Francesco Lecce-Chong, Music Director & Conductor 2020 2021 SEASON Eugene Symphony ORCHESTRA ROSTER & PRODUCTION TEAM MUSIC DIRECTOR & CONDUCTOR AUDIO ENGINEERING Francesco Lecce-Chong Bill Barnett, Gung Ho Studios VIOLIN I HULT CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS Jenny Estrin Theresa Sizemore, General Manager Lisa McWhorter Jeff Weinkauf, Technical Director Yvonne Hsueh Nathan Cox, Assistant Technical Director Sophie Therrell Kim Weiland, Event Manager Alwyn Wright Ruth Atcherson, Head Carpenter Anthony Dyer Dan Charter, Electrician Della Davies Bruce Hartnell, Sound Technician Caroline Barnes, Camera Operator VIOLIN II Virginia Sands, Camera Operator Julia Frantz Kris Maenz, Camera Operator Alice Blankenship Jon Conlon, Shader and Robotic Camera Operator Claudia Miller Allen Adams, Video Lead and Switcher Mitchell Drury David Burham VIDEO PRODUCTION Nathan Lowman Attic Media, Inc. Ryan Postma VIOLA Jessica Mitchell Shauna Keyes McKenzie Baldwin Lauren Elledge Anamaria Ghitea EDITED BY Angelika Furtwangler Jessica Mitchell CELLO GRAPHIC DESIGN Eric Alterman Cricket Design Works Kathryn Brunhaver JLN Design Noah Seitz Dale Bradley PERFORMANCE VIDEO DIRECTED BY Nathan Cox BASS Tyler Abbott PRODUCED BY Rick Carter Scott Freck Richard Meyn MUSIC LIBRARIAN Kristen Halay CONDUCTING FELLOW Daniel Cho 2 EUGENE SYMPHONY MUSIC DIRECTOR & CONDUCTOR Francesco Lecce-Chong Conductor Francesco Lecce-Chong is the Music Director of During his successful tenures as Associate Conductor the Eugene Symphony in Oregon, and the Santa Rosa Symphony, with the Milwaukee Symphony under Edo de Waart and the performing at the Green Music Center in Northern California. e Pittsburgh Symphony under Manfred Honeck, Lecce-Chong press has described him as a “fast rising talent in the music world” also dedicated his time to opera, building his credentials with “the real gi” and recognized his dynamic performances, fresh as sta conductor with the Santa Fe Opera and conducted programming, deep commitment to commissioning and performing Madama Buttery at the Florentine Opera with the new music as well as to community outreach. Lecce-Chong has Milwaukee Symphony. appeared with orchestras around the world including the San Lecce-Chong is the recipient of several distinctions, Francisco Symphony, New York Philharmonic, National Symphony, including the prestigious Solti Foundation Award. Trained Atlanta Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Toronto Symphony, St. Louis also as a pianist and composer, he completed his studies Symphony, and Hong Kong Philharmonic and collaborated with top at the Curtis Institute of Music with Otto-Werner Mueller soloists including Renée Fleming and Itzhak Perlman. aer attending the Mannes College of Music and Accademia In spring 2019, Lecce-Chong debuted in subscription concerts Musicale Chigiana in Italy. He has had the privilege of being with the San Francisco Symphony. e San Francisco Chronicle mentored and supported by celebrated conductors including called his conducting “rst rate” praising the “vitality and brilliance Bernard Haitink, David Zinman, Edo de Waart, Manfred of the music-making he drew from members of the San Francisco Honeck, Donald Runnicles and Michael Tilson omas. Symphony.” Other recent subscription debuts included the Colorado Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, Louisiana Philharmonic and Xi’An Symphony Orchestra. Lecce-Chong has also returned to conduct the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Milwaukee and San Diego Symphony. e 19/20 season marked his debut with the New York Philharmonic as part of the legendary Young People’s Concert Series. In the 20/21 season, an unprecedented one for live orchestral music, Lecce-Chong will conduct virtual concerts with both the Santa Rosa and the Eugene Symphony, specically created for online audiences. e performances will be streamed worldwide and will take a unique form of a cohesive musical journey complete with interviews with musicians. e programs will include music by living composers Jessie Montgomery, Gabriella Lena Frank and Chen Yi. Following the paths of renowned Music Directors of the Eugene and the Santa Rosa Symphonies including Marin Alsop, Giancarlo Guerrero and Jerey Kahane, Lecce-Chong has made his mark with the two orchestras introducing a series of new music and community initiatives. In 2019, the orchestras announced Lecce-Chong’s “First Symphony Project” commissioning four major orchestral works by young composers—Matt Browne, Gabriella Smith, Angélica Negrón and Michael Djupstrom—to be performed over several seasons accompanied by multiple composer residencies and community events. In Eugene, he has reinitiated family concerts and presented a number of innovative projects such as an original multimedia performance of Scriabin’s compositions