program
Overture from Coriolan Ludwig van Beethoven
Seven Early Songs
Alban Berg Janna Baty, mezzo-soprano Nacht (Carl Hauptmann) Schilflied (Nikolaus Lenau) Die Nachtigall (Theodor Storm) Traumgekrรถnt (Rainer Maria Rilke) Im Zimmer (Johannes Schlaf ) Liebesode (Otto Erich Hartleben) Sommertage (Paul Hohenberg)
Intermission
Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73 Johannes Brahms
Allegro non troppo Adagio non troppo Allegretto grazioso (quasi andantino) Allegro con spirito
{Please silence all portable electronic devices}
Nacht (Carl Hauptmann)
Night
Dämmern Wolken über Nacht und Thal, Nebel schweben. Wasser rauschen sacht. Nun entschleiert sich’s mit einem Mal: O gieb acht! gieb acht!
The clouds enshroud the night and valley in twilight; Mists floats above, water rushes gently. Now all at once they unveil themselves: Listen! Take heed!
Weites Wunderland ist aufgethan, Silbern ragen Berge traumhaft gross, Stille Pfade silberlicht thalan Aus verborg’nem Schoss.
A broad wonderland has opened up. Silver mountains rise up, fantastically huge, Hushed paths lit with silver lead toward the valley From some secluded hideaway;
Und die hehre Welt so traumhaft rein. Stummer Buchenbaum am Wege steht Schattenschwarz – ein Hauch vom fernen Hain Einsam leise geht.
And the noble world is so dreamily pure. A mute beech tree stands by the path, Black with shadows; A breeze from a distant, lonely grove wafts gently by.
Und aus tiefen Grundes Düsterheit Blinken Lichter auf in [stumme]2 Nacht. Trinke Seele! trinke Einsamkeit! O gieb acht! gieb acht!
And from the deep darkness of the valley Lights twinkle in the silent night. Drink, my soul! Drink in this solitude! Listen! Take heed! Translation: Janna Baty
Schilflied (Nikolaus Lenau)
Song of the Reeds
Auf geheimem Waldespfade Schleich’ ich gern im Abendschein An das öde Schilfgestade, Mädchen, und gedenke dein!
Along a secret forest path I like to creep in the evening light; I go to the desolate, reedy banks, and think, my maiden, of you!
Wenn sich dann der Busch verdüstert, Rauscht das Rohr geheimnisvoll, Und es klaget und es flüstert, Daß ich weinen, weinen soll.
As the bushes grow dark, the reeds hiss mysteriously, and lament and whisper, and thus I have to weep and weep.
Und ich mein’, ich höre wehen Leise deiner Stimme Klang, Und im Weiher untergehen Deinen lieblichen Gesang.
And I think that I hear wafting the gentle sound of your voice, and down into the pond sinks your lovely song. Translation: Emily Ezust
Die Nachtigall (Theodor Storm)
The Nightingale
Das macht, es hat die Nachtigall Die ganze Nacht gesungen; Da sind von ihrem süssen Schall, Da sind in Hall und Widerhall Die Rosen aufgesprungen.
It happened that the nightingale Has sung all night long; from its sweet song, from the echo and reverberation, roses have burst forth in bloom.
Sie war doch sonst ein wildes Blut, Nun geht sie tief in Sinnen, Trägt in der Hand den Sommerhut Und duldet still der Sonne Glut Und weiß nicht, was beginnen.
She was only just a wild-blooded girl, now she walks, deep in thought; she carries her summer hat in hand, and quietly endures the sun’s glow, and knows not what is beginning. Translation: Janna Baty
Traumgekrönt (Rainer Maria Rilke)
Crowned in Dreams
Das war der Tag der weißen Chrysanthemen, Mir bangte fast vor seiner Pracht... Und dann, dann kamst du mir die Seele nehmen Tief in der Nacht. Mir war so bang, und du kamst lieb und leise, Ich hatte grad im Traum an dich gedacht. Du kamst, und leis’ wie eine Märchenweise Erklang die Nacht.
