So, you want to be an intern?

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association offers a variety of internships in all departments, and we are always lucky to engage young, smart, and eager individuals—current students and recent graduates—from all disciplines. Working here can provide an in-depth look at not only the Orchestra’s rich history but also insight into the day-to-day operations of a performing arts organization. We recently reached out to former Rosenthal Archives interns to see what they have been up to . . .

Stephen Abitbol

A digital cinema graduate from DePaul University, Stephen Abitbol processed audio and video recording collections in the archives. “It was incredible to see how much dedication, love, and patience it takes from each musician to work as a whole to create a unique sound. It helped me understand how important it is to work as a team in my personal and professional relationships to grow together.” Stephen currently lives in Haifa, Israel, working as a digital marketer in a variety of startups. This fall, he is a full-time student there in language school to learn Hebrew.

Kathryn Antonelli

After her recent tenure in the archives, Kathryn Antonelli completed internships at Princeton University and the University of Hawaii, working with born-digital and moving-image collections. “Working at the CSO was what opened the doors to these amazing new experiences, and I am so glad I had the opportunity to spend a season there.” She will soon graduate from the University of South Carolina with her master of library and information science degree (MLIS) and plans to reside and work in Philadelphia.

Sierra Campbell

Sierra Campbell completed degrees in fine arts from Harold Washington College and English literature from the University of Illinois at Chicago before earning an MLIS degree at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “Working at the CSO impacted both my personal and professional paths, as I was able to meet the friendly employees and volunteers. They were all so gracious and willing to help out in any way, and no act of recognition was too small to have been noticed.” Sierra currently works at Fox College, managing libraries on two campuses.

Kerry Fulara

Kerry Fulara earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Michigan State University and an MLIS (with a specialization in archives, preservation, and records management) degree from the University of Pittsburgh. Following her internship, she worked with Rush Hour Concerts and formally established its archives. “My time at the CSO taught me the importance and benefits of networking, connecting with people, and building relationships.” Kerry later worked as a records manager and now as a real estate analyst with Invenergy. Continuing her archival work, she currently volunteers with the Richard H. Driehaus Museum, developing its restoration archive.

John Garvens (Sarah Pemberton photo)

Since working in the archives, John Garvens has transitioned from music to retail to fitness to software to advertising to consulting while serving in the U.S. Army Reserve as a trombone player from 2004 until 2016. He especially remembers two visitors to the archives, Yo-Yo Ma and Pierre Boulez. “Both men were musical heroes of mine; it was an honor to meet them. It also was really cool to archive the media from Riccardo Muti’s earliest years with the CSO.” John earned a bachelor of music degree in trombone performance from Illinois State University.

Matthew Greenman (reverb.com photo)

Matthew Greenman completed a bachelor of music degree in performing arts management from DePaul University in 2016 before his CSO internships in the archives and the marketing department. “My time in the archives greatly enhanced my organizational skills, formed my fascination of and appreciation for the orchestra, and rekindled my love of live music.” Matthew later worked as a listings coordinator at reverb.com in Lakeview, and he is preparing to take the exam to join the New York City Fire Department.

Andrew Lyon (E. Lyon photo)

After earning his bachelor’s degree in saxophone performance from Illinois State University, Andrew Lyon joined the staff, processing and cataloguing the Margaret Hillis score collection. He later completed a master’s degree in orchestral conducting from Butler University and has since returned to the archives on numerous occasions to utilize the score and audio collections. In the archives, “once you’re a part of it, you’re a part for life. You have your own page in the CSO history books.” Andrew currently is artistic and music director of The 65th Street Klezmorim and on faculty at Ivy Tech Community College.

Elliot Mandel (Dawn Mueller photo)

Before working for the American Library Association and Rush Hour Concerts, as well as writing classical concert reviews for local websites, Elliot Mandel graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English and creative writing from Bradley University. “I loved my time in the archives, getting to know the rich history of the orchestra that I have enjoyed seeing perform since I was a kid.” He has since started his own photography business, where his clients include the Chicago Children’s Choir, Chicago Philharmonic, Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Eighth Blackbird, Kurt Elling, Spektral Quartet, and the Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago.

