(Princeton, NJ) -- The Princeton Symphony Orchestra (PSO) pays tribute to the legacy of founder Portia Sonnenfeld with an impressive 35th Anniversary Season Celebrating the Creativity of Women. Highlights include performances of works by five living composers, four of whom are uncommonly gifted women with flourishing careers in music: Anna Clyne, Jing Jing Luo, Caroline Shaw, and Sarah Kirkland Snider. Their inventive works include two PSO co-commissions. Four powerhouse soloists grace the PSO stage, including violinist Jennifer Koh, pianist Joyce Yang, and the incomparable soprano Dawn Upshaw performing songs written for her by Osvaldo Golijov. Composer Caroline Shaw performs her new work Lo for Violin and Orchestra. The anniversary celebration, which also features symphonies by Rachmaninoff, Schubert, Edward T. Cone, Mozart, and Brahms, and a variety of works by Kodály, Sibelius, Tchaikovsky, Richard Strauss and Johann Strauss, Jr. commences Sunday, September 27. Each classical series concert is preceded by a pre-concert talk hosted by Music Director Rossen Milanov and ancillary events to enrich the live concert experience and encourage community dialogue about women’s contributions to the arts. Two POPS! concerts and four free PSO Chamber Series concerts, including the world-wide launch of an innovative Twitter-inspired project, fill out the season which runs from September 2015 through May 2016.
Music Director Rossen Milanov is responsible for the season’s ambitious programming, reinforcing the PSO’s commitment to new music as one of the rejuvenating forces in classical music today. In this, his sixth season with the PSO, he continues the adventurous path of artistry and leadership initiated by Ms. Sonnenfeld. He reflects upon the season’s focus:
“Our anniversary theme, ‘Celebrating the Creativity of Women’ has particular significance to our organization as we were founded by Portia Sonnenfeld, a woman of great vision, and have been led by several women since, including these many past seasons with Executive Director Melanie Clarke. Our featured artists, like them, are inspirational women at the forefront of their respective fields.”
About Portia Sonnenfeld
Ms. Sonnenfeld was a complete musician and artist - a pianist, cellist, conductor, and teacher. She taught and conducted the orchestra at Princeton High School where she inspired generations of young musicians. In 1980, she founded The Little Orchestra of Princeton, precursor to today’s highly regarded Princeton Symphony Orchestra. Over her seven years leading the PSO, she programmed and conducted world premieres and introduced internationally known soloists. She also shaped the orchestra’s organizational underpinning to be strong and vibrant, attracting leading philanthropists and civic leaders to champion her cause. Her outstanding programming earned PSO its first ASCAP award, laying the groundwork for the legacy of unique and adventuresome programming that are hallmarks of today’s PSO.
PSO Classical Series
The season opens on Sunday, September 27 with A Graceful Pairing when Anna Clyne’s ongoing collaboration with Jennifer Koh spins forth another beautiful work for solo violin. The Seamstress weaves together the composer’s keen interest in assorted art forms, finding inspiration from W.B. Yeats’ poem that begins with an image of fine craftsmanship, “I made my song a coat/covered with embroideries.” Ms. Koh talks about music written by Anna Clyne in a recent profile in The New York Times, “The extraordinary thing about Anna’s music is that it is incredibly moving.” There are plans underway for a poetry reading in tandem with this performance which also includes Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2. One of Rachmaninoff’s most popular works, the symphony evokes a festive Russian spirit.
The Sunday, November 8 Edward T. Cone Concert, Heartfelt Virtuosity, showcases the talented Joyce Yang performing Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43. The 28 year-old Ms. Yang possesses the skill and artistry to illuminate the optimism and excitement of this work. Franz Schubert’s lyrical “Unfinished” Symphony and Edward T. Cone’s Symphony are also featured. This will be the second performance of Mr. Cone’s work which was completed in 1953. A reception following the concert will take place at the Princeton University Art Museum in celebration of Mr. Cone and his remarkable aunts, Claribel and Etta Cone. Artistic visionaries, these two women gathered one of the most important collections of modern French art in America, the Cone Collection at the Baltimore Museum of Art.
