2023 Spring Season Playbill

2023 SPRING SEASON PLAYBILL

They are not so different. New sounds and new places. They transport us beyond our ordinary lives. To experience exotic and magical destinations. Inviting us to hear and see and taste and smell. And most of all, making us feel. Opening our minds. Lifting our hearts. Enriching our souls.

Let us take you there.

FIFTY-FIVE YEARS ONE JOURNEY

covingtontravel.com

VISION: Changing lives through the power of music.

MISSION: The Richmond Symphony performs, teaches and champions music to inspire and unite our communities.

The Richmond Symphony is dedicated to joy, connection, expression, and collaboration through music. Founded in 1957, the Symphony includes an orchestra of 70 professional musicians and 150 volunteer members of the Richmond Symphony Chorus. The Richmond Symphony is overseen by a 35-member Board of Directors and managed by 28 staff members.

Each season, the Richmond Symphony offers more than 200 public performances for approximately 200,000 patrons through concerts and educational programs. The Symphony also maintains an active touring schedule that brings live symphonic performances to rural communities. Through community engagement events, the Symphony makes a significant impact on participating neighborhoods by combining the power of music with community investment. These community engagement events allow for free outdoor musical experiences and serve thousands of people a year, creating unique opportunities for the public to engage with the Richmond Symphony and encouraging community pride through music and collaboration. Additionally, the Symphony joins with Virginia Opera and Richmond Ballet for presentations each season and collaborates with other arts organizations for special projects.

Balalaika

The Richmond Symphony is partially funded by the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts and CultureWorks and the Arts and Cultural Funding Consortium - supported by City of Richmond and the Counties of Hanover and Henrico.

CONTENTS

WELCOME

Welcome! We are so thrilled to have you here with the Richmond Symphony. Whether this is your first concert with the Symphony or you have been coming for years, we love that you chose music as a part of your life, and we look forward to providing you with a fantastic experience. You are invited to enjoy, to connect, to learn, and to discover.

Since 1957, The Richmond Symphony has been an innovator known for forward-thinking about what the next era of symphony performance can bring. Building on that legacy, we continually seek to create programs and programming that not only deliver artistically, but that make music an integral part of your life, and that of your friends, family and colleagues.

TICKETS: $50

The 2022-23 season has been all about exploring new horizons, sharing musical experiences, reaching new and continued audiences, and creating new opportunities to experience and perform music from emerging composers and artists, alongside the beloved performances traditional Symphony enthusiasts revere. This holds true with the Richmond Symphony Chorus, the Youth Orchestras, and the Symphony programming on stage and in our community.

Some fun and exciting things to come:

Partnership performances and presentations with three of Richmond’s wonderful museums: Black History Museum, Virginia Museum of History and Culture and Virginia Museum of Fine Art. Keep an eye on the Symphony’s socials for all the details.

Symphony musicians and a team of designers and fashion experts worked to reimagine the orchestra’s wardrobe, bringing a current design and aesthetic that honors the athletic nature of the work the musicians do every day on stage. You will see the results of this industry-changing effort this Spring – and we hope you are as excited as we are.

In addition to the performances represented in these pages, we are thrilled to bring a host of incredible free performances outdoors: Mile of Music makes its way to Bryan Park this summer, a partnership with the Black History Museum at Abner Clay Park with the Symphony’s Big Tent; summer performances at Pocahontas State Park in Chesterfield, and a return to Henrico for the annual Red White & Lights July 4 celebration. We look forward to seeing you there!

Thank you for being a part of the Richmond Symphony.

- Valentina Peleggi, Music Director & Lacey Huszcza, Executive Director

Valentina Peleggi MUSIC DIRECTOR

Lewis T. Booker Chair

Valentina Peleggi has been Music Director of the Richmond Symphony (Virginia, USA) since the 20/21 season and has already revitalized the orchestra’s artistic output. While focusing on developing the orchestra’s own sound she has also launched new concert formats, joined national co-commission partnerships, started a three-year Composer-inResidence program, launched conducting masterclasses in collaboration with the local universities, and championed neglected composers from diverse backgrounds. During the pandemic she sat on the jury of the first virtual Menuhin Competition, hosted by the Richmond Symphony. Highlights of the 22/23 season include a ground-breaking augmented reality project, also Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony and a special concert with soloist Yo-Yo Ma.

2021 saw the release of her first CD, featuring a cappella works by Villa Lobos in a new critical edition for Naxos guest edited by Ms Peleggi and performed by the Sao Paulo Symphony Chorus, of which she previously served as Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor. She was concurrently Resident Conductor of the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra.

This season Peleggi debuts with the New World Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic and at the Grant Park Festival in Chicago, and in Europe with the Residentie Orkest, Liege Philharmonic, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra and the orchestra of Opera North, also conducting the opening concert of the World Economic Forum in Davos. Engagements in recent seasons have included the Colorado and Baltimore symphonies, Royal Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Brussels Philharmonic, Norrkoping Symphony, Orchestra della Toscana, and Pomeriggi Musicali di Milano.

Opera (especially bel canto) is at the core of Peleggi’s activity; in May 2022 she conducted Il Barbiere di Siviglia at Florentine Opera, and last season she returned to the Teatro Verdi di Trieste for Rigoletto, also making her debut in a new production of Piazzola’s Maria de Buenos Aires at the Opéra de Lyon. She conducted an acclaimed Rossini’s Le Comte Ory with the Philharmonia Orchestra at Garsington Opera in 2021 and was a Mackerras Fellow at English National Opera in 2018 and 2019, where she conducted a wide range of repertoire including Carmen and La Bohème. Since 2019 she has been Music Director (responsible for Italian repertoire) of the Theatro Sao Pedro in Sao Paulo where her L’Italiana in Algeri was recognized as “best opera of the year 2019 in Sao Paulo” by the main critic journal Rivista Concerto.

The first Italian woman to enter the conducting programme at the Royal Academy of Music of London, she graduated with distinction and was awarded the DipRAM for an outstanding final concert as well as numerous other prizes and was recently honoured with the title of Associate. She furthered her studies with David Zinman and Daniele Gatti at the Zurich Tonhalle and the Royal Concertgebouw masterclasses. She won the 2014 Conducting Prize at the Festival International de Inverno Campos do Jordão, received a Bruno Walter Foundation Scholarship at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in California, and the Taki Concordia Conducting Fellowship 20152017 under Marin Alsop.

Peleggi holds a Master’s in Conducting with honors from the Conservatorio Santa Cecilia in Rome, and in 2013 was awarded the Accademia Chigiana’s highest award, going on to assist Bruno Campanella and Gianluigi Gelmetti at Teatro Regio di Torino, Opera Bastille Paris, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Teatro Regio di Parma and Teatro San Carlo. She also assisted on a live worldwide broadcast and DVD production of Rossini’s Cenerentola with the Orchestra Nazionale della RAI. From 2005 to 2015 she was the Principal Conductor and Music Director of the University Choir in Florence and remains their Honorary Conductor, receiving a special award from the government in 2011 in recognition of her work there.

Ms Peleggi is passionate about the arts and holds a Master’s in Comparative Literature.

Valentina Peleggi is represented by Intermusica worldwide.

Peleggi has championed neglected composers from diverse backgrounds.

Chia-Hsuan Lin

ASSOCIATE CONDUCTOR

Jack and Mary Ann Frable

Associate Conductor Chair

Hailed by the Virginia Gazette as “a rock solid” and “animated” conductor, Chia-Hsuan Lin delights audiences throughout the world with her trademark energy and command.

Appointed Associate Conductor of the Richmond Symphony in 2016, Lin has established herself as a stalwart champion of the RS through her masterful concerts for all audiences. Clark Bustard wrote of Lin’s Brahms Fourth Symphony with RS, “I’ve never heard a more compelling live performance than this one” (Letter V). Other RS highlights include Handel’s Messiah, Symphony series, Pops series, Family concerts, a side-by-side orchestra of 624 musicians and community members in “Come and Play,” and a record crowd exceeding 19,000 for Henrico County’s “Red, White, and Lights” Independence Day celebration in 2018.

Lin enjoys frequent guest

appearances, returning in 2022 to conduct the Minnesota Orchestra in family concerts and their Summer Season, the premiere of PaviElle French’s song cycle in the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra’s season finale, the RS in Beethoven Symphony No. 9 at the Shenandoah Valley Music Festival and Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back live with film, and concerts with the Williamsburg Symphony Orchestra and violinist Paul Huang.

In 2019, Lin was praised as a last-minute replacement in Williamsburg’s performance of Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6. Assuming the podium the day of the concert, the Virginia Gazette reported Lin as “leading them through a thoroughly top-drawer performance” in “an exceptionally absorbing interpretation and rendering.” This success catapulted Lin into the finals of WSO’s Music Director search and multiple guest appearances.

Other guest appearances include the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Richmond Ballet, Peninsula Music Festival Orchestra, Virginia Commonwealth University Symphony Orchestra, Academy of Taiwan Strings and Taipei Philharmonic Chorus. Formerly the Assistant Conductor of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Lin punctuated the end of her tenure in 2016 “with the command and energy of a soccer star” before a record FWP subscription crowd (larryhayes.com).

A champion of the next generation of musical talent, her list of premieres continues to grow with new works by Chris Thile, Stephen Prutsman, Laura Schwendinger, Steve Heitzeg, and Jennifer Jolley; and collaborations with award-winning artists

including Paul Huang, Sterling Elliot, Amaryn Olmeda, Kevin Zhu, Inna Faliks, and Eduardo Rojas.

Lin has also been a featured guest in Classical Revolution RVA’s Mozart Festivals, sharing orchestral music in non-traditional venues. She conducted the “Land Dive Project” in cooperation with the Institute for Contemporary Art at the Virginia Commonwealth University, a live art installation including a chamber ensemble and a scuba diving team.

Lin previously served as Music Director of Richmond Symphony Youth Orchestra, University of Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, South Loop Symphony Orchestra (Chicago), Interim Music Director of the Contemporary Youth Orchestra of Cleveland, and Assistant Conductor of Opera at the CCM Spoleto Music Festival in Italy. Fueling her passion for vocal works, Lin conducted a lecture concert as part of the Taiwanese premiere of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, and assisted and led opera performances at Northwestern University and the University of Cincinnati.

Lin began her musical training with piano lessons in Taiwan at age three, and she studied percussion at National Taiwan Normal University while performing with Taipei Percussion Group. Lin studied conducting with Apo Hsu, Mark Gibson, and Victor Yampolsky, and holds a doctorate from Northwestern University.

Lin is married to horn player James Ferree, and she enjoys traveling, gardening, and cooking.

“a rock solid” and “animated” conductor - Virginia Gazette

Daniel Myssyk

ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR

Assistant Conductor of the Richmond Symphony, Canadian-American conductor Daniel Myssyk was Music Director of the Montreal-based Orchestre de chambre Appassionata from 2000 to 2016. A few years ago, he led his orchestra on its first American tour, which included two concerts in Richmond. The group also toured before enthused audiences in Ontario in January of 2014.

In recent years, he has made critically acclaimed appearances with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, and the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra, among others. In 2015, Myssyk made his debut in Guanajuato (Mexico) where he has been returning every season since, and also conducted the Michoacan State Orchestra. In 2019, return engagements have brought him back to Canada to conduct the Orchestre symphonique de Trois-Rivières and the Orchestre de la Francophonie.

Myssyk conducts repertoire from the classical, romantic, modern and contemporary periods with great attention to stylistically appropriate detail. He maintains a continuous engagement with opera in a variety of styles ranging from Mozart to Menotti. Sensitive to the music of our time, he has contributed to the creation of many contemporary North-American works, including the world-premiere of Anthony Brandt’s opera, The Birth of Something with Da Camera in Houston. Under his leadership, three recent VCU Opera productions of The Gondoliers (2015), The Old Maid

and the Thief (2012), and Hansel & Gretel (2011) won top prizes at the National Opera Association competition.

Myssyk’s recordings have received widespread critical acclaim. In 2012, he completed the recording of Czech Serenades with works by Suk and Dvořák. The CD was in nomination for best recording of the year at the “ADISQ” awards, Quebec’s equivalent of the Grammys and at the Prix Opus from the Conseil québécois de la musique. Jean-Yves Duperron of the Classical Sentinel wrote: “Conductor Daniel Myssyk and the members of the Appassionata Chamber Orchestra ply their magic in this music, and shape each and every phrase, and infuse each and every note, with care and sincere expression. I’ve rarely heard these two works played with this much conviction.”

In 2010, his CD Idyla (on Fidelio label), was nominated for an Opus Prize as best recording of the year. A CD featuring American trumpet player and VCU colleague Rex Richardson playing Dana Wilson’s Concerto for Trumpet and Strings was released on Summit Records, earning rave reviews from the International Trumpet Guild Journal. His most recent CD, on the Atma label, features works by Quebec composer François Dompierre and has earned excellent reviews from RadioCanada and Magazine Son et image.

Professor Daniel Myssyk has been Virginia Commonwealth University’s Director of Orchestral Activities since 2007. His involvement with youth reflects a well-honed passion for music education. In addition to his work at VCU, he is a regular collaborator with the All-Virginia State Orchestra, and the Hampton Roads Chamber Players, among many others. He is currently the music director of the Richmond Symphony Youth Orchestra.

In the early 2000s, Myssyk was a conducting fellow at the Aspen Music Festival and School where he spent two summers under the tutelage of David Zinman. A student of Larry Rachleff, he received his Master’s degree in Conducting from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in 2006.

Myssyk completed the recording of “Czech Serenades” with works by Suk and Dvořák. The CD was nominated for best recording of the year at the “ADISQ” awards, Quebec’s equivalent of the Grammys

Anthony Blake Clark

INTERIM CHORUS

DIRECTOR

James Erb Choral Chair

Mr. Clark’s passion for academia has led him to serve as the Director of Choral Activities at George Washington University where his choirs performed at the Kennedy Center and Washington National Cathedral. Recently he was Guest Conductor/Lecturer for the Westminster Choir College.

Clark has prepared choruses for legends like Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Simon Halsey, Marin Alsop, Fabio Luisi, and Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla for ensembles including the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Berliner Philharmoniker, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (UK), Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and Rundfunkchor

Berlin. He has conducted in projects from Lincoln Center’s “Mostly Mozart Festival” to the London Symphony Chorus’s “Come and Sing” days. Clark is equally adept in the orchestral field and made his Baltimore Symphony Orchestra debut in 2021. He has also appeared as cover conductor for the National Symphony Orchestra and has assisted Marin Alsop at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

In 2021 he began his graduate studies in Orchestral Conducting at the Peabody Institute where he is a student of Marin Alsop. Mr. Clark completed a Master’s degree in Choral Conducting under Simon Halsey at the United Kingdom’s University of Birmingham.

Anthony Blake Clark enjoys a reputation as one of the freshest young voices in classical music. He is currently in his sixth season as Music Director of the nationally acclaimed and Emmy Award-winning Baltimore Choral Arts Society and is the Artistic Director of New York City’s Bach Vespers.

During his tenure with the Baltimore Choral Arts Society, Anthony Blake Clark has consistently received rave reviews, both for work on the podium in his subscription concerts and his preparation of choruses for performances with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and other regional orchestras. Winner of the 2019-2020 American Prize in choral conducting and recipient of the 2020 Chorus America Alice Parker Award, Clark’s leadership of Baltimore Choral Arts has also been acknowledged with a nomination for the American Prize for best choral performance. He annually conducts and produces the celebrated “Christmas with Choral Arts,” televised on ABC2 which was recently nominated for an Emmy Award. The premiere choral organization in the Baltimore region, BCAS reaches more than 100,000 people each year and is an integral part of the fabric of Baltimore’s performing arts scene. In 2022, he and Choral Arts made their Berlin debut at the Philharmonie with the Frei Universität Orchester, then continued to Vienna where his choirs performed with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra under Marin Alsop.

Anthony Blake Clark is also the Artistic Director of Bach Vespers in New York City. In residence at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church next to Lincoln Center, the Bach Choir and Players are composed of some of the finest early music professionals in the nation. Their mission is to present the works of Bach using historically informed practices within a liturgical context.

Anthony Blake Clark enjoys a reputation as one of the freshest young voices in classical music.

You’re Invited!

SEASON FINALE AFTER-PARTY 21

SUN • 5:00 pm

End the season in celebratory style with Symphony musicians, guest artists, and friends straight after the final performance on Sunday, May 21. Enjoy this festive outdoor event with food trucks, drinks, live music, and activities in the parking lot just behind the Dominion Energy Center.

Subscriber Benefit Card

Present your 2022/23 Subscriber Benefit Card at these local business to receive a special discount.

