table of CONTENTS Message to our Friends 3 Our dean: Jon Robertson 4 Our music director and conductor: Albert-George Schram 5 Philharmonia Orchestra #1 Saturday, Oct. 11 and Sunday, Oct. 12 7 Philharmonia Orchestra #2 Saturday, Nov. 8 and Sunday, ov. 9 15 Philharmonia Orchestra #3 Saturday, Dec. 6 and Sunday, Dec. 7 23 Philharmonia Orchestra #4 Saturday, Jan. 31 and Sunday, Feb. 1 Concerto winners concert. 29 Philharmonia Orchestra #5 Saturday, Feb. 21 and Sunday, Feb. 22 31 Philharmonia Orchestra #6 Saturday, March 28 and Sunday, March 29 37 About our orchestra 43 Supporting the conservatory 44 Donors 46 Friends of the Conservatory of Music 48 Orchestra list 51 MESSAGE to our friends Welcome to the 2008-2009 season. The talented students and extraordinary faculty of the Lynn University Conservatory of Music take this opportunity to share with you the beautiful world of music. Through your presence and generosity you, the patrons, continue to pave the road to the artistic success of our young musicians. This community engagement is in keeping with the Conservatory of Music's mission: to provide high-quality professional performance education for gifted young musicians, and to set a superior standard for music performance worldwide. This season's program explores a broad variety of musical offerings designed to enrich your artistic spirit and nourish your soul. As the conservatory expands and excels, your ongoing support, sponsorship and direct contri­ butions ensure our place among the premier conservatories of the world. Please join us for a magnificent season of great music. Jon Robertson Dean MESSAGE 3 DEAN Jon Robertson Maestro Jon Robertson enjoys a distin­ Thayer Conservatory of Music at guished career as a pianist, conductor Atlantic Union College in Massachusetts. and academician. He was awarded full He became conductor and music direc­ scholarship six consecutive years to The tor of the Kristiansand Symphony Juilliard School of Music, earning a Orchestra in Norway in 1979, a post he Bachelor of Music, Master of Music and held until 1987. Maestro Robertson has Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano been the conductor and music director performance as a student of Beveridge of the Redlands Symphony Orchestra in Webster. California since 1982. He has also studied choral conducting As guest conductor, Maestro Robertson with Abraham Kaplan at Juilliard and has conducted orchestras such as the orchestral conducting with Maestro San Francisco Symphony at Stern Herbert Blomstedt, music director, Grove and in Davies Hall and the Gewandhaus Orchestra, Leipzig, Beijing Central Philharmonic in China. Germany. He is a regular guest conductor of the Cairo Symphony Orchestra in Egypt After completing a master's degree at and was the principal guest conductor Juilliard, he was appointed chair of the of the Armenian Philharmonic music department at Oakwood College Orchestra in Yerevan from 1995-98. He in Huntsville, Ala. In 1970, Robertson has also conducted the Bratislava returned to Juilliard as a Ford Chamber Orchestra; at Pianofest Foundation Scholar to complete his Austria at Bad Aussee; and most recent­ Doctor of Musical Arts. ly in South Africa, at the University of In 1972, Robertson became chair of the Stellenbosch International Festival. 4 DEAN CONDUCTOR Albert-George Schram A native of the Netherlands, Albert­ concerts), the Taegu Symphony George Schram is resident conductor of Orchestra in Korea, and the Orchester the Columbus Symphony Orchestra in der Allgemeinen Musikgesellschaft Ohio and resident conductor of the Luzern in Switzerland. He has made Nashville Symphony in Tennessee. He return appearances to his native is also a frequent guest conductor at the Holland to conduct the Netherlands Charlotte Symphony Orchestra in Radio Orchestra and the Netherlands North Carolina and Tucson Symphony Broadcast Orchestra. Orchestra in Arizona. In the United States, his guest conduct­ He was the resident conductor of the ing appearances have included the sym­ former Florida Philharmonic, concur­ phony orchestras in Dallas, Tucson, rently serving as music director and con­ Oklahoma City, Spokane, Dayton, ductor of the Lubbock Symphony Shreveport and San Antonio, as well as Orchestra from 1994-2000. During his Ballet Metropolitan and the Akron tenure, the orchestra blossomed into University Opera. the premier arts organization in West Schram's studies have been largely in Texas. From 1990 to 1996, Schram the European tradition under the tute­ served as resident conductor of the lage of Franco Ferrara, Rafael Kubelik, Louisville Symphony Orchestra. Three Abraham Kaplan and Neeme Jarvi. He of the orchestra's subscription series has studied at the Conservatory of the enjoyed exceptional growth under his Hague in the Netherlands, the universi­ artistic guidance. ties of Calgary and Victoria, and the Schram's foreign conducting engage­ University of Washington, where he ments have included the KBS received the Doctor of Musical Arts in Symphony Orchestra (live, televised conducting. ............................... coNDUCTOR 5 PROGRAM Saturday, Oct. 11, 2008 I Sunday, Oct. 12, 2008* Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) La Forza del Destino Gustav Mahler ( 1860-1911) Adagietto from Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp minor Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov ( 1844-1908) Capriccio Espagnol, Op. 34 Alborada Variazioni Alborada Scena e canto gitano Fandango asturiano INTERMISSION Sergei Rachmaninov ( 1873-1943) Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30 Allegro ma non tanto Intermezzo Finale Sergei Babayan, piano ' Sunday concerts include a pre-concert lecture at 3 p.m. by Dr. Barbara Barry, head of musicology. 