Now entering the second year of her three year residency with the California Symphony, we connected with Katherine Balch to see what she’s been up to since we saw her at the May concert, and to find out how the concerto she’s writing for violinist Robyn Bollinger is progressing.
Robyn Bollinger and Katherine Balch enjoying the Boston Symphony Orchestra on the lawn at Tanglewood Music Center, where Katherine was a fellow this summer.
California Symphony Orchestra: What have you been up to since the premiere of your first piece with the California Symphony in May?
Katherine Balch: After an amazing week with the California Symphony, I had a fun time celebrating with the folks at Broadcast Music Inc., at the 66th Annual BMI Student Composer Awards ceremony in NYC, where I received an award for my orchestra piece, Leaf Fabric, written for the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra (with conductor Ilan Volkov). Then, I dove right into composing a new piece for the Oregon Symphony Orchestra, called Chamber Music, which was premiered just recently in Portland, OR under Jun Markl. There’s a nice write-up about the piece and my time composing it here.
I then spent 8 weeks as a fellow at Tanglewood Music Center, in the beautiful Massachusetts Berkshires, where I worked on site-specific projects there as well as a big new piece for NYC-based trio, Bearthoven. We recently were honored to receive a Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Grant for this project!
Watch out Donato! While a composing fellow at Tanglewood, Katherine had to write a short piece that she later had to conduct. (Balch claims she was “terrible”!)
Now, I’m back in school at Columbia University, where I’m currently in the 3rd year of my doctorate. I spent some time revisiting like a broken clock, and with the California Symphony recording in hand and some reflecting in mind, made some substantial revisions to the piece.
CSO: You’re working on your next commission for us — a violin concerto, which will premiere at the season finale and which you’re writing for your friend Robyn Bollinger. How is that going?
KB: I’m so excited to be working on this piece for my dear friend. The piece is called Artifacts, and each movement takes as a departure point a fragment or gesture from pieces in the solo violin repertoire that I love. Some of those pieces remind me of Robyn and her playing, and were chosen with her in mind, like Paganini’s 6th caprice for solo violin. I heard this piece for the first time when Robyn played all 24 of the Paganini Caprices in a single concert.
I currently have sketches of each movement, and am just starting to orchestrate some moments from each movement to workshop with the orchestra in January.
Composition sketches in Katherine’s studio at Tanglewood
CSO: You’re coming back to workshop the piece with Donato and the orchestra in January. Having done that once already last year, are approaching things any differently this time, and if so, how?
KB: I plan to use my time very differently. Last year, I came into the workshop with a basically finished draft of the piece, and the orchestra read it. This recording helped me tighten up loose ends and rework the ending of the piece, but I think because the piece was so close to done, I wasn’t as open about making changes as I could have been.
This time, I am going to bring small excerpts from each movement that each address a potential orchestral problem or question I have. In this way, it’ll be more explicitly experimental than the first workshop. I think this will be more educational for me and will also keep me open to making more drastic changes to the piece after the workshop period.
CSO: Outside of the California Symphony premiere, what else are you currently working on?
KB: Once I finish the workshop materials for California Symphony, I’ll be writing a piece for ‘cello and piano for my Young Concert Artists-roster colleague, the brilliant cellist Zlatomir Fung.
I’ll also be starting a string quartet for Juilliard’s quartet-in-residence, the Argus Quartet, which premieres the day after Robyn’s violin concerto, on May 6 in Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center.
Later in the season, I’ll be writing a double bass septet (yes, seven double basses) for Tanglewood Music Center, which will be performed in the summer.
Composition in progress: Katherine at work on the violin concerto that will have its world premiere at our 2018–19 season closer on May 5, 2019. Her cat Zarathustra likes to “help.”
Katherine Balch’s Violin Concerto will premiere May 5, 2019 at the California Symphony season finale. Tickets and information at www.californiasymphony.org/epicbruckner
California Symphony goers know her as the sharply dressed orchestra executive who addresses the audience before every concert. To peers in the field, she is a thought leader and sought-after speaker, with a reputation for challenging traditional thinking and established practices in orchestra management. Since becoming Executive Director in 2014, the California Symphony has been Aubrey’s proving ground to try new patron loyalty and marketing strategies—and with audiences growing, performances added to satisfy demand, and a growing family of donors at all levels of support, we think she may be onto something.
Executive Director Aubrey Bergauer. Clockwise from left: Playing tuba at Rice University, TX; practicing in sixth grade (sitting on a pile of books so she could reach the mouthpiece!); with Music Director Donato Cabrera; presenting at a League of American Orchestras conference in July.
We talked with Aubrey about her experience in arts management, her pathway to the California Symphony, and why she believes so passionately in changing the narrative for symphony orchestras.
California Symphony Orchestra: We hear you decided you wanted to be an Executive Director when you were in high school, which is pretty unusual since most people don’t even know this is a profession until much later in life. Tell us more.
Aubrey Bergauer: I was 16 years old. I grew up in Houston playing tuba in the youth orchestra there, after winning an audition for it in eighth grade. Two years later when I was a sophomore in high school, the orchestra went through an executive director change. I remember at the start of rehearsal one day, the new ED was introduced, and they said maybe one sentence about what that role was.
For me that was the lightbulb moment: “There is a job managing this entire operation,” I realized, “and that’s the job I want.”
CSO: Having identified that goal, how did you plot your career to achieve that end?
AB: My background has always been in the arts — from playing an instrument very seriously growing up, to graduating with degrees in music performance and business from Rice University, to my first job out of college at Seattle Symphony. I started there in the development (fundraising) department planning all the donor stewardship activities for individuals of all giving levels, foundations and corporations, and planned giving/bequest donors.
Then one day, Seattle Opera called and wanted me to bring my event planning experience to oversee their young patrons club for attendees in their 20s and 30s, called the BRAVO! Club (originally modeled after San Francisco Opera’s club of the same name). Around that time, digital marketing and social media were emerging marketing tactics, and I became fascinated with them. I so clearly remember being the kid in the office pushing for us to be one of the first major arts organizations to set up a Facebook page and Twitter account, and diving into the data that came from digital advertising — and using that information to inform what worked. Suddenly, things that used to be subjective choices (What color should this ad be? Should the ad have this headline or that one?) became testable, measurable, and completely data-driven objective decisions. That rocked my world and completely changed how I viewed marketing because it took a lot of the guesswork out of it.
After nearly six years at Seattle Opera, my role had expanded to lots of different single ticket initiatives, audience development work, the digital and social media growth and tracking, several technology projects (website content, videos, live streaming, mobile development, among others) funded by a major grant award from the Wallace Foundation, and filling in on managing part of the subscription campaign (a big portion of the company’s $10 Million earned revenue goal) while two senior colleagues were on leave at the same time.
