ENRIQUE DIEMECKE, MUSIC DIRECTOR & CONDUCTOR

SymphonyFlint

Orchestra

SHARON ISBIN, GUITARSHARON ISBIN, GUITAR

NOV 9, 2019

C O N C E R T S P O N S O R

NOV 21, 2020

The Flint Symphony Orchestra (FSO) is one of the finest orchestras of its size in the nation. Its rich 102-year history as a cultural icon in the community is testament to the dedication of world-class performance from the musicians and Flint and Genesee County audiences alike. The FSO has been performing under the baton of Maestro Enrique Diemecke for over 30 years now – one of the longest tenures for a Music Director in the country. Under the Maestro’s unwavering musical integrity and commitment to the community, the FSO has connected with audiences throughout southeast Michigan, delivering outstanding artistry and excellence.

Flint Symphony Orchestra2019 – 20 Season

WELCOME TO THE 2019 – 20 SEASON WITH YOUR FLINT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA!

Flint Institute of Music gratefully acknowledges the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation for their continued support. Learn more at Mott.org.

This program and/or service is funded in whole or in part by the Genesee County Arts Education and Cultural Enrichment Millage funds. Your tax dollars are at work.

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SEASON AT A GLANCERACHMANINOFF, MUSSORGSKY

SAT, OCT 12, 2019 @ 7:30PM Andrew von Oeyen, piano

SIBELIUS, RODRIGO, SAINT-SAËNS, RESPIGHI

SAT, NOV 9, 2019 @ 7:30PM Sharon Isbin, guitar

DVOŘÁK, BRAHMSMATINEE PERFORMANCESAT, JAN 11, 2020 @ 2PM

Anthony Ross, cello

BERNSTEIN, GERSHWIN,COPLAND, HANSON

SAT, FEB 15, 2020 @ 7:30PM Di Wu, piano

BEETHOVEN, SAINT-SAËNSSAT, MAR 14, 2020 @ 7:30PM

Wanting Zhao, piano2019 William C. Byrd Winner

TCHAIKOVSKY, BORODINSAT, APR 18, 2020 @ 7:30PM

Andrés Cárdenes, violinFlint Symphony Chorus

NUTCRACKERSAT, DEC 7, 2019 @ 7:30PMSUN, DEC 8, 2019 @ 3PM

HOLIDAY POPSSAT, DEC 21, 2019 @ 7PM

POPS I CONCERTSAT, MAY 2, 2020 @ 7:30PM

Enrique Diemecke Music Director & Conductor

Enrique Diemecke is Artistic General Director of the world-renowned Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires and is the first internationally acclaimed conductor to hold the position as artistic leader of the 110-year-old acoustical and architectural marvel, considered by many to be the greatest opera house in the world. Maestro Diemecke began his rise to musical leadership at the Teatro Colón as Music Director of the Buenos Aires Philharmonic, an anchor ensemble of the theater. He continues at the helm of the Philharmonic an unprecedented 15 years, and has overseen all artistic activities of opera, concerts and ballet, since February of 2017. Maestro Diemecke is delighted to anticipate his 31st season as Music Director of the award-winning Flint Symphony Orchestra this season.

Enrique Diemecke enjoys an international recording, operatic and concert career. He brings an electrifying balance of passion, intellect and technique to his performances. Warmth, pulse and spontaneity are all hallmarks of his conducting – conducting that has earned him an international reputation for performances that are riveting in their sweep and dynamism. In the words of The New York Times, Diemecke is a conductor of “fierceness and authority.” A noted interpreter of the works of Mahler, Maestro Diemecke has been awarded a Mahler Society medal for his performances of the composer’s complete symphonies. Maestro Diemecke is a frequent guest of orchestras throughout the world, most notably the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, French National Orchestra and many more. Maestro Diemecke is an experienced conductor of opera, having served as Music Director of the Bellas Artes Opera of Mexico from 1984-1990, where he led more than 20 productions including Faust, La bohème, Salome, Elektra, Ariadne auf Naxos, Der fliegende Hollander, Rigoletto, Turandot, Madama Butterfly and Roméo et Juliette. He has since returned as a guest conductor with new productions of Lohengrin, Boris Godunov and Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice. Maestro Diemecke returned to opera as he opened the 2007-2008 season of the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires with a new production of Werther, followed by performances of Massenet’s Le Jongleur de Notre Dame with tenor Roberto Alagna in Montpellier, which was released by Deutsche Grammophon and awarded the prestigious Grand Prix de l’Academie du Disque Lyrique. He is a regular guest of the famed Teatro Zarzuela in Madrid, and was awarded the

