Beethoven's Ninth :: Ode To Joy
Location: Civic Center Music Hall (Get Directions)
Price Range: $27-$80
Date: Saturday, April 17, 2010, 8:00pm
Program
Wagner: Overture to "Tannhauser"
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 ("Chorale")
About the Music
Artists
Guest: Jessica Rivera, soprano
Jessica Rivera Website 
Hailed by the New York Times as a “vocally luminous young soprano,” Jessica Rivera is quickly establishing herself as one of the most creatively inspired vocal artists of her generation. The intelligence, dimension, and spirituality that she infuses in her performances on the international concert and opera stages have garnered Ms. Rivera unique artistic collaborations with many of today’s most celebrated composers including John Adams, Osvaldo Golijov, and Nico Muhly, and has brought her together in collaboration with such esteemed conductors as Bernard Haitink, Sir Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Robert Spano, and Michael Tilson Thomas.
Ms. Rivera gave the world premiere of John Adams’ newest opera, A Flowering Tree, singing the role of Kumudha, last season, in a production directed by Peter Sellars, as part of the New Crowned Hope Festival in Vienna, Austria. A Flowering Tree offered the artist her debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Sir Simon Rattle, and she gave additional performances, under the composer’s baton, with the San Francisco Symphony and with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Centre. The London performances have been recorded for future commercial release on the Nonesuch Records label.
Ms. Rivera made her European operatic debut as Kitty Oppenheimer in Peter Sellars’ acclaimed production of John Adams’ Doctor Atomic with the Netherlands Opera, a role that also served for her debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and she joins the roster of the Metropolitan Opera in the current season for its new production of Doctor Atomic under the direction of Alan Gilbert. Other engagements of 2008-09 include concert performances of Doctor Atomic with Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, El Niño with David Robertson and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, excerpts from Nixon in China with the Pittsburgh Symphony under the direction of John Adams, and A Flowering Tree both with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. She joins Miguel Harth-Bedoya and the Fort Worth Symphony as well as Michael Christie and the Phoenix Symphony for Mahler Symphony No. 4 and Bramwell Tovey and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, as Micaëla in a concert performance of Carmen at the Hollywood Bowl. Ms. Rivera also tours Spain in performances of Osvaldo Golijov’s celebrated La Pasión según San Marcos with the Schola Cantorum de Caracas.
The artist made her critically acclaimed Santa Fe Opera debut in the summer of 2005 as Nuria in the world premiere of the revised edition of Osvaldo Golijov's Ainadamar. She reprised the role for the 2007 Grammy Award winning Deutsche Grammophon recording of the work with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra under Robert Spano, and bowed in the Peter Sellars staging at Lincoln Center, Opera Boston, as well as in performances at the Barbican Centre, the Adelaide Festival of Arts, and the Ojai and Ravinia Festivals. The artist’s first performances of Margarita Xirgu in Ainadamar, a role created by Dawn Upshaw, occurred in the summer of 2007 at the Colorado Music Festival under the baton of Michael Christie.
Guest: Kelley O'Connor, mezzo-soprano
Kelley O'Connor Website
Possessing a voice of uncommon allure, musical sophistication far beyond her years, and intuitive and innate dramatic artistry, the Grammy® Award-winning mezzo-soprano Kelley O'Connor quickly has emerged as one of the most compelling performers of her generation.
During the 2008-09 season the California native’s impressive calendar includes Bernstein’s Symphony No. 1, “Jeremiah,” with Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; the world premiere of Steven Stucky’s August 4, 1964 with Jaap van Zweden and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra; John Adams’s El Niño with David Robertson and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra; Mendelssohn’s Elias with Ingo Metzmacher and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin; Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with James Conlon and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival; and Schubert’s Mass No. 6 in E-flat Major with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.
She returns to the New York Philharmonic for performances of L'Enfant et les sortilèges under the baton of Lorin Maazel and to the stage of Carnegie Hall for a concert performance of Ainadamar with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s conducted by Robert Spano.
Peter Lieberson’s Neruda Songs highlight the artist’s prominence as one of the world’s leading concert artists in two significant European debuts: performances with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Bernard Haitink and with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich and David Zinman.
