Jack M. Champaigne Masterworks Series

The 90th Season opens with Siblings Sarah Willis and Music Director Alastair Willis on stage together! This exciting and unique performance combines much-loved solo pieces for French horn by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with traditional Cuban music.

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Program

Stravinsky
Pulcinella Suite 

I. Sinfonia (Ouverture)
II. Serenata
III. Scherzino – Allegro – Andantino
IV. Tarantella
V. Toccata
VI. Gavotta con due variazioni
VII. Vivo
VIII. Minuetto – Finale

Mozart
Horn Concerto No. 3 in E flat major, K.447

I. Allegro
II. Romance. Larghetto
III. Allegro

Bologne
Overture to L’Amant anonyme/The Anonymous Lover, Op. 11, No. 2

I. Allegro Presto
II. Andante
III. Presto

Milhaud
Le boeuf sur le toit, Op. 58

Pulcinella Suite

Igor Stravinsky 
Born: June 17, 1882, Saint Petersburg
Died: April 6, 1971, New York, New York

At a Glance
Composed: 1920
Duration: 22 minutes
Premiered by: Boston Symphony Orchestra
conducted by Pierre Monteaux in December, 1922

The Story
No twentieth-century composer was more involved with dance than Stravinsky. He wrote at least 12 scores specifically for ballet production, and choreographers have used a large number of them for dances.

The original and prime mover of all this Stravinskian dance activity was Serge Diaghilev, the Russian impresario for whom the composer wrote his early (1910-13) triumphant triumvirate of ballets, The Firebird, Petrushka, and The Rite of Spring. Reassembling his company after World War I, Diaghilev searched for a project with which to lure Stravinsky back to ballet. Contemplating the success of The Good-Humored Ladies, danced to music Domenico Scarlatti arranged by Vincenzo Tommasini, he struck upon the music of Pergolesi as a likely prospect for Stravinsky’s manipulation. At first unenthusiastic to the plan, the composer was won over as he read through the many scores by the eighteenth-century Italian master that Diaghilev had gathered – not knowing that most of the pieces were not authentic Pergolesi articles.

Stravinsky chose various pieces attributed to Pergolesi, and from an old manuscript he took a comic episode whose leading character was Pulcinella, the traditional hero of Neapolitan commedia dell’arte.

The plot is a natural for Stravinsky’s sophisticated wit: Pulcinella, sought after by all the girls, is in danger of being killed by their boyfriends. Changing places with his double, who then only pretends to be slain, Pulcinella escapes harm. The would-be assassins disguise themselves as Pulcinella and go to visit their respective sweethearts. Pulcinella, as if risen from the dead, appears. Becoming a magnanimous benefactor, he arranges marriages for the couples and weds Pimpinella. 

Maintaining most of the original melodies, Stravinsky “touches up” the music with added notes and ostinatos, which provide harmonic pungency and rhythmic tautness. He subtly adjusts the phrases, breaking up the formal symmetry, and adds color through orchestration exhibiting the composer’s characteristic transparency.

The ballet was introduced in Paris on May 15, 1920, with choreography by Léonide Massine – who also […]

Set sail on a musical journey with the Symphony as they travel across the water with works from Wagner, Dr. Marvin Curtis and Bryan Edington, Smetana, and Debussy.   

Subscriptions are NOW on sale 

• Click to become a subscriber online
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Single tickets sales start on August 16, 2022

Wagner
Overture to The Flying Dutchman

Curtis and Edington
St. Joseph River Suite

Smetana
The Moldau

Debussy
La Mer

Coming soon.

David Lockington began his career as a cellist and was the Principal with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain for two years. After completing his Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Cambridge where he was a choral scholar, Mr. Lockington came to the United States on a scholarship to Yale University where he received his Master’s Degree in cello performance and studied conducting with Otto Werner Mueller. He was a member of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra and served as assistant principal cellist with the Denver Symphony Orchestra for three years before turning to conducting. Over the past thirty years, David Lockington has developed an impressive conducting career in the United States. A native of Great Britain, he served as the Music Director of the Grand Rapids Symphony from January 1999 to May 2015, and is currently the orchestra’s Conductor Laureate. He has held the position of Music Director with the Modesto Symphony since May 2007 and in March 2013, Mr. Lockington was appointed Music Director of the Pasadena Symphony. He has a close relationship with the Orquesta Sinfonica del Principado de Asturias in Spain, where he was the orchestra’s Principal Guest Conductor from 2012 through 2016, and in the 15/16 season was named one of three Artistic Partners with the Northwest Sinfonietta in Tacoma, Washington.

In addition to his current posts, since his arrival to the United States in 1978 Mr. Lockington has held positions with several other American orchestras, including serving as Assistant Conductor of the Denver Symphony Orchestra and Opera Colorado, and Assistant and Associate Conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. In May 1993 he accepted the position of Music Director of the Ohio Chamber Orchestra, assumed the title of Music Director of the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra in September 1995 and was Music Director of the Long Island Philharmonic for the 96/97 through 99/2000 seasons.

Mr. Lockington’s guest conducting engagements include appearances with the Saint Louis, Houston, Detroit, Seattle, Toronto, Vancouver, Oregon and Phoenix symphonies; the Rochester and Louisiana Philharmonics; and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall. Internationally, he has conducted the Northern Sinfonia in Great Britain, the Israel Chamber Orchestra, the China Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra in Beijing and Taiwan, and led the English Chamber Orchestra on a tour in Asia.

Recent and upcoming guest conducting engagements include appearances with the New Jersey, Indianapolis, Utah, Pacific, Colorado, Nashville, San Diego, Santa […]

Kayhan Kalhor performs with emotionally charged “Silent City” paired with yet another passionate work that stirs the soul. Brahm’s Symphony No. 2 evokes optimism and hope with rich, yet joyful melodies.  

