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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.”

Jonathan Mueller

An Ohio native, occupying the Virginia Kershner Schneider Viola Chair, violist Jonathan Mueller has been a member of the Louisville Orchestra since 2006 and served as Adjunct Instructor of Viola and Violin at Bellarmine University since 2009. Mr. Mueller finished his Master of Music in Viola Performance at Rice University’s Shepherd School in May of 2006 under the instruction of former Cleveland Quartet Violist, James Dunham. While at the Shepherd School, Mr. Mueller performed in master classes for the Tokyo, American and Mendelssohn Quartets. During his years at Rice, Mueller obtained orchestral experience with the Austin Symphony and the Symphony of Southeast Texas in Beaumont.

Mueller earned the Bachelor of Music degree from Indiana University where he studied with former LA Philharmonic Principal Violist, Alan DeVeritch. While in Indiana, Mueller was a member of the Evansville Philharmonic for two seasons. In 2002, Mr. Mueller attended the National Repertory Orchestra in Breckenridge, Colorado where he had the opportunity to perform Bach’s 6th Brandenburg Concerto. In 2003 and 2004 he attended the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival in Germany, where he had the pleasure of playing under the batons of Neville Mariner, Christoph Eschenbach, Heinrich Schiff and Kurt Masur. Originally from Columbus, Ohio, Mr. Mueller now lives in the Highlands with his wife Krista and their son Everett.

Matthew Karr

Principal Bassoon
Paul D. McDowell Chair 

Matthew Karr received a bachelors degree from Oberlin Conservatory in 1978 and a Masters degree from SUNY at Stonybrook. In 1979 Mr. Karr won the Principal Bassoon position with the Louisville Orchestra. He has also served as Associate Principal Bassoon with the Houston Symphony during the 2000-01 season, taking a one year leave from the Louisville Orchestra.

An active chamber musician, Mr. Karr attended the Marlboro Festival in Vermont in 1989 and 1990. He is a regular guest performer with the Ronen ensemble of Indianapolis (a chamber group made up of members of the Indianapolis Symphony) since 1986. Mr. Karr was a founding member of the Kentucky Center Chamber Players and has performed with the group since its inception in 1983.

Matthew has been featured as soloist with the Louisville Orchestra on seven different ocassions, most notably for the North American premieres of both Michael Daugherty’s “Hells Angels” and Simon Bainbridge’s “At an Uncertain Hour.” He has also performed Concerti by Telemann, Mozart, Haydn and Vivaldi. Matthew has performed as soloist with the Civic Orchestra of Louisville, the Manhattan School of Music Symphony Orchestra, the Orquestra Filarmonic UNAM of Mexico City, and the Indiana University SE Orchestra.

Mr. Karr began teaching at the University of Louisville in 1979. He has served on the faculties of the Music Academy of the West (Santa Barbara CA.), and the Interlochen Arts Camp (Michigan). His principal teachers include Kenneth Moore, Willard Elliot, Arthur Weisberg and Lou Skinner.

Matthew produced a compact disc, “A Bassoonists Voice,” in 1997. The American Record Guide said of this CD: “The Bach Partita is immaculately played… The villa Lobos is given a technically flawless reading… Schumann’s splendid Fantasiestucke is given a fine reading, played on the instrument that is sounds best on.”

The international Double Reed Journal said of the CD: “Matthew Karr has a fine, clean technique, and a lovely lyrical style and vibrato. This is a fine, carefully prepared and beautifully performed CD by a talented young artist.”

Kent Hatteberg + UofL Cardinal Singers

Kent Hatteberg is Director of Choral Activities at the University of Louisville and Artistic Director of the Louisville Chamber Choir. He received the Bachelor of Music degree in piano and voice summa cum laude from the University of Dubuque and the master’s and doctorate in choral conducting from The University of Iowa, where he studied conducting with Don V Moses. Named a Fulbright Scholar in 1990, Dr. Hatteberg studied conducting in Berlin with Uwe Gronostay, conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Choir, and pursued research on the early works of Felix Mendelssohn. He conducted the world premiere of Mendelssohn’s Gloria in Louisville in 1997.

Dr. Hatteberg is active nationally and internationally as a guest-conductor, clinician, and adjudicator, most recently in China, Hungary, Austria, Korea, Spain, and the U.S. He made his international professional conducting debut in 1993 as a guest-conductor with the Nederlands Kamerkoor. He is co-director of the Kentucky Ambassadors of Music, a program that affords students from across the state of Kentucky the opportunity to perform and tour in Europe.

