Salutes Yo-YoMaestro Paul Freeman Ma January 28, 2011
An evening celebrating the achievements of Maestro Paul Freeman, Founder and Music Director of the Chicago Sinfonietta.
Lead Corporate Sponsor JPMorgan Chase & Co. 2 Letter from the Chairs Dear Friends,
We, along with the Board of the Chicago Sinfonietta, would like to extend our sincerest gratitude for your support of the Yo-Yo Ma Salutes Maestro Paul Freeman event. We are very proud to welcome you to this evening’s celebration, commemorating the ground-breaking career of Maestro Freeman.
Tonight’s event is timely in many ways. Last Sunday the Chicago Tribune recognized Yo-Yo Ma as a Citizen Musician. A Citizen Musician is any musician who uses their talent and passion for music to enhance the quality of life in their community and beyond. It is clear that tonight, we are privileged to experience the works of two such individuals that exemplify this concept, Maestro Paul Freeman and Yo-Yo Ma.
Paul Freeman’s life’s work has been dedicated to breaking down the barriers that had denied aspiring minority and women musicians, composers, and conductors the opportunity to find their places in the classical music field. First, as a pioneering figure who broke the color barrier at over fifty orchestras worldwide, and then as a tireless advocate for minority and women musicians, soloists, and composers, Paul Freeman has impacted the lives of countless people throughout his five-decade career. The culmination of his life’s work was the founding of the Chicago Sinfonietta, an orchestra dedicated to promoting diversity, inclusion and innovation in classical music.
We would like to thank JPMorgan Chase & Co. for their generous support of this event as our Lead Corporate Sponsor. We thank Deborah Rutter and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for their assistance with this event. We would like to thank you for attending this event and to everyone that helped to make this evening a wonderful success. Finally, we sincerely thank Yo-Yo Ma and this evening’s other special guests for their generosity and their incredible talent.
We invite you to enjoy this incredible night and to celebrate the work of a true Chicago cultural icon.
Sincerely,
Sandra Rand John Daniels, Esq. Civic Leader Chairman, Quarles & Brady LLP
3 Maestro Freeman
Paul Douglas Freeman was born in Richmond, Virginia, on January 2, 1936. He grew up in modest circumstances in the American South in the middle of the twen- tieth century—difficult beginnings for any African American. “Growing up in seg- regation in Richmond...to have fulfilled my personal dreams and to have helped to found an entity [the Chicago Sinfonietta] that brings dreams to others, even I sometimes can’t believe what we’ve done,” Freeman told the Chicago Sun-Times.
Freeman started piano lessons at age five, and he soon took up the clarinet as well. He took clarinet lessons at Richmond's Armstrong High School while still in elementary school and took lessons at Virginia State College in Petersburg while in high school. One of the stories Paul shares is about the first time he ever heard an orchestra perform as a child in his hometown of Richmond. He and his mother were directed to sit in the colored section of the theater, or as he likes to refer to it, the peanut gallery.
His conducting debut came at age 14 or 15, when his clarinet teacher fell ill and was unable to conduct the Armstrong school band for its scheduled performance at a PTA meeting. Freeman stepped in as a substitute. “Although the ministry was an earlier career interest, a maestro was born that evening,” Freeman wrote in a letter quoted in the book Black Conductors.
In 1996, he was appointed Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Czech National Symphony Orchestra in Prague, a position he held simultaneously with his Chicago Sinfonietta post. From 1979 to 1989, he served as Music Director of the Victoria Symphony in Canada, Principal Guest Conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic in Finland, Associate Conductor of the Dallas and Detroit Symphony Orchestras, and Music Director of the Opera Theatre of Rochester, New York.