In early 2012, the Bumbershoot Music & Arts Festival — the nation’s largest urban arts festival which draws 120,000+ people to Seattle Center (think where the Space Needle is) each year — brought me on as their marketing director. At the time, I was so nervous to step outside of classical music, and quickly came to love it because of how it opened my eyes to a broader world view, from the genres of music to the types of marketing tactics I was employing, to the organizational culture. During my time there, revenue grew by 43% — a stat I thought I’d never see again in my career because that’s some serious growth — and little did I know that in 2014 a small symphony orchestra in Walnut Creek, California was ripe for that kind of growth and more.
That year, the California Symphony brought me on as Executive Director, my first time at the helm of an organization, and now I’m in my fifth season here. This was the place I decided to come to put together everything I had learned from my previous jobs, where I had developed a lot of ideas and opinions on strategies for marketing, fundraising, programming, and how to grow and retain a loyal audience. At the time, the orchestra was on the verge of collapse, but I saw the fundamentals were there: a fantastic artistic product, an amazing social justice El Sistema-based education program, and a composer-in-residence program that was nationally known for launching the careers of several of today’s most prominent living composers. “This is a mission I can get behind,” I remember thinking, “one I can raise money for and build a following for.”
Four years later, we have nearly doubled the audience and nearly quadrupled the donor base. Almost every season has ended with a surplus, so we’ve nearly eliminated the past debt the organization had accumulated, and now we’re growing the endowment in addition to continuing expanding our programs and number of people served. I am so proud of all we have achieved here — what a ride it has been!
CSO: You often talk about how we like to do things a little different at the California Symphony. What does that mean to you in practice?
AB: It means a lot of things! Sometimes this means a fairly significant departure from the traditional schools of thought for orchestra management, such as how we are dogmatic about not soliciting someone for a donation [via direct mail and telephone] until they are a second-year season ticket holder. (The standard approach for most arts organizations is to start soliciting for donations and subscriptions after someone’s first visit.)
Usually though, “doing things a little different” means we’ve made many small changes — from trying to eliminate technical musical language or jargon in our materials, to swapping long, effusive marketing copy for bullet points on “what’s interesting about this concert,” to printing in the program book that people can clap when they like what they hear and keep their phones on (and silent) — and all of that adds up to a full approach to serving our patrons differently.
Industry colleagues ask me all the time if we’ve alienated our core concertgoers, i.e. loyal, longtime patrons, by doing these things, and the answer is that the response has been emphatically positive because everyone sees that the concert hall used to be half full and now it’s packed. Everyone, whether that’s new attendees or longtime attendees or the musicians on stage, feels the energy from a full house, and it’s just so much more FUN that way. And our season ticket renewal rates support that sentiment.
Doing things differently: How the California Symphony’s performance stacks up against national averages in recent years.
CSO: You’ve been writing a blog since 2016. What do you write about and why?
AB: I write about all the things in the answer above, meaning I write about the need to put our customers first, the deep need for a focus on patron retention/loyalty in this industry, and how the music itself is not the source of any of those problems.
Yes, I believe that really traditional orchestral programming of all the same old music needs a refresh (and I write about that too), but it doesn’t matter how much we tinker with the product when there are many elements of the concert experience that are unwelcoming, intimidating, or just confusing to a lot of people who don’t have a lot of prior knowledge of the art form (which, because of the declines in music education, is a lot of the population). So I write to help us all collectively as arts administrators put some intention behind what is often unintentionally happening at our organizations.
Lastly, when I started this blog and still true a few years later is that I write to not just talk about the challenges our organizations face, but rather, what we’ve actually done to try to address them. And the hope is that others reading find it helpful in their work too.
“I keep your blog posts printed out on my desk, as a mini-bible of creativity / fantastic outside-of-the-box thinking.”—An Arts Manager fan of Aubrey’s blog
CSO: What is your vision for the future of the California Symphony?
AB: I love that the name of this orchestra is so big. A name like that means we can vision and grow to be almost anything: we can serve more people, expand our geographic presence, and continue to be a leader for our peers across the nation.
CSO: What is the proudest achievement in your career to date?
AB: On a project level, it’s the Orchestra X project hands down, because of the way it so radically changed my own views of the patron experience.
On a larger scale, the turnaround of the California Symphony will always be one my proudest achievements. Five years ago, it almost closed the doors, had massive debt relative to the size of operating budget, and almost no cash to continue. Bringing this organization back from the brink and using all the research, retention efforts, and patron focus I’ve mentioned above to do that has forever changed my approach to orchestra management. I talk a lot about changing the narrative for symphony orchestras, and this organization is proof that it absolutely can be done.
Be a part of the success! Support the California Symphony’s Crescendo Your Impact fall fundraising campaign and when you give by Oct. 31, 2018, your gift is matched dollar-for-dollar and your impact is DOUBLED.Orc
Your donation supports:
A season of exciting concerts featuring amazing professional musicians and stellar guest artists — all right here in Walnut Creek
Sound Minds — providing intensive music training and transforming the lives and futures of local children in one of the most economically disadvantaged parts of the state
Emerging composer talent through the highly-regarded Young American Composer-in-Residence program
This summer, 60 people—from classical music novices to dedicated aficionados—joined the California Symphony for a pilot adult education course led by instructor Scott Foglesong (Chair of Musicianship and Music Theory at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music), which was designed to throw light on the symphony and the music we play.
Course instructor Scott Foglesong delivered four lively, 90-minute classes to an engaged and appreciative audience for new adult education series Fresh Look—The Symphony Exposed.
Session one of the series, “Who’s on First?,” gave a quick introduction to the history of orchestras and highlighted the role of the conductor. Here’s an extract from the course materials for the first class.
Be a part of the success! Support music education during the California Symphony’s Crescendo Your Impact fall fundraising campaign and when you give by Oct. 31, 2018, your gift is matched dollar-for-dollar and your impact is DOUBLED.
Your donation supports:
A season of exciting concerts featuring amazing professional musicians and stellar guest artists — all right here in Walnut Creek
Sound Minds — providing intensive music training and transforming the lives and futures of local children in one of the most economically disadvantaged parts of the state
Emerging composer talent through the highly-regarded Young American Composer-in-Residence program
Beyond music training and the teaching of life skills like commitment, perseverance, and how to work together, the Sound Minds music education program is also about exposing students in one of the poorest parts of the state to experiences that inspire and encourage them to imagine possibilities beyond anything they could ever have dreamed of before.
The Virtuoso, the Concertmaster and the Educator: Charlie Albright, Jennifer Cho and Patty Drury create unique and unforgettable experiences for the Sound Minds program students.
For students at Downer Elementary School, Sound Minds provides intensive music education and training for free, three days a week throughout the school year. It’s also a path to better grades and a brighter future, with students testing in Math proficiency at a rate up to 4x higher than those not in the program.
We take a closer look at a few of the horizon-expanding opportunities the kids have shared, including one-on-one time with pianist Charlie Albright; a masterclass with Concertmaster Jennifer Cho, and a side-by-side rehearsal with local high school students, led by music teacher and California Symphony violinist Patty Drury.
