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October 4 &5,20181 12:00PM (MaMepMlyy $S||bM$ Chan Centre for the Performing Arts gUBCSYMPHONON Y „(N ORCHESTRA o Jonathan Girard, conductor

V; The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts Thursday, October 4,2018 • 12:00 PMI Friday, October 5,2018 • 7:30pm

Tsang-Houei Hsu The Splendid Universe: Chinese Festival Overture (b. (1929-2001) (North American Premiere)

Deborah Carruthers Slippages (WorldPremiere) (b. 1960)

Interval

Gustav Mahler Das lied von der Erde (1860-1911) I Das Trinklied vom Jammer der Erde The Drinking Song of the Sorrow of the Earth II. Der Einsame im Herbst The Lonely One in Autumn III. VonderJugend Of Youth IV. Von der Schonheit Of Beauty V. DerTrunkene im Fruhling The Drunkard in Spring VI. DerAbschied The Farewell

Katherine Ciesinski, mezzo-soprano James Patrick Raftery, tenor We acknowledge that the UBC Point Grey Campus is situated on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Musqueam people.

Please turn off all camera, laptop, cell phone, and recording devices. Their use is strictly prohibited during the performance. UBC Orchestra Violin I Adrian Pang Ciaran De Groot Daniel Tsui, concertmaster Kimberly Kistler Janelle Julian Madelynn Erickson Zeta Gesme Ayumi Yaesawa Selina Lee Trumpet Jeremy Ho Matheus Moraes* Michaela Moon Sophia Cho Silas Friesen Alexander Wilde Alexander Knopp Spencer Service Kurt Chen Bruno Quezada Yiyi Hsu Mark Petrov Trombone Helen Koenig Yijia Fang Devon Atkinson* Eleanor Yu Andrea Norman Nellicia Klop Bass William Paradine Sean McCarthy* Bass Trombone Justine Lin Hannah Rubia Louis Lam* Robin Neuvoenen Nathalie Sam Tuba Violin II Piccolo Alan Li* Jeongah Choi* Emily Richardson CJ Kanjilal Thomas Law Harp Rachel Kwok Hayley Farenholtz* Noelle Kelbert Melody Chen Flute Catie Akune Vicky Zhang* Kelly Li Celeste Adrian Kwan Aydan Con Log Lin Emily Richardson Thomas Law Victoria Rose Mandolin Virginia Cinelli Oboe Micki-Lee Smith Bruce Lin Nimo Mendoza* Xianhe Yan William Lin Timpani Brandon Park Andrew Montgomery Adam Dopierala* Michelle Panikkar Viola Clarinet Carlos Savall* Percussion Nina Weber* Adam Dopierala Caroline Olsen Victor Mangas Jonathan Lopez Michelle Panikkar Alexander Beggs Kristofer Siy Christina Bailey Bass Clarinet Jaelem Bhate Denny Ho Valerie Kim Francesca Kohn Assistant Conductors Katie Martin Bassoon Jaelem Bhate Wren Liang Kyle Cleland* Zane Kistner Yichen Cao Ingrid Chiang * denotes principal player Emily Love Sarah Ellis

Violoncello Horn Susie Yoo* Kristin Ranshaw* Anders Grasdal Lyla Lee Kevin Li Bronte Wagar Jonathan Girard is one of the rising stars of his generation. A passionate musician committed to engaging audiences with thrilling performances, he enjoys a reputation as a musical force equally versed in symphonic repertoire, opera, and new music.

As the Director of Orchestras at the University of British Columbia School of Music, Girard dedicates himself to raising the standard of orchestral training in Western Canada. Highlights of recent seasons of the UBC Symphony Orchestra include Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, Hoist's Planets, Mozart's Requiem and Brahms' Symphony No. 2. Other landmark performances include two performances of Mahler's Symphony No. 2 with 300 musicians onstage, and a performance of Stravinsky's Le Sacre du printemps that marked the 100th anniversary of the work's premiere.

A champion of new music, Girard is in the midst of a two-year project for the Centrediscs label, recording concerti by British Columbia composers. He premiered Stephen Chatman's new opera, Choir Practice, released by Centrediscs in May 2016. Girard has conducted world premieres of works by Ricardo Zohn Muldoon, Elizabeth Kelly, JungSun Kang, and John Liberatore, and has conducted the North American premieres of NONcerto for Trumpet and Orchestra by Richard Ayres and Saturnalia and Endre es Johanna by Emmerich Kalman.