That was the day of white chrysanthemums; I almost trembled before their glory... And then, then you came to me to take my soul Deep in the night. I felt so anxious, and you came so lovingly and gently; I had just been thinking about you in a dream. You came, and softly, like a fairy tale, the night resounded. Translation: Emily Ezust
Im Zimmer (Johannes Schlaf )
Indoors
Herbstsonnenschein. Der liebe Abend blickt so still herein. Ein Feuerlein rot Knistert im Ofenloch und loht. So, mein Kopf auf deinen Knie’n, So ist mir gut. Wenn mein Auge so in deinem ruht, Wie leise die Minuten zieh’n.
Autumn sunlight. The lovely evening peers so quietly in. A little red fire crackles in the stove and flares up. And with my head upon your knee, I am contented. When my eyes rest in yours, how gently do the minutes pass! Translation: Emily Ezust
Liebesode (Otto Erich Hartleben)
Ode to Love
Im Arm der Liebe schliefen wir selig ein, Am offnen Fenster lauschte der Sommerwind, Und unsrer Atemzüge Frieden Trug er hinaus in die helle Mondnacht. --
In the arms of love we fell blissfully asleep; at the open window the summer wind listened and carried the peacefulness of our breath out into the bright, moonlit night.
Und aus dem Garten tastete zagend sich Ein Rosenduft an unserer Liebe Bett Und gab uns wundervolle Träume, Träume des Rausches -- so reich an Sehnsucht!
And out of the garden, feeling its way randomly, the scent of roses came to our bed of love and gave us wonderful dreams, dreams of intoxication, rich with yearning. Translation: Emily Ezust
Sommertage (Paul Hohenberg)
Summer Days
Nun ziehen Tage über die Welt, Gesandt aus blauer Ewigkeit, Im Sommerwind verweht die Zeit. Nun windet nächtens der Herr Sternenkränze mit seliger Hand Über Wander- und Wunderland. O Herz, was kann in diesen Tagen Dein hellstes Wanderlied denn sagen Von deiner tiefen, tiefen Lust: Im Wiesensang verstummt die Brust, Nun schweigt das Wort, wo Bild um Bild Zu dir zieht und dich ganz erfüllt.
Now the days meander through the world, sent forth from blue eternity; time dissipates in the summer wind. Now at night the Lord weaves with blessed hand wreaths of stars above the wandering wonderland. In these days, o my heart, what can your brightest wanderer’s song then say about your deep, deep pleasure? In meadowsong the heart falls silent; now there are no words, and image upon image visits you and fills you entirely. Translation: Emily Ezust
about the artists
Toshiyuki Shimada, Music Director TOSHIYUKI SHIMADA is Music Director and Conductor of the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra in New London; Music Director and Conductor of the Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes; and has been Music Director of the Yale Symphony Orchestra of Yale University since 2005. He is also Music Director Laureate of the Portland Symphony Orchestra in Portland, Maine, for which he served as Music Director from 1986 to 2006. Prior to his Portland engagement he was Associate Conductor of the Houston Symphony Orchestra for six years. This season Maestro Shimada will continue to be active with his three orchestras, as well as his teaching duties at Yale University. He will also be guest conducting the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Photo by Harold Shapiro Orchestra in Istanbul, Turkey; and the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra in Ankara, Turkey. Maestro Shimada has been a frequent guest conductor with a number of international orchestras, including the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra in Ankara, the Izmir State Symphony Orchestra in Izmir, the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra in Vilnius; La Orquesta Filharmónica de Jalisco, Guadalajara, Mexico; the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra; the Karlovy Vary (Karlsbad) Symphony Orchestra; the Prague Chamber Orchestra; the Slovak Philharmonic; NÖ Tonkünstler Orchestra in Vienna; L’Orchestre National de Lille in France; and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra at the Edinburgh Festival. He has also guest conducted the Houston Symphony, the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra, the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, the San José Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Pops Orchestra, the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, and many other US and Canadian orchestras. He has collaborated with distinguished artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Andre Watts, Peter Serkin, Emanuel Ax, Yefim Bronfman, Idil Biret, Peter Frankl, Janos Starker, Joshua Bell, Hilary Hahn, Nadjia SalernoSonnenberg, Cho-Liang Lin, Sir James Galway, Evelyn Glennie, and Barry
Tuckwell. In the Pops field he has performed with Doc Severinsen, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Marvin Hamlisch, and Toni Tennille. Maestro Shimada has had the good fortune to study with many distinguished conductors of the past and the present, including Leonard Bernstein, Herbert von Karajan, Herbert Blomstedt, Hans Swarovsky, and Michael Tilson Thomas. He was a finalist in the 1979 Herbert von Karajan conducting competition in Berlin, and a Fellow Conductor in the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute in 1983. In addition, he was named Ariel Musician of the Year in 2003 by Ariel Records, and received the ASCAP award in 1989. He graduated from California State University, Northridge, studying with David Whitwell and Lawrence Christianson, and attended the University of Music and Dramatic Arts in Vienna, Austria. He records with the Vienna Modern Masters label, and currently has fifteen recordings with the label. He also records for Capstone Records, Querstand-VKJK (Germany), and Albany Records. His recording of Gregory Hutter’s Skyscrapers and his Hindemith CD project with pianist Idil Biret have been released through the Naxos label. His Music from the Vatican with the Prague Chamber Orchestra and Chorus is available through iTunes and Rhapsody. Maestro Shimada holds a teaching position at Yale University, as Associate Professor of Conducting with Yale School of Music and Department of Music. He has a strong commitment to music education, and has been a faculty member of Rice University, Houston, Texas; the University of Southern Maine; and served as Artist Faculty at the Houston Institute of Aesthetic Study. He resides in Connecticut with his wife, concert pianist Eva Virsik.
