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Home , Alexandre Tansman, Enrique Diemecke, Sharon Isbin

Flint

SymphonyOrchestra

ENRIQUE DIEMECKE, MUSIC DIRECTOR & CONDUCTOR

NOV 9, 2 019

NOV 21, 2020

SHARON ISBIN, GUITAR

CONCERT SPONSOR Flint Symphony Orchestra THEFSO.ORG 2019 – 20 Season

SEASON AT A GLANCE RACHMANINOFF, MUSSORGSKY SAT, OCT 12, 2019 @ 7:30PM Andrew von Oeyen, piano

SIBELIUS, RODRIGO, SAINT-SAËNS, RESPIGHI SAT, NOV 9, 2019 @ 7:30PM Sharon Isbin, guitar

DVOŘÁK, BRAHMS MATINEE PERFORMANCE SAT, JAN 11, 2020 @ 2PM Anthony Ross, cello BERNSTEIN, GERSHWIN, WELCOME TO THE 2019 – 20 SEASON WITH COPLAND, HANSON YOUR FLINT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA! SAT, FEB 15, 2020 @ 7:30PM Di Wu, piano he Flint Symphony Orchestra (FSO) is one of BEETHOVEN, SAINT-SAËNS the finest orchestras of its size in the nation. SAT, MAR 14, 2020 @ 7:30PM Its rich 102-year history as a cultural icon Wanting Zhao, piano T 2019 William C. Byrd Winner in the community is testament to the dedication of world-class performance from the musicians TCHAIKOVSKY, BORODIN and Flint and Genesee County audiences alike. SAT, APR 18, 2020 @ 7:30PM The FSO has been performing under the baton Andrés Cárdenes, violin of Maestro Enrique Diemecke for over 30 years Flint Symphony Chorus now – one of the longest tenures for a Music NUTCRACKER Director in the country. Under the Maestro’s SAT, DEC 7, 2019 @ 7:30PM unwavering musical integrity and commitment SUN, DEC 8, 2019 @ 3PM to the community, the FSO has connected with HOLIDAY POPS audiences throughout southeast , SAT, DEC 21, 2019 @ 7PM delivering outstanding artistry and excellence. POPS I CONCERT SAT, MAY 2, 2020 @ 7:30PM

Flint Institute of Music gratefully acknowledges This program and/or service is funded in whole or in the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation for their part by the Genesee County Arts Education and Cultural continued support. Learn more at Mott.org. Enrichment Millage funds. Your tax dollars are at work.

2 theFSO.org | 2019 – 20 Enrique Diemecke THEFSO.ORG Music Director & Conductor

Enrique Diemecke enjoys an international recording, operatic and concert career. He brings an electrifying balance of passion, intellect and technique to his performances. Warmth, pulse and spontaneity are all hallmarks of his conducting – conducting that has earned him an international reputation for performances that are riveting in their sweep and dynamism. In the words of The New York Times, Diemecke is a conductor of “fierceness and authority.” A noted interpreter of the works of Mahler, Maestro Diemecke has been awarded a Mahler Society medal for his performances of the composer’s complete symphonies. Maestro Diemecke is a frequent guest of orchestras throughout the world, most notably the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, French National Orchestra and many more. Maestro Diemecke is an experienced conductor of opera, having served as Music Director of the Bellas nrique Diemecke is Artistic General Director Artes Opera of Mexico from 1984-1990, where he led of the world-renowned Teatro Colón in Buenos more than 20 productions including Faust, La bohème, Aires and is the first internationally acclaimed E Salome, Elektra, Ariadne auf Naxos, Der fliegende conductor to hold the position as artistic leader of Hollander, Rigoletto, Turandot, Madama Butterfly the 110-year-old acoustical and architectural marvel, and Roméo et Juliette. He has since returned as a guest considered by many to be the greatest opera house conductor with new productions of Lohengrin, Boris in the world. Godunov and Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice. Maestro Diemecke began his rise to musical Maestro Diemecke returned to opera as he opened leadership at the Teatro Colón as Music Director of the 2007-2008 season of the Teatro Colón in Buenos the Philharmonic, an anchor ensemble Aires with a new production of Werther, followed of the theater. He continues at the helm of the by performances of Massenet’s Le Jongleur de Notre Philharmonic an unprecedented 15 years, and has Dame with tenor Roberto Alagna in Montpellier, overseen all artistic activities of opera, concerts and which was released by and ballet, since February of 2017. Maestro Diemecke awarded the prestigious Grand Prix de l’Academie is delighted to anticipate his 31st season as Music du Disque Lyrique. He is a regular guest of the famed Director of the award-winning Flint Symphony Teatro Zarzuela in Madrid, and was awarded the Orchestra this season.

