this, we have created the Overture Society, a threeconcert package that also provides other opportunities to socialize, network and serve the community. Consider joining the Overture Society today and show your support for OKC’s arts. We are excited to have you!

WELCOME THIRTY-FOURTH SEASON 7

AGNIESZKA RAKHMATULLAEV

On behalf of the entire OKCPHIL Family, welcome to our 2022-23 Season! We are thrilled to present another year of phenomenal performances and programs, as we continue to serve our mission of providing joy and inspiration through orchestral music to our community.

This season’s Inasmuch Foundation Classics Series continues to present orchestral staples, such as Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring,” and Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition.” We will bring onto our stage some of the most renowned artists of the world, including pianist Garrick Ohlsson, guitar legend Pepe Romero, percussionist Evelyn Glennie, and violin virtuoso Joshua Bell. Our season finale will feature OKCPHIL’s large-scale commission by award-winning composer Hannibal Lokumbe to celebrate the Centennial of civil right activist Clara Luper. The Chickasaw Nation Pops Series continues to present diverse offerings of highest caliber: the 90th Birthday Celebration of John Williams, a special Christmas program featuring the Grammy and Emmy nominated artist Michael Feinstein, an evening with Oklahoma’s beloved Kelli O’Hara, and much more. This fantastic lineup is not to be missed, so bring along your family, friends, colleagues, and neighbors to enjoy a special evening of musical entertainment!

Additionally, the OKCPHIL continues its commitment to offering accessible music, both in the hall and across our region, through a great variety of Education and Community Engagement programs. From our free outdoor orchestral concerts at the Scissortail Park, annual “Youth Concerts” for elementary school students, “Society of Strings” program for adult amateur string players, and Young Musician Competition for talented players, these initiatives continue to serve thousands of Oklahomans of all ages. We are deeply grateful for your ongoing loyalty, support, and generosity that makes all of this possible. Your individual ticket purchases, season subscriptions, and annual fund donations allow us to deepen our impact in the community in numerous ways. As we continue to navigate some challenging times, the OKCPHIL remains committed to bringing high-caliber orchestral performances and accessible Education and Community and Engagement programs to our community, while partnering with various organizations and elevating the quality of life in our beautiful state.

Thank you and we look forward to seeing you at our concerts throughout this season!

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR THIRTY-FOURTH SEASON

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ALEXANDER MICKELTHWATE

When Alexander Mickelthwate told his young son Jack they were moving from Winnipeg, Canada, to Oklahoma City, his first thought was: “But Dad, they have tornadoes there!” It was 2018, and Mickelthwate had just accepted a new position as Music Director of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic. Tornadoes aside, he knew instinctively Oklahoma City would be a good fit—both personally and professionally.

“We spent 12 years in Winnipeg,” Mickelthwate said, “And I also lived in Los Angeles and New York City. But Oklahoma—it is a perfect fit. For my wife and our two sons, it gives us the feeling of a large city, yet small enough to have a sense of community. And leading our state’s premiere orchestra is an amazing opportunity.”

Mickelthwate was born and raised in Frankfurt, Germany. He received his degree from the Peabody Institute of Music, and has worked with orchestras in Atlanta, Winnipeg and Los Angeles.

He is Music Director Emeritus of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra in Canada, and in 2022 Mickelthwate accepted the position of Music Director for the prestigious Bear Valley Music Festival in Bear Valley, California.

As he begins his fifth season with the OKCPHIL, Mickelthwate has become quite aware of what his hometown audiences want in a performance—sometimes traditional, sometimes innovative, but always with a good dose of enthusiasm.

“My wife Abigail and I celebrated our 25th anniversary at ‘Nonesuch’ restaurant,” Mickelthwate said. “Our meal consisted of a number of different dishes—some familiar, and some new and exciting. As I sampled each course, I thought that’s how our programming is. We are giving our audiences the traditional music they love, but also letting them experience a new palate.”

Giving back to the community is an important role Mickelthwate takes seriously. After guest conducting the Simon Bolivar Orchestra in Venezuela and experiencing the life-changing power of the El Sistema program, he played an instrumental part in creating Sistema Winnipeg.

Mickelthwate has embraced Oklahoma City and it’s rich and colorful tapestry. Artistically, he has programmed several concerts with a Native American theme, and has created some touching tributes to our city’s history. Two years ago, he led the commissioning of a special piece for the 25th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, and this season the OKCPHIL presents an original work celebrating the centennial of civil rights icon Clara Luper.

“I have so much I want to do,” Mickelthwate said. “I want Oklahoma City to think of us as part of the family. If you’re a regular patron, we thank you. If you’re new to the OKCPHIL, welcome—we are thrilled you’re here!

“I believe music has a healing effect,” he continued. “It goes straight to the heart, and it unites us all. I truly love Oklahoma City and am so proud to be part of the community.”

THIRTY-FOURTH SEASON

MUSIC DIRECTOR

THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

OFFICERS

Jane Jayroe Gamble

President

Jerrod Shouse President Elect Kelly Sachs Vice President

Kevin Dunnington Treasurer

Jennifer Schultz Secretary

Brent Hart Immediate Past President

ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF

John Allen General Manager

Jose Batty Music Librarian

Mark Beutler Director of Marketing & Public Relations

Blossom Crews Director of Development

Jared Davis Customer Service Representative

Allison Demand Concert Operations Assistant & Guest Artist Liaison

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Classical KUCO 90.1

Morningstar Properties

LIFETIME DIRECTORS

Jane B. Harlow

Patrick Alexander

DIRECTORS

Phil Busey Louise Cleary Cannon

Robert Clements

Joy Hammons

Kirk Hammons

Dean Jackson

Mautra Staley Jones

Debra Kos

Kristian Kos

Jessica Martinez-Brooks

Jeana Gering Education Manager

Daniel Hardt Finance Director

Judy Hill Administrative Assistant

Daryl Jones Senior Manager of Ticketing & Patron Data

Joel Levine Archivist/Historian

Leroy Newman Stage Manager

Oklahoma City Police Association George Ryan

Margaret Freede Owens

Matt Paque

Craig Perry

Jim Roth

Amalia Miranda Silverstein

Desiree Singer

Doug Stussi Geetika Verma Renate Wiggin

Paul Nguyen Education Intern

Ashley Spears Development Associate Robin Sweeden Institutional Giving Coordinator Corbin Taggart Marketing Coordinator

Valorie Tatge Orchestra Personnel Manager

Stubble Creative, Inc. The Skirvin Hotel Titan AVL

PHOTOGRAPHERS: Michael Anderson, Simon Hurst, Mutz Photography, and Shevaun Williams and Associates

THE OKLAHOMA PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY, INC.

424 Colcord Drive, Ste. B • Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73102

Tickets: (405) 842-5387 • Administration: (405) 232-7575 • Fax: (405) 232-4353 • www.okcphil.org

OKLAHOMA PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY, INC PROVIDING INSPIRATION AND JOY THROUGH ORCHESTRAL MUSIC

The Oklahoma City Philharmonic Foundation was established to provide leadership and endowment expertise to help ensure a stable financial base for orchestral music and musical excellence in Oklahoma City for generations to come. Distributions from the Oklahoma City Philharmonic Foundation provide a meaningful and secure source of annual income for the Philharmonic’s operations, continually confirming the importance of endowment in an organization’s long-range planning and overall success.

Current officers and directors of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic Foundation are:

OFFICERS

Douglas J. Stussi, President

Charles E. Wiggin, Vice President

Louise Cleary Cannon, Treasurer

Penny M. McCaleb, Secretary

DIRECTORS

Steven C. Agee

Patrick B. Alexander

J. Edward Barth

L. Joe Bradley

Teresa Cooper

Paul Dudman

Mischa Gorkuscha

Jane B. Harlow

Brent Hart

Jean Hartsuck

Michael E. Joseph

Harrison Levy, Jr.

Duke R. Ligon

Jessica Martinez-Brooks

Michael J. Milligan

Alice Pippin

Erik Salazar

Jeff Starling

Richard Tanenbaum

Jerod Tate

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Debra Kos President

Geetika Verma President-Elect

Newt Brown Treasurer

Meredith Blecha-Wells Development VP Marion Burcham Membership VP

Joan Bryant Communications VP Kristen Ferate Past President, Ex-Officio

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Helen Chiou

Jeanne Drake Yvette Fleckinger

Sue Francis Jane Krizer

Patsy Lucas Geetika Verma Heather Walter Dwayne Webb

Orchestra League Office 424 Colcord Dr., Ste. B Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73102

Phone: (405) 232-7575 Fax: (405) 232-4353 e-mail: league@okcphil.org

OFFICERS

Desiree Singer President

J. Cruise Berry Treasurer James Hulsey Membership Chair

Kelsey Karper Marketing Chair

DIRECTORS

Dr. Genevieve Clarkson Cordon DeKock Tom Lerum

Patrick E. Randall, II Jennifer Stadler

AFFILIATED PARTNERS

ALEXANDER MICKELTHWATE, Music Director and Conductor

JOEL LEVINE, Founder and Music Director Emeritus

FIRST VIOLIN

Gregory Lee, Concertmaster , Gertrude Kennedy Chair

Marat Gabdullin, Associate Concertmaster

Densi Rushing, Assistant Concertmaster

Yena Lee Hong Zhu

Beth Sievers

Andrés Caveda Chandler Fadero Min Jung Kim Deborah McDonald Lu Deng

SECOND VIOLIN

Katrin Stamatis, Principal , McCasland Foundation Chair Catherine Reaves, Assistant Principal Sophia Ro

