Donna Parkes wins Ford Musician Award

We are so proud of Donna Parkes who won one of 5 Ford Musician Awards from the League of American Orchestras.

Meet the Creators

Teddy Abrams & Louisville Orchestra Announce Inaugural Group of Composers for New “Creators Corps” Residency Program Beginning Sep 1

“If we’re relying on the younger generation to help boost interest in classical music, look no further than Teddy Abrams.” — NPR Music
“A genre-defying orchestra in Louisville? Believe it.” — Time magazine

 (July 2022)—Long praised for visionary thinking about the role of an orchestra in its community, galvanizing Music Director Teddy Abrams and the Louisville Orchestra (LO) are pleased to announce the inaugural group of creators for their newest initiative, the Louisville Orchestra Creators Corps, which transcends traditional commissioning and composer-in-residence paradigms with a radically new model for collaborating with symphony orchestras in the 21st century. The selected creators are Lisa Bielawa, TJ Cole, and Tyler Taylor. Abrams, who was named Conductor of the Year for 2022 by Musical America and begins his eighth season with the orchestra in September, explains:

“I was overwhelmed by the diverse talent of the 186 applicants for the initial year of the LO’s Creators Corps. I believe this reflects the widespread desire for artists to build deeper and more impactful relationships with civic institutions and the communities they represent. With an extraordinarily dedicated selection committee, we were able to find three exceptional creators to join us in Louisville for the 2022-23 Season. Lisa, TJ, and Tyler are examples of consummate 21st-century artist-leaders; their musical talents match their intellects and they all share a remarkable sensitivity to the needs of the world beyond the boundaries of contemporary musical composition. While each creator has a unique background and aesthetic perspective, their collective accomplishments and capabilities will make them a tremendous part of the LO family and the creative fabric of Louisville (and in Tyler’s case, as a Louisvillian, we are honored to offer him the Orchestra’s broad civic platform). This is an historic and immensely consequential moment for the LO, and I can’t wait to begin collaborating with these three outstanding creators.”

Graham Parker, the Louisville Orchestra’s Interim Executive Director, adds:

“The Creators Corps marks a new chapter for innovation and leadership for the Louisville Orchestra, and I am proud that we are demonstrating the most impactful way composers, community leaders, musicians, and civic partners can come together to fundamentally change the conversation around creativity, the creative process, access to and impact from the arts. The entire LO family is dedicated to delivering on this new model and showcasing it across Metro Louisville, the Commonwealth, and the country.”

The Creators Corps, an innovative first-of-its-kind program that puts artists in the community for deeper integration with the orchestra and the city of Louisville, selects three creators in the spring to move to Louisville for the upcoming season and live in the Shelby neighborhood for at least 30 weeks, serving as LO staff members with an annual salary of $40,000, health insurance, housing, and a custom-built studio workspace. Throughout their residencies, the creators will compose new works to be performed by the orchestra and/or in other settings, participate in educational and community engagement activities, and be active, engaged citizens of their neighborhood. The three selected creators will each have a preexisting work performed on the opening night program on September 17. The world premieres of their new works will be performed in Louisville during the 2022/23 season on Classics programs on January 14, March 4, and March 11 – the latter two dates as part of the Festival of American Music – and will appear as well on Music Without Borders programs.

The Creators Corps program has been funded by a three-year, $750,000 grant from The Mellon Foundation and from the generous support of additional individual donors locally and nationally.

About the Creators Corps Composers          

Lisa Bielawa

Composer, producer, and vocalist Lisa Bielawa is a Rome Prize winner in musical composition. She takes inspiration for her work from literary sources and close artistic collaborations. Gramophone reports, “Bielawa is gaining gale force as a composer, churning out impeccably groomed works that at once evoke the layered precision of Vermeer and the conscious recklessness of Jackson Pollock.” Her music has been described as “ruminative, pointillistic and harmonically slightly tart,” by the New York Times, and “fluid and arresting … at once dramatic and probing,” by the San Francisco Chronicle. She is the recipient of the 2017 Music Award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters and a 2020 OPERA America Grant for Female Composers. She was named a William Randolph Hearst Visiting Artist Fellow at the American Antiquarian Society for 2018 and was Artist-in-Residence at Kaufman Music Center in New York for the 2020-2021 season.

Bielawa has established herself as one of today’s leading composers and performers, one who consistently executes work that incorporates community-making as part of her artistic vision. She has created music for public spaces in Lower Manhattan, the banks of the Tiber River in Rome, on the sites of former airfields in Berlin and in San Francisco, and to mark the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall; she composed and produced a twelve-episode, made-for-TV opera that featured over 350 musicians and was filmed in locations across the country; she was a co-founder in 1997 of the MATA Festival, which continues to support young composers; and for five years she was the artistic director of the San Francisco Girls Chorus, bringing the chorus to the NY PHIL BIENNIAL and introducing the young performers to the music of today through numerous premieres and commissions from leading composers. From 2019-2022, Bielawa was the founding Composer-in-Residence and Chief Curator of the Philip Glass Institute (PGI) at The New School’s College of the Performing Arts.

In addition to performing as the vocalist in the Philip Glass Ensemble, Bielawa performs in many of her own works as well as in the music of John Zorn, Anthony Braxton, Michael Gordon, and others. She will have her third residency as a performer/composer at Zorn’s venue The Stone in November 2022. She recently made her orchestral conducting debut leading the Mannes String Orchestra in a special presentation by the Philip Glass Institute, featuring her music, music by Jon Gibson and David T. Little, and Philip Glass’s Symphony No. 3.

Born in San Francisco into a musical family, Lisa Bielawa played the violin and piano, sang, and wrote music from early childhood. She moved to New York two weeks after receiving her B.A. in Literature in 1990 from Yale University and became an active participant in New York musical life.

TJ Cole

TJ Cole (they/she) is an American composer, originally from the suburbs of Atlanta. They have been commissioned by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Carnegie Hall, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Louisville Orchestra, the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, Nashville in Harmony, Intersection, Time For Three, the Sun Valley Summer Symphony, Play On Philly, the Music in May Festival, Music in the Vineyards, the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, One Book One Philadelphia, and the Bakken Trio, among others.

​Their music has been performed by various ensembles, including the Minnesota Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Utah Symphony, Ensemble Connect, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, the Interlochen Arts Academy Orchestra, the Dover Quartet, the Bakken Trio, and the Nebula Ensemble, among others. They have also worked on numerous projects with Time for Three as an orchestrator and arranger, and served as a composer-in-residence at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in 2014.

TJ has also been a singer-songwriter, producer, and engineer in the fully electronic synth-pop band Twin Pixie, which focuses on making music at the intersection of queerness, pop culture, and the supernatural.

TJ has participated in composition programs including the Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute, the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, and the Next Festival of Emerging Artists, and studied with Samuel Adler for a summer at the Freie Universität Berlin. They have won two ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer awards (2014 and 2020), including the Leo Kaplan Award in 2020 for their string sextet ‘Playtime’.

​TJ has also been involved with music-related community outreach projects. They collaborated with bassist Ranaan Meyer as an orchestrator on his project The World We All Deserve Through Music, and with First Person Arts by co-curating and performing in a musical story slam. During a yearlong ArtistYear Fellowship (2016-17), TJ was able to co-run and collaborate in musical performances and songwriting workshops with residents of Project HOME, a Philadelphia-based organization fighting to end chronic homelessness.

