Composer and trumpeter Jim Stephenson is a graduate of the New England Conservatory. After 17 years as trumpeter with the Naples, Florida, Philharmonic, he moved to the Chicago area as a full-time composer and arranger. Among his many compositions and arrangements performed worldwide – most including a trumpet – is the tongue-in-cheek Concerto for Cellphone and Orchestra. Stephenson has also devised an educational program for children called Compose Yourself in which a narrator introduces the instruments of the orchestra; after the introduction, several children volunteer to be composers and choose from several selections each for melody, mode, harmony, rhythm and percussion instrumentation. He admits that his catalog does include a concerto and sonata for nearly every symphonic instrument.

Stephenson originally composed Fanfare for Democracy for the United States Marine Band for the inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris on January 20, 2021. Subsequently, Stephenson suggested and fifty-one orchestras – one from each state and Washington D.C. – agreed to sign on to a joint commission to orchestrate the work.

Pandora Undone

Pandora Undone (From Mythology Symphony: mvt. V)
Stacy Garrop b. 1969

Western music includes several composers of instrumental music whose oeuvre is inextricably bound to narrative; they include particularly Hector Berlioz and Richard Strauss. Stacy Garrop shares this focus. “The sharing of stories is a defining element of our humanity; we strive to share with others the experiences and concepts that we find compelling.” Garrop shares stories by taking audiences on sonic journeys – some simple and beautiful, while others are complicated and dark – depending on the needs and dramatic shape of the story. She has also produced innovative programs to bring music to school children at all levels.”

Garrop composed the five-movement Mythology Symphony as single movements between 2007 and 2013, as the commissions came in. Each movement is a description of a figure from Greek mythology. Pandora Undone was the last, commissioned by the Chicago College of the Performing Arts. It can be programmed as a stand-alone piece.

The myth of the goddess Pandora (Greek for all gifts) comes from Theogony by the ancient Greek poet Hesiod. Pandora’s curiosity about the mysterious contents of a sealed casket gets the better of her, so that when she opens it, all the evils are released to plague the world forever. But also escaping the casket is Hope, tempering the escaped malevolence.

Garrop enhances the story by imbuing Pandora with a more full-fledged personality. She interprets her as a girl dancing in an environment of Eden-like innocence. The casket – or her curiosity about it – has its own agency (and musical theme), which becomes both increasingly insistent and threatening. In s sense, it is analogous to God’s stern prohibition to Adam and Eve against eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, along with the Serpent’s separate motivation in thwarting it.

Stacy Garrop earned degrees from the University of Michigan, University of Chicago, and a D.M. from Indiana University. She taught composition at the Chicago College of the Performing Arts at Roosevelt University from 2000 to 2016, when she decided to become a free-lance composer.

Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35

Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky 1840-1893

Allegro moderato
Canzonetta – Andante
Finale – Allegro vivacissimo

“Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto raises for the first time the ghastly idea that there are pieces of music that one can hear stinking... [the finale] transports us into the brutish grim jollity of a Russian church festival. In our mind’s eye we see nothing but common, ravaged faces, hear rough oaths and smell cheap liquor.” This politically incorrect assessment comes from the pen of the dean of nineteenth century music critics, Eduard Hanslick, reviewing the Concerto’s Vienna premiere.

Why did the first performance take place in Vienna and not St. Petersburg? It is difficult to believe that this Concerto, probably the most popular in the literature, was declared to contain passages that were “almost impossible to play” by its first dedicatee, the famed violinist and violin teacher Leopold Auer, concertmaster of the Imperial Orchestra in St. Petersburg. Completed in 1878, it had to wait for three years for its premiere in Vienna where Hanslick was not alone in his opinion.

What Hanslick and the other critics disliked most is what makes the Concerto so appealing today: its athletic energy, unabashed romanticism and rousing Slavic finale. Without diminishing our own enjoyment of the Concerto, attempting to hear it with the ears of its first audience is a fascinating exercise in cultural relativity. First of all, consider the sheer difficulty of the piece. What defeated Russia’s leading violin virtuoso is the stuff teenage prodigies cut their teeth on at Juilliard and Curtis, practicing the killer bits ad nauseam until they get it right or find some other career.