Dr. Hatteberg was named a University of Louisville Faculty Scholar in 2002, KMEA College/University Teacher of the Year in 2004, and was selected for the International Who’s Who in Choral Music in 2007. He received the 2008 KCDA Robert A. Baar Award for choral excellence, the University of Dubuque Career Achievement Award in 2008, and the University of Louisville Distinguished Faculty Award for Outstanding Scholarship, Research, and Creative Activity in the Performing Arts in 2010 and 2015.

University of Louisville Cardinal Singers

 The University of Louisville Cardinal Singers were founded in 1970 as an outreach organization for the University of Louisville, and they continue their outreach mission locally, nationally, and internationally, offering workshops, performing at choral conventions, and competing/performing on the international stage. They have performed in numerous international competitions, festivals, and symposiums, including the 13^th China International Chorus Festival (2016), the Taipei International Choral Festival (2015 and 2010), the Singapore International Choral Festival (2015), the Cuba/United States Choral Symposium in Havana (2012), the Beijing International Choral Festival (2010), and the 7^th World Symposium on Choral Music in Kyoto, Japan (2005). They have also competed or performed in Korea (2015, 2013, 2010, 2009), Vietnam (2013), Germany (2011, 2005, 2004, 2003), Sweden, Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia (2007), and Spain (2006). They have performed at numerous conventions of the National Collegiate Choral Organization (NCCO) and the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), and will perform at the National ACDA Convention in Minneapolis in March 2017.

Soprano I
Maria Franxman
Emily Furnish*
Susanna Gibbons*
Erin Shina
Shannon Winter

Soprano II
Rachel Barber
Megan Easton
Isabella Henley-Brunton
Kelsey Lyvers
Elizabeth Smith

Alto I
Amanda Brow
Callie Cowart
Jill Felkins
Lauren Montgomery
Rowan Schaefer

Alto II
Macy Ellis
Paige Harpring
Amelia Hurt
Hyunjin Kwak*
Jasmine Mattei

Tenor I
Jeffrey Moore
Andrés Salazar
Sam Soto
Justin Walker*
Connor Wilkerson

Tenor II
Kristofer Anderson
Seon Hwan Chu
Dylon Crain
Cory Spalding
Blake Wilson

Baritone
Chris Deaton
Alex Kapp
Ethan James McCollum*
Matt Pennington
Liam Resener

Bass II
Phill Hatton
Sam Ifeacho
Kyle King
Dongkyu Lee*
Nathaniel Mo
Matt Wetmore*

*graduate student

Bob Bernhardt

Bob Bernhardt continues to bring his unique combination of easy style, infectious enthusiasm and wonderful musicianship to the city and orchestra he loves. He’s been a constant presence with the Louisville Orchestra for the past 43 years: as Assistant and Associate Conductor, Principal Guest Conductor with Kentucky Opera, and now for 27 years as the LO’s Principal Pops Conductor.

Photo by Brad Cansler

Photo by O’Neil Arnold

Photo by Brad Cansler

Bernhardt is concurrently in his 10th season as Pops Conductor of the Grand Rapids Symphony in Michigan, and Music Director Emeritus of the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera, where he previously spent 19 seasons as Music Director and is now in his 31st year with the company.

Previously, he was Music Director and conductor of the Tucson Symphony,  Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the Rochester Philharmonic, Music Director of the Amarillo Symphony, and Artistic Director of the Lake Placid Sinfonietta. He was also an Artist-in-Residence at Lee University in Cleveland, TN.

In the past decade or so, Bob has made his conducting debut with the Baltimore Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Houston Symphony, Cincinnati Pops, Louisiana Philharmonic, Las Vegas Philharmonic, Florida Orchestra, Grand Rapids Symphony, Fort Worth Symphony and Santa Barbara Symphony, all of which were rewarded with return engagements.

He has a continuing seventeen-year relationship with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, conducting there several times each season, and as Festival Conductor for their Labor Day festival, Symphony Under the Sky. This year marks the 31st anniversary of his debut with the Boston Pops where he is a frequent guest, being first invited there in 1992 by John Williams.

Recently, he returned to the podiums in Boston, Nashville, Detroit, Edmonton, Vail, Florida, Grand Rapids, Las Vegas, Baltimore, Santa Barbara, Louisiana, Portland ME, and Rochester, and made his debut with the Utah Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, and the New Jersey Symphony..

His professional opera career began with the Birmingham Opera in 1979, two years before he joined the Louisville Orchestra. He worked with Kentucky Opera for 18 consecutive seasons including six as its Principal Guest Conductor. In over 25 years with his own opera company in Chattanooga, he conducted dozens of fully staged productions in a genre he adores.

Born in Rochester, New York, he holds a Masters degree (Honors) from the University of Southern California’s School of Music where he studied with Daniel Lewis. He is also a Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude graduate of Union College in Schenectady, New York where he played four years of varsity soccer and baseball. In his senior year, he was captain of the soccer team, and was selected an Academic All-American baseball player. (While not all the research is in, Bernhardt believes that he is the only conductor in the history of music to be invited to Spring Training with the Kansas City Royals. After four days, they suggested to him a life in music.)

