Adam Stern, Music Director and Conductor

Please turn off all cell phones and pagers.No audio/video recording or flash photography is allowed during the performance.

Adam Stern, conductorMaria Sampen, violin

LUDWIG VAN BEE THOVEN (1770-1827) Gratulations - Menuett , WoO 3 Romance No. 1 in G for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 40 Romance No. 2 in F for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 50 Maria Sampen, violin HOWARD HANSON (1896-1981) Mosaics

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

PE TER ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893) Symphony No. 2 in c, Op. 17 Andante sostenuto; Allegro vivo Andantino marziale, quasi moderato Scherzo: Allegro molto vivace Finale. Moderato assai; Allegro vivo

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2020, 7:30 P.M.MEYDENBAUER CENTER THEATRE

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2020, 2:00 P.M. EASTLAKE PERFORMING ARTS CENTER

RHAPSODIC, TENDER LYRICISM

Beethoven’s Romances

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Maria Sampen, Violin Maria Sampen, Professor of Violin at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA, enjoys a vibrant career as a concerto soloist, recitalist, chamber musician and teacher. Equally at home in repertoire ranging from classical to avant-garde to popular styles, Dr. Sampen has delighted audiences with her eclectic programs, her passionate performance style and her highly expressive playing. She has performed in Europe, Asia, Canada and all over the United States. In addition to her work

as a soloist, Dr. Sampen concertizes frequently with her new music group, Brave New Works, the Puget Sound Piano Trio, and the IRIS Orchestra of Tennessee.

Dr. Sampen is a passionate supporter of contemporary music and has commissioned

Orchestra Management

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

FOUNDING DIRECTORJoyce Cunningham

MUSIC DIRECTOR & CONDUCTORAdam Stern

PRESIDENTShelby Eaton

SECRETARYMeMe Birchfield

DIRECTORS-AT-LARGEKathy Boudreau

Andy HillHeather RaschkoMelissa Underhill

Olivia Wang

HONORARY BOARD MEMBERSDon Gerend

Council Member, City of Sammamish

Skip RowleyChairman, Rowley Properties

Nancy WhittenFormer Council Member, City of

Sammamish

PERSONNEL

Kathryn Boudreau, Ensemble Coordinator

Armand Binkhuysen, Grants

Adam Stern and Marla Zylstra, Concert Program

Heather Raschko, Librarian

Loryn Bortins, Personnel

GFCW Cascade Lobby Management

Renee Kuehn, Ticket Sales

Heather Raschko, Logistics

Lynne Martinell, Member Communications Liaison

Barbara Ethington, PR & Marketing

Mark Wiseman, Webmaster

Jason Frazier and Phillip Chance, Sound Recording

A Message from the Music DirectorAny concert is an adventure. Even a program made up of the most familiar of repertoire has the element of surprise about it… How will this performance stack up against others I’ve heard? Will the performers make interpretive choices that delight, or underwhelm, or offend me? Will I hear things in the music of which I’ve never before been aware? These are some of the thoughts that I’ve borne when going to hear a concert of time-honored warhorses.

The present program is a different sort of adventure. While two of the three composers on it are among the most beloved who ever lived and wrote, the pieces representing them are not exactly mainstream repertoire. Beethoven’s sublime Violin Concerto is always being performed somewhere, but how often do we encounter the two heartfelt Romances for the same instrument? Tchaikovsky is as popular with the public as he ever was, but renderings of his first three symphonies are rarities compared to the frequent performances afforded Nos. 4, 5 and 6. And — be honest here — have you ever even heard of Beethoven’s delightful Gratulations-Menuett, let alone heard it?

As to Howard Hanson, we in the Puget Sound region can boast of having had more potential opportunities to hear his rich and colorful compositions than other music lovers around the country, as Hanson’s music was a staple in the repertoire of Gerard Schwarz, longtime Music Director of the Seattle Symphony. The public went for it in a big way, and I hope that our performance of Mosaics will generate similar excitement and perhaps a desire on your part to explore more music by this American romantic.

To quote Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho: “If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine. It’s lethal!” In that spirit, we hope you enjoy the unique offerings on today’s program.

