Monday, August 5, 2013
FOR GENERAL RELEASE
Contact information:
Julie McDonough, Executive Director
711 N. Main St.
Rockford, IL 61103
Phone: (815) 965-0049
Fax: (815) 965-0642
Email: jmcdonough@rockfordsymphony.com
Rockford Symphony Orchestra single ticket sale announcement!
This music ignites passion – Now it’s time for it to ignite yours!
Rockford, IL – The Rockford Symphony Orchestra is pleased to announce that single tickets for
the 2013/14 season are now on sale.
The season, titled Music that Ignites Your Passion, displays love in its many forms in some of
the world’s most beautiful music from classical to big band and movie favorites.
Ticket buyers can select exact seating when purchasing tickets on the RSO website at
www.rockfordsymphony.com. Tickets are also available for purchase by calling 815-965-0049
or visiting the Coronado Performing Arts Center Box Office at 314 N. Main Street.
The 2013/14 RSO Classics Series will open September 21, 2013, with the return of RSO favorite
soprano Kathy Pyeatt. Other accomplished guest artists known for their incredible talents will
appear throughout the season, including violinist Lee Chin, and Rockford’s own pianist Jesse
Parker. Classical masterpieces include Beethoven’s 6th Symphony, He Zhanhou’s Butterfly Lovers
Violin concerto and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5, while the Pops series includes Academy
Award winning movie favorites and Big Band standards.
“This season can be enjoyed by anyone, from first-time attendees to our longtime subscribers,”
Executive Director Julie McDonough said. “Love, whether of the romantic variety, or love of
nature or our country, is a theme to which all of us can relate. Music has an innate ability to
make us feel things more strong and we really celebrate that this season.”
Subscription packages are still the best value! All subscription packages include savings off
single ticket prices. Each subscriber also receives exclusive benefits including reserved seats,
flexible ticket exchange, and discounts to area restaurants. Subscription packages range from
$64 to $449. Student subscriptions offer a tremendous value and range from $21 to $63.
Listed below are details for each performance, including music and guest artist information for
the RSO’s Classics Series and Pops Series. The RSO website has more information at
www.rockfordsymphony.com. Additional educational activities and special events throughout
the season will be announced at later dates.
ComEd Classics Series
RSO Celebrates Opening Night
Opening night at the RSO is Saturday, September 21, 2013, with a concert featuring soprano
Kathy Pyeatt and an early concert time of 6:30 p.m.
Reznicek: Overture to Donna Diana
Daniel Dorff: The Kiss (after the painting by Klimt)
Gounod: Je veux vivre from Romeo and Juliet
Verdi: Ah, fors’ e lui… Sempre libera from La Traviata
Beethoven: Abscheulicher, wo eilst du hin? from Fidelio
Kathy Pyeatt, soprano
Elgar: Enigma Variations
Celebrate the RSO’s new season on Opening Night! Pop the cork on the evening with Emil von
Reznicek’s effervescent Donna Diana Overture. Then, welcome RSO favorite Kathy Pyeatt back
to the Coronado stage for her exciting rendition of three famous operatic arias that celebrate
romantic love: the young Juliet as she enjoys her dream of carefree life before the snares of love
entrap her; Violetta, rejecting the ardent offer of Alfredo’s love in favor of the pursuit of
pleasure; Leonore, who calls upon the power of love for the strength to rescue her husband
from death at a tyrant’s hand. Immerse your senses in Daniel Dorff’s The Kiss, a shimmering
musical depiction of Gustav Klimt’s masterpiece painting. Finally, learn the real secret to the
riddle behind Edward Elgar’s famous Enigma Variations — it’s a loving musical portrait of
Elgar’s closest friends and his beloved wife, Carolyn!
This evening also features the RSO’s first ever Opening Night Gala. Attendees will enjoy
cocktails in the lobby before the concert and dining and entertainment following - all at the
beautiful Coronado Theatre.
Love of Nature
Pianist and Rockford native Jessie Parker performs with the RSO as the ComEd Classics Series
continues on Saturday, November 9, 2013.
Heitzeg: Aqua (Homage to Jacques Cousteau)
d’Indy: Symphony on a French Mountain Air
Jessie Parker, piano
Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 in F major (Pastorale)
As long as humankind has made music, it has been inspired by the sights and sounds of
nature. Aqua, by Steven Heitzeg, pays tribute to Jacques Cousteau, the French scientist,
explorer, and conservationist who devoted his life to studying life beneath the sea. Vincent
d’Indy sought inspiration in higher places, found it in the mountains of France, and gave us a
charming work for solo piano and orchestra he called Symphony on a French Mountain Air.
