December 2012The Inaugural Season

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From the President

J.D. S

cott

Dear Friends:

The holidays are upon us and we have much for which we are thankful. Yannick’s arrival in Philadelphia and the tremendously warm welcome given to him by patrons and the city have reinvigorated us all. We are thrilled that Yannick will celebrate New Year’s Eve with us, ushering in 2013 and continuing this new partnership with our amazing musicians. His wish to celebrate another beginning in his new home and with his growing circle of Philly friends speaks to how much Yannick is already part of this community.

We look forward to sharing our other holiday traditions with audiences this month, from the Glorious Sound of Christmas to our 51st annual presentation of Handel’s Messiah. Spreading holiday cheer through music gives us a special kind of joy, and we hope that you will come with all your friends and family to celebrate this festive time of year. These holiday concerts are one of many ways we are discovering new audiences and reigniting Philadelphia’s love for its orchestra.

At this giving time of year, many of us express our appreciation for the great work accomplished by the charitable and cultural organizations that are closest to our hearts. As you remember your past moments with The Philadelphia Orchestra from this season and beyond, we ask you to help us continue our mission of bringing world-class music onto the stage, into our community, and around the globe with a charitable gift to the Annual Fund. Our gratitude would be unbounded.

I wish you and yours the most joyous of holiday seasons. All of us with The Philadelphia Orchestra look forward to sharing more great music with you and creating new memories in 2013.

Yours in Music,

Allison VulgamorePresident & CEO

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Music DirectorYannick Nézet-Séguin became the eighth music director of The Philadelphia Orchestra with the start of the 2012-13 season. Named music director designate in June 2010, he made his Orchestra debut in December 2008. Over the past decade, Yannick has established himself as a musical leader of the highest caliber and one of the most exciting talents of his generation. Since 2008 he has been music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic and principal guest conductor of the London Philharmonic, and since 2000 artistic director and principal conductor of Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain. He has appeared with such revered ensembles as the Vienna and Berlin philharmonics; the Boston Symphony; the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia; the Dresden Staatskapelle; the Chamber Orchestra of Europe; and the major Canadian orchestras. His talents extend beyond symphonic music into opera and choral music, leading acclaimed performances at the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, London’s Royal Opera House, and the Salzburg Festival.

Highlights of Yannick’s inaugural season include his Carnegie Hall debut with the Verdi Requiem, two world and one U.S. premiere, and performances of The Rite of Spring in collaboration with New York-based Ridge Theater, complete with dancers, video projection, and theatrical lighting.

In July 2012 Yannick and Deutsche Grammophon announced a major long-term collaboration. His discography with the Rotterdam Philharmonic for BIS Records and EMI/Virgin includes an Edison Award-winning album of Ravel’s orchestral works. He has also recorded several award-winning albums with the Orchestre Métropolitain for ATMA Classique. In addition, his first recording with The Philadelphia Orchestra, Mahler’s Symphony No. 5, is available for download.

A native of Montreal, Yannick studied at that city’s Conservatory of Music and continued studies with renowned conductor Carlo Maria Giulini and with Joseph Flummerfelt at Westminster Choir College. In 2012 Yannick was appointed a Companion of the Order of Canada, one of the country’s highest civilian honors. His other honors include Canada’s National Arts Centre Award; a Royal Philharmonic Society Award; the Prix Denise-Pelletier, the highest distinction for the arts in Quebec; and an honorary doctorate by the University of Quebec in Montreal.

To read Yannick’s full bio, please visit www.philorch.org/conductor.

Jessica Griffin

The Philadelphia Orchestra2012-2013 SeasonYannick Nézet-SéguinMusic DirectorWalter and Leonore Annenberg

Chair

Wolfgang SawallischConductor LaureateCharles Dutoit Conductor LaureateCristian MacelaruAssistant Conductor

First ViolinsDavid Kim, ConcertmasterDr. Benjamin Rush ChairJuliette Kang, First Associate ConcertmasterJoseph and Marie Field ChairMarc Rovetti, Acting Associate ConcertmasterAmy Oshiro-Morales, Acting Assistant ConcertmasterHerbert Light Larry A. Grika ChairBarbara GovatosWilson H. and Barbara B. Taylor ChairJonathan BeilerHirono OkaRichard AmorosoRobert and Lynne Pollack ChairYayoi NumazawaJason De PueLisa-Beth LambertJennifer HaasMiyo CurnowElina KalendarevaDaniel HanNoah Geller*

