23/24 Spring Playbill

WELCOME

Hard to believe, but we are more than halfway through this spectacular season!

It all began in September when Gladys Knight, the very soul of Motown, joined the Richmond Symphony. We then partnered with Virginia Ballet for performances of Carmina Burana here at Wolf Trap. Concerts continued into November at Dominion Energy Center and around our community, drawing cheers from audiences. And over Thanksgiving weekend, the orchestra’s annual holiday production, Let it Snow, enchanted its largest audience ever.

The year 2024 will continue to offer highlight after highlight. This season will showcase three new commissions, each from a distinguished Virginia composer: Adolphus Hailstork, Zachary Wadsworth, and Composer-in-Residence Damien Geter. His operatic telling of the landmark case Loving vs. Virginia will be heard in 2025, in a state-wide unveiling of a three-year collaboration of Richmond Symphony and Virginia Opera.

Across this community, the Richmond Symphony can be heard at Hardywood Park Craft Brewery, Perkinson Center for the Arts, Randolph-Macon College, and St. Christopher’s School. On April 13, Marvel Studios’ classic adventure film Black Panther will unspool at the Altria Theatre, with the Richmond Symphony simultaneously performing the thrilling musical soundtrack live.

At the Carpenter Theatre at Dominion Energy Center, Valentina Peleggi and acclaimed guest conductors will lead the Richmond Symphony in music of Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Gershwin, and others, culminating in the closing concerts of the season, Verdi’s thundering Requiem on June 1 and 2. There are entertaining Pops concerts, too, including the best of Andrew Lloyd Webber, and a celebration of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue at 100.

The orchestra’s education programs continue to enrich. Five different Youth Orchestra ensembles gather to learn, rehearse, and perform. You can feel the energy of these nearly 200 enthusiastic young musicians and hear the promise of Richmond’s musical future. Valentina Peleggi has demonstrated her commitment to our community and its orchestra with her recent contract renewal, assuring her presence on the podium for the next four seasons.

Above all, it is you, the Richmond Symphony’s supportive audience, whose generosity in contributions and growing attendance keeps the music playing for all. Because of you, the Richmond Symphony’s future is secure. Thank you for all you do to make the Richmond Symphony your symphony.

Lacey Huszcza, Executive Director and Valentina Peleggi, Music Director

Photo: Chris Beasley

VISION: Changing lives through the power of music

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

Photo: James Loving

The Richmond Symphony is dedicated to joy, connection, expression and collaboration through music. Founded in 1957, the Symphony includes an orchestra of nearly 70 professional musicians and 150 members of the Richmond Symphony Chorus. The Richmond Symphony is overseen by a 30-member Board of Directors and managed by an administrative team of 35.

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 throughout central Virginia. Community festivals 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.

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.

Photo: James Loving

Valentina Peleggi

Chia-Hsuan Lin

Daniel Myssyk

Damien Geter

Symphony Board of Directors & Foundation Trustees

Richmond Symphony Musician Roster

Richmond Symphony Chorus

Administration

Annual Fund Support

Rennolds Society

Richmond Symphony Endowment Gifts

Tribute Gifts in Honor

Tribute Gifts in Memory

Richmond Symphony League Gifts of Merit

Concert details and artist biographies provided in the inserts for each concert.

2023–2024 Concert Season

The E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Series

Mozart’s Requiem , K. 626 (arr. Levin)

featuring the Choir of the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart with Three Notch’d Road Baroque

Daniel Sañez, Conductor

Friday, November 17 | 7:30 p.m. FREE tickets at richmondcathedral.org/concerts

Michael Hey, Organist

Associate Director of Music and Organist, St. Patrick’s Cathedral | New York, New York

Commonwealth Catholic Charities

Friday, October 13 | 7:30 p.m.

Monday, November 27 | 7:00 p.m. Holiday Festival of Music paid tickets via www.cccofva.org featuring the Richmond Symphony Orchestra

Trio Mediæval Friday, December 1 | 7:30 p.m.

Sacred Harp featuring Three Notch’d Road Monday, December 4 | 11:00 a.m. with free luncheon RSVP at richmondcathedral.org/concerts

Advent Lessons and Carols Friday, December 15 | 7:30 p.m. featuring the Choir of the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart

Allen Bean, Organist Friday, January 26 | 7:30 p.m. Director of Music, St. Bridget Catholic Church | Richmond, Virginia

Carina Brackin, Organist Friday, February 9 | 7:30 p.m. Associate Director of Music, St. Bede Catholic Church | Williamsburg, Virginia

Very Rev. Anthony E. Marques, Rector | Daniel Sañez, Artistic Director Free concerts are generously made possible by the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation. The Cathedral of the Sacred Heart | 823 Cathedral Place | Richmond, VA 23220 | (804) 359-5651 Concert details and updates: richmondcathedral.org/concerts

Valentina Peleggi

MUSIC DIRECTOR

Lewis T. Booker Chair

Valentina Peleggi (peh-LEJ-ee) has been Music Director of the Richmond Symphony 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 threeyear composer-in-residence program, launched conducting master classes in collaboration with local universities, and championed underrepresented composers. She sat on the jury of Menuhin Richmond 2021.

Photo: Chris Beasley

Last season, Valentina conducted a string of debuts in North America, including Dallas and Chicago symphonies, New World, and Kansas City symphonies, and Grant Park Music Festival. She will return to conduct Chicago Symphony at Ravinia in 2024. This season Valentina conducts BBC Scottish Symphony and Ulster orchestras, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, and at Teatro Colon and Arena di Verona.

Opera (especially bel canto) is a vital part of Valentina’s activity; in May 2024 she makes her debut at Seattle Opera conducting Il Barbiere di Siviglia. In 2022 she returned to Teatro Verdi di Trieste for Rigoletto, also making her debut in a new production of Piazzolla’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.

São Paulo this season to conduct an a capella concert. While acting Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Chorus, she was concurrently Resident Conductor of the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra and Music Director (responsible for Italian repertoire) of the Theatro São Pedro in São Paulo.

The first Italian woman to enter the conducting program 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 honored with the title of Associate. She furthered her studies with David Zinman and Daniele Gatti at the Zurich Tonhalle and at the Royal Concertgebouw master classes. 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 conducts with marvelous flair and precision” (The Guardian, July 2021)

Valentina released her first recording in 2021, featuring a cappella works by Villa Lobos in a new critical edition for Naxos guest edited by Valentina and performed by the São Paulo Symphony Chorus. She returns to

Valentina holds a Master 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.

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

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 (jahSHWEN) Lin delights audiences throughout the world with her trademark energy and command. Appointed Associate Conductor of the Richmond Symphony in 2016, Lin champions the transformational power of symphonic music through her inspiring concerts for all audiences. This season Lin debuts with St. Louis Symphony, Rochester Symphony (MN), Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, and Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra. She also returns to conduct the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Williamsburg Symphony, and Fort Wayne Philharmonic, and covers concerts with the New York Philharmonic.

Clarke Bustard wrote of Lin’s Brahms Fourth Symphony: “I’ve never heard a more compelling live performance than this

Photo: courtesy Lin

one.” In another performance, Lin “crafted a Tchaikovsky Fourth that dancers could have danced to,” and “fine details, tone-painting of moody atmospherics, rhythmic fluidity and abundant lyricism came through almost flawlessly.” (Letter V) Other Richmond highlights include Handel’s Messiah, Classics Series, Symphony Pops, family concerts, a side-by-side orchestra of 624 musicians and community members in “Come and Play,” a record crowd exceeding 19,000 for Richmond’s Independence Day Celebration, and a single-day ticket sales record for Star Wars: Return of the Jedi in Concert. The former 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) Her interactive programs invoke her love of collaboration with audiences; with singing, body-percussion, bell jingling, and call-andresponse all adding to the joy of experiencing live music together.

An active guest conductor, she has directed Minnesota Orchestra, Virginia Symphony, Richmond Ballet, Peninsula Music Festival Orchestra, Academy of Taiwan Strings and Taipei Philharmonic Chorus. As a cover conductor, Lin has worked with the Minnesota Orchestra, National Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, and others, with conductors such as Osmo Vänskä, Jahja Ling, Marin Alsop, Gianandrea Noseda, Stéphane Denève, and many more.

In 2019, Lin was praised as a last-minute replacement in Williamsburg’s performance of Tchaikovsky’s 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.”

An advocate for the next generation of diverse musical talent, Lin has collaborated with award-winning artists Paul Huang, Sterling Elliot, Amaryn Olmeda, Kevin Zhu, Inna

Faliks, and Eduardo Rojas. Showcasing new music that often transcends traditional classical boundaries, her list of premieres continues to grow with new works by Texu Kim, Stephen Prutsman, Zachary Wadsworth, PaviElle French, Laura Schwendinger, Steve Heitzeg, and Jennifer Jolley.

delights audiences throughout the world with her trademark energy and command.

(Virginia Gazette

)

A passionate educator, Lin has worked with university orchestras throughout Virginia, and previously served as Music Director of the Richmond Symphony Youth Orchestra, University of Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and Assistant Conductor of Opera at the CCM Spoleto Music Festival in Italy. Innovative projects during her tenure as interim Music Director of the Contemporary Youth Orchestra of Cleveland include unique collaborations with Chris Thile and Michael Stanley.

Lin began piano lessons in Taiwan at the age of three. She majored in percussion at the National Taiwan Normal University while playing with the Taipei Percussion Group, only to have a life-altering incident when she was struck by a car. After this she pursued conducting with Apo Hsu and Mark Gibson, and received her Doctorate of Orchestral Conducting at Northwestern University in Chicago with Victor Yampolsky.

Lin is married to James Ferree, Principal Horn of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.

Daniel Myssyk

ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR

Photo: courtesy Myssyk

Assistant Conductor of the Richmond Symphony, and conductor of the Richmond Symphony Youth Orchestra, CanadianAmerican conductor Daniel Myssyk (MISSik) was Music Director of the Montrealbased 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 regularly over the past years, 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 worldpremiere of Anthony Brandt’s opera, The Birth of Something, with DACAMERA in Houston. Under his leadership, three recent VCU Opera productions of The Gondoliers (2015), The Old Maid and the Thief (2012), and Hansel and 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 GRAMMY® AWARDS 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 Radio-Canada

His involvement with youth reflects a well-honed passion for music education.

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.

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.

Damien Geter

COMPOSER-IN-RESIDENCE

Damien Geter (JEE-ter) is an acclaimed composer who infuses classical music with various styles from the Black diaspora to create music that furthers the cause for social justice. His rapidly growing body of work includes chamber, vocal, orchestral, and full operatic works, with his compositions being praised for their “skillful vocal writing” (Wall Street Journal). He is Composer-in-Residence at the Richmond Symphony through the 2024-25 season, and serves as Interim Music Director and Artistic Advisor at Portland Opera, as well as the Artistic Advisor for Resonance Ensemble.

Photo: Rachel Hadiashar

In the 2023-2024 season, Des Moines Metro Opera presents the full-length world premiere of Geter’s opera, American Apollo, while Virginia Opera holds a workshop of Loving v. Virginia, a new major work co-commissioned by Virginia Opera and the Richmond Symphony, which will premiere as part of Virginia Opera’s 50th Anniversary Season in May 2025. Chicago Symphony Orchestra programmed Geter’s Annunciation, and Richmond Symphony premieres a brand-new work, Sinfonia Americana, to be conducted by Music Director Valentina Peleggi. His song cycle COTTON, commissioned by Lyric Fest, will see its New York premiere at the 92nd Street Y, starring Denyce Graves and Justin Austin. Additionally, The Recording Inclusivity Initiative recorded String Quartet No. 1 “Neo-Soul.”

Future commissions include premieres at Seattle Opera and Emmanuel Music, and world premiere operatic productions in 2024, 2025 and 2026 at the Des Moines Metro, Virginia, InSeries, and Portland Operas. Geter will also have subsequent premieres at Richmond Symphony.

Last season, COTTON was given its world premiere in Philadelphia followed by its Washington, D.C. premiere at The Kennedy Center, presented by Washington Performing Arts, and his motet was performed by Emmanuel Music. Geter also conducted his own piece, An African American Requiem, at Fort Worth Opera, plus led the performance of ABSENCE: Terence Blanchard with Portland Opera.

In 2022, Geter had six premieres as a composer: An African American Requiem, in partnership with Resonance Ensemble and Oregon Symphony; I Said What I Said for Imani Winds, co-commissioned by Anima Mundi Productions, Chamber Music Northwest, and The Oregon Bach Festival; Holy Ground for Glimmerglass Opera; Elegy for American Guild of Organists; The Bronze

Legacy for Chicago Symphony Orchestra; and the chamber version of American Apollo for Des Moines Metro Opera.

Favorite recent highlights include the commissions Cantata for a Hopeful Tomorrow for The Washington Chorus with subsequent performances at Pacific Chorale, Choral Arts Northwest, Bethune Cookman University, Northern Arizona University, Southwestern University, and Berkshire Choral International, with future performances at Minnesota Choral Artists; The Justice

“skillful vocal writing” (Wall Street Journal

)

Symphony for the University of Michigan with subsequent performances with The Washington Chorus at the Kennedy Center, and future performances at Fort Worth Opera; Buh-roke for the Portland Baroque Orchestra, which will have subsequent performances with the Seattle Symphony; Invisible for Opera Theater Oregon; and String Quartet No. 1 “Neo-Soul” for All Classical Portland and On-Site Opera. His piece 1619 also appeared with On Site Opera as part of their presentation, “What Lies Beneath.”