4 A recipient of the Mahler Award from the European Union of Arts, Freeman has been in constant demand as a guest conductor, having led more than 100 orchestras in over 40 countries. As one of America's most successful recording conductors, he has approximately 200 releases to his credit. Freeman has been involved in more than a dozen televised orchestra productions in North America and Europe. He has been nominated for two Emmy Awards and constantly receives rave reviews for his recordings. The December 2000 issue of Fanfare magazine proclaimed Maestro Freeman “one of the finest conductors which our nation has produced.”
Dr. Freeman received his Ph.D. from Eastman School of Music. He studied on a U.S. Fulbright Grant in Berlin, and holds honorary doctorate degrees from Dominican and Loyola Universities. In 2005, Maestro Freeman was designated a HistoryMaker, having been nominated by the DuSable Museum of African American History, for his outstanding contributions to African American life, history, and culture.
The 2010-2011 Season with the Chicago Sinfonietta will be Maestro Freeman’s farewell season as he steps down from the podium after twenty-four years. Chicago’s WYCC just completed a recent documentary called The Sounds of Diversity on Maestro Freeman and the legacy of the Chicago Sinfonietta. In 2010, Chicago United honored Maestro Freeman as a Bridge Award winner for his demonstrated commitment to advancing diversity within their companies. Operation Push just honored Maestro Freeman with its Legend Award. We anticipate many more accolades including Maestro Freeman’s induction into the Classical Music Hall of Fame.
Maestro Freeman’s talent was summarized in the following quotation from Robert Marsh, longtime music critic for the Chicago Sun-Times: “Freeman con- ducts performances which are remarkable for their beauty and communicative force. He brings the sound of the Chicago Sinfonietta to the heights of angels.”
5 Chicago Sinfonietta History
Maestro Paul Freeman founded the Chicago Sinfonietta in 1987 in response to the lack of opportunity for minority classical musicians, composers, and soloists. Chicago Sinfonietta musicians truly represent the city’s rich cultural landscape and continue to fulfill the orchestra’s mission of Musical Excellence through Diversity™. A 2007 survey of major orchestras revealed that the Chicago Sinfonietta is the most diverse professional orchestra in the United States. Through this distinction, the Chicago Sinfonietta serves as a national model for inclusiveness in classical music.
The mission of the Chicago Sinfonietta is to serve as a national model for inclusiveness and innovation in classical music through the presentation of the highest quality orchestral concerts and related programs. The Chicago Sinfonietta aspires to remove the barriers to participation in, and appreciation of classical music through its educational and outreach programs that expose children and their families to classical music, and by providing professional development opportunities for young musicians and composers of diverse back- grounds enabling new, important voices to be heard.
Under the guidance of founding Music Director Paul Freeman, the orchestra performs at the highest artistic level and has achieved an outstanding reputa- tion for its innovative programs. The Sinfonietta is dedicated to the authentic performance of Classical, Romantic and Contemporary repertoire and excels at presenting imaginative new works by composers and soloists of color.
During the first ten years, the orchestra embarked on six international tours per- forming concerts in Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland and the Canary Islands.
6 The Chicago Sinfonietta has produced fourteen compact discs, including the much heralded three-disc African Heritage Symphonic Series released on Cedille Records in 2002 and a live recording of the 2007 tribute concert to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The orchestra has performed twice at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. In August of 2008, the Chicago Sinfonietta made its debut performance at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park to over 11,000 people and performed for over 90,000 people during 2009-2010.
After Maestro Freeman’s decision to retire from the podium after the 2010-2011, the organization embarked on a two-year international search for his successor. In August 2010, the Chicago Sinfonietta proudly announced Maestro Mei-Ann Chen as its Music Director Designate. Maestro Chen will officially assume the Music Director position in July of 2011, but will perform as a Guest Conductor in May 2011 for Maestro Freeman’s final performance. Mei-Ann Chen made her Sinfonietta podium debut in October 2009 for the Sinfonietta’s critically- acclaimed season opener concert titled West Meets East.