The Virtuoso
“How do you remember all the notes?”
“Do you play other instruments?”
“How do you play with your eyes closed..?”
Guest artist Charlie Albright answers the students’ questions, and teaches them about improvisation.
After sitting in on a rehearsal for September’s BEETHOVEN & BERNSTEIN season opener, a group of Sound Minds students and teachers got to ask virtuoso Charlie Albright anything they liked, and they didn’t hold back.
Then the virtuoso pianist treated his young audience to an improvised extract of music from the Disney movie, “Coco,” a piece the students are working on this semester. They marveled at Charlie’s ability to play without music and listened intently as he explained that “improvisation is like giving an impromptu speech, and composing is like editing a paper in school—but you can’t do that when you improvise.”
We asked Charlie about the experience of working with the students and he told us: “It was wonderful sharing music with the Sound Minds kids, and discussing ideas on how music can connect people together. I was thrilled at how engaged the children were and how they seemed to understand that music is a means of expression and communication.”
“It is great that programs like Sound Minds exist to connect with children from different backgrounds and introduce them to the joys of music. Music is something that everyone can connect and express themselves through. I hope that the Sound Minds kids realized how music is a means of sharing and expressing emotions, and that through improvisation, they can create a piece of music that is uniquely theirs.”
The Concertmaster
In the spring, Concertmaster Jennifer Cho came to Downer Elementary to give a mini-masterclass to Sound Minds students. Brave student pairs played short passages as Jenny listened, offered encouragement and advice, and even played along.
Again, the students were full of questions, including how she overcomes nerves when she plays, how she plays so smoothly, and what to do if you lose your place in the music. (“Just keep breathing,” she advises. “Center your mind, just like a Jedi, and use your brain to focus.”)
And then she sealed her reputation as a bona fide rock star by launching into themes from Star Wars.
I want them to know that you can drive down the freeway with the windows down, blasting Beethoven’s 5th symphony, and rocking out. — Concertmaster Jennifer Cho
Concertmaster Jennifer Cho teaches a masterclass, and demonstrates how to play smoothly.
Says Jenny, “The kids were so attentive and enthusiastic. I think they enjoyed watching a musician up close.”
“Music can be so many different things to a child as they grow up. It can be a fun social activity but also a catalyst for intense personal development and opinions. It can heal and soothe the aches and pains of life but also be a healthy outlet for outrage and energy. How many teaching tools are available that have this kind or reach and impact?”
Asked what she wanted the kids to take away from the experience, she replied: “People so often mistake classical music for something you listen to in the bathtub with a glass of wine as you drift off to sleep. I want these kids to realize that is only a small fraction of what music can provide. I want them to know that you can drive down the freeway with the windows down, blasting Beethoven’s 5th symphony, and rocking out.”
The Educator
The Dougherty Valley High School Wildcats decorated the practice room with welcome signs for the Downer Elementary Dragons.
Patty Drury teaches music at Dougherty Valley High School in San Ramon. She also plays the violin with the California Symphony and it’s through that connection that her high school students have developed a relationship with Downer Elementary School, including pen pal letter exchanges and side-by-side rehearsals with the Sound Minds kids.
“I feel strongly about the great value of the Sound Minds program in its use of music to support at-risk youth,” she says. “I especially like sharing the joy of making music. In this way I still feel like a kid at heart!”
“It is important that such programs exist because they bring positivity, skills, support, opportunity, and pride to the participants — all of which promote well-being and good citizenship, and enable the students to be self-actualized, contributing members of their community. The gift of music is a life enhancement no matter what their ultimate vocation may be.”
“Seeing their faces light up when they grasp a new technique or concept, or the pride they feel when they hear the results of their efforts is immensely rewarding.”—Patty Drury
When asked what is special about side-by-side rehearsals, Patty continues: “When people make music together it is a collaboration of the highest order. It forges a connection through a unified artistic purpose and results in a beautiful collective sound. It truly is an example of ‘the whole is greater than the sum of the parts’. To be amidst the swell of sound which results is thrilling, especially for a student in the early years of their musical development. From what I observed, the Sound Minds students feel very good about the care and interest shown them by the DVHS students. In their DVHS buddies, the Sound Minds kids have another person who cares about them, supports their efforts, models orchestral skills, and enjoys a shared interest in music.”
Scenes from a side-by-side rehearsal: Sound Minds students experience the thrill of playing in a bigger orchestra, with its bigger sound, with their DVHS pen pals and mentors.
The benefits of the relationship are not a one-way street, says Patty. “Collaborating with the Sound Minds program allows the DVHS students to share with the Downer Elementary School musicians something that is very close to their heart. The partnership also allows them to experience what it feels like to give of themselves, sharing something they’ve enjoyed abundantly with those in an under-served community.”
“I believe it broadens their perspective as well, and perhaps makes them more fully appreciate the many advantages, privileges, and opportunities they have had along the way. I can tell from their comments that they genuinely care about the Sound Minds students. They were effusive and animated as they described their side-by-side experience with their Sound Minds buddies.”
And as for what Patty gets out of the experience, “The Sound Minds kids are genuinely eager to learn, so it is especially gratifying to instruct and inspire them. Seeing their faces light up when they grasp a new technique or concept, or the pride they feel when they hear the results of their efforts is immensely rewarding.”
To the Sound Minds kids, Patty Drury was a superstar, and so of course they asked for her autograph at the end of the session. To this student, she wrote: “You are AWESOME! Keep up the great work!”
Be a part of the success! Support music education during the California Symphony’s Crescendo Your Impact fall fundraising campaign and when you give by Oct. 31, 2018, your gift is matched dollar-for-dollar and your impact is DOUBLED.
Your donation supports:
A season of exciting concerts featuring amazing professional musicians and stellar guest artists — all right here in Walnut Creek
Sound Minds — providing intensive music training and transforming the lives and futures of local children in one of the most economically disadvantaged parts of the state
Emerging composer talent through the highly-regarded Young American Composer-in-Residence program
We caught up with longtime California Symphony percussionist Allen Biggs to learn more about his life and work, and why he thinks he has best job in the world.
California Symphony Orchestra: How long have you been playing with the California Symphony?
Allen Biggs: I have been with the California Symphony since the very first concert at the Rheem Theater, many years ago.
CSO: When you’re not playing for us, what do you do?
AB: I play in a band called Jamalicious, and I do theater work for Broadway shows such as the upcoming Bat Out of Hell. I have recorded jingles of all types and I’ve come up with sounds for recordings and live performance—for example, imitating the sound of footsteps on newly fallen snow, or making the sound for the wand in Wicked.
I also teach. About ten years ago I revamped my approach to teaching, and decided I could have a larger impact by teaching music education students at San Francisco state about how to teach percussion, rather than giving individual lessons. I constantly get new ideas from students, about sound sources, and the permeable lines between sound, music and noise. It has been a great success, and many of those students now teach music in San Francisco and the greater Bay Area.
