Philharmonic Society of Orange County and Irvine Barclay Theatre Presents
Kronos Quartet with Mahsa Vahdat
Friday, October 21, 2022 | 8pm
Eclectic Orange Series sponsored by:
Jelinek Family Trust
This performance will include one 20-minute intermission.
Kronos Quartet
David Harrington: Violin
John Sherba: Violin
Hank Dutt: Viola
Sunny Yang:Cello
with
Mahsa Vahdat: Vocals
Brian H. Scott: Lighting Designer
Scott Fraser: Sound Designer
The Kronos Quartet records for Nonesuch Records.
All dates, times, artists, programs and prices are subject to change. Photographing or recording this performance without permission is prohibited. Kindly disable pagers, cellular phones and other audible devices.
Jlin (b.1987) (arr. Jacob Garchik) / Little Black Book **
Aleksandra Vrebalov (1970) / My Desert, My Rose **
Antonio Haskell (arr. Jacob Garchik) / God Shall Wipe All Tears Away (inspired by Mahalia Jackson) +
Stacy Garrop (b. 1969) / Glorious Mahalia *
I. Hold on
II. Stave in the ground
III. Are you being treated right
IV. Sometime I feel like a motherless child
V. This world will make you think
featuring the recorded voices of Mahalia Jackson and Studs Terkel
John Coltrane (b. 1926) (arr. Jacob Garchik) / Alabama +
INTERMISSION
Kronos Quartet & Mahsa Vahdat
Mahsa Vahdat (arr. Sahba Aminikia) / The Sun Rises +
The Sun Rises
Vanishing Lines
My Ruthless Companion
Mahsa Vahdat (arr. Aftab Darvishi) / Where is your voice? *
Mahsa Vahdat (arr. Sahba Aminikia) / Placeless +
Mahsa Vahdat (arr. Atabak Elyasi) / I Was Dead +
PROGRAM SUBJECT TO CHANGE
* Written for Kronos
** Written for Fifty for the Future: The Kronos Learning Repertoire
+ Arranged for Kronos
Arranged by Jacob Garchik (b. 1976)
Jlin, one of the most prominent electronic producers of the current generation, first appeared on Planet Mu’s second Bangs & Works compilation, which had a huge impact on electronic/club music. Though she is known for bringing footwork to a wider audience, Jlin doesn’t consider herself a footwork artist. Hailing from Gary, Indiana, a place close yet distant enough from Chicago to allow her to develop a different perspective on the genre, she has morphed its sounds into something entirely new. Released in 2015, her debut album Dark Energy's innovative sound propelled it to the top of many of the year’s Best Of lists. Jlin’s sophomore album Black Origami was recently released to even greater critical acclaim and attention. In 2017, Jlin also composed the music for a major new dance work by Wayne McGregor, one of the UK’s best known choreographers.
About Little Black Book, Jlin writes:
“I chose the name Little Black Book because there is a black notebook that I own that I literally write down every creative idea I have in it. It is my book of absolute freedom. The book is very special to me, as it was given to me on my twenty-first birthday by my eldest cousin. When Kronos approached me about doing this project I was quite ecstatic, and immediately knew I wanted to take this on from a perspective of absolute freedom of sound. I didn't care how crazy it sounded, I just wanted the instruments and choice of instruments to be free. Freedom was my goal no matter how left-field or unconventional. I love that Kronos decided to play this track as they deemed fit versus trying to follow what I did.”
Aleksandra Vrebalov, a native of the former Yugoslavia, left Serbia in 1995 and now lives in New York City. She has written more than 80 works, ranging from concert music, to opera and modern dance, to music for film. Her works have been commissioned and/or performed by the Kronos Quartet, Serbian National Theater, Carnegie Hall, Moravian Philharmonic, Belgrade Philharmonic and Providence Festival Ballet. Vrebalov is a fellow of MacDowell Colony, Rockefeller Bellagio Center, New York’s New Dramatists, American Opera Projects, Other Minds Festival, and Tanglewood. Her awards include The Harvard Fromm Commission, The American Academy of Arts and Letters Charles Ives Fellowship, Barlow Endowment Commission, MAP Fund, Vienna Modern Masters, Meet the Composer, and Douglas Moore Fellowship. Her works have been recorded for Nonesuch, Cantaloupe, Innova, Centaur Records, Vienna Modern Masters and Ikarus Films.
Vrebalov’s collaborative work with director Bill Morrison, Beyond Zero (1914–1918), was commissioned and premiered by Kronos at U.C. Berkeley’s Cal Performances in April 2014 and had its European premiere at the Edinburgh International Festival that summer. Her string quartet …hold me, neighbor, in this storm… was written for and recorded by Kronos for the album Floodplain. Her string quartet Pannonia Boundless, also for Kronos, was published by Boosey & Hawkes as part of the Kronos Collection, and recorded for the album Kronos Caravan. In 2018, Vrebalov wrote Missa Supratext for Kronos and SF Girls Chorus.