Sarah Sanford Brown Corbin Mace

Angélica Pereira

Audrey Lee

Yajing (Cindy) Zhang Lok-Hin Cheng

VIOLA

Royce McLarry, Principal Mark Neumann, Assistant Principal Joseph Guevara

Kelli Ingels

Steve Waddell

Donna Cain

Brian Frew

CELLO

Jonathan Ruck, Principal , Orchestra League Chair

Tomasz Zieba, Assistant Principal* Meredith Blecha-Wells*

Valorie Tatge

Emily Stoops

Jim Shelley

Angelika Machnik-Jones Jean Statham

BASS

Anthony Stoops, Principal Larry Moore, Assistant Principal Parvin Smith

Mark Osborn

Christine Craddock

FLUTE

Valerie Watts, Principal Parthena Owens Nancy Stizza-Ortega

PICCOLO Nancy Stizza-Ortega

OBOE

Lisa Harvey-Reed, Principal Rachel Maczko Katherine McLemore

ENGLISH HORN Rachel Maczko

CLARINET

Bradford Behn, Principal Tara Heitz Jim Meiller

BASS/E-FLAT CLARINET Jim Meiller

BASSOON

Rod Ackmann, Principal James Brewer Barre Griffith

CONTRABASSOON Barre Griffith

HORN

Kate Pritchett, Principal, G. Rainey Williams Chair James Rester Mirella Gable Matt Reynolds

TRUMPET

Karl Sievers, Principal Jay Wilkinson Michael Anderson

TROMBONE

Adam Hanna, Principal Philip Martinson

John Allen, Bass Trombone

TUBA Ted Cox, Principal

TIMPANI Jamie Whitmarsh, Principal

PERCUSSION

Patrick Womack, Principal Stephanie Krichena Roger Owens

HARP Gaye LeBlanc, Principal

PIANO

Peggy Payne, Principal

*on leave for the 2022-23 season

PRODUCTION STAFF

John Allen, General Manager

Valorie Tatge, Personnel Manager Jose Batty, Music Librarian

Leroy Newman, Stage Manager Allison Demand, Guest Artist Liaison

15 THE ORCHESTRA THIRTY-FOURTH SEASON

PLANNED GIVING

The Oklahoma Philharmonic Society, Inc. is honored to recognize its EncoreSociety members — visionary thinkers who have provided for the future of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic through their estate plans.

Anonymous (3)

Steven C. Agee, Ph.D.

Linda and Patrick Alexander

Gary and Jan Allison Dr. Jay Jacquelyn Bass

Louise Cleary Cannon

Mr. and Mrs. Robert H. Clements Thomas and Rita Dearmon

Dr. and Mrs. James D. Dixson Dr. Ralph and Lois Ganick Hugh Gibson Pam and Gary Glyckherr

Carey and Gayle Goad

Mr. and Mrs. J.A. Gowman Carol M. Hall

Ms. Olivia Hanson Jane B. Harlow

Dr. and Mrs. James Hartsuck

THANK YOU

Mr. and Mrs. Michael E. Joseph

Joel Levine and Don Clothier

John and Caroline Linehan

Mr. and Mrs. Marvin C. Lunde, Jr. Mrs. Jackie Marron

Mr. and Mrs. John McCaleb Jean and David McLaughlin W. Cheryl Moore

Carl Andrew Rath Mrs. Catherine Reaves

Mr. and Mrs. William J. Ross Drs. Lois and John Salmeron

Mr. and Mrs. William F. Shdeed Richard L. Sias Doug and Susie Stussi Larry and Leah Westmoreland Mr. John S. Williams

Mr. and Mrs. Don T. Zachritz

The Oklahoma Philharmonic Society, Inc. is grateful for the support of caring patrons who want to pass on a legacy of extraordinary music to future generations. You can join this special group of music enthusiasts by including a gift for the OKC Philharmonic’s future in your own will or estate plan. For more information on how to become an Encore Society member, contact the Philharmonic’s Development Office at (405) 232-7575.

THE

PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY, INC.

THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE MUSIC

Third/Bass/E-flat Clarinet OKCPHIL Musician

Jim Meiller was in fourth grade when he began taking group clarinet lessons. He progressed quickly and enjoyed playing in the band as well as with friends.

“By the time I reached eighth grade, I was pretty well hooked for the long-haul,” he says. It was Spring, 1982, when Jim began as an extra player with what was then the Oklahoma Symphony Orchestra. Today, he is Third/Bass/E-flat Clarinet with the OKCPHIL. “In that first spring in 1982, I got to perform Stravinsky’s ‘Rite of Spring,’ my favorite piece since I got serious about music. I’m really looking forward to performing it again with OKCPHIL this spring!”

Outside of his work with OKCPHIL, Jim enjoys playing golf. Since his wife retired last summer, the now empty nesters have gotten the travel bug. When he’s not golfing or traveling, home projects, instruments, and rehearsals keep him busy.

“This orchestra is a wonderful mixture of professors, public school educators and various other professions,” Jim said. “It is a friendly and welcoming place to make music.”

Customer Service Representative OKCPHIL Staff

Hello OKC! As one of the newest members of the OKC Phil team, I am truly grateful to be a part of the organization. Having grown up in our wonderful city, I had the opportunity to hear the philharmonic from a young age, and started piano lessons by age 6. I eventually took a liking to the clarinet and went through band programs both in Yukon and Edmond Public Schools, majored in music at OU, and earned a master’s degree from Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. I played in symphony orchestras for many years before returning home in 2021, and now I get to work behind the scenes!

MEET

FAMILY 17

OUR

JIM MEILLER JARED DAVIS

GIFTS TO THE PHIL

The Oklahoma City Philharmonic gratefully acknowledges the commitment and generosity of individuals, corporations, foundations, and government agencies that support our mission. To help us provide inspiration and joy to the community through live orchestral performances and a variety of Education and Community Engagement programs, please contact the Philharmonic’s Development Office at (405) 232-7575.

This Annual Fund recognition reflects contributions made in the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons. Contributions of $250 and above are listed through September 15, 2022.

If your name has been misspelled or omitted, please accept our apologies and inform us of the error by calling the phone number listed above. Thank you for your generous support!

CORPORATIONS, FOUNDATIONS & GOVERNMENT

Express their generous commitment to the community.

UNDERWRITER

$40,000 & Above

Allied Arts Foundation

The Chickasaw Nation E.L. and Thelma Gaylord Foundation Inasmuch Foundation Oklahoma Arts Council

The Skirvin Hilton Hotel

PLATINUM SPONSORS

$10,000 - $39,999

405 Magazine

Ad Astra Foundation

American Fidelity Foundation Devon Energy Corporation Express Employment International HSPG and Associates, PC

I Heart Media

Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores MidFirst Bank

OGE Energy Corp. The Oklahoman Tyler Media Co./Magic 104.1FM and KOMA W&W l AFCO Steel

GOLD SPONSORS

$5,000 - $9,999

BancFirst Bank of Oklahoma Bryan Garrett Injury Law Firm Clements Foods Foundation Mekusukey Oil Company, LLC The Metro Restaurant

SILVER SPONSORS

$3,000 - $4,999

OKC Friday Oklahoma Allergy & Asthma Clinic

BRONZE SPONSORS $2,250 - $2,999

The Black Chronicle Morningstar Properties, LLC

GOLD PARTNERS

$1,500 - $2,249

Charlesson Foundation Flips Restaurant, Inc. The Fred Jones Family Foundation

SILVER PARTNERS

$1,000 - $1,499

H&L Exploration Company, LLC

BRONZE PARTNERS $500 - $999

Tom Johnson Investment Management LLC

BUSINESS MEMBERS

$250 - $499

Harrison-Orr Air Conditioning, LLC The Kerr Foundation, Inc.

MATCHING GIFT COMPANIES AND FOUNDATIONS

Double the impact of an individual’s gift.

American Fidelity Foundation Bank of America Matching Gifts Program

The Boeing Company Inasmuch Foundation

Merrill Lynch & Co. Foundation, Inc.

UNDERWRITER

$25,000 and above

Dr. Margaret Freede Mary Ann Holdrege

GIFTS TO THE PHIL

MAESTRO SOCIETY

Providing leadership support.

GUARANTOR

$10,000 and above

Steven C. Agee, Ph.D. Linda and Patrick Alexander

Marilyn and Bill Boettger

Dr. and Mrs. L. Joe Bradley

Joel Levine and Don Clothier Jean and David McLaughlin Amalia Miranda-Silverstein, MD

George Records

Mr. Richard L. Sias and Alice and Phil Pippin Jim and Debbie Stelter Glenna and Dick Tanenbaum Renate and Chuck Wiggin

Lawrence H. and Ronna C. Davis Mr. and Mrs. Andrew J. Evans, II Mr. and Mrs. John A. Frost Gerald and Jane Jayroe Gamble Jane B. Harlow Leslie and Cliff Hudson Ed and Barbara Krei Mr. Albert Lang Susan Robinson Doug and Susie Stussi

BENEFACTOR

$5,000 - $9,999

Mo Anderson

Mrs. Betty D. Bellis-Mankin John and Margaret Biggs

Louise Cleary Cannon and Gerry Cannon

Teresa Cooper

James B. Crawley

Darleene A. Harris

Claudia Holliman

Dr. and Mrs. Patrick McKee Larry and Polly Nichols Donald Rowlett

INDIVIDUALS

Providing essential support for the Annual Fund.

