FEB. 10 Special Concert

FEB. 10 special concert

SEGERSTROM CENTER FOR THE ARTS RENÉE AND HENRY SEGERSTROM CONCERT HALL

presents

The performance begins at 8 p.m.

Huanzhi Li Ludwig van Beethoven Spring Festival Overture Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67 Yaya Dance Academy Allegro con brio

Tan Dun INTERMISSION Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Eternal Vow Timothy Landauer Xian Xinghai Wo Huan (arr. Schnyder) Yellow River Concerto/Cantata Dance of Joy The Song of the Yellow River Boatman Min Xiao-Fen, Yaya Dance Academy Ode to the Yellow River The Yellow River in Anger Ryuichi Sakamoto, David Byrne and Cong Su Defend the Yellow River Theme from The Last Emperor Fei-Fei Dong, America Feel Young Chorus, Min Xiao-Fen Pacific Chorale

Bei Bei He (arr. Thomas) Leonard Bernstein Tiger’s Heart Candide: Make Our Garden Grow Bei Bei He Chelsea Chaves, Nicholas Preston, America Feel Young Chorus, Pacific Chorale Arr. Dunford Magic Mirror Traditional Emma Lee, Yaya Dance Academy Love My China Mai Sui, America Feel Young Chorus, Christoph Willibald Gluck Pacific Chorale O Del Mio Dolce Ardor Guang Yang Samuel Ward (arr. Prechel) America the Beautiful Richard Strauss America Feel Young Chorus, Pacific Chorale Zueignung (Devotion), TrV 141, Op. 10, No. 1 Guang Yang

This concert is generously sponsored by Charles and Ling Zhang. 18 • Pacific Symphony

1921ChineseNewYear.indd PS Program 6 C6SC2F3CNYCL2.indd 1 18 1/16/181/25/18 12:10 2:56 PM NOTES by michael clive

LOOKING AHEAD, LISTENING JOYFULLY: GREETING THE CHINESE NEW YEAR hilosophical and richly poetic, the Chinese zodiac offers cues for the New Year. This year, celebrants are looking hopefully P to the year of the Earth Dog, a time for creative renewal but also for serious introspection. Fortunately, we can enjoy the beauty and exuberance of the Chinese New Year without understanding the complexities surrounding its ancient lunar calendar. A 15-day celebration that begins with the appearance—or rather, the non- appearance—of the new moon, the Chinese New Year is vividly spectacular, but also has moments of quiet poetry and reflection. It is a time of contrasts that gets the year off to an auspicious start. While 15 days might seem like a long time to sustain a celebration, the festival is actually a multi-faceted event spanning many special moments. One of these is familiar to everyone lucky enough to live in a city where the flamboyant Dragon Parade takes place. Friends and neighbors from all over town gather to witness the fantastically colorful, loud, winding procession as the dancing dragon—actually a jointed construction borne along in caterpillar fashion by concealed dancers—makes its way through the streets. More than just entertainment, the parade represents the dragon’s grace and TAN DUN (b. 1957) strength, qualities we hope to learn by example for the coming year. In a time when we strive to value and celebrate diversity, the Dragon Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Eternal Vow Parade has helped us meet and learn about each other. But other TAN DUN (B. 1957) elements of the Chinese New Year are quieter, more contemplative, Tan Dun was already a revered composer when his soundtrack for and family-oriented. This spirit is embodied in the shorter musical the movie “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” made him a worldwide excerpts and songs with which we greet the Chinese New Year. Their celebrity. His work, which frequently combines unabashedly populist stories honor relatives, friends, ancestors and cultural heritage in lyricism with experimental harmonies and textures, defies easy song as they propitiate our aspirations for the months to come. description. But it’s fair to say while listening to the music of Tan Dun, Appropriately, we greet the New Year with compositions time seems to stop and new worlds open. He is one of the few living ancient, modern and in-between—Western and Chinese—with a composers to have had an opera commissioned by the Metropolitan remembrance of Leonard Bernstein, our cherished musical uncle, Opera. The song “Eternal Vow” is one of the most popular and frequently whose centennial is marked in 2018. For those of us less familiar covered excerpts from his award-winning score for “Crouching Tiger, with the traditions of Chinese music, its expressiveness is especially Hidden Dragon.” fascinating. It focuses on the sound of individual notes as they begin, bloom and fade, more than on melodic resolution. For experienced listeners, even the material of a Chinese musical instrument—any of The Last Emperor: Theme seven categories including wood, stone, clay, gourd, bamboo, silk and RIYUICHI SAKAMOTO (B. 1952) hide—says something about the meaning of the music played on it. Japanese rather than Chinese by birth, the composer Ryuichi Happy New Year! Sakamoto works in a musical vernacular that could be described as “global” rather than “Asian.” It has made him, in the words of The New York Times, “the most popular Japanese musician in the West.” ECHOES OF ASIA, ANCIENT AND MODERN That would include the West Village neighborhood of New York City, where he lives. In addition to his remarkable score for “The Last Emperor”—for which he won an Oscar—Sakamoto composed the Spring Festival Overture soundtrack for the 2015 film “The Revenant.” HUANZHI LI (1919–2000) Huanzhi Li, a major figure in Chinese music of the 20th century, composed more than 400 works that have achieved popularity throughout China and are of growing appeal to Western listeners. He was also active as a conductor and music educator, and remained productive despite struggles with deafness and cancer. Honored posthumously by the National Museum of China for his contributions to Chinese culture, Li is the composer of the Chinese anthem “The East Is Red.” His Spring Festival Overture was one of 30 musical selections launched into space on China’s first lunar probe satellite.

