Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

Performers

• Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
  Marin Alsop, Music Director and Conductor
• James Robinson, Stage Director
• Caroline Dhavernas, Speaker (Joan of Arc)
• Ronald Guttman, Speaker (Brother Dominic)
• Tamara Wilson, Soprano
• Hae Ji Chang, Soprano
• Kelley O'Connor, Mezzo-Soprano
• Timothy Fallon, Tenor
• Morris Robinson, Bass
• Cynthia Millar, Ondes Martenot
• Concert Artists of Baltimore
• The Peabody-Hopkins Chorus
  Edward Polochick, Director
• Morgan State University Choir
  Eric Conway, Director
• Peabody Children's Chorus
  Doreen Falby, Director

Program

• HONEGGER Joan of Arc at the Stake

Bios

• Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

   

  The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is internationally recognized as having achieved a preeminent place among the world's most important orchestras. Acclaimed for its enduring pursuit of artistic excellence, the BSO has attracted a devoted national and international following, while maintaining deep bonds throughout Maryland with innovative education and community-outreach initiatives.
  
  The BSO made musical history in September 2007, when Marin Alsop led her inaugural concerts as the orchestra's 12th music director, making her the first woman to head a major American orchestra. With her highly praised artistic vision, her dynamic musicianship, and her commitment to accessibility in classical music, Ms. Alsop's leadership has ushered in a new era for the BSO and its audiences.
  
  The BSO maintains a regular performance presence at Carnegie Hall. In February 2008, Ms. Alsop made her Carnegie Hall debut in a BSO program that featured the New York premiere of Steven Mackey's Time Release. In October 2008, as part of the Hall's Bernstein festival, the BSO performed Bernstein's Mass; in November 2010, they performed two concerts at Carnegie Hall-one that featured Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3 with pianist Simon Trpčeski and the other with New York City high school students in Too Hot to Handel: The Gospel Messiah.
  
  Under Ms. Alsop's leadership, the BSO has added several critically acclaimed albums to its impressive discography. This includes Bernstein's Mass, featuring baritone Jubilant Sykes, the Morgan State University Choir, and the Peabody Children's Chorus; the album was recorded after three sold-out shows in Baltimore, and rose to No. 6 on Billboard's classical chart and received a 2009 Grammy nomination for Best Classical Album. In addition, the BSO and Ms. Alsop have partnered with the Naxos label to record a three-disk Dvořák symphony cycle. The first disc, which includes the Symphony No. 9, "From the New World," and the Symphonic Variations, was released in February 2008, with subsequent releases of the symphonies nos. 6, 7, and 8 in 2009 and 2010.
  
  The 2011-2012 season marks the seventh full season of the orchestra's second home, the 1,976-seat Music Center at Strathmore, located in North Bethesda, Maryland. With the opening of the Music Center in February 2005, the BSO became the nation's first orchestra with year-round venues in two metropolitan areas.

  
  Marin Alsop

  
  Hailed as one of the world's leading conductors for her artistic vision and commitment to accessibility in classical music, Marin Alsop made history with her appointment as the 12th music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. With her inaugural concerts in September 2007, she became the first woman to head a major American orchestra. She also holds the title of conductor emeritus at the Bournemouth Symphony in the United Kingdom, where she served as principal conductor from 2002 to 2008, and is music director of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in California.
  
  In 2005, Ms. Alsop was named a MacArthur Fellow, the first conductor ever to receive this prestigious award. She was honored with a European Women of Achievement Award in 2007; the following year, she was inducted as a fellow into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2009, Musical America named Ms. Alsop Conductor of the Year. In November 2010, she was inducted into the Classical Music Hall of Fame. In February 2011, Ms. Alsop was named the music director of the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo (OSESP), or the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra, effective for the 2012-2013 season. Ms. Alsop was named to The Guardian's Top 100 Women list in March 2011. In 2011, Ms. Alsop was named an artist-in-residence at the Southbank Centre in London.
  
  A regular guest conductor with the New York Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, and Los Angeles Philharmonic, Ms. Alsop appears frequently as a guest conductor with the most distinguished orchestras around the world. In addition to her performance activities, she is also an active recording artist with award-winning cycles of Brahms, Barber, and Dvořák.
  
  Marin Alsop attended Yale University and received her master's degree from The Juilliard School. In 1989, her conducting career was launched when she won the Koussevitzky Conducting Prize at Tanglewood, where she studied with Leonard Bernstein.