engaging light and color. EUGENE SYMPHONY MUSIC DIRECTORS Lawrence Maves, Founding Conductor (1966–1981) William McGlaughlin (1981–1985) Adrian Gnam (1985–1989) Marin Alsop, Conductor Laureate (1989–1996) Miguel Harth-Bedoya (1996–2002) Giancarlo Guerrero (2002–2009) Danail Rachev (2009–2017) Francesco Lecce-Chong (2017– ) MARCH 2021 SYMPHONY SOUNDWAVES —III Concerto for Strings Eugene Symphony Francesco Lecce-Chong, conductor Recorded live on Thursday, February 18, 2021 Silva Concert Hall, Hult Center for the Performing Arts | Eugene, Oregon Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Divertimento in D Major, K.136 (1756–1791) I. Allegro II. Andante III. Presto Gra˙zyna Bacewicz Concerto for String Orchestra (1909–1969) I. Allegro II. Andante III. Vivo Augusta Read Thomas Of Paradise and Light (b. 1964) Jessie Montgomery Strum (b. 1981) Gustav Holst St. Paul’s Suite (1874–1934) I. Jig II. Ostinato III. Intermezzo IV. Finale (The Dargason) 4 EUGENE SYMPHONY PROGRAM NOTES Program Notes Concerto for Strings by Francesco Lecce-Chong For the occasion that Eugene colorful gestures, using the instruments like musical paintbrushes Symphony string players return to making us acutely aware of every note as short or long, high, low, the Hult Center for the Performing so, loud, etc. I nd her music to be at once both dance-like and a Arts for the rst time in a year since beautiful language that you hear for the rst time. the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered Jessie Montgomery is one of my favorite composers whose performing arts venues, I wanted to music I have conducted frequently over the past few years. She put together a program to celebrate nds inspiration from her own background growing up in New and showcase our brilliant players. York City and from American folk idioms to create wholly With music written across 250 years, unique works that feel both familiar and delightfully fresh. Strum the common thread among these is a perfect example of such a work, making use of the strings works is an exploration of what collective ability to strum their instruments like guitars through the string section of the orchestra can oer. For accomplished an exhilarating sequence of ever wilder dances. violinists like Mozart, Bacewicz, and Montgomery, they use Last, but not least, is the mid-20th century Polish composer, their own knowledge and skills to put the string players through Grażyna Bacewicz. She is not only one of my favorite composers to incredible feats of virtuosity. e music of Holst and omas introduce audiences to, but her story and music is the inspiration I oers an array of timbres and playful relationships between the think we crave in these times. Living in Nazi-occupied Warsaw in dierent string instruments. the 1940s, the well-known Bacewicz lost all her work as performer I also wanted this program to honor Eugene Symphony’s and composer. Despite being essentially conned to her house, legacy as an orchestra that champions living and lesser-known she created a secret underground concert series to support her composers. ree of the composers on this program have been colleagues. Rather than write music to reect the horrors of her featured already during my tenure with the orchestra. time, you will hear how her music bursts with an almost manic Augusta Read omas, or “Gusty,” was Composer-in- energy and a deance to nd joy in the darkest of times. In her Residence during our 2017/18 season—my rst with the Eugene music, I hear the relentless power of the creative spirit—a spirit Symphony. She was a vital part of our season as she had two that continues in us today as we nd ways to stay connected with separate residences in our community, which culminated in the each other in the midst of a pandemic. West Coast Premiere of a percussion concerto. Her music is full of Concert recordings, radio broadcasts, and more! MARCH 2021 5 ABOUT THE COMPOSERS Augusta Read Thomas e music of Augusta Read omas (b. 1964 in New York) is the Center comprises ten integrated entities: annual concert nuanced, majestic, elegant, capricious, lyrical, and colorful—“it series featuring the Grossman Ensemble, CHIME, visiting is boldly considered music that celebrates the sound of the ensembles, distinguished guest composers, performances, instruments and rearms the vitality of orchestral music” recordings, research, student-led projects, workshops and (Philadelphia Inquirer). postdoctoral fellowships. A composer featured on a Grammy winning CD by Not only is omas one of the most active composers in Chanticleer and Pulitzer Prize nalist, omas’ impressive the world, but she is a long-standing, exemplary citizen with an body of works “embodies unbridled passion and erce poetry” extensive history of being deeply committed to her community. (American Academy of Arts and Letters). The New Yorker She is