​TJ received their Bachelor’s degree in composition from the Curtis Institute of Music, and studied at Interlochen Arts Academy. Their mentors include John Boyle Jr., Jennifer Higdon, David Ludwig, and Richard Danielpour.

​

Tyler Taylor

Tyler Taylor, a Louisville native, is a composer-performer whose work explores the different ways identity can be expressed in musical scenarios. Common among these pieces is a sense of contradiction – sometimes whimsical, sometimes alarming – that comes from the interaction of diverse musical layers. This expression of contradiction likely comes from his being a person of mixed race; being raised on hip hop and R&B while inheriting a European tradition of Western art music as his primary form of musical expression in spite of having little or no other cultural ties to Europe; and pursuing a career in a field that generally lacks representation of his demographic.

Tyler has recently held fellowships at the National Orchestra Institute and the Bowdoin International Music Festival. During these residencies, he had several works performed, including two premieres, and worked alongside Marin Alsop, Derek Bermel, Andreia Pinto Correia, and many other distinguished artists. His work has been recognized by awards including the BMI Student Composition Award (2019) and the Howard Hanson Ensemble Prize (2017, 2016), and has been featured during the College Orchestra Directors Association Convention (2022), the University of Louisville Annual New Music Festival (2018, 2017, 2016) and the Midwest Composers Symposium (2019). He has recently been commissioned by the Washington and Lee University Orchestra, the Chicago Composers Orchestra, the Albany Symphony Contemporary Ensemble, the Youth Performing Arts School, the Louisville Orchestra, the Indiana University New Music Ensemble, and the Indiana Bandmasters Association.

In addition to his composition, Tyler is an avid performer of contemporary music, playing horn in many of his own works and those by his colleagues. He has honed his skill as a contemporary performer in groups such as the IU New Music Ensemble, Eastman’s Musica Nova, Ossia New Music, the University of Louisville New Music Ensemble, and more.

Tyler holds degrees from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music (Doctor of Music in Composition, with minors in music theory and horn performance), the Eastman School of Music (Master of Music in Composition and Horn), and the University of Louisville (Bachelor of Music in Composition). His principal composition teachers include Tansy Davies, Aaron Travers, Don Freund, David Liptak, Robert Morris, Krzysztof Wołek, and Steve Rouse. His principal horn teachers include  Emily Britton, Dale Clevenger, Jeff Nelsen, W. Peter Kurau, Bruce Heim, Steve Causey, and Diana Morgen.

Creators Corps Works in 2022-23 Classics Season

Sep 17
“Swing, Swagger and Sway”
Teddy Abrams, conductor
Tessa Lark, violin
Wynton MARSALIS: Violin Concerto in D
Tyler TAYLOR: Facades
Lisa BIELAWA: Drama/Self-Pity
TJ COLE: Megalopolis
STRAVINSKY: Symphony in Three Movements

Jan 14
“Fifths Of Beethoven”
Teddy Abrams, conductor & piano
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 5, “Emperor”
World premiere commissioned from the Louisville Orchestra Creators Corps
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 5

March 4
“Festival Of American Music: Journeys of Faith”
Teddy Abrams, conductor
Louisville Chamber Choir
World premiere commissioned from the Louisville Orchestra Creators Corps
Olga NEUWIRTH: Masaot/Clocks Without Hands
BERNSTEIN: Symphony No. 3, “Kaddish”

March 11
“Festival Of American Music: The Literary Influence”
Teddy Abrams, conductor
Sebastian Chang, piano
Joel THOMPSON: To Awaken the Sleeper
World premiere commissioned from the Louisville Orchestra Creators Corps
BERNSTEIN: Symphony No. 2, “The Age of Anxiety”

2022-23 SEASON ANNOUNCEMENT

A VIDEO MESSAGE FROM TEDDY ABRAMS

LOUISVILLE ORCHESTRA ANNOUNCES 2022-23 SEASON CONCERTS NOW ON SALE
Highlights include world premiere works by the new Creators Corps, Beethoven’s Fifth, and a performance by Broadway star KELLI O’HARA

(Louisville KY… Apr 19, 2022)  Now in its ninth season under the dynamic and inspiring leadership of Music Director Teddy Abrams, the Louisville Orchestra is proud to announce a season of creativity in 2022-23.  Highlights of the season include new works by composers from the newly launched Creators Corps, the eighth annual Festival of American Music featuring works by the American cultural hero Leonard Bernstein, premieres and commissioned works by important voices of today’s composers including the 2021 Grawemeyer Award-winning composer Olga Neuwirth, acclaimed composers Joel Thompson, Thomas Adés, Mason Bates and Christopher Cerrone. Teddy Abrams performs as pianist and conductor for Ludwig van Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto in a program where he also conducts Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, plus performances by Avery Fisher Career Grant winner TESSA LARK and a long-awaited return to the stage of the momentous Symphony No. 7 by Anton Bruckner will engage the classical music lovers of Louisville. Headlining the Pops Series is Grammy Award-winning Broadway and Hollywood star KELLI O’HARA. Principal Pops Conductor Bob Bernhardt has lined up a season packed with entertainment including vintage films with some of the finest music scores are on display; the exceptional voice of CAPATHIA JENKINS in “Aretha: A Tribute,” and the Emmy-Award winning vocal group THE TEXAS TENORS who have amassed a huge fan base worldwide.

5 Different Concert Series

Each year the Louisville Orchestra plays a wide array of public, education, and outreach performances. With more than 100 performances annually by the orchestra or its ensembles, the LO is central to life in Louisville. We announce programs and dates for five different concert series for the 2022-23 Season that are currently available for sale with discounted multi-concert subscription packages available to the public. Complete programming and descriptions of individual concerts are available at www.LouisvilleOrchestra.org.

CLASSICS SERIES – A 9-concert series created by Music Director Teddy Abrams, the Classics Series presents an inspiring slate of exceptional music featuring the annual FESTIVAL OF AMERICAN MUSIC, a concert with Teddy at the piano performing Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto plus conducting Beethoven’s Fifth, and the massive grand finale of the Symphony No. 7 by Anton Bruckner – a piece that’s been missing from our programs for over 20 years. The newly launched Creators Corps will have new works premiered at concerts starting in January 2023. The Creators Corps is a unique residency program that brings three composers to live and work in Louisville as a way to enhance our thriving creative community with music that is made in our city for our citizens. Acclaimed guest performers on the Classics Series include violinist TESSA LARK, LO’s own principal horn JON GUSTELY, piano virtuosos TIMO ANDRES and SEBASTIAN CHANG, rising star violinist ALEXI KENNEY, and baritone DASHON BURTON. 9-concert packages from $207. 5-concert packages from $130. That’s $26 per concert!

POPS SERIES – Six concert series under the direction of Principal Pops Conductor Bob Bernhardt. Opening with a performance by KELLI O’HARA, and featuring a tribute concert to Aretha Franklin, our traditional Holiday Pops, a look back at the music of the 80s, and closing with the massively entertaining TEXAS TENORS. 6-concert packages from $156.

COFFEE SERIES – Six-concert matinee series offering a sampling of the music from the Classics Series. Concerts are presented on Fridays at 11AM at the Kentucky Center. 6-concert packages from $108.

FAMILY SERIES — Three-concert series presented at Old Forester’s Paristown Hall (NEW location). Programs are centered on storytelling and music to entertain and educate children ages 4 to 12 years. Affordable and fun! 3-concerts for $42 (adult) and $27 (child)

NIGHTLITES at the Ogle – Four-concert series presented at the Ogle Center at Indiana University Southeast in New Albany. Popular classical music prices at $90 for all 4 events.