Then there’s the fact that there was no love lost between the two great nineteenth-century imperial behemoths, Russia and Austria-Hungary, who continued to slug it out until the end of World War I. That Tchaikovsky disliked Johannes Brahms, Hanslick’s favorite composer, probably also added fuel to the fire.

At the time of the Concerto’s inception, Tchaikovsky was just emerging from under the black cloud of a disastrous marriage to an emotionally unstable woman who had threatened suicide if he refused to marry. The marriage was also undertaken to quash rumors about his homosexuality; it ended two weeks later with his attempted suicide, although they were never legally divorced. The vibrant energy of the Concerto, however, seems to have been inspired by the visit of Josif Kotek, a young violinist, pupil and protégé who managed to raise the composer’s spirits. He helped him with the Concerto, giving advice on technical matters.

The Concerto opens with a brief, gentle introduction, paving the way for the lyrical first theme. After some virtuosic fireworks, the emerging second theme is surprisingly similar in mood to the first. The development, full of technical acrobatics, leads into the very difficult cadenza that the composer wrote himself.

The current slow movement was Tchaikovsky’s second try; he discarded his first attempt, eventually publishing it separately as a violin and piano piece, Méditation, Op. 42, No. 3. The second version opens with a gentle melancholy song on the woodwinds that pervades the movement, serving as sharp contrast to the raucous Finale that follows without pause. Hanslick’s appraisal: “The adagio with its gentle Slav melancholy [note the stereotyping] is well on its way to reconciling us and winning us over.”

The unabashed use of Russian peasant dance rhythms in the third movement that so upset Vienna’s critics was, even at the time, becoming a signature of much Russian orchestral music and a symbol of Russian nationalism. Another peculiar divergence from tradition that must have raised a few Viennese eyebrows is the spectacular cadenza at the beginning of the movement that follows immediately on the fiery orchestral introduction and leads right into the main theme. Now, if these had been German or Hungarian dances, Vienna’s attitude might have been different.

Chapultepec: Symphonic Sketches

Chapultepec: Symphonic Sketches
Manuel Ponce 1882-1948

Composer and pianist Manuel Ponce, with his wide range of compositions and his voluminous writings, is considered the father of Mexico’s national musical language. He was an avid collector of popular and folk songs, incorporating their style into his compositions. Many of his songs have acquired the patina of folk songs, although the melodies were original. The most famous of his songs by far was Estrellita, which tells the story of a girl who confides in her little star about the hidden love she feels for an unnamed man, a love that may carry her to the grave.

Ponce made the first sketches for Chapultepec in 1917, premiered it in 1922, and extensively revised it in 1934. Chapultepec is the name of a castle located on a hill, on the western side of Mexico City, where it has commanding views out over the city. The hill itself had been a sacred site of the Aztecs. Built in the last decades of the eighteenth century, the castle has been military college, imperial and presidential residence, observatory, official guest-house and, since 1939, the location of the National Museum of History.

After numerous changes and rearrangements, Ponce included in Chapultepec four movements, some of which previously existed independently: Given the independent sources and the extensive revisions, Chapultepec falls somewhere between a suite and a symphony, having attributes of both. Nor, except for the final movement, is there much Mexican folk music. Moreover, the titles of the movements suggest a programmatic element.

Primavera (Spring): Birdsong dominates this movement. Echoes of Ravel’s La Valse make an appearance, giving a hint of one of Ponce’s influences. A real showcase for the solo wind players.
Nocturno: A single motive – also punctuated by birdsongs – wends its way through an increasingly passionate musical imagery.
Paseo Diurno (Daytime Walk): This movement is in the normal position of a scherzo but has the character of a final movement, not least because it is in duple, rather than triple time. There’s a brief snippet of Mexican folksong and a little fugue in the middle.
Canto y Danza (Song and Dance): The opening of this lilting movement has a folk-like character. It quickly morphs into a series of dances, increasingly frenetic and reminiscent in rhythm of de Falla, although without the specifically Spanish melodies and harmonies.

