BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Greater Bridgeport Symphony - ECPv6.15.20//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-ORIGINAL-URL:http://staging.gbs.org X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Greater Bridgeport Symphony REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20210314T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20211107T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20220313T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20221106T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20230312T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20231105T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20240310T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20241103T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20250309T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20251102T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20260308T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20261101T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20270314T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20271107T060000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260411T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260411T213000 DTSTAMP:20260415T091203 CREATED:20250616T024930Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250616T024930Z UID:1611-1775935800-1775943000@staging.gbs.org SUMMARY:Horizons of Water DESCRIPTION:Our season closer will put you in a springtime mood.  Tchaikovsky’s grand Symphony No. 4  is a tempest\, accompanied by a gentle cruise down the Moldau (Smetana) and the dreamlike Water Concerto by Tan Dun.  It’s a musical journey you won’t soon forget!  Join Maestro Leandro and our exquisitely talented family of musicians as we close our our 80th Season in Bridgeport. URL:http://staging.gbs.org/event/horizons-of-water/ LOCATION:Klein Memorial Auditorium\, 910 Fairfield Avenue\, Bridgeport\, CT\, 06605\, United States CATEGORIES:Season 80 ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:http://staging.gbs.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/159042_event_md_111-water.png ORGANIZER;CN="Greater Bridgeport Symphony":MAILTO:phyllis@gbs.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260314T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260314T213000 DTSTAMP:20260415T091203 CREATED:20250616T024522Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250616T024522Z UID:1609-1773516600-1773523800@staging.gbs.org SUMMARY:Horizons of the Earth DESCRIPTION:We’re back at Mertens for another experiential night of music\, celebrating the horizons of our planet with Copland’s Appalachian Spring.  Then\, Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite explores exotic places and romanticized history.  A special treat:  a new composition\, written expressly for GBS by Travis LaPlante!  Enjoy the world premiere of Concerto for Saxophone\, Percussion and Harp in the embrace of Mertens’ ambience. URL:http://staging.gbs.org/event/horizons-of-the-earth/ LOCATION:Mertens Theater University of Bridgeport\, 84 Iranistan CATEGORIES:Season 80 ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:http://staging.gbs.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/159043_event_md_992-Earth.png ORGANIZER;CN="Greater Bridgeport Symphony":MAILTO:phyllis@gbs.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251220T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251220T213000 DTSTAMP:20260415T091203 CREATED:20250616T023944Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250616T023944Z UID:1607-1766259000-1766266200@staging.gbs.org SUMMARY:Holiday Quintessence DESCRIPTION:The five Classical Elements are Air\, Fire\, Earth\, Water\, and the fifth element – Quintessence\, that indefinable something that completes all the others.  Isn’t that just what the holidays are – a time for families\, celebrations of love\, and the laugher of children?  Bring the family to Holiday Quintessence at The Klein\, where GBS will present The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra\, surrounded by the sounds of the holidays.  Kids under 19 are free!  Celebrate with us in the heart of Hanukkah\, five days before Christmas.  GBS favorite Maureen Hammill will lead friends in joyful vocals\, sure to warm the heart. URL:http://staging.gbs.org/event/holiday-quintessence/ LOCATION:Klein Memorial Auditorium\, 910 Fairfield Avenue\, Bridgeport\, CT\, 06605\, United States CATEGORIES:Season 80 ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:http://staging.gbs.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/159023_event_md_565-Holiday.png ORGANIZER;CN="Greater Bridgeport Symphony":MAILTO:phyllis@gbs.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251115T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251115T213000 DTSTAMP:20260415T091203 CREATED:20250616T023539Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251015T205042Z UID:1603-1763235000-1763242200@staging.gbs.org SUMMARY:Horizons of Fire DESCRIPTION:Mertens Theatre – University of Bridgeport\n11.15.2025\n7:30 PM – 9:30 PM \nJoin us for a thrilling concert featuring Eduardo Leandro conducting a select group of GBS musicians in Bartok’s fiery Divertimento for Strings and Villa-Lobos’ vibrant Bachianas Brasileiras No. 4. Experience the music like never before at our new venue – the Mertens Theatre at University of Bridgeport. With wide rows and comfortable continental seating that surrounds the stage\, you’ll be immersed in an intimate setting that brings you close to the fire of the performance. Don’t miss this bold new chapter for Greater Bridgeport Symphony! URL:http://staging.gbs.org/event/horizons-of-fire/ LOCATION:Mertens Theater University of Bridgeport\, 84 Iranistan CATEGORIES:Season 80 ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:http://staging.gbs.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/159024_event_md_771-Fire.png ORGANIZER;CN="Greater Bridgeport Symphony":MAILTO:phyllis@gbs.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251004T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251004T213000 DTSTAMP:20260415T091203 CREATED:20250616T022205Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250930T213753Z UID:1593-1759606200-1759613400@staging.gbs.org SUMMARY:Horizons of the Air DESCRIPTION:GBS begins its 80th season exploring New Horizons\, with Horizons of the Air\, conducted by our sensational new Music Director\, Eduardo Leandro. Shostakovich’s 5th Symphony will dominate this program\, which will also feature Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Lark Ascending featuring violin virtuoso Brunilda Myftaraj along with a moving modern piece by Connecticut composer Caroline Shaw\, Entr’Acte.  We’ll be opening our season at The Klein\, just as that crisp autumnal air of New England breezes in. \nPROGRAM NOTES:\nGreater Bridgeport Symphony: October 4\, 2025: Horizons of the Air \nEntr’Acte – Caroline Shaw \nComposer\, violinist\, and singer Caroline Shaw (b. 1982) is among the most distinguished and active composers working today. Recognized with many honors\, most notably the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Music\, the boundary-spanning Shaw is the youngest recipient in history to receive this honor. She has some connection to our area\, since she earned her master’s degree from the Yale School of Music. Shaw is a founding member of the vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth. Notable collaborations and commissions include Roomful of Teeth\, So Percussion\, the Brentano String Quartet\, the Brooklyn Youth Chorus\, hip hop artist Kanye West\, and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. \nEntr’Acte had its debut by the Brentano String Quartet in 2011. A Far Cry commissioned and premiered the string orchestra version in 2014. Says Shaw:\nEntr’acte was written in 2011 after hearing the Brentano Quartet play Haydn’s Op. 77 No. 2 — with their spare and soulful shift to the D-flat major trio in the minuet. It is structured like a minuet and trio\, riffing on that classical form but taking it a little further. I love the way some music (like the minuets of Op. 77) suddenly takes you to the other side of Alice’s looking glass\, in a kind of absurd\, subtle\, technicolor transition. \nBuilding on Haydn’s tendency to surprise us in normally unsurprising places\, Shaw creates a variety of different experiences for the listener\, juxtaposed in surprising ways. As James Bennett put it\, “several unreal\, fun\, thorny\, hazy transitions…It’s a wobbly\, complicated terrain of notes that seem suddenly out of place” The first\, very memorable\, theme gives way to a metrically playful section marked “like granite\,” then to a pizzicato section that almost sounds like rainfall. A succession of downward sighs gives way to the return of the first theme\, which disappears gradually into the sky\, leaving the cello behind as the piece concludes. \nThe Lark Ascending – Ralph Vaughan Williams \nThis exquisite\, deceptively simple piece evokes our recent past as an orchestra; many GBS listeners will recall the GBS’ 2019 video recording of this piece with Colin Jacobsen as soloist in the lobby of Bridgeport’s long-abandoned Poli Palace theater—a recording which garnered international attention online. This piece began life as a 1914 work for violin and piano\, but was not performed until 1920. Vaughan Williams adapted it for orchestra in 1921\, and this version\, which we hear tonight\, is the one commonly known today. The work is inspired by the 1881 poem of the same name by George Meredith. The violin evokes the bird’s song and its flight. The Lark Ascending opens with solo violin\, sounding improvised\, and written without meter (time signature). Here\, the violinist plays with the bow over the fingerboard\, which gives the solo cadenza an ethereal tone. Later\, a second cadenza leads to a contrasting section featuring a new melody for flutes. The third section highlights interplay between the solo violin and the triangle\, which is the only use of percussion in the piece. The ending unites the opening theme with the flute melody and closes with another solo violin cadenza. The lack of a strong\, defined metric pulse and the extensive use of the Dorian and Aeolian modes\, as well as the pentatonic scale\, gives the entire piece a folklike character. \nSymphony no. 5\, in D minor\, Op. 47 – Dmitri Shostakovich \nHow can an artist continue to create under an autocratic regime exercising ideological control over the arts? This awful balancing act was a reality for composers and creators of art in Soviet Russia\, particularly under Josef Stalin. Like Nazi Germany\, Stalin’s USSR had official mechanisms to determine what constituted approved or disapproved artworks\, phrased in terms of national “values”—a feat of censorship and control that aspiring autocrats around the world have tried to emulate since. Artists had to confirm to be heard or seen\, and could be punished by imprisonment or exile. Shostakovich faced official criticism\, and potentially severe consequences\, for official