ASO | LEADERSHIP | 2025/26 Board of Directors
OFFICERS
Angela Evans chair
Patrick Viguerie immediate past chair
Joia Johnson treasurer
Galen Oelkers secretary
DIRECTORS
Phyllis Abramson
Cathy Callaway Adams
Keith Adams
Juliet M. Allan
Susan Antinori
Rona Gomel Ashe
Carol Attridge
Andrew Bailey
Jennifer Barlament*
Keith Barnett
Paul Blackney
Janine Brown
Betsy Camp
Lisa Chang
Susan Clare
Russell Currey
Sheila Lee Davies
Carlos del Rio, M.D. FIDSA
Lisa DiFrancesco, M.D.
Lynn Eden
Yelena Epova
Angela Evans
Craig Frankel
Sally Bogle Gable
Anne Game
Rod Garcia-Escudero
Sally Frost George
Robert Glustrom
Julie Goosman
Bonnie B. Harris
Charles Harrison
Tad Hutcheson, Jr.
Roya Irvani
Joia M. Johnson
Raymond Kotwicki, M.D., M.P.H.
Carrie Kurlander
Scott Lampert
James H. Landon
Janine Brown vice chair
Lynn Eden vice chair
Daniel Laufer*
Donna Lee
Grace Lee, M.D.
Sukai Liu
Kevin Lyman
Deborah Marlowe
Arthur Mills IV
Molly Minnear
Hala Moddelmog*
Caroline Moïse
Anne Morgan
Terence L. Neal
Galen Lee Oelkers
Dr. John Paddock
Margie Painter
Cathleen Quigley
Doug Reid
James Rubright
Ravi Saligram
BOARD OF COUNSELORS
Neil Berman
Benjamin Q. Brunt
John W. Cooledge, M.D.
John R. Donnell, Jr.
Jere A. Drummond
Carla Fackler
Charles B. Ginden
John T. Glover
Dona Humphreys
Aaron J. Johnson, Jr.
James F. Kelley
Patricia Leake
Karole F. Lloyd
Meghan H. Magruder
Shelley McGehee
Penelope McPhee
LIFE DIRECTORS
Howell E. Adams, Jr.
John B. White, Jr.
* Ex-Officio Board Member
^ On Sabbatical
William Schultz
June Scott
V Scott
Charles Sharbaugh
Gayle Sheppard
Fahim Siddiqui
W. Ross Singletary, II
John Sparrow
Elliott Tapp
Yannik Thomas
Maria Todorova
Ben Touchette
Benny Varzi
S. Patrick Viguerie
Kathy Waller
Chris Webber
Richard S. White, Jr.
Mack Wilbourn
Kevin E. Woods, M.D., M.P.H.
Howard D. Palefsky
Patricia H. Reid
Joyce Schwob
John A Sibley, III
H. Hamilton Smith
G. Kimbrough Taylor, Jr.
Valerie Thadhani, M.D.
Connie Calhoun Azira G. Hill
Michael W. Trapp
Ray Uttenhove
Chilton Varner
Adair M. White
Sue Sigmon Williams
Ben F. Johnson, III
The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Advisory Council is a group of passionate and engaged individuals who act as both ambassadors & resources for the ASO Board and staff. The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra extends heartfelt gratitude to the members listed on this page.
2025/26 CHAIRS
Jane Morrison
advisory council chair
Justin Im
internal connections task force co-chair
Robert Lewis, Jr.
internal connections task force co-chair
Kristi Stathopolous
internal connections task force co-chair
Jane Blount
patron experience task force co-chair
Frances A. Root
patron experience task force co-chair
Tiffany Rosetti
community connections & education task force co-chair
Otis Threatt
community connections & education task force co-chair
MEMBERS
Dr. Marshall & Stephanie Abes
Phyllis Abramson
Krystal Ahn
Kristi & Aadu Allpere
Logan Anderson & Ian Morey
Evelyn Babey
Asad & Sakina Bashey
Meredith W. Bell
John Blatz
Jane Blount
Carol Brantley & David Webster
Johanna Brookner
Mrs. Amy B. Cheng & Dr. Chad A. Hume, Ph.D
Tracey Chu
Bruce Cohen
Kate Cook
DePorres & Barbara Cormier
Daniel P. Debonis
Donald & Barbara Defoe
Paul & Susan Dimmick
Bernadette Drankoski
Xavier Duralde & Mary Barrett
John & Catherine Fare Dyer
Jerry H. Evans
Mary Ann Flinn
Bruce & Avery Flower
Karen Foster
Annie Frazer
John D. Fuller
Alex Garcias
Dr. Paul Gilreath
Nadeen Green
Greg Heathcock & Cesar Moreno
Elizabeth Hendrick
Mia Frieder Hilley
Caroline Hofland
Desmond L. Hollingsworth
Justin Im
Dr. Lillian Ivansco
Frank &
Janice Johnston
Lana Jordan
Jennifer B. Kahnweiler
Rosthema Kastin
Andrea Kauffman
Alfred D. Kennedy & Bill Kenny
Brian & Ann Kimsey
Jason & Michelle Kroh
Jeff & Pam Kuester
Van & Elizabeth Lear
Dr. Fulton Lewis III & Mr. Neal Rhoney
Robert Lewis, Jr.
Jonathan Lively
Eunice Luke
Catherine & Bill Lundstrom
Thomas Mabry
Erin Marshall
Alfredo Martin
Belinda Massafra
Catherine Massey
Doug & Kathrin Mattox
Ed & Linda McGinn
Suneel Mendiratta
Keyeriah Miles
Berthe & Shapour Mobasser
Bert Mobley
Maria & Chris Moffett
Jamal Mohammad & Marcus Dean
Sue Morgan
Bill Morrison & Beth Clark-Morrison
Jane Morrison
Gary Noble
Regina Olchowski
Bethani Oppenheimer
Joseph Owen, Jr.
Ralph & Suzanne Paulk
Ann & Fay Pearce
Jonathan & Lori Peterson
Stephen Polley
Dr. John B. Pugh
Eliza Quigley
Joseph Rapanotti
Leonard Reed
Dr. Jay & Kimberley Rhee
Vicki Riedel
Felicia Rives
Angela Robinson
Susan J. Robinson & Mary C. Roemer
David Rock
Frances A. Root
Maurice & Tricia Rosenbaum
Tiffany & Rich Rosetti
Noelle Ross
Thomas & Lynne Saylor
Beverly & Milton Shlapak
Suzanne Shull
Baker Smith
Cindy Smith
Janice Smith
Victoria Smith
Peter & Kristi Stathopoulos
Tom & Ani Steele
Deann Stevens
Beth & Edward Sugarman
Stephen & Sonia Swartz
Sadie Talmadge
George & Amy Taylor
Bob & Dede Thompson
Otis Threatt Jr.
Cathy Toren
Roxanne Varzi
Robert & Amy Vassey
Juliana Vincenzino
Emily C. Ward
James Washburn
Dr. Nanette K. Wenger
Kiki Wilson
Dr. Jiong Yan &
Baxter Jones
Camille Yow
Peter Zimmerman
For more information about becoming an Advisory Council member, please contact Beth Freeman at beth.freeman@atlantasymphony.org or 404.733.4532.
The HENRY SOPKIN CIRCLE recognizes and celebrates the special donors who have made a planned gift to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
Planned gifts preserve the Orchestra’s foundation and make it possible for future generations to enjoy the magic of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. From incredible performances in Symphony Hall to the extensive education and community programs that enrich the lives of students and children across the region, your support would leave a legacy of music far into the future.
This thoughtful support ensures the music of the ASO will resonate for generations to come, and we are so grateful for the generosity it reflects. If you’d like to learn more about making a planned gift, please contact us at 404.733.4485 or visit www.aso.org/planned-giving.
For more information about the HENRY SOPKIN CIRCLE or how to make a planned gift, please contact Jimmy Paulk. 404.733.4485
james.paulk@atlantasymphony.org
Robert Spano leads two weeks of ASO concerts, contributing a throughline of storytelling to the America @ 250 series. In a recent interview with Lois Reitzes, Spano reflects on the themes of the featured repertoire and his collaboration with many of the highlighted musicians.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Lois Reitzes: American music has a long-time champion in conductor Robert Spano. During his 20-year tenure as Music Director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Maestro Spano commissioned 28 works and cocommissioned another 13 works as part of his initiative to advocate for living American composers. So, it’s perfectly fitting that as the ASO Music Director Laureate, he returns to conduct two weekends of concerts that are part of the orchestra’s America @ 250 celebration.
Many living American composers whose works you’ve championed were presented with your special designation as the Atlanta School of Composers, including Christopher Theofanidis. His music opens the first concert, and he said it was inspired by a text from St. Augustine. Please tell us more about On the Bridge of the Eternal.