The first woman to win the Malko International Conductors Competition (2005), Mei-Ann Chen, 37, is considered one of America’s most exciting and promising young conductors. Concluding a highly successful tenure as Assistant Conductor of the Baltimore Symphony in 2010, she has also accepted a three-year appointment as the Music Director of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra that began in the 2010-2011 season. Maestro Chen is in demand on the podium all over the world.
A native of Taiwan, Chen has lived in the United States since 1989. She holds master’s degrees in both conducting and violin from the New England Conservatory, and a D.M.A. in conducting from the University of Michigan, where she was a student of Kenneth Kiesler. Chen was a participant in the National Conducting Institute in Washington, D.C. and the American Academy of Conducting in Aspen. During her five-year tenure as Music Director of the Portland (OR) Youth Philharmonic, she led its sold-out debut in Carnegie Hall, received an ASCAP award for innovative programming, and was honored with a Sunburst Award from Young Audiences for her con- tribution to music education.
7 Chicago Sinfonietta Board of Directors 2010-2011 Maestro Paul Freeman, Music Director and Founder Maestro Mei-Ann Chen, Music Director Designate Jim Hirsch, Executive Director
Neelum T. Aggarwal, M.D. Steven Hunter Quarles & Brady Karim Ahamed HPM Partners Gregory P.Jacobson The Jacobson Group Anne Barlow-Johnston Betty Johnson Jetta Bates-Vasilatos The Nielsen Company Nicole Johnson-Scales Fifth Third Bank Linda Boasmond Cedar Concepts Kevin Krakora Mesirow Financial Patrick Cermak Wight & Company John Luce, Psy.D. PricewaterhouseCoopers Cheri Chappelle - CHAIR Illinois Tool Works Dean R. Nelson Procter & Gamble Eileen Chin R. M. Chin & Associates Nazneen Razi Jones Lang LaSalle Virginia Clarke Talent Optimization Partners, LLC Stephanie Springs Make A Wish Foundation Tara Dowd Gurber – PAST CHAIR Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois Michelle Vanderlaan
Philip L. Engel Kimberly Waller Aon Cornerstone Innovative Solutions Margarete Evanoff Deloitte Consulting LLP Greta Weathersby Integrys Business Support, LLC Rich Gamble Chicago Magazine Mark Williams - TREASURER PricewaterhouseCoopers Phil Gant III Element 79 Anita Wilson - SECRETARY TreeHouse Foods Dan Grossman, Ph.D. The Boston Consulting Group
8 Yo-Yo Ma Salutes Maestro Paul Freeman
Immolation Scene from Götterdämmerung ...... Richard Wagner Arr. Jeremy Jordan Jeremy Jordan, piano
Three Preludes for piano and clarinet ...... George Gershwin Jeremy Jordan, piano Anthony McGill, clarinet
Cello solo Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, K. 581 ...... Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart II. Larghetto Anthony McGill, clarinet David Katz, violin Carmen Kassinger, violin Renée Baker, viola Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Trio in B-flat, for clarinet, cello, and piano, op. 11 Thema: Pria ch’io L’impegno (Allegretto) ...... Ludwig van Beethoven Anthony McGill, clarinet Yo-Yo Ma, cello Jeremy Jordan, piano
9 Yo-Yo Ma
For his latest album, Songs of Joy & Peace, the multiple Grammy®-winning cellist Yo-Yo Ma invited many of his favorite artists from the worlds of popular and classical music to collaborate on a selection of songs — some sacred, some secular, some traditionally seasonal, some simply beloved — connected in their sense of wonder and appreciation of the holiday season. Yo-Yo Ma conceived of Songs of Joy & Peace as a universal holiday house party of music “uniting different forms of joy” with the idea of combining familiar material with songs that would offer the listener the gift of discovery performed by old friends and new. Songs of Joy & Peace celebrates the universal hopes, dreams and good cheer animating seasonal festivals — Christmas, Hanukkah, Eid, Kwanzaa, Yuletide, Winter Solstice, New Year's, Ramadan — the world over.
