Saturday April 7th, 2011

Members of the OrchestraGregory Robbins, Music DirectorViolins:Brian Bak (CM)Hye Jin KohDavid RadzynskiGowoon ChoiSolomon LiangTammy WangGeoff HerdKayla MoffettEdward TanJihyun KimJacob AshworthEdson Scheid

Viola:Kendra James(p)Jessica LiColin MeineckeJane MitchellDash Nesbitt

Cello:Claire Solomon (p)WeiPeng LiuScott McCrearyHelene WernerQuizhen Liu

Double Bass:Nicholas Jones(p)Asa MaynardPaul NemethAndrew Small

Flute:Ginevra Petrucci (p)Peng Zhou

Oboe:Hsuan-Fong Chen(p)Alexandra DetynieckiCaroline Ross

Clarinet:Gleb KanasevichSoojin Huh

Bassoon:Lauren Yu, (p)SaMona Bryant

French Horn:Patrick Jankowski(p)Craig HubbardJulia HoschDana Cullen

Trumpet:Nathaniel Meyer(p)Paul Futer

Percussion:Cristobal Gajardo (p)

Harp:Kristan Toczko(p)Chelsea Lane

Please visit us online at: www.delphichamberorchestra.com

About the Artists(continued) Since 2007, Mr. Jiao has been the resident guest con-ductor of the Lanzhou Symphony Orchestra and the resident con-ductor of the Beijing Institute of Technology University Symphony Orchestra. He has also been the conductor of the Golden Tail Symphony Orchestra of Beijing No. 22 Middle School Symphony Orchestra and EOS Orchestra Academy; he led performances of both orchestras in 2009 at the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing. Mr. Jiao has also received warm praise by local audiences and critics for the performances of the Golden Tail Sym-phony Orchestra during their 2010 France Tour.

Additionally, Mr. Jiao has conducted many other ensembles in his home of China and abroad, including: China Youth Symphony Orchestra, Chorus of China Youth Symphony Orchestra, Chorus of China Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra, China Opera and Dance Symphony Orchestra, China Central Opera Symphony Orchestra, China Youth Chinese Orchestra, China Central Chinese Orchestra, Chorus of Shanghai Opera, Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra, Jiang-su Symphony Orchestra, Zhejiang Symphony Orchestra, Kunming Symphony Orchestra, Macau Youth Symphony Orchestra and most recently, The Philharmonia Orchestra of Yale.

The Delphi Chamber Orchestra was founded in 2011 by Gregory Robbins. Its mission is to revolutionize the way people experience classical music. Drawing on recent advances in digital and social media, the Delphi Chamber Orchestra will be able pro-vide not only live concerts of the highest quality, but new ways for audiences to connect with behind the scenes activities, rehearsal footage, interviews, and more. It draws its talent from the finest conservatories in the world, such as Yale School of Music, The Cleveland Institute, Juilliard, Curtis, Manhattan School of Music, Colburn, and others.

PROGRAMSpring Concert

Delphi Chamber Orchestra Gregory Robbins Music Director

Saturday April 7th, 2012 at 8:00 PM

Gregory Robbins ConductorSherezade Panthaki, Soprano

Debussy: Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune

Richard Strauss:MorgenZueignungWiegenliedAmor

INTERMISSION (15 minutes)

Yang Jiao, ConductorMendelssohn: Symphony #4 “Italian”Allegro vivaceAndante con motoCon moto moderatoSaltarello: Presto

This evening’s program will last approx. 90 minutes

The Delphi Chamber Orchestra would like to thank First & Summerfield UMC for the use of their beautiful space.

About the Artists

Gregory Robbins enjoys a multi-faceted career as a conduc-tor, double bassist, composer, and teacher. He is the founder and music director of the Delphi Chamber Orchestra. As a bassist, he has performed with orchestras in such diverse venues as Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, and Alice Tulley Hall. He recently seen as a member of the 2011 YouTube Symphony Orchestra, performing at the Sydney Opera House in a concert which was viewed live by 33 million people.

His conducting mentors have included Michael Charry, Toshiyuki Shimada, and Shinik Hahm. Currently a student at Yale School of Music, he studies with Don Palma. Former teachers have included Orin O’Brien, David Grossman, and Linda McKnight

His hobbies and interests include excercising, Yoga, eating meals that other people cook, and hanging out with his awesome brothers and sister: Becky, Jesse, Geoffrey, Jacob, and Luke.

