Saturday, February 18, 2017 at 8:00 pm University of Connecticut School of Fine Arts Anne D'Alleva, Dean Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts Rodney Rock, Director

presents Orchestre National de Leonard Slatkin, Music Director Jennifer Gilbert, Violin

PROGRAM

Shéhérazade, Ouverture de féerie Maurice Ravel

Kinah Leonard Slatkin

Tzigane Maurice Ravel Jennifer Gilbert, Violin

Intermission

Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14 Hector Berlioz Daydreams – Passions A Ball Scene in the Country March to the Scaffold Dream of a Witches' Sabbath

– Please hold applause between movements –

Columbia Artists Management LLC Media Sponsor Tour Direction: R. Douglas Sheldon 1790 Broadway New York, NY 10019 www.cami.com ORCHESTRE NATIONAL DE LYON

The Orchestre National de Lyon was founded in 1905 by Georges Martin Witkowski, as the Société des Grands Concerts de Lyon. The orchestra is proud of an illustrious past to which great musicians such as André Cluytens, Charles Munch, Paul Paray and have contributed.

In 1969, following an initiative by the Lyon authorities and on the occasion of the establishment of regional orchestras by Marcel Landowski, it became a permanent orchestra with 102 musicians under the name “Orchestre philharmonique Rhône-Alpes,” with Louis Frémaux as its first Music Director. The orchestra was, from that date on, managed and supported by the City of Lyon. In 1983, the orchestra became the Orchestre National de Lyon, the same year that Lyon Opera founded their own orchestra.

In 1975, the orchestra’s own concert hall – Auditorium Maurice-Ravel – was opened in Lyon, funded by the City of Lyon. It is one of the largest concert halls in France, with more than 2,000 seats, and it boasts remarkable acoustics.

The French conductor Serge Baudo became the ONL’s Music Director in 1971 and until 1986 he made the orchestra a musical force to be reckoned with, both at home and abroad. Under the Music Directorship of Emmanuel Krivine (1987-2000), the orchestra continued to increase in artistic stature and received considerable international critical acclaim. David Robertson became Music Director in 2000 as well as Artistic Director of the Auditorium, and his arrival brought a very creative approach to programming and musical styles. He was succeeded by Jun Märkl (2005-2011) and he, in turn, was succeeded by Leonard Slatkin who arrived in September 2011 and continues as Music Director to this day.

The ONL has been intensely busy outside of Lyon. It tours regularly to Asia (Japan and China), to the USA and in Europe and has been invited to take part in the BBC Proms season in London, in the “Chorégies” in Orange and at the Philharmonie in Paris. Future touring plans include the USA and Europe.

The ONL is proud to promote the music of living . It has welcomed great artists such as Luciano Berio and Krzysztof Penderecki, and it has given world or European premieres of works by , Steve Reich, Michael Jarrell, Thierry Escaich and Kaija Saariaho. In the current season, John Adams and Guillaume Connesson are the ONL’s associate composers.

The wealth of the ONL’s repertoire is reflected in a vast series of recordings which have regularly won important awards including Ravel’s Bolero in 1984 to Debussy’s complete orchestral works under the baton of Jun Märkl (Naxos) and a CD of works by Thierry Escaich released in 2011 (Universal). Leonard Slatkin leads two ambitious recording projects, the complete symphonic works of both Ravel and Berlioz (Naxos).

The ONL is a pioneer in community engagement and is the only French orchestra to have developed two annual orchestra projects for young musicians. It has developed ambitious projects for schools, lecture series, participatory concerts for families and other ground-breaking activities outside of the concert hall. It is also proud to offer heavily discounted tickets to young audience members.

LEONARD SLATKIN, Music Director

Internationally acclaimed conductor Leonard Slatkin is Music Director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) and the Orchestre National de Lyon (ONL). He also maintains a rigorous schedule of guest conducting and is active as a , author, and educator.

Highlights of the 2015-16 season included a three-week Brahms festival in Detroit; engagements with the St. Louis Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and NHK Symphony in Tokyo; and debuts with Beijing's China Philharmonic Orchestra and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. Summer events included a tour of Japan with the ONL and performances of Barber’s Vanessa in Santa Fe.

During the 2016-17 season—in addition to his regular duties in Detroit and Lyon—he will return to St. Louis; tour the U.S. and Europe with the ONL; conduct overseas with the WDR Symphony Orchestra in Cologne, Verdi Orchestra in Milan, and San Carlo Theatre Orchestra in Naples; and serve as chairman of the jury and conductor of the 2017 Cliburn Competition. Slatkin’s more than 100 recordings have garnered seven Grammy awards and 64 nominations. His recent Naxos recordings include works by Saint-Saëns, Ravel, and Berlioz (with the ONL) and music by Copland, Rachmaninov, Borzova, McTee, and John Williams (with the DSO). In addition, he has recorded the complete Brahms, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky symphonies with the DSO (available online as digital downloads).

A recipient of the prestigious National Medal of Arts, Slatkin also holds the rank of Chevalier in the French Legion of Honor. He has received Austria’s Decoration of Honor in Silver, the League of American Orchestras’ Gold Baton Award, and the 2013 ASCAP Deems Taylor Special Recognition Award for his book, Conducting Business.

Slatkin has conducted virtually all of the leading orchestras in the world. As Music Director, he has held posts with the New Orleans, St. Louis, and National symphony orchestras, and he was Chief Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He has served as Principal Guest Conductor of London’s Philharmonia and Royal Philharmonic, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, and the Minnesota Orchestra.

For more information, visit leonardslatkin.com.

JENNIFER GILBERT, Violin

Jennifer Gilbert is the violin soloist and concertmaster of the Orchestre National de Lyon and also conducts an international career as soloist and chamber musician. In recent seasons, Jennifer Gilbert appeared as soloist with Orchestra National de Lyon, Sinfonica de Galicia, Corona Symphony Youth Symphony, the Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra and Kyoto Symphony Orchestra. Jennifer Gilbert participated in chamber music festivals around the world, including festivals of Marlboro, Santa Fe and Las Vegas in the US, Stavelot in Belgium, Auvers-sur-Oise, Chambery and Lyon (Musicades) in France. She has collaborated with pianists Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Leon Fleisher, Emanuel Ax, Peter Serkin and Hélène Grimaud, and violinists Midori, Julia Fischer, Renaud Capuçon and Cho-Liang Lin.

Contemporary music plays an important role in the career of Jennifer Gilbert, who has recorded John Harbison’s Due Libri on Archetype Records and Earl Kim’s Three Poems in French at New World Records. Jennifer Gilbert was invited as concertmaster of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Capitole Orchestra, the Galicia Symphony Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra Metamorphosen. In addition, she is regularly concertmaster and member of the Saito Kinen Orchestra, conducted by Seiji Ozawa. Jennifer Gilbert is Director of MMCJ, an international music summer school founded in Yokohama, Japan. This season, she will play at MMCJ, Festival Sangat de Bombay (India) and the Chamber Music Festival of Santa Fe (New Mexico), as well as performing as soloist with the Philharmonic City of Tokyo, Japan.

Jennifer Gilbert studied Music at Harvard University, as well as English and American literature. She plays a 1781 Guadagnini violin.

The Orchestre National de Lyon, a City of Lyon institution, is funded by the French Ministry of Culture and the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region.