CLASSICAL SERIES Maximum Minimal Saturday, February 23, 2019 at 8 p.m. Sunday, February 24, 2019 at 3 p.m. in Orchestra Hall

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1 JEFF TYZIK Principal Pops Conductor LEONARD SLATKIN, Music Director Laureate Music Directorship endowed by the Kresge Foundation TERENCE BLANCHARD Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Jazz Creative Director Chair NEEME JÄRVI Music Director Emeritus CLASSICAL SERIES Maximum Minimal Saturday, February 23, 2019 at 8 p.m. Sunday, February 24, 2019 at 3 p.m. in Orchestra Hall LEONARD SLATKIN, conductor JOSEPH BECKER, percussion ANDRÉS PICHARDO-ROSENTHAL, percussion JEREMY EPP, timpani JAMES RITCHIE, timpani Steve Reich (b. 1936) Philip Glass (b. 1937) Clapping Music Joseph Becker, percussion Andrés Pichardo-Rosenthal, percussion Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra Jeremy Epp, timpani James Ritchie, timpani Intermission John Luther Adams (b. 1953) Become Ocean This Classical Series performance is generously sponsored by Made possible in part by a grant from Sunday s performance will be webcast via our exclusive Live From Orchestra Hall series, presented by Ford Motor Company Fund and made possible by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. DSO PERFORMANCE MAGAZINE 45

The music was reduced to bare essentials; in part, the stripping-away allowed composers to investigate the limits of music, and it is striking how much can be done with so little.

2 Program Notes Clapping Music STEVE REICH B. October 3, 1936, New York, NY Scored for 2 handclappers. (Approx. 4 minutes) The Minimalist movement, which sprung up in the late 1960s, marked a new way of performing and listening to music. The music was reduced to bare essentials; in part, the stripping-away allowed composers to investigate the limits of music, and it is striking how much can be done with so little. Clapping Music was written by Steve Reich in 1972, inspired by a late-night stop at a flamenco performance in Brussels while on tour with his ensemble. At one point, the flamenco artists began clapping very loudly, and Reich and his ensemble (most of whom were percussionists) joined the improvised rhythmic outburst. Reich then devised a work in which very few musicians in this case two could perform using only the sounds of their hands clapping. Writing about the piece, Reich notes: one performer [would] remain fixed, repeating the same basic pattern throughout, while the other performer would move abruptly, after a number of repeats, from unison to one beat ahead, and so on, until he is back in unison with the first performer In Clapping Music it can be difficult to hear that the second performer is in fact always playing the same original pattern as the first, through starting in different places. When asked once how he would describe the work to someone who had never heard it before, Reich answered succinctly, Short, sweet, and to the point. premiere of Steve Reich s Clapping Music. Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra PHILIP GLASS B. January 31, 1937, Baltimore, MD Scored for 2 solo timpanis, 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, E-flat clarinet, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, percussion, harp, piano, and strings. (Approx. 27 minutes) Seeing the words for two timpanists while scanning a composer s oeuvre certainly makes one pause. While a few notable timpani concertos from the early classical period enjoy moderate contemporary attention, surely any piece with two timpani soloists is more novelty than anything else right? One listen to the present concerto by Philip Glass should dispel that notion. Written in 2000, the Concerto Fantasy is a captivating work with many of Glass s signature moves on display, and, yes, two timpanists downstage tearing through heart-racing solo passages. The work contains three movements: fast, slower, and very fast; with a cadenza placed just before the final movement. Even before the work had its premiere, an alternative cadenza to the Glass original was written by percussionist Ian Finkel, and in any performance the soloists can choose whichever cadenza they prefer. The first movement begins with the primary thematic material part of which is sometimes compared to the Mission Impossible theme played 46 DSO PERFORMANCE MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 2019

3 powerfully by the timpani and strings. Following development and variation of the theme, the movement ends quietly. The second movement features idiomatic Glass harmonies and melodic progressions, especially in the pulsing woodwinds, and features a journey from minor to major, beginning with dark sounds and ending with bright passages. The movement ends with a re-statement of the opening theme, played only by the soloists. The cadenza and finale are like a wild dance, and the meter is constantly shifting, no doubt reflecting the influences of world music in Glass s works at the time. The music builds to a deafening climax, concluding triumphantly on a version of Glass s signature four-note concerto motif, which is also used to conclude the Cello Concerto No. 1, the Harpsichord Concerto, and the Tirol Piano Concerto. premiere of Philip Glass s Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra. Become Ocean JOHN LUTHER ADAMS B. January 23, 1953, Meridian, MS Scored for 3 flutes, 3 oboes (1 doubling on English horn), 3 clarinets (1 doubling on bass clarinets), 3 bassoons (1 doubling on contrabassoon), 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, 2 harps, 2 pianos, and strings. (Approx. 42 minutes) John Luther Adams is a composer whose life and work are deeply rooted in the natural world, and whose music has won numerous accolades from artistic circles as well as environmental ones. Born in Mississippi but raised in New York, Adams performed as a drummer in rock bands, and his admiration for Frank Zappa s music led him to explore the works of Edgar Varese, Igor Stravinsky, John Cage, and Morton Feldman. He began his career as an environmentalist in Alaska, where he also joined the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra and the Arctic Chamber Orchestra as a timpanist. Music is not what I do, Adams once wrote, it s how I understand the world. For me, the whole world is music. Become Ocean was commissioned by the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and premiered in June It subsequently won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Music and the 2015 Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Musical Composition. In awarding the work its prize, the Pulitzer committee called it a haunting orchestral work that suggests a relentless tidal surge, evoking thoughts of melting polar ice and rising sea levels. About the title, Adams states that it is a metaphor for human history and the situation we find ourselves in now We came from the ocean and we re going back to the ocean, right? If we don t wake up and pay attention here pretty soon, we humans may find ourselves quite literally becoming ocean again sooner than we imagine. The title also references a line in the John Cage poem Many Happy Returns, which compares composer Lou Harrison s music to a river with many different currents converging into one big, beautiful sweep of sound. In Become Ocean, the orchestra is divided into three smaller ensembles that perform at three independent tempos. Adams writes that Each of the orchestras occupies its own physical space, its own harmonic space and has DSO PERFORMANCE MAGAZINE 47