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• James Robinson

  
  James Robinson is regarded as one of America's most inventive and sought-after stage directors. He has won wide acclaim for productions that range from standard repertory to world premieres and seldom-performed works. In 2000, Mr. Robinson was appointed artistic director of Opera Colorado in Denver, and in fall 2005, he oversaw the company's successful move into its new home, the Ellie Caulkins Opera House. Since then, he has taken up the post of artistic director of Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.
  
  Highlights of the 2010-2011 season included productions of Un ballo in maschera with Washington National Opera, a return to the Wexford Opera Festival with The Golden Ticket, Nixon in China with the Canadian Opera Company, and Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher at London's Barbican Centre and with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
  
  Productions in recent seasons include Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Puccini's La bohème for Houston Grand Opera, Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore for Boston Lyric Opera, Janáček's Kát'a Kabanová and Eugene Onegin for Opera Ireland, Norma for the Royal Swedish Opera, Handel's Rinaldo for Opera Australia, Handel's Radamisto and Dominick Argento's Miss Havisham's Fire for Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and Nixon in China for Opera Colorado. His production of Turandot, first produced for the Minnesota Opera in 1995, has since been adopted by more than 25 companies in North America.
  
  Mr. Robinson has directed numerous new productions for the New York City Opera, including Il trittico, Il viaggio a Reims, Lucia di Lammermoor, Hänsel und Gretel (co-produced with Los Angeles Opera), and La bohème. In addition, he has directed new productions of Elektra and Norma for the Canadian Opera Company, The Rake's Progress and Così fan tutte for Santa Fe Opera, Carmen for Seattle Opera, Antheil's Transatlantic and Lucia for the Minnesota Opera, and Eugene Onegin for Boston Lyric Opera. In 2004, he directed the world premiere of Daniel Catán's Salsipuedes for the Houston Grand Opera, and in the same year, his production of Nixonin China, first produced by Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, was seen throughout the US.

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• Caroline Dhavernas

  
  A native of Montreal and the recipient of two Genie Award nominations, actress Caroline Dhavernas commands the attention of filmgoers and television viewers with her beauty, talent, and poise. In 2010, Ms. Dhavernas starred in the ABC television medical drama Off the Map and appeared in the Universal Pictures supernatural thriller Devil, produced by M. Night Shyamalan. Other recent appearances include the romantic comedy The Switch, with Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman, and the role of Vera Keller in the Emmy Award-winning HBO miniseries The Pacific.
  
  In 2008, Ms. Dhavernas starred in the acclaimed Canadian feature Passchendaele, which won the 2009 Genie Award for Best Motion Picture. In 2007, she appeared in the film Breach, with Chris Cooper and Ryan Phillippe and directed by Billy Ray (Shattered Glass), and in 2006, she starred as Kit Holliday in Hollywoodland, opposite Adrien Brody. Additional film appearances include Lost and Delirious, Out Cold, The Baroness and the Pig (in which she starred opposite Patricia Clarkson), Edge of Madness, Surviving My Mother, These Girls, Niagara Motel, and La belle bête. In addition, she co-starred in British director Peter Greenaway's Tulse Luper Suitcases, which was presented at the Cannes Film Festival in 2003.
  
  Ms. Dhavernas made her American television debut in 2004 in the critically acclaimed FOX series Wonderfalls. In the family dramedy, she played the lead character, Jaye, who lived in a trailer, worked at a Niagara Falls gift shop, and had a special gift that allowed her to hear inanimate objects, which encouraged her to help different individuals in the community. Ms. Dhavernas speaks French fluently, and performed her own voice-over translations for the show. She currently divides her time between Montreal and New York City.

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• Ronald Guttman

  
  Ronald Guttman has served as the narrator for Bernstein's Kaddish with Karita Mattila at Salle Pleyel in Paris, for Honegger's Le roi David in Brussels, and at the Music Festival of the Hamptons for the past six years. His theater credits include work at Second Stage, Classical Stage, The Mint, Long Wharf, National Theatre of Belgium, and Théâtre Antoine in Paris, among others. Mr. Guttman has appeared in many American films and television series, most recently as the conductor Carlo Treviso in the HBO miniseries Mildred Pierce with Kate Winslet. Upcoming movies include 13 with Mickey Rourke and Michael Shannon, and Imogene with Kristen Wiig and Annette Bening.

