WELCOME Dearest Orlando, I’m excited to begin my fourth season with the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra. We ended last season with the incredible 25th Anniversary Gala Concert featuring Yo-Yo Ma and my brother violinist Colin Jacobsen. Colin and I first met Yo- Yo through The Silk Road Ensemble, and we are bringing other members of this ensemble to Orlando during the 2018-2019 Season. The programs will evoke the themes and emotions of community, cross cultural exchange, and folk music along with brilliant virtuosos and heroes of our musical tradition. Orlando will turn its eyes skyward, in programs such as Holst’s monumental The Planets and the haunting and rejoicing sounds of Blue as the Turquoise Night of the Neyshabor by Kayhan Kalhor. We can all dance together in the endless Finnish nights when we take a look at the influence of the Argentinian Tango in Scandinavia. We’re deeply honored to welcome to the Philharmonic family, Puerto Rican-born composer and multi-instrumentalist Angélica Negrón as our composer-in-residence for the 2018-2019 Season. The Philharmonic will perform her works on four programs throughout the season, including a World Premiere on the final Focus Series. We look forward to collaborating with her and embracing her as a member of our artistic community. Ms. Negrón will build our orchestra and our city through her artistic and educational programs, and we know you will find her music beautiful, colorful, honest and conversation-provoking. Soloists highlighting the FAIRWINDS Classic Series include season-opening performances by Concertmaster Rimma Bergeron-Langlois and Soprano Maria Laetitia. Our 2018 Genius of Youth artist is pianist Harmony Zhu, who will join us in February on a program that also features Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7. Award-winning cellist Jan Vogler will perform with us in April (check out his recent collaboration with Bill Murray). Our Pops Series once again brings together the best of American popular music and live entertainment for Orlando Philharmonic patrons. Highlights include a season-opening performance by Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Rhiannon Giddens, also known for her starring role on the CMT drama Nashville, audience-favorite trumpeter and conductor Byron Stripling leading a program of New Orleans jazz greats in celebration of Mardi Gras, and The Second City Guide to the Symphony, featuring celebrity host, comedian, and star of television’s Whose Line is it Anyway?, Colin Mochrie. OPO musicians will be featured soloists on the Focus Chamber Series at The Plaza Live, with special performances by Rimma Bergeron-Langlois (violin), Jamie Strefeler (principal oboe), and Robert Carpenter (principal tuba) performing a concerto by Orlando musician and composer Benoit Glazer. We are building now so that we can dive headfirst into Steinmetz Hall in just two seasons. WOW! Eric Jacobsen Music Director Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra 4 ORLANDO PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA | 2018–2019 SEASON 6 ORLANDO PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA | 2018–2019 SEASON WELCOME Dear Friends and Fans, Welcome to the 26th Season of the Orlando Philharmonic! Elevated by the momentum of musical highlights from our inspiring 25th Anniversary Season, we are propelled to new heights. Your hometown Orchestra is committed to performing music at the highest professional level and artistic excellence. We believe that music connects people and touches hearts and minds in ways not otherwise possible… and that live music does it best! Just last season, our musicians performed 170 programs in a vast array of genres, from Classics to Pops to Jazz and more. In a variety of venues throughout Central Florida, our music reached over 125,000 listeners. Our expansive work in Education alone touched the lives of over 70,000 people of all ages. Throughout the existence of the Orlando Philharmonic, our Young People’s Concerts have inspired children in grades three through five and their teachers and families throughout Central Florida, reaching more than 1,000,000 so far! Please check out all of our education offerings, there’s really something for everyone from infants (our youngest participant was only one week old!) to senior citizens. Looking forward, our newly crafted Mission to enrich and inspire the diverse community of Central Florida through the transformative power of live music compels us to share uplifting encounters with music in communities throughout Central Florida. Like you, we know that being together to make and experience live music is the basis for deeper human connections. Hearing, seeing, and feeling music performed live helps to build our vibrant community. Please join us as we deepen our reach throughout Central Florida. With your help, we are building on a proud history. Our commitment to the creation of new music continues this year with premiere performances of several works. We welcome our amazing Maestro Eric Jacobsen back for his fourth