negative reaction to his opera Lady Macbeth of Minsk\, and underwent great pressure to withdraw his Fourth Symphony from its premiere performance. Stakes were very high for Shostakovich\, personally and professionally\, as he began writing his next piece. The Fifth Symphony ultimately marked his return to favor\, as both the public and officials were delighted with the work\, which received applause lasting over half an hour at its premiere. The officially sanctioned “style” in Stalin’s Russia was known as “socialist realism\,” which valued art glorifying the Soviet Union and its people in simplistic and officially approved terms. In music\, “socialist realism” sought to limit complexity\, dissonance\, and the kind of experimentation happening in Western classical music throughout the twentieth century. \nThe symphony begins with a first movement in sonata form. One of many signs that there is more to this symphony than meets the eye is the use of a first theme borrowed from the Fourth Symphony\, which\, in turn\, was borrowed from a song by Gustav Mahler. This first theme is treated with many variations\, giving way to a second theme that is more simple\, and which prevails\, after a development section that includes what has been described as a “grotesque military march.” The second movement is best described as a ländler\, a European folk dance in triple meter\, though it includes both simple\, folk-sounding melodies and unusual harmonies and dissonance. The third movement is more ethereal\, using only strings and winds\, with the brass silent for the first time. The harmony is also ethereal – it is hard to tell what key you are in\, as the music flows freely. This movement has been described as lament and resignation\, and many listeners at the premiere felt it evoked a Russian Orthodox requiem. The fourth movement is also in sonata form\, quoting Shostakovich’s own 1936-7 song Vozrozhdenije (Op. 46 No. 1) which sets a text by Alexander Pushkin dealing with rebirth. Themes from the first three movements return\, and are ultimately played like a funeral march. Towards the end\, the movement moves from minor into major. The officials heard what they wanted to hear\, and at least some of the public heard their suffering as citizens of Stalin’s Russia. In writings which may or may not be authentic\, Shostakovich describes the fourth movement as “forced rejoicing.” This complex work\, layered with musical and historical symbolism\, remains Shostakovich’s most-performed symphony. \n— Frank Martignetti\, PhD URL:http://staging.gbs.org/event/horizons-of-the-air/ LOCATION:Klein Memorial Auditorium\, 910 Fairfield Avenue\, Bridgeport\, CT\, 06605\, United States CATEGORIES:Season 80 ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:http://staging.gbs.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/159022_event_md_779.png ORGANIZER;CN="Greater Bridgeport Symphony":MAILTO:phyllis@gbs.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250510T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250510T213000 DTSTAMP:20260415T091203 CREATED:20240625T040336Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250506T181252Z UID:1182-1746905400-1746912600@staging.gbs.org SUMMARY:Something BIG! DESCRIPTION:Sponsored by the Ernest and Joan Trefz Foundation \nThis is it!  Maestro Eduardo Leandro’s grand inaugural concert as GBS’ new Music Director and Principal Conductor! We’ve promised an amazing night of music and the concert on May 10 will live up to the show’s name\, Something Big!  Pianist Andrew Armstrong\, a perennial favorite of GBS who got his professional start here some 20+ years ago\, will play Rachmaninoff’s “Piano Concerto No. 2\,” and the orchestra will also render Mendelssohn’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream” overture and Brahms’ “Symphony No. 4. “. “I want to present music that the audience will really enjoy\, and that the orchestra will love to play\,” Maestro Eduardo said. \nThis concert is on the eve of Mother’s Day. What a great way to spend the night out with family! \n“Something Big” honors the late Fairfield philanthropists Herbert F. Harrington Jr.\, founder of Rotair Aerospace Corp.\, and wife\, Doris Demonkos Harrington\, former vice president of Rotair\, who for many years served as GBS president and board chairwoman. Both\, in their 90s\, passed away recently. Pianist Andrew Armstrong was a long-time friend of the Harringtons. His appearance is being offered in honor of “Herb\,” and supported by friends of his wife. \nAndrew Armstrong\, Piano\n \nPraised by critics for his passionate expression and dazzling technique\, pianist Andrew Armstrong has delighted audiences across Asia\, Europe\, Latin America\, Canada\, and the United States\, including performances at Alice Tully Hall\, Carnegie Hall\, the Kennedy Center\, London’s Wigmore Hall\, the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory\, and Warsaw’s National Philharmonic. \nThis season\, all kids under 19 years old will be admitted FREE when accompanied by an adult; accompanying adults will get 15% off their single ticket prices.  Please note that our concerts will begin one half hour earlier this season\, at 7:30 PM. \nPre-Concert Talk presented by Russell Fisher\nUniversity of Bridgeport\, Associate Chair – Music Department\, Assistant Professor of Music\n6:30 PM \nPROGRAM NOTES: \n \nFelix Mendelssohn (1809 -1847)\nA Midsummer Night’s Dream\nOverture \nMendelssohn’s music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream was written in two parts. The overture dates from 1826 when he was seventeen years old. It was inspired by a translation of the play into German\, and was intended as a concert piece rather than as incidental music. It is generally regarded as one of Mendelssohn’s finest works for the brilliance of his orchestration and scene painting. It follows the classical sonata form used extensively by Haydn Mozart and Beethoven\, with the main sections punctuated by four chords on the woodwinds\, heard at the outset. The music describes the fairies\, the grandeur of the court of Thesius\, the four lovers and the rustics including the braying of Bottom with the asses head. It was premièred in Szczecin on 20 February 1827. This was Mendelssohn’s first appearance at a public concert and he had to travel eighty miles through a snowstorm to get it. In the same concert he appeared as soloist\, playing one of the pianos in his own Concerto in A-flat major for 2 pianos\, followed by Weber’s Konzertstück in F minor. To demonstrate his versatility further he joined the first violins for the last work of the concert: Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. \n– Duncan Gilles \n \nSergei Rachmaninoff (1873 -1943)\nPiano Concerto No. 2 in C minor\, op. 18 \n Moderato\n Adagio sostenuto\n Allegro scherzando \nAndrew Armstrong\, Piano \nThe gaunt 24-year-old Sergei Rachmaninoff lies on a couch\, repeating a mantra: “You will begin to write your concerto. You will work with the greatest of ease. The concerto will be of excellent quality.” \nRewind three years\, to the chaotic premiere of Rachmaninoff’s First Symphony. The orchestra was scrappy\, the conductor drunk\, the critics savage. Rachmaninoff felt “a paralyzing apathy. Half my days were spent on a couch\, sighing over my ruined life.” Today\, he might be diagnosed with clinical depression. Rachmaninoff wrote nothing for three years\, but continued to tour as a concert pianist. After a successful London performance\, he found himself promising a new piano concerto. “A second and better one.” \nRachmaninoff wasn’t confident he could deliver. Friends recommended a psychiatrist who specialized in hypnotherapy and the repetition of positive mantras. Rachmaninoff responded well to these sessions\, and was able to move forward with the new work. \nThe Second Piano Concerto breathes with the air of Rachmaninoff’s childhood. The concerto opens with evocations of the deep bells of the orthodox church. The orchestra answers with a slow\, step-wise chant melody. \nIn the slow movement we might feel the cooling breeze of Rachmaninoff’s beloved family residence\, Ivanovka. “This steppe was like an infinite sea where the waters are actually boundless fields of wheat\, rye\, oats\, stretching from horizon to horizon.” \nAt Ivanovka\, he found happiness\, motivation. “The smell of the Earth\, mowed rows and blossoms. I could work—and work hard. Every Russian feels strong ties to the soil. Perhaps it comes from an instinctive need for solitude.” \nThe finale\, despite its minor mode\, brims with the crackle of electricity. The premiere of this concerto ushered in Rachmaninoff’s most productive period. In the next fifteen years\, he would write many of his most beloved works. \n – Tim Munro \n \nJohannes Brahms (1833 – 1897)\nSymphony No. 4 in E minor\, Op. 98 \nAlthough his catalog lists just four symphonies\, Brahms wrote several other works that come close to that genre: his First Piano Concerto was indeed planned as a symphony\, and the Second (which is in four movements) has been called a symphony with piano obbligato. Although the Second and Third Symphonies were introduced in Vienna\, Brahms decided to give his Fourth Symphony an out-of-town tryout. He himself conducted the premiere (in October 1885) with the Meiningen Court Orchestra\, where the audience was enthusiastic. Vienna was not so receptive when the work was introduced there a few months later. As it turned out\, a mere ten years after his First Symphony had been given its premiere\, Brahms had written his last symphony. Two years later came the Double Concerto\, whose two solo parts (violin and cello) remind us of the old sinfonia concertante form\, but there were to be no more symphonies. \nFor his final essay in symphonic form\, Brahms produced a monumental work whose first movement grows from the simplest of materials\, a simple rising and falling interval\, out of which he develops long lines of powerfully emotional\, yet unsentimental grandeur. The relentless organic development\, which begins even as themes are being stated\, leads to a complex interaction of motives and melodic fragments. The composer’s friend Elisabeth von Herzogenberg wrote to him of her fears that he was dwelling too much on creating intricate thematic connections that would obscure his musical communication for the untrained listener: “…one rejoices with all the excitement of an explorer or scientist on discovering the secrets of your creation! But there comes a point where a certain doubt creeps in…that its beauties are not accessible to every normal music-lover.” \nWhat makes the music so compelling\, in fact\, may be the way the longer lines ebb and flow with great urgency and lyrical beauty\, while at the same time the contrapuntal complexities lend substance and richness to the texture. As an example of how the opposing camps of Wagnerites and Brahmsians always seemed to have something nasty to say about each other\, note the comment of composer Hugo Wolf – one of the Symphony’s detractors – that Brahms was “composing without ideas.” Schoenberg\, although he