Geter is an alumnus of the Austrian American Mozart Festival and the Aspen Opera Center, was an Irma Cooper Vocal Competition finalist, and toured with the American Spiritual Ensemble. He is the owner of DG Music, Sans Fear Publishing. Music in Context: An Examination of Western European Music Through a Sociopolitical Lens, the book he co-authored, is available on Amazon, or from the publisher, Kendall Hunt. Find Damien at www.damiengetermusic.com

Elisabeth Muhlenfeld Wollan CHAIR

Elizabeth Cabell Jennings IMMEDIATE PAST CHAIR

Lacey Huszcza EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

William Baites

Phil Bennett

Julie Brantley

John Braymer

Ronald Crutcher

Gary Flowers

Mark Flynn

Brennen Keene

Priscilla Burbank VICE CHAIR

Brandon Taylor TREASURER

Joshua Bennett SECRETARY

Christopher Lindbloom

William Mears

Patrick Murtaugh

Bernie Niemeier

Valentina Peleggi

Kamran Raika

Leon Roday

George Ruzek

RICHMOND SYMPHONY FOUNDATION TRUSTEES

Ann T. Burks PRESIDENT

Randall S. Parks VICE PRESIDENT

Lacey Huszcza SECRETARY

David B. Bradley

J. Alfred Broaddus Jr.

Robert L. Chewning

Wendell B. Fuller

Carolyn H. Garner

Elizabeth Cabell Jennings

Marlene D. Jones

Helen Lewis Kemp

George Y. Wheeler III IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT

James B. Hartough TREASURER

Nico de León

Tara H. Matthews

David I. Meyers

Wallace B. Millner III

Richard L. Morrill

Ernesto Sampson

Anne Marie Whittemore

Elisabeth Muhlenfeld Wollan

Rick Sample ( in memoriam)

Richard Szucs

Marcia Thalhimer

John Walker

Ludi Webber

Mark Wickersham

Bucci Zeugner

violin

Daisuke Yamamoto

CONCERTMASTER

Tom & Elizabeth Allen Chair

Adrian Pintea

ASSOCIATE

CONCERTMASTER

Ellen Cockerham Riccio + PRINCIPAL SECOND VIOLIN

Myles Mocarski *

ACTING PRINCIPAL

SECOND VIOLIN

Jeannette Jang *

ACTING ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

SECOND VIOLIN

Bob & Nancy Hill Chair

Anna Bishop*

Alana Carithers

Catherine Cary

Jill Foster

Justin Gopal

Alison Hall

Timothy Judd

Susanna Klein

Stacy Matthews

Emily Monroe

Audrey Pride

Anna Rogers

Susan Spafford

Delaney Turner

Jocelyn Vorenberg

Susy Yim

RICHMOND SYMPHONY MUSICIAN

viola

Molly Sharp

PRINCIPAL

The Mary Anne Rennolds Chair

Hyo Joo Uh

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

Zsuzsanna Emödi

Wayne Graham

Stephen Schmidt

Derek Smith

Jocelyn Smith

cello

Neal Cary PRINCIPAL

Jason McComb

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

Richmond Symphony League Chair

Barbara Gaden

Adrienne Gifford-Yang

Peter Greydanus

Ryan Lannan

Schuyler Slack

Kenneth & Bettie Christopher Perry Foundation Chair

bass

Andrew Sommer + PRINCIPAL

Riley Zimmermann

ACTING PRINCIPAL

Rumano Solano

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

Kelly Syiad Ali

Peter Spaar

flute

Mary Boodell

PRINCIPAL

Jennifer Debiec Lawson

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

Catherine Broyles

piccolo

Catherine Broyles

oboe

Victoria Chung

PRINCIPAL

Kara Poling

ACTING ASSOCIATE

PRINCIPAL

english horn

Kara Poling

PRINCIPAL

clarinet

David Lemelin

PRINCIPAL

Edward Sundra

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

e clarinet

Edward Sundra

PRINCIPAL

bass clarinet

Sara Reese

bassoon

Thomas Schneider

PRINCIPAL

Felix Ren

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

contrabassoon

Nicholas Ritter

horn

Dominic Rotella

PRINCIPAL

Devin Gossett

SECOND HORN

The Lucrezia Wheeler Leisinger & George Wheeler Chair

Erin Lano

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

trumpet

Samuel Huss

PRINCIPAL

Brian Strawley + ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

Daniel Egan * ACTING ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

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

Russell Wilson

PRINCIPAL

Quincy & Anne Owen

Cole Chair

Roger Novak + on leave

* temporary appointment

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. Repertoire ranges from classical and opera to pops favorites. Conductor Erin Freeman led the chorus from 2007-2021, including performances in Richmond, Wintergreen, Carnegie Hall, and Paris, France. In 2018, the Chorus was featured in the GRAMMY®-nominated recording of the premier performance of Children of Adam by American composer Mason Bates and Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem. The Chorus is now in its 52nd active season, with performances of Carmina Burana in August at the prestigious Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts and in September in the Carpenter Theatre; the stunning Across the Line of Dreams, a work for split chorus and two conductors by Roxanna Panufnik in November a World Premiere of a new work by Richmond native, Zachary Wadsworth, in February; and the stirring Verdi’s Requiem in June, under the direction of Richmond Symphony Music Director Valentina Peleggi.

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

RICHMOND SYMPHONY CHORUS

Photo: Symphony Archives

RICHMOND SYMPHONY CHORUS

Kevin L. Barger ASSISTANT CHORUS DIRECTOR

Daniel Stipe REHEARSAL ACCOMPANIST

Barbara Batson, Carl Eng and Lisa Fusco REHEARSAL ASSISTANTS

soprano

Lauren Lexa Crapanzano

MUSIC SECTION LEADER

Faith A. Alejandro

Gabrielle Francesca Bergeret

Brittany Brooks

Hailey Broyles

Shannon Browning

Olivia Carlton

Ann Whitfield Carter

Charlene Christie

Leigh Anne Clary

Lauren Lexa Crapanzano

Erin DeMay

Liliana Dunn

Melanie Ficke

Courtnei Fleming

Claire C. Foley

Sharon B. Freude

Lisa C. Fusco

Catrina J. Garland

Sarah George

Victoria Gochez

Carrie Gregory

Jenny Hagen

Amanda Halverson

Denise R. Harding

Ashleigh Hare

Anna Hess

Cynthia Stalb Hickman

Luci Hughes

Ella Nelson Johnson

Amanda Khalil

Cammy Koch

Nina Lankin

Ashley Larson

Ashley M. Love

Leslie Maloney

Kirstin McIntosh

Morgan Merkel

Haylee Merritt

Anne Marie Mills

Eve Minter

Lucy Wagner Mitzner

Terry Moffett

Mallory Porter

Stephanie Poxon

Samantha P. Sawyer

Johanna Scogin

Gretchen Steele

Margaret Duncan Storti

Olivia Surface

Katherine Nelson-Tracey

Ann Voss

Mary Ellen Wadsworth

Madeleine Wagner

Darlene M. Walker

Emily Anderson Walls

Michelle Wittig

Allison Yablonski

alto

Kristen Melzer

MUSIC SECTION LEADER

Andrea J. Almoite

Jan Altman

Barbara Baker

Caroline Bass

Barbara C. Batson

Kerry Blum

Kadia Bradford-Rudd

Elaina F. Brennan

Sarah Capehart

Ellen Carleton

Laura Altman Carr

Linda Castle

Erin Clapp

Pamela Cross

Erin Dixon

Mary Butler Eggleston

Aimee Ellington

Kathryn R. Erhardt

Maria J. K. Everett

Jennifer Fennessey

Jasmyn Ferguson

Elizabeth Goodwin

Elizabeth Harper

Abigail Hauschild

Shannon Hooker

Tara Ingersoll

Elaine Johnson

Cynthia G. Lee

Lauren Maho

Elizabeth C. Manning

Julia Martin

Judy Mawyer

Sarah McGrath

Kristen Melzer

Melisse Menchel

Elizabeth Miller

Rhonda Morales

Kyndal Owens

Kenna R. Payne

Lynne H. Read

Pat Reddington

Jane Pulliam Riddle

Charlotte Rowe

Meaghan Rymer

Faith Sartoris

Katherine Shenk

Amanda Simon

Jayne Sneed

Mary Lou P. Sommardahl

Maureen Stinger

Wyna Taggart

Jane Koenig Terry

Janet Tice

Alexandria Vandervall

Casey Vandervall

Heather Winkle

tenor

Aaron Todd

MUSIC SECTION LEADER

Benjamin T. Almoite

Rick Axtell

Matt Barger

Isaiah Bishop

David Carter

Dennis Clark

Dane De Silva

Daniel Douglas

Ryan Dreyer

Josh Ellis

Carl J. Eng

Ed Galloway

Jody Gordon

Zachary W. James

David Lynch

Bill Marshall

Chris Nixon

Ethan Obenrader

Charles H. O’Neal

James Rakes

Henry Robb

Craig Ross

Shaandro Sarkar

Matthew Smith

McKinley Sprinkle

Adam Tecken

Aaron Todd

Steve Travers

Roger Wooldridge

bass

Martin McFadden

MUSIC SECTION LEADER

Matt Benko

Thomas Cassidy

Jarrett Cohen

David Crowell Cooley

Don Creach

Devyn Curley

Frankie Davis Daniels

Andrew J. Dolson

Martin Erb

Josh Frakes

Jacob Giancaterino

Tom Heaton

William Cloud Hicklin

David Hoover

Don Irwin

Marc Kealhofer

Daniel Kobb

John F. Luther

Martin McFadden

Douglass Moyers

W. Hunter Old

Preston Powers

Val Puster

Steve Read

William Bradley Roberts

James V. Romanik

Arnold L. Stolberg

Richard Szucs

Jon Teates

Paul C. Tuttle

Bennett Umhau

Cannon West

Stephen V. Wright

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

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Photo: Symphony Archives

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How do I learn more? Or better yet, Join! www.RlchmondSymphonyLeague.org and complete a membership form. Or Inquire at:

What kind of fundraising?

Our signature event is a Designer House generally held every other year, open for a month-many volunteer opportunities for all our members!

In alternate years, we raise funds through Fall and Spring events such as tournaments or galas. Every year, we enjoy Champagne and Chocolates, Sunday afternoon musical concerts with Symphony quartets and quintets (available to members and their guests).

We also have fun selling wine and beer at Crossroads Art Center and baked goods at Great Big Greenhouse, where we introduce children to instruments though an Instrument Petting Zoo

What sort of education and community involvement?

For over 50 years, we have sponsored and run the Student Concerto Competition, open to students from all over Virginia.

We volunteer at Discovery Concerts for school age children. Crossroads Art Center and baked goods at Great Big Greenhouse, where we introduce children to instruments though an Instrument Petting Zoo.

Stay tuned for more information about our 2024–25 Discovery Concerts!

YOUTH ORCHESTRA PROGRAM:

Youth orchestra students are back into the swing of things after a restful winter break! String Sinfonietta, Camerata Strings, Youth Concert Orchestra, and Percussion Ensemble have begun their second concert cycle after their fantastic December performance, while the Richmond Symphony Youth Orchestra is halfway through their second concert cycle, which culminates in a performance in Carpenter Theatre on March 2. In the spring, the Youth Orchestra Program continues a collaboration with VCUarts Music by coming together in concert with the Greater Richmond Youth Wind Ensemble and the Greater Richmond High School Jazz Band. You won’t want to miss these epic performances on May 13 and 14!

DISCOVERY CONCERTS:

We welcomed over 2,000 local students to The Conductor’s Spellbook, our fall Hopkins-Eggleston Discovery Concert! In February, we’ll welcome even more students for Peter and the Wolf.

YOUTH COMMUNITY STRINGS:

Our students at Youth Community Strings, who have been learning to play the violin since August, have already shown their skills in three performances! We’re looking forward to a musical spring as our second-grade students continue their progress. Special thanks to our partners at The Saint Paul’s Baptist Church.

INTERESTED IN JOINING THE YOUTH ORCHESTRA PROGRAM?

Auditions for the 2024-25 session will take place on June 8. For more information, keep an eye on RICHMONDSYMPHONYSOM.COM

Photo: Anna Mitchell

Photo: James Loving

Photo: James Loving

DAMIEN GETER COMPOSER

JESSICA MURPHY MOO LIBRETTIST

ADAM TURNER ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF VIRGINIA OPERA

DIRECTOR

On July 11, 1958, Mildred and Richard Loving were arrested for cohabitating as man and wife in violation of Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which outlawed interracial marriage throughout the Commonwealth. Facing prison sentences, the couple appealed their case up to the Supreme Court, which overturned their conviction in 1967 and set crucial national precedent regarding marriage laws in the United States.

Richmond Symphony and the Virginia Opera will partner to tell the story of this monumental trial in Loving v. Virginia, a stage opera that premiers across Virginia in the Spring of 2025. Featuring the music of Virginia composer Damien Geter and a libretto by Jessica Murphy Moo, these performances will be directed by opera legend Denyce Graves.