LINK TO VIEW OUR 2022-23 SEASON and SUBSCRIPTION OPTIONS

READ MORE FROM LOUISVILLE PUBLIC MEDIA

Launch of Creators Corps

Teddy Abrams & Louisville Orchestra Establish New “Creators Corps” Residency Program for Composers

Long praised for visionary thinking about the role of an orchestra in its community, galvanizing Music Director Teddy Abrams and the Louisville Orchestra embark in the 2022-23 season on their newest initiative, the Louisville Orchestra Creators Corps, completely transcending traditional commissioning and composer-in-residence paradigms with a radically new model for collaborating with symphony orchestras in the 21st century. Each year, the orchestra will select three creators to move to Louisville and live in the Shelby Park neighborhood for at least 30 weeks, serving as staff members with an annual salary of $40,000, health insurance, provided housing, and a custom-built studio workspace. Creators with experience beyond the Western classical tradition are encouraged to apply, and those participating in the program will have the option of re-applying/renewing for one or two additional years. Throughout their residencies, they will compose new works to be performed by the orchestra, participate in educational and community engagement activities, and be active, engaged citizens of their neighborhood. The program has been funded by a three-year, $750,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and individual donors. Applications are due by May 2, and the three finalists will be publicly announced in mid-June. The residency begins on September 1.

Abrams, who was named Conductor of the Year for 2022 by Musical America and is now in his eighth season with the orchestra, explains:

“The LO Creators Corps is the most ambitious large-scale project the Orchestra has undertaken since I arrived in Louisville. The concept developed from four critical lines of inquiry: how can we establish Louisville as a global center of creative music-making, how can we reposition composers as visible leaders with public service responsibilities, how can we provide our city with a direct and deep connection to the art-making process, and how can we offer a 21st-century response to the LO’s historic First Edition commissioning and recording project? The resulting concept will be a grand experiment – a first amongst American orchestras – to employ (and house!) multiple, full-time composers (called creators to represent all musical genres) who will regularly present new music for both the Orchestra and the community beyond, serving as creative artists committed to helping our city grow and flourish. I like the idea of deploying artists for a real purpose, getting them involved in a way that involves a deeper collective vision, like the Peace Corps.”

Composer Angélica Negrón, a member of the Creators Corps Advisory Panel which will review all the applications, adds:

“The LO Creators Corps is a uniquely special opportunity for composers to have a meaningful and sustainable relationship with a wonderful orchestra that’s deeply committed to not only supporting new music but also to making this new music a vital part of their community. To have the chance to imagine, create and develop with such a substantial and strong support system is a rare gift for music makers – particularly in the context of orchestras – that could have a huge impact on a composer’s career, and I’m excited to hear the music and conversations that this new initiative sparks.”

The Creators Corps initiative builds on the Louisville Orchestra’s earliest history and personality as an institution. Starting in 1947, the orchestra began an ambitious and unprecedented project of commissioning new orchestral works from composers around the world. At a time when even the most prestigious orchestras were offering few works by living composers, the Louisville Orchestra commissioned and premiered 21 works in just three seasons. With the launch of First Edition Recordings in 1955, the LO became the first American orchestra to own a recording label when it received a Rockefeller grant of $500,000 to commission, record, and premiere music by living composers. Known as a pioneer in new music ever since, the orchestra has commissioned more than 150 works from luminary composers including Aaron Copland, William Schuman, Paul Hindemith, Darius Milhaud, Jacques Ibert, Heitor Villa-Lobos, and a host of others. From 1947 to the 1977-78 season, no other orchestra equaled the impact of the Louisville Orchestra in bringing to life the works of contemporary composers. The New York Philharmonic came closest with a total of 110 works created compared to the Louisville Orchestra’s 136 commissions. During the same period, the Boston Symphony Orchestra premiered 87 commissions, the Houston Symphony 81, the American Composer’s Orchestra 76, and the Chicago Symphony 75. A survey of premieres starting in 1958 shows that the Louisville Orchestra’s active advocacy of the works of living composers stimulated a dramatic worldwide increase in support that continues to this day.

Though conceived as a successor project to First Edition Records, the Creators Corps also represents a giant leap forward. The initiative asks the three invited creators to act as artist-leaders, developing meaningful relationships with neighborhood residents and embodying the orchestra’s conviction that music is a fundamental part of civic life. Responsibilities will include creating orchestral works to be featured in the LO’s annual Festival of American Music; community-based projects; education initiatives; collaboration with performers of diverse genres and backgrounds; curating portions of orchestral programs at Old Forester’s Paristown Hall; and participating in public activities in the Shelby Park neighborhood and throughout Louisville.

The Louisville Orchestra has assembled an Advisory and Selection Committee to determine each year’s three finalists from an open application process. The committee will search for creators from a variety of backgrounds who have distinctive artistic voices, are dedicated to community and educational outreach, and care deeply about grounding their musical practice in social engagement. The ideal applicants will be early or mid-career creators with bold ideas about writing for and interacting with an orchestra. They must be civic-minded and interested in utilizing music as a vehicle for community change. Finally, the creators must be outgoing, social, and self-directed, with the desire to initiate projects and be active in neighborhood life. Creators with wide-ranging experiences and training are encouraged, but applicants must have the ability to compose for a symphony orchestra or be willing to partner with other creators with those skills.

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer says:

“Our Louisville Orchestra’s tradition as an innovator and an international center for new works takes another leap forward with the launch of the Creators Corps. Our Orchestra benefits from exciting new music, and Shelby Park and our entire community benefit from the educational and community events. Hats off to Teddy Abrams and the entire Louisville Orchestra team for their efforts to show how a community can shape the arts, and how the arts can shape a community.”

Graham Parker, interim Executive Director of the Louisville Orchestra, concludes:

“The Louisville Orchestra has always led the national conversation about the role of composers in the shaping of artistic and civic impact. The new Creators Corps program is the next bold chapter of that story, providing our community and audiences with consistent relationships with leading creative voices of the day, as well as providing a stable and deep opportunity for a composer to hone their voice and understand how their music can bring the community together. This is the only way forward.”

Application Process

Artists can apply and view details at  https://louisvilleorchestra.org/creators-corps.

Important Dates & Deadlines

• March 23, 2022: Applications open
• May 2, 2022: Application deadline
• End of May 2022: Notification
• August 2022: Selected residents begin relocating to Louisville
• September 1, 2022: Residency period begins

For questions, please contact Jacob Gotlib, Creative Neighborhood Residency Program Manager, at jgotlib@louisvilleorchestra.org or call 502.587.8681.

2019-20 Season Announced

LINK TO SUBSCRIBE NOW

The Louisville Orchestra is proud to announce the 2019-2020 Season, the sixth under the galvanizing leadership of Music Director Teddy Abrams. The season concerts will feature innovative local and world premieres, collaboration with a renowned Gospel choir, a number of guest appearances by emerging stars in the orchestra world, and the culmination of a moving and powerful exhibit of violins rescued from the Holocaust. Reconnecting the orchestra with its remarkable past while reestablishing it as the cornerstone of today’s vibrant Louisville music scene, Abrams’s “tireless advocacy and community outreach” is, Listen magazine notes, “putting the history-rich Louisville Orchestra – and classical music – back on the map.” As Time magazine says simply: “A genre-defying orchestra in Louisville? Believe it. The locals do.”