On the opera stage, she makes her Cincinnati Opera debut in a revival of Peter Sellars’s acclaimed production of Ainadamar and her Canadian Opera Company debut as Hippolyta in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in a production by Neil Armfield.
The artist’s calendar in the 2007-08 included performances of Dvorák's Moravian Duets with Iván Fischer and the National Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Jiří Bĕlohlávek and the Dallas Symphony, Handel’s Messiah with Norman Mackenzie and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Lieberson’s Neruda Songs with Bernard Haitink and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (performances in Chicago and in New York for her Carnegie Hall debut), Haydn’s Mass in the Time of War with Bernard Labadie and the San Francisco Symphony, Stravinsky’s Les Noces with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and as Meg Page in Falstaff at the Santa Fe Opera. On the recital platform, Ms. O’Connor offered programs in Los Angeles and in New York City for her debut at Weill Hall in a Carnegie Hall presentation.
Ms. O’Connor has received unanimous international critical acclaim for her numerous performances as Federico García Lorca in Osvaldo Golijov's Ainadamar. Ms. O'Connor 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. She reprised her portrayal of Federico García Lorca in the world premiere of the revised edition of Ainadamar at the Santa Fe Opera in a new staging by Peter Sellars during the 2005 season, which also was presented at Lincoln Center. For her debut with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, in Ainadamar, she joined Robert Spano for performances and a Deutsche Grammophon recording: she rejoined Spano and Atlanta in summer 2006 for further performances of Ainadamar, including her debuts at the Ojai and Ravinia festivals.
In the past season, she bowed as Lorca in performances of Ainadamar at Opera Boston, the Adelaide Festival of Arts, the Barbican Centre, and with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.Highlights of past seasons have included performances of Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges with Lorin Maazel and the New York Philharmonic, Mozart’s Requiem with Louis Langrée and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Brahms’s Songs for Alto, Viola, and Piano with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Chamber Music Society, Berio's Laborintus II with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, concert performances of Hänsel und Gretel with Michael Christie and the Phoenix Symphony, Golijov’s Ainadamar Suite with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Roberto Minczuk at the Barbican Centre, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Edward Gardner and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and a gala concert of opera arias and ensembles to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Santa Fe Opera.
Ms. O’Connor enjoys a particularly warm musical collaboration with Franz Welser-Möst and the Cleveland Orchestra with whom she has sung Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (in Cleveland and at Miami’s Carnival Center), Bernstein’s Symphony No. 1, “Jeremiah,” staged performances of Falstaff (in Cleveland and at the Lucerne Festival), and Stravinsky’s Requiem Canticles.Recognized by Opera Now on its annual “Young Artists: Who’s Hot?” list of 2006, Ms. O’Connor has a Bachelor of Music degree from USC and received her Master’s degree from UCLA while studying with Nina Hinson.
Guest: Anthony Dean Griffey, tenor
Anthony Dean Griffey Website
“But as I think back, it is individual performances by singers that stay with me, none more so than the tenor Anthony Dean Griffey’s portrayal of the title role in the Met’s new production of Britten’s “Peter Grimes.” Singing with exemplary artistry and raw emotion, Mr. Griffey found his own way into the daunting role of Grimes, fully conveying that reclusive fisherman’s instability and violent streak while revealing the wounded child within. This was an overdue personal triumph for a selfless artist who rose through the ranks of the Met and had been underused until now.” -New York Times, May, 2008
Grammy Award Winning American tenor Anthony Dean Griffey has captured critical and popular acclaim on opera, concert and recital stages worldwide. The combination of his beautiful and powerful lyric tenor voice, along with his gift for exceptional communication and excellent musicianship have earned him the highest praise. He has been hailed for possessing both “presence and a tenor that is pure, sweet and clarion” (The Los Angeles Times), and for having a voice that is “both full-bodied and sweet-toned” (The New York Times).In February of 2009, Griffey’s critically acclaimed tenor won him two Grammy Awards, Best Classical Album and Best Opera Recording, for his performance as the leading role of Jimmy McIntyre in Kurt Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny.