Vrebalov’s cross-disciplinary interests led to participation at residencies and fellowships that include the MacDowell Colony, Djerassi, The Hermitage, New York’s New Dramatists, Rockefeller Bellagio Center, American Opera Projects, Other Minds Festival, and Tanglewood. Between 2007 and 2011, Vrebalov created and led Summer in Sombor (Serbia), a weeklong composition workshop with the South Oxford Six composers’ collective that she co-founded in 2002 in NYC. The workshop facilitated the creation of over fifty new works by young composers from Europe and the USA. Most recently, Vrebalov joined Muzikhane (House of Music) founded by composer Sahba Aminikia in Mardin and Nusaybin, towns on Turkish/Syrian border, and made music with young refugees from Syria and Iraq.
As a Serbian expat Vrebalov is the recipient of the Golden Emblem from the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for lifelong dedication and contribution to her native country’s culture.
About My Desert, My Rose, Vrebalov writes:
“My Desert, My Rose consists of a series of patterns open in length, meter, tempo, and dynamics, different for each performer. The unfolding of the piece is almost entirely left to each performer’s sensibility and responsiveness to the parts of other members of the group. Instinct and precision are each equally important in the performance of the piece. The patterns are (notated as) suggested rather than fixed musical lines, so the flow and the length of the piece are unique to each performance. The lines merge and align to separate and then meet again, each time in a more concrete and tighter way. The piece ends in a metric unison, like a seemingly coincidental meeting of the lines predestined to reunite. It is like a journey of four characters that start in distinctly different places, who, after long searching and occasional, brief meeting points, end up in the same space, time, language.
“The writing of this piece, in a form as open and as tightly coordinated at the same time, was possible thanks to 20 years of exposure to rehearsal and performance habits of the Kronos Quartet, a group for which I have written 13 out of 14 of my pieces involving string quartet.”
Arranged by Jacob Garchik (b. 1976)
When Mahalia Jackson first recorded “God Shall Wipe All Tears Away” in 1937, she was relatively unknown, an aspiring artist who had migrated ten years earlier to Chicago from her New Orleans birthplace. The song—based on Revelation 21:4 in the King James Bible: “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away”—was composed in 1935 by New Orleans native Antonio Haskell. The 25-year-old Jackson recorded her seminal version for the Decca Coral label on May 21, 1937, along with “God’s Gonna Separate the Wheat from the Tares,” “My Lord,” and “Keep Me Everyday.” The session was a commercial failure.
But seven decades later, well after Jackson became internationally renowned as the Queen of Gospel, and “God Shall Wipe All Tears Away” was ensconced as a gospel masterwork (recorded by Dorothy Love Coates & the Gospel Harmonettes, the Pilgrim Travelers, and many others), Jackson’s performance caught the attention of Kronos Quartet founder and artistic director David Harrington. “The song was on the first CD of a French box set of the complete recordings of Mahalia Jackson,” Harrington recalls, “and it totally jumped out at me—the tempo, the sound of the organ, the emotion in her voice—it was all astounding. I just loved this song.”
Jacob Garchik initially arranged “God Shall Wipe All Tears Away” for the quartet’s collaborations with the Malian ensemble Trio Da Kali—in concert and on the 2017 recording Ladilikan. With singer Hawa Kassé Mady Diabaté delivering the vocal in an impassioned contralto akin to that of Jackson, the strings supplied the accompaniment that had been played on organ by Estelle Allen in 1937. Retooling the piece for Kronos’ performance repertoire came naturally. “I looked at the arrangement,” Harrington explains, “and realized that [violinist] John [Sherba] and [cellist] Sunny [Yang] and I could play all the chord notes—most of the time we’re playing double stops—and that Hank [Dutt] could play the melody on viola.”
All four musicians pored over the 1937 Mahalia Jackson recording. “It became like a score, really,” Harrington says. “Hank, in particular, studied Mahalia’s vocal vocabulary. The biggest challenge was getting the emotional message of the voice.” For Harrington, Sherba, and Yang to sound even more organ-like, Kronos employs a sound design originally developed for their interpretation of the Swedish folk song “Tusen Tankar”, on which, Harrington says, “we needed to approximate a harmonium.” With Dutt filling Mahalia Jackson’s lead role, the other three musicians use heavy, metal practice mutes that dampen the strings, and sound engineer Scott Fraser adds various effects, including an octave divider on the cello.
“It’s an extension of our work,” Harrington notes. “It’s very natural. The more I’ve played with Hank over the years, the more I’ve known that his sound and Mahalia’s deserve mention in the same sentence. The performance brings together something that belongs together.”
