MUSIC
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Audience Information
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Cover Design: Lisa Baron | Cover Photo: Mark Teague
MUSIC
Emory University
Symphony Orchestra
Paul Bhasin, conductor
Bethany Mamola, soprano
Thursday, March 6, 2025, 8:00 p.m.
Emerson Concert Hall
Schwartz Center for Performing Arts
Program
Huapango (1941)
Vier letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs) (1948)
José Pablo Moncayo (1912–1958)
Richard Strauss
I. Frühling (Spring) (1864–1949)
II. September
III. Beim Schlafengehen (At Bedtime)
IV. Im Abendroth (At Gloaming)
Bethany Mamola, soprano
Symphony No. 9 in E-flat Major, op. 70 (1945)
Dmitri Shostakovich
I. Allegro (1906–1975)
II. Moderato
III. Presto
IV. Largo
V. Allegretto
Welcome
The 95-member Emory University Symphony Orchestra (EUSO) celebrated its 100th Anniversary in 2023. The orchestra performs a repertoire spanning a variety of compositional genres, from the Baroque through the present day. With concert programming featuring both classic and emerging literature, the EUSO has been celebrated in tours (to New York City), recordings (on Atlanta’s NPR affiliate), and collaborations with soloists and organizations including Janelle Monae, Matt Haimovitz, HBO, the National Basketball Association, and Ben Folds. Membership is by competitive audition and comprises of undergraduate and graduate students from diverse disciplines. While the majority of the EUSO includes music majors, many minors and non-majors participate each season as well. The EUSO is recorded on the Centaur Record label, with a 2023 release (iTunes, Spotify) of works for Atlanta and Dallas Symphony wind soloists and orchestra.
Music at Emory
The Department of Music at Emory University provides an exciting and innovative environment for developing knowledge and skills as a performer, composer, and scholar. Led by a faculty of more than sixty nationally and internationally recognized artists and researchers, our undergraduate and graduate students experience a rich diversity of performance and academic opportunities. Undergraduate students in our department earn a BA in music with a specialization in performance, composition, or research, many of whom simultaneously earn a second degree in another department. True to the spirit of Emory, a liberal arts college in the heart of a research university, our faculty and ensembles also welcome the participation of non-major students from across the Emory campus.
Become a part of Music at Emory by giving to the Friends of Music. Your gift provides crucial support to all of our activities. To learn more, visit our website at music.emory.edu or call 404.727.6280.
Program Notes
All program notes by Ken Meltzer unless otherwise noted Huapango (1941)
One of the enduring and gratifying traditions in classical music is the incorporation of folk elements into concert works. As Czech composer Antonín Dvořák acknowledged: “I myself have gone to the simple, halfforgotten tunes of the Bohemian peasants for hints in my most serious works. Only in this way can a musician express the true sentiment of his people. He gets in touch with the common humanity of his country.” An irresistible example of the blending of folk and classical elements is Huapango, an orchestral piece by the Mexican composer, conductor, instrumentalist, and educator, José Pablo Moncayo (1912–1958). Moncayo completed Huapango in 1941. The premiere took place on August 15 of that year, with Carlos Chávez conducting the Orquesta Sinfónica de México.
Moncayo based his Huapango on the Mexican folk dance of the same name that he encountered during visits to Veracruz. The huapango, juxtaposing duple and triple meters, is performed by a wide variety of ensembles, both vocal and instrumental. Moncayo’s Huapango incorporates three authentic Mexican folk dances, “Siqui-Siri,” “Balajú,” and “El Gavilán.” The work features two quick-tempo outer sections framing a slower–tempo central episode. The vibrant folk dances, couched in Moncayo’s scintillating orchestral colors, have made Huapango one of the most beloved works of its kind. As French composer Darius Milhaud once remarked: “When in the grey light of a Parisian winter, I want there to be sun in my flat, I listen to a record of Huapango.”
Vier letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs) (1948)
Richard Strauss’s final decade was, in many ways, the most difficult. Along with the kinds of challenges often encountered in later years, Strauss witnessed the destruction of his native Germany, as World War II reached its devastating conclusion. Ultimately, Strauss and his wife, Pauline, left their home in Garmisch, seeking refuge in Switzerland.
Nevertheless, Strauss’s last decade proved to be a remarkably creative period, one affectionately referred to as the composer’s “Indian Summer.” During the 1940s Strauss produced several marvelous works, including the opera Capriccio (1942), the Second Horn Concerto (1942), the Oboe Concerto (1945), and Metamorphosen (1945), subtitled “A Study for 23 Solo Strings.”