PATRON

$3,500 - $4,999

Mike and Dawn Borelli

Mr. Sidney G. Dunagan Jerry and Jan Plant Jeff and Kim Short

SUSTAINER

$2,250 - $3,499

Anonymous (2)

Dr. and Mrs. Dewayne Andrews

Dr. and Mrs. John C. Andrus

Larry and Sarah Blackledge

Martha and Ronnie Bradshaw

Mrs. Carole S. Broughton

Mr. and Mrs. Robert F. Browne

Mr. and Mrs. Robert H. Clements

David and Druanne Durrett

Mr. and Mrs. Joseph M. Fleckinger

Brent Hart and Matt Thomas

Dr. and Mrs. James Hartsuck Colonel (ret.) Dean and Mrs. Jeanne Jackson Tom and Cindy Janssen Kim and Michael Joseph Kathy and Terry Kerr Linda and Duke R. Ligon Annie Moreau, MD

Mr. H.E. Rainbolt Dr. Lois Salmeron

Dr. and Mrs. Hal Scofield Ms. Jeanne Hoffman Smith John and Katherine Spaid

Mr. and Mrs. John E. Stonecipher John Stuemky and James Brand Mrs. Billie Thrash Mrs. Janet Walker Jeanise Wynn

ASSOCIATE

$1,500 - $2,249

Anonymous

Virginia and Albert Aguilar

Mr. and Mrs. Louis Almaraz

Ms. Zonia Armstrong

Christie Barnes

Mr. J. Edward Barth

Dr. and Mrs. William L. Beasley

William Beck Nick and Betsy Berry Dr. Charles and Marilyn Bethea

Bart Binning

Dr. and Mrs. Philip C. Bird

Mr. and Mrs. Del Boyles Mrs. Phyllis Brawley

J. Christopher and Ruth Carey Ms. Janice B. Carmack Jeff Caughron

CONTINUED ON PAGE 54

HOUSE NOTES

RESTROOMS are conveniently located on all levels of the theater. Please ask your usher for guidance.

LATECOMERS and those who exit the theater during the performance may be seated during the first convenient pause, as determined by the management.

ELECTRONIC DEVICES must be turned off and put away during the performance (no calling, texting, photo or video use please).

BEVERAGES: Bottled water is permitted in the theater at the Classics Series concerts. Beverages are permitted in the theater at the Pops Series concerts; however, bringing coffee into the theater is discouraged due to the aroma.

SMOKING in the Civic Center Music Hall is prohibited. The Oklahoma City Philharmonic promotes a fragrance-free environment for the convenience of our patrons.

FIRE EXITS are located on all levels and marked accordingly. Please note the nearest exit for use in case of an emergency.

ELEVATORS are located at the south end of the atrium lobby of the Civic Center Music Hall.

CHILDREN of all ages are welcome at the Philharmonic Discovery Family Series and Holiday Pops performances; however, in consideration of the patrons, musicians and artists, those under five years of age will not be admitted to evening Classics and Pops concerts unless otherwise noted.

BOOSTER SEATS for children are available in the Civic Center lobby. Please inquire at the Box Office.

STUDENT RUSH are $11 each and available with a high school or university I.D. and email address at the Box Office 1 hour prior to the start of each Philharmonic performance. Tickets are offered based on availability only and seats may be located throughout the theater.

VIDEO MONITORS are located in the lobby for your convenience.

WHEELCHAIR AVAILABLE SEATING – Persons using wheelchairs or with walking and climbing difficulties will be accommodated when possible. Those wishing to use the designated wheelchair sections may purchase the wheelchair space and a companion seat. Please inform the Philharmonic or Civic Center Box Office staff of your need when ordering tickets so that you may be served promptly and appropriately. Please request the assistance of hall ushers to access wheelchair seating.

HEARING LOOPS have been installed. Ask your audiologist to activate the telecoil in your hearing aid or cochlear implant. Due to the mechanics of the stage, the hearing loops do not reach the pit section but are available at the Box Office and the Thelma Gaylord Performing Arts Theatre. The copper wire in the floor and telecoil work together to connect the hearing device to the theater’s sound system using a magnetic field which dramatically improves sound clarity for patrons using hearing devices.

LOST & FOUND is located in the Civic Center office (405) 594-8300 weekdays 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

PHILHARMONIC TICKET OFFICE may be contacted by calling 405-TIC-KETS (405) 842-5387 or you can visit the Philharmonic Ticket Office located on the first floor of the Arts District Garage at 424 Colcord Drive in Suite B. The Philharmonic Ticket Office is open Monday through Friday, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and by phone on concert Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

CIVIC CENTER BOX OFFICE hours are Monday through Friday, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and two hours prior to each performance. (405) 594-8300

ARTISTS, PROGRAMMING, AND DATES SUBJECT TO CHANGE.

THIRTY-FOURTH SEASON

CONCEPTS

FROM THE

JANUARY 7, 2023 • 8:00 P.M.

Maestro NORDIC SOUNDSCAPES

CLASSICS

Music, to me personally, is the ultimate reflection of the inner feelings of the composer put into sounds. This season we will take you on a journey through multiple composers where you will experience an array of sounds and feelings. The canvas of each composer is literally alive ... we experience different instruments dominating the texture, from a single piano or guitar to the full Symphony Orchestra. When you think of “Nordic,” what comes to mind? To me it’s Northern Lights, Finnish lakes, Icelandic fire and ice, Norwegian fjord’s, Swedish life style. Pristine and clear beauty. We will musically create all this.

HILÁ PLITMANN, SOPRANO

NORDIC SOUNDSCAPES

Kjartan SVEINSSON ............... Der Klang der Offenbarung des Göttlichen* (The Explosive Sonics of Divinity)

In Four Parts

BJÖRK (ARR. EK) .................... Four songs* Virus Joga All is Full of Love Undo

Tactus Vocal Ensemble, Warren Puffer Jones, Music Director Hilá Plitmann, soprano

The first half centers around music by two Icelandic pop stars--singer Björk who is famous for her unique songs, renaissance voice and quirky lyrics, and Kjartan Sveinsson, pianist of the band Sigur Ros. His music seems to go back to the Renaissance time. There is nothing contemporary. It’s pure beauty.

Grammy Award winning soprano Hila Plitmann joins us.

In the second half, we mount Sibelius’ famous Symphony No. 5. While working away in his composition hut in the Finnish countryside, a group of swans flew right above Sibelius’ head. Struck by sudden inspiration, he composed the famous brass theme of the last movement in his Symphony No. 5.

SIBELIUS ...................................

Intermission

Symphony No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 82

Tempo molto moderato—Allegro moderato Andante mosso, quasi allegretto Allegro molto—Misterioso

*First Performance on this series

THIS CONCERT IS GENEROUSLY SPONSORED BY:

Text CLASSICS to 95577 to stay up to date on the latest Philharmonic info.

Listen to a broadcast of this performance on KUCO 90.1 FM on Wednesday, February 1 at 8 pm and Saturday, February 4 at 8 am on “Performance Oklahoma”. Simultaneous internet streaming is also available during the broadcast.

ALEXANDER MICKELTHWATE, CONDUCTOR

HILÁ PLITMANN

Creativity, theatricality, and virtuosity have long defined the musical adventures of two-time Grammy Award-winning soprano, vocalist, and actress Hilá Plitmann. She brings emotionally-charged fearlessness, unique expressivity, and mesmerizing drama to her performances in opera, concert, film, and theater.

Dazzling audiences with not only traditional repertory, she’s widely-recognized as one of today’s foremost interpreters of contemporary music. She regularly premieres new works by a diverse array of composers including Esa-Pekka Salonen, Frank Zappa, Pulitzer/Grammy-winner Aaron Jay Kernis, Thomas Adès, Emmy Award-winner Jeff Beal, Xiaogang YE, Paola Prestini, Danaë Vlasse, and Grammy/Oscar-winner John Corigliano.

Just one year after graduating from Juilliard – and on only two weeks’ notice – she premiered a new work by Pulitzer Prize-winner David Del Tredici with the New York Philharmonic. Since then, her appearances as soloist have included the Los Angeles, New York, and Israel Philharmonics, Chicago, Boston, London, BBC, National, St. Louis, Atlanta, Albany, Detroit, Hamburg, Stockholm, and Melbourne Symphonies, Minnesota and Orpheus Chamber Orchestras. She’s collaborated with some of the world’s foremost conductors, such as Leonard Slatkin, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Kurt Masur, Marin Alsop, Thomas Adès, Giancarlo Guerrero, and Robert Spano.

She can be heard as featured vocal soloist on film soundtracks for The Da Vinci Code, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Hail Caesar, and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Her discography includes Corigliano’s songcycle Mr. Tambourine Man and Danaë Xanthe Vlasse’s Mythologies (both winning the Grammy for “Best Classical Vocal Performance”); Andrea Clearfield’s Women of Valor with Tovah Feldshuh; Richard Danielpour’s Toward a Season of Peace and Grammy Award-winning Passion of Yeshua; Eric Whitacre’s Good Night Moon, and George Benjamin’s Into the Little Hill.

Nominated as “Best Actress in a Musical” by the Los Angeles Ovation Awards and L.A. Ticketholder Awards for her performance of Eric Whitacre’s groundbreaking electro-musical Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings, she sang, acted, danced, and fought in long martial arts battles nightly for a seven-week sold-out run. A tour-de-force, Theatre Mania raved she “fights like a warrior and sings like the angel she portrays.”

Hilá’s work is informed by her love of poetry, focus on discipline (she holds a black belt in Tae Kwon Do), and engagement with nature. She hopes her artistic risk-taking emboldens audiences to expand their comfort zones.

26 GUEST

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ARTIST

GUEST ARTIST

TACTUS VOCAL ENSEMBLE

Warren Puffer Jones, Music Director

Tactus is a Latin word meaning touched, moved or felt. It refers to the pulse or beat that undergirds every piece of music.

A new, professional vocal ensemble and chamber orchestra in Oklahoma City dedicated to presenting concert experiences that are engaging, exciting and inspiring.

We re-envision what a performing ensemble can be: breathing new life into old masterpieces and bringing fresh vitality to our art.

Rooted in the classical tradition, TACTUS performs great music on innovative concert programs. Our repertoire includes music that is more than a thousand years old as well as music that is brand new.