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Tiger’s Heart Zueignung (Devotion) BEI BEI HE (B. 1983) RICHARD STRAUSS (1864–1949) The classically trained musician Bei Bei He is one of the world’s Richard Strauss was the foremost composer of German-language foremost players of the guzheng, often called the “Chinese zither.” operas and art songs of the 20th century. In this song, drawn Born in Chengdu, China, she began playing the guzheng at age 7 and from the first collection of songs he published, we find him at the immediately felt called to a musical career. She pursued guzheng beginnings of his composing career and already showing the qualities studies at the Central University of Nationalities in Beijing and at the that make his vocal music a joy to sing and to hear: soaring lines and Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. But despite her classical an unequalled feeling for the beauties of the female voice. training and mastery of traditional techniques, listeners to her compositions should be ready for anything—as suggested by titles such as “Year of the Funky,” “Bossa Rossa” and “Purple River.” Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67 LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1771–1827)

Instrumentation: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons; 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones; percussion; strings Background eethoven the optimist? The idealist? The harbinger of hope for the New Year? We’re more accustomed to thinking of him B as the dark, brooding composer who snarled at visitors and agonized over his compositions. But at a time of renewal and hope, consider this: no composer remained more ardently committed to the ideals of freedom and the greatness of the human spirit than Beethoven. Like so many of his greatest compositions, the Symphony No. 5 can be heard as beginning in struggle and ending in triumph. What could be more powerfully affirmative in facing the New Year? The Fifth is one of those iconic works of art that we all seem to know from birth—in particular, those four introductory notes that, conveniently enough, conform to the rhythm of the phrase “Beethoven’s Fifth.” According to musicologist Richard E. Rodda, this is “the most famous beginning in all of classical music.” Pounded out once and then repeated a whole step down, this motif really does sound like “fate knocking at the door,” a phrase that has stuck to it

XIAN XINGHAI (1905–1945) ever since Beethoven’s students Anton Schindler and Ferdinand Ries circulated the story. Yellow River Concerto XIAN XINGHAI (1905–1945) Xian Xinghai was one of the first Chinese composers to incorporate Western influences in his music. Although he composed in all major musical forms (two symphonies, a violin concerto, four large-scale choral works, nearly 300 songs and an opera), he is best known for his Yellow River Cantata, upon which the Yellow River Concerto for piano and orchestra is based. Xian began his musical studies at the YMCA charity school attached to the Lingnan University in Guangzhou. In 1926 he joined the National Music Institute at Peking University, and in 1928 he entered Shanghai National Music Conservatory. In 1934 he became the first Chinese student admitted to the Paris Conservatory, where he studied with the French composers Vincent D’Indy and Paul Dukas.