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  Tamara Wilson

  
  Tamara Wilson's engagements in the 2011-2012 season include the title role in Aida at Teatro Municipal de Santiago in Chile, Elisabeth in Don Carlo at Houston Grand Opera, and her debut at Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse as Leonora in a new production of Il trovatore. Other Verdi roles include Amelia in Un ballo in maschera, Alice Ford in Falstaff, and Amelia Grimaldi in Simon Boccanegra. In upcoming seasons, she will perform Verdi, Britten, Mozart, and Strauss roles at the Canadian Opera Company, Oper Frankfurt, Washington National Opera, Théâtre du Capitole, Opera de la ABAO in Bilbao, Teatro Real in Madrid, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Ravinia Festival, and Houston Grand Opera.
  
  Last season, Ms. Wilson returned to the Los Angeles Opera for performances of Miss Jessel in Britten's The Turn of the Screw under James Conlon, made her Oper Frankfurt debut in concert performances of Wagner's early opera Die Feen, and returned to the Canadian Opera Company as Elettra in Idomeneo conducted by Harry Bicket. Other Mozart roles include the First Lady in Die Zauberflöte and Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail.
  
  Concert engagements include Beethoven's Missa solemnis with John Nelson and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe in Lisbon, Mozart's Requiem with Edo de Waart and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 2, "Lobgesang," with the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra. She made her Oregon Bach Festival debut in Verdi's Requiem under Helmuth Rilling, and returned for Brahms's Ein deutschesRequiem and Beethoven's Symphony No. 9. This season, she will sing Britten's War Requiem with the Eugene Concert Choir.
  
  An alumna of the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati and the Houston Grand Opera Studio, Ms. Wilson's honors include the George London Award, career and study grants from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation, and first prize in the 2005 Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers in Houston; in addition, she was a finalist in the 2004 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

  
   

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• Hae Ji Chang

  
  Soprano Hae Ji Chang received a master's degree from Manhattan School of Music, and is currently studying for an artist diploma at the New England Conservatory, where she recently performed the role of Pamina in Die Zauberflöte. She has also performed the roles of Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi, Lydie in Pénélope, and the title role in scenes from Maria Stuarda. Ms. Chang received bachelor's and master's of music degrees from Seoul National University, where she performed Donna Anna in Don Giovanni. At Aspen Music Festival, Ms. Chang has sung Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, Pamina, and Zerlina in Don Giovanni. She has won numerous awards and honors, including a Schuyler Foundation for Career Bridges Grant Award, first prize in the Dong-A Music and E-Hwa Kyung-Hyang music competitions, and second prize in the Shin, Young-Ok, and Schubert Lieder competitions; in addition, she received a President's Award at the Manhattan School of Music. Upcoming engagements include covering Giannetta in L'elisir d'amore at New York City Opera and Mélisande in Pelléas et Mélisande at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.

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  Kelley O'Connor

  
  Mezzo-soprano Kelley O'Connor has emerged as one of the most compelling performers of her generation. Engagements during the 2011-2012 season include the world premiere of a new oratorio by John Adams, The Gospel According to the Other Mary, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel; Ravel's Shéhérazade with Michael Christie at the Colorado Music Festival, and Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Edinburgh International Festival; Bach cantataswith The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center; Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with Jahja Ling and The Cleveland Orchestra; Stravinsky's Les noces with David Robertson and the St. Louis Symphony; Handel's Messiah with the San Francisco Symphony; and Mahler's Symphony No. 2, "Resurrection," with Donald Runnicles and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. In addition, she returns to Atlanta for Bach's St. Matthew Passion, led by Robert Spano.
  
  Highlights of the 2010-2011 season included Ms. O'Connor's return to the New York Philharmonic for staged performances of Janáček's The Cunning Little Vixen under Alan Gilbert, her Lyric Opera of Chicago debut as Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night'sDream, Bach's Missa brevis with Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra, Lieberson's Neruda Songs with Stéphane Denève and the Seattle Symphony and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and Britten's "Spring" Symphony with Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
  
  Internationally in recent seasons, Ms. O'Connor made her Proms festival debut with Jiří Bělohlávek and the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Mahler's Symphony No. 8, and her Edinburgh International Festival debut with James Conlon and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in John Adams's El Niño. In addition, she joined Edo de Waart and the Hong Kong Philharmonic for Mahler's Third Symphony, and performed Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 on tour with Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra.
  
  Ms. O'Connor has received critical acclaim for her performances as Federico García Lorca in Osvaldo Golijov's Ainadamar. She created the role for the world premiere at Tanglewood under the baton of Robert Spano, and subsequently has joined Miguel Harth-Bedoya for performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Hall, as well as on a Grammy Award-winning recording for Deutsche Grammophon.

