SPRING 2019

Newsletter INAUGURAL MONTEUX NYC WINTER WORKSHOP & Report by Trustee and Alumna, CONCERTS A HUGE SUCCESS! NYC-based Flutist, Allison Kiger.

After 75 years of success in Hancock, Maine, the Monteux School and Music Festival remains a mystery to many in the musical community who have never attended the School. To help the School fulfill its mission of preparing conductors and musicians for an orchestral career and to continue to attract the best applicants, audiences and donors, Allison developed the first Winter Workshop and Concerts which took place in Lincoln Center, New York City, from January 2-5, 2019.

WORKSHOP GOALS: among the orchestral music community and network with musicians and teachers who can • Showcase Music Director Michael Jinbo as a help with recruiting performing conductor with a fully professional orchestra and also as a teacher in a • Provide a professional performance opportunity major city and exposure for workshop conductors

• Fulfill the mission of the School to train • Provide workshop conductors with a fully conductors and orchestra musicians professional concert video for future applications

• Increase awareness of the Monteux School • Provide a convenient opportunity for alumni to gather and network in a major city

RESULTS:

Michael Jinbo’s teaching and coaching was very effective with the conductor students and his knowledge, clarity, authenticity and humor were well-appreciated. All of the conductors made noticeable improvement and seemed truly humbled, appreciative and musically challenged by the experience. Michael was also Michael Jinbo with student conductors at the Monteux Winter Workshop, NYC, January, 2019 Continued on Page 7 FROM MARC THAYER ALUMNI UPDATE Executive Director From Monteux Alumnus, David A. Rahbee, 1994-2001, conducting associate 2014-2016, Senior Artist in Residence, University of I’m very excited to get back to Hancock and see our Monteux Friends and Family soon again. Washington School of Music in Seattle, Director of Orchestral Activities We have lots of exciting things planned for you and the students. Here’s just a taste of what to expect.