“O Del Mio Dolce Ardor” CHRISTOPH WILLIBALD GLUCK (1714–1787) Born 42 years before Mozart in the early Classical period, Gluck was a reform-minded composer who purified operatic style, clearing away thickets of Baroque ornamentation to reveal more direct emotional

expression in music. The austere beauty of Gluck’s arias poses LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1771–1827) special challenges for vocalists because—in the musicianly phrase— ”there’s no place to hide:” The singing must be pristinely beautiful and sincerely expressed. 20 • Pacific Symphony

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From the first movement, with its remarkable alternation between exclamation and contemplation, we move to a movement marked Andante con moto, built on two themes that Beethoven develops separately; after the tension of the first movement, the second seems spontaneous and almost meandering. But it leads us to a Scherzo— fairly common as a third-movement framework in symphonies, but unusually intense in this one. Rather than ending conventionally, the symphony builds over thundering timpani to resolve in radiant C major. It ends in this sun-filled key, having transported us from darkness to light. Rodda, for one, has his doubts about whether this idea really originated with Beethoven. But does it matter? Scholars agree that this symphony is a landmark in music, combining the refinement and formal perfection of the Classical period with the philosophical and emotional urgency of the Romantic age. Beethoven partisans consider him the colossus who fulfilled the promise of one style while defining the challenges of the next—the father of musical Romanticism. His Symphony No. 5 probably makes the strongest case for this idea. He wrote it from 1804 through 1808, a period that also gave us the Fourth and Sixth symphonies, his Piano Concerto No. 4, the Violin Concerto in D, and three major piano sonatas. But not many of his comments regarding

the Fifth Symphony survive from these productive years; in one note, LEONARD BERNSTEIN (1918–1990) he says there ”begins in my head the working-out in breadth, height and depth. Since I am aware of what I want, the fundamental idea Candide: Make Our Garden Grow never leaves me. It mounts, it grows. I see before my mind the picture LEONARD BERNSTEIN (1918–1990) in its whole extent, as if in a single grasp.” To some listeners, this supports the idea that Beethoven built his magnificent four-movement 2018 marks the centennial of the birth of Leonard Bernstein—the only work on four fateful notes. composer who could possibly have written the sophisticated, witty, boisterous and ultimately moving opera/operetta/Broadway musical What to Listen For based on Voltaire’s satire Candide. The score is full of hilariously This symphony quickly took on the reputation of a maverick work ironic music, but the finale elevates the proceedings with an inspiring that challenged the conventions of symphonic structure. Even so, the chorale. The moral is universal: after adventures that have taken opening movement—which opens so unforgettably with its iconic Candide and Cunegonde to the ends of the earth and the extremes of motif, a rhyming pair of four-note bars—is developed in sonata wealth and poverty, they see that the virtues of home and family are allegro form. But from the beginning it startles us, and we know the greatest riches of all. something different from the usual is happening. Few moments in Michael Clive is a cultural reporter living in the Litchfield Hills of Connecticut. He is music have given rise to such controversy and varying interpretations, program annotator for Pacific Symphony and Louisiana Philharmonic, and editor-in- and the entire movement—indeed, the entire symphony—is based chief for The Santa Fe Opera. on this aural jolt. It proceeds in the kind of development that listeners grew accustomed to in the symphonies of Haydn and Mozart, taking THANK YOU TO OUR CONCERT SPONSORS the theme through a development that modulates through many keys and dynamic patterns to reach its capitulation. It is the novelty of the CHARLES AND LING ZHANG theme itself that keeps the movement fresh in its sound, with a sense Pacific Symphony is grateful to Charles of portentous drama. and Ling Zhang for their sponsorship of Chinese New Year. Charlie came to America in 1980 with twenty dollars in his pocket, and through hard work eventually became the founder of Pick Up Stix and Zion Enterprises. A Board member of Pacific Symphony, as well as an extraordinary patron, we are indebted to Charlie and his wife, Ling. We extend our sincere gratitude for all that they do for Pacific Symphony. JADE SOCIETY Additional support for this concert is provided by the Jade Society, a new support group of Pacific Symphony whose members are passionate about and generously supportive of Pacific Symphony’s efforts to build beneficial links and long-term partnerships with the growing number of ethnic Chinese in our region.

