P R O G R A M N O T E S

MICHAEL MORGANMUSIC DIRECTOR

FRIDAY, NOV 17 8PMPARAMOUNT THEATREOAKLAND

because it conveyed my thought – that is to say, a violin solo soaring above the rigid form of an old symphony – and then because the title was less banal than those which were proposed to me. The cries and criticisms have died or will die down; the title will remain.”

Slavonic Dance No. 7 in C minor, Op. 46Slavonic Dance No. 8 in A-flat major, Op. 72Slavonic Dance No. 8 in G minor, Op. 46ANTONIN DVORÁK (1841-1904)

“He is decidedly a talented person and, besides that, a poor man!” Brahms said of Dvorák. Brahms

recommended that his publisher, Fritz Simrock, issue Dvorák’s Moravian Duets. He did, and when they sold extremely well, Simrock encouraged Dvorák to write a collection of nationalistic dances, as Brahms had done with his Hungarian Dances in 1869. Dvorák agreed, and in less than two months composed the first set of eight Slavonic Dances. He wrote the first dance on March 18, 1878. Originally for piano duet, Dvorák finished orchestrating them by August. Simrock paid him 300 marks for the set and made a bundle from their sales. When Dvorák wrote the second set of dances in 1886, the fee was 3000 marks. Dvorák promised these dances “will bring the house down. They sound like the very Devil!”

Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897)

In March of 1879, the University of Breslau awarded Brahms the honorary degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Brahms was going to send his thanks on a postcard, but a friend reminded him that the University expected his gratitude to take some musical form.

Brahms responded with the Academic Festival Overture, which he called “a rollicking potpourri of student songs à la Suppé.” Indeed, the work is based on four traditional German student songs: Wir hatten gebauet ein stattliches Haus (We had built a stately house), Der Landesvater (Father of the land), Was kommt dort von der Höh (What comes from afar) and Gaudeamus igitur (Therefore let us rejoice).

The Overture was first performed at the University of Breslau on January 4, 1881, with the new Doctor himself conducting. Biographer Karl Geiringer describes the music as “the lively, ‘occasional’ composition of a genius. To take it too seriously would not be fair to Brahms…. The hand of the master is revealed in the way the Overture grows from the mysteriously soft, almost somber opening, to the pealing jubilation of the concluding Gaudeamus igitur, played by the full orchestra. The composer succeeded in investing each of the songs with a specially effective instrumental garb.”

~ Notes by Charley Samson, copyright 2017

BRAHMS

DVORÁK

LOVE & LOSS

JONAH M. GALLAGHER Vocare(Generously supported by the Patrick and Shirley Campbell Foundation) I. Tenacious Endeavors I. An Honest Prayer III. Echoes of Dance

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550 I. Molto allegro II. Andante III. Minuet: Allegretto IV. Allegro assai

I N T E R M I S S I O N

GIOACHINO ROSSINI Stabat Mater I. Stabat Mater dolorosa – Chorus and soloists II. Cujus animam – Tenor III. Quis est homo – Soprano and mezzo-soprano IV. Pro peccatis – Bass V. Eja, Mater – Bass recitative and chorus VI. Sancta Mater – Soloists VII. Fac ut portem – Mezzo-soprano VIII. Inflammatus – Soprano and chorus IX. Quando corpus morietur – Chorus and soloists X. In sempiterna saecula. Amen – Chorus

with Shawnette Sulker, soprano Betany Coffland, mezzo-soprano Thomas Glenn, tenor Aaron Sorensen, bass

Oakland Symphony Chorus Lynne Morrow, Chorus Director

Season Media Sponsors: East Bay Express, 7x7.The 2017/18 season of Oakland Symphony is generously funded in part by the East Bay

Community Foundation; Clarence E. Heller Charitable Foundation; Women’s PhilharmonicAdvocacy; William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; the Rea Charitable Trust;

the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency; and the Oakland City Counciland the City of Oakland’s Cultural Funding Program.

Major support generously provided by The Wallace Foundation.