Robert Spano: I’m very excited. For any of our audience who remembers Chris’ Creation/Creator that we did some years ago, there was a movement that used this text of St. Augustine, regarding eternity. And it is a stark text. And he set the most beautiful a cappella movement to it in Creation/Creator. And then a few years ago, he was commissioned to write this, so it’s an extrapolation or a kind of fantasy inspired by the a cappella movement, but it’s strictly for orchestra.
LR: Chris wrote in his program notes that he was inspired by a text from St. Augustine, and he described it as “a rumination on the nature and mystery of time.” And it seemed to me, that there was something both religious but at the same time more modern in its sentiment. It had almost a physicist’s take on time embedded in it. Robert, that struck me as something of a throughline for your own worldview.
RS: Well, Chris articulated it so much better than I tried to. It became, for me, the kind of kernel of the whole work of Creation/Creator, because that was the beauty of the larger work in my mind–this combination of texts from mystics, from religious thinkers, from scientists, from artists–not taking just one point of view, but all these different possibilities. I thought it was one of the most beautiful things about the tapestry of that work.
LR: You chose two symphonies by Leonard Bernstein for both series of ASO concerts, beginning with his Symphony No. 1, “Jeremiah.” Over 30 years after its 1944 premiere, the composer said, “The work I have been writing all my life is about the struggle that is born of the crisis of our century, a crisis of faith.” Though specific to the Book of Lamentations from the Hebrew Bible, how does Bernstein’s “Jeremiah” Symphony connect or juxtapose with Theofanidis’ On the Bridge of the Eternal?
RS: Well, I love that you brought that up. Bernstein’s declaration, because all three of the symphonies, specifically the symphonies, address this headon. "Jeremiah" with the plight of human suffering. How does one reconcile that with the divine, [Symphony No. 2] “The Age of Anxiety”? And then the Third Symphony, again, grappling with issues of death, suffering, life, and crisis of faith. It’s so intrinsic to his work and to his character and his music. It’s beautiful that he said it so explicitly.
And then to put it next to the Theofanidis, I was interested to take this work inspired by Augustine, pointing to the possibility of an eternal world which is outside of time. In some way, what Chris was pointing to with the almost clinical nature of the text as well as its power. Maybe in its own way, is speaking to the same problem Mr. Bernstein is with the lamentations of “Jeremiah” in the First Symphony.
LR: Another collaborator on this first concert is the pianist Sir Stephen Hough. He’s performed as a soloist with you several times. What is it like working with him?
RS: It’s so easy and fun. We have a very good time. He’s such a tremendous musician, you know, and he brings such insight into everything he plays. I’m especially excited because he and I have never done Rachmaninoff Three together. It’s an amazing couple of weeks with these two pianist composers
[Hough and Tao], two different generations—it’s very exciting to have them back-to-back like that.
And not to be forgotten is Zhenwei Shi, our Principal Viola, in Harold in Italy, which was commissioned from Berlioz by Paganini. It’s a showpiece to show off a great violist and I’m so happy that Zhenwei is going to be doing it. He’s just one of the most phenomenal violists I’ve ever heard anywhere. So, it’s just exhilarating to put him in the spotlight.
LR: Leonard Bernstein regarded W.H. Auden’s book-length poem, The Age of Anxiety, as “one of the most shattering examples of pure virtuosity in the history of English poetry,” to quote the composer, naming the cultural condition of the mid-20th century. How does this piece for piano and orchestra reflect the problematic search for faith that Bernstein wrote about all his life?
RS: I’ve long studied that poem in relation to the piece, even searching for the direct correspondences of which passages in the poem correspond to passages in the music. And I’ve not found that as fruitful. But what I found more powerful is capturing the mood rather than the narrative. I don’t think it’s necessary to know the poem to appreciate the music. I think the music, in its own right, captures certain affect, certain moods and emotional states that the poem similarly does.
I think one of the things that is most salient in the symphony is the use of the jazz trio that captures the same sentiment that’s in the Auden where this kind of party animal approach, this escapist approach, is actually born of an anxiety not deeply rooted in enjoyment but rather of distraction from the anxiety that lies underneath.
LR: Tell us about the role of the pianist and why it’s essential here.
RS: In a sense, that’s the only reason I could think of to pair Harold in Italy with the Age of Anxiety. Both are symphonies that feature a soloist, but yet they are not quite concertos. They are operating, and at times, the piano is extremely important as the main voice or even as the protagonist. And at other times, the piano is subsumed into being part of the orchestra and then emerging again.
LR: It’s a fascinating relationship and these concerts are so rich. We cannot wait to hear them, Robert. And I must say, whenever you are on the podium in Symphony Hall, to all of us in the audience and listening, it feels like home.
The original interview with Lois Reitzes will air on WABE.
We are deeply grateful to the following leadership donors whose generous support has made the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's season possible.
The 4,205th and 4,206th concerts of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Thursday, April 30, 2026, 8pm
Saturday, May 2, 2026, 8pm
Atlanta Symphony Hall
ROBERT SPANO, conductor
STEPHEN HOUGH, piano
KELLEY O’CONNOR, mezzo-soprano
The use of cameras or recording devices during the concert is strictly prohibited. Please be kind to those around you and silence your mobile phone and other hand-held devices.
CHRISTOPHER THEOFANIDIS (b. 1967)
On the Bridge of the Eternal (2020) 17 MINS
LEONARD BERNSTEIN (1918-1990)
Symphony No. 1, "Jeremiah" (1943) 25 MINS
I. Prophecy –
II. Profanation –
III. Lamentation
Kelley O’Connor, mezzo-soprano
INTERMISSION 20 MINS
SERGEI RACHMANINOFF (1873-1943)
Concerto No. 3 in D minor for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 30 (1909) 39 MINS
I. Allegro ma non tanto
II. Intermezzo: Adagio
III. Finale: Alla breve
Stephen Hough, piano
This weekend's concerts were made possible in part by a grant from the BARNEY M. FRANKLIN & HUGH W. BURKE CHARITABLE FUND.
Thursday’s concert is dedicated to TERRY & JEANNE NEAL in recognition of their exceptional leadership at a critical moment for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
Saturday's concert is dedicated to CARI K. DAWSON & JOHN M. SPARROW in honor of their generous support of the 2024/25 Annual Fund.
by Noel Morris Program Annotator
Notes to Know
• Leonard Bernstein was the son of Russian Jewish immigrants. His "Jeremiah" Symphony grew out of a melody from the Ashkenazi cantillation of Lamentations.
• The legendary pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff stood 6’ 6” and had enormous hands. According to witnesses, he could hit octave Cs with the left pinky and index finger while hitting the G above with the thumb—a span of 20 keys!
• Rachmaninoff wrote his Piano Concerto No. 3 for his own fingers. It is a monster for pianists, requiring large stretches for the fingers and heroic, yet fast and intricate, passage work. The concerto also demands enormous power and stamina to pierce thick orchestral textures.
CHRISTOPHER THEOFANIDIS,
On the Bridge of the Eternal
Composer Christopher Theofanidis wrote, “A few years ago, the University of Colorado Boulder commissioned an orchestral work for their 100th anniversary celebrations that were to happen in the fall of 2020. Of course, the pandemic delayed that event until 2022, and, as might have been expected, during the period I was composing the work, I ended up going into a more internal space—less extroverted and celebratory, and more contemplative.
“What had been obsessively on my mind during the pandemic was a short text from St. Augustine’s The Confessions. It was a rumination on the nature and mystery of time, and it seemed to me that there was something both religious and modern in its sentiment—it had an almost physicist’s take on time embedded in it.”
Finally, Theofanidis set Augustine’s text to music. The words also serve as a preface to On the Bridge of the Eternal.
Oh Lord, a long time is only long because it is made of many successive moments which cannot be extended. In the eternal, nothing is transient, but the whole is present.
This is the first ASO performance.
All past time is driven backwards by the future, All future time is consequent upon the past.
All past and future are created and set on their course by That which is always present.
Who will lay hold of the human heart to make it still, So that it can see how eternity, in which there is neither past nor future, stands still?
—St. Augustine
Orchestration: 4 flutes (4th = piccolo), 4 oboes, 4 clarinets, 4 bassoons (4th = contrabassoon), 5 horns (5th = Asst.), 3 trumpets, 4 trombones (4th = bass trombone), 1 tuba, percussion, 1 timpani, harp, and strings
Christopher Theofanidis, composer
Christopher Theofanidis’ music has been performed by many of the world’s leading performing arts organizations, from the London Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, and New York Philharmonic to the San Francisco Opera, the Houston Grand Opera, and the American Ballet Theatre. He is a two-time GRAMMY® nominee for best composition, and his Viola Concerto, won the 2021 GRAMMY® for Best Instrumental Solo. Mr. Theofanidis’ work, Rainbow Body, is one of the most performed works in recent decades, having been performed by over 200 orchestras worldwide. Mr. Theofanidis is currently coordinator of the composition programs at Yale University and the Aspen Music Festival, and has taught at the Juilliard School and the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University.