Brian Maloney

“Working in the archives taught me an appreciation and understanding for how people can work together to create one cohesive production for all to enjoy and always instilled in me a deep sense of awe and respect for the CSO’s rich historical tapestry,” remembers Brian Maloney, who earned a bachelor’s degree in music education from Saint Xavier University. He currently holds multiple band director and instructor jobs in the Chicago suburbs, with School District 95, Divine Providence School, Soli Deo Gloria Brass Band, and Evergreen Park Community High School.

Shridar Mani

Shridar Mani completed a bachelor’s degree in music (with honors) from the University of Chicago while an intern in the archives, where one of his projects was processing and cataloguing a collection of manuscripts by Chicago composer William Lester (see here and here). After graduation, he returned home to Singapore where he has worked for the past several years as a programming officer at the Esplanade–Theatres on the Bay, producing a wide variety of concerts in all genres. “Working at the CSO helped me realize that working in the arts was a calling, and it has led to my career for the past six years and many more to come.”

Charles Russell Roberts (Mike Grittani photo)

With degrees from the University of Florida and the Eastman School of Music, Charles Russell Roberts currently is finishing a master’s degree in performing arts administration at Roosevelt University. “The archives internship was my first foray into working at a cultural institution in a capacity beyond the stage, and it gave me a deep understanding and respect for the integrity and preservation of not only physical archives but also the importance of records and data in understanding how an organization changes over time.” Charles—also an alumnus of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago—currently balances a full-time job as a project manager with Grenzebach Glier and Associates with performances with the Gaudete Brass Quintet.

Andrew Song

Before completing a bachelor of arts degree in biological sciences from the University of Chicago, Andrew Song worked at the CSO as an archives intern and patron services associate. “I gained strong insight into how a large organization can foster meaningful long-term relationships with its patrons as well as nurture its community through education and outreach . . . I also realized, for the first time, the greater institutional sense of community oriented self-efficacy: a pride that I was part of a great organization that made such fantastic concerts possible for the sake of our audience members.” Andrew currently is a student at Harvard Medical School.

Gregory Starr

“Working with the archives really strengthened my attention to detail,” remembers Gregory Starr, whose internship helped fulfill a class requirement for his bachelor’s degree in music business from Western Illinois University. Once after assisting with an exhibit, he mentioned that he “enjoyed getting to see more of our own collection and getting to show it off to others.” He continued to volunteer with the CSO as he worked toward a degree in digital forensics and network security at Elgin Community College, and he recently took a position as a technology support specialist—concentrating on networking troubleshooting and architecture—at The Packaging Wholesalers.

Jack Vishneski

Jack Vishneski studied history (with minors in ethnomusicology and music) at Beloit College and was working as a freelance audio engineer and singer when he began his internship in the archives, where he learned about “the value of cultivating institutional memory, especially as a key component of the storytelling needed to (at minimum) survive and (one hopes) thrive in the non-profit arts sector.” Jack completed a master’s degree in musicology from the University of Minnesota, and he and his wife are expecting their first child in November.

Joe White

Following his internship in the archives, Joe White earned a master’s degree in composition from the Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College and has been active in the New York music and theater scene ever since. “Working at CSO right after undergrad was very affirming on many levels, as it provided confirmation that I wanted to seek out, and participate in, artistic communities. I learned that there was a place for me professionally and personally in my post-academic life.” His most recent work is the score to Alex Borinsky’s Clubbed Thumb play Of Government.

Cassandra Wilson

Cassandra Wilson completed her MLIS from Dominican University before starting her internship in the archives. “The CSO was the most amazing place to intern because I could marry my love of music with history and archives. It is also very hard to describe what it feels like to be going about your day with the life mask of Beethoven sitting on your work surface and watching over your every move!” Now residing in Houston, she freelances as a webmaster and researcher, and she currently is assisting a new company with planning and implementing its corporate archives. Cassandra also is personal assistant to her sister—opera singer and recent Richard Tucker Music Foundation award recipient—Tamara Wilson.