Program note by Derk Richardson
Stacy Garrop is a freelance composer whose music is centered on dramatic and lyrical storytelling. Garrop has received the Barlow Prize, a Fromm Music Foundation grant, three Barlow Endowment commissions, and the Sackler Music Composition Prize, along with prizes from competitions sponsored by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Omaha Symphony, New England Philharmonic, Boston Choral Ensemble, Utah Arts Festival, and Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble. Theodore Presser Company publishes her chamber and orchestral works; she self-publishes her choral pieces under Inkjar Publishing Company. She is a recording artist with Cedille Records with pieces on nine CDs; her works are also commercially available on ten additional labels. She is currently serving as Composer-in-Residence with the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra, sponsored by New Music USA and the League of American Orchestras. For more information, please visit her website at www.garrop.com or her all-things-composition blog at www.composerinklings.com/
About Glorious Mahalia, Garrop writes:
“Louis ‘Studs’ Terkel, the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and oral historian, hosted a daily nationally syndicated radio broadcast show from Chicago’s WFMT station from 1952 to 1997. Studs’ curious, inquisitive nature led him to interview people from all walks of life over the course of his career. For WFMT alone, he conducted over 5,000 interviews. Before he worked for WFMT, Studs had a radio program called ‘The Wax Museum’ on WENR in Chicago. It was on this radio network that Studs first featured the glorious voice of Mahalia Jackson.
“Studs heard Mahalia sing for the first time around 1946. He was in a record store in Chicago when Mahalia’s voice rang out over the store’s speakers. Studs was captivated; he had to meet the woman who possessed that remarkable voice. At that time, Mahalia was gaining fame as a singer of gospels and spirituals in black churches both within Chicago and out of it, as she did a fair amount of touring around the country. Outside of these black communities, however, Mahalia wasn’t yet known. With a little sleuthing, Studs discovered where she regularly sang, at the Greater Salem Baptist Church on the South Side of Chicago. Studs went to the church, introduced himself to Mahalia, and invited her to sing on his radio program. Studs and Mahalia developed a close friendship over the ensuing decades, and they occasionally worked together professionally. As Mahalia rose to international fame and became known as the greatest gospel singer of her time, she and Studs never lost contact.
“In researching WFMT’s Studs Terkel Radio Archive, I found several broadcasts when Studs featured Mahalia Jackson and her recordings on his show. Two broadcasts in particular stood out. The first broadcast occurred in 1963, when the pair sat down for a conversation that covered a wide range of topics, including Mahalia’s experiences of working in the South, the continuing hardships she faces being a woman of color, and the civil rights efforts of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Reverend Ralph Abernathy, and many others (including Mahalia, who was a staunch supporter of Dr. King). The second broadcast dates from 1957; it features Mahalia performing a number of gospels and spirituals for a live audience at a hotel in Chicago. In crafting my composition, I decided to highlight many of the salient points of Studs’ and Mahalia’s 1963 discussion, with a musical performance from the 1957 concert featured prominently in the work.
“Glorious Mahalia consists of five movements. In movement 1, Mahalia discusses the origin and meaning of the spiritual Hold on. In Stave in the ground (movement 2), she and Studs talk about the work she did when living in the South, and the continuing prejudice she faces. This is followed by a more heated discussion between Studs and Mahalia in Are you being treated right (movement 3). The fourth movement features Mahalia’s soulful performance of the spiritual Sometime I feel like a motherless child. The piece concludes with This world will make you think (movement 5), in which Mahalia speaks of her hope that we can unite as one nation.
“Kronos Quartet commissioned Glorious Mahalia for Carnegie Hall’s The 60’s: The Years That Changed America concert series. I wish to thank Kronos Quartet’s violinist David Harrington for suggesting Mahalia Jackson’s interviews with Studs Terkel as the topic for the piece, as well as Tony Macaluso, Director of the WFMT Radio Network and the Studs Terkel Radio Archive, and Allison Schein, Archivist for the Studs Terkel Radio Archive, for their help in locating and securing my chosen broadcasts within the Archive.”
[exact credit language is being confirmed by publisher] Voice of Studs Terkel courtesy of the Estate of Studs Terkel. Voice of Mahalia Jackson courtesy of the Estate of Mahalia Jackson. Studs Terkel Radio Archive, courtesy Chicago History Museum and WFMT Radio Network.
Stacy Garrop’s Glorious Mahalia was commissioned for the Kronos Quartet by Carnegie Hall, with support from David Harrington Research and Development Fund.