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PROGRAM NOTES

SVEINSSON

Der Klang der Offenbarung des Göttlichen (The Explosive Sonics of Divinity) Kjartan Sveinsson

First Performance on this Series

Born: January 2, 1978, in Iceland

Residing: Reykjavík, Iceland

Work composed: 2013-14

Work premiered: February 19, 2014, at Berlin’s Volksbühne Theater, by the Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg and Filmchor Berlin

Kjartan Sveinsson earned a devoted following as the keyboard player of the post-rock band Sigur Rós, which he joined in 1998. He remained until 2013, playing a variety of wind instruments, guitar, and banjo as well as keyboards; that year, according to the band’s statement, he announced that he had “spent half his life in the band and it was time to do something different.” At least part of that “something different” was composing, to which he had been devoting a good deal of time. But the decision would not be permanent. In February 2022, he returned to the group’s roster, and there he remains today. He has contributed to the arrrangements played by Sigur Rós as well as to the group amiina, In 2005 he began composing scores for independent films, including The Last Farm (2005, nominated for an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film), Plastic Bag (2009, narrated by Werner Herzog), Ondine (2009, about the Irish selkie myth), Volcano (2011, family strife and reconciliation against in rural Iceland), and Sparrows (2015, urban teenager adapts to life in a fishing village). He had introduced “classical” elements into his arrangement for Sigur Rós, and in 2010 he composed his choral/orchestral work Credo, which was entirely in his classical mode, rich

in sustained consonances and evoking a spaciousness that listeners found evocative of his country’s landscape.

He also began creating collaborations with Ragnar Kjartansson, Iceland’s most acclaimed contemporary artist, noted for conceptual works, art installations, and performances that contain an essential musical component. Sveinsson has provided the soundtracks for several of these, including Kjartansson’s most famous work, The Visitors, a widely-toured video installation in which various troubadourish musicians play music in different rooms of a farmhouse.

Der Klang der Offenbarung des Göttlichen (The Explosive Sonics of Divinity) was a collaboration between Kjartansson and Sveinsson mounted in Berlin in 2014, just after Sveinsson left Sigur Rós. They called it a four-act opera, a curious designation for a work that that involves no singing actors and lacks a plot. Although it can be performed as a concert piece—one could think of it as a four-movement symphony with instruments and voices—it was presented at its premiere as a theatrical work with each movement presented before its own painted theatrical tableau (“each rooted in German romantic clichés,” wrote Kjartansson) and enlivened by lighting effects, some of which suggested changing weather events. Kjartansson further described it as “a banally romantic opera inspired by Halldór Laxness’s cunning texts about the longing for beauty.” Laxness (1902-98) may not be a household name outside Iceland, but he was the country’s towering literary figure, one who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1955 (“for his vivid epic power which has renewed the great narrative art of Iceland,” as the award committee put it), and whose novel Independent People may still figure on occasional reading lists. The specific inspiration was Laxness’s novel World Light, about a young poet from rural Iceland who, failing to gain success, finds consolation in nature.

Although this “opera” excludes singing actors, it was envisioned for voices. Choral singing figures in all but Part I, which is for string orchestra with touches of percussion, building to a dramatic climax. Like all of the piece, this section progresses slowly; the background set suggests nighttime along a rocky seashore. Gray skies dominate Part II, where the chorus sings mournful music that is somewhat alleviated after the orchestral strings enter. This shift coincides with the text, which begins by contemplating a woman shrouded in grave-clothes and transforms into a reassurance about the enduring power of more positive memories. Part III plays out against a video of a house burning down in the darkness; yet, curiously, the music on its own seems more optimistic than such a

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PROGRAM NOTES

scene might imply. Nor does the text seem much to coincide with it; the poem here involves someone welcoming the arrival of a lover at a time of stress, assured that the sun will shine tomorrow. Part IV reaches for an ecstatic conclusion in vast, consonant swells of choral and orchestral writing (and solo roles for a soprano and a violin)—shades of Laxness’s poet accepting transcendence where he can find it: “You are the light of the world / Soon the sun of the day of resurrection / will shine on the bright paths where she / awaits her poet. / And beauty shall reign alone.

to prominence as a member of the Icelandic rock band

The Sugarcubes, but she moved to London and embarked on her solo career in 1992 when that band dissolved. She released her first solo recording, appropriately titled Debut, in 1992, and went on to build a discography of ten albums, the most recent being issued in 2022.

BJÖRK

Four

songs: Virus Jóga

All is Full of Love Undo Björk (arr. Ek)

First Performance on this Series

Born: November 21, 1965, in Rejkjavik, Iceland

Residing: Rejkjavik, Iceland, and Palisades, New York, among other places

Works composed: “Undo” in 2001; “All is Full of Love,” 1999; “Jóga,” 1999; “Virus,” 2011

Arrangements: By Hans Ek

Björk—born Björk Guðmundsdóttir—is one of the world’s leading pop stars, but her music-making is hard to pigeonhole. Certainly her output has helped define such areas as art-pop and electronica, but much of her work places her squarely in the domain of performance art. As a child, she studied flute and music theory, and she preferred the music she encountered by 20th-century composers—such as Messiaen, Stockhausen, and Cage—to the classics by Bach and Mozart her music school stressed. She first came

As her career progressed, she increasingly viewed her work not in terms of the solitary composer, or even the composer-performer that she unquestionably is, but rather as a collaborative venture involving teams of recording engineers, sound sculptors, musical performers, instrument builders, choreographers, costumers, computer programmers, visual designers, videographers, and other technical specialists of various sorts. Then, too, many of her pieces reflect an abiding interest in her relationship to the natural world—and, by extensions, humanity’s relationship to the natural world—whether in ecstatic embrace or nervous alienation. Klaus Biesenbach, the curator of a 2015 retrospective of Björk’s work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, wrote: “For all of her career Björk has created a body of work in which the landscape around her, she herself and the landscape inside of her—her blood, her organs, the sounds made by her and perceived by her—are all one universe of objects and subjects, subjects and objects, robots and humans, plants and animals, stone and volcanoes and oceans at the same time.”

An important determinant in Björk’s compositions is her own voice, since she is the singer for whom she creates her pieces. Her wide-spanning voice covers three octaves, with a timbre that is mostly pure and childlike while allowing incursions of grit. Her technique draws on many singing methods from around the world to afford a vocal palette of uncommon richness, one that places her in a tradition of “performance-art singers” such as Cathy Berberian, Joan La Barbara, and Meredith Monk, although Björk generally avoids their more outré extremes.

“Virus” created quite a stir when it appeared on the 2011 album Biophilia, a concept album (with associated apps) that explored links between nature, music, and technology—and it attracted renewed attention nine years later with the onset of the viral pandemic. It unrolls as a slow dance between a virus and the cell with which it bonds—a love story, if you will, of inevitable attraction.

“Jóga” also figured on Homogenic and similarly made a splash as an independent video release, in which form it featured moving images of Icelandic landscapes modified to illustrate fissures of earthquakes changing the terrain in its “state of emergency.” “With this song,” said Björk, “I really had a sort of National Anthem in mind. Not the

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PROGRAM NOTES

National Anthem but certain classic Icelandic songs—very romantic, very proud.” The piece instantly shot to the top of the pop charts in Iceland. Jóga is the Icelandic word for yoga, but here it is used because it was the nickname of the friend to whom Björk dedicated the song.

“All is Full of Love” was from Homogenic, Björk’s third album (1999), and was remixed and re-released as a single with video in 1999. That latter version, with imagery of an unnerving human-like robot being assembled and then achieving a sort of intimacy with another robot, is considered a milestone in the history of computer animation. The song’s message is that even if love may not be reciprocated from the objects of our affection, plenty of love nonetheless surrounds us, if you “twist your head around.”

“Undo” appeared on Björk’s fourth commercial album, Vespertine, from 2001. Whereas her first three albums had delved deeply into the studio possibilities of electronic effects, Vespertine placed such devices more in the background, focusing instead on a clean sound from bowed strings, harp, and back-up chorus. “Undo” is a reassuring song that urges people to be kind to themselves and not let their lives devolve into constant uphill battles.

From Studio to Concert Hall

Björk’s original interpretations are crystallized in recorded, studio-produced form, to be sure, but it is also useful to a composer that their works be accessible to other performers. It requires an open-mindedness that is not automatic to all conservatory-trained singers, for whom “classical” and “popular” singing may be entirely distinct disciplines. Those willing to bridge that divide may find rich recompense. Hila Plitmann stated in a 2008 interview: “I feel (as I think many others do nowadays) that the line between ‘classical’ and ‘popular’ music is, and should be, less and less defined in those obsolete ‘quality’ terms in which the classical world used to define them (i.e., classical music is ‘intelligent,’ ‘complex,’ ‘meaningful,’ ‘esoteric,’ while popular music is ‘base,’ ‘simple,’ ‘uninteresting,’ ‘pedestrian’). I believe that someone like Björk, for instance, who is one of my most favorite artists on this earth, is writing more beautiful, interesting, complex ‘art songs’ in her so-called ‘pop’ medium than many of the classical composers out there.”

Symphony No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 82 Jean Sibelius

First Performance: 2/2/1951

Conductor: Victor Alessandro

Last Performance:10/9/1969

Conductor: Guy Fraser Harrison

Born: December 8, 1865, in Tavastehus (Hämeenlinna), Finland Died: September 20, 1957, in Järvenpää, Finland Work composed: 1912-15, then revised in 1915-16 and still further through 1919 Work premiered: December 8, 1915, in Helsinki, with the composer conducting the Helsinki Municipal Orchestra. In its first major revision, the work was re-introduced on December 14, 1916, by Sibelius and the same orchestra; and on October 21, 1921, they unveiled its final revised version, which is the standard scored played today.

Instrumentation: Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, timpani, and strings

Jean Sibelius drew on the resources of both his own country—Finland—and other, more “musically central” lands during his formative years. He studied composition and violin at the Helsingfors (Helsinki) Conservatory and then received a grant from the Finnish Government that enabled him to take classes in counterpoint and fugue in Berlin. From there he continued to Vienna for further study of composition.