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TIMOTHY LANDAUER, Cello FEI-FEI DONG, Piano Pacifi c Symphony principal cellist Praised for her “bountiful gifts and Timothy Landauer was hailed “a cellist passionate immersion into the music she of extraordinary gifts” by The New York touches” (The Plain Dealer), Chinese pianist Times when he won the coveted Concert Fei-Fei Dong is a winner of the Concert Artists Guild International Award in Artists Guild Competition and a top fi nalist 1983 in New York. Landauer is the at the 14th Van Cliburn International Piano winner of numerous prestigious prizes Competition. She continues to build a and awards, among them the Young reputation for her poetic interpretations, Musicians Foundation’s National Gregor charming audiences with her “passion, Piatigorsky Memorial Cello Award, piquancy and tenderness” and “winning the Samuel Applebaum Grand Prize of stage presence” (Dallas Morning News). the National Solo Competition of the American String Teacher’s Career concerto highlights in the US include the Fort Worth Symphony, Association and the 1984 Hammer-Rostropovich Scholarship Award. Kansas City Symphony, Aspen Music Festival Orchestra, Hong Kong Landauer’s extensive engagements include his highly acclaimed Philharmonic Orchestra, Corpus Christi Symphony, Austin Symphony, recitals at Carnegie Recital Hall, the Ambassador Auditorium in Los Youngstown Symphony, Fort Collins Symphony, Denver Philharmonic Angeles, the Orford Arts Center in Montreal, the City Hall Theater in and the Juilliard Orchestra, and in China with the Shanxi and Shenzhen Hong Kong and in Hanover, Germany. He has performed as a soloist Symphony Orchestras. She has worked with such prominent with orchestras across three continents. They include the Russian conductors as Leonard Slatkin, Michael Stern, Jeff rey Kahane, Randall Philharmonic Orchestra, the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon, the Craig Fleisher and John Giordano. Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Taiwan National Symphony, the Beijing Symphony and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. In the United MAISUI, Soprano States, he has appeared with the Maryland Symphony and the Grand Maisui, soprano, national fi rst-class Teton Festival Orchestra. actress, gold award winner of the 10th CHEER PAN, Emcee National Youth Singer TV Grand Prix, graduated from People’s Academy of Born in Beijing, China, Cheer Pan started the Arts. She studied piano for 10 years, her performing career at the early age of 3 four years of composition, with a solid as the announcer for the Lantian Children’s music foundation. Throughout her Performance Group. A year later, she illustrious professional career, Maisui has began her formal lessons in dance, and performed more than a thousand times, soon thereafter she began to display her thrilling audiences around the world dancing talents across the stage. Growing with her skill, talent and passion. She up, Pan had numerous experiences has been featured in local and national- performing in national theaters for high level civil and military departmental programs, galas of CCTV and profi le audiences. At age 8, she auditioned local TV stations, including the Tian’an Square Gala Celebration of for, and became a member of, a nationally the 60th Anniversary of PRC’s foundation, 2008 Beijing Olympic televised performing youth group, the Yinghe Youth Performing Group, Games, Shanghai Expo 2010 Theme Song singing, 2008 Wenchuan where she had the opportunity to perform in front of a nationwide Earthquake Remembrance performance, World Reading Day Theme audience. After moving to the United States, she continued to express Song singing, CCTV Spring Festival Gala, and New Year’s Gala. her love and passion for the performing arts through various on-stage Maisui has also performed songs on TV and at studio stations, dance performances. She formed a dance company “Dance with concerts, variety shows and holiday celebrations. Her songs have Cheer” that performed traditional Chinese folk dances. She also began been featured in vocal music textbooks, song collections and music teaching young children about both the art form of dance and the magazines. Her most popular songs include “Pulse,” “Concubine” history of Chinese folk dance. Her students and choreography have and “Today’s You.” Moreover, her singing skills have been studied and received community recognition and national awards. cited by many academic papers (undergraduate and graduate level). She has recorded six albums and, in 2011, launched an individual TAN YE, Emcee concert, Charming Sound of Opera-Concert of Maisui Beijing 2011 at Tan Ye is a renowned host of Tianjin Beijing Worker’s Stadium. This concert set several records and won Television. She was named one of the widespread praise from both the music industry and audiences alike. “Ten Best” program hosts in China and instructor of broadcasting. She graduated from China Mass Communications University in 1989, and has since earned numerous awards with the television programs that she has hosted. She has also taught as a guest lecturer in several colleges in Tianjin. Tan is now the founder of “Golden Sunshine Chinese School,” a new endeavor in her life to carry forward the richness and beauty of Chinese language and culture.

