Grand Teton Music Festival 2009 – Music Director: Donald Runnicles
Music Director Donald
Runnicles; Guest Artists Christine Brewer, Michelle DeYoung, Thomas Hampson,
Lynn Harrell, Frank Lopardo, and Eric Owens; Guest Conductors Osmo Vänskä and
Nicholas McGegan; and Other Artists Will Participate in Jackson Hole, Wyoming’s
Exciting Seven-Week Festival as It Continues to Grow to New Heights; Program
Highlights Include World Premiere of New Work By Stephen Paulus
Wyoming’s 48th
Grand Teton Music Festival opens officially on Wednesday, July 1 with a spotlight concert by the
genre-busting trio “Time For Three”, followed by two evenings of concerts
featuring the Festival Orchestra with guest conductor Thomas Wilkins and
violinist Cho-Liang Lin. The
festivities really kick off on Saturday, July 4 with the 13th annual
free outdoor Independence Day concert, tagged “Music in the Hole”. A picnic and other fun events precede a
concert by VIP Grand Teton guest and powerhouse soprano Christine Brewer, who
has programmed patriotic songs with the Festival Orchestra under Maestro
Wilkins. The GTMF continues for
seven weeks, playing its indoor concerts in the acoustically renowned Walk
Festival Hall, which reopened in 2007 after a renovation costing nearly $5
million. Since 2006, Donald
Runnicles has served
the Festival as Music Director, leading the world-famous Grand Teton Music
Festival Orchestra – made up of top musicians from orchestras all over the U.S,
Canada, and Europe – in Friday and Saturday evening concerts. This year’s guest stars include singers
Ms. Brewer, Michelle DeYoung, Thomas Hampson, Frank Lopardo, and Eric Owens;
instrumental soloists Mr. Lin, Lynn Harrell, Yevgeny Sudbin, Paolo Bordignon,
and Norman Krieger; and conductors Osmo Vänskä and Nicholas McGegan.
“The
virtuosity and power of the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra are as
breathtaking as the splendor of the Tetons themselves,” raves Music Director
Donald Runnicles. “The Grand Teton
Music Festival deserves to be a compulsory stop on any music lover’s summer
itinerary.” Not least because of
the region’s stunning beauty, the Grand Teton Music Festival attracts musicians
to its Festival Orchestra from top orchestras in the United States, Canada, and
abroad.
The San
Francisco Festival Chorale joins the orchestra and a quartet of soloists –
soprano Twyla Robinson, mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung, tenor Frank Lopardo,
and bass Eric Owens – for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 under Maestro Runnicles in the
first of his four pairs of concerts (July 17 & 18). He and the orchestra support pianist
Norman Krieger for the great Piano Concerto No. 2 by Johannes Brahms,
programmed with John Adams’s delightful Harmonielehre for his second weekend (July 24
& 25); and then, in his third week, the Spotlight Artist is Thomas Hampson,
who performs Adams’s moving Wound Dresser, to words by Walt Whitman, on a program with
Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique and Aaron Jay Kernis’s heavenly Musica Celestis for strings (Aug 7 & 8). Midweek, on Wednesday, August 5, Mr.
Runnicles will be the evening’s pianist with Mr. Hampson and cellist Lynn
Harrell, for a program to be announced later. For the season’s grand finale, Maestro Runnicles conducts
the world premiere of a new concertante work for cello and orchestra by Stephen
Paulus – commissioned by the Grand Teton Music Festival – with Lynn Harrell as
soloist. The world premiere is
preceded by Smetana’s flowing portrait of his homeland’s famous river, “The
Moldau”, and the final work is Richard Strauss’s dramatic “portrait of an alp”
– the Alpine Symphony – a poetic mirroring of the grandeur surrounding the beautiful Grand
Teton Music Festival (Aug 14 & 15).