Second ViolinsKimberly Fisher, PrincipalPeter A. Benoliel ChairPaul Roby, Associate PrincipalSandra and David Marshall ChairDara Morales, Assistant PrincipalAnne M. Buxton ChairPhilip KatesMitchell and Hilarie Morgan Family Foundation ChairBooker RoweDavyd BoothPaul ArnoldLorraine and David Popowich Chair

Yumi Ninomiya ScottDmitri LevinBoris BalterWilliam Polk

ViolasChoong-Jin Chang, PrincipalRuth and A. Morris Williams ChairKirsten Johnson, Associate PrincipalKerri Ryan, Assistant PrincipalJudy Geist Renard EdwardsAnna Marie Ahn PetersenPiasecki Family ChairDavid NicastroBurchard TangChe-Hung Chen Rachel KuMarvin MoonJonathan Chu

CellosHai-Ye Ni, PrincipalAlbert and Mildred Switky ChairYumi Kendall, Acting Associate PrincipalWendy and Derek Pew Foundation ChairJohn Koen, Acting Assistant PrincipalRichard HarlowGloria de PasqualeOrton P. and Noël S. Jackson ChairKathryn Picht ReadWinifred and Samuel Mayes ChairRobert CafaroVolunteer Committees ChairOhad Bar-DavidCatherine R. and Anthony A. Clifton ChairDerek BarnesMollie and Frank Slattery ChairAlex Veltman

BassesHarold Robinson, PrincipalCarole and Emilio Gravagno ChairMichael Shahan, Associate PrincipalJoseph Conyers, Assistant PrincipalJohn HoodHenry G. Scott

David FayDuane RosengardRobert Kesselman

Some members of the string sections voluntarily rotate seating on a periodic basis.

FlutesJeffrey Khaner, PrincipalPaul and Barbara Henkels ChairDavid Cramer, Associate PrincipalRachelle and Ronald Kaiserman ChairLoren N. LindKazuo Tokito, Piccolo

OboesRichard Woodhams, PrincipalSamuel S. Fels ChairPeter Smith, Associate PrincipalJonathan BlumenfeldEdwin Tuttle ChairElizabeth Starr Masoudnia, English HornJoanne T. Greenspun Chair

ClarinetsRicardo Morales, PrincipalLeslie Miller and Richard Worley ChairSamuel Caviezel, Associate PrincipalSarah and Frank Coulson ChairRaoul QuerzePeter M. Joseph and Susan Rittenhouse Joseph ChairPaul R. Demers, Bass Clarinet

BassoonsDaniel Matsukawa, PrincipalRichard M. Klein ChairMark Gigliotti, Co-PrincipalAngela AndersonHolly Blake, Contrabassoon

HornsJennifer Montone, PrincipalGray Charitable Trust ChairJeffrey Lang, Associate PrincipalJeffry KirschenDaniel WilliamsDenise TryonShelley Showers

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RosteR continues on pg. 8

TrumpetsDavid Bilger, PrincipalMarguerite and Gerry Lenfest ChairJeffrey Curnow, Associate PrincipalGary and Ruthanne Schlarbaum ChairRobert W. Earley TrombonesNitzan Haroz*, PrincipalNeubauer Family Foundation ChairMatthew Vaughn, Acting PrincipalEric CarlsonBlair Bollinger, Bass TromboneDrs. Bong and Mi Wha Lee Chair

TubaCarol Jantsch, PrincipalLyn and George M. Ross Chair

TimpaniDon S. Liuzzi, PrincipalDwight V. Dowley ChairAngela Zator Nelson, Associate PrincipalPatrick and Evelyn Gage Chair

PercussionChristopher Deviney, PrincipalMrs. Francis W. De Serio ChairAnthony Orlando, Associate PrincipalAnn R. and Harold A. Sorgenti ChairAngela Zator Nelson

Piano and CelestaKiyoko Takeuti

HarpsElizabeth Hainen, PrincipalPatricia and John Imbesi ChairMargarita Csonka Montanaro, Co-Principal

LibrariansRobert M. Grossman, PrincipalSteven K. Glanzmann

Stage PersonnelEdward Barnes, ManagerJames J. Sweeney, Jr.James P. Barnes

*On leave

Where were you born? I was born and raised in New York City. My mother taught elementary school music and my father was a freelance cellist.

What piece of music could you play over and over again? The Bach Double Violin Concerto—I love the slow movement.

What is your most treasured possession? I don’t really have one, but if I had to name something I guess it would have to be photos or videos of my family—my husband is a fantastic videographer!