Ludwig van Beethoven was effusive in his love for nature and how it inspired his music. In his
Symphony No. 6, he puts aside the taut drama of the Fifth Symphony and encourages the
listener’s imagination with movement titles like “Awakening of cheerful feelings upon arrival in
the country,” “Scene by the brook,” “Happy gathering of country folk”, “Thunderstorm”, and
“Cheerful and thankful feelings after the storm”.
Legendary Loves
The first concert of 2014 will take place Saturday, January 11, 2014 featuring violinist Lee
Chin.
Offenbach: Overture to La belle Helène
He Zhanhao: The Butterfly Lovers Violin concerto
Lee Chin, violin
Wagner: Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde
Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juilet, Overture-fantasy
Some love stories are so strong, so compelling that they become legends. Greek mythology tells
us that kings and princes from around the world sought the hand of Helen of Troy. The
beautiful Helen — La belle Helène — also inspired Jacques Offenbach to write an operetta telling
her story. The Butterfly Lovers is sometimes called the Chinese Romeo and Juliet. Although one
of the most famous works of modern Chinese music, this beautiful violin concerto, inspired by
the legend, is rarely heard in this country. Richard Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde is often cited for
its far-reaching influence on musical style, especially film music. Though based on a legend
dating back to the 12th century, its musical language expresses yearnings and deep emotions
that continue to resonate with contemporary listeners. Wagner’s own concert version includes
the opera’s Prelude and its final aria, known as the Liebestod (“love death”). And what love affair
is more legendary than the “pair of star-cross’d lovers” from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet?
Few musical depictions rise to the level of drama, pathos and beauty found in Tchaikovsky’s
famed Overture-fantasy by that name.
Tragic Desire
The Classics Series continues on Saturday, February 1, 2014.
Brahms: Tragic Overture
Berlioz: Three Pieces from The Damnation of Faust
Schumann: Manfred Overture
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5 in D minor
The stage is set by Brahms’ somber and majestic Tragic Overture. Hector Berlioz’s epic
opera/oratorio, The Damnation of Faust, yields up three orchestral gems demonstrating his
mastery of orchestration and storytelling. Lord Byron’s dramatic poem Manfred, possibly
inspired by the Faust legend, tells the story of a man tortured by the death of his beloved who
seeks relief through the supernatural world. Robert Schumann wrote his version of Manfred
even as he sunk into the depths of insanity, tormented by inner voices and hallucinations. In the
1930s, the young Dmitri Shostakovich was the most celebrated composer of the new Soviet
Union — until his new opera displeased Joseph Stalin. Faced with the choice of artistic
capitulation or death in the Gulags, Shostakovich responded by creating one of the most
powerful and moving artistic statements in history, his Symphony No. 5. Even though he called
it “A Soviet Artist’s Response to Just Criticism”, it was meant to be a defiant cri du coeur, a
testament to individual freedom.
Songs of a Wayfarer
On Saturday, March 8, 2014, the ComEd Classics series will feature Gerard Sundberg, baritone,
and the RSO’s own principal cello, Michael Beert, and principal viola, Benjamin Weber.
Mahler: Song of a Wayfarer (Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen)
Gerard Sundberg, baritone
Sibelius: Pohjola’s Daughter
R. Strauss: Don Quixote
Michael Beert, cello
Benjamin Weber, viola
What greater pain than to love with all your heart, but be rejected? Three composers offer
musical answers, starting with Jean Sibelius’ Pohjola’s Daughter, from an ancient story told in
the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala. The pain of rejection was more personal for 24-year-old
Gustav Mahler, who poured his youthful distress into a song cycle, Songs of a Wayfarer, parts
of which inspired his First Symphony. In Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra’s novel Don Quixote, an
aging Spanish gentleman becomes obsessed with the chivalrous ideals touted in books he has
read, and decides to become a knight-errant, defending the helpless, destroying the wicked,
and seeking the hand of the beautiful and virtuous Dulcinea, who exists only in his imagination.
Richard Strauss, the supreme master of the tone poem, brings “The Knight of the Sad
Countenance” to life in his Don Quixote, with the title character played by RSO principal cellist
Mike Beert and his sidekick, Sancho Panza, by principal violist Ben Weber.
Love of Homeland
The ComEd Classics Series concludes on Saturday, April 26, 2014.