In the 2009-2010 season Mr. Griffey will perform roles around the world, including appearances with the Western Australia Opera in the title role of Peter Grimes, a tour of France and Italy with the Philharmonia Orchestra as the Drum Major in Wozzeck, and in New York City Opera’s Opening Night Gala. His considerable concert schedule will include performances with the New York Philharmonic in Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex under the baton of Maestro Valery Gergiev, with the New World Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas in a performance of Highlights of Fidelio and Beethoven Ninth, the San Diego Symphony in Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, and with the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt in Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings. He will perform recitals at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater, presented by the Vocal Arts Society, and at Lawrence University with Warren Jones. Additionally, he will be heard on Vara Radio in Amsterdam performing Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde and Britten’s War Requiem.
In the 2008-2009 season he performed leading roles with many of America’s premiere opera houses, including appearances with Opera Philadelphia as Florestan in Fidelio, and the San Diego Opera in the title role of Peter Grimes. His extensive concert schedule included an appearance with the Rotterdam Philharmonic in Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde under the baton of Valery Gergiev, and performances of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl under Maestro Esa-Pekka Salonen, with the New York Philharmonic under Maestro Lorin Maazel, the San Francisco Symphony under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas, the Zürich Tonhalle Orchester under Maestro David Zinman, as well as with the Milwaukee Symphony. He returned to the Ravinia Festival in July for performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Maestro James Conlon, and he reunited with Maestro Seiji Ozawa with the Berlin Philharmonic in Mendelssohn’s Elias, as well as at the Saito Kinen Festival in Britten’s War Requiem.
In the 2007-2008 season he returned to the Metropolitan Opera in the title role of Britten’s Peter Grimes, which was simulcast in movie theaters and recorded for future release on DVD, and he joined the Fort Worth Opera in one of his signature roles, Lennie Small in Floyd’s Of Mice and Men. Newsday raved of his recent performance in that role that his “lithe lyric tenor was tender in its high notes and impassioned in the lower register, all the while possessing the perfect degree of stylistic simplicity for the role.” In addition to his operatic performances, his concert calendar included engagements to sing Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde under Esa-Pekka Salonen at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and also with the Syracuse Symphony, Verdi’s Requiem with the Detroit Symphony, and Handel’s Messiah with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. He sang Zemlinsky's Eine florentinische Tragödiewith the New York Philharmonic and with the Staatskapelle Dresden, both under James Conlon. He was engaged twice this season with Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo to sing Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius and Zemlinsky's Eine florentinische Tragödie, and performed Elgar’s The Apostles with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra at Royal Albert Hall for the BBC Proms.
Mr. Griffey most recently released disc is Britten’s War Requiem, which was recorded live with Maestro Kurt Masur and the London Philharmonic at Royal Festival Hall. He can also be heard on disc and DVD in André Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire (Deutsche Grammophon), in Les Mamelles de Tirésias conducted by Seiji Ozawa (Philips),I Lombardi with James Levine (Decca Records), and in Amy Beach's Cabildo (Delos). He appears on a live recording Of Mice and Men with the Houston Grand Opera (Albany), as well as in the DVD of the 1999 Metropolitan Opera Tristan und Isolde (DG/Universal). Live television broadcasts include Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Seiji Ozawa in celebration of the opening of the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, Das Lied von der Erde with Christoph Eschenbach on the BBC as part of the BBC Proms concerts, and Peter Grimes with Ozawa in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the work’s premiere as part of “A Tale of Tanglewood” which was televised on Ovation. He has also been featured with André Previn on A&E’s Breakfast with the Arts.