22 • Pacifi c Symphony

1921 PS Program 6 C6SC2F3CNYCL2.indd 22 1/16/18 12:10 PM ARTISTS about the artists

GUANG YANG, Mezzo-Soprano well-known dance companies. Now she is the artistic director of YAYA Dance Academy. Guang Yang’s recent engagements included returns to the Deutsche BEI BEI HE, Guzheng Oper, Berlin for Amneris in Aida, to the Canadian Opera Company, where Yang Bei Bei He is one of world’s premiere appeared in Don Carlos, Die Walküre and guzheng (Chinese Zither) musicians. Born Götterdämmerung. She made debuts with in Chengdu, China, she started to play the Florida Grand Opera as Amneris the classical guzheng instrument at the in Aida, a role she reprised in Houston young age of 7. Passionate about music and Omaha, followed by her Paris and sure that her calling was to become debut in concerts of the Verdi Requiem a professional musician, she majored with Christoph Eschenbach and the in guzheng at the Central University of Orchestre de Paris. Yang made her Dallas Opera debut as Suzuki in Nationalities in Beijing. She also went on Madama Butterfly, a role she sang the previous season in Chicago to to study at the Hong Kong Academy for tremendous acclaim. In concert, Yang made her Chicago Symphony Performing Arts under several guzheng debut as the alto solo in Tippett’s A Child of Our Time and performed masters such as Li-Jing Sha, Mu-Lan Hai, Chun-Jiang Teng, and Ling- in recital at the Chicago Cultural Center. She also appeared in concert Zi Xu. After moving to Los Angeles, California, she further studied with Deborah Voigt and Ben Heppner in Ottawa and in Joliette music recording at Azusa Pacific University, Citrus College and jazz singing Brangäne in the Act II Love Duet from Tristan und Isolde. performance at Fullerton College. Her humble beginnings as an American musician began in Old Town Pasadena where she grew a fan MIN XIAO-FEN, Pipa base through street performances, YouTube videos, and social media. Hailed by the Village Voice as an artist EMMA LEE, Electric Cello who “has taken her ancient Chinese string instrument into the future,” Min Cellist Emma Lee made her solo debut is a master of the pipa, a four-stringed, playing at the famed Carnegie Hall’s, pear-shaped lute with a 2,000-year Weill Recital Hall at the age of 13. At 15, history. Known for her virtuosity and Lee was also a winning soloist performing fluid style, Min has expanded her Dvorák’s Cello Concerto in B minor instrument’s possibilities as an element at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom for contemporary composition, tacking Concert Hall, accompanied by the Pacific fluidly between the extended techniques Symphony Youth Orchestra. Emma has of free improvisation, jazz, full-on noise just begun her studies as a student of and contemporary classical vocabulary. More recently, she has Ronald Leonard at the Colburn School’s begun to present her own wide-ranging explorations. Min has taught Conservatory, class of 2021. Previously, many master classes and has been an artist-in-residence at schools Lee has studied with Stanley Sharp for cello and David Dunford and universities across the United States and Europe, including the for piano. Lee has attended various summer festivals including her Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, Boston Conservatory, recent fellowship to the Music Academy of the West, Summer 2017 The New School, Columbia University, Haystack Mountain School and the Montecito Music Festival, Summer 2016. In June of 2017, of Arts & Crafts, James Madison University, Wellesley College, she graduated summa cum laude from Crean Lutheran High School, University of California at San Diego, Brooklyn Friends School, where she served as principal cellist for four years. Lee is a huge Amsterdam Conservatory and University of Gothenburg. supporter of music and arts in the schools and has held the principal cellist position of her school’s orchestra from the 6th grade through YAYA ZHANG, Choreographer to her senior year of high school. Yaya Zhang is an award-winning artist CHELSEA CHAVES, Soprano with 20 years of stage performance, choreography and dance instruction Soprano Chelsea Chaves enjoyed a busy experience. She graduated from the 2016-17 season. Roles performed include Department of Folk Dance at the Pamina and Erste Dame (Die Zauberflöte), Secondary School of Beijing Dance Première Prêtresse (Iphigénie en Tauride), Academy in 1999 and received a B.A. Hanna Glawari (Die Lustige Witwe) in choreography from Beijing Dance and Lay Sister (Suor Angelica). She has Academy in 2003. During her decade- also covered the roles of Violetta (La long study at the Beijing Dance Academy, Traviata) and Gretel (Hansel and Gretel) she mastered many different Chinese for Pacific Symphony. A California native, ethnic folk dance traditions as well as sword, fan, ribbon and sleeve Ms. Chaves received a master of music techniques. At the same time, she has extensive experiences in the degree in vocal arts/opera from the choreography of the above styles and techniques. In 2004 and 2005, Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California she carried the role of “Rumpleteazer” in the musical production of and a bachelor of music degree in vocal performance from Chapman Cats by Shiki Theatre Company in Japan. Before moving to America in University. She currently resides in the Los Angeles area. 2007, she worked in many productions in China including musicals. Since moving to Los Angeles area, she has been teaching at several