On Tuesday
evenings, members of the Festival Orchestra form smaller groups for Chamber
Music Concerts, and on Wednesdays a wide variety of lighter fare is offered,
from New Orleans Jazz to The Gypsies, the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, and Time
for Three. There are also free
community and family concerts on weekdays.
The
complete GTMF schedule is available at www.gtmf.org.
# # #
2009 GTMF season at a
glance
Conductors:
Music
Director Donald Runnicles (July 17/18, July 24/25, Aug 7/8, Aug 14/15); Nicholas McGegan (July
10/11); Osmo Vänskä (July 31/Aug 1); Thomas Wilkins (July 2-4)
Soloists:
Michelle
DeYoung, mezzo-soprano
(July 17/18); Thomas Hampson, baritone (Aug 7/8); Lynn Harrell, cello (Aug 14/15); Norman Krieger,
piano (July 24/25); Cho-Liang Lin, violin (July 2/3); Frank Lopardo, tenor (July 17/18); Eric Owens, bass-baritone (July 17/18); Twyla
Robinson, soprano (July 17/18); San Francisco Festival Chorale (July 17/18); Yevgeny Sudbin, piano (July 31/Aug 1)
Spotlight
Artists: Paolo
Bordignon, harpsichord (July 8); Colcannon (August 12); The Gypsies (July 29); Thomas Hampson, baritone (Aug 5); Lynn Harrell, cello (Aug 5); Los Angeles Guitar
Quartet (July 15); Donald Runnicles, piano (Aug 5); Time for Three (July 1)
A great
American orchestra in residence
Musicians
from the nation’s leading orchestras and top academic positions are in Jackson
Hole to make music together each summer as the Grand Teton Music Festival
Orchestra. Many of the Festival musicians have
been calling Jackson Hole and the Grand Teton Music Festival their summer home
for 25 years or more. On weekdays during
the summer season, the resident musicians collaborate in the presentation of
innovative and traditional chamber music programs in Walk Festival Hall. On Friday and Saturday evenings, the
Festival Orchestra is showcased together with Music Director Donald Runnicles
and other world-renowned conductors and guest soloists, performing great works of
the classical repertoire.
Many of the
musicians also hold principal positions in their home orchestras and come from
such esteemed ensembles as the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Norway’s Bergen Philharmonic,
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Kennedy Center Opera House
Orchestra, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Lyric Opera
of Chicago, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, National
Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra, New York City Opera
Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Philadelphia
Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, San Francisco
Opera Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Toronto Symphony,
and Vancouver Symphony.
Walk
Festival Hall
All the indoor
concerts take place in the 700-seat Walk Festival Hall in Teton Village,
Wyoming, unless otherwise noted.
Completely remodeled in 2007, the all-wood facility is acclaimed for its
superb acoustics and intimate atmosphere.