Arranged by Jacob Garchik (b. 1976)
John Coltrane isn’t usually the first artist that comes to mind when thinking about the politically outspoken improvisers who changed the course of jazz in the 1950s and early ‘60s. While vanguard bandleaders and composers such as Charles Mingus, Max Roach, and Sonny Rollins coupled their creative breakthroughs with powerful statements denouncing white supremacy and supporting the struggle for civil rights, Coltrane channeled his energy into spiritual masterpieces like A Love Supreme and Meditations. But no musician ever responded to an atrocity with more soulful, anguished humanity than Coltrane’s “Alabama,” a piece the saxophonist wrote in the aftermath of the infamous 1963 KKK bombing of Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church that killed four little girls. Released on the 1964 album Live at Birdland (Impulse!), but actually recorded in the studio just weeks after the bombing, the elegy features Coltrane’s classic combo with pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison, and drummer Elvin Jones.
Coltrane structured “Alabama” around the speech that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave in the church’s sanctuary three days after the bombing, moving from unfathomable sorrow to steely determination. Kronos commissioned Jacob Garchik to create an arrangement as part of Carnegie Hall’s winter 2018 festival “The ’60s: The Years that Changed America,” with the intention of premiering “Alabama” as an encore for that concert, “but we ran out of time,” David Harrington says. “Now we have this beautiful version, where each one of us gets to pay homage to the sound of John Coltrane.”
“Alabama” isn’t Kronos’ first Trane ride. Working with tenor sax great Joe Henderson, the quartet performed a Jimmy Heath arrangement of Coltrane’s sublime ballad “Naima” back in the ‘80s, a collaboration that went undocumented. But Harrington only discovered “Alabama” recently after Songlines editor Jo Frost wrote about listening to the piece on the same day that white supremacists marched in Charlottesville. Coltrane’s music is timeless, but “Alabama” is infuriatingly timely once again. Harrington quickly sought out the recording and was struck again by Coltrane’s elemental power, “one of the most central sounds in American music,” Harrington says. “Minutes later I was in touch with Jacob.”
For Garchik, the assignment came as something of a surprise. Though the jazz trombonist is widely respected on the New York scene, his work for Kronos usually involves arranging “all kinds of music I’m not familiar with from faraway places,” he says. “This was close to home. I tried to capture the subtly and simplicity of ‘Alabama’ with an arrangement that lets the quartet concentrate on the beautiful lines that Coltrane created. I kept the melody intact, but focused on the recitation part at the beginning, and accentuated its intensity. It’s a very striking and mysterious piece, unlike anything else that Coltrane wrote.”
Program note by Andrew Gilbert
The Sun Rises
Vanishing Lines
My Ruthless Companion
Arranged by Sahba Aminikia (b. 1981)
About The Sun Rises, Sahba Aminikia writes:
“Mahsa Vahdat is one of the most iconic female singers of contemporary, post-revolutionary Iran. She and her sister Marjan Vahdat have toured around the globe and have held numerous concerts throughout Asia, Europe, North America, and Africa, while maintaining their roles as strong advocates of freedom of expression.
“Since the Islamic revolution in 1979, women have been banned from singing in public, and especially in front of male audiences. Mahsa and Marjan Vahdat’s appearance on a scene from the controversial movie about Tehran’s underground music scene, “No One Knows About Persian Cats” (2009), while singing without Hijab on a rooftop in Tehran presented a monumental image of freedom to the young women of my country for decades to come.
“I am honored that I was able to bring the forces of Mahsa Vahdat and Kronos Quartet together and was able to help with this historic collaboration. This piece embodies three of Mahsa Vahdat’s songs from two of her solo albums, Traces of an Old Vineyard and A Capella - The Sun Will Rise.”
Texts
The Sun Rises
Poem by Forough Farrokhzad
See how sorrow melts drop by drop
In my eyes
How my mutinous shadow
Becomes prey for the Sun
See
How my whole existence is in ruins
An ember set fire to my being
I am lifted to heights
I am trapped
See
How my entire horizon
Fills with shooting stars
You came from afar
From the land of perfume and light
You set me on a Stellar path
You take me beyond stars
Now that we are treading on heights
Wash me with waves of wine
Wrap me in the velvet of your kiss
Want me in the lasting nights
Leave me no more
Separate me not from these stars
See
How you shine and the Sun rises
Vanishing Lines
Poem by Hafez
English translation: Sohrab Mahdavi
A life ring is my longing for you,
drowning, as I am, in wine
Advise the barrel to keep the air locked,
for the tavern is in ruins
The beloved is gone and in my tearful eyes
Her image can only be drawn in vanishing lines
Wake up my eyes for there is great peril
In this onslaught of sleep of mine
The mountains and plains are full and verdant
This world is but a passing current,
let us waste no time
My Ruthless Companion
Poem by Rumi
English translation: Sohrab Mahdavi
Oh my companion, my ruthless companion
My beloved and my treasurer, my ally and my secret bearer
On earth you are my moon, at midnight you are my morning dawn
Oh, my sweet mist, you are my protection in this storm
You find your way into my soul like a healing worm
You are my faith and my religion, a sea of gems brimming
You are a torch to night-farers, a rope to the drowning
You are a compass to any caravan, you are my guide
You are my cellmate in this prison, a laughing master at my side
To be in your presence requires a hundred times my best stride
Arranged by Aftab Darvishi (b. 1987)
About Where Is Your Voice, Mahsa Vahdat writes:
“Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, solo women’s voice has been restricted in Iran. Women singers can only perform in a choir, or sing solo in the presence of female-only audiences.