I have also done percussion training for Sound Minds teachers. Adopting the El Sistema approach has been the way to go, and it has been having great success.
Allen in his element. Photo courtesy of The Press Democrat.
CSO: What is it that attracted you to learn percussion?
AB: When I was three years old, my family moved from San Francisco to Northern Spain, and we lived in the Basque region for two years. A musician there made me a drum out of a box, so I could accompany his guitar playing. That moment had a huge impact on my life.
I love how percussion melds my fascination with harmony and non-traditional sounds.
CSO: What’s the one thing would you like readers to better understand about what you do?
AB: Most musicians play the same instrument when they perform, but I often have a new instrument to learn. Sometimes it is a modified drum kit, sometimes I have a huge arsenal of percussion instruments; sometimes I play an object you might not even consider a musical instrument, such as a cardboard box!
Occasionally my job is to simulate a sound, such as footsteps on newly fallen snow, or crickets on a summer evening. And two weeks ago in Germany’s Black Forest, I was recording different streams and springs, for a sound collage.
I have the best job in the world!!!
CSO: What’s the craziest thing that’s ever happened to you in performance?
AB: I was hired to play a roll on a drum to accompany a piece of performance art. I started and a man came out on stage, climbed a ladder with a pair of scissors, and cut a thin string which was suspending a bowling ball.
The bowling ball came hurtling down, and splattered all over the stage — turned out to be a pumpkin painted black!!
October 15, 2018 at 6:00PM | The Bridges Golf Club at 9000 S. Gale Ridge Road in San Ramon
Tickets include:
Hosted wine, drinks and heavy hors d’oeuvres.
A demonstration of exciting percussion instruments, including how Allen Biggs originated the sound of the witch melting in the Broadway musical Wicked.
Hear Donato interview Allen, who grew up playing in Rock and Roll bands in San Francisco and whose passion for percussion has taken him around the world.
Donors of $1k+, FREE All other donors, $35 General public, $50
This event is part of the Crescendo Your Impact fall matching campaign. Donate now and we’ll send you a discount promo code, and the value of your donation will be doubled during our fall matching campaign! Or donate/order tickets by phone at 925.280.2490.
We’re delighted to introduce six new recruits to the California Symphony. The group includes four international artists, two Juilliard School graduates, a student of Itszhak Perlman, and a self-described corgi-whisperer.
Clockwise from top left: Sarena Hsu Giarrusso (Assistant Principal Violin II), Xander Abbe, Sheng-Ching Hsu, Mijung Kim, Junghee Lee, Yulee Seo.
One hot day in June, the California Symphony held a grueling full day of auditions, seeking to fill several positions in the violin section. These fine musicians rose to the challenge and emerged victorious!
Music Director Donato Cabrera is thrilled with the caliber of his newest recruits. “I’m excited for the addition of these wonderful musicians to the California Symphony’s violin section. Sarena, Xander, Sheng-Ching, Junghee, Mijung and Yulee bring an incredible breadth of knowledge and experience to our orchestra, and their individual contibutions really show in the quality of performances you experience in the hall.”
The happy winners! From L to R: Concertmaster Jennifer Cho, Yulee Seo, Music Director Donato Cabrera, Junghee Lee, Sarena Hsu Giarrusso, Principal Violin II Philip Santos, Mujing Kim and Xander Abbe. (The sixth and final audition winner, Sheng-Ching Hsu, had to leave early to catch a flight back to New York.)
Sarena Hsu-Giarrusso — Assistant Principal Second Violin
Sarena Hsu Giarrusso holds a Master of Music in Violin Performance degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She earned her Bachelor of Music degree from the California State University of Sacramento where she graduated with Magna Cum Laude, Phi Kappa Phi honors, and Pi Kappa Lambda music honors.
As an active orchestral player, Sarena currently is a member of the Stockton Symphony. Recent performances include Opera San Jose in child prodigy Alma Deutscher’s opera Cinderella, and with Opera Parallèle in jazz trumpeter Terrence Blanchard’s opera Champion. Sarena has played with the Sacramento Philharmonic, Monterey Symphony, Modesto Symphony, and Napa Symphony. She has also been a member of the North State Symphony and has performed with the Juneau Symphony, Sacramento Chorale Society, Livermore Valley Opera, and at the Mendocino Music Festival.
Sarena has performed throughout North America and Europe in venues that include Berlin Philharmonic Hall, Munich Philharmonic Hall, Smetana Hall in Prague, SF JAZZ center, and Davies Symphony Hall.
“Outside of music, my hidden talent is that I am a corgi-whisperer.”—Sarena Hsu Giarrusso
To learn more about Sarena, please visit her website at www.sarenahsu.com
Xander Abbe
Originally from McLean, VA, Xander Abbe has been a violinist since the age of five, and graduated with a B.A. in music from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. He regularly performs with the California Pops Orchestra, and he is the principal second violin of the Golden State Pops Orchestra in Los Angeles.
Previously, he served as concertmaster of the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony, with which he performed the violin solo in Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade in 2010, and he toured China with New York’s Park Avenue Chamber Symphony in 2011. He is an avid player of string quartets, having participated in chamber music festivals in Budapest, Salzburg, Paris, and Bennington, Vermont.
He lives in San Jose with his husband Murray and their four cats.
“My favorite composer is Franz Schubert. His string quartets are epic.”—Xander Abbe
Sheng-Ching Hsu
Born in Taiwan, Sheng-Ching Hsu was six years old when she made her first public appearance as a violinist and a pianist at the National Cheng-Kung University.
She has performed in venues such as the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Carnegie Hall, Teatro Municipal de Santiago (Chile), Remonstrantse Kerk in Alkmaar (The Netherlands), and National Recital Hall (Taiwan). Last season saw performances in Carnegie Hall, the Bohemian Consulate (New York), and National Recital Hall (Taiwan) and more.
Sheng-Ching has won numerous competitions, including the Flushing Young Artist Competition, and the Asia Pacific Cup Music Competition. In 2001, Sheng-Ching was the youngest participant and winner of the Tainan National Music Competition; she won the composition category a year later. Sheng-Ching’s exceptional talent has led her to stages throughout Asia and attracted the attention of Yamaha and Kawai. She is a scholarship recipient of both companies.
“My favorite composer is J. S. Bach. His music is simple enough for a 10 year old to learn, but is also so complex that you never stop playing and discovering new things for the rest of your life.”—Sheng-Ching Hsu
Teaching is also one of Sheng-Ching’s passions, which has led to her coaching chamber music at Stony Brook University, leading the Great Youth Symphony in Staten Island and serving as both violin and piano instructor at Manhasset School of Music, in addition to her private studio in New York City.
Sheng-Ching studied in the Juilliard Pre-College Division, where she served as the concertmaster of the Pre-College Orchestra, and studied with Itzhak Perlman and Catherine Cho. Sheng-Ching has a Bachelor of Music Degree from the Mannes College of Music and a Master’s Degree from The Juilliard School, with the generous support of the Irene Diamond Graduate Fellowship. She recently earned her Doctor of Musical Arts from SUNY Stony Brook University under the tutelage of Philip Setzer and Arnaud Sussman.