La mer

La mer “Three Symphonic Sketches”
Claude Debussy 1862-1918

“Perhaps you do not know that I was destined for the fine life of a sailor and that it was only by chance that I was led away from it. But I still have a great passion for it,” Claude Debussy wrote to a friend at the time he began work on La mer in 1903. Shortly before the premiere in 1905, he commented to his publisher: “The sea has been very good to me. She has shown me all her moods.” Ironically Debussy composed most of La mer far from the sea in the hills of Burgundy, believing that countless recollections were worth more than “…a reality whose charm generally weighs too heavily.”

The sea itself was not his only inspiration. Together with many late-nineteenth-century painters, Debussy greatly admired Japanese art, especially the prints and drawings of Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849). One print in particular, The Hollow Wave off Kanagawa, appealed to the composer. It portrays three boats and their terrified crews almost swallowed by a giant wave, the curve of the wave breaking into spray and foam. Debussy chose the detail of the wave as a cover for the score of La mer.

The three movements of La mer are titled Symphonic Sketches, although they approach the symphonic structures of César Franck’s Symphony in D minor as well as the symphonies of Vincent d’Indy. There are numerous memorable melodic motives, which appear in more than one movement; like the sea itself, there is an unpredictable quality in how Debussy uses them.

The first sketch, “From Dawn till Noon on the Sea,” opens with a gentle murmur on the strings and harp, portraying the usual early morning calm, eventually joined by the woodwinds. As the sea gradually awakens flexing its immense power, the brass introduce a melodic motto that will recur at the end. Imitating the interplay of sunlight and waves, fragments of melody reappear with constant shifts of rhythm and orchestral color, reflecting the irregularity of the water’s surface. Towards the end a chorale evokes the splendor of the midday sun.

The second sketch, “Play of the Waves,” tosses musical fragments around until, hesitantly, the wind and the motion of the waves picks up. The water becomes choppy before subsiding again into the calm playfulness, then gradually fading away. The many solos in this movement illustrate the infinite variety of the waves. Its principal musical theme is a trill motive in the woodwinds.

“Dialogue of the Wind and the Sea” is by far the most turbulent of the three sketches and was composed during the worst period of the composer’s personal troubles. The approaching storm growls ominously growing in strength, then subsiding. as if the sea is in the eye of the storm. Slowly the violence picks up again, but Debussy’s storm while powerful, is never a force five gale. The main theme in this section is a surging motive in the oboes, but the movement repeats and transforms melodies from the first movement as well.

Program notes by:
Joseph & Elizabeth Kahn
Wordpros@mindspring.com
www.wordprosmusic.com

About the ASO

The mission of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra is to inspire, educate and enrich lives near and far by creating extraordinary musical experiences with uncompromising artistic excellence.

More music for more people in more places.

Annapolis Symphony Orchestra at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts
801 Chase Street, Suite 204, Annapolis, MD 21401

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info@annapolissymphony.org

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Edgar Herrera
Executive Director and Chief Development Officer

Denise Rosson
Development Manager

Jon Mosbo
Director of Artistic Administration

Michael Granados
Director of Marketing, Technology & Digital

Sarah Johansen
Box Office & Administrative Manager

Netanel Draiblate
Academy Director and Founder

Julie Nolan
Academy Program Coordinator

Karen Lee
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Tim Granados
Administrative Assistant

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

OFFICERS

Jill Kidwell, Chair
Mary McKiel, Vice Chair
Dr. Elizabeth Maxwell-Schmidt, MD, Secretary
Deborah Howe, Assistant Secretary
Jane Casey, Treasurer
Anne Whitcomb, Vice President-Finance
Jerray Slocum, Assistant Treasurer & Assistant VP Finance

TRUSTEES

Robert Arias
Florence Calvert
Georgianna Crosby
Allison R. Durbin
Dr. Katherine S. K. Edwards
Ginger From
Charles Grudzinskas
Geraldine “Mimi” Ladd Jones
Tatiana J Klein
Dr. Monique Langston
Shaun Mathis
Shelley Row
Kevin Smith
Stephen A. Sotack
Dawne Widener-Burrows