Celebrating his 30th anniversary with Sony Classical and Sony Masterworks, Yo-Yo Ma is an exclusive Sony Classical artist, and his discography of over 75 albums (including 15 Grammy® Award winners) reflects his wide-ranging interests. He has made several successful recordings that defy categorization, among them Hush with Bobby McFerrin, Appalachia Waltz and Appalachian Journey with Mark O’Connor and Edgar Meyer and two Grammy®-winning tributes to the music of Brazil, Obrigado Brazil and Obrigado Brazil - Live in Concert. Yo-Yo Ma’s most recent recordings include Paris: La Belle Époque, with
10 pianist Kathryn Stott, Appassionato, which contains some of the world’s most romantic music and New Impossibilities, a live album recorded with the Silk Road Ensemble and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; he also appears on John Williams’s soundtrack for Rob Marshall’s film Memoirs of a Geisha. Across this full range of releases, Yo-Yo Ma remains one of the best-selling recording artists in the classical field. All of his recent albums have quickly entered the Billboard chart of classical best sellers, remaining in the Top 15 for extended periods, often with as many as four titles simultaneously on the list.
Yo-Yo Ma is strongly committed to educational programs that not only bring young audiences into contact with music but also allow them to participate in its creation. While touring, he takes time whenever possible to conduct master classes as well as more informal programs for students - musicians and non- musicians alike. At the same time he continues to develop new concert programs for family audiences (helping, for instance, to inaugurate the family series at Carnegie Hall). In each of these undertakings, he works to connect music to students’ daily surroundings and activities with the goal of making music and creativity a vital part of children's lives from an early age. He has also reached young audiences through appearances on Arthur, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and Sesame Street.
Yo-Yo Ma was born in 1955 to Chinese parents living in Paris. He began to study the cello with his father at age four and soon came with his family to New York, where he spent most of his formative years. Later, his principal teacher was Leonard Rose at the Juilliard School. He sought out a traditional liberal arts edu- cation to expand upon his conservatory training, graduating from Harvard University in 1976. He has received numerous awards, including the Avery Fisher Prize (1978), the Glenn Gould Prize (1999), the National Medal of the Arts (2001), the Dan David Prize (2006), the Sonning Prize (2006), and the World Economic Forum’s Crystal Award (2008). Appointed a CultureConnect Ambassador by the United States Department of State in 2002, Yo-Yo Ma has met with, trained and mentored thousands of students worldwide including Lithuania, Korea, Lebanon, Azerbaijan and China. He has performed with and conducted master classes for members of the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra. In 2006, Secretary General Kofi Annan named him a U.N. Messenger of Peace and in 2007 Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon extended his appointment.
11 Anthony McGill, clarinet Anthony McGill, principal clarinetist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, has quickly earned the reputation of being one of classical music’s finest solo, chamber and orchestral musicians. Before joining the MET Orchestra in 2004, he served as associate principal clarinet of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra for four years. With the MET Orchestra, McGill frequently performs in Carnegie Hall’s Isaac Stern Auditorium, as well as Zankel and Weill Halls with the MET Chamber Ensemble. He can be seen and heard on the Live in HD broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera
On January 20th 2009, McGill performed “Air and Simple Gifts” by John Williams with Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman and Gabriela Montero at the inaugu- ration of President Barack Obama. In 2000, McGill was a winner of the highly prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant and has also appeared as a soloist with orchestras including the Baltimore Symphony, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Hilton Head Orchestra, Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, and The Curtis Orchestra. This season he will appear with the Peabody Orchestra, The New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra and the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra.
As a distinguished chamber musician, McGill has performed at the Marlboro Music Festival, Sarasota Festival, La Musica, Tanglewood, Music@Menlo, the Grand Teton Music Festival, Music from Angel Fire, Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Festival, the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Bridgehampton Chamber Festival and the Interlochen Music Festival. He is also a member of the newly formed Schumann Trio with violist Michael Tree and pianist Anna Polonsky.