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Remembering Sir Georg Solti

Sir Georg Solti (Yousuf Karsh photo)

As the summer of 1997 drew to a close, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association was putting the finishing touches on Symphony Center, culminating a three-year, $120 million project. To celebrate the renovation of Orchestra Hall and facilities expansion, a three-week festival was planned that included gala concerts and the first Day of Music, twenty-four hours of free, live performances across all genres in multiple Symphony Center venues.

One of the gala concerts was scheduled for Saturday, October 25, with music director laureate Sir Georg Solti leading the Orchestra in an all-Beethoven program: the Seventh Symphony and the Emperor Piano Concerto with music director Daniel Barenboim as soloist. The concert would celebrate not only Solti’s 85th birthday (October 21, 1997) but also his 1,000th concert with the Orchestra. In November, he was scheduled to return for two weeks of subscription concerts, leading Ives’s Decoration Day, Schumann’s Symphony no. 3, and Mendelssohn’s Symphony no. 3, along with a full program of choruses from Wagner’s operas with the Chicago Symphony Chorus, to be recorded live by London.

Over the Labor Day holiday, the world had been rocked with the news of the tragic death of Princess Diana on Sunday, August 31. The day before her funeral on September 5, news outlets began to report the death of Mother Teresa in Calcutta, India. And late that same evening, we heard the unthinkable. While on holiday with his family in Antibes, France, Sir Georg Solti had taken ill and died peacefully in his sleep.

Michigan Avenue entrance of Orchestra Hall on September 6, 1997 (Marilyn Arado photo)

“I had just returned hours earlier from Europe, where I was working with Daniel Barenboim on Solti’s 85th birthday celebration concert,” remembered Martha Gilmer, former vice president for artistic planning. After confirming with Charles Kaye, Solti’s longtime assistant, she called Barenboim in Bayreuth, waking him to relay the news.

“I was stunned,” recalled Henry Fogel, then president of the CSO Association. The following morning, senior staff held a meeting to determine how to proceed with the plans for the festival, among several other issues. As some of them approached the entrance, “We were very touched because when we came to Orchestra Hall, one person had left a bouquet of flowers at the Michigan Avenue entrance.”

Daniel Barenboim leads Mozart’s Requiem on October 22, 1997 (Jim Steere photo)

The festival would continue mostly as planned. The Symphony Center inaugural gala opened with Barenboim leading a performance of Nimrod from Elgar’s Enigma Variations, performed in Solti’s memory. A special, free memorial concert was added on October 22 with Barenboim leading Wagner’s Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and the Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde, followed by Mozart’s Requiem with Emily Magee, Anna Larsson, John Aler, René Pape, and the Chicago Symphony Chorus, prepared by Duain Wolfe.

Richard L. Thomas receives one of Solti’s batons from Lady Valerie Solti on October 25, 1997 (Jim Steere photo)

The program for the celebration concert on October 25 changed slightly, and Barenboim led Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto from the keyboard along with the Seventh Symphony. At the beginning of the concert, Lady Valerie Solti presented Richard L. Thomas (chairman of the CSO Association from 1986 until 1991) with one of Solti’s batons.

A special commemorative program book for the memorial and celebration concerts was prepared, and it included tributes from President Bill Clinton, Illinois governor Jim Edgar, and Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley, along with Solti’s colleagues from all over the world, members of the Orchestra, and administrative staff. The program book is available here.

The block of Adams Street between Michigan and Wabash avenues was named honorary Sir Georg Solti Place on October 24, 1997. The following spring (just before the beginning of the fifteenth European tour with concerts in Paris and Berlin), a small contingent of Orchestra family traveled to Budapest for a ceremony on March 28, 1998, in which Solti’s ashes were interred next to the grave of his teacher, Béla Bartók. During the ceremony, principal viola Charles Pikler performed Ravel’s Kaddish.

Fogel continued, “One thought that I did keep having was how sad it was that Maestro Solti would never see the renovated hall, with which I believe he would have been thrilled.”

“Solti, so vibrant, such energy, such magnetism, such a life force,” added Gilmer. “It was impossible to believe that it ended so quietly and in a place so far away. . . . He was a young 84-year-old and what occurred to all of us is that we had all been robbed of wonderful musical memories that were yet to be made.”