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O A K L A N D S Y M P H O N Y O R C H E S T R A O A K L A N D S Y M P H O N Y C H O R U S R O S T E R

O A K L A N D S Y M P H O N Y C H O R U S

C O M P O S E R

FIRST VIOLINTerrie Baune,

ConcertmasterVivian Warkentin,

Asst. ConcertmasterNatasha Makhijani,

Assoc. ConcertmasterKristina AndersonPatrice MayCarla PicchiEllen GronningenDeborah Spangler

SECOND VIOLINLiana Bérubé,

PrincipalDavid Cheng,

Asst. PrincipalCandace SandersonSharon CalonicoBaker PeeplesAdrienne DuckworthSergi Goldman-HullRobert Donehew

VIOLAMargaret Titchener,

PrincipalBetsy London,

Asst. PrincipalPatricia WhaleyStephanie Railsback

CELLODaniel Reiter,

PrincipalJoseph Hébert,

Asst. PrincipalMichelle KwonRebecca Roudman

BASSPatrick McCarthy,

PrincipalAndy Butler,

Asst. PrincipalCarl Stanley

FLUTEAlice Lenaghan,

PrincipalStacey Pelinka

OBOEAndrea Plesnarski,

PrincipalRobin May

CLARINETDiane Maltester,

PrincipalGinger Kroft

BASSOONDeborah Kramer,

Principal

HORNMeredith Brown,

PrincipalAlicia TelfordAlex Camphouse

TRUMPETWilliam Harvey,

PrincipalLeonard Ott

TROMBONETom Hornig,

PrincipalSteve Trapani

TIMPANITyler Mack,

Principal

PERCUSSIONWard Spangler,

Principal

PERSONNEL MANAGERCraig McAmis

LIBRARIANPaul Rhodes

RECORDING ENGINEERTom Johnson,

Johnson Digital

Michael Morgan, Music Director & ConductorBryan Nies, Associate Conductor

Lynne Morrow, Chorus Director

The Oakland Symphony Chorus enriches our community through high quality musical

performances and educational workshops that raise appreciation and understanding of choral music, while providing opportunities for people who love to sing. Established in 1958, Oakland Symphony Chorus is one of the East Bay’s finest choirs, and a premier resource for continuing education in the choral arts. In June 2015, the chorus travelled to Budapest, Györ, Vienna, and Prague, for its first international tour. The Chorus performs regularly with its partners, Oakland Symphony and Oakland Symphony Youth Orchestra, as well as with a variety of other Bay Area orchestras. The Chorus will embark on its second tour in June 2018, giving three concerts in Italy.

SOPRANOJenny AdlerRoberta AltmanPaula AparicioBarbara BerryLisa Braver MossMayotis CephasSusan ChanIsa ChuNancy CotteralRachel DevittMelanie EncisoJane EnglishJulia GorgoneCarol HenriSusan HernandezCarol HudsonMary-Jo Knight #Susan LambertJessen LangleySacha ManiarLinda Manzeck #Alice McCain #Laura MillerLinda MrnakDonna OliverErica PeckZoe ReinigerElizabeth Robertson*

Abbie RockwellNanci Schneidinger*Jasmine StrangeDanielle TatarianLynda TesilloElizabeth WeingartenGia WhiteJennifer WildeMarianne Wolf

ALTOEva Arce #Rebekah Bob-WaksbergKarenlynne BradleyHelane CarpenterMegan ColumbusRena DavidAntonia DavidVirginia FrederickLisa FriedmanHannah GinsborgSusanna HallidayMargaret HeggNatasha Hull-RichterKaren IvyAnn-Marie JensenAlexandra JosefskiShirley LindleyLinda Lipner

Theresa LoNancy LowenthalSusanna MillerMary OrinSharon PaisnerSylvia ParkerWendy PeiSumire RabbDhira RamakrishnanMelanie ReevesAnnie ShunMonique StevensonCynthia Webb-

BeckfordLoni Williams*Siqing Yi

TENORLaVora CopleyKevin CousinsSwen ErvinJames HaslerBertie JacksonBernie Juat #Bryan KnauberCurtis LawlerArnold LeeShakir MackeyRobert McCree

Barbara MillerJerry ReynoldsSteven SchultzJim Stenson *Dat TranDaniella Urban*Ted Vorster