Strauss’s final composition is the work known as the Vier letze Lieder
(Four Last Songs), scored for soprano solo and orchestra. In May of 1948, Strauss composed the song “Im Abendrot,” a setting of a poem by Joseph von Eichendorff. In September of that year, Strauss added three songs, based upon poetry by Hermann Hesse (“Frühling,” “September,” and “Beim Schlafengehen”). The premiere of the Four Last Songs took place after Strauss’s death. Two legendary artists, soprano Kirsten Flagstad and conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler, joined the Philharmonia Orchestra in a May 22, 1950 concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall.
Throughout his career, Richard Strauss proved himself a master of vocal writing (both in song and opera), and in the magical deployment of the orchestra to musical and dramatic effect. All of those gifts are evident in Strauss’s valedictory work, one that with the utmost beauty and eloquence, depicts the composer’s embrace of the culmination of a long, rich, and productive life.
Symphony No. 9 in E-flat Major, op. 70 (1945)
In November of 1944, as Russia’s wartime fortunes improved, Dmitri Shostakovich wrote: “I have a dream—common, I should think to every Soviet artist—of creating a large-scale work which will express the powerful feelings we have today. I think that the epigraph to all our work in the next few years will be the simple but glorious word, ‘Victory.’”
Many anticipated that Shostakovich’s “dream” would manifest itself in his next symphony, the Ninth. Shostakovich confided to a friend: “I would like to write it for chorus and solo singers as well as an orchestra if I could find suitable material for the book and if I were not afraid that I might be suspected of wanting to draw immodest analogies.” Here, Shostakovich was referring to another Ninth, Beethoven’s magnificent “Choral” Symphony (1824).
In January of 1945, Shostakovich began composing his Ninth Symphony. The composer shared some of the score with his associates. They described it as “powerful, victorious major music in a vigorous tempo,” and “majestic in scale, in pathos, in its breathtaking motion.”
But by the early spring of 1945, Shostakovich put the work aside. Abandoning the music he had written up to that point, Shostakovich recommenced the Ninth in July of that year. Shostakovich completed the Symphony on August 30, and the work received its premiere in Leningrad on November 3, 1945. Evgeny Mravinsky conducted the Leningrad Philharmonic.
Those who anticipated the Shostakovich Ninth would be modeled upon Beethoven’s “Choral” Symphony were stunned. Instead of an epic score with chorus and vocal soloists, the Shostakovich Ninth features conventional orchestral forces, and lasts about 25 minutes. Rather than
displaying a grand, heroic form of expression, much of this “Victory” Symphony is lighthearted, sometimes evoking the music of silent film comedies or the circus.
Mravinsky, who led the Ninth’s world premiere, defended the Symphony as “a work directed against philistinism…an original ‘symphonic broadside’ which ridicules complacency and bombast, the desire to ‘rest on one’s laurels’—attributes and a state of mind which were particularly dangerous at a time when the war had just ended and the task of healing its wounds lay ahead.”
Another explanation for Shostakovich’s about-face surfaced four years after the composer’s death with the book, Testimony: the Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich. Testimony, compiled by Shostakovich’s friend and student, Solomon Volkov, purports to offer the Russian composer’s views on a number of subjects. According to the Shostakovich of Testimony: (T)hey wanted a fanfare from me, an ode, they wanted me to write a majestic Ninth Symphony. It was very unfortunate, the business with the Ninth…
Everyone praised (Soviet dictator Joseph) Stalin, and now I was supposed to join in this unholy affair…
I confess that I gave hope to the leader and the teacher’s dreams. I announced that I was writing an apotheosis. I was trying to get them off my back but it turned against me. When my Ninth was performed, Stalin was incensed. He was deeply offended, because there was no chorus, no soloists. And no apotheosis. There wasn’t even a paltry dedication. It was just music, which Stalin didn’t understand very well and which was of dubious content… I couldn’t write an apotheosis to Stalin, I simply couldn’t. I knew what I was in for when I wrote the Ninth.
The authenticity of Volkov’s Testimony continues to be the subject of heated debate. Nevertheless, it is telling that Shostakovich’s next Symphony, the Tenth, did not appear until 1953, after the death of Joseph Stalin.