In demand around the globe, highlights of Mr. Griffey illustrious career include his performances in leading roles at major opera houses including The Metropolitan Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, San Francisco Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Houston Grand Opera, the Santa Fe Opera, Glyndebourne, the Paris Opera, the Teatro Comunale di Firenze, and Opera Bastille as well as many others. Orchestra engagements have included appearances with the orchestras of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Saint Louis, Minnesota, Seattle, Pittsburgh, Houston, Detroit, Baltimore and Saint Paul, Milwaukee, and internationally he has sung with the London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic, Müncher Symphoniker, Orchestre de Paris, Montreal Symphony, the Oslo Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest Holland, the NHK Symphony in Japan, the Melbourne Orchestra, the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and the Halle Orchestra, among others. He has collaborated with many of today’s most prestigious conductors, including James Levine, Seiji Ozawa, André Previn, Michael Tilson Thomas, Sir Andrew Davis, Esa Pekka Salonen, Kurt Masur, Donald Runnicles, Sir Colin Davis, Christoph Eschenbach, Valery Gergiev, Edo de Waart, Sir Neville Mariner, James Conlon, Maris Jansons, Naemi Jarvi, Charles Dutoit, Julius Rudel, Robert Spano, Mark Wigglesworth, Alan Gilbert, Andreas Delfs, Gerard Schwarz, Mark Elder, and John Nelson, among others.Mr. Griffey appears regularly with several popular festivals including Tanglewood, Mostly Mozart, Saito Kinen, Grant Park, Marlboro, Grand Teton, Aspen, and the Proms in London. At the 2004 Lanaudière Festival in Montreal, Mr. Griffey sang a particularly interesting program, including two major works, Chausson’s Poème de l'Amour et de la Mer, and Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915, which marked the first time that a tenor had performed the Barber piece. He has performed on many of the country’s leading recital series, including his appearances with David Daniels in Britten’s rarely heard cantata Abraham and Isaac at Carnegie Hall, and at the Ravinia Festival with Christoph Eschenbach accompanying on piano. He frequently collaborates with fellow-North Carolinian pianist Warren Jones, who accompanied him for his 2004 successful New York solo recital debut at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall. André Previn composed, and dedicated, a song cycle for Mr. Griffey in celebration of his Carnegie Hall debut, and accompanied him on the piano for the cycle.
Anthony Dean Griffey, a recipient of many awards and honors, was featured in Musical Americain 2005 as one of twelve exceptional singers of distinction. He holds degrees from Wingate University, the Eastman School of Music and the Juilliard School.
Guest: Eric Owens, bass
Eric Owens Website
Acclaimed for his commanding stage presence and inventive artistry, American bass-baritone Eric Owens has carved a unique place in the contemporary opera world as both a champion of new music and a powerful interpreter of classic works.
Called “consistently charismatic, theatrically and vocally” by New York Magazine and “absolutely remarkable” by The Philadelphia Inquirer, Owens is equally at home in concert, recital and opera performances, bringing his powerful poise, expansive voice and instinctive acting faculties to stages around the globe.
The 2008-09 season sees Owens’s Metropolitan Opera debut in John Adams’s Doctor Atomic early this fall and a Carnegie Hall solo recital on April 24th, 2009, one of three Carnegie Hall engagements throughout the season. Owens also returns to Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles for two appearances, first in January 2009 with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, and then in the spring performing A Flowering Tree with the L.A. Philharmonic. His Carnegie Hall performances include Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer with the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Charles Dutoit, and Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle. Additionally, Owens makes a second appearance on the Metropolitan Opera stage in December 2008 as Sarastro in The Magic Flute, and returns to the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden to sing opposite Anna Netrebko and Elīna Garanča in Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi in the spring. In February 2009, Owens will sing scenes from Strauss’s Elektra and Die Frau ohne Schatten with Christine Brewer and the Atlanta Symphony under Donald Runnicles in performances to be recorded by Telarc. He is featured on the September 2008 Nonesuch Records release of A Flowering Tree, continuing his long-time collaboration with American composer John Adams.
Owens’s career operatic highlights include his San Francisco Opera debut as Lodovico in Otello conducted by Runnicles; his Royal Opera, Covent Garden debut as Oroveso in Norma; Ramfis in Aida at Houston Grand Opera; Sparafucile in Rigoletto, Ferrando in Il Trovatore and Colline in La Bohème at Los Angeles Opera; the Speaker in Die Zauberflöte for his Paris Opera (Bastille) debut; Fiesco in Simon Boccanegra and Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte with the Washington Opera; Rodolfo in La Sonnambula at the Bordeaux Opera; the King of Scotland in Ariodante and Seneca in L’Incoronazione di Poppea at the English National Opera; Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor and Alidoro at Pittsburgh Opera; Leporello in Don Giovanni at Florida Grand Opera; Sparafucile in a new production at the Oper der Stadt Köln and at Minnesota Opera; Banquo with Opera Pacific and Sarastro and Banquo with the Opera Company of Philadelphia. He sang Collatinus in a highly acclaimed Christopher Alden production of Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia at Glimmerglass Opera. A former member of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, Owens has sung Sarastro, Mephistopheles in Faust, Frère Laurent, Angelotti in Tosca, and Aristotle Onassis in the world premiere of Jackie O (available on the Argo label) with that company.