Abrams will lead the LO in an opening weekend of concerts welcoming popular violinist ANNE AKIKO MEYERS  (Sep 27/28). Both musicians, together with Teddy Abrams were named to the “19 FOR 19: ARTISTS TO WATCH” list by New York Classical Radio WQXR.  Exploring the power of gospel music and the dynamic creativity of contemporary pop music in the “Fifth Annual Festival of American Music” (Feb 22 & March 13-14), the LO collaborates with the gospel choir of St. Stephen’s Baptist Church for Duke Ellington’s Three Black Kings. The city-wide exhibition Violins Of Hope culminates in a performance From the Diary of Anne Frank by Michael Tilson Thomas (Oct 25-26). Featuring violins rescued from the Holocaust, Violins Of Hope includes an exhibit, lectures, school programs and other concerts in and around Louisville in fall 2019. In addition to Tilson Thomas, contemporary composers Emmy-Award winner Garth Neustadter, Ljova, Anna Clyne, and Missy Mazzoli will have works performed with Louisville Orchestra premieres throughout the concert season.

The LO performs timeless masterworks of the orchestral repertory including the “New World Symphony” of Antonin Dvorak (Sep 28), La Mer by French composer Claude Debussy (Oct 11/12), Three Black Kings by Duke Ellington (Feb 22), and the monumental Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi (Apr 25). In “Teddy Talks Mahler” (Jan 17-18), Abrams continues his series of illuminating deconstructions of famous works of orchestral music and puts the spotlight on the contrasting messages of despair and ecstasy of the Symphony No. 5 by Gustav Mahler.

Three notable guest conductors step up to the LO podium to make their first appearances locally. Vinay Parameswaran, the assistant conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra, leads the LO on the journey of Don Quixote by Richard Strauss (Nov 22-23). Roderick Cox, winner of the 2018 Solti Conducting Fellowship (Jan 31/Feb 1), and Rei Hotoda, Music Director of the Fresno Symphony (Apr 1) each bring a strong and individual perspective to their work and will each offer a Louisville premiere and an orchestral masterwork.

Looking ahead to the new season, Music Director Teddy Abrams explains:

                “Each program on the 2019-20 season of the Louisville Orchestra is inspired by a single concept. We have a season-wide mission to combine cutting-edge projects with storytelling that connects with our shared human (and local) experiences. Even the traditional repertoire we’re presenting fits this narrative emphasis, from Dvorak’s 9th Symphony (mysteriously inspired by Mildred Hill, a musicologist from Louisville) to our annual “TeddyTalks,” a sub-textual breakdown of a musical work, in this case, the Symphony No. 5 by Gustav Mahler.
“Our ardent commitment to living composers continues to grow next season with attention to diversity amongst the composers of our contemporary works. Our thematic programs include works based on “Water” with the music of Garth Neustadter and John Luther Adams, “Hope and History” featuring the inspirational “Violins of Hope” in Michael Tilson Thomas’ From the Diary of Anne Frank and “Gospel” featuring our local St. Stephen Choir, which is considered one of the greatest Gospel choirs in the United States.
“Some of our upcoming major projects include season-wide premieres of collaborations with dance, theater, and visual artists. We want the Louisville Orchestra to be a central forum for creativity in programming, which is something our wonderful community values deeply. We owe our audiences unique experiences that represent the best of Louisville’s cultural capabilities, and my hope is that this next season offers programs that inspire and unify the broadest of audiences possible in our town.”

A FULL SEASON OF PERFORMANCES

In addition to the Classics Series, the orchestra plays an eight-concert Friday morning Coffee Series with music selected from the Classics Series concerts. Fans of the orchestra’s five-concert Pops Series will be treated to the music of movie blockbusters including Dr. Zhivago, Moon River, and Gone With the Wind in an evening of “Hollywood Hits” (Sep 21). Under the direction of Principal Pops Conductor Bob Bernhardt, this set of concerts also includes our “Holiday Pops” (Nov 30), a tribute to the great music of Motown in “Dancing In The Streets” (Jan 25), and an evening with piano man Michael Cavanaugh as he plays and sings the songs of Elton John, Paul McCartney, the Eagles and more. The dazzling talents of Arrival from Sweden bring their “Tribute to ABBA” to Louisville for one thrilling night only on March 25, 2020.

The three-concert LO Family Series brings the joy of music to our youngsters with three concerts designed just for the 3- to 12-year-old set. Performances kick-off with a “Superheroes” theme (Oct 5 at the Brown Theatre) with all children invited to dress in costume as their favorite hero. Our annual holiday concert (Nov 30 at the Kentucky Center) is fun for the entire family; and reprising their performance from the 2017-18 season, Squallis Puppeteers join the LO for “Peter & The Wolf” (March 21 at the Brown Theatre) featuring those bigger than life puppets that make this Louisville-based company renowned for their creativity.

SEASON TICKET PACKAGES NOW AVAILABLE

Discounted season ticket packages are now available by subscription. Renewing subscribers will be receiving invoices with “same seat” privileges in their mailboxes by the end of next week. Both renewals and new subscribers are welcome to call or order online to secure tickets for this dynamic concert season. Tickets for individual concerts in the 2019-2020 Season will be available on August 1, 2019.

Weekdays 9AM to 5PM
CALL:  502.587.8681  or Walk-in: Louisville Orchestra at 620 W. Main St., downtown Louisville

LINK TO SUBSCRIBE NOW. 

Teddy Abrams Signs 5-Year Contract

For Immediate Release
3.20.2019

THE FUTURE OF THE LOUISVILLE ORCHESTRA
Five Year Contract for Music Director Teddy Abrams

Louisville, KY (3.20.2019)… The Louisville Orchestra Board of Directors, together with CEO, Robert Massey, are pleased to announce an unprecedented 5-year contract to extend the term of Teddy Abrams as Music Director. This extension from the usual 3-year contract renewal shows the organization’s confidence in the artistic direction and creative vision of the young conductor.

“We’re thrilled to make this extraordinary commitment to engaging Teddy until the 2024-2025 Season. His vision for the renaissance of the arts for our orchestra and our community is unique in the world,“ says John P. Malloy, President of the LO Board of Directors.

Abrams was named Music Director of the Louisville Orchestra in 2014, the youngest conductor ever named to that position with a major orchestra. He’s become a popular figure throughout Louisville while developing a national reputation for innovation and community building.

Since stepping onto the Louisville Orchestra podium, Abrams has built an impressive list of accomplishments including the release of “All In,” the LO’s first album in nearly 30 years, which reached #1 on the Classical Billboard chart. He has re-invigorated the orchestra’s historic leadership in commissioning new works and presenting world premieres. His own award-winning compositions have brought a diverse new audience to the Louisville Orchestra including The Greatest: Muhammad Ali, Unified Field, Kentucky Royal Fanfare (which was performed for Charles, Prince of Wales) and others. One of his first priorities was establishing a new concert series that took the orchestra into Louisville neighborhoods for performances in the Music Without Borders Series to expand the orchestra’s community impact. He also launched a 2-concert “Festival of American Music,” a musical challenge to audiences to expand the definition of concert music through an exploration of the American influences on the music of all genres.