The Ninth Symphony is in five movements. The first (Allegro) is in sonata form, a structure favored by such 18th-century composers as Mozart and Haydn. The spirit of “Papa” Haydn is also present in the Allegro’s pervasive wit and humor. A solo clarinet sings the second movement’s (Moderato) flowing, central melody. The final three movements are played without pause. The third (Presto) serves as the Symphony’s lighthearted scherzo. The brief fourth movement (Largo) begins in dramatic fashion, with powerful exclamations by the trombones and tuba, capped by a cymbal crash. The finale (Allegretto) opens in a more playful mood. The whirlwind of activity culminates in a helter-skelter dash to the finish.
Paul Bhasin, conductor
Paul Bhasin serves as Director of Orchestral Studies at Emory University where he holds the Donna and Marvin Schwartz Professorship in Music. In this capacity, he conducts the Emory University Symphony Orchestra and Emory Youth Symphony Orchestra, oversees music research programs, and teaches conducting. Praised for his “crisp, clear” conducting and “highly expressive” interpretations, Bhasin’s career began when he won the Yamaha Young Performing Artist Competition in 1998. As a conductor, composer/arranger, and instrumentalist, Bhasin has collaborated with diverse institutions including the San Francisco Symphony, Virginia Symphony, “President’s Own” US Marine Band, the International Computer Music Conference, St. Louis Opera, New World Symphony, Interlochen Arts Academy, International Dvořák Festival (Prague, Czechia), and Chicago Civic Orchestra. Bhasin has performed on National Public Radio, Detroit PBS-TV, and at the Aspen, Tanglewood, Grand Teton, and Ravinia music festivals. Bhasin has recorded as a trumpeter and conductor for the Centaur, ACA, and Interscope record labels.
Bhasin also serves as Music Director and Conductor of the DeKalb Symphony Orchestra and Atlanta Chamber Music Festival. An avid educator, Bhasin has collaborated with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Musicorps program, the Grammy-winning sextet Eighth Blackbird, led honor orchestras and bands (including at the All-State level), and has presented at national conferences including the Midwest Orchestra Clinic and the National Music Teachers Association Conference. Bhasin’s trumpet students have won first prize at major competitions including the National Trumpet Competition.
Bhasin composed and conducted the orchestral scores to the motion picture Sister Carrie (recently premiered at the Gene Siskel Center in Chicago) and Hogtown (award winner at the Berlin, Los Angeles, and Nashville International Black Film festivals) which was named a “Critic’s Pick” and one of the “Top 10 Films of 2016” by the New York Times (both films stream on Amazon Prime Video). He received his musical education from Northwestern University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Bethany Mamola, soprano
Soprano Bethany Grace Mamola has charmed audiences with her stage presence and warm vocal timbre. The Cleveland Plain Dealer praised her with “ . . . the most beautiful singing, whose Carolina was as disarming in characterization as it was expressive in vocal shading.” Arts Atlanta wrote that Mamola “was that rare talent who commands not only the virtuosity of a seasoned operatic vocalist but also the stage presence and acting prowess necessary to truly embody the character she presents,” and that “Mamola was a captivating presence not only for her extraordinary dynamic range but also the graceful ease with which she commanded it.” The Cleveland Classical said she was “a delight to hear and see. Her casual, yet precise stage demeanor and astute vocal talent made for a wonderfully clear vocal interpretation that rang throughout the hall.” Mamola has been a featured soloist with the National Repertory Orchestra Festival in Colorado, the DeKalb Symphony Orchestra, the Sausalito Song Society, the McKinney Philharmonic, the River Cities Symphony Orchestra, the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival, and was the featured soprano soloist with the UTRGV Symphony Chorus in their 2019 performances of Handel’s Messiah. She made her directorial debut as creative director of Try Me at the Winspear Opera House in conjunction with ATT Performing Arts Elevator Project performed at the Winspear Opera House in Dallas, Texas. Mamola’s recent performances include an appearance with John’s Creek Symphony Orchestra in December 2024, and the Highland Cashiers Chamber Festival this summer. Mamola holds a DMA in voice from the University of North Texas, a Master of Music from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and a Bachelor of Music from the University of the Pacific’s Conservatory of Music. Mamola is an enthusiastic educator in voice and opera performance and the Director of Vocal Studies at Emory University.