Yang Jiao is a graduate of Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, where he studied conducting with Professor Xin Xu and Maestro Yi Zhang and was assistant conductor to Maestro Yongyan Hu. He is cur-rently pursuing his Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting at Yale School of Music, where he studies with Maestro Shinik Hahm.

In 2006, Mr. Jiao won Third Prize at the Shenzhen National Con-ducting Competition in China. Since that time, he has been invited to conduct at the Beijing Modern Music Festival annually. In 2007, Mr. Jiao took part in the London Symphony Orchestra’s Asia Tour, where he attended a master class with Maestro Daniel Harding and conducted the famous orchestra.

(continued)

Notes on the Program The Symphony No. 4 in A major, Op. 90, commonly known as the Italian,[1] is an orchestral symphony written by Ger-man composer Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847).

The work has its origins, like the composer’s Scottish Symphony and the orchestral overture The Hebrides (Fingal’s Cave), in the tour of Europe which occupied Mendelssohn from 1829 to 1831. Its inspiration is the colour and atmosphere of Italy, where Men-delssohn made sketches but left the work incomplete:

“This is Italy! And now has begun what I have always thought.. to be the supreme joy in life. And I am loving it. Today was so rich that now, in the evening, I must collect myself a little, and so I am writing to you to thank you, dear parents, for having given me all this happiness.”[2]

In February he wrote from Rome to his sister Fanny

“The ‘Italian’ symphony is making great progress. It will be the jolliest piece I have ever done, especially the last movement. I have not found anything for the slow movement yet, and I think that I will save that for Naples.”

The Italian Symphony was finished in Berlin, 13 March 1833, in response to an invitation for a symphony from the Lon-don (now Royal) Philharmonic Society; he conducted the first performance himself in London on 13 May 1833, at a London Philharmonic Society concert. The symphony’s success, and Mendelssohn’s popularity, influenced the course of British music for the rest of the century.[3] However, Mendelssohn remained unsatisfied with the composition, which cost him, he said, some of the bitterest moments of his career; he revised it in 1837[4] and even planned to write alternate versions of the second, third, and fourth movements. He never published the symphony, which only appeared in print in 1851,[5] after his death.

Notes on the Program(continued)

The piece is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bas-soons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani and strings. It is in four move-ments:

Allegro vivace Andante con moto Con moto moderato Saltarello: Presto

The joyful first movement, in sonata form, is followed by an impression in D minor of a religious procession the composer witnessed in Naples. The third movement is a minuet in which French Horns are introduced in the trio, while the final movement (which is in the minor key throughout) incorporates dance figura-tions from the Roman saltarello and the Neapolitan tarantella. It is among the first large multi-movement works to begin in a major key and end in the tonic minor, another example being Brahms’s first piano trio.

A typical performance lasts about half an hour.

About the Artists Soprano Sherezade Panthaki has been praised by critics as “luminous” and “exquisitely supple” (The New York Times), “a radiant voiced stand-out” (The Washington Post), “full of light” (The Goldberg International Magazine, UK), and is in constant demand as an opera and oratorio soloist. In 2011 she graduated with an Artist Diploma from the Yale School of Music and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music – a highly academic as well as performance-intensive program that accepts one soprano a year – where she was soloist under the direction of internationally renown Maestro Masaaki Suzuki. An acclaimed specialist in early music and particularly in the works of J.S. Bach, Ms. Panthaki’s 2011–12 season as soprano soloist includes Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 with Masaaki Suzuki (Rome, Florence, Milan, New York city), Bach’s Mass in B minor with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Nicholas McGegan (San Francisco), Handel’s Solomon with the Netherlands Radio Orchestra (Holland), Poulenc’s Stabat Mater with British conduc-tor Simon Carrington; Bach’s St. John Passion with the Choir of St. Thomas Fifth Avenue and director John Scott, Handel and Viv-aldi with the Yale Choral Artists under guest conductors William Christie and Mark Morris, as well as a US concert tour of Bach, Handel, and Vivaldi with the Rebel Baroque Orchestra. In New York city she is a frequent soloist with the most accomplished early music ensembles, including the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the choir and orchestra of Trinity Church Wall Street, and the Clarion Music Ensemble. She is quickly gaining recognition as a sought-after recording artist with five recordings to her credit, and several projects in production. In 2006, she became a founding member of the acclaimed early music vocal quartet Gravitación, with whom she has toured and recorded extensively.