With Loving v. Virginia set to premiere in Spring of 2025, there is still time to join the production’s Commissioning Club, which provides members with a behind-the-scenes look at the project’s development and special access to conversations with creative leads. For more information on the Loving v. Virginia opera and the Commissioning Club. please send an email to sgrim@richmondsymphony.com

DENYCE GRAVES

@ ST. CHRISTOPHER’S SCHOOL

A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC

Saturday, April 27, 2024 • 7:30pm

Chia-Hsuan Lin, conductor

Victoria Chung , oboe

Mozart: Eine kleine Nachtmusik

Jennifer Higdon: Oboe Concerto

Stravinsky: Dumbarton Oaks

Mozart: Symphony No. 27

MOZART & SPIRITUALS

Saturday, May 18, 2024 • 7:30pm

Chia-Hsuan Lin, conductor

Daniel Stipe, piano

Dawson: Spirituals

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 17, K. 543

Schoenberg: Transfigured Night

SATURDAY FEB. 03 8:00pm

THE RESURRECTION MIXTAPE

(a FUSE production)

Steve Hackman, conductor & creator.

Fusing the music of Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur with Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony. Featuring “Hypnotize,” “Dear Mama,” “California Love,” “Keep Ya Head Up,” and more.

SATURDAY APR. 06 8:00pm

SUNDAY APR. 07 3:00pm

Music of the Americas AN AMERICAN IN PARIS

Carlos Miguel Prieto, conductor Gershwin, Revueltas, Bernstein, Ginastera and Moncayo

SATURDAY APR. 20 8:00pm

(unless stated otherwise)

SATURDAY FEB. 24 8:00pm

SUNDAY FEB. 25 3:00pm

TCHAIKOVSKY’S FIRST CONCERTO

Valentina Peleggi, conductor

Dinara Klinton, piano

Richmond Symphony Chorus Tchaikovsky, Zachary Wadsworth and Ravel

SATURDAY APR. 13 8:00pm

Marvel Studios BLACK PANTHER

Chia-Hsuan Lin, conductor

Marvel Studios’ Black Panther Live in Concert! ALTRIA THEATER

SATURDAY MAY 11 8:00pm

Andrew Lloyd Webber SYMPHONIC SUITES

Chia-Hsuan Lin, conductor

The Phantom of the Opera, Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, Cats and more

Rhapsody in Blue A GERSHWIN

TRIBUTE

Chia-Hsuan Lin, conductor

Russell Wilson, piano

A centennial salute to George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue”

ADMINISTRATION

Lacey Huszcza

Executive Director

Shacoya Henley

Accounting & Human Resources Manager

Valentina Peleggi Music Director

ADVANCEMENT & PATRON SERVICES

Christopher Stager

Director of Marketing & Sales

Lucy Frend

Graphics & Digital Marketing

Rachel Maloney

Office & Communications Assistant

Amy Buhrman

Assistant Director of Marketing & Sales

Kira Gay Hiller

Senior Manager of Patron Services & Sales

Geneva M. Knight Patron Services Coordinator

EDUCATION & COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Walter Bitner

Director of Education & Community Engagement

Anita Williams

Education Coordinator

Anna Mitchell

Education Assistant

Jennifer Tobin

Assistant Director of Education & Youth Orchestra Manager

Marcey W. Leonard Community Partnerships Manager & RSSoM Program Manager

Caitlin Barry Youth Community Strings Program Manager & Lead Instructor

ARTISTIC OPERATIONS

Matt Wilshire

Director of Artistic Planning & Orchestral Operations

Kelly Syiad Ali

Personnel Manager

Jennifer Arnold

Artistic Advisor

Matthew Triplett

Artistic Assistant

Chia-Hsuan Lin

Associate Conductor

Matt Gold

Orchestra Librarian

Joe Taylor Assistant Librarian

Gail Henshaw

Director of Finance & Administration

Aleeyah Frye

Executive & Finance Assistant

Zack Lynch

Interim Director of Advancement

Trish Poupore

Donor Relations Director, Richmond Symphony Foundation

Kiaya Smith

Assistant Director of Advancement

Scott Grim

Grants & Foundation Coordinator

Nai’lah Rowe

Donor Relations Coordinator

Daniel Myssyk

Conductor, Richmond Symphony Youth Orchestra

Sandy Goldie

Conductor, Youth Concert Orchestra

Melissa Jones

Conductor, Camerata Strings

Matt Wilson

Conductor, String Sinfonietta

Justin Alexander

Conductor, Percussion Ensemble

Dana McComb

Honors & Music Theory Instructor

Brent Bowden

Assistant Director of Operations & Production

Brent Klettke

Production & Special Events Manager

Ben Chase

Operations Assistant

The Richmond Symphony extends its sincere thanks to the following individuals, businesses, foundations and government agencies for their gifts to the annual fund. This list reflects unrestricted gifts made between January 1, 2023 and December 31, 2023 to the annual fund and at special events. We have made every effort to list names correctly. If we have made an error, please contact Kiaya Smith at 804.788.4717 ext. 102.

Lead Gifts $100,000+

Altria Group, Inc.

E. Rhodes and Leona B.

Carpenter Foundation

City of Richmond

Endeavour Legacy Foundation

Pate and Bill Mears

Virtuoso’s Circle $50,000 - $99,999

The Cabell Foundation

Chesterfield County

The Garner Family

Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth M. Perry

$25,000 - $49,999

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

Mr. and Mrs. Philip P. Burks Jr.

Dr. and Mrs. William D. Covington

Covington Travel

CultureWorks & The Arts and

Cultural Funding Consortium

Dominion Energy

Mr.* and Mrs. Ellis M. Dunkum

Genworth

Henrico County

Herndon Foundation

Mr.* and Mrs. James O’Connell

Pauley Family Foundation on behalf of Katharine & Eugene Hickok

Richmond Symphony Foundation

Richmond Symphony League

Virginia Commission for the Arts

VAMAC, Inc.

Mr. and Mrs. Frank W. Webber

Bucci and John Zeugner

Mr. and Mrs. Joseph A. Jennings III

Mr. Jose Murillo and Ms. Caroline Orlando

Moses D. Nunnally Jr.

Charitable Trust B

Reinhart Foundation Performing Arts Endowment

George and Lisa Ruzek

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

Taylor Hoffman

Conductor’s Circle $10,000 - $24,999

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas N. Allen

Mr. Joshua and Dr. Susan Bennett

The Clovelly Foundation

Louise B. Cochrane

Charitable Foundation

Community Foundation for a greater Richmond

Margaret M. Disharoon

Charitable Lead Trust

Thomas L. Disharoon

Charitable Lead Trust

The Fatherree Foundation

Mrs. Mary Fisher

Dr. William Jackson Frable

Stephen M. and Cheryl G. Goddard Family Fund of the Community Foundation

Mr. and Mrs. David Hall

Hamilton Beach Brands, Inc.

Jane and Jim Hartough

Keiter CPAs

Mrs. Anne W. Kenny

Mr. Nicomedes de León and Ms. Cecilia Barbosa

Mary and Ted Linhart

Philip Loubser Foundation

Mr. and Mrs. George L. Mahoney

Anonymous (1)

Mr. A. Marshall Acuff Jr.

Allegra Marketing, Print, Mail

Mr. Henry Ayon and Ms. Paula Desel

Mr. and Mrs. Philip H. Bennett

Allan and Margot Blank Foundation

David and Julie Brantley

Meta and John Braymer

Dr. Jennifer A. Cable and Mr. David Lingerfelt

Kevin and Ann Casey

Pete and Sandra Chase

Massey Foundation

Memorial Foundation for Children

Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust

National Endowment for the Arts

Mr. Kamran Raika and Dr. Ana C. Raika

June and Chuck Rayfield

The Rea Charitable Trust

R.E.B. Foundation

Richard S. Reynolds Foundation

Mr. Rick Sample* and Ms. Celia Rafalko

Ms. Cornelia C. Serota

Dr. Arnold L. Stolberg

Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship

Lange Taylor and Jared Silverman

TCV Trust and Wealth Management

Marcia and Harry Thalhimer

Mr. William Urban and Mrs. Anne Kenny-Urban

Virginia Holocaust Museum

John Warkentin and Courtney Mackey

The Weathertop Foundation

Mr. and Mrs. Marcus M. Weinstein

Anne Marie Whittemore

Ms. Cary Leigh Williams

Elisabeth Muhlenfeld Wollan

Mr. and Mrs. Robert L. Chewning

Christian Family Foundation

Margarete and Siegfried Eckhaus Charitable Trust

The Estes Foundation

The Honorable Barbara J. Gaden

Dr. and Mrs. Stanley A. Goldman

Haley Automotive Group

Mr. Dennis Hedgepeth and Mrs. Laurie Hedgepeth

Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP

David and Catherine Foster

Concertmaster’s Circle $5,000 - $9,999 * deceased

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

Mark Flynn and Sue Rowland

Concertmaster’s Circle $5,000 - $9,999 cont’d

Mr. D. Brennen Keene

KPMG LLP

Sheila Leckie

Christopher W. Lindbloom and Nancy G. Powell

The Linhart Foundation

The London Company

Mary Frances and Fletcher Lowe

Mrs. Joan Losen

Chris and Tara Matthews

McGuireWoods LLP

Mr. and Mrs. Robert Melder

Montalla, LLC

Charles Stewart Mott Foundation

Judith and Mary O’Brien

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

Concertmaster’s Circle $2,500 - $4,999

William Baites and Robert T. Combs

Mr. and Mrs. John W. Ball

Temple and Lynn Bayliss

Bioforce USA

Kerry and Joel Blum

Mrs. Helga A. Boyan

Mr. and Mrs. David B. Bradley

Mr. and Mrs. Arthur S. Brinkley III

Mr. and Mrs. J. Alfred Broaddus Jr.

Dr. Donald S. and Beejay Brown

Elaine and Bill Bugg

David and Karen Carter

Commonwealth Foundations

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

Elizabeth R. Cronly

Mr. Ralph R. Crosby Jr.

Ronald and Betty Neal Crutcher

Frank Dellinger and Jim Schuyler

Lewis and Gale Drew

Matthew Edwards

Marbury and Pattie Fagan

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Goodwin Jr.

Licia Haws

Mrs. Penelope B. Holladay

Waverly Glenn Hurt Fund for the Arts

Catherine Ireland

Robert E. Rigsby

Mr. and Mrs. Leon E. Roday

Joseph and Virginia Sandford

Mrs. Laurens Sartoris

Charol Shakeshaft and Dale Mann

Paul and Nancy Springman

Chris Szabo and Goenpo Dorji

Ruth and Richard Szucs

Dr. Nan Taylor and Mr. Brandon Taylor

Charles G. Thalhimer and Family Foundation

Troutman Pepper LLP

Mr. and Mrs. John L. Walker III

Mark W. and Kristin P. Wickersham

Williams Mullen

Mrs. Henry A. Yancey Jr.

Dr. Christopher Kogut and Dr. Thomas Peyser

Mr. and Mrs. Robert P. Kyle

Ms. Lynne McClendon

Read F. and Virginia W. McGehee

Mr. David Meyers

Mr. and Mrs. J. Robert Mooney

John Moore

Dr. and Mrs. Richard L. Morrill

Roger Neathawk and Chuck Miller

New Music USA

Bernie and Lisa Niemeier

Cherry Peters

PGA TOUR Charities

Mrs. Fred G. Pollard

Helen B. and W. Taylor Reveley III

Ms. Beverly Rogers

Ruth and Carl Schalm

Mr. William H. Schwarzschild III

Michael and Pat Shutterly

Mr. and Mrs. Pierce Sioussat

Paul and Bonita Stockmeyer

Dr. and Mrs. Roger H. Tutton

Dr. and Mrs. Douglas A. Wayne

Ms. Mary Denny Wray

Dr. and Mrs. Wilhelm Zuelzer

Musician’s Circle $1,000 - $2,499

Anonymous (3)

Dr. and Mrs. David M. Abbott

Kelly & Tiff Armstrong

Ann Askew

Jo Baird and Joseph Hutchison

Joanne Barreca

Matt & Lilli Benko

Shelley & Richard Birnbaum

Blue & Gray Self Storage (Josephine & Donald B. Heslep Sr.)

Mr. and Mrs. Roger L. Boeve

Mrs. Caroline Y. Brandt

Mr. Ramon M. Brinkman

Jacquelyn K. Brooks

Jim and Marguerite Bruce

Mrs. Lissy S. Bryan

Mr. and Mrs. Geoffrey D. Cahill

Mr. and Mrs. George Calvert

Mr. J.P. Causey

Mr. and Mrs. Henry S. Chenault Jr.

Chericoke Foundation

Sandra and John Christian

Jaron and Jennifer Clay

The Rev. Dr. Vienna Cobb-Anderson

The Honorable and Mrs. Mark T. Cox IV

Mr. Benjamin Cronly

Katharine and David Crowl

Mrs. W. Thomas Cunningham Jr.

The Rev. Rainey G. Dankel

Mr. and Mrs. Bradfute W. Davenport Jr.