Armed with this internationally grounded technique, he then turned his sights back toward his native Finland and, in the early 1890s, began writing works on Finnish folk legends. These quickly established him as the most important of his nation’s composers, a reputation that was absolutely clinched with the premiere of his stirring patriotic composition Finlandia in 1900. A year earlier he

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—JMK

SIBELIUS

PROGRAM NOTES

had unveiled the first of his seven symphonies. These would occupy him practically to the conclusion of his productive career, which ended in 1927. Then, at the age of 62, he basically retired, and, despite persistent and hopeful rumors, he completed no more compositions in the three decades that remained to him.

The Finnish Government commissioned Sibelius’ Fifth Symphony to mark the composer’s 50th birthday, which was in 1915. The resulting symphony was something of a surprise to Sibelius-watchers. His Fourth Symphony had been a rather desolate piece redolent of isolation, even in the context of an oeuvre that was regularly described as reflecting the iciness of its Nordic origins. Then again, Sibelius would declare, “Each of my symphonies has its own style. I have to work a lot to achieve that”—or, on another occasion, that each of his symphonies represented “a credo at varying stages in life.”

The Fifth Symphony occupied Sibelius considerably longer than any of his others—seven years, since he probably began sketching it as early as 1912 and revised it considerably following the provisional premiere, which he did indeed conduct in Helsinki on his 50th birthday. A second version was unveiled in 1916, and then, after still more work, the Fifth Symphony reached its final form in 1919. External difficulties may have accounted for some of the slow going. Finland had been a Grand Duchy of Russia since 1809, when Russia wrested the country from Sweden. But Finnish nationalism had been growing—fueled publicly by Sibelius’ music—and in 1917 the nation achieved its independence, at which point internal political strife led to an immediate civil war. In a sense, this was only a sub-plot to the larger political drama of World War I, during which Sibelius, being cut off from his German publishers, received no royalties and had a hard time getting by.

Then, too, he was juggling several major projects at once, at least in his mind. In 1918, he wrote in a letter: “My new works, partly sketched and planned. The Fifth Symphony in a new form—practically composed anew—I work daily ... The whole—if I may say so—a spirited intensification to the end (climax). Triumphal.” Then he goes on to tell his correspondent that two of the other pieces currently in his thoughts are his Sixth and Seventh Symphonies. These final three Sibelius symphonies exhibit strikingly distinct characters, but listeners would not be amiss to consider them a sort of trilogy summing up the composer’s grappling with symphonic writing.

The Fifth opens in an atmosphere of mysterious beauty. A listener might imagine time-lapse photography of

wildflowers unfolding in a vast landscape, or at least think of the composer’s notation in a notebook in late 1914: “I begin to see dimly the mountain I shall ascend. ... God opens His door for a moment and His orchestra plays the Fifth Symphony.” The Andante mosso movement is a placid interlude marked by numerous melodies set to a similar rhythm. All manner of brilliant writing fills the finale, such that by the time this remarkable work reaches its conclusion in six widely separated and powerful chords— please don’t clap till they’re over!—we can only agree with the composer’s description of it as “triumphal.”

Listen For

At two points in the Andante mosso movement, melodies are subtly underscored by a broadly swinging bass line—played in octaves by the double basses—that might suggest the tolling of bells. This bell-like motif becomes a prominent element in the texture of the finale, where it has been described as the movement’s heartbeat. Near the opening, amid a flurry of spiky string writing, the horns peal out the tolling figure in a fragmentary form; and in the work’s final pages, the motif is taken up by trumpets and other wind instruments, to lead to the symphony’s ecstatic conclusion. This is a fine example of a Sibelius thumbprint: introducing melodic material almost grudgingly and through allusion, such that we may understand the foreshadowing of themes only in retrospect.

—JMK

JAMES M. KELLER

James M. Keller is the longtime Program Annotator of the San Francisco Symphony and was formerly Program Annotator of the New York Philharmonic and a staff writer-editor at The New Yorker. The author of Chamber Music: A Listener’s Guide (Oxford University Press), he is writing a sequel volume about piano music for the same publisher. Portions of these notes previously appeared in the programs of the New York Philharmonic and are used with permission.

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MOVIES

27-28, 2023, 8:00 P.M. 33

Text PhilFun to 95577 to stay up to date on the latest Philharmonic info. A special Thank You to Bo Taylor for providing musicians’ catering services. DISNEY IN CONCERT MAGICAL MUSIC FROM THE

JANUARY

THANK YOU TO THESE CHICKASAW NATION’S POP SERIES SPONSORS: Presentation licensed by Disney

DAVID ANDREWS ROGERS, CONDUCTOR

Concerts

DISNEY IN CONCERT

Magical Music from the Movies

produced by Symphony Pops Music Sherilyn Draper – Director and Writer Ted Ricketts – Musical Director

“Disney Classics Overture”

Arranged by Bruce Healey

“Songs from The Little Mermaid”

Music by Alan Menken

“How Far I’ll Go”

“Disney’s Beauty and the Beast Suite”

“I Wan’na Be Like You”

“Medley From Disney’s Mary Poppins”

INTERMISSION

“Disney’s The Hunchback Of Notre Dame Orchestral Suite”

MAGICAL

THE

PROGRAM DISNEY IN CONCERT

MUSIC FROM

MOVIES

DAVID ANDREWS ROGERS

David Andrews Rogers is thrilled to return to Oklahoma City to Guest Conduct the extraordinary musicians of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic. He made his debut with the orchestra in 2012 with the ABBA Tribute concert, Waterloo, and has returned to conduct The Midtown Men (2013), All That Jazz: A Symphonic Tribute to Kander and Ebb (2015), The Spy Who Loved Me, starring Sheena Easton (2016), and The Wonderful Music of Oz (2017).

Oklahoma City audiences may also remember David from his 48 appearances as Music Director and Conductor for Lyric Theatre, beginning with his debut there in 1993 with a production of the Yeston/Kopit Phantom, and most recently for their 2022 production of Carousel.

David is currently Music Director and Conductor for the Lincoln Center/Broadway touring production of My Fair Lady, and immediately prior to this he was Music Director and Conductor for the World Tour of The Phantom of the Opera, appearing in Manila, Philippines, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Tel Aviv, Israel, Dubai, UAE, Busan, Seoul, and Daegu, South Korea, and Taipei, Taiwan.

David has conducted for Broadway stars and recording artists including Patti LuPone, Joel Grey, Sutton Foster, Nell Carter, Kristin Chenoweth, Karen Ziemba, Robert Cuccioli, Anita Gillette, Sally Struthers, Cloris Leachman, Dean Jones, Harvey Fierstein, Olivia Newton-John, and Topol. In addition, for 12 years, David was Music Director and Conductor for 80s recording artist Debbie Gibson in venues as diverse as Carnegie Hall, live appearances on Sirius Radio, at Retrolicious (an 80s tribute concert in Singapore), and in casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City.

As an orchestrator and arranger, David’s work has been played by orchestras all over the United States and Canada. He has written orchestrations for Debbie Gibson in association with Cirque Musica, for Len Cariou, Florence Henderson, and Kenita Miller in Broadway Backwards, and for The Midtown Men. Most recently, David was a contributing orchestrator for Debbie Gibson’s Holiday 2022 album, Winterlicious.

Educated at Southern Methodist University in Dallas and at Queen’s College, Oxford University in England, David is originally from Texas, and now makes his home in New York City.

DISNEY IN CONCERT MAGICAL MUSIC FROM THE MOVIES

GUEST CONDUCTOR

GUEST ARTISTS

ANDREW JOHNSON

Andrew Johnson is a Disney kid at heart and is humbled to share the music and magic from the stage! He has toured all over the United States, Europe, and Asia, as a lead vocalist and dancer, and his performances have been broadcast on national and international television. Andrew has performed on FOX’s The X-Factor, The Conan O’Brien Show, and the MTV Video Music Awards. He has sung background for artists such as Demi Lovato, Fifth Harmony, LeAnn Rimes, and Florence and the Machine. His theatrical credits include Frozen-Live at the Hyperion (Prince Hans) Rent (Benny), Five Guys Named Moe (Four-Eyed Moe), and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Joseph). Andrew has shared the stage with singers/actresses Shirley Jones and Bernadette Peters and has performed live duets with recording artists Patti LaBelle, Erykah Badu, and singer/actress Jodi Benson (the original voice of Ariel in The Little Mermaid). He is a singer/songwriter and recording artist and his music is available worldwide on iTunes, under his artist name DRWMCHL. He would like to thank his family for their love and support and Ted Ricketts for the opportunity of being part of this show.

WHITNEY CLAIRE KAUFMAN

Whitney Claire Kaufman recently completed two years with the North American Tour of the Broadway smash-hit Mamma Mia! (Ensemble, Understudy for Sophie and Lisa). Her performance as Sophie garnered rave reviews from the Boston Globe. Whitney has performed as Guest Soloist with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra and the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, Guest Soloist with the Florida Orchestra, and has appeared in Cabaret (Sally Bowles), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, (Peaseblossom), Marisol (June), The Los Angeles Theatre Ensembles’ production of Wounded, as well as many other theatrical productions. TV credits include General Hospital and the hit ABC series Modern Family. As both a singer and voice-over performer in film and television, Whitney has been heard in productions including That Championship Season, The Secret of NiMH 2, and two MGM animated series: All Dogs Go to Heaven and Noddy. She recently recorded songs written by Oscar-winning composer Dimitri Tiomkin. Whitney graduated with honors from Chapman University with a BFA in Theater Performance. Her favorite Disney movie is The Little Mermaid, with Cinderella as a close second.