Andreas Stoehr, Guest Conductor Andreas Stoehr is a dynamic, multi-faceted member of the current generation of European conductors, who combine the well-rounded experience of a German ‘Kapellmeister’ with recent discoveries in historical performance scholarship. The Austrian-born Andreas Stoehr is an extremely multi-faceted member of the current generation of conductors, combining the well-rounded experience of a German ‘Kapellmeister’ and the application of recent discoveries in historical performance scholarship. Andreas Stoehr is a dynamic, multi-faceted member of the current generation of European conductors, combining the well-rounded experience
of a German ‘Kapellmeister’ with the application of recent discoveries in historical performance scholarship.. From the beginning, Andreas Stoehr combined the theoretical with the practical, simultaneously studying piano and conducting at the Vienna Music Conservatory and music history at the University of Vienna. He made his conducting debut with the Vienna Chamber Opera while still a student, conducting their Mozart cycle. After graduating, he was engaged at the Graz Opera in Austria, initially as pianist, then as head coach and conductor, and appeared as a guest conductor at the State Opera Prague. An engagement as Music Director of the Opéra Comique in Paris was followed by an appointment as Primary Conductor in the Theater of St. Gallen, Switzerland. From 2001 to 2009, Stoehr conducted a broad repertoire at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Dusseldorf, Germany, where he drew international attention with his Monteverdi trilogy (L’Orfeo, Ulysse, Poppea), played on historical instruments. In a concert project with the Liège Philharmonic Orchestra in 2000, Stoehr conducted Robert Schumann’s complete orchestral works. A passionate interest of Andreas Stoehr is the discovery and performance of opera scores which have not been heard since their original performances, or which have been considered “lost”. Through his efforts, Schubert’s last opera “Der Graf von Gleichen” was heard for the first time at the Austrian Styriarte Festival in 1997, as reconstructed by Richard Dünser. The Prague version of Christoph Willibalds Gluck’s opera “Ezio” was performed and appeared as a world premiere recording in 2007. 2015 saw the release of a recording made in the Vienna Konzerthaus, documenting the first performance of Giacomo Meyerbeer’s Italian operatic masterpiece “Emma di Resburgo” since the 1820s. A Naxos recording of works of the young Swedish composer Andrea Tarrodi with the Västeras Sinfonietta resulted in a nomination for the 2016 Swedish Classical Grammy award. As guest conductor, Maestro Stoehr has appeared with the Vienna Symphony, the Munich Symphony, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, L’Orchestre National de Lille, Residenz Orchestra den Haag, Orkest van het Oosten, het Brabants Orkest, and with the Rotterdam Philharmonic. Appearances at Festivals include: Styriarte Festival, Klangbogen, Festival de Musique Montreux-Vevey and guest engagements for opera productions in Lucern,
Munich, Nationale Reisoper in Holland, Teatro Massimo di Palermo, the Royal Opera Copenhagen and the Royal Opera Stockholm, and the Grand Théâtre in Geneva. Since 2013, Andreas Stoehr has returned as a professor to his Alma Mater in Vienna, leading the Conducting class and the Orchestra.