BASSCharles Crane*Sheldon GreeneKarl Malamud-RoamJohn Manzeck #Mark MichaudDane MooreMichael Nathanson*Joseph OrrKenneth SaltzstineLeo ScurryMark SlagleCalvin WallRobert Wehrman

* Section Leader# Chorus Advisory

Committee Member

Phot

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Jonah M. Gallagher (b. 1993) is a composition Master's degree student at the San Francisco

Conservatory of Music, born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. His accomplishments began when he won second place in the Illinois Music Education Association composition contest for his Music for Hinged Door. He has also been selected as a finalist for the Biola University (where he earned his Bachelor's degree) composition contest for the past four years, and won first prize in 2016 for his Symphony No. 1 and third place in 2015 for his Five Poems of Beautiful Things. Additionally, he won the Biola Professional Ensemble Recording Competition in 2014 and 2015. He was also one of the featured composers in the CFAMC Conference at Biola in 2014, where Paul Barnes performed his Ad Infinitum. Most recently, he was awarded 2nd place in the Frank Robert Abell Young Composer Competition for his string quartet, Wandering Companionless: Pale for Weariness. His music is a fusion of minimalism and thematic development with programmatic background to create stories in new and exciting ways. He hopes to continue composing for concert music in addition to his hobbies of woodworking and carpentry.

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G U E S T A R T I S TG U E S T A R T I S T

BETANY COFFLAND, MEZZO-SOPRANO

Betany Coffland, mezzo-soprano, has had her performances hailed by Opera News as

“extremely fine,” and San Francisco Classical Voice describes her voice as “plush” and “beautiful.” A graduate of the Juilliard School and New England Conservatory, she also attended the Aspen School of Music.

SHAWNETTE SULKER, SOPRANO

Acclaimed for her “heartbreaking poignancy” and “beautifully tuned soprano” by the San

Francisco Chronicle and for her “enchanting vocal splendor” by the Leipziger Volkszeitung, soprano Shawnette Sulker is a sought after artist in the United States and abroad. A consummate performer, her recent operatic roles include singing The Queen of the Night (The Magic Flute) with Opera Fairbanks and Hamster in the contemporary opera Animal Tales (Brazelton) with the Garden State Philharmonic in New Jersey. Recent concert performances include singing as a soloist for Fremont Symphony’s Valentine’s Day Concert, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Santa Rosa and Peninsula

Coffland was a Resident Artist with Opera San José from 2008-2012, where she sang the roles of Carmen (Carmen), Siebel (Faust), Idamante (Idomeneo), Rosina, (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Angelina (La Cenerentola), Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), Dorabella (Così fan tutte), Olga (Eugene Onegin), and Elle (La Voix Humaine).

She has sung as a soloist with the Juneau Symphony, the Sacramento Philharmonic, the San Francisco Choral Society, Symphony Silicon Valley, the Pacific Chamber Symphony, and Diablo Symphony Orchestra, and often performs with the acclaimed chamber group Ensemble SF.

Engagement h ighl ights for l a s t season include Coffland singing Respighi's chamber masterpiece, Il Tramonto, and performing the role of Sprechstimme in Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire with the chamber orchestra Espressivo. She performed as the alto and soprano II soloists in Bach's B Minor Mass with the Mendocino Music Festival, and as the alto soloist in Handel’s Messiah with the Pacific Chamber Orchestra. Future performances include Coffland singing the alto soloist in the Mozart Requiem with the Camellia Symphony Orchestra in Sacramento, and the alto soloist in Beethoven’s Mass in C with the Diablo Symphony.

Symphonies, and Orff ’s Carmina Burana with Sacramento Choral Society & Orchestra. Internat ional ly, Sulker has sung Adele throughout the Netherlands and Belgium in a tour of Die Fledermaus, a recital at Red Door Studios in Amsterdam, and an orchestra concert featuring Porgy and Bess highlights and Mendelssohn’s Psalm 42 in Leipzig’s Gewandhaus and Prague’s Smetana Hall.