DISNEY IN CONCERT MAGICAL MUSIC FROM THE MOVIES

GUEST ARTISTS

LISA LIVESAY

Lisa Livesay is thrilled to travel the world with Disney in Concert, singing the beloved music of her childhood! Career highlights include playing Glinda in Wicked on Broadway, and appearing in the film Monday Nights at 7 with Oscar winner Edward James Olmos. She is featured in audiobook musicals such as Puss in Boots and Spin!, for which she won Audie awards. Lisa resides in Los Angeles, where she contributes to soundtracks for film and TV. In her spare time, Lisa is earning her degree in Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the City College of New York. Boundless love and gratitude to her biggest fans - her family.

AARON PHILLIPS

Aaron Phillips is very excited to be part of this wonderful production. Aaron is an Ovation Award nominated actor/singer, proud member of Actor’s Equity, and can frequently be seen on film and TV. Past theatre credits include: Jekyll and Hyde (John Utterson), Batboy: The Musical (Batboy/ Edgar), Songs for a New World, and Les Misérables(Foreman/ Combeferre). Opera credits include: La Boheme with the Greensboro Opera Company, conducted by Valery Ryvkin, Pirates of Penzance (Pirate King) and Lakme (Frederic) by Delibes. Aaron recently appeared in a staged reading of The Bone Wars (O’Conner) with the prestigious New York playwright group, Youngbloods. You may have seen Aaron as Carl, half of the duo that is the face of Lipton Iced Tea. He is also an accomplished voiceover talent and can be heard in video games such as World of Warcraft, Grand Theft Auto V, Red Dead Redemption and Lord of the Rings. He is a man of many voices for commercials, cartoons, and music sessions everywhere. Aaron has been a Disney fan his entire life, and is happy to help bring this music to fans of all ages.

DISNEY IN CONCERT MAGICAL MUSIC FROM THE MOVIES

CONCEPTS

FROM THE

FEBRUARY 4, 2023 • 8:00 P.M.

Maestro RITE OF SPRING

CLASSICS

Jonny GREENWOOD ... Suite from There Will Be Blood*

Open Spaces Future Markets

RITE OF SPRING

Music, to me personally, is the ultimate reflection of the inner feelings of the composer put into sounds. This season we will take you on a journey through multiple composers where you will experience an array of sounds and feelings. The canvas of each composer is literally alive ... we experience different instruments dominating the texture, from a single piano or guitar to the full Symphony Orchestra. Much has been written about the biggest music scandal in history during the 1913 world premiere of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring.

At age 31, Stravinsky blew up the music world.

Much like Picasso’s first cubist painting, Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring created a new musical paradigm. The music is a tour de force from shifting meters and rhythms, exotic harmonies and never-before heard orchestral colors.

With Rite of Spring depicting a heathen pre-historic ritual based on human sacrifice, Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood’s Grammy Award nominated score of “There Will be Blood” is pushing the sound world into our century.

And sandwiched in between? The most romantic piano concerto ever written, Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 with Van Cliburn Bronze Medal winner Daniel Hsu.

HW/Hope of New Fields Henry Plainview Proven Lands Oil

TCHAIKOVSKY ............. Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23 Allegro non troppo e molto maestoso—Allegro con spirito Andantino semplice—Prestissimo—Tempo I Allegro con fuoco

Daniel Hsu, piano

Intermission

STRAVINSKY ................ The Rite of Spring

Part One: The Adoration of the Earth Introduction Augurs of Spring (Dance of the Adolescent Girls) Mock Abduction Spring Rounds Ritual of Rival Tribes Procession of the Sage The Adoration of the Earth (the Sage) Dance of the Earth

Part Two: The Sacrifice Introduction

Mystical Cycle of the Young Girls Glorification of the Chosen One Evocation of the Ancestors Ritual Action of the Ancestors

*First Performance on this series

THIS CONCERT IS GENEROUSLY SPONSORED BY:

Text CLASSICS to 95577 to stay up to date on the latest Philharmonic info.

Listen to a broadcast of this performance on KUCO 90.1 FM on Wednesday, March 1 at 8 pm and Saturday, March 4 at 8 am on “Performance Oklahoma”. Simultaneous internet streaming is also available during the broadcast.

ALEXANDER MICKELTHWATE, CONDUCTOR DANIEL HSU, PIANO

DANIEL HSU

Bronze Medalist, Fifteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition

Characterized by the Philadelphia Inquirer as a “poet... [with] an expressive edge to his playing that charms, questions, and coaxes,” American pianist Daniel Hsu is recognized for his easy virtuosity and bold musicianship. A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Daniel began taking piano lessons at age 6 with Larisa Kagan. He made his concerto debut with the Fremont Symphony Orchestra at age 8, and his recital debut at the Steinway Society of the Bay Area at age 9, before being accepted into the Curtis Institute of Music at the age of 10, along with his two older siblings. He quickly gained international recognition and accolades: bronze medal at the 2015 Hamamatsu International Piano Competition, first prize at the 2015 CAG Victor Elmaleh Competition, 2016 Gilmore Young Artist, and bronze medal at the 2017 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, where he also took home prizes for best performance of both the commissioned work and chamber music.

He has made his debuts with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Carnegie Hall as part of the CAG Winners Series at Weill Recital Hall, and appeared in recitals at the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Vancouver Recital Society, and Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, as well as in Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Portland, Pittsburgh, and New York. A sensitive and keen collaborator, Daniel has performed with the Tokyo, North Carolina, Grand Rapids, Anchorage, New Haven, and Fort Worth Symphony Orchestras, working alongside conductors Leonard Slatkin, Nicholas McGegan, Cristian Măcelaru, Ruth Reinhardt, Marcelo Lehninger, Eugene Tzigane, and Stilian Kirov. Recent and upcoming highlights include his debuts with the Taiwan Symphony Orchestra with Hannu Lintu, Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra with Gemma New, Jacksonville Symphony with Courtney Lewis, and Pacific Symphony with Carl St. Clair.

He has joined Curtis on Tour throughout Europe, performs regularly with the Verona Quartet and in duo piano with his brother, Andrew, and appears frequently in chamber music festivals. Ever curious and eager to explore, Daniel worked with Fort Worth rapper Lou Charle$ and singer-songwriter-guitarist Averi Burke to develop and release the single “Free”—which they brought to South by Southwest in spring 2022.

Decca Gold released Daniel’s first album featuring live recordings from the Cliburn Competition of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition and Beethoven’s Piano Sonata, op. 110, as well as his award- winning performance of Marc-André Hamelin’s Toccata on “L’homme armé.” He has also been featured in interviews and performances for WQXR, APM’s Performance Today, and Colorado Public Radio, and was profiled as one to watch by International Piano magazine.

Now 25 years old, Daniel graduated from Curtis in spring 2019, where he studied with Gary Graffman, Robert McDonald, and Eleanor Sokoloff. He is a Marvel film buff and enjoys programming—he contributed to the creation of Workflow (now known as Siri Shortcuts), which won the 2015 Apple Design Award and was acquired by the tech giant in 2017.

RITE OF

GUEST ARTIST

SPRING

PROGRAM NOTES

GREENWOOD

Suite from There Will Be Blood

Jonny Greenwood

First Performance on this Series

Born: November 5, 1971, in Oxford, England

Work composed: Movements 4 and 5 in 2005, Movements 1, 2, 3, and 6 in 2007; the Suite was arranged in 2012.

Work premiered: The film There Will Be Blood had its opening screening on December 30, 2007; the orchestral suite was first played June 16, 2012, at the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam, Netherlands, in a concert of the Holland Festival, with André de Ridder conducting the Amsterdam Sinfonietta.

Instrumentation: String orchestra plus, in the first movement only, ondes martenot (or oboe or theremin)

Jonny Greenwood is widely known as the lead guitarist and keyboard player of the band Radiohead, a betweenthe-cracks ensemble that has proved popular with both alternative rock and classically-inclined audiences. He showed interest in music as a child, studying viola and recorder, and when he and his older brother went off to high school at the Abingdon School in Oxfordshire, they joined three fellow-students in 1985 to form a rock band they named On a Friday. In 1991, Greenwood had recently graduated from Abingdon and was beginning his first semester at Oxford Polytechnic (planning to major in music and psychology) when the esteemed EMI recording firm signed On a Friday to a contract, at which point the group changed its name to Radiohead and began its climb to international acclaim. The band continues to this day and is sometimes described as occupying an analogous position in its generation to what The Beatles had in the 1960s.

While contributing to composing and arranging Radiohead’s music, Greenwood also produced independent works. In 2003, he released a recording of his soundtrack for the film Bodysong, a British

documentary about the human condition that assembles a vast collage of images and sounds. The following year his composition smear was premiered by the London Sinfonietta and he was appointed composer-in-residence for the BBC Concert Orchestra, for which he composed Popcorn Superhet Receiver using an orchestra of 36 strings (playing independent lines), a work filled with tone clusters and inspired to a considerable extent by Krzysztof Penderecki’s classic orchestral work Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima. Other “classical” composers who have influenced him include Karlheinz Stockhausen and Olivier Messiaen. In fact, Greenwood became a master of the ondes martenot, an electronic instrument whose haunting sounds are particularly associated with Messiaen’s scores, and he featured two of them in smear.

Among the admirers of Bodysong—and Greenwood’s score for it—was the American film director Paul Thomas Anderson. He invited Greenwood to provide music for the new film he was envisioning, which drew loosely from Upton Sinclair’s 1926 novel Oil!, about familial, social, and commercial conflicts in the American Southwest and especially in Southern California. The film evolved into There Will Be Blood, an epic drama starring Daniel Day-Lewis as a ruthless miner-turned-oilman at the outset of the 20th century. It gained overwhelmingly positive reviews on its release and since then has been inscribed on many critics’ lists of cinematic classics, being interpreted as a parable about capitalism, religion, greed, faith, and family.