TRUSTEES EMERITUS

Laurie Hoffman Berman
Peter Evans
David Anthony Huggins
Joe Rubino
Constance L. Scott

EX-OFFICIO TRUSTEES

José-Luis Novo, Artistic Director & Conductor
Paula Abernethy, FASO Representative
Edgar Herrera, Executive Director & Chief Development Officer

ORCHESTRA REPRESENTATIVE

Kristin Bakkegard, Musician Representative,
Players’ Committee

Elizabeth Richebourg Rea and Philip Richebourg

Elizabeth Richebourg Rea

My father Philip Richebourg conducted his own orchestra every day of his life. Dedicated to each task at hand whether in business or in service to his community, in his life-passions as pilot, musician, archivist, my father approached all things in life as if resolute in achieving one goal, that of consistency, precision and perfect harmony. As ASO’s First Board President and for seven consecutive years, my father’s mission in the formative years was to solidify the orchestra financially and administratively with bold and creative ideas, ensuring its longevity. Today the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra has soared to the heights that my father dreamed would one day come true. I can think of no greater legacy than naming the ASO Music Director’s Chair after my father Philip Richebourg.

Elizabeth Richebourg Rea is a fine art photographer and curator. Rea’s art career began in the 1970s working for The Museum of Modern Art and Leo Castelli. Curator of numerous exhibitions of Joseph Cornell, she was also catalogue editor and research consultant for two Roy Lichtenstein Museum Retrospectives. Elizabeth is President of the Dungannon Foundation, sponsor of The Rea Award for the Short Story and Rea Visiting Writers/Lecturers series at the University of Virginia. She is active on the Peggy Guggenheim Advisory Board in Venice and is Honorary Trustee of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Elizabeth lives in Connecticut.

Philip and Elizabeth Richebourg

Philip Richebourg

Philip Richebourg co-founded the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, was elected First Board President and served as Board President for seven consecutive years. His stalwart support, organizational vision and strong leadership during the ASO’s formative years helped solidify the orchestra financially and administratively, ensuring its longevity and signature as one of Maryland’s most distinguished performing arts organizations. Phil Richebourg’s commitment, dedication and passion for musical awareness leaves an indelible mark on the history of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra.

About the ASO

Connect with Us

Our Mission

The mission of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra is to inspire, educate and enrich lives near and far by creating extraordinary musical experiences with uncompromising artistic excellence.

With a 61-year history of artistic excellence, the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra is recognized as the largest and most distinguished performing arts organization in Maryland’s capital city. Under the direction of Jose-Luis Novo, the Symphony continues to rise in excellence and national reputation, performing Masterworks, Pops, Family Concerts and special events. The Symphony reaches thousands annually with its free Pops in the Park concert, joint concerts with the United States Naval Academy, accompanying the Annapolis Opera, and collaborative projects with other arts organizations and touring headliners. Additionally, we sponsor award-winning education concerts and outreach programs in community schools, sharing the joy of music-making with thousands of school children.

ASO orchestra

2022-2023 Board of Trustees

Officers

Mary McKiel, PhD
Chair

Shelley Row, PE, CSP
Vice Chair

Jerray Slocum
Treasurer

Ann Whitcomb
Assistant Treasurer & VP-Finance

Katherine Edwards, MD
Secretary

Elizabeth Maxwell-Schmidt, MD
Assistant Secretary

Trustees

Robert Arias
Florence Calvert
Georgianna Crosby
Bill Davis
Ginger From
Charles Grudzinskas
Michelle Hellstern
Deb Howe
Geraldine "Mimi" Ladd Jones
Jill Kidwell
Monique Langston, MD
Shaun Mathis
Stephen A. Sotack
Marie Treanor

Trustees Emeritus

Peter Evans
David Anthony Huggins
Joe Rubino

Ex Officio Trustees

José-Luis Novo, Artistic Director & Conductor
The Philip Richebourg Chair

Paula Abernethy, FASO Representative

Orchestra Representative

Kristin Bakkegard, Musicians’ Representative, Players Committee

Annapolis Symphony Orchestra Staff

Barbara Randolph
Interim Executive Director

José-Luis Novo
Artistic Director & Conductor
The Philip Richebourg Chair

Sarah Johansen
Director of Business Operations

Miriam Fogel
Director of Artistic Operations

Diana Love
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Netanel Draiblate
Annapolis Symphony Academy Director & Founder