BERNSTEIN Symphony No. 1, "Jeremiah"
“In the summer of 1939, I made a sketch for a Lamentation for soprano and orchestra,” said Leonard Bernstein. “This sketch lay forgotten for two years, until in the spring of 1942 I began the first movement of a symphony. I then realized that this new movement, and the Scherzo that I planned to follow it, made logical concomitants with the Lamentation. Thus, the Symphony came into being, with the Lamentation greatly changed, and the soprano supplanted by a mezzo-soprano. The work was finished on 31 December 1942, and is dedicated to my father.”
Bernstein was 24 and fresh out of the Curtis Institute of Music. His career choice put him at odds with his father (Dad wanted him to take over his beauty products business) when world events intervened.
On November 10, 1938, The New York Times ran the headline “Jews Are Ordered to Leave Munich.” There followed an article describing savage attacks against Jews at the hands of Nazi Storm Troopers, events that came to be known as Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass.
First ASO performance: January 25, 1964
Robert Mann, conductor
Beverly Wolff, mezzo-soprano
Most recent ASO performance: January 28, 2018
Robert Spano, conductor
Jennifer Johnson Cano, mezzo-soprano
Horrified and distraught, young Bernstein found himself reflecting on the music and lessons of the synagogue, especially the Babylonian Captivity, which stands as an emblem of collective trauma. According to scripture, the “weeping prophet” Jeremiah foretold disaster and urged the children of Israel to renounce their idolatry. Unheeded, Jeremiah wept. And God’s vengeance descended upon them.
Describing his symphony, Bernstein said, “The first theme of the Scherzo is paraphrased from a traditional Hebrew chant. And the opening phrase of the vocal part in the Lamentation is based on a liturgical cadence still sung today in commemoration of the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon.” The finale represents “the cry of Jeremiah, as he mourns his beloved Jerusalem, ruined, pillaged, and dishonored after his desperate efforts to save it.”
The young composer hurried to complete his symphony by December 31, 1942, to enter it in a school competition in Boston. He didn’t win, but Serge Koussevitsky and Fritz Reiner clamored to premiere the piece. Reiner secured the premiere at the Syria Mosque in Pittsburgh in 1944. Later that year, The New York Times chose Bernstein’s First Symphony as the “Season’s Best Orchestral Work by an American.”
Closer to home, Bernstein soon reconciled with his dad, who lovingly quipped, “How was I to know he would turn out to be Leonard Bernstein?”
Orchestration: 3 flutes (3rd = piccolo), 3 oboes (3rd = english horn), 3 clarinets (3rd = Eb clarinet/bass clarinet), 3 bassoons (3rd = contrabassoon), 5 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, 1 tuba, percussion (triangle, bass drum, snare drum, cymbals, woodblock), 1 timpani, keyboard, and strings
First ASO performance:
October 30, 1951
Henry Sopkin, conductor
Thomas Brockman, piano
Most recent ASO performance: May. 9-11, 2024
Robert Spano, conductor
Garrick Ohlsson, piano
RACHMANINOFF Piano Concerto No. 3
Recently, Gramophone magazine wrote, “Rachmaninoff was perhaps the most complete musician of the past 150 years.” It was a tribute to a man who rocketed to stardom in three different careers: composer, conductor, and pianist.
He’d achieved the first two in his native Russia, earning honors, celebrity, and all the trappings of an upperclass lifestyle. But when the Bolsheviks took over, he gathered his wife and daughters and slipped into Finland. They lost everything but their freedom. As the 44-year-old Sergei Rachmaninoff gazed into the frightened faces of his daughters, he weighed his options and chose a piano career — the most lucrative.
Rachmaninoff had always been a formidable player. He often performed his works. But if he wanted a career as a touring virtuoso, he needed to build a repertoire and burnish his skills. And so he returned to the woodshed and did the work of a musician half his age. Success came quickly. Settling in America, he drew large audiences and stopped writing music.
The Third Piano Concerto came from 1909, the waning years of Imperial Russia. The composer reluctantly agreed to an American tour, not for the publicity but because he’d make enough money to buy a car (he was an original motorhead). He wrote the concerto during the summer at the family estate.
“I wanted to sing the melody on the piano, as a singer would sing it,” he said, “and to find a suitable orchestral accompaniment, or rather one that would not muffle this singing.” Out of that singing melody, he spun a highly imaginative, intensely integrated work — and a beastly workout for the pianist.
Rachmaninoff set sail in September, practicing his new concerto shipboard on a silent keyboard. He debuted the piece with two orchestras in New York City, including the New York Philharmonic under Gustav Mahler.
Initially, no other pianist dared touch the “Rach 3.” It is
notoriously difficult, “40 minutes of finger-twisting madness,” wrote The Washington Post. The Third Concerto became one of his most popular showpieces, helping to pay for a large collection of fast cars.
Orchestration: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, 1 tuba, percussion (bass drum, suspended cymbals, snare drum), 1 timpani, piano, and strings
ROBERT SPANO, Music Director Laureate and conductor
Robert Spano, conductor, pianist, composer, and teacher, is known worldwide for the intensity of his artistry and distinctive communicative abilities, creating a sense of inclusion and warmth among musicians and audiences that is unique among American orchestras. Music Director of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra (FWSO) since August 2022 Spano will continue there through July 2031, shaping the artistic direction of the orchestra and driving its continued growth. This season, Spano also steps into the role of Music Director of the Washington National Opera (WNO) for a three-year term. An avid mentor to rising artists, he is responsible for nurturing the careers of numerous celebrated composers, conductors, and performers. As Music Director of the Aspen Music Festival and School since 2011, he oversees the programming of more than 300 events and educational programs for 630 students and young performers; he also directs the Aspen Conducting Academy, which offers participants unparalleled training and valuable podium experience. After twenty seasons as Music Director with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO), he now serves as its Music Director Laureate. He also becomes Principal Guest Conductor of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra & Music School this season, where he previously served as Principal Conductor.
In his fourth season as music director of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Spano leads more than six symphonic programs, including a world premiere by Michael Gandolfi. Spano leads two productions at Washington National Opera: the company’s production of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro
and a new production of Robert Ward’s Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award®–winning opera The Crucible. Other highlights of the season include guest conducting appearances with the Louisville Orchestra, Nashville Symphony, San Diego Symphony, and Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Spano’s newest recording as a pianist and composer is a collaboration with mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor, “Songs of Orpheus,” a series of song cycles by Edvard Grieg, Claude Debussy, George Crumb, and Spano himself, on Sono Luminus (August 22, 2025).
With a discography of critically acclaimed recordings for Telarc, Deutsche Grammophon, and ASO Media, Robert Spano has garnered four GRAMMY® Awards and eight nominations with the Atlanta Symphony. Spano is on faculty at Oberlin Conservatory and has received honorary doctorates from Bowling Green State University, the Curtis Institute of Music, Emory University, and Oberlin. Maestro Spano is a recipient of the Georgia Governor’s Award for the Arts and Humanities and is one of two classical musicians inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.
SIR STEPHEN HOUGH, piano
Named by The Economist as one of Twenty Living Polymaths, Sir Stephen Hough combines a distinguished career of a concert pianist with those of a composer and writer. In recognition of his contribution to cultural life, he became the first classical performer to be given a MacArthur Fellowship and was awarded a Knighthood for Services to Music in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2022. Hough has played with most of the world’s leading orchestras and has been a guest of recital series and festivals worldwide
Hough opens 2025/26 season at the Elbphilharmonie, launching the Hamburg Staatsorchester’s season under its new music director Omer Meir Wellber with Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3, for which he has composed a brandnew second movement. Over the following 12 months, he gives more than 60 concerts/recitals across three continents, appearing with leading orchestras in the US, Europe, and Asia. This season also marks the Asian premiere of his
Piano Concerto, The World of Yesterday—named after Stefan Zweig’s memoir—with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, followed by its Korean premiere with Symphony S.O.N.G. His season also features a series of high-profile recital appearances, including Wigmore Hall in London and Klavierfestival Ruhr in Germany. His Piano Quintet (Les Noces Rouges) commissioned by the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society in 2024, will receive its European and UK premieres at the National Concert Hall in Dublin and Southbank Centre in London
As a composer, Hough’s Fanfare Toccata was commissioned for the 2022 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and performed by all 30 competitors. Hough’s body of songs, choral and instrumental works have been commissioned by Musée du Louvre, National Gallery of London, Westminster Abbey, Westminster Cathedral, the Wigmore Hall, and other prestigious organizations/festivals.
Yamaha CFX22 concert grand piano provided by Yamaha Artist Services New York.