Greenwood found the experience quite different from his process with Bodysong. “I thought a film soundtrack would involve having to hit certain points and then duck out for people to say things,” he told interviewer Chris Willman of Entertainment Weekly in 2007, “and [each cue] would all be over in exactly 63 seconds, or whatever. But instead, it’s three minutes of all music [and no dialogue], to the image, quite often. ... I was just given free rein to write a lot of music with the film or certain scenes vaguely in mind. So I just wrote and wrote. I thought I’d have to be timing things, and the musicians would all have to play to click tracks. But it was the opposite to that. It felt like a really musical thing to be doing, although I’m sure that’s not how it normally is for a soundtrack composer.” Anderson’s preliminary cut was already in place when Greenwood wrote his score, efficiently repurposing some of the music he had already unveiled in Popcorn Superhet Receiver.

Greenwood’s soundtrack was declared ineligible for an Oscar because it incorporated music that had not

41 CONTINUED ON PAGE 42

RITE OF SPRING

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been composed expressly for the film. It did, however, win several other notable awards for film music, and it propelled Greenwood to further soundtrack projects for Tran Anh Hung’s Norwegian Wood, Lynne Ramsay’s We Need To Talk About Kevin, and Anderson’s films The Master and Inherent Vice. In 2012, Greenwood extracted six sections of his film score for the suite played here, their movement titles corresponding to their names as given on the soundtrack album.

The Composer Speaks

In his Entertainment Weekly interview in 2007, Jonny Greenwood offered these thoughts about his experience of writing the music for There Will Be Blood:

Sometimes Paul [Thomas Anderson] would describe the thing as kind of close to the horror-film genre. And we talked about how The Shining had lots of Penderecki and stuff in it. ... I think it was about not necessarily just making period music, which very traditionally you would do. But because they were traditional orchestral sounds, I suppose that’s what we hoped was a little unsettling, even though you know all the sounds you’re hearing are coming from very old technology. You can just do things with the classical orchestra that do unsettle you, that are sort of slightly wrong, that have some kind of undercurrent that’s slightly sinister. Which is what’s happening with this film sometimes. Part of what I picked up on and got excited about is that it’s the end of the 19th Century. A lot of [things are] just implied, so it’s not a horror film in that sense, because people are sort of being polite, but there’s a sense of darkness going on at the same time. I love that kind of stuff, when things are unspoken.

TCHAIKOVSKY

Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

First Performance: 12/5/1941

Pianist: Reginald Stewart

Last Performance: 9/28/2013 Pianist: Andrew von Oeyen

Born: April 25 (old style)/May 7 (new style), 1840, at Votkinsk, in the district of Viatka, Russia, about seven hundred miles east-northeast of Moscow Died: October 25/November 6, 1893, in St. Petersburg, Russia

Work composed: November and December 1874, with orchestration being completed on February 9/21, 1875; revised in 1876 and again in 1889

Work premiered: October 25, 1875, at the Music Hall in Boston, Massachusetts, with Hans von Bülow as soloist and with Benjamin Johnson Lang conducting a freelance orchestra Work dedicated: to Hans von Bülow

Instrumentation: Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, and strings, in addition to the solo piano

Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto in B-flat minor was his first of three essays in the genre, though the other two have long been consigned to the bin of curiosities and today are nearly as obscure as the First is famous. He was already 34 years old when he wrote it, in late 1874, but almost nothing he composed earlier earned a firm place in posterity; the sole exception is his Overture-Fantasy Romeo and Juliet, of 1869, and even that is played almost always in the composer’s 1880 revision. Tchaikovsky was earning his keep as a composition professor at the Moscow Conservatory when he embarked on this concerto. Not being much of a pianist himself, he took the liberty of asking the advice of his colleague Nikolai Rubinstein on technical matters concerning the solo part.

—JMK

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RITE OF SPRING

Nikolai Rubinstein was acknowledged as a leading piano professor and concert virtuoso, as well as a conductor of note. By that time he had led the premieres of Tchaikovsky’s first two symphonies, his Romeo and Juliet, his orchestral tone poem Fatum, and his symphonic fantasy The Tempest, in addition to which he had championed a handful of Tchaikovsky’s piano pieces. In 1866 he had become the founding director of the Moscow Conservatory, a position he would hold until his death, in 1881. It was his brother Anton Rubinstein (also a famous pianist and composer) who had been Tchaikovsky’s mentor at the St. Petersburg Conservatory and who had recommended Tchaikovsky as a charter member of Nikolai’s faculty. Tchaikovsky’s impulse to run his score past Nikolai Rubinstein was therefore perfectly logical on a musical, professional, and personal level.

The two squeezed in a look through the score just before a Christmas Eve party. Some three years later the composer recounted the experience in a letter to his patron Nadezhda von Meck. “I played the first movement. Not a word, not an observation. If you only knew how uncomfortably foolish one feels when one places before a friend a dish one has prepared with one’s own hands, and he eats thereof and—is silent. At least say something: if you like, find fault in a friendly way, but, for heaven’s sake, speak—say something, no matter what. But Rubinstein said nothing; he was preparing his thunder ....” This changed soon enough. “At first,” Tchaikovsky continued, “he spoke quietly, but by degrees his passion rose, and finally he resembled Zeus hurling thunderbolts. It appeared that my concerto was worthless and absolutely unplayable, that the passages were manufactured and withal so clumsy as to be beyond correction, that the composition itself was bad, trivial, and commonplace, that I had stolen this point from somebody and that point from somebody else, that only two or three pages had any value whatsoever, and all the rest should be either destroyed or entirely remodeled ....”

Tchaikovsky skipped the party and decided to have his concerto published just as it stood. He dedicated it to the German pianist-and-conductor Hans von Bülow. Von Bülow could scarcely have been more delighted and resolved to unveil the work during his upcoming American tour. That explains why this ultra-familiar emblem of “the Russian style” received its premiere in Boston, played by a German pianist on an American Chickering piano, with a long-forgotten American conducting an orchestra of Massachusetts freelancers. The piece created a sensation throughout the tour, and its popularity has never faded since.

The score Rubinstein reviled during the “Christmas Eve Massacre” was not exactly the score as we know it today. Apparently there was considerable room for improvement—including in details of the keyboard writing—and Tchaikovsky put his piece through two revisions, the second of which, from 1889, brought the work into the form in which it is nearly always heard today. Nikolai Rubinstein had already reversed his opinion long before that: he conducted the concerto’s Moscow premiere in late 1875 and would go on to serve as midwife for many more Tchaikovsky masterworks.

Listen for

Cast in the traditional three movements, Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 is more notable as an effusion of themes than as a tightly organized structure. Its opening Allegro is renowned: a four-measure prologue in the horns leading immediately out of the minor and into D-flat major for the sweeping opening melody, introduced grandly by violins and cellos, with an overlay of chords from the piano. Since this is one of the alltime great tunes of classical music, it is surprising to note how little use Tchaikovsky makes of it. It dominates the first ten pages of the score—about three and a half minutes of this 35-minute-long concerto—and then simply evaporates, not to be heard again until the concertgoers inevitably hum it to themselves after the concert has ended.

—JMK

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RITE OF SPRING

STRAVINSKY

The Rite of Spring (Le Sacre du printemps)

Igor Stravinsky

Single Performance: 3/28/1982

Conductor: Luis Herrera

Born: June 5 (old style)/17 (new style), 1882, in Oranienbaum, now Lomosov, Russia

Died: April 6, 1971, in New York City

Work composed: 1911-12, with further alterations in 1913 and minor revisions in 1947

Work premiered: May 29, 1913, at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, as a ballet, with Pierre Monteux conducting

Instrumentation: Two piccolos, two flutes, alto flute, four oboes (one doubling second English horn) and English horn, three clarinets (one doubling second bass clarinet) and bass clarinet plus E-flat clarinet, three bassoons (one doubling second contrabassoon) and contrabassoon, eight horns (two doubling Wagner tubas), four trumpets plus high trumpet in D and bass trumpet, three trombones, two tubas, five timpani (divided between two players), bass drum, tambourine, cymbals, antique cymbals, triangle, tamtam, güiro, and strings

Igor Stravinsky, son of an esteemed bass singer at St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre, received a firm grounding in composition from Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, with whom he studied from 1902 until Rimsky’s death, in 1908. He achieved several notable works during those student years, but his breakthrough to fame arrived when he embarked on a string of collaborations with the ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev, whose Ballets Russes, launched in Paris in 1909, became quickly identified with the cutting edge of the European arts scene. Stravinsky’s first Diaghilev project was modest: a pair of Chopin orchestrations for the 1909 Ballets Russes production of Les Sylphides . The production was a success,

but some critics complained that the troupe’s choreographic and scenic novelty was not matched by its conservative musical selections. Diaghilev set about addressing this by commissioning new ballet scores, of which the very first was Stravinsky’s Firebird , premiered in 1910. So began a collaboration that gave rise to some of the most irreplaceable items in the history of stage music: Petrushka (1911), The Rite of Spring ( Le Sacre du printemps , 1913), The Nightingale (1914), Pulcinella (1920), Mavra (1922), Reynard (1922), The Wedding (Les Noces , 1923), Oedipus Rex (1927), and Apollo ( Apollon musagète , 1928). Stravinsky was therefore somewhat famous before May 29, 1913, but the events of that date—the premiere of The Rite of Spring and the concurrent riot by the Paris audience—catapulted him, and modern music, onto a path from which there was no turning back. The Théâtre des Champs-Élysées had opened less than two months before on Avenue Montaigne, a street known, then as now, for its upper-crust, essentially conservative establishments. The theatre was appropriately elegant (and remains so), although its decorative appointments were very up-to-date in 1913, enough to alarm a public accustomed to imbibing culture in neo-Renaissance surroundings. Its initial round of programming was far from scurrilous (though the mid-May premiere of Debussy’s Jeux caused anxiety through its suggestions of a ménage à trois), and when the spring season concluded with the “saison russe” of opera and ballet, Diaghilev’s productions alternated with the premiere performances of Gabriel Fauré’s opera Pénélope, on a double-bill with a ballet setting of Debussy’s Nocturnes, both of which tempered their adventurous ideas with over-riding lyricism.