Julie Nolan
Director of Education & Community Outreach
Grants Manager

Erica Johnson
Accountant

Olivia Ren
Orchestra Librarian

David Sciannella
Operations Manager

Maya McAtee
Office & Data Manager

Shun Yao
Assistant Conductor, Annapolis Symphony Academy

Kimberly Valerio
Annapolis Symphony Academy Department Head, Winds & Brass

Heather Haughn
Annapolis Symphony Academy Department Head, Strings

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Gifts in the current fiscal year, as of March 15, 2023, to support the Orchestra’s 5-Year Strategic Vision to “play more music in more places for more people”.

The Annapolis Symphony Orchestra is sustained through the continuous support of hundreds of generous patrons. The leadership of those listed on these pages (with gifts of at least $100) shows an extraordinary depth of support for the Orchestra’s music making, education programs, and community initiatives.

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We make every effort to ensure accuracy. If you notice an error, omission or would like to be recognized in a different way, please let the Symphony staff know at your earliest convenience. The Annapolis Symphony Orchestra greatly appreciates all contributors of any amount.

The Annapolis Symphony Orchestra is funded by operating grants from the Maryland State Arts Council, an agency dedicated to cultivating a vibrant cultural community where the arts thrive, and the Arts Council of Anne Arundel County, which receives public support from Anne Arundel County, the City of Annapolis, and the Maryland State Arts Council. Funding for the Maryland State Arts Council is also provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency which believes that a great nation deserves great art.

Individual Support

Gifts in the current fiscal year, as of March 15, 2023, to support the Orchestra’s 5-Year Strategic Vision to “play more music in more places for more people”.

+ Multiyear Pledges

Multiyear pledges support the Orchestra’s 5-Year Strategic Vision while helping to ensure a sustained level of funding. We salute those extraordinary donors who have signed pledge commitments of three years or more. These donors are recognized with this symbol next to their name: +

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GIFTS OF $100 TO $999

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Anonymous (4)

Crescendo Club

The Crescendo Club is back!

Donors who pledge or make gifts of $1,000 plus are invited to have a complimentary glass of wine before the concert and during the intermission.

Immediately following the concert please joinArtistic Director and Conductor José-Luis Novo and other patrons for a post-concert gathering.

Annapolis Symphony Academy

About Us

The Annapolis Symphony Academy is changing lives by providing a high-level musical education to students of all cultural and economic backgrounds. Music has the power to change lives. It is soulful, invigorating, challenging, emotionally charged, and immensely rewarding. It affects us all every day in virtually any situation we find ourselves in.

Allow us to introduce you to the wonders of music and in return, introduce us to something unique about yourself. We can create a family together, a musical roof over a shared vision that our lives can be changed for the better with the power of music.

The Annapolis Symphony Academy

Our model for diversity

While classical music embraces all, it is not always accessible to everyone. Studies show that only a staggering 4% of orchestral players come from a minority background in the United States*. The Academy is structured in a unique way that promotes accessibility to classical music.

Through the incredible generosity of our donors, the Academy awards up to fifty percent of its annual tuition revenue in need-based scholarships. We believe this model provides a truly diverse student body, as it merges two overlapping, yet nonidentical, concepts of equality onto one program: our students are selected for the program strictly based on merit as well as their drive to learn and become better musicians.

Half of the Annapolis Symphony Academy student body is composed of under-represented minorities in a model that emphasizes interaction and mutual respect.

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Our Faculty

NETANEL DRAIBLATE

Netanel Draiblate , Founder and Academy Director

José-Luis Novo, Director of Orchestral Activities

Julie Nolan, Program Director & Grants Manager

Heather Haughn, Chair, Strings Department

Kimberly Valerio, Chair, Woodwinds and Brass Department

Programs

Discovery Childhood Music Education

The Virtuoso Pathway

Join Now

We are looking forward to meeting you and hearing you play! Audition dates and tuition information are available via the dropdown menu under the "Enrollment" tab on our website.. Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have at ndraiblate@annapolissymphony.org or 443-454-0609.