Artistic collaboration has become a focus for Abrams’s work. Several of his most notable collaborators have been indie-rocker Jim James, Grammy-Award winning fiddler Michael Cleveland, folk singer-songwriter Will “Bonnie Prince Billy” Oldham, choreographers Adam Hoagland and Andrea Schermoly, filmmakers Dennis Scholl and Owsley Brown III, and many more. Abrams’s efforts to bring the Louisville arts community into collaborative projects have resulted in exceptional performances featuring individuals and local organizations including Louisville Ballet, University of Louisville musicians from the choral and jazz programs, artists from the Kentucky College of Art and Design, independent local artists such as rapper Jecorey “1200” Arthur, folk fiddler Scott Moore, folk cellist Ben Sollee, jazz singer Carly Johnson and others.

A passionate advocate for music education and mentoring, Abrams regularly conducts in-school masterclasses at middle and high schools, launched a select program to personally support serious high school students in their music pursuits, revitalized the Louisville Orchestra’s 78-year-old MakingMUSIC program of education concerts for elementary school children, crafted a recycling-creativity project for youngsters to make musical instruments from “trash” known as “Landfill Orchestra,” and is currently working with the Detroit-based Sphinx Organization (dedicated to transforming lives through the power of diversity in the arts) to mentor two talented young conductors.

In addition to his activities as Music Director for the Louisville Orchestra, Abrams is Music Director for the Britt Festival, a summer concert series based in Jacksonville, Oregon. He is in demand as a guest conductor and has appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, the National Orchestra, and the orchestras in Houston, Milwaukee, Vancouver, Colorado, Phoenix and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. He served as assistant conductor of the Detroit Symphony from 2012 to 2014. From 2008 to 2011, Abrams was the Conducting Fellow and Assistant Conductor of the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, serving under his long-time mentor Michael Tilson Thomas.

An accomplished pianist and clarinetist, Abrams has appeared as soloist in Louisville and across the country. He also collaborates with a wide variety of musicians as keyboardist for both classical, indie-rock and pop concerts. He has held residencies at the La Mortella music festival in Ischia, Italy, and at the American Academy in Berlin. Abrams is a proud alumnus of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra and graduated from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music with a bachelor of music degree, having studied piano with Paul Hersh.  Read his full bio HERE. Find photos of Teddy HERE

Gabriel Lefkowitz

American violinist and conductor Gabriel Lefkowitz has captivated audiences throughout the U.S. and abroad in an unusually dynamic and multi-faceted career as a performer, creator, and educator.

He concurrently serves as Concertmaster and Resident Conductor of The Louisville Orchestra and Artistic Director & Conductor of the Louisville Civic Orchestra and is a highly sought-after guest concertmaster, concerto soloist, conductor, chamber musician, and teacher. A progressive musician of the 21st century, Gabriel is also a commercially successful composer who has written the music for several video games, composed several full-length albums of original music (one of which has over a million views on YouTube), and was the featured violin soloist on the soundtrack for the film Harriet (Focus Features).

Violinist

During his 6-year tenure as Concertmaster of the Louisville Orchestra so far, Gabriel has led nearly 200 different programs from the concertmaster chair and has performed the violin concerti of Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Bach, Vivaldi, and others. In October 2019, Gabriel performed on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon with LO music director Teddy Abrams, Jim James, and several LO colleagues to promote the orchestra’s new album The Order of Nature.

In 2011, at the age of 23, Gabriel became one of the youngest concertmasters of a professional orchestra in the U.S. when he was appointed Concertmaster of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra. During his 6-year tenure with KSO, Gabriel performed the concerti of Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Korngold, Mozart (No. 3), and others. He also founded the KSO’s still beloved and wildly successful Concertmaster Series (then called Gabriel Lefkowitz & Friends) at which he performed over 30 recitals (16 different programs with no overlapping repertoire) over the course of 5 seasons.

Recent guest engagements include concerto performances of Brahms (Brevard Philharmonic), Stravinsky (Monteux School and Music Festival Orchestra), Florence Price No. 1 (McConnell Arts Center Chamber Orchestra – the Ohio premiere of this work), Mozart No. 4 (Cape Cod Chamber Orchestra), Mozart No. 5 (Oak Ridge Symphony), Philip Glass No. 1 (Ocala Symphony), and performing as guest concertmaster with the Brevard Music Center, Britt Festival Orchestra, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, and Nu Deco Ensemble.

Conductor

As Artistic Director and conductor of the Louisville Civic Orchestra since 2020, Gabriel has led the organization to new artistic heights and civic distinction for its high-quality performances, diverse programming and audience engagement, and fundraising/outreach initiatives on behalf of homeless shelters, cancer support networks, healthcare workers, and more. This season, Gabriel and the LCO perform music by Beethoven, Schubert, Price, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Bernstein, Barber, Copland, Gershwin, and more.

At the Louisville Orchestra, Gabriel has become a familiar and engaging podium presence, having conducted multiple concert cycles featuring repertoire ranging from Baroque concerti to Holiday Pops, Romantic symphonies to Disney Classics, and more. This season, he conducts three such programs with the LO: Disney in Concert: Magical Music from the Movies!, Happy Holidays with The Louisville Orchestra, and Love at First Listen (feat. music by Bach, Tyler Taylor, and Schubert). Gabriel has become especially beloved by LO audiences for his ability to perform as both conductor and conductor-soloist within the same program. Gabriel served as Cover Conductor of the LO during the 2021-2022 season, stepping in twice on short notice to the acclaim of audiences and musician colleagues alike.

Passionate about inspiring the next generation of musicians, Gabriel has conducted/coached the youth orchestras of Boston, Taiwan, Knoxville, Central Kentucky, and Juilliard’s Pre-College division, as well as multiple educational clinics around the U.S. and abroad.

Other professional conducting appearances include the University of Louisville’s 2021 Festival of New Music, the NouLou Chamber Players, the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, the Dubuque Festival Orchestra, and the Oak Ridge Community Orchestra, of which he was Music Director during the 2014-2015 season.

Composer

Under the alias Green Forge Studio Gabriel has composed the soundtracks for multiple video games, including the recent releases Aces & Adventures and Pop-Up Dungeon. He also created music for the multi-million dollar theme resort Ancient Lore Village in East Tennessee. His orchestral music has been performed by the Knoxville and Owensboro Symphony Orchestras as well as the Dubuque Festival Orchestra. He has released four original albums (and one Christmas album!) to YouTube, and his music has been enjoyed by over a million users on the platform, in addition to being licensed by a multitude of content creators, podcasters, and Twitch streamers.

Gabriel holds a Bachelor’s degree from Columbia University where he studied music and economics and a Masters from The Juilliard School where he studied violin with Joel Smirnoff and Masao Kawasaki. He has studied conducting with pedagogues including Michael Jinbo, Markand Thakar, Larry Rachleff, David Effron, and others.

(Updated August 2024)

Rach & Bartok Program Notes

PROGRAM NOTES FOR LOUISVILLE ORCHESTRA 2022-2023,
Classics 08 – Rach and Bartók – 1 April 2023
By Laurie Shulman 8 2023
First North American Serial Rights Only

Isidora Žebeljan, who died three and a half years ago at only 53, was the leading Serbian composer of modern times. She was best known for her operas and incidental music for theater.

Hum Away, Hum Away, Strings! originated as a duo for violin and piano. It is a free fantasy –very free – on themes from Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute. Žebeljan called it a metamorphosis, and the changes are considerable. Listeners are unlikely to hear any of the birdcatcher Papageno’s tuneful airs. Žebeljan opens with dense, angry chords, proceeding to inquisitive, tentative music. The piece gathers momentum, embarking on a sequence of energetic – even manic – passages inspired by dance rhythms. It is virtuosic writing.