Mr. Chuck Dean and Dr. Trudy Rickman

Mr. and Mrs. Allen DeWalle

Dr. and Mrs. Emmanuel N. Dessypris

Dr. Margaret L. DuVall and Dr. Robert E. Petres

Joseph and Charlotte Evans

Kathryn Fessler and Cathy Vaughn

Mr. and Mrs. Vince Ferranti

Mrs. Nancy Finch

John and Nancy Fitzgerald

Mr. and Mrs. Frederick S. Fisher III

Frank Gannon

Kingsbery W. and Carla

C. Gay Family Fund

Paul Gilding and Amy Marschean

Jim and Roxane Gilmore

Mrs. Robert H. Hackler

The Honorable and Mrs. John H. Hager

Dr. Christine L.E.V. Hansen-Bottomley

Mr. and Mrs. Michael R. Hanville

Tom and Beverly Harris

Herndon Foundation

Mary and Tom Horton

Rev. and Mrs. Charles Hunt

Lacey Huszcza & Dan Stott in/PACT and Simple Generosity

Ethnie Jones

Glen and Marlene Jones

Mr. and Mrs. Crawley F. Joyner III

Mr. Michael Patrick Kehoe

and Ms. Bevin Joyce Kehoe

Colin and Pattie Kelly

Ms. Helen Lewis Kemp

Ms. Elizabeth King

Jane and Joe Knox

Neven and Joanne Kresic

Mr. and Mrs. Wayne LaGary

Mr. and Mrs. Robert H. Large

Edward and Rebecca Lawson

Le Lew

Mr. and Mrs. Floyd L. Lewis

Diana Rupert Livingston

Mr. and Mrs. H. Morris Logan

Kay Mast

Martin McFadden

Mr. Charles L. Menges and Ms. Penelope W. Kyle

Mr. and Mrs. Jon Moody

Mr. and Mrs. David G. Morgan

Mutual Assurance Society of Virginia

Jack and Katherine Nelson

Network For Good

Mr. and Mrs. John F. Newsom III

Mr. and Mrs. Ian A. Nimmo

Trudy Norfleet

Terry and Linda Oggel

Joseph O’Hare & Wallace Beard

Dr. Richard S Pergolizzi Jr.

Ms. Megan Perkeybile

Mrs. Patsy K. Pettus

Ms. Alice Pool

Brian and Noel Pumphrey

Madelene Rafalko

Deborah Randle

Jack and Cindy Reasor

Mr. and Mrs. Donald G. Reich

Reinhart Foundation

Laura Rice

Mr. and Mrs. David L. Richardson

Mr. and Mrs. Jay W. Robinson

Nancy Rowsey

Mrs. Pamela Kiecker Royall

Mr. and Mrs. Larry S. Shifflett

Mark and Susan Sisisky

Micheal D. and Mary Beth Slack

Ilse Snoeks and Jan Gheuens

Spider Management Company, LLC

Mr. and Mrs. James H. Starkey III

Steinway Piano Gallery

Bruce Borden Stevens

Mrs. Alice H. Spalding and Mr. Henry C. Spalding Jr.

Mrs. Jane B. Spilman

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Sydnor

Ms. Patricia C. Temple

David and Kimberly Terzian

Margaret R. Thomas

Endowment Fund of the Community Foundation for a greater Richmond

TowneBank Richmond

Jim and Eydie Triplett

Musician’s Circle $1,000 - $2,499

Terry & Sharon Troxell

Barbara B. and James E. Ukrop

The Valentine

Dr. and Mrs. Thomas V. Van Auken

Mr. and Mrs. Robert J. Van Sickle

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

$500 - $999

Anonymous (4)

Tracey Adler

Ruth and Franco Ambrogi

Mr. and Mrs. S.

Wyndham Anderson

Kevin and Beth Barger

Allen Belden Jr.

Ms. Trish Bernal

Dr. and Mrs. John Bowman

Martin and Kimberly Brill

Dr. John B. H. Caldwell

Ellen L Carleton

Mr. Joseph C. Carter III

Michael Chang and Robert Herrig

Jeff and Donna Coward

Marietta Daniel

Drs. Georgean and Mark deBlois

Ms. Anne Gordon Downing

Corbin and Stephen Ensign

Jim and Linda Ferree

Ms. Betty Forbes

Wendell Fuller

Krissy and Jay Gathright

Mrs. Maggie Georgiadis

Dr. and Mrs. Joseph G. Gianfortoni

Jim and Millie Green

Bodil H. Hanneman

Mr. and Mrs. Hugh T. Harrison II

Mrs. William M. Hill

Jean and David Holman

Charles and Cynthia Holmes

Linda and Roger Hultgren

Rob and Melanie Walker

Jacqueline S. Westfall

Andrea Lynn White

Whitley/Service Roofing & Sheet Metal Company

Isabella G. Witt

The Huntly Foundation

Regan Ihde

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Jefferson III

Ella and David Johnson

Mr. and Mrs. Douglas S. Jones

Jack Kalbfleisch

Leslie Anne Kay

Jennifer M. Koch

Peggy Kriha Miller

Ms. Suzanne Lee

Ben and Laura Lewis

Maia Linask & Grant Rissler

Ardyth J. Lohuis

Mr. and Mrs. Michael Lott

Christopher J. Lumpkin

Jane S. Lyon

Beth & Ry Marchant

Doctors Marquina

Travis Massey and Luciana Vozza

Lu and Jerry McCarthy

The Micawber Foundation

Elizabeth “Beth” Montgomery

Phyllis Anne Moore

J. Dabney and Betty

Booker Morriss

Mr. and Mrs. Frank F.

Mountcastle III

Dr. Dawn G. Mueller

Mr. and Mrs. David Naquin

Sylvia and Alan Newman

Dr. and Mrs. Carl Patow

Mr. and Mrs. M. Dale Phillips

Mr. and Mrs. Ronald W. Witt

Matthew and Susan Williams

Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Wright Jr.

David and Becky Zuck

Mr. Bob Podstepny

Mr. and Mrs. Richard L. Ramsey

Mr. and Mrs. David W. Rennolds

Dr. John Reynolds

Mrs. Elton E. Rogers

Mr. Harold C. Rohrs

Barbara Null and Dan Rusnak

Brutus and Nancy Russell

Karla and Dave Scanlan

Jon Pildis and Christy Schragal

Ben Sillmon

Barbara A Slayden

Katherine Smallwood and Robert Gottschalk

Thomas and Laurie Smith

Dr. and Mrs. Thomas J. Sobieski

Mary Lou & Charlie Sommardahl

Dr. and Mrs. R. P. Sowers III

Mr. and Mrs. Jack Spain

Dr. Elliott Spanier

Lynn Spitzer

Wilson and Claudia Sprenkle

Ms. Cora Spruill

Mrs. John R. Williams Street

Heidi & Jay Vaiksnoras

Mr. and Mrs. Harry J. Warthen III

Jane G. Watkins

Mollie Watts

Suzanne P. Wiltshire

Mark Wolfram

Yellow Cello Music

$250 - $499

Anonymous (4)

Samuel and Helen Adams

Judith Alexander

Mrs. Susan M. Allen

Mrs. Joseph L. Antrim III

Brad and Frazier Armstrong

Dr. and Mrs. Ronald Artz

Sally T. Bagley

Wesley Ball

Allison Banbury

Angela P. & André S. Basmajian

Betty Lou and Gregory Beach

Holley Bell

Mrs. Myra T. Bennett

David H. Berry

Charles and Victoria Bleick

Mr. Lloyd W. Bostian Jr.

Ms. Mary Bowden

Mr. and Mrs. David Braymer

Joan T. Briccetti

Lynette Brinkerhoff

Mrs. Judy S. Brown

Ward and Cindy Buckler

Mr. and Mrs. Miles Cary Jr.

Betty Chui

Barbara Cotter and Antonio Masullo

Bruce Curran

Mr. and Mrs. David and Janice Whitehead

Dr. and Mrs. Barbu A. Demian

Mr. and Mrs. H. B. Dendy III

Mr. and Mrs. Michael A. Dimitriou

Andrew J. Dolson and Elizabeth C. Manning

Mr. Robert Duntley

Jon W Elvert

Marilyn Erickson

Mr. and Mrs. William J. Ernst III

Dr. J. Mark Evans

EverBless Foundation

Mr. and Mrs. Leavenworth

M. Ferrell II

Ms. Sharon Fuller

Mr. and Mrs. Richard W. Gaenzle Jr.

Dr. and Mrs. David F. Gardner

Kathleen and Ronald Garstka

Mr. William Childs Gay

Susan Scharpf Gentry

Kevin C. Gremer

Mr. and Mrs. Peter L. Hains

Mr. and Mrs. Elliott M. Harrigan

Pam and Dale Hartough

Jonathan Holljes

Lowrey and Beth Holthaus

Martin and Mary Jacobson

Dr. and Mrs. Robison B. James

Leanora and Kirk Johnson

Mrs. Elinor Kuhn

Rhonda Laakso

Dr. and Mrs. John Thomas Lanning

Celia K. Luxmoore and David J. Baker

Mr. and Mrs. David Lynch

Mr. and Mrs. James E. Mann III

Yvonne Mastromano

Ms. Marilyn L. Mauck

Mr. and Mrs. R. Wheatley McDowell

Mr. and Mrs. Alfred F. Mistr Jr.

Mrs. Lavern P. Moffat

Jonathan Moore

Peter Morford

Mr. and Mrs. Dave Muhlenfeld

Mr. and Mrs. Richard

D. Niedermayer

Ms. Sheryl Phillips

Mr. and Mrs. J. Cheairs Porter Jr.

Dr. James E. Ratliff and Ms. Kelley Johnston

Lynne and Steve Read

Ann Reavey and Peter Gilbert

Mr. and Mrs. Newton Rector

Dr. and Mrs. P. Larus Reed III

Linda and Michael Rigsby

Mr. and Mrs. Greg Robertson

Millicent Ruddy

Anne Rusbuldt

Ernesto and Savon Sampson

Mr. William H. Schwarzschild III

Mr. and Mrs. Russell W. Scott

Mr. Jeffrey Sedgwick

David Shuford

Andrea Silcox

Ms. Tamara Smith

Julius and Devon Smith

Jim and Boo Smythe

Roger Tarpy and Jean Roberts

Andrew M. Thalhimer

Morton G. and Nancy P. Thalhimer Foundation

Barrett Thomson

Ms. Judith Watson Tidd

Mr. Wilson R. Trice Esq.

Dr. Lillianne Troeger

Kay and William Tyler

Ned & Laura Valentine

Gary and Sara Wallace

Michèle and John Walter

Deborah Ward

Veronica Wauford

Kemper and Abbie Wharton

Mary Ann Wilson

Mr. William D. Wittorff

Matthew Wood

Elizabeth Yaple

Mr. and Mrs. P.W. Young

SPECIAL THANK YOU to our sponsor

The Richmond Symphony 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 *

Waverly M. Cole *

Lucille B.* and Robert O. * Cole

Dr. John R. Cook *

Janet C. Coon

Don Creach and Karen Raschke

Charles “Chuck” Dabney *

Frank Dellinger and Jim Schuyler

Elizabeth R. and Ellis M.* Dunkum

Emma Gray Emory * and Howard McCue Jr. *

Ruth and James * Erb

Dr. Marilyn T. Erickson

David J. L. Fisk and Anne O’Byrne

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. *

Paul R. Gilding and Amy L. Marschean

Dr. and Mrs. Stanley A. Goldman

Jane and Jim Hartough

Mr. * and Mrs. Robert E. Hill

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Jefferson III

Lawrence Ryan Jones and Mary Lynn Jones

Glen and Marlene Jones

Frank* and Elinor Kuhn

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

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 *

Mrs. John H. McDowell *

David A. and Charlotte A. McGoye

Mr. Dana E. McKnight

Lynn and Pierce * McMartin

Pate and Bill Mears

Jane Milici and Mario DiMarco

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.

Roger Neathawk and Chuck Miller

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

James M.* and Lucia M. O’Connell

Mrs. Hunter R. K. Pettus (Patsy)

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 *

Lawson and Joanne Sherman

Mr. and Mrs. Donald E. * Steeber

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

Marcia and Harry Thalhimer

Mrs. Nancy White Thomas *

Rebecca R. Trader

Dr. E. Randolph Trice *

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We are deeply grateful for gifts to the Richmond Symphony Endowment, which provides a solid foundation for the orchestra. The endowment provides an ongoing source of income to ensure the Symphony’s financial stability well into the future.

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The Richmond Symphony League is a non-profit corporation with the sole purpose of supporting the operating budget and education programs of the Richmond Symphony. The generosity of the Symphony League’s donors and event attendees allows it to make annual donations to the Richmond Symphony. This listing acknowledges donors during the 2022-23 fiscal year.

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2024 FEB 24 SAT • 8:00 pm

2024 FEB 25 SUN • 3:00 pm Carpenter Theatre Carpenter Theatre

TCHAIKOVSKY’S FIRST CONCERTO

Valentina Peleggi CONDUCTOR

Dinara Klinton PIANO

Florence Robertson Givens Guest Artist

Richmond Symphony Chorus

Kevin Barger ASSISTANT CHORUS DIRECTOR

TCHAIKOVSKY

(1840-1893)

Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Opus 23

I. Allegro non troppo molto maestoso

II. Andantino semplice

III. Allegro con fuoco

INTERMISSION

ZACHARY WADSWORTH (B. 1983)

Letter to the City

The text for this new work, Joanna Lee’s “Open letter to the city in spring time,” was commissioned by the Richmond Symphony for this World Premiere.