Please see our advertisement in Diane Wittry We’re also looking forward to I recently conducted the Seattle orchestral.com). ”The Daniels”, as me know! There’s a good chance it the Downeast Magazine in May, will be with welcoming the following musicians Symphony along side their outgoing many call it, is a unique orchestral is already on our “to examine” list, called EXPLORE THE DOWNEAST us during the and coaches throughout the summer music director and fellow Monteux music finder tool and an invaluable which is huge…but we’d still be glad PASSAGE, the new name for our week of July who will present Masterclasses for Alum , leading resource for orchestral librarians, to know. region. 8. Diane is the orchestral musicians: contemporary works by Seth Krimsky libraries, planners, musicologists, currently the Music Director and Páll Ragnar Pálsson with my conductors, and artistic directors. I have recently been named a of the Allentown Symphony, June 21-23, Nathan Cole, , UW colleague cello soloist Saeunn What makes our work unique is semi-finalist in three different Special Congratulations to our PA, and the Garden State Los Angeles Philharmonic Thorsteinsdottir. Earlier this year we that all works that we list have been categories of The American Prize. Conducting Associate, Tiffany Lu, Philharmonic, NJ. She’s also also shared the podium at Benaroya examined page by page. Publisher For the 4th consecutive year, who has just completed her DMA the author of ‘Beyond the July 9-11, Felicia Foland, bassoon, Hall for the Seattle Symphony/UW catalogs and score prefaces are Orchestral Programming (2016- at the University of Maryland. We Baton’, a look at the life of an St. Louis Symphony Symphony Side-by-Side concert with quite often inaccurate, and these 17 UW Symphony season); for the are excited to have Tiffany back orchestral conductor both on music by Haydn and Bernstein. inaccuracies are often perpetuated 2nd consecutive year in Orchestral again this summer and we’ll have and off the podium. She’ll be July 16-18, Brant through other lists or online services. Performance (University of to get used to saying Dr. Lu! talking with our conducting Taylor, cello, Upcoming concerts include UW This is why we (David Daniels, David Washington Symphony Orchestra), students about how the Chicago Symphony Symphony with Van Cliburn Gold- Oertel and myself) still stick to the for the first time, orchestral Medal winner Yekwon Sunwoo in original recipe: look at every page of conducting. Also I recently had an Christopher Guzman, piano, Penn position of Music Director has Orchestra Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1, the score from a conductor’s point article published in the fall 2018 State University, will perform the evolved in the 21st Century, two concerts at the Arutiunian Wind of view, and present the necessary (Volume 39, No.1) music journal Gershwin Piano Concerto with the what is expected of a Music July 19-21, Festival in Armenia, and a concert information for the user: title, exact Sonus: and Gustav Monteux Festival Orchestra on Director outside of rehearsals Tony Prisk, trumpet, of Haydn & Philip Glass with the instrumentation, movements and Mahler: Connections and Influences. Sunday, July 7, at 5 PM. and concerts, and challenges Philadelphia faced by women conductors Orchestra Chattanooga Symphony. their durations, date of composition in the US. and revision, publisher, etc. This is of Please visit my newly revamped During the week Alongside my duties as Director of course a time consuming process. website at www.davidrahbee.com of June 24 we will Orchestral Activities at the University Works for string orchestra take less welcome Henry Now is the perfect time to make a gift to the Monteux Student of Washington and various guest time than larger works. The goal? To And please check out the trailer for Photo: Layne Dixon Layne Photo: Fogel, former Scholarship Fund for 2019. Right now we are making important conducting apearances, I am also have the most accurate and useful my creation inspired by Sir Simon Executive Director decisions about which of our students will receive scholarship co-editor of Daniels’ Orchestra listings of the broadest range of Rattle: The Haydn experience of the Chicago Symphony help to come this summer and your gifts make it possible for the Music, 6th edition (slated for release orchestral music performed and https://www.youtube.com/ Orchestra, General Manager of the best musicians to come from all over the US and other countries. in 2022), and Daniels’ Orchestral recorded. If you use Daniels and watch?v=7ZAlyTjw0SM&t=1326s , President This year we will welcome students from Mexico, Canada, China Music Online (www.daniels- think we should include a piece, let of the League of American and the Kurdish Region of northern Iraq. Orchestras, and Dean of the School of Fine Arts at Roosevelt Please send your gift via PayPal or Credit Card from our website, University. Henry will be meeting monteuxschool.org, by clicking on the yellow tab in the lower right with the conducting students and corner of the homepage. Or you can send a check to: The Monteux talking about the audition process School, Box 457, Hancock, ME 04640 for orchestras, how to interview for Music Director positions Your help is greatly appreciated and makes a real difference. and the Do’s and Don’ts of guest 100% of your gift goes to the students and helps to cover tuition and housing. Please call if you have any questions, 207-812-6260. conducting.