Owens is a regular guest of the major American and European orchestras. His appearances have included performances with the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, Seattle Symphony, National Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony and Detroit Symphony among others. He has worked with today’s leading conductors including Wolfgang Sawallisch, Lorin Maazel, Michael Tilson Thomas, Yuri Temirkanov, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Franz Welser-Möst, John Nelson and Robert Spano. Owens is featured on a Telarc recording of Mozart’s Requiem with Donald Runnicles and the Atlanta Symphony.
Eric Owens has created an uncommon niche for himself in the ever-growing body of contemporary opera works through his determined tackling of new and challenging roles. He received great critical acclaim for portraying the title role in the world premiere of Elliot Goldenthal’s Grendel with the Los Angeles Opera and again at the Lincoln Center Festival, in a production directed and designed by Julie Taymor. Of Owens’s performance, The New Yorker’s Alex Ross raved, “His hefty, tonally focused, richly colored voice cut through the tumult of Goldenthal's score, and his vital, naturalistic acting gave heart to a high-tech spectacle.” Eric Owens also enjoys a close association with John Adams, for whom he created the role of General Leslie Groves in the world premiere of Doctor Atomic at the San Francisco Opera, and of the Storyteller in the world premiere of A Flowering Tree at Peter Sellars’s New Crowned Hope Festival in Vienna. Adams has also conducted the American bass-baritone in his setting of Whitman’s The Wound Dresser in a live broadcast with the BBC Proms at Royal Albert Hall, and with the American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. Owens made his Boston Symphony Orchestra debut under the baton of David Robertson in Adams’s Nativity oratorio El Niño.
In addition to great popular and critical acclaim, Eric Owens has been recognized with multiple awards, including the 2003 Marian Anderson Award, a 1999 ARIA award, and First Prize in the Plácido Domingo Operalia Competition, the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and the Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition. Other awards include First Prize in the MacAllister Awards Voice Competition, First Prize in New York’s Opera Index Career Grant Auditions, First Prize in the Palm Beach Opera National Voice Competition, and First Prize in the Mario Lanza Voice Competition. Owens was also an ARTS Award recipient in The National Foundation for Advancement in Arts’ 1988 Arts Recognition and Talent Search.
A native of Philadelphia, Owens began his music training as a pianist at the age of six, followed by formal oboe study at age eleven under Lloyd Shorter of the Delaware Symphony and Louis Rosenblatt of the Philadelphia Orchestra. He later studied voice while an undergraduate at Temple University and then as a graduate student at the Curtis Institute of Music, and currently studies with Armen Boyajian. He serves on the Board of Trustees of both The National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts and Astral Artistic Services.
Guest: Canterbury Choral Society
Canterbury Choral Sociey Website
Founded in 1969, Canterbury Choral Society continues in its original mission… “to maintain and promote a community chorus which will present regular performances of choral music; to train, coach, and educate vocalist; and to foster the appreciation and preservation of the art of choral performance throughout the State of Oklahoma and the Nation.”
Founding Musical Director, Myles J. Criss, organist and choirmaster of All Souls Episcopal Church, conducted the first concert on May 12, 1969. The chorus numbered approximately sixty singers and performed its concerts at All Souls Episcopal Church. In 2005, the Adult Chorus has grown to 150 singers and sings at their beautifully renovated “performance home,” the world-class Civic Center Music Hall.
The 2004-2005 season brought new leadership and new, and renewed, partnerships to Canterbury. Dr. Randi Von Ellefson was appointed the Artistic Director for the Adult Chorus in July, 2004. In addition to his responsibilities at Canterbury, Dr. Ellefson is also the Director of Choral Activities at Oklahoma City University, which re-establishes our partnership with OCU and the Wanda L. Bass School of Music. Dr. Kay Edde Holt took over the helm of Canterbury in May as its new Executive Director. Canterbury continues to develop new partnerships and strategies for choral arts in Oklahoma, including collaborations with the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, World Neighbors, and the Greater Oklahoma City Hispanic Chamber of commerce, in addition to its partnerships with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic and Ballet Oklahoma.