Junghee Lee
Junghee Lee has achieved great success as an active soloist, orchestral and chamber musician. Born in Seoul, South Korea, she received a Bachelor of Music from Yonsei University, her Master of Music Degree from The Juilliard School, and she earned Doctor of Musical Arts from Rutgers University.
In 2013, she was the winner of the International Competition of Romantic Music in New York, and was a winner in the Rutgers Chamber Music Competition.
She has performed at numerous venues, such as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. She has studied with Hyo Kang, Masao Kawasaki, Cho-Liang Lin, Yoon Kwon and Dan Carlson. Currently, she is a section violinist at Santa Cruz Symphony. Passionate about teaching, she also has many students in San Francisco Bay Area.
“My motto? Life is short! Enjoy!”—Junghee Lee
Mijung Kim
A native of Seoul, Korea, began to study the violin at the age of seven. Mijung holds both her B.M. and M.M. degrees in Orchestral Music from Ewha Women’s University and studied the Professional Studies Diploma Program with Professor Wei He at San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
She was a member of Seoul Youth Orchestra for four years and played at Cheonan Philharmonic Orchestra as a first violin from 2010 through 2017. She is also a founding member of the Viva String Quartet.
Throughout her career, she has performed for orchestras and chambers in various countries including Korea, Japan, China and the U.S., and has achieved several awards including the 1st Place in the American Protégé International Piano and String Competition, Manhae Competition and the Youngsan Arthall Chamber Contest.
“My favorite composer is Dmitri Shostakovich because his pieces have energy, message, and dissonance, and above all they are very enjoyable to play.”—Mijung Kim
Yulee Seo
Born in South Korea, violinist Yulee Seo has appeared as a soloist and an active chamber/orchestra player in Korea, Japan, China, Austria, Germany, Poland, Sweden and the USA. She has performed in major venues including Musikverein Vienna, Carnegie Hall, Salzburg Festspielhaus, Disney Hall, Liederhalle, Muza Kawasaki, and Seoul Arts Center.
A winner of numerous competitions, among them the Padova International Music Competition and the Dichler Competition, she played as soloist with Seoul Symphony, Hungarian Kammer, SK Networks Chamber, SNU Modern Ensemble, and Tri Valley Youth Symphony. She had the honor of performing J.S. Bach’s Chaconne at the St. Thomas Church where J.S.Bach worked as Kapellmeister, as part of the Bach Festival in Leipzig. She has played with the Stuttgart Philharmonic (Praktikum), International Attergau Institute Orchestra (principal), Festival Ensemble Stuttgart, Aurora Festival Orchestra, SNU-Mannheim Project Tour, Bucheon Philharmonic, TIMF Ensemble, Seoul Philharmonic, amongst many others.
She is the recipient of numerous scholarships, including those awarded by the Live Music Now Foundation by Yehudi Menuhin, Rotary Club Wiener Neustadt, and Angelika-Prokopp Akademie of the Vienna Philharmonic. In recognition of the last award, she was invited to perform at the Salzburg Festival.
After moving to the United States, she served as concertmaster for the Berkeley Chamber Opera, and was a faculty member at the Fresno Summer Orchestra Academy (FOOSA). She recently joined to the Marin Symphony, California Symphony, and the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra. She maintains private studio in Bay Area, and she coaches Hope Box Charity Youth Orchestra as well as Tri Valley Youth Symphony.
Seo holds degrees from Seoul National University and the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.
Congratulations to all these wonderful musicians: We are so happy you have joined the California Symphony family!
Look out for these new faces on stage at the Lesher Center throughout the 2018–19 season and beyond.
Be a part of the success! Support musical excellence during the California Symphony’s Crescendo Your Impact fall fundraising campaign and when you give by Oct. 31, 2018, your gift is matched dollar-for-dollar and your impact is DOUBLED.
Your donation supports:
A season of exciting concerts featuring amazing professional musicians and stellar guest artists — all right here in Walnut Creek
Sound Minds—providing intensive music training and transforming the lives and futures of local children in one of the most economically disadvantaged parts of the state
Emerging composer talent through the highly-regarded Young American Composer-in-Residence program
Imagine a job interview where you get to say anything you want and your interviewers have no idea who you are or where you’re from. Where your anonymous artistry is left to speak for itself, and where you never see your interviewers’ faces until AFTER you’re offered the job…
We lift the lid on the mysterious world of orchestra auditions and take you behind the scenes of what it’s like to try out for the California Symphony.
For musicians and artists, auditions are a high-stakes, high-stress fact of life: Years—if not decades—of study and practice of your art, distilled into just a few minutes of playing, with every aspect of your performance— accuracy, tone, pitch, tempo, expression—scrutinized by the judging panel.
But what you might not know is that those aspiring to join a professional orchestra like the California Symphony have an unique set of additional circumstances to deal with, thanks to the established practice of blind auditions.
What’s a Blind Audition?
A screen is erected between the candidate and the selection panel and neither one can see the other, hence the audition is “blind.”
Here’s what it looks like from both sides of the screen.
Blind auditions: The selection panel’s view from in front of the screen, and the candidates’ view from behind it.
Why Hold Blind Auditions?
Boston Symphony was the first to try blind auditions in 1952 as a way to tackle rampant nepotism. At that time, the students and friends of existing orchestra members were pretty much guaranteed of winning auditions and securing jobs with the orchestra: people hired the people they knew, and inside connections were everything. Of course, not only was this unfair, it also meant that better candidates might not make the cut, which in turn had implications for the quality of the ensemble. So, for the first time in 1952, candidates were asked to audition behind a screen: Musicians would be judged solely on the merits of their playing.
While the screens helped address favoritism, it was observed that the audition results still skewed male.
“Then they asked candidates to remove their shoes, and that made all the difference,” says California Symphony Executive Director Aubrey Bergauer. “Why? Because the sound of the women’s heeled shoes as they walked on stage unknowingly influenced the panelists.”
As these practices to ensure fairness were adopted, it was found was that the combination of the screen plus shoes removed increased the chances that a woman would advance through preliminary rounds by +50%. Before blind auditions were introduced, male orchestra members outnumbered female musicians almost 2-to-1. As of 2013 data, the ratio of male to female orchestra musicians in professional orchestras is 54% to 46%, and if you look at the California Symphony, we now have more women than men in the orchestra (54% women and 46% men).
Auditioning for the California Symphony
Every spring, auditions are held to fill vacancies and to increase the number of permanent musicians in the California Symphony. The higher the number of permanent orchestra members, the greater the continuity of players from one concert to the next, and the tighter the ensemble. That enables Music Director Donato Cabrera to shape and develop a unique sound with the California Symphony. Recruiting the right people to the right sections is crucial to the artistic integrity of the orchestra.