Decca Classics is releasing a 108-CD set of Sir Georg Solti’s entire catalog with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in the United States on September 15, 2017. It can be pre-ordered here.

Sir Georg Solti + CSO = 108

During Sir Georg Solti‘s tenure as eighth music director (1969–1991) and music director laureate (1991–1997), he and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus amassed an astonishing discography. Decca Classics—to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of Solti’s death—is releasing a set of these complete recordings in a 108-CD boxed set.

“Recording with the Chicago Symphony was the fulfillment of Solti’s dreams and ambitions, to be able to record for posterity the ephemeral quality and emotions of a performance by this world-class ensemble,” writes Lady Valerie Solti in the accompanying book. “The orchestra were enthusiasts, hard workers, and brilliant musicians who were as eager as Solti to make first-class records and to create for the future a lasting document, a legacy of their wonderful relationship, a collaboration which won worldwide acclaim and unparalleled Grammy awards.” The 180-page hardcover book also includes articles by mezzo-soprano Yvonne Minton; producer and author Humphrey Burton; Martha Gilmer, who served as the Orchestra’s vice president for artistic planning during the latter half of Solti’s tenure; and CSO archivist Frank Villella; along with previously unpublished images from recording sessions.

The range of repertoire is vast: complete cycles of symphonies by Beethoven (twice, see here and here), Brahms, Bruckner, and Mahler (see here, here, here, here, here, here, and here); Beethoven’s piano concertos; world premieres of Del Tredici’s Final Alice and Tippett’s Symphony no. 4 and Byzantium; complete operas including Beethoven’s Fidelio, Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron, Verdi’s Otello, and Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. The set also includes hallmarks of the choral repertoire, featuring the Chicago Symphony Chorus (prepared by directors Margaret Hillis and Duain Wolfe) performing Bach’s Mass in B minor and Saint Matthew Passion, Beethoven’s Missa solemnis, Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust, Brahms’s A German Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s The Creation (twice) and The Seasons, Shostakovich’s Babi Yar Symphony, Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms, and Verdi’s Requiem, plus many more works by these composers along with Bartók, Berg, Debussy, Dohnányi, Dvořák, Kodály, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Mussorgsky, Prokofiev, Ravel, Strauss, Tchaikovsky, and Weiner.

Solti leads the Orchestra in a recording session for Mahler’s Symphony no. 3 in November 1982 in Orchestra Hall (Robert M. Lightfoot III photo)

Solti wrote in his Memoirs, “My term as music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra was the happiest time in my professional life . . . the fulfillment of my dreams, but at the same time, it was a new learning experience for me, a master class in musical directorship.” This set is a testament to that remarkable partnership.

The set releases in the United States on September 15, 2017, and is available here.

“Our Maud Powell”

On January 25 and 26, 1907, Maud Powell returned to Chicago to again perform with the Theodore Thomas Orchestra (as we were then known). Under the baton of second music director Frederick Stock, she was soloist in the Orchestra’s first performances of Sibelius’s Violin Concerto (she had just given the U.S. premiere of the concerto with the New York Philharmonic on November 30, 1906, with Vasily Safonov conducting).

Following the first performance, William Lines Hubbard in the Chicago Tribune wrote, “Maud Powell—’our’ Maud Powell, since she is an American and her career has been made largely in this country—scored a triumph yesterday . . . There are extremely few of her brother artists who could compass [the concerto’s] technical intricacies with such surety and seeming ease as she did, and still fewer of them who could interpret it with such masterful skill.” The complete article is here.

On August 22, 2017, we will celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of this extraordinary American violinist and musician. As part of the celebration, a sixty-minute documentary about her life—entitled Our Maud Powell, produced by Paul Butler of Ebenim Media—will premiere on Saturday, August 19, in Powell’s Illinois hometown at the Peru Public Library. Details of other anniversary events can be found on the Maud Powell Society website.

Below are a few excerpts from the film, featuring Karen Shaffer, author of the biography Maud Powell: Pioneer American Violinist; Rachel Barton Pine, violinist and a longtime champion of Powell’s; and Frank Villella, director of archives for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Maud Powell was featured as part of the 125 Moments exhibit during the CSO’s 2015-16 season, and she also posthumously received a lifetime achievement award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences in 2013.