KELLEY O’CONNOR, mezzo-soprano
The GRAMMY® Award-winning mezzo-soprano
Kelley O’Connor is one of the most compelling vocal artists of her generation. She is known for a commanding intensity on stage, a velvet vocal tone, and the ability to create sheer magic in her interpretations. She performs with leading orchestras and conductors around the world, with preeminent artists in recitals and chamber music, and with highly acclaimed opera companies in the U.S. and abroad.
In the 2025–2026 season, Kelley O’Connor returns to the Aspen Music festival for the world premiere of Christopher Theofanidis’s Siddhartha, She, under the baton of Robert Spano. She opened the Grand Rapids Symphony season with Beethoven 9 and performed the work again with the San Francisco Symphony. She joins the New World, and Fort Worth Symphonies for Peter Lieberson’s Neruda Songs; appears with the Colorado and Winston-Salem Symphonies for Handel’s Messiah; sings Mahler 2 with the Indianapolis Symphony; and appears with the Nashville Symphony in
two programs: Verdi’s Requiem and Bernstein’s “Jeremiah.” Recently, O’Connor has premiered an extended version of Thomas Adès’s America (A Prophecy) in her debut with the Gewandhausorchester; performed Mahler’s Second Symphony with the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra and his Third Symphony with the San Francisco Symphony; and John Adams’s El Niño with the Houston Symphony.
Sought after by many of the most heralded composers of the modern day, Kelley O’Connor has recently premiered works by John Corigliano, Kareem Roustom, Joby Talbot, and Bryce Dessner. John Adams wrote the title role of The Gospel According to the Other Mary for O’Connor and she has performed the work, both in concert and in the Peter Sellars fully staged production, under the batons of John Adams, Gustavo Dudamel, among others. She continues to be the eminent living interpreter of Peter Lieberson’s Neruda Songs.
The 4,207th and 4,208th concerts of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Thursday, May 7, 2026, 8pm
Saturday, May 9, 2026, 8pm
Atlanta Symphony Hall
ROBERT SPANO, CONDUCTOR
ZHENWEI SHI, VIOLA
CONRAD TAO, PIANO
The use of cameras or recording devices during the concert is strictly prohibited. Please be kind to those around you and silence your mobile phone and other hand-held devices.
HECTOR BERLIOZ (1803-1869)
Harold en Italie, Op. 16 (Harold in Italy) (1834) 43 MINS
I. Harold aux Montagnes (Harold in the Mountains)
II. Marche de pélerins (March of the Pilgrims)
III. Sérénade d’un Montagnard des Abruzzes à sa maîtresse (Serenade of an Abruzzi-mountaineer to his Mistress)
IV. Orgie de Brigands (Orgy of Bandits)
Zhenwei Shi, viola
INTERMISSION 20 MINS
LEONARD BERNSTEIN (1918-1990)
Symphony No. 2, "The Age of Anxiety" (1949-rev. 1965) 35 MINS
PART I
The Prologue
The Seven Ages (Variations I to VII)
The Seven Stages (Variations VIII to XIV)
PART II
The Dirge
The Masque
The Epilogue
Conrad Tao, piano
This weekend's concerts are dedicated to SUSAN & RON ANTINORI in honor of their generous support of the 2024/25 Annual Fund.
by Noel Morris Program Annotator
Notes to Know
• Hector Berlioz was, in part, self-taught. He explored the different orchestral instruments on his own and went on to advance the art of orchestration by leaps and bounds.
• Poet W.H. Auden inspired many pieces of music, including works by Benjamin Britten, Ned Rorem, Igor Stravinsky, and Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony, "The Age of Anxiety".
• Leonard Bernstein summed up his piece and W.H. Auden’s poem "The Age of Anxiety" as a “record of our difficult search for faith.”
BERLIOZ Harold in Italy
Hector Berlioz adored literature. As a boy, he devoured works by Shakespeare, Goethe, Virgil, Sir Walter Scott, and Lord Byron. His passion for books served him well as a theatrical composer and fed into his memoirs, which sometimes read like a romance novel.
“When the audience had dispersed, I found waiting for me a man with long black hair, piercing eyes, and wasted form — genius-haunted, a colossus among giants — whom I had never seen before, yet who stirred within me a strange emotion,” Berlioz wrote. “Catching my hand, he poured forth a flood of burning praise and appreciation that fired my heart and head.”
That man was Niccolò Paganini, a violinist extraordinaire with a cult following. That night in 1833, Paganini told the composer he’d acquired a Stradivari viola and needed some music to show off its beauty (and his playing). Berlioz accepted the project but got carried away.
First ASO performance: November 13, 1956
Henry Sopkin, conductor
William Primrose, viola
Most recent ASO performance: March 22, 2003
Donald Runnicles, conductor
Reid Harris, viola
He initially announced he was writing a massive piece called “The Last Moments of Mary Stuart for chorus, orchestra, and principal viola.” Later, he called it a fourmovement “symphony with principal viola.” But when he showed the first movement to Paganini, the famous fiddler hiccuped at the scant viola part and withdrew from the project.
Berlioz carried on. In 1831, he traveled to Rome on a scholarship but lost interest in Italian musical orthodoxy. He decided to explore the Italian peninsula on foot. In 1834, he merged his sojourn with that of Lord Byron, author of the epic poem Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. (Note: a “childe” is a young nobleman aspiring to knighthood.) The poem follows a disillusioned young nobleman who leaves his leisurely existence to wander Europe in search of purpose and meaning.
For Harold’s melodic material, Berlioz repurposed an expansive tune from his Rob-Roy Overture to represent the downhearted youth. Like his Symphonie fantastique (1830), Berlioz used an idée fixe, a recurring melody that represents a core concept. But in the Symphonie, the idée fixe morphs as the protagonist’s moods change. In Harold, it’s a constant. Childe Harold moves through different Italian scenes, maintaining a running dialogue with the orchestra’s instruments while always keeping his bearings.
In the first movement, the viola enters with Harold’s theme after a restless introduction. Harold marvels at the sun-kissed mountains. The second movement conjures monks chanting, church bells, and the steady footfalls of pilgrims. The third movement recalls an overnight in a flea-infested bed where the composer woke to the sound of a youth serenading his lover. For the serenade, Berlioz substituted the English horn and oboe for the pifferari (Italian bagpipers) to play an enchanting tune. (Notice how the tune is a variation on the Harold theme.) The composer’s penchant for cross-rhythms adds a delightful, off-kilter effect to the rural piping. The finale echoes themes from the first three movements, possibly styled after Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and evokes a band of merry highwaymen.
In 1838, Niccolò Paganini saw Berlioz conduct a performance of Harold in Italy. Afterwards, he leapt on stage. Taking the composer’s hands, he fell to his knees and apologized for abandoning their collaboration. Paganini later sent Berlioz 20,000 francs for his trouble.
Orchestration: 2 flutes (2nd = piccolo), 2 oboes (2nd = english horn), 2 clarinets, 4 bassoons, 5 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 cornets, 3 trombones, 1 tuba, percussion (cymbals a2, triangle, 2 tambourine), 1 timpani, harp, viola and strings
BERNSTEIN Symphony No. 2, "The Age of Anxiety"
“The world needs a wash and a week’s rest.”
—W.H. Auden, The Age of Anxiety
In the wake of World War II, a malaise settled over the Greatest Generation. Gone were the ticker-tape parades, replaced by uncertainty, the Red Scare, and social instability. Millions of war-weary servicemen and women returned to the banalities of civilian life, and many suffered an inner gnawing — a crisis of faith. In 1947, W.H. Auden captured the national mood in his 138page poem, "The Age of Anxiety". With it, he garnered the most glowing and most damning reviews of his life, winning the 1948 Pulitzer Prize. The poem especially touched Leonard Bernstein, who heard music as he sat with its language.
It’s “fascinating and hair-raising,” he said. Auden surfaced something in him that pierced his consciousness, and “the composition of a symphony based on [it] acquired an almost compulsive quality.”
First ASO performance: May 4, 1974
Robert Shaw, conductor Leonard Pennario, piano
Most recent ASO performance: September 24, 2017
Robert Spano, conductor
Set during the War, the poem imagines four strangers in a New York City bar, seeking solace in a bottle of booze. They fall into a marathon conversation about life, settling into a booth together before retiring to “Rosetta’s” apartment. After talking through the night, the four parted as strangers. Through their musings, Auden gave voice to widespread disillusionment, purposelessness, and loneliness, interrupted by a 40s-era radio — big band music, commercials, and war updates (notice the jazzy flavor of the symphony’s first half).
The symphony includes a hefty piano part that Bernstein called an “autobiographical protagonist,” and ascribed to it that elusive thing that they seek — a spiritual connection.
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano
“The pianist is set against an orchestral mirror in which he
sees himself analytically in the modern ambience,” said the composer.