– 2 – – 3 – A NOTE FROM FROM RON SCHWIZER Archivist FROM PHIL DEVENISH CONDUCTOR & President, Board of Trustees Last fall, following our offer to There are the 20+ years (1995 PERCUSSIONIST, catalog the Pierre Monteux archives, to date) of the School’s concert Dear Monteux Friends, most of which material came to the recordings and videos. Phil Standel KYLE RITENAUER Foundation from a year 2000 gift (a former Trustee and Treasurer) I write from Pigeon Bay, New Zealand—an hour’s drive Five years ago, we were able to accommodate only from Nancie Monteux Barendse, the made a huge start on these in a from and only four days since the terrible shootings nineteen musicians ourselves, and housing the Kyle is currently a Board appointed me as Archivist, spreadsheet around 2012, and I in the Christchurch mosques. Paradise has been remaining 43 made up by far the largest item in our Graduate Student at and Doug as Curator of the nascent want to work on a format for putting Lost and cannot be regained. After nineteen winter annual budget. Now, with the addition of Winterhaven, the Juilliard School collection. We are still working on a complete listing of pieces and escapes here from Maine, we have a sense for how the Pierre Monteux home, Devenish Hall, Tamarack and plays frequently entering data and photos from conductors into the database as Aotearoa/New Zealand’s oceanic protection both has Place, and other, smaller renovations, we have turned with the Malaysia the Foundation's collection of well. I do believe that uploading and has not prepared this small, island nation for its the tables in our favor, housing 48 on our own and Philharmonic in recordings. These include recordings sound and video media will also struggles ahead in our ‘globalized’ world. We have leaving only fourteen to the increasingly expensive Kuala-Lampur. gifted by: be possible, but perhaps to a more long felt the many similarities between our adoptive rental market. This has resulted not only in greater limited extent. rural New Zealand and our own rural Maine. financial security for the School, but also more funds - Nancie: We have called this for our primary, musical mission, and especially for collection "Nancie Monteux I will be attending the The museum software has online We head home in early May, and how fortunate we increased scholarships for our musicians. Barendse Vinyl Records." Pierre Monteux School for components, which will make it all are to have yet another—a 76th—season of the the 8th time this Summer. - Arthur Helmbrecht (the avid vinyl searchable from anywhere. Just Monteux School and Music Festival to await us—‘the Many of you have played your part in helping to insure I am currently studying collector who visited us and sent this past week Doug and I donated annual miracle,’ as it has come to seem to me! our long-term future. We have come such a long orchestral conducting with many shipments , not all of which the PastPerfect Online addition way, much of it in recent years. Won’t you continue Maestro David Robertson contained Monteux recordings). I for the first year, so we will be in a I love having a ‘project’ to look forward to, and this spring to build on this momentum, as we enjoy the music at the Juilliard School. The pulled out all the Monteux discs and position to work with the designer it is adding another bathroom to one of our residential and send our musicians out into this wonderful, wider, Monteux School has been we have cataloged them. We need to make it look somewhat like the buildings, ‘the barn.’ We have an orchestra of 62 to globalized world in which we live? one of the most influential to decide about the many others, School's web page. We decided provide housing for each summer, and this will be one places in my musical some of which were by Mariner, but to use "Pierre Monteux Memorial small way to help cope with two more of that total. Thanks! development. What I’ve I’ve included those because he is an Foundation" for the name of the learned with Maestro Jinbo alumnus. archival site since it best fits with over my eight summers the intention of archiving materials - Estate of Elwin H King: a former in Maine is a clear and relevant to Monteux's career, which clarinetist who played with Monteux reliable technique that will, of course include materials on in San Francisco. allows me to communicate the School he started in Hancock. clearly with the musicians All entries of recorded media will of any orchestra I have the have linked to them the scanned There are also a number of other opportunity to lead. He has photos of both sides of each album. objects such as photographs, also instilled an approach to At this point we have cataloged letters, telegrams, payment letters the music that is meticulous roughly 100+ discs which contain for Monteux's services, honorary medals, statues, and an occasional and honest to the many more recorded pieces, at least CD recording of recordings made by and always pushes us to some of which are duplicates. They an alumnus or two. embody the true meaning of include two sets of commemorative the music. My foundation as recordings that RCA gave Pierre on his 80th and 85th birthdays. We If you have items that you’d like to a conductor was built at the donate to the Monteux School please Monteux School and it has have barely scratched the surface since there are also a number of contact us at pierremonteuxschool@ truly become a home away CDs that I bought and donated. We gmail.com, Box 457, Hancock, ME from home. began on the CDs this week. 04640