Janna Baty, Mezzo-Soprano Praised by the Boston Globe for “a rich, viola-like tone and a rapturous, luminous lyricism,” mezzo-soprano Janna Baty enjoys an exceptionally versatile career. She has sung with Boston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Daejeon Philharmonic, Hamburgische Staatsoper, L’Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Tallahassee Symphony, Tuscaloosa Symphony, Longwood Symphony, Hartford Symphony, the Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Eugene Opera, Opera North, and Boston Lyric Opera. She has sung under the batons of James Levine, Seiji Ozawa, Michel Plasson, Carl Davis, Robert Spano, Steuart Bedford, Stephen Lord, Stefan Asbury, Gil Rose, David Hoose, and Shinik Hahm, among numerous others. As a soloist, chamber musician, and recitalist, she has performed at festivals worldwide, including the Aldeburgh and Britten Festivals in England, the Varna Festival in Bulgaria, the Semanas Musicales de Frutillar Festival in Chile, and the Tanglewood, Norfolk, Monadnock, and Coastal Carolina festivals in the United States. A noted specialist in contemporary music, Ms. Baty has worked alongside many celebrated composers, including John Harbison, Bernard Rands, Yehudi Wyner, Sydney Hodkinson, Peter Child, Reza Vali, Paul Salerni, and Paul Moravec, on performances of their music. Ms. Baty has enjoyed a long collaboration with Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and with them has recorded the critically lauded Vali: Folk Songs (sung in Persian); Lukas Foss’ opera Griffelkin; the world-premiere recording of Eric Sawyer’s Civil War-era opera Our American Cousin; and John Harbison’s Mirabai Songs. An alumna of Oberlin College and the Yale School of Music, she joined the faculty of the Yale School of Music in 2008.
notes on the program
Overture from Coriolan Ludwig van Beethoven Not all music describes a story. Many pieces of music should be considered art onto themselves. However, this piece certainly should be listened to with an ear towards a specific story and how the music mirrors its characters. Ludwig van Beethoven composed this overture for the play, Coriolan, written by Heinrich von Collin based on Shakespeare’s tragedy Coriolanus. Beethoven admired willful protagonists and was inspired by the play when he saw it in 1802. The story describes the struggle of a wildly successful Roman general, Caius Marcius, who then tries his hand in politics with tragic results. Marcius criticizes the plebeians for their lack of military service and strong control of the government then attempts to seize power. He is eventually exiled and nearly joins a war against Rome, stopped only by the pleading of his mother, Volumnia. This decision leads to his untimely death, by suicide in Shakespeare and at the hands of Rome’s opponents in Collin’s version Beethoven’s interpretation of the story opens with a commanding theme in C minor, describing Marcius. The strings play booming cords in unison to establish Marcius’s powerful character. The following theme describes Volumnia. This contrasting theme is smooth, thinner, dance-like and almost whimsical: less rhythmic and calculated than Marcius’s theme. The overture is characterized by vacillation between the two themes in a dialogue that mirrors the arch of the story - Marcius’s turmoil and changing attitude towards Rome. The orchestra transitions forcefully to the opening theme after a respite with Volumnia’s theme. For the finale, the strings build dynamically towards a flourish of emphatic chords in a return to the opening theme, only it never gains the same energy of the opening. Here the piece ends with a surprising anti-climax as the orchestra simply fades away and Marcius decides not to attack Rome leading to his death. The Coriolan Overture was first performed in Vienna in 1807 with Beethoven conducting. Steven Lewis ’18