Sulker has sung with the San Francisco Opera, Mark Morris Dance Group, American Bach Solo i s t s , Hawai i Opera Theat re , Eugene Symphony, Union Avenue Opera, Opera Naples, Pacific Opera Project, West Edge Opera, and the Natchez Opera Festival, to name a few. Her roles include Zerbinetta (Ariadne auf Naxos), Cunegonde (Candide), Constanze (Abduction from the Seraglio), Musetta (La Bohème), Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro) and Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi). Some works on Sulker’s concert repertoire list include Mozart's Grand Mass in C minor, Bach’s Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen, Mozart’s Exsultate, Jubilate, and Scarlatti’s Su le sponde del Tebro. Upcoming engagements will feature her singing as the Soprano I soloist for Bach’s Mass in B minor with California Bach Society, performing Lucy in The Telephone with Opera Memphis, singing the soprano solos in Handel’s Messiah with Pacific Chamber Symphony, and a Holiday Recital as part of the renowned Noontime Concerts at Old St. Mary’s in San Francisco.

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G U E S T A R T I S TG U E S T A R T I S T

AARON SORENSEN, BASS

Aaron Sorensen is known not only for his powerful and rich sound, but also his

commanding stage presence. In recent seasons, Sorensen appeared at Huntsville Symphony Orchestra as Osmin in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, which he also performed with Peabody Opera Theatre and Houston Symphony Orchestra; returned to Gotham Chamber Opera

THOMAS GLENN, TENOR

After singing the title role in Leonard Bernstein’s Candide with Oakland Symphony in 2015,

Grammy Award-winning tenor Thomas Glenn is once again thrilled to return this season to Oakland Symphony to perform as tenor soloist in G. Rossini’s Stabat Mater.

for Comedy on the Bridge and Alexandre bis; debuted with Huntsville Symphony as Judge Barnett/Officer Jimmy in the world premiere of Gregory Vajda’s Georgia Bottoms: A Comic Opera of the Modern South, based on the best-selling novel by Mark Childress; and debuted with Nashville Opera as the Sergeant of Police in Pirates of Penzance. This season, Sorensen performs as Sparafucile in Rigoletto with Ash Lawn Opera, sings Rossini’s Stabat Mater in a concert entitled Love & Loss with Oakland Symphony, and returns to Brava! Opera as Osmin in Die Entführung aus dem Serail.

Last season, Sorensen performed the role of Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte with Fargo Moorhead Opera; the title role in Don Pasquale with Brava! Opera; Sparafucile in Rigoletto with Mississippi Opera and Ash Lawn Opera; and Leporello in Don Giovanni with Kalamazoo Symphony. Previously, Sorensen debuted with Fort Worth Opera as Benoit/Alcindoro in La bohème and returned as the French General in Kevin Puts’ Silent Night; made a debut with Gotham Chamber Opera for productions of Die Prinzessin auf der Erbse, Weill’s Mahagonny Songspiel, Hindemith’s Hin und Zurück, and Milhaud’s L’enlèvement d’Europe; and performed the role of Angelotti in Tosca with Austin Lyric Opera.

Glenn has performed at major opera companies including San Francisco Opera, The Metropolitan Opera, The Lyric Opera of Chicago, Netherlands Opera, the Canadian Opera Company, and The English National Opera, among others.

He has also performed with major orchestras including the Atlanta Symphony, The Cleveland Orchestra, the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Canada, China National Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Berkeley Symphony and Oakland Symphony.

East Bay audiences have heard Glenn most recently at Hertz hall in Berkeley as the Shepherd in Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London under the baton of Esa-Pekka Salonen.

This year, Glenn sings the role of Charles Mair in the opera Louis Riel, by Harry Somers, in three productions–with Canadian Opera Company, the National Arts Center of Canada, and Festival d’opéra de Québec. He will also sing the role of Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore with Opera Idaho and the tenor soloist in Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Victoria Choral Society in Victoria, BC.