“It’s a tremendous sadness that women have been forbidden to freely sing in Iran, and for many talented artists at some point the path became so challenging they had to give it up entirely. To prevent a people from participating in one of their great cultural and human treasures is extremely sorrowful and tragic and act of injustice. However, the fact that this woman vocal tradition has still been preserved in spite of these restrictions is incredibly inspiring; this proves that it’s impossible to keep some artists from pursuing their art, regardless of the consequences. In fact, many have chosen to walk their paths with even stronger conviction and dedication.
“I made this text and melody and I would like to dedicate this song to Women's voices in Iran. The music has been arranged by Aftab Darvishi for Kronos Quartet & Mahsa Vahdat”
Mahsa Vahdat’s Where Is Your Voice?, arranged by Aftab Darvishi, was commissioned for Kronos Quartet and Mahsa Vahdat by the Hamid and Christina Moghadam Program in Iranian Studies at Stanford University.
Text
Where is your voice?
Where is your voice?
Where is your voice?
In the throat of the Moon?
In the red breaths of the thirsty lips of a lover?
In a free song?
With thirst for hope a bird is flying
In the blue tears a song constantly is born
with a ruby throat she sings till eternity
with her young lips.
Where is your voice?
Where is your voice?
In the voiceless lament of the mother who shed her tears over nameless graves in the sparks of the love of your glance that illuminated the core of my heart and made the voice fertile with red flames
Where is your voice?
Where is your voice?
Placeless (arr. Sahba Aminikia)
I Was Dead (arr. Atabak Elyasi)
Song Texts
Placeless
Muslims, what can I do?
I don't know who I am.
I am neither Christian nor a Jew,
I am no Magian, no Muslim.
I am not from the East, nor from the West.
Not from the land, nor from the sea,
I am not from the shafts of nature,
nor from the spheres of the firmament,
I am not from India, not from China,
not from Bulghar, not from Saqsin
I am not from Babylon nor from the land of Persia.
I am not from the world, not from beyond
My place is placelessness. My trace is tracelessness.
By Moulana Jalalod-din Balkhi Mohammad Rumi
Translated by Mahsa Vahdat and Erik Hillestad
I Was Dead
I was dead, I became alive, I was tears,
I became laughter
The happiness of love came,
and I became eternal happiness
My eyes are full of joy, I have a brave soul
I have courage like a lion, I became the shining Venus
He told me: you are not crazy enough,
you don’t deserve this home
I went and became crazy,
I was entangled with chains
He told me: you are not drunk,
go away, you don’t belong to this circle!
I went and became intoxicated,
I was filled with joy
I belong to you, my moon, come and
behold you and me!
Because of his laughter,
I became a laughing garden
By Moulana Jalalod-din Balkhi Mohammad Rumi
Translated by Mahsa Vahdat and Erik Hillestad
In 2015, the Kronos Performing Arts Association launched Fifty for the Future: The Kronos Learning Repertoire, an education and legacy project that is commissioning—and distributing for free—the first learning library of contemporary repertoire for string quartet. Designed expressly for the training of students and emerging professionals, fifty new works have been commissioned, and scores and parts, as well as supplemental learning materials that include recordings, videos, performance notes, and composer interviews, are available on kronosquartet.org. Lead partner Carnegie Hall and an adventurous group of project partners, including presenters, academic institutions, foundations, and individuals, have joined forces with KPAA to support this exciting program.
Jlin’s Little Black Book and Aleksandra Vrebalov’s My Desert, My Rose were commissioned as part of the Kronos Performing Arts Association’s Fifty for the Future: The Kronos Learning Repertoire, which is made possible by a group of adventurous partners, including Philharmonic Society of Orange County, Carnegie Hall and many others.