Pacific Symphony • 23

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NICK PRESTON, Tenor of the Board of Directors, AFYC is committed to becoming the best amateur chorus in the U.S. by nurturing excellence in its members, Praised by The Orange County Register while offering the finest repertoire and choral artistry. as being “resonant and warm,” and by the classical music site Bachtrack as “a SAM WEI-CHIH SUN, Director of America Feel Young Chorus ringing stentorian tenor”, Hawaii native Preston is in demand as a soloist in Sam Wei-Chih Sun is a pianist, Southern California and beyond, having accompanist and music educator. His performed throughout California, and interest in music was encouraged by touring as a soloist in France, Italy, and his mother at age 6 when he started Spain. He has been a member of Pacific playing the piano. He attended the Taipei Chorale since 2002, and has frequently Municipal Teachers College and majored appeared as a soloist with the chorale as in piano performance and minored in cello well as with Pacific Symphony. Nicholas currently resides in Brea with and vocal performance. After graduation, his wife Dr. Kathleen Preston and their daughter Zelda. Sun became an elementary school music teacher in Taipei and held many musical activities to inspire students’ interests in ROBERT ISTAD, Artistic Director of Pacific Chorale music. In 2005, Sun received a master’s degree in conducting from Azusa Pacific University. In 2006, he received the Chinese Overseas Robert Istad is the Artistic Director of Outstanding Youth Award. In 2013, he received The Excellent Pacific Chorale and director of choral Educator Award by The Taiwanese Teachers College Association. Sun studies at California State University, is an adjunct professor of piano at Azusa Pacific University, Citrus Fullerton, where he conducts the Community College and Calvin Chao Theological Seminary. He is the University Singers and Concert Choir, music director at Good Shepherd Taiwanese Presbyterian Church in in addition to teaching courses in Monterey Park. He also conducts the Southern California Taiwanese conducting, advanced interpretation and Hakka Chorus, the Arcadia Chinese Chorus and the Irvine Chinese literature. He has prepared choruses for Chorus. Throughout the year, Sun conducts professional concerts and Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles collaborates with professional soloists. Philharmonic, Carl St.Clair and Pacific Symphony, Sir Andrew Davis and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Nicholas McGegan and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, as well as conductors Bramwell Tovey, Eric Whitacre, Giancarlo Guerrero, Marin Alsop, George Fenton, John Alexander, William Dehning, David Lockington and Mark Mandarano. Istad received his Bachelor of Arts degree in music from Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill., his Master of Music degree in choral conducting from California State University, Fullerton, and his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in choral music at the University of Southern California. AMERICA FEEL YOUNG CHORUS America Feel Young Chorus (AFYC) is a nonprofit organization formed by a group of friends who love music in Southern California in January 2015. Conducted by Sam Wei-Chih Sun, the group is dedicated to expanding the Chinese and Western choral music experience through performances and community. Their mission is to become the leader in amateur chorus in the U.S. by building a passionate team with artistic excellence and reputable image. AFYC has performed on various occasions including Orange County Chinese New Year celebrations, the Yellow River Cantata in Walt Disney Hall as part of the Memorial of World War II Victory Concert, in addition to local concerts led by renowned conductors from China, including Jiao Miao and Li Xi Lin. AFYC has been growing rapidly and evolving into a well-known chorus in the Chinese American community in Southern California. With the generous support from Mr. Charles Zhang (founder of Pick Up Stix and Zion Enterprise, Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young, and Winner of the prestigious Ellis Island Medal of Honor), the chairman