followed in the wake of Wagner’s progressive chromatic proclivities\, was a strong supporter of what he described as Brahms’ technique of “developing variation.” Certainly Beethoven had proved that minimal materials could be the source of substantial music. \nAfter the powerful conclusion of the first movement\, Brahms introduces the second movement with a forceful statement by two horns\, followed by a ravishing passage in which all of the strings play delicate pizzicato chords supporting a sustained melody in the winds. As in the famous finale (in which Brahms looks to earlier musical models for his structure)\, there is an archaic quality to this music\, which is the result\, in part\, of the composer’s use of the medieval Phrygian mode. This rather mournful meditation is interrupted by more animated passages\, but there is an overriding tone of “the shadow of an inevitable fate.” (Karl Geiringer) \nIn the other Brahms symphonies\, there is no movement that could be said to fulfill the role of the scherzo in the Beethoven mold; that is not true in the Fourth Symphony. Here the third movement overflows with high spirits and raw energy\, with the piccolo and triangle added to the performing forces for extra sizzle. The structure\, though\, is not that of a traditional scherzo with a contrasting middle section; in fact\, this movement is in sonata form\, and it includes material that prompted Hermann Kretschmar (writing in 1887) to note “its hastening\, restless rhythms…its suddenly pulsing energy\, and…the predominant harshness of its character.” \nBrahms\, a diligent student of musical history\, was always ready to draw on the styles and forms of earlier ages. The final movement of the Fourth Symphony is the best-known such instance\, and it is usually characterized as a passacaglia\, with reference to Bach. Although the theme which recurs throughout is drawn from Bach’s Cantata No. 150\, conductor and Baroque specialist Nikolaus Harnoncourt feels strongly that the form itself is more typical of the concluding movements in French operas from the Baroque era (especially Rameau). What is undeniable is the sense of cumulative power Brahms creates with his “old-fashioned” methods. The theme is repeated some 30 times\, but the musical material is organized (texturally\, dynamically\, and above all emotionally) into a sonata-like structure: The extended opening section is followed by more relaxed (but still troubled) passages of a lyrical\, yearning character (in which a solo flute is prominently featured). A renewed energy marks the beginning of a kind of development\, culminating in three variations that recall the opening ones. The concluding pages of the Symphony are relentlessly charged with defiance and bristling with slashing intensity. For once\, there is no coda. No triumph\, no joy\, no radiant string chords. The rest… is silence. \n— Dennis Bade URL:http://staging.gbs.org/event/something-big/ LOCATION:Klein Memorial Auditorium\, 910 Fairfield Avenue\, Bridgeport\, CT\, 06605\, United States CATEGORIES:Season 79 ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:http://staging.gbs.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/S794-Poster-crop-5.3.25-2-scaled.jpeg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241214T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241214T213000 DTSTAMP:20260415T091203 CREATED:20240625T034455Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250109T015857Z UID:1177-1734204600-1734211800@staging.gbs.org SUMMARY:Countdown 1... Waddell DESCRIPTION:At this festive concert\, you will hear the last of the four candidates* being considered as GBS’ new Music Director: Guest Conductor Rachel Waddell. \nThemed “Story-Telling Time\,” this concert is thrilling\, enlightening and family-friendly all at once. Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf featuring special guest narrator Jamie Bernstein along with Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sheherazade to anchor the evening\, which will also highlight the musical version of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas and a new piece by Chickasaw composer Jerod Tate: Chokfi. \nRachel L. Waddell\, an American conductor\, has garnered acclaim for her innovative concert programming\, commitment to new music\, education\, and collaboration. She was named a finalist for the American Prize’s 2019 Vytautas Marijosius Memorial Award in Orchestral Programming due to her outstanding concert programs.  Rachel serves as the newly appointed Director of Orchestras at Colorado State University. Previously she was the Director of Orchestral Activities and Assistant Professor with the Arthur Satz Department of Music at the University of Rochester in New York. She has conducted orchestras around the world and in August 2022 she made her Vienna debut conducting Così fan tutte as part of the Vienna Opera Academy. \nIn July 2023 she made her Canadian debut with the Orchestre Métropolitain\, after being selected to conduct by Yannick Nézet-Séguin at Le Domaine Forget de Charlevoix.  Rachel’s interest in the constantly evolving role and responsibility of orchestras within their communities led her to co-found Conductors for Change\, Inc.\, a 501(c)(3) for anyone reimagining the future of the American orchestras. \n  \n    \nPre-Concert Talk:  Begins at 6:30 pm with JAMIE BERNSTEIN \nJamie Bernstein will give a talk before the concert at 6:30pm about her book Famous Father Girl written about living with the great composer/ conductor father.  Ms. Bernstein will autograph copies at the concert’s intermission for those bringing a copy of the book to the show. Leonard Bernstein performed with GBS at The Klein in the 1970s. \nMeet our Narrator   (Peter and the Wolf)   JAMIE BERNSTEIN \nJamie Bernstein is an author\, narrator\, director\, broadcaster\, and filmmaker. Her 2018 memoir\, Famous Father Girl\, is about growing up with composer-conductor Leonard Bernstein\, and pianist and actress Felicia Montealegre in an atmosphere bursting with music\, theatre and literature. Jamie has written and narrated concerts about Mozart\, Aaron Copland\, and Stravinsky\, as well as “The Bernstein Beat\,” a family concert about her father modeled after his groundbreaking Young People’s Concerts. She appears worldwide performing her own scripted narrations as well as standard concert narrations\, such as Copland’s “A Lincoln Portrait” and her father’s Symphony No. 3\, “Kaddish.” Jamie has produced and hosted the New York Philharmonic’s live national radio broadcasts\, as well as many summer broadcasts from Tanglewood. She recently narrated the podcast “The NY Phil Story: Made in New York.” Jamie is the co-director of Crescendo: the Power of Music\, an award-winning documentary film focusing on children in struggling urban communities\, who participate in youth orchestra programs for social transformation. Jamie’s articles and poetry have appeared in such publications as Symphony\, Town & Country\, and Opera News. She also edits “Prelude\, Fugue & Riffs\,” a newsletter pertaining to her father’s legacy. \n \nMeet our Narrator (‘Twas the Night Before Christmas)  ANTHONY WELLMAN \nLong time friend of GBS Anthony “Tony” Wellman has numerous television and radio commercials\, corporate videos and radio programming in his CV\, and has interviewed hundreds of business owners for American Express commercials. He’s also done voice over work for the World Almanac\, ASME\, Random House\, DK publishing\, General Electric\, Audio Book Club\, and others. Tony has co-hosted The Dick Cavett Radio Show and is annually a live announcer for many trade events since 2007. GBS fans may remember him best from his narratives of la Boheme at GBS’ December 2016 Holiday Concert. Tony is also a fixture at GBS events where his stentorian voice is in demand as host. \n  \nProgram Notes \nDecember 14\, 2024 \nRachel Waddell\, Guest Conductor\nJamie Bernstein\, Narrator\nAnthony Wellman\, Narrator \n  \nChokfi’ for String Orchestra and Percussion  (2018)              Jerod Tate   (b. 1968) \nPeter and the Wolf                                                                          Sergei Prokofiev  (1891-1953) \n‘Twas the Night Before Christmas                                               Bill Holcombe   (1924-2010) \nINTERMISSION \nScheherazade  (1888)                                                                     Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov   (1844-1908) \nOp. 35 \n  \nPlease join us at the Cross Aisle (Row K\, Main Level) after the concert for a Q and A with Maestra Rachel Waddell. \nThe GBS welcomes you and wishes you the happiest of holiday seasons. Our program this evening includes two beloved\, well-known masterpieces\, an exquisite setting of a favorite Christmas poem\, Clement Moore’s immortal The Night Before Christmas and a new piece composed in 2018. \n \nJerod Tate is a composer and citizen of the Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma\, dedicated to the development of American Indian classical composition. He is a 2022 Chickasaw Hall of Fame inductee and a 2022 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient from The Cleveland Institute of Music. In 2021\, he was appointed a Cultural Ambassador for the U. S. Department of State. Among many recent premieres\, Tate’s highlights include commissions from the New York Philharmonic\, American Composers Orchestra\, Cantori NY and Turtle Island Quartet. Tate is a three-time commissioned recipient from the American Composers Forum\, a Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program recipient\, a Cleveland Institute of Music Alumni Achievement Award recipient\, a governor-appointed Creativity Ambassador for the State of Oklahoma and an Emmy Award-winner for his work on the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority documentary The Science of Composing. His music was also featured in the HBO series Westworld.  