Seven Early Songs Alban Berg In 1904, the young civil servant Alban Berg (1885-1935), replied to a newspaper advertisement from one Arnold Schoenberg, who was just then establishing himself in Viennese musical life, and was seeking students. Berg studied with Schoenberg only until 1911, but would remain Schoenberg’s colleague, friend, and disciple for the rest of his short life. The Sieben frühe Lieder are student works, written for piano and voice in 1907. Berg orchestrated the songs in 1928. In 1907, even Schoenberg was still writing almost exclusively tonal, or tonally preoccupied, music. These were exciting years in Vienna: Schoenberg and his students were just starting to tear apart the tonal syntax they’d inherited from the previous Viennese greats. This tension between old and new language—the new guessed-at, but not yet totally understood or realized, and just beyond reach—is palpable in these Seven Early Songs. The cycle sets poems by several poets, but exclusively poems dealing in nocturnal events and imagery. This thematic unity certainly makes itself felt in the music. Slightly more variable is compositional confidence: the cycle puts student work—or at least, work greatly indebted to past traditions—side-by-side with early indications of Berg’s genius. Nowhere is this more striking than in the sequence 4-5-6. Four is an early masterpiece. The setting highlights the duality of Rilke’s text: like the first line of the poem, the music offers very few contextual clues; there’s no asserted tonality and bass notes keep slipping downward chromatically every time there seems to be a chance of resolution. But then Berg paints the second line with a great wash of triadic sound, making very clear what great balm the addressee’s presence is. After returning briefly to chromatic uncertainty, he reiterates the triadic wash confidently, giving as lush and satisfying a resolution as can be imagined. Number five, Im Zimmer, narrates a rustic evening by the fireside; the orchestration—stripped of strings—doesn’t lack ingenuity, but the harmony contains no chords that wouldn’t be at home in Brahms. One recognizes a somewhat pale homage to Berg’s idol Mahler—whose practice of using the simple and the familiar as referents for ironic manipulation, or as sources for apotheosizing development, Berg would perfect in his later operas—but here the familiar material is just that: somewhat familiar, even kitsch. The sixth song, like the fourth, is jaw-dropping. Setting text by Otto Erich Hartleben, Berg paints a pair of lovers’ post-coital slumber in vivid
colors: a gentle rustle on a snare drum evokes a “Sommerwind” coming through the open window; the lover’s “Atemzüge Frieden”, “peaceful breathing”, inspires regular respiratory crescendi and decrescendi which saturate the orchestral texture. This sixth movement also predicts Berg’s present role as the accessible Second Viennese School composer—the one most keenly aware of atonality’s psychological effect on audience. The opening phrase promises some major/minor ambiguity; at its cadence, the clarinets approach the tonic’s minor third from a B-flat above, while the violas the same note from below. But this is merely premonition: on the final word of the poem, Sensucht— roughly, “yearning”—the soprano and orchestra hold various traditional tonal suspensions, all longing for their final resolution, all soon to be fulfilled. But the violins go further—they hold the clarinet’s earlier B-flat suspension at the same time as its resolution in other parts of the orchestra. The dissonance lasts but a single beat, but the beat is suspended in time with a fermata—and so this transgressive moment hovers unsettlingly, until the violins collapse once more into the prevailing harmony. It’s gut-wrenching, and paradigmatic of Berg’s expressionism: the orchestration is so lush and ravishing that the listener barely knows, on a rational level, what has occurred; the sonic image bypasses reason and aims straight for the heart. Miles Walter ’18
Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 73 Johannes Brahms The summer of 1877 was a pleasant time for Johannes Brahms. After fifteen years of work and worry, constantly fearing comparison with Beethoven (“you have no idea how it feels to hear behind you the tramp of a giant”), he had premiered his first symphony in November of the previous year to favorable reviews. This hurdle past, Brahms took the occasion that summer to vacation in the village of Pörtschach, Austria, where “so many melodies fly about,” he wrote, “one must be careful not to tread on them.” Relaxed and inspired, Brahms knocked off his second symphony in record time — finishing most of it that summer and performing a fourhand piano version with Ignaz Brüll for a few friends when he returned to