» Shelf Life Books

»Fred Astaire Dance Studio

Richmond

»Heritage Restaurant

»Lulabelle’s Cafe

»Merrymaker Fine Paper

»Mill Gap Farms

For more information visit www.RichmondSymphony.com!

violin

Daisuke Yamamoto

CONCERTMASTER

Tom & Elizabeth Allen Chair

Adrian Pintea

ASSOCIATE

CONCERTMASTER

Ellen Cockerham Riccio

PRINCIPAL SECOND VIOLIN

Ashley Odom

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

SECOND VIOLIN

Bob & Nancy Hill Chair

Alana Carithers

Catherine Cary

Alison Hall

Jeannette Jang

Stacy Matthews

Emily Monroe

Anna Rogers

Delaney Turner

Susy Yim

Anna Bishop*

Jocelyn Vorenberg

Susanna Klein

Jill Foster

Timothy Judd

Susan Spafford

Justin Gopal+

Treesa Gold*

viola

Molly Sharp

PRINCIPAL

The Mary Anne

Rennolds Chair

Hyo Joo Uh

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

Stephen Schmidt

Zsuzsanna Emödi

Wayne Graham

Jocelyn Smith

Derek Smith

cello

Neal Cary

PRINCIPAL

Jason McComb

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

RSL Chair

Schuyler Slack

Kenneth & Bettie

Christopher Perry Foundation Chair

Ryan Lannan

Barbara Gaden

Adrienne Gifford-Yang

Peter Greydanus

Ismar Gomes

bass

Andrew Sommer

PRINCIPAL

Rumano Solano

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

Kelly Ali

Peter Spaar

flute

Mary Boodell

PRINCIPAL

Jennifer Debiec Lawson

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

Catherine Broyles

oboe

Victoria Chung

PRINCIPAL

Shawn Welk+

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

Lauren Williams*

ACTING ASSOCIATE

PRINCIPAL

clarinet

David Lemelin

PRINCIPAL

Edward Sundra

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

Sara Reese

bassoon

Thomas Schneider

PRINCIPAL

Felix Ren

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

Nicholas Ritter

CONTRABASSOON

horn

Dominic Rotella

PRINCIPAL

Devin Gossett

SECOND HORN

The Luzi Wheeler

Leisinger & George Wheeler Chair

Erin Lano

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

Roger Novak

trumpet

Samuel Huss

PRINCIPAL

Brian Strawley

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

Mary Bowden+

trombone

Evan Williams

PRINCIPAL

Scott Winger

Scott Cochran

tuba

Conrad Shaw

PRINCIPAL

timpani

James Jacobson

PRINCIPAL

percussion

Clifton Hardison

PRINCIPAL

Robert Jenkins+

David Foster

harp

Lynette Wardle

PRINCIPAL

keyboard/other

Russell Wilson

PRINCIPAL

Quincy & Anne Owen Cole Chair

+ on leave

* one year appointment

RICHMOND SYMPHONY MUSICIAN ROSTER

RICHMOND SYMPHONY CHORUS

The Richmond Symphony Chorus is an award-winning ensemble of 150 members from the Richmond region. It performs regularly with the Richmond Symphony, Richmond Ballet, and in stand-alone performances around the community. The chorus members – ages 16 to 85 – are a diverse group of Richmond community members with a shared passion for choral singing.

James Erb founded the Richmond Symphony Chorus in 1971 to perform Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis under the baton of renowned conductor Robert Shaw. Erb, a professor at the University of Richmond and a scholar of Renaissance music, led the group for 36 years. Erb was succeeded by Dr. Erin Freeman who stepped down in 2021 and we welcome Anthony Blake Clark as the Interim Chorus Director for the 2022-2023 season, where he brings his eclectic experiences and passion for the choral arts to your Richmond community.

Repertoire ranges from classical masterworks to opera to pops’ favorites. Regular performances of Handel’s Messiah and Let It Snow! holiday concerts are highlights of the Symphony season. The Chorus was featured in the Grammy-nominated recording of the premier performance of Children of Adam by Virginian composer Mason Bates. The Chorus has performed with acclaimed soloists such as Denyce Graves, and worked under the direction of celebrated conductors including Marin Alsop and George Manahan.

The Chorus is now in its 52nd active season, looking forward to three major concerts this spring including Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 in April.

If you’re interested in auditioning for the Chorus, please visit: https://www.rschorus.com/auditions.html

soprano

Lauren Lexa Crapanzano

MUSIC SECTION LEADER

Faith A. Alejandro

Gabrielle Francesca Bergeret

Keely Borland

Leslie Brewer

Brittany Brooks

Hailey Broyles

Olivia Carlton

Ann Whitfield Carter

Leigh Anne Clary

Shirley B. Diggs

Courtnei A. Fleming

Claire Foley

Sharon B. Freude

Lisa C. Fusco

Catrina J. Garland

Sarah George

Carrie Gregory

Jennifer Hagen

Amanda Halverson

Cathern Hazelwood

Anna Hess

Cynthia Hickman

Tara Ingersoll

Ella Nelson Johnson

Sophia Ali Kadi

Amanda Khalil

Nina Lankin

Ashley Larson

Ashley M. Love

Gail A. Lyddane

Leslie Maloney

Morgan Merkel

Eve Minter

Ariel Mitchell

Lucy Wagner Mitzner

Terry Moffett

Stephanie Poxon

Samantha P. Sawyer

Jacquelynn A. Seaward

Allison Elliott Schutzer

Johanna Scogin

Margaret Duncan Storti

Anthony Blake Clark

INTERIM CHORUS DIRECTOR AND JAMES ERB CHORAL CHAIR

Christopher Pennington

CHORUS MANAGER

Daniel Stipe

CHORUS PIANIST

Kevin L. Barger

ASSISTANT REHEARSAL PIANIST

Melva Carle, Carl Eng, Lisa Fusco REHEARSAL ASSISTANTS

Darlene Walker Temple

Ann Voss

Mary Ellen Wadsworth

Madeline Wagner

Emily Anderson Walls

Michele Wittig

Ally Yablonski

alto

Kristen Melzer

MUSIC SECTION LEADER

Andrea Johnson Almoite

Jan Altman

Barbara Baker

Caroline Bass

Barbara C. Batson

Kerry Blum

Lida Bourhill

Elaina F. Brennan

Ayana Butler

Sarah Capehart

Melva Carle

Laura Altman Carr

Linda H. Castle

Charlene Nash Christie

Erin Clapp

Pamela Cross

Erin Dixon

Mary Butler Eggleston

Aimee Ellington

Kathryn Rawley Erhardt

Maria J. K. Everett

Rachel Foster Fish

Elizabeth Goodwin

Annaka Grismer

Caroline Guske

Elizabeth C. Harper

Abigail Hauschild

Shannon Hooker

Cecilia Hughes

Lauren Maho

Liz Manning

Julia Martin

Janna Maxey

Sarah McGrath

Melisse Menchel

Charity Myers

Kyndal Owens

Kenna Payne

Janet Tice Powell

Lynne H. Read

Patricia Reddington

Jane Pulliam Riddle

Meaghan Rymer

Faith D. Sartoris*

Katherine Shenk

Jayne Sneed

Mary Lou P. Sommardahl

Wyna Taggart

Jane Koenig Terry

Alexandria Vandervall

Casey Vandervall

Becca Wethered

tenor

Aaron Todd

MUSIC SECTION LEADER

Ric Anderson

Benjamin T. Almoite

Rick Axtell

Kevin L. Barger

Matt Barger

David Carter

Erik DeMario

Joshua Ellis

Carl J. Eng

Enrico Gagarin

Ed Galloway

Jody Gordon

Roy A. Hoagland

Zachary James

David Lynch

William N. Marshall

William Miller

Christopher Nixon

Charles H. O’Neal*

Jim Rakes

Henry P. Robb

Craig E. Ross

Rick Sample

Steve Travers

Ethan White

Roger Wooldridge

bass

James V. Romanik

Jack Anderson

Matt Benko

Mike Champlin

David C. Cooley

Don Creach

Frankie Davis Daniels

Andrew J. Dolson

Daniel Douglas

William Cloud Hicklin

David Hoover

Don Irwin

Marc Kealhofer

Daniel Kobb

John Luther

Martin McFadden

Douglass Moyers

W. Hunter Old

Val Puster

Stephen G. Read

William Bradley Roberts

Alyx Staruk

Richard Szucs

Jon A. Teates

Matt Triplett

Paul C. Tuttle

Hunter Williamson

MUSIC SECTION LEADER

*Active membership since the Chorus’s first performance in 1971.

The Chorus thanks Epiphany Lutheran Church for the use of its facilities for rehearsals and auditions.

Suites for Strings

Metro Series

Valentina Peleggi CONDUCTOR (pg.6-7)

Schuyler Slack CELLO (pg.74)

Thomas P. Bryan Jr. Fund Soloist

POCAHONTAS STATE PARK

Daniel Myssyk CONDUCTOR

Saturday, June 10 @ 8pm

CHRISTOPHER THEOFANIDIS (B. 1967)

Visions and Miracles

I. All joy wills eternity

II. Peace Love Light YOUMEONE

III. I add brilliance to the sun

BAUER (1882-1955)

Suite for String Orchestra, Op. 33

I. Prelude

II. Interlude

III. Finale: Fugue

STEVEN SNOWDEN (B. 1981)

This Mortal Frame

I. Samuel A. Smith Residence

II. The Crossing at Aquia Creek

III. 2nd and Pennsylvania Ave.

IV. Vigilance Committee Office

Schuyler Slack, CELLO

INTERMISSION

BARTÓK (1881-1945)

Divertimento for String Orchestra

I. Allegro non troppo

II. Molto adagio

III. Allegro assai

2:04 approximate program length

Scheherazade

Symphony Series

Valentina Peleggi CONDUCTOR (pg.6-7)

Inbal Segev CELLO (pg.75)

Courtney Collier & Michael Duncan DANCERS FROM THE RICHMOND BALLET (pg.67, 70)

Malcolm Burn CHOREOGRAPHER FROM THE RICHMOND BALLET (pg.66)

JULY 6, 13, 20, 27 @ 6:30pm

Rhythm Hall, Dominion Energy Center

Chamber music masterworks from three centuries performed by members of the Richmond Symphony and friends.

Settle into your seat for just under one enchanted hour.

SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE FOR $100.

SINGLE TICKETS ON SALE ON JUNE 1

RichmondSymphony.com

804.788.1212 x2

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872-1958)

Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis

ANNA CLYNE (B. 1980)

DANCE

I. when you’re broken up II. if you’ve torn the bandage off III. in the middle of the fighting IV. in your blood

V. when you’re perfectly free

Inbal Segev, CELLO

Courtney Collier, DANCER

Michael Duncan, DANCER

INTERMISSION

RIMSKY-KORSAKOV (1844-1908)

Scheherazade, Op. 35

I. Largo e maestoso - Allegro non troppo

II. Lento - Allegro molto

III. Andantino quasi Allegretto

IV. Allegro molto

1:57 approximate program length

Sponsored by:

Fun fact: Ralph Vaughan Williams, Fantasia translates aspects of English sacred choral music into purely instrumental terms.

Ralph Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis

Ralph Vaughan Williams, the 150th anniversary of whose birth is being celebrated this season, represents one of the central figures of the modern English Renaissance in music. Fittingly, he had his breakthrough success with a work inspired by a giant of the original English Renaissance of the Tudor era, Thomas Tallis (1505-85). The 1910 premiere of the Fantasia at Gloucester Cathedral (as part of the prestigious Three Choirs Festival) brought the name of Vaughan Williams — then in his late 30s — to the attention of a wider public.

The Fantasia sprang from the work in which Vaughan Williams had engaged when he co-edited the English Hymnal in 1906, a milestone in Anglican sacred music. It was in this anthology that he initially encountered the tune by Thomas Tallis that he chose as the basis for the Fantasia. The melody in question is the third of nine tunes gathered from Tallis for another sacred music collection in 1597.

Scored for a string orchestra, the Fantasia translates aspects of English sacred choral music into purely instrumental terms, including its use of spatial effects. Vaughan Williams imitates this by dividing the strings into three groups: a larger string orchestra, a smaller one, and a string quartet (i.e., four solo players: two violins, viola, and cello).

music is often rooted in inspirations from the visual arts, poetry, and dance. The orchestral work COLOR FIELD (2020), for example, pays homage to the painter Mark Rothko. In The Seamstress, Clyne was moved by a poem by William Butler Yeats to write a violin concerto in the form of “an imaginary one-act ballet.”

For DANCE, which features the instrument on which the composer herself was trained, Clyne turned to a five-line poem by the 13thcentury Persian poet and Sufi mystic Jalāl al-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī (otherwise known simply as Rumi):

Dance, when you're broken open.

Dance, if you've torn the bandage off.

Dance in the middle of the fighting.

Dance in your blood.

Dance, when you're perfectly free.

Clyne says she wanted to create a work in which each movement has “its own personality, its own character” and was drawn to the Rumi poem because “it’s short, has repetition, a clear form of five lines, and a strong physicality … [and] a sense of urgency …”

Did you know?

Dance is inspired by the 13th-century Persian poet Jalāl alDīn Muhammad Rūmī (otherwise known simply as Rumi).

Fun fact:

Inbal Segev is performing a series of concerts this year to honor the 20th anniversary of the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship (TACF), which Marin Alsop founded to encourage other female conductors to follow their career path.

The theme itself, comprising two parts, is amenable to being fragmented and then reassembled in new transformations and different configurations of the string ensembles. For example, in the final part Vaughan Williams reprises the theme in a version for solo violin and viola against the full orchestra. Dramatic contrasts of volume and changes in meter are also significant elements in the soundscape of the piece.

Anna Clyne: DANCE

When the cellist Inbal Segev was first introduced to Anna Clyne by the pioneering conductor Marin Alsop, the composer’s “juxtaposition of old and new” intrigued her. Segev remarks that Clyne’s music “has an old-soul sensibility but is fresh and modern at the same time.” The cellist commissioned the concerto DANCE, premiering it in 2019 and releasing her acclaimed recording of the work the following year.

These performances of DANCE are part of a series of concerts Segev is performing this year to honor the 20th anniversary of the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship (TACF), which Alsop founded to encourage other female conductors to follow their career path — including music director Valentina Peleggi, a TACF alumna.

Born in London in 1980 and a resident of the United States since 2002, Clyne was nominated for a Best Contemporary Classical Composition Grammy Award in 2015 for another of her concertos, the double violin concerto Prince of Clouds.

For these performances, Choreographer Malcolm Burn and dancers Courtney Collier and Michael Duncan from the Richmond Ballet join with the Richmond Symphony, adding another dimension to DANCE. Collaborative creativity is a signature of Clyne’s artistic practice. Her

Each of DANCE’s five movements corresponds to a line of the poem, beginning with “tender and delicate music” to depict “the fragility of being shattered apart.” In contrast, the solo cello drives the aggressive, rapid-paced second movement. Like Vaughan Williams, Clyne has a gift for evoking the sense of a timeless past. Reminiscent of the Baroque, the slow third movement uses a recurring melody to conjure a moment of frozen time. The expansive fourth movement presents another though very different example of repeating patterns as the strings sequentially take up each line presented by the solo cello in a kind of looping process. The final movement (the first part of the piece Clyne wrote) unfolds as a quest for melody of pure simplicity — and, with its suggestion of Jewish folk music, pays tribute to the composer’s father, to whom she dedicated the concerto.

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade, Op. 35

Night is the ideal time for weaving fantasies and spinning tales, and it was during the night that Scheherazade told her famous series of stories that came to symbolize “the exotic East” for generations of children eager to learn about Sinbad, Ali Baba, and Aladdin. Collected under the title The Thousand and One Nights or The Arabian Nights, these stories have inspired countess painters, dramatists, and composers like Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. His four-movement symphonic suite named after the heroine was a hit at its premiere in St. Petersburg in 1888 and has delighted audiences ever since.

As the general framework for his orchestral suite, Rimsky provided this scenario, borrowing the frame that unifies the collection together:

“The Sultan Shahriar, convinced of the deceitfulness and infidelity of all women, had sworn an oath to put each of his wives to death

Did you know?

Scheherazade is a major female character and the storyteller in the famous narrative of the Middle Eastern collection of tales known as The Thousand and One Nights or The Arabian Nights

after their first night. But the Sultana Scheherazade saved her life by the expedient of arousing the Sultan’s interest in a series of tales she recounted over a period of 1001 nights … Driven by curiosity, the Sultan postponed the execution of his wife from day to day, and eventually renounced his bloody plan.”