His middle name\, Impichchaachaaha’\, means “their high corncrib” and is his inherited traditional Chickasaw house name. Tate’s Chokfi for String Orchestra and Percussion was commissioned by the Oklahoma Youth Orchestras\, and premiered on May 6\, 2018. Says the composer: \nChokfi’ (choke-fee) is the Chickasaw word for rabbit\, who is an important trickster legend within Southeast American Indian cultures. \nInspired by a commission for youth orchestra I decided to create a character sketch that would be both fun and challenging for the kids. Different string and percussion techniques and colors represent the complicated and diabolical personality of this rabbit person. \nIn honor of my Muscogee Creek friends\, I have incorporated a popular tribal church hymn as the melodic and musical base. \n  This unique experience is followed by Bill Holcombe’s setting of Clement Clark Moore’s The Night Before Christmas. Holcombe was an arranger and composer of music for films\, recording dates and symphony orchestras and a performer on saxophones\, clarinet\, and flute. He studied composition and flute at the University of Pennsylvania and The Julliard School. Notably\, he was a staff arranger and player for the Tommy Dorsey Band. He also played for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer at their New York radio station\, WMGM\, as well as in Broadway pits. Listen for your favorite carols incorporated into this fun piece! \n Prokofiev loved children’s imaginative nature\, and children enjoyed his making them laugh. His beloved Peter and the Wolf was part of a collaboration with Natalia Satz\, director of the Moscow Childen’s Musical Theater. After they discussed the project\, Prokofiev wrote the original story. As a composer working in the Soviet Union\, Prokofiev needed to observe certain pieties. Tim Munro points out that: \nAt the center is “pioneer” Peter. Pioneers were Russian boy scouts\, but had a political edge: joining the pioneers was the first stepping-stone to becoming a member of the Communist party\, a required rite of passage. Even so\, Prokofiev’s story doesn’t line up with any political belief system. Peter is curious and strong-willed. His world is small\, but he isn’t afraid to challenge authority. His goal is simple: to right the wrongs he sees in the world. \nProkofiev wrote detailed notes in English and Russian\, telling us that an instrument symbolizes each character: the bird by a flute\, the duck by an oboe\, the cat by a clarinet playing staccato in a low register\, the grandfather by a bassoon\, the wolf by three horns. Additionally\, all instruments played Peter\, and the hunters were symbolized by the timpani and bass drum. This piece is a wonderful introduction\, for all ages\, to the contrasting colors of the orchestra. According to Prokofiev\, “If you listen very carefully at the end of the story\, you’ll hear the duck quacking inside the wolf’s belly\, because the wolf in his hurry had swallowed her alive.” \n \nI am indebted to Hugh McDonald for excerpts from his excellent notes on Rimsky-Korsakov’s masterful Scheherazade.   \nThe “Mighty Handful\,” the group of five forward-looking Russian composers of which Rimsky-Korsakov was the youngest member\, were particularly suspicious of such techniques as fugue and counterpoint\, as taught in Germany\, and they argued that it was more instructive to listen to peasants singing than to professors teaching. So it is ironic that without ever losing his interest in folk music\, Rimsky-Korsakov became one of the great teachers of his generation\, in charge of composition at the St. Petersburg Conservatory from 1871 until 1905. \nScheherazade\, his largest orchestral work\, is carefully constructed\, full of melody and brilliantly orchestrated. In addition\, it evokes the exotic world of sultans and harems whose popularity spread widely with the Arabian 1001 Nights. These tales were known in Europe since the 18th-century\, but were most enthusiastically read during Rimsky-Korsakov’s time when they were adapted for all forms of entertainment. \nAlthough the suite’s four movements give it some resemblance to a symphony\, Rimsky-Korsakov wanted a freer intermingling of speeds and themes than would have been normal in a symphony\, so he brings back his tunes at will. Most obviously\, he assigns the voice of Scheherazade herself to a solo violin\, whose obsessive doodling on a group of shapely themes recurs throughout\, often signaling a change of tempo and mood that transitions into a new story. There are images of Sinbad’s ship tossing on the waves\, an echo of Rimsky-Korsakov’s years as an officer in the Imperial Russian navy. The stern resolution of the Sultan is heard at the beginning in an angular unison theme that prominently features the trombones. Although Rimsky-Korsakov mentioned in his autobiography certain episodes illustrated in the music\, he ultimately preferred his listeners to think of the work as a more general evocation of the stories\, since characters from different stories appear across movements. \nThe first movement is largely taken up by a gentle rocking theme\, with some of the slippery key changes of which Rimsky-Korsakov was a master. The second movement presents a curly tune on a bassoon supported by four double-basses. This is passed around the woodwinds before more dramatic events intervene. The third movement is beautifully relaxed\, free of such disturbances\, while the finale brings back most of the themes\, linked by frenetic movement as if for a dancing dervish. In the end a great sense of calm is restored\, since Scheherazade has been spared and can now look forward to the permanently warm regard and patient ears of the Sultan Shahriah. \n—Frank Martignetti\, PhD \nSacred Heart University \n  \nThis season\, all kids under 19 years old will be admitted FREE when accompanied by an adult; accompanying adults will get 15% off their single ticket prices.  Please note that our concerts will begin one half hour earlier this season\, at 7:30 PM. URL:http://staging.gbs.org/event/countdown-1-waddell/ LOCATION:Klein Memorial Auditorium\, 910 Fairfield Avenue\, Bridgeport\, CT\, 06605\, United States CATEGORIES:Season 79 ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:http://staging.gbs.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/S793-Waddell-portrait-in-frame-crop.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241109T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241109T213000 DTSTAMP:20260415T091203 CREATED:20250108T143111Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250108T144347Z UID:1406-1731180600-1731187800@staging.gbs.org SUMMARY:Countdown 2... Dunner DESCRIPTION:Our search for a new Music Director continues\, with our third of four candidates*: Leslie B. Dunner. \nHailed as “dazzling\, elegant\, polished\, and riveting” by critics for his electrifying concert performances\, guest conductor Leslie B. Dunner comes to perform a program that is sure to stir concertgoers. Lauded for his world premiere performances of Anthony Davis’s opera “The Central Park Five” winning the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in Music\, and his “March to Liberation” subscription series concerts with the New York Philharmonic as part of their 2023 Inaugural Season in the new David Geffen Hall. The New York Times “Critic’s Pick” wrote Dunner’s performances had ” … a streak of urgency and plenty of orchestral splendor… dive-bombing phrases with terrific energy and articulation… style\, sagaciously managed\, suave\, with bursts of piquant personality\,” and a concert finale which “came across as grandly cosmic.” Maestro Dunner is joined by Indiana University’s Dean Charles H. Webb Chair in Music\, Norman Krieger in Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F major\, a work shimmering with orchestrational brilliance. \nJoin the GBS\, Dunner and Krieger\, performing masterworks of Haydn\, Ginastera\, and Gershwin in music that “echoes within for a lifetime!” \nThis stylishly unique program affords the audience an opportunity to compare and contrast differing viewpoints of one of the most iconic forms of music utilized in classical culture: the Concerto\, in novel and inventive ways. \nThe evening builds around Haydn’s Symphony No. 6\, recognized as the first “Concerto for Orchestra” ever composed. “Papa” Haydn wrote this dazzling work to showcase both his compositional prowess and the excellent musicianship of the orchestra to his new employer\, the Prince of Esterhazy. \nGinastera’s Variaciones Concertantes (Concertante Variations) models itself\, like Haydn’s work\, on being a showcase for the excellence of the orchestral musicians. And\, like Haydn\, it uses the Baroque “Concerto Grosso” or “Big Concert[o]\,” passing the work’s main musical theme from one soloist to another\, and finally to the full orchestra. Like Haydn\, the string bass appears prominently as a featured solo instrument. \nThis concert also features – for the first time in decades – Gershwin’s Concerto in F\, with Norman Krieger at the piano. \n \nNorman Krieger \nA native of Los Angeles\, Norman Krieger is one of the most acclaimed pianists of his generation and is highly regarded as an artist of depth\, sensitivity and virtuosic flair. As the Los Angeles Times put it\, “Krieger owns a world of technique-take that for granted. He always knows exactly where he is going and what he is doing. He never for instant miscalculates. He communicates urgently but with strict control. He is alert to every manner of nuance and at every dynamic level his tone flatters the ear.” \nMyung -Whun Chung\, Donald Runnicles\, Leonard Slatkin\, Michael Tilson Thomas\, Jaap van Zweden and Zubin Mehta are just a few of the conductors with whom Krieger has collaborated. Krieger regularly appears with the major orchestras of North America\, among them the New York Philharmonic\, Los Angeles Philharmonic\, the Chicago Symphony\, Minnesota Orchestra and the National Symphony. He has performed throughout Europe\, Asia and South America including tours of Germany\, France\, Poland\, Holland Scandinavia\, Korea\, China\, New Zealand and Israel. \n  \nProgram Notes \nNovember 9\, 2024 \nLeslie Dunner\, conductor \nNorman Krieger\, piano \n  \nSymphony No. 6 in D Major\, Hob. I:6\, “Le Matin”               Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) \nAdagio; Allegro \n            Adagio; Andante; Adagio \n            Menuet e Trio \n            Finale:  Allegro \n  \nVariaciones Concertantes                                                        Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983) \n  \n-Intermission- \n  \nConcerto in F for Piano and Orchestra                                   George Gershwin (1898-1937) \nAllegro \n            Adagio; Andante con moto \n            Allegro agitato \n  \n \nHaydn\, Symphony No. 6\, Hob. I:6\, “Le Matin” \nFranz Josef Haydn composed symphonies across most of his long life–104 in all–and is rightfully called “father of the symphony.”  Tonight’s example comes from the early years of his engagement with the genre and shows characteristics both rooted in older music and pointing toward forward developments.  Written in 1761\, just after his appointment as music director to the wealthy and prominent Esterhazy family\, Haydn was beginning his dream job for a composer at that time.  Among his first assignments was the charge to compose three symphonies representing morning\, noon\, and night:  hence the nickname “Le Matin.” \nIn No. 6 we see elements of the earlier Italian concerto grosso\, a genre that was well known to the Esterhazy establishment (think Vivaldi’s Four Seasons\, or Corelli’s Christmas Concerto).  Haydn displays the instruments as soloists rather than sections\, a feature which would have allowed him to assess the abilities of his new collaborators.  Yet the work is in four movements\, a pattern that would later become the norm for a symphony\, and it opens with a slow introduction depicting the sunrise of the title. \nThe lively first movement features the solo flute and oboe in conversation with the strings.  Next comes a serene and profound slow movement for solo violin and cello\, accompanied by strings\, in a three-part Adagio-Andante-Adagio form.  