His two children, Alex and Charlotte, live in the Seattle area. He and his wife, Nora, live on Signal Mountain near Chattanooga, TN.

History

Founded in 1937 through the efforts of Dann C. Byck, Sr., and Mary Helen Byck, and other leaders of the business community after Louisville’s Great Flood, the Louisville Philharmonic Society (later renamed the Louisville Orchestra) was at the center of rebuilding the city. The Louisville Orchestra has long been recognized as the cornerstone of the Louisville performing arts community. Robert Whitney was invited to conduct the newly established orchestra, known as the Louisville Philharmonic, and arrived from Chicago that same year.

Only ten years after its formation, Maestro Whitney and Charles Farnsley, the visionary Mayor of Louisville (1948-1953), conceived an adventurous plan to make the commissioning, performance, and recording of new works for orchestra a centerpiece of the Orchestra’s global mission. Internationally recognized composers were approached to create commissioned works to be premiered by the Louisville Orchestra and an exciting series of new works was launched. The classical music world took notice. Wide critical acclaim and a resulting invitation to perform at Carnegie Hall followed on the premiere of a new commission from American composer William Schuman, and the joint commission for choreography. His dance concerto, Judith, was premiered by international dance superstar and choreographer Martha Graham on January 4, 1950. As a result of the success of the commissioning project, the Louisville Orchestra became the first orchestra to create its own record label – First Edition Records. With support from the Rockefeller Foundation, Louisville annually commissioned and recorded up to 52 new compositions from established and student composers worldwide, ultimately creating nearly 150 vinyl recordings (LPs) of more than 450 works by living 20th Century composers that were released globally by subscription in more than 48 countries. It was during this time (1949) that the Philharmonic Society officially changed its name to the Louisville Orchestra.

A full-length feature documentary film titled, Music Makes A City, was released in 2010 documenting this extraordinary achievement.  Details about the film can be found at www.MusicMakesACity.com.

The attention garnered by the early releases brought international attention to the Louisville Orchestra and other acclaimed performances followed: “A Festival of the Arts” at the White House, the Inter-American Music Festival at the Kennedy Center, “Great Orchestras of the World” at Carnegie Hall in 2001, and a tour to Mexico City. In 1981, the ensemble officially augmented to full-time status and in 2001, the Louisville Orchestra received the Leonard Bernstein Award for Excellence in Educational Programming. Reflective of the Orchestra’s commitment to the music of the time, the Louisville Orchestra has earned 19 awards from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) for adventurous programming of contemporary music. Changes in the business community and the recession of the early 2000s brought challenges to the Louisville Orchestra resulting in an administrative reorganization. In 2013, for the first time in decades, the LO balanced its annual budget — emblematic of its current stable footing, community support, and strong leadership.

In 2014, the LO welcomed a new music director, Teddy Abrams, who is reviving and re-engaging the Orchestra’s commitment to contemporary composers. While aware that performance of familiar and important historic classical works is essential to programming, Teddy has dedicated himself to providing a platform for aspiring composers to launch their art and is examining the role of the orchestra to its community and citizens in the 21st century. He views music as the weft of a community’s fabric, as the great equalizer among people, and so considers community-based performances and collaborations as an integral component of an orchestra in our time.

To accomplish this mission, in the 2022/2023 season, the Louisville Orchestra inaugurated its Creators Corps program. The program has received national attention and is the first of its kind, bringing creator artists/composers to live in the Louisville community to get a deeper integration with the orchestra and the city itself and commissioning them to write a composition that typifies that found relationship. The LO also offers a wide variety of concert series to the community, including classical programs featuring world-renowned guest artists, family offerings. and lighter classical and pops performances. In addition to its acclaimed MakingMUSIC program founded in 1940 to bring premiere musical experiences to 4th and 5th grade students, the organization’s educational and community engagement programs have also been greatly expanded. Concerts with interesting themes are provided in neighborhood locations around the city, through its Music without Borders and Once Upon an Orchestra library series. The LO also hosts a R.A.P. School in collaboration with Hhn2l and continues its long-standing relationship with the Heuser Hearing and Language Academy.

2022 also brought a nationally historic opportunity to the Louisville Orchestra.  The organization was awarded $4.3 million dollars by the Kentucky Legislature to create a statewide tour, thus bringing the excellence of the LO to areas that would not normally have access and reimagining the organization as an essential public service, with a focus on community building and promoting more equitable cultural health and well-being throughout the Commonwealth.

The LO is also the resident performing group for Louisville Ballet and Kentucky Opera.