From this scenario, Rimsky developed a kind of concerto for orchestra or suite (with elements of a violin concerto). He initially included suggestive descriptions for each movement but later decided to omit them: “The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship” (I), “The Kalendar Prince” (II), “The Young Prince and the Young Princess” (III), and “Festival at Baghdad. The Sea. The Ship Breaks against a Cliff Surmounted by a Bronze Horseman" (IV).

Scheherazade establishes a stark contrast between the cruel Sultan and the masterful narrator from the outset. Aggressive, brass-laden music is associated with the unyielding the Sultan. This is followed by a series of dreamy chords, the curtain-raiser to a sweetly melancholy violin solo representing the voice of his new wife Scheherazade, teller of tales. This contrast serves as a prelude but also returns, in varied forms, throughout what follows, with Scheherazade’s violin music threading the movements together.

One of the great musical evocations of the sea in the first movement is followed by a movement loosely based on the principle of theme and variations. The tender simplicity of the lyrical and songful third movement gives way to a widely varied final movement that showcases Rimsky-Korsakov’s flair for orchestral color and textural contrast. Dramatically, musically, and emotionally, this music stages the long-delayed closure.

Chorus Concert

Valentina Peleggi CONDUCTOR (pg.6-7)

Richmond Symphony Chorus

SELCTIONS INCLUDE

DAN FORREST (B. 1978)

Good Night, Dear Heart a cappella

Requiem for the Living

I. Introit-Kyrie

II. Vanitas Vanitatum

III. Agnus Dei

IV. Sanctus

V. Lux Aeterna

DAMIEN GETER COMPOSER & BARITONE

“Being a Composer-in-Residence for the Richmond Symphony is an incredible honor. I grew up in Chesterfield, Virginia. Many of my earliest musical memories and my love for classical music came from sitting in the Richmond Symphony concert hall as a young person. This was the place that set the foundation for me as an artist - it feels like a homecoming.”

The Richmond Symphony is thrilled to announce a three-year residency with Chesterfield born composer and bass-baritone Damien Geter. With this residency, the Richmond Symphony embarks on a new model of a holistic and long-term residency program, reaching far into the local community and laying the foundation for future composers.

Geter is concurrently writing the score for the new opera Loving v. Virginia which is being cocommissioned by Virginia Opera and the Richmond Symphony - set for its world premiere tour throughout Virginia in Spring 2025.

During his first season in residence with the Symphony, Geter curates a concert at Hardywood Brewery, engages with young, local composers and explores collaborations utilizing the interdisciplinary nature of music within a diverse range of art forms.

During the full extent of the residency Geter will compose new compositions for the Richmond Symphony to be premiered during the 23/24 and 24/25 seasons, and spend time working with the Richmond Symphony, the Richmond Symphony Chorus and the Richmond Symphony Youth Orchestra, while engaging with patrons, donors and Richmond community members along the way. The legacy of the role will mean that the canon of symphonic music will grow and the Richmond Symphony will become known as a place of new music creation.

Classic Hollywood Love Songs Pops

4 SAT • 8:00

WILLIAMS (1872-1958)

Hooray for Hollywood

JEFF TYZIK (B. 1951)

The Big Music Suite

TCHAIKOVSK (1840-1893)

Sleeping Beauty Waltz

ROTA (1911-1979) /arr. HOLCOMBE

A Time For Us from “Romeo and Juliet”

MANCINI (1924-1994) /arr. MOSS

Moon River

BERNSTEIN (1918-1990) /arr. MASON

West Side Story

INTERMISSION

STEINER (1888-1971)

Casablanca Suite

BARBRA STREISAND (B. 1942)

A Star is Born from “Evergreen”

DE VITA (1932-1998) /arr. BACHALIS

Softly as I leave You

JOHN WILLIAMS (B. 1932)

Across the Stars from “Star Wars: Episode II”

HORNER (1953-2015) /arr. MOSS

Titanic

BROWN (1896-1964)

Singin’ in the Rain

1:56 approximate program length

Chia-Hsuan Lin CONDUCTOR (pg.8-9)

pm Carpenter Theatre at Dominion Energy Center

SUBSCRIBE TODAY 2022/23 SEASON

Brahms’ Third Symphony

Symphony Series

Rennolds Memorial Concert

Valentina Peleggi CONDUCTOR (pg.6-7)

María Dueñas VIOLIN (pg.70-71)

FEB

JUAN PABLO CONTRERAS (B. 1987)

MeChicano (New Music USA Commission)

LALO (1823-1892)

Symphonie espagnole for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 21

I. Allegro non troppo

II. Scherzando: Allegro molto

III. Intermezzo: Allegretto non troppo

IV. Andante

V. Rondo: Allegro

María Dueñas, VIOLIN

INTERMISSION

BRAHMS (1833-1897)

Symphony No. 3 in F Major, Op. 90

I. Allegro con brio

II. Andante

III. Poco allegretto

IV. Allegro 2:05 approximate program length

María Dueñas was the winner of the Senior First Prize of the internationally revered Menuhin Competition 2021, co-hosted virtually by the Richmond Symphony, University of Richmond, City of Richmond, Virginia Commonwealth University and Virginia Public Media.

Thank you to all the sponsors and hosts who made this competition possible.

Did you know?

MeChicano as a portmanteau word combing “Mexican” and “Chicano.”

Intended as a tribute to Mexican-Americans, it represents the first piece Contreras has written since becoming a U.S. citizen following 15 years of living in this country.

Juan Pablo Contreras: MeChicano (New Music USA commission)

We begin this concert with a bold new work from New Music USA’s influential Amplifying Voices program, an initiative that fosters underrepresented composers in the classical music sphere. The Richmond Symphony co-commissioned MeChicano in partnership with this program and a consortium of six American orchestras.

Born in 1987 in Guadalajara, Mexico, Juan Pablo Contreras explores novel combinations of Western classical idioms with Mexican folk music, seeking to integrate these sources into a unified sound world. He chose the title MeChicano as a portmanteau word combing “Mexican” and “Chicano.” Intended as “a tribute to MexicanAmericans,” it represents the first piece Contreras has written since becoming a U.S. citizen following 15 years of living in this country. He notes that the piece “commemorates my journey to becoming a MeChicano and celebrates the Mexican-American communities that have flourished in the U.S.”

Contreras describes how the presence of Mexican-Americans in the U.S. grew in prominence in the 1980s — especially in border states.

“One of the ways in which these communities started to find a sense of pride and belonging was through music,” the composer explains. “They organized Saturday Night Dances where Mexican-American orquestas (dance bands) would play music that synthesized Mexican and American styles. These gatherings were crucial in forging a sonic and cultural Chicano identity.”

MeChicano is modeled on these Saturday Night Dance performances. “The band leader (the orchestra’s principal trumpet) plays a solo to warm up the audience, while the ensemble ‘tunes’ their instruments,” writes Contreras. “Once they’re ready to play, a drum fill signals the start of the dance and the orchestra takes us through a ‘setlist’ of original tunes that reimagine a Chicano pop song, a rock ’n’ roll groove, a Mexican waltz, a Tejano polka, and a cumbia. The clarinet and drums play prominent solos in this piece, while the French horn, trombone, and tuba get to ‘sing’ like Chicano-band frontmen.”

Lalo: Symphonie espagnole

Édouard Lalo enjoyed a major breakthrough with the premiere of Symphonie espagnole in February 1875. He composed it for the Spanish star violinist Pablo de Sarasate (1844-1908), a former prodigy whose reputation spread like wildfire across Europe and America. Lalo tailored the Symphonie espagnole to Sarasate’s remarkable technical command but above all to the beautiful tone the Spaniard was famous for coaxing from his fabled Stradivari instrument.

Lalo wanted his title to convey the image of “a violin soaring above the rigid form of an old symphony.” The presence of Spanish-flavored thematic material and rhythms throughout the work is an obvious nod to Sarasate’s origins — though he gave no detailed program to accompany the Symphonie espagnole aside from its slices of implicit local color crafted by this decidedly French composer. Lalo was playing to the public’s taste for musical “postcards” evoking what was

perceived as the “exotic” flavor of Spanish music. Bizet’s opera Carmen, which is set in Andalusian Spain, would premiere just a month later, for example.

The Symphonie espagnole has five movements as opposed to the three expected of a standard concerto, allowing for allusions to symphonic constructs on top of the concerto idea. But there’s never any doubt about the primary role assigned to the violin soloist — who in this performance is María Dueñas, the highly acclaimed winner of the most recent Menuhin competition (in 2021), which was originally to have taken place through live performances in Richmond; because of the pandemic, it shifted to a virtual format. Lalo exploits a wide array of the violin’s resources. Beyond his technical demands, he gives the soloist a beguiling personality. The opening idea in the orchestra lays out a striking pattern that suggests the central role played by rhythmic ideas in this work. In the scherzo-like second movement, Lalo uses the orchestra to imitate a large guitar. The third-movement is an intermezzo that includes the habanera rhythm. Following this is a melancholy slow movement that draws on darker orchestral colors and makes much use of the violin’s expressive low register. But all nocturnal shades are cast aside with hints of the awakening sun in the cheerful final movement.

Brahms: Symphony No. 3 Music director Valentina Peleggi expresses a special pleasure in the opportunity to continue the Richmond Symphony’s exploration of the symphonies of Johannes Brahms with the third of his four contributions to the genre. In contrast with the Latin idioms and colors of the program’s first half, the Third Symphony, she points out, creates an abstract world of its own — a world that is notably different from the music of Brahms’s other three symphonies. Dating from 1883 — the year his older, supposed arch-rival Richard Wagner died — the Third is the most compact of Brahms’s symphonies as well as a virtuoso study in ambiguity. No wonder it is regarded as among Brahms’s most elusive compositions. Even so, the Third earned instant acclaim from the public at its premiere in December 1883. Although Brahms makes references to the game-changing Third Symphony of Beethoven, famously known as the Eroica and the epicenter of that composer’s “heroic” style, the former’s work is on the whole remarkably anti-heroic; its soundscape is saturated with unexpected moments of inwardness and intimacy. For example, Brahms rewires the “heroic” paradigm of an aggressively victorious conclusion, ending each movement quietly and coming to rest with an attitude of ethereal closure.

Fun fact: María Dueñas, was the winner of the most recent Menuhin competition (in 2021), which was originally to have taken place through live performances in Richmond; because of the pandemic, it shifted to a virtual format garnering nine million views!

Beethoven’s First Metro Series

Chia-Hsuan Lin CONDUCTOR (pg.8-9)

Adrian Pintea VIOLIN (pg.73)

Ellen Cockerham Riccio VIOLIN (pg.73)

J.S BACH (1685-1750)

Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor, BWV 1043

I. Vivace

Adrian Pintea, VIOLIN

Ellen Cockerham Riccio, VOLIN

JAMES LEE III (B. 1975)

Emotive Transformations

VIVIAN FUNG (B. 1975)

Concerto for Two Violins and String Orchestra

Adrian Pintea, VIOLIN

Ellen Cockerham Riccio, VIOLIN

INTERMISSION

HAYDN (1732-1809)

Symphony No. 104 in D Major, “London”

IV. Spiritoso

BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)

Symphony No. 1 in C Major, Op. 21

I. Adagio molto - Allegro con brio

II. Andante cantabile con moto

III. Menuetto: Allegro molto e vivace

IV. Finale: Adagio - Allegro molto e vivace

1:50 approximate program length

Mahler Resurrection Symphony Symphony Series

Valentina Peleggi CONDUCTOR (pg.6-7)

Katerina Burton SOPRANO (pg.65)

Lauren Decker ALTO (pg.68)

Richmond Symphony Chorus

APR

1 SAT • 8:00 pm

2 SUN • 3:00 pm

WALKER (1922-2018)

Icarus in Orbit

MAHLER (1860-1911)

Symphony No. 2 in C Minor, “Resurrection”

I. Allegro maestoso

II. Andante moderato

III. In ruhig fliessender Bewegung

IV. Urlicht

V. Scherzo

Katerina Burton, SOPRANO

Lauren Decker, ALTO

Richmond Symphony Chorus

Please see insert for program length

Carpenter Theatre at Dominion Energy Center Carpenter Theatre at Dominion Energy Center

Mahler Resurrection Symphony PROGRAM NOTES

Fun fact: George Walker was the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize in Music (in 1996). This season marks the 100th anniversary of his birth.

Walker: Icarus in Orbit Mahler: Symphony No. 2 in C minor (“Resurrection”)

Nothing less than the ultimate questions lie at the heart of this program. Mahler’s Second Symphony embodies what music director Valentina Peleggi characterizes as “the urgency of music” — its capacity to go beyond the creation of beauty (let alone serve as mere ear candy) and grapple with the meaning of existence itself. Mahler’s symphonies, she recalls, played a key role in igniting her passion for conducting, particularly after she experienced performances led by the legendary Zubin Mehta.

Mahler’s Second tests the very limits of musical expression. The heroism of pushing the limits inevitably entails dangerous risks, as we are reminded by the classical myth of Icarus that inspired the eminent American composer George Walker. The first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize in Music (in 1996), Walker was himself a remarkable trailblazer. This season marks the 100th anniversary of his birth, so as an homage we hear Icarus in Orbit, a compact tone poem composed in 2003 for the 25th anniversary of the New Jersey Youth Symphony.

Walker distills the story of Icarus, son of the ingenious inventor and artist Daedalus, who concocted an escape plan from their imprisonment by crafting wings of feathers and wax. Despite his warnings to his son not to fly too close to the sun, lest the wax melt, Icarus became enchanted by the exhilarating experience of his ascent — until his wings were rendered useless and he plunged into the sea. After evoking a sense of expectation, Walker uses agitated figures to suggest the moment of flight and then, in striking orchestral colors, the vision all too briefly commanded by Icarus — until the music stops short with an ominous series of chords and a lone flute traces the boy’s plummet from the sky.

Gustav Mahler; Symphony No. 2 (“Resurrection”)

In 1888, while he was still at work on his groundbreaking First Symphony, Mahler had the initial idea for what would become the Second. He wrote a tone poem in the form of a funeral march, which he imagined accompanying the ritual mourning over a hero’s death. He then sensed that the piece needed more context and decided to expand it into an entire symphony.

But how? Mahler found the answer while attending an actual funeral commemoration for the famous conductor Hans von Bülow in February 1894, who had been something of a mentor. The memorial services included a hymn sung by choir to a poem called Auferstehung (“Resurrection”) by the German poet Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (1724-1803). Since Mahler had already determined to build up to a choral conclusion — in the manner of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony — this text struck him as ideal for the project.

Mahler’s choice of Klopstock’s text, from which he decided to set excerpts in the final chorus, came three years before he officially converted from the Jewish faith into which he had been born to

Catholicism (for reasons of professional expediency, as otherwise he could not have taken up his post as director of the Vienna Opera). Despite the Second Symphony’s moments of agonized doubt about the promise of an afterlife, the touching simplicity of faith expressed by Klopstock’s ode opened up a way for Mahler to address the universal hope for some kind of transcendence. By the summer of 1894, he was able to sketch out the mammoth finale, the longest of the work’s five movements.

Mahler modified his descriptions of the Second over the years, but they all trace a similar basic narrative. The hero celebrated in the First Symphony has died and we are left mourning by his grave in the tragic opening movement in C minor. The stern main theme sets the tone, generating an immense feeling of tension and suspense. A glowing second theme eventually emerges in violins and horns and — like Icarus? — soars aloft with a spirit of hope, anticipating the “resurrection” music to come in the finale. But that is still a long way off.

The movement develops as one of Mahler’s signature funeral marches but finds room for tranquil reflections and memories amid the dire reminders of death. All of this builds to one of the most shattering climaxes in the symphonic literature. In the final measures, the music plunges mercilessly downward, as bleakly as a coffin descending into the grave.

The Andante that follows evokes a flashback — graceful glimpses of pleasures past that is touched with melancholy interludes. Powerful timpani strokes launch the flowing Scherzo, which returns to the C minor of the first movement, and to its sense of struggling with the riddle of life. Near the end, we hear a shocking outburst of panic, described by the composer as a “cry of despair.”

For the Fourth movement, Mahler sets words from the folk poetry anthology known as Des Knaben Wunderhorn (“The Youth’s Magic Horn”). Urlicht (“Primal Light”) introduces the sound of the human voice for the first time into the Second’s soundscape. The amber sonority of the low female voice along with the radiant brass chorale give an intimate glow to Urlicht that stands in striking contrast to the epic scale of the massive outer movements.

For all its beauty, however, this represents a childlike illusion of faith. The gnawing questions of the first movement and the Scherzo return in the sweeping panorama of the grand final movement, where Mahler paints a dramatic musical fresco — one filled with despair, hope, and anxious waiting before the answer comes in the affirmative vision sung in its final sections.