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Jean Fontaine Orpheus d’Or Gold Medal for “best vocal music recording” by France’s Academy of Lyric Recordings for his recording of Donizetti’s The Exiles of Siberia with the L’Orchestre Philharmonique de Montpellier-Languedoc-Roussillon. Maestro Diemecke was previously honored with a Gold Medal from the Academy of Lyric Recordings with the Bruno Walter Orpheus d’Or Prize for “Best Opera Conductor” for his live recording of Mascagni’s Parisina, from the Radio France Festival. With 20 years at the helm of the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de México, Maestro Diemecke led the ensemble on a ten-city tour of the United States, culminating with a program of Latin American masterworks at New York’s Carnegie Hall. Maestro Diemecke is an accomplished composer and orchestral arranger, and has conducted his Die-Sir-E, during the Mexican National Symphony Orchestra tour of the U.S. in 1999. The Die-Sir-E was commissioned by the Radio France Festival for the World Cup Final Concert in France in 1998. Maestro Diemecke was commissioned to write a tone poem

for the Flint Symphony Orchestra, and his works Chacona a Chávez and Guitar Concerto have received many performances both in Europe and in the United States. During the 2001-2002 season, he gave the world premiere of his work Camino y vision, dedicated to President Vincente Fox, with the Tulsa Philharmonic. Maestro Diemecke’s recording with the Flint Symphony Orchestra of the 1896 version of Mahler’s First Symphony (which includes the subsequently deleted “Blumine” movement) was nominated for a Grammy Award. Born in Mexico City, Enrique Diemecke comes from a large family of classical musicians. He began to play the violin at the age of six studying for many years with the legendary violinist Henryk Szeryng. At the age of nine he added french horn, piano and percussion to his studies. Mr. Diemecke attended Catholic University in Washington, D.C. and continued his studies with Charles Bruck at the Pierre Monteux School for Advanced Conductors on a scholarship granted by Madame Monteux.■

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Members of the string section listed after the principal chairs rotate seating throughout the season.

FIRST VIOLINJudy Lin Wu ConcertmasterZeljko Milicevic

Associate Concertmaster In Memory of Katherine Yeotis, Endowed Chair

Debra TerryDaniel WinnickSander KostallariCyril ZilkaJennifer Berg

In Memory of Robert J. Breeden by the Breeden Family, Endowed ChairChase WardBonita Sweda

In Memory of Helen Davenport Kleinpell, Endowed Chair

Michael BechtelJudith Teasdle

In Memory of Barbara Walters, Endowed ChairSam SpurbeckDelia TurnerRoderick Bieber

SECOND VIOLINAlesia Byrd Johnson

PrincipalKaren Donato Assistant PrincipalJanet LyuYung-Hsuan LoLorrie Gunn

In Memory of Cornelia H. Norton, Endowed Chair

SECOND VIOLIN (CONT.)Joseph DellerJunqi TangTracy DunlopMaria BuccoSusan Hammerton

VIOLAJanine Bradbury

PrincipalTonya Ketzler, Ketzler Florist, Endowed Chair

Christine Beamer Assistant Principal

Alycia WilderCatherine Franklin

In Memory of Cornelia H. Norton, Endowed Chair

Dilek Engin-StolarchukMatthew Forsleff

In Memory of Harry Sutton, Endowed Chair

Nancy MarttilaMeredith Pedde

CELLOJudith Vander Weg

PrincipalIn Memory of Anna Paulina Koegel, Endowed Chair

Alexis Turkalo Assistant Principal

Sabrina LackeyThurston MatthewsTimothy Nicolia

In Memory of Evelyn Shores Hall, Endowed Chair

CELLO (CONT.)Julia Ford Edwards

In Memory of Henrietta A. Eickhorst, Endowed Chair

Jinhyun KimWendy Stuart

BASSGregg Emerson Powell

PrincipalJon Luebke

Assistant PrincipalRobert Rohwer

In Memory of Cornelia H. Norton, Endowed Chair

Chantel LeungCraig W. Martin

In Honor of Tom Glasscock, Endowed Chair

Derrick Tietz Frederick Dapprich

FLUTEBrandon LePage

PrincipalIn Memory of Frances Willson Thompson, Endowed Chair

Stephanie HegedusIn Loving Memory of Allan E. Walters by Barbara Walters

PICCOLOScott Graddy

OBOELindabeth Binkley

Principal

Photographs or sound recordings of these performances, or the possession of any device for visual or sound recording, are prohibited inside the auditorium without the express written consent of management. The Flint Institute of Music is an equal opportunity employer and provides programs and services without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex or handicap. Programs of the Flint Institute of Music are made possible with the support of the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.