3 theFSO.org | 2019 – 20 Jean Fontaine Orpheus d’Or Gold Medal for “best for the Flint Symphony Orchestra, and his works vocal music recording” by ’s Academy of Lyric Chacona a Chávez and Guitar have received Recordings for his recording of Donizetti’s The Exiles many performances both in Europe and in the United of Siberia with the L’Orchestre Philharmonique de States. During the 2001-2002 season, he gave the world Montpellier-Languedoc-Roussillon. Maestro Diemecke premiere of his work Camino y vision, dedicated to was previously honored with a Gold Medal from the President Vincente Fox, with the Tulsa Philharmonic. Academy of Lyric Recordings with the Maestro Diemecke’s recording with the Flint Orpheus d’Or Prize for “Best Opera Conductor” for Symphony Orchestra of the 1896 version of Mahler’s his live recording of Mascagni’s Parisina, from the First Symphony (which includes the subsequently Festival. With 20 years at the helm of deleted “Blumine” movement) was nominated for the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de México, Maestro a Grammy Award. Diemecke led the ensemble on a ten-city tour of the Born in Mexico City, Enrique Diemecke comes , culminating with a program of Latin from a large family of classical musicians. He began American masterworks at New York’s Carnegie Hall. to play the violin at the age of six studying for Maestro Diemecke is an accomplished composer many years with the legendary violinist Henryk and orchestral arranger, and has conducted his Szeryng. At the age of nine he added french horn, Die-Sir-E, during the Mexican National Symphony piano and percussion to his studies. Mr. Diemecke Orchestra tour of the U.S. in 1999. The Die-Sir-E was attended Catholic University in Washington, D.C. commissioned by the Radio France Festival for the and continued his studies with Charles Bruck at the World Cup Final Concert in France in 1998. Maestro School for Advanced Conductors Diemecke was commissioned to write a tone poem on a scholarship granted by Madame Monteux.■

theFSO.org | 2019 – 20 4 Flint Symphony Orchestra THEFSO.ORG Personnel

FIRST VIOLIN SECOND VIOLIN (CONT.) CELLO (CONT.) Judy Lin Wu Joseph Deller Julia Ford Edwards Concertmaster Junqi Tang In Memory of Henrietta Zeljko Milicevic Tracy Dunlop A. Eickhorst, Endowed Chair Associate Concertmaster Maria Bucco Jinhyun Kim In Memory of Katherine Susan Hammerton Wendy Stuart Yeotis, Endowed Chair Debra Terry VIOLA BASS Daniel Winnick Janine Bradbury Gregg Emerson Powell Sander Kostallari Principal Principal Cyril Zilka Tonya Ketzler, Ketzler Jon Luebke Jennifer Berg Florist, Endowed Chair Assistant Principal In Memory of Robert J. Breeden by Christine Beamer Robert Rohwer the Breeden Family, Endowed Chair Assistant Principal In Memory of Cornelia Chase Ward Alycia Wilder H. Norton, Endowed Chair Bonita Sweda Catherine Franklin Chantel Leung In Memory of Helen Davenport In Memory of Cornelia Craig W. Martin Kleinpell, Endowed Chair H. Norton, Endowed Chair In Honor of Tom Glasscock, Michael Bechtel Dilek Engin-Stolarchuk Endowed Chair Judith Teasdle Matthew Forsleff Derrick Tietz In Memory of Barbara In Memory of Harry Frederick Dapprich Walters, Endowed Chair Sutton, Endowed Chair Sam Spurbeck Nancy Marttila FLUTE Delia Turner Meredith Pedde Brandon LePage Roderick Bieber Principal CELLO In Memory of Frances Willson SECOND VIOLIN Judith Vander Weg Thompson, Endowed Chair Alesia Byrd Johnson Principal Stephanie Hegedus Principal In Memory of Anna Paulina In Loving Memory of Allan Karen Donato Koegel, Endowed Chair E. Walters by Barbara Walters Assistant Principal Alexis Turkalo Janet Lyu Assistant Principal PICCOLO Yung-Hsuan Lo Sabrina Lackey Scott Graddy Lorrie Gunn Thurston Matthews In Memory of Cornelia H. Timothy Nicolia OBOE Norton, Endowed Chair In Memory of Evelyn Lindabeth Binkley Shores Hall, Endowed Chair Principal

Members of the string section listed after the principal chairs rotate seating throughout the season.