Canterbury has been a member of Allied Arts of Oklahoma city since 1989. Canterbury also maintains membership in The Oklahoma Arts Council, Chorus America and Opera America. The chorus has bee invited to appear throughout the southwest, as well as performance broadcasts on national Public Radio’s “performance Today” and “A Time of Healing,” the first memorial service commemorating the Murrah Federal Building bombing. Canterbury has twice been invited to sing on convention programs for The American Choral Directors Association, and was the featured chorus at the ACDA Leadership Conference in August, 2004. Canterbury also distinguished itself with its first international tour, performing concerts and evensongs in four of England’s most famous cathedrals in June, 2002.
Canterbury Education Programs continue to grow, with the Canterbury Academy of the Vocal Arts being the centerpiece of Canterbury’s Education Programs. CAVA provides musical development and performance opportunities for children and youth in grades 2-12. Its programs consists of three choirs: Apprentice Choir for grades 2-4, Chorale for grades 5-8, and the Chamber Singers, a mixed chorus for high school men and women in grades 9-12. Other programs in development are “Behind the Music” and “Music 4 Schools.”
While striving to build choirs of the highest artistic ability, we are also concerned with the personal development of our singers. We hope to instill a love for the arts, pride in our accomplishments, respect for others, and a sense of teamwork in our members. Our vision is to become a national leader in choral music while maintaining our commitment to the artistic education and life of our community.
Conductor: Maestro Joel Levine
Joel Levine begins his third decade leading the Philharmonic, having helped create Oklahoma’s largest performing arts agency and one of America’s most successful regional orchestras. Using thematic programming and comments from the podium designed to increase the knowledge and enjoyment of the audience, his style of music direction reflects a desire to bring the public and orchestra together as one.
Under his leadership, the orchestra has appeared on international, national and local television broadcasts and released several recordings. Maestro Levine’s reputation for sensitive musical accompaniment has enabled the Philharmonic to present one of the country’s most distinguished series of world-renowned guest artists. He has collaborated with many of the greatest classical artists of our time and has been called a “remarkable musician and visionary” by Yo-Yo Ma.
He has received international recognition for performances reflecting many different styles in the classical repertoire. His program of Schubert and Schumann symphonies with Germany’s Brandenburg Symphony Orchestra led the reviewer to write: “Joel Levine proved that he is an absolute master of his profession; the audience honored this impressive performance with much applause.” Engagements in the great European capitols include concerts with the Czech National Symphony in Prague’s Dvorák Hall, and the Symphony Orchestra of Portugal in Lisbon. Other international invitations have included orchestras in Spain, Israel, Belgrade, Bucharest, and an appearance with the Mexico City Philharmonic.
Maestro Levine has conducted many of America’s major ensembles including three seasons with The National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and the orchestras of St. Louis, Detroit, Minneapolis, Baltimore, Indianapolis, Seattle, Denver, Nashville and New Orleans. The national press has praised his performances: “the orchestra played with clarity and energy” (Los Angeles Times), “fine musicianship” (Washington Post), “Levine brings the needed sheen and rhythmic verve to the music” (Minneapolis Star), “Levine drew a crisp, bold and tonally lustrous account of the varied score from the orchestra and full-throated chorus” (Houston Post). His Detroit Symphony performances received “four stars” - the highest rating from the Detroit News.
Oklahoma City audiences enjoyed Maestro Levine’s accomplished opera conducting at the Philharmonic’s 100th anniversary production of La Bohème. Also known for his work with major artists in the world of classical dance, he has performed Rodeo with Agnes deMille and conducted for three of the greatest male dancers: Rudolf Nureyev, Edward Villella, and Peter Martins. For the Kansas City Ballet, he collaborated with the great choreographer, Alvin Ailey and conducted the first contemporary performance of a “lost” Balanchine ballet, “Divertimento.”
Maestro Levine’s résumé includes collaborations with many of the immortal names of jazz, musical theater, film and television. Several of his recordings with Mexico’s Xalapa Symphony Orchestra are in international release and have been broadcast on the BBC.