Mahler links back to earlier music in the symphony by recalling the “cry of despair” at the start of the finale; other thematic ideas heard earlier in the work recur throughout this movement. Immediately after this initial outburst, we encounter anticipations of how the choral finale will resolve everything: the ascending “resurrection theme” is played by the horns. A terrifying percussion crescendo signals the arrival of a vast, apocalyptic march — a musical Last Judgment — that incorporates an offstage band of brass and

Did you know?

Mahler officially converted from the Jewish faith into which he had been born to Catholicism otherwise he could not have taken up his post as director of the Vienna Opera.

percussion. The horn and then brass issue a roll call for the assembled dead that the composer titled “The Great Summons,” followed by solo flute and piccolo as the deathly voice of the nightingale amid the ruins. Mahler’s use of silence maximizes the sense of suspense. From this, at last, emerges the chorus: not in blazing triumph but in an unforgettably unexpected a cappella hush: suddenly, the promises scattered earlier throughout the Second acquire a new resonance. The solo soprano soars aloft, and the “resurrection theme” resounds in its most thrilling form. The soprano and alto unite in a duet, and the full chorus swells with the orchestra in a statement of overwhelming affirmation. Mahler’s highly personal vision of redemption suggests that the answer is to be found in art itself.

Much of this composer’s music provoked misunderstanding or even hostility from his contemporaries. The premiere of the First Symphony in 1889, for example, was a nerve-wracking fiasco. But the Second Symphony was warmly welcomed by the public in its first performances and became the most popular of his symphonies for Mahler’s contemporaries. Its depiction of the hope for a rebirth, for some kind of enduring meaning, has lost none of its power to move audiences.

Eternal Tango Pops

Chia-Hsuan Lin CONDUCTOR (pg.8-9)

Héctor Del Curto BANDONEON (pg.68) with the Hector Del Curto Quintet and tango dancers

APR

15 SAT • 8:00 pm

Carpenter Theatre at Dominion Energy Center

PIAZZOLLA (1921-1992)

Michelangelo 70

VILLOLDO (1861-1919)

El Choclo

VILLOLDO /arr. JEFF TYZIK

El Choclo (Kiss of Fire)

HÉCTOR DEL CURTO (B. 1971) /orch. JISOO OK

Los Magos

WALLER (1904-1943) /arr. DANA PAUL

Ain’t Misbehavin’

HÉCTOR DEL CURTO /orch. JISOO OK

Paris to Cannes

PIAZZOLLA

Verano Poerteño

RODRÍGUEZ (1897-1948) /orch. JEFF TYZIK

La Cumparsita

INTERMISSION

PIAZZOLLA /trans. BRAGATO /orch. JEFF TYZIK

Escualo (Ritmo Libre)

PIAZZOLLA /orch. JEFF TYZIK

Vuelvo al Sur

PIAZZOLLA

La Muerte del Angel

HÉCTOR DEL CURTO /orch. JISOO OK

De Allá Vengo

HÉCTOR DEL CURTO /orch. JISOO OK

Bien Curiosa (Milonga for Santiago)

PIAZZOLLA Romance del Diablo

PIAZZOLLA /arr. & orch. JISOO OK

Libertango

2:00 approximate program length

Program notes (c) 2023 Thomas May

IN CONCERT

FILM LIVE WITH ORCHESTRA

PRESENTED BY RICHMOND SYMPHONY

SATURDAY, MAY 6 @ 2:00PM & 8:00PM ALTRIA THEATER

MUSIC BY JOHN WILLIAMS

Romantic Chopin Symphony Series

Tito Muñoz CONDUCTOR (pg.72)

Michelle Cann PIANO (pg.67)

Florence Robertson Givens Guest Artist

BOULANGER (1893-1918)

D’un Matin de Printemps

CHOPIN (1810-1849)

Concerto No. 1 in E Minor for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 11

I. Allegro maestoso

II. Romanze - Larghetto

III. Rondo - Vivace

Michelle Cann, PIANO

INTERMISSION

ELGAR (1857-1934)

Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36 “Enigma Variations”

Theme: “Enigma” Andante

Variations:

I. “C.A.E.” L’istesso (tempo)

II. “H.D.S.- P.” Allegro

III. “R.B.T.” Allegretto

IV. “W.M.B.” Allegro di molto

V. “R.P.A.” Moderato

VI. “Ysobel” Andantino

VII. “Troyte” Presto

VIII. “W.N.” Allegretto

IX. “Nimrod” Moderato

X. “Dorabella - Intermezzo” Allegretto

XI. “G.R.S.” Allegro di molto

XII. “B.G.N.” Andante

XIII. “*** - Romanza” Moderato

XIV. “E.D.U.” Finale

2:03 approximate program length

FULL ORCHESTRA CONDUCTED BY CHIA-HSUAN LIN

Romantic Chopin PROGRAM NOTES

Did you know?

Boulanger and her sister organized relief efforts for WWI soldiers who had been musicians.

Lili Boulanger: D’un matin de printemps

Marie-Juliette Olga Boulanger (known as Lili) started out as a prodigy in a highly musical family. Her mother was a Russian aristocrat who had married a Conservatory teacher much older than herself. From a very early age, Lili experienced serious illness; she died prematurely in 1918, just 24 years old. Her older sister Nadia, by contrast — also an unusually gifted musician — lived until the age of 92 (she died in 1979) and became one of the most influential teachers in music history, as well as a pioneering female conductor. Unlike Nadia, Lili focused her creative energy on composing. Aware that her time was running out as her physical condition deteriorated, she pushed herself to beat the clock. D’un matin de printemps (“On a Morning in Spring”) was written together with its longer counterpart, D’un soir triste (“On a Sad Evening”), during the last year of her cruelly short life, from the spring of 1917 to early 1918 — a period when the First World War, which inflicted such catastrophe in France in particular, was still raging. Both Lili and Nadia were deeply affected and organized relief efforts for soldiers who had been musicians.

D’un matin began as a piece for violin (or flute) and piano and was also scored as a piano trio; she subsequently orchestrated it. The music, lasting less than half as long as its companion, is both animated and subtle. Boulanger transforms the material through her extraordinarily refined ear for orchestral colors.

piano’s entrance. Chopin repeats this lengthy exposition, but with the soloist’s point of view as a guide, giving the first movement’s expansive proportions a sense of leisurely exploration. A lightly accompanied cadenza near the end highlights Chopin’s imaginative rethinking of virtuosic embellishments.

The slow movement, a “Romance,” is often associated with the shy composer’s love for a young soprano who had been a fellow student in Warsaw. Chopin’s ravishingly beautiful elaborations of the principal melody, set against muted strings, give a foretaste of one of the later nocturnes. The composer himself likened this Romance to “a meditation … by moonlight.”

Aspects of Chopin’s love for his native Poland come to the fore in the scintillating rondo finale, in which, after a faux-serious intro, he lets loose with a polka-like main theme. Suggesting a joyful folk dance, the theme appears in ingenious new guises at each return. A year after he left Poland for good, the land would be in revolt against its Russian overlords.

Edward Elgar: Variations on an Original Theme for Orchestra, Op. 36 (“Enigma”)

Did you know?

Edward Elgar won his international breakthrough when his Variations on an Original Theme for Orchestra was premiered in 1899. This work has become universally known as Enigma Variations owing to a puzzle the composer hinted at in his note for the first performance.

Did you know?

Frédéric Chopin was born Fryderyck Franciszek Chopin of Poland. He changed his name when he was exiled due to Russian suppression.

Frédéric Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11

It was during his final years in his native Poland that a young composer-pianist named Fryderyck Franciszek Chopin completed all but one of his small handful of works combining piano and orchestra. These include his two piano concertos, which are therefore of the same vintage and reflect similar musical approaches. Despite its official number (the result of being published first), Chopin in fact composed his Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor after the work we know as No. 2. He gave the premiere during what turned out to be his final public performance in Poland before he set out westward. Only 20 years old at the time, Chopin had set out on a European tour just three weeks before the November Uprising, a rebellion by subjugated Poles against suppression by the Russian Empire. He found himself an unwilling exile, eventually settling in Paris in 1831 and rebranding himself as Frédéric Chopin. The pianist here is not just the protagonist but the true gravitational center. Although his overall design follows the conventions of the era, Chopin introduces a unique poetic style and attitude into his writing for the solo part. This highly personal slant reveals the inspiration he found in the shape and flexibility of contemporary Italian bel canto opera and its characteristically rhapsodic lyricism.

The opening theme is majestic but soon yields to a variant that is more reflective; the latter plays a major role in the development. The second theme, in the major, has a nostalgic character and further tilts the balance away from the grandiose. All of these ideas are laid out first by the orchestra, thus sharpening our anticipation of the

The English composer Edward Elgar won his international breakthrough when his Variations on an Original Theme for Orchestra was premiered in 1899. This work has become universally known as Enigma Variations owing to a puzzle the composer hinted at in his note for the first performance. The enigma in question (to this date unsolved) involves the idea of a hidden melody — a tune that is never stated outright but only hinted at indirectly by all the music we hear played. The theme and variations that are written in the score thus form a kind of accompaniment or countermelody implicitly spelling out a music that is never heard directly. You might think of the sounds we actually hear as a sort of shadow cast by this invisible “enigma”…

Each of the variations Elgar developed from the theme that we do hear is, moreover, associated with figures from his inner circle. The composer cautioned that these are not “portraits” but that “each variation contains a distinct idea founded on some particular personality or perhaps on some incident known only to two people.”

Another “enigma” is that Elgar identifies these in his score using only initials. Still, his commentary has made them for the most part easy to decipher. The clues suggest the following figures in Elgar’s life: his beloved wife and constant moral support, Caroline Alice Elgar (I); Hew David Steuart-Powell, a pianist Elgar delighted to hear warm up at the keyboard (II); the amateur actor Richard Baxter Townshend, who could vary the pitch of his voice to imitate a wide spectrum of personalities (III); the confident country gentleman William Meath Baker (IV); the poet Matthew Arnold’s artistically sensitive son, Richard Penrose Arnold (V); Isabel Fitton, a viola student of Elgar (VI); the architect Arthur Troyte Griffth, another student of the composer, who is comically depicted doing battle with the keyboard — before simply giving up (VII); the graceful elderly music patroness Winifrid Norbury (VIII); A. J. Jaeger, Elgar’s closest

friend, who continually encouraged his efforts — this variation, known as “Nimrod,” is the most-famous part of Enigma and recalls the profundity of Beethoven’s slow movements (IX); Dorabella Penny, to whom Elgar felt especially close (X); the organist George R. Sinclair, along with his pet bulldog Dan (XI); the generous cellist Basil G. Nevinson, an inspiration for Elgar’s later Cello Concerto (XII); possibly his former fiancée Helen Weaver — this variation (which he also calls a romanza), introduces still another enigma, since Elgar concealed the subject’s identity by using only asterisks (XIII); and, finally, Elgar himself, in a masterful, opulent expansion of the theme that suggests how closely his personality is intertwined with the presence of his wife and his friend Jaeger (XIV).

Mozart & More Metro Series

Valentina Peleggi CONDUCTOR (pg.6-7)

GIPPS (1921-1999)

Seascape, Op. 53

MOZART (1756-1791)

Symphony No. 36 in C Major, K. 425, “Linz”

I. Adagio - Allegro spiritoso

II. Poco adagio

III. Menuetto

IV. Presto

INTERMISSION

DAMIEN GETER (B. 1980)

I Said What I Said

SHOSTAKOVICH (1906-1975)

Chamber Symphony Op. 73a

Program notes (c) 2023 Thomas May

N’ Kenge: Legends

Pops

Chia-Hsuan Lin CONDUCTOR (pg.8-9)

N’ Kenge SINGER (pg.72)

MAY

13 SAT • 8:00 pm

SMALLS (1943-1987)

The Wiz Medley

SMALLS

Believe in Yourself from “The Wiz”

arr. HOLCOMBE

Negro Spirituals Medley

BILLY STEINBERG (B. 1950) and TOM KELLY (B. 1952)

So Emotional

SHANNON RUBICAM (B. 1951) and GEORGE MERRILL (B. 1956)

I Wanna Dance with Somebody

GERSHWIN (1898-1937)

Fascinating Rhythm

ALEN (1905-1986)

Stormy Weather

INTERMISSION

BIZET (1838-1875)

Habanera/Dat’s Love from “Carmen”

BERNSTEIN (1918-1990)

I Feel Pretty from “West Side Story”

SMOKEY ROBINSON (B. 1940)

My Guy

CAROLE KING (B. 1942)

Natural Woman (Symphony Feature)

STEPHEN SCHWARTZ (B. 1948)

Defying Gravity from “Wicked”

2:20 approximate program length

Carpenter Theatre at Dominion Energy Center

Pictures at an Exhibition

2022-2023 CONCERT SEASON

MUSIC FOR A CATHEDRAL SPACE

The E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Series

Father Anthony Marques, Rector | Daniel Sañez, Artistic Director

V ox L uminis

Lionel Meunier, Artistic Director

FREE tickets via richmondcathedral.org/concerts

Sacro Monteverdi

Tuesday, October 25, 2022 | 7:30 p.m.

Symphony Series Season Final

Lidiya Yankovskaya CONDUCTOR (pg.75)

MAY

20 FRI • 8:00 pm 21 SAT • 3:00 pm Carpenter Theatre at Dominion Energy Center Carpenter Theatre at Dominion Energy Center

JOHN ADAMS (B. 1947)

A Short Ride in a Fast Machine

PRICE (1887-1953)

Ethiopia’s Shadow in America

JAMES LEE III (B. 1975)

Amer’ican

INTERMISSION

MUSSORGSKY (1839-1881) / orch. RAVEL

Pictures at an Exhibition

Introduction: Promenade

Bruce Stevens, Organist

Friday, September 23, 2022 | 7:30 p.m. Dedicatory Organ Recital of the Cathedral’s Juget-Sinclair Organ, Op. 54

Crystal Jonkman, Organ Recital

Friday, November 4, 2022 | 7:30 p.m.

I. Gnomus

II. Il vecchio castello

III. Tulleries

IV. Bydlo

Commonwealth Catholic Charities

Monday, November 28, 2022 | 7:00 p.m. Christmas Concert Paid tickets via www.cccofva.org featuring the Richmond Symphony Orchestra

Western Noël with Three Notch’d Baroque

Monday, December 5, 2022 | 11:00 a.m.

V. Ballet des Poussins dans leurs Coques

VI. Samuel Goldenberg und Schmuyle

VII. Limoges

VIII. Catacombae

IX. La Cabane sur des Pattes de Poules

X. La Grande Porte de Kiew

Advent Lessons and Carols

Friday, December 16, 2022 | 7:30 p.m. featuring the Musicians of the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart

The VCU Music & Medicine Orchestra

Joel Kumro, Organ Recital

Friday, May 5, 2023 | 7:30 p.m.

Friday, May 12, 2023 | 7:30 p.m.

2:03 approximate program length

Salve Regina: The Music of Renaissance Spain

Friday, May 26, 2023 | 7:30 p.m. featuring the Cathedral Schola Cantorum with Forgotten Clefs

Daniel Sañez, Conductor

Daniel Sañez, Organ Recital

Friday, June 16, 2023 | 7:30 p.m.

Free concerts are made possible by the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation Cathedral of the Sacred Heart | 823 Cathedral Place | Richmond, VA 23220 | 804-359-5651

Concert Details: richmondcathedral.org/concerts

Did you know?

Last season, the Richmond Symphony presented Price’s Piano Concerto in One Movement. As with that concerto, the original score for Ethiopia’s Shadow in America was lost for decades, having never been published.

John Adams: Short Ride in a Fast Machine

The first half of this final program of the season surveys three generations of American composers. We start off with a high-energy piece by the 76-year-old John Adams. Short Ride in a Fast Machine is one of a pair of concert-opening fanfares he wrote in 1986, the year before his breakthrough to international fame with the premiere of his debut opera, Nixon in China. Its boisterous, in-your-face orchestral sonorities provide a virtuoso roller coaster ride for the orchestra.

Like a metronome gone mad, a persistent pulse on woodblock sets the machine in motion as Adams overlays it with changing metrical patterns in thrilling tension. The music brings to mind snatches of a Sousa march along with Duke Ellington’s big-band sound, all blended in an hallucinatory vision. Adams has likened the piece to being invited to go for a spin “in a terrific sports car” — after which “you wish you hadn’t.” Florence

Price: Ethiopia’s Shadow in America

The reappraisal of Florence Price’s legacy has not only become a major event in American music history of the past two decades but is actively reshaping notions of what has been overlooked in the repertoire — and how to mitigate such omissions. Last season, the Richmond Symphony presented Price’s Piano Concerto in One Movement. As with that concerto, the original score for Ethiopia’s Shadow in America was lost for decades, having never been published; the music was suddenly recovered in 2009 as part of a dramatic discovery of a trove of substantial compositions that had gone missing.