At the Sunday, January 31 concert Three Songs, five-time Grammy Award winning soprano Dawn Upshaw performs songs written for her by composer Osvaldo Golijov. The music draws upon Mr. Golijov’s collective Jewish, Galician, and English ancestry. Adding to the international flair are Zoltán Kodály’s Dances of Galanta, inspired by Hungarian dance music, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Prague” Symphony. Composer Jing Jing Luo’s Tsao Shu is based on the elegant motions of traditional Chinese calligraphy. Middle school students participating in the PSO BRAVO!’s Listen Up! will attend the performance and look to Ms. Luo’s work for inspiration for their own art creations. Through a grant awarded to the PSO by the League of American Orchestras and New Music USA, Ms. Luo will be in residence with the PSO this season.
Beholding Brahms on Sunday, March 13 features composer Caroline Shaw, winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Music, occasional PSO violinist, and singer with the Grammy-winning “Roomful of Teeth.” Ms. Shaw returns to Princeton to perform Lo, a violin concerto co-commissioned by the PSO. Bookending this special performance are Jean Sibelius’ Pohjola’s Daughter, a tone poem suggesting the mythic daughter of the North, and Johannes Brahms’ profoundly beautiful Symphony No. 1.
On Sunday, May 15, continuing a relationship begun in 2012, Princeton composer Sarah Kirkland Snider once again shares her nuanced sensibility with a new work co-commissioned by the PSO for its Passion & Affection concert. The work is inspired by childhood memories of home. Also on the program are Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture portraying the passions of youth, Johann Strauss, Jr.’s playful Wine, Women, and Song waltz, and Richard Strauss’ poignant Der Rosenkavalier Suite, exploring themes of chivalry and love.
Prelude Events
The PSO draws connections to its Classical Series Concerts through free events presented with community partners in the arts. The PSO’s Soundtracks Series at the Princeton Public Library on September 10, October 28, January 20, March 2, and May 4 offers behind-the-scenes vignettes of the lives of professional musicians, depicts the inner workings of an orchestra, provides historic context for the PSO’s performances, and more. PSO’s popular Behind the Music discussion forum returns with guest composers Anna Clyne, Jing Jing Luo, Caroline Shaw, and Sarah Kirkland Snider speaking in advance of the performance of their works; dates, times, and venues to be announced.
PSO Chamber Series
Four free PSO Chamber Series Concerts will be presented on select Sundays at 4:30 pm at the Institute for Advanced Study, including the October 4 world launch of the Signum Quartet’s #quartweet project featuring world premieres of musical tweets of 140 notes or less created by PSO composer friends including Derek Bermel, Sebastian Currier, Julian Grant, Jing Jing Luo, Steven Mackey, and Sarah Kirkland Snider. Additional concerts include the Momenta Quartet and Friends on December 6, PSO violinist Alexander Chaleff with poet Alexandra Zelman-Doring on January 24, and the violin and harp duo of Marc Uys and Jacqueline Kerrod on March 20.
PSO POPS!
The Princeton Symphony Orchestra offers two pops concerts annually. The PSO Holiday POPS! concert on Saturday, December 19, at 4 pm captures the spirit of the season with performances by the Princeton High School Choir and a popular carol sing along. The PSO Saturday Evening POPS! concert returns with the sequel Silver Screen Salute II featuring more music from the movies on Saturday, February 6, at 8 pm.
Subscription Information
New subscriptions to the five-concert 2015-2016 PSO Classical Series are available now. All concerts will take place at Richardson Auditorium in Alexander Hall on the campus of Princeton University. Single seat subscriptions for all five concerts are available at $310, $252, $195, and $130. The entire season may be viewed online at www.princetonsymphony.org. Subscribers are eligible for discounts on PSO POPS! tickets and receive priority reservations for free tickets to the PSO Chamber Series.
To subscribe and receive savings of up to 18% off PSO Classical Series single ticket prices, call: (609) 497-0020 or subscribe online at princetonsymphony.org. Individual concert tickets go on sale August 1. Chamber Series tickets become available to the general public three weeks prior to each concert.
PHOTO: Joyce Yang pianist by KT Kim