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Flint Symphony OrchestraPersonnel

OBOE (CONT.)Lynne Marie Mangan

In Memory of Tom Zorn by Family and Friends of FIM, Endowed Chair

Sally Pituch

ENGLISH HORNSally Pituch

CLARINETNicholas Thompson Acting PrincipalJanet Pinto Sommerfeld

BASS CLARINETJanet Pinto Sommerfeld

BASSOONRoger Maki-Schramm PrincipalDean Zimmerman

FRENCH HORNCarrie Banfield-Taplin

PrincipalIn Memory of the late Joseph D. & Almeda B. Hunter,Endowed Chair

Melanie HellickAssistant Principal

Katherine WidlarDenise Root PierceRobin Von Wald

TRUMPETRoss Turner

Acting PrincipalIn Memory of Lucy Schultz, Endowed Chair

Eric FontanDerek Lockhart

TROMBONEJohn Upton

Principal

Kenneth KroescheBASS TROMBONEGreg Lanzi

In Honor of Bruce & Barbara Mackey, Endowed Chair

TUBAJoseph DeMarsh Principal

TIMANITerence Farmer

Principal

PERCUSSIONChuck Ricotta PrincipalEric BaldwinBrittany ChippsRobert KratzTimothy Mocny

HARPAmy Ley McIntosh

PrincipalLibby B. Winegarden by daughter, Dorothy W. Booth, Endowed Chair

PIANOCatherine McMichaelJeffrey Walker

CELESTAJeffrey Walker

PERSONNEL MANAGERGregg Emerson Powell

LIBRARIANAlexis Turkalo

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Cathy O. Blight, M.D. welcomes and recognizes our concert sponsors this evening. Cathy is the Secretary of the Flint Institute of Music Board of Trustees, and is also on the Board Financial Committee, the Board Executive Committee and Chair of the FSO Advisory Committee.

Welcoming YouThis Evening

Kurt Civilette is a freelance performer and teacher based in East Lansing, Michigan. He holds several permanent orchestral positions in the area including principal horn with the South Bend

Symphony and principal horn with Midland Symphony.

He is also third horn in Flint Symphony and Ann Arbor

Symphony. As a member of the South Bend Symphony

principal wind quintet and Ann Arbor Symphony Brass

Quintet he performs chamber concerts and educational

concerts. Other recent freelance engagements include

playing sub/extra on stage with Detroit Symphony,

Saint Louis Symphony, Utah Symphony, Ft. Wayne

Philharmonic and in the opera pit with Michigan Opera

Theater and Santa Fe Opera. He is frequently asked to

play guest principal, playing that role with Ann Arbor,

Flint, Michigan Opera Theater, Kalamazoo, Saginaw Bay,

Windsor (ON) and West Michigan Symphonies. He is

the horn instructor at Lansing Community College and

Michigan State University's Community Music School,

and teaches at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in the summer.

For 15 years from 1995-2010, Kurt was full-time third

horn/associate principal with New Mexico Symphony in

Albuquerque, substituting as interim principal horn for

the entire 2001-02 season. Before winning the permanent

job in New Mexico, he held temporary positions as

principal horn with Charleston (SC) Symphony, acting

principal horn of the Savannah(GA) Symphony and

assistant principal with Honolulu Symphony. While

in New Mexico he was also third horn with Santa Fe

Symphony and appeared with Santa Fe Opera orchestra.

As a successful freelance musician, he has appeared

with Chicago Lyric Opera, Chicago Symphony, Grant

Park, Jacksonville and North Carolina Symphonies, and

played many commercial jingles and recording sessions.

During the summers, Kurt plays principal horn with

the Southern Illinois Music festival in Carbondale,

appearing as a featured soloist in 2012. He has

appeared in various US and international summer

festivals including Spoleto festival in USA and Italy,

the Assisi festival (Italy), the Kumamoto festival in

Japan, and Music from Angel Fire.▪

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T H E F S O . O R GBeyond the StageKurt Civilette, Horn

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Flint Symphony OrchestraProgram

Enrique Diemecke, Music Director & ConductorGuest Artist Sharon Isbin, guitar

Fantasia para un Gentilhombre (Fantasia for a Nobleman)

I. Villano y ricercarII. Españoleta y fanfarria de la

caballeria de NapolesIII. Danza de las hachasIV. Canario

Sharon Isbin, guitar

Joaquín Rodrigo(1901 - 1999)

C L A S S I C A L C O N C E R T S E R I E S S P O N S O R - W h i t i n g F o u n d a t i o n

MEDIA SPONSOR - WCMU GUEST ARTIST SPONSORS - Howard & Rita Shand

A special thank you to Sharp Funeral Home for providing transportation for Sharon Isbin.