Girard has worked closely with Maestro Bramwell Tovey at the VSO Summer Institute as assistant conductor and conducted the 2017 Marrowstone Festival Orchestra. He has also held a variety of prestigious positions at the University of Northern Iowa School of Music, the New Eastman Outreach Orchestra and Waltham Philharmonic (MA), the Brockton Symphony Orchestra (MA), and Portland (ME) Opera Repertory Theatre. At the Eastman School of Music, he studied conducting with Neil Varon and was the assistant conductor of the Eastman Symphony Orchestra, the Eastman Philharmonia, and the Eastman Opera Theatre.

A native of Montreal, Quebec, Deborah Carruthers was the inaugural 2017- 2018 Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies Artist-in-Residence. She was invited to UBC while an artist in residence at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in 2017. Her inter-arts artistic practice has allowed her to pursue several topics of particular interest: genetics, the environment, absence, memorialization, and solastagia (the distress that may be experienced when your environment changes, but you are unable to leave). Her explorations are not unlike attempts to create involuntary memories. These memories may be influenced by our genetics and our environments, akin to Jacques Derrida's contention that the past can continue to haunt the present and are rich with regard to the senses. The use of a variety of media allows her to examine her topic of i nterest through engaging with touch, sight, sound, and occasionally taste. Carruthers typically distills a concept down into a title for a series, which then informs the direction of her investigations.

"More and more I find myself wanting to integrate the use of sound into my work and am excited by such explorations. During my initial research, I often make extensive use of photography, which allows me to share exactly what caught my eye at a given moment: textures, colour, and detail. Paintings let me process ideas over time, and are not meant to be mimetic, but rather my lasting impressions. Sculpture allows me to create a memorial, literally expanding the idea into space. Finally, sound allows me to create a sense of place and geography, defying boundaries."

This approach lends itself to the creation of series of works which individually present a facet of the idea under consideration, and collectively seek to provoke deliberation.

J. Patrick Raftery's debut was with the San Diego Opera, singing Schaunard in La Boheme, sharing the stage with Luciano Pavarotti. After his years at the Boston Conservatory and The Juilliard School of Music, Mr. Raftery was awarded the Richard Tucker Music Foundation Prize and made his debut in New York's Carnegie Hall in the Tuker Winner's concert that same year.

Rossini's Barber in the Washington Opera's The Barber of Seville drew Mr. Raftery international attention, and Figaro was his debut with The Paris Opera soon thereafter. Closely associated with the operas of Rossini, including two summers with the Rossini Festival in Pesaro, Mr. Raftery sang the role of Figaro over 200 times. Covent Garden's Count in Le Nozze di Figaro and Guglielmo in Cosi fan tutte for the Festival of Glyndebourne gave Mr. Raftery two prominent debuts in Great Britain in quick succession. Leading up to his debut at New York's with Mirella Freni in Manon Lescaut, Mr. Raftery was one of North America's most prominent baritones.

Mr. Raftery made his tenor debut with New York's Mostly Mozart festival at Avery Fisher Hall (now David Geffen Hall) leading to his debut at the world's most prestigious opera house, La Scala in Milan. Mr. Raftery has subsequently been re-invited as a tenor to the stages of London's Covent Garden, The Paris Opera, The Hamburg State Opera, The Canadian Opera Company, and numerous others.

Mr. Raftery has performed as recitalist/soloist with The Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, The Boston Symphony Orchestra, The , Das Gewandhausorchester (Leipzig), The Philadelphia Orchestra, L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande ("SWR"), Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden, and Washington D.C.'s National Symphony Orchestra at the festivals of Tanglewood, Wolftrap, N.Y.'s Mostly Mozart Festival, Salzburg Mozart Festival, and numerous others.

Teaching for over three decades. Professor Raftery has given Master Classes for the opera companies of The Pacific Opera Victoria, The San Diego Opera, Oper Graz, L'Opera de Montpellier, and the Universities of Western Ontario, Southern California, Lethbridge, Alberta, Toronto, and The Catholic University of America. After his years as adjunct Professor at the University of Western Ontario and University of Toronto, Professor Raftery joined the full time faculty at The University of British Columbia in 2014. Members of Professor Raftery's studio are now performing throughout the world in such theatres as the Bavarian State Opera, the Zurich Opera, The Canadian Opera Company, and the Young Artist Programs in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, and Munich. The New York Times has called Katherine Ciesinski "a singer of rare communicative presence, and a musician of discrimination and intelligence." This accomplished American mezzo-soprano pursues a fully integrated career, exploring the world of today's composers as well as the established classics of the lyric stage.