RAVEL (1875-1937)

Suite No. 2 from Daphnis and Chloé

I. Lever du jour

II. Pantomine

III. Danse générale

Sponsored in part by

GUEST ARTIST: DINARA KLINTON, PIANO

After sharing the top prize at the 2006 Busoni Piano Competition at age 18, Dinara Klinton embarked on a busy international concert schedule, appearing at many festivals including the “Progetto Martha Argerich” in Lugano, the Cheltenham Music Festival, the Aldeburgh Proms and “La Roque d’Antheron.” She has performed at many of the world’s major concert venues, including the Royal Festival Hall and Wigmore Hall in London, Berliner Philharmonie and Konzerthaus, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Gewandhaus Leipzig, New York 92Y, Cleveland Severance Hall, Tokyo Sumida Triphony Hall, Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory and Tchaikovsky Concert Hall. Her concerto engagements include The Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Svetlanov State Orchestra and St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra.

Dinara combines her performing career with piano professor positions at the Royal College of Music and the Yehudi Menuhin School.

Photo: Benjamin Ealovega

As a recording artist, she has received widespread critical acclaim. Her album of Liszt’s Études d’exécution transcendante, released by the German label GENUIN classics, resulted in dazzling reviews and was selected by BBC Music Magazine as Recording of the Month. Dinara’s debut album, “Music of Chopin and Liszt,” was made at the age of 16 with the American label, DELOS. Her third CD forms part of the renowned recording series of Chopin’s complete works on contemporary instruments released by The Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Poland. Her latest CD is “Prokofiev Complete Piano Sonatas” released by Piano Classics.

“An astonishing achievement...Dinara Klinton’s interpretative gift gives her a wonderful instinct...and her response to the Byronic sweep of Liszt’s imagination enthralls at every point...

Klinton can find a complete world in a single quiet chord.”

BBC Music (Liszt 12 Études d’exécution transcendante, S.139)

Dinara’s music education started in the age of five in her native Kharkiv, Ukraine. She graduated with highest honors from the Moscow Central Music School under Valery Piassetski, and the Moscow State Conservatory P. I. Tchaikovsky under Eliso Virsaladze. She went on to complete her master’s degree at the Royal College of Music under Dina Parakhina and was the inaugural recipient of the highly prestigious RCM Benjamin Britten Fellowship during her Artist Diploma course and supported by the City Music Foundation. Dinara also attended masterclasses at the Lake Como Piano Academy and worked with Boris Petrushansky in the Imola Piano Academy.

For more information, please visit www.dinaraklinton.com

GUEST ARTIST: ZACHARY WADSWORTH,

Zachary Wadsworth’s “vivid, vital, and prismatic” music has established him as a leading composer of his generation. Praised for its “evocative mixture of old and new,” his music has been heard in venues around the world, from the Kennedy Center in Washington to Takinogawa Hall in Tokyo. After winning an international competition chaired by James MacMillan, Wadsworth’s Out of the South Cometh the Whirlwind was performed by the choir of Westminster Abbey in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles, and the Archbishop of Canterbury. For the 2012-13 season, Wadsworth was a Fellow of the Douglas Moore Fellowship for American Opera, which placed him in residence at the Metropolitan Opera and the Santa Fe Opera. In 2014, he had his Carnegie Hall debut.

Wadsworth’s music is widely broadcast and distributed, with recent publications by Novello, G. Schirmer, and E.C. Schirmer, and airings on

Photo: Dallas Southcott

NPR’s Performance Today, With Heart and Voice, Pipedreams, BBC Radio 3’s The Choir, CBC’s The Story from Here, and PRI’s Christmas Daybreak. Commercial recordings of his music are available on Gothic Records, Albany Records, and Innova Recordings.

Called an “exquisitely beautiful cycle” in the Journal of Singing, Wadsworth’s Pictures of the Floating World was premiered at the Lincoln Center after winning first prize in the 2007 ASCAP Lotte Lehmann Foundation Art Song Competition. Additional honors include a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and three Morton Gould Young Composer Awards from ASCAP. Wadsworth has also received firstprize recognition in competitions sponsored by the American Composers Forum, the King James Bible Trust, the Long Leaf Opera, the Pacific Chorale, the Boston Choral Ensemble, and the Esoterics.

Since its composition in 2004, Wadsworth’s opera, Venus and Adonis, has already been staged five times and hailed as an “astonishingly confident” and “mesmerizing” work. His vocal music has been widely programmed by leading performing groups around the world, including the Washington National Opera Chorus, the Yale Schola Cantorum, Boston Metro Opera, Long Leaf Opera, the Tokyo Cantat, and the Richmond Symphony Chorus. Wadsworth’s “subtly beautiful” orchestral works have been performed by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Atlanta Philharmonic Orchestra, the Yale Philharmonia, and the Wind Ensemble and Festival Chamber Orchestra at Cornell University.

Originally from Richmond, Virginia, Wadsworth (b. 1983) earned graduate degrees from Cornell University (DMA) and Yale University (MM), and is an honors graduate of the Eastman School of Music (BM). His principal composition teachers have included Steven Stucky, Martin Bresnick, Ingram Marshall, Ezra Laderman, and David Liptak. He has taught at the Interlochen Center for the Arts and the University of Calgary, and he is currently an Assistant Professor of Music at Williams College. He also maintains an active performing life as a tenor and pianist.

For more information, please visit www.zacharywadsworth.com

GUEST ARTIST: JOANNA LEE, WRITER

Joanna Lee is the author of Dissections (2017), a co-editor of the anthology, Lingering in the Margins (2019), and founder of the Richmond, Virginia community River City Poets. Her work has been published in Rattle, Fourth River, Driftwood and elsewhere, and has been nominated for both a Pushcart and multiple Best of the Net prizes. Having earned her MD from the Medical College of Virginia and a master’s in neuroscience from William & Mary, she currently co-owns (with her husband, John) southof-the-river coffeeshop and all-day breakfast joint, Café Zata. They live in Richmond’s Northside with their cat, Karma.

“Open letter to the city in spring time” by Joanna Lee

Your daffodils unfold in the median just beyond the magnolia’s shadow, yellow suns against a cobblestone slick with pink petals that follow the rain from a sky that promises promise despite its tears from [the]* rooftops holding their windows open like the hungry mouths of young herons from the umbrella’ed heads of early morning downtown workers & students on their way past the groan of traffic over old bridges and the mud of new growth, past the footprint of construction, scaffolding a skeleton to cradle the generations who come past the shop-lined sidewalks and the sweat-stains of innovation, past the coming-together above cold stone where your ghosts dance in the gaps of cloudbreak, where art calls out from your walls and your overpasses, calls out from your history and your thousand beating hearts cries out like the young heron ready to take flight down to the river, where all rains run together and another spring begins.

*[bracketed word added for this musical setting only]

PROGRAM NOTES

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky:

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

“An independent witness in the room might have concluded that I was a maniac, an untalented, senseless hack who had come to submit his rubbish to an eminent musician.” Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky thus recalled the painful surprise that awaited him when he first solicited an opinion about his work-in-progress, now one of the best-loved pieces in the repertoire, from a colleague. He had invited the influential pianist and conductor Nikolai Rubinstein, who had hired the young composer to teach at the newly established Moscow Conservatory, to listen to him play the first movement at the keyboard (the music had yet to be orchestrated).

Tchaikovsky hoped that Rubinstein would confirm his eagerness to play the solo part at the premiere but was instead advised that the concerto was “so badly written as to be beyond rescue.” Rubinstein did try to soften the blow by suggesting that the score might work with substantial rewrites. Tchaikovsky responded, “I shall not alter a single note; I shall publish the work exactly as it stands!” (Tchaikovsky did, in fact, decide to make some revisions.)

The two musicians eventually reconciled, and Rubinstein would become an ardent champion of the First Piano Concerto. But the premiere was instead given by the brilliant conductor and pianist Hans von Bülow during an American tour—in Boston, at a safe remove from Moscow, with a pickup orchestra comprising music students who were mostly from Harvard. The Concerto became so popular in the New World that Tchaikovsky conducted it while on tour as part of Carnegie Hall’s inaugural concert in 1891.

A four-note motif in the horns, punctuated by hammer chords, commands attention, setting the scene for the dramatic and passionate melody that is presented in the lengthy grand introduction to the first movement. But it’s actually something of a red herring: once introduced, this majestic and unforgettable music is, oddly, left aside and never repeated in this format (though it does come back in subtler ways). Subdued brass chords bridge the way into the agitated first movement, which is in a gloomy minor key (versus the plush D-flat major of the introduction) and adopts as its main theme a Ukrainian tune the composer claimed to have heard whistled at

the market by blind beggars—one of several imports from folk music in the Concerto. Tchaikovsky gets lots of mileage out of the pensive second theme we hear first in the woodwinds. The highly varied first movement mixes quieter musings with high-flown outbursts.

Richmond Symphony’s artist-in-residence Dinara Klinton adds her stamp to a long tradition of virtuosos who have responded to Tchaikovsky’s requirement of a poetic virtuosity in this concerto, from graceful figurations to heaven-storming double-octaves: grand drama is spun from emotional contrasts. The fantasia-like cadenza comes to resemble a play within a play—a microcosm of the piano’s far-ranging personality in this piece.

The Andantino semplice combines the respite of a lyrical slow movement with the playfulness of a Scherzo, which intrudes as a whirling, fast-paced detour at the center and quotes from a French folk song. Folk music likewise fuels the fiery last movement, in which Tchaikovsky again taps into a Ukrainian spirit with a catchy main theme. Something of the restless attitude from the opening movement finds its way into this music, while a contrasting second theme drawn from Russian folk music is tenderly lyrical. At the climax of the finale, the second theme gets a grandiose, neonlight treatment mirroring the opening of the Concerto.

Zachary Wadsworth: Letter to the City

Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto is, on one level, a love letter to the immediacy of folk music. Music Director Valentina Peleggi continues with the world premiere of Zachary Wadsworth’s musical “valentine” to Richmond, Letter to the City, which launches the orchestra’s new series of commissions that will tell stories related to the city (with one per season to follow).

Wadsworth, who was born here in 1983, enjoys a long-standing connection with the Richmond Symphony as well. He recalls being taken by his parents to a concert in the 1990s that featured Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony—an experience of live performance that kindled his own love affair with music. To date, several of Wadsworth’s compositions have been performed by the RSO and Chorus (of which his mother is a dedicated member), including, last season, the choral-orchestral Beyond the Years. Wadsworth has dedicated both that work and Letter to the City to Valentina Peleggi.

An acclaimed and versatile composer whose output ranges from solo and chamber music to choral and orchestral works as well as the opera, Venus and Adonis, Wadsworth recalls that many of his memories of growing up in Richmond “center around the James River, which runs right through the city. Whenever I went downtown to hear my mom singing in a choral-symphonic performance, or to take piano lessons, I would always have to cross the James. I think that has become one of the major images of Richmond.”

In search of a text for the new commission for the Richmond Symphony and Chorus, Wadsworth collaborated with the Richmond-based poet Joanna Suzanne Lee, a founder of the River City Poets community whose work focuses on “the intersection of healing and creativity.” They both agreed that the James River would need to be “a central presence in the piece,” the composer notes.

In the resulting poem, “Open letter to the city in spring time,” Lee “charts the path of water through the bustling city, past its people, buildings, scenery, history, and monuments, and down to the churning river below,” writes Wadsworth. His Letter to the City in turn “charts this same path in sound, beginning with a soft, meandering trickle in the strings and horn, and ending with the orchestra’s full forces roaring down the rapids.”

Maurice Ravel: Suite No. 2 from Daphnis et Chloé

A classical, idyllic love story rounds out our program, the Suite No. 2 from the ballet Daphnis et Chloé. In this longest of Maurice Ravel’s compositions, the French composer’s legendary perfectionism is perfectly balanced with passions that reach an orgiastic climax. If Tchaikovsky penned one of the most-famous beginnings ever imagined for the concert hall in his First Piano Concerto, the final scene of Daphnis et Chloé is unparalleled as a thrilling, pulse-elevating closer.

Written for the expat Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev and his Paris-based Ballets Russes, Daphnis et Chloé lasts nearly an hour yet is constructed with admirable economy from a concise set of themes. Ravel composed the score between 1909 and 1912, when the full-length work was premiered, but in April 1911 he introduced a concert suite of extracts. Unhappy with the clashing visions of his Ballets Russes collaborators toward this “choreographic symphony,” as Ravel dubbed it, he arranged

a second concert suite in 1913, which has become the most frequently performed format in which music from Daphnis et Chloé is heard—as on this program (in which the optional chorus is included).

The ballet’s source is a novel-like romance from late antiquity attributed to the second-century CE Greek writer, Longus. Companions since childhood and innocent foundlings raised by shepherds, the eponymous couple undergo separation when Chloé is kidnapped by pirates, but the god Pan intervenes to reunite them. The scenario alternates between atmospheric scenes, character-defining set dances, and action sequences that advance the story line. Ravel wrote that his intention was to compose “a vast musical fresco, less concerned with archaism than with faithfulness to the Greece of my dreams, which is similar to that imagined and painted by French artists at the end of the 18th century.”