Solo winds return in the minuet\, and in an astonishing turn\, we hear the solo double bass paired with bassoon in the trio section.  In the finale the solo violin returns\, along with other soloists\, in a tribute to the older concerto grosso\, described by Haydn scholar H. C. Robbins Landon as “a brilliantly original way of pouring new wine into old bottles.” \n \nGinastera\, Variaciones Concertantes \nTema per violoncello ed arpa \n            Interludio per corde (strings) \n            Variazione giocosa per flauto \n            Variazione in modo di Scherzo per clarinetto \n            Variazione drammatica per viola \n            Variazione canonica per oboe e fagotto \n            Variazione ritmica per tromba e trombone \n            Variazione in moto di Moto perpetuo per violino \n            Variazione pastorale per Corno \n            Interludio per fiati (winds) \n            Ripresa dal tema per contrabasso \n            Variazione finale in modo di Rondò per orchestra \nAlberto Ginastera was an Argentine composer who spent some years in the United States and the last part of his life in Europe.  Composed in 1953\, the Variaciones Concertantes fall under the composer’s own designation of “subjective nationalism\,” in which elements of folklore are treated in new ways.  In the composer’s own words accompanying the score\, “These variations have a subjective Argentine character. Instead of using folkloristic material\, I try to achieve an Argentine atmosphere through the employment of my own thematic and rhythmic elements. The work begins with an original theme followed by eleven variations\, each one reflecting the distinctive character of the instrument featured. All the instruments of the orchestra are treated soloistically. Some variations belong to the decorative\, ornamental or elaborative type\, others are written in the contemporary manner of metamorphosis\, which consists of taking elements of the main theme and evolving from it new material.” \n \nGershwin\, Concerto in F for Piano and Orchestra \nWritten in 1925\, only a year after the acclaimed Rhapsody in Blue\, Gershwin took up a challenge to follow up on the earlier success:  “Many persons had thought that the Rhapsody [in Blue] was only a happy accident. Well\, I went out\, for one thing\, to show them that there was plenty more where that had come from.”  Unlike Rhapsody\, the Concerto in F follows the traditional three-movement\, fast-slow-fast concerto structure.  But the language of the concerto is jazz\, from the Charleston dance rhythm of the first movement\, through the blues and muted trumpet of the second movement\, to the “orgy of rhythms” (Gershwin’s own words) in the last movement.  While some contemporary critics were at a loss as to how the concerto should be categorized\, Gershwin’s fusion of jazz and classical idioms has engaged the audience from the beginning to the present day. \nAlice M. Caldwell PhD \n  \n  \nThis season\, all kids under 19 years old will be admitted FREE when accompanied by an adult; accompanying adults will get 15% off their single ticket prices.  Please note that our concerts will begin one half hour earlier this season\, at 7:30 PM. URL:http://staging.gbs.org/event/countdown-2-dunner/ LOCATION:Klein Memorial Auditorium\, 910 Fairfield Avenue\, Bridgeport\, CT\, 06605\, United States CATEGORIES:Season 79 ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:http://staging.gbs.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/S792-Dunner-in-frame.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241005T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241005T213000 DTSTAMP:20260415T091203 CREATED:20240624T174605Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250108T201109Z UID:504-1728156600-1728163800@staging.gbs.org SUMMARY:Countdown 3... Gersen DESCRIPTION:GBS begins its 79th Season continuing the search for a new Music Director with the second of four candidates*: Joshua Gersen. \nMr. Gersen is definitely the most local of candidates\, having grown up in Monroe\, performing with GCTYO (formerly the Greater Bridgeport Youth Orchestras) and conducting for them at age 11.  This is not his first time on the GBS podium; Maestro Gustav Meier invited him to conduct at age 16\, Later in his storied career\, he became Music Director of the New York Youth Symphony. \nMr. Gersen recently concluded his tenure as Assistant Conductor of the New York Philharmonic. The New York Times calls his conducting “Impassioned and incisive; the performance earned a standing ovation and prolonged applause from his colleagues in the orchestra.” \nThe concert program will center around Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4\, Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G minor and will include a modern work by Carlos Simon: Fate Now Conquers. \n  \nClick here then click “Subscriptions” for subscriptions at deep discounts. \nThis season\, all kids under 19 years old will be admitted FREE when accompanied by an adult; accompanying adults will get 15% off their single ticket prices.  Please note that our concerts will begin one half hour earlier this season\, at 7:30 PM. \n  \nPROGRAM NOTES \nOctober 5\, 2024 \nJoshua Gersen\, conductor \n  \nFate Now Conquers                                                         Carlos Simon (b. 1986) \nSymphony No. 40 in G minor\, K. 550                        Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) \nMolto allegro \n            Andante \n            Menuetto.  Allegretto \n            Finale.  Allegro assai \n  \n-Intermission- \n  \nSymphony No. 4 in F minor                                         Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) \nAndante sostenuto \n            Andantino in modo di canzona \n            Scherzo:  Pizzicato ostinato \n            Finale:  Allegro con fuoco \n  \n \nSimon\, Fate Now Conquers \nAmerican composer Carlos Simon\, a native of Atlanta\, Georgia\, is currently Composer-in-Residence at the Kennedy Center in Washington\, D.C.  His widely performed Fate Now Conquers was commissioned in 2019 by the Philadelphia Orchestra and premiered online in 2020 due to the pandemic.  In notes by the composer himself\, he attributes the title to a quote from The Iliad in one of Beethoven’s notebooks: \nThis piece was inspired by a journal entry from Ludwig van Beethoven’s notebook written in 1815: \n“Iliad. The Twenty-Second Book \nBut Fate now conquers; I am hers; and yet not she shall share\nIn my renown; that life is left to every noble spirit\nAnd that some great deed shall beget that all lives shall inherit.”  \nUsing the beautifully fluid harmonic structure of the 2nd movement of Beethoven’s 7th symphony\, I have composed musical gestures that are representative of the unpredictable ways of fate. Jolting stabs\, coupled with an agitated groove with every persona. Frenzied arpeggios in the strings that morph into an ambiguous cloud of free-flowing running passages depict the uncertainty of life that hovers over us. \nWe know that Beethoven strived to overcome many obstacles in his life and documented his aspirations to prevail\, despite his ailments. Whatever the specific reason for including this particularly profound passage from the Iliad\, in the end\, it seems that Beethoven relinquished to fate. Fate now conquers.  -Carlos Simon \n \nMozart\, Symphony No. 40\, K. 550 \nThe second of Mozart’s three last\, path-breaking symphonies written in the summer of 1788\, No. 40 in G minor is perhaps one of the best-known of all symphonies.  Composed during a time of financial and personal stress\, the relatively unusual minor tonality itself announces a seriousness and intensity of purpose.  The first movement is a perennial favorite of music theory and appreciation analysis because of its clear-cut adherence to the outline of sonata form:  the major divisions of exposition\, development\, and recapitulation\, with easily recognizable themes\, transitions\, and closings.  Yet the working-out of themes\, harmonies and motives is anything but simplistic. \nThe second movement contrasts with the first in its major key\, lyrical melodies marked by the stylized “sigh” figure.  We hear gently pulsing strings\, dissonances that resolve\, and dialogue of strings and winds. \nNext comes a conventional minuet-trio movement\, but in a non-traditional minor key and with unsettling\, syncopated accents on weak beats.  A relaxed\, lyrical trio section contrasts in the parallel major key\, providing a break from the intensity of the minuet. \nThe fourth movement balances the first in minor-key seriousness\, which gives way to a gentle\, major-key second theme.  The development works the main theme through new harmonies and in counterpoint.   With the return of the second theme in the minor tonic\, the symphony concludes in a resounding statement of G minor.  Does the grim intensity of this symphony reflect Mozart’s state of mind during a troubled period?  Does it point the way toward the deeper personal expression that would become a guiding force in the Romantic era?  We may presume see this work as Mozart’s wrestling with Fate at a difficult point in his life. \n \nTchaikovsky\, Symphony No. 4 \nTchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony displays both sides of the supposedly rival currents in 19th-century Russian music:  on the one hand\, allegiance to the Western European symphonic tradition as cultivated at the St. Petersburg and Moscow conservatories\, and on the other\, a love for Russian folk music.  Composed during 1877-78\, this was a time when Tchaikovsky was struggling with deep personal sadness over his sexual orientation\, exacerbated by a brief\, disastrous marriage.  Finding security in the distanced\, epistolary relationship with his patron\, Nadezhda von Meck\, he wrote to her of the concepts underpinning his newest symphony: “The introduction is the seed of the whole symphony\, undoubtedly the central theme. This is Fate\, i.e.\, that fateful force which prevents the impulse to happiness from entirely achieving its goal\, forever on jealous guard lest peace and well-being should ever be attained in complete and unclouded form\, hanging above us like the Sword of Damocles\, constantly and unremittingly poisoning the soul. Its force is invisible and can never be overcome. Our only choice is to surrender to it\, and to languish fruitlessly.” \nIndeed\, the opening “Fate” motive is unforgettable and relentless\, punctuating the first movement and recurring in the fourth movement as well.  The first movement continues beyond the fate motive\, marked with a waltz tempo\, but the jittery\, highly syncopated theme is anything but a smooth and elegant waltz for dancing.  A contrasting idea moves among the woodwinds\, bringing some relief to the intensity of the waltz\, complemented by gentle strings\, but the brightness is overshadowed by the return of the fate theme. \nIn the second movement a haunting minor melody is passed among winds and strings\, continuing the mood of melancholy in a more subdued way. \nThe third movement\, a scherzo\, lightens the mood with a study in timbres\, starting with lively pizzicato strings\, followed by contrasting sections for woodwind and brass choirs before returning to the strings.  