OAKLAND SYMPHONY III OAKLAND SYMPHONY V VI OAKLAND SYMPHONY MESSAGE FROM THE MAESTRO ur March concert begins with two Ogroundbreaking women from very different WHAT’S eras. Louise Farrenc taught piano at the Paris Conservatory during the 19th century and advocated successfully for her equal status with INSIDE her male colleagues, and Jessie Montgomery FRIDAY, MARCH 22, 2019 is a rising star amongst composers of our own I RAISE UP MY VOICE | 3 time. I am always happy when we have great OAKLAND SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA | 4 women composers on our season, as we did GUEST ARTISTS | 5 earlier this year with the great Florence Price. PROGRAM NOTES | 9 With these two concerts, we bring our MarcoSanchez.net Photo: SATURDAY, APRIL 13, 2019 Bernstein Centennial observation to a SPRING CONCERT | 13 close, focusing on some of his vocal music. I have long looked forward OAKLAND SYMPHONY CHORUS | 14 to performing Bernstein’s Songfest, and I have Sheri Greenawald of the GUEST ARTIST | 16 San Francisco Opera Center to thank for contacting me and offering to PROGRAM NOTES | 17 provide the soloists from the talented Adler Fellows. We’ll end the season with the music from West Side Story, led by Toland Voice Competition FRIDAY, MAY 10, 2019 winner Julie Adams, a rising star who has sung with us several times in the WEST SIDE STORY | 19 past. This ends another great season which I have thoroughly enjoyed, and I OAKLAND SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA | 21 thank you for being a part of it. OAKLAND SYMPHONY CHORUS | 22 GUEST ARTISTS | 24 ~ Michael Morgan, Music Director and Conductor PROGRAM NOTES | 29 SUNDAY, MAY 19, 2019 SPRING CONCERT | 33 YOUTH ORCHESTRA | 34 MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR GUEST ARTISTS | 35 elcome to the final concerts of the 2018- PROGRAM NOTES | 36 W2019 Oakland Symphony season. Maestro ARTISTIC STAFF BIOGRAPHIES | 39 Morgan continues his vision to leverage local partnerships and raise up the voices of both ABOUT US | 42 rising stars and forgotten works. ANNUAL FUND DONORS | 43 TRIBUTE FUND | 47 In addition to honoring his teacher, Leonard Bernstein, Maestro Morgan features two CALVIN SIMMONS LEGACY SOCIETY | 48 women composers writing almost 200 years ENDOWMENT FUND | 49 apart—Louise Farrenc, one of France’s CORPORATE AND INSTITUTIONAL GIFTS | 49 strongest composers in the 19th century, and st VOLUNTEERS | 50 Jessie Montgomery, a successful 21 century composer and member of the acclaimed IN-KIND DONORS | 51 Catalyst Quartet. In April, Lynne Morrow and the Oakland Symphony BOARD OF DIRECTORS & STAFF | 52 Chorus premiere a new commission titled Mass for Freedom that uses the framework of a traditional Latin Mass to tell the story of the civil rights Cover Design by: Nick Francis movement of the 1960s. Finally, the Symphony features a winner of the Oakland-based James Toland Vocal Competition in West Side Story, and the Oakland Symphony Youth Orchestra plays their final concert before embarking on a journey as musical ambassadors to China. ADVERTISING Onstage Publications This is YOUR Symphony, featuring the region’s finest talent, performing Advertising Department music that is embedded in the fabric of Oakland. None of this is possible 937-424-0529 | 866-503-1966 without your support. Thank you! e-mail: [email protected] www.onstagepublications.com ~ Dr. Mieko Hatano, Executive Director This program is published in association with Onstage Publications, 1612 Prosser P.S. Never miss a concert—take advantage of the deals and become a Avenue, Dayton, Ohio 45409. This program subscriber today! may not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher. Onstage Publications is a division of Just Business, Inc. Contents ©2019. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. OAKLAND SYMPHONY 1 2 OAKLAND SYMPHONY Business in the Arts Networking Circle Presents I RAISE UP MY VOICE JESSIE MONTGOMERY Banner LOUISE FARRENC Symphony No. 3 in G minor, Op. 36 I. Adagio—Allegro II. Adagio cantabile III. Scherzo: Vivace IV. Finale: Allegro INTERMISSION LEONARD BERNSTEIN Songfest 1. To the Poem (Frank O’Hara) 2. The Pennycandystore Beyond the El (Lawrence Ferlinghetti) 3. A Julia de Burgos (Julia de Burgos) 4. To What You Said (Walt Whitman) 5. I, Too, Sing America (Langston Hughes)/ Okay “Negroes” (June Jordan) 6. To My Dear and Loving Husband (Anne Bradstreet) 7. Storyette H. M. (Gertrude Stein) 8. If you can’t eat you got to (e.e. cummings) 9. Music I Heard with You (Conrad Aiken) 10. Zizi’s Lament (Gregory Corso) 11. What Lips My Lips Have Kissed (Edna St. Vincent Millay) 12. Israfel (Edgar Allan Poe) Mary Evelyn Hangley, soprano Natalie Image, soprano Ashley Dixon, mezzo-soprano Chris Oglesby, tenor SeokJong Baek, baritone Christian Pursell, bass-baritone The 2018–2019 Season of Oakland Symphony is generously funded in part by the East Bay Community Foundation; the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; the California Arts Council, a state agency; the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency; and the Oakland City Council and the City of Oakland’s Cultural Funding Program. OAKLAND SYMPHONY 3 OAKLAND SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Michael Morgan, Music Director and Conductor Bryan Nies, Associate Conductor FIRST VIOLIN VIOLA ELECTRIC BASS TRUMPET Terrie Baune, Tiantian Lan, Patrick McCarthy William Harvey, Concertmaster Principal Principal Vivian Warkentin, Margaret Titchener, FLUTE Leonard Ott Asst. Concertmaster Asst. Principal Alice Lenahan, John Freeman Natasha Makhijani, Betsy London Principal Assoc. Concertmaster Stephanie Railsback Amy Likar TROMBONE Kristina Anderson Katy Juneau Rena Urso Bruce Chrisp, Carla Picchi Linda Green Principal Emanuela Nikiforova Clio Tilton OBOE Tom Hornig Stephanie Bibbo Andrea Plesnarski, Steve Trapani Baker Peeples CELLO Principal George Hayes Daniel Reiter, Robin May TUBA Gabrielle Wunsch Principal Scott Choate, Matthew Vincent Joseph Hébert, ENGLISH HORN Principal Maxine Nemerovski Asst. Principal Denis Harper Michelle Kwon TIMPANI SECOND VIOLIN Rebecca Roudman CLARINET Tyler Mack, Liana Bérubé, Elizabeth Bill Kalinkos, Principal Principal Vandervennet Principal Sharon Calonico, Michael Graham Diane Maltester PERCUSSION Asst. Principal Jeffrey Parish Ward Spangler, Adrienne Duckworth Paul Rhodes BASS CLARINET Principal Sergi Goldman-Hull Ginger Kroft Allen Biggs Cecilia Huang BASS Kevin Neuhoff Robert Donehew Patrick McCarthy, BASSOON Alison Miller Principal Deborah Kramer, HARP Josepha Fath Alden Cohen, Principal Meredith Clark, Hande Erdem Asst. Principal David Granger Principal Ben Tudor Carolyn Lockhart Andy Butler KEYBOARD Andy McCorkle HORN Hadley McCarroll, Meredith Brown, Principal Principal Alicia Telford PERSONNEL MANAGER Alex Camphouse Craig McAmis Ross Gershenson Audra Loveland LIBRARIAN Paul Rhodes RECORDING ENGINEER Tom Johnson, Johnson Digital Audio 4 OAKLAND SYMPHONY GUEST ARTISTS MARY EVELYN HANGLEY, SOPRANO NATALIE IMAGE, SOPRANO first-year Adler Fellow with San Francisco second-year Adler Fellow with San Francisco A Opera, Mary Evelyn Hangley was praised A Opera, Natalie Image was a Metropolitan for her “stunning dynamic range and control.” Opera National Council Grand Finalist, praised Soprano Hangley has been featured on the stages by the New York Times for her “pristine high of the Glimmerglass Festival, Minnesota Opera, notes” and by Operawire for her “crystalline tone and the War Memorial Opera House in San [which] swirled through the house.” Her singing Francisco. Most recently, she performed the role has also been described as “crisp [and] buoyant” of Anna Sørensen in Kevin Put’s Silent Night with “sparkling coloratura and vocal cascades” by at the Glimmerglass Festival. During her two the San Francisco Chronicle after the 2017 Merola years as a Resident Artist with Minnesota Opera, Grand Finale Concert. As a participant in the Hangley sang leading roles for the company, Merola Opera Program, she also sang Clorinda in including Musetta in La bohème, Woglinde Rossini’s La Cenerentola. Last December, Image in Das Rheingold, and Contessa Almaviva in performed the title role in the North American Le nozze di Figaro. In addition to numerous premiere of Alma Deutscher’s Cinderella with comprimario roles, Hanley covered Freia in Opera San Jose. Other appearances have included Das Rheingold, Millicent Jordan in the world performing Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 premiere of Bolcom’s Dinner at Eight and as the Concerto Competition winner and Aurore the title role in Massenet’s Thaïs. She has in Massenet’s Le Portrait de Manon with San participated in many of the country’s leading Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM). young artist programs, including Minnesota Past highlights include Handel’s Messiah with Opera, the Glimmerglass Festival, and the the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra, Johanna Merola Opera Program. While at the Merola in Sweeney Todd (Opera on the Avalon), and Opera Program, Hangley was praised by Opera Mrs. De Rocher in Dead Man Walking (Opera News for singing “…with considerable allure” NUOVA). Image completed her master’s degree when taking over for an ill colleague mid- at SFCM in 2017, studying with César Ulloa. performance of Conrad Susa’s Transformations. Her undergraduate studies were in Toronto, In concert, Hanley has sung Mendelssohn’s Canada, with the Glenn Gould School of the Elijah, Mozart’s Mass in C minor, Saint-Saëns’ Royal Conservatory of Music. Christmas Oratorio, Schubert’s Mass in C major, and will be the soprano soloist in the Verdi Requiem at SUNY Fredonia in Spring 2019. OAKLAND SYMPHONY 5 GUEST ARTISTS ASHLEY DIXON, MEZZO-SOPRANO CHRISTOPHER OGLESBY, TENOR second-year Adler Fellow with San Francisco enor Christopher Oglesby (Woodstock, Georgia) A Opera, Ashley Dixon made her San Francisco Tjoins San Francisco Opera, as an Adler fellow Opera debut as a member of the Angel Quartet in for the 2019 Season. Most recently he was a It’s a Wonderful Life. As a participant in the 2017 Resident Artist at the Utah Opera, where he sang Merola Opera Program, mezzo-soprano Dixon Tybalt in Romeo et Juliette and was the tenor sang the role of Popova in William Walton’s soloist for Handel’s Messiah with the Utah The Bear and also covered the title role in Rossini’s Symphony.