Major operatic credits include three Metropolitan Opera productions: Judith (Bluebeard's Castle) and Nicklausse (Les Contes d'Hoffmann) and most recently Comtesse de Coigny (Andrea Chenier); Cassandre (Les Troyens) at Covent Garden and Adalgisa (Norma) with Scottish Opera; Laura (La Gioconda), Waltraute (Ring cycle), and Dulcinee (Don Quichotte) with San Francisco Opera; Octavian (Der Rosenkavalier) and Hansel (Hansel und Gretel) with Dallas Opera; Kabanicha (Katya Kabanova), Mere Marie (Carmelites), Adelaide (Arabella), Marcellina (Le Nozze di Figaro), and Cornelia (Giulio Cesare) with ; Xerxes (title role), Diana (La Calisto), Herodias (Salome), Ottavia (L'lncoronazione di Poppea),and Countess Geschwitz in the American premiere of the completed three act version of with Santa Fe Opera. World premieres of 's Little Women (Houston), Dominick Argento's The Aspern Papers (Dallas), Maurice Ohana's LaCelestine (title role, Paris Opera), Girolamo Arrigo's II Ritorno di Casanova (Geneva), Param Vir's Snatched by the Gods (Amsterdam and Munich) have been critically acclaimed, as have her Giulietta in Brussels, Brangane in Toronto, Judith in Frankfurt and Stuttgart, Eboli in Madrid and La Favorite in Paris.

In the recent seasons she has performed the world premiere of The End of the Affair by Jake Heggie with Houston Grand Opera, which was broadcast nationally on NPR's World of Opera. She has also appeared as Herodias in Salome (Fort Worth), Aunt Cecilia March in Mark Adamo's delightful Little Women (Mexico City), as Effie Belle Tate in Carlisle Floyd's masterpiece Cold Sassy Tree (Opera Omaha), and as the Principessa in Puccini's Suor Angelica (Opera Theater of Saint Louis and Hawaii Opera Theater). She sang song cycles of Prokofiev and Shostakovich in a multi-media concert entitled The St. Petersburg Legacy with Da Camera of Houston at the Bard Music Festival in New York and again in New Haven. She made her opera directing debut in 2007 with Handel's Flavio for the Moores Opera Center/ Ars Lyrica Houston and returned to direct Britten's The Turn of the Screw the following season. Ms. Ciesinski has also performed with many of the world's leading orchestras, including the Cleveland, Minnesota, and Philadelphia Orchestras, the of Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Houston and Toronto; and in Europe, with the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics, L', the London Symphony Orchestra, the Dresden Staatskapelle, and L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. She has been heard in recital across the United States and in Paris, Cologne, Zurich, Milan and at the Aix-en-Provence, Geneva, Spoleto and Salzburg Festivals. Her contemporary chamber music activities have included performances at the Caramoor Festival, New York; Musica Festival, Strasbourg; Ars Musica Festival, Brussels; Festival d'Automne, Paris; Voix Nouvelles, Fondation Royaumont; Schlern International Festival in Italy, and with the Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris.

Katherine Ciesinski's opera recordings include the title roles in Ariane et Barbe-Bleue, conducted by (Erato), , with (London/Decca), Sapho, conducted by Sylvain Cambreling (Radio France), the role of Siegrune in Cleveland Orchestra's Die Walkure, conducted by Christoph von Dohnanyi (London/Decca), and the role of Sonia in , conducted by Msitislav Rostropovich (Erato). She received a Grammy nomination for her Paulina in The Queen of Spades with and the Boston Symphony (BMG). Recent releases include Aunt Cecilia March in Mark Adamo's Little Women (Ondine), Sofia Ivanova in Tod Machover's Resurrection (Albany) and Alt Solistin in 's Die Burgschaft (EMI). Les Noces with Robert Craft and Pribaoutki with the Orchestra of St. Luke's (Music Masters), Carter's Syringa (Bridge), along with world premiere recordings of Brian Ferneyhough's On Stellar Magnitudes and Antoine Bonnet's Nachtstrahl in Paris, number among her choral and chamber music releases. Lieder recordings include Rorem's Women's Voices (CRI), Ravel's Chansons Madecasses (Columbia), and songs of Dvorak, and Clara Schumann (Leonarda).