Born Florence Beatrice Smith in Little Rock in 1887, the composer, pianist, and organist left the Jim Crow South as part of the Great Migration, eventually making Chicago her base. and faced obstacles as both a woman and an African American but forged ahead to produce a prolific lifework of songs, works for solo piano and organ, chamber music, and symphonies and concertos.

Completed in 1932 (two years before the Piano Concerto in One Movement and three years before Mussolini’s fascist invasion of Ethiopia), Ethiopia’s Shadow in America is one of a series of early orchestral works dating from around the time of Price’s First Symphony, which the Chicago Symphony premiered in 1933 as the winner of a composition competition. As the late musicologist Rae Linda Brown notes in the first-ever biography of Price, The Heart of a Woman, never before had music by a Black woman been played by a leading American orchestra.

Ethiopia’s Shadow is a tone poem in three movements, beginning with a somber introduction that leads to a faster, melodically rich Allegretto. The slow, inward, exquisitely orchestrated middle movement draws on the world of African American spirituals. Price turns to the liberating power of dance for the kaleidoscopic energy of the final movement. The rediscovered manuscript score contains the composer’s own commentary on Ethiopia’s Shadow: “I—The Arrival

of the Negro in America when first brought here as a slave. II—His Resignation and Faith. III—His Adaptation, A fusion of his native and acquired impulses.”

James Lee III: Amer’ican

Representing the youngest generation of American composers on our program, James Lee III was born in 1975 in St. Joseph, Michigan. His rapidly expanding catalogue of works indicates that Lee is a muchsought-after composer. Amer’ican originated as a commission from the Detroit Symphony that was originally scheduled to be unveiled in 2020; the pandemic-delayed premiere took place in October 2021. The composer describes Amer’ican as his response to Dvořák’s New World Symphony. Painted representations of indigenous Americans from the 18th century additionally provided an impetus. These are signified by what Lee describes as a four-note motif associated with the phrase “A-MER-I-CAN,” which emerges as a prominent element throughout.

Amer’ican begins by evoking “scenes of Pre-Colombian America,” drawing inspiration from various indigenous tribes (“especially the Shinnecock, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, Wampanoag, and Yamasee Indians). The first part also quotes the famous “Swing Down, Swing Low” tune from the Dvořák’s New World Symphony, which recurs throughout the piece.

Lee notes that the music undertakes “a digression to Mesoamerica, where the ancient ballgame ulama was played in Mexico and in what would now be known as the state of Arizona.” Along with a sense of “simple fun,” the music conveys “the brutal aspects of a game with a hard rubber ball” which not only tended to injure the participants but concluded with the slaughter of the losing team. The music depicting this “ritualistic human sacrifice” becomes increasingly frantic “as if to suggest a presentiment of a foreboding imminent future.”

A series of “crashing dissonant chords … represent[s] 1492 and an American continent that would forever be changed,” as the “mournful and soulful” solos by bassoon and oboe underscore. In his quotation of the spiritual “Here’s One,” Lee blends its African American melody with “a particular ‘Indian/Indigenous’ coloring or sorrow.” Material from the opening and the sacrificial ulama ballgame returns, and “music representing memories of unbridled freedom and exhilaration continues to grow into an explosive end.”

Modest Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition

The death of Modest Mussorgsky’s artist friend Viktor Hartmann in 1873 prompted him to write an innovative piece the following year to mark the loss. A retrospective of Hartmann’s work inspired the composer to create a piano suite, but it was never published. His friend Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov added another layer of posthumous commemoration by preparing and publishing the first published version. The solo piano suite in turn has been orchestrated many times — most famously, by Maurice Ravel (in 1922, almost a halfcentury after Mussorgsky’s original effort).

Did you know?

Representing the youngest on the Symphony Series, James Lee III was born in 1975 in St. Joseph, Michigan. Amer’ican originated as a commission from the Detroit Symphony that was originally scheduled to be unveiled in 2020; the pandemic-delayed premiere took place in October 2021 instead.

Did you know?

Mussorgsky himself was intensely visual and intrigued by connections between the arts. Pictures at an Exhibition rhythmic profile suggests imagined Museumgoer walking at leisure through the exhibition before stopping to linger over interesting pictures.

Mussorgsky himself was intensely visual and intrigued by connections between the arts. The Hartmann retrospective encompassed watercolors, oil paintings, costume designs, and architectural sketches and ranged from Russia to France and medieval Italy. This accounts for the curious diversity of topics covered in Pictures at an Exhibition.

A confidently striding theme titled “Promenade” recurs to link the individual vignettes; its rhythmic profile suggests imagined Museumgoer walking at leisure through the exhibition before stopping to linger over one of the ten displays comprising Pictures. These include: (1) a nutcracker designed to resemble a gnome; (2) a watercolor sketch for an old castle (featuring an alto saxophone to conjure the image of a “singing troubadour”); (3) the Tuileries Garden in Paris where children play and fight; (4) a big-wheeled Polish ox-cart (sonically summoned by the brass in Ravel’s orchestral treatment); (5) costume designs for a “ballet of unhatched chickens”; (6) a pair of “rich and poor” Polish Jews (contrasted by music that explores “their psychology and relationship,” as the musicologist Michael Russ remarks); (7) the lively market in Limoges; (8) a gloomy depiction of ancient Roman catacombs; (9) a portrayal of the witch Baba Yaga from Russian folklore (the basis for a clock design); and (10) the architectural plan for a grand gate in Kiev with a helmet-shaped cupola. The gate was never built, but Mussorgsky’s thrillingly exultant music brings this immortal monument to his friend to a deeply satisfying conclusion as the Museum-goer merges with the admired artwork.

Program notes (c) 2023 Thomas May

RICHMOND SYMPHONY BOARD OF

Elizabeth Cabell Jennings

CHAIR

Elisabeth Wollan

VICE CHAIR

George Mahoney IMMEDIATE PAST CHAIR

William Baites

Joshua Bennett

Phil Bennett

Julie Brantlely

John Braymer

Priscilla Burbank

Gary Flowers

Mark Flynn

Cheryl Goddard

Rebecca Horner

DIRECTORS

Lacey Huszcza EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Brandon Taylor TREASURER

John Walker SECRETARY

Brennen Keene

Christopher Lindbloom

Ted Linhart

William Mears

Patrick Murtaugh

Roger Neathawk

Bernie Niemeier

Valentina Peleggi

Kamran Raika

Leon Roday

RICHMOND SYMPHONY FOUNDATION TRUSTEES

George Y. Wheeler, III PRESIDENT

Ann T. Burks VICE PRESIDENT

David M. Carter IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT

Thomas N. Allen

David B. Bradley

J. Alfred Broaddus, Jr.

Robert L. Chewning

Wendell B. Fuller

Carolyn H. Garner

James B. Hartough TREASURER

Lacey Huszcza SECRETARY

George Ruzek

Rick Sample

Richard Szucs

Marcia Thalhimer

Ludi Webber

Mark Wickersham

Mark Wolfram

Bucci Zeugner

ADMINISTRATION

Lacey Huszcza EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Valentina Peleggi MUSIC DIRECTOR

Gail Henshaw

DIRECTOR OF FINANCE & ADMINISTRATION

Shacoya Henley ACCOUNTING & HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGER

Aleeyah Frye

EXECUTIVE & FINANCE ASSISTANT

ADVANCEMENT & PATRON COMMUNICATIONS

Frances Sterling DIRECTOR OF ADVANCEMENT & PATRON COMMUNICATIONS

Trish Poupore DONOR RELATIONS DIRECTOR, RICHMOND SYMPHONY FOUNDATION

Amy Buhrman

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF MARKETING & SALES

Lucy Frend

GRAPHICS AND DIGITAL MARKETING COORDINATOR

Kira Gay Hiller

SENIOR MANAGER OF PATRON SERVICES & SALES

Geneva M. Knight PATRON SERVICES COORDINATOR

Kiaya Lynn DONOR RELATIONS MANAGER

Nai’lah Rowe

DONOR RELATIONS ASSISTANT

Jake Nurney

OFFICE & COMMUNICATIONS ASSISTANT

Marcey W. Leonard

COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS MANAGER & RSSOM PROGRAM MANAGER

Jonathan Sanford

RSSoM PROGRAM MANAGER & REGISTRAR

Caitlin Barry

YOUTH COMMUNITY STRINGS PROGRAM

MANAGER & LEAD INSTRUCTOR

Anita Williams

EDUCATION ASSISTANT

Daniel Myssyk

YOUTH ORCHESTRA PROGRAM, CONDUCTOR, RICHMOND SYMPHONY YOUTH ORCHESTRA

Sandy Goldie

YOUTH ORCHESTRA PROGRAM, CONDUCTOR, YOUTH CONCERT ORCHESTRA

Melissa Jones

YOUTH ORCHESTRA PROGRAM, CONDUCTOR, CAMERATA STRINGS

Matt Wilson CONDUCTOR, STRING SINFONIETTA

Justin Alexander

DIRECTOR OF THE PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE

Dana McComb

HONORS AND MUSIC THEORY INSTRUCTOR

ARTISTIC OPERATIONS

Matt Wilshire

DIRECTOR OF ARTISTIC PLANNING & ORCHESTRAL OPERATIONS

Chia-Hsuan Lin ASSOCIATE CONDUCTOR

Jennifer Arnold

ARTISTIC ADVISOR

Brent Bowden

Krissy Gathright

Elizabeth Cabell Jennings

Marlene D. Jones

Helen Lewis Kemp

Nico De León

George L. Mahoney

Tara H. Matthews

Wallace B. Millner, III

Richard L. Morrill

Randall S. Parks

Ernesto Sampson

Anne Marie Whittemore

Sarah Yount

STEWARDSHIP AND SPECIAL EVENTS MANAGER

EDUCATION & COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Walter Bitner

DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION & COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Jennifer Tobin

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION & YOUTH ORCHESTRA MANAGER

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS & PRODUCTION

Kelly Ali

PERSONNEL MANAGER

Matthew Gold

MUSIC LIBRARIAN

Brent Klettke

PRODUCTION & SPECIAL EVENTS MANAGER

Chris Pennington

ARTISTIC ASSISTANT

Ben Chase OPERATIONS ASSISTANT

INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT

LEAD GIFTS

$100,000+

E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation

Commonwealth of Virginia

Endeavour Legacy Foundation

National Endowment for the Arts

Richmond Symphony Foundation

U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA)

VAMAC, Inc.

Virginia Commission for the Arts

The Windsor Foundation Trust

VIRTUOSO’S CIRCLE

$50,000-$99,999

Altria Group, Inc.

Chesterfield County

City of Richmond

Pauley Family Foundation

CONDUCTOR’S CIRCLE

$25,000-$49,999

Avidus

The Cabell Foundation

Louise B. Cochrane Charitable Foundation

Covington Travel CultureWorks & The Arts and Cultural Funding Consortium

Hanover County

Henrico County

Moses D. Nunnally, Jr. Charitable Trust B

The Kenneth and Bettie Christopher Perry Foundation

R.E.B. Foundation

Reinhart Foundation Performing Arts Endowment

Richard S. Reynolds Foundation

Richmond Symphony League

Slatten-MacDonald Fund of the Community Foundation for a greater Richmond

$10,000-$24,999

The Clovelly Foundation

Community Foundation for a greater Richmond

Hamilton Beach Brands, Inc.

Herndon Foundation

Keiter CPAs

KPMG LLP

Massey Foundation

The Rea Charitable Trust

Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship

TCV Trust and Wealth Management

CONCERTMASTER’S CIRCLE

$5,000 - $9,999

Allan and Margot Blank Foundation

Atlantic Union Bank

Chesapeake Corporation Foundation Fund of the Community Foundation for a greater Richmond

Dominion Energy

Margarete and Siegfried Eckhaus Charitable Trust

The Estes Foundation

Haley Automotive Group

Emily S. and Coleman A. Hunter Charitable Trust

Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP

Charles Stewart Mott Foundation

The Linhart Foundation

The Steele Group Sotheby’s International Realty

Troutman Pepper LLP

$2,500 - $4,999

Christian Family Foundation

H & H Aircraft Services, Inc.

New Music USA

Publix Super Markets Charities

MUSICIAN’S CIRCLE

$1,000 - $2,499

Anthem Blue Cross & Blue Shield

Deloitte

Mutual Assurance Society of Virginia RiverFront Investment Group

Target Circle

$500 - $999

The Society, Incorporated: Richmond, Virginia Chapter

Whitley/Service Roofing & Sheet Metal Company

$250 - $499

Four Strings LLC

PGA TOUR Charities

TKL Products Corp.

INDIVIDUAL GIFTS

This list reflects unrestricted gifts to the annual fund, gifts given during special events, and concert tickets donated back to the Richmond Symphony between November 17, 2021 and November 17, 2022. We have made every effort to list names correctly. If we have made an error, please contact Kiaya Lynn at 804.788.4717 ext. 102. Contributions made after November 17, 2022 will be reflected in the next Playbill.

* Deceased

VIRTUOSO’S CIRCLE

$50,000+

Mr. and Mrs. Robert E. Hill

The Garner Family

Mr. Jose Murillo and Ms. Caroline Orlando

Dr. Eugene W. and Mrs. Katharine Pauley Hickok

CONDUCTOR’S CIRCLE

$25,000 - $49,999

Ms. Priscilla A. Burbank and Mr. Michael J. Schewel

Dr. and Mrs. William D. Covington

Mr. and Mrs. Joseph A. Jennings III

Mary and Ted Linhart

Pate and Bill Mears

William L. Reinhart

Mr.* and Mrs. Hays T. Watkins

Bucci and John Zeugner

CONCERTMASTER’S CIRCLE

$5,000 - $9,999

Mr. and Mrs. Philip H. Bennett

David and Julie Brantley

Meta and John Braymer

David and Karen Carter

Mr. Henry Ayon and Ms. Paula Desel

Mrs. Alison Eckis

David and Catherine Foster

Dr. William Jackson Frable

Mr. and Mrs. David Hall

Mr. D. Brennen Keene

Mr. William Urban and Mrs. Anne Kenny-Urban

Dr. Christopher Kogut and Dr. Thomas Peyser

Sheila Leckie

Mrs. Joan Losen

Chris and Tara Matthews

Read F. and Virginia W. McGehee

Mary Lloyd and Randy Parks

Mrs. Fred G. Pollard

Mr. Kamran Raika and Dr. Ana C. Raika

$10,000 - $24,999

Anonymous

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas N. Allen

Mr. Joshua and Dr. Susan Bennett

Mr. and Mrs. Philip P. Burks Jr.

Margaret M. Disharoon Charitable Lead Trust

Mr.* and Mrs. Ellis M. Dunkum

The Fatherree Foundation

Stephen M. and Cheryl G. Goddard Family

Fund of the Community Foundation

Jane and Jim Hartough

Mrs. Anne W. Kenny

Mr. and Mrs. George L. Mahoney

Wallace B. and Tina B. Millner

Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth M. Perry

June and Chuck Rayfield

George and Lisa Ruzek

Mr. Rick Sample and Ms. Celia Rafalko

Dr. Nan Taylor and Mr. Brandon Taylor

Marcia and Harry Thalhimer

Mr. and Mrs. Frank W. Webber

Anne Marie Whittemore

Ms. Cary Leigh Williams

Robert E. Rigsby

Joseph and Virginia Sandford

Mr. and Mrs. Laurens Sartoris

Mr. Brian C. Lansing and Ms. Maura L. Scott

Paul and Nancy Springman

Chris Szabo and Goenpo Dorji

Ruth and Richard Szucs

Mr. and Mrs. Richard G. Tilghman

The Weathertop Foundation

John Warkentin and Courtney Mackey

Mr. and Mrs. Marcus M. Weinstein

$2,500 - $4,999

Anonymous

Temple and Lynn Bayliss

Mr. and Mrs. Stuart W. Blain

Kerry and Joel A. Blum

Mrs. Helga A. Boyan

Mr. and Mrs. David B. Bradley

Mr. and Mrs. Arthur S. Brinkley III

GIFTS

Mr. and Mrs. John W. Ball

Dr. Michael and Mary Ball

Lisa Crutchfield and Olaf Barth

Angela P. & André S. Basmajian

Mrs. Myra T. Bennett

$250 - $499

David H. Berry

Charles and Victoria Bleick

Carolyn and Gary Bokinsky

Mr. Brett Bonda

Thomas Bowden

Joan T. Briccetti

Martin and Kimberly Brill

Lisa Caperton

Mr. Sean Carithers

Mr. and Mrs. Miles Cary, Jr.

