SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2015 I ISSUE 1 68TH SEASON OPENER! FEATURING TIANWA YANG UMI GARRETT: PIANO PRODIGY QUARTETTO GELATO! MAHLERFEST KIDS CONCERTS: DAN KAMIN'S HAUNTED ORCHESTRA wso.ca I 204-949-3999 WSO SPONSORS, FUNDERS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The WSO proudly acknowledges the ongoing support of the following sponsors, media and funders: COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT PARTNER EDUCATION & OUTREACH PROGRAMS IN MEMORY OF PETER D. CURRY POPS KIDS CONCERTS CLASSICS A SERIES SERIES SERIES WSO IN BRANDON POWER SMART HOLIDAY TOUR INDIVIDUAL CONCERTS SOUNDCHECK PROGRAM CANADA DAY AT THE FORKS POPS PRESENTING OFFICIAL RADIO STATION OFFICIAL RADIO STATION MEDIA SPONSOR OF MEDIA PARTNER OF THE POPS SERIES OF THE WSO CLASSICS WSO KIDS CONCERTS PIANO RAFFLE CAR RAFFLE CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY MATCHING SHARE DONATION CAMPAIGN THE MUSIC Women’s Committee of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra FUNDERS September – October 2015 I OVERTURE 1 MESSAGE FROM THE MUSIC DIRECTOR Welcome to the symphony! This season is very special for me as it marks my tenth anniversary with this wonderful orchestra.Ten years in Winnipeg, which so far have been the luckiest in my life! We have had many artistic highlights, from Manitoba’s first performances of Mahler’s Symphonies 6 and 7, to our recordings of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 and Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, to our trips to Ottawa and Carnegie Hall. I learned to love hockey, embrace exotic winters, my second son was born here, and I’ve come to know many of you personally. Music is such a life force. It gives energy, excitement, solace, peace. And to listen to a live concert is the most powerful thing I can imagine. We are starting the season with the electric Tianwa Yang playing the Paganini Violin Concerto, and Umi Garrett is back with Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23. Paganini and Mozart were incredibly virtuosic performers themselves and you will hear it in their music, as it leaves you wondering, “how the heck did she just play that…” The Pops series kicks off with Quartetto Gelato.You will be enthralled by their fun and acrobatic performance. We will continue our annual composer festival with the romantic giant Gustav Mahler. All of Mahler’s works go way beyond the standard concert experience. They affect me personally in a very existential way. No one else was able to capture the tremendous range of human emotions and passions like Mahler did. His Resurrection Symphony opens up the heavens in the last movement with the tremendous chorus singing “Auferstehn!” (Ascend). His Symphony No. 10 was left unfinished and has never been performed in Manitoba. Mahler knew it would be his last work and it captures his final struggle and lament. We will perform a completed version by Deryck Cooke. The famous English music critic and writer Norman Lebrecht will host of the evening. Again, welcome to the Centennial Concert Hall and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. Be swept away by the music! I wish you a wonderful season. Alexander Mickelthwate Music Director September – October 2015 I OVERTURE 3 CONDUCTORS Alexander Mickelthwate, Music Director German conductor Alexander Mickelthwate is renowned for his “splendid, richly idiomatic readings” (LA Weekly),“fearless” approach and “first-rate technique” (Los Angeles Times). Critics have noted Alexander’s extraordinary command over the Austro-Germanic repertoire, commenting on the “passion, profundity, emotional intensity, subtlety and degree of perfection achieved” in Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 as “miraculous” (Anton Kuerti, 2011). Following on from his tenure as assistant conductor with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, which he completed in 2004, Alexander Mickelthwate was associate conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic for three years, under the direction of Essa-Pekka Salonen. Now in his tenth season as music director of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Alexander has significantly developed the orchestra’s profile through active community engagement and innovative programming initiatives like the annual New Music Festival and the Indigenous Music Festival. Chosen to perform at the Carnegie Hall Spring For Music Festival in New York, May 2014, due to “creative and innovative programming” (CBC Manitoba Scene), the orchestra was the only Canadian ensemble in the showcase. As well as significantly contributing to the New Music Festival and Indigenous Festival, Alexander led the orchestra’s first out of province tour since 1979 to the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, launched the International Conducting masterclasses, the New Music Festival 2012 film project and played a major part in the acoustic overhaul of the Centennial Concert Hall. Photographer: Grajewski Fotograph Inc. Julian