A short coda gives the different choirs one last dialogue with each other. \nThe finale opens with a burst of optimistic-sounding high energy before introducing the theme of The Birch Tree.  The folk tune undergoes several transformations\, heading toward a climax that is wrenched away by the thunderous Fate theme.  A return of the opening idea\, layered with fragments of the Birch Tree\, races headlong to a joyful conclusion.  Has Fate had the last word\, or not? \nAlice M. Caldwell PhD \n  URL:http://staging.gbs.org/event/season-premiere/ LOCATION:Klein Memorial Auditorium\, 910 Fairfield Avenue\, Bridgeport\, CT\, 06605\, United States CATEGORIES:Season 79 ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:http://staging.gbs.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/S791-Gersen-in-frame-crop.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240907T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240907T213000 DTSTAMP:20260415T091203 CREATED:20240728T193454Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250108T201245Z UID:1273-1725737400-1725744600@staging.gbs.org SUMMARY:Countdown 4...Leandro - Last Season DESCRIPTION:Note:  Eduardo’s audition concert took place on April 13\, 2024 \nEduardo Leandro is also a candidate under consideration as GBS’ new Music Director.  Not a stranger to the GBS stage\, he was principal guest conductor leading the orchestra through our 78th season in programs that range from Mozart and Beethoven through Prokofiev\, Debussy and Ginastera\, all the way up to Schonfield and Bernstein. He championed music education through community outreach\, connecting with Bridgeport’s diverse\, underserved students as a Brazilian-born musician who speaks five languages fluently. \nLeandro studied with the late Maestro Gustav Meier\, who for more than four decades led the Greater Bridgeport Symphony.  Among his extensive list of current positions is associate music professor at Stony Brook University in New York and teaching percussion at the University of Montreal in Canada\, conductor of the New York New Music Ensemble and percussionist with the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society. \nEduardo has conducted Camerata Aberta in Brazil\, Talea and Sequitur Ensembles in the United States\, Ensemble Lemanic in France\, and the New Music Ensembles in the conservatories of Geneva and Lausanne. He recently served as the music director for the premiere of “The Scarlet Professor”\, an opera composed by Eric Sawyer and produced by the Five Colleges Consortium. He has conducted chamber music concerts at Radio France in Paris\, in Milan and Torino with MDI and Sentieri Musicali\, at Pacific Rim Music Festival in California\, and at Festival Archipel in Switzerland. URL:http://staging.gbs.org/event/countdown-4-leandro/ LOCATION:Klein Memorial Auditorium\, 910 Fairfield Avenue\, Bridgeport\, CT\, 06605\, United States CATEGORIES:Season 79 ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:http://staging.gbs.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/S79-Eduardo--e1722260715481.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240413T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240413T200000 DTSTAMP:20260415T091203 CREATED:20230726T182752Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240327T133441Z UID:525-1713038400-1713038400@staging.gbs.org SUMMARY:A Bridge to Beethoven DESCRIPTION:Cellist Dr. Nicholas Hardie:\n  \n  \nWe close our 78th season with Beethoven’s joyful Symphony No. 8\, and two great 20th-century Russian composers who revered Beethoven.   Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony and Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1\, featuring Dr. Nicholas Hardie soloist\, GBS’ own Principal Cellist – pay homage to Beethoven\, a century and a half later and a thousand miles east. \n  \n  \n  \nProgram Notes \nApril 13\, 2024 \nAlice M. Caldwell\, Ph.D \n  \nSergei Prokofiev\, Symphony No. 1 in D major\, Op. 25\, “Classical” \nIn the context of music history\, the twentieth century is sometimes described as “the century of -isms.”  Of all the relevant movements\, neoclassicism is perhaps one of the more accessible of those “-isms.”  While some date the first example of neoclassicism from Stravinsky’s Octet for Winds of 1923\, representations of eighteenth-century and older music had a tradition going back to Mozart\, especially in music for the theater.  Twentieth-century neoclassicism can be seen as a rejection of both the atonal modernism developing early in the century\, and of the excesses of late Romanticism in the previous century. \nProkofiev’s “Classical” Symphony of 1917 harks back to the symphonies of Haydn\, Mozart\, and even the Mannheim school\, opening with an energetic\, upward D-major arpeggio that was practically a cliché of the eighteenth-century symphony.  But harmony and rhythm tell a more modern story\, and even the second theme\, which duly follows the rules and appears in the dominant key\, makes enormously wide leaps that keep us grounded in the twentieth century.  Prokofiev proceeds from the opening sonata-form movement to a graceful slow movement\, but then upends the traditional third movement minuet-trio by replacing it with a 4/4 gavotte where another wide-leaping melody is accompanied by modern harmonies.  The lively fourth movement closes the work in the spirit of Haydn.  It is interesting to note that Prokofiev himself bestowed the name of “Classical” symphony while declining to associate himself with any particular “-ism.” \nDmitri Shostakovitch\, Cello Concerto No. 1 \nA work of intense energy\, considered one of the most difficult in the repertoire\, Shostakovitch wrote his first cello concerto in 1959 for his friend Mstislav Rostropovitch.  Soloist Nicholas Hardie points out the deep influence of Rostropovich on Shostakovitch’s concept of the work\, writing that it “reflects the power\, emotion\, and character Shostakovich saw in his playing. It is also the reason it is so fiercely difficult.”  Scored for a chamber orchestra of strings\, winds\, horn\, celesta and timpani\, the four movements are further divided into two sections–the first\, followed by the second/third/fourth continuously attached.  Characteristics of neoclassicism link it to the other works in our program.  The first movement opens with a strong\, four-note theme\, answered by a military-sounding motive\, giving the feeling of a “jocular march\,” as Shostakovich himself described it.  The four-note motive will pervade the first movement\, and return in the third and fourth\, reminding us of Haydn and Beethoven’s use of intense motivic development. \nThe second movement takes the traditional form of a slow movement\, with the cello playing a lyrical melody reminiscent of an Eastern European folk song.  Following an intense buildup\, the cello brings back its theme played in delicate harmonics\, answered by the ethereal tones of the celesta.  This leads directly to the third movement\, entirely devoted to a solo cadenza.  Here the soloist works some of the previous themes in passages of tremendous virtuosity\, until the orchestra bursts out again into the last movement.  We feel rhythms that are dance-like but diabolical\, possibly an expression of the subversive humor with which Shostakovitch upheld his artistic integrity during the Soviet era.  Embedded in the texture is a brief\, concentrated\, and distorted quotation from a Georgian folksong said to be a favorite of Stalin (dead for six years at the time of composition).  The four-note motive of the opening returns with great emphasis to bring the work full circle to its conclusion. \nBeethoven\, Symphony No. 8 in F major \nWith the Eighth Symphony Beethoven’s turbulent middle\, or “heroic” period\, came to an end\, and it foreshadowed the further musical boundary-pushing to come\, following a difficult interval of life circumstances\, in his late period.  The year 1812 saw Beethoven’s personal relationships in disarray with respect both to his brother and to the unnamed “Immortal Beloved” addressed in a letter found after Beethoven’s death.  Nevertheless\, he completed both the Seventh and the Eighth symphonies in close succession.  The Seventh Symphony premiered to great public approval\, with its appealing rhythmic vitality and familiar forms including theme and variations\, fugue\, and minuet and trio.  When asked why the more subtle Eighth did not generate quite as much enthusiasm\, Beethoven replied\, ““because it is so much better.” \nBeethoven had already taken the conventional minuet and trio of the Classic era and turned it into the more humorous\, spicy\, and sometimes even diabolical scherzo (literally\, “joke” in Italian).  In the Eighth Symphony\, the spirit of the scherzo pervades all four movements:  there are rhythmic and metrical surprises\, formal twists\, and a novel use of the name.  The first movement gives us unusual phrasing\, syncopated accents\, recurring octave leaps\, and prominent hemiola (a temporary change of meter by shifting the accent).  The movement ends with a wisp of the main theme.  For the expected slow\, second movement\, Beethoven appropriates the name “Allegretto scherzando\,” imposing the sound and feel of a scherzo on the slow movement.  Some of the question-answer phrases recall the dialogue of comic opera.  The constant ticking of repeated notes can be heard in various ways.  Sudden dynamic changes and flurries of sixty-fourth notes add to the comic atmosphere.  Then\, since the scherzo slot has already been filled\, Beethoven provides an old-fashioned minuet and trio for the third movement (at least\, according to the title).  But the scherzo spirit continues\, with entrances in the “wrong” place to contradict the decorum implied by the name. For the finale\, the musical jokes take the form of unexpected harmonies and keys\, punctuated with sudden pauses\, a return of the octave theme from the first movement\, then an ending with one of the most emphatic statements of the tonic harmony in the repertoire. \n  \n  \nClick here then click “Subscriptions” for subscriptions at deep discounts. URL:http://staging.gbs.org/event/a-bridge-to-beethoven/ LOCATION:Klein Memorial Auditorium\, 910 Fairfield Avenue\, Bridgeport\, CT\, 06605\, United States CATEGORIES:Season 78 ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:http://staging.gbs.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/S785-VBO-logo-date-scaled.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240316T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240316T200000 DTSTAMP:20260415T091203 CREATED:20230726T180340Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240305T164232Z UID:521-1710619200-1710619200@staging.gbs.org SUMMARY:Flute Fusion DESCRIPTION:Flautist Keith Bonner:\n  \nThe flute figures prominently with solos by GBS’ own Grammy® nominated Principal Flautist\, Keith Bonner. Debussy’s ethereal Afternoon of a Faun\, Paul Schoenfeld’s Klezmer Rondos\, and African-American composer Jessie Montgomery’s Coincident Dances surround Schubert’s Symphony No. 5.   