Portia and David Chan

Col. and Mrs. Robert M. Clewell

James and Dorothy Cluverius

Jeff and Donna Coward

Stuart and Jennifer Craft

Katharine and David Crowl

Bruce Curran

Fife Family Foundation Inc.

Dr. and Mrs. Barbu A. Demian

David and Lisa Dickson

Mr. and Mrs. Michael A. Dimitriou

John & Rita Dowling

Mr. and Mrs. John Dowling

Aimee Ellington

Jon W Elvert

Dr. J. Mark Evans

Mr. and Mrs. John W. Fain

Mr. and Mrs. Leavenworth M. Ferrell II

Friends of Richmond Symphony Chorus

Dr. and Mrs. David F. Gardner

Mr. Thomas S. Gay

Mr. and Mrs. William Childs Gay

Susan Scharpf Gentry

Kevin Georgerian

Dr. Shirley Gibson

Michael Bartolf and Melanie Haimes-Bartolf

Mr. and Mrs. Peter L. Hains

Bodil H. Hanneman

Licia Haws

Laura and Mike Hinton

Roy and Loral Hoagland

Jean and David Holman

Lowrey and Beth Holthaus

David Hoover

Karen C. Howard

Bert and Carol Huszcza

Mr. and Mrs. William F. Jacobs Jr.

Mr. A. Cecil Jacobs

Dr. and Mrs. Robison B. James

Mr. and Mrs. Douglas S. Jones

Mr. and Mrs. Crawley F. Joyner III

Leslie Anne Kay

Catharine C. Kirby

Lyn and Don Kocen

Peggy Kriha Dye

Fred and Terry Laine

Maureen LaLonde

Dr. and Mrs. John Thomas Lanning

Le Lew

Mr. and Mrs. Floyd L. Lewis

Constance M. Lewis

John and Sue Anne Lewis

Elbert Lin

Mr. and Mrs. Michael Lott

John F. and Deborah A. Luther

Bernie and Jamie McDonald

Mr. and Mrs. R. Wheatley McDowell

Michael Messonnier Jr

Mrs. Lavern P. Moffat

Dr. Dawn G. Mueller

Mr. and Mrs. David Naquin

Catherine T. Neale

Bernie & Lisa Niemeier

Trudy Norfleet

Jill Parker

Ms. Sheryl Phillips

Ms. Alice Pool

Dennis H. Rainear

Mr. and Mrs. Gordon F. Rainey Jr.

Ann Reavey and Peter Gilbert

Dr. and Mrs. P. Larus Reed III

Carrie Robeson

Dr. and Mrs. James F. Robinson

Mr. Harold C. Rohrs

Joseph P. Rotella

Mary and Joe Rotella

Millicent Ruddy

Barbara Null and Dan Rusnak

Douglas Sackin and Jessica C. Adelman

Ernesto and Savon Sampson

Eve & Hagen Saville

Mr. and Mrs. Russell W. Scott

Michael Simpson

Jim and Boo Smythe

Dr. I. Norman Sporn

Mr. and Mrs. A. P. Sullivan

Ms. Elise Switz

Roger Tarpy and Jean Roberts

Griff and Amy Thomas

Tad and Sue Thompson

Ms. Judith Watson Tidd

Mr. Joshua Venne

Robert and Mary Ellen Wadsworth

Gary and Sara Wallace

Michèle and John Walter

Harriette Will

Ann L. Williams

Mr. William D. Wittorff

Anne Woodard

Mr. and Mrs. P W Young

Dr. and Mrs. Wilhelm Zuelzer

The Richmond Symphony’s Rennolds Society acknowledges those committed individuals who include the Symphony in their estate plans. These donors carry forward the legacy of support established by Edmund A. Rennolds Jr. and his wife Mary Anne Rennolds, their family and other benefactors. It’s easy to join the Rennolds Society – enjoy special events for members and help secure the future of the orchestra.

For information, please contact Trish Poupore, Richmond Symphony Foundation Donor Relations Director, tpoupore@richmondsymphony.com.

Anonymous (6)

Tom and Elizabeth Allen

Dr. Virginia A. Arnold*

Joanne Barreca and Vic Bouril*

Mr. Matthew T. Blackwood*

Nancy* and Lewis T.* Booker

Laura E. McBride Box and Richard E. Box

Mrs. Caroline Y. Brandt

Drs. Meta and John Braymer

Dr.* and Mrs. O. Christian Bredrup, Jr.

Miss Goldie H. Burkholder*

Ann Turner Burks

Mrs. Royal E. Cabell, Jr.*

Stephen and Claire Capel

Miss Phyllis Cartwright*

Neal Cary

The Rev. Dr. Vienna Cobb-Anderson

Miss Hannah Lide Coker*

Lucille B.* and Robert O.* Cole.

Waverly M. Cole*

Dr. John R. Cook*

Janet C. Coon

Don Creach and Karen Raschke

Charles “Chuck” Dabney*

Elizabeth R. and Ellis M.* Dunkum

Emma Gray Emory* and Howard McCue, Jr.*

Ruth and James* Erb

Marilyn Lipsitz Flax and Robert L. Flax

Mark Flynn and Sue Rowland

Mrs. Suzanne Franke*

Lisa C. Fusco

The Honorable Barbara J. Gaden

Martin and Kathleen Gary

Charitable Fund

Ross S. Gibson Jr.*

Mrs. Ross S. Gibson Sr.*

Jane and Jim Hartough

Mr. and Mrs. Robert E. Hill

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Jefferson III

Glen and Marlene Jones

Lawrence Ryan Jones and Mary Lynn Jones

Frank* and Elinor Kuhn

Celia K. Luxmoore and David J. Baker

Jane S. and James T. Lyon*

Dr. Edgar E. MacDonald*

John B. Mann

Bob* and Mary Coleman* Martin

Ms. Sarah Maxwell*

Emma Gray Emory* and Howard McCue, Jr.*

Mrs. John H. McDowell*

David A. and Charlotte A. McGoye

Mr. Dana E. McKnight

Lynn and Pierce* McMartin

Pate and Bill Mears

Mr.* and Mrs.* William Read Miller

Virginia B. and A. Scott Moncure

Gerald Morgan, Jr.*

J. Dabney and Betty Booker Morriss

Mr.* and Mrs.* Johnson C. Moss, Jr.

Margaret I * and Walter J.* O’Brien, Jr.

James M.* and Lucia M. O’Connell

Mrs. Hunter R. K. Pettus

G. V. Puster, Jr.

Mrs. Gordon C. Raab *

June and Chuck Rayfield

Mr. and Mrs. Charles L. Reed, Jr.

Edmund A. Rennolds, Jr.*

Mr. and Mrs. W. Taylor Reveley III

Robert E. Rigsby

David B. Robinson, CPA

Lisa and Leon Roday

T. Raysor Salley, Jr.*

Rick Sample

Eric L. Schellenberger and Joan M. Spyhalski

Mrs. Elizabeth G. Schneider*

Mr. Brian C. Lansing and Ms. Maura L. Scott

Lawson and Joanne Sherman

Mr. and Mrs. Donald E.* Steeber

Marcia and Harry Thalhimer

Mr.* and Mrs. Charles G. Thalhimer Sr.

Mrs. Nancy White Thomas*

Rebecca R. Trader

Dr. E. Randolph Trice*

Dr. John R. Warkentin

Butch and Ludi Webber

Robert H. Welch*

Perry A. Weyner*

Mr. George Wheeler and Mrs. Lucrezia Wheeler Leisinger

Cary Leigh WIlliams

Dr. Elisabeth M. Wollan

Cheryl G. and Henry A.* Yancey, Jr., M.D.

John and Bucci Zeugner

*Deceased

RICHMOND SYMPHONY ENDOWMENT

We are deeply grateful for gifts to the Richmond Symphony Endowment, which provide a solid foundation for the orchestra. The endowment provides an ongoing source of income to ensure its financial stability well into the future. Richmond Symphony Foundation recognizes endowment gifts in the playbill for the following periods of time: $.5 million or more – 25 years; $100,000 to $499,999 – 15 years; $25,000 to $99,999 – 5 years; $5,000 - $24,999 – 2 years; less than $5,000 – 1 year.

We have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this list. If, however, there should be an omission or error, we express our sincere regret and ask that you bring it to our attention by phoning (804) 788-4717, x 115

$500,000 +

Anonymous

The Cabell Foundation

Mr.* and Mrs. Ellis M. Dunkum

Dr. William Jack Frable

The Mary Morton Parsons Foundation

Mr. and Mrs. Jose L. Murillo

James L.* and Lucia M. O’Connell

Mr.* and Mrs. Hays T. Watkins

$250,000 - $499,999

Nancy B Booker Charitable Trust

Mr.* and Mrs. Ellis M. Dunkum

Cecil R. and Edna S. Hopkins Family Foundation

Mr. and Mrs. Robert E. Hill

The Windsor Foundation Trust

Mrs. John H. McDowell*

Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth M. Perry

Robert E. Rigsby

Mr. and Mrs. Richard M. Smith

Mr. George Wheeler and Mrs. Lucrezia Wheeler Leisinger

$5,000 - $24,999

Anonymous (2)

Mr. and Mrs. Arthur S. Brinkley III

Mr. and Mrs. Robert L. Chewning

Nico de León

Mr. and Mrs. D. Brennen Keene

Christopher W. Lindbloom and Nancy G. Powell

Chris and Tara Matthews

Roger Neathawk and Chuck Miller

June and Chuck Rayfield

Taylor and Helen Reveley

Mr. David Robinson

Bob and Anna Lou Schaberg Foundation

Ruth and Richard Szucs

Veronica and Jerry Wauford

Ms. Anne Marie Whittemore

Ms. Mary Denny Wray

IN HONOR OF JEN ARNOLD

Kirsten E. Franke

IN HONOR OF BILLY BAITES, RS BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Bob Combs

IN HONOR OF KEVIN BARGER

Mrs. Barbara T. Baker

$100,000 - $249,999

Mr. Matthew T. Blackwood*

Esther Bunzl*

Foundation Source

Mr. and Mrs. Stephen M. Goddard

Mr. and Mrs. James B. Hartough

Mr. William Urban and Mrs. Anne Kenny-Urban

The Linhart Foundation

Wallace B. and Tina B. Millner

Mr. Gerald Morgan Jr.*

Robins Foundation

Marcia and Harry Thalhimer

Mr. and Mrs. Frank W. Webber

Bucci and John Zeugner

$25,000 - $99,999

Anonymous (3)

Meta and John Braymer

Dr.* and Mrs. O. Christian Bredrup, Jr.

Mr. J. Alfred Broaddus Jr.

Mr. and Mrs. Philip P. Burks Jr.

David and Karen Carter

Mr. Ralph R. Crosby, Jr.

Herndon Foundation

Mr. and Mrs. Joseph A. Jennings III

Mrs. Anne W. Kenny

Steve and Kathie Markel

Read F. and Virginia W. McGehee

Mary Lloyd and Randy Parks

Mr. William H. Schwarzschild III

Wallace and Mary Gray Stettinius

Mrs. Charles G. Thalhimer Sr.*

Tilghman Family Foundation

The Weathertop Foundation

VAMAC, Inc.

Dr. John R. Warkentin

$5,000 - $24,999

IN HONOR OF MASON BATES

Angela and André Basmajian

IN HONOR OF MARY BOODELL

Angela and André Basmajian

IN HONOR OF MARGARET AND J. ALFRED BROADDUS, JR.

Angela and André Basmajian

IN HONOR OF PRISCILLA BURBANK

Mr. and Mrs. Gregory B. Robertson

IN HONOR OF ALANA CARITHERS

Angela and André Basmajian

IN HONOR OF CATHERINE CARY

Angela and André Basmajian

IN HONOR OF NEAL CARY

Angela and André Basmajian

David and Kimberly Terzian

IN HONOR OF POLLY KITTRELL

CHRISTIAN

Sandra and John Christian

IN HONOR OF VICTORIA CHUNG

Kirsten E. Franke

IN HONOR OF TOM & MARGI

E. DISHAROON

Margaret M. Disharoon Charitable

Lead Trust

RICHMOND SYMPHONY ENDOWMENT

Up to $4,999

Anonymous

Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin C. Ackerly Jr.

Mr. Stu W. Blain

Mr. and Mrs. David H. Crighton

Glen and Marlene Jones

Mr. and Mrs. Ryan Lannan

Dr. and Mrs. Richard L. Morrill

Mr. Thomas Schneider

Mrs. Christine E. Szabo

Mark W. and Kristin P. Wickersham

Mrs. Susy Yim

*Deceased

IN HONOR OF AMIE ERWIN

Pollie Barden

IN HONOR OF ALYSSA EVANS

Angela and André Basmajian

IN HONOR OF DAVID FISK

Ms. Maureen A. Neal

IN HONOR OF DAVID FISK AND ANNE O’BYRNE

Angela and André Basmajian

IN HONOR OF DR. ERIN FREEMAN

Ed Alexander

Ben and Andrea Almoite

Jan Altman

Richard Axtell

Ms. Barbara L. Baker

Jake Barger

Kevin and Beth Barger

Jim Bennett

Elaina Brennan

Hailey Broyles

Mr. and Mrs. Robert A. Carle

Mr. and Mrs. David Carter

Linda and Blake Castle

Ms. Erin Clapp

Ms. Leigh Anne Clary

David Cooley and Jessica Jordan

Victoria Cottrell

Ms. Lauren Crapanzano

Mr. Donald L. Creach and Ms. Karen A.

Raschke

Pamela Cross

Shirley Diggs

Aimee Ellington

Jane Kornegay Eng and Carl J. Eng

Kathryn Rawley Erhardt

Anonymous

JD and Donna Finney

Ms. Rachel E. Fish

Sharon B. Freude

Lisa C. Fusco

TRIBUTE GIFTS IN HONOR

Ed Galloway

Sarah George

Amanda Halverson

Mr. and Mrs. William Harper

Cynthia Hickman

Christopher Hinkle

Roy and Loral Hoagland

Don Irwin and Stoner Winslett

Mr. and Mrs. Zachary W. James

Daniel Kobb

Ms. Nina Lankin

Ashley Larson

Mr. and Mrs. Dustin Love

Gail and James Lyddane

Mrs. Leslie Maloney

William N. Marshall

Judy Mawyer

Martin McFadden

Melisse Menchel

Reverend and Mrs. William L. Miller

Lucy Wagner Mitzner

Mr. and Mrs. Robert B. Moffett, Jr.

Mr. and Mrs. Robert B. Moffett, Jr.

Mr. Chris E. Nixon and Ms. Faith A.

Alejandro

Charles H. O’Neal

Kenna and John Payne

Mr. Scott Poxon

Dr. G. V. Puster Jr. and Dr. Martha Schulman

Mr. and Mrs. James L. Rakes

Lynne and Steve Read

Patricia Reddington

Mr. and Mrs. Daniel L. Riddle

Henry and Cliona Robb

Dr. William B. Roberts and Mr. David W. Hoover

Harley and James Romanik-Jones

Craig and Patty Ross

Charlotte Rowe

Mr. Rick Sample and Ms. Celia Rafalko

Mr. and Mrs. Laurens Sartoris

Ms. Samantha P. Sawyer

Allison and Matthew Schutzer

TRIBUTE GIFTS IN HONOR

Jayne Sneed

Alexei Staruk

Mr. and Mrs. Michael J. Storti

Ruth & Richard Szucs

Jon and Pam Teates

Roy and Jane Terry

Janet E. Tice

Aaron Todd

Mr. and Mrs. Paul C. Tuttle

Ann and Dave Voss

Robert and Mary Ellen Wadsworth

Darlene Walker Temple

Colby and Emily Anderson Walls

Michele Wittig

Mr. Stephen Wright

Allison Yablonski

Charles Kelly Zbinden

IN HONOR OF BARBARA GADEN

Mrs. Maggie Georgiadis

IN HONOR OF CHERYL GODDARD

Jennifer and Jack McCarthy

IN HONOR OF SUE ANNE KLINEFELTER Anonymous

IN HONOR OF FRANK* AND ELINOR KUHN

Maria Elena Gallegos

IN GRATITUDE FOR THE LABOR OF LOVE IN CREATING THE UPSEMINARY CERTIFICATE!

Mr. Romulo Alejandro

IN HONOR OF GEORGE MAHONEY

Mr. Rick Sample and Ms. Celia Rafalko

IN HONOR OF JUDY MAWYER

Angela and André Basmajian

IN HONOR OF JASON MCCOMB

Angela and André Basmajian

IN HONOR OF ASHLEY MOORE

Mr. and Mrs. J. Alfred Broaddus Jr.