12-13 to learn more about all four soloists. JOSEPH BECKER Principal Percussion Ruth Roby and Alfred R.

4 its own instrumental color. The three ensembles also play sequences of varying lengths, and at mid-point, each reverses its musical progress in the Profiles Turn to the Meet the Musician feature on ppg to learn more about all four soloists. JOSEPH BECKER Principal Percussion Ruth Roby and Alfred R. Glancy III Chair member of the A Detroit Symphony Orchestra since 2012, Joseph Becker previously spent a season with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra. Prior to moving to Jacksonville, he performed regularly with the Boston Philharmonic and the Callithumpian Consort. He received his bachelor s degree from the New England Conservatory of Music, under the tutelage of Frank Epstein and Will Hudgins; and his master s degree from Boston University, studying with Tim Genis. Becker was a Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center from 2008 to 2009 and has performed at the Summer Institute of Contemporary Performance Practice in Boston. He can be heard on Naxos Records and Tzadik Records performing the music of Gunther Schuller, John Zorn, and Fred Frith. He has also had the privilege of working with composers Elliott Carter and Steve Reich. manner of a sonic palindrome. premiere of John Luther Adams s Become Ocean. ANDRÉS PICHARDO- ROSENTHAL Assistant Principal Percussion William Cody Knicely Chair Born in Managua, Nicaragua and raised in Los Angeles, Andrés Pichardo- Rosenthal began piano lessons at the age of six and percussion at age 11. He received his bachelor s degree at Rice University and his master s degree at the University of Southern California, and completed his education at the New England Conservatory. Pichardo-Rosenthal has performed with esteemed orchestras around the country, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the New world Symphony, and the Hawaii Symphony, among others. Additionally, he has performed on motion picture scores in Los Angeles and musical theater shows in Houston. Pichardo-Rosenthal joined the DSO in September DSO PERFORMANCE MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 2019

JEREMY EPP Principal Timpani Richard and Mona Alonzo Chair Jeremy Epp was appointed DSO Principal Timpani in 2014, and prior to his appointment he served in the same position at the Winnipeg Symphony

Epp has appeared with several North American orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, the National Symphony Orchestra, and the Minnesota Orchestra, among

5 JEREMY EPP Principal Timpani Richard and Mona Alonzo Chair Jeremy Epp was appointed DSO Principal Timpani in 2014, and prior to his appointment he served in the same position at the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and the Erie Philharmonic. Epp has appeared with several North American orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, the National Symphony Orchestra, and the Minnesota Orchestra, among others. He has recorded with a number of ensembles in the United States, Canada, and Europe, and can be heard on several recent DSO recordings. A native of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Epp studied extensively with Jauvon Gilliam while performing as a regular extra musician with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. In the years leading up to his first orchestral appointment, he attended the Cleveland Institute of Music, where his teachers were Cleveland Orchestra principal musicians Paul Yancich and Richard Weiner. Epp was appointed Lecturer of Percussion at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance in 2018, and he has presented clinics and masterclasses internationally at various institutions and events, including the 2017 Percussive Arts Society International Convention. His website and blog, jeremyepptimpani.com, is a resource for amateur and professional timpanists and educators. JAMES RITCHIE Assistant Principal Timpani and Percussion James Ritchie joined the DSO as Assistant Principal Timpani and a member of the percussion section in Prior to that, he was a regular extra with the Cleveland Orchestra. Ritchie previously served as Principal Timpani of the Blossom Festival Orchestra and performed often with other groups in the area, including the Canton Symphony Orchestra and Akron Symphony Orchestra. He has also appeared with the National Symphony Orchestra, Ottawa s National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Malaysian Philharmonic, and the Buffalo Philharmonic. Jay has participated in a variety of summer festivals, including a Principal Timpanist appointment with the National Repertory Orchestra, as well as the Tanglewood Music Center, the Pacific Music Festival, and the Britten-Pears Orchestra. A native of Blacksburg, Virginia, Jay began studying piano at age 8 and percussion at age 11. He received his bachelor s degree from Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Duncan Patton, Chris Lamb, and She-e Wu, and completed his master s degree at Cleveland Institute of Music as a student of Paul Yancich and Marc Damoulakis. These performances mark all four musicians Classical Series soloist debuts DSO PERFORMANCE MAGAZINE 49

PERUSAL. for Wind Ensemble Score

PERUSAL. for Wind Ensemble Score for Wind Ensemble Score Please note that the purchase or rental of this music in no way conveys the right of public performance. In order to secure the right of public performance, a license must be obtained