What’s your favorite Philadelphia restaurant? Jakes in Manayunk.

What’s in your instrument case? Pictures of my kids, extra strings, music, pencils, cough drops, a nail clipper, finger tape (for when they split), humidifier (which I always forget to fill), band-aids, rosin, earplugs. Oh yes, and violin and bow of course!If you could ask one composer one question what would it be? I would ask both Brahms and Schumann why they only wrote four symphonies!

What piece of music never fails to move you? A recording of Brahms’s Opp.118 and 119 piano pieces by Radu Lupu.

When did you join the Orchestra? 2002.

Do you play any other instruments? No.

What’s your favorite type of food? Teuscher chocolate, all you need is one.

To read the full set of questions and to see a photo of the inside of Miyo’s violin case, please visit www.philorch.org/miyocurnow.

Musicians Behind the ScenesMiyo Curnow Violin

Bob M

ader

8 The Philadelphia Orchestra 2012-2013 Season

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Stoki at 100

He arrived in Philadelphia 100 years ago as a 30 year old with just a few years of orchestral conducting under his belt, but with a host of big plans and novel ideas for this orchestra—his orchestra. Enigmatic, visionary, charismatic, and boundlessly curious, Leopold Stokowski marked a turning point for The Philadelphia Orchestra, transforming a nascent regional orchestra into one of America’s greatest musical institutions. So, how does an orchestra pay tribute to a man who only looked forward to what was coming next, and never dwelled too long on the past (including his own)?

Leopold Stokowski

Vandamm

The Philadelphia Orchestra celebrates Leopold Stokowski

By Steven Ziegler

12 Stoki at 100

“We want to recapture Stokowski’s spirit as an orchestra and a city,” says Philadelphia Orchestra Vice President of Artistic Planning Jeremy Rothman. “It is inspiring to find compelling and innovative ways to honor this provocative artist who occupies such an important place in the history of this orchestra.” Fortunately, the Orchestra has another young, engaging, and dynamic artist in Yannick Nézet-Séguin, beginning his tenure as music director of

The Philadelphia Orchestra this season, to embody and modernize many of these ideas. He was willing to dive into the Stokowski legend to pay tribute to his great forbear, while also putting his own stamp on his inaugural season. “Yannick is taking us all on a journey throughout this season. He also invited many of our guest conductors and guest artists to participate in a season-wide tribute to Stokowski, creating a fascinating array of programs,” Rothman says.

Yannick kicked off the Stokowski celebration conducting several wildly-successful concerts at the Academy of Music in June. Highlights included a near recreation of Stokowski’s first-ever program with The Philadelphia Orchestra, a Stokowski-inspired Audience Choice Concert, lighting and video effects in the concert hall, lobby displays of historical items that included his podium and concert tails, and a screening of segments from Disney’s Fantasia, with live-accompaniment. Throughout the 2012-13 season the Orchestra will engage with Stokowski in other ways, revisiting pieces the maestro premiered with the Fabulous Philadelphians, experimenting with programming in thought-provoking combinations, and approaching the symphonic concert as an all-encompassing artistic experience inclusive of lighting, choreography, and film.

“Let us in Philadelphia go forward; not backward!”

—Leopold Stokowski

14 Stoki at 100

Perhaps the centerpiece of this season’s Stokowski celebration is an unprecedented multi-dimensional presentation of Stravinsky’s monumental The Rite of Spring, led by Yannick (February 21-24). Stokowski was drawn to the Rite from the outset, giving the work its American premieres in concert and staged form with The Philadelphia Orchestra (the latter with Martha Graham portraying the sacrificial virgin). For the 100th anniversary of the piece in 2013, the Orchestra is reimagining Stravinsky’s masterpiece, regaling it with a musical and visual treatment that celebrates its status as one of the 20th century’s iconic musical works while placing it firmly in our own time. “We wanted to do something fresh and bold that was in keeping with the original work but also in the spirit of how Stokowski might have presented it if he had access to today’s technology,” Rothman says. To achieve this, the Orchestra called on Philadelphia Live Arts, curator of the city’s groundbreaking Live Arts and Fringe festivals, and an organization with its finger on the pulse of the avant-garde. Live Arts guided the Orchestra to Ridge Theater, a frequent player in the New York contemporary music scene, and a natural fit for the Rite project. Ridge is renowned for its inventive collaborations with ensembles such as Bang on a Can, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, and the American

Yannick and the Orchestra perform during the June 2012 Stokowski Celebration concerts at the Academy of Music.