Dvorak: My Homeland
Smentana: Vltava (The Moldau)
Dohnányi: American Rhapsody
Prokofiev: Alexander Nevsky
Antonìn Dvořák’s deep affection for his native Bohemia led him to write the tone poem My
Homeland. His inspiration was Bedřich Smetana, who had created a sense of Czech national
pride through works like the six tone poems in Má Vlast (My Country). Of those six, the most
familiar is his vivid depiction of the Vltava River, (Moldau), from its twin spring sources in the
Bohemian Forest to its majestic flow through the city of Prague. Ernst von Dohnányi, though
Hungarian by birth, celebrated his adopted home in the U.S.A. by writing his rousing American
Rhapsody. But for sheer drama and color, it’s hard to match Serge Prokofiev’s electrifying score
for the 1938 movie Alexander Nevsky. Conceived to boost the morale of Soviet Russians
worried about the threat of invasion by Nazi Germany, the film tells the story of Prince
Alexander’s dramatic victory in 1240 over an invading army of Teutonic knights, saving the city
of Novgorod and the Russian people.
The RSO Classics Series is graciously sponsored by ComEd. All concerts are held at the
Coronado Performing Arts Center. Opening night starts at 6:30 p.m. All remaining Classics
concerts start at 7:30 p.m.
Rockford Health System Pops Series
The Best of Swing with Capitol Quartet
The RSO kicks off the Rockford Health System Pops Series on Saturday, October 12, 2013, with
the toe-tappin’, finger-snappin’, high-octane swing program featuring one of the most exciting
saxophone quartets performing today. This high-energy program features refreshing
arrangements of timeless swing classics, presented with humor and flair!
The RSO will dedicate this first Pops concert of the season to Mr. Jim Lathers, the generous
music lover who provided the RSO the $720,000 bequest in April of 2013. His former
classmates and family members are invited to attend the performance.
Holiday Pops!
The RSO celebrates the Christmas season on Saturday, December 21, at 7:30 p.m., and
Sunday, December 22, 2013, at 3 p.m., with its annual Holiday Pops concert at the Coronado.
Featuring Pianist Rich Ridenour in his original arrangements of Carol of the Bells, Billy Joel’s Egg
Nog Rag, Christmas Time is Here, Nutcracker Rock, and more. Plus, an International Christmas
Sing Along! Mr. Ridenour has been described as “a dazzling showman, masterfully musical,
wickedly funny and amazingly versatile…” This concert will also feature a special performance
from Kantorei, the Singing Boys of Rockford.
Lights, Cameras… The Oscars!
The RSO will conclude the Rockford Health System Pops Series on Saturday, March 29, 2014.
Since 1934, many of our most beloved songs have been Oscar winners or come from an
Academy Award winning movie. The RSO is joined by two Broadway singers, RSO favorite Nat
Chandler along with Teri Dale Hansen, for all the best tunes from Titanic, Aladdin, Rocky,
Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Godfather, Gone with the Wind, Chariots of Fire, and many more!
The RSO Pops Series is graciously sponsored by Rockford Health System. All Saturday concerts
are held at the Coronado Performing Arts Center at 7:30 p.m.
Special Events
The Nutcracker with the Rockford Dance Company
This annual presentation of the popular Nutcracker ballet will be held on Saturday, December
7 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, December 8, 2013 at 3 p.m. Delight in the magic of Tchaikovsky’s The
Nutcracker, as Clara takes an enchanted journey filled with the beloved melodies and dance
that have captivated audiences for more than a century. Featuring the choreography of
Rockford Dance Company Artistic Director Matthew Keefe, this year’s performance will feature
Rockford native and Rockford Dance Company Alumni April Day who now dances with the
Joffery Ballet in Chicago. Combined with the RSO and the local talent of the Rockford Dance
Company, this holiday tradition is enjoyable for the whole family.
Symphony Saturdays
The Rockford Symphony Orchestra announces the returns of the four-performance series for
families with children ages 5-10 called Symphony Saturdays. Performances will be held on
January 11, February 1, March 8, and April 5, 2014 in Kresge Hall at the Riverfront Museum Park
located at 711 N. Main St. Each date will offer one performance at 11:30 a.m.
Symphony Saturdays is designed to engage children and their parents in learning about
woodwind, percussion, brass, and string instruments. Each performance, presented by RSO
musicians, will introduce one of the four instrument families with a demonstration and
performance. Afterwards, families can participate in an instrument playground of the
instruments represented by the ensembles.
All programs, artists, and prices are subject to change.
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