Contents CONCERT EXPERIENCE Robert Moody, Music Director ........................................................................................... 4 Kalena Bovell, Assistant Conductor ................................................................................. 6 Memphis Youth Symphony Program................................................................................ 8 Memphis Symphony Orchestra .......................................................................................10 Letter from Peter Abell, CEO ...........................................................................................15 Memphis Symphony Chorus ...........................................................................................16 “Tommy Dorsey” Concerto and Scheherazade ..........................................................19 Mozart and Beethoven .....................................................................................................27 The Three Bs!......................................................................................................................37 Handel’s Messiah ...............................................................................................................42 Magic of Memphis! ............................................................................................................51 Finlandia, Mahler 4, and a Rising Star! .........................................................................53 PATRON EXPERIENCE Tunes and Tales ..................................................................................................................62 MSO Governance ...............................................................................................................64 MSO Staff ............................................................................................................................65 Memphis Symphony League ............................................................................................66 Ellen’s Circle of Friends .....................................................................................................68 Supporting Partners ..........................................................................................................70 Symphony Fund ..................................................................................................................73 Contributors ........................................................................................................................75 Tributes .................................................................................................................................79 Patron Information .............................................................................................................82 The Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Inc. is a qualified 501(c)(3) tax deductible organization funded by gifts from you, ticket sales, and contracted services. We are recipients of grants from ArtsMemphis and the Tennessee Arts Commission. Your attendance constitutes consent for the use of your likeness and/or voice on all video and/or audio recordings and in photographs made during Symphony events. For tickets (901) 537-2525 | MemphisSymphony.org ©2019|2020 Memphis Symphony Orchestra, 610 Goodman St, Memphis, TN 3 Memphis Symphony Orchestra Robert Moody, Music Director Robert Moody MUSIC DIRECTOR 2019/2020 marks Maestro Robert Moody’s third season as Music Director of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. Expanded and adventurous programming, the MSO’s first commercial recording in over three decades, and a new $25-million- dollar endowment have highlighted the past two seasons. Moody is also Music Director of the lauded Arizona Musicfest, boasting one of the finest festival orchestras in North America. Players hail from the top orchestras in the world, including the Vienna and New York Philharmonics, Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Memphis, Seattle, and San Francisco Symphonies, and the San Francisco and Metropolitan Opera Orchestras. In 2018 Moody completed eleven-years as Music Director of the Portland Symphony Orchestra (Maine), and thirteen-years as Music Director of the Winston-Salem Symphony (NC). Prior to that he served as Resident Conductor for the Phoenix Symphony, Chorus Master for Santa Fe Opera, and Associate Conductor for the Evansville (IN) Philharmonic Orchestra. Moody recently guest conducted the three major orchestras of South Africa in Durban, Johannesburg, and Cape Town; he was immediately invited to return for more concerts with all three in the Summer of 2020. Other guest conducting this season includes the orchestras of Bogota, Colombia; Aachen, Germany; Sacramento, California; and a return to the Sewanee Music Festival in the mountains of Tennessee. Prior Guest Conducting has included Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, and the orchestras of Toronto, Houston, Indianapolis, Detroit, Seattle, Ft. Worth, San Antonio, Buffalo, Columbus, Louisville, Minnesota, and Slovenian Philharmonic. Festival conducting includes Santa Fe Opera, Spoleto Festival USA, Brevard Music Center, Sewanee Festival, Eastern Music Festival, Skaneateles Festival, Bowdoin International Festival, and the Oregon Bach Festival. 4 Equally at home in the opera pit, Moody began his career as apprentice conductor for the Landestheater Opera in Linz, Austria. He conducted for the opera companies of Santa Fe, Brevard Music Center, and Hilton Head Opera. He also assisted on a production of Verdi Otello at the Metropolitan Opera (NY), conducted by Valery Gergiev, and at The English National Opera, where he was Assistant Conductor for Kurt Weill Street Scene. He made his Washington National Opera and North Carolina Opera debuts in 2014, and conducted Bartok Bluebeard’s Castle, Leoncavallo I Pagliacci, and Poulenc Dialogues of the Carmelites in the seasons following. Debuts to rave reviews with Brevard Music Center for Weill Street Scene, Opera Carolina for Mozart Le Nozze di Figaro, and Des Moines Metro Opera for Strauss Die Fledermaus came in 2017 and 2018. Moody is a champion of the works of his close friend Mason Bates, now Composer-in-Residence with the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and prior in the same role with the Chicago Symphony. Moody commissioned/ conducted Bates’ first full orchestra composition, and has been instrumental in the commission and premiere performances of several of Bates’ important major works for orchestra, including Ode, Rusty Air in Carolina, and Desert Transport. Moody’s work can be heard on several commercially released recordings. He collaborated with the Canadian Brass for their Bach and Legends albums. He is also the conductor for Native American artist R. Carlos Nakai’s Fourth World album. In 2015 he was honored to conduct the “Cancer Blows” gala concert with Ryan Anthony, members of the Dallas Symphony, and a host of trumpet luminaries, to aid the fight against Multiple Myloma. CD and DVD recordings of that live concert are also commercially available. Fall of 2019 will see the release of Memphis Symphony Orchestra’s first commercial recording in several decades. The works are Jim Stephenson’s Concerto for Hope featuring Ryan Anthony, and Song of Hope by Peter Meechan—featuring Ryan Anthony and Scott Moore. A South Carolina native, Moody holds degrees from Furman University and the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Donald Neuen. He is a Rotarian, and serves/has served on the boards of AIDs Care Services, Winston-Salem YMCA, WDAV Radio, and the Charlotte Master Chorale. Maestro Moody is an avid runner, swimmer, and snow-skier. 5 Memphis Symphony Orchestra Kalena Bovell, Assistant Conductor Kalena Bovell ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR Kalena Bovell is the newly appointed Assistant Conductor of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra; a position she won after national search and auditions held in May 2019. She will be featured on numerous Pops, Education, Runout, and other concert cycles for MSO, as well as covering Maestro Moody and guest conductors on Masterworks and Classic Accents during the upcoming season. Hailed as “one of the brightest stars in the world of classical music,” (Channel 3 News) Ms. Bovell was Music Director of the Civic Orchestra of New Haven for the 2018-2019 season. Under her direction, the Civic Orchestra expanded their visibility within the New Haven community, continuing their tradition of providing high quality and accessible music performances through innovative programming and community engagement. This past season Ms. Bovell also guest conducted the New Britain Symphony in their March “Dance for Joy” concert and returned for Hartford Opera Theater’s New in November to conduct two short operas by Dawn Sonntag. Ms. Bovell worked with MSO once prior to this appointment: in 2016 former Music Director Mei Ann Chen brought Bovell to Memphis, to serve as her assistant conductor for Chen’s farewell performances. Bovell has also served in an assistant conductor role with both the St. Louis and Hartford Symphonies, and has covered well established conductors Gemma New and Carolyn Kuan. Ms. Bovell held conducting fellowships with the Allentown Symphony and the Chicago Sinfonietta. Due to her success with Sinfonietta, Ms. Bovell became assistant conductor for the 2016-2017 season, making her professional debut as part of the MLK Tribute concerts in Chicago’s Symphony Center. That same year, Ms. Bovell was a finalist for Marin Alsop’s Taki Concordia Fellowship.