Ryan D

onnell

16 Stoki at 100

Composers Orchestra. The Ridge Theater/Philadelphia Orchestra production of The Rite of Spring promises a tantalizing combination of large-scale video projections, a living and moving set, dancers, and an aerialist, all supported by the lush sounds of The Philadelphia Orchestra under Yannick’s baton as the centerpiece.

In addition to The Rite of Spring, the list of works premiered by Stokowski with Philadelphia is jaw-droppingly diverse and astonishingly complete in surveying the 20th century’s greatest composers. This season The Philadelphia Orchestra will present several works premiered by Stokowski, including Elgar’s Cello Concerto with conductor Gianandrea Noseda and the brilliant cellist Alisa Weilerstein, on a concert with Borodin’s Overture to Prince Igor and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 3 (December 13-15). In another program, Noseda leads works of Rachmaninoff, a composer who enjoyed a long and fruitful relationship with the Orchestra and Stokowski (December 6-8). Philadelphia favorite Simon Rattle conducts a unique Stokowskian concert pairing Sibelius’s Fifth and Sixth symphonies (premiered in the U.S., of course, by Stokowski and The Philadelphia Orchestra) uninterrupted in a sort of über-symphony (May 9-11). Stokowski is also present in Rattle’s second week, as the conductor leads an intriguing program matching Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, known to Stokowski fans and movie lovers from its starring role in Fantasia;

An image that will be part of the video projections for the Orchestra’s production of The Rite of Spring in February 2013 in collaboration with Ridge Theater.

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The program from the Orchestra’s 1921 U.S. premiere performances of Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony with Stokowski. Simon Rattle leads the work, along with the composer’s Sixth Symphony, in May 2013.

Webern’s Passacaglia, Op. 1, and excerpts from Berg’s influential opera Wozzeck, both given their U.S. premieres by Stokowski and the Philadelphians in the late 1920s-early ’30s; and excerpts from Le Grande Macabre by Ligeti, a composer championed by Rattle (May 16, 18, 19; May 17 at Carnegie Hall).

In addition to his almost fanatical commitment to the composers of his own era, Stokowski was also a devoted Wagnerite, sometimes programming entire evenings of the composer’s music. Last month renowned Wagner conductor Donald Runnicles offered a tribute to the composer (whose birth bicentennial is in 2013) and Stokowski with a program featuring orchestral highlights from The Ring. On January 24-25 Yannick conducts Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll, a love letter to his wife, Cosima, and named for his newborn son. Later in the season conductor Andrey Boreyko presents a much different take on Wagner, pairing music from Das Rheingold with Christopher Rouse’s Götterdämmerung-inspired Der gerettete Alberich (Alberich Saved) for solo percussion and orchestra, featuring Colin Currie (March 21-23). “This is a fascinating program, and Rouse uses the final notes from Wagner’s Ring Cycle as a jumping-off point for something really unexpected and exciting. I think Stokowski would have been interested in hearing how the composers of our own time interact with Wagner,” says Rothman.

Stokowski also had a unique relationship with Bach’s music, demonstrated by his strikingly idiomatic orchestral transcriptions of the master’s works. “The transcriptions are perhaps the thing Stokowski is most known for outside Philadelphia,” says Rothman, citing Walt Disney’s use of Stokowski’s famous orchestration of Bach’s D-minor Toccata and Fugue as the prelude to Fantasia. “Stokowski saw these transcriptions as a vehicle for showing off The Philadelphia Orchestra. He wasn’t afraid to augment a work of genius with his own ideas and interpretations. The idea of using chimes and percussion in Bach is totally anachronistic, but Stokowski was courageous enough to try it. And it works,” Rothman elaborates. Several of Stokowski’s transcriptions are offered this season, including

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A Stokowski recording of his Bach transcriptions for orchestra

Steven Ziegler has worked in publications for The Philadelphia Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony. He currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area.

“Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme,” led by Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos (February 1-2) and the Toccata and Fugue (heard last month), led by Emmanuel Krivine, in a program inspired directly by Stokowski concerts of December 1935.