Suite No. 2 consists of the music from the final part of the ballet, when Daphnis awakens from his despair and discovers that Chloé has been rescued by Pan. Ravel’s celebrated depiction of sunrise is a tour de force of his orchestral wizardry: the strings, subdivided into multiple groupings, remove their mutes one by one, while the woodwinds mimic birdcalls. The implied shafts of sunlight dispel all darkness and worry. It is at this point that Daphnis and Chloé dance together for the first time as they perform a pantomime, with the flute representing Daphnis (in the guise of Pan) as a passionate suitor of his beloved nymph. A rapturous development of their love music abruptly segues into the orgiastic conclusion. Ravel’s complex rhythmic patterns proved especially challenging for the dancers of the Ballets Russes, but the score’s pulsating energy has a thrilling immediacy in the final scene, in which the company joins together in bacchanalian rites that end the ballet with a spirit of “joyful commotion.”

Notes (c)2024 Thomas May

2024 FEB 24 SAT • 8:00 pm

Carpenter Theatre

2024 FEB 25 SUN • 3:00 pm

Carpenter Theatre

violin 1

Daisuke Yamamoto

CONCERTMASTER

Tom & Elizabeth Allen Chair

Adrian Pintea

ASSOCIATE CONCERTMASTER

Anna Bishop

Alison Hall

Alana Carithers

Stacy Matthews

Catherine Cary

Jill Foster

Timothy Judd

Laura Frazelle

Treesa Gold

Matt Richardson

violin 2

Myles Mocarski

ACTING PRINCIPAL SECOND VIOLIN

Jeannette Jang

ACTING ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL SECOND VIOLIN

Bob & Nancy Hill Chair

Audrey Pride

Susy Yim

Anna Rogers

Jocelyn Vorenberg

Alyssa Evans

Anna Kong

Elizabeth Adams

Amelia Giles

viola

Molly Sharp

PRINCIPAL

The Mary Anne Rennolds Chair

Stephen Schmidt

ACTING ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

Zsuzsanna Emödi

Jocelyn Smith

Derek Smith

Liz O’Hara

Johanna Beaver

Dorothy Couper

cello

Neal Cary PRINCIPAL

Jason McComb

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

Richmond Symphony League Chair

Ryan Lannan

Schuyler Slack

Kenneth & Bettie

Christopher Perry Foundation Chair

Peter Greydanus

Barbara Gaden

Charlotte Roberts

Holden Bitner

bass

Riley Zimmermann

PRINCIPAL

Rumano Solano

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

Kelly Ali

Peter Spaar

Lee Philip

Morgan Daly

flute

Mary Boodell

PRINCIPAL

Jennifer Debiec Lawson

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

Catherine Broyles

Shannon Vandzura

TODAY’S RICHMOND SYMPHONY

MUSICIAN ROSTER

oboe

Victoria Chung

PRINCIPAL

Kara Poling

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

Shawn Welk

clarinet

David Lemelin

PRINCIPAL

Eddie Sundra

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

Sara Reese

Edna Huang

bassoon

Thomas Schneider

PRINCIPAL

Felix Ren

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

Matthew Lano horn

Dominic Rotella

PRINCIPAL

Devin Gossett

SECOND HORN

The Lucrezia Wheeler

Leisinger & George Wheeler Chair

Erin Lano

ACTING ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

Roger Novak

trumpet

Samuel Huss

PRINCIPAL

Michael Chen

ACTING ASSOCIATE

PRINCIPAL

Daniel Egan

Kevin Paul

trombone

Evan Williams

PRINCIPAL

Scott Winger

Scott Cochran

tuba

Conrad Shaw

PRINCIPAL

timpani

James Jacobson

PRINCIPAL

percussion

Clifton Hardison

PRINCIPAL

David Foster

Curt Duer

Don Johns

Davi Martinelli de Lira

Joseph Gonzalez

Andrew Henry

John Patton

harp

Mary Bircher

ACTING PRINCIPAL

Karlee Lanum

keyboard/other

Russell Wilson

PRINCIPAL

Quincy & Ann Owen Cole Chair

Correct as of 02/15/24 - 11am

2024 APR 06 SAT • 8:00 pm

Carpenter Theatre

2024 APR 07 SUN • 3:00 pm

Carpenter Theatre

AN AMERICAN IN PARIS

Carlos Miguel Prieto CONDUCTOR

GEORGE GERSHWIN (1898-1937)

An American in Paris

SILVESTRE REVUELTAS (1899-1940)

Redes: Suite

The Fisherman - The Child’s Funeral Molto adagio-Allegro agitato

INTERMISSION

LEONARD BERNSTEIN (1918-1990)

Three Dances Episodes from On the Town

I. The Great Lover

II. Lonely Town (Pas de deux)

III. Times Square

ALBERTO GINASTERA (1916-1983)

Four Dances from Estancia

I. The Land Workers

II. Wheat Dance

III. The Cattlemen

IV. Final Dance (Malambo)

JOSÉ PABLO MONCAYO GARCIA (1912-1958)

Huapango ( full orchestra version)

GUEST ARTIST: CARLOS MIGUEL PRIETO, CONDUCTOR

Known for his charisma and expressive interpretations, Mexican conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto has established himself not just as a major figure in the orchestra world but also as an influential cultural leader, educator, and a champion of new music. In a significant career development, he began his tenure as Music Director of the North Carolina Symphony at the beginning of the 2023-24 season.

From 2007 to 2022, he was the Music Director of the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de México, the country’s leading ensemble, and significantly raised the caliber of the orchestra. He was also Music Director of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra from 2006 to 2023, where he helped lead the cultural renewal of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrin. In 2008, he was appointed Music Director of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería, a handpicked orchestra that performs a two-month series of summer programs in Mexico City.

Recent highlights include engagements with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, NDR Elbphilharmonie, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, the

Photo: Benjamin Ealovega

Hallé, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Spanish National Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Strasbourg Philharmonic, and Auckland Philharmonia.

Prieto is in demand as a guest conductor with many of the top North American orchestras, including Cleveland, Dallas, Toronto, Minnesota, Washington, New World, and Houston Symphony, and has enjoyed a particularly successful relationship with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the North Carolina Symphony.

Prieto made his BBC Proms debut at Royal Albert Hall on August 5, 2023, with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.

Since 2002, alongside Gustavo Dudamel, Prieto has conducted the Orchestra of the Americas, which draws young musicians from the entire American continent. A staunch proponent of music education, Prieto served as Principal Conductor of the YOA from its inception until 2011 when he was appointed Music Director. In 2018 he conducted the orchestra on a tour of European summer festivals, which included performances at the Rheingau and Edinburgh festivals, as well as Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie. He has also worked regularly with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and the NYO2 in New York.

Prieto is renowned for championing Latin American music, as well as his dedication to new music. He has conducted over 100 world premieres of works by Mexican and American composers, many of which were commissioned by him. Prieto places equal importance on championing works by Black and African American composers such as Florence Price, Margaret Bonds, and Courtney Bryan, among others. Prieto has an extensive discography that includes the Naxos and Sony labels. Recent Naxos recordings include Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No.2 & Études tableaux Op.33, with Boris Giltburg and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra RSNO, which won a 2018 Opus Klassik award and was listed as a Gramophone’s Critics’ Choice; and his 2017 recording of Korngold’s Violin Concerto with violinist Philippe Quint and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería received two Grammy® nominations. His recording of the Elgar and Finzi Violin Concertos with Ning Feng was released on Channel Classics in November 2018.

Prieto was recognized by Musical America as the 2019 Conductor of the Year. A graduate of Princeton and Harvard universities, Prieto studied conducting with Jorge Mester, Enrique Diemecke, Charles Bruck and Michael Jinbo.

PROGRAM NOTES:

George Gershwin: An American in Paris

George Gershwin burst on the scene as a “classical” composer with the smash success of his genre-crossing Rhapsody in Blue exactly a century ago. It so impressed Walter Damrosch, director of what would soon become the New York Philharmonic, that he commissioned a piano concerto (known to posterity as the Concerto in F). A subsequent commission from the orchestra followed, resulting in An American in Paris. Gershwin described his new work-in-progress as a “rhapsodic ballet” that would convey “the impression of an American visitor in Paris as he strolls about the city and listens to various street noises and absorbs the French atmosphere.”

Largely self-taught as a composer, Gershwin had traveled to Paris in the mid-1920s to study European tradition firsthand after striking up a friendship with his older French colleague Maurice Ravel. The title might be taken to allude to his own musical journey: an American attempting to take on the classical European tradition. But Gershwin emphasized that he intended only to prompt “impressionistic” responses, leaving it up to listeners to interpret the music as they prefer.

Unlike the case with Rhapsody, which was orchestrated by another composer, Gershwin had developed the confidence as well as skill to prepare a fully orchestrated score for An American in Paris on his own. He even included a trio of saxophones and taxi horns that he procured while he was abroad to have on hand for the premiere in New York and to ensure authentic local color.

The restless, striding rhythms that open the piece transport us at once to the scene. Bits of French popular song and more relaxed passages follow, while the seductive aura of the City of Light leads to an exchange between solo violin and celesta. A blues-tinged strain on the trumpet heralds a bout of homesickness: the music becomes more emotion-drenched as this blues interlude builds to a climax. Following another violin solo, memories of life back home take on the more exuberant air of a Charleston.

Gershwin notes that “the homesick American, having left the café and reached the open air, has disowned his spell of the blues and once again is an alert spectator of Parisian life.” After the energetic music from the opening returns, Gershwin mixes the blues tune in one more time and the American heads back into the bright city lights.

Silvestre Revueltas: Suite from Redes

Although he was born on the last day of the 19th century, Sylvestre Revueltas, a native of Durango, Mexico, was a committed revolutionary of the 20th—artistically and politically. His premature death in 1940 from alcoholism came just a few years after he had returned from Spain, where he had gone in 1937 to fight against the Fascists in the Civil War.

Born less than a year before Aaron Copland, Revueltas shared some of the political and artistic ideals that were also pursued by his U.S. American colleague. Both composers wanted to connect with contemporary audiences by tapping into the authentic musical legacies of their respective countries. Nowadays, Revueltas is best known for his thrilling score Sensemayá (initially for voice and orchestra), which is often likened to a Mexican Rite of Spring. Like Copland and such other major composers of the era as Dmitri Shostakovich, Revueltas also found film to be a stimulating medium through which he could convey his musical ideas. He even appeared in a cameo role as a piano player in a bar in the 1935 film Vámonos con Pancho Villa (Let’s Go with Pancho Villa), which presented an iconoclastic portrayal of the national hero.

In the previous year, Revueltas was commissioned to write his first film score. Redes (which literally means “nets,” though the film was released in the U.S. under the title The Wave) predated the Italian neorealist cinema movement in focusing on working-class people and their fight against injustice. The photographer/filmmaker Paul Strand, together with Fred Zinnemann and Emilio Gómez Muriel, put together a cast largely of amateurs to tell the story of impoverished fishermen on the Mexican Gulf Coast near Veracruz and how they

eventually unite, after an internal struggle, to defend themselves against unfair treatment by those in power.

An unpleasant backstory involving another internal struggle led to Revueltas breaking with his influential compatriot Carlos Chávez, who had initially been enlisted to write the score. Visiting the fishing village location for inspiration, Revueltas composed what has become recognized as a highlight of cinematic music. The roughly hour-long film was released in 1936, and the composer also made a condensed suite for the concert hall; another well-known arrangement was made by the conductor Erich Kleiber in the 1940s.

In a story Copland published in The New York Times relating to the showing of Redes in New York, he wrote that the music of Revueltas “is derived from the more usual everyday side of Mexican life. It is often highly spiced, like Mexican food itself. It is full of whims and sudden quirks of fancy and leaves one with a sense of the abundance and vitality of life.”

Leonard Bernstein: Three Dance Episodes from On the Town

Bernstein wrote the musical On the Town in 1944, which became his first Broadway hit when it opened in December. The following year Bernstein orchestrated a set of extracts from his original score to create a short symphonic suite. Here Bernstein has already begun to fuse the varied worlds his genius inhabited—musical theater, concert hall, ballet, and jazz— into a sophisticated but highly accessible compositional style.

“How could I know my son was going to grow up to be Leonard Bernstein?” so the father of an American legend once famously quipped. In 1943 the 25-year-old Lenny was catapulted to international fame and soon on his way to becoming Leonard Bernstein thanks to a pair of career-changing events that occurred within a few months of each other. One was his dramatically unexpected debut filling in at the last minute to conduct the New York Philharmonic (which serves as the opening scene in the recent film Maestro). The second was an

invitation by up-and-coming choreographer Jerome Robbins to write the score for a new one-act ballet, Fancy Free.

When it premiered in April 1944 at the old Metropolitan Opera House, Fancy Free was an instant critical and commercial hit. It introduced a trailblazing approach to musical theater that made dance an integral part of the narrative. Bernstein and Robbins soon expanded the ballet’s scenario into the Broadway musical On the Town. The composer’s friends Betty Comden and Adolph Green provided book and lyrics based on Robbins’ story of three sailors during war time who spend their 24-hour shore leave searching for love and adventure in the Big Apple. Bernstein supplied an entirely new score combining jazz-fueled dance, boogie-woogie, tender ballads, and energetic ensembles. His valentine to New York and American optimism hit just the right note, launching the Broadway side of his career.