Other Exclusive Annapolis Symphony Academy benefits include:

Workshops with Annapolis Symphony Orchestra soloists, guest artists and speakers
Performance opportunities
Community service
Assistance with applications and auditions (summer festivals, colleges & universities)
Access to Annapolis Symphony Orchestra rehearsals
Complimentary Annapolis Symphony Orchestra concert access (live or online via Symphony+)

In Memorium

Memorial and Honorary Gifts

In memory of John Auer
James W. Cheevers

In memory of Catherine Reistrup
James W. Cheevers

In memory of Thea Lindauer
James W. Cheevers

In memory of Ralph Bluntschli
Elizabeth Gordon-Bluntschli

In memory of Peggy Ertlmeier
Bob Sherer

In honor of Jim Cheevers
Don and Keren Dement

In honor of Anna E. Greenberg
Don and Keren Dement

In memory of John B. Moore
Don and Keren Dement

In memory of Julie Hall
Monica Kaiser

In memory of Michael Kurtz
Pat Zeno and Frank Parent

In memory of Michael Kurtz
William and Constance Scott

In memory of Pamela F. Bush
David Bush

In memory of Paige Miller
The Paige Miller Memorial Scholarship

In memory of Damon Santos
Barbara and Everett Santos

In Memory

Edward Ross Goldstein
July 29, 1954 - January 6, 2023

Edward Ross Goldstein

Edward Goldstein was the principal tubist with the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra from 1974 to 2018 and performed with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. He received his Bachelor of Music Education and Master of Music degrees from the Peabody Conservatory of Music of the Johns Hopkins University. In addition to being a founding member of the Peabody Ragtime Ensemble in 1974, he was also the founder and director of the Baltimore Jazz Orchestra, the Swanee River Ragtime Band, the Brass Menagerie Brass Quintet and the Bourbon Street Ramblers. Ed was co-author of the definitive, 656-page, scholarly work on his instrument, The Tuba Source Book, published by Indiana University Press. Ed was the Music Contractor for Center Stage and Everyman Theater in Baltimore, MD. In addition to private teaching, Ed was on the music faculties of Loch Raven High School in Baltimore County and the Peabody Institute Preparatory Department. On April 3, 2022, Ed received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Baltimore Musicians Union. Contributions in his memory may be made to Shaarei Tfiloh Synagogue, 2001 Liberty Heights Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21217 or the Peabody Preporatory General Scholarship Fund, www.peabody.jhu.edu/preparatory/.

Dr. Michael J. Kurtz
May 8, 1949 - December 17, 2022

Dr. Michael J. Kurtz

Dr. Kurtz served at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) for 37 years, during which time he held significant leadership positions, supervised hundreds of staff in multiple locations, and led national efforts in electronic records preservation and management, declassification, and transparency of government records. Dr. Kurtz was the author of several highly cited publications in the areas of archives management and administration. His 2006 book, "America and the Return of Nazi Contraband: The Recovery of Europe’s Cultural Treasures" (Cambridge University Press, 2006) was the key inspiration for the 2014 film "The Monuments Men” (directed by George Clooney).

A longtime supporter of the ASO, Michael Kurtz served as Trustee and Vice Chair of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra (ASO) Board of Trustees and President of the Friends of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra (FASO). Michael's passion for music was evident in his financial leadership and organizational drive behind the ASO's international tour to Spain (2021) and his ongoing support for the Annapolis Symphony Academy. Michael was preceded in death by his wife Cherie, who passed away in November 2019. Both Michael and Cherie were very fond of the piano. Michael's friends and colleagues from FASO believe it is fitting to honor his memory at this Masterworks concert, which features guest artist Jon Nakamatsu playing the piano in Beethoven's "Emperor" Concerto. FASO will underwrite a portion of Mr. Nakamatsu's fee in Michael's memory. FASO requests that memorial contributions to this purpose can be made by sending a tax-deductible check payable to Friends of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, PO Box 1974, Annapolis, MD 21404 by the end of February.