Remembering Rudolph Nashan

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra family notes with sorrow the passing of Rudolph “Rudy” Nashan, a member of the trumpet section from 1950 until 1963. He died on August 9, 2017, at the age of 94.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra trumpet section in the fall of 1950: left to right, Renold Schilke, Gerald Huffman, Rudolph Nashan, and Adolph Herseth

Nashan was born in Münster, Germany on July 25, 1923, and the family soon immigrated to the United States, settling in Chicago. He began playing the trumpet in elementary school and continued lessons while attending Lane Tech. Nashan was a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago from 1941 until 1943, and following the outbreak of World War II, in 1942 he joined the U.S. Army, serving in a military band in Skokie, Illinois. During his service, he worked not only as a trumpeter but also as a translator for incoming German war prisoners who had been transported to the United States as farm laborers from South Africa.

After the war, Nashan attended the New England Conservatory of Music and studied with Georges C. Mager, then principal trumpet of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Shortly after receiving his performer’s certificate, new music director Rafael Kubelík invited him to join the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as second trumpet, where he served for ten years, moving to fourth trumpet in 1960.

As a tireless advocate for the rights of musicians, in 1962 Nashan was one of the founding members of the International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians. He resigned his post with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1963 when he was elected vice president of the Chicago Federation of Musicians, where he was instrumental in completing the merger of the segregated Chicago locals.

Nashan later worked as an artist representative for the National Endowment for the Arts for the New England area and also served as principal trumpet and personnel manager of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra. Upon his retirement, he and his wife Catherine moved to Belfast, Maine, where he taught several young trumpeters privately and at local colleges. Nashan was a longtime member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Alumni Association.

His first wife Catherine preceded him in death. Nashan is survived by his second wife Patricia and two children from his first marriage, Rebecca Devereaux and Georges Nashan. Service details are pending.

In 2012, ICSOM held its fiftieth anniversary meeting in Chicago and to commemorate the event, a documentary was produced. Nashan was one of several Chicago Symphony Orchestra musicians prominently featured in the film, offering first-hand accounts of working conditions in orchestras in the early years.

Re-unveiling the Chicago Picasso

It was a beautiful, sunny day here in Chicago, perfect for a civic event to celebrate public art!

To commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the unveiling of the Chicago Picasso in Daley Plaza, the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events organized a “restaging” of the original 1967 event as part of the city’s 2017 Year of Public Art Chicago initiative.

On August 15, 1967, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra participated in the unveiling, with Seiji Ozawa—then music director of the Ravinia Festival—conducting works by Bernstein and Gershwin. At today’s event, the After School Matters Orchestra, under the direction of Howard Sandifer, performed the opening of Gershwin’s An American in Paris and the finale of Beethoven’s Symphony no. 5. Josephine Lee led the Chicago Children’s Choir in The Star-Spangled Banner, just as the Englewood Neighborhood Corps Youth Choir (as the CCC was then known) had done at the original event.

Howard Sandifer and the After School Matters Orchestra

Josephine Lee and the Chicago Children’s Choir

Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the Chicago Picasso

Following several speakers—including Nora Brooks Blakely, daughter of Gwendolyn Brooks, who read an original poem at the 1967 unveiling—Mayor Rahm Emanuel addressed the crowd. He called the original dedication of the sculpture a “critical inflection point in Chicago’s story” that would go on to inspire other public art in the city. “It is called ‘Everyone’s Picasso’ because it belongs to all of us.”

Civic Center Plaza, August 15, 1967

Daley Plaza, August 8, 2017

Happy birthday, Maestro Muti!

Wishing Riccardo Muti—the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s tenth music director—the happiest of birthdays!

Riccardo Muti leading the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in the opening concert of the 125th season on September 17, 2015 (Todd Rosenberg photo)

In the introduction to the book Chicago Symphony Orchestra: 125 Moments, Maestro Muti wrote: “It is no coincidence that the word ‘symphony’ means ‘the togetherness of sound.’ Music itself is formed by many musical lines that seem to be one against the other—what we call counterpoint—but in fact, each line needs the other in order to have a reason for its existence. They all work together, and, even when they sometimes seem to be in contradiction, or in dissonance, their purpose is to reach the supreme harmony.”