McGill has collaborated with artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Midori, Lang Lang, Yefim Bronfman and Gil Shaham, as well as world-renowned string quartets including the Guarneri, Tokyo, Shanghai, Miami, Miró and Daedalus quartets. He has performed throughout the United States, Europe and Asia as a chamber and orchestral musician with artists including the Brentano String Quartet, Musicians from Marlboro, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Mitsuko Uchida, Marina Piccinini and Barbara Sukova.
12 McGill has appeared on Performance Today, NPR’s St. Paul Sunday, Ravinia’s Rising Star Series, on the Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood television show and at Lincoln Center as a member of Chamber Music Society Two. McGill attended the Interlochen Arts Academy and the Curtis Institute of Music. His former teachers include Donald Montanaro, Richard Hawkins, Larry Combs, Julie DeRoche, David Tuttle and Sidney Forrest. In high demand as a teacher, McGill currently serves on the faculties of the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, Mannes College of Music and the Manhattan School of Music Precollege. In addition he has given master classes at the Curtis Institute of Music, University of Michigan, Stony Brook University, Temple University, UCLA, University of New Mexico and the Manhattan School of Music.
Jeremy Jordan, piano An alumni of the DePaul Community Music Division, Jeremy Jordan began piano studies at the age of four with his parents Mark and Verna. He came to the CMD when he was nine years old to study with Regina Syrkin and in that same year gave a televised performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1. Other on-air appearances include a radio performance on From the Top in 2005 as part of the Mephisto Trio and a televised solo performance on NPR in 2007 as part of From the Top: Live from Carnegie Hall.
After winning the 2006 Steinway Piano Concerto Competition, Jeremy made his orchestral debut with Maestro Alan Heatherington and the Ars Viva Symphony Orchestra performing Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 1. He made his European debut six months later with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Music Director Maestro Paul Freeman. A repeat performance was given in 2007 with the Chicago Sinfonietta at Symphony Center. An active composer as well as performer, Jeremy’s Fantasie No.3for piano won first place in the Music Teachers National Association’s Young Composer’s Competition, and his Nocturne for Piano, Oboe and Bassoon was premiered on NPR.
Jeremy is currently studying piano with Matti Raekallio on the Howard & Ethel B. Ross Scholarship, the Bruno Raikin Memorial Piano Scholarship, and the Van Cliburn Scholarship at The Juilliard School where he will begin his third year of studies in the fall.
13 Renée Baker, viola Renée Baker is founder/leader of thirteen contemporary music performance entities — Chicago Modern Orchestra Project, FAQtet, Mantra Blue Free Orchestra, Red Chai, Project 6, Wrinkled Linen, Connoisseur Musica String Ensemble (classical), Poemusici (spoken word group), Mimetic Cast (new music performance ensemble and pub- lisher), Blanché (experimental orchestra), Baker Artet, Tuntui (experimental piano quartet) and the Renée Baker Trio. She has created eclectic chamber festivals for Adler Planetarium, Shedd Aquarium, Joffrey Ballet Chamber Series, Norris Cultural Arts Center and Classical Symphony Hall.
As a composer, Ms. Baker has penned creative compositions for her own groups, as well as the Chicago Sinfonietta Chamber Ensemble and Great Black Music Ensemble/AACM. In 2009, Ms. Baker’s compositions have premiered in Umbria, Italy and also have been performed at Suoni Per Il Popolo in Montreal. Ms. Baker has presented over twenty concerts including her compositions for the Chicago State University Student Afternoon recital Series, from 2002-2007. She has premiered over ten works on the Chicago Sinfonietta Chamber Series 2008- 2010. Ms. Baker was accepted into the cutting-edge Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute at Columbia University in July 2010. She is currently working on music score for a film sponsored by the Chicago Architecture Foundation and is also composing scores for the Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), a program entitled Brass Epiphany, part of the 45th Anniversary celebration of the AACM to be presented in November 2010.