In keeping with his ever-evolving conception of the symphonic concert, Stokowski experimented relentlessly with stage set-up, acoustics, lighting, and programming. It was not uncommon for him to program a concert’s major work in the first half, using the second half as an opportunity to take audiences somewhere else entirely. “Stokowski’s concerts created a complete and immersive environment,” says Rothman. In the final concerts of his inaugural season, Yannick experiments with Stokowski-style programming, offering a first half of several of Dvořák’s lively Slavonic Dances and Janáček’s blazing Sinfonietta and a second half pairing Brahms’s incomparable Violin Concerto and Enescu’s flavorful Romanian Rhapsody in D major (May 23–25). “It’s Yannick’s hope that this sort of programming will challenge our audiences to hear these works in a new way,” remarks Rothman. And, who knows, maybe this exuberant and passionate young conductor will continue to find revolutionary ways to showcase The Philadelphia Orchestra, his Orchestra. P

BM

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lassics

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Beyond the BatonWho is your favorite composer? Brahms has always been my favorite composer, the very first. In second position, Bruckner, Mahler, Bach, Ravel …

What are you currently listening to on your iPod?On the popular music side it is Frank Ocean. He is somewhat new on the R&B and hip hop scene, and widely recognized for how special his music is. And on the classical side I’m listening to the first edit of the Tchaikovsky Sixth Symphony I just recorded for Deutsche Grammophon with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, before its commercial release.

Do you have any pets?Three cats: Mélisande, Parsifal, and Rodolfo.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?Well, if I could I’d like to be taller. But you know, many of the conductors I admire most were not that tall, for instance the great Eugene Ormandy!

What do you like to do when you go on vacation?Lie on the beach!

Do you work out? What’s your favorite routine?Of course, yes. Many people think I get my cardio workout through my conducting but I actually do have to do cardio in order to have the stamina to conduct the way I do. So, I am a jogger and I balance it with weight training, and this helps me avoid injuries.

To read the questions from previous months, please visit www.philorch.org/baton.

Chris Lee

A Q&A with Yannick Nézet-Séguin

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“Wow.” That’s how Stephanie Brandow, newly-named president of the Volunteer Committees for The Philadelphia Orchestra, describes her first time hearing the Orchestra. “It was remarkable—like going to Disneyland for the first time.”

Stephanie grew up in Idaho, attending concerts of the Idaho State University Symphony with her parents. Her mother was a volunteer for the Symphony and her father was a loyal concertgoer and supporter. The youngest of four children, Stephanie

was not allowed to stay home alone with her two older brothers while her parents attended the concerts. “I probably would have lost my life,” she says with a laugh. She has very fond memories of attending every concert, reveling in the music. Perhaps more important for a young child, however, were the cookies at the end! Her mother was the leader of group of women that served cookies and coffee after every concert, and she passed along that spirit of volunteering to Stephanie.

The opportunity to be president of the Orchestra’s Volunteer Committees is an exciting honor for Stephanie. “Volunteering is a labor of love,” she says. “It can be a thankless job, but if I can accomplish one thing in my two-year tenure it will be to make those remarkable women aware of how much they are appreciated. There is so much unbelievable talent in that group. To see what they can do is amazing: the number of events and the professionalism and thoughtfulness with which they do everything. I feel a strong connection with these women, and being a volunteer for the Orchestra has been, and will continue to be, a big part of my life. I’m having a tremendous amount of fun!”

To read the complete story, please visit www.philorch.org/brandow.

In the SpotlightA Monthly Series of Donor and Patron Profiles

Stephanie and Kirk Brandow

Jessica Griffin

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From Hollywood and the Great White Way to the Academy

Film and Broadway star Hugh Jackman has been tapped to be the special guest artist at the Academy of Music’s 156th Anniversary Concert, on Saturday, January 26, 2013. Well known for his role as Wolverine in the X-Men movies, along with such films as Kate and Leopold, Deception, and The Prestige and his Tony Award-winning portrayal of Peter Allen in The Boy from Oz, Mr. Jackman joins Philadelphia Orchestra Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Fabulous Philadelphians in this celebratory performance full of memorable music and exciting surprises.

New this year the President’s Open House Reception will be held in the Academy prior to the concert, giving attendees the opportunity to explore the beauty of this National Historic Landmark. Then, immediately following the performance, gala Ball guests will walk down Broad Street to the Hyatt at the Bellevue for dinner and dancing.

The Academy of Music 156th Anniversary Concert and Ball benefits the Academy of Music Restoration Fund and The Philadelphia Orchestra, which called the Academy home for more than a century.

For additional information on this event, please call the Academy of Music Restoration Fund Office at 215.893.1978 or visit www.philorch.org/156Ball. For concert-only tickets located in the Amphitheatre level, please contact Ticket Philadelphia at 215.893.1999 or www.ticketphiladelphia.org.

Ben W

atts

Hugh Jackman