Pellicano, Resident Conductor Julian Pellicano’s voracious musical appetite makes him a formidable interpreter of the symphonic repertoire. An autodidact, he was accepted to the Peabody Conservatory without any formal musical training. Currently resident conductor of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Artist-in-Residence at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and music director of the University of Manitoba Symphony Orchestra, Pellicano has built his career by following an unconventional path.The creation, with Dr. Paul Lehrman, of a new performance edition of George Antheil's Ballet Mecanique first brought Pellicano to the public’s attention. From 2009 to 2013 he served as music director of the Longy School of Music Conservatory Orchestra where he established a rigorous and distinctive new orchestral program. Pellicano has conducted the Orquestra Sinfonica de Porto Alegre (Brazil), Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Eastern Connecticut Symphony, New Britain Symphony,The Kallisti Ensemble, Boston’s Dinosaur Annex Ensemble and Milwaukee's Present Music. He has worked in masterclasses with Kurt Masur, Peter Eo”tvo”s, Zsolt Nagy, Martyn Brabbins, and Carl St. Clair. He holds degrees from the Peabody Conservatory, the Royal College of Music (Stockholm), and the Yale School of Music where he was awarded the 2008 Presser Music Award and the Philip F.Nelson Award. He premiered Martin Bresnick’s critically acclaimed opera My Friend's Story at the International Festival of Arts and Ideas and conducted at Carnegie Hall with the Yale Philharmonia Orchestra. Photographer: Nardella Photography Inc. 4 OVERTURE I September – October 2015 WINNIPEG SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 2015-2016 SEASON MUSIC DIRECTOR CELLOS TRUMPETS Alexander Mickelthwate Yuri Hooker, Principal Isaac Pulford, Acting Principal Leana Rutt, Assistant Principal Paul Jeffrey RESIDENT CONDUCTOR Alex Adaman Brian Sykora The Patty Kirk Memorial Chair Julian Pellicano Arlene Dahl Carolyn Nagelberg FIRST VIOLINS TROMBONES Emma Quackenbush Gwen Hoebig, Concertmaster Steven Dyer, Principal The Sophie-Carmen Eckhardt- Keith Dyrda BASSES Gramatté Memorial Chair, endowed Meredith Johnson, Principal by the Eckhardt-Gramatté Foundation BASS TROMBONE Andrew Goodlett, Assistant Principal Karl Stobbe, Associate Concertmaster Julia McIntyre, Principal Mary Lawton, Assistant Concertmaster Travis Harrison TUBA Chris Anstey Paul Nagelberg Chris Lee, Principal **Jeremy Buzash Bruce Okrainec Daniel Perry Mona Coarda TIMPANI Rodica Jeffrey **Mike Kemp, Acting Principal Hong Tian Jia FLUTES Meredith McCallum Jan Kocman, Principal PERCUSSION Julie Savard Martha Durkin Frederick Liessens, Principal Jun Shao *Karin Andreasen PICCOLO HARP *Simon MacDonald Martha Durkin Richard Turner, Principal Endowed by W.H. & S.E. Loewen SECOND VIOLINS OBOES Darryl Strain, Principal Beverly Wang, Principal Elation Pauls, Assistant Principal Robin MacMillan ORCHESTRA PERSONNEL Karen Bauch MANAGER Kristina Bauch ENGLISH HORN Chris Lee **Calvin Cheng Robin MacMillan PRINCIPAL LIBRARIAN **Teodova Dimova Raymond Chrunyk Elizabeth Dyer CLARINETS **Jonathan Garabedian Micah Heilbrunn, Principal ASSISTANT LIBRARIAN Bokyung Hwang Michelle Goddard Laura MacDougall Takayo Noguchi Claudine St-Arnauld BASSOONS *Jane Pulford Alex Eastley, Principal *On Leave *Susan McCallum Kathryn Brooks **Temporary Position VIOLAS HORNS Please note: Non-titled (tutti) string players are listed Daniel Scholz, Principal Patricia Evans, Principal alphabetically Anne Elise Lavallée, Ken MacDonald, Associate Principal and are seated according to a Assistant Principal James Robertson Laszlo Baroczi rotational system. The Hilda Schelberger Memorial Chair Margaret Carey Caroline Oberheu Fred Redekop is the official Piano Richard Bauch Michiko Singh Tuner and Technician of the WSO. Greg Hay Merrily Peters Mike Scholz September – October 2015 I OVERTURE 5 The Official Radio Station for the WSO Masterworks Series. Winnipeg’s only dedicated classical & jazz music station Tianwa Yang: Passion of the Violin CLASSICS Alexander Mickelthwate, conductor Tianwa Yang, violin Overture to Semiramide Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868) Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 6 Nicolò Paganini (1782-1840) Allegro maestoso Adagio Rondo: Allegro spirituoso - INTERMISSION - Mother Goose: Suite Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) Pavane of the Sleeping Beauty Hop o’My Thumb Laideronnette, Empress of the Pagodas Conversations of Beauty and the Beast The Fairy Garden Capriccio espagnol, Op. 34 Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) Alborada:Vivo e strepitoso – Variations: Andante con moto – Alborada:Vivo e strepitoso – Scena e canto Gitano: Allegretto Fandango asturiano Friday, September 18 8:00 p.m. Official Radio Station Saturday, September 19 8:00 p.m. of the WSO Classics: Pre-concert chat on the Piano Nobile begins at 7:15 p.m. WSO IN BRANDON WSO in Brandon Sunday, September 20 3:00