Not “The Magic Flute\,” but a whole night of the magic of the flute! \n  \n  \nThe March 16 concert is sponsored by the family of Jennifer C. Moorin\, who passed away in January.  Along with her husband\, retired local attorney Herbert Moorin (a longtime Trustee of GBS)\, Jennifer was a prominent supporter and ardent worker in many local charities. “Jennifer was a bright light at GBS for decades\,” says GBS Chairman of the Board Doris Harrington.” “We are saddened by her loss but know that her spirit is well-expressed in Schubert’s Symphony No. 5\, we’ll be dedicating and performing in her honor in March.” \n  \nProgram Notes \nMarch 16\, 2024 \n—Frank Martignetti\, PhD. \nSacred Heart University \n  \nDebussy: l’Après Midi d’un Faune\nJessie Montgomery: Coincident Dances\nPaul Schoenfeld: Klezmer Rondos\nSchubert: Symphony #5 \nOur program opens with a piece written in 1894 that transformed music history forever: Claude Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (L. 86). This ten-minute Impressionist masterpiece is viewed as a turning point in music history; Pierre Boulez memorably stated that “the flute of the faun brought new breath to the art of music.”  Debussy was inspired by the poem of the same name by the French symbolist Stéphane Mallarmé. Symbolist poets resisted naturalism and realism\, and sought to write about spirituality\, the subconscious\, imagination\, and dreams. Charles Burkhardt tells us that: \n[This prelude] was [Debussy’s] musical response to the poem of Stephane Mallarmé (1842–1898)\, in which a faun playing his pan-pipes alone in the woods becomes aroused by passing nymphs and naiads\, pursues them unsuccessfully\, then wearily abandons himself to a sleep filled with visions. Though called a “prelude\,” the work is nevertheless complete – an evocation of the feelings of the poem as a whole. \nYou will be struck by the dreamlike\, hazy nature of the Prelude. The piece begins with a languid flute solo\, centered on the tritone: the powerful and unstable interval that was viewed as “the devil in music” in the Renaissance\, but that forms the powerful gravitational pull of the dominant seventh chord\, and has given us the opening notes of Leonard Bernstein’s immortal “Maria.”  The rhythm and the tonality of the piece are fluid\, and ever shifting. The tonal ambiguity leads to the whole tone scale\, a major characteristic of Impressionism. This whole tone scale floats freely\, lacking the gravitational pull of the major or minor scale. \nIt is interesting to note the careful compositional structure that Debussy used to create the dreamworld of the Prelude; I’ll unpack this with you in the pre-concert lecture. Debussy uses compact musical ideas\, called “cells” (motives) and builds the piece systematically from them. It’s fascinating to note that the piece is 110 measures long\, and\, while the piece of music is not a linear narrative\, Mallarmé’s poem is also 110 lines long. \n  \nBoth of our next two pieces juxtapose multiple musical styles to evoke a place or occasion\, in ways similar to George Gershwin’s work in Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris. \n  \nComposer Jesse Montgomery has this to share regarding her Coincident Dances\, which I’m looking forward to experiencing with you for the first time at this concert. The GBS is one of the first fifteen orchestras in the world to perform this new work. Says Montgomery: \nCoincident Dances is inspired by the sounds found in New York’s various cultures\, capturing the frenetic energy and multicultural aural palette one hears even in a short walk through a New York City neighborhood. The work is a fusion of several different sound-worlds: English consort\, samba\, mbira dance music from Ghana\, swing\, and techno. \nMy reason for choosing these styles sometimes stemmed from an actual experience of accidentally hearing a pair simultaneously\, which happens most days of the week walking down the streets of New York\, or one time when I heard a parked car playing Latin jazz while I had rhythm and blues in my headphones. Some of the pairings are merely experiments. Working in this mode\, the orchestra takes on the role of a DJ of a multicultural dance track. \n  \nKlezmer Rondos evokes typical Eastern European klezmer band sounds within a typical concert work\, characteristic of Schoenfeld’s amalgamation of differing styles. Somewhat uniquely in the orchestral repertoire\, this piece includes saxophones and coronet (the trumpet-like instrument played by Louis Armstrong.) While we tend to think of the clarinet as the characteristic solo instrument in klezmer\, the flute\, violin or trumpet took on this role as well.  Our own principal flutist\, Keith Bonner\, takes the lead on flute and piccolo. I’m indebted to Neil Levin for this context: \nKlezmer Rondos quotes directly the opening section of a song of the Lubavitcher Hassidim\, Kol dodi (Voice of My Beloved)\, from Song of Songs\, attributed to the first Lubavitcher—or ḥabad—rebbe\, Rabbi Shneier Zalman of Liady. A variation is often attributed to rebbes of different dynasties who were Rabbi Zalman’s contemporaries. There is also the quotation of a well-known Lubavitcher niggun rikkud (dance tune)\, as well as other typical idiomatic Hassidic phrases and inflections throughout…An original Yiddish song in folk style\, to the poem Mirele by Michl Virt\, concludes the first of the two movements. \n  \nSchubert’s Symphony No. 5 uses the smallest orchestra of his symphonies; Schubert seems to have been particularly enamored with Mozart when writing this symphony\, and the instrumentation matches the first version of Mozart’s Symphony No. 40. The first movement is Schubert’s first to not begin slowly\, but begins with a very simple rising arpeggio (do-mi-sol) that comprises the first theme. Unusually\, the recapitulation begins in Eb (IV)\, not Bb—a device Schubert had used before.  The second\, slow movement ranges far afield harmonically\, in a way characteristic of Schubert but not heard in Haydn\, Mozart\, or Beethoven. The third movement\, a minuet\, is extremely Mozartean in character and harmony. The symphony concludes with a finale that is the shortest of the four movements. \n  \n  \nClick here then click “Subscriptions” for subscriptions at deep discounts. URL:http://staging.gbs.org/event/flute-fusion/ LOCATION:Klein Memorial Auditorium\, 910 Fairfield Avenue\, Bridgeport\, CT\, 06605\, United States CATEGORIES:Season 78 ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:http://staging.gbs.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/S784-VBO-prelim.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20231216T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20231216T200000 DTSTAMP:20260415T091203 CREATED:20230726T175817Z LAST-MODIFIED:20231211T211650Z UID:516-1702756800-1702756800@staging.gbs.org SUMMARY:Uniting at Yuletide DESCRIPTION:A holiday festival! Singalongs\, music of the masters\, and carols — bring the family! \n(PROGRAM NOTES BELOW) \nEduardo Leandro\, Conductor \n-The Doris and Herbert Harrington Pre-Concert Talk-\nA special presentation from GBS about next season \n-Maureen Hamill and friends will sing and lead some singalong pieces! \nJule Styne                                      Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! (1945) \nTraditional                                     Away in a Manger \nJohann Strauss II                       The Blue Danube (1866)\n(1825-1899) Op. 314 \nJohn Williams                               Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001)\n(b. 1932) \nMykola Leontovich                    Carol of the Bells (1914)\n(1877-1921) \nJ. S. Bach                                       Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring (1723)\n(1685-1750)                                   BWV 147 \nTraditional                                    Chanukah Festival Overture\, Arr. Custer/O’Loughlin \nIrving Berlin                                 White Christmas (1942)\n(1888-1989) \nLeroy Anderson                         Sleigh Ride (1948)\n(1825-1899) \nI N T E R M I S S I O N \nTraditional                                       O Come All Ye Faithful (1744) \nPyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky           Waltz of the Flowers (1892)\n(1840-1893)                                  Op. 71a (from The Nutcracker Suite) \nGeorges Bizet                               Farandole from L’Arlesienne (1885-86)\n(1838-1875) \nTraditional                                     Hark the Herald Angels Sing (1739) \nIsaac Watts                                   Joy to the World (1719) \nFranz Gruber                                Silent Night (1818) \n_________________________________________ \nPROGRAM NOTES \nDecember 16\, 2023 \nUNITING AT YULETIDE \nMusic forms a giant part of our experiences and memories in the holiday season\, and this program draws from the many streams of music that form our holiday memories. Folk\, composed “classical” music\, film music\, and the Great American Songbook all contribute to this mighty river\, and this evening’s program. Many might be surprised at how orchestral music forms a vital part of the soundtrack of our lives\, but this evening’s program demonstrates this. \nFrom the folk tradition\, the relatively minor Jewish holiday of Hanukkah has nevertheless spawned a small but beloved repertoire of folksongs. Grammy- Award winning conductor and composer Lucas Richman has served as Music Director of the Bangor Symphony\, the Knoxville Symphony\, and an array of ensembles internationally as guest conductor. His Hanukkah Festival Overture sets the folk melodies that are an integral part of Hanukkah\, and has been performed by hundreds of orchestras since its  composition in 1994. From another part of the world\, the Ukraine\, what American audiences know as Carol of the Bells is actually a New Year carol\, Shchedryk\, written in 1914 by the Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych\, and based on Ukranian folktunes. It received its first United States performance at Carnegie Hall in 1922\, by the Ukranian National Chorus. Peter J. Wilhousky wrote the English lyrics we hear each December. Through these pieces\, we remember\, in our own small way\, these two regions    where our neighbors continue to suffer the effects of war and violence this year. \nFamiliar Christmas carols from Europe and the Americas might as well be folk music\, but have an interesting history. The origins of the familiar American carol Away in a Manger are shrouded in mystery; the text was long attributed\, incorrectly\, to Martin Luther. The third verse was penned by John T. McFarland in 1892. In metrical hymnody\, text and tune pairings are interchangeable\, and this carol is commonly sung to two different tunes\, and sometimes to a third. The most common\, Muller\, was composed by James R. Murray in 1887\, for a children’s hymnal. This memorable tune is easily recognizable due to the stepwise descent of an octave that begins the melody\, as well