20 21OAKLAND SYMPHONYOAKLAND SYMPHONY

P R E - C O N C E R T P E R F O R M E R S : O A K L A N D Y O U T H C H O R U S

O A K L A N D Y O U T H C H O R U S R O S T E R

P R O G R A M N O T E S

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Adrienne BurgAshanti FerrisTerrin FloresCaitlyn Freeman

Emma GilbertVanessa GrayJosie HallJoi Haywood

Ajiona JenkinsClara McGillySerena McIntoshOlivia Montiel

Karina NicksNia RhoadsEleanor Wikstrom

Founded in 1974, the Oakland Youth Chorus (OYC) is the longest-running youth chorus

in the East Bay. Through empowering children and youth by creating safe, joyful opportunities to express themselves and connect through the arts, Oakland Youth Chorus changes the lives that will transform our communities and our world.

While creating harmony, OYC instills the skills and values that prepare and empower youth to lead social change in our community. Focused on excellence in TK-12 music education and community performance, OYC programs build multicultural understanding and respect, intentionally bringing together over 1000 East Bay children and youth from different neighborhoods and cultural backgrounds.

Our advanced ensemble, Chamber Singers, has represented Oakland at the White House, Jamaica, Japan, and seven states on tour. Goapele, La Toya London, Grammy winner Brad Wells, Roosevelt Credit of the Tony-winning cast of Porgy and Bess, and Grammy nominee and Stevie Wonder and Béyonce keyboardist Victoria Theodore are among those alumni who began their musical journeys with OYC. Vocare

JONAH M. GALLAGHER (b. 1993)

From primal rhythms to soulful harmonies, Vocare explores the beauty and extremes of the string

orchestra. String instruments are often considered to have a more refined sound palette than the more colorful woodwinds or brass, but in fact they possess a world of astonishing sonorities. The first movement, Tenacious Endeavors, uses all manner of percussive sounds to form organic, visceral rhythms that build in a primal and possessed manner. In stark contrast, the second movement, An Honest Prayer, uses more sustained lyrical textures to explore the tune from the hymn I Need Thee Every Hour. Echoes of Dance closes the piece with echoes and fragments of imagined ancient dances. The Latin word vocare, “to call,” is the root of many words such as evoke, provoke, and vocation–and the piece seeks to use a wide variety of sounds to impact the listener. Vocare came about after a dear friend and mentor of mine finally lost his battle with cancer. He never gave up on me and was willing to have hard conversations about the important things in life. This piece is for him.

~Program Notes by Jonah M. Gallagher

Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791)

The G minor Symphony was the second of three symphonies that Mozart wrote in the space of just

two months during the summer of 1788. It was finished on July 25.

We have only speculation about why Mozart wrote these works and whether any of them were performed during Mozart’s lifetime. They may have appeared on programs in Leipzig in May, 1789, or at a pair of concerts at the court theatre in Vienna conducted by Antonio Salieri in April, 1791. On the latter occasion, the brothers Anton and Johann Stadler played solo clarinets, a fact which leads some to infer that the G minor Symphony was the “Grand Symphony” on the program, since Mozart did revise the score to include two clarinets.

A great deal has been written about the G minor Symphony, much of it nonsense, some of it useful. A French critic in 1828 called it “one of the very finest productions of the human mind.” About twenty years later, a Russian commentator wrote: “I doubt if there exists in all music anything more deeply incisive, more cruelly anguished, more violently distracted, more agonizingly passionate than the second half of the finale.”

Most of the Romantics seem to miss the point. Berlioz called the work “that model of delicacy and naïveté.” Schumann found in it “Grecian lightness and grace.”

MOZARTGALLAGHER

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P R O G R A M N O T E S A R T I S T I C S T A F F B I O G R A P H I E S

In his book The Classical Style, Charles Rosen wrote in 1972: “The limit of dramatic complexity in a classical finale is reached with Mozart’s G minor symphony: despairing and impassioned, it is also rhythmically one of the simplest and squarest pieces that Mozart ever wrote.”

Stabat MaterGIOACHINO ROSSINI (1792-1868)

After the production of William Tell in 1829, Rossini wrote no more operas. During a visit to Spain two years later, he reluctantly accepted a commission to write a Stabat Mater for the archdeacon of Madrid, Don Manuel Fernandez Varela. Rossini feared comparisons with Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, and stipulated that Varela retain sole possession of the score and never allow publication.