Subscriptions are NOW on sale 

• Click to become a subscriber online
• Call 574-232-6343 ext. #1
• Visit the office at 127 N. Michigan St., downtown South Bend (10 a.m. –5 p.m. Mon.-Fri.)

Single tickets sales start on August 16, 2022

Kayhan Kalhor
“Silent City”

Brahms
Symphony No.2

Coming soon.

Kayhan Kalhor is an internationally acclaimed virtuoso on the kamancheh (spiked fiddle), who through his many musical collaborations has been instrumental in popularizing Persian around the world and is a creative force in today’s music scene. His performances of traditional Persian music and multiple collaborations have attracted audiences around the globe. He has studied the music of Iran’s many regions, in particular those of Khorason and Kordestan, and has toured the world as a soloist with various ensembles and orchestras including the New York Philharmonic and the Orchestre National de Lyon. He is co-founder of the renowned ensembles Dastan and Masters of Persian Music. Kalhor has composed works for Iran’s most renowned vocalists Mohammad Reza Shajarian and Shahram Nazeri and has also performed and recorded with Iran’s greatest instrumentalists. He has composed music for television and film and was featured on the soundtrack of Francis Ford Copolla’s Youth Without Youth in a score that he collaborated on with Osvaldo Golijov. John Adams invited him to give a solo recital at Carnegie Hall as part of his Perspectives Series and he has appeared on a double bill at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, sharing the program with the Festival Orchestra performing the Mozart Requiem. Kayhan is an original member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project for whom he continues to compose for and tour with. His compositions appear on all of the Ensemble’s albums. His most recent albums include Silent City, collaboration with Brooklyn Rider and I Will Not Stand Alone with santoor player Ali Bahrami Fard. Kayhan has been nominated for three Grammys and in 2017 was awarded a Grammy with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble (2017).

Kayhan Kalhor, born in Tehran, began his musical studies at the age of seven under Master Ahmad Mohajer. A child prodigy on the kamancheh, he was invited at the age of thirteen to work in the Iranian National Radio and Television Orchestra, where he performed for five years. At seventeen, Kalhor began working with the Shayda Ensemble of the Chavosh Cultural Center, the most prestigious arts organization at the time in Iran. While performing with Shayda, he continued studying the Iranian classical repertoire (radif) with different masters. In 1978 Kalhor went to Rome to study Western classical music and continued his studies at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, where he received a degree in music. He has composed works for Iran’s most renowned vocalists, […]

The highly anticipated performance of Beethoven’s majestic Symphony No. 9 is one of the most remarkable masterpieces that rejoices in the autonomy and conquest of the spirit over difficulty.  

Subscriptions are NOW on sale 

• Click to become a subscriber online
• Call 574-232-6343 ext. #1
• Visit the office at 127 N. Michigan St., downtown South Bend (10 a.m. –5 p.m. Mon.-Fri.)

Single tickets sales start on August 16, 2022

Mason Bates
Ode

Carter Pann
Slalom

Beethoven
Symphony No.9 Coming soon.

Meet the musicians here! Thank you to our generous series sponsor; Jack M. Champaigne Masterworks Series

Prepare for an extraordinary experience when Päivi Ekroth takes on the staggering virtuosity of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No.3 followed by a musical exploration of Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony that explores the concept of Fate as an inescapable force and a blaze of sound. 

Subscriptions are NOW on sale 

• Click to become a subscriber online
• Call 574-232-6343 ext. #1
• Visit the office at 127 N. Michigan St., downtown South Bend (10 a.m. –5 p.m. Mon.-Fri.)

Single tickets sales start on August 16, 2022

Rachmaninoff
Piano Concerto No.3

Tchaikovsky
Symphony No.4 Coming Soon.

Päivi Ekroth is a Finnish-born classical pianist whose versatility as an artist has taken her from solo and chamber music performances to serving as a choral accompanist and a vocal coach for opera productions. Music of the Romantic era is often at the center of her solo recitals, but she has performed an extensive amount of solo and chamber music covering a wide variety of repertoire with strings, winds and brass as well as choral, operatic and lied repertoire. Her recent collaborations have included performances with soprano Deborah Voigt and flutist Sir James Galway. She has worked as a Collaborative Pianist at the University of Notre Dame since 2004.

Ms. Ekroth began taking piano lessons at the age of 11, and was already performing with orchestras in Finland soon after. She has performed in Finland, Estonia, Italy, Germany, China, New Zealand and the United States appearing at festivals such as the Ruhr Keyboard Festival, Settimane Musicali di Stresa e del Lago Maggiore, the Mikkeli Music Festival, the New Jersey Symphony’s Rachmaninoff Festival, the Music Academy of the West, the Ravinia Festival and the Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival as part of the “Rising Stars” series broadcast on the National Public Radio (NPR). She performs regularly at Notre Dame’s various venues, and other local performances have included large-scale solo recitals in the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center as well as a solo engagement with the South Bend Symphony in 2014.

Päivi has called South Bend her home since 1996, when she joined the world-renowned Alexander Toradze Piano Studio at Indiana University South Bend. While studying there she earned a Master’s degree and an Artist Diploma in piano performance and also served on the piano faculty. She was awarded a Performer’s certificate in recognition of performance excellence in piano by the Division of the Arts at Indiana University South Bend. Ms. Ekroth also holds a Master’s degree from the University of Notre Dame as well as Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Sibelius-Academy, Finland, where she studied with Sirkka Harjunmaa and Matti Raekallio.

Päivi Ekroth has been a recipient of numerous awards from organizations such as The Arts Council of Kymi, The Arts Council of Finland, The Alfred Kordelin Foundation and The Finnish Cultural […]