GTMF 2009 SUMMER SEASON: Principal concerts
July 2 & 3 (Thursday & Friday) OPENING WEEKEND
8:00pm, Walk Festival Hall: $50, $10 students
FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA CONCERTS – NEW BEGINNINGS
Festival Orchestra / Thomas Wilkins, conductor
Cho-Liang Lin, violin
MÁRQUEZ: Danzón No. 2
PROKOFIEV: Violin Concerto No. 2
DVORÁK: Symphony No. 8
July 4
(Saturday)
3:00 – 7:30pm, Alpine Field: FREE, no tickets required
13th ANNUAL MUSIC IN THE HOLE6:00pm: Festival
Orchestra / Thomas Wilkins, conductor
Christine Brewer, sopranoPatriotic songs
July 8
(Wednesday)
8:00pm, Walk Festival Hall: $40, $10 students
SPOTLIGHT CONCERT – Treasures of the
Baroque
Paolo
Bordignon, harpsichord
July 10 & 11 (Friday & Saturday)
8:00pm, Walk Festival Hall – $50, $10 students
FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA CONCERTS – A
Midsummer Night’s Dream
Festival Orchestra / Nicholas McGegan, conductor
HANDEL: Water Music Suite
HAYDN: Symphony No. 31 “Horn Signal”
MENDELSSOHN: Excerpts from A Midsummer Night’s Dream
July 17
& 18 (Friday & Saturday)
8:00pm, Walk Festival Hall: $50, $10 students
FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA CONCERTS – ODE TO JOY
Festival Orchestra / Donald Runnicles, conductor
San Francisco Festival Chorale / Ian Robertson, Artistic Director
Twyla Robinson, soprano; Michelle DeYoung, mezzo-soprano; Frank Lopardo, tenor;
Eric Owens, bass-baritone
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 9, “Choral”
July 21 (Tuesday)
6:15pm, Walk Festival Hall: FREE FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY
MUSIC MACHINE – CARNIVAL OF THE ANIMALS
A concert for children and familiesFestival Orchestra
/ Donald Runnicles, conductor
SAINT-SAËNS: Carnival of the Animals
July 24 & 25 (Friday & Saturday)
8:00pm, Walk Festival Hall: $50, $10 students
FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA CONCERTS – ROMANCE & HARMONY
Festival Orchestra / Donald Runnicles, conductor
Norman Krieger, piano
BRAHMS: Piano Concerto No. 2
ADAMS: Harmonielehre
July 31
& August 1 (Friday & Saturday)
8:00pm, Walk Festival Hall: $50, $10 students
FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA CONCERTS – OSMO GOES WEST
Festival Orchestra / Osmo Vänskä, conductor
Yevgeny Sudbin, piano
GLINKA: Overture to Russlan and Ludmilla
RACHMANINOFF: Piano Concerto No. 1
SIBELIUS: Symphony No. 2
August 5
(Wednesday)
8:00pm,
Walk Festival Hall: $40, $10 students
SPOTLIGHT CONCERT – AN EVENING WITH…
Thomas Hampson, baritone; Lynn Harrell, cello; Donald Runnicles, piano
Program
tba
August 7
& 8 (Friday & Saturday)
8:00pm, Walk Festival Hall: $50, $10 students
FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA CONCERTS – POETRY & FANTASY
Festival Orchestra / Donald Runnicles, conductor
Thomas Hampson, baritone
KERNIS: Musica Celestis for strings
ADAMS / WHITMAN: The Wound Dresser (Hampson)
BERLIOZ: Symphonie fantastique
August 14 & 15 (Friday & Saturday)
8:00pm, Walk Festival Hall: $50, $10 students
CLOSING ORCHESTRA CONCERTS – A PREMIERE ENDING
Festival Orchestra / Donald Runnicles, conductor
Lynn Harrell, cello
SMETANA: “The Moldau” from Má Vlast
PAULUS: Work for cello and orchestra – World Premiere
Commissioned
by the Grand Teton Music Festival
STRAUSS: Eine Alpensinfonie
About the Grand Teton Music Festival
· Jackson Hole, WY is the gateway to
Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks.
· The Festival offers seven weeks of
classical music concerts each summer.
· The Festival Orchestra is the
centerpiece of Grand Teton Music Festival’s programming.
· Since 2006, internationally
acclaimed conductor Donald Runnicles has been the third Music Director in the
Festival’s history.
· The Festival Orchestra has been led
by conductors Michael Stern, Mark Elder, James Gaffigan, Roy Goodman, and Peter
Oundjian, and soloists Lynn Harrell, James Ehnes, Janine Jansen, Sarah Chang,
Marc-André Hamelin, Leon Fleisher, and soprano Christine Brewer have been
frequent guest artists. Chamber
music, recitals, and other special programming round out the summer schedule.
Tickets are available for purchase through the Grand Teton
Music Festival Ticket Office by phone at (307) 733-1128 or online www.gtmf.org. All sales are final.
No refunds or exchanges are permitted. All programs, artists, and dates are subject to change