24 • Pacific Symphony

1921 PS Program 6 C6SC2F3CNYCL2.indd 24 1/16/18 12:10 PM ABOUT pacific chorale

ounded in 1968, Pacific Chorale is internationally recognized for community performance; affordable, accessible Musicianship Classes exceptional artistic expression, stimulating American-focused for community singers; Intro to the Arts and Passage to the Arts, F programming, and influential education programs. Pacific partnerships with local social service organizations and high school Chorale presents a substantial performance season of its own at choral directors that allow students, at-risk youth and low-income Segerstrom Center for the Arts and is sought regularly to perform families to attend Pacific Chorale performances free of charge; a with the nation’s leading symphonies. Pacific Chorale has infused an Young Composers Competition; Concert Previews that provide Old World art form with California’s hallmark innovation and cultural deeper insight into the repertoire that Pacific Chorale performs; and independence, developing innovative new concepts in programming, the Elliot and Kathleen Alexander Memorial Scholarship, awarded and expanding the traditional concepts of choral repertoire and annually to an outstanding choral conducting student at California performance. State University, Fullerton. Pacific Chorale comprises 140 professional and volunteer singers. In Pacific Chorale has received numerous awards from Chorus America, addition to its long-standing partnership with Pacific Symphony, the the service organization for North American choral groups, including Chorale has performed with such renowned American ensembles as the prestigious “Margaret Hillis Achievement Award for Choral the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the National Excellence,” the first national “Educational Outreach Award,” the Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, 2005 ASCAP Chorus America Alice Parker Award for adventurous Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Musica Angelica. Other noted programming and the 2015 “Education and Community Engagement collaborations within the Southern California community include Award.” the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Long Beach Symphony, Pasadena Symphony and Riverside Symphony. Pacific Chorale has toured Pacific Chorale can be heard on numerous recordings, including extensively in Europe, South America and Asia, performing in London, American Voices, a collection of American choral works; Songs Paris, Vienna, Budapest, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Russia, of Eternity by James F. Hopkins and Voices by Stephen Paulus, Spain, Brazil, Argentina, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing and Hong featuring Pacific Symphony; a holiday recording, Christmas Time Kong, and collaborating with the London Symphony, the Munich Is Here, on the Gothic Records label; a live concert recording of Symphony, L’Orchestre Lamoureux and L’Orchestre de St-Louis-en- Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Vespers; the world premiere recording of l’Île of Paris, the National Orchestra of Belgium, the China National Frank Ticheli’s The Shore for chorus and orchestra; and the world Symphony, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, the Estonian National premiere recording of Jake Heggie’s choral opera The Radio Hour. Symphony and the Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional of Argentina. Pacific Chorale also appears on six recordings released by Pacific Symphony: Elliot Goldenthal’s Fire, Water, Paper: A Vietnam Oratorio; Education programs are central to Pacific Chorale’s vision of enriching Richard Danielpour’s An American Requiem; Philip Glass’ The Passion and educating the community. Toward this aim, Pacific Chorale of Ramakrishna; Michael Daugherty’s Mount Rushmore; Richard has produced innovative educational initiatives that have opened Danielpour’s Toward a Season of Peace; and William Bolcom’s the door to the art of choral music and the magic of the creative Prometheus with pianist Jeffrey Biegel, all conducted by Carl St.Clair. process for thousands of students and adults annually, including: a Choral Academy for elementary school students modeled on the El Sistema movement; a Choral Camp presented in association with California State University, Fullerton providing high school students with training in music theory and vocal production; a Choral Festival uniting 400 community members each summer in a free

ROBERT M. ISTAD • ARTISTIC DIRECTOR | NATE WIDELITZ • ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR ELIZABETH PEARSON • PRESIDENT & CEO | MARY A. LYONS • BOARD CHAIR JOHN ALEXANDER • ARTISTIC DIRECTOR EMERITUS