Janet Cowperthwaite: Executive Director
Mason Dille: Development Director
Dana Dizon: Business Manager
Sarah Donahue: Operations Director
Reshena Liao: Creative Producer
Nikolás McConnie-Saad: Artistic Administrator
Kronos Quartet/Kronos Performing Arts Association
PO. Box 225340
San Francisco, CA 94122-5340 USA
kronosquartet.org
Booking Direction by David Lieberman - Artists Representative
Post Office Box 10368, Newport Beach, CA 92658
714-979-4700 | info@dlartists.com
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Dr. and Mrs. Gary C. Lawrence
Ms. Barbara Macgillivray
Katsuhiko and Meiko Maeshige
Dr. Lani and Mr. David Martin
Goran Matijasevic
Kelly and Susan McClellan
Karen McCulley
Elizabeth Morse
Mrs. Gordon Niedringhaus
Mr. and Mrs. Gus Ordonez
Linda Owen
Mr. Craig Poindexter
David and Helen Porter
Lucinda Prewitt
Mr. and Mrs. Tom Rapport
Karyn Rashoff
Les Redpath
Chris Reed and Pat O'Brien
Christa Schar
James and Karen Schultz
Carol Schwab
Ms. Barbara Sentell
Igal and Diane Silber
Dr. Agnes Szekeres
Dr. and Mrs. Harvey S. Triebwasser
Ms. Sally Westrom
Dag Wilkinson and Caroline Beeson
Ivy Yan
Sonata ($300+)
Dr. and Mrs. Ralph H. Bauer
Mr. and Mrs. Walter Boice
Howard and Denise Brink
Mr. Scott Brinkerhoff
Evelyn Brownstone
Mr. and Mrs. Tyke Camaras
Luisa Cano
Beverly and Dave Carmichael
Mary E. Chelius
Mr. and Mrs. Edgar Compton
Peter Conlon and Deborah Shaw
Judith W. Creely
Mr. and Mrs. David Erikson
Mrs. Lynda Folsom
Dr. and Mrs. Glenn Fowler
Dr. and Mrs. Raymond J. Francis
Mrs. Sloan Gallipeo
Mrs. Frank Gibson
Marvin Goecks, Jr.
Bonnie and William S. Hall
Terry Hanna
Mr. and Mrs. Howard C. Hay
Ms. Grace Holdaway
Mr. and Mrs. Dan Horgan
Barbara and Don Howland
Mr. Paul A. Schmidhauser and Ms. Cindy R. Hughes
Anne Johnson
Mary and Stanley Johnson
Mr. and Mrs. Eric M. Kadison
Kari Kerr
Mr. and Mrs. Venelin Khristov
Barbara Kilponen
Patty Kiraly
Dr. and Mrs. William P. Klein
Professor and Mrs. John Koshak
Dr. William Langstaff
Bruce Larson and Dinny Beringer
Dr. and Mrs. Craig Leonard
Sijie Ling
Elsie M. Little
Jasmine Moini
Dr. Kevin O'Grady and Mrs. Nella Webster O'Grady
Sidney and Nancy Petersen
Mr. Keith Polakoff
Ms. Janet Portolan and Ms. Lois Powers
Mr. and Mrs. John Prange
Coralie Prince
Barbara and Bud Quist
Mrs. V. de Reynal
Mrs. Margaret Richley
Dr. and Mrs. Stephen G. Romansky
Herbert and Joyce Rosenblum
Suzanne Sandmeyer and Wes Hatfield
Mrs. Kathleen Sangster
Pamela Sefton
Phyllis and Roger Shafer
Dr. James Shelburne
Nick and Donna Shubin
Ms. Dorothy J. Solinger
Ann D. Stephens
Diane Stovall
Ms. Barbara Tanner
Marva Thomas
Ms. Carole Uhlaner and Mr. D Brownstone
Annabel Wang
Cory Winter
Kathryn and David Wopschall
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Yates
Mrs. Alice Zamboni
Evelyn Zohlen and Mark Prendergast
Ms. Daren Zumberge
Honorary Life Members
Frieda Belinfante, in memoriam
Jane K. Grier
John M. Rau
List current as of 8/31/2022
The Philharmonic Society deeply appreciates the support of its sponsors and donors, and makes every effort to ensure accurate and appropriate recognition. Contact the Development Department at (949) 553-2422, ext. 233, to make us aware of any error or omission in the foregoing list.