Emory University Symphony Orchestra
The Joel M. Felner, MD, and Edward Goodwin Scruggs Chairs
The two named chairs, concertmaster and principal second violin, are in recognition of instruments given to the Emory University Symphony Orchestra in the value of $350,000. Joel M. Felner is associate dean at the Emory University School of Medicine; Edward Goodwin Scruggs was for 37 years a tenured member of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. The lives of both men represent distinguished careers and great philanthropy as patrons of music and friends of Emory University. The concertmaster plays a 1687 Grancino and the principal second an 1870 Scarampella.
Violin I
Kaitlyn Kaminuma | Chelmsford, MA | Music/QSS
Joel M. Felner MD Concertmaster Chair
Performing on the Giovanni Grancino violin, Milan, 1687
Brandon Lee, Assistant Concertmaster | Duluth, GA | Biology/Music
Christopher Li | Holmdel, NJ | Biology
Yujin Ha | Basking Ridge, NJ | Human Health
Samuel Igbo | Boerne, TX | NBB/Music
Ajay Balasubramaniam | Suwanee, GA | Biology/Music
Nora Lee | Short Hills, NJ | Chemistry/Music
Edric Nduwimana | Rex, GA | Music
Youyou Zhu | Johns Creek, GA | NBB
Katherine Mombo | Southbury, CT | History/Music
Caitlin Weinheimer | East Greenbush, NY | Chemistry/Music
Ayi Ekhaese | Sugar Land, TX | Music/Business
Sunny Sun | Vancouver, Canada | Film
Mia Motley | Marietta, GA | NBB/Music
Alex Zhu | Wilmington, MA | Business/Computer Science
Violin II
Chloe Nelson | Rancho Santa Margarita, CA | Chemistry/Music
Edward Goodwin Scruggs Principal Second Chair
Performing on the Giuseppe Scarampella violin, Brescia, 1870
Isabella Lin, Assistant Principal | Alpharetta, GA | Music/Biology
Katie Shin | Auburn, GA | NBB/Music
Robin Meyer | Grand Rapids, MI | Music/Environmental Science
Louisa Ma | Phoenix, AZ | BBA
Karen Wang | Andover, MA | Chemistry
Emory University Symphony Orchestra
Violin II (continued)
Eric Zhang | Dublin, OH | Applied Math/Music
Chloe Busracamwongs | Millbrae, CA | NBB
Jessica Liu | San Jose, CA | NBB
Quentin Brydon | Ann Arbor, MI | Nursing
Alex Kashanchi | Potomac, MD | Biology
Nicholas McIntyre | Knoxville, TN | Chemistry/Music
Akhila Jallepalli | Austin, TX | NBB
Josephine Sim | Woodway, TX | NBB
Viola
Sihyun Jeon, Principal | San Jose, California | Biology/Chemistry
Christian Chae, Assistant Principal | Arcadia, CA | BBA
Caroline Ma | Phoenix, AZ | BBA
Hannah Lim | Newton, MA | Nursing
Cynthia Min | Chandler, AZ | BBA
Rachel Lee | Atlanta, GA | Biology
Stephen Kwon | Kansas City, MO | Undecided
Dylan Rybacki | San Antonio, TX | Applied Math
Michelle Lu | St. Louis, MO | NBB
Chanhee Park | San Jose, CA | BBA
Thora Spence | Oak Ridge, TN | Math/Biology
Jihwan Shin | Suwanee, GA | Psychology
Kyle Jeong | Alpharetta, GA | Biology/Music
Jenny Zheng | Potomac, MD | Business
Lillian Liao | Sugar Land, TX | NBB
Cello
Sergey Blinov, Principal | Atlanta, GA | Physics/Math (GT)
Jaia Alli, Assistant Principal | Atlanta, GA | Biology/Music
Daniel Yoon | San Jose, CA | Business
Alexander Moon | Berkeley Heights, NJ | Chemistry
Sean Yoshihara | Schaumburg, IL | Computer Science (GT)
Christopher Jang | San Marino, CA | Biology
Chris Park | Rye, NY | Chemistry
Meiya Weeks | Cambridge, MA | PPA
Audrey Chun | Lexington, MA | NBB
Ben Uslan | Charlotte, NC | Music/German
Emory University Symphony Orchestra
Cello (continued)
Sabrina Sung | Westford, MA | Public Policy
Joshua Kim | Suwanee, GA | Undecided
Paul Kim | College Station, TX | NBB
Bass
Jonathan Jacques, Principal | Shaker Heights, OH | Biology