With all best regards,

Adam Stern Music Director & Conductor, Sammamish Symphony Orchestra

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Orchestra MembersFIRST VIOLINTim Strait Acting ConcertmasterDarrin CookKristin EdlundBarbara EthingtonLynne MartinellHeather RaschkoHaley Schaening

SECOND VIOLINShelby Eaton PrincipalMeMe Birchfield Alan BleischZakary Cole Elizabeth Heitkamp Fran PopeSophia Schiffer Miranda Thorpe Olivia Wang

VIOLADennis Helppie PrincipalKathryn Boudreau Jessica Johnson Dan PopeSariya RashidLoraine Terpening Barb ThorneZann Tipyasothi

CELLOLeslie Nielsen PrincipalJuha Niemisto Assistant PrincipalMichelle MillerGail RatleyJoyce SanfordJoan SelvigSandra Sultan

BASSCailin Singleton PrincipalJeremy AtkinsNatalie Schlichtmann

FLUTEMelissa Underhill PrincipalTori BerntsenDoug Gallatin

PICCOLODoug Gallatin

OBOESusan Jacoby PrincipalNatalie Kryger

ENGLISH HORNJulie Fay

CLARINETJayne Marquess PrincipalKathy Carr

BASS CLARINETLinda Thomas

BASSOONBeatrice Kaufman PrincipalSean Steck

CONTRABASSOONLucas Zeiter FRENCH HORNEvelyn Zeller Principal Brena Epps-LeverCraig KowaldNels Magelssen

TRUMPETAbram Sanderson PrincipalJoe Grez

TROMBONEJohn Ochsenreiter PrincipalDavid Ege

BASS TROMBONERob Birkner

TUBAMark Wiseman Principal

TIMPANIEric Daane

PERCUSSIONRyan FoxJim Truher

CELESTEThien Nguyen

HARPTiffany Wirt

Section members are listed in alphabetical order.

and premiered recent concertos for violin and orchestra by composers David Glenn, Marilyn Shrude and Robert Hutchinson. Additionally, she has commissioned and premiered an impressive body of chamber works, collaborating with composers such as William Bolcom, William Albright, Bright Sheng, Marcos Balter, Andrew Mead, Robert Morris, Nico Muhly and Forrest Pierce.

Sampen has recorded for AMP Records, Block M Records and Perspectives in New Music/Open Space. She recently recorded Georges Enesco’s Sonata No. 3, Zoltan Kodály’s Duo for Violin and Cello, Luciano Berio’s Duetti for Two Violins and Marilyn Shrude’s Memorie di Luoghi, all of which were released in 2017.

Dr. Sampen is a graduate of the University of Michigan and Rice University. Her major teachers include Paul Kantor, Kenneth Goldsmith and Paul Makara. She has also performed and studied

at the Mozarteum Sommerakademie, the Banff Centre for the Arts, the Musicorda Festival, the Carnegie Hall Professional Training Workshop, and as a fellow at both the Aspen and Tanglewood Music Festivals.

Dr. Sampen teaches a talented studio of violinists at the University of Puget Sound. She also coaches chamber music, directs the New Music Ensemble, and chairs the string department. She has twice received the University of Puget Sound’s Thomas A. Davis Teaching Award for excellence in teaching. Dr. Sampen loves working with her brilliant and talented students at the University of Puget Sound. She believes that every student is capable of growth and positive change. She has been delighted to make her career at a place that also holds these values. She is committed to helping her students reach their maximum potential, not only as artists but as citizens of this world.

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Conductor’s Notesby Adam Stern

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN HOWARD HANSON PETER ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY

The Gratulations-Menuett of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) is a product of the composer’s later years; its composition and first performance took place in 1822, about four-and-a-half years before the composer’s death. It is a sparkling pièce d’occasion, written for performance at a fête honoring playwright Carl Friedrich Hensler, who also served as Artistic Director of the Josephstadt Theater. (A month earlier, Beethoven had conducted the premiere of his overture The Consecration of the House at the Josephstadt to celebrate the theater’s reopening following reconstruction; he was indebted to Hensler for commissioning the overture, and was likely kindly disposed to contributing the Gratulations-Menuett to the event celebrating Hensler.) Beethoven’s Romances, Opp. 40 and 50 are two more appealing miniatures from the pen of the composer best known for his grand statements in larger forms. They are essentially extended arias for the violin, which soars over the chamber orchestra accompaniment in flights of tuneful bliss, troubled only occasionally by a brief turn into a minor key. Critic and commentator Norman Lebrecht considers

the Romances to be warm-ups for the concerto Beethoven would eventually compose for the instrument in 1806. But the Romances are hardly trifles dashed off as mere muscle-flexers: they are music of genuine tenderness and refinement, requiring a soloist possessed of a singing tone and effortless technique. We are honored to collaborate on these works with Maria Sampen, the perfect executant for Beethoven’s desiderata . Acknowledged in his day as a composer, conductor and educator/administrator, Howard Hanson (1896-1981) achieved much during his long and productive life. He composed a substantial body of works, including seven symphonies (one of which was a Pulitzer Prize winner) and a fine opera, Merry Mount; he was a much-recorded conductor whose recordings of symphonic literature by U. S. composers provided ample evidence that many gifted creators of music had been born and schooled in America; his 40-year tenure as director of the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N. Y. was a model of passionate, hands-on academic management. The avant-garde movement, which effectively took over the classical music world for several decades starting in the 1950s, had

little sympathy for his traditional music and musical views, and for a long time his once-popular pieces were relegated to obscure status; happily, conductors Leonard Slatkin and, particularly, Gerard Schwarz used their platforms as music directors to bring Hanson’s compositions back in the repertoire’s bloodstream as the century ended. Mosaics, a concise and multi-colored theme-and-variations, was written for George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra, who gave the work its premiere in January of 1958. There was little love lost between the Russian nationalist composers known as “The Five” (Mily Balakirev, Alexander Borodin, César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov) and Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893). Steeped in their zeal to create a wholly Russian music based on Russian folksong and dance and speech rhythms, The Five considered Tchaikovsky something of a traitor to the cause of Russian music due to his adoption of Western musical forms and practices in his compositions (Tchaikovsky’s favorite composer was Mozart, who was, along with Haydn, considered “out of date and naïve” by The Five, to quote Rimsky-Korsakov).

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ContributorsIn addition to the following donors we gratefully acknowledge those individuals and families who purchased

donated goods and services at our Sammamish Symphony Auctions.

PATRONS ($1,000+)

4CultureBoggs Media, LLC

The Boeing CompanyCity of BellevueCity of Issaquah

City of SammamishMr. and Mrs. Martin

FriedmannGarneau-Nicon Family

FoundationGordon Brown Foundation

King County Employee Giving Program

Kevin & Lynne MartinellThe Charles Maxfield and

Gloria F. Parrish Foundation Skip Rowley

Rowley PropertiesHarry & Claradell Shedd

Kathleen SpitzerTim Strait

Daniel Whitney

BENEFACTORS ($500-999)

Henry Bischofberger ViolinsShelby Eaton

Timothy LaBergeMark Wiseman

SPONSORS ($100-499)

Patricia BiceArmand & Claudia

BinkhuysenRobert BirknerTed Martinell

Juha NiemistoHeather Raschko

Gail RatleyDavid & Penelope Short

John & Ruth RughLinda M S Thomas

PATRONS ($1000+)Continued

SUPPORTERS ($25-99)

Sandra AndersonMark BaughmanRobert Brezing

Kathy CarrEric Daane

Thomas KraftJoyce Sanford

UKRAINIAN PEASANTS, 1863 19th CENTURY UKRAINIAN PEASANT GIRL

To Tchaikovsky, The Five were largely untutored heathens whose music was unduly raw and undisciplined. He targeted Mussorgsky as the worst of the lot; in a representatively gentle letter to his brother Modest, Tchaikovsky wrote, “I have studied [Mussorgsky’s] Boris Godunov and The Demon. Mussorgsky’s music I send to the devil; it is the most vulgar and vile parody