In his published score, Bernstein confessed he followed the poem even closer than he’d imagined. To begin with, he copied the poem’s form with six sections spread over two parts (the bar and the apartment). The Prologue begins with two lonely clarinets before passing into the “realm of the unconscious,” as Bernstein described it.
In Part 1, a set of variations presents the four characters’ views of man, called the Seven Ages. Each variation picks up on a musical element of the preceding variation. Seven more variations follow, representing a dream quest that Auden called the Seven Stages. In Part 2, the four lost souls climb into a cab to the girl’s apartment for a nightcap, starting with a movement titled “The Dirge.” Here, they mourn the loss of a father figure who could set things right. Bernstein employs the 12-tone technique to develop its theme. In “The Masque,” they arrive at the girl’s apartment, turn on the radio, and dance, hoping to revive feelings of better times, what Bernstein called “fake hilarity.” But the party fizzles. In the Epilogue, the only thing left for the besotted crew is faith.
In the end, Auden didn’t care much for Bernstein’s symphony or Jerome Kern’s ballet that followed. But the symphony took on a life of its own, and some think it’s better than the poem.
“It does magnificently what the poem can’t do — spins the characters out beyond reason in their desire to blot out the dismal world,” wrote poet Glynn Maxwell.
Bernstein composed the symphony between 1948 and 1949. For musical reasons, he broke with the poem in 1965 and revised the ending.
Orchestration: 4 flutes (4th = piccolo), 3 oboes (3rd = english horn), 3 clarinets (3rd = bass clarinet), 3 bassoons (3rd =contrabassoon), 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, 1 tuba, percussion (drum set, tenor drum, glockenspiel, chimes, xylophone, tam-tam, snare drum, triangle, bass drum, cymbals a2, suspended cymbal, temple blocks), 1 timpani, 2 harps, keyboard and strings
ROBERT SPANO, Music Director Laureate
See page 25 for Robert Spano’s biography
ZHENWEI SHI, viola
Zhenwei Shi was appointed principal violist of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in 2019 at the age of twenty-three.
He received first prize in the 2010 International String Players Competition in Hong Kong and third prize in the 2014 Johansen International Young String Players Competition in the U.S.A. He was also awarded the Special Jury Prize from the 2016 XII Lionel Tertis Viola International Competition and the Regent’s Award from the Duchess of Gloucester of British Royalty and Royal Academy of Music.
As a Drake Calleja Trust and ABRSM scholar in the U.K. since 2016, Mr. Shi has performed as a solo violist and chamber musician at prestigious venues such as Buckingham Palace, Wigmore Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Shanghai Concert Hall, and on the BBC’s In Tune broadcast.
Since 2018, he has been a frequent guest player with the San Francisco Symphony and Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Shi has performed with the Georgian Chamber Players since 2019. He was invited to be an artist-faculty member at the Aspen Music Festival and School in 2020.
CONRAD TAO, piano
Conrad Tao is a pianist and composer celebrated for his boundary-defying artistry as well as his powerful performances of traditional repertoire. Described by New York Magazine as “the kind of musician who is shaping the future of classical music,” and praised by The New York Times for his “probing intellect and open-hearted vision,” Tao appears regularly as a soloist with leading orchestras and at major venues across the world.
In the 2025–26 season, Tao returns to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as both soloist and recitalist, performing Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with Karina Canellakis and later
presenting a recital program featuring Gershwin song arrangements alongside works by Schoenberg, Strayhorn, Schumann, and others. Recital highlights include debuts at Berlin’s Philharmonie and Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, as well as returns to Klavierfestival Ruhr, and to the Celebrity Series of Boston, and the Seattle Symphony with Poetry and Fairy Tales, a program blending works by David Fulmer, Rebecca Saunders, Todd Moellenberg, Brahms, and Ravel.
Tao reunites with Robert Spano for performances of John Adams’ Century Rolls (San Diego Symphony) and Bernstein’s The Age of Anxiety (Atlanta Symphony). He also joins Matthias Pintscher and the Konzerthausorchester Berlin for Pintscher’s NUR, and travels to Tokyo to perform Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 17 with the NHK Symphony and Jaap van Zweden. He makes his harpsichord debut at Princeton University in Patricia Kopatchinskaja’s Dies Irae Tao continues performing his own works, including Flung Out, an homage to Gershwin, which he played recently at the Aspen Festival, and The Hand, a companion to Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1, which was commissioned and performed by the Kansas City Symphony. His orchestral work Everything Must Go premiered with the New York Philharmonic and later in Europe with the Antwerp Symphony.
The 4,209th and 4,210th concerts of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Thursday, May 14, 2026, 8pm
Friday, May 15, 2026, 8pm
Atlanta Symphony Hall
JÖRG WIDMANN, CONDUCTOR
ALINA
IBRAGIMOVA, VIOLIN
JÖRG WIDMANN (b. 1973)
Con brio (2008-rev. 2013) 12 MINS
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791)
Concerto No. 5 in A major for Violin and Orchestra, K. 219 (“Turkish”) (1775) 31 MINS
I. Allegro aperto
II. Adagio
III. Rondo: Tempo di menuetto
Alina Ibragimova, violin
INTERMISSION 20 MINS
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791)
Symphony No. 41 in C major, K. 551 (“Jupiter”) (1788) 31 MINS
I. Allegro vivace
II. Andante cantabile
III. Allegretto
The use of cameras or recording devices during the concert is strictly prohibited. Please be kind to those around you and silence your mobile phone and other hand-held devices.
IV. Molto allegro
Presented with the generous support of and in partnership with the GOETHE-ZENTRUM ATLANTA.
by Noel Morris Program Annotator
Notes to Know
• Jörg Widmann made an intensive study of Beethoven’s 7th and 8th Symphonies before composing Con brio. The title, Con brio (with spirit), comes from Beethoven’s own indications for the symphonies.
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote his five violin concertos in quick succession before his 20th birthday.
• Mozart’s father wrote an influential treatise on violin playing. Young Wolfgang was a capable player, but preferred the piano and viola.
JÖRG WIDMANN Con Brio
In 2008, conductor Mariss Jansons asked Jörg Widmann to write a concert opener to accompany Beethoven’s 7th and 8th Symphonies—a grounding assignment for a composer. Firstly, Widmann knew he’d be accompanying a giant. Secondly, he’d be working with a smallish orchestra.
Over the 19th and 20th centuries, the symphony orchestra grew larger. For comparison, Widmann’s Au coeur de Paris (2022) requires more than twice as many wind and brass players as Beethoven, along with an additional accordion, 2 harps, celeste, and 28 percussion instruments. Widmann’s Con brio (with spirit) is like a sci-fi Beethoven cocktail.
Widmann’s voicing of harmonies and the emphasis of the offbeats give a strong whiff of the 19th-century colossus, as do the little motifs that served as Beethoven’s building blocks. But the scoring is all Widmann. Clearly, he likes his percussion; notice the strings snapping against the fingerboard, bows moving in unusual ways, percussive puffs coming from the wind instruments (a flute technique called the “jet whistle”), or the drumsticks scraping the side of the timpani.
Widmann told the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, “In my opinion, [Beethoven’s] music makes such an incredible furor precisely because he is using such limited instrumentation.… I have to distribute things carefully and divide the material between all of the instruments.”
Orchestration: 2 flutes (1st / 2nd = piccolo), 2 oboes,
This is the first ASO performance.
2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 1 timpani and strings
First ASO performance: March 25, 1971, Robert Shaw, conductor Eudice Shapiro violin
Most recent ASO performance: January 31-February 2, 2013, Gilbert Varga, conductor, Vilde Frang, violin
MOZART Violin Concerto No. 5, "Turkish"
The Ottoman Turks laid siege to the City of Vienna for the last time in 1683. Their troops had been hunkered down for two months when European forces smashed their lines. In a panic, the Turks turned and ran, leaving a beguiling array of spoils, including tents, rugs, swords, sheep, clothing, camels, and sacks of a peculiar and fragrant bean — coffee. Mozart’s grandfather remembered the whole affair. In the coming years, Turkish goods became wildly popular in the West. Even the Empress Marie Theresa had her portrait painted in Turkish costume. And the Janissary bands (clangorous military bands that later accompanied Turkish diplomats) led to Euro-style imitations.
185 miles away, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart spent his childhood around the other musicians at the Salzburg court — that is, when he wasn’t touring Europe. With an adult-like ability to play the violin and harpsichord, he bedazzled people far and wide and became the court's concertmaster at age 15. Likely, Mozart wrote his first violin concerto at age 15 in Salzburg in 1773. He wrote four more in 1775 and never returned to the form again.
With the Violin Concerto No. 5, 19-year-old Mozart bucked tradition by decoupling the thematic material of the orchestra and soloist in the introduction. Notice the violin entrance has an almost operatic quality, which lasts for just six bars before they’re off to the races. He marked the movement Allegro aperto (lively, open) with a murmuring accompaniment to the violin’s entrance that evokes a warm breeze or babbling brook.