Béla Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 2. Composed for the great Hungarian violinist Zoltán Székely, this concerto dates from the period right before the Second World War. Bartók had begun incorporating more diatonic folk melodies and Eastern European rhythmic patterns into his music, tempering the lean angularity of his works from the late 1920s and early 1930s. He creates a fantastical world in this concerto. Its lyricism is heart-wrenching in its beauty. That aspect, plus the folk elements he adapts, contrast strikingly with the brutality of life. They are all blended in this concerto: a complex amalgam of dreams, longing, and bitter reality.

Audiences probably associate Sergei Rachmaninoff most closely with works for piano solo or piano and orchestra. One should not overlook his skill in handling a large orchestra on its own. In fact, his Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op.44 Symphony shows Rachmaninoff to have grown enormously as a master orchestrator. The work is also quite bold in formal innovations. The Third Symphony is limited to three movements; however, Rachmaninoff incorporates a lively scherzando section into the slow movement. This telescoping of traditional four-movement symphonic form adds to the Third Symphony’s structural economy. So many characteristics that endear Rachmaninoff to us are present in spades: brilliant coloristic strokes worthy of his older contemporary Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, memorable melodies, and a profound sense of Russian melancholy that tears at the heartstrings at the same time that it evokes a bygone era.

Hum away, hum away, strings (2013)
Isidora Žebeljan
Born 27 September 27, 1967 in Belgrade, Serbia
Died there 29 September, 2020

Isidora Žebeljan, who died three and a half years ago at only 53, was the leading Serbian composer of modern times. Her opera Zora D, a co-production between Opera Studio Nederland and the Vienna Chamber Opera, was premiered in Amsterdam in June 2003. It was the first Serbian opera to be produced outside Serbia since before World War II, and the first to be premiered outside the country.

Žebeljan was educated at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, where her principal teacher was Vlastimir Trajkovic, who had studied with the French master Olivier Messiaen. Žebeljan eventually joined the Faculty of Music as a Professor of Composition. She was best known for her operas and incidental music for theater.

Hum Away, Hum Away Strings! originated as a duo for violin and piano. It is a free fantasy on themes from Mozart’s The Magic Flute. Žebeljan called it a metamorphosis, and the changes are considerable. Listeners are unlikely to hear any of Papageno’s tuneful airs. Žebeljan opens with dense, angry chords, proceeding to inquisitive, tentative music. The piece gathers momentum, embarking on a sequence of energetic – even manic – passages inspired by dance rhythms. It is virtuosic writing.

The Bregenzer Festspiele [Austria] commissioned Hum Away, Hum Away Strings! and premiered it in July 2013.

The score calls for piccolo, flute, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, piano and strings.

Violin Concerto No.2
Béla Bartók
Born 25 March, 1881 in Nagy Szent Miklós, Transylvania
Died 26 September, 1945 in New York City

Request from a friend

The violin was special to Bartók, not only because of its important place in Hungarian musical culture, but also because of his own felicitous associations with three brilliant Hungarian violinists:  Jelly d’Arányi (who inspired him to write both Violin Sonatas), Joseph Szigeti (for whom he composed the First Violin Rhapsody and Contrasts) and Zoltán Székely (the dedicatee of the Second Violin Rhapsody and the Second Concerto).

Both Szigeti and Székely are closely connected to the history of the Second Violin Concerto, but Székely was primary impetus. During the 1920s and 1930s, when he was first violinist of the renowned Hungarian String Quartet, he and Bartók concertized extensively together.  Their friendship was founded on profound mutual artistic respect, and it was almost inevitable that Székely would ask the composer to write a violin concerto for him.

Bartók’s custom was to study the music of others before embarking on a major new work of a specific genre.  He wrote to his publisher, Universal, in September 1936 requesting some violin concerto scores.  Universal sent him works by Weill, Szymanowski, and Berg.  Filled with musical ideas, Bartók was receptive to Székely’s commission, which was offered to him in 1937.

Sneaky variations

Initially he proposed variations for violin and orchestra to Székely because he was preoccupied with variation form at the time.  The violinist was not enthused, preferring a more traditional three-movement concerto.  On the surface, Bartók accommodated his friend; the first movement is indeed in sonata form.  But he had the last word:  the central slow movement is a set of variations, and the third movement is a free variation on the material presented in the first.  These components add up to a giant arch form, another architectural device that fascinated Bartók during the 1930s.

Political clouds gather on the horizon

These were troubled times throughout Europe, and Bartók was particularly pained by the rise of Nazism and its long-range implications for his beloved Hungary.  In 1937 the German Reichs-Musikkammer had sent him a questionnaire intended to verify his “Aryan descent” in order that his music might continue to be performed in Germany.  He reacted with disgust and responded with satire, one of several factors that contributed to his sensitive political situation and eventual emigration to the United States.  With Hitler’s Anschluss (11-13 March, 1938), Bartók’s worst fears began to be realized.

Although this was the very time he was at work on the Violin Concerto — he began sketching the concerto in mid-1936 and completed the score on the last day of 1938 — the piece is no reflection of his dark presentiments.  Indeed, its predominantly diatonic language bespeaks a less strident Bartók than the works of the late 1920s and early 1930s.  Modal and folk influences, specifically the use of a verbunkos [traditional Hungarian recruiting dance] rhythm in the first movement, add pungency to the more triadic harmonic vocabulary.  Also noteworthy in this regard is Bartók’s use of quarter-tones just before the cadenza.

Musicians’ corner

The concerto opens tranquilly, with a distinctive Hungarian flavor, especially at the cadences.  Bartók wastes little time establishing the spectacular, even flamboyant character of this concerto, whose moods shift dramatically.  Very rapid, flashy sections alternate with unexpected slowdowns where the brakes get slammed on.  Two themes are developed in alternation, in a sort of rondo technique; the first recurs (with a meter change) in the finale.  Pizzicato strings and harp brighten the vivid color palette.

A pastoral Andante tranquillo, one of Bartók’s loveliest movements, follows.  This time the celesta is the featured member of the colorful orchestra.  A darker middle section is but one of the variation techniques the composer employs to retain our interest in his development of the lovely song theme.  He uses the percussion section with great ingenuity.

The finale makes for fascinating listening because of the masterful way in which Bartók re-introduces the two themes of the first movement.  His orchestra is heavier, particularly in the brass section.  Rhythmic vitality drives this movement; that is the most distinct difference from the opening movement, which it otherwise resembles in almost every structural aspect.

Two endings: concession for a virtuoso

In a curious anomaly, the published score includes two endings Bartók composed for the finale.  One is a brilliant solo vehicle; the other concludes without the soloist.  Szekely requested the virtuoso version to permit the work to end “like a concerto, not a symphony.”  Not surprisingly, most violinists opt for the more demanding route.

Bartók’s score calls for two flutes (second doubling piccolo), two oboes (second doubling English horn), two clarinets (second doubling bass clarinet), two bassoons (second doubling contrabassoon), four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, triangle, side drums, bass drum, cymbals, tam-tam, celesta, harp, solo violin and strings.

Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 44
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Born 1 April, 1873 in Oneg, Novgorod District, Russia
Died 28 March, 1943 in Beverly Hills, California

Sergei Rachmaninoff was the paramount Russian composer-pianist of the last century. A brilliant performer with unusually large hands, Rachmaninoff was remarkably successful as a piano virtuoso on both sides of the Atlantic, and used his concert tours as an opportunity to promote his original compositions. His Second and Third Piano Concerti and Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini are among the most frequently performed works for piano and orchestra. His recordings of his own solo piano music are legendary. What intermediate student pianist hasn’t tackled the portentous C-sharp minor Prelude?