IN HONOR OF VALENTINA PELEGGI

Anonymous

Mr. Henry Ayon and Ms. Paula Desel

David Fisk and Anne O’Byrne

Mr. and Mrs. Richard Kowalski

Mr. and Mrs. John L. Walker III

John Warkentin and Courtney Mackey

Isabella G. Witt

Mrs. Henry A. Yancey, Jr.

IN HONOR OF TRISH POUPORE

Angela and André Basmajian

IN HONOR OF FELIX REN

Kirsten E. Franke

IN HONOR OF RICHMOND SYMPHONY CHORUS

Maria Elena Gallegos

IN HONOR OF RICK SAMPLE

Angela and André Basmajian

IN HONOR OF STEVEN SCHMIDT

Angela and André Basmajian

IN HONOR OF MOLLY SHARP

Angela and André Basmajian

Maria Elena Gallegos

IN HONOR OF THE SINGERS OF THE RICHMOND SYMPHONY CHORUS

Andrew J. Dolson and Elizabeth C. Manning

IN HONOR OF SCHUYLER SLACK

Regina and Jim Derzon

IN HONOR OF THE SYMPHONY MUSICIANS AND STAFF

Ms. Sharon Fuller

IN HONOR OF THE CHARLES TROXELL

FAMILY

Mr. and Mrs. E. Jackson Luck

IN HONOR OF RUSSELL WILSON

Angela and André Basmajian

IN HONOR OF MARY DENNY WRAY

George Scott

IN HONOR OF SUSY YIM

Angela and André Basmajian

IN MEMORY OF TED BENNETT

Mrs. Myra T. Bennett

IN MEMORY OF NANCY B. BOOKER

Miss Eugenia H. Borum

IN MEMORY OF PEGGY BOYD

Jay and Lynne Headley

Sara Hunt

George Keen III and Elizabeth Keen

J. Mark and Paula Miller

Carol and Jack Rasnic

Richmond Symphony League

Sherri Sledd

IN MEMORY OF DR. BREDRUP

Sally M. Maynard

IN MEMORY OF MRS. FAITH SUSAN CROKER

Sean Collins

Colin McLetchie

Kate Powell

IN MEMORY OF MARSHALL H. EARL JR.

Nachman-Marks Foundation Trust

Alfred and Meredith Scott

Mrs. Henry A. Yancey, Jr.

IN MEMORY OF DR. JAMES B. ERB

Lynne and Steve Read

Jon and Pam Teates

Angela and André Basmajian

IN MEMORY OF SUZANNE BERWIN FRANKE

Mrs. Myra T. Bennett

Mr. and Mrs. Philip P. Burks Jr.

Dorothy R Figg

Mrs. Elinor Kuhn

Sheila Leckie

Mary U McNeer

Marcia and Harry Thalhimer

Delores I Thompson

Veronica and Jerry Wauford

Richmond Symphony League

“The Lunch Bunch”

Kirby Carr

Nancy Farinholt

Susan Frazer

Peggy Golden

Billie Harwood

Susan Isenberg

Elaine Loftin

Maybeth Osmun

Cathy Poole

Debbie Solyan

Rebecca Wall

IN MEMORY OF SAM HOLLAND

Roy T. Matthews

IN MEMORY OF CORA WILLIS HONTS

Megan Duguay

In Memory of Frank Kuhn

Sheila Leckie

Richmond Symphony League

Marcia and Harry Thalhimer

Veronica and Jerry Wauford

IN MEMORY OF J.H. “BUDDY” KUHNS

Janice Kuhns

Diane and Jim Stone

IN MEMORY OF CAROL LEEDES

Dawn Barber

TRIBUTE GIFTS IN MEMORY

IN MEMORY OF MIKE MAUPIN

Read F. and Virginia W. McGehee

IN MEMORY OF DR. J. GARY MAYNARD AND FLORENCE R. GIVENS

Sally M. Maynard

IN MEMORY OF JOANNE MELDER

Diane Melder

IN MEMORY OF DR. JAY NOGI

Mrs. Sandi Nogi

IN MEMORY OF ALAN PATERSON

Debra Sampson

Mr. and Mrs. Robert J. Spiers Jr.

IN MEMORY OF FRANK RAYSOR

Jane L. Bunnell

IN MEMORY OF NED RENNOLDS

Anonymous

IN MEMORY OF NED AND MARY ANNE RENNOLDS

Mr. and Mrs. Hatley N. Mason III

IN MEMORY OF JOHANNA DIGESU SPIERS

Marsha Moseley

IN MEMORY OF THERESA STAPLES

Anne Marie Fontaine

IN MEMORY OF HAYS T. WATKINS

Marcia and Harry Thalhimer

IN MEMORY OF LOU WILSON

Angela and André Basmajian

RICHMOND SYMPHONY LEAGUE GIFTS OF MERIT

GIFTS OF $5,000+

Pre Con, Inc.

Chuck and June Rayfield

Penny Tuthill

Cheryl Yancey

GIFTS OF $1,000 - $4,999

Avery Point by Erickson Senior Living

Joanne Barreca

David and Julie Brantley

Mr. & Mrs. Geoffrey Dean Cahill

Chesterfield Auto Parts

Faye W. Holland

Terry N. and Cheryl Keller

Elinor and Frank* Kuhn

Midlothian Tennis Club

Veronica and Jerry Wauford

Matthew and Susan Williams

Wills Financial Group

GIFTS OF $300 - $999

Active Medicare Solutions

Catena Armstrong

Myra T. Bennett

Ann and Paul Bolesta

Kelly and Collins Doyle

Alison Wood Eckis

Maria Gallegos

Johnson Childress

Connelly Financial Services

Hoover & Strong

Jason and Jennifer Keller

Liberty Homes, Inc.

*Deceased

Malcolm Burn CHOREOGRAPHER

A New Zealand native, retired from Richmond Ballet in 2022 after 35 years with the organization and is now an Artistic Associate Emeritus. During his 25-year dancing career, he performed in companies such as London Festival Ballet, The Royal New Zealand Ballet, The National Ballet of Zimbabwe, Ballet West, and P.A.C.T. Ballet in South Africa where he won the Ivan Soloman Award for Best Male Dancer in 1973, 1976, and 1980. A Richmond Ballet company dancer from 1987 to 1993, Mr. Burn remains fondly remembered for his principal roles in full-length ballets, for the memorable works created on him, and especially for his riveting portrayal of “Death” in The Green Table. He became a Company ballet master upon retirement from dancing with Richmond Ballet and was named an Artistic Associate in 1998. As Artistic Associate, Mr. Burn re-staged many of the classic fulllength ballets and choreographed his own versions of Romeo & Juliet and Cinderella, as well as other shorter pieces including Pas Glazunov and A Tribute. Prior to coming to Richmond Ballet, Mr. Burn was co-director of Ballet Arizona. He is currently a repetiteur for The John Butler Foundation.

Katerina Burton SINGER

American vocalist Katerina Burton, acclaimed for her “rich and warm” singing (Opera Wire) is returning to Washington National Opera for the 2021-2022 season as a Cafritz Young Artist. She recently made her debut as a Gerdine Young Artist with Opera Theatreof Saint Louis in the roles of Verna, Young Lovely, and Evelyn in the world premiere of Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up In My Bones. Burton completed her first engagement at The Metropolitan Opera, hand-selected as an ensemble member for their new production of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess in the 2019-2020 season.

Reflecting on her versatility, Burton was able to share her passion for art song repertoire when she was selected as a participant in Marilyn Horne’s “The Song Continues” masterclass series at Carnegie Hall in 2018. She was also a Resident Artist with Baltimore Musicales, an arts organization that focuses on bringing song to the Baltimore community and breaking traditional barriers between performers and audiences. Her capabilities in the art of song and operatic repertoire have earned her much praise, having performed such notable roles as Mrs. Grose in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw, Lola Markham in Douglas Moore’s Gallantry, the title role in Puccini’s Suor Angelica, and Erste Dame in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte.

Burton has demonstrated success as a competitor and has received numerous accolades which include being chosen by the Gerda Lissner Foundation for their Young Artist Vocal Institute concert series. She was also selected as a finalist in Annapolis Opera’s 29th Annual Vocal competition and awarded the Col. Harry Lindauer and Carrie Kellogg Ray Award. She won 1st prize in the Shirley Rabb Winston Voice Competition for the D.C. Chapter of the National Society of Arts and Letters and is the recipient of first prize in the Friedmann-Gordon Music Competition, the Sidney Lieberman Music Competition, and received an Encouragement Award for the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Mid-Atlantic Region.

Burton completed her graduate studies at The Juilliard School under the tutelage of Robert C. White, Jr. She is a proud recipient of the Novick Career Advancement Grant, as well as the Gaddes Career Award presented by Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.

Michelle Cann PIANO

Lauded as “technically fearless with…an enormous, rich sound” (La Scena Musicale), pianist Michelle Cann made her orchestral debut at age fourteen and has since performed as a soloist with prominent orchestras such as the Atlanta and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestras, The Cleveland Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony, and The Philadelphia Orchestra.

Ms. Cann’s 2022-23 season includes an appearance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, return engagements with the Cincinnati and New Jersey symphonies, and debut performances with the Baltimore, National, New World, Seattle, and Utah symphonies. She makes her debut at Carnegie Hall with the New York Youth Symphony and performs recitals in New Orleans, Little Rock, Sarasota, Toronto, and Washington, D.C.

A champion of the music of Florence Price, Ms. Cann performed the New York City premiere of the composer’s Piano Concerto in One Movement with The Dream Unfinished Orchestra in July 2016 and the Philadelphia premiere with The Philadelphia Orchestra and Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin in February 2021, which the Philadelphia Inquirer called “exquisite.” She has also performed Price’s works for solo piano and chamber ensemble for prestigious presenters such as Caramoor, Chamber Music Detroit, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, San Francisco Performances, and Washington Performing Arts.

Ms. Cann is the recipient of the 2022 Sphinx Medal of Excellence, the highest honor bestowed by the Sphinx Organization, and the 2022 Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award. Embracing a dual role as performer and pedagogue, Ms. Cann frequently teaches master classes and leads residencies. She has served on the juries of the Cleveland International Piano Competition and at the Music Academy of the West. She has also appeared as cohost and collaborative pianist with NPR’s From The Top

Ms. Cann studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Curtis Institute of Music, where she serves on the piano faculty as the inaugural Eleanor Sokoloff Chair in Piano Studies.

Courtney Collier DANCER

Courtney was raised in Northern Virginia and at the age of 16 moved to Connecticut to start her professional training at the Nutmeg Ballet Conservatory. After a year, she accepted the offer to train at the Houston Ballet, then returned to Virginia two years later and accepted a traineeship at Richmond Ballet. This is Courtney’s second season with RBII, Richmond Ballet’s second company.

Photo Steven Mareazi Willis

Juan Pablo Contreras COMPOSER

Born 1987, in Guadalajara, Mexico, Contreras is a Latin GRAMMY®nominated composer who combines Western classical and Mexican folk music in a single soundscape. His works have been performed by 40 major orchestras in the United States, Mexico, Austria, Slovakia, Colombia, Spain, Argentina, and Venezuela. He is the winner of the 2023 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Music and is celebrated as the first Mexican-born composer to sign a record deal with Universal Music, serve as Sound Investment Composer with Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and win the BMI William Schuman Prize.

www.juanpablocontreras.com

Héctor del Curto BANDONEONIST

Praised by the New York Times as a “splendid player,” Grammy-winning musician, composer, recording artist and educator Héctor Del Curto is one of the world’s most sought–after bandoneonists. He has performed with many renowned artists across musical genres, and appeared with the world’s leading orchestras, including the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Saint Louis Symphony, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra.

Mr. Del Curto’s recent engagements include a recorded performance of Piazzolla’s bandoneon concerto Aconcagua with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Maestro Thomas Wilkins, a performance of Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires with the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, and a performance with the Portland Symphony Orchestra, which included Del Curto’s composition, Paris to Cannes. His 2022-2023 season highlights include performances with the Richmond Symphony Orchestra with his quintet and his son Santiago and a recording of his commissioned work, Trace of Time with the Apollo Chamber Players.

Buenos Aires-born Del Curto is a fourth-generation bandoneonist who won the title “Best Bandoneon Player Under 25” in Argentina at age 17, and was subsequently invited to join the orchestra of the legendary Osvaldo Pugliese, the “Last Giant of Tango”. In 1998, Mr. Del Curto became music director of Forever Tango, a Broadway hit that continues to tour the world. Soon after, he founded the Eternal Tango Orchestra, a ten–piece ensemble that debuted at New York’s Lincoln Center, as well as the Héctor Del Curto Tango Quintet. Both are featured on his self-produced albums, Eternal Piazzolla and Eternal Tango, which were profiled by BBC News and Public Radio International.

Mr. Del Curto has appeared on recordings with such artists as Osvaldo Pugliese, Astor Piazzolla, Paquito D’Rivera, Tito Puente, and Plácido Domingo. As part of the Pablo Ziegler Trio, he received a 2018 Grammy award for Jazz Tango.

Dedicated to the education, outreach, and the preservation of tango, Mr. Del Curto co-founded the Stowe Tango Music Festival in 2014, and continues to serve as its artistic director. The premier tango music festival in the United States, it draws the most talented tango musicians and dancers, as well as fans, from all over the globe. He also produced the festival’s awarding-winning album: Live at the 2016 Stowe Tango Music Festival.

Lauren Decker SINGER

Rising star, Lauren Decker, possesses a booming contralto with “amber low notes” that is in a league of its own. She is lauded for “pouring out a dark, chocolatey sound with a plushness of tone and amplitude of voice rarely heard in a young singer”.

Ms. Decker most recently covered the role of Erda in Das Rheingold and Siegfried, 1st Norn in Götterdämmerung, and performed Schwertleite in Die Walküre as a part of David Pountney’s “brilliantly imaginative”, new Ring Cycle at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Lauren made her Lyric Opera debut as Third Lady in Die Zauberflöte and went on to perform as Jade Boucher in Dead Man Walking, First Maid in Elektra, Inez in Il trovatore, Enrichetta di Francia in I puritani, and Annina in La traviata. While there, she also covered the roles of Madame de la Haltière in Massenet’s Cendrillon, Hécuba/Anna in Les Troyens, and Marthe Schwertlein in Faust. Outside of the mainstage, Lauren was seen as Miss Todd in The Old Maid and the Thief at the Grant Park Music Festival.

In summer 2019, Ms. Decker made a triumphant debut with the San Francisco Symphony in Elgar’s Sea Pictures, a signature work for her. She has also performed in concert with the South Dakota Symphony in Mahler 8, the Apollo Chorus/Elmhurst Symphony in the Verdi Requiem, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and the Harare International Festival of the Arts in Zimbabwe.

Additional roles in her repertoire include Ulrica from Un ballo in maschera, Principessa in Suor Angelica, Azucena in Il trovatore, and Dame Quickly in Falstaff.

Lauren was a quarterfinalist in the 2019 Operalia competition in Prague. She is a recent recipient of the Richard F. Gold career grant and was a national semifinalist in the 2018 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, having previously been a two-time recipient of an Encouragement Award at their Upper Midwest Region. Winner of the 2019 Edith Newfield Scholarship from the Musician’s Club of Women of Chicago and 2018 Lola Fletcher scholarship in voice with the American Opera Society of Chicago, Decker has been featured in the Harris Theater’s Beyond the Aria series alongside Christine Goerke and Eric Owens and, later, Michael Fabiano and Zachary Nelson.

In addition to her four year tenure at the Ryan Opera Center, Decker has participated in the Britten-Pears Program at Snape Maltings, United Kingdom, Dolora Zajick’s Institute for Young Dramatic Voices, the American Wagner Project (Washington, D.C.) and the Georg Solti Accademia di Bel Canto (Italy). The Wisconsin native holds a B.F.A. in vocal performance from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She currently resides in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with her wife and their pets.

Michael Duncan DANCER

Michael is originally from Atlanta, Georgia where he began his dance training at the age of 6. He trained at Georgia Metropolitan Dance Theatre in Marietta, Georgia until the age of 17. In 2019 he was invited to further his dance training with the Cincinnati Ballet in their Professional Training Division on scholarship. He studied at Cincinnati Ballet for 3 years working closely alongside the company. Michael joined Richmond Ballet this season as an RBII Apprentice.