Video Equipment Provided by AVC Services, George Boehringer

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Acclaimed for her extraordinary lyricism, technique and versatility, multiple GRAMMY Award winner Sharon Isbin has been hailed as “the pre-eminent guitarist of our time.” Winner of Guitar Player’s Best Classical Guitarist award, Germany’s Echo Klassik, and the Munich, Toronto and Madrid international competitions, she has appeared as soloist with nearly 200 orchestras. She has given sold-out performances in many of the world’s finest halls, including New York’s Carnegie and Geffen Halls, Boston’s Symphony Hall, Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, London’s Barbican and Wigmore Halls, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Paris’ Châtelet, Vienna’s Musikverein, Munich’s Herkulessaal, and Madrid’s Teatro Real. She created and directed festivals for Carnegie Hall, New York’s 92nd Street Y and the national radio series Guitarjam.

The acclaimed documentary Sharon Isbin: Troubadour has been seen by millions on over 200 PBS stations across the U.S., and abroad including Europe, Japan and Mexico. Winner of the 2015 ASCAP Television Broadcast Award, the film is available with bonus performances on DVD and Blu-ray. Watch the trailer at: sharonisbintroubadour.com. Other recent national PBS television performancesinclude the Billy Joel Gershwin Prize with Josh Groban, and Tavis Smiley. Ms. Isbin has been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered, A Prairie Home Companion, CBS Sunday Morning, Showtime’s The L Word, Scorsese’s Oscar-winning The Departed, at Ground Zero for the first internationally televised 9/11 memorial, the White House by invitation of President Obama, and as the only classical artist in the 2010 GRAMMY Awards. Profiled in periodicals from People to Elle, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, she has appeared on the cover of over 45 magazines. Ms. Isbin’s catalogue of over 25 recordings—from Baroque, Spanish/Latin and 20th Century to crossoverand jazz-fusion—reflects remarkable versatility. Her latest release, Alma Española with Argentinian-American opera star Isabel Leonard, has been a #1 bestseller, and is the first Spanish art song album of its kind in 40 years, including twelve world premiere arrangements by Isbin. It was honored by a 2018 GRAMMY Award for Producer of the Year, Classical in recordings by David Frost. Other recent bestselling titles include Sharon Isbin: 5 Classic Albums, and Sharon Isbin & Friends: Guitar Passionswith guests Steve Vai, Heart’s Nancy Wilson and others. Her 2010 GRAMMY-winning Journey to the New World with guests Joan Baez and Mark O’Connor spent 63 consecutive weeks on top Billboard charts. Other GRAMMYs include her world premiere recording

T H E F S O . O R GSharon Isbin, guitarGuest Artist

of concerti written for her by Christopher Rouse and Tan Dun, and Dreams of a World which made her the first classical guitarist in 28 years to receive the award. She received a Latin GRAMMY nomination for her disc of Rodrigo/Ponce/VillaLobos concerti with the New York Philharmonic—their only recording with a guitar soloist. Sharon Isbin has been acclaimed for expanding the guitar repertoire with some of the finest new works ofour time. She has commissioned and premiered more concerti than any other guitarist, and her AmericanLandscapes with works written for her by Corigliano, Schwantner and Foss is the first-ever recording ofAmerican guitar concerti. Her latest world premieres include Affinity: Concerto for Guitar & Orchestracomposed for her by Chris Brubeck, and a work by Richard Danielpour commissioned for her by Carnegie

Hall for its 125th anniversary and by Chicago’s Harris Theater. Other recent highlights include a 21-city Guitar Passions tour with jazz greats Stanley Jordan and Romero Lubambo, collaborations with Sting, tours with the Pacifica Quartet, performances with the Detroit, National and Montreal Symphonies, and sold-out recitals at the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall. Sharon Isbin began her guitar studies at nine in Italy, later studying with Andrés Segovia, Oscar Ghiglia, and Rosalyn Tureck with whom she collaborated on landmark editions/recordings of the Bach lute suites for guitar. She authored the Classical Guitar Answer Book, and directs guitar departments at the Aspen Music Festival and The Juilliard School, which she created in 1989. Please visit her on Facebook, Twitter and www.sharonisbin.com.■

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THANK YOUTHANK YOUSUBSCRIBERSSUBSCRIBERS

We want to take a moment to let you know how much we

appreciate your patronage as a season subscriber. We couldn't perform without an audience, so thank you for supporting us!

We hope you enjoy today's performance and many more

performances to come.