Last spring, auditions for clarinet and principal timpani were held and we welcomed Stephen Zelinski and Alex Orfaly to the orchestra. This year, the focus was on filling the many vacancies in the violin section, resulting in the largest audition process we have ever handled in a single day.
Here’s how things went down…
Before the Big Day
While the focus of the action and the drama is definitely audition day itself, the process leading up to the day requires a LOT of planning. In fact, reviewing her notes, Operations and Education Director Sunshine Deffner counts 43 separate items to project manage so that everything runs smoothly, including:
—Finding an audition venue and setting the date. In this case, June 18 at Danville Village Theatre.
— Putting together the resume review committee and selection panel.
— Advertising in various media, including international online publications, on our website, and through Facebook.
— Renting pipe and drape for the screens, and hiring the auditions venue itself!
— Music! The principal chair of the violin section recommends the audition pieces, and after getting Maestro’s input, audition excerpts are provided to the short-listed candidates. There can be more than a dozen passages on the audition list, however candidates may only be asked to perform 4 or 5 pieces on the day.
The Candidates
51 musicians applied, and 27 were invited to audition at Danville Village Theatre on June 18. After some last minute cancellations, 25 showed up to audition.
Candidates came to us from right here in the East Bay and from as far afield as Chicago and New York. They included musicians with multiple advanced degrees, people who had performed in major venues around the globe, and even one who had studied under Itzhak Perlman.
The Odds
Up to seven spots in the violin section were up for grabs on this occasion, including the role of Assistant Principal to the Second Violin section, which created unusually favorable odds to win to an audition for a position with a professional orchestra.
Audition Day Arrives!
The seven-person judging panel comprised five tenured Orchestra members (including the principals of three sections), Concertmaster Jennifer Cho, and of course Music Director Donato Cabrera.
The Selection Committee confers with the Union Steward and Orchestra Personnel Manager.
Additionally, a Union Steward and the Orchestra Personnel Manager were present to ensure the rules are observed and to brief the musicians at every stage, while Operations & Education Director Sunshine Deffner was on hand throughout the day to ensure things run smoothly.
To preserve anonimity, candidates are not allowed to speak during their audition, and any questions must be channeled through a California Symphony staff member. While women don’t usually take off their shoes these days, they are encouraged to wear soft-soled shoes, so the sound of heels on the stage don’t give the game away in terms of the candidate’s gender. For each round, the musicians draw lots to determine their audition order, and they are announced to the committee only by their lot number.
On this day, the selection process was scheduled to go for three rounds (preliminaries, semi-finals and finals), with 10 minutes allotted for each candidate in each round. Members of the selection committee cast secret ballots and candidates progress based on a majority vote.
Backstage — the selections for the first round are posted outside the audition hall for the musicians. Instruments, some valued at tens of thousands of dollars, are never far from their owners!
What Sets a Good Audition Apart from a Bad One?
During the course of the day, the committee will hear the same pieces of music played by multiple different candidates. According to Music Director Donato Cabrera, “As audition committee members, we are all hoping to hear everyone who is auditioning make as much music as possible in one of the most unmusical, sterile environments ever devised, the screened audition.” He adds, “On any given day, certain people will be better at this Herculean task than others.”
Making the Cut
Unsuccessful candidates are let go after each round. For those who progress through the rounds, it’s a long day, starting at 9am and wrapping with the announcement of the winners at around 4pm, when they are finally introduced to their future colleagues and warmly welcomed into the California Symphony family.
Sarena Hsu Giarrusso who scored the most prestigious slot available at this year’s auditions, gives her insights into what the process is like from the point of view of the person behind the screen, being judged.
California Symphony: How did you prepare on the day of your audition?
Hsu Giarrusso: I woke up at 6am to make sure I had a few hours to be awake and have enough time to practice/warm up my fingers before heading out to Danville, which is about a 40-minute drive from my house.
CS: Did you recognize anyone at the audition?
Hsu Giarrusso: There were several other candidates that I recognized at the audition! That can always be intimidating since the music community is very close-knit in the Bay Area and at this level, the players tend to all know each other.
CS: How did you feel you during each round? Were you confident?
Hsu Giarrusso: To be honest, I was incredibly nervous as I tend to have stage fright, not to mention seeing many people that I knew at the audition. I think I was also in shock when I drew the #1 slot in every single round! What are the chances?!
CS: Not only did you win the audition, you were awarded Assistant Principal Violin. That’s like being the number 1 draft pick!
Hsu Giarrusso: It took a couple of seconds for me to register that I won the Assistant Principal chair. I knew that the other candidates in the finals round with me were all amazing players, and it’s always difficult not to compare yourself to the competition at the moment!
CS: You performed last month in the season opener, Beethoven and Bernstein. How was your first time playing with the California Symphony?
Hsu Giarrusso: I had an incredible time playing with the Symphony for the very first time. I’m lucky to have an amazing stand partner, Philip [Santos, Principal Violin II], and honored to play with all the other unbelievably talented, professional musicians.
Be a part of the success! Support musical excellence during the California Symphony’s Crescendo Your Impact fall fundraising campaign and when you give by Oct. 31, 2018, your gift is matched dollar-for-dollar and your impact is DOUBLED.
Your donation supports:
A season of exciting concerts featuring amazing professional musicians and stellar guest artists — all right here in Walnut Creek
Sound Minds — providing intensive music training and transforming the lives and futures of local children in one of the most economically disadvantaged parts of the state
Emerging composer talent through the highly-regarded Young American Composer-in-Residence program
Music Director Donato Cabrera and pianist Charlie Albright reprise a celebrated collaboration for the California Symphony’s 2018–19 season opener.
We asked Music Director Donato Cabrera and returning virtuoso Charlie Albright about the upcoming BEETHOVEN & BERNSTEIN concert at the Lesher Center — Sept. 23 at 4PM.
California Symphony: Donato, you intended for the 2018–19 season opener to commemorate Leonard Bernstein’s centennial. Can you tell us why you selected these pieces of music for the program?
Donato Cabrera (DC): The works on this program not only celebrate Bernstein, the composer, but the impact he had on what it meant to program a concert as an American Music Director. The two works composed by Bernstein reflect what I believe to be the most infectious and joyful of his music. I can’t think of more joyous curtain-raiser than his Overture to Candide.
And, what celebration of Bernstein’s music would be complete without a performance of Symphonic Dances from West Side Story! This suite is basically the ‘greatest hits’ from this ever-popular musical.
We also remember Bernstein as being a great pianist and communicator and Charlie Albright’s charismatic approach to music making, paired with one of the most dramatic piano concertos ever written, is a perfect way to remember Bernstein, the pianist. And finally Bernstein, as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, was known as a great interpreter and proponent for music by living composers. Performing Gabriela Lena Frank’s Three American Dances for Orchestra is a way of keeping Bernstein’s mission alive and well.
CS: Why bring Charlie back to Walnut Creek?