– 4 – – 5 – VOLUNTEER FROM JOANN WINTER WORKSHOP Continued from Page 1 REPORT WILLIAMS able to coach the orchestra, bringing them to a high Pierre Monteux’s traditions of authenticity and From two of our wonderful Monteux Vice President, level of performance in a very short time. Michael’s modesty. Associates, Ed Allen & Loraine Gawronski performance of Copland’s Appalachian Spring was Board of Trustees lauded by the players and the audience. The level of • The goal of the Monteux School and Summer As we all know, there are several first Monday night of the season, pride and fulfillment in the orchestra was palpable. Many Festival is a six-week trajectory of development for ways to support the Monteux organizing free time recreational We are pleased to announce that Diane Wittry, experienced professional players, veterans from the conductors and the orchestra. The transformation School and Music Festival. Our and social activities for the Music Director and Conductor of the Allentown Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Broadway shows, New York City and lessons learned are more important than the involvement with the PM School students, providing transportation Symphony Orchestra for the last 23 years Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and other end product of each week’s orchestra concert. This started out, as it probably did to and from the airport, etc. as well as the Garden State Philharmonic regional orchestras took the time to thank Maestro Jinbo workshop emphasized short-term goals and concert with most of you, as patrons in New Jersey, will be in residence at the and Allison personally, remarking that they benefited preparation, so a paid professional orchestra was attending the Wednesday and We have found that participating school during the week of July 8th. She has from the experience. required. The musicians had prepared their music Sunday evening performances. in these activities allows us the written two books on conducting “Beyond in advance, so Maestro Jinbo was able to start We did, and still do, appreciate opportunity to get to know the the Baton–What Every Conductor Needs to • Thanks to the recruiting campaign and publicity from an advanced level of coaching the orchestra experiencing the fruits of the students on a more personal Know” and “Baton Basics–Communicating efforts, the name of the Monteux School and Music for the concert, allowing him to focus more on the students’ intensive practice level vs just as performers. Music Through Gestures.” She will be meeting Festival has resonated beyond the pool of musicians conductors. during the week. The interaction with the other with orchestral musicians and conductors to looking for a summer festival. Producing a workshop associates has also provided discuss the role of the Music Director in the and two concerts with full orchestra and soloists in • The four-day Winter Workshop was also an excellent Approximately six years ago us with the opportunity to make 21st Century on and off the podium and how the Lincoln Center area, right next to Juilliard and networking opportunity for alumni, New York area we were asked by George and new acquaintances and renew to connect an orchestra with its community in the halls of the New York Philharmonic and the Met residents from our Hancock audience, and other Charlotte Draper if we would be or maintain old friendships that a variety of ways. Opera, gives the Monteux School increased visibility, music professionals who attended rehearsals or interested in participating as often continue into the off season. relevance, and prestige, which help the School to be concerts. volunteers in “The Associates.” Diane Wittry is recognized nationally and competitive with other Festivals, while maintaining We initially thought we were being One of our favorite activities internationally and has been honored as an offered a casting opportunity is an annual pizza luncheon “Outstanding Alumnus of the Thornton School for a remake of the TV sitcom buffet where in approximately of Music at USC.” She is well respected as a of the same name and would be 30 minutes, 25 pizzas of various composer as well as a conductor and teacher. rubbing elbows with the likes of kinds and styles, 10 pounds of Diane Wittry has been a guest speaker at Martin Short and Alley Mills. We tossed salad, 10 dozen cookies numerous well respected schools including jumped at the opportunity and and 10 gallons of drinks are the Curtis Institute of Music, PA, the Juilliard immediately began dusting off consumed back stage in a food School of Music, NY, the Manhattan School of our thespian skills. Of course, we frenzy akin to the devestation Music, NY, the Mannes School of Music, NY, soon found out that it was not a caused by swarms of the famous New York University, and Brandeis University, chance to act but rather something Rocky Mountain locusts in a field MA among others, and is a frequent guest potentially more rewarding of corn. Aside from the carnage, speaker at national conferences. – unique volunteer support the luncheon provides the activities focused on providing students with a brief and casual Monteux continues to implement its Inclusive the students a more welcoming mid-day respite – and doggie Excellence program which encourages women and enjoyable experience during bags. who wish to conduct and gain admission to Heather MacLean, Allison Kiger and Michael Jinbo at the Allison Kiger and David Rahbee talking with audience their stay at the school. These the school on their own merits. Three of the Monteux Winter Workshop, January, 2019 members, Monteux Winter Workshop, NYC, January, 2019 activities range from readying We are looking forward to conductors attending the school this year are the campus facilities for the June and the start of another women. Hannah Reitz and Xuecong “Sunny” season, a welcome dinner on the successful season at Monteux. Xia are returning conductors and Emma Overall the Winter Workshop was an unqualified success. Strub, who attended as an instrumentalist We were able to take the Monteux experience and Michael Jinbo’s teaching To join The Associates volunteers please send an email to violist in 2016, is a new conductor. In addition, [email protected] we are pleased to welcome back Tiffany Lu to a new audience in a new venue over a few days, fulfilling the School’s mission. as Conducting Associate. – 6 – – 7 – Nonprofit Org. US Postage PAID Bangor, ME Permit #76 PO Box 457 School for Conductors and Hancock, Maine 04640 207-812-6260 Orchestral Musicians www.monteuxschool.org

______DATES TO NOTE: MONTEUX FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA CONCERTS Sundays at 5:00 PM / June 23, 30 / July 7, 14, 21, 28

MAINELY CHAMBER MUSIC CONCERTS Wednesdays at 7:30 PM / June 26 / July 3, 10, 17, 24

FREE CHILDREN & FAMILY CONCERT Thursday at 10:30 AM /July 11