Photographs or sound recordings of these performances, or the possession of any device for visual or sound recording, are prohibited inside the auditorium without the express written consent of management. The Flint Institute of Music is an equal opportunity employer and provides programs and services without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex or handicap. Programs of the Flint Institute of Music are made possible with the support of the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.

5 theFSO.org | 2019 – 20 Kenneth Kroesche Welcoming You OBOE (CONT.) BASS TROMBONE Lynne Marie Mangan Greg Lanzi This Evening In Memory of Tom Zorn In Honor of Bruce by Family and Friends & Barbara Mackey, of FIM, Endowed Chair Endowed Chair Sally Pituch TUBA ENGLISH HORN Joseph DeMarsh Sally Pituch Principal

CLARINET TIMANI Nicholas Thompson Terence Farmer Cathy O. Blight, M.D. Acting Principal Principal welcomes and recognizes our Janet Pinto Sommerfeld concert sponsors this evening. PERCUSSION BASS CLARINET Chuck Ricotta Cathy is the Secretary of the Janet Pinto Sommerfeld Principal Flint Institute of Music Board Eric Baldwin of Trustees, and is also on the BASSOON Brittany Chipps Board Financial Committee, Roger Maki-Schramm Robert Kratz the Board Executive Principal Timothy Mocny Dean Zimmerman Committee and Chair of the HARP FSO Advisory Committee. FRENCH HORN Amy Ley McIntosh Carrie Banfield-Taplin Principal Principal Libby B. Winegarden In Memory of the late Joseph by daughter, Dorothy W. D. & Almeda B. Hunter, Booth, Endowed Chair Endowed Chair Melanie Hellick PIANO Assistant Principal Catherine McMichael Katherine Widlar Jeffrey Walker Denise Root Pierce Robin Von Wald CELESTA Jeffrey Walker TRUMPET Ross Turner PERSONNEL MANAGER Acting Principal Gregg Emerson Powell In Memory of Lucy Schultz, Endowed Chair LIBRARIAN Eric Fontan Alexis Turkalo Derek Lockhart

TROMBONE John Upton Principal

theFSO.org | 2019 – 20 6 Beyond the Stage THEFSO.ORG Kurt Civilette, Horn

Windsor (ON) and West Michigan Symphonies. He is the horn instructor at Lansing Community College and Michigan State University's Community Music School, and teaches at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in the summer. For 15 years from 1995-2010, Kurt was full-time third horn/associate principal with New Mexico Symphony in Albuquerque, substituting as interim principal horn for the entire 2001-02 season. Before winning the permanent job in New Mexico, he held temporary positions as principal horn with Charleston (SC) Symphony, acting principal horn of the Savannah(GA) Symphony and assistant principal with Honolulu Symphony. While in New Mexico he was also third horn with Santa Fe Symphony and appeared with Santa Fe Opera orchestra. As a successful freelance musician, he has appeared with Chicago Lyric Opera, Chicago Symphony, Grant Park, Jacksonville and North Carolina Symphonies, and

urt Civilette is a freelance performer and played many commercial jingles and recording sessions. teacher based in East Lansing, Michigan. He During the summers, Kurt plays principal horn with holds several permanent orchestral positions the Southern Illinois Music festival in Carbondale, K appearing as a featured soloist in 2012. He has in the area including principal horn with the South Bend Symphony and principal horn with Midland Symphony. appeared in various US and international summer He is also third horn in Flint Symphony and Ann Arbor festivals including Spoleto festival in USA and , Symphony. As a member of the South Bend Symphony the Assisi festival (Italy), the Kumamoto festival in principal wind quintet and Ann Arbor Symphony Brass , and Music from Angel Fire.▪ Quintet he performs chamber concerts and educational concerts. Other recent freelance engagements include playing sub/extra on stage with Detroit Symphony, Saint Louis Symphony, Utah Symphony, Ft. Wayne Philharmonic and in the opera pit with Michigan Opera Theater and Santa Fe Opera. He is frequently asked to play guest principal, playing that role with Ann Arbor, Flint, Michigan Opera Theater, Kalamazoo, Saginaw Bay,

7 theFSO.org | 2019 – 20 Flint Symphony Orchestra THEFSO.ORG Program

Enrique Diemecke, Music Director & Conductor Guest Artist Sharon Isbin, guitar

Joaquín Rodrigo Fantasia para un Gentilhombre (1901 - 1999) (Fantasia for a Nobleman)

I. Villano y ricercar II. Españoleta y fanfarria de la caballeria de Napoles III. Danza de las hachas IV. Canario Sharon Isbin, guitar