season. A master musician himself, Eric continues to inspire our musicians and listeners. With his well-informed programming, we will continue to be exhilarated by great classical works and to experience world music that may be new to our ears. In addition, our Composer-in-Residence, Puerto Rico-born Angélica Negrón will not only compose for our orchestra but also work with students in Central Florida schools and community spaces. She will ignite students’ creativity through composition – stay tuned! We are preparing for the 2020 opening of Steinmetz Hall at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. Our new performance space is designed to be acoustically perfect and destined to become one of the architectural gems of the music world. I can almost hear the music! On behalf of our Musicians, Board, Staff, and Volunteers, I thank you for choosing to be a part of the Orlando Philharmonic Family. Together we are changing lives through music… and that music will last a lifetime. We value your presence and your support. Mary Palmer President, Board of Directors, The Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra 2018–2019 SEASON | ORLANDO PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA 7 Yo-Yo Ma and Colin Jacobsen are joined by student musicians from across Central Florida in a special encore performance at the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra 25th Anniversary Gala Concert – May 8, 2018 8 ORLANDO PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA | 2018–2019 SEASON 2018–2019 SEASON | ORLANDO PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA 9 10 ORLANDO PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA | 2018–2019 SEASON 2018–2019 SEASON | ORLANDO PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA 11 12 ORLANDO PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA | 2018–2019 SEASON 2018–2019 SEASON | ORLANDO PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA 13 14 ORLANDO PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA | 2018–2019 SEASON ric Jacobsen and the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra closed the 25th Anniversary Season E with a celebratory performance with acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma and, and brother and violinist Colin Jacobsen. “…celebrating 25 years of the Philharmonic in such splendid fashion, the evening was pure joy” (Orlando Sentinel). Eric Jacobsen has built a reputation for engaging audiences with innovative and collaborative programming. ’…playfully combine early music with avantgarde, great classics with world music - constantly blowing away audiences because this mix is simply irresistibly refined…’ (Hamburger Abendblatt - Performing at the new Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Germany) In the 2018-2019 Season, Jacobsen brings members of The Silkroad Ensemble to various programs that will evoke themes and emotions of community, cross cultural exchange, and folk music along with the brilliant virtuosos and musical heroes. This season The Philharmonic welcomes Puerto Rican-born composer and multi-instrumentalist Angélica Negrón to the family as composer-in-residence. Her works will be performed on four programs and will include collaborations in our community through her artistic and educational programs. Jacobsen is Co-Artistic Director, conductor, and cellist of The Knights, the adventurous orchestra founded with his brother, Colin, to foster the intimacy and camaraderie of chamber music on the orchestral stage. As Eric Jacobsen, conductor, Jacobsen has led the “consistently inventive, music director infectiously engaged indie ensemble” (New York Times) at such venues as Carnegie Hall, Central Park’s Azul, with longtime collaborator Yo-Yo Ma, as well as Naumburg Orchestral Concerts, and Lincoln Center, the Prokofiev Concerto in the Grammy-nominated Gil the summer music festivals at Tanglewood, Ravinia, Shaham album 1930s Violin Concertos Vol. 2. and Ojai, and international venues such as the Dresden Musikfestspiele, Cologne Philharmonie, Düsseldorf A dedicated chamber musician, Jacobsen is a member of Tonhalle, and the Vienna Musikverein. In their most Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project, participating in residencies recent European tour, Jacobsen conducted The Knights and performances in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and in the breathtaking new Hamburg Elbphilharmonie North America. In addition, as a founding member of and completed a week-long residency at the Easter the string quartet Brooklyn Rider — dubbed “one of the Festival (Festival de Pâques) in Aix-en-Provence. Recent wonders of contemporary music” (Los Angeles Times) collaborators include violinist Itzhak Perlman, singers — he has taken part in a wealth of world premieres, and Dawn Upshaw, Susan Graham, and Nicholas Phan, and is credited with helping to ensure “the future of classical pianists Emanuel Ax and Jean-Yves Thibaudet. music in America” (Los Angeles Times). Jacobsen is also the Music Director for the Greater In December