By May 29, the audience was ready to let loose, and it had been prepared to do so by advance press reports that not only ensured a sold-out house but also primed the pumps of Parisian cultural gossip. A press release that was reprinted in several Paris newspapers on the day of the premiere tantalized through references to the “stammerings of a semi-savage humanity” and “frenetic human clusters wrenched incessantly by the most astonishing polyrhythm ever to come from the mind of a musician,” promising “a new thrill which will surely raise passionate discussions, but which will leave all true artists with an unforgettable impression.” Cognoscenti already knew how Stravinsky’s score had perplexed the enormous orchestra in the course of its 17 rehearsals— not counting its run-throughs with the dancers. Even Diaghilev’s ballet master, Enrico Cecchetti, proclaimed, “I

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think the whole thing has been done by four idiots: First, M. Stravinsky, who wrote the music. Second, M. [Nicholas] Roerich, who designed the scenery and costumes. Third, M. [Vaslav] Nijinsky, who composed the dances. Fourth, M. Diaghilev, who wasted money on it.”

Scenario of The Rite of Spring

The initial scenario for The Rite of Spring was created jointly by Stravinsky and the scenic designer Nicholas Roerich. This is how they envisioned the ballet:

The Rite of Spring is a musical choreographic work. It represents pagan Russia and is unified by a single idea: the mystery and great surge of creative power of Spring. The piece has no plot, but the choreographic sequence is as follows:

FIRST PART: THE ADORATION OF THE EARTH

The Spring celebration. The pipers pipe and young men tell fortunes. The old woman enters. She knows the mystery of nature and how to predict the future. Young girls with painted faces come in from the river in single file. They dance the Spring dances. Games start. The Spring Korovod [a stately dance]. The people divide into two opposed groups. The holy procession of the wise old men. The oldest and wisest interrupts the Spring games, which come to a stop. The people pause trembling before the Great Action. The old men bless the earth. The Kiss of the Earth. The people dance passionately on the earth, sanctifying it and becoming one with it.

SECOND PART: THE GREAT SACRIFICE

At night the virgins hold mysterious games, walking in circles. One of the virgins is consecrated as the victim and is twice pointed to by fate, being caught twice in the perpetual circle of walking-in-rounds. The virgins honor her, the Chosen One, with a marital dance. They invoke the ancestors and entrust the Chosen One to the old wise men. She sacrifices herself in the presence of the old men in the Great Sacred Dance, the great sacrifice.

The balletic evening opened with Les Sylphides and closed with Weber’s Le Spectre de la rose and Borodin’s Dances from Prince Igor. But what everybody was really there to witness was the second item on the program, and they came ready to participate; some even had the foresight to arm themselves with whistles. Audible protests apparently accompanied the performance from the opening bars, but things stayed somewhat under control until halfway into the Introduction—which is to say, for about the first minute of the score. Then, to quote Stravinsky, they escalated into “demonstrations, at first isolated, [which] soon became general, provoking counter-demonstrations and very quickly developing into a terrific uproar.” Thus was history made.

JAMES M. KELLER

—JMK

AN

EVENING WITH KELLI O’HARA

FEBRUARY 24-25, 2023, 8:00 P.M.

Text PhilFun to 95577 to stay up to date on the latest Philharmonic info.

THIS CONCERT IS GENEROUSLY SPONSORED BY: PROGRAM TO BE ANNOUNCED FROM THE STAGE

ALEXANDER MICKELTHWATE, CONDUCTOR In Memory of William “Bert” Cooper

KELLI O’HARA

Stage and screen star Kelli O’Hara has established herself as one of Broadway’s greatest leading ladies. Her portrayal of Anna Loenowens in The King and I garnered her the 2015 Tony Award for Best Leading Actess in a Musical, along with Grammy, Dram League, Outer Critics and Olivier Nominations. She reprised the role while making her West End debut, and performed a limited engagement at Tokyo’s Orb Theatre.

Kelli also received an Emmy nomination for her portrayal of Katie Bonner in the hit series The Accidental Wolf. Other film and television credits include: Season 2 of Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why, All the Bright Places, Peter Pan Live!, Sex & The City 2, Martin Scorsese’s The Key to Reserva, Showtime’s Master of Sex, The Good Fight, Blue Bloods, N3mbers, and the animated series Car Talk.

Other Broadway credits include Kiss Me Kate (Tony, Drama League, OCC nominations), The Bridges of Madison County (Tony, Drama Desk, Drama League, OCC nominations), Nice Work if You Can Get It (Tony, Drama Desk, Drama League, OCC nominations), South Pacific (Tony, Drama Desk, OCC nominations), The Pajama Game (Tony, Drama Desk, OCC nominations), The Light in the Piazza (Tony, Drama Desk nominations), Sweet Smell of Success, Follies, Dracula and Jekyll & Hyde. She was awarded the prestigious Drama League’s Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theatre Award in 2019.

In 2015, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut in Lehar’s The Merry Widow opposite Renee Fleming and returned as Despina in Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte. Her concerts have gained international acclaim, spanning from Carnegie Hall to Tokyo. She is a frequent performer on PBS’s live telecasts, The Kennedy Center Honors and performs often alongside The New York Philharmonic. Along with her two Grammy nominations, her solo albums, Always and Wonder in the World, are available on Ghostlight Records.

Kelli can also be seen starring alongside Christina Baranski and Cynthia Nixon in the HBO series The Gilded Age which is shot in New York City.

AN EVENING WITH KELLI O’HARA

GUEST ARTIST

1100 N. Walker Oklahoma City, OK 73102 405-232-0363 Family Owned & Operated in OKC since 1946 Bring program in and get 10% off through 2022

OKC PHIL Retrospective

By Mark Beutler, OKCPHIL Director of Marketing & Public Relation

Her music was the soundtrack to an entire generation, and when Olivia Newton-John performed with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic in Sept. 2004, it was a night of pure magic.

Olivia rose to fame in the early 1970’s with a string of country tunes like “Let Me Be There” and “If You Love Me, Let Me Know.” She was also the recipient of the coveted “Female Vocalist of the Year” Award from the Country Music Association. Switching gears, she landed the role of “Sandy” in the musical Grease and went on to superstardom. In the 1980s, she reinvented herself once again with the hit “Physical,” topping the Billboard charts for a staggering 10 weeks. “Hosting Olivia here with the Phil was one of those personal ‘pinch me’ moments,” said Eddie Walker, former OKCPHIL Executive Director. “Her big rise to wide popularity paralleled my final years of high school and on to college. It was a string of mega-hits from Grease to Xanadu (the album, less the movie) to Physical. She was a major presence in the soundtrack of my life.”

By the time Olivia reached the Civic Center Music Hall stage, she had overcome a very public fight against breast cancer. In fact, in a press release from that time, the OU Breast Institute was listed as a major concert sponsor. Olivia’s work with the OKCPHIL included her roster of hits “Have You Never Been Mellow,” “Magic,” and “You’re the One That I Want.” She sang a song she had penned during her breast cancer journey called “Not Gonna Give in to It,” and closed the show with her signature “I Honestly Love You.”

“Having her on our own stage, getting to meet her, seeing the true joy of that audience singing along with every song, was such a moment of pride,” Walker said. “Another one of those experiences this little boy from Cleveland, OK, couldn’t have dreamed possible.”

Olivia’s cancer returned in 2017, and she succumbed to the disease August 8, 2022.

But what a legacy she left behind.

THROUGH

SEPTEMBER 2004

THE YEARS

Photos courtesy Joel Levine, Founder & Music Director Emeritus HOPELESSLY DEVOTED TO OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN

THROUGH THE YEARS

By Mark Beutler, OKCPHIL Director of Marketing & Public Relations

Back in the late 1980’s, WKY Radio had switched from its rock & roll format to country. It was Oklahoma’s oldest radio station and had been a powerhouse of a station since it first went on the air in the 1920’s.

WKY was part of Gaylord Entertainment, which also owned The Oklahoman, the Grand Ole Opry, and Nashville’s WSM Radio.

Me? I was WKY’s young marketing director and tasked with promoting the inaugural season of the newly formed Oklahoma City Philharmonic.

Our owner, Mr. E.L. Gaylord, was a founder of the new OKCPHIL, and asked WKY to help market one of the upcoming Pops concerts.

The guest artist? The legendary Roy Clark.

It was a perfect fit for a country station. Clark had been a fixture on TV for decades, most notably as a regular host on “Hee-Haw,” the long-running country variety show.

We put together a contest where listeners were instructed to be the 10th caller when they heard a Roy Clark song, and they would be part of a drawing for two tickets to his OKCPHIL performance. Maestro Joel Levine was a guest during one of our lunchtime shows where we featured Clark’s music, and he talked about the new Philharmonic. We also utilized some of WKY’s daily newspaper ads to promote the concert.

That inaugural season featured artists including legendary violinist Itzhak Perlman, cellist Paul Tobias, and Oklahoma’s own Patti Page. And Roy Clark did not disappoint.

Sitting center-stage in front of the orchestra in a lone spotlight, Clark showed off his many talents--not only a musician, but as a singer. One of his most poignant moments was when he performed his 1969 hit “Yesterday, When I Was Young.”

Shortly before he passed, Clark was back in Oklahoma City as a featured guest at the American Banjo Museum. I was interviewing him for a story in 405 Magazine and showed him our photo taken so many years earlier at the OKCPHIL performance.

“I’ve done a lot in my life,” Clark said. “And that moment right there, son. Performing with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic. That was one of the best.”

OKC PHIL Retrospective

THE LATE EIGHTIES

ROY CLARK

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Continued from page 19

Gerry Mayes

Frank

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