Tucker Sampson, Assistant Principal | Duxbury, MA | Computer Science/Music
Carsen Valenta | Weston, MA | NBB
Tess Kassinger | Chicago, IL | Biology
Charles Ascone | Manalapan, NJ | Computer Science/Music
Jackson Dietz | Port Washington, NY | Business/Computer Science
Flute and Piccolo (Listed Alphabetically)
Ashan Galhena | Suwanee, GA | NBB/Music
Robyn Jin | Bellevue, WA | Biology
Brooke Liu | Irving, TX | BBA
Julia Nagel | Crozet, VA | Music/PPL
Oboe and English Horn (Listed Alphabetically)
Sophia Kim | Princeton, NJ | Biology
Isaac Light | Pleasanton, CA | Business/CS
Eric Xu | Short Hills, NJ | Applied Math/Chemistry
Malia Yap | Pacific Palisades, CA | QSS - Sociology
Clarinet (Listed Alphabetically)
Narin Kim | Schaumburg, IL | Nursing
Sam Kutsman | Belmont, MA | Biology/Music
Nick Wandrick | Alpharetta, GA | NBB/Music
Bass Clarinet
Sam Kutsman | Belmont, MA | Biology/Music
Bassoon (Listed Alphabetically)
Nolan Smith | Pleasanton, CA | Undecided
Donovan Tong | San Ramon, CA | BBA
Lazara Santana | Atlanta, GA
Emory University Symphony Orchestra
Horn (Listed Alphabetically)
Andrew Antoun | Frisco, TX | Biology
Noah Choe | Dubai, United Arab Emirates | Biology
David Kim | San Jose, CA | Physics
Zhi Lin | Johns Creek, GA | Business
Trumpet (Listed Alphabetically)
Joey Chen | Beijing, China | Music/Math
Max Curtis | Natick, MA | Biophysics/Music
Austin Watkinson | Great Falls, VA | Business and Music
Trombone and Bass Trombone (Listed Alphabetically)
Misha Gupta | Marietta, GA | Business/Music
Michael Hu | Cary, NC | Computer Science
Christopher Park | Lilburn, GA | Biology
Tuba
Kushal Maganti | Suwanee, GA | Neuroscience
Percussion and Tuba (Listed Alphabetically)
Eric Chen | Taichung, Taiwan | Biology/Applied Math
Jace Park | Newnan, GA | Business
Ethan Xu | Charlotte, NC | Chemistry
Jack Xu | Mendham, NJ | Undecided
Alan Zhao | Fremont, CA | Biology
Harp
Emma Burnsworth | Winston, GA | Music
Celesta
Jonathan Luo | Mason, OH | Undecided
Department of Music Administration
Stephen Crist, Chair
Meredith Schweig, Director of Undergraduate Studies
Paul Bhasin, Director of Undergraduate Research
Martha Shockey, Senior Secretary
Kathy Summers, Academic Department Administrator
Magdalena Shumanova, Academic Services Program Coordinator
Simone McGaw Evans, Program Coordinator
Emory String, Wind, and Percussion Faculty
Violin
Justin Bruns •
Jay Christy •
Emily Daggett Smith H
Jessica Wu H
Viola
Yinzi Kong
Paul Murphy •
Joseph Skerik H
Clarinet
Jesse McCandless •
Justin Stanley
Bassoon
Anthony Georgeson •
Shelly Unger
Trumpet
Mark Maliniak •
Michael Tiscione •
Trombone
Ed Nicholson s
Nathan Zgonc •
Percussion
Sarah Dietrich
Scott Pollard
Mark Yancich •
Euphonium
Adam Frey
Flute
Christina Smith • Jim Zellers s
Oboe
Emily Brebach •
Sasha Shatalova Prior
Tuba
Michael Moore •
Saxophone
Gary Paulo
Horn
Jason Eklund s
Ryan Little •
Harp
Elisabeth Remy •
Cello
Karen Freer •
Roee Harran
Guang Wang H
Bass
Michael Kurth •
Joe McFadden •
• Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
s Atlanta Opera Orchestra
H Vega Quartet
Music at Emory brings together students, faculty, and world-class artists to create an exciting and innovative season of performances, lectures, workshops, and master classes. With more than 150 events each year across multiple Emory venues, audiences experience a wide variety of musical offerings.
We hope you enjoy sampling an assortment of work from our student ensembles, community youth ensembles, artists in residence, professional faculty, up-and-coming prodigies, and virtuosos from around the world.
music.emory.edu