on music.” Despite all the carping on both sides, there were occasions whereon praise would (however grudgingly) be bestowed on someone’s work; Rimsky-Korsakov greatly lauded Tchaikovsky’s String Quartet No. 2, and Tchaikovsky returned the compliment some years later, writing to Rimsky-Korsakov that the latter’s Capriccio Espagnol revealed him to be “one of the supreme masters of the day.” Almost predictably, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 2 in c garnered the

approval of The Five; its extensive use of folk songs from Ukraine (or “Little Russia”, as it was then known; nowadays, that sobriquet is regarded as a pejorative by Ukrainians) perhaps led them to believe that Tchaikovsky would mend his ways and create more works with a reliance on folk materials. This was not to be; in spite of his occasional use of a folk tune (cf. Symphony No. 4), Tchaikovsky remained an independent spirit and conceived his own glorious themes for the vast majority of his compositions. For this we should

all be grateful: there are few composers who had so great a melodic gift as Tchaikovsky, and ( pace, Five adherents) his music is no less Russian than that of the colleagues with whom he was frequently at odds.

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“Voted Evening Magazine’s Best of Western WA!”

www.hkbviolins.com 425 822-0717

Third Generation Violin Maker

Sales Appraisals Repairs Rentals

The Sammamish Symphony would like to thank

Gordon Brown and the

Gordon Brown Foundation

for the generous contribution for music to build the Symphony’s library. Gordon has been an

active member and contrabassoon player with the symphony for many years.

Cascade Woman’s Club Living the Volunteer Spirit

The GFWC Cascade Woman's Club is a non-profit charitable organization bringing together women from surrounding areas to promote community service and welfare locally, regionally and internationally. Anyone interested in learning more and contacting us visit our website at: gfwccascadeclub.weebly.com

Start with a smile at smile.amazon.com/ch/91-1643025 when you buy

through Amazon, and Amazon donates 0.5% of the purchase price of your eligible purchases to

the Sammamish Symphony Orchestra.

Are you interested Are you interested in playing with us?in playing with us?

The Sammamish Symphony Orchestra is composed of adult volunteer musicians dedicated to

performing concerts and maintaining outreach programs serving Eastside communities.

Rehearsals: Thursdays 7:15-9:45 p.m. at Eastlake High School

auditions@sammamishsymphony.orgauditions@sammamishsymphony.org

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The Sammamish Symphony Orchestra Association (SSOA) is a Non-Profit Corporation under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Service. For further information, contact the SSOA:

P.O. Box 1173, Issaquah, WA 98027You can now donate via Paypal on our website at www.

sammamishsymphony.org.

gustav holst A Somerset Rhapsody

georges bizet Carmen: Selections from Suites Nos. 1 and 2

ludwig van beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat, Op. 73, “Emperor”

Sandy Huang, piano

Sunday, April 19, 2020Eastlake Performing Arts Center 2:00 PM

Friday, April 17, 2020Meydenbauer Center Theatre

7:30 PM

Visit SammamishSymphony.org for more information.

FANTASY, BOLDNESS, UNEXPECTEDNESS, ENCHANTMENT

Bizet ’s Carmen

The Sammamish Symphony Orchestra would like to thank

the City of Sammamishfor their support

Bryce Van ParysGeneral Manager

425.392.3963 | Bryce@HammondAshley.com970 5th Ave NW, Suite 100, Issaquah WA 98027

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For more information please visit www.SammamishSymphony.org

Sponsors

The Sammamish Symphony Orchestra is grateful for the generous support of the

Garneau-Nicon Family Foundation.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

FAC I L I T I E SMeydenbauer CenterEastlake High School

R E H E A R S A L S PAC E Eastlake High SchoolDiscovery Elementary

Sammamish Presbyterian Church

LO B BY S E R V I C E SGFCW Cascade

R E F R E S H M E N T S Safeway/Costco

Klahanie QFC/Pine Lake QFC

P O I N S E T T I A S Pine Lake QFC

P E R C U S S I O N E Q U I P M E N TMarianna Vale

Beaver Lake Middle SchoolEric Daane and Craig Wende

R E CO R D I N G E N G I N E E R SPhillip Chance and Jason Frazier

Many people have worked together to make our community orchestra possible. They have given of their time, talent and energy. Thank you!