Biographer Jan Swafford wrote, “We are arriving at the mature eighteenth-century concerto, in which the soloist is the leading character and the orchestra is the world he or she lives in, and their relations are intricate.”
The poignant singing style returns in the Adagio, but the real kicker comes in the finale, which juxtaposes a banal, lilting minuet with a left turn into Mozart alla Turca. That is, he inserted a jarring, Turkish-style military march.
INSIDE THE SCORE
Traditionally, Janissary bands (Mehter) keep a steady beat with large kettle drums, cymbals, and jingling bells while trumpets and double-reeds play a shrieking melody. Once upon a time, the bands marched into battle, motivating Turkish forces while confusing and terrifying the enemy. In peacetime, the Viennese copied their sound for entertainment.
The typical Janissary march follows the rhythm: left, left, left-right, left, which Mozart copied in the third movement of his Violin Concerto No. 5. A Janissary march is usually monophonic (without harmonies). To mimic the heavy percussion, Mozart asked the cellos and basses to whack their strings with the wood of the bow. After the aggressive military march, the courtly minuet returns at the end, but now sounds almost silly, perhaps a wisecrack by a young composer.
Orchestration: 2 oboes, 2 horns, violin and strings
MOZART Symphony No. 41, "Jupiter"
More than any other composer's, Mozart’s music causes people to contemplate the divine. There are many quotes to this effect. Albert Einstein put it this way: “Mozart is the greatest composer of all. Beethoven created his music, but the music of Mozart is of such purity and beauty that one feels he merely found it — that it has always existed as part of the inner beauty of the universe waiting to be revealed.”
The Jupiter Symphony is a marvel; an expansive and majestic rock of perfection that seems to occupy a realm beyond the messy and tormented mass of humanity. Put this symphony side-by-side with portraits of Mozart wearing powdered wigs, “beautiful clothing, lace, and watch chains,” as George Nissen wrote, one wonders if his feet ever touched the ground.
In reality, Mozart had a potty mouth. He loved cards, billiards, wine, and women. He spent too much money yet remained
First ASO performance: January 26, 1947
Henry Sopkin, conductor
Most recent ASO performance: February 10-13, 2022
Dmitry Sinkovsky, conductor
devoted to God and family. And this is partly what makes the music so imponderable—this paragon of balance, beauty, and order came from a thoroughly disordered and earthy existence.
1788 was a trying year. Austria went to war with the Turks (again), which led to heavy taxes and soaring food prices. The Vienna premiere of Don Giovanni was underwhelming. Mozart’s infant daughter died in June. His wife, Constanze, suffered complications from multiple pregnancies, and they had money problems.
We know little about the composition of Mozart’s last symphonies (Nos. 39-41). Written in just over two months, they are dated June 26, July 25, and August 10th, 1788.
There is one clue to the Jupiter Symphony: In the first movement, following the regal opening, Mozart inserted a jocular tune from his song “A kiss on her hand.” The taunting text goes: “You are a little dull, my dear Pompeo. Go study the ways of the world.” It’s as though he’s contrasting two opera characters who are sharing a scene — a royal and a vulgarian. And this is an important feature of Mozart’s music. Although he remained a slave to beauty, he covered the full range of the human experience.
With Jupiter’s finale, he threw down the gauntlet for all future composers — think of the popular Broadway trick of having two different characters singing simultaneously, each with his own melody. Mozart builds Jupiter’s finale using five different melodies and piles them on top of one another in a wondrous, rotating heap of counterpoint.
Orchestration: 1 flute, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 1 timpani and strings
JÖRG WIDMANN, conductor and composer
Jörg Widmann is one of the most remarkable and versatile artists of his generation. From 2026 onwards, he will assume the position of Artistic Director of the Lucerne Festival Academy, which has been a central pillar in the field of contemporary music within the festival since its founding by Pierre Boulez in 2004. In the 2025/26 season, Jörg Widmann will be performing worldwide in all his facets as clarinettist,
conductor and composer, including his third season as Principal Guest Conductor of the NDR Radiophilharmonie. He is also Associate Conductor of Münchener Kammerorchester and Artistic Partner of Sinfonietta Riga.
Following important engagements with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España, he will conduct the Cleveland Orchestra for the first time alongside the Atlanta Symphony and Detroit Symphony orchestras. Further guest conducting appearances see him work with Oslo Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Radio Filharmonisch Orkest, National Symphony Orchestra Taiwan, Budapest Festival Orchestra and Bamberg Symphony Orchestra. In his capacity as Associate Conductor, he will tour South America with Münchener Kammerorchester.
Recent highlights include Olga Neuwirth’s clarinet concerto Zones of Blue, dedicated to Jörg Widmann, and the world premiere of Jörg Widmann’s new composition Jupiter-Etüde as part of the Mozart Festival in Würzburg, which will take place in June.
Jörg Widmann will join long-standing chamber music partners at venues including Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Philharmonie Essen, Muziekgebouw, Konzerthaus Wien, Auditorio Nacional de Música, Toppan Hall and Boulez Saal.
Widmann gave the world premiere of Mark Andre’s Clarinet Concerto über at the Donaueschinger Musiktage 2015. Other clarinet concertos dedicated to and written for him include Wolfgang Rihm’s Musik für Klarinette und Orchester (1999) and Aribert Reimann’s Cantus (2006). https://www.joergwidmann.com
ALINA IBRAGIMOVA, violin
The 2025/26 season sees Alina Ibragimova perform with the Budapest Festival Orchestra, Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, London Philharmonic, Wiener Symphoniker, Finnish Radio Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, Dresdner Philharmonie, Boulez Ensemble and Kammerakademie Potsdam, working with conductors Iván Fischer, Robin Ticciati, Edward Gardner, Thomas Guggeis and Krzysztof Urbański. She also play-directs the Scottish
Chamber Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Camerata Bern.
Highlights of the previous two seasons have included concerts with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Camerata Salzburg, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Detroit Symphony, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Bamberger Symphoniker, WDR Sinfonieorchester and City of Birmingham Symphony, with conductors Vladimir Jurowski, Hannu Lintu, Ryan Bancroft, Maxim Emelyanychev and Anja Bihlmaier.
In recital, Alina regularly performs with pianist Cédric Tiberghien and together they continue their cycle of Beethoven’s sonatas for violin and piano on period instruments at Wigmore Hall. Other chamber projects this season include recitals at Berlin’s Boulez Saal and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and Muziekgebouw, as well as performances with the Chiaroscuro Quartet of which Alina is a founding member.
ASO | SUPPORT
The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra continues to prosper thanks to the support of our generous patrons. The list below recognizes the donors who have made contributions since June 1, 2024. Their extraordinary generosity provides the foundation for this worldclass institution.
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Ms. Juliana T. Vincenzino
Alan & Marcia Watt
Mr. David J. Worley & Ms. Bernadette Drankoski
$5,000+
A Friend of the Symphony
Louis J. Alrutz
Mr. Logan Anderson
The Hisham and Nawal Araim
Family Foundation
Dr. Evelyn R. Babey
Lisa & Joe** Bankoff
Anthony Barbagallo & Kristen Fowks
Asad & Sakina Bashey
Meredith Bell
Mr. & Mrs. Thomas D. Bell, Jr.
Mr. John Blatz
Rita & Herschel Bloom
Jane & Greg Blount
Dr. & Mrs. Jerome B. Blumenthal
Mrs. Robert C. Boozer
Margo Brinton & Eldon Park
Ms. Jane F. Boynton
Ms. Johanna Brookner
Jacqueline A. &
Joseph E. Brown, Jr.
CBH International, Inc
Mrs. Amy B. Cheng & Dr. Chad A. Hume, Ph.D
Helena & Phillip Choi
Mr. & Mrs. Dennis M. Chorba
Ms. Tracey Chu
Bruce Cohen
Malcolm & Ann Cole
William & Patricia Cook
Matt & Kate Cook
Mary Carole Cooney & Henry R. Bauer, Jr.