María Dueñas VIOLIN

Spanish violinist María Dueñas beguiles audiences with the breathtaking array of colours she draws from her instrument. Her technical prowess, artistic maturity and bold interpretations have inspired rave reviews, captivated competition juries, and secured invitations to appear with many of the world’s leading orchestras and conductors.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung has hailed the “freedom and joyous individuality” of her playing, while The Strad described her rising-star status as “seemingly unstoppable” after she won a whole series of international violin competitions. Not least among these was her livestreamed run to victory at the 2021 Menuhin Violin Competition here in Richmond, at which she won not only the first prize and audience prize, but also a global online following and the loan of a golden-period Stradivarius from Jonathan Moulds’ private collection.

María signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon in September 2022 and will open her DG discography with Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. Recorded in Vienna with the Wiener Symphoniker and Manfred Honeck and featuring the violinist’s own cadenzas, her debut album will be released in May 2023.

A multi-faceted musician, Dueñas became fond of composing after she started writing cadenzas for Mozart’s violin concertos. A solo piano piece, Farewell, was awarded a prize in the 2016 “Von fremden Ländern und Menschen” Competition for Young Composers. Recorded by Evgeny Sinaiski, it was transformed into a music video filmed during the pandemic.

A dedicated chamber musician, María has performed with baritone Matthias Goerne and pianist Itamar Golan, among other artists. She has also premiered several works written for and dedicated to her by the late Catalan composer Jordi Cervelló, including the Milstein Caprice.

Her competition victories began with the 2017 Zhuhai International Mozart Competition and 2018 Vladimir Spivakov International Violin Competition. In addition to her success in the Menuhin Competition, 2021 saw her win first prize at the Getting to Carnegie Competition, the Grand Prize at the Viktor Tretyakov International Violin Competition, and the career

advancement prize at the Rheingau Music Festival. She was also named as a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist 2021-23.

Last season she gave her first appearances with, among others, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Oslo Philharmonic under Manfred Honeck, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Domingo Hindoyan. Dueñas also made her debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel at the Hollywood Bowl in August 2021 and joined them again in May 2022 to give the world premiere of Gabriela Ortiz’s violin concerto Altar de cuerda, of which she is the dedicatee, at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Damien Geter COMPOSER

A celebrated composer, Damien infuses classical music with various styles from the Black diaspora. His growing body of work includes chamber, vocal, orchestral, and full operatic works. Recent highlights include commissions Cantata for a Hopeful Tomorrow for The Washington Chorus, Invisible for Opera Theater Oregon, The Justice Symphony for the University of Michigan, Buh-roke for the Portland Baroque Orchestra, and String Quartet No. 1, Neo-Soul for All Classical Portland and On-Site Opera. His piece 1619 appeared with On Site Opera recently as part of their presentation “What Lies Beneath.”

Damien made his Metropolitan Opera debut as the Undertaker in the Grammy Award-winning production of Porgy and Bess. Other credits include: Angelotti in Tosca with Portland Opera, Sam in Trouble in Tahiti with the Reno Symphony, the title role in Errollyn Wallen’s Quamino’s Map with Chicago Opera Theatre, bass soloist in Darrell Grant’s Sanctuaries, and the bass soloist in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony for the Richmond Symphony. Composition premieres in 2022 include his large work, An African American Requiem, with Resonance Ensemble and the Oregon Symphony and I Said What I Said for Imani Winds. Damien looks forward to his second opera, Holy Ground, premiering this summer at the Glimmerglass Festival.

Tito Muñoz CONDUCTOR

Praised for his versatility, technical clarity, and keen musical insight, Tito Muñoz is internationally recognized as one of the most gifted conductors on the podium today. Now in his ninth season as the Virginia G. Piper Music Director of The Phoenix Symphony, Tito previously served as Music Director of the Opéra National de Lorraine in France, as well as Assistant Conductor positions with The Cleveland Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra and the Aspen Music Festival. Since his tenure in Cleveland, Tito has celebrated critically acclaimed successes with the orchestra, among others stepping in for the late Pierre Boulez in 2012 and leading repeated collaborations with the Joffrey Ballet, including the orchestra’s first staged performances of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring in the reconstructed original choreography of Vaslav Nijinsky.

Born in Queens, New York, Tito began his musical training as a violinist in New York City public schools. He is the winner of the Aspen Music Festival’s 2005 Robert J. Harth Conductor Prize and the 2006 Aspen Conducting Prize, returning to Aspen as the festival’s Assistant Conductor in the summer of 2007, and later as a guest conductor.

Tito made his professional conducting debut in 2006 with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, invited by Leonard Slatkin as a participant of the National Conducting Institute. That same year, he made his Cleveland Orchestra debut at the Blossom Music Festival. He was awarded the 2009 Mendelssohn Scholarship sponsored by Kurt Masur and the Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Foundation in Leipzig.

www.titomunoz.com

N’Kenge SINGER

Grammy and Emmy-nominated Songstress N’Kenge (pronounced “nuhKEN-JEE”) has been heralded by the New York Times as “a classically trained diva that can stretch from Broadway to Pop, Soul and Opera.” After making her Broadway debut in Sondheim on Sondheim, N’Kenge originated the role of Mary Wells in Motown: The Musical, which the New York Post called “ELECTRIFYING.” As a vocal soloist, N’Kenge has performed jazz, pop and opera concerts on renowned stages around the globe, such as Opera Estate in Italy, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall and Madison Square Garden and performed for presidents and dignitaries, including President Clinton and President Obama. N’Kenge has also won nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Musical for her roles in the Elton John/Tim Rice musical, Aida, and in Marion Caffey’s 3 Mo’ Divas. N’Kenge most recently starred in the Broadway revival of the Tony Award-nominated and Olivier Award-winning musical Caroline, or Change, at the legendary Studio 54. In addition, N’Kenge will star in three upcoming musicals, including one about the life of Dorothy Dandridge. She has also created and co-written a new TV series, Black Butterfly, that she is producing alongside award-winning producer Gina Goff.

Adrian Pintea VIOLIN

Romanian violinist Constantin Adrian Pintea has performed throughout Europe and the United States as a soloist and chamber music player. He began his musical studies with Ștefan Gheorghiu, a former David Oistrakh pupil, and was featured as a soloist with the Romanian National Symphony Orchestra and the Bucharest Philharmonic. Mr. Pintea won his first national prize at the age of 12 and was a prize recipient at the Jeunesse Musicales and Remember Enescu international competitions. In 2000, he was selected to appear as a soloist and chamber player at the World Exposition Summit in Hanover, Germany, followed by a tour through France and Italy with the Lyceum Strings chamber symphony.

He was accepted at The Juilliard School for his undergraduate studies under the tutelage of Lewis Kaplan. After completing his Bachelor’s degree, he was awarded the Eugenia and David Ames Concertmaster Fellowship at the Mannes School of Music and performed regularly as a chamber player in major halls such as Alice Tully, The Morgan Library and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. Mr. Pintea also participated in several music festivals, including the Mozarteum Academy in Salzburg and the Texas Music Festival, where he was a prize recipient of the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Young Artist Competition.

After completing his studies, Mr. Pintea joined the New World Symphony where he had the opportunity to serve as concertmaster under the baton of Michael Tilson Thomas and Esa-Pekka Salonen, among others. He is currently serving as the associate concertmaster of the Richmond Symphony.

Ellen Cockerham Riccio VIOLIN

Ellen Cockerham Riccio has served as Principal Second Violin of the Richmond Symphony since 2009. She has been a featured soloist with the Symphony and served as acting concertmaster from January to May 2011. Previously, she served as Principal Second Violinist in the Canton, Ohio Symphony Orchestra and in CityMusic Cleveland. Ellen’s “exquisite” performance of Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben as guest concertmaster of the Memphis Symphony in 2013 exhibited “an extraordinary range of expression,” according to the Commercial Appeal.

A native of Portland, OR, Ellen holds a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in violin performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she was a student of William Preucil, concertmaster of The Cleveland Orchestra. Ms. Cockerham has been the recipient of awards from CIM, the Kent/Blossom Music Festival, and Tanglewood Music Center.

Ellen is also the Executive Director of Classical Revolution RVA, a local nonprofit organization which seeks to integrate classical music with Richmond’s vibrant music and arts scene by performing in bars, restaurants, galleries, and other non-traditional venues. The group includes several members of the Richmond Symphony, VCU students and faculty, and local freelancers—over 200 musicians in total. Ellen has drawn on this pool of local talent to present monthly concerts at Balliceaux, an opera at Hardywood, concerts which pair classical music with other genres, and the annual Mozart Festival in Carytown. More information can be found at www.classicalrevolutionrva.com.

Ellen was chosen as one of Style Weekly’s “Top 40 Under 40” in 2014.

Inbal Segev CELLO

Inbal Segev is “a cellist with something to say” (Gramophone). Combining rich tone and technical mastery with rare dedication and intelligence, she has appeared with orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony, St. Louis Symphony and Pittsburgh Symphony, collaborating with such prominent conductors as Marin Alsop, Stéphane Denève, Lorin Maazel, Cristian Măcelaru and Zubin Mehta. Committed to reinvigorating the cello repertoire, she has commissioned new works from Timo Andres, Avner Dorman, Gity Razaz, Dan Visconti and Anna Clyne. Recorded with Alsop and the London Philharmonic for Avie Records, Segev’s 2020 premiere recording of Clyne’s new cello concerto, DANCE, was an instant success, topping the Amazon Classical Concertos chart; its opening movement was chosen as one of NPR Music’s “Favorite Songs of 2020,” receiving eight million listens on Spotify, and Segev has continued to tour extensively with the piece. At the start of the pandemic, she launched “20 for 2020,” a commissioning, recording and video project featuring 20 cutting-edge composers, including John Luther Adams, Viet Cuong and Vijay Iyer, who is also writing a concerto for Segev to premiere in and perform throughout the 2022-23 season. Her previous discography includes acclaimed recordings of the Elgar Cello Concerto, Romantic cello works, and Bach’s Cello Suites, while her popular YouTube masterclass series, Musings with Inbal Segev, has thousands of international subscribers and over two million views to date.

A native of Israel, at 16 Segev was invited by Isaac Stern to continue her cello studies in the U.S., where she earned degrees from Yale University and The Juilliard School, before co-founding the Amerigo Trio with former New York Philharmonic concertmaster Glenn Dicterow and violist Karen Dreyfus. Segev’s cello was made by Francesco Ruggieri in 1673.

Schuyler Slack CELLO

Slack has performed in orchestral, chamber music, and recital settings across the United States, Canada, Europe, and Japan. The Alexandria, VA native was appointed to the Richmond Symphony’s Kenneth and Bettie Christopher Perry Foundation Chair in 2016. Previously he held the joint position of Artist in Residence at the University of Evansville and Principal Cellist of the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra. He is also a member of the Des Moines Metro Opera Orchestra, Williamsburg Symphony, and is on the music faculty at Randolph-Macon College. He performs frequently in the cello sections of major orchestras such as The Cleveland Orchestra and the Baltimore and National Symphony Orchestras. His primary teachers were Cleveland Orchestra principal cellists Mark Kosower and Stephen Geber at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

A devoted chamber musician and lover of string quartets, Schuyler has studied with and performed alongside members of the Tokyo, Orford, Cleveland, Brentano, Guarneri and Juilliard Quartets, Alban Gerhardt, Nadia Sirota, and Donald and Vivian Weilerstein. He has performed on some of the world’s biggest stages, including Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, and the Kennedy Center Concert Hall; as well as given recitals at some of the country’s top music schools, such as the Eastman School of Music and the University of Michigan.

In 2017 he was granted artist sponsorship by the Virginia Commission for the Arts to perform recitals alongside pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute. Equally

Lidiya Yankovskaya CONDUCTOR

Lidiya Yankovskaya is a fiercely committed advocate for Slavic masterpieces, operatic rarities, and contemporary works on the leading edge of classical music. She has conducted more than 40 world premieres, including 17 operas, and her strength as a visionary collaborator has guided new perspectives on staged and symphonic repertoire from Carmen and Queen of Spades to Price and Prokofiev. Since her appointment as Elizabeth Morse and Genius Music Director of Chicago Opera Theater in 2017, Ms. Yankovskaya has led the Chicago premieres of Jake Heggie’s Moby-Dick, Rachmaninov’s Aleko, Joby Talbot’s Everest, Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta, and Adamo’s Becoming Santa Claus, as well as the world premiere of Dan Shore’s Freedom Ride. Her daring performances before and amid the pandemic earned recognition from the Chicago Tribune, which praised her as “the very model of how to survive adversity, and also how to thrive in it,” while naming her 2020 Chicagoan of the Year.

In the 2022/23 season, Ms. Yankovskaya makes a series of major orchestral debuts, including performances with Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Sacramento Philharmonic, Knoxville Symphony, and Richmond Symphony. She returns to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for their MusicNOW series, conducting a work by CSO Composer-in-Residence Jessie Montgomery. She also debuts at Santa Fe Opera in a new production of Dvořák’s Rusalka, at Staatsoper Hamburg with Eugene Onegin, and at English National Opera, conducting a new staged production of Górecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs. She leads the long-awaited world premieres of Edward Tulane at Minnesota Opera and The Life and Death(s) of Alan Turing at Chicago Opera Theater, where she also conducts the Chicago premiere of Szymanowski’s Król Roger. Ms. Yankovskaya has recently conducted Carmen at Houston Grand Opera, Don Giovanni at Seattle Opera, Pia de’ Tolomei at Spoleto Festival USA, Der Freischütz at Wolf Trap Opera, Ellen West at New York’s Prototype Festival, and Taking Up Serpents at Washington National Opera and the Glimmerglass Festival. On the concert stage, recent engagements include Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Omaha Symphony, Rhode Island Philharmonic, and Julia Wolfe’s Anthracite Fields with Bang on a Can All-Stars and The Choir of Trinity Wall Street at Carnegie Hall.

Ms. Yankovskaya is Founder and Artistic Director of the Refugee Orchestra Project, which proclaims the cultural and societal relevance of refugees through music, and has brought that message to hundreds of thousands of listeners around the world. In addition to a National Sawdust residency in Brooklyn, ROP has performed in London, Boston, Washington, D.C., and the United Nations. She has also served as Artistic Director of the Boston New Music Festival and Juventas New Music Ensemble, which was the recipient of multiple NEA grants and National Opera Association Awards under her leadership Yankovskya is also an alumna of the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship.

GENERAL INFORMATION

CONTACT

Richmond Symphony Patron Services

612 East Grace Street, Suite 401 Richmond, VA 23219 804.788.1212 x2

patronservices@richmondsymphony.com

HOURS

Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm Voicemail and email are checked 2 hours prior to concerts.

TICKET INFORMATION

• Child tickets are good for ages 3-18.

• Discounts are available for College Students with a valid student ID.

• Group discounts are available for groups of 8+. Some restrictions apply. Call Patron Services for more information.

• Subscribers may exchange tickets for free; some restrictions apply. Review your subscriber guide or contact Patron Services for more information.

A SPECIAL THANK YOU

to our ON DEMAND sponsor

This generous sponsorship allows the Richmond Symphony to make excellent quality live recordings of its concerts and provide them to the Richmond community and beyond for years to come.

Please see our website for more details on how to access this season’s concerts online. www.RichmondSymphony.com

• Single ticket buyers who feel ill or have been recently exposed to Covid-19 are asked to stay home. Please contact Patron Services prior to the performance for ticket options.

• If you are unable attend a concert contact Patron Services prior to the concert date to donate your tickets and receive a receipt for your taxes.

TICKETS & SUBSCRIPTIONS

Phone: 804.788.1212 x2

Online: richmondsymphony.com

In Person: Visit the Altria Theater box office to purchase single tickets to any Richmond Symphony concert. Tickets may also be purchased at the venue at least 1½ hours before any concert (subject to availability).

LATE SEATING

Late arrivals will be seated by ushers at an appropriate break in the music as determined by management.

COAT CHECK

The Carpenter Theatre offers a free coat check at the Concierge desk. Altria Theater has a free coat check in the ballroom downstairs. Other venues do not offer a coat check.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Feel free to take pictures without a flash during the concert and share with us on Facebook or Twitter. We ask that you turn down the brightness of your screen and stay mindful of your neighbors.

VIDEO OR AUDIO RECORDINGS

Due to copyright laws, audio and video recording devices are strictly prohibited inside the concert hall.

PLAN YOUR VISIT

Go to “Plan Your Visit” page at richmondsymphony.com or call Patron Services for information on restaurants and parking near the theater.

DONATE

Donations can be submitted online at richmondsymphony.com, by phone at 804.788.4717 x102, or mailed to the Richmond Symphony at the address above. We thank you for your support!

CONNECT

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Join the Richmond Symphony League. Be a member who supports the Richmond Symphony through fundraising, education and community involvement. Celebrate music and enjoy events.

Save the date! September 11, 2023

The Richmond Symphony League is proud to announce our 19th Designer House Taylor Estate, located on Monument Avenue

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