SECURING THE FUTURE
The Philharmonic Society’s Forward campaign is the first of its kind in the organization’s history. It will grow the Society’s endowment—providing greater opportunities for the presentation of the world’s leading orchestras and other musical performances while expanding our educational and community outreach—and also establish a current needs fund for organizational sustainability and flexibility. We are proud to recognize those who are helping secure the Society’s future with a gift to the Philharmonic Forward Campaign. We are grateful for their support, which will help fuel the Society’s growth and provide a legacy of incomparable music and superb music education programs in perpetuity
Donna L. Kendall and Douglas H. Smith
Co-Chairs
DONORS TO THE PHILHARMONIC FORWARD CAMPAIGN
$1,000,000+
Mr. James J. Brophy
Donna L. Kendall and the Donna L. Kendall Foundation
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Sebring
Anonymous
$500,000+
Richard Cullen and Robert Finnerty
James and Judy Freimuth
$250,000+
The Davisson Family Fund for Youth Music Education
Margaret M. Gates—In memory of family
Mr. and Mrs. Milton S. Grier, Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Douglas H. Smith
$100,000+
Pete and Sabra Bordas
David and Suzanne Chonette
Karen and Don Evarts
Milli and Jim Hill
Marlene and Chris Nielsen
Richard and Deborah Polonsky
Diane and Michael Stephens
Anonymous
$50,000+
Mr. Douglas T. Burch, Jr.*
Dr. and Mrs. Richard D. Campbell
Erika E. Faust*
Mrs. Joanne C. Fernbach
Joan Halvajian
Elaine and Carl Neuss
Marcia Kay Radelet
Mr. and Mrs. Philip E. Ridout
Ms. Dea Stanuszek
Dr. Daniel and Jeule Stein
$25,000+
Douglas Burch Classical Programs Fund
Mr. William P. Conlin* and Mrs. Laila Conlin
Mr. and Mrs. Donald French
Mr. and Mrs. Peter Fuerbringer
Mr. and Mrs. Noel Hamilton
Dr. and Mrs. Chase Roh
Up to $24,999
Eleanor and Jim Anderson
John W. Benecke
Mr. and Mrs. Jim Burra
Ana and Ron Dufault
Hung Fan and Michael Feldman
First American Trust
Kimberly Dwan Bernatz
Mr. John D. Flemming and Mr. Mark Powell
Duke Funderburke
Carolyn and John Garrett
Karin Easter Gurwell
Maralou and Jerry M. Harrington
Mrs. Alice E. Hood
Huntington Harbour Philharmonic Committee - Marina Windjammer Group
Judith and Kevin Ivey
Ms. Lula Belle Jenkins
Doris and Jim Kollias
Mrs. Elizabeth C. Kramer
Mr. and Mrs. Richard Lewis
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Madracki
Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Mastrangelo
Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Michel
Charles Mosmann
Carl Neisser
Joan Rehnborg
Dr. and Mrs. Henry Sobel
Dr. and Mrs. Julio Taleisnik
Marti and Walter Unger
Gayle Widyolar, M.D.
Sandi Wright-Cordes
U.S. Bank
Anonymous
*Deceased
ESTERHAZY PATRONS
The Philharmonic Society is proud to recognize our dedicated patrons who have made a multi-year Esterhazy Patron pledge. We are grateful for their support, which has been largely responsible for enabling us to present the world’s most acclaimed symphony orchestras, chamber ensembles and soloists.
Mr. and Mrs. James Alexiou
Mr. and Mrs. Darrel Anderson
A. Gary Anderson Family Foundation
Mr. Gary N. Babick
Ms. Tricia Babick
Mrs. Alan Beimfohr
Mr. and Mrs. John Carson
Cheng Family Foundation
Mrs. William P. Conlin
Mr. Warren G. Coy
Marjorie and Roger Davisson
Mr. and Mrs. Jack Delman
The Dirk Family
Dr. and Mrs. Christopher Duma
Mr. and Mrs. Rodney Emery
Catherine Emmi
Sam and Lyndie Ersan
Mr. and Mrs. Howard Freedland
Margaret M. Gates—In memory of family
Mr. and Mrs. Milton S. Grier, Jr.
Maralou and Jerry M. Harrington
Dr. Howard J. Jelinek
Mr. and Mrs. Mark Chapin Johnson
Dr. Siret Jurison
Donna L. Kendall Foundation
Mr. and Mrs. Venelin Khristov
Mr. and Mrs. Roger Kirwan
Capt. Steve Lutz and Shala Shashani Lutz
Professor Robert and Dr. Adeline Yen Mah
Mrs. Michael McNalley
Drs. Vahe and Armine Meghrouni
Mrs. Michael D. Nadler
Elaine and Carl Neuss
Mr. Thomas Nielsen
Milena and Milan Panic
Helen Reinsch
Barbara Roberts
Mrs. Michelle Rohé
Mr. and Mrs. Stephen L. Salyer
Elizabeth Segerstrom
Mr. and Mrs. Douglas H. Smith
Mrs. Elaine Weinberg
Mr. and Mrs. George Wentworth
Bobbitt and Bill Williams
Anonymous
LEGACY CIRCLE MEMBERS
Mr. and Mrs. James Alexiou
Dr. and Mrs. Julio Aljure
Diane and John Chimo Arnold
Estate of Edra E. Brophy*
Mr. James J. Brophy
Mr. Douglas T. Burch, Jr.*
Mr. William P. Conlin* and Mrs. Laila Conlin
Pamela Courtial*
Mr. Warren G. Coy
Richard Cullen and Robert Finnerty
Mr. Ben Dolson*
Camille and Eric Durand Trust*
Karen and Don Evarts
Erika E. Faust*
James and Judy Freimuth
Ms. Carol Frobish*
The William Gillespie Foundation
Mr. and Mrs. Milton S. Grier, Jr.