as the gentle dotted rhythm reminiscent of calmly rocking an infant to sleep. \nWilliam J. Kirkpatrick composed the other tune\, Cradle Song\, in 1895\, which uses a gentle\, recurring rhythm pattern to lull the infant to sleep. Rarely\, this carol is sung to an adaptation of the tune Afton Water\, by 19th century Kentucky composer\, lawyer\, and minister Jonathan E. Spilman. Interestingly\, another adaptation of Spilman’s tune became the alma mater of the University of South Carolina! O Come All Ye Faithful\, attributed to John Francis Wade\, has roots that may go back as far as the thirteenth century. Mendelssohn and Handel contributed\, indirectly\, to the Christmas carol repertoire\, with Hark the Herald Angels Sing and Joy to the World\, created by Lowell Mason (the father of music education in American schools). Franz Gruber’s beloved Stille Nacht premiered at St. Nicholas in Orbendorf\, Austria in 1818. Father Joseph Mohr wrote the lyrics in 1816\, and asked Franz Gruber\, teacher and organist in the  neighboring town\, to write the music. Mohr accompanied the premiere on guitar since the organ was damaged by flooding. \nFrom the classical tradition\, Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite and Strauss’ An der schönen blauen Donau\, Op. 314\, commonly known to English-speaking audiences as the Blue Danube Waltz form familiar symphonic contributions to our Christmas and New Year memories. J. S. Bach’s Jesus bleibet meine Freude is the tenth movement of his 1712 Advent church cantata Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben\, BWV 147\, known to English-speaking audiences as Jesu\, Joy of Man’s Desiring. \nThe final stream of music explored this evening includes songs written during the era of\, or in the style of\, the Great American Songbook. Irving Berlin’s White Christmas\, written for the 1942 film Holiday Inn\, and Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne’s Let It Snow dates from 1945. In a similar vein\, John Williams’ marvelous score for the Harry Potter films evoke the rich world of these stories\, including a Christmas feast in the Great Hall of Hogwarts. \nMay your holiday feasts be magnificent! \nFrank Martignetti\, Ph.D.\nSacred Heart University \n  \nClick here then click “Subscriptions” for subscriptions at deep discounts. URL:http://staging.gbs.org/event/uniting-at-yuletide/ LOCATION:Klein Memorial Auditorium\, 910 Fairfield Avenue\, Bridgeport\, CT\, 06605\, United States CATEGORIES:Season 78 ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:http://staging.gbs.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/S783-VBO-date-logo-scaled.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20231111T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20231111T200000 DTSTAMP:20260415T091203 CREATED:20230726T175438Z LAST-MODIFIED:20231109T150113Z UID:511-1699732800-1699732800@staging.gbs.org SUMMARY:Mingling with Mozart DESCRIPTION:Mozart and those he influenced\, centered around Symphony No. 41 “Jupiter” \nEduardo Leandro\, Conductor\nJessica Rizzio\, Soprano\nThomas Woodman\, Baritone \nThe Doris and Herbert Harrington Pre-Concert Talk\nhosted by Dr. Alice Caldwell \nW. A. Mozart       Opera Selections\n(1756-1791) \nOverture from The Marriage of Figaro (K.492) \nArias from\nThe Marriage of Figaro (K.492)\nDon Giovanni (K.527)\nCosi fan tutte (K.588)\nThe Magic Flute (K.620) \nI N T E R M I S S I O N \nFlo Menezes       Mozart Trans-Criations (1986)\n(b. 1962) \nW. A. Mozart       Symphony No. 41 in C major “Jupiter” (K.551) – (1788)\n(1756 – 1791) \nI. Allegretto vivace\nII. Andante cantabile (F major)\nIII. Menuetto: Allegretto\nIV. Molto allegro \nClick here then click “Subscriptions” for subscriptions at deep discounts. URL:http://staging.gbs.org/event/mingling-with-mozart/ LOCATION:Klein Memorial Auditorium\, 910 Fairfield Avenue\, Bridgeport\, CT\, 06605\, United States CATEGORIES:Season 78 ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:http://staging.gbs.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/S782-VBO-logo-date-scaled.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230505T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230505T193000 DTSTAMP:20260415T091203 CREATED:20230403T131436Z LAST-MODIFIED:20230403T132826Z UID:438-1683315000-1683315000@staging.gbs.org SUMMARY:Surprise\, Surprise! DESCRIPTION:Stravinsky: Circus Polka\nCopland: Appalachian Spring\nSaint-Saëns: Organ Symphony \nThis event is free\, but tickets must be reserved in advance. URL:http://staging.gbs.org/event/surprise-surprise/ LOCATION:St. Peter Church\, 104 Main Street\, Danbury\, 06810\, United States CATEGORIES:Season 77 ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:http://staging.gbs.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/326717676_530432512233753_7893698019191259981_n.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230423T150000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230423T150000 DTSTAMP:20260415T091203 CREATED:20230420T160128Z LAST-MODIFIED:20230420T160128Z UID:455-1682262000-1682262000@staging.gbs.org SUMMARY:GBS & Sacred Heart University present: The GBS String Quartet DESCRIPTION:The Greater Bridgeport Symphony & Sacred Heart University are proud to present this concert as a join production. \nThe Program\nString Quartet No. 4\, Op 18 Ludwig van Beethoven\nAllegro ma non tanto\nAndante scherzoso quasi Allegretto\nMenuetto Allegro\nAllegretto\nTwo Songs George Gerswhin\, arr. Silveman\n“He Loves and She Loves” from Funny Face\n“Do It Again” from The French Doll\nIntermission\nQuartet in G minor\, Op. 10 Claude Debussy Animé et tres décidé\nAsset vif et bien rythmé\nAndantino doucement expressif\nTrès modéré \nWith the launch of the 2023 Classical Series\, SHU Community Theatre is proud to host world-class classical music and to further its mission to offer “Entertainment & Education In Concert” through these noteworthy performances. \nThe GBS String Quartet\, founded by the principal string players of the Greater Bridgeport Symphony\, has seen a new renaissance since the start of the pandemic in 2020\, releasing multiple virtual performances\, including collaboration with music director Eric Jacobsen on cello\, and expanding their live concert appearances together. You can also find the quartet’s influence leading the strings in all Greater Bridgeport Symphony concerts and recording projects\, including their albums with members of the Silkroad Ensemble and with pianist Tiffany Poon\, and beautiful video projects with violinists Colin Jacobsen and with Simone Porter. The quartet has further represented the organization in the community in coordination with Music for Youth and the Greater Bridgeport Symphony’s educational outreach initiatives. URL:http://staging.gbs.org/event/gbs-sacred-heart-university-present-the-gbs-string-quartet/ LOCATION:Sacred Heart University Community Theatre\, 1420 Post Road\, Fairfield\, CT\, 06824\, United States CATEGORIES:Season 78 ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:http://staging.gbs.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/image012.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230408T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230408T200000 DTSTAMP:20260415T091203 CREATED:20220828T005702Z LAST-MODIFIED:20230403T131229Z UID:115-1680984000-1680984000@staging.gbs.org SUMMARY:Godspeed\, Maestro Jacobsen DESCRIPTION:Eric Jacobsen\, Conductor\nDvorak: Carnival Overture\nShostakovich: Chamber Symphony\nRespighi: Pines of Rome URL:http://staging.gbs.org/event/godspeed-maestro-jacobsen/ LOCATION:Klein Memorial Auditorium\, 910 Fairfield Avenue\, Bridgeport\, CT\, 06605\, United States CATEGORIES:Season 77 ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:http://staging.gbs.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/jacobsen-e1661625886146.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230318T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230318T200000 DTSTAMP:20260415T091203 CREATED:20220828T005510Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220901T125356Z UID:112-1679169600-1679169600@staging.gbs.org SUMMARY:Third Turn DESCRIPTION:Chelsea Tipton\, II\, Conductor\nDvorak: Cello Concerto\nBeethoven: Symphony #7 URL:http://staging.gbs.org/event/third-turn/ LOCATION:Klein Memorial Auditorium\, 910 Fairfield Avenue\, Bridgeport\, CT\, 06605\, United States CATEGORIES:Season 77 ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:http://staging.gbs.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/tipton.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20221217T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20221217T200000 DTSTAMP:20260415T091203 CREATED:20220827T224606Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220901T125404Z UID:109-1671307200-1671307200@staging.gbs.org SUMMARY:Second Turn DESCRIPTION:Chelsea Gallo\, Conductor\nTchaikovsky: Selections from The Nutcracker\nTchaikovsky: Symphony #5\nPlus Christmas Cheer! URL:http://staging.gbs.org/event/second-turn/ LOCATION:Klein Memorial Auditorium\, 910 Fairfield Avenue\, Bridgeport\, CT\, 06605\, United States CATEGORIES:Season 77 ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:http://staging.gbs.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/gallo.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20221112T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20221112T200000 DTSTAMP:20260415T091203 CREATED:20220827T224152Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220901T125413Z UID:106-1668283200-1668283200@staging.gbs.org SUMMARY:First Turn DESCRIPTION:Benjamin Hochman\, Conductor\nBeethoven: Piano Concerto #1\nSchumann: Symphony #2 URL:http://staging.gbs.org/event/first-turn/ LOCATION:Klein Memorial Auditorium\, 910 Fairfield Avenue\, Bridgeport\, CT\, 06605\, United States CATEGORIES:Season 77 ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:http://staging.gbs.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/hochman-scaled.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220910T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220910T200000 DTSTAMP:20260415T091203 CREATED:20220827T223242Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220902T143207Z UID:102-1662840000-1662840000@staging.gbs.org SUMMARY:Jacobsen's Ninth DESCRIPTION:For Beethoven\, Dvorak\, Schubert\, Mahler and Bruckner\, “The 9th” represents the culminating artistic achievement of their lives. Here in Bridgeport\, we celebrate “The 9th” with the start of Eric Jacobsen’s ninth season as conductor – the capstone of his profound time with GBS since 2014.  Eric reprises Dvorak 8\, brings die Fledermaus to our stage\, and showcases the talents of pianist Ying Li on Rachmaninoff’s 4th Piano Concerto. URL:http://staging.gbs.org/event/jacobsens-ninth/ LOCATION:Klein Memorial Auditorium\, 910 Fairfield Avenue\, Bridgeport\, CT\, 06605\, United States CATEGORIES:Season 77 ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:http://staging.gbs.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/jacobsen-e1661625886146.jpg END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR