program
Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4 (1943 revised transcription for string orchestra)
Arnold Schoenberg Elias Brown, conductor Brief Intermission
Piano Concerto No. 3 Belá Bartók Boris Berman, piano Allegretto Adagio religioso Allegro vivace
Brief Intermission
Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Op. 68 “Pastoral” Ludwig van Beethoven Allegro ma non troppo Andante molto mosso Allegro Allegro Allegretto {Please silence all portable electronic devices}
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 Orchestra in Istanbul, Turkey; and the Bilkent Symphony Photo by Harold Shapiro 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 Salerno-Sonnenberg, 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, QuerstandVKJK (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.
Boris Berman, Piano The artistry of Boris Berman is well known to the audiences of nearly fifty countries on six continents. His highly acclaimed performances have included appearances with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Gewandhaus Orchestra, The Philharmonia (London), the Toronto Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Houston Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, and the Royal Scottish Orchestra. A frequent performer on major recital series, he has also appeared in important festivals, such as Marlboro, Bergen, Ravinia, Nohant, and Israel Festival, to name a few. Born in Moscow, Boris Berman studied at Moscow Tchaikovsky Conserva-
tory with the distinguished pianist Lev Oborin and graduated with distinction as both pianist and harpsichordist. He performed extensively throughout the Soviet Union as a recitalist and appeared as guest soloist with numerous orchestras, including the Moscow Philharmonic and the Moscow Chamber orchestras. In 1973, Boris Berman left a flourishing career in the Soviet Union to immigrate to Israel. He quickly established himself as one of the most sought-after keyboard performers, as well as one of this country’s more influential musical personalities. Presently, he resides in USA. Boris Berman has been the Founding Director of the Music Spectrum concert series in Israel (1975-84) Photo by Bob Handelman and of the Yale Music Spectrum series in the USA (1984-1997). These concert series were hailed by the critics for the inventiveness of their programming. Mr. Berman is an active performer of chamber music. He had appeared in numerous concerts and festivals with such artists and groups as Misha Maisky, Heinz Holliger, Aurele Nicolet, Shlomo Mintz, Gyorgy Pauk, Ralph Kirshbaum, Frans Helmerson, Claude Frank, Peter Frankl, Natalia Gutman, Tokyo Quartet, Vermeer Quartet, The Netherland Wind Ensemble and many others. A dedicated teacher of international stature, Boris Berman has served on the faculties of the world’s finest schools, such as Indiana (Bloomington), Boston, Brandeis and Tel-Aviv universities. Currently, he heads the Piano Department at Yale School of Music. He also conducts master classes throughout the world. In 2005, he was named a Honorary Professor of Shanghai Conservatory; and in 2013, a Honorary Professor of Royal Danish Conservatory in Copenhagen. Mr Berman’s ability to recognize and commitment to nurture young talents are obvious reasons for him being invited to join panels of jurors of various national and international competitions, such as those in Leeds, Dublin, Shanghai, and the Artur Rubinstein Competition in Tel-Aviv. In the field of recordings, Mr. Berman’s acclaimed releases on Philips, Deutsche Gramophon and Melodia labels were followed upon with 2 CDs of all piano sonatas by Alexander Scriabin for the Music and Arts label and a recital of Shostakovich piano works (Ottavo recordings), which received the Edison Classic Award in Holland, the Dutch equivalent of the Grammy. The recording of three Prokofiev Concertos with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Neeme
Jarvi conducting (Chandos) marked the beginning of an ambitious project of recording the complete Prokofiev solo piano works. The first pianist ever to undertake this task, Mr Berman has released it on nine Chandos CDs to great critical acclaim. In addition, Chandos has issued Mr. Berman’s recitals of works by Debussy, Stravinsky, and Schnittke, as well as chamber music of Janacek, and - together with Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under Neeme Jarvi - Concerto by Stravinsky. Berman’s most recent discography shows the breadth of his repertoire: adisc “Debussy for Children” (Ottavo); two releases of works for prepared piano by John Cage (Naxos), which was named the Top Recording by the BBC Music Magazine; the Grammy-nominatedPiano Quintets of Shostakovich and Schnittke with Vermeer Quartet (Naxos); and, quite unexpectedly, a recording of Scott Joplin’s Ragtimes (Ottavo). In the recently issued Naxos collection of complete Sequenzas by Luciano Berio, Berman plays Sequenza IV for piano. For the recording of Brahms Sonatas with the cellist Clive Greensmith (Biddulph label) he used a 1867 Bechstein piano. In 2000, the prestigious Yale University Press has published Boris Berman’s “Notes from the Pianist’s Bench”. In this book, Professor Berman draws on his vast experience as a performer and a teacher to explore issues of piano technique and music interpretation. The book has been translated to several languages. Mr. Berman is often invited to give lectures on these subjects in various universities and conferences around the world. In the spring of 2008, Yale University Press has published Boris Berman’s new book “Prokofiev’s Piano Sonatas: A Guide for the Listener and the Performer”. This book complements, and is based on, his highly praised recordings of this repertoire. In 2011, Shanghai Publishing House has published a new bi-lingual edition of the scores of Prokofiev’s piano sonatas, revised and edited by Mr. Berman. Based on manuscripts and first editions, this is the most authoritative edition of this repertoire available. In 2016-17, Boris Berman is performing and teaching in Austria, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Holland, Israel, Italy, Portugal, Russia, and the USA.
Elias Brown, Conductor Conductor Elias Brown is currently a senior in Ezra Stiles college from Santa Monica, California. He studies with Daniel Boico, Toshiyuki Shimada, and Mark Bailey, and has also participated in masterclasses with Larry Rachleff, Mark Stringer, Alexander Polishchuk, and Markand Thakar. As an opera conductor, Brown has led productions of Leos Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen and Emmanuel Chabrier’s L’Etoile with Opera Theatre of Yale College. On the concert stage, Brown has conducted the Berkeley College Orchestra in performances of Mendelssohn’s Symphony no. 5 and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, among others. Brown is also active as a multidisciplinary collaborator and stage director; in spring of 2015, he produced and directed an immersive outdoor dance theatre production of Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring, and recently staged an intimate performance of J.S. Bach’s Coffee Cantata at a local coffeehouse, using period instruments and an original translation. Passionate about new music and collaborative composition, Brown is a member of the new music ensemble Black is the Color, which was commissioned to compose and design a site-specific installation for Yale University Art Gallery’s 2016 exhibition, “Everything is Dada.” Brown will return to the YUAG this coming May to curate a performance in response to “Lumia,” a groundbreaking retrospective of Thomas Wilfred’s work, marking his fifth performance as a part of the museum’s “Gallery +” series. As a trumpet player, Brown has had the pleasure of performing as principal in Carnegie Hall, Chicago Symphony Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Mariinsky Theatre, and at the BBC Proms. Also an avid jazz player, Brown has been on two domestic tours and one international tour with his quartet, Newspeak. Brown is committed to music education; following the YSO tour to Russia this summer, he’ll return as a teacher at GAKKO, an alternative arts education startup based in Tokyo and San Francisco. Brown will continue his conducting studies in London this fall under the tutelage of Sian Edwards, Christian Thielemann, and Semyon Bychkov at the Royal Academy of Music. Eli is deeply grateful to Toshi for the opportunity to conduct this extraordinary piece of music and to the Yale Symphony Orchestra for their persistence and patience in rendering this performance.
notes on the program
Verklärte Nacht Arnold Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg is most often pointed to as polemical music theorist and progenitor of atonality. The composer’s early works, however, contrast remarkably with the twelve-tone music which came to dominate his oeuvre from the 1920s onwards. Rather, the music of young Schoenberg reveals a deep affinity with late-romantics Brahms, Strauss, and Wagner. His desire to push the limits of 19th-century romanticism, however, was quite radical in its own right — one critic infamously remarked that Verklärte Nacht appeared “as if the score of Tristan had been smeared while the ink was still wet.” Composed in just three weeks while summering in the Austrian countryside, Verklärte Nacht (“Transfigured Night”) was the culmination of a series of works based on poems published by Richard Dehmel in 1896. Even before Schoenberg began work on his musical settings of Dehmel’s poetry, the texts had sparked controversy; less than year after publishing the collection, the poet was called to a courtroom in Berlin to defend himself against charges of blasphemy and immorality. Verklärte Nacht was cited as the most contentious and erotic of Dehmel’s set; depicting a blossoming relationship, the poem details the transformation of a pregnant woman’s child from a previous marriage through her new lover’s acceptance and a mystical embrace. As the child is transformed, so is the night that surrounds them. The shorter first, third, and fifth stanzas provide narration contextualizing the second and fourth, which contain the monologues of woman and man, respectively. Schoenberg’s setting tightly reflects the ABACA structure of Dehmel’s poem; in five movements played attacca, each section parallels a corresponding stanza. However, Schoenberg viewed the poetic text as composer’s prompt rather than interpreter’s crutch. Verklärte Nacht not only expresses the narrative of the poem but rather became an expression of Schoenberg himself “simply by reflecting in music what your poems stirred up in me.”
Following is a translation of Richard Dehmel’s poem Verklärte Nacht by Mary Whittall: Two people are walking through a bare, cold wood; the moon keeps pace with them and draws their gaze. The moon moves along above tall oak trees, there is no wisp of cloud to obscure the radiance to which the black, jagged tips reach up. A woman’s voice speaks: I am carrying a child, and not by you. I am walking here with you in a state of sin. I have offended grievously against myself. I despaired of happiness, and yet I still felt a grievous longing for life’s fullness, for a mother’s joys and duties; and so I sinned, and so I yielded, shuddering, my sex to the embrace of a stranger, and even thought myself blessed. Now life has taken its revenge, and I have met you, met you. She walks on, stumbling. She looks up; the moon keeps pace. Her dark gaze drowns in light. A man’s voice speaks: Do not let the child you have conceived be a burden on your soul. Look, how brightly the universe shines! Splendor falls on everything around, you are voyaging with me on a cold sea, but there is the glow of an inner warmth from you in me, from me in you. That warmth will transfigure the stranger’s child, and you bear it me, begot by me. You have transfused me with splendour, You have made a child of me. He puts an arm about her strong hips. Their breath embraces in the air. Two people walk on through the high, bright night. Elias Brown ’17
Piano Concerto No. 3 Belá Bartók For most of us, there is only one third piano concerto: Rachmaninoff ’s. Looking beyond the curtain of popularity, the curious listener will find another “third” of equivalent or greater merit: that of the great Belá Bartók. Written as a birthday present for his beloved wife Ditta, the concerto presents a Bartók with whom less people are familiar: a Bartók near the end of his life. The Bartók we hear in his Third Piano Concerto is a weaker Bartók, having been beaten with the unforgiving whip of leukemia and covered with the uncomfortable cloak of the foreign-to-him United States. The concerto, written in an almost Neoclassical fashion, features three movements scored for a standard symphony orchestra. The first movement, Allegretto, begins with a profoundly simple melody set over murmuring strings and mumbling timpani. This melody is not Bartók’s own, but rather a Hungarian folk tune, something which Bartók did more often than not throughout his oeuvre. Throughout, the listener will experience several ebbs and flows of energy and power but nothing that leaves the realm of transparence and simplicity. As the second movement, Adagio religioso, begins, the experienced listener is surprised to hear another theme that is not originally Bartók’s. Beethoven’s “Heiliger Dankesang,” or Holy song of thanksgiving, the third movement of his String Quartet, op. 132, provides the foundation for this slower middle movement. From the beginning, the movement grows upon the seed of energy planted by the first string harmonies. The piano provides a banquet of elegant chords over which the music settles into an undying air of serenity. The final movement, Allegro vivace, paints an energetic and optimistic picture of sound. The boisterous theme is repeated in rondo fashion with bursts of energy in fast meter from all parts of the orchestra. The central fugato section serves almost as a metaphorical eye of the hurricane that is this movement. While Bartók died before he could orchestrate the last 17 measures, the notes he left in margins and drafts gave ample direction to Tibor Serly, one of Bartók’s closest friends, to finish what unfortunately ran out of time to do. While Bartók’s third cannot quite compare to the energy found in Rachmaninoff ’s, the soundscape with which the listener is left is distinctly unique in the Bartókian sound world, a claim Rachmaninoff ’s third cannot even begin to make. From its premiere on February 8, 1946 with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra to the performance you are about to hear, Bartók’s third provides a thoroughly distinct portrait of one of Western culture’s greatest minds. Charles Comiter ’20
Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68 Ludwig van Beethoven Among the many controversies surrounding the life and music of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) is the question of whether he is a “Classical” or “Romantic” composer. Attempting to fit the work of such a complex man into narrow and imposed categories is something of a feckless endeavor: Beethoven undeniably worked within the forms he had inherited from Mozart and Haydn, yet he also stretched and molded them in remarkable new ways. Beethoven’s innovation was a catalyst for the birth of Romanticism, and his impact reverberated throughout nineteenth century European music. The Sixth Symphony in F major, Opus 68, completed in 1808, may not appear to be one of Beethoven’s more ground-breaking works, but it is notably one of his few programmatic compositions (along with the “Farewell” Piano Sonata, Opus 81a, of 1810 and the amusingly vulgar “Wellington’s Victory,” Opus 91, of 1813). It is also one of the few works for which he sanctioned a nickname, “Pastoral,” appending the description “Recollections of Country Life.” In his essay “Absolute Music,” Sir Donald Francis Tovey writes that the Sixth Symphony “does commit a certain amount of sound-painting, and does effectively remind the listener of the things that Beethoven mentions by title,” but that even so “[a]ccording to Beethoven [it] is intended rather to express feelings than to paint pictures in sound.” Nonetheless, this is the first time a composer gave his or her symphony a “program,” setting the precedent for Hector Berlioz’s Symphony Fantastique, Opus 14, of 1830 and for the elaborately pictorial tone poems of Richard Strauss later on. Beethoven’s love of nature can be heard in works both previous and subsequent to this symphony: the String Trio Opus 9 No. 1, the Violin and Piano Sonata Opus 24, and the Piano Sonatas Opus 28 and Opus 79 (the former of which a publisher took the liberty to nickname the “Pastoral Sonata” while the latter of which features cuckoo calls). The first movement of the Sixth symphony is entitled Erwachen heiterer Empfindungen bei der Ankunft auf dem Lande (“Cheerful Feelings Awaken at the Arrival in the Country”). The instrumentation immediately distinguishes this movement from Beethoven’s previous symphonies by the absence of the characteristic two trumpets and timpani (the latter of which were given a prominent role in the composer’s previous works), as these sounds do not belong in the gentle country setting. The piece begins with a quiet fifth in the violas and cellos, establishing a rustic sense of openness and calm, after which the first violins present the lilting primary theme. The repeat of the exposition (the first section in a sonata-form movement) contributes to the expansiveness Beethoven has created. The development section sets out to explore the country scene and temporarily finds itself in somewhat troubled territory. Eventually the music works its way back, apparently unscathed, and after one of Beethoven’s less dramatic codas the movement comes to a pleasant end. The pulse of the river flows through the second movement, Scene am Bach (“Scene at the Brook”), alternately in groups of steady eighth notes (in which
the accent is shifted to the pick-up notes) or in bubbling sixteenth notes, although in a few spots it briefly pauses for reflection. Beethoven beautifully exploits the timbres of the different woodwind instruments, the two horns, and, unusually, two muted solo celli, colored by intermittent trills in the first violins. The occasional dark cloud passes over the riparian scene, but these easily subside. Near the end of the movement are the famous birdcalls, each of which Beethoven indicates in the score (the flute imitates the nightingale, the oboe imitates the quail, and the clarinet imitates cuckoo), one of the first times in any symphony that a composer specifically consigns a particular image to the notes on the page. The Scherzo, titled Lustiges Zusammensein der Landleute (“Happy Gathering of Country People”), exudes the good-natured simplicity that the notoriously disgruntled Beethoven seems to have salvaged from country villages. The movement begins in the expected triple meter but switches into the duple time of a peasant dance in the contrasting trio section, in which two trumpets add their voices to the merriment. As in other of his symphonies and chamber works from this period, Beethoven augments the movement by calling for the Scherzo and Trio to be played an additional time. Whereas elsewhere this extension contributes to the scope and grandeur of Beethoven’s large-scale compositions, here it simply prolongs the festivity. The rural assemblage is dispersed by the abrupt advent of the fourth movement, Gewitter. Sturm (“Thunder. Storm”), crudely cutting it off on a dominant chord. The ominous rumbling of the low strings is juxtaposed with nervous scampering in the violins as they try to take cover from the elements. This “extra movement” is the only time in his nine symphonies that Beethoven departs from the traditional four-movement scheme, and it is one of the few times that any symphonist had so deviated to date. As in the Fifth and Ninth Symphonies, Beethoven adds instruments not yet part of the standard symphony orchestra: the shrill sound of a piccolo rises above the scene like an alarum while two trombones, together with the trumpets from the previous movement, lend their stentorian sound to the stormy music. The timpani finally enter, their thunder complementing the fearful “lightning” figures that rush upwards in the violins. The storm clouds subside into the finale without interruption, a structural feature Beethoven had used before but was nonetheless unusual at this time. The menacing piccolo and timpani are once again silent, and rather than sounding strident the trumpets and trombones now ennoble and enhance the orchestral texture. This final movement is entitled Hirtengesang. Frohe und dankbare Gefühle nach dem Sturm, (“Shepard’s Song. Joyful and Thankful Feelings after the Storm”). Replete with shimmering strings that evoke redemptive rays of sunlight, at once bucolic and reverential, the finale is built on a simple and dignified theme that carries it through to the serene and contended conclusion. With that Beethoven’s countryside sojourn comes to an end, and one cannot help but feel that we all would be better off if we got away from city life more often ourselves. Andrew S. Kohler ’07
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 Sida Tang ’19
First Violin Cameron Daly ’18, Co-Concertmaster Emily Switzer ’17, Co-Concertmaster Annabel Chyung ’19, Asst. Principal Ana Barrett ’18 Albert Cao ’18 Julia Carabatsos ’20 Miriam Gerber ’19 Yumi Koga ’17 Jessie Li ’17 James Lin ’19 Kay Nakazawa ’17 Serena Shapard ’20 Andrew Zhang ’20
Second Violin Evan Pasternak ’19, Principal Alex Wang ’19, Asst. Principal Vanessa Ague ’17 Madeleine Bauer ’17 Hannah Lawrence ’19 John McKissack ’20 Taishi Nojima ’18 Eileen Norris ’20 Patrida Rangchaikul ’17 Jasmine Stone ’20 Alice Tao ’20 Margo Williams ’20 Cindy Xue ’17 Julia Zhu ’19 Viola Abigail Elder ’17, Co-Principal Sarah Switzer ’19, Co-Principal Sonali Durham ’20 George Gemelas ’18 Wei Li ’19 Linus Lu ’19 Lauren McNeel ’18 Ian Niederhoffer ’19 Timothy White ’20 Grant Young ’20
Violoncello Harry Doernberg ’19, Co-Principal Amanda Vosburgh ’19, Co-Principal Sofia Checa ’20 Benjamin Fleischacker ’17 Kimberly Lai ’18 Paul Lee ’18 Megan Lim ’19 Gabriel Rainey ’20 Henry Shapard ’20 Robert Wharton ’17 Contrabass Connor Reed ’19, Principal Aedan Lombardo ’20 Spencer Parish ’20 Noah Stevens-Stein ’18 Arvind Venkataraman ’19
Bassoon Daniel Henick ’17, Principal Dennis Brookner ’19 Lily Sands ’18 French Horn Leah Meyer ’18, Principal Morgan Jackson ’18 Mary Martin ’20 Samuel Nemiroff ’16 Nishwant Swami ’17 Trumpet Joseph Blumberg ’19 Ryan Petersberg GRD ’21 Trombone Grant Futch MUS ’18 Hillary Simms MUS ’18
Flute /Piccolo Michelle Peters ’17 Principal Monica Barbosa ’19 Beatrice Brown ’19
Bass Trombone Zachary Haas MUS ’18
Oboe Collum Freedman ’17, Co-Principal Lauren McNeel ’18 Co-Principal Laura Michael ’20
Timpani and Percussion Charles Comiter ’20 Ephraim Sutherland ’20
Clarinet Jacob Sweet ’18, Principal Allen Chang ’19 Dennis Zhao ’19
Tuba Josef Lawrence ’20
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 Daniel B. Feller, M.D. ’74 Azamat Kumykov ’15 M.A.S. Judy Glickman Lauder Dr. David Lobdell Dr. Robert Perkel ’72 Mary and Richard Radcliffe Dr. Jennifer Shin ’99
Mr. Alan R. Petersburg Mr. Jonathan J. Taylor ’74 Kara Unterberg ’ George Yanagisawa
$100—499 Mr. Trevor Warren Auman ’13 Ms. Susan Biniaz ’80 Dr. David B. Bittleman ’84 Ms. Jean S. Brenner ’71 John Carlson Prof. Lori Fisler Damrosch ’73 B.A., ’76 J.D.
$1,000—4,999 Lee A. Chaden Shelby L. Chaden Dr. Elizabeth Petri Henske ’81 Mr. Robert C. Henske ’81 Ms. Bee-Seon Keum ’06 B.A., ’06 Mus.M. Mr. Jonathan Lewis Lucille Lombardo Yen-Wen Lu Dr. Laura P. Meyer Mr. D. Scott Wise ’74 Ling Zhu
$500—999 Barbara Doyle Mr. Charles D. Ellis ’59 B.A., ’97 M.A.H. Dr. James M. Ford, M.D., ’84 B.A., ’89 M.D. Mr. Paul J. Gacek ’67 B.A., ’70 Mus Mr. Seth R. Johnson ’76 Mrs. Alfred Loeffler Jonathan Lewis Ms. Linda Koch Lorimer ’77 J.D. Mr. Benjamin I. Nathans ’84
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 Ms. Mayumi Fukui ’77 B.A., ’83 M.B.A. Mr. Paul J. Gacek ’67 B.A., ’70 Mus Ms. Pamela J. Gray ’74 B.A. Phyllis I. Hanson, M.D., Ph.D. ’85 Miwa Hashimoto Mr. Scott Hempling ’78 Dr. Arlene M. Rosenberg Henick Mr. Vincent Chi-Chien Hou ’99 Mr. David J. Howard ’77 Mr. David A. Ifkovic Mr. Andrew D. Jones ’93 Mr. William P. Kane Mr. John W. Karrel ’75 Mr. Steven M. Kaufman ’81 Mrs. Beth Kaufman Zachary Klett, M.D. ’84 B.A., ’89 M.D. Ms. Alison Melick Kruse ’82 Ms. Kathrin D. Lassila ’81 Karl R. Laskowski, M.D. ’03 B.A., ’08 M.D. Mr. Parker R. Liautaud ’16 Mr. Kevin G. Lawrence
Ms. Cynthia Yuan Lee ’94
Donald Redmond
Mr. Philip Henry Lima ’83
Mr. John Y. Rhee
Mr. Christopher Lin-Brande ’10
Mr. Charles Michael Sharzer ’12
Mrs. Maryanne Lombardo
Mr. Daniel A. Simon ’85
Mr. Samuel Benjamin Luckenbill ’02
Zeyu Shen ’22 GRD
Mr. Anthony Longboat Lydgate ’10
Dr. Richard M. Siegel ’85
Ms. Miriam Mayerson
Mr. Justin Daniel Stilwell ’09
Tania Moore-Barrett
Mr. & Mrs. Edward T. Sydlik
Mr. Benjamin I. Nathans ’84
Mr. & Ms. Andrew F. Veitch
Dr. Natalia Neparidze
Joann & George Vosburgh
Ms. Isabel Padien O’Meara ’99
Mr. Nathaniel O. Wallace ’69 GRD
Mr. James R. Potochny ’86
Mr. Benjamin B. Warfield ’00 Rosemary Wharton
Professor Sarah C. Pratt ’72 Mr. Robert Reed
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