Mr. & Mrs. DePorres Cormier
Carol Comstock & Jim Davis
Kelly Goldston DeBonis & Daniel P. DeBonis
Mr. & Mrs. Paul H. Dimmick ∞
Xavier Duralde & Mary Barrett
Robert S. Elster Foundation
Jerry H. Evans & Stephen T. Bajjaly
Dr. & Mrs. Carl D. Fackler
Ellen & Howard Feinsand
Bruce W. & Avery C. Flower ∞
Mr. David L. Forbes
Dr. Karen A. Foster
Annie Frazer & Jen Horvath
Gaby Family Foundation
Mr. & Mrs. Richard Goodsell
Mr. & Mrs. Steve Hauser
John** & Martha Head
The Reverend Elizabeth H. Hendrick
Hilley & Frieder
Mrs. Nicole L. House
Mr. & Mrs. Paul Huesken
Tad & Janin Hutcheson
Mr. Justin Im & Dr. Nakyoung Nam
Lillian Kim Ivansco & Joey Ivansco
Mr. W. F. & Dr. Janice Johnston
Lana M. Jordan ∞
Paul** & Rosthema Kastin
Mr. & Mrs. Mark A. Kauffman
Mona & Gilbert Kelly °
Mr. Alfred D. Kennedy & Dr. William R. Kenny
Mr. Charles R. Kowal
Pat & Nolan Leake
Mr. & Mrs. Van R. Lear
Jonathan Lively
Mr. William A. Lundstrom & Mrs. Catherine L. Lundstrom
Ms. Eunice Luke
Thomas & Marianne Mabry
In Memoriam: Betty (B.J.) Malone
Beau & Alfredo Martin
Mr. & Mrs. Christopher D. Martin
Belinda & Gino Massafra
Catherine Massey
Ms. Darla B. McBurney
Molly McDonald & Jonathan Gelber
Fred & Sue McGehee Family
Charitable Fund
Mr. Dale Metz & Ms. Lisa Williams
Key Miles
Mr. Bert Mobley ∞
Maria & Chris Moffett
Mr. Jamal Mohammad & Mr. Marcus Dean
Mr. William Morrison & Mrs. Elizabeth Clark-Morrison
Ms. Bethani Oppenheimer
Donald S. Orr & Marcia K. Knight
Mr. & Mrs. Joseph Owen, Jr.
Mr. & Mrs. Solon P. Patterson
Mr. & Mrs. Edmund F. Pearce, Jr. °
Jonathan & Lori Peterson
In Memory of
Dr. Frank S. Pittman III
Stephen Polley
Dr. & Mrs. John P. Pooler
Dr. John B. Pugh
John H. Rains
Mrs. Susan H. Reinach
Dr. Jay Rhee & Mrs. Kimberley Rhee ∞
Ms. Felicia Rives ∞
Angela Robinson
Susan J. Robinson & Mary C. Roemer
Ms. Noelle Ross & Mr. Tim Dorr
John T. Ruff
Dr. & Mrs. Rein Saral
Dr. Robert D. Schreiner & Dr. Patricia M. Simone
Suzanne Shull ∞
Gerald & Nancy Silverboard
Baker & Debby Smith
Ms. Cynthia Smith
Janice B. Smith
Ms. Victoria Smith
Ms. Lara Smith-Sitton
Mr. & Mrs. Peter Stathopoulos
In memory of Elizabeth B.
Stephens by Powell, Preston & Sally ∞
Ms. Deann Stevens
Beth & Edward Sugarman
Sadie Talmadge
Dede & Bob Thompson
Mr. & Mrs. Peter Toren
Trapp Family
Dr. Brenda G. Turner
Chilton & Morgan** Varner
Amy & Robert Vassey
Emily C. Ward
Emily & James Washburn
Mr. & Mrs. Chris Webber
Dr. Nanette K. Wenger
David & Martha West
John F. Wieland, Jr.
Suzanne B. Wilner
Mr. & Mrs. M. Beattie Wood
Kaya Yamashita in memory of her parents, Hiroko & Tomohiro Yamashita
Danielle & Peter Zimmerman
$3,500+
A Friend of the Symphony (2)
Sam & Linda Boyte
Liz & Charlie Cohn °
Jean & Jerry Cooper
Mr. David S. Dimling
Gregory & Debra Durden
Sandra & John Glover
Mr. Jeff Harms &
Mr. Peter MacLean
Ms. Susan V. Heerin
Barbara M. Hund
Cameron H. Jackson
Ms. Rebecca Jarvis
Sally C. Jobe
Mrs. Gail Johnson**
Wolfgang** & Mariana Laufer
Ms. Ellen B. Macht
Martha & Reynolds McClatchey
Ms. Kathy Powell
S.A. Robinson
Ms. Donna Schwartz
Ms. Martha Solano
Kay R. Summers
Mrs. Dale L. Thompson
Russell F. Winch & Mark B. Elberfeld
Judy Zaban-Miller & Lester Miller**
$2,000+
A Friend of the Symphony (6)
Paul & Melody Aldo
Mr. James L. Anderson
Atlanta Symphony Associates
Herschel Beazley
Dr. Bruce & Linda** Beeber
Dr. & Mrs. Joel E. Berenson
Susan & Jack Bertram
Mr. & Mrs. Xavier Bignon
Leon & Joy Borchers
Martha S. Brewer
Harriet Evans Brock
Benjamin Q. Brunt
Laurel & Gordon Buchmiller
Dr. Aubrey Bush & Dr. Carol Bush
Mr. & Mrs. Walter K. Canipe
Betty Fuller Case
Mr. Jeffery B. Chancellor & Mr. Cameron England
Mr. Michael J. Clifford & Ms. Sandra L. Murray
Mr. James Cobb
Coenen-Johnson Foundation
Susan S. Cofer
Nicky Cohen & Simon Dibley
Ralph** & Rita Connell
Dr. & Mrs. John E. Cooke
Mrs. Nancy Cooke
Mr. William R. Cranshaw
R. Carter & Marjorie A. Crittenden Foundation
Claire & Alex Crumbley
Dr. & Mrs.** F. Thomas Daly, Jr.
Vicente del Rio
Ms. Suzanne Denton
Jerome J. Dobson
Mr. & Mrs. Graham Dorian
Mr. Christopher Drew
Mr. Trey Duskin &
Ms. Noelle Albano °
Mrs. Eve F. Eckardt
Dr. & Mrs. Ralph Edgar
Mr. & Mrs. Robert G. Edge
William Eiselstein & Andrew Greene
Dieter Elsner & Othene Munson
Mr. & Mrs. Paul G. Farnham
Dr. Donald & Janet Filip
Tom & Cecilia Fraschillo
Dr. Elizabeth C. French
Mr. & Mrs. Kevin Gaid
Mr. & Mrs. Sebastien Galtier ∞
Dr. & Mrs. John C. Garrett
Dr. Robert W. Gilbert
Marty & John Gillin °
Mrs. Janet D. Goldstein
Dr. & Mrs. Martin I. Goldstein
Mr. Robert Golomb
Mrs. Beverly Green
Richard & Debbie Griffiths
Mr. & Mrs. George Gundersen
Mr. & Mrs. Juanmarco Gutierrez
Deedee Hamburger
Ms. Ayonna Hammond
Phil & Lisa Hartley
Mr. & Mrs. John Hellriegel ∞
Bill & Babette Henagan
Ann J. Herrera & Mary M. Goodwin
Kenneth & Colleen Hey
Dr. Thomas High
Azira G. Hill
Sarah & Harvey Hill, Jr. °
Mr. & Mrs. Jacob Hill
Mrs. Leslie H. Hill & Mr. Jacob C. Hill
Mr. Larry B. Hooks & Mrs. Carole W. Hooks
Laurie House Hopkins & John D. Hopkins
James & Bridget Horgan °
Mr. & Mrs. Brian Huband
Dona & Bill Humphreys
Mr. Christopher Hurst
Ms. Olga Inozemtseva
Aaron & Joyce Johnson
Dr. & Mrs. Eike Jordan
Teresa M. Joyce, Ph.D
Ms. Alice Kwan
Dr. & Mrs. William C. Land, Jr.
Lillian Balentine Law
Mr. Andrew Liakopoulos & Mr. Mark Hawkins
Mr. & Mrs. J. David Lifsey
Deborah & William Liss
Barbara & Jim MacGinnitie
Dr. Marcus Marr
Marx & Marx LLC
Ben Mathis & Mary Anne Mathis
In Memory of Pam McAllister
Gray McCalley
Cody & Missy McClatchey
Mr. & Mrs. James McClatchey
Mr. & Mrs. John G. McColskey
Mr. & Mrs. Robert McDuffie
Birgit & David McQueen
Mr. & Mrs. Eugene F. Meany
Anna & Hays Mershon
Mr. & Mrs. Thomas B. Mimms, Jr.
Pat Mitchell & Scott Seydel
Ms. Helen Motamen & Mr. Deepak Shenoy
Mr. & Mrs. Peter Muniz
Melanie & Allan Nelkin
Agnes V. Nelson
Mr. & Mrs. Denis Ng
Gary R. Noble, MD & Joanne Heckman
Mr. & Mrs. Charles H. Ogburn
Mr. & Mrs. James Pack
Mr. Albert Palombo & Mrs. Linda E. Berggren
Erica L. Parsons & J. Mark Stewart
Mr. & Mrs. Al Pearson
Mr. Doug F. Powell
Mr. & Mrs. Douglas G. Riffey, Jr.