DC: Charlie brings an enthusiasm to making music that is infectious and unique. He lives in the moment, whether it’s at the piano or in conversation and, for me, the most inspired and inspirational way to live! I’m looking forward to his interpretation of the Beethoven concerto because I think his personality will be a perfect fit.
“The entire audience stood and applauded until Albright returned for an encore of pianistic wildfire, and then for a second encore — Great Balls of Fire. Embracing a program of American idioms, Albright dispatched this with even more fire, and with glissandos that zippered up and down the keyboard.” — Adam Broner at RepeatPerformances.org on Albright’s 2016 California Symphony debut.
CS: How about you, Charlie? How is it for you, coming back to the California Symphony after your January 2016 debut?
Charlie Albright (CA): I’m absolutely thrilled to be returning to Walnut Creek, playing again with the amazing California Symphony, and working with my good friend and phenomenal artist Maestro Donato Cabrera. The last time we all worked together playing Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue was a blast (as was playing Great Balls of Fire), and I really can’t wait until we all get to share the wonderful Beethoven 3rd Piano Concerto together.
Donato is just a great guy, and working with him is a ton of fun… Especially when we’re working over big root beer floats.
Root beer floats, celebrating the conclusion of the 2016 “American Roots” program, in which Albright performed Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and brought the house down with his Great Balls of Fire encore.
CS: Playing Gershwin last time, you were able to incorporate some improvisation, which is something what you’re particularly known for. This time you’ll be performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.3. How does that compare?
Last time when we performed Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, we were able to take a ton of liberties and incorporate jazzy influences throughout the piece. In the Beethoven, we will be able to do the same… but in a much different way. From the dialogue between the orchestra and the piano to the intense emotions that Beethoven aimed to incorporate, there is a lot of room for putting your own “stamp” on things. One thing I enjoy doing (especially in this piece) is to completely improvise a large cadenza (which was actually pretty commonplace long ago). The neat thing is that I never know how it’ll come out until the concert!
CS: What is something people might be surprised to learn about you?
CA: People sometimes ask what I listen to in the car, fully expecting me to say “Beethoven” or “Chopin” or whatever. Nope! Korean Pop and American Pop music is usually what’s on while I’m cruising down the road. I like to think that I listened to K-pop before it became “cool.” 🙂
CS: We’ve seen the news reports from when you were a toddler, seemingly improvising songs you had heard your mom playing. When did you start playing and when did you realize you wanted to do this for a career?
This is a long one! Long story short, when I was 3 years old, I climbed up on a clunky, junky old upright we had in the house that my parents had gotten at a garage sale. I started picking out “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” by ear, so my mom came in and asked me who had taught me that. I said that no one had, so she noticed I had a knack for the piano, and started me on lessons with several teachers who taught me exclusively by ear.
When I was about 7, a teacher I had told my parents I should have a year of classical training to develop technique (and then I could return to the “fun songs,” which included Great Balls of Fire and the Backstreet Boys!), and referred me to Nancy Adsit. I ended up working with her until leaving for college.
I knew I loved piano, but I also knew that my family wouldn’t be able to support me financially if music didn’t work out. So, joint programs where I could do both music and something else sounded like a great idea. I decided to do the Harvard College/New England Conservatory of Music 5-Year AB/MM Joint Program, where I did Pre-Med and majored in Economics at Harvard, while doing my Masters of Music at NEC. During college, I began performing and touring more and more (I’d often spend each weekend in hotels somewhere emailing in homework, and weekdays on campus going to classes).
Near the end of the program, I knew I had to make a decision. I realized that business and medicine were strong interests of mine, but that music was a passion…and that there is a world of difference between something you’re interested in and something you’re passionate about. I then decided to pursue music and to go to Juilliard to do my post-grad Artist Diploma.
CS: Nothing ever goes as planned. What’s the craziest thing that has ever happened to you during a performance?
Oh, man… there are too many to name! Once, I was performing with an orchestra on the east coast in July (where “hot” and “humid” are huge understatements). The day of the concert, the air conditioning in the concert hall died for the first time ever. Luckily, the musicians in the orchestra agreed to proceed with the concert, so the show could still go on and not have to be cancelled. We were all melting on the stage, though (and the audience was in the hall, too, despite the paper fans that were passed out). Midway through the concert, in the middle of the piece, I swung off my tuxedo jacket onto the floor. It turned out to be an awesome performance… and a memorable one!
This California-born, Grammy award-winning composer was included in the Washington Post’s list of the 35 most significant women composers in history (2017). In case you hadn’t heard of her before, here’s a quick primer.
View from Frank’s Timberstone Mountain Farm, part of the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music (pictured left) and composer Gabriela Lena Frank (pictured right).
Bay Area native Gabriela Lena Frank is an acclaimed composer and one of the leading voices for multiculturalism in classical music today. Her Three Latin-American Dances for Orchestra, whose first movement unabashedly references the music of West Side Story, is featured in the California Symphony’s season opener BEETHOVEN & BERNSTEIN.
1. Composer Gabriela Lena Frank was born in Berkeley in 1972 and currently lives in Boonville (population: 1,200), about 2 hours north of San Francisco.
2. She was born with a moderate to profound hearing loss.
3. Cultural identity is at the center of Frank’s music and it was an important aspect of her own up-bringing: Her father is of Lithuanian/Jewish descent, and her mother is Peruvian, of Chinese descent. Growing up, Frank was exposed to a lot of traditional South American music.
“I firmly believe that only in the United States could a Peruvian-Chinese-Jewish-Lithuanian girl born with significant hearing loss in a hippie town successfully create a life writing string quartets and symphonies.”
4. Frank’s composing talents started when she was young, when her piano teacher encouraged Frank to experiment with mixing styles and to make up little songs on her own. Frank would often include folk music and Andean elements in her improvisations.
5. Coming of age during Gorbachev’s perestroika and the fall of the Berlin Wall during the ’80s, she initially planned to pursue Russian Studies, however a summer music program at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in her final year of high school changed all that.
“It changed my life, because I was exposed to this whole music world I didn’t know existed. This idea of becoming a composer came to me right away. I didn’t know what that meant, or what it was like, but I had written my first piece down on paper, and heard it come to life at the hands of other kids my age and younger, and I was hooked, instantly. Instantly.”
6. Frank joined the music composition program at Rice University and later gained her doctorate at University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theatre & Dance in 2001. While working on her doctorate, Frank began to remember her love for South American folk music, and inspired by composers like the Hungarian Béla Bartók and the Argentinian Alberto Ginastera — who similarly celebrated their own cultures — she started to combine elements of South American music with her classical training.
“I realized that I had found my mission,” Frank explained. “I wanted to, in a very general way, be as mestiza* in my music as I was in my person: I’m multiracial, I’m multicultural, and I think that that’s something deeply American.”
* Mestiza: A woman of mixed race or ethnic ancestry, especially in Lain America, of mixed American Indian and European descent.—Dictionary.com
7. In 2017, she founded the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music, and she offers emerging composers short retreats at her home in Boonville in Mendocino County.