The text dates from the 13th century and is attributed to Jacopone da Todi. It has twelve sections. Rossini set six of them before a severe attack of lumbago forced him to bring in his friend Giovanni Tadolini to finish the work. The Rossini-Tadolini Stabat Mater was duly introduced in Madrid in 1833.

When Varela died in 1837, the score fell into the hands of the publisher Antoine Aulagnier, who wrote to Rossini regarding possible publication. Rossini replied that “if my Stabat Mater should be published without my authorization, whether in France or abroad, my very firm intention is to pursue the publisher to death.” Rossini contracted with Eugene Troupenas to publish the Stabat Mater. There were lawsuits and counter-lawsuits. In the end, Rossini won.

Meanwhile, he set to work finishing the remainder of the Stabat Mater, contracting Tadolini’s six sections into four. “I am searching for motives, and all that comes into my mind is pastries, truffles, and such things,” he complained.

The first performance of the all-Rossini Stabat Mater took place in Paris on January 7, 1842. “Rossini’s name was shouted out amid the applause,” said one account, “the entire work transported the audience; the triumph was complete…. The audience left the theater moved and seized by an admiration that quickly won all Paris.”

The Italian premiere was entrusted to Gaetano Donizetti, “the only maestro in Italy who knows how to conduct my Stabat as I wish it,” according to Rossini. There were three concerts in Bologna in March, 1842. After the last, said a friend of the composer, “Rossini was able to respond to the summons of those applauding, enter the hall, and go out onto the platform, where he embraced and kissed Donizetti, to whom, if he could, he meant to attribute a large part of the good success of the Stabat. In the meantime, the people in the piazza were shouting for Rossini.”

Program Notes by Charley Samson, copyright 2017

ROSSINI

MICHAEL MORGAN, MUSIC DIRECTOR & CONDUCTOROAKLAND SYMPHONY

Michael Morgan was born in Washington, DC, where he attended public schools and began

conducting at the age of 12. While a student at Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, he spent a summer at the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood, studying with Gunther Schuller and Seiji Ozawa. He first worked with Leonard Bernstein during that same summer.

His operatic debut was in 1982 at the Vienna State Opera, conducting Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio. In 1986, Sir Georg Solti chose him to become the Assistant Conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a position he held for seven years under both Solti and Daniel Barenboim. In 1986, he was invited by Leonard Bernstein to make his debut with the New York Philharmonic. As guest conductor, Morgan has appeared with most of America’s major orchestras, as well as the New York City Opera, St. Louis Opera Theater and Washington National Opera.

In addition to his duties with the Symphony since 1991, Maestro Morgan serves as Artistic Director of the Oakland Symphony Youth Orchestra, Music Director at Bear Valley Music Festival, and Music Director of Gateways Music Festival. He is Music Director Emeritus of the Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera, and is on the boards of Oaktown Jazz Workshops, the Purple Silk Music Education Foundation, and the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute. He makes many appearances in the nation’s schools each year.

LYNNE MORROW, CHORUS DIRECTOROAKLAND SYMPHONY CHORUS

Lynne Morrow became Director of the Oakland Symphony Chorus in 2005. During her tenure,

the scope of the Chorus has expanded to include contemporary, international, and neglected works, along with traditional choral repertoire. She conducts the Chorus’ workshop performances of major works; hosts summer choral outreach “Sing-ins;” and prepares the Chorus for work with Oakland Symphony as well as regional community and youth orchestras with which it collaborates, such as Oakland Symphony Youth Orchestra, Young People’s Symphony Orchestra, and California Symphony.

Lynne Morrow received a Grammy nomination for her work with the Pacific Mozart Ensemble (now Pacific Edge Voices), with whom she has also recorded two CDs of Dave Brubeck’s choral music. Since 2001, she has directed the Voice and Opera/Music Theatre Programs at Sonoma State University. Dr. Morrow presents workshops on African American Spirituals, including a workshop on a cruise to Alaska from San Francisco. Dr. Morrow has just received The Heritage Keepers Award from The Friends of Negro Spirituals. She has also given lectures on music for major Bay Area organizations including Oakland Symphony. Dr. Morrow strives for a visceral connection to music, presenting works from every corner of the musical arts in fresh ways, to reach the widest possible audiences.

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