Vienna at summer’s end. He continued polishing it through November, teasing the friends who had not heard his piano version by describing it as a very somber, sad piece. To friend and fellow pianist Clara Schumann (wife of his earliest champion, Robert Schumann), he described the first movement as “quite elegiac in character.” To long-time correspondent Elisabeth von Herzogenberg he wrote that the orchestra would have to play with mourning bands on their arms. Even his publisher, Fritz Simrock, got the treatment: “The new Symphony is so melancholy that you will not be able to bear it,” Brahms told him. Of course, the new symphony was nothing of the kind. In fact, it is probably the sunniest of his symphonies, with a pastoral quality that surprised — and delighted — his friends. Critics who had expected something in the vein of his more sober first symphony in C minor (or who had heard about the “sad” piece from Brahms’s friends) were equally surprised by this D-major symphony. One Viennese critic even complained that it was too lovely: “We require from [Brahms] music that is something more than simply pretty.” Yet the second symphony is much more than merely pretty. The composer’s deft touch at orchestrating many textures from a relatively limited orchestral force is in full evidence here: from soft and tender melodies, to sprightly dancing tunes, to his trademark sonorous strings. Equally on display is his skill at creating endless variations from just a few themes. The first movement, Allegro non troppo, opens with a three-note motif in the low strings that develops into themes both grand and tender. The Adagio non troppo that follows is more introspective, yet never brooding. Listen for the syncopated second theme played by the woodwinds over pizzicato cellos. A solo oboe introduces a folk-like tune to open the third movement, Allegretto grazioso. This melody, with its relatively stately yet dancing rhythm, is transformed into energetic variations punctuated by a few breathless pauses. The finale, Allegro con spirito, contrasts manic energy with a broad, hymn-like melody first “sung” by the full strings. Even during the movement’s slower segments, there is an inevitable sense of motion. By the final trombone chord at movement’s end, as one critic writes, “one has the sense of having been on a wild ride.” Barbara Heninger
Yale Symphony Orchestra Toshiyuki Shimada, Music Director Brian Robinson, Managing Director Elias Brown, Assistant Conductor Ian Niederhoffer, Assistant Conductor
President Cindy Xue Librarians Emily Switzer, Head Librarian Shiori Tomatsu Dennis Zhao Publicity Noah Stevens-Stein Jacob Sweet Stephen Tang Social Jessie Li Arvind Venkataraman Alumni Annabel Chyung Amanda Vosburgh Stage Crew Jacob Sweet, Manager Henry Shapard Cindy Xue Caroline Zhao Poster Design Isaac Morrier
First Violin Emily Switzer, Co-Concertmaster Cameron Daly, Co-Concertmaster Annabel Chyung, Asst. Concertmaster Ana Barrett Albert Cao Julia Carabatsos Jennifer Cha Miriam Gerber Yumi Koga Jessie Li James Lin Kay Nakazawa Serena Shapard Stephen Tang Andrew Zhang
Second Violin Evan Pasternak, Principal Alex Wang, Asst. Principal Vanessa Ague Madeline Bauer Hannah Lawrence John McKissack Taishi Nojima Eileen Norris Rita Rangchaikul Jasmine Stone Alice Tao Margo Williams Cindy Xue Julia Zhu Viola Sarah Switzer, Principal Ella Belina Sonali Durham Ethan Gacek Wei Li Linus Lu Ian Niederhoffer Timothy White Grant Young
Violoncello Amanda Vosburgh, Co-Principal Harry Doernberg, Co-Principal Sofia Checa Benjamin Fleischacker Kimberly Lai Paul Lee Henry Shapard Robert Wharton Contrabass Connor Reed, Principal Aedan Lombardo Spencer Parish Noah Stevens-Stein Arvind Venkataraman Flute /Piccolo Michelle Peters Co-Principal Shiori Tomatsu, Co-Principal Monica Barbosa Beatrice Brown Oboe Collum Freedman, Principal Lauren McNeel Co-Principal Laura Michael Clarinet Jacob Sweet, Principal Allen Chang Dennis Zhao