8. She is passionate about teaching young composers the importance of community engagement. Frank herself has volunteered extensively in hospitals and prisons. Recently, she worked with deaf African-American high school students in Detroit who rap in sign language.
9. Frank could be described as a musical anthropologist. Her music blends her South American studies and extensive travel experience with her Peruvian heritage, overlaid with a contemporary American point of view.
“[The Andean influence] changes just because it has to mix and blend with my psyche, which was formed here, was formed in the United States. I’ve spent most of my time here, in my home country. For me, again, I feel like that’s very American. We bring in a lot of cultures, eat it up and make it into something new. We’ve been doing that for centuries.”
An American icon’s best loved works and a returning virtuoso feature in the California Symphony’s 2018–19 season opener—Sunday, September 23, at 4pm, at the Lesher Center in Walnut Creek. Read Scott Foglesong’s program notes here.
PROGRAM: BEETHOVEN & BERNSTEIN
Sunday, September 23, at 4pm, at the Lesher Center in Walnut Creek
Overture to Candide (1956) — by Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990)
Piano Concerto №3 in C Minor, Op. 37 (1803) — by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
Three Latin-American Dances for Orchestra (2003) — by Gabriela Lena Frank (b. 1972)
Symphonic Dances from West Side Story(1961) — by Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990): Overture to Candide (1956)
Chic celebrity he may have been, bellwether of contemporary American life, his patrician features and cultivated New England voice familiar to millions from his many appearances on radio and television. And yet Leonard Bernstein was something of a throwback to an earlier age when to be a musician meant to encompass the whole of the art rather than to segregate oneself into a well-defined specialty. Like those multitudinous kapellmeisters who peppered Europe from the 17th through 19th centuries, Bernstein could do everything. And he could do it all well: composer, conductor, pianist, teacher, writer.
But he didn’t always succeed. Consider his 1956 Broadway “comic operetta” Candide: It bombed, despite having a libretto by no less than Lillian Hellman, despite being directed by no less than Tyrone Guthrie, and despite starring no less than Robert Rounseville and Barbara Cook. Rather than allow his Voltaire-based brainchild to slink away to the Bardo of failed shows, Bernstein kept on revising and rewriting, starting with the 1959 London production and continuing on for decades with an assortment of collaborators. Nor did it all end with Bernstein’s death in 1990. As of 2018 Candide sports as many upgrades as Microsoft Windows.
The Overture has persisted through it all as a popular concert staple. Vivacious, witty, and ever so manic, it whizzes by in a whirlwind of orchestral pyrotechnics. Along the way it serves up a number of tunes from the show, including Glitter and Be Gay — that canary-on-steroids throat-scorcher that some listeners might remember as the theme music for Dick Cavett’s various TV shows.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827): Piano Concerto №3 in C Minor, Op. 37
“String Snapper, Hands on High” was critic Harold C. Schonberg’s title for the Beethoven chapter in The Great Pianists. The description is apt. Easily the most electrifying pianist of his generation, spellbinder of audiences and scourge of piano tuners, Beethoven brought something altogether new to the yet-green art of piano playing: pure animal magnetism. As he aged and his hearing deteriorated along with his overall health, wrong notes began to crowd out the right ones, but his laser-like intensity never faltered.
Piano Concerto №3 in C Minor dates from the beginning of Beethoven’s “Middle Period,” a.k.a. his full artistic maturity, when his output began to resemble a fusillade of musical thunderbolts emanating from the right hand of an over-stimulated Zeus. Music would never be the same after that decade-long bombardment; in fact, one could characterize the ensuing 19th century as a collective attempt to come to grips with, and mop up after, Beethoven’s volcanic Middle Period.
Even if the Third Concerto is putatively in the darkly dramatic key of C Minor, its first movement is quite the journey through a mélange of keys, moods, and affects. Almost right up to the end Beethoven manages to sidestep an easy resolution until absolute necessity dictates a proper wrap-up.
The second-place Adagio, one of the noblest movements in Beethoven’s concertos, could stand alone as an independent work of the Rhapsody variety. Just how far the piano had evolved in the mere ten years since Mozart’s last piano concerto is demonstrated by the middle section, in which a silvery haze from the piano accompanies and supports statements from the winds. Soon enough (too soon, it often seems) the final measures are reached, and in a sudden lurch the masterful third-place Rondo is propelled into action by the solo piano.
Beethoven’s finale has served as the inspiration and model for any number of later composers. Its square-jawed main theme turns out to be the inexhaustible source of the materials that follow, as Beethoven adroitly leaps over every pitfall of a form prone to stupefying tedium due to its periodic repeats. To conclude, Beethoven transforms that originally stern theme into the stuff for a dazzling celebratory frolic.
Gabriela Lena Frank (b. 1972): Three Latin-American Dances for Orchestra (2003)
“Perhaps there are other disciplines that I could have aimed my life at — I seriously considered political science and law — and who knows where those roads would have led? But my sense of self has developed inexorably along the simple principle of storytelling and creating objects of beauty through sound, leaving the earth hopefully a bit better.”
Thus wrote Gabriela Lena Frank, a notably successful practitioner of a profession not particularly noted for successes. Her influences and inspirations reach far beyond her native Berkeley, including Latin America (Peru in particular), Asia, and Eastern Europe. Frank tells us that the first of her Three Latin-American Dances for Orchestra of 2003 opens as an “unabashed tribute to the Symphonic Dances from West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein.” The second-place Highland Harawi evokes the mountainous mysteries of the Andean world, while the concluding Mestizo Waltz lightens the mood by celebrating the kaleidoscopic mestizo music of the South American Pacific coast.
Leonard Bernstein: Symphonic Dances from West Side Story (1961)
Bernstein’s theatrical masterpiece West Side Story, with lyrics by a then-unknown Stephen Sondheim and book by Arthur Laurents, opened to solid, if not overwhelming, success at New York’s Winter Garden Theater on September 26, 1957. A dramatic departure from Broadway norms in its threading of Jerome Robbins’s deeply integrated dance routines throughout an urban update of Shakespeare’s tragedy Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story constitutes a sophisticated hybrid of musical and ballet, the whole empowered by Bernstein’s magnificent, and now iconic, score.
In 1961, four years after the Broadway premiere, Bernstein assembled an orchestral suite that follows the show’s plot mostly via its dance routines, including songs such as “Somewhere,” later fused with “I Have a Love” in the tragic Finale. A point of particular interest: Bernstein’s skillful variants of the ecstatic love song “Maria” in both the “Cha-Cha” and the “Meeting Scene” as Tony and Maria discover each other, followed by an up-tempo variation of the same melodic figure as the nervous Jets dance the “Cool” fugue immediately before their climactic rumble with the Sharks.
Program Annotator Scott Foglesong is the Chair of Musicianship and Music Theory at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and a Contributing Writer and Lecturer for the San Francisco Symphony.
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