8 PROGRAM Sergei BABAYAN Acclaimed for the immediacy, sensitivity Philharmonic, the BBC Scottish and depth of his interpretations, Sergei Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Babayan's performances reveal an emo­ Nationale de Lille, the New World tional intensity and bold energy, equip­ Symphony and the Detroit and Baltimore ping him to explore a stylistically diverse symphonies. He collaborated with such repertoire. conductors as Michael Christi, Valery Gergiev, Hans Graf, Neeme Jarvi, He is known for his innovative program­ Kazimierz Kord, Theodor Kuchar, David ming, often including modern works by Robertson and Yuri Ternirkanov. composers such as Lutoslawsky, Ligeti and Arvo Part, and extending the bound­ He made several highly praised record­ aries of mainstream repertoire for which ings for EMC, Connoisseur Society and he continues to be acclaimed, excelling in Pro Piano labels. His recordings of Scarlatti, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and Ligeti, Messiaen, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Schumann as much as the Russian her­ Ravel, Schubert, Liszt, Vine, Respighi itage of Rachmaninov, Scriabin and and Prokofiev garnered high acclaim, Prokofiev. including a "critic's choice" in the New York Times praising Babayan's "extraor­ A student of such legendary teachers and dinary technique and ability to play musicians as Gornostayeva, Naumov, densely harmonized works with illumi­ Pletnev and Vlasenko in the Moscow nating transparency and a daunting Conservatory, he was not permitted to measure of control." leave the country to compete and study in the West. He was the first pianist from Always in search of the new, Sergei the former USSR who was able to com­ Babayan studied conducting in order to pete without government sponsorship deepen his understanding of the orches­ after the collapse of the system. tra. In this role, he already has performed music of Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Schnittke, Babayan has appeared with many major Part, Vasks, Schedrin and Prokofiev. orchestras throughout the world includ­ ing the Cleveland Orchestra, the Warsaw BABAYAN 9 PROGRAM NOTES By Dr. Barbara Barry, Head of Musicology The 2008-09 concert series opens with three works which show contrasted faces of emotion and mood in the orchestral repertory- drama, rhythmic play and introspec­ tion-and a piano concerto in the Romantic style. La Forza del Destino Guiseppe Verdi (1813-1901) Verdi's opera La Forza del Destina (The action, leads into an impassioned, for­ Force of Destiny) was composed on a ward-driving melody, then once again libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based halted by the opening three-fold call. This on Schiller. It was first performed in 1862 time, however, the mood becomes plan­ in St. Petersburg, and later revised by gent. Prefiguring the opera, the overture Verdi who changed the order of various switches from one musical character to numbers in the work and amplified the another and from one tempo to another. final denouement. The revised work was Rather than following a sequence of performed in 1869 at La Scala, Milan, and causal development of the ensuing action, one of the changes Verdi made in the the overture is more like cinematographic 1869 version was to add the overture technique where the camera pans from instead of the short prelude with which one character to another. The overture is the opera had previously started. a colorful depiction of locale, as in the mountainous location, and depicts the The impressive three-fold unison and conflicts of jealousy and the anguish of octave call at the beginning of the over­ the separated lovers. ture, also occurring at the start of the Adagietto from Symphony No. 5 in C sharp minor Gustav Mahler ( 1860-1911) The beginning of the 20th century was engaged in writing symphonies which, marked in Gustav Mahler's output by taken together, comprised the one of his most important works, the Sth "Wunderhorn" years. Des Knaben symphony- so important was it, that he Wunderhorn (The Boy's Magic Horn) continually revised it up to his death. was an anthology of folk-like poems by Arnim and Brentano which Mahler set in From the late 1880s, Mahler had been both song cycles and as symphonic 10 movements in his 2nd, 3rd and 4th leaner in style and imbued with the pres­ symphonies. ence of death: its desperate grief, impas­ sioned yearning for the absent one and But Mahler's compositional style in the the solace of tears. "Wunderhorn" years was dislocated by a crisis: on Feb.