  
   

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• Timothy Fallon

  
  A native of Binghamton, New York, Timothy Fallon holds a bachelor's degree from Westminster Choir College, Princeton, and an artist diploma from The Juilliard School. Among the foremost lyric bel canto tenors of the younger generation, he has been engaged since 2007 at Oper Leipzig (Germany), where he has sung such roles as Belmonte in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Scaramuccio in Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos, and Almaviva in Rossini's Ilbarbiere di Siviglia. In 2009, he made his debut in Rossini's Il turco in Italia. Other roles include Belfiore in Mozart's La finta giardiniera at Juilliard Opera Center, Tonio in Donizetti's La fille du régiment and Alfredo in Verdi's La traviata with the Tri-Cities Opera (New York), Ernesto in Donizetti's Don Pasquale with the Newton Symphony Orchestra, and concert appearances at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall and at Avery Fisher Hall. In July 2011, he performed in Honegger's Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher at the Oregon Bach Festival. For I Virtuosi Ambulanti, he participated in the German premiere of Donizetti's Teresa e Gianfaldoni in Ingolstadt.

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• Morris Robinson

  
  Morris Robinson is quickly gaining a reputation as one of today's most sought-after basses. A graduate of the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Mr. Robinson made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in Fidelio, and has since appeared there as Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte, the King in Aida, and in roles in Nabucco, Tannhäuser, Les Troyens, and Salome. He has also appeared at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Florida Grand Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Seattle Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and Wolf Trap Opera. Additional roles include Osmin in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Ramfis in Aida, Sparafucile in Rigoletto, the Commendatore in Don Giovanni, the Grand Inquisitor in Don Carlo, Timur in Turandot, the Bonze in Madama Butterfly, Padre Guardiano in La forza del destino, Ferrando in Il trovatore, and Fasolt in Das Rheingold.
  
  In concert, Mr. Robinson has appeared with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (in Chicago and at the Ravinia Festival), National Symphony Orchestra, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, The MET Chamber Ensemble, Nashville Symphony, São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, and New England String Ensemble, as well as at the Ravinia, Mostly Mozart, Tanglewood, Cincinnati May, Verbier, and Aspen festivals. He also appeared at Carnegie Hall as part of Jessye Norman's Honor! festival. In recital, he has been presented by Spivey Hall in Atlanta, the Savannah Music Festival, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC.
  
  Engagements this season include Sarastro at the Metropolitan Opera, the Commendatore at Dallas Opera and Florida Grand Opera, and concerts with the Nashville and Detroit symphony orchestras. Mr. Robinson's first album, Going Home, was released on the Decca label. An Atlanta native, he is a graduate of the Citadel, and received his musical training from the Boston University Opera Institute.

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• Cynthia Millar

  
  Cynthia Millar studied the ondes martenot with John Morton in England and Jeanne Loriod, who, with her brother-in-law, Olivier Messiaen, has done so much to bring the instrument to a wider public. Since she first performed Messiaen's Turangalîla-symphonie at the BBC Proms in London with Mark Elder and the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, Ms. Millar has performed with many of the world's leading orchestras. In November 2009, she gave her 100th performance of the work with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo. She has worked with such conductors as Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Andrew Davis, André Previn, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Edo de Waart, Leonard Slatkin, Yan Pascal Tortelier, David Roberston, Kent Nagano, Franz Welser-Möst, Mark Wigglesworth, Matthias Bammert, Donald Runnicles, Ilan Volkov, Mariss Jansons, Yakov Kriezburg, and Gustavo Dudamel.
  
  Ms. Millar's other repertoire includes Honegger's Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher, Varèse's Equatorial, and Messiaen's Trois petites liturgies de la présence divine, which she has recorded with the London Sinfonietta and Terry Edwards for the Virgin Classics label and with the Netherlands Chamber Choir. Ms. Millar has performed in over 100 film and television scores, for composers that include Elmer Bernstein, Richard Rodney Bennett, Maurice Jarre, Henry Mancini, and Miklós Rózsa. She has also written a number of film scores, including music for Arthur Penn's The Portrait, starring Gregory Peck and Lauren Bacall; Martha Coolidge's Three Wishes; Peter Yates's The Run of the Country; Jason Freeland's Brown's Requiem; A Storm in Summer, directed by Robert Wise; and Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, directed by Gavin Millar and starring Jonathan Pryce. In addition, she composed the music for the documentary Stephen Hawking's Universe.
  
  Engagements last season included Turangalîla-symphonie with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, with which she will also record the work for Hyperion. Next season, she will perform Turangalîla with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Orquestra Sinfónica de Castilla y León, and Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher in a series of concerts conducted by Marin Alsop.

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