Mr. Edward Halvajian*
Ms. Joan Halvajian
Ms. Marie Hiebsch*
Mildred and James* Hill
Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Hull
Mr. Leonard Jaffe
Judith* and Howard Jelinek
Dr. Burton L. Karson
Donna L. Kendall
Hank and Bonnie Landsberg
Mrs. Carla Liggett
Dr. William Lycette
Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Michel
Mr. and Mrs. Bart Morrow
Mr. and Mrs. Michael D. Nadler
Eva Cebulski Olivier
Mrs. Frank M. Posch*
Marcia Kay Radelet
Marjorie Rawlins*
Mrs. Ladislaw Reday*
Elaine M. Redfield*
Mr. Richard M. Reinsch*
Mr. and Mrs. Stephen L. Salyer
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Sebring
Mr. H. Russell Smith*
Ms. Dea Stanuszek
Diane and Michael Stephens
Vas Nunes Family Trust*
Betty M. Williams*
Anonymous
*Deceased
Bold type indicates gifts of $50,000 or more.
Please call the Philharmonic Society Development Department if you have included either the Philharmonic Society or the separate Philharmonic Foundation in your will or trust so that we may honor you as a member of the Legacy Circle. For more information, call (949) 553-2422, ext. 202 or visit: www.PhilharmonicSociety.org/SupportUs and click on Planned Giving.
Founded in 1954 as Orange County’s first music organization, the Philharmonic Society of Orange County presents national and international performances of the highest quality and provides dynamic and innovative music education programs for individuals of all ages to enhance the lives of Orange County audiences through music.
For more than 65 years the Philharmonic Society has evolved and grown with the county’s changing landscape, presenting artists and orchestras who set the standard for artistic achievement from Itzhak Perlman, Gustavo Dudamel, Yo-Yo Ma, and Renée Fleming to the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and many others. In addition, the Philharmonic Society celebrates multi-disciplinary performances under its Eclectic Orange brand and embraces music from a wide range of countries with its World Music performances. Its celebrated family concerts introduce children to classical music with creative and inspiring performances, instilling music appreciation for future generations.
The Philharmonic Society’s nationally recognized Youth Music Education Programs, offered free of charge, engage more than 100,000 students annually through curriculum-based music education programs that aim to inspire, expand imaginations, and encourage learning at all levels. These programs are made possible by the Committees of the Philharmonic Society comprised of 700 volunteer members who provide more than 90,000 hours of in-kind service each year.
As a key youth program, the exceptional Orange County Youth Symphony and String Ensemble provide top-tier training to the area’s most talented young musicians through multi-level ensemble instruction, leadership training, touring opportunities, challenging professional repertoire, and performances in world-class venues. The Philharmonic Society also promotes life-long learning by connecting with colleges and universities to conduct masterclasses and workshops and providing pre-concert lectures to introduce audiences to program selections.
949.553.2422 | PHILHARMONICSOCIETY.ORG
OFFICERS
John Flemming, Chair/CEO
Sabra Bordas, Vice Chair
Donna L. Kendall, Deputy Board Chair
Stephen Amendt, Secretary / Treasurer
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
John W. Benecke, Development
Sabra Bordas, Nominating and Governance
Hung Fan, Laguna Beach Music Festival
Elaine P. Neuss, Artistic and Marketing
Douglas H. Smith, Member at Large
Kathryn Wopschall, President, The Committees
Sandi Wright-Cordes, Orange County Youth Symphony
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Jim Brophy
Gary Capata
Jean Felder
Margaret M. Gates
Kari Kerr
Barbara Roberts
Steven M. Sorenson, MD
PRESIDENT AND ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Tommy Phillips
IN MEMORIAM
Douglas T. Burch, Jr.
Wesley Kruse
LIFETIME BOARD MEMBER
Jane Grier
ARTISTIC OPERATIONS
Drew Cady, Production Coordinator
Emily Persinko, Artistic Operations Manager
Kathy Smith, Piano Technician
DEVELOPMENT
Mark Saville, Vice President of Development
Halim Kim, Senior Director of Development
Paige Frank, Development Associate
EDUCATION
Sarah Little, Vice President of Education and Community Engagement
Courtney McKinnon, Manager of Volunteer and Education Services
Chloe Hopper, Education Associate
FINANCE
Roan Alombro, Vice President of Finance
Jessica Cho, Finance Associate / HR Administrator
MARKETING AND PUBLIC RELATIONS
Jean Hsu, COO / Vice President of Communications
Marie Songco-Torres, Senior Marketing and Public Relations Manager
PATRON SERVICES
Jonathan Mariott, Director of Patron Services
Angelica Nicolas, Marketing and Patron Services Associate / Board Liaison
Randy Polevoi, Musical Concierge
Season Sponsor
Venue Sponsor
Corporate Sponsors