Happy, happy birthday!

Happy birthday, Michael Gielen!

Wishing a very happy birthday to Michael Gielen, celebrating his ninetieth on July 20, 2017!

Between 1973 and 2002, Maestro Gielen led the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in a broad range of repertoire. A complete list of his appearances (all concerts at Orchestra Hall unless otherwise noted) is below:

December 6 and 7, 1973
December 10, 1973 (Uihlein Hall, Milwaukee)
HAYDN Symphony No. 95 in C Minor
SZYMANOWSKI Violin Concerto No. 2, Op. 61
Wanda Wilkomirska, violin
PENDERECKI Capriccio for Violin and Orchestra
Wanda Wilkomirska, violin
SCRIABIN Symphony No. 3, Op. 43 (The Divine Poem)

March 21, 22, 23, and 26, 1996
MAHLER Symphony No. 6 in A Minor

March 28, 29, and 30, 1996
J. STRAUSS, Jr. Overture to Die Fledermaus
STUCKY Pinturas de Tamayo (Paintings of Tamayo) (world premiere)
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Op. 68 (Pastoral)

October 29, 30, 31, and November 1, 1997
BEETHOVEN Leonore Overture No. 2, Op. 72
CARTER Piano Concerto
Ursula Oppens, piano
Richard Graef, flute
Grover Schiltz, oboe and english horn
J. Lawrie Bloom, clarinet
David Taylor, violin
Charles Pikler, viola
Stephen Balderston, cello
Joseph Guastafeste, bass
SCHUBERT Incidental Music from Rosamunde, D. 797
BEETHOVEN Leonore Overture No. 3, Op. 72

January 11, 12, 13, and 16, 2001
BEETHOVEN Overture to Egmont, Op. 84
BEETHOVEN/Liszt Andante cantabile from the Piano Trio in G-flat Major, Op. 97 (Archduke)
BEETHOVEN/Gielen Grosse Fuge in B-flat Major, Op. 133
SCHOENBERG Pelleas and Melisande, Op. 5

January 18, 20, and 23, 2001
MAHLER Adagio from Symphony No. 10
LISZT Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major
Zoltán Kocsis, piano
KURTÁG . . . quasi una fantasia . . .
Zoltán Kocsis, piano
SCHUBERT Symphony No. 8 in B Minor, D. 759 (Unfinished)

January 17, 18, 29, and 22, 2002
BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major, Op. 58
Elena Bashkirova, piano
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 55 (Eroica)

January 24, 25, 26, and 29, 2002
RAVEL Valses nobles et sentimentales
DUTILLEUX Symphony No. 2 (Le double)
Alex Klein, oboe
Larry Combs, clarinet
David McGill, bassoon
Craig Morris, trumpet
Jay Friedman, trombone
Mary Sauer, piano
Melody Lord-Lundberg, celesta
Donald Koss, timpani
Samuel Magad, violin
Joseph Golan, violin
Charles Pikler, viola
John Sharp, cello
POULENC Concerto for Organ, Strings, and Timpani in G Minor
David Schrader, organ
Donald Koss, timpani
RAVEL La valse

Happy, happy birthday!

Happy birthday, Herbert Blomstedt!

Wishing the happiest of birthdays to conductor Herbert Blomstedt, celebrating his ninetieth today!

Over the past thirty years, Maestro Blomstedt has appeared with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on several occasions:

January 7, 9, 9, and 12, 1988
MOZART Piano Concerto No. 25 in C Major, K. 503
Ivan Moravec, piano
BRUCKNER Symphony No. 6 in A Major

February 22, 23, 24, and 27, 1990
HADYN Symphony No. 86 in D Major
LADERMAN Cello Concerto (world premiere)
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
DVORÁK Symphony No. 7 in D Minor, Op. 70

January 24, 25, 26, and 29, 1991
SIBELIUS The Swan of Tuonela from Four Legends of the Kalevala, Op. 22
Grover Schiltz, english horn
SIBELIUS Violin Concerto in D Minor, Op. 47
Rubén González, violin
NIELSEN Symphony No. 3, Op. 27 (Sinfonia espansiva)
Jane Green, soprano
William Diana, baritone

Herbert Blomstedt (Martin Lengemann photo)

March 5, 6, 7, and 11, 1998
MENDELSSOHN The Hebrides Overture, Op. 26
DUTILLEUX Tout un monde lointain . . .
Lynn Harrell, cello
DVORÁK Symphony No. 8 in G Major, Op. 88

June 21, 22, 23, and 24, 2007
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125
Annalena Persson, soprano
Ingeborg Danz, contralto
Robert Künzli, tenor
Matthias Goerne, baritone
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Duain Wolfe, chorus director

Blomstedt’s colleagues at the Berlin Philharmonic have just posted this delightful tribute (added on July 14, 2017):

Happy, happy birthday!

Herbert Blomstedt appears with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on March 1, 2, and 3, 2018, leading Mozart’s Symphony no. 39 and Beethoven’s Symphony no. 3.

Remembering Amelia Earhart

Amelia Earhart standing under the nose of her Lockheed Model 10E Electra on March 1, 1937 (public domain image)

On May 20 and 21, 1932, Amelia Earhart flew a Lockheed Vega 5B from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, to Culmore in Northern Ireland, becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. On January 11 and 12, 1935, she became the first aviator to fly solo from Honolulu, Hawaii, to Oakland, California. And on July 2, 1937, Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan were reported missing over the Central Pacific Ocean during their attempt to fly around the globe.

Newly rediscovered image of what may be Noonan and Earhart on a dock in the Marshall Islands (National Archives photo)

However, a photographic image—recently rediscovered in the National Archives—may dispute that long-held belief. According to Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence, produced by HISTORY, this image may prove that Earhart and Noonan actually survived. The program airs this Sunday, July 9; to watch a preview and read more, click here.

A little more than a month after Earhart’s January 1935 solo flight, she was in Chicago and presented a lecture on February 15 at Orchestra Hall entitled, “My Pacific Flight.”

Headline from the February 16, 1935, Herald & Examiner

“Women fliers have a definite place in the air transport service as pilots, Amelia Earhart, America’s first lady of the air, declared yesterday as she arrived in Chicago, her old home town,” William Westlake reported in the Herald & Examiner. “The arrival of the smiling modishly-attired former Hyde Park High School girl, who has twice flown the Atlantic and made a solo flight from Honolulu to Oakland, was without fanfare. . . . Tonight she speaks again at the South Shore Country Club, tomorrow night she talks at the LaGrange Sunday Evening Club, and then she is off to Kansas City and Omaha.”

In the Chicago Tribune, Wayne Thomis reported that the Orchestra Hall audience, comprised largely of women, heard Earhart speak, “deprecatingly of her flight’s value as an advancement for aviation. . . . Although Miss Earhart spoke appreciatively of a few grim moments when she took off with a heavy load of gasoline downwind from a muddy field on her Pacific flight, it was the lighter side of ‘my pleasant evening in the air’ that she stressed. There was a bit of pride, too, in her reference to the fact that she had flown exactly on her course throughout the 2,038-mile voyage although she made the flight by dead reckoning. Soon after leaving the islands behind, the commercial program broadcast from a Honolulu radio station on which she was tuned was interrupted, she said. ‘I was listening to the music and then the announcer said: “Miss Earhart has taken off on her flight to San Francisco.” And as I sat up there at 8,000 feet with the motor just in front of me, I thought: “How impertinent of that radio man to be telling me.” ’ ”

(According to Donald M. Goldstein and Katherine V. Dillon’s 1997 book Amelia: The Centennial Biography of an Aviation Pioneer, some of the music Earhart enjoyed included “the broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera from New York.” The Met’s performance history database indicates the Saturday, January 12, 1935, broadcast as Wagner’s Tannhäuser featuring Lauritz Melchior, Maria Müller, Dorothee Manski, Richard Bonelli, and Ludwig Hofmann. Artur Bodanzky conducted.)