Bassoon Daniel Henick, Principal Dennis Brookner Cooper Sullivan French Horn Leah Meyer, Principal Morgan Jackson Mary Martin Samuel Nemiroff Nishwant Swami Trumpet Elias Brown, Principal Joseph Blumberg Ryan Petersberg Trombone Hillary Simms William Wortley Bass Trombone Zachary Haas Tuba Steven Lewis, Principal Harp Caroline Zhao, Principal Kai-Lan Olson Timpani and Percussion Adrian Lin, Principal Charles Comiter Sean Guo Ephraim Sutherland
About the Orchestra Founded in 1965 by a group of students who saw the growing potential for a large ensemble to thrive on campus, the Yale Symphony Orchestra has become one of the premier undergraduate ensembles in the United States. The largest orchestra in Yale College, the YSO provides a means for students to perform orchestral music at a conservatory level while taking advantage of all Yale, as a liberal-arts institution, has to offer. The YSO boasts and impressive number of alumni who have gone on to successful musical careers, but for a conservatory-level musician seeking a strong liberal arts or STEM education, we are one of the few – if not the only – opportunity for a talented orchestra musician to maintain the trajectory of their musical studies in a non-conservatory environment. As a result, most of YSO musicians are non-music majors. That said, the YSO numbers among its alumni members of the New York Philharmonic (Sharon Yamada, 1st violin), the Boston Symphony Orchestra (Haldan Martinson, principal 2nd violin, and Owen Young, cello), the Los Angeles Philharmonic (David Howard, clarinet), the San Francisco Symphony (the late William Bennett, oboe), Philadelphia Orchestra (Jonathan Beiler, vioin), Toronto Symphony (Harry Sargous, oboe, ret.) and the Israel Philharmonic (Miriam Hartman, viola), as well as music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Marin Alsop, National Public Radio commentator Miles Hoffman, composers, Michael Gore, Robert Beaser, Conrad Cummings, Stephen Paul Hartke, Robert Kyr, and more. Although the YSO is an extracurricular ensemble within a liberal arts university, its reputation and output rival those of conservatories worldwide. Throughout its history the YSO has been committed to commissioning and performing new music. Notably, the YSO presented the European premiere of Leonard Bernstein’s Mass in 1973, the world premiere of the definitive restoration of Charles
Photo by Harold Shapiro
Ives’ Three Places in New England, the U.S. premiere of Debussy’s Khamma, and the East Coast premiere of Benjamin Britten’s The Building of the House. In every season the YSO works to program and perform orchestral works written by new and emerging composers, as well as lesser-heard works by established and obscure composers. The YSO has performed with internationally recognized soloists, including Yo-Yo Ma, Frederica von Stade, Emmanuel Ax, David Shifrin, Thomas Murray, and Idil Biret. Each year the YSO is proud to present student winners of the William Waite Concerto Competition the opportunity to perform major solo works alongside the orchestra. Outside New Haven’s Woolsey Hall, the YSO have performed at New York City’s Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, and St. Patrick’s Cathedral. In 2011, the YSO joined the Yale Glee Club at Carnegie Hall in celebration of their 150th anniversary, and was hailed by New York Times music critic Zachary Woolfe as “the excellent Yale Symphony Orchestra.” Under the baton of music director Toshiyuki Shimada, the YSO has toured domestically and internationally, including a 2010 tour of Turkey with acclaimed pianist Idil Biret. Ms. Biret rejoined the orchestra for a recording of Paul Hindemith’s piano concerti, which were released in 2013 on the Naxos label. Past tours have brought the orchestra to Portugal, Korea, Central Europe, Italy, and most recently Brazil. Beyond its season concerts, the YSO is famous for its legendary Halloween Show, a student-directed and -produced silent movie, whose score the orchestra performs at midnight in full costume. Long a Yale tradition, the Halloween Show sells out Woolsey Hall days in advance, and the production remains a closely guarded secret until the night of performance; recent cameo appearances include James Franco, Woody Allen, Alanis Morisette, Rosa DeLauro, and Jimmy Kimmel. Former music directors include Richmond Browne, John Mauceri, C. William Harwood, Robert Kapilow, Leif Bjaland, Alasdair Neale, David Stern, James Ross, James Sinclair, Shinik Hahm, and George Rothman.