Carmen Kassinger, violin Carmen Llop Kassinger is proud to have played with the Chicago Sinfonietta for over ten years. She has been an active participant in many of the outreach programs the Sinfonietta provides including the SEED program and Chamber con- certs. Carmen also plays in other top tier Chicago ensembles such as The Chicago Philharmonic, The Ravinia Festival Orchestra, Ars Viva, Lake Forest Symphony, and The Joffrey Ballet Orchestra. Carmen also works with chamber ensembles like Fulcrum Point and the Callisto Ensemble. Carmen has performed with many artists; from the Three Tenors and Andrea Bocelli to Led Zepplin, Yes, Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, Celine Dion, Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson, Linda Rondstadt and Rod
14 Stewart. Carmen has performed on Sound Stage and Oprah Winfrey with such varied performers as J-Lo, Faith Hill, Jewel, Michael McDonald, Stevie Nicks, and Mary J. Blige. She was concertmaster for the world premieres of The Producers and Elton John’s Aida. Originally from Atlanta, Carmen was a member of the Charleston Symphony and played the Spoleto Festival. She received her Masters in violin performance from the University of Miami, where she studied with Glenn Basham. While in Florida, Carmen played with the New World Symphony and spent ten seasons in the pit for Sarasota Opera.
David Katz, violin David Katz is an active performer and teacher of violin and viola in the Chicagoland area. He currently performs as assistant concertmaster with the Lake Forest Symphony and the Chicago Opera Company. He also performs regularly with the Chicago Sinfonietta, Joffrey Ballet, ARS Viva!, Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra and Fulcrum Point. David has also been a substitute for the Philadelphia Orchestra, Lyric Opera and Grant Park Music Festival. He also performed with the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Opera Company and the Pennsylvania Ballet Company. David has performed with the San Francisco Ballet in Chicago. For many of these orchestras David has stepped in as concert- master. David has played for many touring Broadway shows as well as for visiting performers here in Chicago and in Atlantic City, NJ. David has also been all over the globe performing and touring with orchestras such as Orchestra Sinfonica de Galicia (La Coruna, Spain) Caracas (Venezuela) Philharmonic [principal 2nd violin], the Princeton (N.J.) Chamber Orchestra (in Cairo, Egypt and Amman, Jordan) and many years with the Spoleto (Italy) Music Festival. He toured East Germany just before the “Wall” came down (1988) with the Chicago Chamber Orchestra, and has done many tours with the Chicago Sinfonietta in Germany, Switzerland, the Canary Islands and Southern California. David studied with Jascha Brodsky (1st violinist with the Curtis String Quartet for over 50 years) at the New School of Music in Philadelphia. David has taught violin and viola for over 25 years and is certified in the Suzuki method. He currently teaches private- ly and for Suzuki School of Barrington. David has two teenage children (who also play violin) and a wife (Michelle) who enjoys listening to the trio.
15 Midway Wholesalers, Inc. Midway Airport Concessionaires LLC & the entire Rand Family Salute the lifetime achievement of Maestro Paul Freeman
16 Quarles & Brady LLP salutes
Maestro Paul Freeman
founder of the Chicago Sinfonietta,
on 24 years of excellence
and diversity in classical music.
We are proud to be affiliated
with such a special event and
such a wonderful orchestra!
www.quarles.com
17 18 Maestro, we’re going to miss your jokes! Congratulations on a great idea, the CHICAGO SINFONIETTA
P: 312.226.7610 F: 312.226.7612 W: mc2chicago.com
19 The Board of Directors of the Chicago Sinfonietta salutes the work and the leadership of Maestro Paul Freeman.
The impact of your dream is truly immeasurable.
20 www.chicagosinfonietta.org