One of the few master performers to also become a master teacher, Ms. Ciesinski is a frequent clinician at the annual International Symposium on Care of the Professional Voice in Philadelphia. She created the Vocal Workshop for the annual International Composition Seminar at the Royaumont Foundation in France, and the vocal chamber institute Close Encounters for the Texas Music Festival. She has lectured in and served on the steering committee for the University of Texas School of Public Health's Healthcare and the Arts Series and lectured for the Eastman/Cornell Music Cognition Symposium in Rochester. She continues to act as a judge for the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions and is currently on the international faculty of the Artescenica Encuentro Operistico in Mexico. Her recent students have achieved performing successes in Europe and South America, one as a Fulbright scholar in Cairo, as well as in the apprentice programs of the Santa Fe, St Louis, Chicago Lyric, Seattle, Los Angeles, Central City, San Francisco, Orlando, Fort Worth, and Des Moines Metro Operas and serve on the faculties of Michigan State, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, San Jose State, Sam Houston State, and Houston Baptist University. Other students are also active in a wide range of repertoire from early music to world premieres, with the Boston Early Music, Aspen, Tanglewood and Weimar Lyric Opera Festivals as recent examples. Formerly Professor of Music and Chair of Voice Studies at the Moores School of Music, University of Houston, she joined the faculty of the Eastman School of Music in August of 2008. 1 PROGRAMME NOTES The Splendid Universe: Chinese Festival Overture Tsang-Houei Hsu

Professor Hsu Tsang-Houei, born in Changhua, Taiwan in 1929, is a leading figure among Taiwanese composers. Hsu graduated from the Department of Music at National Taiwan Normal University and then went to Paris in 1954 to study composition with Andre Jolivet. His music was influenced by Claude Debussy, Bela Bartok and Chinese composer Kwang-Chi Wang. In 1959, Hsu returned to Taiwan and introduced the liberal thinking and twentieth-century composition techniques to Taiwan. He taught at several music departments and introduced avant-garde ideas to the country. He also co-founded several associations to promote contemporary music: the Chinese Composers' Forum (1961), the Waves Group (1963), the Five (1965), the Chinese Society for Contemporary Music (1969) and the Asian Composers' League (1971). In 2001, Hsu passed away at the age of seventy-two in Taipei. He promoted and discovered different types of Taiwanese folk art and established the "Folk Music Collection Movement", "Folk Music Investigation Team", and the "Chinese Folk Music Society". He took Chinese music and transcribed it using Western methods. In 1973 he established the "Union of Asian Composers" so that Taiwanese music could become available to the world. The Splendid Universe' represents one of these endeavours. Programme note compiled and edited by Jaelem Bhate slippages Deborah Carruthers

The Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies and the UBC School of Music are proud to present the world premiere of slippages, an interdisciplinary work about climate change, slippages is the result of a collaboration between Wall Scholar and Orchestra director Jonathan Girard and visual artist and past PWIAS artist-in-residence Deborah Carruthers, features the UBCSO's performance of her landmark graphic score. It is written in the language of glaciers, informed by their physics, chemistry, ecologies, and philosophy. It is a structured improvisational sonic piece combined with a complementary video by Edmonton-based artist Sydney Lancaster, and is informed by Carruther's visuals—27 paintings on handmade paper.

"Seeing sound had become a preoccupation in the past years. This work will be used to bridge disciplines and introduce both musicians and a public audience to the potential of visually and aurally integrated works of art." explained Carruthers, who has been researching the graphic notation of sound even though she has no formal musical training. Maestro Jonathan Girard is equally excited to conduct the premiere of the work. "Deborah's gorgeous score presents a thrilling challenge. How do we, as musicians, interpret visual art? We want the music to speak to the chilly beauty of the work but also the ideas behind it; of flux, of change, of loss. Just as the natural world has a life of its own, a kind of agency apart from human influence, we want the music, through improvisation, to have a life of its own that goes above and beyond the performers."