The Yale Symphony Orchestra would like to thank the following for their support: $5,000 or more The William Bray Fund for Music Yale Symphony Orchestra Director’s Resource Fund Dr. David Lobdell Dr. Robert Perkel ’72 Mary and Richard Radcliffe Dr. Jennifer Shin ’99
$1,000—4,999 Lee A. Chaden Shelby L. Chaden Daniel B. Feller, M.D. ’74 Dr. Elizabeth Petri Henske ’81 Mr. Robert C. Henske ’81 Ms. Bee-Seon Keum ’06 B.A., ’06 Mus.M. Mr. Jonathan Lewis Mr. D. Scott Wise ’74
$500—999 Barbara Doyle Mr. Charles D. Ellis ’59 B.A., ’97 M.A.H. Mr. Paul J. Gacek ’67 B.A., ’70 Mus Mrs. Alfred Loeffler Jonathan Lewis Ms. Linda Koch Lorimer ’77 J.D. Mr. Benjamin I. Nathans ’84 Mr. Jonathan J. Taylor ’74 Kara Unterberg George Yanagisawa
$100—499 John Carlson Richard Dumas Prof. Edwin M. Duval ’71 M.Phil.,’73 Ph.D. Professor Judith L. Elder ’77 LLM, ’79 JSD
James M. Ford, M.D. ’84 B.A., ’89 M.D. Sarah Fortier Mr. Paul J. Gacek ’67 B.A., ’70 Mus Ms. Pamela J. Gray ’74 B.A. Miwa Hashimoto Mr. Vincent Chi-Chien Hou ’99 Mr. David A. Ifkovic Mr. John W. Karrel ’75 Mr. Steven M. Kaufman ’81 Mrs. Beth Kaufman Ms. Alison Melick Kruse ’82 Mr. Parker R. Liautaud ’16 Tania Moore-Barrett Dr. Natalia Neparidze Ms. Isabel Padien O’Meara ’99 Mr. James R. Potochny ’86 Mr. Robert Reed Donald Redmond Mr. John Y. Rhee Mr. Charles Michael Sharzer ’12 Zeyu Shen ’22 GRD Dr. Richard M. Siegel ’85 Mr. & Ms. Andrew F. Veitch Joann & George Vosburgh Mr. Nathaniel O. Wallace ’69 GRD Rosemary Wharton
$10—$99 Daria Ague Stephanie Block Jason Brooks Charles Crane Joseph Crosson ’16 Isabel Detherage ’20 Edward Dietrich Ms. Dierdre H. Donaldson ’74 Vic Dvorak Abigail Elder ’18 Dr. James Freeman Alvin Gao ’17
Yafeng Gao ’16 Nicholas Gerard John Gordon Jeremy Grice Ariela Gugenheim Richard W. Hadsell, Ph.D ’71 M.Phil, ’75
Sanka Perera Holger Petermann GRD ’18 Lavinia Ptrache Alexander Posner ’18 Bradford Purcell David Rainey
Ph.D. Yoojin Han ’19 Timothy Harkness Seth Herschkowitz ’20 Fred Isbell ’82 Michel Jackson Benjamin Jacobs ’17 Heidi Katter ’20 Jospeh Lanzone ’18 Juri Lee SOM ’17 Judith Lichtin Erika Lynn-Green ’18 Raul Madriz Cano SOM ’16 Yasat Berk Manav ’18 Elizabeth Maurer Sarah McCormack James McDonald Audrey Meusel Bethann Mohamed Jack Mulrow ’16 Jacob Neis ’17 Nikita Neklyudov Robert Newhouse ’19 Alison Nordell ’18
Ernesto Reyes SOM ’16 Henry Robinson ’19 John Roethle ’17 Charles Romano ’19 Jane Soetiono SOM ’16 Sara Speller ’19 James Stedronsky Victoria Yu-Than Su ’96 William Sullivan ’20 Lei Sun SOM ’17 Dawn Tamarkin Deniz Tanyolac ’18 Anthony Tokman ’16 Charlotte Van Voorhis ’20 Erica Wachs ’18 Francesca Wang ’17 Martin Weil ’77 Qiwei Claire Xue ’14 Cindy Yang ’19 Yvonne Ye ’19 Lawrence Young Gale Zadoff
Tax-deductible contributions to the Yale Symphony Orchestra make up a significant part of our total operating budget. Your donations are vital to us, and are very much appreciated. Please consider making a donation to the Yale Symphony Orchestra. Yale Symphony Orchestra c/o Yale University Office of Development—Contributions Processing P.O. Box 2038 New Haven, CT 06521-2038 http://yso.yalecollege.yale.edu/support-us
Concerts 2016–2017 February 11, 2017 8pm in Woolsey Hall Yale Glee Club, Jeffrey Douma, Music Director Yale Camerata, Marguerite Brooks, Music Director Arnold Schoenberg
Verklarte Nacht
Elias Brown, guest conductor
Carl Orff
Carmina Burana
April 1, 2017 8pm in Woolsey Hall Shen Curriculum for Musical Theater Leonard Bernstein
West Side Story
April 22, 2016 8pm in Woolsey Hall Robert Blocker and Eva Virsik, Piano Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Gustav Mahler
Piano Concerto No. 10 Symphony No. 5
$12/$17 General Admission | $3/$6 Student To purchase tickets, visit www.yalesymphony.com
For more information about the YSO, visit yalesymphony.com For live recordings of the YSO, visit yalesymphonyorchestra.bandcamp.com For videos of past YSO events and concerts, visit youtube.com/yalesymphony We’re also on Facebook and Twitter: facebook.com/yalesymphony twitter.com/yalesymphony