Thank you from all of the musicians, staff and board of

your Flint Symphony Orchestra.

TFantasia para un Gentilhombre (Fantasia for a Nobleman)JOAQUÍN RODRIGO (1901 - 1999)

I t would be next to impossible to overestimate the influence of Andrés Segovia on the history of the classical guitar. To say that he nearly single-handedly returned the guitar to respectability on the concert stage would not be an exaggeration. As a performer, teacher, commissioner of new works and a composer,his influence on guitar playing and repertoire has encompassed the globe. The list of composers who wrote and dedicated works to Segovia reads like a Who’s Who of the twentieth century: Manuel Ponce, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Alexandre Tansman, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco and many others. Likewise, he taught many of the greatest guitarists of the following generation, including Julian Bream, Christopher Parkening, John Williams and Sharon Isbin. From the start of his career, Segovia was eager to find new repertoire for the guitar, but his tastes were largely conservative. He was most comfortable collaborating with Spanish composers who had tapped into the roots of Spain’s folk and popular music in their music. In 1951, Segovia approached Joaquín Rodrigo, asking for a new concerto to build upon the success of the composer’s popular Concierto de Aranjuez, a work Segovia had helped to popularize. While Rodrigo initially refused the commission, he changed his mind after examining a collection of works by the 17th-century Spanish priest and composer, Gaspar Sanz. In Sanz, Rodrigo felt he had found the perfect musical counterpart to the beauty and elegance of Segovia’s playing. He later wrote:

Program Notes November 9, 2019

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of the difficulties of its realization, saying that I would have to work with themes that were very short.”

Rodrigo solved the difficulty of working with short themes by crafting them into a suite of movements, rather than trying to shape them into the extended symphonic discourse of a concerto. The result is a twentieth century reflection upon the Baroque dance suite, much in the manner of Respighi’s suites of Ancient Airs and Dances or Peter Warlock’s Capriol Suite. While neither a direct transcription nor an entirely new work, it pays homage to a bygone musical age in contemporary musical language. Rodrigo himself said of the Fantasia, “My aim was that, if Gaspar Sanz were to hear my work, he would exclaim, ‘That is not exactly me, but I can find myself in it.’"The work is in four movements and scored for a string orchestra with the addition of only piccolo, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and trumpet. The Villano e Ricercare opens with a dignified and stately melody passed back and forth between guitar and orchestra. Solemn and elegant counterpoint characterizes the ricercare that follows, with the guitar weaving its lines around the orchestral textures. La españoleta is in the manner of a slow minuet, with the guitar creating more elaborate counterpoint with each repetition of the melody. The central section of the movement, Fanfare De La Caballeria De Napoles (Fanfare for the Cavalry of Naples), dances its bewitching fandango over a dissonant ostinato punctuated by strummed guitar chords before returning to the wistful La españoleta. The brief Danza de las haches (Axe Dance) struts proudly, with lusty strings answered by guitar, woodwinds and trumpet. The concluding Canario dances ecstatically, dispelling the solemnity of the first two movements, and fully exploring the shifting rhythmic possibilities of this dance from the Canary Islands. After a brief cadenza, the work cavorts happily to the final chord, ending with a joyous flourish.▪

“I thought that the only thing worthy of Segovia would be to place him together with another great guitarist and composer, born in the 17th century, a gentleman in the court of Philip IV, Gaspar Sanz. I consulted Segovia himself, who approved the plan, but not without first warning me

November 9, 2019 Program Notes

Program Notes by Dr. David Cole © 2019

Dr. David C. Cole, the program annotator for the Flint Symphony Orchestra, has had a distinguishedcareer as a conductor, violinist, music educator and writer. He served as the conductor of the SouthwestFlorida Symphony’s Youth Symphony, the top ensemble of the three orchestras in the Southwest Florida Symphony Youth Orchestra program, from 2012 - 2017. He also served as the conductor for the Symphony’s Young People’s Concerts and Majors for Minors programs, and he has also served as the Symphony’s Education Director and Youth Orchestra Manager. In his tenure with the Southwest Florida Symphony’s Youth Symphony, he led them in appearances at Carnegie Hall in New York City in April of 2014, and at the Capital Orchestra Festival at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. in February of 2016. Dr. Cole’s recent guest conducting appearances include concerts with the Marquette Symphony (Michigan), the Colombian National Conservatory Orchestra, the Pleven Philharmonic (Bulgaria), the Orquestra de Camera de Bellas Artes (Mexico City), the Baylor Symphony Orchestra, the El Alto Municipal Youth Orchestra (Bolivia) and the Cincinnati Metropolitan Orchestra.

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