That stated, Rachmaninoff’s orchestral compositions have not fared so well in the concert hall. The exceptions are the popular Second Symphony, with its irresistible and melodic slow movement, and the Symphonic Dances, which make occasional appearances on symphony programs. But what of Rachmaninoff’s tone poems, choral works, and two other symphonies?

They are, for the most part, curiosities: infrequently revived, and too often compared unfavorably with the more popular piano concerti.

Context and criticism

Rachmaninoff was himself baffled that the Third Symphony did not immediately gain acclaim and acceptance in the repertoire. He was firmly convinced that the work was one of his strongest compositions, and retained that conviction even after several unfavorable reviews.

The principal criticisms leveled at the symphony were excessive length and lack of originality. Had Rachmaninoff already said everything he had to say? By 1936, the year that the Third Symphony was first performed, Shostakovich had risked his career with the opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, and Gershwin had fused jazz with the opera house in Porgy and Bess.  In America, Aaron Copland, Roy Harris and Samuel Barber were all trying their hand at first symphonies, wrestling with a musical world that was changing as rapidly as the political situation in Europe.

Rachmaninoff the reflective

By contrast, Rachmaninoff seemed to have stepped back in time. He remained untouched by the Second Viennese School — Arnold Schoenberg and his disciples — and seemed to stay pyschologically rooted in a Russia that had vanished with the 1917 revolution. His Third Symphony, begun in Switzerland in summer 1935 and completed the following spring, has been interpreted as bitterly nostalgic for a vanished world. What then is to beckon us toward this work? We will do well to remember that Mozart was not an innovator, but a preserver of an existing style, which he brought to unprecedented heights. Richard Strauss took a distinctly backward glance with Der Rosenkavalier and favored a distinctly reflective musical language for the balance of his long career. Musical genius does not necessarily go hand-in-hand with trailblazing.

Tchaikovsky’s influence

Although the symphony consists of three movements, Rachmaninoff encloses a hefty scherzo within the slow movement, which effectively expands the overall concept to a four movement work. The Third is indebted to Tchaikovsky in its use of a ‘motto.’ You will hear it in the opening bars: a slow seesaw between and among three adjacent pitches, in a pianissimo quartet of two clarinets, horn and cello, before full orchestra bursts forth. That quiet motto recurs in several places throughout the first movement. Rachmaninoff opens the slow movement with it – a luscious duet for solo horn with harp accompaniment – and it appears in the finale as well.

There is no shortage of glorious themes. Rachmaninoff gives the main melody to the oboes, who introduce rhythmically fluid music with seamless metric switches between 2/4 and 3/4. The second theme is a glorious song for the cellos in E major, with gently syncopated commentary from the woodwinds.

The development includes some surprisingly Wagnerian touches, for example a duet for bassoons and clarinet in thirds that sounds as if it were lifted out of Siegfried  – but only momentarily. Rachmaninoff’s agitated buildup to the climax is almost Elgarian, with occasional hints of Sibelius in the persistent use of parallel thirds. Clearly Rachmaninoff had been listening to the music of his contemporaries in the twenty years since his last Symphony. His own ear for color is flawless, with delicious details such as a passage for piccolo, bassoon, and xylophone.

A muted horn solo with the motto heralds the recapitulation, which seems like a foretaste of the late Symphonic Dances. Everything is slightly altered, though there are constant references to the motto and to the two principal themes. Though there is considerable chromatic wandering (the second theme recurs in A-flat major!), Rachmaninoff remains firmly rooted in tonality, finding his experimentation in color such as octave doubling in contrasting timbres and divided strings. The motto closes the movement.

Slow movement and finale

A duet for horn with harp accompaniment opens with Adagio ma non troppo. It sets the textural stage for a series of solos, beginning with one for concertmaster. Harp and chords in the horn section are essential to the sense of endless melody spun by the violins. A series of woodwind solos ensues before the acceleration to the central scherzo, which abounds in whirlwind metric switches between duple and triple meter. Once the slow tempo returns, so too do the cameo solos.  Pizzicato strings close the movement with a final statement of the motto.

Rachmaninoff’s finale is Russian festival dance music, recalling the exuberance of works like Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances from the opera Prince Igor and Stravinsky’s Shrovetide Fair in Petrushka. This rhythmically crisp and driven movement is pure Rachmaninoff, however, now in the bright key of A major. One of its highlights is a brilliant fugue that starts in the first violins, working its way downward through the strings with each entrance. Countersubjects come from the woodwinds and brass. Once again, Rachmaninoff employs frequent metric switches, and the writing is virtuosic throughout. A few moments of relaxation provide respite, but we know we are headed for a brilliant close and the Third Symphony does not disappoint.

An English advocate

The first performance of the Third Symphony took place in Philadelphia on 6 November, 1936 with Leopold Stokowski conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra. Poor reviews prompted Rachmaninoff to revise it, as a result of which two versions were published, in 1937 and 1939. The 1939 version is usually performed. The English conductor Sir Henry Wood became a champion of this work in Britain, leading performances with the Liverpool Philharmonic Society and for a BBC Symphony Orchestra broadcast. “The work impresses me as being of the true Russian romantic school,” he was quoted as saying. “One cannot get away from the beauty and melodic line of the themes and their logical development.” Wood’s observations hold true today.

When Rachmaninoff began work on this symphony, he had not written for orchestra alone (that is, without solo piano) in twenty-five years. He had learned a great deal. His use of expanded percussion is imaginative and effective; listen in particular for triangle, xylophone, and celesta.  He understood how to make much out of little, reintroducing a narrow-range three-note motive – the motto of the opening measures – throughout the symphony. And he left his ‘signature’ chant — the Roman Catholic Dies irae — in the finale, tempering that movement’s rhythmic exuberance with the reference to the Requiem mass that colors so many of his compositions.

The score calls for two flutes, piccolo, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, side drum, triangle, tam tam, xylophone, two harps, celesta and strings.

BELOW IS A DIFFERENT NOTE FOR TOLEDO – LOTS OF DPULICATION BUT MAYBE MATERIAL FOR MINI-NOTE

We begin with the Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op.44. While we may associate Rachmaninoff most closely with works for piano solo or piano and orchestra, we must not overlook his skill in handling a large orchestra without benefit of the contrast that the keyboard affords. In fact, the Third Symphony shows Rachmaninoff to have grown enormously as a master orchestrator.

He was surprisingly bold in formal innovations. The Third Symphony has three movements, but incorporates a lively scherzando section into the slow movement. This telescoping of traditional form adds to a sense of the Third Symphony’s structural economy. The characteristics that endear Rachmaninoff’s music to us are present in spades: brilliant coloristic strokes worthy of his older contemporary Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, memorable melodies, and a profound sense of Russian melancholy that tears at the heartstrings at the same time that it evokes a bygone era.

The first movement is especially broad in its mood and style. It opens quietly, with a chant-like theme for muted cello, horns and clarinets that recalls the Russian Orthodox church. This brief gesture recurs as a motto in all three movements. Full orchestra erupts in bar 5, switching from Lento to Allegro moderato and launching a well-crafted sonata form.

Rachmaninoff’s second theme is classic: rich and unforgettable. The cellos sound as natural and melodious as a Stephen Foster song, but still tinged with that mournful Russian quality. Theirs is one of the tunes you will leave the Peristyle humming tonight. Listeners may detect a resemblance to the American folk song ‘O Shenandoah;’ in fact, there is also a thematic connection to a traditional Russian wedding song. The development section derives almost entirely from the first orchestral theme, emphasizing the tight formal organization of the movement.

Rachmaninoff’s slow movement opens with the chant-like motto, first stated by horn with harp accompaniment. Short solos for many members of the orchestra dot this movement, which manages to calm down after its skittish and exciting central scherzo.

The finale shifts the mood completely, now as upbeat as anything Rachmaninoff composed. Crisp electric rhythms and boundless energy drive the music. Yet another gorgeous second theme emerges, now based on a yearning ascending arpeggio. A brilliant extended fugato is a centerpiece of the finale, serving as a lead-in for the Dies irae, which recurs so often in Rachmaninoff’s music. Shadows of funeral music cannot suppress high spirits, however, and the symphony closes in a blaze of optimism.

Live Concerts in a Season of “New Beginnings”

Introducing the 2021-22 Season of “NEW BEGINNINGS”

Teddy Abrams and Louisville Orchestra Focus on “New Beginnings” in 2021-22, Celebrating Composers of Color, Women Composers, Latin American Music, and Numerous World Premieres, Including Abrams’s New Piano Concerto Performed by Yuja Wang

Now in its eighth season under the inspired and inspiring leadership of galvanizing young Music Director Teddy Abrams, the Louisville Orchestra celebrates diverse musical voices in 2021-22, with works by composers of color and women composers of three centuries; a three-part festival of Latin American music featuring world premieres by Angélica Negrón and Dafnis Prieto; and the first concert in a multi-season series exploring Black and Jewish music. A major highlight of the season is the worldpremiere of Abrams’s Piano Concerto, written for and featuring acclaimed pianist Yuja Wang. The season also features the world premiere of a Louisville Orchestra commission from rising young Louisville composer KiMani Bridges, a new edition of the popular “Teddy Talks…” series deconstructing Schubert’s “Great” Symphony No. 9, world-class guest conductors and soloists, and much more. Bob Bernhardt, Principal Pops Conductor, celebrates his 40th season with the Louisville Orchestra this year. He launches the 5-concert Pops Series with “Music of Prohibition” and celebrates his anniversary with a concert of music by John Williams. Attendance at all performances in the 2021-22 season is subject to currently recommended COVID-19 safety protocols.

Season tickets are now on sale for the Classics, Pops, Family, and Coffee Concert Series.

LINK TO ALL UPCOMING EVENTS

LINK TO GET SEASON TICKETS

All dates, programs, and artists are subject to change

Spinning Disks

LO’S LONG PLAYING LEGACY OF CREATING NEW MUSIC

Part 1 of a 3 part series by Bill Doolittle

Teddy Abrams with Sam Hodges 2019

On the day Teddy Abrams was introduced as the new music director of the Louisville Orchestra in 2014 he said a big part of his vision for the symphony would be to rekindle a legacy of the past — the Louisville Orchestra’s pioneering efforts in commissioning, performing and recording new musical works by contemporary composers.

Sam Hodges, a lifelong Louisville Orchestra fan, was listening.

Hodges, who just turned 92 and is still attending Louisville Orchestra concerts, had been around in the era when the orchestra and conductor Robert Whitney staked out an important spot on the musical map by doing what no other American symphony was doing – commissioning new works, bringing the composers to Louisville to conduct their pieces, then recording those compositions on the exciting new musical medium of high-fidelity Long Playing (LP) records.

That all began in 1947, and the effort gained the young Louisville Orchestra (founded just a decade before) excellent national recognition leading to stories in New York newspapers and live appearances on the NBC and CBS radio networks. Soon the symphony’s pioneering musical efforts were being broadcast around the world on the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe.

The orchestra began with four to five new commissions each season, specified to be about 10-12 minutes in length.

Overture length. By 1952 it had signed a 12-record deal with Columbia Records. Then in 1954 the Louisville Orchestra hit the jackpot when it won a $400,000 Rockefeller Foundation grant. It was soon premiering a new work each week, in 46-week seasons. It was a separate series from its regular subscription concert schedule. The new compositions were recorded on its own First Edition label.

Robert Whitney with First Edition Record

“The way they’d do it,” recalls Hodges, “is the orchestra would play a new work each week, as well as repeating the three previous weeks compositions, then record usually three or four at one time,” recalls Hodges.

Hodges was always a fan, beginning as a music major at the University of Louisville and through a career as a public school teacher and instructor of music at U of L. Hodges attended nearly every concert, and sometimes was on hand on Saturdays when the orchestra recorded. “That was one of the best things about it,” says Hodges. “You’d hear the new composition, then hear it again for three weeks before they recorded it – so you’d get to know the music, really learn it.

“Then in a few weeks, another new record would arrive in the mail.”

Long after the 1950’s, Teddy Abrams was growing up in the San Francisco Bay area and preparing for a musical career when he came across some of the Louisville Orchestra recordings and became an avid listener.

So on day one in Louisville, Abrams was talking about his personal memories of those Louisville Orchestra recordings. And on day two (or not that long afterward) Hodges decided to give Abrams his entire collection of Louisville Orchestra records and CDs – a complete set containing over 300 new compositions by American and International writing stars.

“I was thinking Teddy Abrams would be the perfect person to have those recordings right at his elbow for research – and maybe even re-program some of them,” says Hodges. “He was very appreciative.

“And,” Hodges smiles, “maybe a little at a loss for words. Which isn’t like Teddy!”

But not at a loss for long.

Since his inaugural season with Louisville Orchestra in 2014, Abrams has fueled his fervor for supporting contemporary composers (himself included) and contemporary performers. The first piece of music on his first Classics concert was his own, Overture in Sonata Form, which was not a commission, nor a world premiere, but was dedicated to both the Louisville Orchestra and the Britt Classical Festival where the work did make its debut.

In 2016, Abrams wrote a song for the funeral of Louisville’s own Muhammad Ali—and that gave a start to a major orchestral presentation celebrating Ali’s life. Admirers of Ali loved the show, and so did critics. For Abram’s first album with the orchestra, the conductor/ composer collaborated with singer Storm Large on a mix-set of new and established music called All-In was released in 2017. In February 2019, the LO debuted Rachel Grimes’ The Way Forth, which is also now a movie.

Taking a different direction, Abrams and the created a piece called “Song of the River,” commissioned by Louisville arts patron Nana Lampton. Both Lampton and Abrams have offices on Main Street with views of the mile-wide Ohio River, and that majestic visage became the inspiration for “Song of the River” featuring singer Morgan James.

Most recently, the Teddy and the LO released an album called The Order of Nature: A Song Cycle, by Abrams and Jim James.

And there’s more on the way, Abrams promises.

“The Louisville Orchestra has a focus on recording that is unique and special about our town, our orchestra, and can’t be found anywhere else,” says Abrams.

“We’re focused on projects that we’ve created or commissioned, relationships with artists that we’ve developed and nobody else has — and documenting that so we can not only share the quality of our orchestra but share the energy of our community. That’s what recording is to us right now.”

NEXT in the series, we travel back in time to discover the origins of the Louisville Orchestra’s magical association with contemporary composers and new music in “The Mayor and the Musician.”