Though centered around dance, Bernstein’s arrangement of excerpts from the score makes effective concert suite. The first episode (“The Great Lover Displays Himself”) occurs as part of a dream sequence in which the sailor Gabey fantasizes about his ideal woman. This brief, snappy number, with its prominent trombone part, gives a flavor of Bernstein’s personal approach to jazz idioms, mixed with a touch of Stravinsky.

Gabey’s romantic side comes to the fore in the bluesy shades of “Lonely Town” as he despairs of finding his true love in the coldhearted city. The final episode (“Times Square: 1944”) foregrounds On the Town’s signature tune, “New York, New York.” A dazzling series of variations on the resounds as a metaphor for the exhilarating energy of the American city.

Alberto Ginastera: Estancia: Four Dances, Op. 8a

A native of Buenos Aires, Alberto Ginastera achieved renown as one of the most respected composers of the last century from South America. Ginastera’s synthesis of national and folkloric elements

with Modernism was especially innovative. In 1941, at the age of 25, he received a career-defining commission for a ballet based on “Argentine country life” from one of the forerunners of what eventually became New York City Ballet. The company wanted to follow up on its success with Aaron Copland’s Billy the Kid, which celebrates American folklore.

A 19th-century epic by the Argentine poet José Hernández (titled Martín Fierro) served as Ginastera’s source for the ballet, which he called Estancia (referring to a cattle ranch). The ballet is in one act and revolves around Argentine gaucho (“cowboy”) life on the grassy plains (the pampas) as an unnamed young man from the city interacts with the people from the heartland. He falls in love with the daughter of a cattle ranch owner but has to prove himself after she initially rejects him—which he does by showing that he can outperform the local gauchos at their macho wrangling and show of strength in a ritual dance.

The American Ballet Caravan folded before Estancia could be staged. To salvage what he could at the time, Ginastera made a suite of four dances from the original half-hour-long score. Its triumphant premiere in Buenos Aires in 1943 made the composer famous, even though the complete ballet was not performed until 1952. These four dances from Estancia have since become Ginastera’s best-known music in the concert hall.

The first dance, Los trabadores agrícolas (“The Land Workers”), exploits vibrant rhythms that convey an impression of the workers’ strength and endurance. Ginastera uses boldly colorful orchestration and clashing harmonies to add variety to the dance’s repetitive rhythmic patterns. The ecstasy-inducing Danza del trigo (“Wheat Dance”) is, by contrast, almost Impressionist in its sun-kissed homage to the shimmering horizons of the pampas during daytime. Ginastera combines percussion and brass to generate a sense of raw, elemental power in Los peones de hacienda (“The Cattlemen”). This music thunders and muscles with even more energy than the opening dance.

Danza final (“Final Dance”) is taken from the ballet’s climactic concluding number. This is the scene in which the unnamed protagonist engages in a traditional dancing tournament and outshines the gauchos. The malambo is a male dance meant for competitive display (and is sometimes accompanied by whirling, whipping lassos). Its obsessive one-two rhythm builds with increasing frenzy. Ginastera uses a kaleidoscopic mix of percussion to intensify the thrill, meanwhile giving a special workout to the trumpets.

José Pablo Moncayo: Huapango

We conclude this program with a short send-off by the Mexican composer José Pablo Moncayo, who was born in Guadalajara and also mentored by Carlos Chávez. Huapango is likewise associated with the Veracruz region. It originated as a suggestion from Chávez to write a piece celebrating vernacular musical tradition; Chávez led the premiere in 1941 in Mexico City.

A percussionist who also worked as a conductor, Moncayo traveled with a fellow composer to the region and spent several days collecting examples of local folkloric music. “Huapango” refers to a type of Mexican dance based on a complex mix of meters. The word itself originates from the indigenous culture. Instead of merely transcribing the source material he found into the language of the modern orchestra, Moncayo developed this raw material as his imagination directed him—in a direction audiences since have found irresistible.

Notes (c)2024 Thomas May

Rhapsody In Blue @ 100

A GERSHWIN TRIBUTE

Friday, May 10 • 8:00pm - JUST ADDED PERFORMANCE!

Saturday, May 11 • 8:00pm

Carpenter Theatre at Dominion Energy Center

Chia-Hsuan Lin, conductor

Russell Wilson, piano

’S Wonderful! The fascinating rhythms of George Gershwin will fill the air when Russell Wilson joins the Richmond Symphony for this centennial salute to “Rhapsody in Blue.” It’s the centerpiece of this all-Gershwin evening! Who could ask for anything more?

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WILSON

Elizabeth Reynolds Moore

SEPTEMBER 30, 1926 – MARCH 9, 2024

The Richmond Symphony is saddened by the passing of Elizabeth Reynolds Moore. As a charter member of the orchestra, Elizabeth enjoyed a distinguished 50-year career in the first violin section from 1957 to 2007, serving as concertmaster in 1970’s. She was known for her elegant style and the strong leadership she provided to her fellow musicians and, outside the symphony, frequently helped to organize instrumental groups and often played in beautiful worship services at her church, First Presbyterian.

We remain deeply grateful to Elizabeth for her talent and dedication to our organization, as well as for the significant role she played in nurturing classical music in the Richmond community.

A memorial service will be held at 2:00 pm on Saturday, April 13th, at First Presbyterian Church, 4602 Cary Street, Richmond, VA 23226

2024 APR 06 SAT • 8:00 pm

TODAY’S RICHMOND SYMPHONY MUSICIAN ROSTER

violin 1

Daisuke Yamamoto

CONCERTMASTER

Tom & Elizabeth Allen Chair

Adrian Pintea

ASSOCIATE CONCERTMASTER

Stacy Matthews

Anna Rogers

Delaney Turner

Emily Monroe

Audrey Pride

Jocelyn Vorenberg

Susanna Klein

Susan Spafford

Claudia Chudacoff

Qian Zhong

violin 2

Myles Mocarski

ACTING PRINCIPAL SECOND VIOLIN

Jeannette Jang

ACTING ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL SECOND VIOLIN

Bob & Nancy Hill Chair

Susy Yim

Catherine Cary

Alison Hall

Anna Bishop

Alana Carithers

Timothy Judd

Jill Foster

Matt Richardson

viola

Molly Sharp

PRINCIPAL

The Mary Anne Rennolds Chair

Stephen Schmidt

Zsuzsanna Emödi

Jocelyn Smith

Derek Smith

Johanna Beaver

Liz O’Hara

Sandra VandeGeijn

cello

Neal Cary PRINCIPAL

Jason McComb

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

Richmond Symphony League Chair

Ryan Lannan

Adrienne Gifford-Yang

Peter Greydanus

Isabell Dimoff

Charlotte Roberts

Dana McComb

bass

Riley Zimmermann

PRINCIPAL

Kelly Ali

ACTING ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

Peter Spaar

Morgan Daly

Matt Gold

Emily Tarantino

flute

Mary Boodell PRINCIPAL

Jennifer Debiec Lawson

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

Catherine Broyles

oboe

Victoria Chung

Kara Poling

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

Thomas Friedle

clarinet

David Lemelin

PRINCIPAL

Eddie Sundra

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

Daniel Frazelle

bassoon

Thomas Schneider

PRINCIPAL

Felix Ren

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

saxophone

Dusty Dowdy

Emily Avesian

Jeremy Koch horn

Dominic Rotella

PRINCIPAL

Devin Gossett

SECOND HORN

The Lucrezia Wheeler

Leisinger & George

Wheeler Chair

Erin Lano

ACTING ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

Roger Novak

Cody Halquist

trumpet

Samuel Huss

PRINCIPAL

Daniel Egan

ACTING ASSOCIATE

PRINCIPAL

trombone

Evan Williams

PRINCIPAL

Scott Winger

Scott Cochran

tuba

Conrad Shaw

PRINCIPAL

timpani

James Jacobson

PRINCIPAL

percussion

Clifton Hardison

PRINCIPAL

David Foster

Joe Connell

Andrew Henry

Chris Fosnaugh

Zach Strickland

harp

Mary Bircher

ACTING PRINCIPAL

piano

Russell Wilson

PRINCIPAL

Quincy & Anne Owen

Cole Chair

2024 APR 07 SUN • 3:00 pm Carpenter Theatre Carpenter Theatre SCAN THE QR CODE FOR MUSICIAN

ACTING ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

PRINCIPAL

Kevin Paul

BIOGRAPHIES

2024 MAY 04 SAT • 8:00 pm

Carpenter Theatre

2024 MAY 05 SUN • 3:00 pm

Carpenter Theatre

MOZART, PRICE & BEETHOVEN

Anthony Parnther CONDUCTOR

Dominic Rotella HORN

Thomas P. Bryan, Jr. Fund Soloist

FLORENCE PRICE (1887-1953)

Symphony No. 3 in C Minor

INTERMISSION

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791)

Concerto No. 4 in E-flat major for Horn and Orchestra, K. 495

I. Allegro moderato

II. Romanza: Andante

III. Rondo: Allegro vivace

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)

Symphony No. 8 in F major, Opus 93

I. Allegro vivace con brio

II. Allegretto scherzando

III. Tempo di menuetto

IV. Allegro vivace

ANTHONY PARNTHER CONDUCTOR

American conductor Anthony Parnther is in his fifth season as Music Director of California’s San Bernardino Symphony Orchestra. As conductor of the Gateways Music Festival Orchestra, whose members hail from leading orchestras nationwide, it was Parnther who led its sold-out Carnegie Hall debut, showcasing the world premiere of I Can by five-time GRAMMY®-winner Jon Batiste.

A master of multiple genres, Parnther has conducted many of the world’s preeminent artists, from Joshua Bell, Lynn Harrell, Jessye Norman, and Frederica von Stade to Imagine Dragons, John Legend, Avenged Sevenfold, Wu-Tang Clan, Metro Boomin, and Rihanna. Season highlights include guest appearances with the New York Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Nashville Symphony, and Chineke! Orchestra, with which Parnther recently made his BBC Proms debut in London. Recent engagements include collaborations with the Atlanta Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Calgary Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony,

Photo: Dario Acosta

Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Los Angeles Opera, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Music Academy, National Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, and the Sydney Symphony.

Dedicated to amplifying traditionally underrepresented voices, Parnther has reconstructed and performed orchestral works by Margaret Bonds, Duke Ellington, Zenobia Powell Perry, Florence Price, William Grant Still, and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. As well as leading LA Opera’s world premiere of Tamar-kali’s oratorio

We Hold These Truths and Long Beach Opera’s revival of Anthony Davis’ Pulitzer Prize-winning The Central Park Five, Parnther has premiered and recorded works by Batiste, Kris Bowers, Chanda Dancy, Davis, Adolphus Hailstork, Marian Harrison, Philip Herbert, Daniel Kidane, Gary Powell Nash, James Newton, Perry, Price, Taylor, George Walker, Errollyn Wallen, James Wilson, and John Wineglass. For his extensive championing of works by Black, Latino, and women composers, Parnther was profiled in 2015 as a “Local Hero” by Los Angeles’ PBS SoCal/KCET. He was also featured in a New York Times profile for his New York Philharmonic debut.

As one of today’s foremost film conductors, Parnther helms recording sessions for many of the world’s top international feature films and television series, working in close collaboration with some of the most decorated media composers on the scoring stages of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Nashville, Budapest, Glasgow, and London. Recent projects include Avatar: The Way of Water, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Encanto, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, Nope, Creed III, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild, Tenet, American Dad!, Oppenheimer, Turning Red, Star Wars: The Mandalorian, Star Wars: The Book of Boba Fett, and League of Legends.

© 21C Media Group, January 2024

DOMINIC ROTELLA HORN

Hornist Dominic Rotella enjoys an active career as a professional musician in central Virginia. He is proud to serve as Principal Horn of the Richmond Symphony, a position he has held since 2018, as well as Principal Horn of the Williamsburg Symphony Orchestra and Charlottesville Opera. Prior to his relocation to the Mid-Atlantic, he worked in Chile as Solo Horn of the Orquesta Filarmónica de Santiago. He has performed with dozens of professional ensembles across North and South America, including the premier symphony orchestras of Chicago, Houston, and Cincinnati, along with stints as Guest Principal Horn with the Detroit, Baltimore, and Virginia Symphony Orchestras. Dominic’s past summer engagements include the Sun Valley Music Festival, Artosphere Festival Orchestra, Lake Placid Sinfonietta, and since 2013, an annual appearance at the Lakes Area Music Festival in Brainerd, Minnesota.

Initially a trumpet player, Dominic first played the horn at age fourteen under the guidance of John P. Little. He went on to study with professor D. Bruce Heim at the University of Louisville, earning a bachelor of Music degree in horn performance. He continued his orchestral training as a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and completed a fellowship at the New World Symphony in Miami Beach. Dominic later attended graduate school at Rice University under the tutelage of William VerMeulen.

Aside from his musical pursuits, Dominic enjoys rock climbing, yoga, running, cooking, puzzles and games, NBA basketball, birding, long walks with his dog, Mary, and FaceTiming his niece, Margo.