SOPRANO ALTO TENOR David López Alemán Ki Hong Park Barbara Kingsbury, Rita Lindsay Patterson Abdou Nicholas Preston, Roger W. Gerald D. McMillan Seth Peelle Major Memorial Chair Nancy Beach-Stankey Johnson Memorial Chair Victor Mercado Ryan Ratcliff Chelsea Chaves Kathryn Cobb-Woll Carl Porter, Singers Aaron Mosley George Reiss Erika Jackson Denean R. Dyson Memorial Chair Gabriel Ratinoff Robert Rife Susan Jacobs Jacline Evered Brenton Ranney Almond Gabriel Salazar Thomas Ringland Hannah Kim Marilyn Forsstrom Daniel Alvarez Tim Schubert Sarah Lonsert Kathryn Gibson Michael Andrews BASS William Shelly Jennifer Mancini Andrea P. Hilliard Daniel Coy Babcock Karl Forsstrom, Singers Eric R. Soholt Sinae Mckillips Stacey Y. Kikkawa Michael Ben-Yehuda Memorial Chair Jim Spivey Shannon Miller Kaii Lee Nate Brown Steven Amie David Stankey Hien Nguyen Michelle (Mihuan) Li David Bunker Ryan Antal Josh Stansfield Erin Riesebieter Anabel Martinez Samuel A. Capella Robert David Breton Kevin Wright Adrien Roberts Jeanette Moon Craig Davis Mac Bright Meri Irwin Rogoff Pat Newton James C. Edwards James Brown Sandy Rosales Sharon Rose Orosco Phil Enns Trevor Alan Gomes Vanessa Rosas Kathleen Preston Marius Evangelista Peter Hahn Joslyn Sarshad Bonnie Pridonoff David Evered Mark Hamilton Janice Strength Jane Hyunjung Shim Steven Hoffman Michael Jacobs Rebecca Tomasko Angel Yu McKay Richard Hupp Matthew Kellaway Michaela Vaughn Drew Lewis Medeon Maraon Kristen Walton Jin Ming Liao Jackson McDonald Victoria Wu Benjamin Lopez Martin Minnich

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YAYA DANCE ACADEMY

Mary Chang Kayla Mehldau Annabella Chou Soloist Dancer with Pipa: Michelle Chang Demi Yan Emma Ye Sing Yiun Ng Norah Chang Nicole Fung FangYijing Huang Anita Cheng Bianca Dong Sophia Cao Magic Mirror Dancers Amanda Cheng Giselle Wu Keqin Chen Michelle Chang Claire Chang Bella Chen Michelle Ling Demi Yang Hailey Tsz Yee Chan Michelle Chang Runjia Zhang Meggie Hung Zoe Chen Katrina Huang Alina Zhang Xinlei Zeng Kathy Xin Li Alice Wang Kate Zeng Iris Tong

AMERICA FEEL YOUNG CHORUS SAM WEI-CHIH SUN • DIRECTOR SOPRANO ALTO TENOR BASS Soprano Jane Zhao Arthur Jia Ted Qiu Irene Lee Yilia Zhou Qing Gang Ma Wenjun Li Cindy Zheng Janet Lai Michael Zhang Jun Wang Shelley Xie Linda Gao David Wang Howward Shen Kaya He Grace Ong Jason Xu Eddie Ong Kathy Peng Ivy Yang Ping Yu Chivey Wu Nan Ding Shu Wang John Fan George Yen Bing Betty Sun Leehua Hao Ting Zhang David Lao Karen Xie Tiff Zhou Guoxian Sun Xiaohong Shao Heather Hu Adam Lin Lisa Huang Linda Du Owen Yang Hsiu Ling Liao Pu Lin Rosemary Sun Annie Shan Li Wang Sherry Lundstedt Lina Xu Zhaoli Huang Julia Lu Beverly Wang Julie Zhou Sophia Li Lucy Umemura Daisy Peng Hao Yu Wenny Zhang Ping Yang Qianmin Chen Sarah Liu Grace Gao Xiaoqin Xie Sharon Yang Ying Ying Zhao Joan Wu Lishia Ying Jun Wang Susan Lin Maggie Meng Li Lin Peng Krystal Yan Shi ping Jiang Teresa Liu Shirley Chen

26 • Pacific Symphony

1921 PS Program 6 C6SC2F3CNYCL2.indd 26 1/16/18 12:10 PM