Mr. & Mrs. Kenneth Roberts
Betsy & Lee Robinson
Dr. Judith C. Rohrer
Stuart Romm
Ms. Lili Santiago-Silva & Mr. Jim Gray
Dr. Marianne Scharbo-DeHaan
Drs. Lawrence & Rachel Schonberger
Dick Schweitzer
Mallie Sharafat
Angela Allen Sherzer
Mr. David C. Shih
Alan & Marion Shoenig
Helga Hazelrig Siegel
Diana Silverman
Caryl & Kendrick Smith
Hamilton & Mason Smith
Anne-Marie Sparrow
Elizabeth Morgan Spiegel
James & Shari Steinberg
Dr. Steven & Lynne Steindel °
Ms. Lizanne E. Stephenson & Mr. Alan Kendall
Ms. Sandra Stine & Mr. Greg Burel
Dr. & Mrs. John P. Straetmans
Lauren, RJ, & Mia Stuart
Ms. Linda F. Terry
Johnny Thigpen & Clay Martin
Mr. & Ms. Nathaniel Thomas
Herb & Elke Timmerman
Duane P. Truex III
Mr. Jerry Stacy Tucker
Bill & Judy Vogel
Mrs. Joyce Vroon
Dr. James L. Waits
Mr. Charles D. Wattles & Ms. Rosemary C. Willey
Mr. & Mrs. Robert L. Welch
Mrs. Lynne M. Winship
Sandra L. Wong
Mr. Will Young
Zaban Foundation, Inc.
Herbert** & Grace Zwerner
** = deceased
° = We are grateful to these donors for taking the extra time to acquire matching gifts from their employers.
∞ = Leadership Council
We salute these extraordinary donors who have signed pledge commitments to continue their support for three years or more.
Patron Leadership (PAL) Committee
We give special thanks to this dedicated group of Atlanta Symphony Orchestra donor-volunteers for their commitment to each year’s annual support initiatives:
Linda Matthews chair
Kristi Allpere
Helga Beam
Bill Buss
Pat Buss
Kristen Fowks
Deedee Hamburger
Judy Hellriegel
Belinda Massafra
Sally Parsonson
June Scott
Milt Shlapak
Lara Smith-Sitton
Kay Summers
Jonne Walter
Marcia Watt
CORPORATE PARTNERS
$1,000,000+
Delta Air Lines
$100,000+
AAA Parking
Bloomberg Philanthropies
The Coca-Cola Company
Georgia Power Company
Graphic Packaging International, Inc.∞
The Home Depot Foundation
Piedmont Realty Trust
$75,000+
Alston & Bird LLP
The Norfolk Southern Corporation
$50,000+
Accenture LLP
Four Seasons Hotel Atlanta
Google
PwC
The Robert W. Woodruff Health Sciences Center of Emory University
$25,000+
AFFAIRS to REMEMBER
Bank of America
Charitable Foundation
BlueLinx Corporation
Huntington Bank
$25,000+ CONTINUED
Chick-fil-A Foundation | Rhonda & Dan Cathy∞
Dennis Dean Catering
Deloitte
Eversheds Sutherland
Grady Health System
King & Spalding LLP
KPMG LLP, Partners & Employees
Porsche Cars North America Inc.
Publix Super Markets Charities, Inc.
The QUIKRETE® Companies
Regions Bank
Truist Bank
$15,000+
Atlanta Parent
BlackRock
Cisco
EY
FleishmanHillard
Georgia-Pacific
Tony Brewer and Company
Tower Beer, Wine & Spirits
SouthState Bank
WABE 90.1 FM
Warner Bros. Media
$10,000+
Buckhead Village
Costco Wholesale
Davis Broadcasting’s WJZA Smooth Jazz 101/100
FOUNDATION AND GOVERNMENT SUPPORT
$250,000+
Lettie Pate Evans Foundation
Goizueta Foundation
$100,000+
Amy W. Norman
Charitable Foundation
Charles Loridans Foundation, Inc.
Emerald Gate Charitable Trust
The Halle Foundation
The Molly Blank Fund of the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation
The Zeist Foundation, Inc.
$50,000+
Georgia Department of Public Health
Paul M. Angell Family Foundation
Robert & Polly Dunn Foundation, Inc.
$35,000+
City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs
Georgia Council for the Arts
The Hellen Plummer Charitable Foundation, Inc.
The Roy & Janet Dorsey Foundation
$25,000+
The Graves Foundation
The Jim Cox, Jr. Foundation
Fulton County Arts & Culture
The Marcus Foundation, Inc.∞
Massey Charitable Trust
$15,000+
The Sartain Lanier Family Foundation
$10,000+ CONTINUED
Greenberg Traurig
Jazz 91.9 WCLK
La Fête du Rosé
Merrill
Music Matters
WVEE-FM | V-103.3 FM
$5,000+
A Friend of the Symphony
Chef Craig Richards
Drummond Woodsum
FayTak Designs | Farideh Takaloo
Marietta Neonatology
Parker Poe
Perkins&Will
The St. Regis Atlanta
Ticketmaster
Yellow Bird Project Management
$2,000+
Allen Organ Studios
The Backline Company
Big Dome Promotions, LLC
EventWorks
Morehouse School of Medicine
Phoenix Senior Living
The Piedmont National
Family Foundation
Premier Events / Chastain Concessions
Prime Pharmaceuticals & Compounding Pharmacy
$10,000+
The Scott Hudgens Family Foundation
In Memory of Betty Sands Fuller
$5,000+
A Friend of the Symphony
The Breman Foundation, Inc.
National Endowment for the Arts
$2,000+
2492 Fund
Paul and Marian Anderson Fund
Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University
Georgia Humanities
The Parham Fund
HENRY SOPKIN CIRCLE
Named for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s founding Music Director, the HENRY SOPKIN CIRCLE celebrates cherished individuals and families who have made a planned gift to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. These special donors preserve the Orchestra’s foundation and ensure success for future generations.
A Friend of the Symphony (22)
Madeline* &
Howell E. Adams, Jr.
Mr.* & Mrs.* John E. Aderhold
Paul & Melody Aldo
Mr. & Mrs. Ronald R. Antinori
Elizabeth Ann Bair*
Dr. & Mrs. William Bauer
Helga Beam
Mr. Charles D. Belcher*
Neil H. Berman
Susan & Jack Bertram
Mr.* & Mrs.* Karl A. Bevins
The Estate of Donald S. & Joyce Bickers
Ms. Page Bishop*
Mr.* & Mrs.* Sol Blaine
John Blatz
Rita & Herschel Bloom
The Estate of Mrs. Gilbert H. Boggs, Jr.
W. Moses Bond
Mr.* & Mrs. Robert C. Boozer
Elinor A. Breman*
Carol J. Brown
James C. Buggs*
Hugh W. Burke*
Mr. & Mrs. William Buss
Wilber W. Caldwell*
Mr.* & Mrs. C. Merrell Calhoun
Cynthia & Donald Carson
Mrs. Jane Celler*
Mr. Jeffery B. Chancellor & Mr. Cameron England
Lenore Cicchese*
Dr. & Mrs. Grady S. Clinkscales, Jr.
Suzanne W. Cole Sullivan
Robert Boston Colgin
Mrs. Mary Frances
Evans Comstock*
Miriam* & John A.* Conant
Dr. John W. Cooledge
Dr. Janie Cowan
Mr. & Mrs. William R. Cummickel
Bob* & Verdery* Cunningham
Vivian & Peter de Kok
Mr. Richard H. Delay & Dr. Francine D. Dykes
John R. Donnell
Dixon W. Driggs*
Pamela Johnson Drummond
Mrs. Kathryn E. Duggleby*
Catherine Warren Dukehart*
Ms. Diane Durgin
Arnold & Sylvia Eaves
Mr. & Mrs. Robert G. Edge
Geoffrey G. Eichholz*
Elizabeth Etoll
Mr. Doyle Faler*
Brien P. Faucett
Dr. Emile T. Fisher*
Moniqua N Fladger
Mr. & Mrs. Bruce W. Flower
A. D. Frazier, Jr.*
Nola Frink*
Betty* & Drew* Fuller
Sally & Carl Gable
William & Carolyn Gaik
Dr. John W. Gamwell*
Mr.* & Mrs.* L.L. Gellerstedt, Jr.
Ruth Gershon & Sandy Cohn
Max Gilstrap*
Mr. & Mrs. John T. Glover
Mrs. David Goldwasser*
Robert Hall Gunn, Jr. Fund
Billie & Sig Guthman*
Betty G.* & Joseph* F. Haas
Dr. Charles H. Hamilton*
Sally & Paul* Hawkins
John* & Martha Head
Ms. Jeannie Hearn*
Barbara & John Henigbaum*
Ms. Elizabeth Hendrick
Jill* & Jennings* Hertz
Mr.* & Mrs. Charles K. Holmes, Jr.