The work is meant to evoke solastalgia—the distress experienced when the environment changes, but you are unable to leave. Ms. Carruthers extends her thanks to the following collaborators:

Dr. Garry Clarke, Professor Emeritus, Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, UBC Dr. Julie Cruikshank, Professor Emerita, Department of Anthropology, UBC Dr. Christian Schoof, Professor, Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, UBC Dr. Michele Koppes, Associate Processor, Canada Research Chair in Landscapes of Climate, UBC Sandeep Bhagwati, Associate Professor, Departments of Music and Theatre, Canada Research Chair in Inter-X Art Practice and Theory, Matralab (Music/Movement/Media Art Theatre/Theory Research Agency Laboratory), Concordia University (Montreal) And especially Dr. Jonathan Girard Director, Orchestral Activities Assistant Professor, Conducting and Ensembles, UBC, Peter Wall Scholar 2018-2019 UBCSO assistant conductors, Jaelem Bhate and Zane Kistner UBC Department of Music Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies Deborah Carruthers' Assistant, John William Sydney Lancaster, visual artist - video The musicians of the UBC Symphony Orchestra Francis Ewen and my family.

Programme note courtesy of Jonathan Girard and Deborah Carruthers

Das Lied von der Erde

Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth) is a monumental work for two solo voices and orchestra written by Gustav Mahler between 1907 and 1908, during what is considered the darkest period of his life. He was cast out as the music director of the Vienna State Opera due to antisemitism, and soon after, his daughter Maria passed away from scarlet fever. It was in despair, and in his efforts to escape it, that he found the poetry that would spur his creative genius to pen what many consider his true ninth symphony. The inspiration for Das Lied von der Erde came from a compilation of ancient Chinese poetry, translated into German by Hans Begthe in his work die chinesische Flote. According to musicologist Arthur Wenk:

The poems which Mahler selected from Hans Begthe's die chinesische Flote reflect a dualistic philosophy based on the interplay ofopposites. Mahler's song cycle, both in its textual revisions and in its musical setting, focuses on two central themes: resignation in face of the transitory character of existence, on the one hand, and celebration of the endless renewal of life, on the other.

-The Composer as Poet in Das Lied von der Erde

Wishing to avoid the so-called "curse of the ninth" that many former symphonists had suffered, Mahler made a point of never assigning an opus number to this work. (Mahler did in fact meet the same fate as his predecessors, as he passed away shortly after completing the work he titled his Ninth Symphony. Unlike many of his other works, which underwent revisions in orchestration after the first performances, Das Lied was premiered posthumously with the score as he first imagined it. At one of his New York Philharmonic Young People's Concerts, Leonard Bernstein called Das Lied von der Erde Mahler's "greatest symphony."

Das Lied von der Erde features two vocal soloists, who alternate during its six movements. Each movement treats the text in a unique manner, with the outer movements serving as extended bookends to the work. The pentatonic scale is of prime interest to Mahler in this piece, as he utilizes its tonal and mirrored properties to represent the folk music of his Jewish roots and the Chinese poetry which inspired him.

Programme note by lane Kistner

J r Upcoming Performances

Villa-Lobos, Rimsky-Korsakov NOV 2 Manfredo Schmiedt guest conductor Villa-Lobos Bachianas Brasileiras, No. 2 Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade, Op. 35 Friday, November 2 | 7:30pm Chan Centre for the Performing Arts Tickets: $8

Poulenc, Vaughan Williams DEC1 University Singers, UBC Choral Union UBC Symphony Orchestra Jonathan Girard conductor Soloists TBA Poulenc Gloria Saturday, December 11 7:30pm Vaughan Williams Dona Nobis Pacem Chan Centre for the Performing Arts Tickets: $25 Adults | $15 Students

Beethoven, Tchaikovsky FEB 7 Jaelem Bhate and Zane Kistner graduate student conductors Beethoven Overture to Egmont, Op. 84 Tchaikovsky Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture Beethoven Symphony No. 1 in C Major, Op. 21 Thursday, February 7 | 7:30pm Chan Centre for the Performing Arts Tickets: $8

Francaix, Debussy M A R15 Carlos Savail Guardiola clarinet (2nd place winner of the 2018 UBC Concerto Competition) Francaix Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra Debussy La Mer Sunday, March 15 | 7:30pm Chan Centre for the Performing Arts Tickets: $8

Berlioz APR 6 Winner of the UBC Concerto Competition 2019 Saturday, April 6 | 7:30pm Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique, Op. 14 Chan Centre for the Performing Arts Tickets: $8

UBC f facebook.com/UBCSO UBCMUSIC w *T aUBCSO Tickets available from tickets.ubc.ca, by telephone (604) 822-2697, or in person at the Chan Centre ticket office. Presented by the UBC School of Music www.music.ubc.ca 6361 Memorial Rd. Vancouver, BC L