PROGRAM NOTES

Florence Price: Symphony No. 3 in C minor

Music history is filled with stories of unexpected discoveries, sometimes centuries after a composer’s time on earth. But few are as dramatically significant as the surprising find twelve years ago in a small town south of Chicago. A couple set about renovating a rundown house and happened upon a treasure trove of musical manuscripts and other papers by Florence Price that remained miraculously preserved.

The recovery of such valuable compositions, including the last of Price’s four symphonies, two violin concertos, and many other pieces, was a momentous occasion in itself. But the fact that these works had been left missing in an abandoned house for more than half a century—it had been Price’s summer home—highlights the default situation of neglect and marginalization when it comes to the creative achievements of people of color and of women.

This isn’t a simple case of posthumous discovery. Price became “the most widely known African American woman composer from the 1930s to her death in 1953,” as the late musicologist Rae Linda Brown writes in The Heart of a Woman, the first-ever biography of Florence Price. No music by a Black woman had ever been played by a leading American orchestra before the Chicago Symphony, led by the conductor Frederick Stock, premiered her First Symphony in 1933.

Price’s compositional creativity spanned a wide range. She produced not only symphonies, concertos, and other orchestral works but also chamber compositions and many pieces for solo piano and organ, choral music, and a prolific output of art songs.

Yet a vast portion of her music was not published and languished in neglect after her death at the age of 66. Racism and gender inequality clearly made such an extraordinarily accomplished artist into what Brown calls an “Invisible Woman.” Born Florence Beatrice Smith in the Reconstruction South in 1887 (in Little Rock), she studied organ, piano, and composition at the New England Conser-

PROGRAM NOTES

vatory in Boston. Years later, she never received a response when she sent her music to the attention of the Boston Symphony’s music director, Serge Koussevitzky, a powerbroker in the new music scene. In 1927, during the Great Migration, Price resettled in Chicago and lived there until her death in 1953.

Price began her Third Symphony in 1938 amid the background of the Great Depression, working on a commission from the Federal Music Project of the Works Progress Administration. Valter Poole led the Detroit Civic Orchestra in the premiere in November 1940 at the Detroit Institute of the Arts. Her First Symphony (1931-32) had set a pattern by combining inspiration from Dvořák’s New World Symphony—a decidedly conservative model by this time—with deeply personal elaborations of the idiom of African American spirituals and such dance styles as the Juba.

The Second Symphony was possibly left incomplete or lost and the Fourth went unheard until 2018. The Third, according to Rae Linda Brown, moves beyond her previous work and combines Price’s characteristic melodic gift with “a mature grasp of orchestral technique”—in fact, the score calls for a larger palette than before, featuring expanded percussion. “As a result, the textures are richer and more diverse and include more contrapuntal writing,” notes Brown.

Although Price uses the conventional architecture of four movements, she experiments with the proportions allotted to the treatment of different themes in the opening movement. Its home key of C minor (the same as that of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony) is juxtaposed with an idyllic second theme that evokes an alternate reality.

Another idyll awaits in the warmly scored woodwind writing of the second movement. As in her other symphonies, Price inserts a movement titled Juba to do duty as a scherzo. This dance refers to the exuberant style developed by African American enslaved people. Forbidden the use of drums, they beat out rhythmic patterns by stomping and slapping their bodies. Price’s rhythmic subtlety never fails to fascinate, as does her imaginative use of the orchestra.

The last movement, labeled Scherzo Finale, pushes forward with restless energy until a sudden change in tempo in the final moments—where the grimness of C minor wins out. Price offered this commentary on the Third Symphony: “I tried to portray a cross section of Negro life and psychology as it is today, influenced by urban life north of the Mason and Dixon line. It is not ‘program’ music.” Brown adds that the work achieves “a contemporary synthesis of Black life and culture rather than a retrospective view of it.”

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Horn Concerto

No. 4 in E-flat major, K. 495

Musical friendships played an indispensable role in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s artistic life. The mutual admiration that he and the older Joseph Haydn expressed, for example, influenced the work of both composers. The warmth and musical intelligence of the clarinetist Anton Stadler, a fellow Freemason, inspired Mozart to write some of his best-loved pieces to showcase that newly emerging instrument. And the horn concerto we hear on this program is a testament to his connection with his longtime friend Joseph Leutgeb (1732-1811), a famous horn player of the era.

Mozart had known Leutgeb, who belonged to his father’s and Haydn’s generation, ever since his childhood in Salzburg, when they had played together in the court orchestra (Mozart was assigned the role concertmaster). Leutgeb left in 1777 to continue pursuing a freelance career in Vienna. (He borrowed a substantial sum from the composer’s father—apparently never paid back—to buy a tiny house in the capital.) He was, therefore, a welcome, familiar face when young Wolfgang made the same move and resettled in Vienna in 1781. In fact, Mozart wrote his very first composition after arriving in the metropolis for his friend: a rondo for horn and chamber orchestra (K. 371).

Mozart kept in contact with the older musician up until the end of his life, even taking him to see the hit production of his opera The Magic Flute shortly before he died. Their friendship was playful but also eccentric and involved mocking role-play in which Mozart

PROGRAM NOTES

addressed Leutgeb as an “ass, ox, and simpleton” and, according to some accounts, would make him kneel behind the stove while he sat at his table composing. A curious feature of the autograph manuscript is that Mozart used four different colors of ink (black, red, blue, and green)—was this another inside joke with his friend, or some sort of code indicating subtle points about dynamics and the like? No one knows for sure.

For years, Leutgeb had wanted Mozart to write him a concerto, and the composer eventually responded with four. Although K. 495 in E-flat major has become known as “No. 4,” it was likely the second in order of composition and dates from June 1786 (a month after the premiere of his opera The Marriage of Figaro). Mozart had started keeping a catalogue of compositions in Vienna, in which he described this piece as “a hunting-horn concerto [Waldhorn Konzert] for Leutgeb.” The instrument’s long association with hunting calls comes to the fore in particular in the finale (its best-known movement)—a wonderful example of how Mozart can play with and make something delightfully fresh from clichéd material.

The modern horn with valves as we know it had yet to be developed. The so-called “natural” horn that Leutgeb would have played required him to insert his cupped hand into the bell to manipulate the sound to produce chromatic notes. Mozart’s keen understanding of the instrument and its possibilities allows the soloist to reveal multiple facets of the horn’s musical personality. The opening Allegro moderato finely balances the soloist’s independence with the ensemble (which even includes a pair of horns of its own).

A contemporary account of Leutgeb’s musicianship praised his “ability to deliver a singing adagio as musically and as accurately as the most mellow voice.” Mozart takes advantage of this singing quality in the horn’s upper and lower registers in the “Romanza”—a wistfully touching oasis of transporting melody before Mozart returns to the exuberant, extroverted attitude of the opening movement with the finale’s rollicking “hunting” calls and lively rhythms.

Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 8 in F major, Op. 93

Ludwig van Beethoven expressed his annoyance with those who underestimated the quality of his Eighth Symphony, which was premiered in Vienna in February 1814—just a little more than two months after the premiere of the more popular Seventh (which shared the program on this occasion). A misleading claim developed that the odd-numbered symphonies were more “revolutionary” and original, while their even-numbered counterparts were often deemed to be “tamer,” as if representing a kind of creative “relaxation” after the epic efforts required for the former.

The cliché of odd- versus even-numbered symphonies as antitheses doesn’t hold up if you closely compare the Eighth with its immediate predecessor. Just note the powerful role played by rhythmic momentum in both scores, for example. Beethoven, in fact, sketched out ideas for the Seventh and Eighth around the same time in 1812 and then proceeded to compose both symphonies back to back.

The Eighth’s boisterously inventive spirit is apparent from the outset. The main theme recycles a concise, six-note phrase into evervaried units, connecting them into an extended thematic complex. Throughout the movement, this tension between compression and expansion is sustained and reinforced. The charming, good-natured opening turns out to be somewhat deceptive as a more pressing, even primitive, force emerges in Beethoven’s erratic use of dynamics and rhythmic energy. Beethoven himself remarked that he had composed the work in an “unbuttoned” spirit, and its many instances of rugged humor prove the point.

In lieu of a soul-stirring Adagio, Beethoven introduces an interlude that appears to mock the very concept of measuring musical time (an idea Haydn had played with in his Symphony No. 101, otherwise known as “The Clock”). The woodwinds sustain an incessant “tuttut-tut” pulse, while the melody is wittily integrated into this mechanistic timekeeping. In the final measures, however, the situation unravels into a frenzied mania.

Beethoven’s choice to replace his customary high-energy Scherzo

PROGRAM NOTES

with a minuet in the Eighth Symphony is occasionally regarded as a “conventional” move, but his unmistakable stamp is evident in the off-kilter accents. The final movement shows the composer in his most strikingly, even aggressively, original vein. Transforming Classical rondo form, which was traditionally used to ensure a pleasingly predictable conclusion, Beethoven gives this finale, a hybrid of rondo and sonata form, a surprising extent and scope, crowding it with the work’s most substantial ideas.

Like the rest of the work, the finale’s main theme is deceptively uncomplicated. Beethoven teases the ear by creating ambiguity and tension through rhythmic and dynamic patterns until reaching an abrupt explosion in the form of a jarring C-sharp blast (an absurd non-sequitur in the context of the F major home key). In one of his funniest passages, he extends the coda to outrageous proportions— but it is precisely by doing so that he makes sense of this strange “wrong note,” allowing it to steer the entire narrative off course into a distant key so that the trumpets and timpani (they, too, wear capes) can heroically reel the orchestra back on track.

Once the Promised Land has been safely reached, Beethoven has the entire ensemble pound away relentlessly. The orchestra accentuates the home of F major with hilarious, bombastic insistence. The musicians collectively seem to compete to make sure they get the last word in—as if Beethoven is poking fun at his own “heroic” style.

Notes (c)2024 Thomas May

Rhapsody In Blue @ 100

A GERSHWIN TRIBUTE

Friday, May 10 • 8:00pm - JUST ADDED PERFORMANCE!

Saturday, May 11 • 8:00pm

Carpenter Theatre at Dominion Energy Center

Chia-Hsuan Lin, conductor Russell Wilson, piano

’S Wonderful! The fascinating rhythms of George Gershwin will fill the air when Russell Wilson joins the Richmond Symphony for this centennial salute to “Rhapsody in Blue.” It’s the centerpiece of this all-Gershwin evening! Who could ask for anything more?

TICKETS START AT $15

ORDER YOUR TICKETS NOW ! 804.788.1212 x2 • RichmondSymphony.com

WILSON

2024 MAY 04 SAT • 8:00 pm

Carpenter Theatre

2024 MAY 05 SUN • 3:00 pm

Carpenter Theatre

violin 1

Daisuke Yamamoto

CONCERTMASTER

Tom & Elizabeth Allen Chair

Adrian Pintea

ASSOCIATE CONCERTMASTER

Susy Yim

Audrey Pride

Anna Bishop

Delaney Hunt

Susan Spafford

Susanna Klein

Jocelyn Vorenberg

Treesa Gold

Claudia Chudacoff

Qian Zhong

violin 2

Myles Mocarski

ACTING PRINCIPAL

SECOND VIOLIN

Jeannette Jang

ACTING ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

SECOND VIOLIN

Bob & Nancy Hill Chair

Stacy Matthews

Catherine Cary

Emily Monroe

Jill Foster

Alison Hall

Timothy Judd

Matt Richardson

Hanbing Jia

viola

Stephen Schmidt

ACTING PRINCIPAL

Jocelyn Smith

ACTING ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

Zsuzsanna Emödi

TODAY’S RICHMOND SYMPHONY MUSICIAN ROSTER

Johanna Beaver

Liz O’Hara

Sandra VandeGeijn

Jiyoung Nam

Dorothy Couper

cello

Neal Cary

PRINCIPAL

Jason McComb

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

Richmond Symphony League Chair

Ryan Lannan

Peter Greydanus

Barbara Gaden

Holden Bitner

Charlotte Roberts

Emma Cary

bass

Riley Zimmermann

ACTING PRINCIPAL

Rumano Solano

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

Kelly Ali

Peter Spaar

Lee Philip

Matt Gold

flute

Mary Boodell

PRINCIPAL

Jennifer Debiec Lawson

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

Shannon Vandzura

Amy Pintea

oboe

Kara Poling

ACTING PRINCIPAL

Thomas Friedle

Amelia Merriman

clarinet

David Lemelin

PRINCIPAL

Eddie Sundra

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

James Tobin

bassoon

Thomas Schneider

PRINCIPAL

Felix Ren

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

horn

Erin Lano

ACTING PRINCIPAL

Cody Halquist

ACTING SECOND HORN

Roger Novak

ACTING ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

Mica Redden

trumpet

Samuel Huss

PRINCIPAL

Daniel Egan

ACTING ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

John Pitts

trombone

Scott Winger

ACTING PRINCIPAL

Tim Maines

Scott Cochran

tuba

Conrad Shaw

PRINCIPAL

timpani

James Jacobson

PRINCIPAL

percussion

Clifton Hardison

PRINCIPAL

Philip Drembus

Chris Fosnaugh

Dennis Northerner

James Bartelt

harp

Erin Roukous

ACTING PRINCIPAL

piano

Russell Wilson

PRINCIPAL

Quincy & Anne Owen

Cole Chair

WHO WE ARE

*only Richmond Symphony musician biographies will be listed