CLASSICAL CONCERT SERIES SPONSOR - Whiting Foundation

CONCERT SPONSOR

MEDIA SPONSOR - WCMU GUEST ARTIST SPONSORS - Howard & Rita Shand A special thank you to Sharp Funeral Home for providing transportation for Sharon Isbin. Video Equipment Provided by AVC Services, George Boehringer

8 theFSO.org | 2019 – 20 Sharon Isbin, guitar THEFSO.ORG Guest Artist

The acclaimed documentary Sharon Isbin: Troubadour has been seen by millions on over 200 PBS stations across the U.S., and abroad including Europe, Japan and Mexico. Winner of the 2015 ASCAP Television Broadcast Award, the film is available with bonus performances on DVD and Blu-ray. Watch the trailer at: sharonisbintroubadour.com. Other recent national PBS television performances include the Gershwin Prize with , and Tavis Smiley. Ms. Isbin has been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered, A Prairie Home Companion, CBS Sunday Morning, Showtime’s The L Word, Scorsese’s Oscar-winning The Departed, at Ground Zero for the first internationally televised 9/11 memorial, the White House by invitation of President Obama, and as the only classical artist in the 2010 GRAMMY Awards. Profiled in periodicals from People to Elle, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, she has appeared on the cover cclaimed for her extraordinary lyricism, of over 45 magazines. technique and versatility, multiple GRAMMY Ms. Isbin’s catalogue of over 25 recordings—from AAward winner Sharon Isbin has been hailed Baroque, Spanish/Latin and 20th Century to crossover as “the pre-eminent guitarist of our time.” Winner and jazz-fusion—reflects remarkable versatility. Her latest of Guitar Player’s Best Classical Guitarist award, release, Alma Española with Argentinian-American ’s Echo Klassik, and the Munich, Toronto and opera star , has been a #1 bestseller, and Madrid international competitions, she has appeared is the first Spanish art song album of its kind in 40 years, as soloist with nearly 200 orchestras. She has given including twelve world premiere arrangements by Isbin. sold-out performances in many of the world’s finest It was honored by a 2018 GRAMMY Award for Producer halls, including New York’s Carnegie and Geffen Halls, of the Year, Classical in recordings by David Frost. Other Boston’s Symphony Hall, Washington D.C.’s Kennedy recent bestselling titles include Sharon Isbin: 5 Classic Center, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, London’s Barbican Albums, and Sharon Isbin & Friends: Guitar Passions and Wigmore Halls, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, with guests , Heart’s Nancy Wilson and others. ’ Châtelet, Vienna’s Musikverein, Munich’s Her 2010 GRAMMY-winning Journey to the New World Herkulessaal, and Madrid’s Teatro Real. She created with guests and Mark O’Connor spent 63 and directed festivals for Carnegie Hall, New York’s consecutive weeks on top Billboard charts. Other 92nd Street Y and the national radio series Guitarjam. GRAMMYs include her world premiere recording

theFSO.org | 2019 – 20 9 of concerti written for her by Christopher Rouse and Tan Hall for its 125th anniversary and by Chicago’s Harris Dun, and Dreams of a World which made her the first Theater. Other recent highlights include a 21-city Guitar classical guitarist in 28 years to receive the award. She Passions tour with jazz greats Stanley Jordan and Romero received a Latin GRAMMY nomination for her disc of Lubambo, collaborations with , tours with the Rodrigo/Ponce/VillaLobos concerti with the New York Pacifica Quartet, performances with the Detroit, National Philharmonic—their only recording with a guitar soloist. and Montreal Symphonies, and sold-out recitals at the Sharon Isbin has been acclaimed for expanding the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall. guitar repertoire with some of the finest new works of Sharon Isbin began her guitar studies at nine in Italy, our time. She has commissioned and premiered more later studying with Andrés Segovia, Oscar Ghiglia, concerti than any other guitarist, and her American and with whom she collaborated on Landscapes with works written for her by Corigliano, landmark editions/recordings of the Bach lute suites Schwantner and Foss is the first-ever recording of for guitar. She authored the Classical Guitar Answer American guitar concerti. Her latest world premieres Book, and directs guitar departments at the Aspen include Affinity: Concerto for Guitar & Orchestra Music Festival and The Juilliard School, which she composed for her by Chris Brubeck, and a work by created in 1989. Please visit her on Facebook, Twitter commissioned for her by Carnegie and www.sharonisbin.com.■

THANK YOU SUBSCRIBERS

We want to take a moment to let you know how much we appreciate your patronage as a season subscriber. We couldn't perform without an audience, so thank you for supporting us! We hope you enjoy today's performance and many more performances to come.

Thank you from all of the musicians, staff and board of your Flint Symphony Orchestra.

10 theFSO.org | 2019 – 20 Program Notes November 9, 2019

of the difficulties of its realization, saying TFantasia para un Gentilhombre that I would have to work with themes (Fantasia for a Nobleman) that were very short.” JOAQUÍN RODRIGO (1901 - 1999) Rodrigo solved the difficulty of working with short themes by crafting them into a suite of movements, t would be next to impossible to overestimate the rather than trying to shape them into the extended influence of Andrés Segovia on the history of the I symphonic discourse of a concerto. The result is a classical guitar. To say that he nearly single-handedly twentieth century reflection upon the Baroque dance returned the guitar to respectability on the concert suite, much in the manner of Respighi’s suites of stage would not be an exaggeration. As a performer, Ancient Airs and Dances or Peter Warlock’s Capriol teacher, commissioner of new works and a composer, Suite. While neither a direct transcription nor an his influence on guitar playing and repertoire has entirely new work, it pays homage to a bygone encompassed the globe. The list of composers who musical age in contemporary musical language. wrote and dedicated works to Segovia reads like Rodrigo himself said of the Fantasia, “My aim was a Who’s Who of the twentieth century: Manuel that, if Gaspar Sanz were to hear my work, he would Ponce, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Alexandre Tansman, exclaim, ‘That is not exactly me, but I can find myself Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco and many others. in it.’" Likewise, he taught many of the greatest guitarists The work is in four movements and scored for a of the following generation, including Julian Bream, string orchestra with the addition of only piccolo, Christopher Parkening, John Williams and flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and trumpet. The Sharon Isbin. Villano e Ricercare opens with a dignified and stately From the start of his career, Segovia was eager to melody passed back and forth between guitar and find new repertoire for the guitar, but his tastes were orchestra. Solemn and elegant counterpoint largely conservative. He was most comfortable characterizes the ricercare that follows, with the collaborating with Spanish composers who had guitar weaving its lines around the orchestral tapped into the roots of Spain’s folk and popular textures. La españoleta is in the manner of a slow music in their music. In 1951, Segovia approached minuet, with the guitar creating more elaborate Joaquín Rodrigo, asking for a new concerto to build counterpoint with each repetition of the melody. The upon the success of the composer’s popular central section of the movement, Fanfare De La Concierto de Aranjuez, Caballeria De Napoles (Fanfare for the Cavalry of a work Segovia had helped to popularize. Naples), dances its bewitching fandango over a While Rodrigo initially refused the commission, he dissonant ostinato punctuated by strummed guitar changed his mind after examining a collection of chords before returning to the wistful La españoleta. works by the 17th-century Spanish priest and The brief Danza de las haches (Axe Dance) struts composer, Gaspar Sanz. In Sanz, Rodrigo felt he had proudly, with lusty strings answered by guitar, found the perfect musical counterpart to the beauty woodwinds and trumpet. The concluding Canario and elegance of Segovia’s playing. He later wrote: dances ecstatically, dispelling the solemnity of the “I thought that the only thing worthy of first two movements, and fully exploring the shifting Segovia would be to place him together rhythmic possibilities of this dance from the Canary with another great guitarist and composer, Islands. After a brief cadenza, the work cavorts born in the 17th century, a gentleman happily to the final chord, ending with a joyous in the court of Philip IV, Gaspar Sanz. flourish.▪

I consulted Segovia himself, who approved the theFSO.org | 2019 – 20 11 plan, but not without first warning me Program Notes November 9, 2019

Program Notes by Dr. David Cole © 2019

r. David C. Cole, the program annotator for the Flint Symphony Orchestra, has had a distinguished Dcareer as a conductor, violinist, music educator and writer. He served as the conductor of the Southwest Florida Symphony’s Youth Symphony, the top ensemble of the three orchestras in the Southwest Florida Symphony Youth Orchestra program, from 2012 - 2017. He also served as the conductor for the Symphony’s Young People’s Concerts and Majors for Minors programs, and he has also served as the Symphony’s Education Director and Youth Orchestra Manager. In his tenure with the Southwest Florida Symphony’s Youth Symphony, he led them in appearances at Carnegie Hall in New York City in April of 2014, and at the Capital Orchestra Festival at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. in February of 2016. Dr. Cole’s recent guest conducting appearances include concerts with the Marquette Symphony (Michigan), the Colombian National Conservatory Orchestra, the Pleven Philharmonic (Bulgaria), the Orquestra de Camera de Bellas Artes (Mexico City), the Baylor Symphony Orchestra, the El Alto Municipal Youth Orchestra (Bolivia) and the Cincinnati Metropolitan Orchestra.

theFSO.org | 2019 – 20 12